Ashes

…

May 14, 2012, 2:45pm- Ohio, Terrasave Outpost

The sound of a fridge slamming shut greets Page as she enters the break room. Jacob pops open a bottle of beer and starts chugging it. His shirt sits on a nearby chair, the blood-soaked bandages on his lower abdomen and right bicep out for everyone to see.

Jacob doesn't so much at glance at Page as she walks over but she knows he's aware of her presence. She leans up against the wall, letting out a quiet sigh as she tries to think of what to say. Jacob quickly stops drinking, lowering the bottle.

"What is it?" He raises a brow as he turns to her.

"Your bandages," Page replies.

"Oh, that. Yeah uh, not a fan, I don't workout five days a week just to cover these bad boys up," He pats his abs with his free hand.

"I'm not talking about that," Page says in a scolding tone, "You need to get them changed,"

Jacob lets out a heartfelt laugh before taking another drink.

"You need to stop worrying about me. I've walked off worse, and you know that."

Page doesn't respond right away, turning away from Jacob for a second. He's right, which is what's been bothering her. Her back still turned to him, she glances over at him.

"Do you ever, think twice, before you put yourself in harm's way?" She asks. Jacob replies right away, not even hesitant.

"If I thought at all, do you think I'd have had enough time to save you?" He asks with a raised brow once more, taking another drink.

"I'm grateful as always that you did, but, so many times you've gotten yourself hurt from just, recklessly throwing yourself in front of me, even when I could have just moved out of the way myself,"

"Better safe than sorry,"

"But it's not safe!" She suddenly exclaims, turning to him, "You could have died yesterday, or any of those other times!"

"Ha! That's a good one," He chuckles. Page just looks at him with a mixture of worry and anger. His smile fades away and his expression stiffens, "Look, Page, you can try to tell me how dangerous it is, or that you can take care of yourself, all you want, but you can't stop me from keeping you safe, it's my job as your partner, literally, it's in the contract,"

"No it's not, and don't forget that I'm your partner too so it's my job to keep you safe,"

"Whatever you say," He casually walks past her out of the room, taking one last sip of his beer. Page is left alone and frustrated. Not done, she storms over to his room, throwing open the door.

"If you think you can just walk away and-" Page finds herself staring at Jacob's backside as he's in the middle of taking off his pants. The pants hit the floor as he turns his upper body to look at her.

"What? You're acting like you haven't seen this ass before,"

"Pull your pants up, please, we're not done talking," Page states, looking to the side.

Jacob kicks them off to the side and turns around, now only in his underwear. He folds his arms as he looks her dead in the eyes.

"What do you wanna keep talking about?" He asks.

"You, doing stupid shit like this! Yesterday you got impaled through your stomach, and today you're drinking beer and acting like nothing happened!" Jacob let's out a sigh as he walks over to, and firmly grabs her shoulders, looking down at her with a much softer expression than usual.

"Page, nothing is going to stop me from keeping you safe, not even death," He gives her a kiss on the forehead as he wraps his arms around her, "So, how about you help me get these bandages off?"

March 21, 2015, 8:22pm- Mazraea, Flea Market

She suddenly wakes up, her eyes opening to see nothing but black. Before her eyes can adjust a major headache forces her to shut her eyes. Must've been a dream...why did it have to end at the good part though?

Oh god, my head. Feels like someone hit me in the face with a jack hammer. I go to rub my aching forehead, but my hand is stop by something cold. I open my eyes to see that I still have a mask on. But...didn't it fall off..? I push myself up, a mixture of dizziness and sleepiness trying to lay me back down. I squint my eyes to see, but it's very dark, a faint silver glow coming in through what I can only guess is a window. There's footsteps as a familiar voice speaks.

"About time," They say. As my eyes adjust to the dim lighting I can start to make out Jacob's face, "I've already eaten all the snacks in your bag and I'm still starving to death,"

"How-" The mask muffling my voice makes my head hurt even more. I take it off before talking again, "How, long have I been out?"

"Three hours,"

"Where are we?" Page asks as she sits up, still quite light headed.

"Still in the market. The both of us got real lucky that this building's first floor managed to remain practically unharmed," He kneels down and looks at the wound on her head, it's already scabbed up and starting to heal back. As Jacob stands up Page notices a large scar on his left arm.

"What happened to your arm?"

"Just a small scratch," He replies, dusting off his arm, "That thing from the plane was only playing dead," He walks over to the other side of the room and picks up the duffle bag, "It's dead for good now, but we only have two magazines for the pistol left," He walks back up to Page and holds out a hand. She takes it and stands up.

"It's better if you have this," Jacob states as he pulls her pistol out from the bag and hands it to her.

