‘Ring, ring, ring’, the young man let out a low groan having been disturbed from his rest. His deep blue eyes blinked open and he decided to leave the warm embrace of his bed before he drifted off to sleep again. He went to the bathroom intending to wash his face, as the mirror in the bathroom reflected his appearance, his facial features became clear.
He had long blonde hair resembling sand almost reaching to his neck, he had bushy eyebrows same colour as his hair, his deep blue eyes reflected the light, his nose was sharp though it was not too large or small, patches of hair was growing around his mouth and chin and he had a strong well defined jaw. He had lean body with a very visible six pack and while his muscles were not bulging they seemed to contain a strong explosive power in them, but the most interesting thing about him would be the several scars which could be seen around his body faintly resembling bites and scratches from a feral animal.
All in all, this man was quite handsome in appearance and would have definitely been at the attention of many if only it was back in the old times. The man sighed as he realised that he had to prepare for another day of ‘work’.
He decided to leave his home which consisted of only three rooms, a bedroom, bathroom and dining/kitchen. The young man had been in hesitation to leave as he always is every morning. If only it was back in the old times where he could have just stayed indoors the whole day without a care for the world. The young man ventures out towards the city which was a mere two kilometres away from his home, located on a hill just outside the ‘busy’ city. As he walks he looks up towards the sky and sees the remnants of the old times, towering structures of cement covered in plantation, broken glass was very visible from the young mans position as well as the crumbling walls and he wondered about the possibility that the building may fall as he searches the city.
As he entered the city through one of the numerous cracked and broken roads, he notices that once again the place is a ghost town with seemingly nothing alive. The young man knew however that ‘things’ could be lurking, his muscles started to tense up in preparation for what he had to do.
While walking through the deathly silent city, he mumbles to himself about the items which he is lacking “food, need food, short on medicine…ran out of books as well”. The young man suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and stopped talking as he felt someone or something's eyes on him. A faint breathing could be heard and the young man knew he was discovered by those ‘things’. From experience he knew if he were to stay still and make no noise, there would be no problem.
“Pa, pa, pa, pa”, as the footsteps got further away from him the young man knew he survived a close encounter with those “things”.
The ‘things’ appeared after what was known as the Three Days of Gods Wrath which was merely three days of natural disasters which tore the world apart via unprecedented hurricanes, earthquakes with a magnitude of 10 appearing and tornadoes and whirlpools would arise from nothing. The first two days of this had decimated the earth’s population from seven billion to three.
Worst of it all occurred on the last day, when God decided that humans would no longer be at the top of the food chain. All the animals in the world would suffer from a mutation. 80% would die, but those which survived would become stronger, tougher and feral. Many survivors tried killing them through various methods guns, knives, bombs and even gas but these evolved animals would survive.
They ran wild across the world, reducing the population to merely hundreds of millions. These animals were not invincible in their feral state, they were susceptible to deception and seemed to get tired more quickly, perhaps this was God’s last act of pity upon we humans. The young man was touching a scar of a bite mark on his shoulder as he reminisced of the days he was still a young boy. He remembers his purpose, coming to this death trap disguised as a city dominated by those monsters.
As the young man entered an empty convenience store, dust was gathering on the shelves where a few scarce items lay. He dropped a small muesli wrapper by the entrance as he finished the contents. He gathered the necessary food and medical supplies.
He hear’s a low growl seemingly coming from the front of the store which sends his heart racing. He knows that one of those ‘things’ is at the entrance, he quickly ducks behind some shelves, taking deep breaths in order to calm himself down. He peeks his head out from behind the shelf in order take a look at the monster blocking his escape. It had once been dog but now it was a black beast 2 metres tall, teeth poking out of its mouth, drool leaking, muscles clearly bulging and its eyes were a crimson red looking for its prey.
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It raises its head, its nose started twitching and the beasts’ head suddenly turns to look towards the direction the young man was hiding. The young man ducks his head back quickly and starts to pray that he was not seen. The growling and footsteps got louder and closer towards the young man. As a last resort the young man decides to pick up a small rock that was lying next to him and decides to throw it the opposite direction which he plans to escape.
“Thud”, the small rock makes the effect that the young man intended as the black beast starts to move in the direction the rock was thrown. The young man starts to move slowly and silently towards the exit, carefully watching the black beast, for any movement that could indicate that the beast turn around. As he approaches the exit he makes a careless step “rustle”, he looks down to notice that he had stepped onto the wrapper which he had dropped previously.
His eyes light up in despair as he realises that the black beast was turning its head towards him, the young man quickly bursts into a sprint hoping to create as much distance as he could. ‘Shit’ the young man thought to himself as he ran, “thud, thud, thud, thud” he could hear the black beast growing closer and the rocks around the young man started rolling about. The young man quickly turns a corner and in its haste the black beast lost its footing and tumbled onto the ground in its attempt to follow the young man.
The black beast quickly recovered from its mistake and started to rush at the young man again, but soon realised that the young man was nowhere to be seen. The young man ran inside a building and was watching the beast from afar, he quickly slowed his breath down and tried to calm himself down in order to think of a plan to escape from the black beast. He saw a flight of stairs and a plan had started forming in his head.
It was good timing as the black beast had finally figured out where his prey had scurried off to by using its superior sense of smell. The young man quickly ran up the stairs trying to reach the highest floor he could before the black beast caught up to him. ‘Shatter’ the young man immediately knew that the beast had broken through the window in order to reach him. The young man quickly burst out from an fire escape door and rushed into a floor which had once been used as an office, he looks outside the window and knew that he was at least eleven storeys up. ‘This should be high enough’ the young man thought.
‘Bang’ he heard the door smash open, the beast was annoyed that his prey had eluded him for so long and it wished to feast upon its blood and bones. It noticed that its prey was standing in front of a window his arms outstretched as if it was offering himself. The black beast growled in delight knowing, that it would no longer have to run around.
The black beast immediately rushed at its prey and revelled at the thought of its prey’s blood spraying against the window and its organs lying on the floor. The black beast turned its head and opened its mouth revealing its razor sharp teeth hoping to shred right through its prey. Just as the black beast was about to clamp its jaws down. His prey disappeared as if it was just a figment of the beast’s imagination.
‘Crash’ the black beast broke through the glass and it had started flailing its legs in an attempt to gain footing, where there wasn't any at all.
The young man could feel the cold sweat running down his back. His heart was about to jump out of his chest. The young man had ducked out of way from imminent death and as he sent the beast falling towards its death.
The young man had attempted to stand up but soon realised that he could not feel his legs. The young man had looked down, he could make out a black spot amongst the grey ground. If one had looked carefully they could see a red puddle growing around the black beast.
“Hahahahaha” the young man laughed aloud in joy of surviving and killing one of the monsters that walked this city. He soon determined that he had done enough ‘work’ for the day, it was time to be on his way home.
He dragged his beaten up body back home just before it collapsed onto the street to become a free meal for any of those monsters which roamed the city. He soon allowed his body to lie onto his warm and comfortable bed and he slowly drifted into darkness.