Chapter 2: The Chase

AN: Can't technically define this as another chapter because right now it all just continues onwards from the previous post,  and the next part will continue from here too. But think this is a fair decent enough effort (some 3000+ words I haven't counted yet) so it's time to post. If there are any writing errors is because I found way for my tablet to use the handwriting feature but it's imperfect. Please let me know if there's any place where the wrong word is used though I have read it over myself two or three times so I hope haven't missed anything.

Regards
Mea

Word Count (Chapter): 

Word Count (Total):

They traveled for about an hour in near silence... and by near that meant she said nothing, while he randomly stumbled to find something she would actually talk about. She hadn't said a word since she stated her name flatly, refused to answer any questions about where she was from, and silently threatened him when he asked leaving just enough to cover her breasts and her arsenal of weapons still clinking softly upon her back. And she never seemed to stop her stride for anything, not even when he managed to find some berries and fruits that were actually edible and would make the perfect breakfast for the two of them, forcing him to eat on the run which ended up upsetting his stomach more than it fixed the hunger. Eventually he simply stowed the fruits away in his pocket and continued trying to keep up with her stride.

The one time she did stop he wasn't expecting it and all but ran into her backpack before she dropped it silently to the ground. Using hand signals that made it quite clear she wanted him to 'sit and stay', much more like a pet dog than a companion, she left him and disappeared into the sparse underbrush. He sighed and grumbled silently to himself, dropping his bag right beside her's before settling down upon it and looking around, his eyes quickly landing on the mountain of steel and leather beside him. He knew he really shouldn't, that it was none of his business, with or without her present,

But her silence these last hours had only served to make him even more curious, and tentatively he reached out a hand, hesitating as he tried to name all the weaponry he could see, Her pack was like some Sort of Museum, containing treasures from every culture of the old world; firstly the Japanese Katana she'd run off with, but there was also Sai and shiruken, which he only recognised from some of his Grandfather's old War books he wasn't ever actually supposed to read. There was also several knives and bladed weapons; bowie knives and a machete, something he would later come to learn was a Kukri. Even some kind of Broadsword tucked into a special sheath on the underside of the pack, where it would lay along her spine and be out of the way, and yet easily accessible in a pinch.

All of them had seen better days, but they were clearly well looked after, despite the nicks and scratches there was evidence of each of them having been lovingly oiled and sharpened. Each of them had a sheath or a pocket, a place to belong and a "home'' to live in, and they were all strapped together in a way that would keep them safe and yet instantly access able when needed. Skye couldn't resist the urge to reach out and touch, running a single finger lovingly over the closest shiny blade he could reach, the eclectic bundle drawing his focus from one item to the next quickly.

He was so enamoured with the temultous collection that he failed to notice his surroundings until it was too late, the sound of footsteps running unsteadily towards him registering only a fraction of a second before the monster came crashing out of the bushes. Skye jumped in fright and horror as the blood-covered being came tumbling out, his mind barely registering anything other than the monumental amount of blood covering all limbs and splashed across the torso, dripping down the legs and leaving boot marks of red behind it. He did, however, notice the dead beast it dragged behind that smeared the bloody footprints into a single red line in it's wake.

He fell sideways off his bag and onto the ground again, the sting in his hand nothing more then a fleeting thought in the wake of the horror sprinting towards his numbed form, his limbs once again responding slowly to his terrified need to move in any direction. But it... she... continued running right at him, the look on her face pure determination, and for a moment he felt every muscle relax as if giving into his inevitable demise. Then he realized that beneath the bloody exterior was Fiara, dragging behind her a couple of fresh carcasses of ... something that used to be an animal of some sort. He raised one hand and opened his mouth to say something before realizing that may not be the greatest idea; she wasn't stopping.

Instead she ran right up to him and in one swift motion grabbed the strap of her pack and slung it straight onto her back, "Run. Now. Go.'' she kicked his own backpack at him and ignored the 'oof' of pain as she dragged him to his feet and pushed him ahead of her. His mind went blank as his survival instincts tried to concentrate on getting his feet moving in rhythm, his head swivelling back and forth between where he was going and what was behind them, trying to see what had her so panicked. Most of his attention had to be in the forward direction but he managed to catch a glimpse of two of people behind them.

