Chapter 6

William ran in the middle of some random street, surrounded, and running past numerous Darks or battling people. He tried to focus, ignore them, or they ignored him instead. He wasn't sure what was happening. He looked at the world in a new light, so what if the others looked at him the same?

Then, there were screams. Human screams. Under William's gaze, it was meaningless, but not the picture itself. He still heard everything, no longer snuggled in his own world. People were dying in every corner, hunted and killed. Gunshots were sounding everywhere, dimming those crazy sounds that Darks loved. Dark Fog was lingering around every corner, obscuring vision or people, but most streets were clearer because Darks wanted their feasts, or the case for it was blocking human escapes. In any way, William couldn't see through it; he couldn't notice huge tower-like Darks above the camp, flying or stomping onto the camp like giant Dark Fog generators.

Darks. They were grotesque and fiddly in appearance. They were no animals, but some of their origins were closer to them than anything else, while also distant.

Corruption could come to anything, seize the bloodline and history of any species. Afterward, Corruption and evolution could change the rest, while Darks seized the others, Walkers, or humans in a bid for a change.

Bodies were mere flesh. Spirits were nothing before the power of Corruptors, large Darks that walked in dozens or hundred feet long sticks and looked like fortresses inside thick Fogs. It was a lump of flesh at the top, spreading a much stronger Dark Fog, closely resembling Corruption that inflicted tormenting changes for humans and anything natural. It also boosted up Darks, ensuring that this Incursion would keep going.

There was also a part of a chance. Not everything can be corrupted. Some beings would die straight away and wouldn't become anything but a mash of gore and part of the corrupted soil. But some beings would swallow, accept, or be lost in this change, turn with the Corruption, becoming grotesque, crazy, and monstrous. Consumed.

Further evolutions would cause even more strange things. Size, weird perks, and various unexpected things could happen, turning their heads and bodies alien, instincts sharp or dull, or everything about them would be no further than a lump of walking flesh.

Walkers and their hunts could turn everything even worse, or better depending on the successful side. Walkers were their primal enemies, or so it was believed when they first appeared many decades ago. It was known as Tomorrow Dawn, a day when humanity saw the light at the end of the misery when the first generation of Walkers struck back.

Unbeknown to them, it was the beginning tension that caused numerous changes and evolutions in Darks, making many struggles futile and altered, for they have come. The filial targets. The great hunts.

William saw or knew no such thing when he focused on running. Darks were there, leaving screams and lumps of bodies aside, letting their howls echo and munching sounds linger. Most streets were nothing but destruction and chaos, leaving Crawlers, Zombies, or Shriekers gnawing at some bodies.

But many people fought, wielding weapons ranging from scraps of metal to guns and knives. Loud bangs and fights were in most streets, going aside, or sounding from the depth of the Dark Fog. William's run wasn't aiming that far. Some Darks died under a barrage of bullets, as their defenses were low, thus exploitable.

Humans could fight. They could, but Darks were far too large in numbers, and some of them were immune to such tries because Incursion was a death sentence, which many people recognized.

From the start, there was no war. A fleeing order to save as many lives as possible was much better because they could rebuild, while the loss of lives was not as simple. The bunkers were either full or seen as not enough against the Incursion, but what was better when the whole camp was encircled and locked? A lot of things were easier said than done.

Still, running away and scurrying to remain alive Outside was difficult. Only an equal predator should survive before such a gathering of predators and hunters.

William huffed many breaths, feeling as if his legs stepped on all kinds of things, yet they still moved. He still had them, which was good.

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He felt strange. His speed, eyes, warmth, and growing strength felt as if he was flowing and flying like a blazing tempest. Like back then; in that white room but weirder. The buzzing noise was mostly gone, same with the noise and that voice. The surroundings were empty and his head was sharp yet confusingly dull at the same time. It felt as if he wasn't moving, despite how his surroundings kept going and changing. Not in colors... unfortunately.

Some of his feelings made him more alive since he wasn't helpless. He just ran like his mother suggested. It felt as if he could run and jump and do whatever his mother asked, making her happy. He ran across a street that used to be a market. A place where he used to walk with her to get food and vegetables. Talking to strangers was a rare activity, which made his face ashen when he saw those people gone and the street shrouded and destroyed in vivid redness.

