Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater characters

Apocalypse: To the Ends of the Earth

I was sitting on the cold tile, my back against the wall next to the door. The bathtub was on my right the sink adjacent to it, followed by the toilet and all my necessities to get me through the night. I often would lock myself away from the dark world outside, and I'd try to ignore the shrieks of hungry Kishins trying to find food. The only way they could find a human was their smell of fear, something I was in constant battle with. I would try and dream about how the world used to be before all this happened, before when the sun shone above the hills of Death City. It didn't always seem like such a bad place to live; that is until the Madness reached us. I can still remember the day this all started, as if it had just happened yesterday.

Flashback:

Asura was the first victim that fell prey to the god-awful feeling of loosing all sense of reality. He was admitted into an insane asylum not far out of the walls of Death City, where Lord Death decided to keep all the "crazies." The asylum was twenty stories, every other one was a first aid floor where nurses resided and stayed the night in order to keep an eye on the two hundred patients present. My father worked as one of the guards and would tell me horror stories of a man trying to claw his eyes out so he didn't have to see "It" anymore. Patients had the same story of some form of a creature eating them from the inside out, but no physical damage was caused, only psychological. Thus the doctors would do their best to give them drugs to make this illusion go away, but nothing helped.

The first stage of the Madness was a loss of interest to the patient's surroundings. They would stop eating, drinking, or relieving themselves, thus they became skeletons. The only way the doctors could keep them alive was through an IV, and the patients thus began to regain their strength, and some even began to eat again; thus the doctors over looked stage one. Stage two wasn't anything noticeable at first, until the doctors began to notice a pattern. The patients would begin to mumble to themselves, but the language was foreign and only those that spoke Latin would recognize that it was some sort of chanting. Thus the doctors would put a patient in a white room and evaluate them. First the patient would sit in a corner, writing something and mumbling the Latin words. Next the patient would begin to shriek in pain, but no signs of any harm were noticed. Afterwards, the patient would begin crying,

"Stop the Madness, stop the Madness!"

Over and over again, until they had no voice left, then they would appear to be sleeping, but they would have nightmares. They would jump out of bed and cry out at some unseen monster that lurked in their rooms. Thus, they stopped sleeping altogether and created bags under their eyes. They resorted back to stage one, claiming their food was poisoned, one doctor managed to get one of the patients to eat, but he fell over and died in the cafeteria. No sign of poison was found, an autopsy was performed and it seemed that his body somehow poisoned itself from a brain signal sent out to do so.

The third stage was the worst of it, and something that frightened everyone who'd ever witnessed it. The patient would seem fine, happy and sleeping once again, but with strange dreams, but not strange enough to be considered nightmares. So the doctors ignored the patient and went back to observing the first two stages, but making sure to videotape the patient in the room alone with nothing more than himself/herself in the room. The patient would begin humming some strange lullaby, and then they would get in a fetal position and rock back and forth, beginning to chant again. Then suddenly, the patient became like some wild animal, snarling, foaming, and snorting. Their eyes like a demon snake with a slit pupil and their teeth sharp and pointed, their nails long and claw-like. They would run on all fours and begin attacking the walls, and then they tore off their uniform and scratch at their skin until it slowly slid off their naked body, they used their own blood as a form of ink and began writing on the walls. It was some strange form of ancient writing that turned out to be black magic, freeing some form of spirit that lurked within the patient; the Madness. It gathered within the area of the heart of the patient and as it slowly pulled itself out, the patient's eyes rolled back and they fell slump to the floor, the Madness formed into some demonic dark creature and tore the body apart. Blood flashed up on the screen and the once white room was painted red with blood, and it slowly began dripping down the walls. The dark creature then rose, standing eight feet tall and looked like some demonic form of a chupacabra, with its skin a leather type of material, two front canines longer than the rest of its teeth, and its snout long and pointed. Its back legs were like a kangaroo's and the front similar to a T-Rex with long claws and a skinny tail, the ears stood straight up, and its eyes just like the patient's eyes. The last thing you saw on the camera was it staring, not at you, but at your soul, hungry for another victim. Then everything went black in the asylum, shrieks of pain and cries for mercy echoed the halls, and I was in my assigned area working the front desk.

