Utopia
~#~
"The virus was created for executional purposes. They had wanted a way for prisoners and no-goods to die in an easy way so the clean up was quick and effective.
However they didn't expect the virus to mutate at the speed it did and break out of the labs in which it was created.
That was how The Infected were born.
Soon after the population dwindled and humanity was close to extinction, the Seireitei built the walls.
Separating them from us.
The H virus still runs rabid outside the walls. Creating those awful, blood thirsty monsters that will do utmost anything for food. However, due to hundreds of years without any human contact, The Infected don't seem to be dying out. The only hypothesis the Seireitei can come up with are, either we aren't their only source of food or they only eat human for the fun of it.
And now we're stuck in here and they're out there, but they're breaking in and we have to fight."
~#~
"Close the gate! There's been a breach in the wall!"
"No! Wait!" Rukia did her best to fight off the monster, the sticks she had been carrying had fallen off her back and she had managed to pick up the thickest one off the ground to use as an improvised weapon. She swung blindly at the Infected, hitting it in it's head and knocking it to the ground a few times, however it was relentless, it just kept coming back for more after Rukia had hit it with all her might.
She knew they were quite powerful anyway, yet she still seemed to have blind confidence in herself that she could fight one off, but that theory was proving to be a fairy tale and her energy levels were close to none.
"Argh~!" It let out another ear-bursting shriek as it ran forward to attack Rukia. Its mouth hung open like a hungry wolf with saliva dripping off its chin.
Disgusting, ugly thing! Rukia thought as it was only a meter away. She stumbled back and the heel of her foot had hit something hard, causing her to fall back onto her backside, she raised her right arm in front of her head in an attempt to protect herself from the oncoming Infected. Not knowing that she was making the gravest mistake while attacking one of them. It grabbed her by the wrist and elbow and happily sunk its teeth into Rukia's forearm.
"Shall we still close the gate, Sir?" A guard asked his superior as they stood watching the morbid scene in front of them.
"Yes, she's as good as dead now." He replied while waving his hand in a circular motion in order for the gate to be closed.
Unable to even scream, Rukia lazily pushed and clawed at its head in attempt to get it off. Her attempted went unnoticed at it sunk its teeth in deeper, creating tiny little blood bubbles around its teeth and puncture holes. Rukia's normally bright blue eyes, darkening at the image and she finally realised that this was her time.
She didn't want to get all soppy about her death, she had had a good life and there was nothing for her to complain about. Yes, maybe it would have been nice to die in a more sanitized and less painful way. However she wasn't one to complain, she had lived in a shit-hole for her whole life so dying might come as a luxury, she didn't really know.
Blood seeped out of the still occupied wound on her arm, the red liquid squirted onto her porcelain face and created a horrible dark/light comparison. Rukia's eyes started to roll back inside her skull, when suddenly there was a blur that moved at lightning speed in front of her.
Her eyes drooped and she fell to the floor in exhaustion. There was no more Infected clinging onto her arm, only a disgusting blood and pus filled wound that would be a pain to clean. Oh well, I'm going to die anyway. They won't need to clean it, she thought as her arm dropped back down onto the floor in front of her. Pulling herself into a foetal position, Rukia looked to see what other horrible, disgusting creature had came to finish her off.
It was all happening too quickly, her tired eyes couldn't keep up with the actions.
What looked like a human to Rukia, was beating The Infected to within an inch of its life. The human pinned it to the floor and repeatedly punched it in the face with its bare fists. Sickening crunches were heard while blood splattered around its head like holy light.
The smell hit Rukia and she threw up where she lay, rotting flesh and blood was a rancid smell and not one you'd like to remember. When all her supper was deposited onto the mud in front of her, Rukia hadn't even noticed that it was now turning dark and the rain continued to fall from the overcast sky.
"Ahh~!" She heard a scream, however it didn't sound like the shrieks she had heard earlier from The Infected, it sounded more... Human. Punching the thing in the face a good few more times, the human reached beside himself and picked up a very large rock. He held it at chest level and effortlessly dropped it on The Infected's skull.
The sound its skull getting crushed filled the air while more blood splattered onto the earth. The blood soaked human rolled off the lifeless corpses and crawled over to where Rukia was lay.
"Are you okay?" A masculine voice asked.
"Do I look okay!?" She tried to make her voice sound sarcastic and annoyed, however it came across as sad and pleading.
