Switch of sites

Hey everyone. Just a quick note that i have ported everything that has been written here over to a new wordpress page. There are several reasons behind the switch but mostly, i need to be able to customize freely unlike what i can do here. This is as one can logically assume, the very last post on this blog.

The new page can be found at: http://onevsdread.wordpress.com/

I'll be doing all of my updates on that site from hereon, this includes my new novel that i have been working on for quite some time. There is a handy follow button there. Press it. I dare you. Hope to see you all there!

Authors words, credits

It's been a long journey for me. It took over three years to finish this project. I'm not quite satisfied with it, but at least it's done now. There have been a crowd of people helping me out in times of need when i felt my inspiration waning like a flag without wind. So i'd be amiss if i didn't credit them properly as thanks for helping me through this journey.

Jenny, Sara, Therese. These were the three main persons responsible for pushing me through the worst of it. There were more people helping me, writing encouraging words. And for that, i thank you all. While i have a new story arc planned and written down for this series, i need to take a proper break from it. So i am focusing my efforts on a new project, something completely unrelated to this work. I will return to this project sometime, i just can't guarantee when and how that'll be.

As a side note, writing just 18 pages shouldn't have taken nearly this long of a time, yet it did. I guess that's what happens when you solely write in your spare time with life occupying you constantly with all kinds of stuff. So, thank you all for helping me through this journey, and i hope you'll stay tuned for my next project. The prologue should be up soon enough!

Dead Sun Rising: chapter 2; page 18.

I just cried on the way up. No word could nor wanted to leave my mouth. Just empty air, as empty as my soul felt. I felt ashamed. I felt anger. I felt sorrow. The hot tears just trinkeled down my face like a never ending stream. It felt like my heart was about to burst, the hot, searing feeling one feels when sorrow hits you like a brick wall, much like a heart crushed. I simply sat. The journey upwards took three minutes. But to me, it felt like an eternity. I wanted to slam the button to go downwards. Dive down there to save her. But Frost convinced me otherwise, despite me not wanting to listen to him. Instinct told me otherwise. That we needed to save her. But the sacrifice would be in vain then. Despite knowing this, i didn't want to condemn her to this fate. I hated myself for not being able to save yet another person in my life.

The door slowly grinded to a halt and a friendly announcer told us that we were at bottom one level as the door opened itself up. The first thing that we both noticed was the alarming smell of thick smoke. It snapped me out of the shock and sorrow as quickly as i begun to cough non-stop. Something was burning, and there was an overwhelming smell of burnt rubber and wood in the air. It made me tear up instantly but Frost had the advantage of the gas mask so he wasn't affected by it as much. Still, if i hanged around here much longer, i'll probably become brain dead. It's felt like i was trying to breathe through a straw. Not the nicest feeling in the world. We both started rushing, the smoke was blinding to me so frost just grabbed me by the arm and starting pulling me along towards what we thought was the exit. Or atleast the stairs up. To be honest, i couldn't see much by now. My eyes were tearing up as we went further into the smoke and hopefully on our way out of this hell-hole, finally. Have you ever tried walking up stairs while closing your eyes? Well, it was kinda like that. Things were a blur for me, to say the least. I lost track of where i went in the end, being blindly led by Frost. Everthing just kept getting blurrier and blurrier, and i could feel everything in my body slowing down. Every single organ just giving up on me. Damnit... Just a little bit... more... Need...

Next thing i know, i was staring at the sky. The sky, i was staring at the freaking sky again. Just that fact made me so happy i tried sitting up. Not the brightest thing to do. I started coughing so hard, i thought i was gonna puke for a while. Fighting to get air into my lungs, i lifted my arms up above my head and started controlling my breathing effectively forcing my body to breath the way i wanted to. I stood up, looking around for Frost, Sophie and Nails. Whils't Sophie was right next to me, nails was nowhere to be found alongside Frost. For a few seconds, my brain processed that Nails was left behind in order to save us three. Or two. It was like loosing her all over again in those few seconds. You know, i never fully understood the whole thing with powerful experiences creating the strongest bonds. I finally understood all those movies, games, books. And it hurts, badly. A fresh stream of tears made it's way down my cheek, something i paid little attention to too be honest. Everything aked, right down to what i assumed was the soul. A sound made itself heard and still being in high alert, i reached for my gun instantly raising it to a full snap, ready to pull the trigger in a heartbeat. It was Frost. I just exhaled deeply and relaxed for a bit. It sure helped with the mood atleast.

