1 Awakened

The skies are constantly in a state of darkened grey, even at the brightest point of the day it only gets a few shades lighter. Discolored thunderstorms litter the clouds from one end of the earth to the other. The air is perpetually filled with debris and yellow-green fog that could sometimes be so thick, one would fear drowning in it. The Landscape is a cold, desolate wasteland that once was full of vibrancy and life.

Now however, most flora and fauna have been charred by the ravages of mankind's conflicts, and the ones that remain have adapted into twisted sinister versions of themselves.

The rumble of the thunder is a constant hum in the background noise of the world along with a endless sea of groaning from the species that has an overwhelming dominance over any other creature, the zombie.

Dilapidated buildings and cities remain a constant backdrop through the world. If one were to look at them through a birds-eye view, it would appear as if nests upon nests of ants have taken up residence in these structures.

Except looking closer would reveal that those are the once proud species of mankind stuck in an eternal struggle between life and death, they are zombies. Unfeeling creatures that have taken over ever since the world war that started over 200 years ago due to mankind's greed.

United States of America, Washington D.C., not to far from what used to be the Washington Monument is a row of twigs that were once beautiful cherry blossom trees. Next to each tree is a small empty vial with a cloth taped around the top, except one vial that has a pure white bright liquid in it.

If one looked very closely they would be able to see a light trace of red swirling in spiral in the center of it. Underneath each of those vials is a mound of dirt with the width of 3 people.

All of a sudden the vial with liquid begins wobbling and releases the liquid through the cloth cover transforming it into a fog which covers the dried up twig sticking out next to the mound, as it starts shaking as a hallucinatory image of a elegant and beautiful cherry blossom overtakes it, which then dissipates and absorbs into the mound.

The soil over the mound then releases a deafening explosion as debris and dirt flies everywhere, it reveals a decimated corpse of a young boy who couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old. Completely bald and naked, he is curled up in the fetal position.

The child seems to be sickly malnourished and heavily wounded, with chunks of his skin hanging off of his body. There is however, no blood pouring out of the protrusions on his body. Instead, it seems as if the wounds have rotted and closed with pus and dirt.

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Laying perfectly still as a flash of light quickly runs through the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. His eyelids open to reveal a milky white film over his blue eyes. If one looked closely they could see a faint small red spiral deep in his pupil behind the film rotating very slowly.

The red spiral in his eyes starts to speed up its rotation, faster and faster, drilling its' way through the clotted blood vessels all throughout his body before making it to his heart. As the red spiral rotates in the heart it breaks off a smaller piece that travels to the stomach which seems to be rotating in rhythm with the main body in the heart.

the young boy begins to groan from the pain the rotation seems to be causing him as if a suction force is gnawing at his very stomach. Due to the pain he has his very first thought.

"HUNGRY!"

This thought permeates his entire being as his body gets up on it's own out of the shallow grave and starts listlessly walking forward. So encompassed by the driving force of hunger that he isn't given any sufficient resources to think his own independent thoughts.

Completely ignoring the fact that he is blind and unable to sense any feeling in any part of his body. He relies on the two senses that have been prevalent all the while, sound and smell.

As he is meandering, he hears the soft rumble of a vehicle a mile away from him coming to a stop. With people speaking even though he is able to clearly hear what they are saying, he is unable to comprehend what they are saying, not that he would be in the state of mind to be able to try and figure out what they are saying anyway.

Out of nowhere, a shocking burst of a rich savory aroma pierces his nostrils and causes him to groan softly in pleasure as he shuffles his way towards it as fast as he can. After bumping into objects and falling down numerous times due to the inability to see where he is going, he realizes that the more actions he takes, the more the hunger intensifies in pain.

He instinctively decides to hold his arms stretched outwards away from his body to prevent obstacles from delaying him from his meal.

He gets closer and closer all the while he hears the sounds of others making the same groan as he is due to the smell. He ran into one of the many of them that was kneeling down right next to the food. He knew that they are after his food, due to his small body he is unable to force his way through the horde of others feeding on his meal, and if he waits longer it will be all gone.

The brink of insanity from the hunger pushing him forward, he grabs handfuls of whoever or whatever is in front of him and lifts his small body over top and dives straight into where the smell was coming from face first.

Without bothering to savor the moment of the meal he immediately takes one gulp of the hot jelly like substance that was closest to his mouth and quickly swallows it, before being tossed away by the other creatures that were interrupted mid meal.

As he lays there on the ground enjoying the feeling of the hunger fading away, the spiral in his heart and stomach begin to swirl again and the meal he worked so hard for vanished like a drop in the ocean inside his stomach. The hunger was slowly coming back almost immediately after the meal was absorbed, however this time it wasn't as intense.

A bright light flashed before him.

The original darkness that he had grown accustomed to, due to blindness, abruptly vanished and was replaced by a scene of thunderclouds in the sky. Caught by surprise from the unexpected change, he turns his head towards where he had enjoyed his meal and was greeted by a scene that seems to have come straight from hell.