Aryotes-11: The End of Days

The average heart rate for a human being is seventy-two beats per minute. That was before the dark wave swept across the planet. In the year twenty ninety-nine there was a meteor shower, carrying one of the deadliest pathogens known to man. It affected over ninety-nine percent of all life on earth. As the remnants of the meteors burned in the atmosphere, they dissipated into the hazardous gas known as Aryotes-11. For most people, it caused heart failure. For the remaining few left alive, they morphed into these other-worldly mind-less creatures. These large, jagged, rock-like creatures; feed on anything with an active heartbeat.

However, on that day, fate was on my side. As the meteors blanketed the sky, one of them remained intact. Blazing through the desaturated night sky, it came bursting through the roof and parked itself right in my bedroom. Obliterating everything in its path, just to reach me. I slithered out of my bed in disbelief at what I was seeing. I thought to myself, “Out of every single person on this planet, a meteor crashes into my house. This can’t be a coincidence.”

So, I did what any normal person would do. I moved in slowly, towards the trembling meteor. As I crept closer and closer, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, chills ran through my body. Almost as if it and I were connected. As I advanced, I slowly reached forward with my hand quaking and the meteor ceased. Standing in the near darkness, it cracked open. Pushing me back, as an ember hue oozed out, saturating the whole room with light. In the very center, I spotted something.

A heart-shaped locket. It was a deep blood red color and let off a mysterious hum, almost as if it were alive. I reached my hand out once more and took hold of the locket. The humming stopped. Without knowing the consequences, I draped it around my neck, darkness. That’s the last thing I remember from that night. To this day, it has been cinched around my neck. Shielding me from the pathogen somehow.

For the past 5 years, I have been scouring the earth to locate the source of the dark wave. To no avail, I have found nothing. Up until three weeks ago, when the locket began to emit a bright light. As I traveled West, the light grew brighter with every second. The locket led me all the way to a crappy town in Wyoming. Where I am currently standing outside of a rusted, dirty, trailer in the middle of nowhere. As I walk towards the front door, I see a body. Whoever it was, the body looks fresh. Almost as if they had died yesterday.

I rush inside to the living room, to find what appears to be a scientist of some sort. She is wearing an all-blue suit, with a lab coat. Turning her over, I search for any possible clue that can give me answers. Clasped to her jacket, I find a key card. While flipping her over, a banana-sized cylinder falls out and rolls across the room and into the wall. I get down on one knee and reach for the mysterious cylinder.

As I grab the cylinder and put it into my backpack, I feel a slight draft coming from a seam in the wall. Still hunching over, I whack the wall with a hammer fist. A small panel opens, revealing a keycard slot. I take out the scientist’s card and it slides right into place. I hear a click, and a hatch opens from underneath the couch. There appears to be a ladder leading down to a dark room. I shimmy my way down the ladder into an empty room, with a single table and an antique desk lamp. I switch on the lamp, only to illuminate my immediate vicinity. On the table, I spot a large, brown envelope. Without hesitation, I grab the envelope and tear it open. It is a single piece of paper with a single line of text. It reads:

“Come find me.”