Fantasy The End(MagnarxBloodWolfRising)

[BloodWolfRising]

Our beautiful world now lay in ruin, the once normal sounds of bustling life vanishing without a trace. Now, there were eerie haunting sounds that stretched across the world, not the normal sounds of cars, trains, ships, or planes. There wasn't the all-familiar humming noise of electricity running to large establishments. No sound of the once busy work crews fixing roads or building new places. Nothing of the kind. Most of us still alive tried to block out the sounds that came from the broken-down streets and crumbling buildings. The sounds of broken, off-pitched roars from the already overgrowing forests, seeming to spread with each passing week. The strange sounds of screaming, groaning, growling, they were the haunting noises of the world we now survived in. The sounds of the zombies that roamed the streets, the creatures that had brought about the end of the world and took away friends and loved ones. By now most of us were more accustomed to the destruction around us, some could say we were reverting back to cavemen-like mannerisms. However, those who were smart were simply doing and using everything within their grasp to keep alive. There was no point in trying to act like there was some sort of high society life left, those people who had refused to live their lives like nothing had changed were most likely all dead by now anyway. After all, only those with the true will to change are able to survive in a world that is forever changing with each and every day.

The sound of rainfall greeted Angelica as she woke from her sleep, rain meant good cover from animal zombies and human zombies alike. The only ones they would need to truly worry about were the Shaders and they would only be a problem if the sun was fully hidden. Getting up she stretched out her muscles, they were a tad sore and she was fairly sure she might have pulled a few muscles in her right shoulder. Frowning she twisted her arm a bit before rolling her shoulder and flinching. "Great..." She muttered before walking over to her bag to see if they had any pills left for muscle relief. Much to her misfortune they didn't, "And we had been doing so good at not getting hurt at all." She groaned before switching to a side pocket that had some herbal oils. She found the vial that reads Chamomile, "This will help a little." She pulled her right arm out of her t-shirt sitting there with her shirt halfway off. She wasn't bothered by the fact that Cain was only a few feet away, he was probably still sleeping. It was still pretty early in the morning, the sun hadn't even begun to try and rise yet.

She pulled the cork cap out with her teeth before pouring a small amount on her shoulder and then rubbing it into her skin. It was a tad difficult to do, but she could certainly do it on her own, she was thankful it wasn't a muscle in her back. Then she would have had to ask Cain for help, and well that was a bit embarrassing. The cool chamomile oil, warmed slightly as she rubbed it in and slowly began to work on relaxing the muscles in her shoulder. It wouldn't heal it fully or worked completely from just one round, but it was a start. She sighed slightly before rolling her shoulders again, the pain was there, but she could work through it. She would have to either way, so there wasn't much point in fully worrying about it or making Cain worry that she might slow them down.

She slid her arm back through the sleeve and stood, they would need to go for a supply run today. Not only that but there was something else bothering her, the number of zombies that they had seen the last few days. It had seemed to increase by three times the original amount when they had first arrived at this run-down apartment complex. As much as she had tried to get down the behavior differences of the zombie types they were crazed creatures. Placing certain types of behaviors with them was doable, but getting their full movements down was impossible for her. There was no pattern, nothing that could give her a way to figure out when swarms would move in before you could hear them. Only the sound level of them moving in was their giveaway right now. And sometimes going off that sound alone left no time to get away as she was sure many people had found out. She sighed once again, sure she had wanted adventure, but it would be nice to you know relax here and there.

Magnar​

 

[Magnar]

I was there when the end came. I saw it with my own eyes as friend fell upon friend and kin killed kin. The savagery and bloodlust was beyond anything I had ever seen before. To see family members......close friends tear strips of flesh from their bodies.....pluck their own eyes out. That was just the start.

Tired eyes echo tired lives
we've worked ourselves to the bone each night,
just to keep ourselves
crawling back inside.
Fingernails are broken down,
our limbs are torn out,
hearts are crowned
with the sorrow of a decade of decay.

