A/N: I was tempted to write a Frankie/OC fic, but I noticed that there are so very few fics with Edward so I decided to write an Edward/OC. My OC's name is Kate, and before vampires took over she was Edward's fiancée.

This chapter is set in 2009 when the whole outbreak is taking place, and Edward is 35 and Kate is 26. Yes, she's nine years younger, but I didn't want to have her be only a couple of years younger than Edward while he's human only to be in her forties during the events of the movie, you know? Besides, a nine year age difference isn't all that much these days it seems (shoot, two of my friends are married and there's a twelve year difference there).

It takes place in 2009 in this chapter only, but then it'll jump to about a five or six months before the events of the movie.

Disclaimer: I do not own Daybreakers.


*2009*

Kate had never been overly affected by horror stories, movies, and whatnot. To her, they were kind of silly and ridiculous.

And then that vampire virus struck the world, turning her life and the life of every living human into a genuine nightmare.

The virus started popping up here and there about two months ago, seemingly isolated incidents, but then it began to spread at an alarming rate due to the vampire's need for blood or desire to turn loved ones and friends. Some called it the evolution of the human race, others called it a disease, but regardless of what it was called this was only just beginning and humans were already facing some tough decisions. Kate had been visiting her parents for the past few weeks while her mother recovered from surgery, and right around that time things began to get very bad.

Gripping her steering wheel tightly, Kate glanced repeatedly through her window towards the steadily rising sun as she made her way home. Driving at night these days was incredibly risky, but she'd needed to get to get back to her fiancé as soon as possible and was willing to risk the night, all the while regretting her decision to forgo her fiancé's pleas for her not to go.

Ed, her fiancé as of three months ago, had insisted that she stay at home due to how dangerous the world was becoming, and she'd argued that he should just come with her. That had been an unrealistic request on her part seeing as he was a hematologist working on trying to solve what was going on. He couldn't just up and leave, just as she couldn't not go to her mother's aid when her mother practically begged her to come and be with them. In the end, she made the nine hour drive to her parent's house, promising to come back if things worsened in the world.

And they worsened quickly.

Only three weeks into her stay with her parents, hell started breaking loose and the options of humans became narrowed down to four little choices – go into hiding, to head to designated safe zones that had been set up all over the world, turn, or become food for the vampires. During their phone calls over the last few days, Edward stated that the so-called safe zones were a joke and were unsafe, and turning into a monster was the last thing either of them wanted, so that left them with only one thing to do.

Run.

Her parents decided that they would all go to their cabin in the mountains and try to wait this thing out or something, and since Ed had never been up to the cabin, Kate opted to risk the drive through the night to get back home so they could head there together.

They'd talked yesterday and she promised to call when she was close, and twenty minutes ago she called but got no answer from Ed. Contributing the reason to him being in the shower or something, she simply stepped on the gas and sped home just as the sun cast it's glow on their house.

Barely taking the time to put the car in park, she ran inside.

"Ed, I'm back!" she called.

Pulling off her dark brown leather jacket – a gift Edward had given her last year for her birthday – she tossed it onto a chair and set to work on packing the possessions she couldn't part with, knowing Edward would focus more on clothes and things he felt were key to figuring out the vampire epidemic.

In the closet by the door, she found one of their smaller suitcases that had never been used and pulled it out, caring little about the things that came tumbling out with it. She scrambled into the living room where she hastily began taking down all the framed photos and stuffed them into the suitcase along with a photo album she'd been putting together for the past year. "Ed, I tried to call you. My parents wanted us to bring as much food as we could with us since their cabin doesn't have a whole hell of a lot. The stores are a mad house and the grocery store down the street had a sign warning people to stay away, so I didn't even bother stopping. Did you get a hold of your brother?" There was no reply so she looked up from her task, brows knitting together as she waited for him to answer. "Ed?"

Silence followed, and she frowned, pausing in her haste to pack up the photos and the album, noticing for the first time that Ed was nowhere in sight, and he certainly would not still be in the shower. There was no reason for him not to come see her the moment she walked through the door. Even if they'd had a fight, he always went to her before doing anything else whether he was the one getting home or she was. For him to not even reply or acknowledge her presence…

Swallowing the lump that suddenly formed in her throat, Kate hurried into the kitchen and snatched a steak knife from a drawer. It probably wouldn't do a bit of good against what lurked in the shadows these days, but it made her feel better.

With her heart pounding painfully in her chest, she slowly made her way through the first floor of the relatively small two-story house in search of Ed, praying to God that he was either taking an exceptionally long shower or was still asleep for whatever reason, though both were incredibly unlikely. Since she couldn't hear the shower running, that possibility was quickly crossed off the list.