Or what once used to be people anyway; their eyes glazed over blindly, their decaying arms outstretched as they reached out trying to grasp their prey, unsteady gait making them lope instead of actually run. But still the freshly turned managed to keep up with them for the most part, not caring about branches snaring their clothes or scraping at their flesh. Whereas Fiara and he had to watch their every step, neither could afford a major wound or a broken leg right now.

One thing his Grandparents told him about the original break out was that, despite numerous "movies" on the subject in their day and age, none of them had prepared anyone for the speed of the infected. Not the actual spread of disease from one to the next, but how individually each single undead person... body... could move. Most people thought that a"Zombie'', as they'd called them back then, would be a slow and shuffling thing. In the later stages of the disease, yes. Later on their limbs began decaying making it hard for them to move, but that was only after their internal organs basically liqufied.

First, you died. Your heart stopped, your breathing ceased, your brain shuts down. In the old days they had approximately 6 minutes to get you going again. That practice stopped relatively quickly after the outbreak couldn't be contained anymore. 10 minutes and you were clinically dead and, if you were lucky enough to be in a hospital at the time of your death, you were already on your way to the morgue before your lungs even had a chance to complete their "death rattle". Soon after your eyes became fixed and dialated, before they clouded over and your blood began to settle with the direction of gravity. If it did you ended up with a bruise the likes of which you'd never see and were thankful you were dead; you also ended up with a funeral.

Those that never hit "liver mortis" were the problem ones. They were the ones that weren't truly dead despite the lack of every clinical sign of life. No heartbeat, they didn't breathe, they couldn't even think beyond the urge to move towards the next closest living human, wherein they would try to lick, bite, scratch, claw or even kiss the living person. There was no higher function within them; no life, no soul, nothing. Whatever they once were in "life" was now completely gone. And left behind in their wake was a mindless entity that only had one task; to infect the living by any means necessary.

They wouldn't even really eat though some had been known to take chunks of flesh in their haste, and originally this had lead to the original Zombie panic in the first few months of the outbreak, but since then science had had a chance to learn more about those infected with lxxium. Though every function vital to a humans continued existence has ceased, the infected retained every muscle necessary to continue movement and for a while that included the ability to run as fast as the body could have moved in life.

Eventually the fact they didn't breathe and their hearts didn't beat, thus did not provide the supply of oxygen and energy the muscles vitally needed, caught up with them and slowed them to a crawl. To this day scientists couldn't figure out what kept the rate of decay from it's usual timeline and allowed every thing to continue working against all logic. But that's what happened to all dead these days, and that's why they were in their current predicament.

He and Fiara were being chased by a couple of recently deceased; no more than a few hours at most, as they were able to (for the most part) move their asses quick enough to give the living a good run for their money. Though their hallowed sunken eyes theoretically couldn't see, the infected somehow managed to set their sights on the two of them and keep steadily chasing their tails, ignoring every bush and tree branch that stood in between.

Unfortunately he wasn't so lucky, as every obstacle was simply another death trap hell bent on converting the both of them to the opposition's team. Shouldering his pack mid- stride he pushed himself onwards, no time for miss-stepping or idle chatter they simply plowed onwards through the scrub heading towards the morning Sun, while trying not to be too blinded by it's occasional glare through the naturally beautiful landscape all around them.

It took all his effort to keep his hands up in front of him for protection, whist simultaneously watching both where he was going as well as where he was placing each hurried step of his feet, he couldn't worry about where Fiara was or where they were actually going. Though every now and again he'd catch glimpses behind and between the trees behind him, and after what felt like hours but was in reality probably only a few minutes, the trees began to clear. Despite his laboured and hectic breathing she seemed to be keeping up just fine; in fact she seemed to be keeping a slower pace than what she was normally used to.