- I see you're finally awake Chris.

- What happened? All i know is that i fell unconcious sometimes on our way out. And i have all these wierd scrapes and bruised all over me.

- That... Would be a story for another time. We got out, at the very least. And i managed to grab this handy shovel on the way out. Fancy that, huh? I am a bit low on ammo though.

Frost lifted the shovel and handed it to me. It smelled horribly and was full of all kinds of nasty stuff on the metal end of the shovel. I don't want to know what he did with it, but i can only assume. For now, i started digging. It was going to take a while with this aking body, but i was finally at the journeys end with me and Sophie. I can finally give her the burial she deserved. But Nails... Tossing that thought aside, i suddenly found myself with plenty of time to ponder what the hell to do next as i continued my digging with the help of frost. The situation hadn't changed just because we were out of that hell hole. But we were still left with no food, no idea where we are and where the nearest town was. I guess we were in it for the long haul. When we were done, we ceremonially bowed, put an improvised cross over her grave and i shed my last tears for her. The sun was on it's way up. Needless to say, when you've almost dies so many times over, it was the most beutiful ruby tinted sunrise i have seen in my life. Well, Time to make our way into what will hopefully be an intact civilisation....

Thank you Nails, for allowing my survival despite the cost of your own. I promise to make it worthwhile by surviving, but it hurts just taking steps without you. I'm so sorry i failed you.

Dead Sun Rising, chapter 2; Page 17

It felt like my heart was a burden, feeling it pound with a strength unknown to me. Like the wait for something to happen to us was finally going to make it explode. Like the wait for the undead to show up was going to be the end. Felt almost like my legs were made out of spaghetti. Fear, i think was the right word for it. The primal fear of my life ending, like looking down into some form of god forsaken abyss. Feeling it's intense gaze staring my soul down. Judging. Patiently waiting. I could vaguely make some sound out in the background. Something slammed against a wall. A shot. It was all a blur. All of a sudden, we were in a large conference room, almost formed like an ancient Greek amphitheater. I heard screaming. Shouting. Moaning. It was all so confusing. What was happening? It was when an undead pulled my hair backwards that i was snapped back to reality. The pain bringing me back down to the earth like a rock comes crashing down from the sky. I reacted with instinct, smacking the zombie with the butt of my gun in it's face from the awkward position I was in. It's hard grip letting go of my hair. We were so close, yet this apparent wall of zombies that appeared out of nowhere were between us and apparent freedom. Frost was shouting as us to get moving. Nails trying to swing the crowbar, crushing heads left and right. It wasn't the easiest of fights, running and shooting while carrying a corpse. But I had come this far, I was determined to at least see this through. To be able to give her a proper burial.

Rage and survival instincts is an amazing driving factor. Can propel you to do amazing things in the heat of battle. Can also drive you to do some very cold things. Things that you can't justify later on, no matter how hard you try. We fought like brothers and sisters. Watching each others backs, trying to simply mow our way through the crowd. Trying to spot a weak link in the chain of zombies. Fighting, screaming, surviving. Emergency exit. We were finally there. I heard nail scream a terrified shout as a cold hand gripped her hair, pulling her backwards in the same awkward position I was in just moments before. I aimed with a shaky hand, seeing the terrified expression slowly forming. It felt like it all went in slow motion. In one motion, I steadied up my shaking hand, taking a deep breath. Looking down the red insert of my gun, I squeezed the trigger in hopes of hitting my target. The bullet buried itself into the hungry zombies head, going in from one end and out the other making a huge mess of it all. The wall, stained crimson with brain substance and blood seemed not to mind the mess. Nails fell on her back, having no support from her legs keeping her up. I rushed over to help her and we slammed the door shut behind us, hoping to contain the hoard as long as possible. Looking over my gun, I had half a magazine left with no spares to match. Guess I burned through it all during the last battle. Damn it all. Guess there was no helping it.

