Death's Legion

When the last good human dies, that's when the world really ends.

PROLOGUE

 

They were slamming there bloody fists against the door at full force. It sounded like a heard of angry rhinos were attacking the big chunk of metal. I put my bag down and searched for any food, I had gotten quite hungry since I woke up. I hadn’t been in there long (as far as I know I hadn’t) but it felt like my last meal was an eternity away. No luck.

I couldn’t exactly remember what I was doing inside this strange room either. It was clearly a big meat freezer but all the meat had been removed from the hooks or was strewn across the cold hard floor. Clearly inedible but the freaks outside would probably devour it in seconds if given the chance.  I slunk back on to a wall and slowly slid down it before placing my head between my knees on the floor. Startling me, my gun fell from my trousers and clanked on the floor. This definitely wasn’t enough power to take on all of those things out side. Besides… It only had one bullet.

Why would I be carrying one bullet? That was normally what our emergency guns were for. I needed to get out of that stupid room to find out what was actually going on outside. The room was refreshingly cold but I couldn’t stay there for much longer as freezing was something on the cards. Does freezing work like that? Probably. Not thinking about my safety one bit, I tried to pull the door open to see how many would try to squeeze their hands through for a feel. It wouldn’t budge. It wouldn’t fricking budge! What now?! Was I just supposed to stay there forever until I rot and turn in to one of them?

Who locked me in this goddamned room but more importantly why? They might as well be as bad as the monsters…

***

There was no warning when they came that night.  The first sign was the unearthly glow brewing over the city. It was a sinister red but it definitely wasn’t the sun as that was probably trying to escape to the other side of the world to leave us in ruins. It was horrible, millions were killed within hours of the attack but the unlucky ones were put to the test in a world gone mad. Nobody was sure if it was happening all around the world but nobody really cared as after the first 2 months most groups gave up hope on rescue.

They were abnormally tough and had a bite that could tear straight through metal, but that wasn’t what their teeth were exactly there for. My first encounter with one was about a week after it all began. It was during the day too which was common in some areas but not in most. It was gruesome before I smacked it in the head but after it was a mess of blood and brain. It was vile, how could I even kill an innocent human who didn’t know any better than to rip through survivor’s throats whenever they had the chance. All together I had killed at least 10 of them and still 0 humans (and I would prefer if it stayed that way). I’m sure if I had the guts to go out at night then that kill count would probably shoot up… Or maybe not. Killing isn’t really my thing.

Wondering why my kill count would(n’t?) go up at night? The moon. It has some kind of hypnotic effect over the creeps. They become more agile and alert compared to in the day time where they’re just clumsy idiots. Their lust for blood grows stronger and that’s when the real monsters start to emerge from wherever they hide during the day. I’m not sure who came up with the name or why they’re called The Serpents. They don’t look a thing like snakes from what I’ve heard (I’ve never actually seen one). But their screams… God, their screams are horrifying. Through the whole night up until around 6 they sprint around looking for food while screaming to alert and draw the undead for back up. They are by far on top of the food chain and I hope that nothing else could top them.

Now that that’s out of the way we might be able to start the story now, although it’s a pretty horrible one to tell…

***

Chapter One

A BEACON OF DESPAIR

 

We trekked miles to get back to the city, ducking in any random shelter we could find while the night slowly ticked by. Our group was strong, definitely not the strongest in the wasteland, but we held together. There were around 30 of us back at the tower. But, the supply raid group was a significantly lower 5. It consisted of me, Rick, Ava, Scarlet, and Maya. I had known Rick since before the outbreak but the others were new to us. We met them through the group and we seemed to bond with each other well. Rick was a tall, brownish coloured hair; 23 year old (I’m 22 by the way). Ava and Scarlet were both red haired and both 22 while Maya had deep purple hair and was the oldest at 24; they were all good looking women. The kind you would go after even if the world hadn’t gone to hell.

