The Outbreak

Milo managed to plant his arm between himself and the woman, and he did what he could to free himself from this terrible situation.

Grabbing his phone, he gripped it tightly and slammed it into the woman's head. He heard his screen crack on impact, and the woman seemed shocked enough that she let him go momentarily.

He knew he couldn't fight the woman head on at all, so he turned tail and ran as fast as he possibly could. He had run down several streets when a car drove over and stopped and two men got out.

"Freeze! Who are you?" Milo looked at the police officers and wanted to curse. He had been attacked and they were nowhere in sight, and now he managed to get loose, they popped up?

"I'm Milo! Milo Elric. I need help." Milo staggered, his vision dimming due to a mixture of exhaustion and blood loss. The police drew their weapons, pistols and aimed at Milo with serious expressions.

"What attacked you? Are you injured?!" Even half muddled, Milo realized something wasn't right. Instead of helping him, they aimed at him and asked if he was injured, as if he were an enemy or something.

"No? Why are you aiming at me?" Milo stopped moving, his heart pounding in anxiety. One of the police glanced at him and aimed the pistol at his chest.

"He's infected. That blood should be his own. We don't know which strain he has, just kill him to be safe." The other nodded and Milo felt his heart palpitate.

"There you are~" A familiar voice entered his ears and the police reacted, aiming their weapons at the newcomer. A familiar woman walked over, eyes narrowed in amusement.

"I even gave you a head start. Imagine how surprised I was when I still found your scent nearby." The woman smiled, her eerie eyes causing the policemen to pale considerably.

"Shoot!" One of the police let a few rounds fly, and the woman got hit a few times, staggering backwards a few feet with a displeased expression flashing on her face.

"Die." The woman spat out coldly and Milo couldn't follow her speed. He heard a wet gurgle and looked over in time to see the woman next to one of the officers, her hand easily wrenching his head sideways like a toy, shattering the bones in his neck.

"So weak and helpless." The woman mocked, and with a smooth motion, she threw the police man's body into the wall of a building with a sickening thud five meters away.

"I have this urge to kill you, but I won't. Not yet at least. I feel that something interesting will happen..." The woman straight up ignored the other police officer, turning her eyes to Milo.

"If you come with me peacefully, we might be able to help you! You are sick!" The woman smiled in ridicule and before the policeman could continue speaking, Milo heard the sound of flesh tearing.

"I am perfectly fine, thank you very much." Milo watched as she easily tore the man's head from his body, causing blood to splash on the ground. The man's body trembled and then collapsed, blood spurting from what was left of his neck.

"You hit me... but it's fine. I was a bit too out of control, so I'll let it slide." The woman stared at Milo who shivered like a rabbit caught in the jaws of a wolf.

The woman could easily tear his head from his neck, or she could break his bones without much effort, so how could he remain calm facing this impossibility?

"You are afraid of me. I can hear your racing heart, and I can smell your fear. Don't be afraid, soon you'll be just like me." Seeing Milo's dumbfounded look, she giggled and walked over, blood dripping from her hands.

"W-who would want to be a monster like you?" Milo mumbled, and the woman vanished from his sight. He felt a cold smooth arm wrap itself around his chest, and a soft voice whispered in his ear from behind.

"Am I a monster? I saved you from them. If I didn't kill them, they'd have killed you. Would you just die without fighting back?" Even though the woman drank his blood a few minutes earlier, she smelled like flowers and perfume. 

"You also bit me! I was minding my own business and you bit me!" Milo shivered as the woman's cold yet soft body pressed against his own gently. A slender hand guided his head to the side so he could look her in the eyes.

"I could have killed you. But you're still alive. Maybe I am a monster, or perhaps I'm just different and you simply can't understand me." The woman's blood red eyes stared into Milo's quietly.

"You will become like me. I don't know why, that's just how it is." The woman stepped away, but her hand drifted to Milo's shoulder, not letting him go far from her.

"Like you? Why?" Milo recalled the police saying she was infected, that she was sick, but the woman herself didn't seem too concerned with that news at all.

"Like a disease, whatever this is can be transmitted. When I bit you, I bit my tongue and made sure that you were exposed to my blood. Now, if you survive, you'll change, just like I did."

"If I survive? So I might die? Is that it? Die or become a monster?" Milo shivered, and this time not in fear. His body felt like it was gradually losing heat, as if he were being doused in icy water.

"You may be afraid, but don't be. If you survive, you will be stronger." The woman grabbed Milo who couldn't even remain on his feet anymore and leapt upwards.

Milo's surroundings became indistinct, but he knew that the woman carried him somewhere secluded because he couldn't hear anyone or anything aside from the wind blowing.

"Do you feel cold? That's your immune system losing to the infection. By now, your body would have gone into overdrive to fight it off, but a human simply cannot do so."

Milo felt a sharp pain lance through his brain. He hadn't ever experienced something so painful. He could feel his brain throb as something wormed it's way in.

"The first to change will be your brain. Do you feel light-headed? The virus is rewiring your brain to better suit itself. That ache in your throat? It will only get worse." Milo curled into a ball, shivering on the ground as his body underwent changes, some so painless he felt nothing, and others so agonizing that they made him wish for death.