Journal:Cub McBub
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This story is part of the Malton Chronicles. This story is fan-made, and is not officially part of any background history for Urban Dead. |
Origins
Cub sat on the couch inside the Malton Angel’s headquarters. Headquarters sounded so official… but it really a run down building… like almost every building in Malton. Signs of the epidemic where everywhere…broken furniture… boards on the windows and doors… lazily placed weapons about the room… and … blood-splatters on the walls…
He watched his new partners… a couple going over maps of the city on a table… discussing plans of this or that… a couple of others just seemed to be chatting amicably…
Everything was relaxed… even though there were a couple of zombies wandering the streets a mere block away. That’s what this world has come too… at least the world of Malton… a couple of Zeds were just not anything to get excited about anyone…
This young boy of 10 remembered a time when that was not the case… when even one zombie shocked him…
Day One: Part One
Cub remembers the day of the outbreak…he was playing on his bedroom floor…
“Pishu … pishu…” the boy of 7 made the sound of laser blasts… his Star Wars figures shooting at each other… the good guys always won…
Grandma was over to baby-sit … as she always did after school. She seemed very intent on the TV today… seemed there was another disaster somewhere in the world…
“Charlie… come down for supper!” Charlie… that was his real name. Charlie McBub… but everyone called him Cub… even his parents and sister… everyone except for Grandma.
“Come-on down Love”
“Supper?” Charlie thought to himself. “Where's Mom and Dad… and Clair?” Cub’s Grandma usually only baby-sits until someone else gets home. Clair, Cub’s sister, was 15 and often at cheerleader practice… at a friend’s… or at the mall… so she was often late… but his parents were usually home right after work.
Cub looked out the window … “Getting dark…” the young boy ran down the stairs…
“Where’s Mom and Dad? When are they coming home?”
“Well…Charlie…” Cub could sense a tension in Grandma’s voice… worry started to creep in… “It seems there are some traffic problems in another part of the city… some roads are closed… so your parents are probably stuck at work…” Grandma gave a reassuring smile… “Your sister is stuck too... stuck at the mall. She would like that wouldn’t she? hehe” The old lady patted Cub on the head, but the laugh was nervous and forced...
Cub cocked his head and scrunched his lips in confusion… “Stuck?” he thought to himself… even to his inexperienced seven-year-old brain this didn’t seem to make sense.
“Did you call?” Cub asked… he knew Clair had a cell phone… it was a birthday present… bit really it was a way for Cub’s parents to keep track of this outgoing teen.
“Well…” his grandmother shuffled her feet… she couldn’t hide her worry… “It seems like the phones are out of service. So I can’t get through right now.”
Day One: Part Two
Just then a Cub heard a number of large trucks driving on the street outside the home at high speed. The young boy ran to the front window to see that they were military troop transports… all heading towards the centre of town.
Three passed by… the forth stopped just down the street. A number of army troops jumped out the back… fanning out…
Cub was transfixed on these events… never having seen anything like it before… then he felt his shoulders grabbed…
He turned his gaze toward his grandma… “Charlie… do have supper love…”
“But I want to see…” Cub replied…
His grandmother gripped his shoulder more tightly… and repeated in a firm voice…
“Go eat now… please!”
Begrudgingly… Cub shuffled to the dining room table where the meal waited on his plate… spaghetti! One of Cub’s favourites...
Cub started to eat while his grandmother looked out the window…
“What’s happening grandma?”
“Oh… nothing love…” he could hear that tension in her voice again… “You just keep on eating…”
Cub grits his teeth. Grownups always said “You just this or that” whenever they didn’t want you to know something. He was dieing to see what was going on…
Then Grandma stood straight… and rushed… as much as the old lady could rush… more of a quick waddling shuffle… towards the door…
KNOCK!! KNOCK!!
Day One: Part Three
Cub stood as his grandmother opened the door… standing there was a soldier…
“Ma'am… this is an emergency!”
“Wait! Wait… let’s talk outside…” glancing back at Cub…then gently pushing the soldier back so that she could get out of the door…
Cub raced to the door and planted his ear…
“Ma'am… the riots in the central part of the city are spreading outwards… fast… I suggest you and the boy get to a designated safe house.”
“Bu…But… my Son… the boy’s parents and sister… They are there! They might come home. We have to wait for them…”
There’s a long pause…
“Ma'am … we are not directed to force you… it’s your choice… but… from the reports… it’s bad…VERY bad…”
Another pause…
“You didn’t hear it from me… but… it’s more than riots… people are dying… take this map… get to a designated safe house… it’s defended. Go while it’s safe…”
Cub heard the footsteps of the soldier walk away… he ran back to the dining room table. The boy watched as the old lady slowly came back into the house… all the color was gone from her face…
“You OK Grandma?”
The smiled… to reassure him or herself the seven year old couldn’t tell… “Yes Charlie… I’m fine…”
“Are we leaving?” The grandmother’s face scrunched at Cub's question.
“Charlie…” she shakes her head… “You shouldn’t have been listening!” she paused… “No… I don’t think so… Look at all those soldiers! This should all be done by tomorrow. Anyway… we want to be here in case… ah… when… your parents or sister get home”
“Are they alright?”
“Yes Charlie…I’m sure they are fine. They wouldn’t be involved in any of that stuff. They’re just stuck until the roads are cleared.”
She smiled again… Cub thought that it looked too forced… but he wanted to be reassured… to take Grandma’s explanations at face value… and at seven… he still could…
So he ate the rest of his supper… then went upstairs to play some more…
About two hours later the lights went out…
“Grandma… Grandma!!” Cub was still a little afraid of the dark… there was still some light from outside as it was July… so there was no panic.
The boy heard his Grandmother’s heavy stomping steps coming up the stairs…
“It’s alright Charlie… just a power outage. It looks like the whole block is out.” She entered the boy’s room as she finished the last sentence. “Let’s… have an early night…”
Cub lay in bed that night… but had a hard time sleeping… police sirens… more large trucks driving by… and in the distance gunfire and the occasional explosion could be heard.
“Are we at war or something?” Cub asked... but finally the boy went to sleep…
Day Two: Part One
Cub awoke and stretched… the sun shone in through the window… another warm July day.
Ratt-tat-tat-tat
Cub shot up straight… gunfire… and closer than anything he heard last night…
He remembered now… jumping out of bed… still in his flannel Spiderman pyjamas… he ran downstairs.
He saw his grandmother walking quickly towards the bottom of the stairs to meet him.
“Morning love.” She said… forcing a reassuring smile… “Come have some breakfast.” She looked exhausted… like she didn’t sleep a wink…
“Grandma… what about Mom and Dad… Clair… they didn’t come home did they? Did you talk to them?” Cub’s words were coming out like the machine-gun fire in the distance…
There was a pause from his grandmother. Cub stood wide-eyed in anticipation of an answer.
“No love… I haven’t been able to reach anyone.”
“Well… what should we do? We should find them…” Cub ran to the front door…
“Charlie! Stop!!” His grandmother pleaded… stretching her arm after him…
Ignoring her Cub threw open the door and ran out on the front step… where he stopped…
Up the street… about 100 ft… was a man walking… well lurching was more like it… slowly up the road…
Blood covered the left side of his pale shirt… also on that side his shoulder slumped low… the arm dangling as though he had little control of it. The source of the blood… a large flap of skin in the left side of the man’s neck was flopped down… partially covering his slumping shoulder. The exposed wound from the neck pulsated… but not much blood flowed. The man’s eyes were distant… the pupils black…
Of course, Cub did not recognize this as his first Zombie encounter…
