Chapter 1 - Goodbye, Miranda

"Momma," the tween said flatly. "Momma, I'm hungry." She slowly walked over to her mother, lying on the couch. She saw her mother's eyes still held that glassy, spaced out look. Like there was nothing to look at. She sighed.

"What now, Elena?" she ask the girl without looking at her.

"I'm hungry."

"Go get something to eat."

"There's nothing left. We've eaten all we can in the kitchen that hasn't gone rotten. You haven't eaten in days. Daddy never came home from work." Her mother appeared to ignore her.

Elena finally walked to the kitchen for one last look. She shook her head as she confirmed the only thing left was a bowl of rotting fruit on the counter. The trash had piled up. The police were no longer responding to her calls for help. She decided it was time for her to look for food. She had her little sister to look out for after all.

"Fiona!" Elena called to her sister.

"What?" Fiona screamed back.

"Quit screaming," Elena demanded as she went down the hall to Fiona's room. Fiona had become a rather aggressive person to contend with, especially since their dad was missing and their mom suddenly didn't seem to care anymore. She peered through the bars into Fiona's room. Elena was fearful enough of Fiona to have dismantled an old crib and was using the sides as a way to bar Fiona in her room. "We're out of food. I'm going for more. Are you okay?"

Fiona sat in the center of her room. It looked like a zombie apocalypse of dolls as they had been ripped and torn apart and strewn across the floor… some were even missing eyes and chunks of hair. Fiona was in tattered clothes and her hair was a tangled mess. There were scratch and bite marks all over her arms and legs, all of them self-inflicted. It unnerved Elena but this was her sister. What else could she do?

"No!" Fiona growled. "I want out! I want out! I want out!"

Elena thought for a moment. "You cannot bite me anymore, okay? I want to let you out. I want to help care for you but you have to stop fighting me. Okay?"

"Aaaahhhhh! I can't help it. I don't want to hurt you but I still do! I don't know why!"

"Can you try to not hurt me?"

Fiona nodded.

"Okay. Get some clean clothes on. I will help you with your hair."

"I want my birthday dress. I never got to wear it," Fiona said in a very hushed tone. Elena could tell that she was trying to be a good girl and that she was still her little sister and not some monster.

"Okay, Fiona. I will get it for you. You will be so pretty," Elena said trying to comfort her.

"So… pretty…" Fiona whispered as she was now starting to cry.

Elena went into her parents' room and pulled a white dress with big, purple polka dots from the closet. It was the dress that Fiona was supposed to wear for her tenth birthday. But that day had come and gone. She went to Fiona's room and for the first time in two days, opened the makeshift prison door. Fiona began laughing hysterically.

"Pretty!" she yelled.

"Yes, Fiona. It's very pretty. But not as pretty as you." She helped her sister get dressed and also helped clean her up as she was dressing her. The two girls went to the restroom and Elena sprayed some detangler in Fiona's hair. "You have such pretty black curls, Fiona."

"Pretty, black curls."

"Yes. Pretty black curls."

Elena went into her mother's purse and took the bank card and some coins. The two left their home without a word to their mother. Elena had not ventured out since everyone stopped interacting. It was crazy and, truthfully, quite scary. She held Fiona's hand and they walked to the store close to their home. There were some people walking around but they seemed to be in a daze. They reached the store and couldn't believe what they saw.

The doors were shattered and there was broken glass all over the floor.

"What the…?" Elena whispered to herself.

"They did it. They were hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry, Elena!" Fiona began to shout again.

"'They'? Whose 'they'?"

"Me! They are me! I am them and they are me!" Fiona began to crouch and jump. She was getting too excited again.

"Okay, calm down, Fiona," Elena said kneeling to be eye level with her crouching sister. "Remember, you said you wouldn't hurt me this time."

Fiona looked back at Elena. Unlike their mother, Fiona had a very intense look in her eyes. She didn't look past anyone, she looked directly into them. It's almost as if she was searching for a soul or something, but Elena feared it was something more primal than that. Something more intense and violent. Finally, Fiona stood slowly.

