Prologue
It was a normal day in the city.
People were bustling, businesses were running, and life was living.
Which is why no one expected it to happen…
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Pillars of light shot into the sky from all over the city, and where they hit… the sky cracked open, sending a wave of otherness across the entire city that could be felt by thousands as gnarled fingers grasped at their minds.
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No one expected the chaos that would follow…
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Across the city explosions went off, the power went out, and the dead let loose their death rattles as they damned the city alongside them.
Not that all of them stayed dead…
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The fear it would unleash as everything changed…
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“Miles?! Micky?! Dad?!” She cried, stumbling over the debris as smoke and ash drifted through the air, remnants of the flames devouring everything around her.
People rushed past her, none of them who she was looking for as the thorns dug ever deeper into arm, drawing blood as the dread queen took root.
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The isolation it would leave behind in its wake…
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A little girl held her stuffed animal closer to her as she watched her home burn down, leaving her all alone in the world save for the comforting heat of the flames around her.
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No one expected the walls to go up…
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The family watched the riots on the screen, the way the people raged against being imprisoned in their own city, unwilling to wait for the quarantine to end.
Or perhaps like the boy who could feel the reaper behind him as he watched beside his family, they knew what the quarantine was really for.
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The men who became monsters overnight…
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Fangs tore into his throat, and he could feel the blood rushing out of him and into the maw of the monster mauling him.
The night sky lit up like daylight and the monster pulled back to stare.
Not stupid enough to let this opportunity slip by, he crawled away from the distracted monster. Deeper into the alley, where the shadows met him like the embrace of the sweetest of lovers.
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If the monsters ever were men to begin with…
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The rat spasmed before its colony mates, devouring the flesh of all it could sink its teeth into as the parasite within hungered and grew, bursting past its host's body as tendrils of black lashed out in search of ever more to consume.
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Then again given the lengths those same men went to protect their secrets…
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The figure wrapped a hand around her throat, slowly picking her off the ground as it put a finger to her lips.
“Shh, shh, shh. There’s no need to be afraid. This is all a bad dream and when you wake up…” The figure smiled a mouth full of fangs. “Well, you aren’t going to be waking up.”
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Maybe they always were monsters?
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She looked upon them with crimson eyes unable to hold back a smirk as she snapped her fingers and from all around gunshots echoed.
A moment later her smirk became a full blown smile as the bodies started hitting the floor, and the power rushed through her veins.
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After all, there’s a reason they would go on to call these people the Hex City Devils.