"Well you look like shit, to be honest. But I didn't want to insult a lady." He replied while gently sliding his arms under her shoulders and knees. The action created a jolt of pain through Rukia's stomach and she began violently coughing and blood trickled out from the side of her mouth. "Shit, I'm taking you to go see my Dad."
Rukia didn't reply, or rather she couldn't reply. The world around her was spinning uncontrollably and her brain felt like it was slowly turning to mush.
Why did he help her? This boy had risked his life for her and all she could do was throw up blood onto his shirt. And now he was going to take her to go see his Father? What? She could feel consciousness slipping away and her thoughts all jumbling together.
My name is Rukia Kuchiki. I am 14 yea- no! 15 years old! I live in the 48th Rukongai district and we are stuck within these four walls because of The Infect-
"Hey dumbass! Let us in, this girl is injured!" The deep rumbling from his chest vibrated through Rukia, hitting her with another wave of nausea.
"There's no way in hell we're letting her in here! She's been bitten! She's gonna turn into one of them!"
Really? Am I really going to turn into one of those monsters? She questioned herself as she had totally forgotten about the bite on her forearm. Being reminded of it now made it sting like crazy, she brought it up for inspection and saw a sight for sore eyes.
The bitten area looked like it had doubled in size. Blood and pus was being pushed out of the five teeth shaped puncture wounds from what looked like the top row of teeth and seven from the bottom row. The area was clearly infected and trying to push it out. Her skin looked as if it was rotting away, how this boy could be so close to her while she was in this state, she didn't know.
Her pale dress was ruined, Granny wasn't going to just have a cow when she saw her, she was going to have the whole barn!
That was if she ever saw Granny again...
Rukia was most likely going to turn into one of them now...
She was going to become a bloodthirsty monster.
"Ow..." She whimpered as the boy began to kick the wooden gate in rage and jostle her around as he did so.
"If she was going to turn into one of them! She would have by now! We might be able to cure her!" He shouted angrily at the guards.
All the words swarming around her mixed into one large dialogue. She heard something about a cure...? No, she's most probably just hearing things! There could be no cure for this! Silly Rukia, she scolded herself as darkness started to cloud her eyes.
She welcomed it.
She was ready for death.
~#~
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Grab.
"Dad! She's awake!"
For the love of God. Rukia's head felt as heavy as a ton of bricks as she tried to lift it from the soft material underneath.
"You can let go of my wrist now..." A familiar voice said beside her as she cracked a single eye open. "Wow, your eyes..."
"What about my eyes?!" Rukia sprang upright from the bed and scouted the room she had found herself in. Spotting a cracked mirror in the far corner, she jumped up from the soft mattress and stared at herself.
Looking at her reflection, nothing much seemed out of the ordinary. But her eyes. Her eyes were no longer the deep cerulean blue they used to. They were now a bright violet colour that was still outlined by her thick dark lashes.
She brought her right hand up to gently touch a bruise on her cheek. "W-what happened to me?"
The boy was now standing, he towered over Rukia and the top of his head was adorned with bright orange locks. Some would say he's quite would be quite handsome if it wasn't for the scowl on his features. Rukia felt like she was being scrutinised under his gaze, and she was.
"You're still recovering, idiot! Don't go jumping around like that." He scolded as he walked over to her. He placed both his hands on her petite shoulders and guided her back over to the bed she was previously in and sitting her down.
"I-I'm not dead..?" She questioned again as the previous days memories replayed in her head.
The rogue Infected.
Getting bitten.
Not being allowed back into the district.
"Who are you?! Where am I?! How am I alive?! What has happened to my eyes?!" She stood back up, on her tip toes this time and shouted into the boys face.
He didn't flinch, nor did he even blink. So Rukia backed down and tried another approach.
"It was you that killed it?" She asked after taking a few deep breaths and calming herself down.
"Yes, it was."
This boy had saved her life. She owed him. Owed him the unimaginable for saving her.
"T-thank you."
~#~
"You-" He began but was interrupted by an abrupt entry from the wooden door in the far corner of the room.
"Ichigo! Girl! You're awake!" A bearded man shouted as he charged through the door. He wore simple slacks and a white doctors coat.
"Shut the hell up old man!" Ichigo, Rukia recalled, walked over to, his father? And covered his whole face with his hand.
"But-mf I'm here-mf to check-mf on our patient-mf." He said while it was slightly muffled by Ichigo's hand.
"Oh, fine then."
