Chapter One: The Beginnings of a Strange New World
(Author's Note: so, its been a while and I know the rest of the chapters are gone but, that is because they are being revised and rebooted, as it were, so until the next I will leave you with this: the new updated Chapter One! I hope this is as great as I think it is. Hope you all enjoy. Do svidaniya!)
Sirios awoke to an unholy pounding in the back of his skull and a horribly blinding light impairing his vision. Not that his vision wasn't already impaired thanks to his awful normal eyesight. The pain pulsed in short, quick, and steady waves that came close to driving him back into the darkness of unconsciousness. He narrowed his eyes to mere slits at the sun overhead, which wasn't quite helping the pain in the slightest. Strange, unfamiliar thoughts began to surge through his mind at a lightning speed making little thoughts seem like utter nonsense. He pressed two fingers to each of his temples, rubbing them slowly in a counter-clockwise motion while trying to focus on one thought at a time. He needed to if he wanted to remain somewhat sane in this process.
'T-the…,' his mind was sluggish and unresponsive. 'T-the value…of Pi…is 3.14159265…'
He slowly felt the pain subside allowing for more linear and correlated thinking. Once the pain had died down to a point where he could tolerate it he slowly reopened his eyes and carefully turned away from the bright star overhead. The first logical question to pop into his head was simple.
'Where in bloody hell am I?' He thought raising himself slowly to a sitting position. The second question wasn't so logical but, understandable. 'And why am I so hungry?'
He looked down and ran his hands through the lush grass he sat upon. Despite not knowing where has was, he knew he wasn't home in London. The air was too warm and the trees too numerous in number. The smell also… He grimaced at it. It didn't smell like home. He fished through the pocket of his white coat for his glasses feeling the familiar frame in his fingers before putting them atop his nose. He glanced around to get a better look at his surroundings. Sure enough, he was in a forest of some kind but, not one that he recognized. There weren't many in England to begin with. He rose to his feet, perhaps too quickly, and felt a wave of nausea hit him. He caught himself before he fell and waited for it to subside. As it did he did he took a deep breath, confident that he would not have to gaze upon the contents of his own stomach. The white-haired youth inadvertently felt something large on the inside of his pocket. It was of rectangular shape and slightly hard.
"What the hell?" He murmured softly. His voice felt like he'd had a bad encounter which involved drinking a glassful of sand.
Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a medium-sized touchscreen phone. It looked similar to his own but, without the dark green back and gold trim. This one was simply black without a hint of uniqueness. He ran his finger along the edges, quickly finding the power button. He clicked it and was amazed to find several strange icons arranged in a curious fashion illuminated nicely by the backlit display, none of which were those of which he recognized.
"Inventory? Hot Bar? Crafting?" The more he read the more confused he got. "Chat? What in the-"
As if on cue, the chat icon lit up and enlarged, practically beckoning him to tap it. The youth did so and was greeted by a new screen and a message. Five words.
Find shelter before the night.
Sirios frowned. Had he written this as a reminder to himself? Was this something or some one trying to warn him? His head began to throb again. This brought about more questions than answers. Despite being cryptic and vague, the message brought about a sense of apprehension that he found…unnerving yet, strangely trustworthy. Going on a gut feeling, he placed the phone back into his pocket and trudged onward looking for some sort of shelter. Th message of warning still lingering in his mind.
Find shelter before the night.
Sirios traveled for what felt like several miles before he finally admitted to being lost. In fact he was pretty sure he'd been going in circles since he swore that he'd seen that massive Goliath of a tree about six or seven times now but hey, maybe he was just imagining things.
Sirios shook his head to rid himself of that thought. 'Come on Sirios, that's what got you lost in the first place. Think rationally now.'
He stopped himself, picked a direction to travel in, and decided to make that his path. A few minutes had passed before he found himself in an area that he didn't recognize which, for once, wasn't a bad thing. He was beginning to make some progress after all. Hopefully, he'd find out where he was. He'd walked far enough before he pulled out his phone and checked his map. He was still in the same forest as far as he could tell but, there were more troubling things that he took notice to. One thing being the fact I that about a few kilometers away, the forest gradually shifted into what he thought to be a large expansive desert. Now, Sirios wasn't the best at geography and climates when he was attending school but, the white-haired boy was quite sure at deserts didn't form this close to forest without some weird geological phenomenon at works. It seemed as though I'm this world that common sense didn't truly apply…lucky him… He traveled along the outskirts of the desert careful not to venture into that unforgiving hellscape. He knew for sure that any extended time under the burning sun would set his pale skin aflame with sun burn. It wasn't long of a walk, a couple of meters actually, before he came to another eerie sight. He stopped dead in his tracks as he came to a large opening in the earth, a gaping maw that extended into blackness quite a ways down. He kneeled down and grabbed a rock nearby before casually tossing it into the pit, cupping his ears to measure the rock's trek downwards. He gave an involuntary shiver as the rock continued to click its way down until it could be heard no more.
