A/N: After some thought I have decided to give the story a little more attention considering there is some unique potential for story telling. Also, for some unexplained reason I accidentally replaced the chapter one file with the chaper two file. That should be fixed by the time this is updated but I still apologize for the confusion that might arise.
Maria was having that dream again. The one where she's falling in a pit of darkness.
She looked down at her meaty hands and scowled. She felt poison in every pound. It sunk into every one of her bones. It left her sick and greasy. She wanted nothing more than to sink a knife into her flesh and purge herself of the disgusting disease that floated right below the skin.
She awoke with a body laced with sweat. She whipped the tears from her face and looked in the mirror.
Her post-resurrection body was toned and well kept, tanned and beautiful, but she couldn't help but thirst for what existed before. In her past life, she was a goddess, crafted painstakingly from her own stone.
This body was nothing but a rental.
She signed and threw on some clothes, it was almost time for breakfast anyway, and if she was late Ralph would have a meltdown.
She took a step out of her room and caught the new kid walking alone through the hallway. She hadn't quite pegged him down yet. She imagined he was a loner in his past life, socialization seemed foreign to him.
Maria had a decent amount of friends in her former existence. Most of them she couldn't stand, but they had a way of delivering exactly what she wanted if she asked them correctly.
Back then she would have laughed Justice off, probably called him a creep. Just for good measure and a cheap laugh.
"I better see you at the breakfast table," Ralph said from behind.
Maria tried to hide her surprise. She knew Ralph took a distant satisfaction in being undetected. "Quit being a dick." She snapped and kept walking.
Ralph was definitely the older brother she never wanted. He stood around like a hound dog and broke into a barking fit at anything that displeased him.
Next came Russell, who stumbled out of his room with sleep in his eyes. Russell was the second youngest in the Manor, and in his few months he had hardly offered any progress at all.
Russell smiled at Maria, "After training, I was gonna go to town, wanna come?"
Maria squinted, "What exactly do you plan on doing?"
Russell shrugged, "Probably just walk around the mall. That's usually the best place to get information."
Maria raised an eyebrow, "Since when did you become interested in espionage?"
"I'd hardly say I'm 007, I just know that teens tend to whisper the loudest."
She just blinked at Russell for a few moments; didn't he remember he was hardly 17 himself? She supposed not, it was easy to forget when they were forced to be so distance from themselves.
"I guess I'll go," She said with a shrug. Honestly, she was dying to get out of the Manor, but Maria didn't want to impose the impression that she longed for alone time with Russell.
Training had been rough, as usually was the case when it came to Ralph. He was thorough and relentless. He would pound and pound until there was nothing left but a pile of sweat and pair of basketball shorts.
Maria had changed out of her training attire but hadn't bothered to shower, though upon reflection she was starting to regret that decision.
The mall always felt nostalgic to her, she had spent more time there than probably anywhere else in her pre-resurrection life. Her eyes scanned a group of teens chatting loudly, completely swallowed into their own existence.
She frowned, although she could return here anytime it definitely lacked most of its former amusement.
"It's almost four," Russell said, "We should probably get dinner."
"Elijah will have something ready when we get back," Maria snapped.
"It'll be cold," Russell said, "Come on."
Maria narrowed her eyes, this was starting to look less like a mission and more like a trap.
Maria looked at Russell and rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I guess we can grab something real quick."
The two of them sat at the snack bar with a plate of nachos between them. Russell had originally charged head first into his meal but halted once he noticed how sporadically Maria was pecking.
"I bought enough for both of us," Russell said.
Maria shrugged and kept her eyes just below the plate.
"I don't want to sound like Ralph...but-"
"Then keep your mouth shut," Maria snapped.
Russell was about to explode but seconds before he could fire whatever was loaded into his barrel two preteen girls adjacent to them did what they do best.
"Yeah, now that you mention it Danny has been acting pretty weird."
"See," the second voice said.
The two girls both sat with their straws to their mouths, grinning silently, locked in the tension of their rumor.
"Danny slept all through Geometry," the first girl said, "And he was sitting right next to Alyssa."
"Danny never sleeps in class," the second girl exclaimed, "He's too scared of getting drug tested."
"I think he's getting sick," one of the girls rationalized, "I mean he looks like a zombie or something."
Maria knew Russell had been eavesdropping as well, she could see the interest peaking on his face.
"I wouldn't read into it too deep," Maria said, "They're just kids."
"Aren't kids supposed to be the most honest people?"
"I don't think that twelve-year-old girls fall into that majority."
Russell didn't have anything to combat that so instead he became reclusive. He had a tendency to do that, which was actually the case for all of the resurrectees.
If it were up to Maria to guess she would say that it was because dying tended to be one of the most self-centered experiences one could endure, and the four of them were simply still in the fallout.
The nachos slowly disappeared. Maria even choked down a few for good show and then the two of them headed back to the pavilion.
It wasn't four minutes after that teenage boy fell to the ground and started to scream. He had collapsed to his knee and he flailed like a drunk puppeteer.
Maria knew she was a bit out of the loop, but this definitely seemed a bit sketchy.
Russell was the first to move. He pushed passed the stunned spectators and rushed to the boy's aid.
"Are you okay?" Russell asked. The boy responded, but in a jerking animalistic fashion. His eyes were wide, empty except for a faint rumor of aggression.
