Nicolas Marcotte was pacing worriedly when it all started.
Nicolas rubbed the back of his neck in thought as he crossed the floor with long strides.
"I'm going to need to do it spot on, the people here are good." He thought out loud. Nicolas reached the end of the short Montréal hotel room and spun on his heels, turning around.
"You prepare in the weirdest way." Charles aka Charlie stated from one of the two double beds in the room, he reached into his pack and cracked open a can of Mountain Dew. Nicolas adjusted the collar of his v-neck shirt. It was navy blue and he wore it over a red t-shirt. He didn't have any sisters, so a kindly female friend had helped him put together some styles.
"With the hard training your putting yourself through you'll win for sure!" Nic muttered sarcastically in English, he didn't think he spoke both languages, but he had never actually found out. Nicolas had paced for a good half hour while Charlie hadn't gotten up from his chosen bed.
"Don't blame me; they shouldn't have put a Big Bang marathon the days of Track and Field!" Yup, he definelty heard him. What he said must have made sense to him though, because he reached into his bag and pulled out a shotput. He held it in his hand over his head, slowly raising and lowering it to strengthen his muscles. Charlie and Nicolas had just met; they were the odd room out that got kids from different schools, but they didn't mind. Charlie was going on in shotput, and Nicolas was running hurdles tomorrow.
"I'm sure 10th graders are plotting deeply with the Comedy Channel to sabotage your chances." Nicolas mentioned, again, sarcastically.
"They're out to get me." Charlie stated before he tipped back more Mountain Dew. Nicolas finally stopped pacing and fell spread-eagle on his bed, his face falling deep into the nice fabrics.
"Awest e god nuhce buds." He mumbled through the sheets, trying to say "At least we got nice beds."
Charlie ignored him and flipped through channels with little interest. He was a short guy for his age, but his muscles were quite visible without him flexing, he wore a muscle shirt most of the time. That might not sound like much, but he's a 10th grader, they aren't jacked, so he's quite strong for his age.
Charles finally settled on a zombie flick and Nic looked away, He hated zombies.
At least my Aunt will be there for this one, Nicolas thought optimistically, usually none of his family saw him in track but his cousin was taking fencing lessons today in Montreal, over two hours from where he lived. His cousin was crazy dedicated, he was a black belt in Karate and he was so good with a sword, he could probably cut the liver out of an airborne pigeon without it noticing. A loud static noise pulled both of their attention's towards the TV, where a news man replaced the movie, much to Charlie's disdain.
"We interrupt your program to bring you important news." He began in English, and then again in French. "Breaking news" music played in the background.
"There has been a near overnight outbreak of a terrible disease, coined, 'The Bear Flu'. Victims are known to go into a deep coma, near hibernation hence the name, nearly minutes after contact with this disease. The body also uses up nutrients on overdrive when in a coma, so Doctors predict victims will be deathly hungry when the awake, if they ever do. It is unknown how this disease spreads, so the government has advised to stay indoors until further notice. Major cities such as Montréal and Québec City have quarantined all cases in the hospital, so you may go outside if you live there. The following is a list of safe cities:" The news man listed off a scarily small list of safe cities, which luckily included Montreal.
"What the fuck?!" Charlie bolted up, not caring he spilled Mountain Dew everywhere. "Track's probably cancelled." He muttered, sinking back down on the bed.
"Don't say that! Don't say that!" Nicolas begged, getting up and pacing again, he had trained to hard and for too long for track to be postponed.
"I'm going out." Nicolas stated suddenly, he stopped pacing and started walking out. He grabbed his hoodie from a bedpost on his way out.
"Where?" Charlie asked, it was completely against the rules to go outside the hotel.
"I need to see my aunt." He stated firmly before he closed the door behind him, leaving no room for argument. He walked down the hallway, his loose jeans scraping against each other. He looked down at his gym duffle bag, and tried to think why the hell he had brought it.
()()()()
Erickson Amsel was lost when it all started.
He had recently moved to Quebec, though he didn't speak a word of French, and his siblings insisted he went to a fancy school, too bad it was huge. Even though he was used to New Jersey, Eric was still having trouble in this new place.
"Fucking A..." He muttered, smirking at a passing girl. She had beautiful green eyes and her nice, wide hips swayed back and forth with every step. He was six foot three, so he also got an overhead view of her chest.
She turned back towards him, her hair flying around her face. It was blonde with black tips on her bangs and red tips on the rest. She scoffed, finding him not-so-secretly checking her out.
"What a perve." She stung her words like a whip.
"Aw c'mon girl!" He said as she walked away, but she didn't turn around. She rounded the corner of the hallway balcony and disappeared from view.
He turned the other way and walked slowly, hands in his loose black jeans.
Fucking Rosemount High School, size of a University, how am I supposed to get anywhere? He wasn't lying, Rosemount was one of the biggest in the city, it even directly connected to the subway.
He ultimately decided to skip first class and just try to get to second because it would take awhile to find the classroom. Plus it was poetry.
"Who has a freaking Poetry Class?" He exclaimed to the lone hallway. He moved his hands to the pockets of his white cargo jacket. He thought about taking it off, he had a dark blue long sleeve shirt and a white tank top underneath so he was quite warm. He couldn't put it anywhere, so he threw it over his shoulder and kept walking. He spotted a fountain and bent down to drink. He paused for a moment, looking at his reflection.
Neck-length dirty blonde hair fell over his face, shadowing his eyes from view, but he didn't need to see them. They had been brought up enough today by passing students.
Sure, he was blind in his left eye; it wasn't hazel like his right. And no, his cheek scar wasn't from a fight. And yes, his left pinky was limp on purpose.
