After hearing that one horrifying scream, the forest became quiet again, judging from this, I already feared the worst as I believed that whoever it was that made that scream had made their last.
But at the same time I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hope for their survival which in turn tempted me to go and check it out myself.
But then again, such temptation was immediately rebutted by me as I quickly reasoned with myself before I would do something stupid.
-No, no, no ! I just came here and I know close to nothing ! Its insane to go into a unknown forest and look for a person who is likely already dead, furthermore that scream could have been from anything who knows what ! It simply isn’t worth leaving my shack, and its not like I owe whoever it is that is out there ! This is the age of survival everyone is responsible for themselves !
My excuses were objectively justified and reasonable, but somewhere in the back of my head there was a small little voice telling me that I was being selfish and that everyone had a equal right to live no matter who it was, such voice was a first for me, for a being that had just come to existence I was aware of all kinds of things that made up the world and society in general, but in some sense I was still naive, since I didn’t have any real experience and only knowledge, it was difficult for me to judge what was right or wrong immediately.
This time even though my mind telling me not to go and involve myself, my heart wanted to go out and find whoever it was that made that scream and maybe help, a dissonance was created and in the end I needed to decide whose voice it was that I would listen to.
I tried to make a logical argument and count the pros and cons of both choices, but as time went on I started to realize that if I didn’t make my move now the person who made that scream would likely have a even lesser chance of survival..
-I wonder…what would William Kenneth do ?
For a moment I thought about the author of the book I had just read [Survival And You] it never really talked about anything regarding the author, but from the writing alone I knew that William was a extremely enthusiastic survivalist who put his heart into the pages, within the directory there was even one section that was titled group survival vs solo survival, of course I hadn’t read it yet, but now I wished I had or at least skimmed through it and gotten the opinion of a professional…
But maybe this was what I needed…a opinion or at least another person who I could talk to who could give a opinion, who knows how long it will take until I meet another human, even I understood the concept of loneliness, this may be my one and only chance for human contact…
I pondered.
-Do I really just let it go ?
Another brief few seconds passed by with no answer and time continued to tick on, the silence of the forest making my lean towards staying as the survival of the presumed female only started to dwindle.
But just then another scream resounded waking me up from my thoughts.
-HEEEELP MEEEEE ! SOMEONE ! PLEASE HELP ME !
This time it was clear, the sound coming from a woman who was clearly still alive and screaming for help.
At this point I didn’t hesitate any longer checking whether or not my knife was still on me, I dashed towards the highway passing it as I entered the forest on the other side.
=================================================
My name is Valery Carman.
I’m 27 years old, 178 cms tall and a proud career woman, or at least I was a career woman until the bombs fell and turned the whole world into a living hell.
How all of this happened I wasn’t really sure, I knew that the political landscape wasn’t great and that tensions between the United Nations and the Eastern Federation was rising, there were even riots, rumors and disturbing events going on inside and outside the city with fishy evidence scattered around, but who could have predicted that it would all come down to this out of nowhere.
Not me, that’s for sure, almost everyone I knew had died, family, friends, coworkers and now I was soon going to join them as well.
(Grawhhh!)
(Uwaggghhh)
The growls of those disgusting undead bellow me resounded as I stared down at top a tree I had somehow gotten myself on when I ran from them, the number of those undead were close to 50 from above here making it impossible to flee especially since I didn’t even know how to get down in the first place.
I still don’t remember exactly how I climbed this tree either when I never even came close to a tree all my life living in a city where even the tree’s were artificial and the grass was plastic.
I remember reading back in high school, how every human in the world possesses a primal instinct that helps them survive in times of emergency, something that was inherited from our ancestors who used to live in more harsher times, I can assume that it was this instinct that had saved me from a early grave briefly giving me the ability to climb when I was in panic, but now it wasn’t likely it would save me again.
The tree shook as I thought such uninteresting thoughts to myself, the shaking coming from the zombies who pushed the tree with their numbers back and forth like a see saw, the shaking scared me as it messed with my balance which could lead me to fall off, all I wanted right now was for them to stop and leave me be, but my wishes wouldn’t be granted.