Our waxen wings have let us down again,
like Icarus we flew into the sun.
The pride in our eyes
was our only disguise,
and now we lie here
broken and alone.

Synthetic Epiphany and CoMa - Icarus

*
​

It was a landscape of shimmering shadows swallowing up a grey-wrought world. A never-ending cacophony of grey darkness mixed together to form what seemed to be some sort of hellish netherworld. Cain knew as he stepped forwards that he walked inside a nightmare.

This night. Every night since the world died...... It was always the same. Terrible, terrible dreams that haunted his subconscious like a dark angel hovering over him, bloody scythe in its hand. The dream always took him back to the same place. The grey wasteland. And although ostensibly it was a void empty of humanity, it did have life and purpose of a sort. Yet here, now, in this hollow mockery of a place conjured up by the darkest recesses of his diseased mind, there was nothing. Nothing but an empty wasteland inhabited by ghosts and shadows.

Echoes of what once was, but could never be again. And so he searched. He searched for something, but what that something was he could not even begin to comprehend. His dreaming mind conjured up a hundred or more ghosts, each bearing the faces of people he once knew.....family, acquaintances, they were nothing but empty, decaying husks. And although these spirits looked real, although they moved like real people, spoke like real people, it was all a whispered lie. They were all gone, and Cain could no longer be sure that it wasn't he who was the husk.

Cain wondered, deep down, why the dark angel's scythe had not fallen upon him.

His first waking moments of consciousness was the sound of screaming. For brief seconds, as his eyes blurred into focus and he recognised the sounds for what they were, they sent a cold, icy shiver up and down his spine. Some poor bastard outside had tried to run the streets alone.

Then, seconds after waking, reality kicked in.....hard.

Groaning slightly, Cain threw aside the cover, and the chill of the air bit into his warm flesh. Shivering, Cain rubbed his hands up and down his arms, and the hairs on his exposed torso stood on end. His head hurt......a biting, stabbing pain that sent needles of hurt down the back of his neck. As he attempted to stand, a sudden rush of nausea overwhelmed him. Turning to the side, he coughed up again.

The days were a struggle. Each one progressively so. Glancing down to the stained carpet, and glancing the empty bottle lying on it, the corner's of his mouth turned upwards in a wry smile, recognising the source of the nausea for what it was. Yes, the days were a struggle, but it was always a bonus when you found something that could help you with the pain.

Then, turned his brown eyes slowly towards the other occupant of the room.

Cain remembered. The world dying in front of his eyes as he fled the only home he had ever known. They were two desperate survivors trying to hang on to whatever remnants they still had of the world that they had once known. He remembered the time they had spent together, the time that they had spent getting to know each other. Distrust and paranoia at first, to be replaced by mutual respect. It was strange that, for as long as he had tried to cast off the shackles of his past before, to try and know someone that did respect him, that here, as the world was in its death throes, he had begun to find that. He would have laughed at the irony of that single indisputable fact if their situation wasn't so dire. It was something that he couldn't quite reconcile inside his own mind, past piling up on past, layers and layers of subterfuge and diversion to keep people away from the real Cain Harper.

Shaking his head, he covered his mouth to hide his slight smirk as he stood, slowly and tentatively. Cain stopped for a moment to smooth the stray strands of his hair. Reaching down, he picked up his black, long sleeved shirt. Fastening the belt on his dark breeches, he put his arms through the silken shirt and buttoned it up.

Good morning. I am still alive, world. Can you say the same?

The room would once have been termed a "living room", at least in the world before. The wooden door that was the exit to the apartment block was barricaded by a faux-leather suite, a cabinet and a TV unit, complete with unplugged television. The room itself was carpeted, though the grey carpets hadn't been cleaned in a long while and were stained in some places with a faint, reddish colour. Cain could make a guess as to what that reddish colour signified. The walls were painted cream, and on the floor at the far side of the square, equally proportioned room was a vase, tipped over with the flower stalks within long dead. A sliding compartment door at the end of the room led onto a balcony outside. Outside, the first flickers of sunlight had begun to pierce the shroud of nighttime darkness, but Cain didn't care as he sat on the floor.

