Prologue

The introduction to the post-apocalyptic drama, Forgotten.

Chris tripped and stumbled over the various and rocks and roots in the forest. The night completely blinded him; the forest was a maze of shadow. Chris stopped and caught his breath; he stretched his arm forward into the darkness and waved it around, like there was something on his hand that he desperately wanted to shake off. His hand brushed against a tree. He put his hand back on the tree as he slowly walked forward. Chris tried to use his hand as a reference point to navigate through the darkness, he still couldn’t see anything. Chris walked right into the tree, slamming his face against the rough bark. Chris stumbled backward and shook his head, not sure if the liquid running down his face was blood or the rain.

Rain relentlessly poured in biblical proportions, as if God was flooding the world all over again. Every once in a while, Chris felt a block of hail pound him on the head, but it didn’t bother him too much. The trees above him managed to offer at least a little protection from the storm. The earth beneath his feet constantly shook; like the world was falling apart at the seams.

Chris put his hand back on the tree and pressed his back to it. He then slid down the trunk to the ground with a heavy sigh. Chris dug his hands through his pocket, looking for something he could use as a light source. Something small and plastic brushed past his fingertips. After fumbling around in his pockets for a few more seconds he got a solid grip on the object and pulled it out. He felt the sides of the object, recognizing it as his phone. Chris immediately flipped it open, praying that it wasn’t damaged by the rain and it would still turn on. Chris brushed his long, black hair out of his eyes and saw that, much to his delight, the phone still worked. The light barely made a dent in the night, it lit up maybe half a foot in front of him, but it was better than nothing.

A bolt of lighting struck nearby tree, and a loud crack boomed across the sky. The sounds of splinters cracking managed to overcome the pattering of the rain, the sounds seemed to keep getting louder and louder. Chris swiveled around, makeshift light in hand, and out of the corner of his eye saw a tree slowly falling down, heading right where he was sitting. Chris got up and immediately sprinted out of the way. The tree crashed into the ground, it sounded like a gun had gone off. The noise startled Chris, causing him to trip over his own feet. He fell over face-first into the mud.

Chris’s joints shook and shivered as he got back up off the ground. Much to his chagrin, the impact of the fall had cracked the screen of his phone, but thankfully it was still functional. He focused the little light towards the spot where he had been sitting previously; a colossal tree trunk lay where he sat. Chris then turned around, hoping his light would uncover some sort of landmark. A maze of trees greeted him whichever way he looked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something that seemed slightly off. There was a spot that seemed to be darker than the night around it, like there was someone standing there. Chris focused his light on the spot for a good minute or two, unsure if he should approach it.

“Hello?” Chris said as he took a few steps forward. The closer he got, the more the darkness stood out. The figure was definitely human. Chris’s phone started beeping; he glanced at the screen and saw that the battery was dying. The phone’s backlight flickered on and off a few times before finally shutting down. Despite being deprived of his only light source, Chris kept walking towards the shadow. He was sure of it now, someone was standing there, “I need some help… do you know where we are?”

Chris’s question was met with a low growl. Chris squinted into the darkness, trying to figure out who, or what, the shadow was. The growl turned into a blood-curdling scream and the shadow charged at him. The shadow tackled Chris to the ground before he could even realize what was happening. The night completely camouflaged whatever was on top of him, Chris couldn’t figure out if it was human or not. At first it had stood up on two legs like a man, but mere seconds later it had pounced on top of Chris, clawing and scratching at him while growling like a wild animal.

Chris did his best to get the figure off of him, but he was far too small to even put up a fight. Chris was a short man who weighed in at an even hundred pounds, there was no way he was going to get something that nearly doubled his weight off of him. Chris put his arms in front of his face to protect himself from the attacker’s clawing.

The shadow bit Chris, it felt like a bear-trap had just closed on his arm. Chris let out a scream of pure, unbridled, horror as the figure started ripping and gnawing away at his flesh, the skin and muscle peeled off of his arm as the shadow yanked backward like a dog ripping apart a chew toy. Chris couldn’t think of anything other than the intense pain, but he had to do something. Using his free hand he felt around on the ground for some sort of weapon. In his frantic scrambling, Chris felt his hand brush up against a sharp, jagged rock.

Chris gripped the stone, lifted it above his head, and stabbed downward towards where he thought the attacker’s head was. He missed. The rock cut through the air and plunged into Chris’s right arm. Chris let out another scream of pain, he winced as attempted to remove the rock from his arm. The rock was lodged deep into his skin, but it finally came out, leaving plenty of grit and dirt in the wound. Chris lifted the rock high above his head again, and once again brought it down like a knife, aiming a little more to his right this time.

