February 14th, 2020:

Darius Walkers was not in a good mood, as he climbed the last few miles to his grandfathers house. It was a nice day, the forecast said that it would remain sunny for the rest of it and he wanted to at least try and get some peace and quiet before his grandfather got his claws into him and force him most likely to shoot them some dinner or something.

'Who even gets the idea to build their estate so high up in the fucking mountains?' he thinks to himself, while trying to get some more air into his lungs.

He takes a quick break half way up the way and enjoys the view of the surrounding forrest and bordering smaller towns, bustling with activity, even though the region had the highest concentration of shards in Germany, which was most likely the reason for all the activit down there. He could also see the piles burning outside of the city, where they burned their dead infected together with all of their possessions.

Maybe he did begin to see why people got the idea to build their home so far up the mountains. It was isolated and truly tranquill up here, he could see everything around him, hear the birds sing in the tree crowns and breathe the fresh air.

Darius knew that his gramps would make a joke about him, how life in the city made his daughter and her sons weak, the old hunting obsessed bastards that he is.

Dozens of memories started to replay in his mind, of how his grampa taught him how to hold a bow for the first time, or how his grandmother would give him some extra cookies whenever he showed up at their home.

He had to make sure that his grandparents were okay, even if no one else seemed to be interested in their wellbeing.

His mother broke of their contact, after her father decided to not invest any more money into her husbands failing business and he had no aunts or uncles on his mothers side. His grandfather was so antisocial that most of the people down the mountain did not even know that someone lived up here.

And also, what better time to do that, then right after his god damn girlfriend cheated on him with his own, unknowing but willing, brother?

And no matter what everyone else said, Darius did love his younger brother. Even if their parents clearly favoured Arthur over Darius, and even if he had to duke out his fights for him in the dark back-alleys of Phoenix, Arizona.

He would do a ton of things to keep his little brother clear of that part of life. But even he had a limit, and seeing his little brother fuck the shit out of his girlfriend, well that pretty much hit that limit on the head.

It was not his fault that Arthur did never inherit the good old Hüber constitution, how should he have known that one hit would force him into a hospital bed? Everyone was always going on about 'How awesome' Arthur is, how he 'is such a talented fighter! Did you know that he won the national fencing tournament?'.

Well, now that talented fighter is sitting in his hospital bed and has to drink through a straw. It did not matter what happened before Darius hit his brother, what mattered was that their fathers precious baby boy was hurt.

So, there he was. No familial support and grandparents that did not respond to any kind of communication after the second wave of earthquakes hit the Earth. Tough luck.

"Dumb path... Stupid Shards.... Seriously, who got the idea to just throw one right in the middle of a railroad?

I had to find another way to get here, and the first thing that I see is another of those fucking things blocking the easiest route into the mountain...", he grumbled under his breath.

Darius was lucky and thankfull, that he did have access to his grandfathers bankaccount for emergencies, and that some airplanes still flew between America and Europe, even though he had to take five overlays to get to Berlin, and then take 8 different trains to reach his grandparents home in the Hartz mountain range.

'Everything turned to shit, after those guys in Peru found the first shard up in the Andes. Suddenly they were everywhere and everyone wanted to get a piece of the cake.' , and with everyone he meant mostly the governments around the world.

Postcards with the different sceneries became new merchandies over night, and collectors started paying through the nose after the first mutated plants and animals started to crop up around them. 'Lets be serious... Who would be proud to have a little squirrel with horns on its back?', he thought with a chuckle.

All that though did not really turn out so well for them, after the killer virus started spreading. They were normally the first cases to get infected after all.

'Damn, I really hope that Gramps or Granny did not get infected, that shit is supposed to either kill you in the first few days, or slowly in the next month. People can be healthy one day, and turn up sick the morning after.'

He continued his march up the mountain, while starting to contemplate, what he would say to his grandparents when he finally got there. '"Heres Johnny!", nonono did that one already the last time... "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.", thats it!'

And then he saw it, the ancestral Hüber estate, built to withstand sieges from invading roaming clans and attacking enemy lords, this thing should be called a fortress instead.

It is surrounded by cliffs and thick forrests on all sides, the defenders can draw water from an underground river and the walls encompas around 3 hectars of land. 'Well, we like to call it 'ancestral' at least, gramps won it after all in a pokerturnament.', thought Darius, which caused him to chuckle slightly.

After the first wave of earthquakes wrecked everything, his grampa began to hoard rations and other conserved foods, while his grandmother started making jams and pickling all kinds of stuff in jars. He knew that they could live a few years out here, and his grandfather had equipped a room with hunting equipment.

Darius took the last few steps, until he came to the grand entrance gate, took out his keychain and began the complicated procedure of opening all the different locking mechanisms.

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'Why did grampa have to install 14 different locks in this god damn gate? It would be easier to just jump over the fence at this point...'. He was mostly exaggerating, the enclosing fence is at least 3 meter high, consists of stainless blackened steel and has sharp spikes on the top.

Darius entered the estate and the first thing he saw was a four meter tall and six meter wide shard depicting some kind of predator hunting down a herbivore.

