The loud ring of the home phone broke out across the seemingly empty house, pushing through the silent atmosphere, the sound reaching up stairs to fill each room. It was only a few moments later that the rushed footsteps of small feet trudged down the stairs, darting around the corner and into the living room where the phone resided in. The house looked very abandoned, the halls holding a coat of dust along with the doors that looked worse for wear, the cupboard still splayed across the floor with a cracked top like a corpse. Yang's rough fingers grasped the worn out device, her thumb pressing the answer button as she brought to her ear.
"Uh, Miss Rose? This is my first time using the phone…" Came a slightly tearful, but familiar voice
"Kitty Cat!" Yang let out a surprised squeak at the presence of the voice, though couldn't bring herself to smile at the phone.
"Ying!" Blake was Yang's best friend since two years ago, where the blond had pushed the faunas down a hill for continuing to mispronounce her name. Though Yang would love to yell to replace the 'i', she was just relieved to know that her friend was fine for the moment. "I wanted to check on you"
Yang felt her stomach drop in a pit as the memories came back, she shook as tears raced down her cheek while her hand tightly gripped the phone. "Mama…"
"Yi ng?'' Blakes voice came through the phone, Yang biting her lip and letting out a sniffle.
"Mama's…gone''
"She left you alone!?" Blake gasped, briefly losing her own teary voice.
"Mama's gone…'' Yang repeated more coherently, to which made Blake silent for a second.
"D-do you want to come over?'' Blake asked quickly, placing the thought that she might not know what's going on in the outside world.
The reply was instant, a desperate undertone to Yang's voice. "Yes please!" She knew that Blake's home was far away from their own, more then a few miles through the city to reach it, a trail that probably held more then a few creatures. But, this house held something Yang wanted to forget, She wante- No, needed, to get away from this house. And judging from the sobs that came from upstairs, Ruby needed to leave to.
"Well, you know where t-" There was a great crash, bricks seemingly collapsing to the floor in the background. Though Yang only heard one thing before the phone call ended "Monst-"
Jaune felt light headed for the moment, as if his brain had been replaced with cold air that tickles his spine. A shroud of darkness surrounded him, bringing with it the choking smell of smoke, like chalk shoved down his throat.
He moved his small arms to his right and felt his fingers brush up against the prick on top of a shard of glass, only to just stop himself from putting any pressure on the point and cutting himself. I'm not dead…I think. His heart beat was a slow and boring rhythm that hammered through his ears, he heard it as well as he felt the heat near by that casted a war glow over half of his face.
Finally light struck the darkness, breaking the shroud and shattering it into random shards in the ground, allowing Jaune to see his surroundings. He was lying beside a pole that held half of the button that used to be attached, along with a broken window hanging over his right side. Half of the bus was opposite him with a few corpses hung over or crushed, though Jaune only assumed that they were knocked out by the crash and needed help, emitting an aroma of a rotten spear that assaulted his nose. (Which caused Jaune to have a good time puking over the pole)
Pain pulsed through his left shoulder as he attempted to get to his feet, hindering his plan, but not stopping it all together. He was on his feet now and gripping his shoulder before he began to stagger forward.
A groan managed to find it's way through his ears from nearby, when he looked around for the source he was met with the sight of the bus driver struggling to get out of the front of the bus. A noticeable grey tone came to the driver's skin, his groans became growls as he violently beat the door the trapped him, looking to Jaune with a hungry look in his eye.
The nine year old rushed forward to help the adult, stopping infront of the metal door and looking it over, only finding that the part of the door that allowed it to open was buried a little in the soil. Jaune looked at the driver with an apologetic look, telling the man that "Sorry Mr, but I don't think I can open the door"
The response was…surprising to say the least: The driver's arm breaking through the glass and grabbing Jaune by his throat, dragging the boy forcefully over to the window and harshly causing Jaune to bang his head on the top of the window frame.
The blond couldn't breathe with the strong grip the man had on his throat, crushing his windpipes with a snarl and growl. His hand punched the already bloody arm as hard as it could in a hopeless attempt to escape, but the arm kept its grip and pulled Jaune further; Until the Ren and Pyrrha grabbed a hold of Jaune and pulled against the man.
The two seemed to have been behind the bus when Jaune started struggling against the driver, spotting their friend in danger they joined in with the escape, trying every trick from kicking to biting. None had a effect on the man. But, when in the flailing motions of the struggle, the man managed to slam his arm against the glass, causing a brief loosen of his grip in a reaction, giving Jaune the chance to be pulled out of the grip and sent to the floor.
Soon the man was growling louder at his lost prey and swinging himself against the door, only now did Jaune notice the man's darkening skin, to which he didn't even bother to ask about at the moment.