Eventually they will fell this tree and I will fall, I can only imagine that I wouldn’t be able to run with the damages I sustain from the fall and after that…well I would become dinner.
(Growl)
As soon as I thought about dinner my stomach suddenly grumbled, normally I would feel embarrassed by this, but I couldn’t care less anymore, it had been 2 days since I last ate something, stuck on this tree for 2 days I had only a bit of water to keep me going, but now even that was depleted.
-Where did it all go wrong ? What did I do to deserve this ? God, if you’re out there please tell me why ?
I looked into the sky whispering those words with a sigh, my blue eyes hollowed and blank as I recalled my life before the cataclysm, as I said before I was a successful career woman climbing the ladder of a huge corporation called Cyber that sold and managed the latest craze which were bionics.
With the advancement of technology humanity was able to create a lot of things ranging from self driving cars to robots, finally going beyond their mortal flesh and replacing them with mechanical ones called bionics ushering the age of bionics.
The age of bionics saved the lives of many people who didn’t have functional limbs and enriched those who wanted to go beyond, of course bionics aren’t things anyone can just get by saving money, most of the time only those within a high position or with a lot of influence could purchase those bionics, but in the end it was all worth it if it meant you could improve yourself from the very base.
I personally never found bionics to be appealing, they just seemed too unnatural for my taste, but being a representative of the company it was necessary for me to endorse and work hard to promote those pieces to climb faster.
After all, I worked all my life for the sake of money and influence, coming from a extremely poor background with a single mother as a parent who worked day in and day out, I wanted to do anything to get out of that slump and take my mother to live in a more hospitable place.
And in the end I succeeded, all through my own ability and hard work I acquired everything I ever wanted, money, fame and even a handsome boyfriend who was both rich and influential.
My life was literally a fairy tale, after all those trials and tribulations I thought nothing could go wrong.
How deluded I was.
After working for Cyber for 5 years it was then it suddenly happened.
The bombs dropped.
Who it was that threw those bombs wasn’t important the only important thing was that I became witness to one of the most horrifying events of human history.
Soon after evacuation protocols were issued by the government, the first bomb that had dropped was far away from my location which is why it didn’t influence me or my mother too much giving us ample time to evacuate to the nearest evac-shelter.
Since I was pretty high up in the corporations pecking order I was even given exclusive right to live in better quarters then most peasants together with my mother, plus since I was dating a very influential man at the time I was given even further privileges going into the same shelter as my boyfriend.
But thinking about it now only bitterness swept over me when I remembered my former boyfriend which is why I stopped.
Going back to the shelter, at first everything seemed fine, we were locked inside, but we were still living in safety glad that we didn’t have to experience what went on above as the frequent explosions rattled the underground shelters at times making it hard to sleep.
Supplies were also abundant at first, we could have stayed underground for another 20 years without needing to go out for more supplies which gave everyone a sense of relief at the time.
But unfortunately it was all a lie in the end.
The supplies were actually far less then that only lasting a single year, the whole evac-shelter in general was something that was only build recently and not finished, as we were later informed.
In fact, everyone who lived in the shelter were all actually those who were judged to have small importance, people who didn’t have any importance at all didn’t even get a evac-shelter and were left to die out there from the bombs.
After living only 1 year inside the shelter, the gates were suddenly opened and we were left out, at first everyone was confused as to what was going, after all we were told that we had enough supplies to last for 20 years, it was then the overseer the person who managed the shelter finally spoke the truth and told us the reality of the situation, that we had only a small amount of supplies left and that we needed to get more, outrage was the first reaction and since everyone who lived in the shelter were people of some importance, they all had high amount of pride, me included.
My boyfriend at the time was the only person who tried to calm the others and reason with them, I initially thought him to be very capable and competent, but that was only at the beginning.
Having calmed the people and finally opened a discussion we all could do nothing else but accept the situation and move on, it was through this agreement that it was decided that we would create parties to go out into the city and find food to bring back to the shelter.
And in regards to the bombs, it had been more then 3 months since they stopped being dropped, we believed at the time that it was safe out there, the overseer even said that the bombs didn’t contain any radioactive components which is why there was no reason to fear any radiation.