What with the rapid banging on the door going on, we didn't have much time to spare. So we ventured up the stairs as fast as we could manage with Frost on point. As we got closer to it, I felt my arms where starting to cave. Realizing that we needed to get out of here fast if I had any hopes of getting her out of this hell hole, I felt it was prudent to push myself just a little bit more. Frost slammed the emergency door open, triggering the larmed door. We all heard the alarm blaring through all possible directions, it's noise lodging itself deep into our skulls. We saw several elevators, must have been more then a dozen of them all neatly stapled up in one single row against the wall about 30 meters away from us. There was a single desk, albeit a pretty big one, standing in front of all of these elevators. Must have been a reception of some description. We hurried over there and investigated it as fast as we could. Stained coffee all over the table, a few computer screens and a lot of buttons. There was a card reader there on top of the desk, guess you had to check out to call an elevator. Nails started fooling around with the controllers for a bit. After a while, she said "I think i got it" and asked us to hurry towards the elevators. She started going throught the buttons, and as we hurried there, all the doors in the room suddenly slammed open with a loud series of bangs. It felt like a chorus of the damned, with what seemed like dozens of them pouring through the doors surrounding the room. We heard the ping of the elevator, not being slow on the uptake we hurried in to the elevator. It was with a horrible sensation in the pit of my stomach that i saw that Nails slammed a button and the elevator doors slowly shutting itself. Frost grabbed the collar of my shirt as he saw i was about to run after her, effectively stopping med dead in my tracks. The last thing i saw of her was her having the entire horde after her running in the opposite direction through a door screaming "LIVE!" as the door closed.

I could do nothing but scream.

Dead Sun Rising, Chapter 2; Page 16

I tried to take a breath of relief but i just couldn't. Something felt wrong and i had a hard time pinning it down. It was annoying, but maybe it was the stress of the situation and everything that had happened that just made me feel this was. Nevertheless, we had no choice but to trust this man right now. We needed all the help we could get and having an extra gun available is always handy in a situation that might demand it. Still, it felt a bit too convenient but it was a risk i just had to live with. I checked my gun, checked my magazine, checked so that a bullet was properly chambered and heard a satisfying clacking sound when i let go of the mantelpiece. Everything was in order, or so i thought at least if i had my gun training down properly.

- Frost, we are heading upwards. I'm assuming you'd want to join us, i think we would stand a better chance this way.
- I don't see why not, since you aren't infected. Any plans on what to do when we get out of this hole?
- No... Not right now. I just want to give my friend the proper burial she deserves. That's all. After that, i guess i just need to find out where the hell we are, in what country and just what the extent of all this is... And you?
- Hm, i see. Well, i'll probably try and get in contact with my old team, see if anyone else other than me made it. If things are as bad on the outside as the inside, i think i can stick around for a bit.
- We've wasted enough time here, let's go. How many mags do you have for that thing?
- Including the one i have i the weapon, three. So i need to be sparse with how much ammo i use.
- Well, i have two full mags and one about half full. So atleast we can fight if we have to.

