Chapter Text
Her feet felt on fire and her back ached. She can feel blisters forming on the back of her heels. She needed to push forward, she couldn’t risk being found outside after sunset. But god does she wish—no she prays that she can find somewhere quick to bunk up for the night.
Her back was also screaming at her to stop and just rest. She was carrying her son in a sling on her front, and a hiking pack on her back, stuffed to the brim with supplies. Mumei felt like a damn turtle. If she trips and falls, she doesn’t know if she’d be able to get back up.
How long has she been walking, thirty minutes an hour? No, it had to be way longer than that, much longer. About two hours she had to say, or was it three, maybe four, five? She was having trouble keeping track. Adrenaline alone was moving her body.
This paved road that had been forcibly taken aback by mother nature, seems to never end and all she sees for miles is grass and trees. No town or single house in sight. She just wants to rest. Find a place for her and her son to be safe. Was that too much to ask for?
At most, and she was being quite generous with this estimate, Mumei had about another hour and a half left before the sun started to set. So seriously, she needed to find somewhere fast.
Before one of those things finds her…
She looks down at the handmade sling she carried against her chest. It was made of an old long-as-heck jean skirt she had found, and her childhood owl blanket. She wasn’t that great at sewing, but she was proud of how sturdy she had made the sling.
Her infant son Otus was thankfully fast asleep. Hopefully, he will stay asleep until she finds a place to rest, and hide out for the night. She knows for a fact he will want to eat once he wakes up. If she is still out here walking on the road, she won’t be able to stop and feed him. She can’t risk any daylight.
She walked about another half mile or so before finally finding an abandoned farm house. The front yard was grown with leaves and vines have started to take over the walls and roof of the house. The once white paint was peeling off, and the porch looked like it would cave in at any second. Yet, this shithole was better than nothing.
People have definitely been to here before or at least she prays that it was another person. The entire place looks ransacked. So she really didn’t have any hope of finding more supplies. The smell of urine and other foul substances clogged the air. If she had the time she would look for somewhere else to crash. Unfortunately, to Mumei’s annoyance, she doesn't. At least she had a place to lie low for the night, and not become one of those beasts midnight snacks.
Mumei figures the basement would be the best option to hunker down for the night. After using a clothes basket she found lying in a random corner of the basement. The brunette puts together a makeshift bed for her baby boy.
She starts setting up things for her and her son to spend the night, and somehow figures out a way to keep them both alive.
What was left of the furniture which wasn't much mind you. She used to block the windows and doors of the first floor. Thank goodness there wasn’t a second floor. With her luck, one of those flying bastards would have broken in and found them. She was, however, able to find some blankets, so after checking them for bed bugs, she brought them downstairs for the two of them to use. She placed the knit one over Otus, figuring this would be the safer option for him to use.
The basement itself wasn’t anything grand, but it worked as a shelter. It was just concrete floors and walls. It did smell like mildew, but she would happily take that over the overwhelming smell of piss upstairs.
Mumei began to spread out and layer the other blankets she had found. To try and make some type of bed to sleep on, to hopefully give her aching back some cushion. Then she started to take out a few supplies from her pack. A small camping chair, a small palm-sized flashlight, along with a solar-powered lamp. Next, she pulls out a sleeping bag along with a small inflatable pillow that she throws onto the makeshift bed. And, finally, she pulls out a definitely expired protein bar. It was the only thing, food-wise, she had left on her.
She looked over at her son, still fast asleep. The boy could sleep through anything. Probably due to the fucked up situation he was born into. If Mumei had known, the world would have gone to shit. She wouldn’t have gone through a stupid pregnancy. Hell, she never wanted him in the first place. Those fuckers, forced her too. Whatever, none of that matters now. She just needs to keep both of them alive. Even if she generally feels like giving up.
Mumei gives a hard shake to her head, and slaps hard at her cheeks. She really shouldn’t think that way. She was just hungry and exhausted. So she sits down on the camping chair, unwraps the protein bar and takes a bite. It was dense and tasted like chalk, but it was the only thing she had right now, and she really needed the fuel. She forces the rest of it down. God, she wanted to throw it up. She wished she had some water to wash it down, but unfortunately she had drunk the last of what she had while on the road. Maybe there will be a well nearby she can use to fill up her canteen.
Then it hits her ears, the screeching cry. She can feel her shoulders drop and her mood sour even more. Otus had woken up, and he was hungry.
“I’m coming,” Mumei sighs as she makes her way over to the makeshift bassinet. “Okay-okay,” she hushes the infant as she begins to rock him in her arms. She drags her feet as she makes her way back to the chair to sit down. She lifts her shirt along with her sports bra so she can nurse her son. Infants are such parasites. “Are you happy now?”
Otus lets out a happy coo as he eats his mother’s milk. His small fist held tightly onto Mumei’s shirt. His little sock covered feet kicking while he eats.
“Pig…”
Mumei runs her fingers across the tuft of brown hair atop his head. The boy had her hair color but the bastard's eye, a disgusting blood-red color. She watches her son eat, sucking her dry. She never understood why this was such a special moment for mother and child. It felt like an annoying chore. If she had access to formulas and bottles, she would have fed him that way, but to her irritation, she didn’t. Even though the only thing she felt towards Otus was responsibility, she wasn’t some cruel monster that would starve the child. So she was going to feed him the only way she knew how. The horrible act of breastfeeding.
…
BAMB, CRACK, THUD!
Mumei shoots up from the chair, her son still held tightly in her arms. She had fallen asleep in the damn thing. In her haste to stand, she knocked the chair along with the lamp that was next to it onto their sides.
Something was out there; it was right above them. She could hear its heavy footsteps above them. Mumei hadn’t secured the first floor well enough. Something had gotten inside. She was trapped. The only thing keeping the beast that was now roaming the farmhouse from finding her and her son was the locked basement door. And, Mumei’s luck, which was quickly running out on her.
She tried to think of what to do, but she was stuck by fear. Her heart was screaming in her ears to do something, to move. Yet, she was frozen solid, her body refused to listen to her brain. Was this their end?
A loud, pained, blood-crudding roar hits her eardrums hard. It was quickly followed by a louder, more viscous roar. That shook Mumei to the core.
Mumei’s brown eyes stayed locked on the basement door, her baby held close to her chest. While she felt vile, starting to fill her throat. She could hear the footsteps getting closer. The beast was right at the door.
CRASH, THUNK!
In pure horror, the brunette watches as the basement door is kicked off its hinges. At the top of the stairwell stood a large shadowed figure holding someone or something by its neck.
“Who the hell is in my home?!” A loud roar echoes throughout the basement.