Once Upon an Apocalypse

Drip, drip, drip...

Riley squeezed her eyes shut, hoping closing them tighter would make the sound disappear.

Drip, drip, drip...

Instinctively, her hand went to her throat, grasping for something that she knew wasn't there. It wasn't like she had ever been wearing the locket in her dreams but something about it felt comforting. Safe. She felt like if she could just grasp it in her hand, feel the smooth metal on her fingers, trace the shape of a heart she knew so well, maybe whatever was going to happen would be just a bad dream. When she opened her eyes, she would be home...wherever that was. Riley couldn't remember but she felt like it had to be better than this broken world that was her reality now. Something better had to exist still. Her dreams were proof of that, weren't they?

A loud crash startled her out of her thoughts, bringing her back to reality with frightening suddenness. Right. This wasn't one of the fairytales she'd found in the abandoned library, it was real life. Her life. She lived in a world of broken buildings, desolate landscapes, and fear. There were no castles, no princes, only herself and her self-imposed mission: find the person she saw whenever she closed her eyes; the person with the locket. Find who she was.

But first, she had to get out of here.

Recovering from her moment of weakness, she raised up only enough to peek over the crate she had been using as cover. The wood was cracked and peeling but it provided enough cover so whatever was in the building wouldn't be able to see her. Riley hoped the musty odor that clung to it would mask her scent also, though if the creatures got close enough to smell her then it wouldn't matter. She'd be dead.

Nobody really knew what happened when the world ended, or so she'd been told. Some said it was a virus, others said it was nuclear in origin. Whatever the cause, it wasn't like the movies where zombies took over and were easily avoided as people banded together in neat little communities of survivors. Aside from a world quickly running out of natural resources, the biggest struggle for those that survived was the....things that roamed what remained of the earth.

Okay, maybe 'thing' was a rude descriptor. Creatures was probably a better word. It wasn't their fault, after all.

Riley didn't know what they were, likely some poor animal mutated by whatever had happened. It didn't really matter. They were dangerous and she had to get past them to make it out of this warehouse. Before the sun went down preferably. Taking a long, silent breath, she scanned the area. The dripping sound had finally disappeared but Riley held no delusions that meant they were truly gone. Not giving herself time to overthink, or talk herself out of it more like, she sprang from her spot and sprinted towards the doors. A loud screech sounded behind her, causing her to cringe, but she didn't stop. Her heart hammered in her chest as she ran, not daring to look back.

A grey mist had settled over the world as she emerged back out into the open. This sector wasn't patrolled as often but she still had to be quick. Night would come soon which meant even more of the animals would start to emerge. Cardio had never been her strong suit, despite growing up in a world where running was almost a daily activity, but she was naturally quicker than most. The lumbering beasts were hindered by size and an amalgamation of limbs that didn't seem to fit together in any logical order. Keeping her breathing even, Riley allowed herself only a tiny peek behind her to see how much distance there was between them.

Nope, nope. Bad idea.

Shuddering, she increased her pace as the image of razor-sharp teeth bigger than her forearm danced through her mind's eye. She could hear the strange sizzling sound, something that came from the saliva that dripped from their mouths, over the sound of thundering feet. To say that substance was not something you wanted getting on you was an understatement. It was the reason a simple leaky faucet could send her into a full-blown panic attack. She supposed everyone in this version of the world had developed various traumas from life but dripping seemed like a pretty weird one even still. Riley supposed she'd always been weird. After all, how many people had no memories save for that of a locket to hint at their past?

Blocking out the sounds from behind her, she ran until her lungs started to burn and the moon overhead became brighter than the sky behind it. This was supposed to be an easy endeavor. Get in, get out. Necessities were hard enough to come by but when you added in the threat of these creatures it made resources even more scarce. Riley didn't usually risk trips into any of the sectors, sticking largely to the abandoned coast in the hope of staying off of the radar of the survivors who took advantage of this broken world to assert their dominance, but her last hard-earned horde of supplies had been stolen and she couldn't put it off any longer.

Her ears strained to pick up any sign of her pursuer but heard nothing save for her own heavy breathing. A breeze tickled her cheeks, something that only happened when she was close to the shoreline that she called home. The small town that encompassed Sector 7, as dilapidated as it was, still had too many buildings too close together for air to flow freely. Glancing over her shoulder, Riley nearly wept when she didn't see the creature behind her. Sending a silent thanks to whoever or whatever might be listening, she turned back to the road ahead. Or that was what she expected to do. What actually happened was she ran head-first into a very solid form.

Her blood ran cold, hands coming up in front of her defensively before she even came to a stop. Riley half expected it to be the monster that had been chasing her. That would be just her luck. Instead, she raised her eyes and took in....a person? Blinking, she stepped back, eyes wide as she gulped in air and shook her head.

"You shouldn't be here," she finally managed. The stranger's lips quirked in a wry smile.

"Most people usually say sorry when they slam into someone." His tone was full of amusement she didn't share.

"Yeah, well, most people probably have better social skills than I do." She started to move past him when a flash of light around his neck caught her eye. If she hadn't already been breathless from her run, all the air would've left her lungs as her eyes fixed on the gold chain around his neck. The glow of the moon bounced off its intricate façade, drawing her eye even without the enormity of what she was looking at closing in.

"Where did you get that?" Riley's voice was barely above a whisper but he clearly heard because he looked down in confusion. Lifting the heart, he met her gaze.

"My mother." A simple enough answer, especially given how confused he seemed by her interest, but she felt like the world stopped. It was like the immediate and ever-present danger faded away, her vision tunneling into one singular focus. Her hand reached out, almost of its own accord, needing to feel that it was real for herself. The stranger stepped back, expression wary. "What are you-" he started, but his words cut off abruptly as a snarl sounded behind him.

The next instant, merely a second, everything changed. sharp teeth flashed in the moonlight, gripping him around the waist and dragging him back into the endless darkness as if he'd never been there at all. One minute, all the possibilities and answers to her past seemed to be right in front of her and the next...she was alone.