 I picked up Sophie, her body icy cold to the touch by now, and took the lead. We moved forward, but it wasn't a very pleasant silence that befell the group. For good or worse, we were a very odd group. If Frost is to be believed, we have one spec-ops agent, and two civilians, one with gun-training of various sort and one civilian who has yet to prove how she might be useful. For now, she made do as a morale booster, something that was ok by me. For now, wandering was ok. Wandering upwards kept us occupied. Kept hope up that when we got out of this nightmare, that everything was going to be ok topside. That the world hasn't been hit by this thing aswell. Wandering down the corridor, we approached what appeared to be a thick steel door slighty ajar. It had a panel at it's side that flickered with light every now and then but didn't seem fully functional. Frost took the lead and opened it, gun pointing down the general direction of the other side of the door and stayed in a semi-crouched position goin in. He really did look like the real thing. He motioned for us to come on through, and looking at the other side of the door at the panel, i could see why it wasn't working properly. From what i could assume, Frost had jurry-rigged the panel to get through. Nice work, maybe something i would have him teach me assuming that we stuck around each other for a while. Maybe he was who he said he was after all.

- Stay alert, i almost ran straight into a horde of them around here.
- Did you get some form of headcount?
- No, but at the very least, there must have been a good ten of them.
- That's not good. How did you get past them?
- Creativity. Although i had do to something i'm not really proud of. Let's just say it wasn't one of my finer moments in life. Stick close to me, if they have wandered on, we are in the green but when i signal you to stop, i expect you both to do so immediatley. Understood?

 Both of us just plainy answered yes and kept wandering down the corridors. What with all the doors and the plaques, this most be where the offices where, maybe the cheifs of the various departments? Steve Johnsson, Lars Vickers, Jane Lewis, Clark Walker... All of these names and even more of them down the hall, to think that all of these were actual people, that lived their own lives. Had their own thoughts. Their own perception on the world, lived their own life before this... Whatever accident this is, took it all away. A really scary thought. What if everything i knew and love was taken away from me? Robbed from me, before i even had the chance to comprehend what had happened. No, can't get stuck in that train of thought. It'll just drag me down further and i have to focus.

Dead Sun Rising; Chapter 2, Page 15

I took a deep breath to try and calm my shaking nerves. It didn't help all that much but i felt a bit better atleast. Perhaps it would help me stop stuttering. He stood there, firmly in place with his gun slightly lowered, looking at us with those blank, expressionless eyes that came with a gas mask. It was painfully obvious that this man was ready to shoot us at the blink of an eye so i felt no choice but to start a conversation, with my hands still in the air.

- I know im not in a position to ask but are you military, para-military, mercenary or just security? Are you even any of the above?
- ...
- Look, we have verified ourselves to be uninfected. Could we please, at the very least, put our hands down?
- ...
- I'm gonna go ahead and lower them now, ok?

So i slowly lowered them, he answered in kind by not shooting us. Progress, i guess. The masked man turned his attention to Sophie, asked us to move aside and started investigating the corpse. He looked at me and then asked;

- Why are you carrying around on a corpse? She seemes to be infected aswell.
- Because she is a valuable person to me. And if you would have been arsed to look closer, her neck is broken. I broke it myself after she was infected and fatally wounded. So no, she -wont- be coming back any time soon. Now Back. Off. From. Her. NOW.

Suprisingly, he backed off, the weapons hadn't shifted from it's original place though. Being the first time i actually stood at gun point, i didn't know what to do. This man could decide to shoot us at any moment and there would be nothing we could do about it. With zombies, we would've atleast stood a chance. Shit, shit, shit.

- Look, We are under a large ammount of pressure and we are civilians stranded here without even knowing how we got here in the first place. We just want to get out, nothing more, nothing less.
- ...
- Please, we beg of you. All we want is to get out of here, i want to bury my dead friend. Get out of here, just... Forget about all this. Go back to my life.
- ...

He took of his mask, and a man with short brown hair and green eyes revealed itself. He had a scar going from the left end of the forhead , past his eye, temple and ending and his cheek bone.