"Good. Now let's get some food really quickly." They rushed into the store and began grabbing preprocessed items, all they could fit into a shopping cart. There were no cashiers. There were no shelf stockers. There were no people at all that they could tell in the store. "Well, I guess I'll leave the coins. I don't think it would cover all this but there is no one here to work the scanners for the bank card." Elena left the coins on the counter and began to leave. Fiona walked up to the counter and took the coins back without Elena seeing.

"I'm hungry…" Fiona said in a low voice.

"I know," Elena replied, pushing the cart full of food along the deserted city sidewalk. As they started to pass the Hippodrome, Fiona took off running for it. "Wait!" Elena cried, running after her. Fiona's speed and agility was unreal, like super human. They raced up the grassy incline leading to the top of the Hippodrome, built into the ground like a natural amphitheater. Elena could not catch up with her until she stopped at the top of the Hippodrome. She grabbed Fiona's hand, panting and asked her, "What in the world are you running for?"

"Look! I am here," Fiona said through gritted teeth, with a twisted smile on her face.

"Oh my…" Elena whispered. She looked into the Hippodrome to behold a vast mass of carnage. There was an aid relief ship in the middle of the arena but surround it where random body parts. She could believe the amount of blood.

"I am not hungry anymore, Elena."

"What?" Elena asked looking perplexed at her sister.

"I… We are not hungry when we do this."

Elena could not grasp what Fiona was trying to say to her. Her head felt foggy and she was tired. She fought the urge to lay down for a rest and decided that she'd had enough. Hand-in-hand, Elena led Fiona towards the aid relief ship. Elena had to keep her own focus, as well as Fiona's, on getting to the ship. It was hard to fight that urge to just lay down anywhere and sleep and Fiona kept trying to pick up the remains of people on the ground as they walked past them. The two approached the aid relief ship to find the door open. It appeared as if they were met with monsters as soon as the door opened. The gore was nothing like anyone had seen before and she couldn't understand what could have possibly happened.

"I want! I'm hungryyyyy…" Fiona began to chant through gritted teeth, reaching for a dismembered finger close by, but unable to reach it as Elena refused to let her gripe loose. Elena was spooked to her very core and knew that it was now or never.

"C'mon, Fiona," Elena stated as she pulled her seemingly psychotic sister onto the ship. "We're getting out of here. We're leaving Miranda, and we're doing it now!" Elena and Fiona climbed in and Elena closed the door. Fiona was starting to jump around and scream again so Elena walked her over to the flight secured gurney and strapped her in with a lot of struggling. Fiona even started biting her again, drawing blood. Elena stepped back once Fiona was strapped in and started to cry. She wandered towards the cockpit and sat in the pilot's seat.

What in the world was going on? What was happening to them? She didn't understand it and she wanted to get away as quickly as she could.

She picked up the radio microphone and pressed the talk button. "He-hello?" There was no response so she pressed the button again. "Hello? Is there anyone out there?"

The speaker chirped back, "Copy, Research and Rescue C56-D. What is going on down there?"

"I – I don't know," Elena replied. "My name is Elena. I'm twelve years old and my ten year old sister and I have taken cover in this abandoned ship."

"Okay, Elena. Where is the crew?" asked the communications agent.

"I don't know," she said, fighting against crying again. "I told you, the ship is abandoned. And there are body parts all around us!" She broke down crying again.

"Okay, Elena. Let's get you and your sister safe, okay?"

She nodded and controlled her crying. "Okay. Thank you."

He told her how to download coordinates he was sending to the ship and how to put those into the computer so that the ship could pilot itself back to base. Just before taking off, she looked out into the Hippodrome. She saw the horror and she thought of her parents. She had to go. She had to get Fiona safe and get her some help. There was clearly something wrong. She whispered a brief goodbye to her parents, whom she was now certain she'd never see again and launched the ship.

Finally, she could sit back and relax. Just a little rest and she was sure she'd feel better… just a little bit of sleep…