Chapter 0: A New Begining
"Why?!" Evan yelled, desperately clawing at a bottle of soda on the top shelf.
"Need some help?" I ask, easily reaching for it.
"No Patrick!" He said, his sandy blonde hair flopping in front of his face with every jump he makes. I chuckled at his antics, as he was always doing these kind of actions.
"Ok, I was just trying to fulfill my duty as your best friend, but whatever."
His face gets flustered as it slowly dawns on him that he will not be able to reach the drink he wants so badly. Sam slowly looks at me in defeat and says with despair, "Fine. . . you win. Can you please get me the damn soda?"
I grin, "Sure my good friend." I grab the soda and hand it to him, "Happy?"
"Ya, whatever." He says.
I smile and we walk along in the store. We pay for the sodas and walk back into the store and walk towards the back, a little spot we hang out at near the weapons area. Its secluded and not well known, even in this store. "I never realized it before," Sam says, "but this store has everything, from sodas to weapons and even livestock." That sentence is punctuated with a moo from a cow.
"It's crazy, right?" I say, taking a sip from my soda. I look around our area, when a huge pulse sends us crashing into a wall. The deafening sound that followed left Evan and I on the floor, covering our ears and trying to block out the ringing in our ears. We lie there for awhile, not truly counting how long we were in there. I stand up, disoriented, trying to keep my balance. I lean against the wall, trying to reorient myself from the blast. In the side of my vision, I see Sam struggling to get up, his soda spilling down his shirt and his face.
"Got a bit of your soda on your. . . everything." I laugh to try to brighten the mood, but we both are thinking the exact same thing.
"What happened?" Evan asked.
"I really don't know."
"What about the other people in the store? Maybe they know something."
"Ya, I'll go check."
"I am not focking staying."
"Your irish side is kicking in, Evan."
"Shut up."
I laugh and attempt to stand without the wall. I regained my balance enough during our conversation to walk without looking like a drunk slob. I head toward the weapons area as there is always a person there, guarding the weapons from idiots like Sam and myself. As I approach the counter, I hear someone muttering from behind the said counter.
"Hello? Are you there?" I asked, but all I get in return is more muttering. I look over the counter and see a young woman, in her twenties maybe, one hand clutching her blonde hair. I couldn't see her face, as she was facing away from me. She was still muttering, but I can only make out, "...ill… ill… ill…" I notice a coffee stain on the floor.
"Hey, it's ok. It's not your fault, but we need to know what's going on, can you…?"
She stopped muttering. She slowly turns her head towards me, and I see where her other hand was. She was holding a flap of her skin on one hand, her cheek was completely torn off. The bones under the skin were completely visible and her eyes were completely purple, white parts and all. I hear clearly what she is saying, even though the blood is gushing into her mouth, "Kill… Kill… Kill…"
She jumps on me, and begins trying to dig her nails deep into my skin, but I hold her back. "Ma'am!" I shout, "Calm down! We can get help!" But whatever has a hold on her isn't stopping. She continues muttering, trying to kill me in a very gruesome way. She almost gets to my chest, when a blade is driven through her head, "I have seen many angry women in my day, but this one takes the cake." Evan says, as he pulls out the sword he got from the weapons area out of her head.
"That was worse than any zombie movies we have seen, but she wasn't dead. . . She had body heat."
"That sounds perverted."
"Yes, I know."
"Anyway, grab a weapon. That might not be the only person like that in the store."
"Ya. . ." I select a pistol, maybe not the best weapon but it would probably be effective. I grab quite a bit of extra ammo, and I aim down the sights to make sure the pistol's sights aren't slanted or otherwise messed up.
After I was sure that the pistol was accurate, I walked out into the cash register area with Evan, who had sharpened his sword against the counter. It was a huge mistake.
There were about a hundred of those things, all ripping each other apart. I didn't even understand how some of them were even still standing, as organs and blood were all over the floor, and all of them were mutilated. Torn faces, holes in their body, clawed-out eyes, among other even more brutal attributes. We both ducked into aisles before any of them notice us. When I was sure none of them saw me, I risked a peek out. I notice they are bunched around something, probably some poor person who didn't make it. I looked up, and noticed that there is an opening in the roof that leads to an upstairs attic-like area. I see some jerry cans, hopefully full of gas, near the entrance to the upstairs area. I motioned to Sam my plan, and I thought he got it.
First I run over to the entrance, hiding when I think one of those things saw me. Then Evan did the same. "Let's hope that we won't have to pay for the damage we are about to cause."
"Definitely." Evan replied. We both grab jerry cans and run upstairs. We then pour the gas through the hole that was mentioned, and made sure it got all over the. . . "What do we call these?"
"Hm… Nightshades? After that poisonous berry."
"Good choice." We pour it all over the Nightshades, and run up and down the stairs to get more gas. "How are we gonna get out?" Evan asked.
"You see that ventilation shaft right there?" I point.
"Yea?"
"You are gonna crawl in that, I am too big to fit."
"I'm not gonna leave you behind!"
"You won't be. I'll meet up with you over where it comes out."
"Fine, but where will you go?" His eyes scanned me.
"I'm gonna go over the fire."
"WHAT?!" He threw his hands in the air.
"Shhhh. . . You see that wire that is used to hang signs?"
"Yea?"
"I am gonna climb on that."
"You're insane."
"Maybe, but this is an insane situation." I gestured at the Nightshade.
"That is a fair point. . . I guess I'll see you on the other side, bro."
