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#27
Prologue
The gas.
It wasn't a war, it wasn't a terrorist attack, and it definitely wasn't some supernatural entity. It was all our doing. Or rather, it was our undoing. We killed ourselves. Humanity killed itself. Be it an accident or intentionally, we brought about an era where no humans would survive, where no human could survive. We brought about an era leading to this...
Humans: Population - 0
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In the middle of the night, a meteor crashed into an unpopulated region in Kansas. It was found 3 days later by a man named Rodrigo Vasquez. He had found it purely by coincidence. He was on a roadtrip and decided to pull over for a bathroom break. Locking up his car, he took a hike not too far off the road, but far enough to be out of view from any passersby. That is, until he noticed a small crater, and inside the crater, a strange blue-gray object. It looked like clumped up dirt that had been mixed with blue dye, but he found that strange since, as mentioned before, the area wasn't populated. Not sure of what to do with it, Rodrigo hauled it out of the crater, plopped it into the trunk of his old dust red truck and hopped back into the drivers seat, popping his key in the ignition.
3 days after that incident, Rodrigo was on the news. He had found a compound with chemical DNA completely unknown to modern science. Not even our most advanced and skilled scientists could pinpoint the elements making up the substance. Because it was an all new element of it's own.
Naturally, it was brought in for testing, and after determining that the object had low radiation levels, they decided it would need to be put under high levels of stress to react. Thinking it was safe, they began mixing it with other compounds in hopes of getting even a small reaction. But they were ill prepared when that reaction occurred.
They had combined it with many different substances but none of them seemed to react with the DNA of the object. They concluded that the chemical DNA that made up the compound, left it unreactive and that no amount of testing would cause a reaction, so they put the testing on hold.
2 months later, a man working at a construction site was hit over the head by a steel beam in the process of being moved by a crane. The man had crumpled to the floor almost immediately upon contact causing nearly everyone in the vicinity to freeze in horror. Half of his head had been smashed in and blood was gushing out onto the dirt below him. A panic errupted from his coworkers. Then, the man stood back up. With the impact of the steel beam and his head being crushed in, in such a way, he should have been dead.
It was a miracle, the men and women at the construction site began rushing towards him, those who were already at his side upon impact began asking him if he was alright and if he needed to go to the hospital as they dialed 911. They all looked at him with pure relief. Atleast until he bit one of the men. No one knew how to react, they thought maybe the impact had caused permanent brain damadge or perhaps he was too disoriented to realize what he was doing.
Then he ripped a chunk of flesh out of his coworkers neck. The man in question, was named Bradley Jaquez, and he had been at the location of the testing site when they were mixing compounds with the unknown element. He was apart of the demolition crew meant to clear out one of the old unused buildings to make room for a new facility. And he had been infected with the disease the scientists had unwittingly created during their experiments.
This was the beginning of the end.
The end of the human race.
And the beginning of zombie kind. |
Jane
The computer screen was near as bright as the sun itself as it lit up the girls face. Her hazel eyes focused on the application in front of her as the screen lit up her chizeled dark features with a blue hue, outlining the ocean of curls billowing from her head that reached just passed her upper back. The computer, resting on the knees of her ripped blue jeans, slowly started to slide off her lap as she typed. In one swift motion, she snatched it up, her loose cropped T-Shirt flowing in the breeze coming in through the open window next to her.
She began typing again with lazer focus. Lifting her right hand and extending her pointer finger downward, she suddenly dropped it at full speed, tapping one last key.
"Aaaand... ENTER!!" her face was alight with joy as she sprang up from her window seat, "Aaahh, oh my god, okay... I finally did it!"
Arms raised to the air as she stretched the full length of her body, she began taking small limping steps before placing her arms back at her sides and taking them in long strides. Sidling up next to her bed, she slid the plain grey slippers at her bedside onto her feet, using her fingers to pull them on the rest of the way.
"Mom! Hey, mom!" her footsteps echoed behind her as she rushed out the door, twisting and turning, straining to make sharp turns through the halls while moving as quickly as possible without causing herself any injuries, "Mom, I did it!"
Rounding one last corner, she caught her foot around the edge of the wall, nearly toppling over in her excitement. Her reflexes kicked in again as she caught her balance just before faceplanting into the carpeted floor. Her arms splayed out horizontally, she was practically squatting. She lifted her head to find her mother sitting on the couch in front of the T.V, legs crossed, and staring at her in complete exasperation.
"What have you done now?" her mothers dark eyebrows furrowed as her short dark brown curls circled around her left ear. She stared calmly at her daughter, her deep brown eyes alight with suspicion as she crossed her arms over her chest, causing her mustared yellow shirt to untuck from her blue jean capris.
"Moooom... I told you about this two weeks ago... And again just yesterday." she overdramatized her displeasure as she stared narrow-eyed at her mother. Her wide nostrils flaring even wider in indignation.
"Jane... You may be my daughter and I may love you with all my heart, but my each and every day does not revolve around you. I have other things to keep track of. Keep that in mind."
"The application! You know, the one for the Cleveland Strikers?"
"... Oooh, haha, that completely slipped my mind." she said with a wave of her hand.