He felt the stone bash against the shadow’s skull, causing it to stop chewing on Chris’s arm for a brief moment. Chris didn’t waste any time; he struck the shadow again and again and again until it stopped moving. Now that there wasn’t any struggle, Chris squirmed and managed to get the body off him. The dead weight hit the ground with a massive thud, and mud splashed all over him.

Chris slowly stood up and started to apply pressure to his bite wound, crying in pain as he did so. Chris stood at that spot for five minutes, shaken by what had just happened to him. He felt the rain soak into his wounds, unsure of where he was or how to leave the forest. Chris stood there and looked around, pondering his next move.

Another high pitched shriek similar to the one his attacker had let out echoed through the forest, overpowering the thunder and wind of the storm. Chris immediately started running forward. He had no idea where he was going, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around. Chris held onto his injured arm and charged through the forest. He felt lightheaded from all the blood he was losing, but he kept running anyways.

Far off in the distance, Chris saw a faint light, a beacon shining in the darkness. He picked up his pace, running faster than he ever had in his entire life. More and more cacophonous shrieks joined the one Chris had heard just a second ago. Chris kept moving forward, not daring to turn around and face the horrors that were chasing him. The source of the light revealed itself as Chris came closer and closer, a lonely cabin in the middle of the forest with a single light on its front porch. Chris ran up the steps and stopped in front of the door. He twisted the door handle, it jiggled a little bit, but the door wouldn’t open.

Chris took a look behind him to see a horde of hundreds, maybe thousands, of shadows all closing in on him. Chris panicked and started to twist the door knob again, pounding on the door with his wounded arm, “Come on, come on!” Chris thought as he furiously tried to force the door open. Chris put all of his weight into the door, all the while still twisting the knob and pounding it. Chris turned around again to check the progress of the shadows; they were only a few yards away from him now. Chris then started body slamming the door in an attempt to force it open. His tiny body barely budged it, “Is anyone in there? Please, help me!” Chris screamed.

Chris went to slam on the door again, but the door had swung open. Instead of colliding with the wood, he started falling into the cabin and smashed his face against the wooden floor. Chris stumbled, having difficulty getting up off the floor. He had trouble adjusting to the bright light in the cabin after spending so many hours in complete darkness. The sound of a door slamming was followed by footsteps. Chris felt someone’s hand grab him and help him up. Chris turned around to face his savior, but his eyes were still getting used to the light. He couldn’t see anything but a vague human shape.

“You alright?” The man asked. Chris blinked his eyes a few times and the man started to come into view. He was an older, rotund man with beady brown eyes, a gritty complexion, and a huge, scruffy beard. He wore a plaid, long sleeved shirt and some work jeans.

Chris tried to catch his breath from all the running. It felt like there was a hole in his lungs, “Yes… I’m OK…” The man guided Chris to a velvet armchair on the other side of the room by a crackling fire.

The man settled Chris into the chair, “Want me to take your sweater?” He asked. Chris nodded and started to unzip his hoodie. He took it off and handed it to the man. The right sleeve was torn and completely drenched in blood. The man nearly dropped the hoodie as he took a look at Chris’s arm. “Jesus Christ!” He yelled, “What happened to you?”

Chris looked down at his right arm and nearly threw up. The flesh had been torn and mangled, still bleeding profusely. There was a smaller, separate wound closer to Chris’s hand where he had accidentally stabbed himself.

“I was attacked…” Chris said, still staring at his open wounds.

“Let me go upstairs, I think I have something to help the bleeding.” The man walked away from Chris and up his staircase. Chris looked around; it was a small, cozy little place that reminded him of some sort of frontier cabin. There were lights and a fridge, but very few electronic luxuries. Chris didn’t see a TV, phone, or computer anywhere. The cabin was set up to be a big loop, the room made a donut around the staircase the man had gone up. A dark blue rug was spread underneath Chris by the fireplace, but the rest of the floor was wooden and completely bare. Chris could smell coffee brewing over by the stove, as well as some bacon frying.

The man returned with two white towels, he walked over and wrapped the larger one around Chris, while handing Chris the smaller one. “Here,” the man said, “Just put some pressure on it, it should help with the bleeding.” Chris put pressure on the wound and felt his stomach turn as the snow white rag was dyed a deep red.

“That arm looks pretty nasty… you get attacked by a raccoon or something?” The man asked. Chris stared at the man in disbelief.

