Remnants Chapter 1: Sol Addled Psyche.

Under the intense heat, the young man felt like he was being boiled from the inside out. Through hesitant breaths, he slowly made his way through the scorching sweltering dunes of the unforgiving desert. His mind locked in a daze, he could barely think straight as strange imagery would sporadically flash in his mind but just as soon fade away. Images he couldn’t remember, but still had a strange sense of familiarity attached to them. It was at that moment that he realized his life was gone, years of memories, years of love and of hate and of pain… all gone, erased from his mind.

“D-Damn…” What little strength he did have left, he put into swearing, “I guess this is a good a place as any to die…” He finally collapsed and landed with a soft thud in the shifting sands. Somehow he managed to roll over on his back and stared up at the sun.

“Stupid sun!… Piss off! Go away! I don’t need you here…” In a futile attempt to stop the harsh rays, he batted at the sun as one would a pestering fly. Then ever so slowly his life slipped away, his energy gone now he couldn’t even hold his eyes open, they began to grow heavier as one last image came into clear focus through the delirium of sunstroke. The image of an old man looking down to a small blond haired boy. This image, as with all the others, soon fizzled into his psyche and dissipated. Then, nothingness, as he slipped into unconsciousness.

An unassuming man soon approached the young man’s lifeless body. He first straightened his glasses, then grabbed the young man by the wrist and carried his small frame far away from the sweltering dunes. It seemed like no time had passed at all as they soon reached a large junkyard, one that served as the final resting place for innumerable obsolete machines and other unwanted things alike.

He gingerly placed his body atop a peculiar pile of rusted out machines and spoke to the lad in a soft voice “You won’t be dying today, son. You’ve got a lot to do, more than anyone could ever imagine. You can hear my voice can’t you? Of course you can, I’m speaking directly to your mind. When you awake, I’ll be gone, but you won’t be alone. Just head North, and all will become clear.” The mysterious man broke away into dust and was carried off by the cool wind.

“Huh?” The young man shifted and sat up like a rocket. As his eyes slowly came into focus, he could make out his surroundings.

“Man… Heaven sucks.” He muttered aloud, staring at the miles of garbage that lay before him. A sharp pain made him bring his hand up to the back of his neck, and as he did a small glimpse of metal attached to his wrist caught his eye.

“Huh?” he turned over his wrist and noticed what looked like a small steel medical bracelet with the word “Cure” etched into it. “Cure?” The young man peered at the bracelet, “Is that my name?”

He stood up and looked around, he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he had a name now, maybe not the manliest of names, but it was better then nothing. In fact it was greater then nothing, it was his.

He stepped down and started walking, he didn’t know or care where, he just felt like he knew where he was going, it wasn’t long before he heard a faint screaming in the distance.

“Oi, Mates! We have a few Zed’s over here!” The voice shouted out. From this distance, Cure could make out six human shaped figures, two looked like they had firearms, the others shambled their way towards them while making a low groaning.

“Behind you, Ralph!” The man shouted at his cohort, but it was too late, the man named Ralph was already pinned to the ground by one of the monsters, Cure watched on in disgust as the beat gnawed at the man’s neck, and tore a large strip of flesh and sinew from his neck and arterial blood covered the beast’s face.

“D****t, Ralph!” The other shouted madly as he fired blindly at the monsters, seemingly unfazed from the shots, the beasts quickly overpowered this man too, they surrounded him, one gnawed at his arm and ripped it from it’s socket, the other bit his leg and brought him to the ground. They made a low growling sound as they violently feasted on the man’s body.
Cure watched on as the monsters looked up from their fresh kills and sniff the air, then his eyes grew wide as he witnessed in horror as the two dead men began to spasm violently frothing at the mouth like feral animals. Then they stood, a dead look in their eyes and bare muscle swaying in the wind, they were transformed into the same beast that had consumed them.

Cure tried to back away without being noticed, but in his haste be bumped into a huge pile of rusted machinery that brought it tumbling atop him in a cacophony of clangs.

The beasts perked up and looked in Cure’s direction as he managed to scramble his way from beneath the pile, but the damage had been done, he was spotted.

His heart quickened as he began to run in the opposite directions, as fast as his legs could carry him.

“These Zed things are slow.” He laughed as he noticed he couldn’t see the monsters behind him anymore.

“You’d better hurry up, they’re still coming you know.” A voice came from behind him and shook Cure from his false sense of safety.

“Who said that?” Cure bellowed out, paranoia in his voice.

“Down here.” The voice sounded again.

“Down where?” Cure looked down but saw nothing.

“Behind you.” The voice sounded agitated.

Cure turned around and saw nothing, nothing that is unless you call eight monsters shambling towards you ‘nothing’.

