Ashes to Ashes

Natalie

Natalie blinked and sat up. "Bugs...? Like cockroaches and stuff? That doesn't sound too bad..."

Kyle shook his head and pointed to the monitor. "Oh, it's bad. Very bad."

Natalie got to her feet and went to the monitor. Her jaw dropped. "Oh... crap."

Alec

Alec stood up in annoyance and joined Kyle and Natalie at one of the computers. "What are you talking about? What the hell is so scary about a few bugs?"

Kyle didn't say anything, only pointed to the monitor again.

"What?" Alec exclaimed. "Doing this--" he imitated Kyle pointing at the screen--"doesn't help me whatsoever."

*I'm not going to post any more than this, because I don't know where you guys are going with this, and I want it to turn out how you want. *

Kyle

"Okay, I get that. Except look at the size of these things. This is about the size of a human! These are not normal insects, these things could kill us faster than anything we've seen so far," Kyle looked around the room. He walked over to a cabinet and opened it, he grabbed a few guns from it and tossed them around, "Here's these if you don't have something of your own. We need to bar the entrance or something so they can't get in."

Kyle stopped when he heard a knocking up above. He flinched with the next one, "Uh, guys... I don't think we have anymore time."

Natalie

Natalie swore and bent over Kelsey, shaking her. "Kelsey, wake up!"

Kelsey groaned and rolled over. "Five more minutes," she mumbled.

Natalie rolled her eyes and shook her harder. "Kelsey, NOW!"

Kelsey sat up. "What is it-" then there was the knocking again. She paled. "Natalie... what is that?" she whispered fearfully.

"Something bad. I want you to hide." She led her over to one of the desks, pushing her under it. "Don't come out unless I say so, understand?" Kelsey nodded shakily, face pale. Natalie turned towards the sound, drawing her revolver. If one of them tried to get to Kelsey, they would have to go through her to get her.

Cassie

"It's too late for this," Cassie muttered. "There should be some kind of rule about alien invasions after midnight."

Alec looked away from the door long enough to throw her an incredulous look. "Alien invasion? They're bugs, Cassie. Bugs."

"See what I mean? It's too late for this," she said, turning the gun Kyle had tossed her over and over in her hands. She honestly had no idea what to do with it. She had never even seen a gun up close before, let alone tried to shoot one.

"Um, guys?" Cara said. The knocking overheard was growing louder, and now they could hear a low buzzing sound as well. "Not the time to talk about this."

Cara Rose-Miller

She was, of course, oblivious to what was going on, simply regarding the loudness as just obnoxious behavior. She was completely in another world, lying down on tracing her finger over her locket.

She remembered the day that Sam gave it her, the sweet look that had been in his eyes. But all of the sudden her thoughts were interrupted by Cassie.

"DAMMIT CARA!" she screeched. "THERE'S A BUG COMING IN THE HOUSE!"

Cara jolted upward, her locket flying to the ground. She saw the others; each waiting with guns, shaking with sweat, waiting for it to come. That was when the door toppled over, and a bug the size of a human came crashing through. Cassie was thrown to the side, but barely hurt. The others tried firing, but they mostly missed. The bug was only slightly affected by the ones that did hit him; he pressed on.

When Cara realized the bug was coming toward her, it was too late. She grabbed her dagger in one last ditch effort, injuring the bug so it bled blood purplish-black in color.

But the bug stuck its teeth into Cara's stomach and she screamed. Blood was seeping through her shirt and out onto the floor.

"Help!" She cried, screaming over and over again.

AMBROSE

He took out the hidden daggers strapped to his body. What the hell was going on in here?

"Help!" The girl, Cara, screamed.

Amp looked at her as she panicked, the huge, unreal bug coming closer to her. He wanted to just leave her and be on his way but...he couldn't do that.

Amp launched himself at the bug and thrust the dagger into it's neck with all his might. It twitched and threw him backward but crumpled to the floor.

"Natalie!" Kelsey cried, coming out for her sister.

Amp saw the big, doe-like eyes. His heart lept in terror. No, no, not again. He couldn't take it.

"Maddie, no!" He shouted, jumping in front of the small girl, protectively. He pushed her back, away from the chaos.

"Don't come out," he hissed. "Don't do it. Stay here and..."