I know before it just sounded like me and Rick was just acquaintances but we were like full blown best friends. We even lived on the same street for Christ’s sake. I had known him since primary school and we had stuck together through secondary school and even college. We were out getting a drink when the beasts attacked. Our first reaction was to get the hell away from the city as they were clearly the most populated places. Yet, here we are, trudging back to a city that is in fact not populated by anybody other than a couple rival gangs.

Maya was rummaging through her bag looking for something and getting more and more aggressive. “You okay there?” Ava chuckled frowning. She sighed and gave her the finger. We all laughed and Maya stopped violating her satchel. “Let’s just pretend I wasn’t looking for the pen knife that’s been in my pocket the whole time” she snapped as we all tried to hold back our laughter with no real concern if she got mad, we were too close to actually get angry with each other. It was almost nice, the laughter and the beautiful landscape. We were walking through the country side. There was grass all around us and we were walking on a dirt road over hills and through huge fields. Occasionally, we would have to walk through a forest too and forests are always great in the summer. The sun was beaming down over us and it was a nice addition to our group. It was a shame that there was a looming fear of being disembowelled waving over at all times.

It was around 6 at night by the time we made it to our first point of recognition. It was a small village about an hour away from the city that had about 40 buildings and then nothing else around it for miles. It was a nice little village but nobody was ever there for some reason. There weren’t even any temporary group bases there. “We should probably stop for the night” Rick announced as we arrived at the heart of the town. “Ooo, what building this time?” Scarlet squeaked wondering away. It wasn’t fully dark yet but it was getting there.

It was around 6.30 when we finally got in to our ‘hotel’ for that night. Normally it got dark at 7, even in the winter which seemed a bit odd to me but I didn’t let it worry me. The cottage Scarlet chose was quite small and had 3 bedrooms so we would have to share but that didn’t really bother us. The exterior had vines crawling up it which was complimented with a light red paint. The inside was surprisingly modern with a TV in every room and a main colour pallet of white, black, and green; Scarlet chose well. 

I had to share a room with Ava whilst Rick was with Maya and Scarlet was on her own. It was like we had our own little group away from the group but even in the main group we were inseparable. When dusk was swiftly executed by the menacingly red moon that plagued our dreams, we were sat relaxing in the living room. Ava always carried a variation of card games in her bag to keep us entertained on scavenge missions as she was the only one that didn’t have to stuff their bags with as much food and water as possible.

We always had fun and would go to bed on the first Serpent howl. This was a late one as we weren’t very close to civilization. The night was spent messing around and laughing at each other like it usually was and it was happy. Then the bloodcurdling screech corrupted the air and we all went silent, it sounded close. I tried to imitate it for a laugh and it lightened the mood. We all said goodnight to each other and the amount of people left in the room dropped. It was just me and Rick left as we hadn’t finished our beers so we decided to sneak one of Ava’s games from my room. “It’s like that time we snuck your phone from that stupid Spanish teacher” Rick giggled. “Ah, what was her name…? Miss… Baria?” I smiled. “What an idiot” Rick sniffed. I laughed and we spoke about school until I felt sleepy. We said goodnight and I shuffled back to mine and Ava’s room.

“Aw, its nice hearing you guys laugh” Ava smirked. “Oh, hey. You heard all that?” I grinned. She nodded and winked. There was only one bed so we had to share. I got undressed and hopped in. “Jesus Christ, Harry you’re freezing” she squealed. I put my hands on her face and she smacked my arm. I snickered as she shivered. “Well, this is nice” I chattered. She chucked me some more covers and I thanked her. We cuddled to keep warm until I dropped off in to my darkness infested dreams.

Dreams are weird. They can be so realistic or they can be so surreal that when you wake up you have to check you’re not insane. That night I had a dream which was the second of the two. I don’t remember it too well but I do remember being in a huge city that looked not too different than where we going to be heading that morning. There was one difference though. The tops of the buildings were flaming, not like they had been set alight. They were literally pure fire. Most of them were beginning to crumble and fall and all I could do was watch as the city and our place of safety started to break down and be destroyed all around me. The worst thing was, was that all I could do was sit there and look helpless. It was getting pretty bad as Ava playfully smacked my face to wake me up.