He took off again, but the voice stayed with him.

“You’ll never outrun these things, they’re dead! They’ll never tire, you know.”

“Shut up, voice in my head! Geez, you’re usually quieter then this.”

“You hear voices in your head? I’d have that checked out, mate.” The voice snickered.

“Just shut up!” Cure slapped himself across the face as hard as he could.

“That was priceless!” The voice laughed, “As much as it’s amusing to watch you go crazy, I gotta tell you, I’m on your back.”

“On my back?!” Cure stopped and spun his shirt around, he saw what looked like a small globe with a brain inside attached to his back, “’Oi.” the brain said, it was the origin of the voice.

“What the s**t?!” Cure tried to pull the thing off of him but no matter how much he tried it wouldn’t come off.

“Hey, let go!” Cure strained as he watched the Zeds catch up to him in the distance.

“Sorry, mate, you touched me, I’m yours now.”

“I don’t have time for this!” Cure took off again.

“I could help you with them, you know.”

“How could a brain in a glass jar possibly fight off those things?!”

“First off, it’s not glass, it’s a synthetic symbiotic plastic polymer designed to�"”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, shaddup! Can you help or not?”

“Put me on your head.”

“To hell with that!” He strained to get the brain off again, but tripped and fell face first.

“Oh, for- How long have you been walking?” The brain sprung legs and crawled it’s way toward Cure’s head.

“If I get turned into one of those things, I swear I will eat you!” Cure shouted and tried to pull it off his head.

“Shut it, skell, I’m trying to save your arse!” The brain morphed into a pair of aviator’s goggles, and planted itself in his head.

“GAH!” Cure screamed as loud as he could, “Get out of my head!”

“Just a while longer!”

Cure pounded his fists and groaned in pain as he felt his body burning, his DNA changing and twisting around being manipulated by this machine.

“Ok, I’m done! Think of something!” The brain shouted out.

“Think of what?!” Cure stood to his feet and backed away from the oncoming Zeds.

“Anything! Something to help fight those monsters!”

“Uh… uh…” Cure concentrated as hard as he could, and the brain in the machine formed into the shape of a hammer.

“A SLEDGE? A BLOODY SLEDGE?! What are you, insane? No, mate, we need something POINTY!”

Cure concentrated once again, and this time a huge katana formed in his hands.

“Oh, yeah, that’s more like it!”

Cure lunged forward and swung the huge blade with ease as his blade cut through flesh, blood and bone as the beast’s head fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

“Oh… yes.” A crazed look came over Cure’s face as he laughed maniacally while he deftly swinging the blade at the other monsters, felling them each with one hit.

“Yeah, because f**k you!” Cure shouted while still laughing crazily.

“Good job, mate.” The brain sounded a bit concerned about Cure’s mentality.

“Ok, now can you tell me how I did that?”

“You couldn’t have done it without me.” The brain reformed to it’s original shape and rolled off onto the ground.

Cure bent down and poked it, “What exactly are you?”

“I’m human, or at least I used to be, until my brain was stolen and put into this machine. Name’s Brian.” A large hand formed from the brain and outstretched in the position to shake hands.

“Uh, ok. I’m Cure.” he shook the hand, and it retracted back into the sphere.

“What kind of machine is this?” Cure picked Brian up and inspected it closely.

“I’m a weapon, that’s all you need to know. I was designed to only be used by the first person to touch me, and that happened to be you. I can stretch to any shape and form, at your whim.”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant when you said you were mine. Sweeeeet.” Cure said.

“No, not sweeeeeet, I was made to be utilized in war, not help some snot-nosed brat from becoming Zed food.”

“Yeah, well, you’re mine now, so deal with it!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“So, did you come with a manual or what, how do I do this?”

“Your brain is linked to my infrastructure now, just think of the form you want me to take and voila…”

“Oh really?” Cure looked at Brian and concentrated as hard as he could, he watched in glee as Brian slowly took the form of a feline.

“Wut?” Brian exclaimed.

“Hahahahaha, you’re a cat…”

“Oh for the love of…”

“Please, if I may interrupt.” A familiar voice broke Cure’s concentration and Brian changed back into a sphere.

“Yeah? Who are you?” Cure spoke up, as he looked at the man. The man seemed… familiar.

“You’ve got a lot of work to do, lad, you need to get to it. Please head North, as far as you can.”

“And if I refuse?” Cure scoffed.

“I’m afraid you’ve got no choice, the wheels of fate are already in motion. You’ve no where else to go.”

“Yeah, you got me there… but why North?” Cure looked up once more at the man, but he disappeared.

“Maybe you finding me wasn’t a fluke after all.” Said Brian.

Author's Note

I copy pasted the work from another site, that is why it is in this format.