"Ya." He begins crawling through the shaft. I realize what I am doing is suicide, but it may be my only way. I light a match, and throw it on the ground. It catches almost instantly, burning all of them. I slowly lower myself down to the wire, and grab ahold of it. I slowly begin my way over the fire, which is barely five feet below me. I feel the heat burning my legs, and I begin trying to remember why I lighted the fire right before I went on the wire. I go faster and faster, my hands slipping quite a few times due to the sweat in my palms. I feel my hands hurting, but I keep going. I eventually made it to a stairwell, and I check my hands. They were bleeding, badly. "I don't have time for this!" I shout as I run out of the flaming store.
Right into a huge crowd of mangled Nightshade. 'Just my luck', I think. I pull out my pistol, ignoring the screaming pain in my hands and fire at the Nightshade coming towards me. I run through the crowds, toward the vent. I hide behind a garbage disposal bin, when I hear, "Patrick! Get in here!" Evan says from the inside.
I gladly hop inside and we hide from the Nightshade. While in there, I wrap my hands in cloth I tore from my shirt. I have no idea how long we hid in there, silent, not moving, not talking, just waiting. When we hear them leave the alley, we hop out and hide out of view from the Nightshade. "What's the plan?" I whisper as I reload.
"We need to find shelter, I think we need somewhere high. Like the skyscraper about half a mile from here." He replies.
"How do we get there without them noticing us?"
"Easy, take the high road." He points toward the roof of the building next to us.
"Ah, so we just hope we don't fall?"
"If it's too large of a jump, we try to make a makeshift bridge."
"Good thinking. You were always the smart one."
"Kinda. . ."
"Anyway, you coming?"
"Ya."
-o0o-
It's been three weeks since that day. We were actually doing well for ourselves, our base was high and was secure, we had enough supplies to last awhile, and even enough ammunition to defend ourselves. That all went south one day.
The ground started shaking, hard, enough to launch us out of our beds and toss us around. We were shocked that the building wasn't collapsing.I grab my pistol, on instinct, and we run out to the glass balcony that was up there. "What the hell!" I shouted.
"Where did that come from?" Evan yelled. We were both looking up at a black hole that opened up, and was swallowing everything except us.
"Why aren't we being sucked up?" I ask.
"How should I know? I mean, we weren't infected, maybe that's it!"
"My SuBjEcTs!" A distorted, and overall demonic voice says, and we assume his 'subjects' are the Nightshade."ThErE aRe OnLy TwO hUmAnS lEfT! ThE eNd WiLl CoMe As SoOn As ThEy ArE dEaD! KiLl ThEm!" We heard the door lock behind us, and we see a little girl lock the door.
"Hey!" I see she isn't infected. "Let us out!"
"He…" she says quietly, "says I will see Mommy and Daddy where we are going…"
"Let us in!" Evan says.
"No, I must see Mommy and Daddy again!"
"I got this!" I shoot the lock.
"You idiot!" Evan yells as it ricochets and it flies into the balcony, causing it to crack. We begin to panic, and we try to ram the door. As the cracks get bigger, we ram harder. The little girls keeps saying, "Mommy… Daddy…" over and over again. We hear a huge crack… and we see that the balcony is about to shatter. I put out my hand to shake Sam's, "It's been an honor, bro…"
"Yes… yes it was." He shakes my hand. We let go as the glass shatters, and we are free falling to our imminent deaths. But that wouldn't be enough for the thing in the sky apparently, as it roars and sends us flying. Evan slams against a building, either falling unconscious or dying. As for me… I am tossed onto a metal rod that is sticking out off a building. It doesn't kill me, but I wish it did. I was thrown back first, I can see the front of my body, it is sideways to the black hole, and I somehow hit it at an extremely precise angle.
The pain was unbearable, like it should be, but It was worse than that. I looked onto the spike, and saw some of my intestines hanging out into front of my body. I see what I ate for dinner that night still in my stomach, and my kidneys processing urine. Red is filling my vision, like when you get hurt in a video game. I look down in time to see Evan's body hit the ground, exploding into a bloody mess. I look over at the black hole and see a distorted hand reach out of the hole. It roars again, cutting the rod closer to the side, at the end of that roar, I am simply hanging by a three inch flap of skin, slowly ripping. The creature's face peeks out, and I can't even describe it. Soon after, the skin rips and I am falling.
My stomach is left behind on the rod, along with my kidney's and I think my liver. I see the world is disappearing, black spots replacing everything I knew. As I approach the ground, my lungs fall out, so I can't scream as the cool asphalt collides with my face, killing me instantly.
-o0o-
I open in my eyes, but I only see black. I look at my body, and there is not a scratch in sight. I check my back pocket and my gun is right there.
"Patrick?" Evan says.
"Evan?!" I say confused.
"Where are we?"
"I don't know… a purgatory?"
"No, this is the void. The home of rebirth." A voice from nowhere says. I can't tell where it's from, or if it is masculine or feminine.
"What?" Evan asks.
"Show yourself!"
A bright orb of light appears in front of Evan and I, "Here I am."
"Who are you?" Evan asks.
"I have no name… but people call me Lightbulb so I go with that" Lightbulb says.
"Um… so you said rebirth. Where would we be rebirthed? Our world was probably just destroyed."
"Oh no, you aren't going back to that world. It's gone, destroyed by a creature of power beyond comprehension." Light bulb says.
"Then where are we going?" Evan asks.
"I think you'll like it. But you will have to find each other. So say goodbye now."
"We… already did." I say.
"Ya. . ."
"Well, it should happen any second now."
"I'll find ya Evanl."
"You too, Patrickl."
The last thing we see is a bright flash of light… and then I am staring up at a cave entrance. The first question that comes to my mind is, "What's my name." I then realize, I barely remember anything from my old life. I raise my hands to check that I still have them. . . when I see that they aren't my hands.
They were baby hands.
Second reupload. Yell and scream, I don't really care.