Author's Note: Well hello again my lovely readers, first off I would like to say happy late end of the world, it really went well I think, a little dull. I was legitimately afraid something was gonna happen, I'm very superstitious. Anyway I would like to thank Dark Hikari Twilight for being the first to review my story, thanks! So, there's no special warnings for this chapter or anonymous reviews to be had so I'll just get on with the story! Please review at the end of the chapter and give me your feed-back I really do appreciate it!
-Rev
June 2005 a small company in New Hampshire was developed, named after the family they joined in the electricity business. Family owned and starting in a small town they quickly erased any competition with their great work and low prices, and soon Shinra expanded. Slowly they moved into town after town and by the same time three years later they were leading in several areas, energy, grocery and military. They were the single biggest company in the entire world, they were in every country that had money, and soon their greed corrupted their minds. President Shinra as he was known throughout the world had a taste for money, it showed in his impressive gut. He had a taste for everything he never had growing up, and as his power in the world grew so did his desire to own it. He was a ruthless businessman who crushed any and all competition.
He was known to be a big supporter in Politics in the United States and whoever had the man's financial support also seemed to win any and all elections that they entered into. Unlike in the beginning the signs of corruption and greed started to show, the quality of Shinra's work started to decline, and the prices sky rocket, yet it was too late for anyone to go anywhere else, Shinra had a monopoly on society. Many people protested Shinra, many fought legally to be rid of the company, but in a world spurred by greed they all lost, and soon everyone stopped trying to get rid of the company and just deal with it in other ways. Many families started to grow their own food and make their own clothing as a way to defy the Shinra Company. It was only a small amount of people who did this though, many leading a busy life where they desired a quick way to obtain food. Shinra solidified its control on the world however when President Shinra himself ran for the Oval Office. It was a shock to none when the results were turned and he had won.
In the same year in the icy and harsh lands of Greenland up north near the top of the world under decades of ice there was a crater, it was the largest crater known to history. Shinra felt it necessary to explore the icy remains of the hole and it was there that Shinra found it's most life changing and world changing artifact, a person. It was like none had ever seen before, it was a young woman, her long silver hair unruly and frozen, she was perfectly preserved she almost appeared to have just been sleeping. Her skin though was an odd purple grey color, most people took it for just being frozen for only god knows how long, none knew that was the color of her natural skin. Taking her into the fields of Southern France they set her up in a large laboratory. Around the time of the excavation a new source of energy and development was discovered, life. Life is what kept humans moving, it's what kept them working and producing, and Shinra was convinced such power could be harvested and produced.
In 2010 he succeeded in creating a supplement that would increase a human's energy, it was healthy and it was completely free of side effects, and they were right. In the same time in a feat of scientific genius Jenova, as the men named her, was resurrected, it was the greatest feat of human technology in the history of mankind. They left her suspended in a tube, her eyes glowed a dark pink, almost red in color, and she did nothing, only watched. It was hard to tell if there was any life left inside of the woman, Shinra however thought she was the key to human's next great evolutionary step. Harvesting her cells he created a new serum, this one would be the key to human engineering this would be the key to a new life for the human race. Without any testing the Shinra company produced the serum on an international basis, every person in the world got it, except those of course who stood against Shinra. It wasn't long before the effects of taking the drug showed, and for the time being, human life had exceeded any expectation that anyone ever had for it.
People were faster, stronger, more intelligent it was a time of human ingenuity, then the outbreak came on bloody wings, December 21st, 2012. Ground Zero was located in Cannes, France and from there it spread like wild fire, all that was left in the wake of the outbreak was death and fire. Anyone who had taken the Jenova Serum would slowly turn into one of those... things. They feasted on the flesh of the living and sowed misery wherever they walked, they were the Dead. They were fast, they were strong, though luckily for the human race they lost all sight, and intelligence. As soon as the plague ravaged through France it spread to Iberian peninsula, and through the rest of Western Europe and towards Asia, and Africa. In the United States the plague was just a bad rumor until in January 1st 2013 the first outbreak occurred in New York City.
The military was able to respond quickly to the threat of outbreak and contained the city, anyone inside the city was leveled with a tactical nuke. However from that point the outbreak started in several other places and even the men the army succumbed to the drug in their bodies. With no one to defend the citizens soon city after city, state after state went dark, soon there was no government, no control, the infrastructure of society had failed and been literally torn apart. The only people with the hope of survival were the ones who stood against Shinra, those who did not take part in the Jenova Serum. They were hunted by the dead, smelt and heard in their hiding places and soon the human race was near extinction, only small pockets of humans remained alive in the world and everyday that number got smaller and smaller. Nature took back what it had lost, all the centuries of work that humanity put into building itself drifted away like dust in the wind.
