Something fresh to stoke and inspire my muse.
I don't own Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks or The Walking Dead.
"Merida!" Hands grasped the Scottish lass's shoulders and shook her urgently. "Merida! Wake up!"
"Geroff me." Merida said, pushing the owner of the hands away and rolling over onto her side. "I'm sleepin' in taday."
"This is important!" The woman's voice said as she began to shake Merida by the shoulder once more.
Annoyed, the redhead sat up in bed, glaring at her roommate in the gloom of their dormitory. "Whot do ye want, Tooth?"
"Merida, something's happened." The girl called Tooth told her.
"Ah know." The Scottish lass said in annoyance, covering her mouth lazily as she yawned. "All classes are cancelled today. Now, if that's all, Ah'm going back to sleep."
But the brunette would not let her redheaded roommate go back to sleep and grabbed the girl's arm, trying to express the urgency of the situation as she shifted her weight back nervously from one foot to the other. "Merida, this is serious. Do you know why classes were cancelled?"
The redhead blew a curl out of her face in annoyance, rolling her eyes as she spoke to her roommate. "Ach, why were classes cancelled today?"
"Because the university is closed until further notice." Tooth said, taking short breaths. "Merida, they're evacuating the city!"
This finally got the redhead's attention. "Whot? Why would they do tha'?"
"Haven't you been following the news?" Tooth asked, running her hand through her green and blue-tipped pixie cut. "You're in political sciences for goodness sakes! How could you not be following current events?"
"Ah did nae choose political sciences." Merida said as though it was the most obvious fact in the world. "Why would Ah choose political sciences over all things? Ah don't want to become ma mother."
Tooth sighed in exasperation. "Have you at least heard of the epidemic that's going around?"
"Oh, tha'?" Merida asked in annoyance, rolling her eyes. "There's nothin' to worry abou'."
"Actually, there is." Tooth said. "It's kind of serious."
"Ye sound like ma mum." Merida said, rolling her eyes at her roommates. "There's nothin' to be worried abou'."
"Merida, are you even listening?" Tooth said, sitting down on her friend's bed and grabbing the girl by her shoulders. "People are dying. Campus is closed down until further notice. People are fleeing the city by the thousands!"
"They'll come up with a cure in no time a' all." Merida said with a shrug. "Probably already have."
"But they haven't. Merida, this is really serious. Really, really serious." Tooth insisted.
"Well, we're probably safer stayin' here in res for the time bein' anyway, so stop yer worryin'." Merida said.
Tooth took a deep breath and nodded moving to her own bed, where she sat cross-legged. Then she picked up her bookbag, which had been left on the floor beside her bed. Pulling it up onto her lap, she rifled through it for a moment before pulling out a large volume of text. "I may as well get some studying done."
"Typical Tooth." Merida said with a yawn, arching her back until it made several satisfying cracks. Rubbing one eye with one hand, she threw her covers off her bed and swung her legs over the side. "Ah'll be back."
"Where are you going?" Tooth asked, looking up from her books quickly.
"Bathroom." Merida said, reaching for the door handle.
"But-" Tooth began quickly, her roommate cut her off.
"Ah got this, don' worry." Merida said, grabbing one of the hospital masks from the box on her desk and holding it up for display. "Ah'll be fine."
The elastic waistband of her pajama pants taut around her calves, she sighed, still tired from her roommate having woken her up before her time. The hospital mask restricted the airflow to her nose and mouth, and as she yawned, she pulled the thing up and rested it on a mass of curls on the top of her head.
Tooth didn't have to know.
She wouldn't get sick, anyhow. Tooth was just overreacting like the high strung, hyperactive A-type person that she was. Merida was not concerned about the state of things. In a few days, the university would be open again and she would resume skipping classes that her mother had chosen for her.
The shuffling sound of footsteps across the tiled bathroom floor alerted Merida to another individual's presence.
See? Not everyone was leaving the city. Tooth was just overreacting.
The footsteps paused outside her stall and the girl didn't think anything of it, reaching over to grab some toilet paper from the holder, which squeaked loudly in protest as the girl unrolled some.
Moments later, the individual outside Merida's stall hit the door, startling the redhead. Frowning, the girl rolled her eyes as the person outside the stall banged against the door again.
"Hold yer horses, Ah'll be out in a minute." Merida said, her tone clearly showing her irritation.
Whoever was outside the stall didn't seem very interested in practising patience and grunted in irritation as they slammed their body against the stall door a third time with increased force.
Gritting her teeth, Merida unlocked the stall door and pulled it open as the individual pushed against the door once more, slamming into her as the door vanished from between the two of them.
"There ye go, asshole." Merida snapped as she shoved the individual off of her and into the stall door, Merida pushed past and made her way to the sink to wash her hands.
Leaning over and pumping some soap into her hand, she began lathering them under the water, not paying attention to the rude asshole who had been so completely desperate to get into her stall. Glancing up at the mirror for just a moment, she was just reaching up to pull her surgical mask back down into place when she noticed the individual who'd been slamming against her stall door was standing only a short distance behind her.
Her blue eyes narrowed, she whirled to face the other person. "Whot do ye want now?"
But instead of a verbal answer, the only response was a throaty growl as the individual lunged towards Merida.
Her eyes stretched wide and her quick reflexes kicked in, grabbing the young woman's wrists as she tried to lunge. Momentarily using her knee to hold the woman at bay, she pulled back for a moment before delivering the hardest kick she could manage, slamming the girl into one of the stalls with a dull thud.
But the girl didn't even pause to catch her breath before lunging at Merida once more, alarming the redhead and drawing her to the door of the bathroom. Desperately, Merida pulled open the bathroom door and slipped out of the room, pulling it mostly closed before she began to back away.
A guttural growl sounded and fingers were wedged in the open space between the door and the door frame before the girl's body was slammed against it, slamming her fingers into the door.
Merida winced, expecting a cry of pain from the girl, but only a snarl followed moments before she began to pry open the door with her free hand. The redhead shook her head in shock before sprinting down the hallway back to the room she shared with Tooth.
Desperately pulling open the door, she slipped inside her res room and slammed the door behind her, locking it and leaning against it as though afraid if her weight was not holding it closed, it would swing open.
"Tooth," Merida began breathlessly. "What exactly is this sickness ye were tellin' me abou'?"
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