I was a doctor's assistant, twenty years and eager to help people in anyway possible, but I was never prepared for this. I was frozen with terror, and decided to hide under my desk. I realized wherever there was a cry of fear, the Madness would go towards it and consume its meal, thus I tried to focus my thoughts on other things, but still trying to listen to my surroundings. I heard sudden footsteps run towards my desk and I held my breath, then the lights flickered, but never stayed in a constant state of light or darkness, thus I was forced to watch the Madness consume yet another innocent victim.

I will never forget those eyes that begged me for help, but I couldn't do anything without showing my fear and becoming the next one to feel my organs ripped out of my body. Thus I waited until silence filled the asylum, when daybreak finally came. I looked over my desk and saw trails of blood on either side of the hallway. I saw organs laid out on the floor and bodies devoured, it seemed that the majority of the blood from the victim was sucked out and everything else left behind. My heart sank as I saw a few familiar faces, one of them was a sweet girl I had befriended, but she had never been strong enough to face her fears. Suddenly I heard a noise and I hid inside the medicine room, then I saw it again, the Madness taking the human form of Asura, but then turning into the beast again, smelling the air for fear. I tried not to think or move, but my eyes were glued to him, he was the most hideous creature I'd every seen and I couldn't look away. A hand grabbed me and pulled me back into something strong and sturdy, but the breathing was uneven and clearly panting.

"Hey idiot, you trying to get killed?"

I looked up to see a fellow colleague of mine holding me in his strong arms, his voice was raspy and unsteady, his white-silvery hair a mess, red eyes beaming with fright and yet he was so calm and reassuring with his wide smirk. His sharp teeth exposed and his tan skin, carrying small stains of blood.

"Soul."

I was really happy to see a familiar face, and to know that he wasn't dead.

"Hey Maka, didn't mean to scare you, but you should really be more careful."

His voice was soothing and held a great amount of kindness, intermixed with his British accent.

"Hmm, I'm really glad to see you."

I cupped his face and smiled up at him, I was exhausted and desperately needed some water.

"I'm glad to see you too. You could really use some cleaning up, cause you look like shit."

Hmm, same old Soul kind one minute and a sarcastic smart ass the next.

"Ya well you don't look so hot either."

I rolled my eyes and looked on the ground to find a package of unopened water bottles. I carefully opened the package enough to grab two out and threw one at Soul. We were sitting with our backs against the wall and I was sipping on the room temperature water, thinking of our next move.

"So now what?"

He looked over at me with a concerned gaze.

"I think he's going into town. I don't know if anyone knows about this yet, I think I have my cell phone, but who the hell would believe all this?"

I was trying to put this into words, but the only way to prove this really was happening was either bringing the creature in, showing them the videos, or letting it consume the lives of the citizens of Death City.

"Ya, this is pretty crazy, even for an insane asylum."

Soul rested his head on the wall behind him, his long face was proof that he was just as baffled about this as I was.

"Ya, I think we need to get out of here, maybe even try and get those tapes to prove what's going on."

I had a stern look in my eyes as I looked over at Soul, asking him if he would risk his life for those videotapes that were on the tenth floor of the building, and we were only on the second floor.

"We'd better get a move on then. I'll go look out the window."

I nodded and thought that we'd have to take the stairs, since the power was unstable and the elevators would be too dangerous.

"Is it gone?"

I put my hands on Soul's shoulders and peeked over.

"I think so, but we'd better be quiet or we're gonna end up like everyone else."