He backed away in horror. "What the hell?! No one mentioned I would find the stairway to Hell!"
The Englishman turned away to power walk in the exact opposite direction just as another sound caught his attention. He turned on his heel to face the pit once more. It sounded like…growling.
Sirios' blood ran ice cold. Something told him to run but, fear and curiosity kept him frozen to the spot, mostly fear. Listening more closely, the growling wasn't an animal's, much to his relief, rather it was more guttural…more human but, not. As if the shadows had come alive, he saw a figure begin to walk towards him from inside.
Sirios frowned in confusion. 'No, walking was too general…more like shambled.'
He took a step back as what can only be described as reanimated human corpse emerged from the cave. The Englishman grimaced as a rancid smell hit him as the corpse came into viewing distance. The "zombie" (He had a feeling that this name would be more appropriate) soon caught sight of him and let loose a horrible roar. The zombie's shambling became more agitated and frantic as it made its way towards him. Sirios took a defensive fighting stance and raised his fists. The zombie made a swipe towards him but, it was dodged. As the abomination attacked, it came into contact with a sunbeam that shone through the trees. As if it were made of pyrite, the zombie spontaneously combusted prompting Sirios to dive out of the way. While the zombie didn't seem to mind being lit on fire, the white-haired boy took this as an opportunity to strike back. He sprinted towards the abomination, delivering a powerful knee to its midsection. The abomination doubled over, much to the Englishman's surprise, and was knocked onto its back by a quick sweep of its legs. It let out a grunt of pain before being finished of by a foot crushing its head. Sirios stepped back as the former undead abomination disintegrated into puffs of white smoke. He sat down feeling his lungs constrict as he began to hyperventilate. He closed his eyes and laboriously slowed his breathing. It wasn't long before he heard clapping from close by; very close by. His eyes shot open allowing green to meet grey. If he hadn't been currently trying not to pass out he would have either jumped out of his skin or simply punched whosoever eyes these belonged to…probably the latter though.
"Hey, are you alright guy?" The figure asked him. "You seem to be in the process of dying."
"I'll be…fine in…a moment," he replied reigning in control of his breathing. "Jus'…give me a little."
"Well, that's good to know," she commented (Well, he thought it was a female sounding voice) sounding slightly a little amused at his current predicament. "I was worried that I'd have to deal with burying some guy's corpse."
She took a step back allowing for the Englishman to get a better look at her. They were indeed a female but, her appearance was what threw him off a bit. Short dark green hair, silver eyes, and a face that just screamed "do not trust because I'm incredibly mischievous". Luckily for her, Sirios typically ignored those warnings normally for his own good…normally.
"So, I'm gonna skip straight to the point," he said after a little while. "Just who the hell are you?"
The girl gave him a impish grin. "Well you could call me your guardian angel. Although, it wouldn't been anything short of blasphemous coming from a person like me."
Emerald eyes began to narrow slightly. "What do you mean?"
The mysterious girl sighed. "Fine, I'll be blunt." She motioned towards herself. "That thing you just fought coming out of that cave was a zombie."
"That, I figured."
The girl gave him another smiled. "Ooo, look at the big brain on this guy. Not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting that. Anyway, that zombie was one of my brethren so to speak."
The Englishman murmured something under his breath before speaking aloud. "Hold on a tick, your brethren!?" His body tensed up. "So, your telling me that your-"
"-a zombie! Give the man a medal ladies and gentlemen," she told him with a grin. "Oh, don't give me that look, it's not like I'm going to attack you. If that were the case I would have done it when you were passed out in the field." She said matter-o-factly while gazing upon the look of shock and disbelief on his face.
There was a long moment of silence before any words were exchanged; The first ones coming from a, slowly growing hysterical, Sirios.
