Note: I do have another ongoing Gears fan fic, and I am trying to balance between it, my Dead Rising, Command and Conquer, and another fan fic I have yet to work out in my mind. I am doing this fic from a human (Stranded) perspective since my other Gears fan fic is from a locust POV. I will work on the locust one as well soon.

1: Memories

The screams coming from her made James' blood run cold as he watched the girl he had fallen in love with being torn apart by a child-sized creature's large claws and fangs as it continued attacking her. James ran over to her as she tried to push the creature off and he kicked at the little monster….

Moments ago, James Flats and the girl, Erica Jones had been sitting in their art history class together, along with her boyfriend and some other seniors and juniors in theit high school. James had begun to space out when he took a glance at Erica, the girl whom he was in love with, and his heart skipped a beat as she made eye contact with him and smiled. He quickly glanced away with a smile on his face, though he tried to hide it from her boyfriend who sat directly across from him. The teacher was going on about ancient art and artists when a large rumbling shook the entire school. The class froze in fear.

James heard large cracks and shatters coming from the hallways, and then he heard many growls and roars and the thumping of footsteps. The door was closed to the hallway for teaching purposes so nobody could see what was going on, but the screams and roars and gunshots gave an idea. The teacher had barely opened the door for a moment when she yelped and fell backwards, the door closing. There was a large thump against the door, apparently something had ran into it pretty hard. The entire class cringed as a loud screeching reverberated through the room, and then they heard a scraping or scratching noise coming from the other side of the wooden door.

After a few minutes of sitting there in fear, a few girls started breaking down as did some of the boys. James sat there, his mind racing on what he should do. He made eye contact with Erica and saw the look of pure terror emanating from her blue eyes. He sat there and grimaced only for a moment, when the wood of the door splintered and three of these strange child-sized creatures came into the room through the opening at the base of the door. They immediately began pouncing on the nearest people and started clawing and biting at them. Some of the class tried to help their friends, but the creatures just pounced on them and ripped at them. James was petrified as he saw the blood spurt and pour from the wounded or dying classmates. Some of the other kids attempted to run into the hallway to escape, when gunfire cut them down as soon as they stepped out.

Erica's boyfriend had started to get out of his seat, but one of the little creatures saw him and lunged at him. The monster's mouth clamped around his throat and it ripped away the skin and flesh. The boyfriend collapsed onto the floor, dead and the creature started to eat at his flesh. Erica screamed and then threw a textbook at the creature, which grazed its head somewhat, knocking it off the body. The creature then looked at her, she was standing with another book in hand, and screeched. The screech split James' eardrums, or at least it felt like it. Erica had dropped the book in attempt to block out the screech with her hands clamped over her ears. The monster siezed the opportunity and ran at her on all four of its legs and pounced on her.

James threw a kick as hard as he could at the monster clawing at Erica. The kick connected with the side of the monster's head, and sent it reeling across the floor. The creature didn't move again, but its two look-alikes looked up from their prey, and then ran at James. One jumped on top of the desks, and then from them, jumped at James. James ducked, and the monster continued on, crashing into the desks behind him. The other monster grasped James' leg, and began clawing at him. James kicked at it, but it seemed to only make the thing angrier as it bit at his leg. All of the sudden he felt something sharp digging into his back as he let out a scream of pain. The other creature had jumped on his back and was tearing away at him. James reached back and grabbed the arms of the monster on his back, and pulled with all his might. The grip on his shoulders loosened and he pulled his arms back over his head with the creature in hand, and slammed the two monsters into each other.

One monster got back up and slammed into James, knocking him to the ground. The monster then clawed and snapped at him. James screamed some more as the creature tore into his chest and arms. The monster reared back for a bite at his throat just like Erica's boyfriend, but James did not want to let that happen. He lunged his own mouth at the creature's exposed neck, and clamped onto it with his own mouth. He held on tighter and tighter as the creature flailed around, clawing James some more. James felt something warm and not to tasty of a liquid start flowing into his mouth soon, and he assumed he had punctured an artery of the monster. He pulled at the neck of the monster with his mouth as he pushed away with his arms. The tender flesh gave way and James' face was sprayed with the creature's blood and a piece of its flesh still in his mouth.

The creature writhed around on the floor for a moment, and then was still. James spit out the monster's flesh and wiped his face off a little before he ran to Erica who was trying to sit up.

