Chapter 1: A Long Night
Grays clouds covered the night sky, bathing the mountainous forest below in darkness. Rain fell like teardrops from the heavens to the land below.
The forest was completely still, not a single living thing could be heard.
A young man was taking shelter from the rain in a cave near the base of a mountain. He sat close to the entrance, not daring to go any farther.
His name was William, and in his opoinion, he was the unluckiest boy alive.
The sun had just set a while ago, and with the sudden rain he wasn't able to make a fire. Shivering from the cold, William was curled up in a ball and was pulling his ripped winter coat tightly around himself. It wasn't even midnight and things were already going bad for him.
There were heavy bags under his dark eyes. God, he was tired. The soft patter of the rain nearly put him to sleep- but he shook himself awake. He knew that he shouldn't rest; not here, not now. Especially not now; not when he was surrounded by darkness. He had to be alert. He learned to fear the dark that the night brings.
William glanced at his poorly bandaged left arm and winced. It definitely wasn't the time to rest right now.
And then he heard it; footsteps, something sniffing the air, a short pause- then a groan. It was coming from farther inside the cave.
Crap, William cursed silently under his breath. It was already starting.
He stood up slowly, making sure he didn't make a sound. He looked into the cave for any sign of it, but the cave was pitch black; he couldn't see a thing.
He heard the footsteps coming closer.
William took out his pocket knife from his cargo pants and flicked it open.
He gripped his pocket knife tightly in his right hand, grit his teeth, and backed out of the cave slowly. He strained his senses, looking for any sign of it.
So focused was he staring into the cave looking for any sign of it that he didn't pay attention to where he was walking.
SNAP!
Crap, he stepped on a twig!
The sound echoed through the cave.
The footsteps stopped.
His heart started to beat faster in fear. Adrenaline began pumping through his veins.
A loud groan echoed through the cave. The footsteps started again, but it was now much faster. It was definitely coming closer! It was almost here and then-
William could smell the thing before he saw it. It smelled like a thousand deceased rats left to rot out in the open sun, but infintly worse- the scent of decay. Distugsting and vomit-inducing.
It charged out into the open, a humanoid being with sickly green skin and stringy hair. Its mouth was agape, filled with rotting teeth. And its eyes were black and beady, filled with an endless rage. A zombie.
It looked dead straight at him and its groan pierced through the rain and echoed through the night.
It was followed by more groans throughout the forest.
Crap, it was calling its friends!
He tried to count how many there were. Four- no, ten- no, sixteen- it was too many to count- and definitely too many to fight!
He ran into the forest, without looking back, not caring at all about the rain, hoping that he could somehow escape from those things.
There was no way he was staying there, he could barely hold his own against one of them. He knew from experience that each of those things had an insane amount of stength.
He pushed through his exhaustion and ran as fast as he could. He brushed past the branches that clawed at him, and jumped over the roots and the various flora that threatened to entangle him. Hoping that he could somehow outrun or lose those monsters.
But it wasn't enough, he could hear branches being ripped from their places, and grass being trampled and crushed from behind him.
He was getting tired, his exhaustion was catching up to him. His pursuers though, they didn't show any signs of stopping.
At this rate he would have to turn around and fight.
Before he could think more about it, he saw a dark shape moving through the canopy above.
Just a second later, a giant spider landed in right in front of him. It stood at half his height, its hairy legs extended above its head, letting out a hiss from its giant chelicerae.
It jumped at him.
But apparently, lady luck pitied him for once. He slipped on a slippery part of the roots of a tree and barely escaped being bitten and injected with some nasty venom. He slammed right into the ground onto his injured left arm, he winced. Thanks, lady luck!
He heard the spider land on something squelchy, and soon after he heard a groan. The zombie was right behind him!
He got up quickly and srarted running again.
As he was running again, he could hear the hissing of the spider and groans of zombies behind him. From the sound of it, they seemed to be fighting each other. Yes, his lucky break!
But he knew the fight wouldn't last long. With that many zombies, there was no way the spider could- he heard something akin to a big chicken wing being ripped off, and the dying hiss of a spider, followed by a crunch, as the spider was devoured. Welp, there it goes.
