Where Hope has Gone

Lilith

One, two three ... forty-nine, fifty. Lilith counted slowly pulling the brush through her still damp hair. Running late or not she always did her morning routine completely. It was Saturday morning still, so she had no responsibilities for the morning though she did recall talking with her sister about a trip to the mall at some point during the day.
She expertly pulled her long hair into a braid and jumped from her seat.
"Rae?" She called sticking her head out of the bedroom door.
Not waiting for a response Lilith strode towards the kitchen to try and figure out breakfast. Food and then whatever the hell I was supposed to be doing today, She told herself with a grin.
______

Eric

The day had started out normal enough, Eric had even told himself it was going to be a nice day. He had spent most of his night as usual at work. It had gone almost ridiculously smoothly and he was just now beginning to figure out why. All night he noticed that the creeps that usually hung around had been acting far stranger. But nothing had prepared him for this.
Fresh out of the shower Eric sat down on his couch and turned on the TV. The werid thing was every single channel had the same thing flashing on the screen. The weird multicolor block that he had only ever seen in reference. Shaking his head he threw the remote down and pulled his shoes from under the couch. He just finished tying his laces when he heard banging on his door. Curiosity lead him to yank open the door instead of using the peep hole. Within seconds a person was on top of him,
"What are you doing?!?"

@ SemeleDoes
Sunshine filtered through her room, causing Rae to groan and turn over pressing her face into her pillow. Sighing, she stood up and got into the shower before drying her hair and then looked in the mirror before shaking her head going into her room and getting dress. Once she was dressed she ran a hand through her luscious dark locks her verdant eyes shining mischievously. She laughed hearing Lilith and called out, "Coming!" She grabbed her purse bounding downstairs as she did so, humming softly and looked at her sister. "What're we doing, dear sister?" She grinned at her before grabbing a water, frowning when she heard commotion outside and opened the door lightly peeking outside. She shrugged closing it again, "Must be a fire or something." She explained seeing Lilith's face of confusion. She frowned turning on the tv to see that there was a weird symbol. She frowned and turned her head to look at her sister. "Do you know what this symbol is?" She asked her, biting down on her lip. "I'm starting to get a bad feeling, Lil." She whispered feeling her anxiety heightening.

Jason's day had been having a pretty shitty day all things considering since all throughout the hospital everyone was coming in with bites and all different kinds of things. Finally the CDC arrived and told them to quarantine the people, which caused everyone to freak out. He didn't get paid enough for this -- he was just a nurse and was trying to make his way up to a doctor since he still needed to go to med school. Once his shift was over, he grabbed his bag and headed out still in scrubs. He felt the sense that someone was following him and turned around to see that someone was. Nothing could prepare him for what happened next, though. Gasping and panting, he ran as fast as he could after seeing the person maul and bite another human being, tearing into their flesh. He banged on the nearest door in the apartment building that he could find. When the person opened the door, he was ontop of him, by accident. Scrambling to his feet, he slammed the door close, using his body to block it. "Sorry, mate." He breathed. "I'll explain, just don't open that door." His eyes were wild and he was frightened.

Lilith

She frowned slightly and looked at her sister, the symbol was weird but they were probably working on the cable or something. She refused to let the little oddities ruin her day.
"It's nothing Rae cables down or something and remember the neighbors are having a room added to their house that is not quiet, in fact I think it woke me up this Morning. So eggs?'
She added a bit of ham and cheese and stirred a bit more. When she looked up though something odd caught her eye through the window. Someone was on the front porch and they looked hurt.
"Rae...," She whispered pointing the guy out.

Eric

He looked at the stranger and almost began yelling until he saw the look on the man's face. Pure terror. He stepped around him and looked through the small window by the door.
"Someone is hurt out there we have to help them!" He yelled looking the guy over. Had he done something and then tried to hide in his house.
"Look man, you gotta tell me what is going on and then we have to help that guy."

