November 23, 1913. 10:38 am
The snow crunched unevenly as the girl ran away from the ruins that used to be her home. Clutching her broken arm, she tried to move through the three-foot snow as swiftly as she could without causing any sort of commotion.
It was so eerie. Just moments ago there were screams of pure terror as her home started to get attacked, but now the only sound was the rustling of the tree branches.
"Hey, sweetie, are you lost?" came a slurred voice. How had this man come up behind her without her noticing? "I can take you someplace nice and warm..." he smiled at her revealing raised gums, pointed teeth, and what looked like tar in between them. His face looked so menacing, his jaw and cheekbones protruding and stretching his skin made him look almost ghostly.
His arms seemed to be much to thin for his shirt; the faded green cloth had many holes, revealing pasty white skin underneath. How could he even bear the cold without any sort of coat on?
He wasn't even looking at her. Not really. He was looking through her, looking straight to her arm and the little pool of blood that was crusting on top of the snow.
Noticing his slow advance towards her, she made her way back, never taking her eyes off of him. Her foot caught on something, a branch maybe, and was sent tumbling backwards.
The harsh wind seemed to suck the breath right out her, not even allowing her to scream.
"Stay where you are! Both of you!" this voice was clearly that of a man, but the girl didn't dare move, staring at the approaching threat in front of her and shielding her face.
Then a deafening noise erupted into her ears, while a warm mist sprayed her hands. Blood.
A metallic smell started to fill the air as she noticed that now the strange man was lacking a head, and his body fell limply chest first into the snow.
"Girl! Are you alright?" The man set his riffle down as he ran towards her, lifting her to her feet. He had to be careful though; he had to check for the signs. "Child, what is your name?"
"I-I am not supposed to stop to talk to anyone until I reach the hospital." She mumbled weakly.
Good, at least she was able to talk, and her eyes were not dilated. "Why?" he asked, just then noticing her response. "Has it become unsafe here as well?"
"That's what my mommy told me… But they are going to meet me at the hospital. The Agency is bringing my Touya, mommy and daddy to me there…"
She made eye contact with him for the first time; her savior had a pleasant face, younger than her father's, but clearly older than her brother. It was odd; he was wearing fairly formal clothes, black slacks, white shirt with a navy blazer, and a charcoal ankle length wool overcoat. So, why then was he walking around with hunting boots, a handgun, and several extra rounds of ammunition?
The man finally noticed the girl's arm, lying limply by her side drenched in blood. He continued to talk to her, tearing the coattail of his shirt to bandage her wound. The smell would only attract more of the infected. "What's your name?"
"Sakura…Sakura Kinomoto…" the girl was awoken from her thoughts at the question, fidgeting at the hem of her own bright red pea coat.
"Wow, that's such a pretty name. Mine is Mr. Terada. How old are you?" Luckily his distraction was working. This break was a bad one; her bone was even protruding out of her skin. She was losing a lot of blood and would lose that much more if she started to panic; she needed to stay calm.
"I'm nine, my brother says that I'm short for my age, but I don't believe him." She pouted.
The man burst out laughing at how oblivious she was to the chaos happening around her, and how he couldn't bare the fact that the girl's innocence would soon be shattered completely. "I'm sure that he's just messing with you. But we need to get a move on now. We don't want your parents to be waiting on you, now do we?"
She nodded her head.
Not even twenty minutes ago her father had ushered her – pushing, really – out of the cellar door, telling her to get to the hospital and not to talk to anyone. There were so many people walking around upstairs, it sounded just like a heard of elephants. Why they hadn't all come crashing through the ceiling was beyond her.
She hadn't even known many of the people who burst through their home's gates, and they had even trampled on the garden she helped her mother plant last spring. Her family immediately ran down into the cellar, saying that it would not make any difference to try to reason with them.
Her mother had told her that there were a lot of sick people, and that they needed help. But that in order to do that they needed to keep them locked in the house so that they wouldn't get anyone else sick. They were going to lock up the house, and would be going to the hospital right behind her.
"Here," said Mr. Terada, squatting down in front of her. "Get on my back. I don't want you to get any more hurt than you already have."
The girl agreed, and held onto his broad shoulders, trying not to cry at how badly her arm was hurting. Images of the last few moments with her parents came flooding back to her.
Her father and mother rushed her out the door, telling her that there shouldn't be anyone in the backyard yet, and that she needed to leave that instant. Her parents unlocked the back cellar door leading to the outside.