- I'm sorry for the scary act. I had to make sure you weren't hostile.
- I... Uh... Look, all we are looking for is a way out. Do you happen to know of it?
- No, i don't know. I awoke in this place after being knocked out by sleeping gas during one of my operations. And then... Well. Not even sure if i'm going the right way. I had assumed that this was a building and that the exit was downwards.
- That's not correct according to our information, we woke up about six floors downwards and all our info points to this being an underground facility and we need to climb upwards.
- So, you are telling me that i've been proceeding downwards for nothing?
- I guess so. Are you military? Your hardware seems to point at it.
- Both yes and no. Special operative Derek Yu to your service. Mostly, i go by my codename, Frost though. Sorry for that risky shot though on your partner, i saw no other option to save her though. As for my hardware, i looted it off of a dead guy a couple of floors up. Had to loot both his gear and his clothes. They are a bit of a loose fit though but a man can't be picky in situations like this.

Dead Sun Rising; Chapter 2, Page 14

The door slid open, it was quiet... For now. The area we seemed to be in was a huge corridor with a lot of doors. Probably all conference rooms. We both felt the need to hurry because if we were lucky, we might just be at our goal. Or perhaps not. Only one way to find out i guess. As we proceeded, only our footsteps were heard aside from my heart which sounded like it was a drum orchestra. Something felt wrong, i just had a very hard time placing what exactly. As we carried on, nothing still made itself heard except for our footsteps and our heavy breathing. It was kind of funny, i felt that this was like a video game for a brief moment. Now if only this feeling could be captured and translated a survival horror video game, then it would be a pretty good game in my eyes.

- So... Nails, what do you want to do when you get out of here?
- Hm... Get some new clothes, these stinks. Also, i think they belong on her when we bury her. Don't want her buried in her underwear. I know i sure wouldn't want that.
- Hm, i guess... I just wonder where in the hell we are. I mean, seriously. Who builds these kinds of structures? I thought they were exclusively relegated to video games. It even seems to be built underground and everything since the maps seem to point at that.
- I'm, no architect but it had to take a long time to build this. Wherever we are and why, it had to be someplace far away from civilisation. I'd imagine it's hard to hide this kind of thing otherwise.
- Perhaps there is a facitily to hide this one on top of it. Like some sort of cliché storage or perhaps an umbrella company. But i don't know, maybe i'm just blowing smoke out of my ass. Either way, stay sharp.

One door behind us and one in front of us flew open and three zombies shambled into the room. Two in front of us, one in the back. Shit! I dropped Sophie and reached for my gun, aimed it carefully through my shaky hands and shot. First, second and third round missed. The zombies was getting closer. Almost at point blank range, i managed to take down the first zombie behind us.
I felt a hand reaching around me and a moaning sound was made heard. Panicking, i attempted a backwards headbutt as hard as i could. My lucky day, the zombie was actually knocked to the floor. Without any thought, i lifted my foot and stomped down on the head with an adrenaline filled body. A crack was heard and a disfigured face was revealed under my foot. Problem was that i heard a female scream, SHIT! I had totally forgotten about Nails!
The zombie pretty much had her at hugging distance and he reached for her juggular, i was a bit too far away to do try and enter close combat. The only thing i felt was despair and a flash of what happened to sophie appeared. No... NO, N-

Bang. A solid shot from a gun. The zombie just fell into her arms and then down on the floor. Looking at the direction of where the shot came from, the masked person had rescued her. Lady luck was apparently smiling at us.
We both fell into silence after that, The shock and adrenaline rush quieting us and just made us stand there like two silent, shaking idiots. It still felt like a full blown orchestra inside my head, it's like i heard every noice on earth and it was starting to numb me to be honest. It was then that i heard a clicking noice, and a weapon was trained on us. Shit.

- Freeze. Identify yourselfs, now.
- I- I- I, knew it was too good to be t-true. If you are military, p-please lower the w-w-weapon. If not, Kill us quickly. We are tired, fatigued and of no match to somebody of sup-pe-perior training. We are ci-civilians, no more. No less.
- Not until i can verify that you are uninfected. Put any potential weapons on the ground, now. And take of your clothes.

Feeling no choice but to comply, I put Sophie gently on the floor along with my gun, raising my hands into the air. I removed my shirt, i told Nails to do the same. It felt like an eternity waiting, but in the end, he lowered is weapon slightly.