Blood on the snow
An obnoxiously loud beeping cut through the dark bedroom of one Eren Yeager, his arm shooting out from under the blanket to shut his phone's alarm off.
He fumbled to pick it up but once he did he withdrew his arm back to the warmth of the duvet, unlocking it and blinding himself with the brightness.
Hissing like a vampire the boy rubbed his eyes and chucked the now silent phone back to the floor, 10 A.M was too early after a late night playing Genshin! The damage to his sleep was done though and he found himself getting up from the cosy embrace of his bed and out into the freezing house he shared with his father.
It had been a tough year for the Yeager household, first his mother had passed away and then more recently his father, Grisha, had taken the job opportunity of a lifetime at some government run lab. Good news Eren had thought, until it was revealed to be at the other side of the country. This left the boy pretty much by himself a lot of the time, his best friends Armin and Mikasa dropped by occasionally but nothing like how they used to when they were all kids.
Armin was busy with getting another degree whilst Mikasa usually helped her mum out with running their flower shop in the town close by. Both boys had missed Mikasa over the last few weeks as she had travelled back to Japan to visit relatives, although Eren was sure she would be back any day now as Christmas was fast approaching and she wouldn't want to miss out the usual festivities with her non-Japanese father who had stayed to tend the shop.
No matter how much Grisha had ribbed him, Mikasa was just a friend, one of the best in fact.
Eren got himself dressed in some comfy clothes, beelining straight to his coffee machine in the kitchen downstairs. The aroma from the Christmas tree permeated the living room and kitchen, mixing with the heavenly scent from his coffee, this was definitely Eren's favourite time of year, even with the colder weather. Sighing in bliss as the first sip graced his lips, he launched twitter to check the news.
More riots in America? Standard stuff. Celebrities denouncing a flu vaccine? Good use of their platform.
Shaking his head he enjoyed the rest of his morning ritual, hot drink flowing through his body, and an overly buttered bagel that disappeared in three mouthfuls.
Chucking the dishes in the sink for later, he mentally made a list of what needed to be done today: "Cleaning the house, maybe going for a jog?, Genshin, make Armin commit to a Christmas night out... find out when dad's back...More Genshin" Basically anything to avoid doing any work; yesterday's big task had been the weekly food shop, the mindset 'fuck it, it's Christmas!' had dominated what went in the trolley and so the cupboards were literally crammed and there was enough booze to have a full blown party with zero notice.
In regards to his work, the closer a deadline approached then the more his motivation dropped off. Drawing a graphic novel and having it serialised was amazing but oh man the effort!
Deciding on the jog first he quickly changed in to shorts and a t shirt, slipping on some running shoes and heading for the front door he hit play on his earbuds. What might usually have been a rock song blasting out was changed for a Christmas tune. As he opened the door he realised how bright it was outside, a fresh blanket of snow had fallen over night, coating the quiet street of his suburban neighbourhood. It wasn't too deep or icy so figuring he should be fine. The boy took off at a leisurely pace, enjoying the brisk feeling in his lungs.
A couple houses down a girl was just setting out. Eren chuckled at her get up; she looked like she was about to attempt Everest! Big furry boots, a thick coat, gloves, scarf wrapped tightly around her neck and over her mouth, fluffy earmuffs in the form of pandas standing out against her bright blonde hair.
Christa H Reiss. She was around the same age as he was, Eren could remember her being a bit stuck up at school, she was always one of the popular kids on account of her good looks.
Despite that he gave a small wave as he ran past, not bothering to see if she returned the nicety.
The streets were pretty quiet he thought, but then again it was lunch time and the fitness nuts that he sometimes bumped in to were early risers. About half an hour later he was on the home stretch when the skies turned dark, snow clouds ready to burst.
"Good... timing!" He said to himself as the first flakes landed around him. Panting and sweating he reached his front door and escaped the encroaching storm.
Fresh out the shower and dressed he supposed it was time for a spot of lunch before maybe attempting to draw a panel or two.
Fuck what he felt earlier, he was in the zone! His hand swept across his digital drawing pad, creating masterpiece after masterpiece. The screams of children playing at the nearby park didn't even interrupt his flow, nor did a phone call from Grisha.
It was only when there was a high pitched terror filled scream emanating from the park did the boy take notice.
Feeling concerned he shifted over to his window and opened the blinds, he could just make out the play park from there. Kids were running about like normal, playing in the snow, a couple looked like they were wrestling and another one or two were making snow angels.
"Damn kids..." Eren breathed a sigh of relief that was pretty short-lived.
When he opened the window the screams hit him full force. His eyes were still glued to the park, realising now that the snow angels weren't moving. One of the kids that had wrestled another to the ground got up and full on sprinted to a boy that was stood still, paralysed from fear.
Eren watched as the kid was bowled over.
"What the...fuck...!"
A red mist sprayed around the kids on the ground, the one on top rearing back and then down again for another bite.