He focused his attention forward, ducking and weaving between the trees of the rapidly thinning forest, before suddenly staggering out into the bright light of a clearing he hadn't expected. He stumbled to a halt and raised his hands further to shield his eyes, gasping to catch his breath as he took in the sight of the large crumbled building before him. In its heyday it probably would have housed over a thousand people, a hundred families or more, but now all that was left was a rotting structure surrounded by decaying red bricks and broken glass. Now nothing more than another obstacle for nature to reclaim year by year until there was nothing left of the civilization that once was.

His awestruck contemplation of what that building would have been like at the height of it is glory was interrupted by a rustle in the bushes behind him, and he quickly whirled to face the sound,  heart leaping into his throat as his first thought was the lnfected persuers he'd momentarily forgotten. Instead it was just Fiara calmly walking over to join him, suddenly free of her dead cargo though still trailed by her pack, and he noticed that she wasn't even breathing-heavily.

She came to stand beside him, briefly glancing up at the building before them, before letting go of her bag and grasping the bottom of her shirt. In one smooth motion she ripped a strip about two inches wide from it leaving her bare but clean stomach exposed. Skye started to turn away in embarrassment but she grabbed his hand before he could move away. Her grip was stronger than he expected and he yelped in surprised, the sting unexpected pain travelling up his arm. "Ow! what the...?" he exlaimed, looking down to see an inch long shallow gash crossing his palm, before she quickly and expertly wrapped his hand tight enough to stop the bleeding. He had no idea how or when he'd gotten that, and even less of an idea how she'd known he was cut, but there was definately a clean slash across his palm.

"Stay still, you baby." She commanded, as she tied the makeshift bandage into place. "We need to stop the bleeding before we go anywhere else, Otherwise they'll just catch wind of your scent and give up on the carcass they think is mine" He had no idea what she meant by that and looked at her confusedly as she pulled the knot tight, before tearing another strip off her shirt leaving just enough to cover her breasts. This time he did turn away as she began wrapping her own forearm to stem the fresh flow from a three inch gash. Once done she grabbed her bag and slung it over her good shoulder, and again he was astounded by how easily she threw that bulky thing around like it was nothing, before gently shoving him in the direction of the apartment complex.

He stumbled forward and began making a bee-line to the unhinged door carefully looking left and right to make sure they werent being followed. He hesitated at the threshold suddenly unsure about this idea, and glanced back at her for reassurance, suddenly noticing that she'd somehow managed to put the katana away and draw a smaller blade of some sort. "Inside." she muttered gruffly gently shoving him again.

He felt like he should be offended by her attitude or something, but he was too bewildered to verbalize the thought right away, and instead found himself slipping through the narrow gap. The inside was in a much more dilapitaled state than the outside; the walls had crumbled into something much more skeletal than the outside depicted, remnants of the hurried evacuations of all the families that once inhabited the place were strewn everywhere. From creepy abandoned toys to the rags of what once used to be estately clothes, all of them singed with the stain of fires long put out it was... eerie to say the least.

While he was busy looking at the junk on the floor he didn't notice the framework of the stairwell he was heading for until she grabbed his shoulder to stop him in his tracks. He blinked and looked back at her, but before he could open his mouth to thank her she simply pointed up, and he noticed that she did even that in an "authoritative tone". He quickly closed his mouth and shuffled around to the first step, placing one foot on it and testing his weight tentatively upon the rusted metal holding up the cement slab, but it seemed unfazed despite it's inactivity for... who knew how long. Several other steps, however, protested at his weight though they too held to the test without an issue.

Upstairs wasn't in much better condition, but had the added difficulty of having to dodge through holes in the floor created by parts of the structure collapsing to the floor below. On the upside it allowed them to see the sky above through holes in the roof, but the streams of light in an otherwise dead environment caused a shiver to go through him, the place taking on an unnatural eeriness about it. Only one of the rooms seemed inhabi table in any way, and quickly they set up camp of sorts, carefully dragging a dresser in front of the door to give them so reprieve as they settled down on their packs to rest and recover.

