Children all around

Artemis was walking with her daughter Ariella down the street as they had just gotten some food from the local grocery store. Artemis turned to see a child under a tree, just staring at them. Ariella got scared and clung onto her mother tightly, "M-mother... why is that boy staring at us?" She asked as she started to shake a little in fear.

Artemis patted Ariella's head, "I-It is fine sweetheart... just stay here and I will go check, ok?" She smiled down at Ariella reassuringly and Ariella nodded, she slowly let go and Artemis walked over to the small boy, "Hello sweety, are you ok?" She asked with some worry in her voice and the boy looked to her and growled angrily, not saying a word. Artemis blinked and backed away a bit, "Erm, is that a yes or a no?" She tilted her head and the boy's mouth suddenly opened wide and a gas mask began to form on the boy's head. He looked to her and started to walk towards her.

Artemis ran to Ariella and picked her up in her arms, "Back off!" She said before realizing she had no bow and arrows and she knew she couldn't hurt a child, alien or not. She cursed under her breath and she backed up into an alleyway and her back hit against the dead end, and she was now trapped as the child reached it's hand out towards Ariella. "Mummy!" Ariella clung onto Artemis and Artemis looked down at her, "Run, Ariella! Run!" She gently pushed Ariella out of the way as the boy got nearer. Ariella felt tears in her eyes as she ran out of the alleyway, she ran down the street, "Help!! Somebody help, please!"

Lily walked down the street, carting her heavy shopping bags.Her dad was out of town, as he almost always was, and so she had went shopping for the week. Enough food for precisely 21 meals had been bought, plus snacks, as she did have a habit of getting up for a quick bite in the middle of the night. Her head turned as the little girl came running out of an alleyway, and down the street, yelling like someone was being murdered. She dropped the bags and jogged over to her, kneeling down so she was on level with the little girl. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" She put a hand on the girls shoulder, to hopefully calm her down, she seemed frantic, but she didn't look to be injured or anything. Her eyes darted around as she looked for anyone that could be the girls mother, but there wasn't anyone else in sight. "Where's your mother? Surely she wouldn't let you out here all on your own.." She stood up, looking both ways down the street, before turning her attention back to the girl, who looked to be about six years old. "What's your name?"

Ariella looked to the woman and she burst out crying, "My mummy is in trouble!" She had no time to say her name because as soon as she said that a piercing scream came from the alleyway and Ariella turned around and she quickly ran towards the alleyway, "Mummy?!" She shouted as she ran.

She ran into the alleyway to only come back out screaming and her eyes were wide in shock as Artemis walked out with a gas mask on her face and the small child with the gas mask came out too. They had their left arms stretched out towards Ariella and her eyes widened, "Mummy..." She looked to Artemis before running and hiding behind Lily. "Help my mummy, please!" She said to her.

Lilys eyes widened at the two steadily moving towards them, one adult, one child. She had never seen anything like this before. She turned to the girl, picking her up so she could carry her. "I won't lie to you, I don't know how to help your mummy, but I will try and find some way to help her alright?" She paused, glancing back at the gas-masked people, before starting to run down the street, Ariella in her arms.

"I'll take you to my flat, we can hide there, get you something to eat if your hungry, and I can start doing some research. Find out if this has happened before, so I can help your mummy alright?" It wasn't long before they had reached the small flat her and her dad shared, and she didn't look back to check i they had lost them, she just ran in, out of breath.

Ariella's eyes widened as she was suddenly picked up, she waited for a bit before nodding, "O-ok... just please help mummy." She said as she clung to Lily and she watched as Artemis and the boy slowly became small figures in the distance as they reached the flat.

Ariella slowly scrambled out of Lily's arms and she walked around the flat, "P-please help my mummy!" She said as tears crept down her cheeks and she sniffled as she cried, she sat against the wall and put her knees up, she wrapped her arms around her legs and cried into her knees. She wanted her mum to be ok, but she could tell her mummy wasn't ok at all.

