Jonathan stood in front of his living room window, staring out at his wife, daughter, and son playing in the yard. He wasn't going to lie that he didn't truly love his wife, it was an arranged wedding by their families. He did love his children to the end of infinity, he would never forgive himself if something ever happened to them that he could of prevented. His wife, Abigail, was a beautiful woman who worked as a highschool teacher and as a model part time. She was full of herself and rarely paid attention to what Jonathan would say to her.
Amanda and Anthony, Jonathan's twin children, were eleven years old as of July 6, 2018. They had similar interests which made it easier to buy them things. They were energetic and always were around their mother. It did in fact hurt Jonathan that they would rather be with Abigail than him. He would offer to take the kids places, but they always wanted to stay with their mother. Deep down, Jonathan believed they didn't like him and that it was Abigail that convinced the to act that way when they were just babies.
Out of nowhere, a car comes speeding around the corner. The last thing Jonathan could see before he jumped out of the way was Abigail throwing Anthony to Amanda before Abigail was run over and the car came crashing through the window. When Jonathan made to to his feet after moving the rubble of wall off himself, he seen the car on it's side. He looked to the yard to see his children on the ground with his wife, the sky was also brightly colored.
"What the hell happened, why is it sunset already? Was I knocked out by wall falling on me?" Jonathan questioned himself as he looked at the car. He went to see if anyone was inside, but nobody was. There was a hole in the windshield, the person must of been able to break themselves out, though the inside was extremely bloody. Jonathan then went to check on his children and wife. Stepping through the now missing wall, he was able to see what he couldn't see before. All three of them were covered in blood with pools around them. Jonathan sprinted to his children.
Jonathan inspected Amanda and Anthony, they had bite marks all over them, but he still needed to check the fronts of them, something he was terrified to do. As he was about to roll Amanda over, his neighbor Craig pulled up in front of the yard. Craig got out and ran over, he was still in his doctor clothing. He knelt down next to Jonathan.
"Jon, do you have any idea what happened here?" Craig questioned, not knowing of the crash or Abigail being run over. Jonathan stayed silent for awhile, until he finally thought of what to say.
"Craig, I was watching Abigail and the twins play from the window, then a speeding car crashed through the window, running down Abigail and knocking down the wall onto me. I fell unconscious I guess and I don't know how "this" happened." Jonathan felt tears run down his face as Craig pulled him into a hug. Craig then scooted over to Anthony and they both rolled the twins over at the same time.
The twins had their entire front side eaten open by something, none of the organs were their either. Jonathan broke down at the sight as Craig ran to throw up in the street. Jonathan clutched his head and curled into a ball on the ground next to his empty daughter's body. Craig then went and rolled Abigail over, she was exactly like the twins.
"What type of animal would eat someone entirely empty, then leave them on their stomach?" Craig questioned, turned to look at Jonathan, and then spotted something Jonathan didn't. He went over to Jonathan and made him sit up. Craig then picked up Jonathan's left leg and looked at his ankle. "Jonathan, you have a deep bite on your ankle, and it doesn't look like animal teeth that did the biting."
"Then, what did the biting Dr. Thompson?" Jonathan felt himself shaking as Craig looked him dead in the eye.
"You were bit by a human, I dealt with people coming into the ER with human bite marks, this is one of the worst human bite marks I seen. It makes me think of a bite mark from a zomb-zombie." Craig looked down and then back up at Jonathan, "This is fucking something from an apocalyptic movie."
"The car has a ton of blood in it and a hole in the windshield, maybe that's where whatever did this-" Jonathan was cut off by a gurgle. Both Craig and Jonathan look around until a creature sprinted out from behind a tree. Jonathan's father instincts kicked in and he pushed himself in front of Craig.
"Oh shit! Is that a zombie?!" Craig began to panic as Jonathan punched the zombie when it tried to attack them. Jonathan repeatedly punched the zombie until his hand became bloodied by his own blood. The zombie screeched as Jonathan gave it a final punch and it ran off down the street.
"Are you alright?" Jonathan asked, paying no attention to his throbbing hand.
Craig nodded, "Just a little panicked, the question is, is your hand alright?" Jonathan shrugged and went to move his bloodied hand, but stared at it when it didn't move. Craig grabbed his hand and started pressing down where his bones were, not stopping until Jon winced at the pain in his wrist. Craig shook his head, "I'm going to assume you broke your wrist when punching that zombie."
"It felt like I was punching a brick wall like I did when I heard about the arranged marriage." Craig pulled Jonathan up as he recalled his feelings the day he met Abigail. They walked next door to Craig's house so Craig can work on Jon's wounded ankle and hand. Jon's ankle was cleaned and bandaged while his bones were set into place by Craig.
Both Jonathan and Craig went to watch the news when Jon's hand was finally bandaged. The news showed a quiet city with empty vehicles scattered around. Zombies could be seen roaming the streets, looking for people that are hiding. The news reporter in the helicopter was talking about ways to kill the zombies and how they even started.
"Scorns." Jonathan whispered. Craig looked at him, confused at what he said. "Oh, uh, I think we should call the zombies scorns, it sounds cool and the zombies aren't like zombies, so why not call them scorns."
"Yeah, we can call them scorns, but I'm worried about what is going to happen to happen to you, a scorn bit you." Craig stood up and stared at Jonathan, "Sit there, I'm going to barricade us inside." Jonathan nodded and watched as Craig started blocking off the doors and window so stray scorns couldn't get in.
The television and dim, plug-in lantern suddenly turned off for a moment, then back on. Craig then started blocking off the windows faster, since he had already done the doors. Both he and Jon could only assume that scorns were messing with the transmitters down the road. As Craig was about to sit down next to Jonathan, the sound of someone pounding on the front door rang out through the almost silent house. Jonathan grinned as Craig turned to see who was at the door.