Moist, white mist swirled delicately from the mouth of the teenage boy as his sharp cerulean eyes stared ahead towards the snow covered roads. There was probably about a foot possibly a foot and a half covering the ground, cars were left abandoned on the sides of the road, sometimes in the middle of it. He had a small black beanie that had shown years and years of wear over his unruly blonde hair, being forced down it came down and into his face, he was constantly pushing it out of his eyes. He had to see everything, he had to hear everything. He had survived two years, at least he assumed it was two years, he had past winter once and he was in it now hence all the snow on the ground. Cloud was happy to see it, even if it made it harder to travel around town he could tell if anyone else had been here. He let out a sigh again and stared at the mist as it drifted away from him and he shook himself out of his thoughts.
He stepped up and continued on his path towards the old and abandoned grocery store, it used to be a Safeway some years ago, but after Shinra took over it was a Shinra-store. He grabbed his chest feeling a closed up and tight feeling, it had been like this for a while now. He took a deep breath and the feeling past, though not for long, and the cold air was not helping him. He forced himself to keep walking, only the crunch of the snow under his boots accompanied him to the store, and it was starting to irritate him. He was walking down 4th Street, or what was left of it, not much was left of the little town that he was in. He stared at every store that he past looking for any signs of the dead, luckily they wouldn't be able to see him, he would just have to be silent if he happened to pass by a group of them, that was one thing about the snow he didn't much care for. He looked inside a car, the window was smashed in and a dark stain hugged the edges of the broken window.
After finding nothing in it he kept walking his eyes everywhere and his ears listening to the deep silence that followed after every one of his boot steps. He had heavy black combat boots, his Grandparents had gotten them for him before the end came, paratroopers used them quiet often. It had taken a while but his feet finally got used to the tight and pinchy feeling of the shoe. It was thick leather and he needed it, it was durable seeing as he had it for two years, when he allowed himself to think about useless thoughts it annoyed him that he hadn't grown at all for two years. His pants were tight, they were stretchy though and it showed the slender yet defined muscle of the calf and thigh, and due to all the work he had to do he had quiet an ass, too bad there was no one really left to look at it. He had a black t-shirt on underneath a black leather jacket and black leather gloves, he stood out against the white ground, but he could care less, the only people that could see him would be the living which he was hoping would find him one day, but with each passing moment he lost hope for that a little more. And then of course that little black beanie that kept his wild hair under check, though only barely.
He turned a corner down at the middle-school he used to attend and started to follow that road down he was probably five minutes walk from the store at the end of the road. He started to hum a tune his mother used to hum to him to help him sleep better and his facial expression, one of sorrow but cold determination to continue, didn't alter as he hummed. Almost exactly five minutes later he turned again towards a small gathering of stores, at the farthest end from him was a large grocery store. It was almost of anything useful to him seeing that he had been there many times, and of course the looters before him. He walked over the remains of a glass door that used to protect the store from the outside world and he glanced into the deep darkness before him. He pulled out a flash light and grabbed a little basket, he had forgotten the one he normally brought at home. He walked down only two or three isles total, the rest were full of useless material like rotted fruits and vegetables, so long rotted that they lost their scent.
He had a basket full of canned potatoes and green beans, a feast at this point in time, and he looked towards the back. He always heard sounds from there so he refused to go back there, he wondered now if it might be worth it. He slowly approached the back room where all the stock was originally held and slowly pushed up a screeching door, he winced as moved into the room but away from it quickly, he held his breath and waited several moments before finding nothing was coming for him. Moving himself away from the wall silently he took deep even breaths so that he couldn't be heard and he started to creep through the darkness. He wondered if he had ever heard anything in the first place, it seemed devoid of any dead and of any food. He stepped around an empty and broken box and then heard a bone chilling shriek, a signal of the dead. He drifted over towards a trashcan that still reeked like hell to mask his scent and pulled a small knife from his belt.