“Those shadows… the ones outside, there were hundreds of them! Didn’t you see them?” Chris said.

The man crossed his arms and shook his head slowly while staring intently at Chris.

“Shadows,” the man said, his tone of voice indicating that he thought Chris was crazy. Chris got up and slowly started walking across the room to a window next to the front door.

“They were right outside! How did you not see them? Look, they’re probably still out there!” Chris pushed the curtains to the side and looked out. All of the shadows had just disappeared; there were no signs of life barring the foliage of the forest.

The man walked over and put his hands on Chris’s shoulders, he guided Chris back to the fireplace. “Look, just take it easy,” he said, “You’ve lost a lot of blood, I think your head is just playing tricks on you. It was probably a bobcat or a coyote or something.” The man eased Chris back into the chair, “Want me to get you some dry clothes? They’ll be pretty big for a little guy like you, but at least you won’t have to be soaking wet.”

Chris stared in the direction of the window, barely paying attention to the man. He slowly nodded his head and the man started walking towards the stairs again. After the man went back upstairs Chris got out of his chair and walked back to the window. He opened the curtains again, almost afraid to look outside, still nothing. The only movement was the cataclysmic wind blowing branches around like a ship in a whirlpool.

A panicked scream bellowed throughout the house, followed by a series of thumps. Chris turned around to see the owner of the cabin plummeting down the stairs before hitting the ground face-first with a solid crack. The man howled in pain and started writhing like he was being possessed. It was as if he couldn’t control his own actions. Chris rushed over to the man to see what was happening. The man’s cries were completely incomprehensible. He was clearly trying to say something, but he couldn’t get the words out.

The man twisted and turned and flopped around like a fish out of water, Chris had no idea what to do; he thought the man was having a seizure. His phone’s battery had died, and there was no visible telephone in the cabin. Even if there was a phone, he couldn’t give the emergencies directions, all he knew was that he was in a cabin in the middle of a forest.

Something about the man’s face struck Chris as bizarre, there was some sort of black goop dripping out of the side of his mouth. Chris crouched down near the man’s face to get a better look. The slime was black as the night and it had the consistency of maple syrup, but that wasn’t even the weirdest thing about it. It seemed to be spreading all over his face. Chris started backing up towards the cabin’s kitchen area, not taking his eyes off the man. The rate at which the slime expanded quickly escalated, soon it completely covered the man’s face, and it was spreading to the rest of his body.

Chris felt an intense heat wave from behind him; he turned around and saw bacon being cooked in a frying pan. He grabbed the handle and flipped the pan, the bacon fell out and grease sizzled while dripping down to the ground. Chris grasped the pan firmly in his hands and turned his attention back to the man writhing on the ground. The black goop had covered his entire upper body now and was quickly spreading to his legs. In no time at all the man was completely covered in the goop. The darkness had removed any defining features on the man. His face, his clothes, everything was covered by the slime. He was a shadow of his former self.

The shadow let out an ear-piercing shriek. It lifted itself off the ground and turned towards Chris. The shadow growled as it started to move towards Chris, accelerating at an alarming rate. Chris lifted the frying pan and swung with all of his might. The iron struck the shadow with a “clang”, and the shadow fell to the ground with another high pitched wail. Chris immediately dropped the sizzling pan and grunted in pain while grasping his right arm. It felt like somebody had stabbed a knife into him. He looked down and saw his mangled bite wound, the physical activity had irritated it.

Chris heard the shadow growl again, and he wasted no time running to the door. He had left the frying pan, his hoodie, and his bloody rag sitting on the floor of the cabin. Despite how helpful they could potentially be, he didn’t want to stick around give the shadow another chance to attack him. Chris ran through the forest once again. It was still dark, it was still cold, and the storm had gotten even worse. Now that he didn’t have his hoodie it felt like a million icy needles were piercing his skin, pellets of hail came much more frequently, and the rumbling of the earth from before turned into a full blown earthquake. The quake knocked Chris right off his feet and into a mud puddle. Chris lifted his face out of the puddle and spit out some mud, the earth tasted a little like blood.

Chris looked up, and saw hundreds of darks figures surrounding him. Their combined shriek nearly brought Chris to tears. Chris closed his eyes as the horde approached him, he had nowhere to run; they had him completely surrounded. He sat there and waited for the end to come.

