1 Day 1 - Red Signs
Little Grove, Rerat, Terra.
At a hidden place in this truly little town, A man dressed in a black robe preached to his fellow brothers.
He talked rhythmically, "We exist. Yet, we are empty. Do you think of yourself as a promising man or woman set to leave a mark in the world? Wrong. We are nothing but a single speck of dust in the greater cosmic. In fact, I would say this planet can also be considered irrelevant."
As he talked to a group of people sitting in rows of chairs, he realized some of them were uncomfortable with the words he spoke.
'They are new,' he smiled.
This tempted him to tease them a bit, "You react to my words. It's a good sign. It means you agree with me. However, when will you truly accept the truth? It is harsh, isn't it? When will you comfortably say the same words I uttered right now?"
"We have no relevance to the greater cosmic. When we come to realize that will we truly be taking a step forward. When we come to understand these core things; Communicate with the greater cosmic, Interact with the greater cosmic, Find your purpose. Not a meagre purpose like a profession or a hypocritical need to save others. No! A purpose that is neither positive nor negative. It is just a purpose, just an existing purpose, like us, and like the greater cosmic....."
The preacher man went on for minutes before he put a stop to his sermon.
He eyed the mass of people and engaged them with his words, "Today is yet another grim day isn't it? It's been hot for weeks now."
As he managed to engage with them, the preacher assessed all of them as he should do.
He moved from row to row until he reached the last person.
It was a young man he was well familiar with.
The young man had pale black hair that wasn't taken care of. Beautiful but sullen grey eyes, which held a story behind them. His youthful looks were overshadowed by a baggy expression but the young man didn't mind.
In fact, he wore faded pants and a t-shirt, as if announcing to the world that he wasn't caring anymore.
Yet, the man had been in this pseudo-church for more than a year now.
He seemed to have not improved but the preacher man knew that was not the case. When the young man first came, he was lifeless.
Now, he had enough life in him to ponder on his sermons.
The preacher man smiled at the young man, "Cain, you seem to be doing well."
"Yes, today has been insightful," the young man smiled back. It was very unlike him.
After thinking of the various signs Cain displayed, the preacher man warned him, "I know what you plan on doing. Are you sure you want to do it? You have to know I do not agree with it."
The young voice sounded again, "It is fine. I will make sure to not disturb anyone."
Cain made a few talks with the preacher man and left after some time.
He walked down many streets, heading to his apartment, as he observed the mass hysteria that was growing in the hearts of everyone.
He witnessed an elderly woman take a post on one of the streets.
She screamed at the tops of her lungs, "Repent, for we have sinned. God has left us. The signs are clear. It is coming. Repent…..."
The elderly woman only kept Cain's attention for spare seconds before he continued walking on his path.
He was used to scenes like this. Regular people, who in the desire to explain the weird occurrences that have been happening for a while, turn to religious fanatics.
However, he had to admit that these occurrences which have been tagged 'The Red Signs' needed to be explained.
Nonetheless, it didn't matter to him. He was planning on going out.
Before he knew it, Cain reached his apartment complex.
He flashed his identity card at the security man and entered the building, heading to his apartment on the highest floor.
Reaching his apartment, Cain went straight to the shower room and took a bath. It was getting increasingly hotter every day.
Half an hour later, Cain appeared on the rooftop of the complex.
His phone in his pocket buzzed for the umpteenth time, but he didn't bother checking it.
It was probably his family since they were the only ones that had his contacts. He didn't feel like talking to them…..not after what he did.
As he stood on the edge of the rooftop, witnessing the various activities that went on in Little Grove, Cain finally let his thoughts wander about the state of the world.
Terra or as it was formally called, Earth, was in its development phase. It was the year 2022 and the world looked as lively as ever....that was until last week when sh*t began to go down.
It started with the red sky that threatened all life. It only lasted for a few days before the sky went back to it's blue hue.
Then came the solar flares that were still present to date.