01: This is where it all began

AN: Yup, I got nothing to say. Might have to expand on their descriptions a little more coherently, but seeing as the characters aren't 100% set in my mind quite yet, that might have to wait. Feedback on what you'd like to know about them is most appreciated.

Regards 

Mea

Word Count (Chapter): 2,634

Word Count (Total): 3,649

He lay in the long grass, dazed and confused. Looking up at the rapidly darkening sky, perplexed about what the was doing there and wondering why his chest hurt all of a sudden. It took him a moment to realized the stars weren't in the morning sky above him, but were dancing in his vision, and quickly he attempted to blink them away and sit up at the same time. Neither was a good option as it just made the stars frolic harder and faster, as if suddenly performing for an audience that would determine their everlasting fate.

Quickly he laid back with a deathly groan and closed them, although that didn't do anything to stop the twinkle, nor the pain in his chest that grew with every breath. He wondered for a moment if he hadn't broken something though he didn't specifically remember doing anything to hurt himself. One moment he was merrily walking along minding his own business as he shuffled through the woods carefully in the darkness, as that was the only time that one could travel semi-safely; and the next minute he was on his back facing the sky and all the stars.

He lay there thinking about that for a moment before the shadow crept over him, making him moan softly as the memory of being hit in the chest with what felt like a freakin' boulder washed over him, and tentatively he opened one eye to look up on the face of his attacker. It took a moment as the stars flared back to life against the silhouette of the assailant standing over him. He blinked a few times trying to focus before realizing two things; firstly, it was female and almost six foot tall, and secondly she was raising her arms above her head. The first rays of light crested the horizon and glinted off the Axe she held up, prepared to bring it down upon his head. That quickly cleared the fog in his mind and instinctively he raises his own hands in defense and backpedaled as fast as his sluggish legs could move.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! I'm not infected! I'm human!" He exclaimed, as he realized he wasn't actually moving anywhere, and the look of confusion that crossed her face told him that his words weren't particularly making sense. Taking a deep breath he tried again, "I swear to the Goddess Vyna that I'm clean. Please don't..." he trailed off into a whimper as his vision cleared and he was able to see her clearly in the morning light. She was thinking about it carefully as his heart raced in his chest and his feet kept flailing without him having to think about it.

After a moment she lowered the axe to the ground and grunted at him, before stepping back and turning away to checking out their surroundings, as if having suddenly having lost interest in him completely. He lowered his arms as well and took a few deep breaths until his heart beat returned to something of a normal state and then carefully he sat upright again. The stars flared albeit briefly before going away completely, and he was finally able to take a deep breath though the pain in his chest had barely abated, and he reached up to idly rub his bruised muscles. "Wh-what did you hit me with? Why? What--who are you?" The questions spilled from his lips, and she turned to glare at him, though offered nothing in the way of explanation as if the answers were obvious and he should just stop his yammering.

He did, for a moment, quiet his mouth though the questions still burned in his mind. She turned away again though made no move to leave him, and he took that as a sign that she wasn't going to abandon him in a hurry. He stood, carefully, and walked a few steps towards her. One hand holding tightly to his chest as the other reached out by way of introduction. "My name's Skylaar. Skye for short. And you are..." She looked at his offered hand, and then his face, before turning back to her survey of the hillside surroundings. He lowered his hand reluctantly and followed her gaze, awed by the beauty of the virtually unscathed landscape laid out before them.

He'd come up the side of the hill through a dense forest and a steep rise, having stared at his feet the entire time to make sure he didn't trip over an errant stick or stone, ironically so he didn't end up on his ass and injured. He rubbed his chest idly as his gaze roamed, noticing everything the dawn light touched... it was almost beyond words and for a moment everything else was forgotten. The other side of the hill dipped gradually into a valley shadowed by deep green trees and bushes everywhere, not so dense as the other side he'd just left, but unspoiled by anything unnatural. Beyond the gentle grove was a sight that had to be seen to be believed, the end to his search, the whole reason he'd come this way.