"Erica! Are you alright?" he asked as he wiped off some of the blood that was oozing from her arm.

"What do you think! WE JUST GOT ATTACKED BY MONSTERS! EVERYONE IS DEAD! HELL NO I AM NOT OK!" she screamed at him. James just looked at her solemnly as he continued wiping off more of the blood coming from both of them.

"Lets go in the back", he said, but she gave him an icy look.

"You really think I am talking about THAT?!" he cried with a smile forcing its way out.

"Well you know how people want to do what they've always wanted to do before they die", Erica said starting to smile as well. The two of them have always had a funny friendship with each other, with the sexual innuendos, and other random things, and that was one reason why James loved her so much.

"There is a sink back there, I think if we are quiet, we can at least hide there, and clean our wounds", he said. Erica nodded as she looked around the room at their dead classmates, the dead creatures, and her dead boyfriend. She started to cry as she looked at him. James glanced at the corpse, but quickly looked back at Erica because of the horrific sight. James then picked her up gently and limped to the back room.

Being a teenager as he was…James couldn't help but noticed that Erica's small black shirt had been torn in places, exposing some of her well developed figure. He tried not to stare, as this wasn't the time for such acts of perversion, but he couldn't help it. He looked at Erica who obviously had noticed him looking, because of the smirk she had plastered on her face. James grimaced as she gave him a light, playful smack on the cheek.

"Sorry", he said as he set her down gently.

"Even now…you are STILL driven by hormones", she said with a grin.

"Errr…..I'm sorry, really I am", he said as he dampened two wash cloths.

"It's fine Jimmy. I am flattered honestly", she replied as she took the wash cloth he held out to her. The same situation has occurred multiple times across their friendship together, and though they've never gone out together, they've acted like it on some occasions despite her being taken at times more often than not.

James closed the door to the room, as he heard more screams, roars, and gunshots echoing through the halls. He then limped over to Erica and sat down clumsily. She chuckled a little bit, though one could easily still detect the terror in her voice.

"I'm sorry about Terrence", James said as he wiped his face off.

"Thanks, but please…I'd rather not talk about him, because it hurts too much", Erica replied.

"Ok", he said back with a nod.

"What do you think is going to happen?" she asked.

"Honestly, I don't know, but I hope nothing bad happens to you", James said as he placed his hand on top of her knee. Erica then surprised him as she leaned her head on his shoulder and rested it there.

"Mhm, the same goes for you Jimmy", she whispered and she placed her hand on top of his. James' face turned about three shades of red as Erica worked her fingers between his and held his hand.

"You know…I've always had something for you James, but I was just too nervous to say yes. I think it was because I didn't want to lose a friend like you by going out with you, and then you turning into something like Rob did", she whispered.

James remembered Rob, Erica's previous boyfriend before Terrence. He was one possessive asshole, and got mad about Erica doing ANYTHING short of looking at another guy. Hell he tried to get Erica to stop being friends with James, but she didn't want to have that happen, so she broke up with him one month later at the schools homecoming dance, where she and James danced the night away.

"Erica, I know I've told you this before, but I love you", he said gently into her ear as he kissed the side of her forehead. James' nose was in Erica's reddish brown hair, and he couldn't help but get a whiff of it, but it smelled really nice so he didn't mind. Erica cuddled up to him, and nuzzled his neck as she began to drift of into sleep with a smile on her face. James sat their in silence as he listened to the destruction going on around him, and soon he fell asleep too…

James sat up off the floor in his dimly lit room…or at least what was left of it after the Locust horde had breached the outer borders of Jacinto Plateau five months ago. He remembered about the broadcasts that were constantly going out to recruit new members for the Coalition of Ordered Governments, but he and the rest of his school had decided to try and continue life as if nothing was going on, and as such had no inclination of what the Locust looked like or how they went about things, and therefore, when the school was attacked that day, nobody had any idea of what to do or what was attacking. He remembered how out of all fifteen hundred people in that building, James only knew that he and Erica had survived…somehow. Lastly, James remembered how that dream keeps coming back to him many times a week, even multiple times a night plaguing his memories and ruining his sleep. Erica's steady breathing that was coming from James' old bed next to him and it calmed his nerves. He looked around for the Gnasher and two Hammerbursts that they had scavenged on their travels. James checked the ammo, gave Erica a kiss on her forehead as she slept, and then laid back down and drifted off into sleep once again……..

Hope you liked it, I'll be working on it as soon as I can.