Post by Lord Greevon on Jul 7, 2012 3:48:45 GMT -5
Cool air brushes my face. I gaze at the sun as it sinks beyond the twisted architecture of my abyssal home, once the city of Dallas. The great towers of glass and steel are rotting, broken panes and segments of buildings entirely removed from some ungodly power. I pay close attention to my footing, ensuring that this final image of a setting sun is not cut too short. An accidental fall from a hundred foot ledge would assuredly make the same impact as an intentional jump, yet I refuse to allow the laws of this strange world to govern my demise. If I die, it is by my will; when I die, it will be my choice. The sun continues to lower itsself to the other side and I feel a small amount of jealousy. While it's appearance has changed, it's size increased by an exponential magnitude, and it's color altered to a warmer red and orange rather than the soft yellow that I was accustomed to in my youth, it has remained the same. Before the changes completely took hold on the remaining throngs of humanity, many saw the sun as a symbol of everything that was wrong. Everything else was escapable, at least for a while. The reformation of the human race took hold slowly and was avoidable for the longest time. Those fortunate many who were not changed at first could discard those less fortunate souls and pretend it wasn't happening. At night, when the beasts from the Other Places came to feed and kill, Man would hide and crawl into his hole and, come morning, would emerge to see who was left. But the sun? You cannot hide, you cannot pretend it isn't there. It is all-encompassing. It was, misguidedly, an object of supreme hatred among Man. I do not feel this way. To me, it was hope. I knew that visually it had changed, but that was simply due to the misalignment of the Earth's orbit when that strange black planet passed.
The black planet, roughly the size of Mars, had passed so close to Earth that many thought the sky had indeed been swallowed by a large formless darkness, or that a black hole had opened up and we were to be sucked in as water down a drain. Many blame this planet passing as the cause of all the strange phenomena and the reformation. This also, I do not believe. People had been changing far before Earth was drawn closer to the sun. I remember that day vividly, though. I was returning home from the grocery store. I was carrying a single bag containing diapers and ice cream. Chocolate chip cookie dough, not a flavor I particularly enjoyed. It was her favorite though...
Some said the planet materialized, some said they saw it coming from far off, thinking it a comet. I can't say one way or the other, but it was nevertheless a shock to see something so massive in the sky. I was filled with the worst kind of feeling. Complete and utter senseless panic. I could not possibly have contained my composure with the crouds screaming and the sirens blaring in my ears. I just dropped to my knees, the bag still firmly clutched in my hand. I stared in awe and fear at the giant thing that had suddenly taken up most of the sky. Most people stared like I did, but if anybody saw what I did, none admitted to it. The planet, being a completely black sphere, did not have much detail to witness, but I swear that, through the interminable blackness I saw lights. Lights connected in a network that greatly imitated the look and shape of the United States Eastern coast from a satelite image at night. After this fleeting image, I ran home, not stopping for any of the countless pleadings of people who had become injured or endangered during the chaos. Men crawling from wreckages of crashed cars, mothers looking for children, children likewise looking for parents. I arrived at the doorstep to my apartment and struggled with my key before banging on the door and shouting for my wife to open it. As there was no immediate responce, I began to again struggle with my key until I managed to unlock and open the door. The feeling of dread that I had felt just minutes before again washed over me. The room was completely lifeless. I tore things apart and flipped over furniture in a panicked search that was fated to yield no results from it's start.
I often would wonder if perhaps all those people that went missing were looking for us in a similar situation. Perhaps there was some kind of a split. Perhaps they were picked up by the odd planet that faded into the gloaming. Or perhaps we were the ones that were taken away and put somewhere else, in this unnatural place. Things maybe continue normally for my wife and child. Maybe to them, the day continued as usual and I returned home with my chores completed... perhaps. Perhaps they are simply dead. I try not to think too much about it, it's much better to think of the less complicated things in life. That's why I enjoy the sun so much, I think. So natural, so simple.
Not long after that day did things get much worse. Roughly fifty percent of the world population had dissappeared in an instant. More than six billion people gone. It was the most amazing thing. Cities and governments collapsed. The United States was broken into several regions in order to better retain national security. It didn't last long, nothing in this new world lasted for very long. People managed to survive by joining together in small communities. Then the reformation began to really take effect. Before, it was an odd mutation here and there, one in a million. Now, the human race, what was left of it, began to dwindle even more as many people would undergo changes that left them no longer human. It would happen almost over night, changing their bodies into grotesque mockeries of the human form and robbing them of all reason and sense. The lucky ones would die days after changing like that, but others would live on as scourges to the communities they were once a part of, feeding on it's livestock and people.
I myself did not manage to make it without scars. My left hand has been twisted and reformed into the shape of some horrible crab-like pincer. I kept it wrapped in bandage and gauze at first simply due to the extreme pain I felt. Later, I kept it wrapped for vainty and so as to not be persecuted by my fellow Man. I still keep it wrapped to this day when it is not in use, though now the facade of normalcy is for my eyes and mind alone.
The sun has almost completely faded from the sky. It's left to watch those like me on the other side of the horizon, if I am not truly alone as I fear I may be.