"Listen," her father told her quietly. "When you leave, Sakura, stay towards the left of the field, so that you can hide between the trees if you need to. And do your best not to walk on paths that are covered in fresh snow, because it would a lot easier for them to find you that way."
None of this was making any sense to the girl, but she nodded her head in agreement anyway.
"Father! Mother!" she heard her brother yell; something had gone wrong.
They gave her one last hug, trying not to show how scared the both of them were, and pushed her through the large oak door.
Everything was white outside; the trees, the ground, and even the sky seemed to have been drained of color that morning.
She began to leave the house, climbing up the stairs that led to the cellar entrance, and onto the patio. As she made her way to the stairs which descended to the field behind her house, she slipped on a layer of thick ice, causing her to fall down the flight of marble stairs and hitting her left arm on one of the neglected flower pots.
She tried to look at her injury, but instantly regretted it. She had cracked her bone on the ledge of a stair while she fell, breaking it completely as well as tearing right through her skin. It made her nauseous to even look at it, so she pulled her shirt and coat back over it, trying to ignore it until she made it to the hospital.
"You know Sakura, your father is an incredibly smart man." Sakura's thoughts were once again interrupted.
"Ah, excuse me?" She asked, having ignored Terada completely. "Oh, um, yes he is. Although, I've never actually seen him while he was working."
"Well you will just have to take my word for it, Sakura; the man is truly a genius."
Would he not tell her why? She waited for him to continue, but he did not say anything more. So she rested her head on his back, concentrating on his steady breaths.
The hospital was fairly difficult to get to; the only road wound up the side of the hill with trees and brush on either side. It was fairly steep to climb by foot; especially with a wounded girl but the fear that people with the Disease would catch up to them kept the pair making good time.
The way the trees twisted and turned with their naked branches unsettled her. Crows were staring at them with their beady red eyes, cocking their heads a little when the travelers walked past.
They eventually made their way to a tall iron gate. "Well this is new." Mr. Terada looked at the pad lock with his free hand, wondering how in the world they were going to be able to get past the gate.
"Don't move!" a man yelled. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" he commanded.
The man was wearing a dark green uniform, almost exactly what military men would wear. He was holding some sort of sniper gun, or was it a machine gun? Sakura couldn't quite tell, though she could tell that he wouldn't hesitate to use it.
"I am Yoshiyuki Terada. I found this girl, Sakura Kinomoto, outside of her home near the farmlands. She was being attacked by one of the infected. The virus is spreading much more quickly than anticipated."
The man lowered his weapon. "Are you the daughter of Fujitaka and Nadeshiko Kinomoto?"
"Yes…" she whispered just loud enough to hear.
He turned his attention back to Terada. "You say you helped her?"
"Yes sir. I have no other connection to the girl other than the fact that I found her along my way to the next town. Though it seems that it has become unsafe everywhere."
"Both of you come closer to the gate. I need to check to see if either of you are infected."
The two obliged and moved closer. The man pulled out a light and instructed them to look at it one at a time. He then checked to make sure that neither had broken into a cold sweat or had a fever.
When he felt satisfied with his results, he motioned them to take a step back. "Follow me please." The man said as he unlocked the gate. He led on a worn out path to the left of the main paved road, making it more difficult for Terada to carry the girl.
"We have to go through a side entrance." The man explained. "You see, should the infected manage to come through our gates, it is much more likely that they would storm the front of the building. This way, if people wander their way to the front entrance we automatically assume the worst. And we take drastic measures-" he stopped, finally realizing the girl's age. "or precaution, I mean."
"Yes, sir. I understand." Terada put Sakura down as the path became laid with cobblestone, holding her uninjured arm in the process.
They were now standing at what seemed to be the edge of a courtyard, several flower beds left unattended, and a couple park benches overturned as if they were in a hurry to move them out of the way.
"I am very sorry," the man said. "But you must both wait outside. At least until the rest of her family arrives, or a doctor becomes available for further analysis." He looked at the shivering girl. "I will bring some warm tea and blankets in just a moment. Thank you very much for your cooperation." He bowed ever so slightly and went on his way.
Waiting on her parents seemed to drag on for hours. Their blankets and tea came rather quickly, which kept the two occupied, but then she started to get bored and antsy.
Terada managed to keep her busy for a little while, trying to teach her black jack until he realized that it might not have been the most appropriate game to teach a nine year old. So Sakura took it upon herself to teach the older man how to play go fish.