@ SemeleDoes
Rae ran a hand through her hair, looking up hearing her sister. "Something doesn't feel right." She whispered starting to feel panic rise and rest in her chest as her breathing increased. It was bad enough she was prone to panic attacks, but anything that made her anxiety rise didn't help it. She nodded and said, "Eggs sound good." She stood up walking to the island and sitting down at the bar in front of it and watched her add. Hearing her sister, she looked up before letting her eyes move to the guy that was hurt on the porch. The feeling started to get even worse and she whispered, "Don't open the door." She didn't know what came over her, but the thought of opening the door at the moment made her want to just vomit all over herself. "Lil...Don't." She pleaded knowing her sister. She shook her head feeling the panic begin to rise seeing someone else appear and said, "See? They'll help him." What happened next made her eat her words as she stared in utter shock at the scene in front of her. Covering her mouth, she gasped emerald eyes going wide.

Jason shook his head hearing his words and blocked the door and said, "No! That's the guy that was chasing me!" He was sputtering spit flying everywhere as he trembled. He looked down at his hands and clenched them before looking back up at Eric. "Man, you won't believe me. Here goes though.. That dude, out there, that looks hurt, he chased me two blocks here and- and I watched him fucking maul a person! Jesus Fucking Christ." He said holding his head. "He just fucked started eating. The sounds." He shook his head and nearly collapsed from shock, the only keeping him up was holding onto the wall. His legs were shaking so bad. He looked up and he said, "You can't let him in." He whispered it basically falling to the floor holding his head. "He fucking ate this guy. Dude.." He shook his head feeling like he was going to start hyperventilating. "I know it sounds fucking mad. But, I swear, he just went bonkers." He said, his british accent coming through.

Lilith was ready to argue, to say that he was on their porch and that meant they did something. All of that flew out the window when she saw a posh looking women take a bite from the man's arm. Lilith let out a small shriek and backed herself into the kitchen table, but still she could not remove her eyes from the scene before her. Piece by piece the arm disappeared into the women until she was sure he must be dead.
She was still stuck in place until the man actually got up. How in the world was he moving. Vaguely she noticed the eggs burning next to her.
" Rae we have to go, now." She nearly screamed as the women began to bang on the window. The man joined her and she watched in horror as it began to crack. She grabbed her car keys and pulled her sister to the garage.
______

Eric wasn't sure what to believe anymore. Clearly the whole world had lost their minds. He ignored the guy on the floor, turned to the door and locked it. He wasn't sure if that would really help or not but didn't hurt.
"Come on then away from the doors and windows, I'm going up stairs to see what's going on."
He was sure he was supposed to be freaking out but he just couldn't let that happen at the moment, the invader looked like he had that covered. Shaking his head slowly he moved up the stairs and into the extra bedroom. The view from the window was something he could have never prepared for.

@ FlyAway;

@ SemeleDoes
Rae watched in horror as the blood cascaded down the womans face as she ate someone's freaking arm. She shook her head feeling as if she was going to be sick and her eyes widened even more seeing the guy begin to stand up. "No.." She wailed watched the scene unfold in front of her like a messed up horror movie. She felt Lilith grab her and she started to shake and ran with her into the garage. She got into the car knowing that it was better if Lilith drove considering her anxiety made it impossible for her hands to stop shaking. She shook her head and started almost hyperventilating. "Oh god. Oh god." She muttered before feeling herself start to calm down. "We need to get out of town." She looked at her sister. "No. First we need to get supplies." She told her before running into the house once more. She gathered what she could in a duffel as quickly as possible before screaming when the lady grabbed her. "LET GO!" She screamed.

Jason looked at him and shook his head as he stood up and grabbed his bag and headed to the window and he watched seeing the world. "What the fuck is going on?" He asked finally getting some sense back into his head and starting to calm down. Running a hand through his hair he looked at the guy beside him. "I'm Jason by the way." He said almost numbly as he looked at the burning city before them watching as blood and guts began to cover the streets. "Why is this starting to look like a massacre?" He questioned turning to look at his new friend, if he could even call him that. "Oh, by the way, I'm sorry for practically barging in." He sighed letting a hand run over the back of his head as he looked at Eric. He frowned wondering what the hell they were going to do. What was he going to do??

