Monsters and Misfits

The sun sets on a large city, dressed in a shroud of smoke and toxic fumes. The streets are full of cars where people have attempted to evacuate and abandoned their vehicles, it's quiet and eerie.

A girl walks out of an abandoned ware house and scales down the building and towards the large gate, weaving in and out of the labyrinth of cars. She momentarily glances back to make sure she isn't being followed before making a break for the only thing keeping her in. As she approaches the wall she hears the faint sounds of people shouting coming from behind her, in a state of panic she clutches the bundle of cloth swaddled around her and pulls on her mask... she's ready to climb. Her gloved hands grasp at the badly built barricades as she climbs, her body shaking in fear as the sound draw nearer... but she can't turn back now. Using up the last of her energy she hoists herself over the top of the gate and straddles it so she can take in the city one last time, remembering what it used to look like she wipes the tears from her eyes she jumps over landing on the other side and landing on the grass with a thump.

She opens her eyes and feels the ground, it's soft and warm "I - I made it !" she laughs, breathing in the fresh air feeling the grass between her fingers whilst taking in the warm assuring glow of the sun. With out a moment of hesitation she gets up and starts to jog toward the forest. "Okay, Tahlia said that there's an old abandoned Manor House somewhere in the woods... we can make it by sundown if we start walking now, sound good ?" The girl says as she unwraps the bundle slightly revealing a small child fast asleep. The child squirms in her sleep raising her arms up and touching the girl's face, "I'll keep you safe, I promise" the girl states sternly as she bundles up the child again.

As she begins to walk through the forest she hears faint sounds of growling and grunting which she shrugs off rather nonchalantly as animal noises, I mean what could be out there ? She swings her baseball bat around as she walks humming a tune to herself minutes pass by like seconds and before she knows it she can't see the smoking towers of the city, or the thick smog the surrounds it. She keeps on walking casually with her new sense of freedom, following a small badly drawn map that she keeps in the pocket of her leather jacket, still swinging her bat. She halts its stuck "what the ?" The girl exclaims as she looks down to find a rotting hand has grabbed her bat and another reaching for her ankle, skin falling off like rotting meat followed soon after by a half decayed face of a man, his humanity is gone... his eyes glasses over and his mouth contorted into a half dislocated scowl. The girl screams, she rips her bat out of the monsters hand and beats its head in again and again and again causing blood to splatter everywhere. "ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod !" she exclaims as the runs at full speed down he path, the child cries. "It's okay honey ! I-it's okay ! We're almost there ! We're almost the-" she's cut short as she runs into a tree knocking herself out and causing her head to bleed out.

In an instant she's awoken by gun shots and shouting, her vision blurs and her hearing is distorted, she sees a figure loom over her momentarily before untying the small girl from her torso. As the figure goes to take the child she claps onto their hand causing them to glance back to her "no ! Don't !" She shouts weakly. Another figure walks over and talks to the original figure, they both looks down at her, one of them feels her head wound causing her to wince, they have brief exchange before one of the figures lifts her up... then everything goes black.