I could hear Rick from the bathroom pretending to be a guitar and booming out a solo with his mouth that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I kicked the door and heard him squeak. I growled from outside and he jokingly shouted “Oi! Fight Me!”. The girls were all getting changed in Scarlet’s room so I readied myself in the room I was in before. I finished before they did even though I’m sure they went in 5 minutes before so I stumbled out of the house and went for a little stroll.

The town was still empty but there was a bit more brain sprayed up the walls which had to be from the spooks battling each other. A Serpent getting that close to the house would have been certain death. I turned a corner and found myself staring at a newsagent that I hadn’t seen before. ‘It must be empty’ I thought to myself. I still went over to investigate for some reason. As I pushed open the door a rotting smell attacked me. I turned around and bent over to gag. The door whacked my a*s and I tripped over. What the hell was that!? I slowly slid the door open and held my nose. The place was immaculate! I couldn’t believe my luck… I ran over to the sweets and stuffed handfuls in to my bag then made my way to the drinks. The cooler fridge opened up and made a buzzing sound which was followed by a startling moan. I wasn’t alone.

I shot round like a dog that just heard a faint meow. Behind the counter was a dead man. Well, kind of? He was hanged and was clearly now a member of the undead army. I had a flash of empathy run through me and I winced. I couldn’t let him stay hanging there. Although he would try to tear me to shreds if I let him, I slithered over to where he had taken his own life. I rummaged through my bag much like Maya did and clutched my preferred weapon, a metal pipe that I had used since the beginning. I hated killing but this was different. I started to raise the pipe as he slowly stuck a hand out and grasped at the air. I went to attack but hesitated when I thought about him trying to just do what he was ‘programmed’ to. I bit my tongue and in one swift motion I brang it down on to his head which left me with a saddening crunch and nothing else. He was dead.

Much less enthusiastic than before, I grabbed what I could and poked my head out the entrance. The others were leaving the cottage just as I left the shop. “Guys!” I bellowed. “There’s stuff in here for you to take”. They dashed over excitedly and went straight in. Much like I did, they went crazy and stuffed their bags. Ava waited with me and noticed the body before anybody else. I caught her looking and quickly told her it was like it when I got here. “Was you going to keep this from us?” teased Maya. “I would have managed to get some anyway wouldn’t I Harrykins” Scarlet flirted. Rick just went straight to the rolos which he seemed to be quite fond of. I went back outside and had one last glance at the house. Hopefully I would be making my way back there soon, it was a nice place.

By the time we left it was 11.30 but we had plenty of time to get there so if we felt like a break we could stop for as much as an hour (which was unneeded but welcome when it got too hot). The usual banter went down but I was slightly more distant after my little act of mercy earlier that day. Rick could tell something was up, I could tell that he could tell somehow. Luckily, he didn’t approach me for a while. The countryside got scarcer as the city snuck its way in to view.  The path also became a real sidewalk and the limited beautifulness of the forests and landscape was cut off.

Our main crew building was one of the biggest towers in the whole city. This was clearly the obvious choice when looking for a base as it gave us so much space for planning things and ,well, living.  The only real concern in the city was other people. The undead normally didn’t wander in to the city and the ones that were in the city didn’t come out until night most of the time. The Serpents though, they thrived in the city at night. That’s why the city streets at night HAVE to be clear; if they see you it’s probably not going to end well.