He kept his light up looking for the creature that made the noise and from the corner of his vision. His light illuminated the blind figure in a terrifying way, there was a large hole through it's shoulder, broken bone jutted out and dried blood stained the ruined clothes. Its fingers were drenched in blood where they had shoved themselves into the living and tore at the muscle and flesh. It's pants were equally eaten into, chunks of flesh missing, though no blood flow coursed through the creature it hadn't rotted a day, damn Jenova Serum. The white eyes flicked left and right desperately trying to see something, even with Cloud's light shined directly into its face it didn't react. Looking around he pulled a rock out of his pocket, he kept them in special case something were to ever happen, something like this. Lifting the rock up and tossing it in the opposite direction of the door and himself it clanked against a box and the ground, with a screech the creature ran towards the noise, knocking things over and creating plenty of noise.
Stepping away from the trash can he wished to bolt from the room, but if he did he would possibly draw more attention to himself. He rubbed his arms and silently made his way back out the space and into the main area. He departed quickly from the store, happy to find himself back in the sunlight with the snow on the ground. He huddled into his jacket as a lazy breeze drifted through the streets and he sighed, happy to see the white mist in front of him again. He had a long way to walk, and it might take him the rest of the day, and it was never a good thing to be caught out in the open at night. He sighed and his mind blanked as he walked through the snow, he didn't take notice of the trees or of the broken buildings and cars. The only sound that he paid attention to was the sound of his own footsteps, he hoped not to hear any others.
It was just as the sun was setting before he got back into his little edge of town, lucky for him he lived outside of town, and he had cleared out the neighborhood in the early days of the infection. He walked past the homes, they were just now falling into a state of disrepair, but for the most part they looked as if nothing had happened, and that was what kept Cloud from going insane, that it appeared nothing happened. Sometimes if it was a good day he could pretend he was just going on a walk, before everything had happened and when he opened the door he would find his family there sitting and waiting for him. He shook his head, those were dangerous thoughts, the last thing he had promised his mother was... no he couldn't think on it. He turned and walked into his driveway and soon found himself in the cold house, he sighed, he would have to start a fire. The windows were boarded up neatly, and it was clean, the house was in perfect condition. He walked into the house and put the basket of goodies in the other basket, he would take both of them with him tomorrow so he didn't have more than one.
He pulled off his coat and hung it up in the closet, the house was 'L' shaped and had a total of four bedrooms, all the doors were open except one, the master. He rarely went into the room anymore, every time he did he found himself over come with grief, he only checked on it to see if any repairs needed to be made, he would probably have to do so again. Most of the pictures were set on the tables, and they were faced down, walking over he picked one up it was of him and his child-hood friend. She had disappeared as soon as the outbreak had happened, Cloud was sure she had perished. He placed the picture face down again and walked away into the kitchen to grab a can-opener and a fork, he had a date with dinner. He sat at the couch for dinner, hunched over the food in his hand, in this time of world the food in front of him was a feast of epic proportions. When he finished he leaned back on the couch and sighed looking over his shoulder he grabbed a match and started to light some candles around the room.
He kept the house well illuminated while he was up in the night, but before bed he would flick them off so as to save wax. Once he finished with that he felt a tightness in his chest again he patted his chest and cleared his throat, it was hard to breathe again, just as before it past. Shaking his head he looked towards his parent's old bedroom, grabbing a candle he walked over towards it slowly, even on the creaky wood panels he made no noise. Grasping the cool handle he turned it slowly as if some horrific monster lay in wait behind the door. Pushing his way inside the temperature changed drastically, it was freezing inside the room. It was just as they left it, the floor was dusty, and the bed sheets rumpled and thrown to the side, he could remember the night clearly.
Cloud woke when a shriek tore through his peaceful slumber, he sat up and grabbed the sheets and pulled them up to his chest. The shriek sounded close by and he whimpered, still frightened of the dark, he was fifteen he shouldn't be but he couldn't help it.
"M-Mom? D-Dad?" He questioned quietly into the darkness of his bedroom and received no answer, though he was expecting that sort of reaction. Standing up he stood on his bed as he leaned over towards the wall and flicked on the light, with the illumination he realized nothing was in his bedroom and he let out a relieved sigh. Moving to sit back down he heard the frantic and scared voice of his mother.
"Cloud!? Cloud, Honey open up your door we have to go." He heard the fierce pounding on his door and he opened it up to reveal his mother, she was tall and gorgeous. Her long blonde hair drifting to her waist and her wide blue eyes taking in the sight of him. "Come on Honey we have to go, Daddy is gonna start the car."
"Where are we going?" He questioned sleepily as his mother took his hand and started to drag him off.
"We're going to go stay with Grandma and Grandpa." She answered back and he wondered why he couldn't take some of his clothes with him, what was the hurry? The door was wide open, it was a summer night and though only a little chilly it was bearable.
