Chapter 1
December Twenty-first, Nineteen Ninety-Eight. The day the world ended.
I remember that evening, serene and relaxed, my wife, Carol and our children, Ben and Ellie. Were gathered around the old burgundy radio, seated on the mantle peace. Unaware of the oncoming storm. They say it wasn’t snow that battered the buildings, the ghastly grey flakes that coated the roads, trees soaked by slimy crimson substance, that dripped onto the ash coloured pavement. The sky, as everyone would agree, tore open with a crack of deafening thunder, unleashing hell on earth. The night sky turned into an aurora of technicolour madness, lightning strikes of colour arced across the horizon with anger.
People should have screamed in terror, everyone expected chaos in the streets. But, they knew nothing could be done, the unknown forces that fought against them. Hidden away in the safety of concrete houses, awaiting a fiery fate, cast down from the heavens.
The radio’s continued to broadcast Christmas music, Silent Night was playing as the heaven’s unleashed their wrath. A beloved and memorable song, ruined by the events of the world. Who would’ve guessed that this would be the “holiday” to rejoice ending.
Families huddled together around fireplaces, fearful of the nightmarish outside, a world of fire and ashes. Spending their final moments together, blessed to spend what little time they thought they had as a family.
No one knew the cause of this destruction, whether it was a natural phenomena, man made or alien. Theorists say that it was an experiment gone haywire, then again… The so called theorists work for the government, what was left of it.
I remember the fallout, the world shattered, fracturing countries apart, a new age of humanity, what little was left. All forms of communication went down, contact was lost, the world went dark. Everyone believed that the rest of the world had perished, we were the lucky few to survive, if you called it luck. You’d be mad to do so.
My first steps into the new world, were ones I wish I didn’t take. bodies scattered across the ground, neighbours barely recognisable, covered in bizarre, rough obsidian fungus, spitting amber spores every few seconds. The air stunk of iron and copper, thicker than what I was used to, with the sour taste of milk. It had only been four minutes before the air we breathe turned against us.
A woman, probably in her sixties, maybe younger. It was hard to tell when her insides we trying to escape. Her ruby blood shone in the dim yellow light, pouring out of her eyes and mouth, a wild animal trapped in a cage. What became of the woman is unknown, retreating back into her house, a shell of its former self. A shame really, she had a beautiful house, a whitewashed wooden house, now smashed across the broken ground, splintered into thousands of pieces.
The smart ones survived the early days of the apocalypse. I did, only by chance. My best friend sacrificed himself to save me, using his last breath to hand his oxygen mask to me. I couldn’t bare to watch him die, so I left him. His shrieks of agony haunt me to this day. Somehow… somehow he knew this was coming.
Shelters began to take outsiders in, by the start of the second week. My family and I were lucky enough to be welcomed in. Taking my first step into safety, it occurred to me. What happened to the clouds?
People grew used to the clear technicolour sky that spewed fire. During the Day One event, the clouds just vanished, sucked into the tear in reality. The dreams of the young went with them.
The shelters became harder to live in with each passing day. Days seemed to meld into one, locked within the dark confines of a nuclear shelter. With what little resources we had access to, people took risks, holding others hostage for more food. It would’ve worked if they left the shelter, but they weren’t brave enough.
Forty-three days passed before food ran out, when people began to delve into the harhs red world in search for food. Barely any returned, those who did? Could be mistaken for monsters. Their humanity was left behind, with the cause of it unknown.
Against my families wishes, I dragged them out into the unknown, a chance to survive. To my surprise, the world had barely changed since the Day One event. A name the children chose. Met with new additions to what little plant life was left. Bizarre mushrooms grew from the lifeless ground, two feet in height and as dark as coal, dripping with pink ooze. Tree branches were tipped with chocolate coloured leaves, a single leaf would pull a branch to snapping point.
I forget how many days it had been outside before we wondered what happened to the animals? After the event, the only animals I’d seen were dead ones, the half-eaten kind. What ate them was beyond me, maybe it was bacteria, or other animals. Hard to tell since the world became silent, lifeless. The once dense trees became thin and weak with the poison that bled through their veins.
Carol, the kids and I never settled down anymore, not since last time. Ambushed by another group of survivors, attacking us like hyena’s, trothing at the mouth. Whatever happened, we didn’t stick around to find out.
Ben asked me a question while we were hiking through the mountains. Damn kid was only nine and he’d seen so much pain. “Dad? What if we don’t make it? What if we die?” I couldn’t answer him, strolling ahead, leaving him to his thoughts. He knew the answer, his face gave it away. We were never going to make it, only time will tell how long.
The night no longer exists, a single day under the bloodstained horizon. The stars lost chaos.
By the time March arrived, I think it was March. We arrived in the town of Whitehall, the deserted town of Whitehall.
It would be our last days.
Moving through the derelict town, stuck together in a tight knit group, lumbering over the broken remains of buildings, which lay across the streets like slumbering giants. Rummaging through the ruins for supplies, food, water or medicine, anything that could prolong our survival.
A deadly mistake.
Carol accidentally uncovered a fungal infestation, shifting a piece of rumble, bursting out as a swarm of spores, attacking her like locusts, covering her body in a muddied-green mucus that coated her pale skin, seeping into it as if acidic burning her flesh away as if it was nothing.Her turquoise eyes screamed silently, grasping for the air which would kill her quicker.
I covered the kids eyes with my hands, their screams for their mother echoed through the empty town. Cries for me to help her, to do something. An act I couldn’t bring myself to do. Dragging them away howling in sorrow like a pack of wolves, their tears filling their airtight masks.
The death of my wife, at such a painful demise, cost me too much. I could feel my metal state deteriorate, thoughts would drift away, I would forget my children’s names. Darkness slowly enveloped my fragile mind, cracking with pressure.
The day after her death, I dealt with the children, watching their mothers skin melt away, revealing her snow colour bones, was too much for them to cope with. So, I did what I always did. Ran away.
Leaving them while they slept, their innocent souls touched by the darkness of the new world. Taking a handgun and a pieces of food and fled. Not that they needed it for much longer. A few miles out when I heard their worried calls for me, the screams for their father, their protector. Followed by new voices, louder and more aggressive than my children’s, their screams turned into sobs, to silence. A few minutes of silence passed, I had hoped they escaped. Alas, the new world wasn’t a kind full one.
Two gunshots broke the silence.
My knees buckled under my weight, my thin malnourished body could no longer sustain itself. The thought of my children gave me the strength to stand, pushing my weak body to its limits, hauling myself back to the camp we’d set up a few hours ago.
The camp was ravaged, scavenged by the pack of madmen that had been following us for months. The bodies of my children, Ben and Ellie, left face down in the dirt, shot through the head, a bullet each. To be eaten by the air the plagued us,
Silent tears of sorrow flooded my face, filling my mask to the brim. Unlocking the strap, I flung it to the floor, taking my first true breath in what felt like an eternity. I lifted their heavy, limp, bodies in my arms, slumping against the closest tree, closing my eyes as the world around me came to a halt.