I nodded again, assuring him that I wouldn't make a sound. We crept out of the supply room and headed towards the stairs, Soul kept a look out up front and I was to continually look over my shoulder until we reached the end of the hall. We got up the first flight of stairs and waited to hear a sound, but all we heard was silence, and thus we went on. We finally reached the eighth floor where we heard soft crunching noises and I tried not to think who his current victim was. We flew up the last two flights of stairs and finally reached the video room, I found the tape for stages one and two and Soul found the important one. I then found the files on Asura and packed everything into a backpack that I was willing to carry and make sure it reached Death City's News studio.

"Ready?"

Soul looked over at me and held out his hand, I nodded my head and grabbed his hand; we ran down the stairs and were just about to reach the exit when Asura put himself between the door and us. Soul put himself in front of me protectively and held his arms up, I was paralyzed with fear, I didn't have time to try and think of something positive or reassuring, all I could see was Asura taking away the only friend I had. Then he smelled the air and began drooling as he looked at me, his black eyes piercing through me. But Soul refused to move, and Asura proved he wasn't going to stop, he thus charged us and sliced Soul, making him bounce off the wall crash onto the floor lifeless.

"SOUL!"

My heart stopped beating and I was face to face with Asura, a mixture of fear, terror, and fury were intermixing within me, but fear was taking over. Then I thought about how Soul protected me and I looked at Asura and snarled at him, I managed to find some pepper spray that was attached to the backpack and sprayed him, then I ran to Soul, he was barely conscious and I ran to the emergency supply room, grabbed a doctor's bag and swung Soul's arm over my shoulder.

"Can you walk?"

I looked down at Soul and he nodded, we ran as fast as we could, Soul trying to hold his chest to stop the bleeding. We finally made it to a small cave that wasn't too far from the gates of Death City. I laid Soul down and began to look at his wounds; he was in bad shape. I tried to keep myself from getting too emotional over this, or else I would be no use to him. Thus I gave him an anesthesia injection and began my work. He would groan every so often, probably hungry and tired from the loss of blood. I then cleaned the wound and began to stitch him up, since the beast had practically cut him open from his right shoulder to his left hip. When I was finally finished, I decided he needed at least a liter of blood, and I thus prepared myself since we were the same blood type, I then placed the needle into Soul's arm, preparing him for the transfusion. Once finished I began to draw blood and gave Soul the amount he needed, I finally finished the task and he was good and ready to get some much needed rest. I felt a little tired too and decided to sleep not too far away from him so I could keep an eye on him.

"Maka?"

A raspy and weak voice woke me up and I turned to see Soul's lazy eyes looking down at me.

"Hey, you feeling better?"

"Ya thanks."

He rubbed the back of his head and turned away, I could only smile since I was still tired from the loss of blood.

"So now what Maka? Do you think we can make it into town tomorrow by dusk?"

He looked down at me again as I readjusted myself and thought for a moment.

"That's the plan."

I crossed my arms and rested my chin on my arms, I knew I needed to not only get those videos delivered, but Soul would need to go to a hospital to see a real doctor to make sure I didn't do anything wrong and to make sure there were no further injuries.

"Hmm, alright then, first thing when the sun comes up."

I looked up at him and smiled.

"Right, let's get a little bit of rest so we have enough energy."

Soul nodded his head and laid back down next to me, I snuggled into his back and placed my hands on his shoulders, whispering into his ear,

"I'm really glad you're ok."

I let a few tears roll down my cheeks and closed my eyes, kissing his back before hearing the last thing he'd ever say to me.

"Same here."

The sun came earlier than expected, my eyes cracked open and I looked around, finding an empty cave and the backpack gone. All that was there was the emergency bag and some supplies in a pile with a note.

Be back soon, you stay here and I'll send for help.

-Soul

"Damn him!"

