File 007 - Roxanne Maddox

“Are you ready, Miss Maddox?” A deep, rich voice spoke from the shadows. He had his legs crossed, and his hands folded and resting on them. He was dressed in black formal wear.

“Yes…” She replied on the other end of the desk, fidgeting a bit beneath a spotlight. There were long strands of her stark black hair draped over her shoulders, though where the front was untouched, the remainder of her hair cascading down her back was freshly cut at an odd diagonal. Her blue, almost blue-violet, eyes were darting from the ground to the table, to the man before her then back to the table. Despite her eyes moving so rapidly, they held no fear in them.

“Alright. When you’re ready, tell us your story.” He paused for a moment to observe the small girl before him suddenly stop moving, body seemingly becoming alert to attention. Then he took a breath, staring into her empty eyes, “Where were you when the world ended?”

She hesitated, searching her mind for the words. “It...it was the day of a performance. All the bands in the state had come to participate in the contest. I was in colorguard.” She peered down at her attire: a dress in multitudes of purple, with the sleeves puffed at the mid-upper arm and the right shoulder exposed. She was also in tan dance shoes. “I...wasn’t like a lead role or anything. Maybe side-lead? I guess everyone’s a side-lead in band…” Her head tilted with her eyes as they trailed away, then reverted back to the man before her. “We were all really pepped...it was finals after all. Everyone there was taking a lot of pictures to comemm-...commeme-...to remember the event. All the other guard girls were dragging me here and there for some, even ones from other schools. And eventually, we were called away for warm-up. We and front ensemble have more lengthy warm-ups and more equipment, so we go early. We start warm-up, and the band comes some time later, which meant we were going to head to the field soon. You probably got that…”

The man said nothing as she shifted in her seat slightly, growing visibly uncomfortable, as if she was suddenly aware of where she was and the situation she was in. Her dead eyes from before slowly began to show a hint of emotion as the memories were dredged out. “So...we got to the field to perform. Everyone was really jittery and excited. It was finals after all. ...Did I say that? I probably said that…” Her eyes glanced around nervously, then focused once again, “I...we...that rumbling in the distance we just blew off. ‘What are those other bands rehearsing? Sounds intense. But we got this.’” Her lip quivered. The man before her moved slightly, about to try and comfort her, but he relaxed when she interrupted, “I….” She stared down at the table intensely, before focusing on him again, “We were...really jittery and excited...and then...we went on. We were called onto the field and we went on to it. Right. Then we set up, and when we were done, we waited for the announcer to introduce us to the crowd. I still remember the announcement vividly…”

“‘Ladies and gentlemen, in class 5A, from’-” she stopped abruptly at the look she received, “Oh, right, no names. Anyways…’Please welcome the...high school band. Their performance is entitled ‘Stone Tower’ Drum Majors-’...then, ‘Are you ready?’ The three did their salutes, and he spoke again, ‘Is your band ready?’ Then they turned around to signal that we were about to begin. ‘Without further ado, the...high school marching band!’ And we were counted off.”

“The guard started out almost immediately with our side of the show. We do a lot of the imagery and storytelling stuff, and the band plays the music. You probably knew that…” Her voice trailed off, “But it….it started out well. It started out great. Nobody was missing a beat, at least, I don’t think they did. ...Did they? I don’t think they did.” She stopped fidgeting, and her eyes glued themselves to the table. “And then, right in the middle of the show...the apocl...the world ended.”

“It was...something like a fairytale. No...are fairytales even that bad? A horror movie maybe. A huge pair of glowing yellow eyes looked up over the stands, and th-” Her voice trembled, “The...there was a big creature that suddenly crashed through the stands. Th-...S-...So many people died from being trampled alone by this big...thing. I don’t know how to describe it...it was just a big thing. With weird limbs and symbols on it. And it crashed through and...started wreaking havoc on the field. People were screaming and running…. Then more came. More like it followed through that big hole in the stands, screeching an ugly cry and targeting people as they ran. And…and some of the band members were trampled too as we ran. They were stomped on as the things trampled about, which...that was the lucky of the bunch. Our lead girl in guard was picked up and ripped in half right in front of me. And then eaten...and...”

The man spoke up after so long, “And...what happened when these creatures burst through? What...happened to the people that weren’t killed by them?”

“That weren’t? Haha...you’re funny.” Her right eye twitched slightly as a fake smile found its way onto her face. “I...don’t know. I saw some people on the ground in a lot of pain, then their bodies would shake and bubble up in places, and they started getting those symbols like the things. Like they were mutating? I was too busy almost dying to notice.”

Ignoring her tone becoming slightly bitter, he motioned his hand towards her, “Continue.”

The smile faded, “And...after that it reached down for me. I was too scared to move, I thought for sure I was about to die. The thing had hold of me...didn’t it? I think it did…. But someone grabbed me and threw me in the other direction. I think they said ‘Run’ or something. That makes sense. So I did. I don’t know what happened to them. But I ran and ran, I think I was crying. I was able to weave through the chaos until I got to the field house. People were panicking and running around like headless chickens.” That smile returned, “Haha...chickens...headless….drum majors…..” Though it eventually faded, “So I crawled under the bleachers amidst the chaos, and curled up and hid there. That was probably a stupid idea. Do you think so? ...It was probably a stupid idea. But I lived. And...you know the rest.”

The man nodded and stood, “Indeed I do. Thank you very much for the information, Miss Maddox. You’re free to return to your assigned room now.”

“Yeah…” She stood wearily, ignoring the man outstretching his hand, and wobbled out into the hall.

Author's Note

Just a little something from my "Virus Hunters" thing : ^ )

There's like 11 more of these but tbh I don't know if I'll ever actually finish them all. I just did Roxxy's because I'm biased towards this side-character, lol.