Dotting the green landscape all the way to the horizon and probably beyond, what was once a thriving metropolis of buildings in various states of decay, the only residents now being various plants and the occasional animal. Everything that was once a civilization was slowly caving to the landscape and loosing what it used to be, but in doing so taking on a whole new meaning in this "New World". Skye guessed that this is what used to be suburbia of some sort, something his grandmother had told him about in one of her infamous dementia rants one lazy afternoon... back when he had a family and a home. He pushed the memory away quickly and returned his focus the post-apocalyptic landscape. That was actually the best way to describe it really... nothing but ruins over run by greenery, nature taking back the planet, leaving nothing but faint memories of what used to be behind in it's wake.

But the real gem of the whole scene was the... shadow city on the horizon, the sun slowly bringing it back to life as the dawn rays touched upon every surface as it rose. Skye was in awe of the sheer magnificence of it all, knowing that many years ago humans were able to construct anything on such a grand scale, and to actually be able to see it for himself, to lay eyes on what once used to be. To see the grandeur that humans were once capable of, it was... at least to him, breathtaking. To see skyscrapers crumbling as they gave way to trees now hundreds of years old, some formed from multiple trees on multiple levels all working together to take back what was once, and now always would be, their world.

"What a junk pile."Her voice, though so soft it was almost unheard, was still enough to startle him out of his revere and back into the real world. He looked over at her confusedly, one eyebrow raised and one lowered questioningly, but she simply turned away and walked over to one of the trees where she'd left her pack and.. weapons? Skye jumped when he saw the arsenal she'd left on the ground, everything from swords to guns, to things he'd never heard of before and his jaw fell to the floor in shock. "W--what do you mean? Who are you? What are you doing here?" The questions tumbled from his lips unchecked as he moved to follow her.

Her reply was simply to raised the still sheathed sword with one black gloved hand, the tip aimed at his neck and preventing him from coming any closer, as she slung her pack over her shoulder with a loud clank. He was surprised he hadn't heard her drop it in the first place, though now that he thought about it why hadn't her heard her coming at all with that much metal bouncing upon her back. He held up his hands innocently, and looked from the sword tip to her face, licking his lips nervously. "I... I don't mean to be rude or anything, but... you -did- hit me in the chest, right? Least you could do is apologize and tell me your name."She lowered the sword with derisive snort. "It was a kick. You deserved it." She shifted the pack on her back, and stared at him for a moment more, contemplating saying something else. Instead she simply walked away, her military style boots marching soundlessly upon the ground leaving only broken stems of grass in their wake, and again he was dumbfounded into silence for a moment. Quickly shaking his head he chased after her a few steps, before realizing he needed to bring his own pack with him and rushing back to grab it, before chasing after her already disappearing form.

"Wait up! Wait up! Are... are you going... to the city?" He found himself trotting to keep up with her regulated footsteps, running his eyes up and down her back as they moved, taking note of her worn jeans and ragged yet lovingly repaired jacket. Eying the jam-packed backpack containing much more than just weapons, but at the pace they were going he couldn't really stop to check them out. Watching her super short black hair sway with every movement, which he could tell she'd done by herself with a sharp blade of some sort and spoke volumes about the sort of person she was, he couldn't help but get even more curious about who exactly she was. "If you're going to the city, maybe... maybe I could come with you. It's... been a while since I've seen anyone, can hurt us traveling together can it?" She didn't even break stride as he spoke, not a single glance in his direction or anything.

He tried another tact. "I.. I have some... some rations... a little bit of food... I... I can share if you like." He glanced at her backpack, and could see amongst her belongings a few cans, and some animal skins that she'd obviously hunted herself. But nothing fresh or that seemed particularly delicious, and he had no idea why someone so seemingly self-sufficient as this woman would even care about someone so obviously untrained as him, but it was all he had to offer. That and... "I... I can pay."