She poked her head into the guest bedroom, hoping to find him in there for whatever reason since it was the last room on the first floor that she'd yet to look through, but he wasn't in there. That left the upstairs, and she swallowed thickly as she came to a halt at the bottom of the staircase, the curtains drawn to hide the sunlight trying to shine through at the top of the steps. In fact, she noticed that all of the curtains were drawn, making the house seem eerily dark, and that filled her with an acute sense of dread.

Did she really want to go up there?

The sun had only just come up, leaving plenty of time for a vampire to invade her and Ed's home, but it was so quiet that it seemed as if she were the only one there. Or was that the vampire's plan and it was just waiting to get the jump on her by lulling her into a false sense of security?

Regardless, she wasn't leaving the house until she was sure Ed was not there, and that meant that she had to go upstairs.

Tucking a lock of dark blond hair behind her ear, forcing down her nerves, Kate slowly made her way up the steps. "Ed? You up here?"

There was no reply.

The stairs creaked with each step she took, echoing loudly in her ears and making her cringe each and every time, her grip on both the knife and the railing so tight that her knuckles turned white with the force of it. Never did she know that the quiet creaking of the steps could be so damn loud, and it felt like an eternity had passed before she finally reached the top of the staircase.

Ed's office was closest so she went there first and found that his laptop was in it's case on the desk as well as the cords and whatnot, but the case for his laptop was unzipped. She wandered over just to check it out, and she found a framed photo resting on top of the gray laptop in the case.

Despite the panic she was feeling, she very nearly smiled.

At the time the photo was taken when she was twenty-four and he was thirty-three, they'd already been dating for about a year and they were both attending their friends Christopher and Heather's wedding – those two having been the ones who introduced them to each other in the first place. Heather wanted everyone in the wedding party to pose for various photos, and since Kate was a bridesmaid that meant that she had to be in a lot of photos, but the one that Ed always had on his desk at home was the only one she'd been happy to have taken. As clear as day, she remembered the photographer snapping a few photos of them smiling or grinning at each other until he finally told Ed to look at her like he loved her, and the result was a photo that always brightened her day.

With the park as the backdrop, Ed was standing behind Kate with his arms wrapped around her waist, her delicate hands resting on his arms, and he was looking down at her with the softest smile on his face, looking at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. That expression nearly left her breathless in that moment and caused her cheeks to become flushed, and in return she was looking up at him with equal adoration, her own smile playing at her slightly parted lips.

The day that photo was taken was the day he asked her to move in with him, and things just progressed from there.

A thud from another room nearly had her jumping out of her skin and she dropped the framed photo, causing the glass to crack, and she was brought back to the reality that something was terribly wrong in her and Edward's house.

Trembling, adrenaline seeping into her system, Kate kept her eyes locked on the officer door as she slowly leaned down to remove the photo from the frame, fold it, and tuck it into the back pocket of her jeans.

She stood back up, tightening her grip on the knife once more, and nervously she called out, "Ed?"

Feeling tears sting her eyes when he said nothing, she walked out of the office and looked towards their bedroom, concluding that the thud had come from there, and she slowly made her way down the hall.

She pushed open the door and saw two suitcases lying open on the bed, blood splattered all over them and their clothes, and she pressed her hand over her mouth. Drawers were open, one suitcase was already zipped up but the other was only half packed… it was like he'd been interrupted while packing, but no one had broken in. Various photos and knickknacks on the dresser were knocked over as if there had been some sort of struggle, and the amount of blood on the floor…

Kate felt sick to her stomach, and then she noticed that there was a bloody handprint on the wall near the bathroom, another on the door-frame, the door closed.

Biting her lower lip so hard she thought that she might draw blood, Kate walked over to the bathroom, finding more blood on the door knob.

She didn't bother calling out to Ed this time and instead put her hand on the door knob that was sticky with drying blood, turned it, and frowned when she found it to be locked.

Gritting her teeth, she rammed her shoulder into the door and tried to force it open, suddenly so very desperate to get inside even though she dreaded what she would find.

"Damn it, come on!" she pleaded desperately, hitting the door with her shoulder again and again until it hurt.

Just as she was about to hit it once more, she heard movement from inside the bathroom followed by the distinct sound of the door being unlocked.

Suddenly unsure, she hesitated for close to a minute before she cautiously turned the knob and opened the door.

"Oh, God, Ed!" she cried, dropping to her knees beside him as he struggled to sit up against the wall next to the door, a light blue hand-towel soaked through with blood lying on the other side of the bathroom, his white shirt just as bloody, and she saw two small wounds on his neck that were still oozing blood. "No… no, no, no!"

Fighting to remain conscious, he mouthed something to her that she couldn't make out, and she just shook her head at him.

"You're gonna be okay, this… this is nothing," she insisted through her tears, pressing her hand to the bite. She'd heard that vampire bites bleed like nothing else, but there was so much blood! "We... we gotta go while it's still light out! C'mon, get up!" she urged, trying to help him stand.

