He could hear everything, but dare not open his eyes.

He could hear the screams.

How they cried for mercy, or shouted at their friends and family to run away.

He was trapped below a house that didn't resist the onslaught.

Beyond his fortress of ruined masonry, lay a scene of hell.

He knew it was so. But he didn't dare open his eyes.

For he knew that out there, what he would see would break him.

Even blocking his ears as he was doing so, he couldn't help but listen to the screams.

He could hear as they were torn apart. There were some lucky ones, people who became victims of incidents such as him.

They were lucky to die fast.

Him, not so much.

One of his arms was useless, and he couldn't gather enough clear headiness to try to stump the bleeding, busy as he was trying to ignore everything going on a with all his strength.

After all, he was only 10.

But he could hear them. Oh, how could he hear them.

The fires raging. The screams that began to die out in number, but never in intensity.

And the growls. The pounding of feet on bare earth.

They, the monsters, those things that were once people, were tearing everyone apart.

The sound of tearing flesh, of burning meat, and the smell of the dead and blood were the things he was most keen on ignoring.

Everything was going to hell.

It wasn't his fault, he repeated to himself again and again.

How could he have know that was going to happen?

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He just wanted his puppy back. He wasn't even sure that it was going to work, but that merchant had promised him that the words in the book could manifest true power, so long as he read aloud every word that it showed him.

He guess he must have made a mistake somewhere, because he sure as hell didn't ever wish for his town to be torn apart by the walking dead.

And his puppy didn't even come back. Well, not how he wanted it to anyway.

Oh, there it was. He could almost feel it's drooling tongue lapping up at his face.

If that tongue was a lot more course. And stiff. And smelly, Actually, something was really touching his face, and oh god, he didn't want to open his eyes but he had to know what the hell was--

It was his puppy. His very dead, half rotten puppy.

It was was licking his face with that same enthusiasm he remembered.

It should have been horrible. Stressed as he was, this should have been the last thing he could take, the thing that would break him.

But, strangely, he began to feel calm.

He had his puppy. The magic didn't misfire or anything. It worked perfectly well. It just, took a little while to work. Yes, that's how it was. That is how it must have been.

So entranced was he looking at his long lost friend, that he almost didn't realize that someone was clearing the debris that had him trapped.

Oh, would you look at that. It was his uncle. He had a loot of stains and seemed injured, but he was lifting up the debris anyway.

Soon enough, others turned up to help. They all looked very messed up, with thorn clothes, cuts, bruises, and appendages pointing the wrong way.

How nice of them. But they should really take more care of themselves. At least wash of all that icky stuff clinging to them. Look, the herbalist from down the street just tripped on the bunch of ropes hanging from him.

Eventually, he was free, much to the joy of his puppy. Yes, the puppy. He was so happy to have it back.

Back? Back from where? It had always been with him...

Strange.

And everyone seemed weirdly nice to him. Hmm.

Oh. He was pretty banged up, too. Cut and bruised all over and pale like those fancy dresses some of the wealthier woman wore.

He was missing half his right arm, too.

It wasn't bleeding, so it must not have been too bad.

Well, whatever. For now, maybe they should go to the closest town and look for help?

Oh, but first he had to get his favorite book and bring it with him.

It wasn't hard to find it. He could hear it sing from where he was standing.

Eventually, he was able to shamble towards it - one of his silly ankles didn't want to work right.

What a nice song. And it had such nice stories and pretty drawings in it, too. It was pretty cool how they moved around.

He would definitively show it to the people of the next town. Then, they would definitively want to help them, right?

Right.

Well, time for walking then.

Good thing everyone now seemed to listen to him.

Thus, the whole population of his town left with him.

To seek help.

And to show them the wonders of his book.