I crumbled up the paper and found a large stone covering the majority of the opening and I wasn't strong enough to move it. I would've screamed, but suddenly I heard faint footsteps approaching. I silenced myself and heard heavy breathing; I was focusing on my anger so I wouldn't think of Asura or the fact that he almost got away with almost killing me, again. The breathing stopped, as did my heart for a moment, then the footsteps slowly faded away. I was able to breath again and realized that the cave looked like it led somewhere. I got all my things into the emergency bag, which was luckily a backpack, and I headed towards the back end of the cave. The small flashlight in the backpack was helpful but I did find myself stumbling from time to time but I finally spotted some sunlight and decided to chase it and see where it led. Several feet later I found I was in a nearby sewage under the town of Death City. I had made it and knew what I had to do next, I had to locate Soul and make sure that the tape reached its ultimate location, the news station. Thus I ran for the news station and opened up the front doors to find Soul handing the tape over to the newscast, they looked over the tapes and looked through the folder and were astonished. They had all the information they needed, and just in time for the morning news.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, we have some breaking news that's rather disturbing and honestly, I didn't know how to respond to it myself. We have two anonymous survivors that brought in some videos and documentation on a patient at the Death City Insane Asylum just outside of our walls. Now, what we are about to show you is extremely unsettling. It may be hard to believe, but there seems to be a mental disease that's been widespread throughout the asylum and the patients have been able to escape and are heading to Death City! Here are the three videos showing the three stages of the disease. Be warned, this are graphic and horrific scenes, viewer digression is advised."

Then they showed it, shrieking and widespread panic erupted and I knew I had to get Soul to a hospital.

"Soul! Let's go!"

"Maka? You were supposed to stay put damn it!"

"Well I couldn't, not with the condition you're in. You need a doctor."

"Fine, but we need to get the hell out."

"Deal."

And we ran as fast as we could, first getting into the emergency room. Soul got in pretty fast, but I needed to get out and find us someplace safe. I thought of building a shelter but there was no time, so I looked around for houses and found some local friends I met in college. I talked with them and found that they were ironically already waiting for something like this to happen and they opened their doors to Soul and I, thus I decided we needed some clothing and supplies to get us through for a while. I had Tsubaki come out and help me get what we needed and we packed up two taxis and took them to their safe house.

Next was to take Soul with us. I went and found him in the waiting room; the color was back in his face and is seemed to light up when he saw me. My heart honestly stopped beating for a while, but I ignored it and walked up to him. I was still wearing my bloodstained clothes. A white tank top and black shorts, Soul was still wearing his red shirt and black jeans that looked like they'd been washed off.

"Hey stranger."

I was calm and cool, but secretly nervous and exhausted.

"Hey good lookin'. What took you so long?"
"Sorry, but someone had to go and make sure we had a place to crash."

"Ya? Where?"

"Blackstar and Tsubaki's place. It's all decked out apocalypse style. "

"Sweet. Let's go."

"Ya, we'll head out and see what they think we should do next."

We arrived at the safe house not too long after and as I was paying the taxi driver; I looked over and saw Soul looking up at the mansion, his mouth agape.

"Never seen a mansion before shark boy?"

I teased as Soul shut his mouth and turned to look at me, a gigantic smirk on his face.

"No. Janitors usually don't see this stuff very much. We usually think it only exists in fairy tails, miss future doctor."

"Doctress is what I prefer and I've never been exposed to one that's so, high tech."

"Ahh, so we do have quite the vocabulary on us don't we."

"Oh shut up, I can be just as brain dead as you are."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

Soul retorted as I found myself laughing and walking in with Soul right behind me. We went up to the steal door and knocked loud enough so that they could hear us. Then suddenly, the ground began to shake, we were a bit surprised as we were terrified, until we noticed the front gates close and we were locked in with some kind of protective dome around the place and then the front door opened. Inside it was dark and kind of cold, the lights suddenly flickered on as we looked around and saw an ordinary looking mansion with a large chandelier and numerous pieces of art, I noticed the faint sound of Mozart playing and felt at peace here.

"This place is amazing."

I heard Soul say as I nodded in agreement, too transfixed on the music and scenery to speak. I looked around and found a living room with a large flat screen TV along with numerous films, CDs, and more paintings of classic art. I loved just looking around to find a new painting or a shelf full of books, then an obnoxious voice came in contact with my ear.

