The sweltering summer sun hung low on the horizon, casting long shadows from the ridges onto the small town of Bellmerry. The town had more than just shadows hanging over it though. I knew that better than anyone. Monsters began appearing about three months back, strange often twisted things that I and everyone else had trouble coming to terms with even now.
When the first ones came, the town was like any other out here on the frontiers… mostly peaceful that is. But that all changed in the blink of an eye. People had been going about their own business when the first scream broke out. It was unfortunately only the beginning. For soon an entire discordant chorus broke out, filled with the screams and wails of people being attacked.
My name is Theo Greaves, and as sheriff of Bellmerry, I’ve been most unprivileged to live through this town's darkest days. So far anyways and that is why I’ve started keeping an account of my life here in this journal. So that when I succumb, someone may find a record of my suffering and know what I went through. I’d been lounging in my office when the first of the screams berated my ears. It was a sound that, at the time, scared me to my core. I couldn’t understand what could be going on in my peaceful little town to make people sound like… well, like that. I quickly gathered up my two deputies, Colton and John to find out what was happening.
As we rushed out of the sheriff's office with our guns raised, ready to confront whatever gang of outlaws that had appeared in town, we froze. The madness had already reached us. As I stood with my foot still raised to finish stepping out from the doorway, I froze at the first sight of what would soon be my new everyday life. I watched as a giant scorpion, as dark as the night sky stripped of its stars, punched a whole clean through a man with its stinger as he ran.
For John that was all it took, as we stood mounted in shock he ran screaming. I yelled, “Get back here and help us, you damn coward. You’d better hope one of these things kill you before we find you!” And with that, Colton and I opened fire.
Alas, giant scorpions were soon to be a welcome sight compared to what that first night brought. No, there were monsters far fouler. The worst of them being the ghouls. The ghouls were once human… we know that now, although I suppose we always did. We just didn’t want to believe it. They came upon us like ravenous animals once the sun fell. We were still trying to recover from the first wave when they hit us. Colton was swarmed almost immediately… I could do nothing but shoot uselessly into the mass of them as they ripped into him. I secretly hope to this day that one of those shots hit him and put him out of his misery. It’d have to be a far better fate than being torn apart by those monsters.
I ran hard for my office, propping the door open as I entered and locking myself in a cell. Then I began to yell, trying to lure them in. It worked… but the time it took cost us many more lives. Lives that I now had to carry the blame and guilt for.
Fast forward to the present day, and I’m still here, albeit in a much less peaceful town. At first, the survivors just wanted someone to blame, and I must’ve seemed like the perfect target… the sheriff who ran away and hid in his jail cell. The reason didn’t and still doesn’t matter to them. The fact that I successfully managed to clear the town out by luring the majority of the monsters in there to dispatch them doesn’t matter. All that matters to them is that I wasn’t front and center, fighting and dying like Colton had. Now, though, after I began going out to hunt the monsters before they could come for us again. Now they fear me. They fear being near me will bring the things I hunt down for them… upon them once more. I’m alone now.
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Maybe they were right to avoid me though. Look at how things have turned out for me. My one loyal deputy is dead, and the other ran like a coward. And me? I’m hardly any better now as you will soon come to find.
A week ago, after returning from another hunt, I found I couldn’t bear the hateful stares of my townsfolk and chose to leave again. By this point, I’d fought countless monsters from this dark new world. Combine the weight of the guilt I felt from that first day and the blame everyone placed on me and honestly, I was starting to lose hope. These emotions led to distractions that would soon cost me dearly.
No one has come to town since it started. We wonder if it’s like this everywhere now. Although no one is willing to make the trip out and return. Sure, some left… but if they made it somewhere safer, they never came back and told us. I had my doubts on anyone making it to another town anyhow. The nearest town would take four days and three nights of hard riding to make it by dusk on the fourth day. That’s without the baggage from people trying to carry their lives with them. No, I seriously doubted anyone would survive their first night out there. You see, when night falls, those things become much more active. They’d be hunted down, unable to see and forced to stop to rest. I myself always returned before night, at least I did…
Anyhow, it was during this faithful trip out that I finally found John. I’d ridden out toward Birthnell, the nearest town to the North. I’d been tracking a pack of ghouls the day before but hadn’t caught up with them. I left as soon as the night passed, no longer able to stand the haunted, hateful gazes of the people I would inevitably pass as I patrolled the town. By this point, the monsters knew the town was dangerous and with me hunting the overly ambitious of them, such as the pack I went after today there was little chance of an attack. Besides, the people wouldn’t dare be outside later than early dusk now. By then everyone was inside doors locked, windows blocked, and a gun beside them if not in their sleeping hands. There’d already been a number of accidents from people waking up or stirring in their sleep and firing a gun they’d fallen asleep with in a death grip. Luckily, no one had been struck by a stray bullet. Yet.
This pack had been getting close to town during the night and I’d found their tracks the day before. So, I figured I’d deal with them the same as the rest. But it appears fate had a crueler plan in mind. By mid-afternoon, I reached a narrow pass cast in shadows where the cliffs loomed high. That’s when I saw the first of them. Gaunt and haggard, standing alone among the rocks. Fearing for my horse in the narrow pass if anything were to happen, I dismounted and started approaching the thing. It appeared to be alone, hugging the shadows of the pass, afraid of the burning sun. I stepped into the shadows of the pass and slowly walked towards the once man. He turned and let out a feral screech, as his head was hollowed.
I walked forward and inspected the body looking for signs of him being one of ours. The body was too mangled to tell me anything meaningful. And as was often the case after slamming a bullet into their head it was too damaged to tell. Unfortunately, I was too relaxed, too confident in their stupidity. The ghouls burst up, all around me, from large rocks strewn around the body. They’d flattened themselves on the farsides of the rocks, close to the wall where they couldn’t be seen. I fired, taking down two of what seemed to be more than half a dozen. Then they were upon me. The fight became a chaotic mess of gunfire, kicks, punches, claws, dust, and teeth. I backpedaled after beating off two of the closest. Then I charged the one to my rear, bodily throwing it from its feet as I continued on. They were fast though and I was forced to turn and fight. One by one, I dropped them as they came. Until only one remained, they’d forced their way quite close by the time it was just him and I. As I went to take the last shot my body froze up like I’d been stuck in a blizzard. It was him, it was John. Face pale and breath ragged he lunged, I was too slow. As I fired, blowing back his head a piece of my flesh was ripped from my arm. The shot echoed through the pass as John’s body crumpled to the ground.
I stared down at him in disbelief and shock. The cowardly bastard had done it. The fever was already spreading through my veins. I knew I was infected.