Lily locked the door behind her, and grabbed a chair, pushing it under the doorknob. If they found them, they could probably get through rather quickly, but it would give them a few minutes that they could use to escape. She moved to grab a few tissues, and knelt next to the girl, wiping away the tears shining on her cheeks.

"My names's Lily, what's yours?"" She asked as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind the girls ear. "Before I got to work on finding a way to help your mum, I just wanted to see if you were hungry. I don't have much, I left it all back on the street, but I have juice, and water, and I could make you a sandwich." She didn't know if the girl had eaten recently or not, so she wanted to offer.

Ariella looked to Lily and smiled a little as her tears were wiped away, "Thank you..." She said in a cute way. She looked down slightly, "I am Ariella... Ariella Dales." She sighed a little before looked to Lily, "I-I am a little hungry." She said before her tummy growled, she hadn't eaten all day and the whole reason she was out with her mum was because they had gone shopping, but her mum had dropped the shopping bags on the street when the boy came after them.

"Can I have a ham sandwich please?" She asked with a small smile, she was happy someone was going to help her and her mummy, she didn't want her mummy to stay like that weird boy forever.

Lily smiled at her, and stood up. "One ham sandwich coming right up." She held out a hand to help the girl up, and lead her to the nearby kitchen. She was running low on food, she only had what was left in her fridge, which wasn't much, and her emergency stockpile, which was in the basement. There was mostly canned foods, and bottled drinks down there, in case she was snowed in, or something equally bad left her stuck in the flat with no way of getting out. She hadn't ever used the food down there, and every time she ran low up here she went to the store. Maybe later she'd run out, and pick up a few things..

She fixed Ariella a ham sandwich, and poured her a glass of juice, moving to set both the plate and glass on the table in the kitchen. She then grabbed her laptop, which was right across the table, where she had left it when she had went to go shopping, and sat down in the chair next to where she had put the food. She'd stay near the girl, especially in case something happened, she wouldn't have to try and get to Ariella before her mother and the boy did.

Ariella smiled and she took Lily's hand and she stood up and went into the kitchen. She smiled and began to eat her ham sandwich while Lily went on her laptop. "I-is that the laptop you are going to use to help my mummy?" She asked curiously.

Artemis, however, was wandering the dark streets because night had fallen. Herself and the little boy had wandered the streets and a random woman came towards them and they reached out their hands and touched the woman; she then became one of them. Them three then went to get more and more people as they passed on the street. In the end, after ten minutes, roughly eleven people had been converted, they all looked like the little boy with the gas mask. Screams would echo through the streets as the gas masked people would convert the people wandering the streets. But the screams would stop suddenly as soon as about thirteen people had been changed.

Lily smiled back at the little girl, as she brought up her browser, and started typing. She wasn't sure how much information there would be on the subject, but there had to be something. From what she had seen it looked like some sort of infection. One touch could turn anyone around them into what they were, gas masks and all. She hadn't gotten close enough to look at them, so she could only wonder where the victims got there gas masks from. "It is, your mother and anyone else the little boy and her changed to be like them."

She smiled at her, before continuing to type. There wasn't much on it, but she just kept searching. From gas masks, to gas masked people. She wasn't that good with computers, but she wasn't a total idiot on them either. After a few minutes she found some reference about a man called 'the Doctor', that coincided with the last time there had been people with gas masks wondering about. World War II. Someone had written it as a story, but it seemed too much like what was happening present day to be a coincidence. It didn't say how exactly they had been saved, but if they could find this Doctor, then they could help Ariellas mummy, and the little boy. She grinned, and turned to the girl.

"I think i know a way I can help your mother. There's this man, called the Doctor, apparently this happened before, and he was there! If we can find him, he'll know how to help her." They only needed to find out where the man could be, but he was a Doctor, so he was probably at a hospital or something of the like, yeah? Unless there was something on the internet... she'd try there first. But when she typed 'The Doctor' into the search bar she got... 5 results, maybe? With normal things there were around a million or so, so she had to wonder what had happened to get so little results.