Jane quirked her eyebrow as she stared at her mother in complete disbelief, "Seriously mom? How could you forget? It's only the most important thing I've ever been apart of. I mean, I might get to be in the entertainment committee for my favorite team!" she stood there, her arms splayed out as though she was basking in the warmth of the sun.
"That's nice dear. Oh! While I remember, would you mind going out and getting a jug of milk. I need some for this new recipe I've been meaning to try and we're completely out."
Her arms dropped to her sides as her shoulders slumped, "You can't even pretend to be happy for me?"
"Oh for Christ's sake! You're twenty-six years old, I shouldn't need to hold your hand for every little thing you do. Now go get the milk. Please."
Jane harumphed back through the house, yanking her navy green button-up jacket from the coat rack as she approached, unlocking the door with her free hand. Closing the door behind her, she pulled the keys from her right pocket and slid the one in the very center into the key hole as the other two jangled at it's sides.
She walked down the steps, looking to the gray Honda SUV parked in the driveway before stuffing the keys back into her pocket and making her way down the porch steps. She took her usual route to the convenience store down the block, passing by a construction site that, for the passed week had been extremely noisy. But now, it was eerily quiet.
Jane stopped, peering passed the gray fence and construction signs to get a good look inside. There were people in uniforms all standing around what looked like a brawl between two construction workers as they tried to pull them off of one another. It was definitely a surprise to find that going on at a dangerous location, a bit unsettling in fact. But the most unsettling part about it all was the look in the eyes of one of the men fighting. He looked crazed, almost hungry as he lunged for anyone within his grasp.
As a pacifist, Jane wasn't particularly fond of such unnecessary brutality, but something about the sight. Something about that man, kept her from looking away. She was intrigued and she couldn't be more mystified as to why.
Suddenly, the man pulls out of his fellow construction workers grasps and they all dodge out of the way of his frantic attacks. Before Jane can even react, the man is upon her. He stands inches away from her, shoulder muscles rippling beneathe his uniform. He's much taller than her, by atleast a foot. Jane freezes in complete terror as the man comes close enough for her to get a good look at him.
The whole left side of his head is caved in and there's something wet and liquidy coming out of the wound. She's unsure of what the liquid is, but it definitely isn't blood, because blood isn't black. The man's left eye bulges slightly from his face as it pulsates every time he moves. But it's his other eye, the one that's fully intact that draws her attention. His eyes open as wide as humanly possible, his pupils dialated, and his good eye completely bloodshot. If she had only seen this part of his face, she would think he was some crazy out of control druggy. But he wasn't and that's what terrified her.
Well, that and the fact that he was salivating as he looked at her. From afar, his attacks seemed almost hungry, but up close, she could see his dead, soulless eyes. He has no desire, no greed, no hunger, only pure instinct. Like a watchdog trained to attack without a second thought. And in the next few seconds, she would be the target of that watchdogs volition and she would have no way of saving herself because she was completely rooted to that exact spot. Rather than adrenaline, it's fear coursing through her veins, infiltrating her bloodstream and hijacking her nerves. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't scream.
'Scream dammit! Run! Come on! Do something!! You're good at that, you've been to enough baseball games and played in even more, now MOVE!!!'
But the sound vibrating around her isn't a scream, it's a ringing in her ears that she can't get to go away. Everything seems to happen in slow motion. The man, no, the thing drags it's hand out towards her as it comes careening forward, covering the last few paces between them in seconds. Just as he's about to sink his dirt encrusted fingernails into her soft flesh, she's pulled back into reality as a purple flash at the corner of her vision rams her out of the way and sends her tumbling to the ground.
Stunned and unable to catch her breathe from the absolute terror ripping through her stomache, all she can do is look to where the purple mass is, now bundled on the floor rubbing it's head with a grimace of pain. The boy jolts up as soon as he recovers, grabbing ahold of Janes arm with one ghostly pale hand and planting his other hand thats been completely consumed by the sleeve of his purple hoodie onto the temple of his forehead in an attempt to staunch the trickle of blood seeping from a fresh cut.
He drags her away, and Jane, in a state of confusion and panic allows herself to be pulled along willingly. This boy she's never even met before, possibly just saved her life and even got injured in the process. Jane takes a long look at the boy as she tries to figure out what he could possibly want from her that would cause him to put himself at risk like that. The wound on the boys forehead has stopped bleeding and is now left with only strands of his wavy black hair to cover it. His earbuds are dangling from the neck of his hoodie connecteing to an MP3 player sticking out of his hoodie pocket. He doesn't seem to notice as he brushes his blood covered hand against his black sweatpants.
He turns to look at her, a strange expression clouding his features, reminding her of how long she's been staring. The boy could only be in his teens, possibly fourteen or even fifteen. What could he possibly want from her?
"Why did you... How...?" Unsure of how to ask the question without seeming ungrateful, Jane butchers the end and leaves it to the boys imagination to figure out the rest of the sentence.
"I was jogging, and you happened to be in my path. Pure luck."
He releases her arm and with a swift nod he turns to walk away, leaving Jane completely dumbfounded in his wake. |
