Five Months Later

On that cool April morning, the virus that was slowly brewing beneath the surface was suddenly exploded like a lit match thrown in a box of fireworks. It hit key area's across the world and there were a few instances of individuals seen carrying containers of a strange substance that was released into the air. These individuals collapsed immediately after, dead.

There were a large number of people in those areas that mutated, immediately turning on the humans nearly them and started to eat them. Within a month there was no place that had not been affected. Cell towers were the first to go down as storms hit with no regard for what was happening on land. Electricity was the next to go, though some places further inland managed to keep their electricity longer than those near the ocean.

The humans who survived slowly started to band together as they sought to survive in the aftermath of the mutation disaster. In the United States, the President and key officials went underground. Unfortunately for them, there was one amongst their group that had been sent as an instigator of chaos. He released the virus in the underground facility before collapsing.

The whole incident was recorded as the body fell to the floor and a worm crawled out of the dead body a moment later. No one made it out alive and eventually even the mutated locked within the facility died. No one on the outside ever discovered the facility.

*******

The sun was high in the sky and a crisp breeze blew through. Fall was in its early stages and there were days that felt like August still had a foothold and days where it was clear September had arrived.

In the ghost town that Colton had become, a team of six were making their way through the streets. They were walking on the road downtown with shops on either side of them. A pack of six mutated came out from the right. Four of them ran toward the group while two hung back.

A man with short red hair stepped forward to engage the mutated barehanded. Four of the five had guns drawn, while the fourth, a man in his mid-twenties with blond hair, held a metal bat. The five moved to support their team leader.

Mason engaged two mutated at once and the other two slipped by. While everyone's attention was on the three mutated in front of them a fourth suddenly appeared from the side and ran by, breaking their formation and grabbed Ashton. Ashton called out as he was dragged away. Darcy immediately ran after them.

When more tried to follow the two mutated that had hung back joined the fight, making it four against five. At that point, Mason had managed to kill one. Mason turned to look at where Darcy ran and nearly went down when the mutated in front of him rushed toward him, claws raised. Mason stepped out of the way and used the motion to punch the back of the mutated's head.

The punch was hard enough to crush the back of its skull and it fell, dead, onto the road. From the side a gun went off; Gabriel and Joel had coordinated their attack and Gabriel had been able to let off three rounds, point-blank. The team had improved as a whole over the past five months when it came to using a gun, but it was not good enough to take a mutated down unless it was close range.

A scream suddenly rose, high pitched and full of pain, and sent a chill down the team's spine. Mason turned to the closest mutated, grabbed its arm, and pulled it overhead to slam on the ground. The other four moved back into formation and started to shoot the remaining two mutated, hitting whatever they could to take them down.

Mason ripped off the head of the mutated he threw and, once the other two were brought down, went and finished them by crushing their heads. Once all of the mutated were dead the team ran as one in the direction that Darcy and Ashton had gone. It had only been a few seconds since the screaming had started and it had yet to cease.

"What the hell…"

They rounded a building that had once been a mechanic shop and found the rest of their team at the side of the building. Ashton was on his knees, screaming, body consumed in flames. To either side of him were the charred remains of two mutated. As they watched Ashton's flesh was burned away to reveal a skeletal frame, but almost as quickly the flesh was reformed and the horror repeated.

Behind Ashton, there was a pile of stones and a mutated was clawing at it, trying to dig out whatever was beneath it.

"Hey, asshole."

Mason called out and the mutated turned to look at them. It growled but did not move, as if it were afraid to go near the human on fire. Mason glanced at his team and Grady stepped forward. Grady gave himself a clear view of the mutated while he placed Ashton out of the line of fire, and pulled the trigger. The shot was a little low and took out the lower jaw of the mutated. The second shot was high enough and killed it.

Mason approached Ashton slowly, "Ashton."

He tried to get the man's attention, but Ashton was lost to the pain. Mason released his breath, unsure what to do, and did the only thing he could think of: punch Ashton hard enough to knock him out. The screaming stopped, but Ashton lay on the ground as his body continued to burn away and reform.

Gabriel and Joel walked over to the dead mutated and the pile of stones. The closer they got the more they realized that the stones were placed in the shape of a body. They shared a look, their faces a little paler than before.

"Mason, I'm not sure what the hell is going on, but I'm pretty sure that this is Darcy."

"What?"

Grady stayed by Ashton while Mason joined Gabriel and Joel. Mason crouched down to take a closer look and a confused expression overtook his face when he saw the form of a human curled up in the fetal position.

"Darcy?"

Mason reached out and touched the stones and felt the whole thing shake. There were two streams of water that came from where Mason assumed was Darcy's eyes.

"Damn."

Darcy was not screaming because he was not in pain, he was not screaming because he was unable to speak. Mason stood and ran a shaky hand through his hair. The whole scene was disturbing enough that it had begun to affect his control.

"Stay here, protect them, I'll go get the van."

Mason left and ran the rest of the way back to the van. He drove it up a minute later and opened the side door. He pulled out the homemade first aid kit and pulled out a fire blanket. Mason shook out the blanket as he approached Ashton and threw it over him. The flames had already toned down in intensity, and they went away completely when the fire blanket was laid on Ashton.

Ashton looked well when the blanket was pulled back, you could not tell that just a moment ago he had been on fire. Mason carefully wrapped the blanket around Ashton and carried him to the back of the van. Mason had to be the one that moved Darcy. Whatever had become of him had caused him to gain an extra hundred pounds, at least.