The entrance to our humble abode came in to view at the same time a rugged looking man did. He looked confused and pretty damn terrified. “Hey! Look there’s a guy!” Rick beamed trying to be quiet. “Should we help him, ask him if he wants to join us or something?” Scarlet whispered. I made a face as to say ‘why not?’ so we slowly crept over to him. About 10 feet from the entrance to the base he stopped and threw his bag to the ground. I watched more closely when he bent down to get something out of it. He then groaned and booted it as hard as he could and it flew across the ground. The contents spilled out everywhere and a water bottle eerily rolled over to us. It stopped closer to my feet than anybody else’s so I picked it up. “HEY!” I bellowed. Rick shot me a confused look. I slowly walked over to him but I was ready to hide if he did anything stupid. “No, no… Get away” he called quite nervously. I stopped and he jittered about trying to pick everything up. I threw the bottle close to him and he looked up at me.

He agreed to let me help him tidy his bag up but the others hid so we could see his true intentions. I tried to give him the last thing but he told me to stay back again. “What’s wrong, man?” I chuckled. He just sniffed and hunched over his bag, making a movement like he wanted me to throw it. It was an empty box for a syringe thing. “You don’t need this, do you?” I frowned. “J… Just give it? Please” he cried. Not wanting to start anything I threw it over to his feet. As he reached to pick it up I noticed his sleeve. It was covered in fresh red blood with a few splats further up his arm too. “Are you hurt?” I asked. All he did was stare at me with his soul piercing eyes. They were uncomfortably big and it felt creepy when they looked at you. “It… It’s not mine I swear” he laughed, frantically trying to rub it off. This was too weird for me; I stomped over and offered him a hand. He flinched when I stuck it out but then took it with the bloody sleeve hand. As the jumper retracted when his hand came out I noticed his clear and new wound.

I asked him what he was doing but he didn’t really have anything to say. He just kind of mumbled and only gave me a clear answer when I asked his name. “Alex” he whimpered. “Right, Alex” I coughed, trying to sound at least a bit intimidating. “How did you get that cut on your arm?”. He was taken aback. I nodded as if I was saying “yes, I saw it”. I waited patiently for him to stop trying to give an excuse even though all that came out of him was jumbled up words. “It was only a bit… That needle b… She started it y’kn… It was only a little pinch”. I frowned, was that really what he was going to go with? The sun was starting to set now so this needed to hurry up and end. Was he going to come with us or fend for himself in the city streets? “How could a PINCH do that?” I sniffed. “Teeth are pretty strong y’know, man” he mocked. I took a step back, stunned. I heard a commotion behind me and figured it must be the others. I turned and couldn’t figure out what was worse…

The infected, but alive, man in front of me or the herd of hungry beasts being released for the night?

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

ISOLATION

 

“We have to leave Harry!” roared Rick. I stared at Alex. The others were running towards us at a rapid pace. Behind them the freaks were growing in numbers and the moon was casting its spell over the city. Alex looked at the building and then back straight in to my eyes. A choir of roars was brewing maybe 100 metres away. My friends caught up to us but I couldn’t talk and Alex just stared blankly at them, my mind was racing. Tell them or don’t tell them? Either way it was going to end badly. “H… He’s bit” I whispered. They stared at me just as Alex did at them, blankly. Nobody knew what to do but there we were, 6 hunks of meat in the middle of a dark street. “We take him with us” Maya decided. I was relieved. We couldn’t kill a man because of a wound that has a chance to not turn him. That would be straight up wrong. Besides, we didn’t know too much about bites and scratches I guess.

Bursting through the bases doors, I looked about to see if anybody was still guarding them. Nobody.  It was later than I thought. Alex was hobbling along metres behind the others, probably close to the infected than the group. Just as I thought we would make it a colossal roar bounced off of the walls of the city. It sounded closer than I’d ever heard before. We just made it in to the building in time to slam the doors and hold them shut. A huge wave of monsters crashed in to them but we held them shut. They smacked and bit at the doors with full force. “On three we let go then sprint straight up the stairs” Ava ordered. We all agreed then we made a mad break for the stairs that decided our fate. At the top of the stairs was an incredibly heavily defended door that could only be climbed over then opened on the inside, undead-proof. This was usually great protection as if the things went unprovoked by humans there was no reason for them to be shambling up there.