She stopped dead in her tracks, turning to look at him over her shoulder. "Pay? With what? Money? HA! Coins have no place here. Where are you from? Last century?" She shook her head and started walking again, and for a moment he was left behind in his stunned silence, again she'd never raised her voice from above a whisper but still her words had managed to be heard clearly."N-not money. Not gold. No. But... other... things... services that I can provide." He babbled as he once again was forced to move double pace in order to keep up with her stride. He felt small and insignificant next to her, his 5'5 frame barely reaching her shoulders now that they were side by side. How could one such as him, clearly not a warrior of any sort with his lithe frame and clumsy feet, be expected to fight off the infected. Hell he could barely shoulder his own backpack which wasn't even one fifth of what she carried by the looks of it. He knew that he needed her more than she needed him, and he racked his brain trying to figure out what he could offer that she would accept.

She grunted before he could continue those thoughts. "I am in no need of a prostitute, thank you." Again that quiet voice cut so deeply he stopped in his tracks, and had to back through what he'd said to figure out why she was saying that.

"Wait! No, that's not what I meant. I'm not--... I wouldn't... I can't--" He shook his head and ran to catch up with her, realizing a moment too late that he shouldn't touch her, as he laid a hand on her arm.She whirled to face him in the same moment he retracted his hand, the blade coming up towards his throat and making him take two steps backwards quickly, realizing that it wasn't actually sheathed this time. The look on her face so calm of demeanor but hiding such anger right beneath the surface that he was waiting for it to twist into the true features of a demon. Instead he found himself looking up into her black eyes... as if her pupils were dilated so far it left no color behind, but in the few seconds his brain had to lock that image in he came to understand she did have irises, just that they too were black... layers of black... black striations of the stroma, the muscles that actually gave color to the eye. He got lost in those eyes, his own finding all the nuances of their uniqueness, like staring into a night sky and trying to find every single star despite the fact that you could spend an eternity trying to count them all and you would never do it. There was so much to see beyond what the human mind could comprehend, and right at this moment there wasn't even the time to begin.

Calmly he held up his hands again in innocence, and carefully clarified his thoughts, "I didn't mean it like that. I'm... quite capable, but that's not what I'm offering." He glanced down at the point of the sword held unwaveringly against his Adam's apple, and carefully he swallowed before looking up at her again and continuing. "I mean, I just noticed that you don't have much in the way of food, and... well, I admit that I'm not very good with sword fighting whereas you..." He indicated her armory, "quite obviously are. Perhaps we can arrange, at least if we're both traveling towards the city anyway which I believe we are, a... business transaction, I guess. A temporary partnership of sorts. Travel together, protect one another... you watch my back, I'll watch yours. Or... if you... prefer..." He lowered his hands slowly, and tried to smile reassuringly. "... you can think of it as, you protect my worthless ass, and I'll cook you meals and find some fresh produce. I'm good at gathering, I know what's edible and what's not. And... if you need sew some clothes up for you, I not the best but I can do a fair decent job that will last a while."

He shrugged nonchalantly, though inside he was shaking so violently he though he was going to have a heart attack and drop dead right there, watching her eyes that didn't even flicker from their spot upon his face. The most disconcerting stare he'd ever seen even without it coming from those unusual eyes of hers. He let the subject drop and simply waited for her to respond in some way. To either lower her weapon or to... well... kill him for being an annoyance. Right at that moment he would have welcomed either option as that stare penetrated his very soul, burning into him and over him and through him.

"Fiara." She stated simply, before dropping the sword back into it's sheath now tied to her belt and hanging down her leg, and striding back towards the forest with that self-same tenacious gate. It took him a moment to realize that was obviously her name, he hoped, and that it was her way of saying she accepted his offer. He reshouldered his pack and chased after her yet again.

00: Prologue

AN: I'm totally going to have to rewrite this, I'm aware that it's rather incoherent in it's flow. I had something better in my head when I was planning out the idea in October, but alas the rules are only to write between the 1st and 30th of November. I plan on coming back and rewriting this again once I have a more set ideology in my head, hopefully that will come to me over the course of the next few chapters. So please do not judge me by this prelude.