He had long ago lost track of time in this shattered world.

Resisting the temptation to open the sliding door and go out to see which foolish bastard had gotten themselves killed outside, he nodded towards Angel.

"Good morning," he whispered, the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a slight smile. "Another day, another idiot decides to get themselves killed," he inclined his head towards the outside, where no doubt the feral, mindless zombies were even now tearing chunks of flesh off the fool outside.

"We're going to run out of food soon. We're going to have to go out there to get more," sighing softly, Cain propped his head up in his hand, massaging his temple with the tips of his fingers. He had no doubt he looked a state. Eyes red, lifeless hair framing pale and gaunt features.

"You know, one day our luck is going to run out. Maybe that day will be today. Maybe not. But soon," he exhaled softly.

The sound of the screams cut through me. I close my eyes and try to forget, but the nightmares......they never really go away. And they never will until the day I die.

As Cain spoke, the ghosts of his past hovered over his shoulder, waiting patiently for him to die.

 

[BloodWolfRising]

"Good morning to you as well." She nodded when he mentioned the need to collect more food, "I was just thinking the same thing. Well about the food, not about our ever possible demise." She said with a slight smile, "That weighs too heavily on your mind Cain as if you are silently wishing to meet your end. Yet yearning for something more still... Then again your oddity matches mine well, I suppose." She grabbed a can of peaches, taking her broken can opener and popping it along the edges till the lid fell into it.

"Finding a new food source isn't our only worry right now, there has been an increase of walkers. I don't know if they are simply roaming through this area or if something has attracted them, but you know as well as I. When more walkers appear the more dangerous ones follow."

She tossed a few peaches into her mouth, their sweet taste filling her mouth. It was a welcomed change from beans and other plain-tasting canned foods. She offered him the can, they had only been able to find one can of peaches, "This place has made for a decent 'home', but it may very well be time we get out of dodge." She frowned slightly, "Though this is only if we feel that the zombie increase is way more than either of us feels comfortable with. If we do need to move, we will need to gather up a few more supplies than usual. Better safe than sorry since we don't know when we will run into another good place or any good people."

Angel groaned slightly, "I have gotten pretty comfortable here, to be honest. Then, if we were to get too comfortable and let our guard down that could be the end of us. I still have places I want to visit even if they are ruined. Or are those possibly thoughts I shouldn't have." She tapped a finger to her chin in thought before shrugging, "Well not that I'd care if others thought I was strange for still having that goal in mind." She walked over to her bag and rummaged through her side pocket, "If we do decide to stay here longer then I will need to venture out further to see if I can locate more medical supplies. I don't like running low even a little bit. Plus some of it takes time to make."
Magnar​

 

[Magnar]

The corners of his mouth turned upwards in a thin smile, but Cain did not respond to Angel’s pointed observation about his obsession with his demise….almost as if he did not just accept it, but yearn for it. Did he? Do I? The question echoed inside of him in an almost accusatory manner. He was perhaps surprised to realise that he did not really have the answer to it.

Wordlessly, he stood and moved over to the sliding doors that led out to the balcony outside, looking over the shattered streets. Pushing them open, he stepped out, closing his eyes as he leaned forwards on the railing. With a deep gulp, he took in the clean air, almost as if it would be his last time. Opening his eyes, he looked down on the world below. The sun was beginning to rise now, banishing the curtain of gloom underneath its bright radiance. There are times when I look upon the world, and I see such beauty that I still ask myself whether there is something worth saving?

Swallowing as he asked the question inwardly, his eyes flickered over to Angel almost unconsciously before flickering back to where below several hunched figures stood over another form, buried under their mass. He didn’t have to use his imagination to any great extent to know what was happening.

The living dead and the dead living, he thought ironically. Cain wasn't afraid of death. Not since......