He slowly stood up before taking a series of short breaths, followed by more murmuring. He finally spoke up. "Ok, let's say I believe you. If that's the case I have a series of questions that follow. My first being: Where the hell am I? Subsequently the next few are: how'd I get here, are you responsible for this, is this a dream, and why in ruddy hell should I believe anything you say."
The girl frowned. "As much as I'd like to answer all of your questions now, we need to get going."
She pointed upwards at the sky. "The sun is starting to go down and I'm quite positive that neither you or I want to get caught outside at night."
Sirios looked up. The girl had a point. Something in his gut brought a sense of foreboding knowing that it was beginning to turn to night.
He looked back to see the green-haired girl starting to walk away. She turned back to look at him.
"Come on guy!" She called out to him. "You gotta death wish or something? Let's get moving!"
'Damn, I wish I could say I don't trust her but…' Sirios thought. 'She's the only source of knowledge I've got right now… Jeez, what did you just get your bleeding self into Sirios?'
Sirios gave her a single nod and quickly followed behind her, the sun sinking lower and lower in the sky signaling the coming of the first night.
The absolute last thing Sirios expected to be doing right now was sharing a very confined space in a trench, of sorts, with a strange green-haired girl claiming to be a zombie. Yep, that was about nine on his list of ten possibilities. Ten was being devoured by a leviathan or basilisk but, that was still on the table for now. He poked at the fire in between them, staring into the burning wood mesmerized and deep in thought. Despite having the answers he had wanted, the zombie girl knew nearly nothing about what had happened to him. She had only replied back with snarky comments and "I don't knows". So now, he was left with his current lack of memories. His only memories: his hometown of London, his age, date of birth, and a bunch of other random and seemingly useless scientific and mathematical facts here and there. There were also names that were not his own nagging at the back of his mind but, that didn't help him now. Nothing about family, health issues (except for the horrible asthma attack he'd had earlier), or anything. He gave a heavy sigh watching as the end of his stick ignited only to be snuffed out by a passing breeze.
He looked over to his companion in he trench. She was staring out of the makeshift window she had made in the den. He silver eyes wavering ever so slightly but, all focus remained outside. They hadn't spoken for a little while. After his questions had been answered, though not to his liking, they hadn't had much to say to one another. Although…something was compelling him to change that.
"You still haven't told me who you are," he told her, his gaze still directed towards the fire.
She glanced over to him and smiled. "Oh, did I not. Though normally, isn't the guy supposed to introduce himself first?"
The white-haired boy gave a small grunt. "I suppose…" He looked up at her and held out his hand. "My name is Sirios. It's nice to finally have a proper greeting."
She took his hand gently and shook it. "Nice to meet you Sirios. The names Yeabi."
Sirios frowned. "Hm…that's a little wired to pronounce."
The green-haired girl smirked. "Says you. So, anymore questions? It's been a little while since you asked me any."
Sirios shook his head. "Not really." A couple seconds passed before a question appeared in his mind. "Are there more people like you?"
"More monsters that look like humans?" She clarified. "A few hundred or so. A lot of them don't leave their place of birth though. They're pretty insecure about being looked down on by your species." She yawned and stretched her hands to the ceiling. "Not me though. I've embrace my fate. I'm damn proud to be a zombie and there's nothing that can change that."
Sirios nodded and resumed poking at embers. Silence interrupted to conversation for a short time. This time, however, it wasn't Sirios who broke the silence.
"How do you do that?"
Sirios looked up again to see Yeabi staring at him intently, her face too far away from his.
"What do you mean?" he asked feeling his face begin to burn slightly.
"No matter what your talking about, your face never seems to change its expression all too well," she replied starting at him. "You've got some poker face there champ. It's kinda creepy actually."
The corner of Sirios mouth twitched in amusement. "Trust me, if I knew I'd tell you. Can't exactly analyze my own past to see how I perfected this."
There was a twinge of sadness that the green-haired girl caught on to.
"Ah, don't worry about it Whitey," she said moving back to her original position. "Your memories will return don't you worry that pretty little head of yours."
A genuine smile registered on his face. "Yeah, I supposed so."
Sirios though the rest of his charred stick into the fire before removing his glasses and placing them on the ground next to him. He fell onto his back and closed his eyes.
"Tired are we?"
He nodded and felt his body relax as sleep began to take him. He felt someone scoot next to him and lie down beside him but, he didn't open his eyes.
"Good night Yeabi."
"'Night Whitey." She replied with a smirk.
(Ending Note: The next chapter will be coming out soon so, until then!)