He stopped and shook his head. "Your sister will be fine," he mumbled.

He turned away from the girl, his heart sinking. For a moment he had mistaken the girl for his little sister, so long ago now.

Amp stood near the girl, but turned back to the fighting kids. What were they going to do?

Cassie

It was like one of those nightmares where everything that could possibly go wrong does. Cara was slumped against the far wall, covered in blood. Kelsey was sobbing under one of the desks. Shadow had bolted, the worthless mutt. And Cassie's gun was laying five feet away, right next to one of the giant bugs.

"Nice... thing," she whispered, inching towards her gun. The bug lunged at her, pincers clicking. She dove out of the way, banging hard into Amp and knocking his dagger out of his hand.

"Damn," they both said, watching as the knife skittered across the floor. The bug rushed at them again. Cassie stumbled back, weaponless and terrified, sure that she was about to die. The bug lunged at her -

And collapsed as a loud gunshot echoed around the room. Kyle slowly lowered his gun, hands shaking.

"Thanks," Cassie said, panting. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked around the wrecked shelter. All of the bugs were dead, lying in pools of purplish blood. Cara, deathly pale, was clutching her stomach and groaning. Blood was splattered on the floor around her.

Cara Rose-Miller

She was alive, but very weak. With each passing moment she grew more so, moaning and wincing in pain. She managed to look up and notice the bugs dead; and gave a faint smile.

"You saved me," she said hoarsely, falling back again with a moan. "We're safe."

The others looked dumbly at her, wondering what to it. Cassie and Amp were also slightly injured, but Cara was near death. Kelsey was crying, disgusted by the sight and thus unable to look.

"Do you have anything that we could use to stop the blood?" Natalie barked urgently. "Any clothes, or bedsheets-or anything?"

Alec

Alec was jolted out of his reverie as Natalie shouted, "Do you have anything that we could use to stop the blood? Any clothes, or bedsheets--or anything?"

He looked around in wonder at the bloody mess around him. It had all happened so fast. And he had just stood there! He had always imagined himself being ready for the unprepared, but this! It had left him with absolutely no confidence and more than a little shame.

Staring at a comatose Cara lying in a pool of her own blood on the floor, he thought, I can at least help her...somehow...

Alec sped about the shelter in desperation, looking for something, anything, that could stop the bleeding. With no luck and time running out, he shouted, "I could use a little help here, Kyle! Where is everything?"

He heard his answer a heartbeat later. "To your right! In the corner, there should be a bunch of blankets. Bring them over!"

"I think I'll wait, thank you," Alec mumbled sarcastically as he grabbed the blankets and ran back to Cara's side. She was sweating profusely, white as a sheet, and didn't appear to be conscious. Her face was creased in pain and she kept rocking her head back and forth in a daze.

"Someone should keep her still," Alec suggested as he took out a knife and sliced one of the thinnest blankets into long, wide strips. While a thicker one might help absorb the blood more effectively, it couldn't be wrapped around her quite as tightly, which was what she needed right now.

With the blanket sliced up accordingly, Alec, along with some assistance from Amp, gently lifted Cara's stomach an inch or two off the ground. Alec made sure that Amp had a hold of her, then began to slowly wrap the strips of cloth around the puncture wounds, leaving the ends untied.

The work was painfully long, and cost Cara a good deal of precious energy, but together they got it done. With a bit of masking tape he saw rolling around on the floor, Alec sealed the outermost strip of cloth, and they set her down. Covering her with some of the blankets and using one as a makeshift pillow, they all moved away a bit in order to collect their thought about all that had happened in such a short amount of time.

Kelsey, who hadn't stopped holding Natalie's hand since the time she woke up, asked tentatively, "Is she going to be alright?"

Alec couldn't have answered that question even if he'd wanted to.

Cassie

No one said anything. Cara's ragged breathing was the only sound in the shelter. In. Out. In. Out. Cassie thought she would go crazy if she had to sit there and listen to it for one more minute.

She stood abruptly. "I'm going to look for Shadow."

"In the dark?" Natalie asked, looking a little taken aback. "Shouldn't you wait until - "

"I'll be fine," Cassie said, breezing past her. She skirted around one of the dead bugs and hurried out of the shelter, suddenly afraid she was going to puke. All of that blood... and the crunching sound that bug had made when Kyle had shot it...