The predator looked as if someone tried to breed a mixture of tiger, bear and warthog.

It was as tall as a jeep, packed with muscles, possessed quills going down its spine and had giant tusks. Thankfully, the herbivore did not seem to be another hellbeast, it looked kind of similar to a gazelle, if you colored it green and gave it another pair of frontlegs.

His first reaction was what everyone would have done, scream like a little girl and ram the gate shut. Darius began to calm down shortly after that and opened the gate again, after he realised that there was no sound of any carnage, which should have been hearable even dozens of meters away and through that thick gate.

He did not think of himself to be a fearfull person, after all those years fighting streetfights regularly that was something like an anathema to him and he could show his scars for proof, but that... thing looks to be one of the meanest things on its planet, that was at least what he hoped, because something that dangerous had no right to be anywhere in the bottom of the foodchain!

What did worry Darius, was that he could not hear anything beside his own footsteps on the gravel walkway up to the house. He could normally already hear his grandmother sing some kind of song, while she cooked or cleaned the estate.

He came upon the door and saw something that worried him even more, the door was unlocked and open. His grandfathers never leaves the door open. Never. 'That can only mean one thing', he thought as he enters the house and the first thing he smells is the reek of death and sickness.

If you wonder how that smells, then imagine a sickly sweet smell, like a rotting apple, and at the same time the smell of rotting flesh and still water. He only smelled that particular smell only one time, and that was when he found the cadaver of a giant bear that died through poison.

He rushed through the house, noticed the stains on the carpet, the rotting flowers in their vases and dust on the paintings, until he came upon the sleeping quarters of his grandparents and he heard the one sound he never wanted to hear from there. The sickly, deep, rattling cough of the infected.

He knew that he had most likely already contracted the virus, when he entered the house, but his grandfathers training won out in the end. He ripped some cloth from his jacket, took out a bottle of high quality vodka, that he wanted to drink with his grandparents when he saw them, poured it over the strip of cloth and then wound it around his mouth and nose.

Then he pulled out his cellphone and sent his brother a message 'Dont come, all infected, too l8 4 me', and then entered the room.

The first thing he saw was his grandfather on the bed, resembling more a skelleton than the bear of a man that he remembered, but what shocked him the most was the corpse of his grandmother. He would never again see her sweet smile and smell the odor of apple pie and cinnamon that always naturally followed her.

The only thing that remained was a bloated corpse in the middle of the room, it seems as if she tried to get up and died a few steps outside of their bed. "Darius? Did you come or am I dead already? Hah! I knew I could trust you at least to come find us! Could you look after Elise? I cant hear her breath anymore...", crowed the underused and delirious voice of his grandfather.

He had to shake himself out of his stupor and began the compartmentalization of the situation. His grandmother was dead but he could save her husband. "Grandma is dead gramps, I am sorry. Let me get you out of there and put you in another room.", said Darius while he picked him up. His grandfather managed to throw a last desperate look at the love of his life and then he closed his eyes.

"Do that my boy, do that." He could not comprehend how his grandfather could stay so strong. his grandparents knew each other for over 60 years and lived together as man and wife for 52. And then he remembered, he remembered who taught him to compartmentalize things so that he could part them from his emotions, until he could cry or laugh in the safety of his home.

"I pray for you Darius...", said his grandfather with a stony face. "What?" "I pray for you that you will never have to see the love of your life go before you breath your last breath.", and with that a heavy silence enveloped them, until Darius could finally reach the next best guestroom, where he immediately tossed the old covers of the two beds to the floor,

deposited his grandfather in one of the beds, and began the standard procedure for infected patients. He stripped him down until he was nacked, threw the old clothes through the window and got him new ones, ran into the adjacent restroom where he got him a cup of water and began to slowly feed it to him.

That had to happen slowly, because he could see that his stomach had nearly collapsed and he would not be able to take large amounts of anything.

Darius then began the most grueling task that awaited him, right after his grandfather began to sleep. He only had around twelve hours until the infection would incapacitate him.

He got one of their biggest rugs, wore some rubber gloves and returned to his grandparents sleeping quarters. Darius then rolled the corpse on the rug, rolled it into a cigar and then carried it outside of the estate.

He deposited it on the road opposing side of the house, away from the shard and the downward rolling mountainside. Placing her in the middle of her favourite flowers, he prayed to who ever watched over the deceased and whished that she went fast, he then threw the gloves on the pile and poured gasoline over it all, bourning it all as much as possible.

Darius then returned into the house and prepared as many meals as he could for himself and his grandfather, which took him around 8 hours.

The were mostly light soups, bread and gruel, which they could easily digest. Darius could feel his body literally burning up all the while, his bones started to feel as if they could break at any moment, while his muscles started wiggling around under his skin, as if they were worms or maggots.

He managed to carry enough food and water for his grandfather and himself into the room and deposited it all on a table in the middle of the room. Then he shoved the table right next to his grandfathers bed, and used the rest of his strength to push the second bed right next to the table.

He hoped that it would last them for the next few weeks and slipped under the covers.

The last thing he remembers is him,falling into the darkness of unconsciousness, and the voice of his grandmother that thanked him for the last time.