"If you're out there... if anybody else is out there in this forsaken planet, I'm sorry. If it's just me and you, I am so sorry. I leave you alone." My voice echoes through the empty, decaying streets. "Farewell." I utter, not sure whom I adress, the stranger I imagined, myself, or the sun. Perhaps to all.
My arms push off from the wall so that I may fall further and not hit a lower tier of the building and still be left alive. The cool air that was lightly brushing my face and tussling my hair now pounds in my face. My plan failing, shockwaves of sudden pain surge throughout as my leg connects with solid concrete, the rest of my body, free of obstruction, continues and before I connect with the encroaching darkness of the ground, my mind gives in to the pain and shock; it shuts down. I hear nothing. I feel and see nothing. The world is black.
The black planet, roughly the size of Mars, had passed so close to Earth that many thought the sky had indeed been swallowed by a large formless darkness, or that a black hole had opened up and we were to be sucked in as water down a drain. Many blame this planet passing as the cause of all the strange phenomena and the reformation. This also, I do not believe. People had been changing far before Earth was drawn closer to the sun. I remember that day vividly, though. I was returning home from the grocery store. I was carrying a single bag containing diapers and ice cream. Chocolate chip cookie dough, not a flavor I particularly enjoyed. It was her favorite though...
Some said the planet materialized, some said they saw it coming from far off, thinking it a comet. I can't say one way or the other, but it was nevertheless a shock to see something so massive in the sky. I was filled with the worst kind of feeling. Complete and utter senseless panic. I could not possibly have contained my composure with the crouds screaming and the sirens blaring in my ears. I just dropped to my knees, the bag still firmly clutched in my hand. I stared in awe and fear at the giant thing that had suddenly taken up most of the sky. Most people stared like I did, but if anybody saw what I did, none admitted to it. The planet, being a completely black sphere, did not have much detail to witness, but I swear that, through the interminable blackness I saw lights. Lights connected in a network that greatly imitated the look and shape of the United States Eastern coast from a satelite image at night. After this fleeting image, I ran home, not stopping for any of the countless pleadings of people who had become injured or endangered during the chaos. Men crawling from wreckages of crashed cars, mothers looking for children, children likewise looking for parents. I arrived at the doorstep to my apartment and struggled with my key before banging on the door and shouting for my wife to open it. As there was no immediate responce, I began to again struggle with my key until I managed to unlock and open the door. The feeling of dread that I had felt just minutes before again washed over me. The room was completely lifeless. I tore things apart and flipped over furniture in a panicked search that was fated to yield no results from it's start.
I often would wonder if perhaps all those people that went missing were looking for us in a similar situation. Perhaps there was some kind of a split. Perhaps they were picked up by the odd planet that faded into the gloaming. Or perhaps we were the ones that were taken away and put somewhere else, in this unnatural place. Things maybe continue normally for my wife and child. Maybe to them, the day continued as usual and I returned home with my chores completed... perhaps. Perhaps they are simply dead. I try not to think too much about it, it's much better to think of the less complicated things in life. That's why I enjoy the sun so much, I think. So natural, so simple.
Not long after that day did things get much worse. Roughly fifty percent of the world population had dissappeared in an instant. More than six billion people gone. It was the most amazing thing. Cities and governments collapsed. The United States was broken into several regions in order to better retain national security. It didn't last long, nothing in this new world lasted for very long. People managed to survive by joining together in small communities. Then the reformation began to really take effect. Before, it was an odd mutation here and there, one in a million. Now, the human race, what was left of it, began to dwindle even more as many people would undergo changes that left them no longer human. It would happen almost over night, changing their bodies into grotesque mockeries of the human form and robbing them of all reason and sense. The lucky ones would die days after changing like that, but others would live on as scourges to the communities they were once a part of, feeding on it's livestock and people.
I myself did not manage to make it without scars. My left hand has been twisted and reformed into the shape of some horrible crab-like pincer. I kept it wrapped in bandage and gauze at first simply due to the extreme pain I felt. Later, I kept it wrapped for vainty and so as to not be persecuted by my fellow Man. I still keep it wrapped to this day when it is not in use, though now the facade of normalcy is for my eyes and mind alone.
The sun has almost completely faded from the sky. It's left to watch those like me on the other side of the horizon, if I am not truly alone as I fear I may be.
"If you're out there... if anybody else is out there in this forsaken planet, I'm sorry. If it's just me and you, I am so sorry. I leave you alone." My voice echoes through the empty, decaying streets. "Farewell." I utter, not sure whom I adress, the stranger I imagined, myself, or the sun. Perhaps to all.
My arms push off from the wall so that I may fall further and not hit a lower tier of the building and still be left alive. The cool air that was lightly brushing my face and tussling my hair now pounds in my face. My plan failing, shockwaves of sudden pain surge throughout as my leg connects with solid concrete, the rest of my body, free of obstruction, continues and before I connect with the encroaching darkness of the ground, my mind gives in to the pain and shock; it shuts down. I hear nothing. I feel and see nothing. The world is black.