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The room was cold, cramped and dingy. Water seeped through the walls. Walls devoid of plaster and adorned with arms, ammunition and insect repellants. A rickety bed lay in a corner, with a broken guitar beside it. A humid, suffocating smell filled the room, making the entire atmosphere gloomy.
In one corner of this room, a small lightbulb flickered. And under its dim light stood a young woman. Hair as dark as night, pretty bluebell eyes. Face devoid of the shine of youth, and marred with wrinkles of distress. She reached over to one of the broken shelves and frowned. Pulling out a small tin of canned beans, she sighed and made her way to the lone window in the room.
Her eyes tiredly gazed at the forlorn scene that stretched out beyond the window. The city of Paris was totally in shambles. Some sort of virus had attacked the civilians, turning them into crazy, zombified people with weird superpowers. Weapons only neutralised them for the time being, the akumas could regain their strength back after some period of time. The virus was found in butterflies and could be transmitted between people. And there was no cure to bring the affected ones, the akumas, back -- they were undead.
A creaking sound turned her attention to the man with dark hair and teal eyes, her husband. He sat there on the window seat, fiddling with some wireframe and a cloth. She looked at him with a soft expression, placing a hand on her belly. She noted the way his tongue poked out from his mouth and his hair stuck to his forehead as he worked on the makeshift cradle. The cradle for their future child.
“Luka?” she called out, her soft voice an echo in the living quarters.
The man looked up, smiling at her through the weariness that had made a home on his face. Putting the cradle aside, he took her hand and pulled her towards himself. She happily moved towards him, making herself comfortable in his lap.
Popping the can open and scooping some beans out, the lady held her hand out to her lover. He moved forward to take a bite, before stopping short suddenly.
“Did you eat, Marinette?” Luka asked, his raspy voice cutting through the silence of the room.
“I’m fine, Lu,” the woman insisted, putting her hand nearer to his face. He simply leaned back, frowning.
“This was the last we had in the pantry. And there’s two of you that need to be fed,” Luka pointed out, placing a gentle hand on her stomach.
“But you didn’t eat anything last night.”
“That can be dealt with later. Right now,” he moved her hand towards her own mouth, coaxing her to eat. Marinette gulped the tasteless beans down without any complaint — any food in the midst of an apocalypse was simply a blessing.
“That’s better,” Luka hummed in delight before eating a share of his own. Done with the small and barely substantial meal, the couple cuddled close to each other, staring sadly at the chaos that wrecked the city they had once called home.
“Where are you going?” Marinette asked confusedly. Luka holstered a gun by the side of his teal blue armor, before giving her a small smile.
“To get some food.” She cocked her eyebrow at him, causing his expression to turn serious.
“Alone?”
“ Alone .”
Marinette immediately walked to the nearby wall, grabbing her own red armor and gun. “I’m coming with you.”
“No way I’m letting that happen,” came the hot reply.
“But why?” She demanded, moving closer to him, her head near his chest. “We have never left each other’s side ever, Luka.”
“And I hope we never will. But this time, the situation is different,” he said softly, placing a hand on her belly.
“Adrien and Kagami were better than us, being skilled fighters and all. They finished so many akumas and yet…” Luka let out a heavy sigh. “It’s been a month since they have been heard of. They...they fell prey to this menace. I don’t want to lose our child, Melody. I don’t want to lose you.”
Marinette looked down and placed her small hand over his bigger one, before removing his hand and donning her suit on. At Luka’s shout of protest, she gave him a teary smile.
“I don’t want to lose you either, Luka. And the wedding vows we took? Till death do us part? I actually meant them, y’know.”
Sneaking to the nearby supermarket had been an easier job than before. Strangely, they didn’t encounter any akumas on the way. Heart thudding in their chests, they sneaked into the dilapidated building and made their way to the food section.
Marinette quickly stocked the cans she could find in her bag, Luka keeping guard. There wasn’t a single interruption in her task.
It seemed too easy to be true.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Marinette whispered to her husband as he slung the bag on his arm. Cocking his gun, Luka nodded.
“My intuition says something is off, too.”
As if on cue, the anti-akuma alarm in the building blared off. The couple gasped in surprise, immediately on alert to combat any ambush they might face. Eyes and ears alert, they tiptoed their way across the stalls. That was when Marinette heard someone in the aisle beside them.
“Duck!” she whispered urgently, pulling Luka to a corner and hiding behind a stray carton that lay on the floor. The warning had come just in time, for a white ball of power immediately hit the food shelf they had been in front of, turning the structure to mere dust. And someone in white entered their field of view.
“No,” Marinette breathed out in disbelief. Beside her, Luka stiffened. The akuma was none other than Adrien. And apparently, he had the power to destroy things.
Marinette felt nauseous. Seeing her best friend in that state made her want to cry. But Luka tightened his grasp on her hand, pulling her towards a corner.
“We can’t stay. We need to get out. Now!”
Breathing heavily, the duo quickly sneaked out of the area and weaved their way through the stalls. They ducked, they hid to keep sight of any other akumas that could be rampaging the place. However, it seemed that it was just them versus an akumatized Adrien.
It was like a game of cat and mouse -- they scurried, tiptoed and tried to get to the main entrance as fast as they could. Every minute felt like an excruciating hour. Every snap of plastic or creak of metal screamed about the nearby danger. Marinette wanted to drop dead from exertion, but the will to survive pushed her forward.
They had nearly reached the exit when hell broke loose. Out of nowhere, Adrien had launched himself upon the pair. Luka had let out a warning shout, but that had been too late. Before she knew, Marinette was pinned under a feral Adrien.
She thrashed around, kicked and flailed, avoiding his vicious jaws and trying to shove him off herself at the same time. She reached for her gun, but before she got her hand on the holster, a gunshot rang through the building. And the next moment, Adrien had moved off her.
Gasping, Marinette shot up and scooted away from the akuma. However, she found herself frozen in place.
Adrien had now launched a full-on attack on Luka, pinning him to the ground. Luka was holding his own, trying to keep clear of his fangs and claws. However, Marinette didn’t want to risk her husband’s life at any cost.
She picked up her gun and aimed. However, her hands quivered. This was not a normal akuma. It was her best friend Adrien.
One shout from Luka and Marinette pulled the trigger.
The gunshot was deafening. Adrien stilled and turned to her, looking at her with his lifeless frosty blue eyes. He fell to the ground as Marinette fell to her knees, the gun falling from her hands as tears fell from her eyes.
Luka crawled over to her, hugging her close as she slumped into his arms. Marinette felt something warm and sticky on her cheek and turned to look at it. Luka was bleeding, the area of his chest turning blue slowly.
“He...he got you,” she whispered, terror creeping into her voice.
Luka smiled and brushed his hand against her cheek, causing her to wince. She looked down and caught his hand covered in blood, her blood. She tried to look at her cheek, and find it growing ashen pale a bit.
“He got you too, Melody,” he said in a soft voice, his tone regretful yet calm.
Marinette let out a small giggle as she saw her skin on the hand go grey and red. “Till death do us part? We never covered undeath.”
Luka pressed a small peck to her lips, moments before a black helmet condensed on his now-blue skin. “But now we do, and I won’t complain.”