Infection

In an abandoned city, left behind in a world once blooming with life, a gasp is heard from a far distance. As the darkening red clouds cover the dawning of the sun, we're introduced to a dark haired male, hunched over a grassy field. 'Damn' he coughed, his golden brown eyes empty of life, “is it over?", he asks himself as he lifts his head towards the looming sky. As the crows begin to caw in the distance, he stumbles onto the ground. A gentle breeze picks up as he gathers himself. He knew he didn't have much time left. Bracing himself for the pain, he turns his body to his side and tries to lift himself up from the grass. A loud grunt erupts from his lips as pain shoots down his spine. A heart shaped locket falls from his pocket as he falls back onto the ground. "Fuck" he thought, as the gut wrenching screeches grow louder...

Distorted grunts near, as a radio with a woman's voice is heard. “Chris, come in.” -- ”Chris, are you there?” The male lets loose another cough as he weakly reaches into his lower pocket to pull out a radio covered in dirt and debris. He sighs as he struggles to transmit a response. “Y-yes, this is Chris, c-come in…” He pulls the radio closer towards his bruised lips in one hand as he clenches the heart-shaped locket in the other. “Thank goodness, we thought we lost you…” -- “Was the operation a success?” He slowly closes his eyes and deeply breathes as the distorted sounds grow closer and closer, “N-no…” His voice starts to break as he tries to hold back his tears. “No, the mission failed...” Silence fills the air as a rumble from the sky is heard.

‘Was this the end,’ he thought to himself as the darkness descended upon him.

As Chris lies on the grassy plain a gentle breeze softly brushes over his face. He lets out a cry as he tightly grabs a hold of the heart-shaped locket. “F-forgive me…,” he says as a mysterious figure emerges from behind a nearby building. He slightly turns his head towards the sound as a ghastly entity emerges from behind. A growl follows as another entity emerges from behind the first, followed by multiple unguided, featureless creature-like entities. Morbid, disgruntled , looking creatures from that of a diluted underworld, forfeited from our own... “Fuck,” he lets loose as a male voice overcomes the radio. “Chris,” -- The man says, followed by a moment of silence, “We’re going to have to send you back...”

The creature-like entities approach meters away from the grassy plain at abnormal speeds yet known to mankind, as Chris transmits a weakened response back, “I-I don’t think I’ll survive… another trip, sir.” -- “Yes, you can… and you will.” -- “You’re the only… you’re the only one that survived the infection, son.” -- “Your mother and I believe in you, the world depends on you, it has… it has to be you…”

The man on the other end of the radio transmission starts to cry. “We’re sorry, Chris.”

He closes his eyes and opens them back as the entities lock eyes with him. They race towards his direction, falling, jumping, hurtling towards him in blind rage. Tears fall out of his eyes as he picks up the heart-shaped locket and holds it in front of his face. He places the radio onto the ground and attempts to open it one last time as a brightened light fills the sky and the ground starts to rumble as if an earthquake of imaginable magnitude fills the atmosphere. He closes his eyes and softly says, -- “okay…”

When he comes to, the scene before his eyes dims and he awakens in his California king sized bed. Was it a mere dream, Chris thought to himself. He looks around his bedroom dazed and confused as he sits up gazing towards his bedroom window. He notices upon his window ledge sits a black crow. He eases out of his bed and quickly jolts backwards in agonizing pain. “Ouch,” he turns as he lifts his shirt from behind to notice an abnormal bruise the size of a large animal attack. “What’s… this?” He says to himself as he applies pressure to the wound.

A glass is shattered in the distance, Chris quickly turns.

A heartbeat fills the atmosphere as another glass is broken followed by a heavy thud. He walks slowly to his bedroom door as he grabs a hold of his wounded side. He peers through his bedroom door, as a silence enters the scene. He cautiously gazes through the crack of the door and sees the shattered pieces of glass lying on the floor in various places.

“Hello,” he says as he opens the door wider to get a better view, “Mom? Dad?” He steps out of his room and onto a shard of glass nearby, “ouch…” he flinches in pain as he lifts the bottom of his foot to access the damage. A small shard of glass penetrates the bare skin of his foot as a small drop of blood is smeared onto the tan textured tile. He goes to pull out the shard as another thud within the distance is heard, but much closer. He turns towards a shuffling sound that appears behind the sofa near the patio door. Scratching sounds follow as Chris notices a reddish stain imprinted on the glass door nearside. He suddenly places his bare foot back onto the floor as the growling intensifies and a mysterious creature arises from behind the sofa.

“...mom?”

He says as his face engulfs in fear, his heart sinks through his chest as someone pushes him back onto the floor of his bedroom as the door slams behind and barricades. “Dad?” He says frightened and confused, “Wh-what’s going on? Was that… was that mom?” His father quickly covers his mouth and shushes him as he glares towards the door. An angry growl is heard from the other side of the door followed by aggressive thuds.

Chris’s father gently lifts him from the floor quietly as the traumatizing sounds continue.

“Ouch,” Chris lets loose as his father aimlessly looks towards his direction, he takes a hold of his side where the mysterious bruise slowly spreads throughout the surface of his body and looks at his father. His father pauses in disbelief and lifts up his shirt to notice the bruise in the form of an infectious discoloration. He slowly steps back, “No…” -- “How long has it been since you’ve been infected, son?” Chris shakes his head in confusion, “I-I’m not entirely sure, I woke up and it was there…” His father drops his head, and sits upon Chris’s bed. He deeply sighs…

“Son,” he begins, “I’m going to need you to listen carefully,” he continues, “earth has been invaded, … we’re under attack and-- and it’s not looking too well for us…” Chris stands in confusion… “W-what do you mean?” Chris says in a dumbfounded expression, “last night around 12:30AM. A meteoroid hit 1200 milometers up north and transmitted a deadly virus throughout all surrounding areas, the ones closest to the strike died on impact, however, those less fortunate exhibited strange bodily changes throughout their bodies, slowly killing their cells from inside out, changing them into these, … creatures. These unearth-like creatures."

Chris's father pauses as he expresses sheer fear within his eyes... He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a heart-shaped locket and gazes towards it before reaching for Chris's hand. "Here," as Chris reaches out for it. His father grabs his hand tightly, "take this... it's what I've been working on at the lab for over 3 years, it should be able to reverse the effect."

A drop of blood falls off of Chris's foot onto the floor. A growl is heard followed by a loud thud against the bedroom door, followed by multiple bangs. The door starts to chip apart piece by piece, both turn in fear. Chris quickly gets up from the bed pressing his foot against the floor board as his father pulls a hard-drive and a set of car keys from out of his pocket, "You'll need this as well, son." Meet me at those coordinates before they arrive..."

"They?" Chris repeats in confusion, "Who's they?"

Chris's father rushes to the bedroom window and opens it wide for Chris to escape, as a hole breaks into the bedroom door big enough for the mysterious creature to peer through towards their direction, "Run, now! I can't explain! We don't have time," he says as the door flings open and multiple creatures rush into the room. Chris falls backward onto the grassy plain as panic and chaos fills the air, he quickly runs to his parents vehicle and unlocks the door quickly getting inside and driving away as he sees his bedroom engulfed with multiple creatures, however, not seeing his father in sight.

As he drives off, he looks up towards the sky and watches in fear as an aircraft falls from the sky crashing miles and miles out into a nearby field. He drives throughout his neighborhood to flee the scene as he watches everything unfold and crash into pieces as creatures tear into surrounding homes and buildings, and fire engulfs the remains. The world as he knew it, crumbled to shreds, before his very eyes... and the only thing he had to grasp onto any remaining hope, was a heart-shaped locket his father left him with.