The sun has just risen, and the desolate city basks in the light of day. With wind whistling and monstrosities wandering each street, every moan and crackle could be heard through every building. Henry, a survivor that left the shelter to find resources, stealthily goes around building to building, scavenging anything valuable, avoiding detection from his predators. But as he passes by a grocery store, he finds a box filled with cans of sardine. His eyes glimmered with excitement and hope. He'd be instantly rich if he successfully brought that back to the shelter. But as he went to grab it, he felt uneasy, cold, and heavy. As his hands grab on the box, he hears something deep in the isles. "Hhhe-elp." His heart beats at a painful pace. He inches closer. "Phlease... Is s-someone there?" It sounds like an injured woman. Henry walks towards the voice, into the dark areas of the grocery store. "It's my lucky day, a whole box of cans!?" The woman's voice uttered. Henry felt confused; he then peeked as to where the voice came from. He saw the woman, with her neck twisted, limbs bent and bitten off, and guts dropping out, with her face peeled off. Then, as he looked up, a humanoid monstrosity stared at him, wearing the woman's face; its shape was contorted to look human. "Please don't kill me," the creature cried with the woman's voice. Henry's heart dropped cold, and his feet felt frozen. He pulls out his gun and aims towards the creature, but it hastily crawls off into the wall and to the ceiling like a spider. The creature screamed in agonizing pain in the voice of the woman. Henry then looks for any way out of the building, but the only exit is at the front, and the creature's scream alerted other monsters into the building. Henry, with no way of escape, looks for a hiding spot. A monster outside is already entering the building; the monster that killed the woman crawls around the ceiling, grabs the box of canned sardines, and leaves. Henry then goes to hide under the shelves, covering himself with bags of chips, hoping not to be noticed. As the first monster left, another arrived. A large bulking monstrosity enters the building; it carefully surveys the area, looking for prey, but then it sees the corpse of the woman and grabs it; then it tore out the skeleton of the woman; the creature then deflates; a moment ago it was large and bulky; now it looks incredibly thin; the monster enters the flaccid body of the woman; then it stands near the entrance. Henry lies quietly still as he stares at the monster, then he hears footsteps running towards the building. "Hello.?" The man called out. "I got here as soon as I could," he said as he caught his breath. "Sarah? Is that you? I've been looking for you everywhere," he said as he approached the monster. But as he was able to hold her, the monster burst out of the woman's corpse. The man screamed, but the monster grabbed the man and lifted him up. The man pulls out his rifle and shoots the bulking monstrosity, but the creature is unfazed, and then, in response, the monster slams his body to the ground, the man's legs splatter on impact, and blood gushed out under him. The man desperately shoots again, then it hits the creature in the eye, causing it to drop the man. The monster cried and hid into the isles, screaming in pain. The man then attempted to escape by dragging himself out. Henry saw all of this, but all he can do is stay hidden; he wants to help the man, but if he even moves an inch, the bag of chips will blow his cover and get him killed too. While Henry bites his lip in frustration for letting a man die, the monster rushes back to the man and punches the man's back. His head blew off from his body, and the monster repeatedly smashed the man's body into a pile of blood with pieces of his shattered bones. Henry shudders in fear for what he saw; he bites his lip harder in fear and regret, thinking he could've helped the man rather than just watching him die. The monster, satisfied with crushing the man to what seems to be nothing, deflates back into it's thinner state and looks for the woman's skin. Henry then saw the monster facing away from him; he gently and silently came out of his hiding spot. He then aimed his revolver into the monster's head. A loud bang was heard around the place, followed by a thud. The monster's body fell dead into the grocery store's floor; Henry felt heavy in the chest. "You could've fuckin helped," he said sobbingly to himself as tears ran down his face. "I'm such a fuckin coward," he cried as he kneeled down in the pool of blood of both the monster and the man. After looting the bags of the dead man and woman, Henry now has a rifle and more ammunition. He then goes to check for food on the shelves of the store, but all of what's left has been expired for a while now. Disappointed and upset, Henry leaves with what he has. He heads into an alley and looks for a ladder to be safer; the monsters are rarely on roofs; there's nothing there for them to care about. As he walks through the alley, he hears something—a crackle. He readies his revolver and looks around his vicinity, then in the distant, across the road. He sees a man wearing a long black coat; he smiles at him very widely and waves. Confused, Henry waves back and hesitantly walks towards him. The man then walks carelessly into the open street while maintaining eye contact with Henry, not even blinking once, and his smile unbroken. Henry steps back and regrets waving back at the man. As Henry looks away to try and get away from the man, he feels a cold breeze pierce through him, and then as he looks back, the man is already just a few steps behind him. Henry pulls out his revolver and aims at the creepy man. "Easy there, friendo wouldn't wanna hurt anyone now, would we?" The man said in a chilling, calm voice. Henry lowers his gun and replies. "Why the fuck are you out