"HEY! TSUBAKI THEY'RE HERE!"

"Hi Blackstar."

I flinched, realizing he hadn't changed since college, or high school, or middle school for that matter.

"YO MAKA, IS THIS YOUR BOYFRIEND?"

"Not really. This is a fellow colleague of mine, Soul. Soul this is Blackstar, we've gone to school together for a while."
"YA MAN, I CAN GIVE YOU ALL THE DIRTY DETAILS ON THIS GIRL. LIKE WHEN SHE USED TO WEAR HER HAIR UP IN PIGTAILS AND WORE A MINI SKIRT EVERY DAY."
"Really? Now that I'd like to see rather than hear about."

Soul looked over at me and winked, I just rolled my eyes and walked over to Tsubaki.

"And this is my best friend Tsubaki. Tsu, this is Soul."

"Oh, my you are rather handsome. I don't think Maka's description did you justice."

Tsubaki smiled her sweet smile as she looked over and saw just how jealous Blackstar was getting.

"Well this is embarrassing."

I rubbed the back of my head, trying to find something to distract me.

"You talk about me to your friends?"

Soul sounded confused.

"Well ya, I mean you are a really good friend of mine. And I won't lie; I think you're attractive. In your own creepy kind of vampire-shark boy way."

I smiled, recovering from the previously embarrassing moment as Soul's smile turned into a faint frown.

"Thanks."

He stated blandly.

"HAHA! SAME OLD MAKA, NOW LET'S GO EAT!"

Blackstar jumped up and down as he led everyone to the kitchen. It was extravagant, the meal was at least three courses and the dessert menu seemed endless.

"Wow, that was great."

I stretched my arms out, trying to avoid any rash movements, since my stomach was so full.

"I'm stuffed."

Soul finally put his fork down and threw in the napkin.

"ME TOO."

Blackstar laid back and found he needed a nap, Tsubaki following close behind.

"Please make yourselves at home."
"Thanks Tsu."

I nodded my head and turned around, only to find myself looking into a pair of red orbs that were rather too close to my face for my own good.

"What are you doing Soul?"

"I'm observing."

"Me?"

"Ya."

"Why?"

"Because you fascinate me, but confuse me at the same time."
"Why, aren't we being honest this evening."

"Yes doctress of sarcasm. I figured since the apocalypse is starting, may as well hook up with someone, even if they are a bookworm."

Soul folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"A bookworm? Hook up? Who in the hell is giving you these ideas?"

"No one, I made them up myself."
"Well now that's dangerous, you and thinking. That won't end well."
"Ha ha, very funny princess. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to find my room and crash."
"Oh, I have bad news for you lover boy."
"What?"

"We're sharing a room."
"That doesn't sound so bad."

Soul slithered his arm around me as he came in close with a large smirk on his face.

"Ya well, I like privacy, so you just stay on the fold out and I'll stay on the Cal King."

"Oh hell no! We're sharing!"
"What?"

"You heard me, you're so tiny that you would barely take up any room on that bed, besides don't you remember how much you enjoyed spooning me the other night?"
I flushed at his latter comment and realized I was the one kissing his back and reaching out for him, and now the shoe seemed to be on the other foot.

"Do whatever the hell you want, just stay away from me."

I said coldly, frankly because I didn't want to go through the experience of loosing someone so close to me again. But I knew that from that moment on, I would constantly worry about Soul. I would never let it go if something ever happened to him, and I think he was catching onto that faster than I was.

"Awww, you're no fun. Well whatev's let's just go to bed, I'm beat."
"Fine, but I'd like to watch the news first."

"Fine."

He agreed, a little curious about the current condition as well, and I hadn't even told him about finding Asura out in the dessert the other night. With the way things were going, he was sure to find the city walls soon, what was to happen there after I was unaware, as were the rest of the citizens of Death City, soon to become Death Row.