Maria felt the threat before it materialized. A primeval tug from within her gut forced her to grab hold of Russell's shirt moments before the boy jumped towards them.
He was snarling now. His anger had bloomed into something only vaguely resembling a human emotion. He seemed like a vessel of sorts, a victim of some inhuman possession.
As she tried to separate Russell from the boy it grabbed hold of her arm. The tightness of his grip stirred poison inside her stomach.
Focus.
The past is dust.
Suddenly it became easier to forget as she dodged the boy trying to bite her face off.
"Woah! This dude's a zombie," A teenage boy said from behind his cellphone. He kept the camera focused on their struggle and offered no other assistance.
Maria was holding the boy back with all of her strength. One of her hands was still in his grip but he seemed uninterested in reeling her in. Instead, he simply snapped his jaw in an automatic motion. Snarling in between bites and generally making a nasty show out of it.
She tried to knee him in the groin, and once that failed she started to realize how much trouble she was in.
It was a quarter till five. Still four hours short of nightfall.
Four hours before she could morph into her armor.
Realistically Maria didn't think she could hold out that long.
"I got him!" Russell called. She looked up and saw him standing behind the boy.
This wasn't going to go well.
Before she could stop Russell he grabbed the boy by the waist and jerked him away from Maria. The boy flipped around like a fish stuck on shore. Russell held tightly, using every ounce of strength in his body to restrain the boy.
Unfortunately, he was far too focused on capture and he neglected to see where the boy's jaw had wondered.
Russell screamed as the pair of teeth sunk right into his upper bicep. Russell fell back and grabbed his bleeding arm. The boy fled.
Maria figured she ought to chase after him but a few mall security guards beat her too it. Together with a police officer, they managed to restrain the boy and were dragging him away.
Whatever happened to him from that point onward was out of her hands.
Russell was gripping his wound and looking rather shaken. There was a decent amount of blood, but nothing worth pulling the mops out.
"Let's go get you fixed up," Maria said.
Russell looked like he wanted to object, but made no attempt. Instead, he just stood up and followed her out.
It was pointless to use stitches. That was because their post-resurrection bodies had miraculously fast healing properties.
At first Maria had questioned it, but now it was just another mystery. One in a million at this point.
Ralph looked down at the bloody bandages and asked Maria a recap of the events that led to the missing section of Russell's arm.
She explained for the fourth time.
Ralph seemed to be reviewing the details in his head. Trying to digest them down to their smallest molecular form.
"How do you feel?" Ralph asked for the tenth time.
"A little woozy," Russell admitted, "But I think I'm fine."
Ralph nodded, "If you start feeling anything let me know."
"Like what?" Russell asked.
"I don't know, like weird."
"Are you serious?" Justice asked. The newest recruit was standing in the doorway looking about a quarter way comfortable. "It wasn't a zombie that got him"
"And why not?" Ralph asked in a stern voice.
Maria sighed, it was always obnoxious when Ralph got all defensive. Maria didn't know if she could handle things if it turned out Justice was a trigger for this behavior.
"Because that's insane."
"You want to talk insane?" Ralph asked. His nostrils were flaring and his shoulder extended. "I've seen my own grave. I've stood directly over the ground where my body rots. Don't talk to me like I've never seen crazy."
Justice shrugged, "I was just trying to have a healthy debate."
"You were trying to get on my nerves."
"Actually. I was trying to get a gauge on how much opposition you can stomach. Apparently, it's not that much."
Ralph shot Justice a dirty look. The boy just shrugged and walked off.
"Can you guys be quiet?" Russell asked. His eyes had grown swollen. "I think I just need some sleep."
Before either of the two left in the room could reply to Russell he had already fallen asleep.
"I'll stay here and watch him," Ralph said. "Go find something productive to do."
"Tell me if something happens," Maria said. There was a rather unpleasant twisting in her abdomen. It was entirely her fault that Russell had gotten hurt. Just because she wasn't his biggest fan didn't mean she wanted anything ill to come his way. Russell was the most tolerable person in the Manor and it was impossible to feel anything other than guilt knowing she brought this on him.
She stepped out of Russell's room and into the wide hallway and was immediately pulled into her room by the mumbling sound of the television.
Maria was the only one with a TV. Unsurprising the vaguely supernatural Victorian Mansion wasn't equipped with cable, but she made due.
The man on the screen carried a bazar look of dread on his handsome face. He was looking right into the camera which gave the appearance he looking directly into Maria's eyes.
"We have had over five hundred cases of this unbelievably contagious pathogen in the last twenty-four hours. Twenty-five percent have been reported to develop the aggressive tendencies. The CDC has recommended that all citizens remain in their homes until further notice. Treat this as a natural disaster. If you can't get to a basement or alternate shelter then at least keep your doors locked."
Maria felt a wave of nausea. This was starting to get a little surreal. Her life was already reminiscent of some action movie but now she was witnessing a scene straight out of a horror movie.
"We don't know where this disease originated from but it is projected that over thirty-five percent of the local population will be infected by nightfall. The only guaranteed form of infection is through bodily contact. If you believe you or someone around you has been infected we recommend you call the hotline at the bottom of your screen and a specialized EMT team will deliver you to the nearest treatment center."
Maria didn't need clairvoyance to know how screwed they were.
The man concluded his message with a soft sort of sympathy. "Please, for the sake of god. Stay safe."
To be continued in Chapter Four...
