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Don't worry, this is only filler. You don't _have _to read the previous parts first! But unlike most filler episodes from your favorite animes, this is actually coherent to the plot. Kinda. Happy reading! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~KYLA BRIGGS~~~

~04:37pm, Z-Day~

"Kyla, I can't run no more! Carry me!"

Dammit, Susie, this is the worst possible time...

"Are you sure? We're almost there, I can see the helicopter right on top of that building! Don't stop!"

"Come oooooooooon, my legs huuuuuurt!"

Sigh... I realize she's only five years old, but this is a life-and-death situation right now. An unlikely one at that, but considering how bad things are, it's only going to get worse with each passing second. We can't afford to lose any of that precious time.

I stopped running and knelt down, motioning to my sister. "All right, quick, Susie, hop onto my back. I'll carry you, just hang on tight!"

She climbed onto my back and hung on for dear life. I slowly regained my footing, and resumed our hellish race against time to the evacuation point. "Keep your head down, honey, and don't look behind you. You don't need to see any more of them today."

"Okay. Thanks, sis."

By 'them', of course, I meant the walking dead. They're exactly what you'd think of when the term 'zombie' comes to mind; awkwardly limping, flesh gray and decaying, and an inhumane moan to signal their arrival. It's easy to remember all the classic movies where some people run from the zombies while others fight back and have a grand 'ole time killing them, but this is real life. Actually trying to fight these... things... is a fool's errand. You kill one, and there's suddenly three more surrounding you. All we're going to do is run and hopefully survive. We've been doing just that all day, and only now has an opportunity to save ourselves presented itself. The only things in our way were one tall building and all the zombies trying to eat us before we get there.

Between breaths, I tried to explain to Susie exactly what my plan was. "See that building? We're gonna... climb to the top and... get on that helicopter... Remember how they shouted... that they're only gonna be there for... another ten minutes? That's.... how long we have."

"Can you run that fast, Kyla?" Susie asked with the purest curiosity a child could muster.

Oh dear God I hope so, Susie...

"We're gonna find out one way or another, sis." In my head, however, I knew that even if we made it to the building, there's a chance we wouldn't even be able to get inside, let alone climb up all the stairs in time. The entire city block's power was suddenly cut over an hour ago, so no elevators would be operational. Even worse, there could be any number of zombies blocking our path, and I wasn't carrying anything that qualified as a weapon.

But as if God Himself was reading my mind and answering my prayers, I could suddenly hear gunshots coming from the direction of the building. I quickened my pace and ran past some stray zombies, all of whom immediately joined their undead comrades in chasing us. As I came around one last corner, I saw that the front door of the building was wide open, and a middle-aged couple was trying to get in. The man was blasting zombies out of their way with a high-caliber shotgun, and his wife was firing a small revolver, albeit being a terrible shot. Nevertheless, they had forged a clear path into the building, and all we had to do now was get there before the zombies reconverged at the entrance. I was only a few hundred feet behind the couple, and I immediately recognized them as the Chapmans; since they lived down our street and frequently babysat Susie for us. I remember Mr. Chapman saying he was a gun collector at one point, and in one day it's clearly gone from being a hobby to being a godsend.

I shouted to get their attention. "Steve! Linda! Wait for us!"

Linda turned around, saw us, and said something to her husband. He too turned and saw us coming, but didn't look too happy about the crowd we had gathered behind us. Nevertheless, he shot another zombie out of his way, and motioned for his wife to head inside the building. "Kyla, run right inside! Once you get in, help us lock these doors!"

I happily obliged and used the last of my energy to make a dash for the building lobby, put Susie down, and help the Chapmans shut and lock the doors. Some zombies had gotten up, apparently not shot up enough to stop moving, and began to bang on the doors. They were securely fastened, but wouldn't hold once the rest of the horde arrived. We had completed the penultimate leg of our journey, but time was still running out for all of us.

"Are you girls all right? Did either of you get bitten?" Steve asked while reloading his shotgun. He was furiously rummaging through his pockets, but was only able to find five more rounds. I could tell he was about to curse, but he restrained himself since Susie was here.

It's nice to know that while the world's going to hell, _some decency still exists... _

"We're fine, thanks, and we haven't been bitten" I said. "What about you guys?"