 RegardsMea

Word Count: 1015

00: Prologue

The world was a very different place 160 years ago. To us that was only 3 generations. Our grandparents lived in a world far different from ours. Filled with technology that hindered their lives as much as it helped, forcing them to adapt the world around them and bend it to their will, and made them go blind to the greater picture all around them. The beauty being killed day by day, by their selfishness and greed, choking on the infestation that was the human race. All the talk of solar energy and green power, it meant nothing in the end... came too late as it were. Blinded by their world of information streaming to them hourly by the news channels, newspapers, and Internet websites; even phones would deliver messages to them from anywhere in the world at any time of the day, until they stopped paying attention to where they were walking; to the world that they actually existed in. They lived in the mighty "Digital Age".

Then it all changed, while they had their heads buried in their datastreams and gigabytes, it snuck up on them like a panther in the dark. Silent but deadly, no warning, just death. They called it... "Ixxium", named after Ixion from Greek Mythology. Ixion, in a fit of madness (or so he claimed), killed his father-in-law and was cast out by the neighboring princes who refused to forgive him his sins. He was forever known from then on as the first man guilty of kin-slaying. I'm sure there's more to the story behind his name than that, but it has currently be lost to time. 

To us Ixxium is a disease, a darkness that infects the very soul, takes the lives of whole families and leaves nothing behind in their wake but an empty shell. To us it was death itself, with no way out and no way to avoid it. At first those with Ixxium came slowly, one by one, starting in remote fields and small villagers. The people would just fall over dead wherever they stood. It cared not for age or race or gender. The old, the young, immunized or not. Nothing made a difference. Something killed them without visible marks, no wounds to be seen anywhere, just sudden death. Within hours the corpses got up, as if nothing had happened. But they weren't the people they used to be, they were just bodies still moving around but the very essence of the person inside, their soul if you will, was gone. 160 years ago they used to refer to them as Zombies.

Their only thought seemed to be to reproduce, to infect the living, to wipe out human kind. But never once did it touch anything that wasn't human. In time it spread from one person to the next, from one home to the next; enough that whole villages were closing their businesses and their homes to anyone they didn't know or trust. But even that didn't stop it. Soon enough various government departments took notice; the CDC sent team after team to investigate the spread of this plague, but even their hi-tech biohazard suits couldn't stop them from catching the mysterious disease. It didn't stop them from bringing it back to the cities with them either. Through their interference it soon enveloped the land, it left no one uninfected in it's wake; it seemed to be transferred by touch, by bite, by blood... by just breathing in the air around an infected person. And they were everywhere.

Within a week over 20% of the earth was wiped out, within a month it was 50%... within 6 months it estimated more 90% of the 8 billion people that used to populate the world were dead. Bodies rotted in the street with no one to take them away. The few that survived were barricaded in special containment facilities, or isolated in the most remote places in the word... and that's where they had to stay. With the human race on the verge of extinction and no one safe from Ixxium, there was no one left to cure it. To figure out where it came from or how it worked, or hw to stop it.

Only people... ordinary people... living in airtight Tupperware with no place to go. The survivors and the animals; the only ones to successfully take on the walking dead, for some strange reason Ixxium left them untouched as they cleaned up the leftovers of what was once the most predominant species on Earth. They'd tear off the flesh, and rend the bones to nothing, and not a single effect did it have on them. They carried on as normal... nature took back it's hunting grounds, the trees and plants spread through steel and brick alike. The world became greener, which is probably the only upside to this whole debacle honestly. The plague that was humanity was wiped out by a plague of it's own.

Well all but wiped out anyway. Lost is the history behind it all, the stories and tales that started everything; books like to fires, internet without power, all of the information that used to flood our minds on a daily and hourly basis is gone. 160 years later there are still humans... though they're far different from the ones that used to be. Somewhere along the way, things changed for us. In very different and dramatic ways. How or why we're not entirely sure because of all that lost knowledge. Now it all comes from stories told from grandparent to parent to child to grandchild. Stories that tell of the origin of Ixxium are only that, fictional tales of what might have happened beyond the facts I list above. Verbal stories are not the same as written stories. They're all lost, just like civilization as we used to know it is.

So now... now we start again. We start writing it down once more. We start again here and now. This is the story of how it all ended...

... by the hands of the first true survivor.