But he could hear more hisses from above, then thuds as it landed behind him. The zombies and spiders were in a full-fledged battle!
Even then, he kept running through the rain. He needed to find somewhere to hide, and quickly! He knew he couldn't climb the trees, he tried thay before and it didn't end well. He almost become spider chow that night.
Maybe he could hide under the bushes? But with how good the zombies' sense of smell was, it would be a doomed endeavour.
But what could he do?! If he kept running, they would eventually catch up to him!
He could see right ahead, there was a canyon. He had nowhere to run.
The zombies managed to catch up to him somehow. He could smell and hear them.
Was this really how it would end? Being devoured by monsters, not a week into this new world? Dying like a loser, never being able to live his life to the fullest? Never seeing his family again?
No! To hell with that! He WOULD survive! He WOULD live! And most importantly, he WOULD find a way back to his home!
The zombies almost caught up to him now. They were right behind him.
The canyon was getting close and closer.
He kept running.
He could feel a zombie reaching out to try and catch him, its rotting hands nearly touching his back.
He slid into a crouch by the canyon, dropping his pocket knife. Then he stuck his feet out to the side.
The zombie that was right behind him tried to grab him, but with William's sudden movement it missed. Its momentum, combined with being tripped by Wiliam, made it fall staright into the canyon.
William stood up quickly, the next zombie not being able to stop because of the slippery wet mud on the ground.
It fell right into the canyon.
One on one, in a fair fight, he would definitely lose against these things. Their brute strength guaranteed that, but strength wasn't the only determining factor in a fight.
He quickly scanned his surroundings. There were still a dozen that were running right at him. Less than he thought, but he wasn't going to complain.
He had observed these zombies from afar a few days back. While he was out looking for food during the night, he saw them fighting a bear. They easily overwhelmed it. Though he went hungry that night, he gained valuable information from watching the fight. He knew that the preferred method of attack of these things was to leap into their victim, knocking it down and overwhelming it with numbers, all the while biting and clawing it to death.
He would use that against them.
Awarness was key, if he knew that if he slipped up even once he would surely die. He felt his heart racing.
The first one ran up to him. Then from about three meters away, it coiled up in preparation. Then it leapt at him in blinding speed. This one seemed to be aiming to disable him. Its hand was open and trying to grab his limb.
He grabbed it with two hands by the arm and threw it into the canyon.
The second and third one came. They jumped at him at the same time.
William crouched low, letting them pass over him. But even then one of them clipped his right shoulder with its sharp nails, drawing blood. He hissed.
Three down, nine more to go.
He saw another one to his right preparing to jump at him. William prepared to catch it by a limb and throw it off, but it didn't jump. He felt confused.
He could see its face, it looked almost... sumg?
The he felt it. Ten streaks of pain across his back. William could't hold back a cry of pain.
He didn't notice, but a zombie sneaked up behinf him! He underestimated their intelligence, and he was going to pay.
He turned around him and tried to throw off the zombie that hurt him. But before he could do anything, the zombie from earlier jumped right onto his back knocking him down on his face.
He struggled to get it off of him, but it was too strong! He couldn't move an inch. It was holding him down, its arms pinning William's against the ground.
Fuck! This was really it. He was going to die here. He could feel the tears byidling up behind his eyes. This was the end. The tears rolled down mixing in with the rain.
He looked up, it was hard to see through the tears, but he could see the outline of a zombie. Its right arm was held high, prepared to deal the final blow to him.
He closed his eyes and accepted his fate.
He waited...
But it never came. Then he realized, he could smell somethimg burning.
His eyes snapped open. The weather cleared, and the sun was rising!
He looked up at the zombie that seemed so victorious jsut a few moments ago. Its mouth was open in a silent scream, as it slowly disintergreated in the sun.
He felt the weight of the zombie on top of him get lighter by the minute. He kicked the zombie that was on top of him off. He stood up and surveyed his surroundings. The dozen zombies that were chasing him, all of them were all right before his eyes.
He couldn't believe it! He survived!
His tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy. He really survived to see another day! That was the closest he came to dying in his past week in this world and he survived!
He laughed in pure relief.
But he could feel the exhaustion catching up to him. His eyelids grew heavy.
He collapsed and passed out from the exhaustion.
He survived the night.