This Unknown Place

An atmosphere that was too heavy and dense, a strong wind coming from, the sky dark, with a reddish and dark brown tone and the clouds of a black color. There were no traces of any kind of birds flying around the sky, huge buildings with shattered structures and mold growing from them.

The buildings seemed to be leaning and buried in the ground, with no lighting in them, it looked like it had been caused by some kind of natural disaster. They had large and small spaces where windows could fit, but it was evident that they were broken, with several shards of glass crumbling.

The trees, which surrounded the shattered buildings and streets, from which dead plants and dangerous fungi were growing, were dry and dead, with no leaves hanging from their sturdy, sharp, twisted branches. The trunks bore sharp cut marks, they looked like they had been made with some kind of fairly sharp razor or some other object that might resemble one.

A ghost town. There was no sign of any living being roaming the lonely alleys. There were many vehicles; cars, motorcycles, trucks that were smashed to smithereens, some were rolled and crashed into buildings and poles.

The temperature was low, the cold wind that was blowing through the surroundings of the town was blowing all over my body. Moisture was starting to build up on the buildings, floors, and cars because of the cold temperature.

I was walking aimlessly, in the middle of the huge, cold and lonely street of the ghost town. Rubbing my arms with my hands in order to keep a little warmth while shivering from the cold, I let out little sighs that became cold and started to be visible, at that time, I was not wearing my school jacket, since in my school, it was a pleasant temperature. I was wearing my characteristic white shirt and school pants.

My left eye, as usual, was still burning and even more so since I had removed the eye patch the nurse had given me earlier. I kept asking myself too many times how I got here, what happened to Mia, where everyone was, and most importantly… Am I dreaming? If so, I would be grateful if someone could wake me up from this nightmare….

I wanted to try to sneak into one of the lonely alleys of the town to be able to shelter warmth in some corner, I ran straight into the first alley in sight. When I entered the alley, the first thing I saw was a lot of rusted and pretty smashed garbage cans, shards of glass that had fallen from the buildings, and blood stains on the floor and walls.

I tried to lie down by a dumpster in the opposite direction the wind was coming from and from the alley entrance, the infection in my eye had ceased for the moment. As I lay down, sleep began to fall upon me, I was afraid of wanting to sleep in a terrifying place like the one I was in, what would have happened if for example a strange creature appeared and devoured me in my sleep?

So, I fell asleep.

I began to dream again in that wide, empty and dark space, but for some strange reason, I could see, hear and move freely. I was perplexed by the situation. Furthermore, I heard a female voice whispering towards me from behind, I guessed it was that woman's, I was afraid to turn around to see where that voice was coming from.

"Who is there…?"

…

"Run away, before he catches you…"

Seeing that no one was there, I turned sharply, thinking that person was still there. Then I turned again behind me, and there she was….

*

A woman staring into my eyes. Her skin was too pale, her hair white-colored and quite shiny, straight, fine, and long. Fine ends floated around her body, bangs flowed down most of her face. Her eyes, large and with a black color, her pupils were of a light blue color resembling the color of the sky and bright. What stood out most about her face was her neutral expression and long white eyelashes.

She was wearing torn white rags, with exposed legs and bare feet. Her presence had left me surprised and perplexed.

Suddenly, I began to feel motionless, I watched as she brought her right arm close to my left eye, covering my eye with her palm, then she closed her eyes, and began to move her mouth as a demonstration that she was saying some kind of incantation because I could not hear it.

"Now, you will be my puppet…"

I was confused with what she had expressed after finishing her incantation, she stared at me and I at her, I wanted to try to speak, but I couldn't open my mouth or move.

"They will come looking for you sooner or later, that's why I want you to get ready…"

Suddenly, I was again contemplating how the whole space was moving away from me, I was moving away too fast, and the moment I felt I was about to wake up….

"Don't die, John Drakeson, surviving in the new era will only depend on you…"

*

Then, I woke up screaming from fear.

When I came to my senses shortly after waking up, I was confused, sighing from how nervous I was, the words she had mentioned to me in the dream had stuck in my head. I began to overthink the situation as I vacated the alley. The temperature was cooler, so I could walk through the streets without natural difficulties.

I walked worried, but I didn't stop moving forward, I decided to clear my mind of that dream and that woman completely, I needed to survive, I began to understand that my eye didn't have something normal, but I didn't think it would be some symptom of the virus either.

My eye has some kind of hidden supernatural ability.

At first glance, it sounded like something completely invented, I could not be affirming it completely, but I had no doubts about it either.

I had arrived in some kind of ravine in the street, a part of the ground structure seemed to be separated and raised, and it was too high to try to jump over it, so I tried to go around it and continue my route.

Suddenly, I had seen a silhouette of a person from far away, it was difficult to distinguish him, as a very thick fog had fallen over the town, making the atmosphere thicker.

I tried to shout out to that person to see if he could hear me.

"Hey…!"

I tried to run towards that man, the closer I got to that person I could distinguish him better, he was on his back, and it was hard to think he was conscious or something like that.

"Excuse me, I need you to help me, I'm currently lost here…" I said, as I found myself flustered at the situation. The man, had given no sign of any response, I tried to grab his shoulder slowly to turn to look at him.

"H-Hey… Are you okay…?"

Graahhh….

The man had started to make a strange grunting sound and moved abruptly as if he was possessed or something. Then, he turned to look at me, and I could see his face.