Who knows maybe society was still intact, the government could even have send the army to rescue survivors like us, we were all very hopeful.
Which is why it devastating when that hope was shattered.
The very first supply runners who went out to gather supplies went out as 30 people but only 1 returned.
Bloodied, covered in mud and injuries this man was completely changed the moment he came back all by himself, almost as if he had gone insane he told the rest of us finally what had happened and what was out there.
The undead and the monsters.
The horrors and the despair, describing how everyone he went out with were shred into bits and eaten alive as they ran for their lives and how those monsters were everywhere, his words so unbelievably horrible that at first we all thought that he was lying or just plain crazy as we just simply couldn’t believe what he was saying going into denial.
After all, how could we have believed him ?
Fortunately, we didn’t need to wait long to get proof.
After he returned we decided that we would no longer send people out after this incident, even though we didn’t believe that man we still realized that there was a major threat outside that must have cornered that man and the remaining folks, and while our supplies were low we decided that we would talk about it later after everyone calmed down.
That night, the man who had come back suddenly came out of his room after crying himself to sleep, a woman who had come out to use the toilet bumped into him at the corridor.
She became the first victim.
The woman screamed in horror as she woke up every single denizen of the shelter with her scream, almost everyone came down to see what was going on and when we finally saw, we were all shocked to find the man eating the woman alive ripping her flesh off with his teeth, his eyes completely red as the crimson blood ran down his mouth.
The sight was beyond disturbing and momentarily made everyone freeze me included, nobody knew what to do, until someone the overseer in fact finally decided to act with a bullet which he directly used to shoot the man in the head.
The gun was what immediately woke everyone from their thoughts and also caused wide spread chaos as everyone started to realize that things had become dire beyond belief when they already had from the beginning.
My boyfriend at the time once again tried to calm everyone but this time it didn’t work at all as everyone run around like headless chicken, it was only after the overseer shot a second shot did they all halt and look at him.
-I think this proves this mans claims, the outside world has changed, we either conform to it or end up like him, make your choice because I already did.
With those words the overseer left leaving us with his words to think about our situation, my boyfriend took this opportunity to lead the people and become more unified, but even then nobody now had thoughts about going to the surface not when they knew these monsters were around.
Ultimately this lead to quite a bit disputes, essentially the issue regarding the remaining supplies and how to get some.
Many believed that we had no other choice but to go up and look for them even with those monsters around, but in regards to who would do it was never decided which only prolonged those disputes without any clear results.
The issue about the undead in general intrigued some people, small time researchers who lived with us especially wanted to study the 2 corpses of the man and woman, the researchers concluded that the man must have been infected when he got injured by one of the zombies killing him as a result and turning him into one of them while the woman rose up from the dead only 16 hours later after dying from the bite the man had given her.
The fact that the virus could still work on a dead body made everyone even more apprehensive, the researcher even theorized that everyone was already infected and that once someone dies they would turn into these creatures shortly after which only disturbed the people more as his conjecture was right as it was proven in the future.
As time passed the already small amount of supplies only became smaller, soon there wasn’t much of anything to eat anymore and people started to degrade not only physically but mentally as well.
My mother in particular already had a weak constitution from all the hard work she did while I was young, forcing her to stay in bed almost all the time to conserve energy and she wasn’t the only one many others followed suit until finally some people decided that they had no other choice but to leave if they didn’t want to die from starvation.
This time it was the overseer who lead the next group, half of his men had died in the first group leading him to bring his remaining other half and a few other random people comprised of men and woman.
This time everyone thought that things would turn out well.
But as a shocking turn of events, none of those people ever returned.
After 1 week which was already way beyond the scheduled time nobody had come back, it was believed then that they had all perished, which only made everyone depressed as despair started to settle in with the shelter becoming extremely quiet.
-Valery…valery my baby girl are you there ?
-Mom..I’m here, please sleep, don’t talk you need to conserve your energy..
I gripped my mothers hand, feeling those rough but frail fingers of hers I felt myself sinking as I saw how weak she had gotten barely staying awake.
-Valery..I..I think my time is about to come..