“Yes, I believe there is still more out there, and I don’t believe it’s wrong to want for something better…..to dream of something better.“

Closing his eyes, Cain blocked out the broken and dead abyss below him. Was it true? Was it right to believe that there was better out there for all of them? That there was….something outside of this living hell?

“If we don’t have dreams then what do we have?”

Nothing. We have nothing. Turning away from the scenes of death below, Cain slid the door shut. Once more, his eyes moved over to Angel and there they stayed, holding her in his gaze as seconds became moments sliding upwards into the aether, never to be seen again.

“The worlds different now. It’s left you and I far, far behind it,” he whispered sadly as he turned away, reaching out for his jacket and sliding his arms through it.

We all have our demons. All of us.

Shaking his head when she offered him some of the peaches, Cain smiled apologetically. "You can have my portion if you want. I don't have much appetite this morning." Instead, making a move to the door, Cain pressed his ear against it slowly. After a couple of minuted, satisfied that he couldn‘t hear anything he stepped back, before looking to Angel, waiting for her to finish eating.

“We should leave now. We have more chance of getting out and in early doors before the day goes on.”

Finally, with what he hoped was a reassuring smile to her, he unlatched the bolt to the door and opened it, slipping quietly outside.

BloodWolfRising​

 

[BloodWolfRising]

Angel frowned as he refused food, but he was already out the door before she could speak up. "He can be so stubborn..." She quickly ate the remaining peaches before grabbing her gear and slipping out the door behind him. She locked the outer lock quickly and followed behind him in the maze she had set up to stop zombies from getting in. She was hoping if they did move, they would be able to find another place she could set up in a similar manner. Then again, there was the chance they would never find another place that they could rest in with such ease. Sighing softly she looked around, before catching up with Cain, "There was a small house that I spotted about a mile away from here that I don't remember us ever hitting. If we are lucky, there will be an almost full stock of supplies in there."

That was if he didn't mind trekking that far so early in the morning for a simple chance that there would be supplies, "If you don't want to go with me I can go alone. I shouldn't be too long and I know how to move around in this area with ease."

Though if she were to admit it, with the increase of zombies around here, going on her own did worry her a bit. Plus the fact that her shoulder was hurting still, the pain was bearable but at this point, she was pretty sure she had likely torn a muscle instead of having simply pulled the muscles. If it was torn then she was going to have to be extra careful not to strain it even more, which meant moving as silently and quickly as possible. If she ran into a horde of zombies there was a good chance she was as good as dead.

She glanced to Cain, worry in her eyes, if she died would he give up on living? The thought somewhat hurt as if in the time they had been together she had begun to care for the man. He was always uttering things about death, but would he seek it if she wasn't here. And what would happen if she got bit and started turning...would he be able to kill her? Perhaps she was worrying too much, but if she were to be bitten she wouldn't be able to take her own life, someone would need to kill her. She shook her head with a frown, had she been listening to his wishes of death for too long? Why was she thinking such things? It wasn't like her at all, was it simply the gut feeling that they needed to leave this area right now?
Magnar

(Sorry for the delay)​

 

[Magnar]

Cain had started to creep forwards slowly. Yes, the hallways beyond were set up with an almost maze-like number of obstructions to prevent anything unwanted from slipping past, but it was a trail that Cain had navigated through many many times before. And, fates willing, should they survive this trek out, he would navigate them many many more times to come. So far though, things looked and sounded promising. He did not hear the tell-tale, feral sounds of the living dead or the dead living lurking in the vicinity. Perhaps this time, this one time, they could complete the supply run without bringing what was left of this decaying and dying world down on their heads.

Behind him, he heard Angel's whisper. Looking back to her, he nodded wordlessly with a small smile on his face at her revelation that there was potentially a house near by that had the supplies they needed to hold out for hopefully the foreseeable future. As he did so, he was struck with a strange thought. Throughout his life, Cain had been the quintessential party-goer. Someone who was little more than a socialite with borderline hedonistic tendencies. And as much as he had lots of.....acquaintances, lovers even, never anybody that he was close to or that he did not ultimately discard as little more than a play-thing. Whims to his fickle desires. Inwardly, Cain was the antithesis to his outward extrovert tendencies, as barren and insular as he appeared to be anything but.

