Prologue - That Day
(Advance notice: This work is pure fiction, not intended to offend any collective group, minority or any specific person. The events in this work are not intended to encourage any of the acts performed. If this work offends you in any way, I apologize. Sincerely: the author).
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Nothing.
I could see absolutely nothing, I felt like I was levitating in some kind of wide, empty space. I could not feel any part of my body, I seemed to be numb. My sense of hearing was the only sense that was active. I could hear voices coming from behind my body, I felt their whispers colliding with the back of my ears.
I heard wailing, voices of people I didn't know, they were crying for help, they were terrified, I couldn't understand anything that was happening.
From one moment to the next, the voices had stopped. I heard footsteps coming from in front of me, they were far away, but they were getting closer and closer. Then, I heard a female voice, she was speaking in a strange language, I was confused as to what was going on, I thought it was some kind of lucid dream, but I dismissed that possibility as I could not do anything or wake up on my own.
The female voice was quiet for a moment, and then began to move closer until it was attached towards me.
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She whispered in my left ear, suddenly, I could feel my left arm again, I couldn't move it, but I felt her grab it and then she made me touch her silky hair, it felt very soft, and it had many tips, I couldn't stop touching it.
Then she let go of my arm, and I could open my eyes again, but it was no use, as I was seeing everything very blurry. I could see her silhouette, and her hair floating, it seemed to be quite long.
I watched as she moved her right hand towards my left eye, touching my eye with her index finger.
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Out of nowhere, I saw that I was moving away from her, and from the whole space itself, I was moving further and further away, faster and faster, until I reached a completely white space.
I woke up.
I opened my eyes slowly, and saw that I was raising my left arm, I felt like I wanted to hold on to something. I was staring at the ceiling fan in my bedroom, then I turned to the right to look at the window.
I saw how the sun had already risen, streaming into my room. Birds were flying over a tree, with several buildings in the background.
The alarm clock started to go off.
Beep, Beep, Beep...!
It was too loud and annoying, but hey, it was an alarm clock, that was its job, I couldn't complain about it. I tried to reach out my arm to turn it off, I felt like I wasn't quite awake, so I could barely move it. My whole room full of posters of rock bands, super well-known anime and the ones I like, and several magazines lying on the floor, some of them are manga, the others are nothing relevant....
I looked at the time, I saw that it marked 8:00 AM.
After looking at it, I realized that today is the first day at my new academy...
I went into frustration and tried to get ready as fast as I could, obviously I was still overwhelmed by the dream I had had. Who was this person? What did she mean by saving her? And why did she say she would witness such a Kar?
I tried to take my mind off all that, to focus on what excuse I should implement if I was late. My left eye started to itch, but I didn't give it much importance, I just started scratching it and it was passing.
Knock, knock, knock...!
Someone began to knock on the door very loudly, the noise echoed throughout the room. A female voice started yelling from the other side of the door.
<< Hey, we have to go now, don't tell me you're still asleep...!?>>
It was quite a familiar voice, I decided to go open the door to that person, I understood why she was in such a hurry, it took me practically 20 minutes to get my stuff ready, eat breakfast and wash my face or brush my teeth.
I opened the door while it started to creak quite loudly, it was already quite old, sooner or later they would have to change it...
In front of me stood a beautiful woman of short stature, she was about my age, had short white hair, was already dressed in her school uniform, had her hands resting on her short hips as she stared at me with an angry expression. Her name was Mia.
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I tried to greet her as cordially as I could, but she interrupted me with a complaint, it was completely her right to do so....
<< No good morning, we have to go now, we're running late! >>
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I didn't miss anything else, I just grabbed my backpack and walked out of the dorms with Mia. She was walking finely in front with her bag. I was behind her as I had one arm resting in a pocket and the other clutching the backpack.
We took the shortest route to get to the academy, though we weren't sure it was a short route per se.
My left eye started to itch again, but now it was itching more frequently, I scratched it so many times to the point that it started to burn.
Mia didn't notice until we got close to the academy. She saw that I was still scratching my left eye.
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Mia proceeded to grab both of my cheeks with her warm, delicate hands, being she was the most popular on campus, all the men passing by were staring at me, I felt honored... One of the greatest academic deities in this region is just grabbing my face....
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I did as she asked, I decided not to scratch my eye to prevent it from getting worse. I spent the whole boring ceremony enduring the pain. I went to the infirmary to see if they could help me with my problem. I tried to cover my eye so that others could not see it and think various things about me....
I walked through the corridor of the academy on my way to the infirmary, its walls were very white, the floor was too clean, I could even see my reflection. Many people were passing and going, most of them were staring at me, I don't understand them, I have an itch in my eye, what's so strange about that? Or could it be that I have something in my messy dark hair? The stairs were huge, depending on how you look at them, many students were resting by the handrails, others were talking near the window that showed the outside.