-MOM !…don’t say that…I need you please…
-Valery, my baby girl, I’m sorry, but I think my time is about to come and I want to tell you something, I want you to live on, I know its going to be difficult but Valery listen, you are a strong girl, you always have been, you are the joy of my life and I am so proud that you are my daughter, you are the most precious thing in my world…
-Mom…please..
-Valery let me continue…before I go, I want to warn you, do not listen to that boyfriend of yours, I didn’t like him before and I especially don’t like him now, he always seemed like a snake to me only caring about himself, I didn’t say anything before since times were different and you were an adult, but now I want you to stay safe, keep your distance from him and don’t trust him..you…you still…have so much to live for…
-MOM!!
-Oh…Valery..don’t cry my baby girl…please smile..I want to see your smile, my beautiful little angel..
Breathing her last breath, my mother died, dying at the age of 47 she was truly too young to die for her age, raising me all by herself she never once told me who my father was or why she was raising me by herself, but the one thing that was for sure was that she was the only genuine person in my life who I could confide in, and now she was gone, together with my world.
-Valery ! Valery ! Come out ! We need to get out of here !
Not even getting the chance to grief, my boyfriend which my mother had just warned me about suddenly barged into my room with urgency and a panicked voice.
-Wha..what happened ?
-There is no time to explain ! We need to leave quickly before we end up dead !
-What do you mean ? Ow ! Hey you’re hurting me ! Stop !
-Shut up ! Come on we gotta go !
Not giving me any explanation whatsoever, he swiftly dragged me out of the room holding my wrist, giving my mother only a single glance before he completely abandoned her there, even though she was already dead, he didn’t know that which is why I couldn’t help but feel a slight chill in my heart when I realized that he didn’t care at all once again reminded about my mother warning me about him.
Nevertheless I still followed him and over the course of our escape I saw countless other residents also quickly making their way towards the exit, I still couldn’t understand what was going until finally I saw the problem.
-Watch out ! Its coming !
A large vine like root suddenly came out of the ventilation shaft, it began with 1 but quickly evolved into hundreds and thousands of strands covering every area possible with its vines, the people who were ill-prepared and got caught by these vines were immediately rolled into a cocoon like state and then carried away somewhere while screaming in horror.
Seeing those vines made my blood freeze up, it was the first time I had seen a monster, but it wouldn’t be the last.
Now understanding the situation I started to run faster together with my boyfriend.
We were pretty quick on our feet and almost made it to exit, but out of nowhere vines suddenly encroached on us, my boyfriend got caught by his feet by one of the vines falling to the ground.
-Valery ! Help me !
Seeing him on the ground and the vines approaching I felt fear, but regardless I helped him because he was someone important to me, pulling him out of the vines with all my might I was quickly able to get him out, but as a result I also fell to the ground getting myself caught by one of the vines by my waist.
-Shit ! Martin ! Help me !
Now his turn to rescue me I expected my boyfriend to turn around and help me with everything he got, but as I looked over him, for the first time I saw him looking at me with those cold and calculating eyes that I never seen before, he didn’t act nor flee and simply observed me before turning around and running away with all his might not even giving me a second glance.
-Ma..MARTIN ! MARTIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING ! HELP ME !?
My shouting yielded nothing as my boyfriend heartlessly abandoned me slowly getting out of sight as he pulled distance.
The vines also dragged me back and it at this moment that I truly felt my whole world collapse.
My mother dead.
My boyfriend abandoning me.
There was nothing for me to live for anymore.
-Valery…don’t give up now…my baby girl you still have so much to live for…
Suddenly hearing the voice of my just deceased mother, my mind immediately woke up as if I was being awakened from drowning in a bog of mud, I wasn’t sure whether or not I had just hallucinated what I just heard or whether my mother was truly cheering for me, but either way I didn’t want to die yet.
As I was getting dragged down I tried to quickly untangle myself from the vine, I hadn’t been entirely encased yet but I could see more vines coming my way which is why I needed to think quick.
Unfortunately I wasn’t strong enough to untangle the vine on my waist which is why I looked for something else and oh behold as if a miracle was being called down I noticed a spray can of air freshener on the ground not too far from me, together with the lighter I had on my body I quickly formulated a plan as I grabbed the can and ignited my lighter creating a makeshift flamethrower which I aimed towards the vine that was holding my waist.
