Chapter Text
Nene’s legs trembled as she crossed the threshold of her home into the cul-de-sac where she had spent a decent chuck of her life. Her eyes darted over the scene for anything that could strike familiarity.
The yard in front of her house, once lush with decorative bushes and perfectly trimmed grass, was a dilapidated mess. A street sign was flung into her yard at an odd angle, vines crawling from the earth to envelop it and the house around it. It seemed as though the world was trying to swallow it whole, back into the depths where none would know humankind had even had a part in its near demise.
The houses across from hers looked unfriendly and looming. Although, these places had once been a sight of comfort. The children running through sprinklers in the front yard or scribbling messy chalk art on the sidewalk, we’re gone. All that was left were silent, empty husks. Broken windows and broken dreams.
Yashiro’s hands adjusted themselves to her backpack straps as she precariously tiptoed over the overgrown plants drawling along the cracked sidewalk. Nene couldn’t shake the feeling of unease at the utter quiet that enveloped her. It was unnatural, not even the chirping of birds or small humming of insects followed her as she walked.
Deciding the sidewalk was too overgrown to walk, she hopped from the curb and into the street. Cars littered the street ahead of her, doors flung open, some with the keys still in the ignition. She wondered what had been so bad a catastrophe to warrant their reactions. The thoughts that followed her were not comforting.
With haste, she found the corner store, just outside of her neighborhood. The parking lot was completely deserted and, stepping closer, she noticed the automatic door had been completely ripped off its machinery. Long claw-like marks scored through its plastic and metal shell, the glass lay shattered beneath it. Nene felt her heart skip, as though she was prey facing some unknown predator. She swallowed it down once again, reasoning that anything could have made marks like that.
She stepped over the mess and into the store, immediately hit with a putrid smell. The whole produce section seemed to have gone to waste, decomposed, composting vegetables and fruits pouring from their containers into dark puddles and clumps on the floor. Nene had to cover her mouth, even with the covering already on her face, to keep herself from vomiting. She walked in the opposite direction, toward the canned and preserved foods section, in hopes to find what she needed and escape the stench.
There wasn’t a trace of life in the store, the only movement coming from the flickering fluorescent lights above her head. An ominous buzzing, which once might have been comforting, sent her ears ringing.
She reached the aisle she was looking for, relieved to realize there were still some goods left. She threw her bag to the ground and moved aside her keepsakes to cram as many cans and preserved foods as she could. Soups, fruits, and precooked meals clacked their way into her bag, each pressing the material more and more full.
As she picked up one last can from the shelf, she heard a strange shuffling noise. She had to pause, glancing around to make sure it hadn’t come from herself. Listening closely, body rigid, it seemed like…. Footsteps?
Her heart was suddenly light, could it be another person? Here to rescue her from her bad dream? Could this be the salvation- the night in shining armor she’d been dreaming of?
She dropped her bag and darted out of the aisle to see who had arrived. The excitement she had outweighed any caution she should have felt. Her mouth prepared for all the words, all the questions she couldn’t utter for 3 years.
She gasped sharply yet small, instantly covering her lips to stifle the sound. It wasn’t a person. Her eyes seemed to be deceiving her, unable to process the horrifying thing just yards from her.
It was a large mass, slightly larger than a full grown man, of contorted limbs of disproportionate sizes. Muscles jutted out from strange areas on its body and it’s anatomy was completely alien aside from its seemingly quadruped stance. It didn’t seem to have any distinguishable eyes, yet it had two pinprick holes on the front of its “face” which it pressed to the ground, producing a horrible wet sniffling sound as it smelled its surroundings. It’s body was littered with mouth-like orifices, rows of human-like and animalistic teeth jutting out from the holes ripped in its purplish-yellow skin, the biggest of them splitting it’s face horrifically wide in half. Each “mouth” oozed with drool, as if insatiably hungry. As a predator sizes up its next kill.
Her mouth was dry as it flapped open and shut with horror and abject terror. She didn’t even breathe, afraid she might alert the creature if she moved even the slightest inch.
Slowly she shuffled backward, hoping the seemingly blind monster wouldn’t sense her presence. Just as she reached the safety behind the walls of the persevered aisle, her foot kicked into something hard.
A can bounced from the impact of her foot and rolled across the floor into one of the metal display shelves. The sound was like a scream in the silent store.
Instantly, the creature produced a noise, between a screeching, and clicking howl. Its clawed hands clacked across the floor as it skidded towards Nene’s location. Nene couldn’t help but let out a scream of terror as she ran.
The monster, though blind, was incredibly fast. It was behind her in seconds, its putrid, suffocating breath panting behind her head. Nene’s sneakers screamed as she slid across the floor, making a quick turn onto another aisle. The thing was quick on her heels and Nene fought to keep running. She wasn’t in good shape. Months of malnutrition and lack of exercise had left her weak. The perfect prey.
She panted as the monster gained on her. Thinking fast, she knocked over a display stack of glass jars, filled with some kind of jelly. Dozens of jars crashed behind her, leaving a slippery and sharp mess. The monster slowed momentarily as its appendages were sliced open on the glass shards and it slipped on the jelly.
Yashiro’s eyes trained on the emergency exit door and she darted to it as fast as her feet could carry her. She tugged on the door, but it didn’t open. Frantically, she shook the handle to no avail. The metal had been rusted shut from weather exposure.
She didn’t have a moment to reassess her means of escape before the thing that was chasing her snarled closer. Yashiro’s hand flung to her hip where her gun had found its residence. As quickly as she could with shaky hands, she aimed it straight for the creature’s face. She hesitated before pulling the trigger, turning her face to the side and squeezing her eyes closed to brace for the noise and shock.
click
Nothing.
The gun wasn’t loaded.
Nene screamed, dropping the gun. She was terrified, realizing she was going to die. How foolish she was, to have left at all. She prepared to feel the supernatural being’s razor-sharp teeth tear into her flesh as its stench drew painfully close. The heat from its breath as its jaws opened was overwhelming and Nene pressed herself farther into the wall, covering her eyes in terror.
Suddenly, something splattered across her face and hands. It was warm and thick. She paused, her breath caught in her throat. Eyes still covered, Nene shook for a few moments, until she realized she hadn’t been eaten or ripped to shreds.
Slowly, she allowed herself to uncover her eyes.
The monster was feebly grabbing for her, its distorted limbs making a desperate attempt to catch its prey. It let out pained cries of distress, mixed with a gagging, garbled noise. The creature was choking on its own blood, spraying it on the floor and walls. A sword had sliced through the entire thing’s midsection, still embedded in its torso as it made feeble attempts to escape. With each movement, it was injured further, bloody, distorted masses nene assumed were organs slipping from the tear in its body.
Suddenly, it stopped moving, going limp as it slid off the blade, flopping to the ground, dead. Nene’s head was foggy as if she hadn’t taken a single shaky breath in that entire moment. As the shadow cast by the looming monster disappeared, she gazed upon the person who had saved her.
He was masculine. Tall, muscular with striking blue eyes and spiky golden hair that seemed shaggy and overgrown. There was a strange familiarity about him that struck nene as charming. His face wore a puzzled expression that nene couldn’t read.
Nene’s mouth opened to say a greeting, a thank-you, something. But was silenced immediately by the person’s sudden change of demeanor. Eyes sparkling, he grabbed her hands, pulling her from her corner.
“Nene!?”