It was a pretty huge place, and considering the infirmary was on the second floor it made it look rather unusual. Arriving at the infirmary, I knocked on the door to see if anyone was inside, a little while passed and no one had answered, so I opened the door and stuck my head in to see if anyone was inside, subsequently I entered the room.
<< Is anyone here...?>> I didn't expect a key answer, it was a quite common phrase to say in all the series when someone is not here. When I had entered, I saw a desk full of research stuff, papers, photos and some pieces of newspapers with news that seemed to be from this week.
The papers turned out to be papers that said a supposed virus outbreak was going around the city, obviously, I thought it was some kind of forgery, if true, similar things would appear in the news and there was nothing. The pictures showed people coughing, vomiting, or eating meat in a rather unusual way, it looked like they were devouring it as if they hadn't eaten for years.
<< What does all this mean... A virus outbreak... Why is this not public news... >> I tried to investigate it further, in one of the documents it said that sharing this information in the media was strictly forbidden, because it was thought that the government had the necessary means to liquidate the outbreak, I decided to read it further.
It was intended to make the news public once the outbreak became a serious case, it only infected a percentage of the population, but that percentage would be treated immediately. In one of the paragraphs of the document, it was said that the outbreak originated from a very dangerous substance, and that one of the symptoms was to have one eye burning, then proceeding to the other eye, until both became completely red.
Then you would start to feel very hungry, to such an extent that it would affect you mentally and you would become a food maniac, making you want to eat even human flesh. Subsequently, your skin would darken quite a bit, to the point of having a burnt color, you would lose a lot of weight to the point that your bones and ribs would show, your limbs would lengthen and your fingernails would become longer and sharper.
A group of 10 people had been sent to explore the substance that spread the virus, days later, nothing more was heard from those people.
In the last paragraph, the name of the virus, Kar-Os2, was mentioned. When I read that name, my eye started to hurt more, I thought it was an upcoming symptom of that virus, I heard a voice in my head, it was a familiar voice. It was the voice of that person I saw in my dreams.
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<< Out of the way, make way!>>
The voice of an adult woman approaching the room, it was the nurse. When I turned to see her, she had a face of shock and fear, I thought I knew why, she thought she had symptoms of that outbreak.
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I tried to beg her to help me, she shook her head from both sides and went to look for some kind of antidote. Finally, she pulled out a drop for my eye.
<< Stay still, I'm going to put this on you, it will hurt a little, but don't move...!!!!>>
She poured a small drop into my inflamed eye, the burning had stopped, I felt quite relieved and terrified at the same time.
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I tried to leave the infirmary, my eye still stung a little, but I avoided scratching it to avoid more problems. People were staring at me, a bit terrified, thinking that something bad had happened to me. Now I couldn't clear my mind anymore, I lived in fear that it was because of that virus. Why don't I just tell everyone? Will they believe me? Or will they take me for a liar and despise me? If I tell, will I be persecuted and killed? What will happen to me from now on?
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The class was over, my first day, and I was already too overwhelmed, and it wasn't because of the assignments, but because of the fact that I could die at any moment. Mia had texted me on my cell phone,
<< What's up, I need to talk to you, meet me on the school balcony. >>
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I was afraid of going to see her, and her seeing me with a patch that makes me look like a vandal, but other than that, I didn't want to think that at some point, I might turn into one of those cannibals and devour her completely. I couldn't believe that it was really affecting me so much, I have a life ahead of me, I shouldn't waste it being depressed by a virus that who knows if it's real?
I walked up the stairs, with a pretty dense feeling in my belly button, as I got closer to the balcony door, my thoughts went away, because I knew that if I was with her, I would be relieved.
I opened the balcony door, the strong wind coming from outside, and crashing against my whole body, from that same direction, there she was, facing the opposite direction from where I was.
Her arms resting under her back with her hands clasped and her feet clasped together with her looking up.
She slowly turned to my direction, looked me straight in the eyes, but she had a worried expression on her face, it made me think I was not worthy to look her in the eyes.
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At that point I stopped feeling relieved altogether, of all the people in this world, she was the one I least wanted to hear her argue about it. I had no choice but to answer her.
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At that moment, I panicked, got too scared and didn't want to stare at her. I accidentally found out about the outbreak moments before.
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I felt very helpless, I was clenching my fists with all my strength and shaking too much. Mia did not react in any way to my response, then she proceeded to speak.
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<< Mia, I said that's enough!>>
I accidentally let out a scream at the top of my lungs because of my helplessness, she got scared and hesitated.
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She stared at me with a pitiful expression as she tried to cover her mouth with her hand.
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Suddenly, a strange growling was being heard at the main entrance of the academy. Mia and I looked out to see what the strange noise was. There was a hooded person, he had dirty clothes and seemed to be a homeless man.
Most of the students in the courtyard near the main entrance were staring at the homeless man, they thought he was too crazy. The bum seemed to be wanting to push the main gate as he grabbed two bars of the gate and was making strange grunting noises, as if he was some kind of zombie.