"Jason! Are you out there!?" His mother called out and when no response came back she and Cloud stood at the doorway. Cloud didn't notice it but his mother seemed to get even more fidgety and then out of the darknes-.
"No!" He cried out breaking his thoughts out of the past and his fist slammed to the wall, leaving a dent and a bit of scrapes on his hand. "God dammit!" He cussed as he realized he would have to fix the hole in his wall. He slammed the door shut on his way out, he fought the tears that built in his eyes, storming into his bedroom he shut and locked the door putting a chair against it. Stripping his shirt and pants off he slipped into a t-shirt and shorts with his head on the pillow he drifted off into a troubled sleep.
'Crunch, crunch, crunch.' The sound of his footsteps were again the only sound that accompanied him on his way into town. As he walked he remembered how busy these roads used to be, he had decided to get more food, though he didn't really need it. He crunched his way through the snow, the sun was just rising and it felt nice on his chilled skin and clothing. He was warm enough as long as he kept moving but the extra warmth was always nice. An hour and a half later he was inside town, on an old street, Milton, he walked past several stores, all empty he checked, and gas stations. Some of the buildings had dark stains on them from the initial outbreak, he didn't think too hard on it though.
He was going to a grocery store that he hoped was filled with a wider variety of food, maybe some fruits, he wanted the sweetness that he hadn't had for months. He only get fruit during the summer when he found fruit trees that seemed to yield amazing amounts of fruit, he had eaten all of it already though. He pulled the thick black scarf he had up and over his nose, the air was a nipping chill today, he didn't much care for it, only the sun made it bearable.
"Help me!" He heard a shriek and he froze in his tracks, was it possible? He heard screaming, some from a living being and others from those creatures, if he had to guess it was two of them after one person. He didn't move for a moment soon though he found himself running towards the noise his knife pulled out and ready to shank anything that got in his way. He ran as fast as he could but when he heard that blood curdling shriek of death he knew he was too late, it was loud and he knew he was near the scene. When he looked down an ally he saw it, a young woman, her dark skin was now stained with her blood, her green eyes stared up at the sky, two creatures were feasting on her insides.
"Miranda! Miranda are you there." He heard an electronic sound and realized the girl was not alone, she was sadly still alive, looking over at cloud tears falling out of her eyes she weakly grabbed the walkie-talkie and threw it to him.
"T-Take it please." Cloud didn't hear a word she said but he could read lips and she offered him a small smile, bending to where the small thing had fallen he grabbed it and his own blue eyes watered. When he looked back up at her she was gone, her eyes glazed over, the two creatures too busy with their meal to even realize that he was behind them. Turning he walked away, steeling himself away, but then he looked over his shoulder and froze in his tracks, a horde, a horde of those things were behind him. They were a good distance behind them, they shuffled along through the snow, their stench left him gagging, he contemplated hiding but if they found him... so he dropped the baskets and ran. He had food at home it could wait a day, he bolted through the empty town and away from the horde of dead, knife in one hand, walkie-talkie in the other. He hadn't prepared for a Horde to come though, and to be honest this was the first time he had ever seen one.
He didn't hear any screeching which meant that they hadn't heard him running away from them, and for that he was grateful, he knew he couldn't fight off that many, it was obvious. He didn't stop running for a while, he kept running and running until he was in his neighborhood bending at the waist he sucked in air like it was the last time he would ever have any. He panted and hissed as the cold air pained his already sore lungs, he wondered what was wrong with him, this wasn't right. After several minutes of heavy breathing he walked again, slowly towards his house hand on his chest. He rubbed at the tightness and opened his door slowly and he instantly knew something was wrong, there was too much light in the small enclosure. He raised his knife ready to strike for the head, he would be rid of whatever was in here. One of the boards to his windows had been punched in, in fact several, they were pushed open, something had gotten in.
He breathed silently, forcing himself to suck in quieter breaths so as not to let onto his location, he heard something in his room and he made his way over. He had his knife up ready to bring it down on one of their heads when it came out, looking at the closed door to his bedroom, he shoved it open and as soon as he did a fist came out aimed for his head. Ducking under the arm he brought his knife up to slice at the arm, but whatever it belonged to was quick, as he raised his arm up he felt something sweep under his feet, landing on his back the knife sliding away he stared up, a familiar pair of reddish brown eyes stared back at him in shock.
"Cloud Strife!?"
Author's Note: And that's what I got for you all today. What's the verdict eh? Make sure to review for me please tell me your thoughts and Merry Christmas!
-Rev