Eren felt like he might vomit. What the fuck did he just witness?
Screams from what sounded like all around the neighbourhood shook him back to reality. Grabbing his phone he dialled the emergency services but was met with a 'busy' tone.
"How the fuck can it be busy!" He yelled at his phone, only then noticing the missed call from his dad.
He hit the call button, hoping Grisha would be able to help from afar.
"Pick up, pick up... Dad!" Eren yelled down the phone when his father answered.
"Eren thank God! Listen to me, there's no time. You need to get inside somewhere and lock the place down. Don't let anyone in! This thing isn't airborne but they don't know how it's spreading so fast."
"Dad, what thing? What's going on? The kids at the park they..." Eren was shaking now, worry creeping in.
"Stay safe son, I love you-" The call was cut off suddenly, Checking his signal Eren saw the bars drop to nothing.
"Piece of shit!" He chucked his phone on the bed where it bounced and smacked off the floor.
Another round of screaming had the boy in full on panic mode. He raced downstairs, checking the front door and windows were all locked tight.
He took a breath before opening the back door, poking his head out into their garden. Luckily just about every house on the street had a 6ft fence surrounding their boundary, including his one. The park was over the back fence and along a bit, so he quietly made his way over to make sure the padlock was in place on the gate.
Sighing in relief that everything was in order yet still confused as to what was actually going on he slid back inside, locking the back door behind him.
As he was just refreshing twitter to see if he could glean any information, (just riots, a lot more riots than earlier it seemed.), there was a loud crash from out front.
Fear giving way to curiosity he peeked through the blinds in the living room, surveying the street.
A couple of the houses down the far end had their windows broken, several front doors were wide open and a lot of the cars were missing from the driveways.
A white car had crashed down the street, it looked to Eren to be around Christa's place. It had skidded on the snow maybe, but regardless it had gone through a street light and into a garden wall.
He thought he could hear a shout for help.
"It's just in my head...Surely they're okay..."
Eren moved to the front door, shoving his discarded running shoes back on.
"Fuck!" He breathed out, inner self weighing up his dad's words to stay inside against being able to help someone out.
The emergency services were still busy, he had tried again on the land-line. So he couldn't rely on them to help out.
"Fuck it!" Eren swallowed the fear creeping up within him and burst out through the front door and out into the snow.
The street was totally dead.
The cries for help had also stopped.
Bracing himself for the worst he ran to the crashed car, noticing the red stains on the paintwork and what looked like a hand print on the passenger side window.
"Aw shit." Eren had reached the car and could finally see the front end. The driver, a young looking girl with long brown hair had broken through the front windscreen and lay half in the car and half on the bonnet, blood slowly dripping from unseen wounds. He reached over and felt for a pulse, nothing. She was dead. Cursing himself for not being there sooner he noticed there was a passenger still in the car.
Yanking open the passenger door, he was met with a blood covered Christa. Her warm outfit was gone, leaving her in just a thin looking t-shirt and trousers. She was unconscious but shivered either due to the cold or perhaps the shock of crashing.
There was a gash to her head, where most of the blood was pouring from, Eren guessed she smashed herself off the side window when they crashed. The boy leant over her as carefully as he could and unclipped her from the tight seatbelt. The limp girl flopped forwards into Eren's waiting arms. He gently hooked an arm under her and trying not to shift her neck he pulled her from the car.
"Hey, Christa, wake up!"
No response.
Noticing the girl's scarf crumpled down in the foot-well he gently set Christa down with her back against the car. Grabbing the scarf he tied it around her head as tight as he could in order to stop the worst of the bleeding. There were several scrapes along her thin arms.
Wondering what to do next he was shaken from his thoughts when a guttural sounding howl cut through the silent street. The boy whipped his head around but couldn't see where or what had made that horrifying screech. Making a snap decision he picked Christa back up and turned to make his way back to the safety of his home.
When he was a couple steps away from the wreck he heard a moan from behind.
Slowly, almost not wanting to look, Eren turned his head.
The dead girl on the crumpled bonnet of the car had lifted her head up to stare at the boy.
He could see her eyes were clouded over looking, but yet she still stared at him. The girl groaned and her jaw opened and closed. Her arms twitched awkwardly but then all of a sudden she was attempting to crawl forwards toward Eren and Christa.
"Wha-?" Eren couldn't believe his eyes. She was fucking dead! No pulse!
She jerked her head when he spoke, renewing her attempt to get out the car, the broken window tearing in to her stomach as she pulled, paying absolutely no mind to what must be agonisingly deep cuts.
Another howl echoed ever closer.
Eren stood for no more than a moment longer before breaking out in a full on sprint towards his front door, Christa leaving an erratic trail of blood on the pure white snow as he jostled her about.
A/N: Yo please let me know if anyone likes this! Using Christa instead of Historia feels better in this modern setting sorry if it's annoying!
I love zombie films so much and recently binged AOT ready for the final season so here we are!
Peace, Argo x