Coming through to the other side of the obstacle course, Cain was greeted by the sight of a set of double doors leading into a cold, stone stairwell beyond.

The end of the world as anyone knew it had changed everything. And at the beginning, there was nobody more ill-suited to survival than Cain. Yet survive he had, as everyone he knew lay down and died. It was in the surviving that his motivations had begun to change, and the troubled young man had begun to learn to place his trust in others......Angel. An unlikely a friendship as there was ever, and truthfully, in a normal world under normal circumstances they would have moved in completely different circles. This caring, strong independent woman was.....simply put, better than he was or could ever hope to be. It was a painful thought that he could not resolve in his fractured mind.

If you don't want to go with me I can go alone.

Before she could even finish her sentence Cain shook his head, placing a finger on his lips with one hand as the other slightly brushed her arm.

"No," he said simply. "We're in this together."

That was the simple truth of it. For all his many many flaws and failings, and for as much as he likely deserved the fate that lay in store for him, Cain simply would not abandon her on her own. It would be scant recompense for the fact that she had already saved him once when she had no cause or reason to do so. That she could have left him to die was a thought that had lay burned across his conscience since it happened -- for in truth had the roles been reversed Cain would never have come to the aid of a stranger. But that was why he was drawn to her, was it not? That she had a goodness and caring nature that compensated for his own failures.

But even then it wasn't that simple was it? There was more to it than that.

Silencing his own inward doubts, Cain pushed open the doors. Beyond it, a circular stairwell led down. The coldness of the stone floor and the stone walls was both clinical and lifeless, yet heartening also. There was noone else here.

"We go down and out," he whispered, looking back to her with a nod.

"Then you lead. In and out. We can be there and back before they even notice us."

Cain started down the stairs leading to the doors outside, and there he waited for her to join him as he glanced outside, looking for any problems.

BloodWolfRising​

 

[BloodWolfRising]

She felt relief flood her as he said they would go together, it wasn't like she couldn't handle herself, but more of the reassurance that someone was there to cover her back. "Alright then, in and out." She knew the risk they were about to take with venturing out so far, but it needed to be taken. As they would say, do or die, and this certainly carried a heavy stench of death. She met him at the foot of the stairs and looked outside.

There were only a few walkers in the distance, but they could easily be avoided, "If we don't have to take any of them on then let's keep it at that. You know as well as I do it only takes one of them to scream and then we will be circled."

She moved to open the door, but stopped, resting a hand on his arm, "If things start looking bad for some reason, get out of there...Don't worry about me, I'll be able to catch up. But the last thing we need is to trip over each other in a sticky situation."

Sure they had been caught in fights before, and they were able to back each other up without getting in the other's way, but if there were too many zombies to handle that was when people sometimes slipped up. And she knew at this point and time she would be the one to mess up...she didn't want him to die due to her going out with an injury. She opened the door slowly to make as little noise as possible, thankfully when she had found this place she had also found WD-40 and was able to oil down all the doors and windows she ever went to open. It certainly worked well for making things not squeak, she took in one sharp breath before stepping out into the ruins.

She couldn't help it, every time they went outside there was always that silent voice in her mind that said, this could be the end. Not that she dwelled on it, but it was there, that simple thought that it could all end in this supply run. She darted to the left silently, moving behind the broken buildings and houses. Careful to miss all the debris, it was like playing a deadly game of hide and seek. She stopped short of stepping into an open section, lowering her body as a walker moved a few yards ahead of them. It didn't seem to have any interest in anything at the point, simply limping along an unseen path.

From what she could tell, they were all pretty calm right now which was a major plus for the two of them. She glanced behind her, before pointing towards the walker and then pointing to a more wooded section. For the most part, it wasn't too thick, but that didn't mean there weren't creatures lurking about. So they could take the chance with the one walker or take the wooded path. But she would see what he wanted to do...
Magnar​