there, man? Aren't you scared for shit of the monsters!?" Hearing this, the man's smile grew bigger. "They don't see me," the creepy man replied in a small voice. More confused and uncomfortable, Henry walks away and gets back to looking for a ladder. "You might wanna go further down there if you're looking for a ladder; it's next to some horrid corpses," the creepy man says to Henry in a childlike voice. In response, Henry threw up thumbs up awkwardly and walked off, while the man just stood and stared. Henry, now at the rooftop, takes a quick break and hydrates; while doing so, he carefully surveys the surrounding areas. Then he sees the man down below, still smiling and waving with his piercing gaze. Henry wonders if he's a monster or just some creepy weirdo. The sun sets and the darkness covers the entire city. Henry, tired of all the hiding and jumping from one building's roof to another. He sets up a small hiding place to sleep in; little does he know the man followed him up. As Henry eats his supper, he hears feint footsteps. He grabs his gun in preparation and focuses on listening. As Henry peeks out to see what the noise was, it was just a cat going on a walk. Henry felt relieved and let out a relaxed sigh. Feeling exhausted, he heads into the hiding spot he made and lies down to sleep. As Henry sleeps through the night, he suddenly feels something touching his face, something wet; the feeling runs across his face, and as his eyes open, he sees the man licking away at his face. Absolutely revolted, Henry jolts out and aims at him. "WHAT THE FUCKS YOUR DEAL YOU SICK WEIRDO!?" Henry yells out to the man. "Don't be scared, little boy," the man said while grinning. Henry aims the revolver directly at the man's head. "Leave me the fuck alone, man," Henry said in a shaking voice as both his index fingers rested on the trigger of the gun. "Do you fear death?" The man looks at Henry straight in the eyes. "Don't make me fuckin kill you, mate," Henry said as he pushed the gun into the man's face. The man chuckled. "Death does not want me, boy; it wants you," the man laughingly said to Henry as he caressed his arms up to his hands. Henry, terrified. couldn't do anything but look away and shoot. Then a loud bang echoed through the silence of the night. As he looks at what he expects to be a corpse, there is nothing in front of him. Henry feels a weight on his shoulder, his heart racing fast. He then frantically looks for where the man could be. Then suddenly a laugh can be heard echoing around the place. In fear, Henry grabs all of his belongings and tries to leave. He runs away in a desperate attempt to escape. As he went from rooftop to rooftop, a large gap stopped him. Below was a pile of fresh corpses and a sleeping monstrosity. As Henry looks below, he hears the laughter of the creepy man get closer. He takes a few steps back and prepares to leap across. The laughter grew nearer, the man's silhouette could be seen in the distance, walking slowly. Without another thought to spare, Henry jumps across the gap, mid way though his jump, the monster from below stares at him as he jumps across, as Henry was landing to the other roof, the monster with a large gaping mouth, crawls up the building into the roof. Henry runs as fast as he could, with his heart feeling like it's about to drop out from his body. As Henry looks back, he sees the man being devoured by the monster, but the man still looks at Henry with a smile, unfazed of being literally eaten by the monster. Seeing this opportunity, Henry ran as far as he could. Henry, now far from the man, and seeing the sky go brighter, decides it's time to go back to the shelter. He heads into the end of the city and into the woods.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The sun's rays pierce the large pine trees, and the wind whistling softly while the birds above sing. The forest has always been Henry's favourite place; it's peaceful, and the monstrosities are rarely ever seen here. An hour of walking goes by, and in the distance, Henry sees the shelter. An old abandoned nature park, before all of this happened, this place was once bustling with people, young and old alike, but now it's probably the last civilization in the world. Henry enters the shelter, and as he goes to his cabin, he notices that no one has greeted him yet, nor does he hear anything; it was quiet, too quiet. Henry, confused, goes out to the lounge. His restless body was made awake with the scene he stumbled upon. The corpses of all he held dear were scattered around the room; pieces of their remains painted the place red; the women were naked and genitals mutilated, while the men were chopped and skinned. As Henry looks in horror, one of the corpses twitches. Henry walks over, seeing the man with his arms and legs torn off and barely clinging onto life. He looks Henry in the eyes. "The children... They took em," the man said as his body drained of all life that was left. Seeing this, Henry couldn't bear to stand any longer; his body coiled down to the bloody floor and cried. All of what's left for him to care for, be taken suddenly. Henry screams painfully, out into the resort, hoping someone survived the invasion and would hear him scream, but no one could hear him because no one was there but him and the corpses of the people he saw as family. After what feels like an hour of crying, he goes around the shelter, looking for what's left, but all of their resources were gone; only markings were left, a symbol of a shark from a known group of bandits. Realising they must've just been here, Henry goes to his cabin to pack his belongings and go after the bandits; suddenly he no longer felt fear, only a cold desire for revenge; he will make them feel the warmth of their own blood, the same way Henry felt his loved one's blood. They left Henry with nothing to lose. At this moment, Henry sees red.