"Much of the same, thanks to these" Linda said while reloading her revolver. She was down to her last few bullets as well, but didn't seem too upset by it. "I always secretly wanted Steve to get rid of his guns, but there comes a time when everyone gets to say 'I told you so.' Lucky he decided to stock up on ammo too."

Steve smirked at that. "Well, hopefully what we've got will last us until we get to the roof. What we have is perfect for tight quarters, but don't let your guard down, girls. They could sneak up on you from anywhere and bite you just like that. We've seen it all day, and once they get their teeth in you, it could be as little as an hour before you're one of them."

Then, right out of nowhere:

"Is that why mommy tried to bite us, Kyla?" The pure innocence in her voice made the air in the room much thicker than normal.

Linda brought her hand to her mouth and gasped. Steve sighed with discontempt. Luckily, Susie didn't catch their reactions and realize something was wrong. For the third time today, I knelt down and faced Susie on her own level, and calmly rationalized what happened to our mother for her. "I told you, Susie, that wasn't mommy. It only looked like her because it was a monster in disguise. I don't know where mommy is right now, but I know she wants us to be safe. And that's what we're gonna do, okay?"

"Okay."

I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. At least not today. It's true that my mother and I never really saw eye-to-eye since our dad left, but I was still very upset deep down about losing her. She wasn't the best mother, but she often tried to be. In the grand scheme of things, I know I should've appreciated her efforts more, and I was sorry I didn't. But this wasn't the time for that. I brushed my legs off and took Susie's hand. "How are we gonna get to the roof? There's gotta be a staircase around here somewhere."

"There" Linda said while pointing to a door on the far left. "I've been here before, so I know my way around. The problem is, this is an apartment building, which means there could easily be zombified people here. Worse, we have to go through each hallway to get to the next level, ten in total. We have to be quick, yet quiet."