"What the hell…!"

I started to get scared by what I contemplated, it wasn't a person, much less a human, it seemed to be a morbid creature, it had black skin, its jaw was broken and open, it had sharp, blood stained teeth, and its eyes were black, with vertical red pupils….

Then, I could understand a little more what was happening.

Graahh….!!!!!

The creature had started to growl much more due to my presence, it had taken off its clothes abruptly tearing them with its sharp claws stained with blood, as it took off its clothes I contemplated how it had a slender body and skin completely dark and with blood stains and several deep cuts.

I took a hesitant step back as I was nervous, I knew it was one of those creatures those documents had described.

Many more growls began to be heard inside the buildings, I could hear them approaching my area. The creature had dropped to all fours, as if it was ready to attack me. Then, I beheld the unimaginable.

Many other similar creatures came running up to me on all fours while growling.

"Hey, hey… What the hell does this mean…?"

I tried to run away, even though I knew it was useless, then, a herd of all those creatures started following me to devour me.

The eye made it hard for me again, I covered it with one hand while running for my life.

Damn, I can't be safe from these monsters, how the hell do I avoid them…!

I had to go through too many corners of the town to try to avoid at least a quarter or half of all those creatures, but they seemed to smell me, just as the document described, they had a very keen sense of smell, hunters tend to smell from far away their prey to hunt them, and I was the prey.

Graaahh….!!!!!

I could hear them coming closer and closer to me. I thought that that moment would be my end, a confusing dénouement without any sense whatsoever, I saw my whole life flash before my eyes, a sign that at that moment everything would end for me, they were less than a meter away, they were getting closer and closer to the point that they were about to reach the collar of my shirt to grab me unawares….

"Grenade!"

I tripped over a small rock and fell to the ground, but just at this moment, a female voice had shouted, suddenly I observed a small object approaching towards where I was, that object had fallen in the middle of the horde of the creatures. Suddenly, that object let out a huge explosion.

BOOM…!

Graahh!

The explosion had sent all the creatures flying away, killing half of the group, blowing up several of their body parts, the other half dying. The explosion had dragged me away from that area, the impact that had pushed me all over the ground away from the creatures that had been injured would have left numerous scratches on my arms from the speed at which my skin ripped with the ground.

The explosion had called more groups, creatures that were on the outskirts of town were coming running in my direction. Even creatures that appeared to be mutants were coming, some had wings and a more creepy appearance, others were much larger and with a lot of muscle mass.

I tried to get up after the impact dragged me away, various parts of my body were sore, and I could barely stand. I tried to walk to get out of town, but due to my difficulties and the infection in my eye it was becoming almost impossible, even though out of nowhere I had an opening to escape.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a vehicle exhaust approaching towards where I was, when the sound of the vehicle approached I could see an SUV that seemed to be quite futuristic, it was of a black color with several neon-like lights that surrounded all the painted steel, they wore a pure and bright-green color.

The tires were quite huge, it looked like a pickup truck capable of crushing everything in its path, the metal part of the tire had a strange symbol of two guns in the middle.

The van proceeded to stop in front of me, skidding across the dirt on the outskirts of town. Now that I could get a good look at it, the van was quite large, capable of overtaking all those creatures and everything in its path. The front driver's door proceeded to open and out of it stepped a woman with her hair pulled back, a ponytail that reached almost below her back.

She was wearing a uniform that resembled a military one, it was of a black color with green tones in some parts, boots that reached below her knees, it was difficult to distinguish what material they were made of, but they did resemble leather with a rather dark brown color.

She came out grabbing a firearm, it was an assault rifle with a quite cybernetic and futuristic design, it had a characteristic black color all over the base of the weapon, it had lights that resembled neon that surrounded the whole weapon, they had a quite luminous pink color. The woman turned to look in my direction after I got out of the van. She was wearing a black eye patch over her left eye, her brown hair with the bangs almost covering her right eye and almost completely covering the eye with the patch.

She looked at me with a neutral expression and a bit of a frown, the strong wind blowing her hair and mine left a bit of an uncomfortable atmosphere to the situation.

"Who… Are you…?" I asked her, rather worried and pained with difficulty in being able to speak.

"I'll explain later, my mission now is to keep you alive, so…"

After leaving the conversation halfway through, she proceeded to pull the bolt of the rifle, positioning the gun on her shoulder, pointing it steadily at the approaching creatures, and proceeded to pull the trigger, firing bullets simultaneously with a rather loud noise, I moved away from the impact of the gun for my own safety.

After the woman had stopped firing, she threw the gun into the van and proceeded to climb into the driver's seat.

"Listen to me, if you want to live, you'd better get up there, now!" She exclaimed with a distressed and nervous expression.

"Ah, y-yes!" I proceeded to climb into the back driver's seat so as not to waste any time, the inside of the van was even more futuristic than the outside, it had a rather wide window and small screens seemed to project cameras that were placed around the van looking outward on different sides.

"This is… Incredible…" I was shocked at what I had seen, it was unlike anything I was used to seeing in anime or manga, or even in real life, it was too new to me.

"Alright you miserable monsters, time for action…!" She accelerated while the gear was in neutral, to skid the tires, then proceeded to put the gear in forward, releasing the throttle and stepping on it again to get the truck moving forward at full speed.