"Please, Craig, let us in! We know you're a doctor, we were attacked by a bunch of zombies, Eric somehow scared them off." A group of neighbors were outside, a few holding extremely bloodied kids. Craig pushed the bookshelf away from the door and allowed them inside. They all spotted Jonathan sitting on the couch,his foot on the coffee table and an icepack held to his broken wrist. Eric walked over to Jonathan and sat on the arm of the couch.
"What happened to you?" Eric said as he put a hand on Jon's shoulder.
Jonathan shrugged, "I don't remember how I got a wall on me, or a scorn biting me, but I sure as hell know that I punched a scorn enough to break my wrist on it."
The group looked confused and started looking around each other. One named Ethan finally spoke up, "What the hell is a scorn?" The group all started agreeing with the question, almost shaking as they thought of another thing that wasn't a zombie that would kill them.
"A scorn is what Jon and I started calling the zombies, since they aren't like zombies, it was actually Jon's idea, we started it about an hour ago." Craig spoke up, carrying medical supplies to a back room, motioning for the injured ones to follow him.
"Hhn, damn it, more blood, why more blood, why won't it stop, why did it have to be me?" I asked myself. I have secluded myself away from society for years now, I couldn't stand the comments I got when my disease was released to my school and neighborhood. I left when my family was distracted by the new couple that moved in down the road, the talk I heard from my brothers searching for me was that their parents bought the house and they were to be married later that day.
"I'm glad nobody can find me, if they found me they'd kill me." I started talking to myself long ago, well, not really myself, but my shadow. I had been able to see it even when no light is present, it's a side effect of my disease. My oldest brother always hit my older brother when he called me insane. I wouldn't consider myself insane, only troubled. Now the city is overrun with the babies of the blood, feeding on the organs of others, infecting those that escaped their grasp.
The blood babies have been called zombies, I wouldn't call them that though. They are blood babies to me, and the infected ones are bloodlings. Oh my brothers, well brother, you have been infected, you are one of the bloodlings, you are with the first bloodling now. I wish the best to you, to the neighbors, to mommy and daddy. My shadow says we have to leave our hiding spot for the years I ran away. The blood babies are spreading, something nobody can stop, not even me.
"Craig! Something is wrong with Jonathan!" Eric ran into the room Craig was in. Craig hurried with the person he was helping then ran into the living room to Jon. Jon was holding his head in his hands, violently shaking as he mumbled incoherent words.
"Hey, hey, hey buddy, calm down, it's alright. Calm down, it's alright, I'm here Jon, I'm here." Craig hugged Jon as he attempted to calm his shaking. It slowly started to calm him down, Craig then smiled slightly as he felt Jon wrap his arms around his waist.
"I can hear whispers, I don't know who they belong to, but they keep saying something about bloodlings." Jon whispered into Craig's chest. Everybody looked at each other, then at Craig, they all looked frightened.
"I, I'm not quite sure about this anymore, if I knew how to and had the devices I would of taken that foot off when I brought you here, Jon." Craig said, Jon looked at him. Craig sighed, "I think seeing your family like that sparked something in your brain buddy, you may just be hearing your own thoughts and don't realize it."
"Y-yeah, that's what it is, I'm just too traumatized to notice." Jonathan would believe anything in order to take his mind off of what happened and the voice he knew wasn't his own. "Hey Eric, you said long ago you and Ethan had a little brother, what was he like?"
"Well, he was kind, he did a lot of drawing and writing, he was very secluded after he turned eleven though." Eric explained as Ethan walked over to stand next to his brother.
"He didn't enjoy my teasing, he didn't enjoy anyone's teasing. If I could take back all of my teasing, I would do it in a heartbeat. I may not of showed it to him, but I truly did love him." Ethan quietly said with his eyes closed.
"He r-hell my head is pounding." Eric put a hand to his forehead. He then gave a blank stare with tears forming in his eyes, his younger brother Ethan had the same problem.
"Hnn, the voice is back, Craig." Jon was pulled closer to Craig.
"It's fine, maybe you just need some sleep, in fact I think everyone needs sleep." Craig softly spoke, "In one of my back rooms is a bunch of spare sleeping bags and cots, Jon can have the couch, and everyone else can choose between cots and sleeping bags. Gaia, could you lead Elijah to the back room on the right of the basement door?"
"I can, come on Elijah." Gaia walked with Elijah on her heels. They came back after a few minutes, with all the cots and sleeping bags. "Well, neither of us wanted to make another trip, so we dragged them all somehow, we don't actually know how we did it."
"You selected the two people that plan something, do it, then forget how they did it." Oliver said with a laugh.
"That was the point, they would get them back here somehow without us questioning it." Craig said then clapped his hands, "Okay then everybody, let's start setting everything up, I'll go get pillows and blankets for the cots and Jon, I'll also find something to keep the kids busy until they fall asleep." Everyone did as told, knowing that Craig would be their leader until decided later on.
After awhile of quiet talking, it was just Jonathan and Craig left awake. They were both sharing the couch, only because Craig had to keep calming down Jon. Jon was whispering what the voice kept saying, Craig attempted to figure out the meaning. Just as he figured the meaning out, a loud bang rang out from down the street, it was almost like an explosion. All the light that was softly lighting the house went out, the only thing to be illuminated was Jonathan's color-changing eyes.
"Craig, something tells me scorns are attracted to things that produce energy." Jonathan whispered as his eyes changed from orange to red.
"What makes you say that?" Craig was questioning Jon's eyes in his mind.
"They're speaking in growls, they can smell the infected ones, they know that there is a generator in the basement. Someone told them." Just as Jon said that, their was pounding heard on the front wall of the house, "They're here."