The third sign was the earthquakes that shook the earth a few times.
After that, no other signs occurred.
However, three signs were enough to tell something was wrong. Just yesterday, there was a mist that enveloped the globe. Cain suspected it was a new red sign but there seemed to be no negative inclinations yet.
As he absorbed the fresh breath of air in the surrounding, Cain balanced himself on the edge and brought out a gun from his right pocket. He had bought it illegally from a sketchy underground shop.
It was his backup plan in case he didn't have the courage to do what he wanted to do.
It was obvious. He planned to take his life. He needed to be at peace and not be possessed by the nightmares that filled his night.
The nightmare was in the image of his friends that he had killed two years ago. It was an accident…...he knew that but they were dead, nothing could top that.
For years, he had tried to overcome this mental dilemma but he couldn't. So, today he planned to take himself out of the equation.
Cain let his left leg hang wildly in the air as he prepared himself to jump down. All the while, his mind couldn't help calculating the length of the complex; there were about fifteen(15) floors.
After a minute of self-struggling, he collapsed on the roof, breathing heavily as if he had just run ten kilometres.
Looking up, he was surprised to see the face of a young woman, "Ehh, it's a good day, isn't it?"
If he remembered correctly, the young woman lived in an apartment on the same floor as him.
She said to him with a gentle voice, "Don't kill yourself."
Simple...Concise. She wasted no time advising him.
"Also, you know you can't jump down the building. That is why you brought a gun, isn't it?" mocked the woman.
She was right though. When on the precipice of death, he just couldn't take a step forward.
Cain found himself observing the woman. He couldn't figure out her demeanour. Was she kind or was she just irked by his suicidal act?
This led to a period of silence between the two of them as they calmly looked down on Little Grove.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? Every day after work, I am mesmerized by this view. It washes off bad memories," the woman smiled.
Cain nodded in affirmative. It was beautiful. Previously, he had been too occupied to notice that.
The woman faced Cain, "I don't feel good. I thought this might help but sadly it isn't."
She clutched her stomach as she went on her knees, spewing the meals she had yesterday.
It was all sudden. One moment, he was convinced to not kill himself. The next moment, he had a sick lady kneeling beside him.
Out of concern, he tried to assess her situation but he was shocked to see that the woman's eyes had turned fully white.
'This is bad,' thought a scared Cain.
He had no idea of what was happening but it was obviously something that wasn't good.
The woman forcefully stopped as she maintained eye contact with him.
She stayed like that for an abnormally two minutes before she broke out in fits of laughter.
Beneath those laughs was a threatening growl that occasionally escaped from her now transformed canine teeth.
"Hey, tell me, what is wrong," panicked Cain.
He watched as her skin turned red and burned intensively. The squirming of her flesh sounded like babies were being burnt alive.
After a round of transformation, the woman--no!---the monster lunged at him at an athletic speed.
She tried to tear his body but Cain quickly dodged her claws.
His eyes trembled as he kept watch of the monster's every movement.
Yet, in an instant, the monster burst out at an even faster speed and grabbed his fleeting body.
She slammed him on the floor making him bleed from his nose. His bone broke quickly upon pressure.
"Why are you doing this?" Cain screamed.
Luckily, he was close to his gun, which he grabbed and pointed it at the monster.
"Don't move!"
The monster simply looked curiously.
"Don't move!" repeated Cain.
Yet, it moved and he shot at point-blank range. He didn't need shooting experience to make a headshot.
The monster fell to its knees as it received a fatal shot.
Meanwhile, Cain whimpered silently, not knowing if the monster was truly dead.
After a few minutes, he gathered courage and threw it out of the building. With his knowledge of zombie movies, though the monster didn't fit the description of a zombie, it was better to be safe.
[A/N: Little Grove is a fictional location, as well as Rerat. Repeat is located near U.S.A and Canda, existing on the North America Continent. Think of Rerat bordering both U.S.A and Canada.]