He passed this dreadful screaming darkness without tears and darted around for a way out. He was still running away from his nightmare, obvious by the floods of Dark Fog and Darks all around. He should be dead. He shouldn't be running for so long. Nothing and nobody came, although he wasn't entirely sure what was happening to him, or where he should look for his mother. His tunnel vision was quite heavy and his mind distracted.

Barren from the dark world, he was leaving behind a path of slaughter that wasn't so simple, for that flickering line had a different set of ideas.

William was mistaken. He was running nowhere and there was no way out of here. It was a terrible idea. He walked to the den of monsters, and it was by sheer luck that some of those monsters overlooked him, winced in their steps, not approaching him in fear, or they did so and regretted it soon afterward. All thanks to that swirling line, he lived.

William recognized nothing. He ran and that was it. Where? He didn't know. How? He didn't ask.

He couldn't help but look onward, watching either his feet or the place that used to be his home. There were continuous pools of redness, coming from blood, heads, headless corpses, and people's faces. Some were foreign to him, unclear if they were nightmares or people, while the redness seeped everywhere. He hated this vision, yet when he tried to close his eyes, it became so much worse, intense, and overwhelming as his mind was the sole taker of reality.

The surroundings were like chains on him, putting noises into his ears rather than into his mind. What was the difference wasn't on his mind since they were similar. Thuds, growls, and screams drove his ears mad and they were exactly what one would expect from this chaos. Darks chased people, dragging them to the Dark Fog where they began to sizzle, scream, change, or die.

It was a nasty process, looking like boiling in flesh and bones, cracking like ice, or growing restless in power outside of humanity. The nastier process came from Darks that could Corrupt from touch, bite, or some power. Those were rare to see and impossible to fight for any people.

Some Darks were small, looking like rats or small dogs. Most were bigger and higher in Ranks because of this Incursion, making weak Darks less important, but not obsolete. There was a good point in fodder when fighting it out against this place.

Corruption could turn normal things weird, and weird things even weirder. There was some kind of horse, but it was a sinister mixture between a monster and a regular horse, walking on two, pushing its studs for arms around, growling through a big head, wide jaw, and crazy bulging eyes.

William didn't see much of it; he wanted to continue with his escaping plan, yet... when he thought of it, where was he running? To his mother? Father?

His mind was reaching its limits after five minutes of his run, hitting a spiritual wall where his strength hit a beat and one noise returned when he felt weak. It was like a needle piercing his mind.

[Dark Fog... cries]

[Escape...]

[Quickly]

He shook, clutching his head and tumbling in confusion. Redness kept going, and he fell into mud that wasn't some mud. A bunch of Darks hissed, looking like crazy wolves with flaring tentacles for fur. There were even hunched human creatures with thick arms, slender bodies, and open heads, revealing thick tendrils that went behind them right from the neck.

William yelped, but as soon as he came to his feet, one of the Drillwolvers pounced at him, swirling its thousands of tendrils into a split-mouth attack.

William instinctively moved his arm to hug his head, and at that moment, the creatures were split in half, gushing out blood and sizzling at their intersections.

He thought that this voice was crazy, or he was. He didn't see a thing, but the wet warmth and strength rushed once more. Some force stunned him and he shot aside, tumbling in mud this time around when those human figures attacked him next.

Run. Run. Mother said it, He thought, when the dragging stopped. He got to his feet, but couldn’t run. Wheezing for air when his body reached some limit, he was sorry.

Death. Darks. Right in the intersection of large streets, he stopped and stood like a sprout in the middle of a dark rocky plateau. Right there, around the Dark Fog that cleared, multiple Walkers fought with a bunch of Darks of higher Ranks than Carnijaw. They were battle-oriented, looking like energy-infused figures, oddly shaped human giants, or Darks with much simplified and perfected features. Some even wielded weapons that were part of their body, or not at all. They were primal, looking destructive, perfect, and strong. There was something odd in their vision that William couldn't catch.

It changed.

The redness was no more. The colorful sizzle in his eyesight altered and his eyes and mind started to hurt just by looking at something he shouldn't. He even bled from his eyes and felt a mountain pressing onto his body.