Ichigo removed his hand and stood back with his arms crossed over his chest. His father come over to Rukia and began running a few routine tests. He took some blood through a small tube and shone a light in her eyes. He occasionally jotted a few words down on a clipboard and turned back to his examination.
"Erm, doctor?" Rukia hesitantly spoke up.
"Isshin Kurosaki." He smiled at her, "And that brooding idiot is my son, Ichigo Kurosaki."
He pointed to Ichigo who stood behind him with a scowl still plastered on his face.
"Its nice to meet you, Doctor Kurosaki. My name is Rukia Kuchiki."
"And its nice to meet you too, Rukia."
Rukia didn't know what it was about this man, but she liked him and felt comfortable around him. Not like his son, who looked as if he was about to punch someone at any moment.
"Rukia?" Isshin's voice got louder as she was torn from her thoughts, "I know you most probably don't want to remember much, nor want to reminisce, however we need you to tell us about when you got attacked. Did The Infected look any different from the usual?"
"I-I'm not sure. I've never seen one so up close before... Doctor Kurosaki?" She asked.
"Yes, Rukia?"
"H-how am I still alive?" She looked him deep in the eyes. She could see the tiny specks of dust fall around him and all the small details in his coffee coloured eyes.
"We suspect that the Infected you got bitten by... Was some sort of prototype from an experiment held within the Seireitei. When you got bitten, your cells didn't react as they should have. They didn't fight off the virus and mutate, as they should have, your cells accepted them and formed together as a sort of 'super cell'." He finished the short explanation with air quotation marks with his fingers.
It took time to process. She was now some crazy super human monster. Rukia was one of them now, the guards were right. She was as good as dead.
"To which we have found out that you have healed extremely quickly and your eyes have changed colour. All we need now is for you to tell us how different you feel and what's different from your point of view. It's quite exciting when you think about it!"
That statement hit a nerve. Rukia's eye began to twitch and she felt an empowering rage at how Doctor Kurosaki found this predicament 'exciting'.
"Exciting?!" She raged, "This is the furthest thing away from exciting! My life is over because of this damn virus! I'm never going to be able to live my life the way I wanted!" She took a deep breath, "I'm a monster now! I wish you'd left me for dead!"
Images of Granny ran through her head while her newly violet eyes welled up with tears. It was true. Her life was over, she was a monster now. She would never be able to find a husband, start a family or get a job in this god forsaken world. "My life is over..." She sunk back down and wanted to crawl into herself and become nothing.
"Stop being so dramatic, midget."
"Excuse me..?" Rukia looked up through tear filled eyes to meet Ichigo's deep hazel orbs.
"I said stop being so dramatic." He dead panned, "You've been given another chance at life. You should be grateful, not crawled up, crying and wishing you were dead."
"You listen here, berry-head!" Rukia stood up with new found confidence and walked over to the tall boy, "I am grateful, but how do you expect me to live my life knowing that I'm one of them!? That I'm some 'super-human' freak, if anyone found out or suspected a thing! I'm done for, I'll be sent off on the next train to the labs in the Seireitei!" She spat the last words of the sentence with disgust.
"All I'm saying is that it can't be as bad as it seems! You can heal extremely quickly now and you senses have obviously heightened due to the change in your eye colour! Just deal with it, shrimp!"
"And how would know?!" Rukia questioned and as soon as Ichigo opened his mouth to answer, a swift kick to his genitals shut him up.
However as soon as her foot nearly connected with his crotch, Ichigo took her ankle within his grasp and spun her around so that she landed on her side, on the cold wooden floor.
Getting up immediately, Rukia started flying punches to Ichigo's chest. Occasionally getting a few grunts and 'ow's from him, Rukia felt satisfied just before he moved to the left and swiftly kicked her feet so that she fell to the ground once again.
"You're quite strong now, midget. However you need to keep an eye on your feet. There a weak point." Ichigo said while holding his hand out to help her up.
Reluctantly accepting his hand, he pulled her up so that she could stand. His hands were large and calloused, Rukia half expected them to be rough and dirty. However they were soft and from her new vision, she couldn't spot any dirt under his nails.
"Well kiddies! When's the wedding?!" Isshin asked all too enthusiastically to the two teenagers in the room.
"Shut the hell up old man!" Ichigo's face turned a bright red, while Rukia's cheeks were dusted with a slight pink tint. Isshin walked past the blushing pair before saying,
"C'mon Rukia, let's introduce you to the rest of the gang!"
~#~