"Ahaha!" she laughed. "You're doing it wrong, mister! You need to get the colors together, like this."
Before she could explain more clearly, they were interrupted by the soldier again, this time bringing company.
"Mother!" she rushed into her mother's arms, she could almost feel the relief radiating off of her skin.
"Oh sweetie, I am so grateful that you are alright!" she clutched to her daughter's back, stroking her hair, just glad that she was alive.
"Sir, please, there must be some way to thank you." Her father spoke up, hinting at some sort of monetary compensation.
"Of course not, Doctor Kinomoto. If your child had not told me that the area near the farms had become unsafe, I could very well have gotten infected. We all must protect each other if we are to stay safe through this epidemic."
"Yes, I believe that too. I am very sorry, but I do not believe that I caught your name?"
"Terada, Yoshiyuki Terada. I was a teacher at the local grade school until the government urged parents to keep their children at home, due to the highly contagious disease."
"Ah, I see. Should we take our conversation inside? It won't be long before the sun starts to set and it becomes even colder." All three men began to walk inside, though Nadeshiko stopped Sakura from entering.
"Honey, I think we should let them talk for awhile alone, and I think it will be really boring, don't you?" she smiled at her daughter, trying her very best to shield her from this mayhem as best as she could.
"I guess so," she murmured. "But can I play?"
"Of course my Sakura, and would you look at I found in the cellar this morning?" she pulled out of her pocket a faded red ball made of cloth.
"Really? Oh thank you mother! I didn't think that we would be able to take any toys at all." She took the ball and held it close, one of the few remaining items from her old home. "Would you like to play with me?"
"Of course. Let me just go inside real quick and make us a snack before dinner, I bet you're starving." She winked at her, and then walked up the patio stairs and into the kitchen.
She started playing with the ball. It had lost its bounce, but she was positive that she could make up a game where you could roll it.
The breeze was so nice up on this hill. And the sun was just starting to set. If only she could see the same view from inside her bedroom at home.
A crow startled her out of her thoughts, making her send her ball rolling toward the edge of the gate. As soon as she started moving to where the toy laid, she noticed a dark figure in the brush, moving ever so slightly.
She moved a few leaves and twigs, making sure that an animal wasn't about to jump out at her. Then she saw the girl, hugging her knees, and in a tattered see-through grey slip.
"Hey, little girl?" she lifted the brush to get a closer look. "Where are you from?"
Without turning her head, a little whisper escaped behind her knotty hair. "The Valley…"
Sakura went further into the bush, pulling the girl out by the arm.
When she took her into the light, Sakura could tell that the girl was a few years younger than herself, had tangled black hair, and was shaking.
Her head held low and she made no attempt to see her rescuer. Sakura tilted the girl's head back, revealing a pallid complexion and blood shot eyes. Her skin was burning as Sakura checked her temperature.
"Oh no! We must get you to my mother right now!" she grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the kitchen entrance.
"Mother! Quickly!" she cried. "I found a girl in the bushes and she's-"
The next moments seemed to slow down time, allowing for Sakura to take in every detail. A horrendous pain paralyzed her arm, the bone cracking under the pressure that was being inflicted onto it. She looked down to see that the girl's teeth had sunk into her flesh, her eyes white, her fingers grasping for a better hold of its prey.
"Wha- I can't-" she managed to stammer. But it was too late. Between the blood loss from her broken arm earlier that day, and the traumatizing event currently unfolding, shock was beginning to set in.
"Sakura?"
It sounded as if she was suddenly plunged under water. She could hear her mother screaming, but it sounded so distant that it did not seem to matter. She couldn't see. Splotches filled her eyes and everything seemed to go red.
The shot of a gun, the thud of a body, and the painful jolt of the ground below. The last memories of the life of Sakura Kinomoto.
A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you like the first part of my story! This is just the Prologue, so I promise that things will get much more interesting quickly. I have the entire story (the main plot) outlined, so no worries about me having writer's block. The only reason I would ever be late updating is if my internet crashes, or serious irl business. I will try to update at least once a week.
About the Rating: I rated this story M so that I could write without having to worry about a younger audience, though I wish there were a T+ rating. This is not going to be filled with smut, just an fyi. But there will be some just in later chapters I just think that it's very unrealistic to have stuff happen in the first couple chapters.
Note: Sakura is not dead!
Please review if you could, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much and hope to see you soon!