But it never came. Chris waited on the ground for at least a minute before opening his eyes, all the shadows had disappeared, and the storm had stopped. The earth was still, not a single drop of rain fell, and the night was completely silent. Chris got up while clutching his arm and looked around; off in the distance he saw another light shining much brighter than the cabin’s porch light was. Chris took a quick look behind him, just to make sure that he wasn’t looking at the cabin. He saw the cabin’s light shining behind him. He turned around again and looked at the new light. He let out a heavy sigh before walking towards the light. The closer he got to the light, paradoxically, the less he could see. It felt like he was staring right into the sun, but he squinted and kept marching on.

Chris had to close his eyes; it had gotten to the point where it felt like he was standing in a void of pure white light. There was something humorous in all this. Before he had been completely blinded by darkness, unable to see through the shadows, now there was finally light, but it blinded him as well. He kept walking forward with his eyes closed. Chris was worried that he would end up smashing his face into a tree again.

            After a few minutes of walking, Chris opened his eyes again. The bright light was gone, and Chris’s vision returned to normal. Chris found himself standing at the edge of a meadow. There weren’t any storm clouds or trees above, you could see every star shining in the sky. The meadow was large, but not expansive. Chris could see that it was surrounded by forest from every side. It was like he was locked in his own little sanctuary. It all seemed so familiar to him, like he had been there before. He felt safe here, he felt like the shadows were just a bad dream that he had woken up from.

            In the center of the meadow a single oak tree towered over the forest surrounding it, being much larger in both width and height. The bark was as brown as the earth beneath it, and thousands of lush, green leaves stuck out of the tree’s branches. The tree cast a huge shadow in the glow of the moonlight, standing in the shadow was a single, lonely looking figure.

            Chris started to creep towards the figure with caution, prepared to run if it turned out to be another shadow. Inch by inch, Chris got closer. It felt like time slowed down with Chris’s breathing. He expected at any minute for that unmistakable shriek to break the silence, or for it to turn around and charge at him. But the closer Chris got to it, the more he could make out. It had its back turned to him; its head was tilted up and staring towards the moon.

            Finally, Chris had gotten to a point where he could see who was standing there and, much to his relief, it was not a shadow, but rather a young woman. She looked like she was in her early twenties, no older than Chris at the very least.

            The two looked nearly opposite in appearance. This woman had a good foot on Chris, towering over him at an impressive 6’4. Chris’s complexion was on the darker end of the spectrum, due to his Korean ancestry, while this woman had skin so white it was nearly blinding. By the standards of the average male, Chris’s hair was fairly long, but it trembled in comparison to this woman’s, which came down all the way to her waist. Their hair also was nearly opposite in color, Chris’s hair was black as the night, while the woman had hair that was golden like the rays of the sun.

            Chris stared at the woman in complete silence. He knew her; he had known her ever since he was a child. It had been a long time since he had last seen her, but there was no possible way he was mistaken.

            “Kelly?” Chris said. The woman didn’t turn around, focusing entirely on the moon. Chris figured that she must not have heard him, “Kelly, is that you?” he asked, taking a few steps closer to her. The woman gave no reply. Chris walked closer to her and reached his arm out to touch her.

            “Don’t you dare touch me,” She said. The woman snapped her head around and stared at Chris with her big, blue eyes. Chris lowered his arm back to his side and tensed up.

            Chris felt his gaze move towards the ground; he didn’t want to look her in the eye, “So… long time no see, huh?” Chris said.

            Kelly turned around completely and folded her arms. She was using a black headband to keep her hair out of her eyes; the same one that she had used back in high school, “Cut the bullshit Chris, what are you doing here?” she said.

            “I… I don’t know…” Chris said. Kelly rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

            “Chris, do you remember what I told you?” Kelly asked. Chris didn’t answer; he stared at the ground, and awkwardly scuffed the earth with his shoes, like he was a child about to be scolded by his mother. “Hey!” Kelly said, “I’m talking to you! Look at me!” Chris winced as he looked back into her eyes. It was like he was being hit by a wave of pure hatred. “Do you remember what I told you?” she repeated. She enunciated every word very clearly, barely containing her rage.

            Chris sighed, “Yes, all too well…”

            “Then what the HELL are you doing back here? I specifically told you that I never wanted to see you ever again!” She yelled.

            “I know!” Chris said, “Look, I know I wasn’t the best friend…”

            “You think?”

            “But I’m sorry! I’ve changed, Kelly! I really have!” Chris was on the verge of tears, he almost wished he was being chased by the shadows again. Suddenly getting ripped apart didn’t seem so bad to him.

            Kelly said nothing; she simply glared at him before turning around again, stepping out of the shade of the oak tree and into the glow of the moonlight. Chris stared at the ground in silence again. He looked at his mangled arm and crept over to Kelly again.

