A Cruel, Undead World

~ Chapter 1 ~

Infection in Tervu

Even seeing the fate of those affected by the disaster of Raccoon City and the outbreaks in China, Africa, the Middle East, and even here at home, no one would think something like this would happen again. Whatever deed we had done to deserve it surely was paid off. The companies behind the bioterrorist attacks were taken down, so how could it happen again?

Tervu, Washington was a very large city, yet almost unheard of to those who have never gone there. The city was the perfect place to restart your life, draw a blank page, and that is what many people did. To make it easier on the governors, they split power into five areas. The North, the East, the South, the West, and Central.

Starting in the absolute middle of the city was a not town hall by any means, but a mall. The Tervu Central Mall was vast, and was always full of people—even on holidays. The parking lot surrounded the entire perimeter of the mall, yet people still had trouble finding parking places.

So security in this parking lot was not the best, and they have had trouble in the past before with robberies and carjacking. Nothing quite like what would occur.

A white van was sitting in the parking lot; it looked like a business van with no windows but curiously no logos either. The van may have attracted a wandering eye but wasn't interesting enough for a double take. Once the van exploded though, people found too late it was not innocent and instead a deadly weapon, even a deadlier weapon after the initial blast.

The blast came from seemingly nowhere, killing about ten people around it as they were engulfed by flames. While the blast was not close enough to reach the massive building, a strange cloud appeared like a creeping fog from the place of destruction. Surrounding people took no heed to the smoke as they tried to find and aid those who may have been injured in the blast.

Tervu Infection Outbreak Active for: 0 Years, 0 Months, 0 Weeks, 0 Days, 00:00:00

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Inside, two girls were roaming around when the explosion happened, as were many people. For a split second, the entire mall stood still while everyone listened to the sound from outside. Some continued to do their business, others rushed towards the nearest window to see what might have happened.

"That was weird…" the taller of the two girls stated. The other nodded in agreement. They were both young but there was an obvious age gap between the two. The shorter one was Maja, a young teen with light brown hair and shocking blue eyes, who had the body of an athlete. She shrugged and started to continue walking, but shouts of astonishment and grief made them both stop and look back.

"What is going on?" Maja muttered, obviously irritated at the disturbance.

"There's been an explosion!" "What happened? Did someone's car spring a leak?" "This was no accident!" "It was a bomb!"

Overhearing scattered dialogue from panicked strangers, this peaked Maja's interest.

"A bomb huh? I've never seen something like that before! Come on Jodie let's go have a look!" she begins pulling her companion with her. Jodie blinks and her green eyes widen.

"No, Miss Vlašic! I don't think that's a good idea at all!" her voice was higher than usual and obviously scared, trying to pull the girl she babysat back from the commotion.

"Oh don't be such a wussy! It's probably just some prank!" she laughed at her, thinking to herself that if she didn't like her she would have told her parents to fire her already. Knowing getting through to the child's head was pointless, she let the teenager drag her through the crowd and they tried to squeeze pass to see the window.

Finally reaching the huge glass pane in the food court, Jodie was the first to see the damage. There was a small crater where the explosion came from, and on the rims of the crater were toppled cars from being thrown out. Small car fires had erupted from some of the more damaged vehicles, and handfuls of people were either trying to get away from the mess or towards heavily wounded people. The air was thick with a strangely colored smoke, one not common to most explosions. It swallowed whatever it came in contact with, obscuring the view of the scene quickly. Inside the mall became deathly quiet as people watched the smoke spread and come closer to the building.

"Something's not right…" Jodie thought to herself, squinting to try to see past the strange gas.

"Someone's coming out of the cloud!" an older child, probably around the age of ten or eleven, pointed out. It didn't take long to spot the person, as they were the only one emerging. They watched from above as someone who clearly knew them walked towards them. No one observing from the food court could hear the exchanged words, but the man appeared to have said something to offend the woman walking towards him, seeing as she stopped in her tracks upon getting closer. She doesn't move but he comes closer to her. Seemingly scared of him, she tried to back away, but in a split second the man had closed the gap between them and before anyone could believe their eyes, he was on top of her with his mouth tearing up chunks of her skin.

There was a short pause before anyone realized what was going on and the screaming began. People ran away from the windows and towards the staircases and elevators. Maja still stood aghast before Jodie grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away. In shock, she didn't say a word of objection. Before they could reach the elevator, it had already left with another group around it waiting impatiently. Not willing to wait, Jodie pulled them to the staircase where more people were trying to escape. Trying so hard to get away, many were being pushed off the railings and falling two flights.