Lilith felt like screaming when her sister got out of the vehicle. Now was so not the time to be trying to grab things she was sure whatever that person was was still in the house. Not trusting that her sister would be okay she jumped out of the car and ran after her. The sight that met her made her blood run cold. The women was on top of Rae, and she was quickly becoming covered in blood.
Without thinking to hard on it Lilith grabbed a knife of the kitchen table and shoved it into the closest place she could find on the women which happened to the back of her neck.
Lilith wanted to scream at the feeling but shook it off as she pulled her sister out from under the women.
"A-are you okay?"
_____
Eric shook his head frantically, " No we've got to do something, we can't just sit here."
He paced around the room for a moment before straightening his back and adopting a stern look. " I'm Eric, but I don't think that will matter for long if we don't get out of here."
The safe, he thought after a moment of contemplation. Eric looked at Jason suspiciously for a second before deciding it didn't really matter anymore. He opened his closet and pulled a long safe from the top. Two pistols and a hunting rifle. Hopefully it was enough.

@ FlyAway;

@ SemeleDoes
Rae had just been grabbing all the food and bandages and stuff like that as quickly as she could. She had stuffed as much water into her bag as she could when the lady had pounced on her. Screaming, she pushed her by the chest feeling tears form into her eyes as she kept the lady at bay from chewing off her face. Feeling the woman go limp, she looked up and was pulled away from the lady. She clutched onto Lilith and nodded. "Yes. Thank you. We needed water and food and survival things." She whispered to her sister holding onto her for a moment before shakily finishing up what she started, grabbing a baseball bat from the closet and said, "Let's go." She sniffed before shaking wiping blood off of her face and feeling like crying. She needed to be strong though. "Come on, Lil." She whispered taking her hand and going into the garage.

Jason frowned and said, "What the hell are we going to do?!" He demanded watched him pace around and sighed and nodded. "I agree that we need to get out of here, but I don't know what you mean by doing something." He told him before he watched him take out guns and stumbled back for a moment looking at him. He had never learned how to use a gun. He had had no need to use one. He looked at Eric before sighing straightening himself out and said, "Okay, what's the plan?" He asked him, his ice blue eyes steady.

Lilith stumbled after her sister very much so in shock. She had killed someone, another human, no matter what they had been doing. She was a murderer. Lilith wanted badly to cry but she knew that it would have to wait. She realized they were back to the garage already and pulled away from Rae.
"Hold on, I need grab something really quick."
Not waiting for a response Lilith ran into the kitchen and grabbed a couple more of her family's sharper knives. She was not going to just lay down and die, she had killed one person and if she had to she would do it again. She ran to her room and grabbed the two baseball bats that were stuffed in the back of her closet and then thinking for a second grabbed Rae a new shirt so she wouldn't have to be as bloody.
The last thing Lilith grabbed was her mother's necklace, she had a feeling she would need her to be strong. She ran as fast as she could back to the garage and threw her loot into the back seat before jumping in the driver's seat and taking off.
____

Eric grabbed a backpack from under his bed and shoved the ammo into a backpack. He had around 100 rounds which was a decent amount, but no where near what he would have had he not been hunting last weekend.
"I have a feeling this city isn't going to be very friendly anymore.' He loaded one of the pistols and handed to to Jason.
Aim and shoot if you have to alright?"
He quickly loaded the other two guns, then shoved the pistol in his belt. There were a couple other things they needed to gather and then they had to leave. Before the Insanity got any worse.
"So we are going to go clean out my kitchen and then we're going to find a car and get as far away from this hell hole as possible. "

@ FlyAway;

@ SemeleDoes
Rae knew that her sister was in shock but they needed to do what they needed in order to survive and figure out their morals later. She needed her big sister at the moment and she needed her locked and ready to go. She waited for her to get back tapping her foot anxiously as she did so. When she got back she looked at her relieved and nodded. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair before getting her seatbelt on and was shocked to see the mayhem going on right outside of their house. She started to laugh hysterically. "Shitty day for the mall." She mumbled before shaking her head as they tore out of there. She took her sister's hand holding it tightly and whispered, "God, what happened?" She looked away seeing someone eating someone else and held her stomach feeling as if the eggs she had managed to eat earlier were starting to come up. "What now?" She asked turning to look at her sister. Her other hand was tightly gripping the baseball bat she had in her hands as if her life was depending on it.

Jason watched him and nodded hearng his words and said, "Where are we going to go?" He asked it as he started shoving everything in sight in the kitchen into the bag. He then came to a conclusion and said, "You're lucky I take my work bag with me. It's got a bunch of medicine and bandages and medical stuff." He saw his look of confusion before explaining, "I'm a nurse. I'm about to go to med school. Well, I guess was." He said coming to the realization before shaking his head and took the pistol and made sure the safety was on before putting it into his pocket continuing to help him pack things up. "I'm guessing you have no bloody clue what's happening either?" he asked as he worked.