Seeing that this person was still trying to push the gate, the high school staff, the principal, two teachers and two members of the disciplinary committee had arrived. The principal had a short build, wore a brown suit and was already a bit overweight, his face always made him look like some kind of degenerate or something... The teachers that accompanied him were composed of the physical education teacher and the math teacher, there wasn't much that stood out about them, since they were wearing their respective teaching uniforms.
The committee members were composed of two students with badges that were obviously from the committee, it was what most characterized them.
The homeless man upon seeing the five people approaching him, seemed to have a ravenous hunger, he tried to extend his arm through the bars of the gate to try to want to grab the five of them, while his saliva was coming off all over his mouth, his eyes were quite red, it looked like the same kind of inflammation that I had. He started growling louder, scaring the staff in front of him, it made them flinch back a bit.
<< Hey, you, what the hell are you doing here?! This is a private institute, get out! >>
The principal exclaimed with a rather angry and terrified expression, he began to think that this was no ordinary person, the teachers looked a little intimidated.
The committee members pushed the nearby students away, they didn't want them to be affected by the little incident.
<< Damn lunatic...! >>
The PE teacher, since he was in good physical shape, approached the bum to grab him by the collar of his shirt, with a failed attempt of wanting to intimidate him and show his strength to the academic members, the bum reacts hostilely, he started sniffing the teacher's arm while grabbing him by the shirt.
The bum started biting the professor's forearm, he bit it so hard that he even tried to tear the skin off, the professor broke into a desperate scream, he let go of the bum and bent down to try to stop the bleeding from his arm.
<< Agh, damn it...!>>
The math teacher, and the committee members, tried to help him, they looked desperate and frustrated, they didn't think such a thing would happen.
Little by little, the teacher stopped screaming and started to make strange grunts, grunts similar to the one made by the homeless man.
When the math teacher tried to comfort him, the teacher gets up and grabs his right shoulder and starts biting him shamelessly, the teacher started screaming desperately, subsequently she became like the teacher and the homeless man, a very hungry dead man. Both the PE teacher and the math teacher bit the student committee members.
<< Wait, teacher, w-what the hell are you doing...?! >>
In a mock attempt to stop them, they were infected.
The four went to bite nearby students and the principal, then, the massacre had begun.
Several students had panicked, ran away scared, frightened, afraid of dying, and becoming like them.
Mia and I were confused and scared, we had seen it all from the high school balcony, so that's why we hadn't seen much.
<< What the hell is going on... >> I said in my mind as I tried to will myself to take a closer look at the event, then, my eye hurt more and more again.
<< Agh...! >> I bent down and tried to pull the patch off and subsequently try to cover my eye.
<< John...! >> Mia bent down so she could comfort me, she was too worried, I couldn't think about what was going on, I needed to get us both out of here so we could get out of here unharmed, but because of my eye, I couldn't move from the balcony.
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I closed my eyes and was unconscious for almost 5 minutes, by that time, the academy had become a complete chaos. Several infected students were already at the balcony door trying to break the door, they could smell us as if their sense of smell was very acute.
The infected had finally reached the balcony, there were too many of them, and we, there were only two of us, we were the only people who were not yet infected. Mia, in a desperate attempt, grabbed an old bar that was lying on the balcony, she stood in front of me to try to protect me while I was still crouched and in pain.
The infected smelled Mia's blood, they went with an onslaught to devour her, Mia was still trembling with fear, I could react, and I tried to protect her, I saw how she turned to see me with a hopeless face, a face that could transmit me that feeling of fear and frustration, I knew that maybe this moment would be the end of us.
I felt that, the whole space-time became slower, I was also moving too slow, but I was aware of what was happening, it left me quite confused, but I just wanted to protect her, she was right in front of me, me desperately trying to extend my arm while the infected were after her.
I felt like I had to blink, but at the same time, I felt like something weird was going to happen, I was afraid to blink. Just as my eyelids were closing, I saw her say something to me, miraculously I could hear it.
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She changed her expression, to one of relief, as she was shedding tears and the infected were right in front of her. My eyes, had closed in the blink of an eye.
<< Mia...! >>
I kept trying to will myself to grab her, I thought nothing would change if I blinked, but in that instant....
Where was I?
What is this place?
Why out of nowhere, did I appear somewhere else?
I was sitting on a rather dirty and cracked floor, when I turned my head to see the place where I was, I couldn't believe it.
It looked like the city I was in, but there was something strange, the sky was a dark red color, the buildings were all wrecked and full of mold, there were wrecked cars and a lot of blood on the ground and the walls of the buildings.
<< What... What happened...? >>
This strange place, which did not look like my home, was quite dead, it was not my ideal environment, there were no animals nearby, no people, it looked like a ghost town, the trees were without leaves, everything was destroyed.
Did I... was I somehow teleported...?
That day, everything changed for me.