"What do we do?!" Maja cried, near tears in fear. Jodie doesn't say anything, but looks around frantically, searching for a way out. All of a sudden, the hems of their tank tops are pulled backwards and they nearly trip. At first, Maja fights against this new entity that was pulling her and Jodie around, but when it became apparent his intent was not to hurt them she stopped.

"Where are you taking us?" Jodie asked the man that was pulling them effortlessly. He waited to answer until they had turned into the nearest, abandoned food court kitchen. They started to hear screams.

"Somewhere to hide," he explained shortly, and stopped once they were in the employee restrooms and slammed the door behind them, shutting out the shouts and leaving them in the complete dark.

A panicked mother left the scene of destruction with her son strapped in the seat of the car next to her, the five year old nodding off to sleep with bleeding bite marks on his shoulder.

"It's okay Bobby, it'll be okay! Mommy's going to get you to the hospital!" she tried to comfort him, but he didn't respond. She started the car and backed up so violently that if someone were behind her it would have killed them instantly. Losing no time, she drove down the parking lot lane and towards the main exit, but found it was packed with people. Worried for her baby, she drove off the lane and through the patch of grass and flower bushes into the road and made her way.

As if just to make her matters worse, a car crash had recently happened on the path to the hospital, most likely caused from people trying to get away as well. Grunting, she turned off again into a neighborhood. This neighborhood is just like any other neighborhood, but to the mother it seemed like a maze to her frantic mind and she started screaming profanities as every path she took just lead to another string of roads, none of which seemed to lead back to the main road.

What she didn't realize was she had driven so far that she was no longer in the central part of Tervu, but north. She was so fixed with finding a main road, she bypassed many smaller side roads that would have taken her directly the hospital, and instead ended up in the neighborhood controlled by the Northern Tervu House Association. Focused on the road, she didn't notice her son awake from his slumber, and as soon as he did he lunges for her. She screams as she gets bit, and tries to shove off her son while not crashing. Being as small as he was, he manages to slip away from the seatbelt and cling on to his mother, chewing on her neck as she struggles to escape. The car crashes, just barely missing another car.

In the other car was a married couple coming home from grocery shopping, who just had to slam on their breaks to avoid a head on collision.

"What the hell?!" the husband exclaims. His first reaction is anger, then turns to his wife and checks her; she is also angry.

"Stupid drunk-ass drivers! Who drinks this early anyway?! It's only noon!" she rants, then sighs. "We're just lucky the damned airbags didn't inflate..."

The husband didn't respond. She glares at him and then follows his gaze through the rearview mirror, and sees that the car had flipped, and now lay upside down. Without saying anything, the man unbuckles and opens the door, climbing out and begins jogging towards the scene. The middle-aged woman still in the car curses and follows his lead.

When they reach the car, it is eerily silent, with no sound of struggling inside. It is also dark, but they could clearly see blood prints against the window on the passenger side.

"They might be passed out…Fiona, grab the crowbar in the trunk!" he ordered, and she nodded, running back to their car to grab it. She returned and handed him the crowbar, and he sticks it in the passenger car door and pries it open. Once open, he gets down on his hands and knees and peers inside. What he saw was a gruesome sight. Blood covered every surface, and a woman's mangled body can be seen.

"What do you see?" Fiona inquires, trying to see past him without getting on the ground as well.

"The driver…she looks like she's been…eaten…or something…" he tells her, looking at her. He sees his wife's eyes widen and open her mouth, about to scream. He turns around to see a small boy quickly crawling towards him with a blood covered mouth and milky white eyes. He falls backwards with a loud, startled gasp and the boy grabs onto his leg.

Before the boy's waist left the inside of the car, his head was impaled by a blade. Shocked, the man looked up to see a woman slightly taller than his wife, with dark dirty blond hair and mysterious gray eyes. The boy's face falls against the pavement and he didn't move again. The couple were both breathing heavily, still unable to move. The woman straightened and looked at the two.

"Listen, if this is what I think it is, all of us are in danger. I can help you both, including any of the neighbors willing to listen. I have a shelter at my house for this kind of event, it can sustain us for four days without leaving. Please come with me." She held out her hand to the man still sprawled on the ground and without a moment's hesitation he took it, and she helped him up.

"Wait a second—who are you?" the wife spluttered out. The young lady who saved them had already started leading back to her home, and because the husband had instantly followed, it left the wife no choice but to follow too.

A/N: Decided to give you guys something a little early, but don't think this will be a regular thing! Hope you like! R&R