Saturday, September 25, 2010

Dead sun Rising - Prelude p.2

Turning left down a corridor, we found ourselves facing multiple doors down a long hallway. We decided to ignore most of them, only making an exception to stay and listen if any sound was made inside those doors. We both felt exhausted after only walking for a short while but we carried on knowing that we needed to get out of here, wherever the hell “here” was. Ten minutes into the walk, we still haven't heard anything from the rampant collection of people who ran right through the room I was knocked out in which in turn worried me to no end. What happened to them?

- Chris, can we stop for a minute or two? My shoulders are starting to hurt me.
- Sure, I guess we can do that but we need to keep moving soon enough, those people were running for a reason, and because we don't know from what...
- I know, I'm not clueless. It's just that...

She quieted down all of a sudden as if she was about to say something inappropriate and just shut up again. Since I was at a loss of what to say, we carried on after a couple of minutes, enough for me to feel that I could walk on my own again. The corridors were desolated and continued on in the same fashion as before, stone, stone and yet more stone, until we finally saw something.
It looked like a human being! Though something was wrong with him, he was situated against the wall sitting down, looking like he was desperately trying to hold his guts inside. I called out to him to see if I got any response, since that didn't seem to grab his attention after a few tries, I threw a stone at him and nothing happened. I said to Sophie to stand back while I checked up the person who was in front of us, cautiously I approached him and while I got closer, a feeling of tension rose up in my stomach feeling like a knot.
I got up to him and poked him with my foot from a distance, he just fell over. It was then I started to realize that he must either be unconscious or dead so I checked his pulse. Turned out he was cold as a fish in ice, which made the tension in my stomach even worse... Problem was, he didn't stay dead since he reached out for me with a hungry moan.
At the same time I was busy fending of the person, a shrill scream was heard from Sophie followed by was sounded as a wet noise, like someone was chewing on a really bloody steak. In panic, I tried to call out to her, then I saw something I never ever thought I would see in my lifetime. These two we were being held up by, they were real, live zombies.
The one I tried to fend of has amazing strength and tenacity, he just wouldn't quit! By pure reflex I gave him a headbutt which caused him to temporarily let go of me, I stood up as quick as I could and instantly delivered a kick to his face so hard that blood seeped out from behind his head. Since he seemed down for the moment, I rushed over to Sophie who apparently had caved his head in by some magic. She was bleeding heavily from her neck and was using all her strength holding it up to stop the bleeding.
When I reached down to try and hold it for her, it was too late. She had entered a chock like state and was out cold. I knew that by holding her throat I was only delaying the inevitable since there was no doctor around, but it was all I could do to hold down the tears in my throat.
I just whispered the old cliché thing you could say to someone dying; “Everything is going to be alright...”. She stopped her breathing after about 20 seconds and not long after that, she was dead. Not only did I fail her twice now during a time of need, she died in my own arms. That's the second time somebody bleeds out in my arms, the tears just didn't stop but I knew that if that indeed WAS a zombie, the bite she sustained contaminated her and there was no turning back. While shouting as hard as I could with rage, I snapped her neck knowing that the brain is needed for a zombie to function.
Then I just sat there, crying, rocking myself back and forth, hoping for some sort of calm to wash over me. It didn't happen though. All I felt was sad, bitter and jaded. I had just killed someone, zombie or not, it felt somewhere deep in my soul. All that violence during my growing up had jaded me enough to actually preform the deed, but still I felt such regret over doing it.
I guess it's my human nature which was calling out to me. I don't know how long passed, maybe it was an hour, maybe two. But I felt that the tears was starting to dry up, like there wasn't anything left. I lifted her up like a bride and simply started to walk forward. There wasn't much to it, but just like that... I was alone in a godforsaken place, with someone dear to me in my arms dead. A maelstrom of feelings was inside me but... What exactly happened and why are there zombies running about?

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Dead Sun rising - Prelude p.1

Prelude


Screams everywhere, that's what I wake up to and it isn't a very pleasant thing to wake up to mind you. The kind of things that makes a man wake up on the wrong side of the bed you know? They seem to be panicking over something, what I can't say but when I scream at them to be quiet down I'm ignored, could be that my voice was drowned amidst all the panic. It isn't until I try to open my eyes that I understand that I'm not home, I'm not dreaming and I'm lying on a cold, hard, stone floor. When I attempt to stand up my legs fails me at the attempt of it, like I've just recently run a marathon and that really makes me wonder what the hell I did in my sleep. My vision keeps blurring out for the time being, must be due to some kind of blunt force trauma to my head earlier, and it doesn't help that the room is so dark. Though it is a lot quieter than before, what happened to all the people that was here just seconds ago? As I struggled with standing up, I heard a vaguely familiar voice calling out in the distance. It seemed not to call out to anything in particular, just somebody, to see if anyone was still there. I tried calling for help, but my voice was faint and weak. Still, the person heard me and ran in to the room looking around for my voice, I continued calling and after a minute or two located me amidst the dark. The person was soft to the touch, with smooth skin... Could this be a woman? I didn't know who this was something was familiar with her. Was this a person I knew?

- Who are you?
- Chris?
- Sophie?

Turns out it indeed was a person I knew, an ex of mine. How sad of her to be here of all places, wherever this was. She helped me up on my legs and allowed me to rest on her shoulders, it helped ease the tension in my body. When I was up, I got a better view of this place. It seems that this is a bunker of sorts, the interior walls along with the floor are entirely made out of rough stone, like they dug it through a mountain. She produced a bottle of water from her purse and helped me drink it, it did wonders for my body as I already started to feel better for each sip I took. I felt it was time to explore this place so she helped me out of this room to the next connecting corridor.

- Sophie, do you know where we are?
- No, I can't say. I know we are underground somewhere but that's all I knew. I woke up here about an hour ago, saw a crowd running somewhere but wasn't able to catch up to them and then I found you.
- This kind of complicates things, I can't remember how the hell I got here or why my body is being such a bitch. Do you have any memories before coming here?
- No, last memory I had was sleeping in my own bed. Then I woke up in this place.
- Shit, that doesn't spell good. I've seen enough movies and played enough games to know that it's not a good thing not remembering what happened before this.
- You serious? Please don't to that, you know how easily scared I can be.
- I'll protect you, I promise. I'm strong, remember?
- You always were the one to joke.

Seeing no point in continuing the conversation, we walked along the long corridor. I knew that ahead of us, we probably had a long way to go before we found out what exactly brought us here. And most probably, it's not something that will reward us with sweets. Probably more like bitter smiles and sad faces. Or maybe I'm just skeptical. Either way, I am kind of worried about where that crowd went, I haven't heard anybody in the past 10 minutes. I drank more of the water as we continued walking down the corridor, nothing was heard except the echoes of our steps and my rough breath...