This is a Forest of Hands and Teeth story. I thought it would get more veiws if I placed it under the Misc. Category though. Haha, anyway...
You do not have to read the Forest of Hands and Teeth to understand this story. I hope you enjoy it (:
Oh and all "Returned/Fast Ones/ End of the world" ideas belond to Carrie Ryan.
PROLOGUE
Before the Return there was joking of the end of the world. But it was simply that, joking. Only the crazy people took it seriously. How could the world end? It was too big, too strong and had obviously held out for this long.
The first news of a new disease wasn't that shocking, until the effects of it were brought to life. No one knew where it started; how or why it came to be. It was obviously a manmade disease, it was against nature to die and then become resurrected. At first no one was sure what to believe. Maybe it was another "end of the world" hoax. Something some psycho had come up with to scare us senseless for their own amusements. That is, until we started to see them. They were unnatural, staggering down the streets, moaning after the living. The hunger in their cries keeping us awake at night.
But, the government got involved, killing them off, ridding us of the problem. It was a sigh of relief that went through the world. What we weren't told was that some were brought back for study. The blood of the Returned being put into a few willing humans to see the effects of a disease, to see just how long it took to bring back the dead. If there could be alterations so that it was a cure to cancer. Maybe even something that could allow eternal life. Then there were slip ups. A few of the Returned escaped, or a doctor turned his back at the wrong time, and was bitten.
The spread was slow at first, seeing as how the Returned is a slow species. It was mostly contained into a few small areas. Until people started seeing that if they were bitten, they would be killed without question. So they traveled to new cities, cities that hadn't been introduced to the infection. Then the Returned started adapting as a species, shocking groups of scientists around the world with their ability to change according to their surroundings. If there wasn't enough Returned in one area, the next few humans bitten would be Fast Ones.
Fast Ones were exactly as their name states, fast. Inhumanly fast. A small group would take over a town in a matter of a day or two. Of course, they wore out quicker- tearing themselves apart with their hunger and speed.
That's when things started becoming real. When the end of the world was no longer a joke.