Steve cocked his shotgun. "All right, girls, let's get a move on. We've only got about three minutes left."

~~~

The first five floors up were easy enough; though light moaning and grunting from behind some of the doors was reason enough for us to be wary of any danger. Zombies are effective killers, but they're not exactly the quietest, and that's a good thing. All it required out of us was not making any loud noises. However, there didn't seem to be any survivors around here at all. As we advanced through the sixth floor, I was beginning to worry that they had already gone to the roof and would be saved instead of us.

But once we got to level seven, a large obstacle in our way snapped me out of my thoughts. Right in the middle of the hallway, there was a body lying face-down, a large pool of blood surrounding it. Its skin was grey and there were bite marks on its neck, so it was easy to assume that this was indeed a zombie, but he wouldn't be bothering us any time soon. Before Susie could get a good look at him, I picked her up again and held her in my arms, shielding her eyes from the ghastly sight and using my arms to cover her ears. To Steve and Linda, this probably wasn't anything new, but I could tell they were still disturbed on some level. One by one, we walked past the dead zombie towards the stairs, hopeful that the next floor won't have any nasty surprises. Steve held up the front, shotgun at the ready, I was in the middle carrying Susie, and Linda held up the rear.

But as she was walking around the corpse, Linda accidentally tapped its head with her foot. And that's when the entire plan went to hell.

The corpse wasn't a corpse at all. As soon as he felt something touch him, the zombie sprung like a Venus flytrap. He grabbed Linda's ankle and prepared to take a bite out of it, causing her to scream. But before Steve and I could react, she unloaded her revolver into the zombie's head, scoring two clean headshots at the expense of her last four bullets. He immediately stopped moving, but his grasp around Linda's ankle didn't let up. Of course, that was the least of our problems now. A worried look shared between the three of us confirmed we knew exactly what was coming up next.

And one by one, the ambient moans in the background became louder, accompanied by clawing and pounding at the doors. Stealth be dammed, all we needed now was speed. Steve ran over to Linda and pried the zombie's fingers off her ankle. "Stay behind me and RUN!" he shouted. Fast as lightning we ran up to the eight floor, and were greeted by several walkers in the hallway. Steve relentlessly blew them out of our way with his shotgun; the noise it made was irrelevant at this point.

Once we got to the ninth floor, however, the zombies had begun to get crafty. And it cost us dearly. One of them burst through a door just as Linda ran by it and grabbed her; she had no way for her to defend herself this time. She screamed much louder than before and thrashed around madly, trying to throw the zombie off. Tossing common sense out the window, Steve turned around and dashed towards his wife with the intention of blowing the ghoul's brains out, but was quickly caught in the same trap as she was. Three zombies burst through one door and surrounded Steve, forcing him to the ground and wresting the shotgun away from his hands.

I could only stand and watch in horror as the zombies began tearing into him while the one that had Linda in his grasp slouched back into the room he came from. Steve's screams interwove with Linda's, though hers quickly became gurgled and faded away. With his last bit of life, he looked at me and whispered one word.

"...Run..."

I snapped out of shock fast enough to heed his final warning. I tightened my grip around Susie and made a dash for the tenth and final floor, using a rare combination of adrenaline and stupidity to tackle two zombies out of my way. By this point, I had to put Susie down, and yelled at her to keep following me.

"What happened to Steve and Linda?" she asked confusedly.

Again, I lacked the courage to tell her the truth. "They went another way! Just keep running!"

After one more flight of stairs, I used strength I didn't even know I had and kicked the final door open. I could see that someone had moved food, water, supplies, and beds onto the roof, turning the top of this building into a waiting room for evacuation. And right in the middle of everything was the helicopter that we'd hoped to see all day. The only problems were that it was already full of people, and the rotors were spinning with increasing speed.

Oh my God, they're taking off...NO!!!

"WAAAAAAIT!!! DON'T LEAVE US! PLEASE!" I shouted as I ran, with Susie right behind me, over to one of the helicopter's doors. A soldier opened the sliding door and shouted over the helicopter's rotor noise as best as he could. "I'm sorry, miss, we've already reached maximum capacity, and we've only got enough fuel to get us so far. But don't worry, there'll be more choppers any time now."

It was a lie. Any idiot could tell.

"PLEASE! We've gone through hell and back just to get this far! DON'T LEAVE US TO DIE!!!" I could feel tears rolling down my face, and I could see that Susie was just as worried as me. I doubt she understood exactly what was going on, but if I was clearly upset about something, she'd get enough of the idea.

The soldier looked like he wanted to help us, but his mind was made up. "Again, I'm sorry. Now stand back, we need to take off!"

And then, I suddenly realized what I had to do. I didn't pause and think it over, nor did I try to think of another solution. I picked Susie up, kissed her on the head, and held her up to him.

"Wait! Take her. Leave me and take her. I know you can't take both of us, but there's no reason you can't take my sister. Please..."

Unlike me, the soldier paused and thought it over for a second. But before I even realized what I had just said, he took Susie from my hands and passed her to another passenger.

"She'll be safe with us. Now please, stand back..."

Now completely dumbfounded by my own actions, I took three steps back and took one last look at my sister. She knew EXACTLY what was going on now.

"Kyla, wait! Why isn't Kyla coming with us? Kyla? KYYYYYLAAAAAAA!!!"

~~~

The rest of the day was a complete blur. By the time I woke up the next morning, still on the roof, I had run out of tears to shed. The door leading downstairs had held up just fine, but considering what I just went through, it would've been nice to be devoured by zombies in my sleep. Even if I woke up from the pain, I wouldn't have put up a fight.

_At least she's safe... _

I sighed deeply. That really was the only silver lining to all this. I know I shouldn't be so upset, but giving up Susie felt like chopping off my own arm. I'm happy that she'll be in a sheltered area surrounded by soldiers and people who can fight the undead, but my sorrow outweighed this small glimmer of hope by a ton.

Wait, speaking of small glimmers, what is that?

I could see, way down in the horizon, a small black dot. As it got closer and closer, I realized that it was another helicopter. Seems that the soldier wasn't lying after all. Throwing my suicidal thoughts out the window, I immediately began waving my arms and jumping up and down, trying to get the pilot's attention.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEY!!! I'M OVER HEEEEEERE!!!"

But to my horror, I saw that he was turning to the left, about to completely bypass me and leave me for dead. In full-on panic mode, I frantically searched the rooftop for anything I could use to show them I was here, and through what must have been another miracle, I found just what I needed. Two signal flares, safely stashed inside a metal box near a corner of the roof. Whoever owned this building must've anticipated a war going on or something, but I didn't care right now. As quickly as I could, I struck both ends of the flares and held them high above my head, waving them back and forth. It took the pilot no time at all to notice me now, and I could see him slowly turning around and heading towards me.