He got up without taking a drink and kicked the wall. Not very hard, just enough to feel it up his leg.
Damn Canadians, I thought they were supposed to be nice. I guess with teenagers what can you expect. Eric was from New Jersey, so he didn't really know many Canadians.
An inhuman scream ripped him from his thoughts, it came from behind him. He didn't think, he just ran.
"Help! Stay Back!" The same voice begged. His feet thumped hard against the tiled floor as he sped up his pace. He reached the corner and stopped, nearly skidding off of the balcony. Eric's jaw slackened and his muscles loosened and the pure shock of the scene.
The girl from before was being edged into a corner by two people. They hardly looked like people though; they looked like they had been to Hell and back.
Their shirts were ripped and tore, and whatever was left was stained crimson with blood. Their skin was the worst; it was gray and sagging, wrinkled in many places. Their eyes were grey-white, similar to his left, and their fingernails were black, they were barely human.
"Help me! They're going to hurt me!" She begged, bringing him out of his observation, his mind instinctively shot back to the many hours of dojo training. He didn't care who these people were, you couldn't just corner a lady like that, he might be a bit of a ladies man sometimes but he would never go there.
He thrusted his hands back, straight with his body and at a 45° angle to the ground. He brought his right knee to his chest, and then straightened it and hit the left man directly in the cheekbone, sending him flying. He turned and shoved his face and torso to the ground to his right, swinging his left foot around and hitting the other man on the front of his neck with the top of his foot, making an audible crack.
The girl rushed forward and hugged him, he just kept his hands at his side and smirked, liking the feeling of a girls thanks. She pulled away suddenly.
"T-t-t-Thank you," she began; she took a couple breaths and continued "What were those things?"
'You think I know?" He said, but he was thinking something far from that. he flexed his foot and wiggled his toes, his kick had been slightly off and consequently his foot hurt.
"I'm Sora Bells, but call me Sky. You are?"
"Erickson Amsel, and if you call me Cyclops I'll kick your ass." Sky thought he was joking, but he wasn't, he hated his blind eye being brought up. They shook hands and he made sure to keep it extra long, taking time to glance at her cleavage from bending forward.
"Eric, do you mind if I walk with you? Those things, there might be more..." Eric nodded, glad to play the macho bodyguard. "And don't worry; I have a cousin who was blind-"she was cut off from the speakers sizzling to life for an announcement.
"Code Red! I repeat Code Red! Get to your classroom students! Listen to your teach-"It was cut off suddenly with a strange noise, like a TV being turned off; Eric guessed it had been unplugged or lost connection.
"Code red?" Eric asked casually, bending over to pick up his cargo hoodie he had thrown aside in his flight.
"Extreme Danger, get in the classrooms and lock your doors, don't leave no matter what." She recited.
"You don't think..." he began, he tilted his head towards the two motionless things. He had an idea what the "things" were, but he hadn't brought himself to accept it, let alone mention it.
"I hate to say it, but probably. What else would it be? Those... things, they came out of nowhere, I watched them bite someone... they ate him, this is all crazy." Sky looked down and shook her head. she blinked once, and then looked up. She would face the new problem head on and do whatever should could to fix it. she reached into her blazier pockets, calming down when her hands closed around her hand fans. They were given to her by her father and she valued them deeply.
Eric asked who they bit, and she pointed to another motionless human farther down the balcony.
They both ran ,Eric got a good view of Sora's jiggling chest, towards the motionless man, both of them really wanting to know what was going on.
()()()()
"Must be the wrong address." Nicolas muttered to himself. He checked again, then double checked. Yup, the dojo was apparently in a High School. Nicolas sighed, he could try and go in, but he would most certainly stick out. He wasn't wearing the uniform first of all, plus he wasn't even close to a registered student.
You know what? I going to go in there and be happy I'm not in school. He thought, he was missing school for track and it was awesome.
Nicolas easily hauled himself over the metal gate, which creaked way too much for his liking, and his sneakers hit concrete. He flew across the courtyard to the nearest map. He quickly pointed out where the dojo was and made his way there. He hoped he didn't get lost; there was a large chance of that happening because he had no sense of direction.
He pushed past students ditching class who stared at him intensely. He returned it with a kind smile and a wave. They just continued their stare.
Gosh people are weird here. He thought, confused at the city people's actions. He was from the flat Prairies, where things were very different. In Saskatchewan, they could afford thousand dollar china, but preferred paper plates. They didn't have anything against city lights (Heck, they had nothing against anything) but they preferred smoke country nights. Everybody's honest and polite, you caould leave your door open and your car unlocked. Nobody cared where you were from, as long as you were polite. To Nicolas, it was heaven.
Luckily, Nicolas only met one more person, she was a girl who smirked at him and winked, whatever that was supposed to mean, but he had smiled and waved.
"Was it a left at 102 or a right? Damnit!" He stomped his foot against the floor, now completely lost.
He heard a male yell at a pitch most males cannot reach, and his attention soon centered on a commotion on a balcony that wrapped around the school. Nicolas ran over, and watched in horror as the man was eaten alive. He ducked beside a fire hose container and watched helplessly as they mercilessly tore a piece out of his shoulder and chewed it... and swallowed. The two figures got up and left, probably looking for more food, they left the male barely alive. The second they were out of sight, Nicolas flew to the rail and was loudly sick. Those things! They were cannibals! What the fuck is going on!?
When he was done, Nicolas wiped his mouth on his sleeve and turned to the male.
Credit to Colt Ford for awesome lyrics about farm life.