Lilith managed meager smile in her sisters direction before gunning the car down the road. Everywhere she looked there were people not all of them were bloody but most were.
" I would say if something is wrong with those people we have to get away from them, Aunt Jessie has her farm out in the middle of no where and she might know what's going on."
Their aunt was something special, she had never had kids so always doted on her brothers like they were her own. Plus, Lilith thought looking down at her bare feet, she might have some of my shoes. Her biggest issue with that right now was that they would have to go right by a hospital and she was almost certain that wouldn't be pretty.
______

Eric smirked at Jason and told him, "You're lucky my front door was unlocked, so maybe were even on that account."
He finished shoving the cans in his bag and moved to the bottled water. The plan was simple get out of the city or probably end up like all the crazies outside.
"Dude I didn't even know anything was happening until you burst through my door so no not a clue."
He finished with the kitchen and walked in the living room to see if there was anything that could help, not seeing anything he turned to Jason.
"Alright so any suggestions?"

@ FlyAway;

@ SemeleDoes
Rae ran a hand through her hair softly and looked ou the window wincing when she heard a crack and shook her head feeling nauseous. She took a deep breath before looking back at Lilith. She nodded and siad, "There is clearly something wrong, don't say if!" She laughed shaking her head unable to control herself. "Middle of nowhere means no people too." She added nodding in agreement. Looking out the window she frowned and said, "That means we have to go by the hospital.." She let the words hang in the taking a deep breath and said, "Well. We have to do what we have to do." She told her nodding before biting down on her nail gently trying to keep her panic attack down a little longer. She didn't need to check out and leave Lilith alone.

Jason laughed and said, "No, I'm lucky you opened the bloody thing." He gave a nod before shoving water into the duffel making sure to get as many as possile. Hearing his words he sighed and said, "Well, I had to ask anyways." He told him. He finished up and watched Eric before saying, "Get the hell out of town. I hope you have a car." He told him as he looked around. "Though, the closest way out of town is by the hospital. I wouldn't go inside though. If it's like this out here, inside the hospital is going to be fucking crazy." He said not wanting to imagine all his coworkers like that.

"Alright missy, there is then." Lilith muttered under her breath. The roads were getting more and more crowded and she worried for.a second they would be to crowded to get out. For the sixth time this road she had to swerve out of the way of one of those things. She looked over at her sister and could practically feel the panic building inside her.
"Rae it will be alright as long as we have one another, just like mom said."
But she had kept her eyes on her sister for a moment to long and the last thing she remember were her sisters screams as slammed into a person and slammed her head into the steering wheel.
________

Eric chuckled shortly, it sounding forced to his own ears. He looked out the window again to see how many were around the house and was pleasantly surprised to see only one in the center of the road.
"Nope no car, I was figuring they wouldn't exactly need theirs anymore and good thing I've got you then, no need to go to the hospital."
He swept around the house one last time before nodding to the door, it was time to move like it or not. As soon as he stepped outside he saw a car slam into they guy in the middle of the road and spin out. Well that could work, he thought jogging to the car.

@ FlyAway;

@ SemeleDoes
Rae smiled softly hearing her and was glad even through all of this shit that she was still able to smile with her sister with her. She bit down on her nails again willing herself to calm down. She looked over seeing her sister and smiled and nodded and said, "Alright." She whispered before her eyes widened and she screamed cold blooded murder. She started to cry as she saw her sister's head hit the steering wheel. She screamed again and unbuckled herself opening the door shakily and hit the ground and scrambled to her feet going to go get Lil. She saw one of those things trying to claw it's way into the car and with trembling fingers smacked it with the baseball as hard as she could before looking over seeing Eric. She stood in front of the car before seeing that he was human enough and tried to get her sister out. Feeling Jason gently push her out of the way she cried and then felt her throat start to close up from her panic and gasped crying and held her head in her hands as she did so needing something to focus on but the only thing she could focus on was the fact that she couldn't breathe.