"Thanks,"

As Page catches her breath and tries to fight off the tiredness, Jacob moves the stuff barricading the the door. As he's moving the last couple of things, Page looks at him, remembering that night all those years ago.

That was the only night he was ever…human, is the only word I can think to describe it...After that he went back to being his usual uncaring self. Though it's a pleasant memory, it just makes me wonder if that was the real him, or if this is the real him and it was all just a facade.

Jacob pulls out his knife as he signals for Page to get ready. He slowly opens the door a bit, checking for anything outside before he opens it fully and heads out. Page follows him out the door to find themselves in yet again an unknown place. Almost every building is completely covered in scorch marks, grey ashes cover all the roofs, and streets almost looking like snow. In the middle of the street not too far from them sits a puddle of burnt goo.

Charred remains and even some bones are visible in the thin layer of ashes.

"At least there's no more zombies…" Page says, trying to find the silver lining, "Do you know if the plane got damaged at all?"

"No idea,"

"We need to go double check it than. After that we'll head to your office," She states before walking down the street. The empty streets once more give the place an entirely different atmosphere, the place once filled with the screaming of fires, people, and monsters, now filled with a deathly silence. A chilling breeze blows through the town, giving the buildings a voice to talk about the pain they've suffered. Arriving at the airstrip the plane is torn apart, looking like it exploded from the inside. The sight keeps them distracted from the things moving around in the market.

"Was this the only airport on the whole island?" Page asks.

"...Yeah…" Jacob replies. The two stand there staring at the shredded remains. The main reason they went through the market was for this, and now, it's destroyed like everything else in the market. Turning around the two see a figure way off in the distance kneeling down. Their red clothes illuminate like a rose in the moonlight. Before Page or Jacob can do anything the figure stands up and takes off as shadows inside the buildings start moving.

"Of course we're not alone here," Jacob says as he tightens his grip on his knife, "Let's just get the hell out of here, hopefully that person doesn't steal my moped. You wanna walk down the street or go through the buildings?" Page glances at the buildings where she had seen the things moving inside.

"Is either one really better?"

"Streets it is, it'll at least be faster,"

The two start making their way back through the market, Jacob keeping an eye on the left side and Page keeping an eye on the right. Not worried about anything before, the two never realized how much their footsteps echoed until now. Occasionally they hear something moving inside the buildings, seeing several small shadows moving about. They look to be a bit bigger than rats or something. Whatever they are, they must be animals, or possibly insects…

They pass by the charred gooey remains that was by the building they were in once more. They reach an intersection in the street, one way going straight and the other way going to the right. They continue to go straight, but as they do they start to hear the things in the buildings becoming more active. What sounds like a bunch of rats squeaking starts to fill the buildings and before Page or Jacob can react, a horde of rats come pouring out from the buildings a few yards in front of them. All the rats have blood red eyes that shine in the moonlight which reveals all the wounds and blood on them.

The two turn to run back but see that another horde of rats are coming at them from that side too.

"This way!" Jacob shouts as he grabs Page's arm and starts running down the street going right. Not long after they start running down it, even more rats start to flood onto the street, trying to block their path. They can feel the rats trying to climb up their shoes as they trample some of them running past.

"There!" Jacob shouts, pointing at a three story on their left. Running inside the two head up the stairs, the rats quickly following. As they reach the last set of stairs leading to a door to the roof, rats fill the first floor, the walls turning black and coming alive as they crawl up them. Bursting through the door onto the roof, the two continue to run, jumping down onto the next roof. Some of the rats had started climbing onto the t building already and reach the top. Jacob and Page run to the right, jumping to another roof.

"Up the ladder!" Jacob shouts. Page quickly starts to climb, Jacob quickly following after as the Rats all try to jump over the gap, falling to the floor and quickly getting up and climbing the building. As Page reaches the top, the rats already reach the roof below Jacob. Jacob starts skipping steps and joins Page at the top. The two continue to run, jumping from roof to roof until they reach the main street. They're only two buildings away from the edge of the market. They make a right and make it to the last building standing on the edge of the market, and can see the scooter not too far away. They hurry inside the building as the horde of rats continue their chase. They just reach the last set of stairs when rats start falling from above. One lands on Jacob, immediately biting him on the shoulder.

"Motherfucker!" He shouts in pain as he pulls the rat off of him and hurling it at a nearby wall. They run out of the building and to the scooter. The two practically jump onto it, Jacob starting it up and putting it on max power before the rats have a chance to catch up. As the two drive down the dirt road, they can barely see another vehicle far off in the distance in front of them. As Page glances back at the market she sees a light coming from the side of the market which quickly turns off.

"I think we have someone-" Page goes to say but stops when she sees the bite mark on Jacob's shoulder which is healing before her very eyes, "Following us…"