Their heavy footsteps shook the stairs violently. Hundreds were all trying to clamber up at the same time and the closest to them was Alex. I stopped running for a couple seconds until Alex caught up with me so I could quickly drag him along. He was visibly shaking (not that we weren’t just he was clearly scared out of his mind) and his condition seemed to be deteriorating. I had never witnessed a change before. We were always too careful, too quiet and not looking for enough trouble to see one. We had about 4 more levels before the top and it looked like we were going to make it. Opposite the room bit of the stairs was a HUGE window going all the way up the building that showed off pretty much the entire city. The moon was staring at us, playing games with us. The city was black apart from the otherworldly red glow, what did we do to deserve this?  The atmosphere was like that of an emotional horror film, tense, dramatic, and thrilling. It was almost beautiful too. A huge red city that was just as easy to believe that it was drowning in blood than as if there was a huge ominous red moon hanging over it.

As I placed foot after foot trying to escape my death I thought about firing my first gun. Why? At what? At who…? Would it be in the next couple of hours or the next couple of months? That was up to me to decide.  The entrance was close now and I was ready to start leaping over the random debris. It blocked up the last flight of stairs completely so that we could have the whole top floor to ourselves. Hopefully the group would understand Alex’s situation. We reached the terminus with the freaks seconds behind us. I helped Alex up before being hoisted up by Scarlet. The end was in sight now; we had pretty much done it! Scaling the various chairs, doors, tables, fridges, and whatever else was shoved down there was difficult but I had gotten used to it. Alex wasn’t doing too badly either. Just as I thought that we had pulled off a daring escape from the clutches of evil, Alex slipped and smashed his head in to a chair leg.

There was blood splattered in forming pools around him and he was completely knocked out. A few stray zombies were trying to surround us but were having a bit of trouble. “Alex is hurt!” I hollered. “Who?” Maya called back, before having a moment of realisation. They leaped back and we each took equal weight of him. The wrecks were creeping up on us now and it was incredibly worrying. Neon, our leader, shouldn’t be too mad that a couple hundred infected were shambling about outside. They usually disperse within the morning hours when something happens like this. Thing like this don’t happen barely at all but when they do they’re never on a scale like this.

Nobody was waiting at the door for us so it was probably close to midnight which surprised me, it seemed hours earlier. Everybody got there without a scratch, apart from Alex, so that was a big plus. We cheated death. That was too close… I entered the floor first and was greeted by a couple guys. Alex regained consciousness and was behind us. They cheered and I just sheepishly smile at them. None of us spoke but the people from the group were having fun and doing what they do. Ava stayed close to me and was breathing heavily. When Alex emerged next to me the laughing and everything died down a bit. “Where’s Neon?” I asked, trying not to sound worried. “He’s in the bathroom” a man with a Scottish accent replied. I nodded at him then Maya walked us to the bathroom. Neon was facing the mirrors but not looking in them, he was just staring in to the sink with his hands on the side. “You’re back” he smiled. His voice was warm and calming. Neon was a tall black man that was as strong as an oxen and about as aggressive as an enraged Velociraptor. Though he wasn’t like that towards us. “Ah, who’s this? Somebody wanting to join us?” he questioned staring Alex down. I took a deep breath and started to explain everything… Excluding the bite.

“One more man won’t hurt, I hope” Neon said in reply to my story. Alex looked at me, hopeful that I wouldn’t say anything about the bite. I gave him a shy smile and then looked at Neon. “No, he... he’s bit” I cried. Neon glared at me and just gave a look of sadness mixed with anger. “It’s just a, see… Look just a small, little, look a little bite” Alex jittered, showing Neon his wound. “For Christ’s sake, Harry. What do you suppose we do now? He can’t stay here! What if he turns in here! We need to do something!” Neon pleaded. I couldn’t speak, I dropped back and Rick patted me on the shoulder. Before we could have a fair conversation there was a flurry of screeching and what sounded like people tripping outside of the bathroom. Neon gave me a nod then sprinted out of the room. I followed close behind him and what I saw was madness. Everybody was stumbling over each other and running towards the stairs doors. “WHAT’S GOING ON?!” boomed Neon at the top of his lungs. People skimmed past us and a woman just pointed at the small windows opposite the stairs doors. This was horrific… On this side of the building there were smaller windows as the stairs side had that HUGE window I was talking about, but these windows could still give us a clear view of everything.