Ed shook his head, trying to force her away, knowing full well what was happening to him and not wanting to endanger her. But it was more than that. He was almost panicked. "Get out of here, Kate."

"No, I'm not going anywhere without you!"

With a small burst of strength, he shoved her hard enough to send her tumbling onto her butt, blood from the floor staining her jeans and she knocked her head on the sink behind her.

Kate blinked at him, taken aback by the shove since he'd never once done anything like that to her.

"You don't understand, you have to get out of here," he bit out, ignoring her shocked response to his action. "Frankie… he's still here."

Through her heartbreak, she was thoroughly confused, and then she heard the door to the bedroom creak open.

Darting to her feet, she stepped out of the bathroom, refusing to move too far from Ed, and her heart hammered painfully in her chest when she saw Frankie standing in the doorway of the bedroom, his eyes now an unnatural yellow, blood staining his brown shirt.

Ed's blood.

"Hey, Kate," Frankie greeted with a heavy sigh.

Gaping at Ed's little brother, Kate stammered, "What… what have you done?"

"Vampires are at the top of the food chain now, or at least they will be in only a few more months if that," Frankie explained, stepping further inside, and he shook his head sadly when she stepped away from him. "I didn't want to die, so… I let them turn me."

"And the first item on your agenda was to feed off your own damn brother?" she shouted angrily, appalled and enraged and hurt all at the same time. She and Frankie had never really gotten along, but she never suspected he would do this. "You're gonna kill me too, is that it? You waited for me to get in here so you could corner me just like you cornered Ed!"

"Kate..." Ed warned weakly, grabbing her ankle as if it would help hold in her rising anger and hate.

More than angry with her accusation, Frankie snapped, "It's not like that! Don't even think it's like that!"

"Then what was it?" she demanded, feeling like a trapped animal, wanting to run but refusing to leave Ed even as he pleaded for her to just shut up and run. "Because all I see is another diseased –"

"Watch it," Frankie warned tightly.

"Bloodthirsty –"

"I'm warning you…"

Ignoring him, she shouted, "Monster!"

At that exact moment, Frankie lunged for her, causing her to scream and lash out at him with her knife, catching him in the chest with it.

The strike of the knife made him falter, pain erupting from the wound, and it gave her just enough time to yank her foot from Ed's weak grip and dart across the room to the window. He recovered quickly, though, and he was on her in a second, ignoring his brother's shouts to get away from her.

Just as he prepared to bite her, Kate grabbed for the closed curtains and threw them open, letting the sunlight in.

"Fuck!" Frankie shrieked, pushing away from and recoiling from the sun as the light burned him, bolting into the bathroom to hide there with his brother.

The adrenaline coursing through her veins made her shake, and she pressed herself against the window as if it were her saving grace.

She looked at Frankie in utter disbelief, green eyes wide.

He was going to bite her!

Whether he was intending to kill or turn her didn't matter, he'd attacked her with the intent to bite! He'd attacked her after attacking his own brother!

Her teary gaze turned to Ed who was half leaning out of the bathroom, looking at her with eyes that weren't quite blue anymore, his expression just as heartbroken as her's was.

Kate didn't want to leave him like this, on the bathroom floor all bloody, in the process of turning into the last thing he ever wanted to become, but if she stayed she would lose the sunlight eventually and Frankie would come after her for her blood. Maybe even Ed would come after her, and that thought tore a sob from her.

"Ed… I can't…" Unable to get the rest out, she just shook her head sorrowfully at Ed.

She didn't need to say a word.

"S'okay," Ed assured her, words slurring as he forced his eyes to stay open. "Go."

Frankie gaped at her. "Are you fucking crazy? You'll be killed out there!"

Ignoring him, she unlocked the window and opened it.

Angrily, he demanded, "You're just gonna leave me brother?"

She didn't bother arguing with him even though his claim that she was leaving Ed made her want to rip his head off. She didn't bother telling him that he took Ed from her the moment he bit him.

Just as she got one leg out the window and was about to duck out, Ed called weakly to her, "Katie…"

Her heart constricted painfully at the use of her nickname, and she looked at him one last time.

"… Love you."

Kate nearly choked on her tears. "I love you too."

Without another word, knowing that if she said anything else or looked at him again she wouldn't leave, Kate scrambled out the window onto the roof and oh so carefully dropped down onto the porch. Her ankle throbbed upon landing, but she ignored it and hurried around to the front of the house, running back inside to grab her keys and nothing else before running back outside.

Getting in her car and slamming the door shut, Kate started the engine, slammed it into reverse, then tore off down the street, refusing to ever look back.


Reviews are welcomed! In fact, they're encouraged!