The door opened behind her. "Are you okay?" Alec asked, sounding concerned.

She took a deep breath, and realized that her hands were shaking. She balled them into fists. "Wonderful," she snapped, not turning to look at him. She raised her voice. "Shadow! Here, girl! Shadow!"

Kyle

Kyle watched as everyone started to calm down again. He went back over to his computers and started looking at the past 5 hours worth of movement, to see if he could detect where the bugs came from.

"Find anything useful," He heard Natalie say behind him.

He sat back, "Not yet. I just can't figure out how they found us. There's nothing that we left behind for them to follow."

"Maybe they could feel the heat we left behind or something like that."

"Maybe, but there's no way to tell," Kyle sat back in his seat, and swiveled around so he could see everyone. Cassie had gone to look for her dog, and Cara had gone to sleep. Alec was watching Cara and Amp was standing in a corner watching everyone as well. Kelsey had come over to stand next to Natalie. She looked up at Kyle, "Those creatures aren't going to come back are they?"

"No, they're not. We'll make sure of it," Kyle looked up at Natalie. Her worried face showed all of the love she had for her sister, Kyle wouldn't let anything happen to this little girl.

Cara Rose-Miller

Cara dreamed that she was on a white-sand beach with Sam. They were laying down next to each other on a large towel, their hands interlocked.

It was a lovely day, and the scenery was breathtaking. They were alone. Sam leaned in and gave Cara a peck on the cheek.

"I love you, did you know that?"

Cara nodded, and Sam began acting like an idiot and making Cara laugh. Then finally they sat up, each took a sip of the orange soda they were sharing, and went to the water.

They kissed when they had gotten a few feet in, but suddenly Cara began to slip. She fell into the deep water, slowly submerging. She began to scream, thinking she would die. Then suddenly a hand reached out and pulled her to shore.

"Cara, what did you get yourself into?" The figure then pulled her forward, about to kiss her.
-
Cara opened her eyes. She was delirious and her vision was blurry.

"Sam?" she muttered, fingering her pendant.

"No, it's me, Alec."

Cara sighed and turned over onto her stomach, holding back tears. Everything hurt like crap. She remembered the apocalypse, and that she was one of the last to be alive. She remembered that Sam had been dead for two years.

"It's hopeless," she muttered.

Alec

"No, it's me, Alec."

Cara sighed heavily and turned onto her stomach. Alec just barely heard her whisper something under her breath.

"What's that?" he asked.

"I said it's hopeless!" she snapped back at him.

Alec was surprised by her sudden anger. "What are you talking about? I just saved your life! You could at least be a little grateful. If it wasn't for me, you'd probably be dead right about now! And everything might have been a huge ass waste of energy if you keep moping on your stomach like that! Turn around! The bleeding might start again."

Cara didn't reply to anything he said, only slowly, slowly turned back the way she had been before. As she settled down, she glared at him drowsily.

"Happy?" she snapped back.

Alec couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't make everything worse, so he just sat back and fiddled with the moon charm about his wrist.

Cassie

Cassie finally found Shadow sniffing around the base of a tree, deep in the woods. The dog was covered in burrs and her coat was tangled in leaves. It took Cassie another hour to find her way back to the shelter. Everything looked much different in the dark.

Everyone was just sitting around when Cassie dragged Shadow inside. Someone had cleaned up the dead bugs, but there was still a dark reddish stain in the middle of the room. She quickly looked away.

"We can't stay here, you know," she said, going to stand by Amp and Natalie. They both had dark circles under their eyes.

"Why not?" Kyle asked, sounding defensive. "There's nothing wrong with this place!"

"Sure, if you like blood stains as interior decorating," Cassie snapped. She crossed her arms. "How can you feel safe here? If those bugs can get in once, they can do it again. Who knows how many of them there are? I say we get the hell out of here as soon as Cara is healthy enough."

"If they come back, we'll be ready for them," Alec said grimly.

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. You just stood there last time, so don't act like you're a ninja or something. We only killed those bugs because we got lucky. If more of them come back, we won't stand a chance." She turned to Natalie and Amp, looking for support. "You agree with me, right?"