On January 01, 2015, Russia celebrated the New Year with the surrender of Kazakhstan's armed forces. What started as an attempt to control Ukraine, ended in a multi-country takeover in less than a year.
According to history books, the President at the time, Barry O'Neal, wasn't entirely sure whether it was in our country's best interest to get involved. His reluctance was echoed amongst the United Nations. Several sanctions against Russia were issued, but those efforts proved futile.
Russia's President at the time, Vassili Pechkin, who later became the longest serving President of Russia, took advantage of the United Nations' underestimation of his reach. Six months after the first Russian troops set foot in Crimea, another group of Russian soldiers were deployed to Belarus, then Romania soon after.
After Kazakhstan conceded, The United States joined forces with the United Kingdom and deployed an army to Kazakhstan, in an attempt to reclaim it.
But it was too late. No one could have predicted what happened next.
Immediately after the announcement to infiltrate Kazakhstan was made known, Russia deployed a simultaneous attack on the U.S. and the U.K.
Private planes carrying chemical bombs were deployed and set to hit the West Coast, the Midwest, and the East Coast of America, and another one aimed at the Buckingham Palace.
The planes headed for the West Coast and the Buckingham Palace were shot down before it even neared land. The Midwest and the East Coast weren't so fortunate.
The one targeted for the Midwest crashed in Zionsville, IN. What was once a flourishing suburbia is now a desolate town filled with rotting facades and smells like burnt ash and decay.
The one set to hit the East Coast ended up in Manhattan, NY. What once was Manhattan no longer exists.
Not long after the crash, creatures started appearing in the streets of Manhattan. And the creatures there were rabid, vicious, fast-evolving killers. The ones we have here are tame by comparison.
The government tried to contain the epidemic. But their creatures evolved way too quickly. Before they could spread outside of the city, a nuclear missile was dropped on Times Square, erasing the entire island off the map forever.
I wonder why New York was nuked and Indiana was not? Is it because the creatures here are less sinister? It couldn't possibly be. I've seen these things skin a grown man alive. It took less than ten minutes.
It was day fifteen. I was peeking through a gap in my boarded up window when I saw movement out on the street. It was a man. Hard to tell how old or young he was from where I stood. He wore tattered clothes covered in filth, which I found odd because he appeared clean and well-kempt otherwise.
He was limping down the street, screaming for help, dazed, and confused. It was as if he didn't know where he was. Or at least that's what I told myself. Coz no one in their right mind would dare call attention to themselves in this hellhole, especially not while out in the open like he was.
Not even five minutes from the time the man showed up, at least fifteen creatures appeared behind him. They travel in packs, moving slow and fast at the same time. It's hard to explain.
Their lower bodies are so badly deformed that they have to drag each step they take. But their upper bodies, though just as messed up, don't seem to affect their upper extremities' agility whatsoever.
The biggest one of the group, I think he was the leader. He walked ahead while everyone else trailed behind. As soon as he got within an arms length distance from that man and grabbed him by the head. His outstretched arms were unusually large and looked like they were covered in scales, like a reptile. His hands were covered in lumps, eight, maybe seven fingers on each side. Hard to say for sure, as I dared not get closer, but it was definitely more than five.
The first movement I saw was the polydactyl hands on the man's head. Then the next, was the man screaming in agony as blood gushed out from a large tear in his back. Like a sharp blade just passed the point where the head meets the neck, all the way down to where the coccyx begins.
As the man screamed and wailed, contorting his body in pain, the gathering creatures watching their leader mutilate this man began their version of a hoot and holler. Which consisted of loud phlegmy grunts, hisses, and stuttered screeching sounds.
The leader paused momentarily, yet kept his eye on the prey. After a beat, it made this loud guttural sound; like a combination of a cough and a roar. It leaned its head back, and outstretched its hands. Then, it snapped its head back up, shoved its hands into the man's gaping wound, and started to rock back and forth. The man shrieked a haunting, unimaginable sound of pure terror and pain.
He writhed and screamed, then writhed and screamed some more. Then, he fell silent. They all fell silent, the creatures included. And I wished that the man was dead and that's why he was quiet. Because as the leader got off of him, it held up a long leather piece up in the air. And the creatures started grunting and screeching again, rejoicing in the bounty their leader had just showed them.
It didn't take me long to realize that it was the man's skin he held up in triumph. For behind the bloody creature was the man, all muscles and bones, twitching in a pool of his own blood.
After showing this off to his followers, the creatures' leader wrapped the man's skin around his shoulders, as if it was a coat. Then it walked away, licking the blood off its hands with each stride.
As soon as their master left, the awaiting creatures descended on the man like a pack of hungry hyenas. By the time they were done, the carcass was picked nearly clean, with its head and his right leg missing.
If history says that these creatures have nothing against what plagued Manhattan, then I'm glad that city no longer exists.