-EAT THIS YOU MONSTER !
Opening fire the flames immediately sprayed all over the vines, the disturbing high pitched crying sound of those vines resounded as they were being burned, the vine that held my waist in particular immediately let go of me, regaining my freedom I got onto my feet and ran with all I got as the vines quickly continued chasing me, the fire only momentarily distracting them.
In the end I was able to make it out.
But as soon as I got out and saw the sun for the first time in a year, my troubles had only just then begun.
-VALERY ! VALERY ! PLEASE HELP ME ! I’M SORRY WHAT I DID EARLIER BUT PLEASE HELP ME !
Martin shouted in desperation seeing me come out as he was being viciously mauled by a pair of zombies who had pinned him to the ground painfully eating his flesh, I could only observe him in horror as he begged me for help, the earlier betrayal had completely escaped my mind as I was too scared to think about anything else.
And it wasn’t only him, everyone were also too busy to help others, it was everyone for himself now.
Out of the frying pan into the fire, what we had seen was only the beginning.
Disregarding Martin who had already turned into a lost cause I immediately made a run for it before the zombies or any other monster noticed me.
This is how I was finally able to escape, the direction I ran in was into the forest where I was sure there wouldn’t be too many zombies.
And like that I wandered around within the wilderness, living like a stray animal, foraging for food everyday eating strange berries and mushrooms which sometimes resulted in getting stomach aches which was only considered a light case.
Most of the time I would sleep inside caves while at the other times I would fashion makeshift tents with sticks and leaves.
I knew nothing about surviving in the wild but through trial error I slowly started to get used to it.
My clothes were already completely turned into rags making me somewhat nude, but I still didn’t care since there was no one to see my half naked state for me to feel ashamed.
At times I wondered whether or not there are still other humans alive like me, thinking about the world as a whole it was hard to imagine since any person who dies would turn into a zombie which only made it harder for people to live properly and that thought was depressing.
Which is why it was good that I was more occupied with my own survival then to think about those things instead.
Unfortunately my luck ran dry.
Thinking that there wouldn’t be any zombies inside a forest.
How foolish could I have been.
As I walked through the forest one day, out of nowhere a large of zombies suddenly appear from behind, those zombies were also far different then the ones I had seen, while their appearance didn’t change, they were faster and quicker forcing me to run the entire forest to shake them off, but to no avail as they would always somehow find me.
Eventually leading me to my current predicament with me climbing this tree out of panic and getting surrounded from bellow.
I was glad at first, thinking that they would never be able to reach me, I also thought that the zombies would stop hanging around and look for other prey to eat, but I was once again mistaken, and soon enough they started to shake the tree.
-HIYAAAAAA
I screamed when it happened caught off guard as I was suddenly about to fall, but I was quick and caught myself saving my life.
Wondering what was going on I looked down, only to find the zombies shaking the tree by ramming at it, it was a bizarre sight really, since in the movies the zombies were usually extremely dumb, in reality they were dumb, which is why it was even more surprising that they would attempt to fell the tree with their bodies.
Its at this moment that I started to truly believe I was going to die.
All the things I had experienced, all my suffering up until now.
And this how it was going to end ?
-Mom…I am sorry…I couldn’t hold on..
Almost accepting my fate I slowly started to fall asleep feeling tired but then, just like when I was caught by the vine and everything I held dear had disappeared making me despair, my mothers voice suddenly came to me again.
-Valery, don’t give up ! You can still go on ! Shout ! Scream ! Do anything and live !
The fog that had clouded my vision disappeared again for a moment, the sleepiness that assaulted me gone making me unconsciously suck in my breath before letting it out in a loud shout.
–HEEEELP MEEEEE ! SOMEONE ! PLEASE HELP ME !
I saw the birds fly off into the sky the moment I shouted, using almost all of my remaining energy for that one shout I slumped down onto the tree hugging it tight.
I wasn’t truly expecting anything, I simply wanted to show my mother that I hadn’t given up yet, even if I die now, I didn’t die because I accepted my fate.
But then once again a miracle occurred.
Or rather a miracle appeared.
A Place Of Legends 