Jason winced at how forced the laugh sounded and frowned and sighed seeing only one. He nodded in agreement and said, "Lucky you." He laughed shaking his head before looking to teh door. He walked out and looked out the road blinking when he saw someone crying and sighed as he saw Eric jog over and went afer him blinking when he saw blood. He rushed to the car and pushed Rae gently over and shook his head looking at Eric. "calm her down. I can't do anything with her in the way." he said frowning before looking back at Lilith and getting her out of the car, he set her down before looking at her head and cursed. She was going to need stitches. He took his jacket off and pressed it to her forehead soaking up the blood before he opened his bag and started to thead a needle and put it through the skin and started to sew the gash up.

(I'm going to skip Lilith cause she knocked out, if you are okay with that?)

Eric grabbed the girl that was not unconscious and put her in the passager seat then turned back to Jason. As nice as this little scene was there were more and more of those things approaching.
"Think you could handle that in the back seat?"
He didn't wait for a response just opened the back door and then got in the driver's seat. He looked over at the other girl and attempted a smile.
"She'll be alright, Jason's a nurse, but shes probably gonna need you to be aright as well."
He slipped his arm around her for a second, trying to give her as much comfort as he could manage, before he had to turn on the car.
"So I'm Eric and that guy over there is Jason and did you have any idea where you were going cause we didn't."
Eric grabbed her hand hoping he was helping.

@ FlyAway;

@ SemeleDoes
That's fine!)

Rae was vaguely aware of the fact that she was picked up and put into the vehicle. She looked around seeing Lilith and bit down on her lip looking over seeing Eric get into the car and saw him try and smile and just shook her head. She heard his words some of her panic easing hearing that the guy helping her sister was a nurse and nodded softly trying to chill out. Feeling his arm around her, she was eveloped in warmth for a second before feeling it go away. She watched as he drove and nodded. "I'm Rae..That's Lilith. We were heading to our Aunt's farm.." She mumbled feeling him grab her hand. She squeezed it tightly needing something to hold on to. "Just a warning I have panic attacks pretty frequently and apocalypses and my sister getting stitches is making it worse." Her voice had gone down to a whisper as she watched Jason work and sighed seeing that it wasn't that bad of a cut.

Jason nodded lifting up Lilith bridal style into the vehicle before setting her head on his lap and beginning to stitch and said, "I'm gonna need you to drive as steady as possible and not make any turns." He continued to stitch and sighed once he was finished stitching before pouring some disinfectant on the wound gently, covering her eyes so it didn't get in them before getting a bandage and putting it over top of the stitches so that there was a smaller risk of infection. He finished and said, "She's going to be in shock when she wakes up. It wasn't the worst cut i've seen from a steering wheel, but she definitely hit it hard."

Eric tried to keep everything steady, he really truly did, but with as much strown around the road as there was it just was not possible. He looked at Rae and smiled she would be okay he decided then and there, he would make sure of it.
"That's alright Rae I'm sure we can help you." He told her taking yet another turn.
"Hold on to Lilith cause it's about to get a little bumpy." He urged Jason after getting on the highway. The problem was there were cars absolutely everywhere and now they were going at a snail's pace.
"Any idea how to get there lovely?" He asked Rae finally deciding the median would do just fine I'm this case. He never once let go of her hand.

@ FlyAway;

Rae held onto the side of the car and watched the road. She nodded hearing him. "Well, since you're in our car, it seems we're helping you as well." She told him giving a small smile and saw all of the cars her eyes widening in fear. She frowned and heard Eric's question blushing a little because he had called her lovely and said, "There's a right turn up ahead. It'll be a longer distance, but i'm sure a shorter ride considering all of these cars." She told him, her hand holding onto his like it was life or death. She frowned seeing that they were inching and looked over running a hand throughout her hair gently.

Jason frowned looking at the traffic and muttered something before blinking hearing Rae giving directions and held onto Lilith, pulling her close to his chest to keep her head still from all of the rattling. He frowned and before blinking hearing Eric call Rae lovely and knew he was going to give him shit later on for that.

@ SemeleDoes

Eric drove for a while following Rae's directions, but they hadn't started with a full tank to begin with and now it was hovering dangerously close to empty. He didn't really want to worry anyone bit it was getting to the point where he had to.
"How much farther do you think?" He asked Rae quietly.
He knew it had at least 10 more miles in it from how he'd been going but not much more. That would definitely be a problem with one of them unconscious. He watched the trees pass and noticed he hadn't seen any cars or people in a while. At least they had that on their side.

@ FlyAway;