His friend briefly hugged him with the usual 'Thank god you're okay!' before dragging him away from the truck, desperate to get away from the 'angry' driver. Ren had a noticeable limp in his step, his trousers mostly damaged on his right leg, which seemed a darker shade of red then the left.
Soon they found themselves help Ren rush through the wall of trees that blocked their path, his arms around the other two's shoulders (Jaune not mentioning the pain in his own shoulder) as they went along. Jaune looked back to the bus one last time before asking "W-what was wrong with Mr . Driver?''
Ren looked at his feet, contemplating a second before replying "He was sick, Jaune. Very sick''
"Why did he grab me? Did I do something wrong?'' Jaune held a guilty expression for angering another.
"No! He was just a…meani!" Pyrrha replied with gusto, a glare coming across her face. "When I tell daddy what happened, he'll…'' Jaune noticed now that tears fell from Pyrrha's eyes.
"Pyrrha! Your eyes are leaking!" Jaune informed her, clearly alarmed.
"Yes…" Pyrrha made no effort to wipe them away, only looking ahead as the city came into view.
"Let's just get home, our parents will know what to do" Ren told the others, Jaune was happy upon hearing of the possibility of seeing his parents again. He hadn't seen them for a week as he and Ren went on a trip with Pyrrha and her parents. Nora was so jealous that we got to go, I wish she wasn't so sick!
"Then mommy can get a sticker for your leg!" Jaune smiled, seemingly forgetting the corpses he saw. "And then help all those people at the bus!"
"Of course, Jaune…" Ren muttered, unlike Jaune, he had realised that those back at the bus were not sleeping. "Let's go to Nora's, her house will be closest when we get there"
"Yang! I found a rock!" Ruby cheered as she skipped over to Yang, holding the small piece of the ground and waving it in the blonde's face as if it was an amazing treasure.
"That's very nice, Ruby, but not so loud" Yang patted the little girl on the head, relived to see Ruby's smiling face
"And look, Chopper found one too!" She held up the stuffed animal, who had a rock balancing on it's head.
"I'm proud of both of you" Yang turned to walk away, to which Ruby eagerly followed. It had been an hour since Yang had forced Ruby to pack and leave the house for the journey to Blake's, despite Ruby's moans and sobs. Ruby had died down since then, finding herself easily distracting her thoughts on this 'adventure' as she found interest in everything they found on the sidewalk. It relived Yang that Ruby was able to forget (Albeit briefly) what happened, though Yang was stuck with the close up view in her mind.
Ruby had decided to start hopping her way around the street, letting out a little giggle at Chopper's head bobbing up and down at each hop. She held an awed expression when staring at the crumbling buildings, sometimes kneeling down to poke the moss and suddenly jumping back in disgust. "Urg, it feels squishy! Gross!"
She would then continue to hop over to Yang with a slight frown as she noticed that Yang hadn't smiled once since they exited the house, so she hopped along side Yang and laid her head on the blonde's shoulder. "Yaaaang, why are you grumpy?"
Yang looked down at her little sister with a forced smile, a fake laugh escaping her lips. It hurts, Ruby. But, I'll endure…For you. "I'm fine Rubes, just a little distracted. I need to be on my toes if I'm gonna spot those monsters."
At the mention of the creatures, Ruby wrapped her small arms around Yang's waist, clinging to the older girl. "M-monsters!? They wouldn't come close, they'll run away if they know what's good for them!"
Yang stroked Ruby's hair as if the girl was a pet, bending over slightly to kiss Ruby on her forehead. "Yeah, and if they get within five metres, they'll be losing their heads! If all else fails, I'll set you on them"
"Uh-huh, b-but I don't need to, because you'll always protect me. Won't you, Yang?"
For a moment, Yang gave Ruby a true smile, looking down into those innocent silver eyes. "I will always protect you, no matter what." It wasn't a claim, a hopeful thought or just a way to calm the small girl. It was a promise, a contract, which only death would break.
The sister's continued down the path, Yang now deciding to carry Ruby and spin her around as they went, with Ruby never once losing her smile. The two now stood at the edge of another neighbourhood, 'Faunus Way', where Blake currently lived. The sight brought up a worrying thought in Yang's head, most of the houses were completely destroyed, more so then the buildings they passed a while back. Those buildings collapsed from age and no maintenance, these houses…Something broke down the walls and ripped apart the roofs.
Yang pulled Ruby along, more speed placed into her walk as she hurried to find Blake's house. "Ruby, let's be quick…"
Their walk, however was immediately stopped as they heard it, a wall collapsing to the ground, the heavy breath of an animal that echoed through their ears. The breathing then became a growl directed at them, before they felt it walk, each step like a mini earthquake.
"Y-yang?" The little girl looked to her sister with a trembling lip, her voice barely audible.
"Ruby. Run!"