I was saved!

I just wish I wasn't alone though...

~Four and a half months later~

"Hi. My name is Kyla. Kyla Briggs. Or 'Theta Twelve', but I'm not really big on the codenames."

Theta Twelve... What does that even mean? Am I the twelfth subject in a long line of experiments? Does it signify something important about who I am now? Or was it just a completely random name given to me? Ugh, I'm looking WAY too deeply into this...

After four months of living in the shelter I was flown into, another helicopter arrived one day. Several people from a pharmaceutical company called Human Advancements came to us with a proposal; we become experimental subjects in a revolutionary scientific breakthrough, and become the ultimate weapons for fighting the undead. They ensured that we'd all be taken care of and would be set for life in the event humanity comes out on top. It wouldn't be an easy life until then, but we had a chance of saving the world.

To ensure that nobody ever has to go through what I went through because of this apocalypse, I accepted HAC's offer and was flown into their heavily fortified base immediately. I was the only one from the shelter who did, actually. Once I got inside, the scientists wasted no time getting me ready. The procedure was... painful, but only for a split second. The doctors told me I passed out almost immediately after it started...

I was currently in a small conference room with two other hybrids; my new teammates. One was a relaxed-looking gray wolf morph, the other was a tough-looking lion morph. They had already introduced themselves to each other, but I was meeting them for the first time, and there was clearly a lot of ice to break. And on the subject of ice, it's been about two weeks since my 'transformation', but at this point I already have full control over my powers thanks to all the training I did since then. In spite of everything, I will admit that what my new body can do is pretty cool, pun completely intended. I'm much stronger, faster, and agile as I'd ever been, and the cryokinesis hasn't ceased to amaze me yet. All I have to figure out now is how to use these abilities against the living dead, because our first fight against them is only a few days away. I'm not too excited about it, but I can clearly count on these guys if I'm ever in trouble.

But even with a new body, my mindset is mostly the same. I know that all this time Susie's been in a safe environment, but it hasn't stopped me from missing her so much. The good thing was that I wasn't as depressed over losing her anymore. After coming to terms with what I did and replaying the situation over and over in my head, I now know for certain that it was the right decision to make. She's not dead or missing, and that's hope enough for me. But if she didn't make it to the roof and wound up like the Chapmans... I didn't even want to contemplate it.

Anyway, back to the here-and-now:

The wolf hybrid walked over to me and shook my hand, a friendly smile on his face. "Nice to meet you, Kyla. I'm Evan Whittaker, and I know how you feel about the codenames... I'd prefer my real name over Rho Eleven any day."

The lion hybrid followed suit. "I'm the team leader, Ross Gunderson. Call me Ross, call me Lambda Six, I really don't care which. What I do care about is that the three of us do everything we can to survive and win this war against the undead. We're all brothers and sisters in arms now. A new family for all of us."

"Family, huh..." My voice involuntarily dropped a few octaves and my gaze fell to the floor.

Evan glared at Ross with a look that said 'her entire family might be dead, asshole!.' He immediately got the hint. "What I meant was... Umm... I didn't mean to pull any heartstrings, Kyla. I'm sorry."

I shifted my eyes away from the floor and smiled at them. "No, guys, I'm just really happy to finally be part of a family again. You didn't upset me, it's just.... Never mind, it's a story for another day."

Evan returned my smile with a warm one of his own. "Don't worry Kyla, I think I know where you're coming from myself."

"I think we _all _do" Ross added. "Kyla's right; there's a time and place for backstories, but this isn't it. Right now, what's important is that we're a family, not in blood, but in bond. As long as we stick together, nothing will ever go wrong. Sound good?"

"Yeah" Evan agreed. He and Ross knuckle-pounded.

I walked over and wrapped my arms around both of them, all of my sorrows beginning to just melt away. They held me just as close, giving me the exact kind of love I'd been craving all this time.

"Thank you guys. Thank you so much..."

~~~

I might have gone a little overboard with this one, since it'll probably be the longest Origins chapter. I'll leave that for you, the readers to decide. But only two remain! I'm STILL not saying who they're going to be about though...

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