There were things climbing past the windows. So many… They couldn’t be The Serpents; we would have been skinned alive already. Could they?! Considering this was the top floor we were on, they must have climbed for ages. But to do what? Chill on the roof? We were trapped in this spacious yet small floor with undead maniacs either side of us. I wasn’t sure how we were going to get out of this one alive. I had to help Neon shoo people away from the stairs doors as I don’t think they were too aware of the tsunami of beasts outside. It was probably 1 in the morning now so we would have to survive until at least half 5 to get through this. There had been a weird lack of screams that night though at them all trying to get to the top of our building was probably why. Just as I realised that, there was a huge wave of their roars and screams that crashed down on to the building. I still wasn’t sure what the roars were for but I was soon going to find out…

I grabbed a hold of my pipe and looked around for my friends. The girls were altogether and Rick was close to Neon, herding people away from the areas of danger. This was chaos. The roars were still quite audible then it dawned on us. The hum and concert of the beasts on the stairs lowered to a stop then it picked up even louder and more aggressive. They sounded like they were tearing through the debris with some kind of superhuman strength. The roar wasn’t a call for help. It was a call for an attack. I barged through carefully to the women and then summoned Rick to us. I turned to check on Alex and realised he wasn’t behind me. “No… No, what the hell is happening?” I mumbled. Without an explanation I escaped back to the toilets. On the way I made a glance of eye contact with Neon. He looked frightened for once. This was bad.

I burst through in to the toilet, barely able to hear my group shouting for me. Alex was bawling his eyes out in the corner of a cubicle. “Alex, man this is bad! We need you to get out of here! This is too close to the entrance” I called out. He just moaned even more. Slowly, I advanced on the stall and went in. He looked horrible. His skin was a darker but lighter shade then before and he was clutching his head, leaving bloody scratches and marks. I grabbed one of his frail arms and he budged me back with what looked like no force. I fell back and landed on my back, winded. He looked even more horrified than me. “This is it” he announced. “NO! Shut up! We don’t do that kind of stuff around here!” I shouted, getting back on my feet. It was already difficult to hear but now it was even harder as the defenceless people ran around, looking for hiding spaces or spare weapons that weren’t taken by trained soldiers or fighters. Alex wasn’t crying anymore. He knew I had no choice.

I was still clutching my weapon. Maya and Ava tumbled through in to the room and I shot them a look. They were covered in blood. “It’s not what you think!” assured Ava. Then Maya held up a machete and there was also blood covering that. Suddenly, Alex began laughing like a maniac. His voice was noticeably deeper than before. He started to claw at himself again but this time with greater force. I had too many questions and too little sanity to be putting up with this. Twice in one day!? I couldn’t, there was no way I could kill Alex. His laughter turned to screams and I felt a tear roll down the right side of my face. He stared at me demonically and one sentence managed to escape his sharpening teeth. “DO IT FOR ME”.

3 hits. Maya and Ava just watched. He wanted this. This was mercy. I told myself more than that but they were the main things rolling through my mind. I turned to face them, bloodshot red eyes filling with tears. They came over and comforted me with no good outcome. The wretches were waiting out there. 2 deaths in one day was 2 too many for me. But still now I had to go out there and add to that total…

Author's Note

This is a work in progress, all kind of review is acceptable. I would just really like some feedback! The formattings kind of bad too, I wrote this on word and pasted it. Well, enjoy! :)