            Chris started to speak, but he was stuttering, tripping over every word that came out of his mouth, “Listen… Kelly I- I know that you- that you’re… mad at me, but p-please just… just listen alright…? O-OK…?” Kelly gave no reply; she was still staring at the moon.

            “Kelly… I’ve been… I’ve been… chased by these… these things... they’re like… kind of… sort of… I dunno they’re like shadows… that like walk around… and… one attacked me in the… in the… in the forest. My arm… my arm’s hurt real bad… and… and… I… I just don’t know what to do!” Chris broke down and dropped to his knees crying. Kelly took a deep, frustrated, breath and stormed over to Chris. She bent down and grabbed him by his shirt collar before suddenly pulling him up to eye level.

            “Will you stop blubbering? There’s nothing I can do! Go find a doctor for your goddamn arm!” Kelly shoved Chris and he fell to the ground. An intense pain ran through Chris’s body as his bad arm slammed on the ground. Blood squirted out of his arm and stained the grass around it. Chris started breathing harder and harder, fighting to stay conscious. Kelly had turned around and was once again staring at the moon, “Not that it would help you any…” She muttered.

            It took Chris’s barely conscious mind a few moments to register what she had just said, “What… what did you just say?” Chris asked, still lying on the ground.

            Kelly’s tone of anger started to fade, replaced by a calm, almost sinister, tone that seemed disconnected to the world around her, “I said finding a doctor wouldn’t help you. There’s nothing he could do, not once you’ve been bitten by one of them.” Kelly turned and started to walk towards Chris, who wasn’t moving an inch nor making any effort to get off the ground. Kelly bent down on one knee and stared directly into Chris’s eyes. Kelly’s eyes started to change colors, seeming to get darker and darker with every word she said, “You wanna know what’s gonna happen to you? The darkness will start spreading from your little bite wound to every single inch of your body. The shadows will spread over your little f*****g face and smother you. And then… you’ll be one of them.”

Kelly’s eyes were now a deep red; she stood back and started digging through the pockets of her sky blue hoodie, not breaking eye contact with Chris. She pulled a long, thick needle out of her pocket that contained a glowing, white liquid. Kelly didn’t even flinch as she raised the needle over her head and slammed it into her eye, injecting the fluid into her. Her eyes started to return to her normal blue color. Kelly pulled the needle out of her eye and tossed it over her shoulder. The only red in her eyes came from the blood dripping out of the needle hole.

“Oh dear… I think I might have just used the antidote! Oh well!” She giggled, clearly enjoying herself, “Oh my, look at your arm. I think the transformation is starting!”

Chris glanced at his injured arm, the bleeding had stopped, and the wound was turning black, like his skin was rotting right off the bone. The pain stopped for a brief, wonderful, moment, but returned almost as soon as it had left, far more intense than ever before.

Just like the woodsman, the shadows started crawling over the rest of Chris’s body, slowly at first, but multiplying its velocity every second. Areas of his body that were touching the darkness felt like they were burning. Chris tried to catch his breath, but he felt his throat swell up. Less and less air came into his lungs as the shadows started crawling on his face, his vision faded in and out rapidly, like he was in a state between life and death.

Chris tried to scream through his choking, but couldn’t. He rocked back and forth on the ground, contorting his body into shapes he hadn’t thought possible. Kelly looked down at him with no expression on her face of any kind. Chris started coughing up black sludge that splattered all over the ground and wiggled on its own. Chris fought the pain and looked back at Kelly, extending his arm. He wanted to call out to her, but he couldn’t get the words out. Kelly shook her head before turning around and walking away. She had gotten completely out of sight when the shadow had reach Chris’s eyes. It felt like a thousand of those needles had just been plunged into his eyes. As the darkness covered the last few inches of Chris’s body, he blacked out.

Author's Note

The notes of the whole novel obviously apply to this chapter, but in this particular chapter, be on the lookout for inconsistencies, especially in the physical differences between the characters. I had a few different ideas for this one and wrote it multiple times. I didn't catch anything, but you know, people are people.

Reviews

[Jake Donald Stephens]

Overall, this is an awesome beginning! Vivid descriptions, very bizarre and captivating, I couldn't stop reading until I reached the end. Your writing is totally original and well done.
The only criticism I have is that Chris's name is repeated too much, especially at beginnings of sentences, but that will be easy to fix.
You have one hell of a kick a*s story here, and I will definitely read more soon.