Futuristic The Quiet

[Blemmigan]

T H E _ Q U I E T​

EXCEPTS FROM A JOURNAL

22nd November
They're gone. Everyone's gone. Not dead, at least I don't think so. I woke up this morning, thought I'd finish some overdue papers before I had to go in, and it was so quiet. No traffic, no conversation, nothing. So I looked out the window and there was nobody.

I thought maybe I'd messed up somehow, that it was Saturday, but even then you'd see somebody. And I didn't. I left the apartment and my neighbour's door was open, I thought she might have had a fall or something so I went in to check on her. But she was gone. TV on, her big ugly outside coat still on the wall, cat yowling for food. I opened the doors, called her name and thought for sure I would find a body, but... no.

I called the emergency services and got nothing. The power had been cut off so I couldn't check the TV for news. So I went out into the street, and walked down the road into the middle of town. Shops were open, bags abandoned and groceries spilled everywhere. There were some cars about like they were in traffic, nobody in them, and a few had run off the road into buildings or each other. But they were all turned off, even though the keys were still in the ignition, and I couldn't get any of the engines to work.

I'm freaking out, thinking there was an evacuation and I completely missed it. There's no information or posters or radio broadcasts anywhere. Wouldn't people take their cars? Their pets? There are loads of dogs running around. Whatever this was, the animals were left out of it. I can hear birds singing.

23rd November
No power still. I stayed in, tried to keep warm. My phone ran out of battery yesterday pretty quick, but I couldn't get it to connect anyway. It's like something's deliberately cutting everything off. Would the power grid really go down this fast unless something happened to it?

I don't know what to do. Is there any point in leaving to look for others? I've been feeding the cat from across the hall, just for the company. I think her name is Missy. I doubt she cares what I call her though.

26th November
I was taking things from the supermarket down the road. I mean it was abandoned apart from the rats, I don't feel guilty about it, I need food. But when I looked out at the street I saw... I don't know what I saw.

Something really tall, like seven feet. Skinny and pale, like it was sick, really sick. Its ribs were jutting out and its arms and legs were like skeletal, and they had too many joints, you could see when it walked that it couldn't do it properly.

I mean I could be going crazy from being by myself, but when I saw it I ducked down out of the way. Which was stupid because it saw that, it turned its head and I could see it had this... like this human face, no hair or ears, but this really, like stupidly big mouth that was tilted and didn't close properly, like the skin had torn open trying to make it fit. And it saw me, and I dunno if I screamed or not but it just stared and then it kept going in that crippled walk it had.

I didn't want to leave but it got dark and I didn't think I could lock myself in, so when I was sure the thing must have done I ran back here as fast as I could and shut everything, all the doors and windows. I think I'm going crazy, I hope I'm going crazy because I don't want there to be goddamn monsters running around, nothing makes any sense

27th November
There're some buildings on fire in town. I don't know how many.

29th November
Those... things are at the apartment block. I can hear footsteps outside, I know it's not people because there are no people. They're so quiet, just weird stumbling footsteps.

I looked out the peephole just to make sure, and I saw two of them. They were sniffing as they went, and I was paranoid that they were going to come straight for me but they didn't, they went next door. Where the old woman lived. And then I remembered Missy was still in there, she didn't want to leave, and then there was this screeching sound and I knew they'd got her.

Then they left. I don't know what they're doing. Why would they chase down a cat and not me? Were they that put off by a locked door? But they saw me before and didn't seem to care. I think they made everyone disappear, but I don't know how and I don't know why.

Something's burning.

4th December
I haven't felt like writing. It's so cold, I didn't have time to grab any outdoor clothes while the building was on fire. I was only on the second floor so I let myself fall out the window. I couldn't see any of those things but I knew they had to be around somewhere and I just went for it. My back hurts and I think I broke my arm but I can't do anything about that. Combined with the cold I'm so tired all the time.

I walked all the way into the middle of town and it wasn't there any more. It had been burned down, this huge perfectly circular area, all the rubble taken away so that the ground was flat and charred. I didn't step into it. I got away from there, kept walking, going from house to house. Outside the circle everything looked the same as it always did, but there are lots of other circles everywhere, some of them probably miles wide. Everything within the radius was destroyed. The last one I passed, today, there was something in the middle of it. Some kind of mountain with a... a goddamn red flag on it. Like a kid's sandcastle, but massive. I still didn't step onto the burned part, but that's what it looked like from outside.

I know it all has something to do with what's going on, but I'm not gonna risk getting close. I'm too scared, like I think I might burst into flames, or those things might get me. And I physically can't do anything but walk. I was never strong to begin with but I've gotten so weak. I need to stop somewhere for a couple of days.

6th December
There's an army out there. It's

( The writing is shaky, and many sentences have been violently scribbled out )

Not just me███████Prisoner??? ████████████took her away
████████but I just watched

I'm so cold
why write

9th December
One of them found me. I woke up and it was standing there in the doorway. Don't think they can talk but it was looking at me like it expected me to. I think it was smiling. Then it left.

I'm tired but it's like my mind is drifting loose, like I can just float. Everything flows. I know I'm going to die but it's okay. I think it will come back soon and then I'll go into the mountain.

SUMMARY

One morning, humanity disappeared from the face of the Earth. Crowds suddenly vanished. Cars rolled to a stop. Buildings and cities were left empty, dark and silent.

But some people, for some unknown reason, were not among those taken. They found themselves seemingly alone in the world, with no clues as to what happened or why they were left behind.

A week after the Quiet began, those survivors discovered that they were not alone after all. There were horrible, starved-looking creatures walking the streets. They reshaped the landscape, built fortresses, formed armies. For their skeletal bodies and oversized mouths, some people called them the Ravenous.

The Earth gradually became an arena for war between these monsters, with the forgotten humans forced to flee or risk being caught in the crossfire. Some were stupid or courageous enough to try and fight the Ravenous, only to find that bullets did not work, and that the creatures had the advantage of numbers.

Those who did kill one discovered something else. The Ravenous have a mental network between each other, some kind of hive mind, telepathically receiving orders and sharing information. Killing one of them disrupts the flow, and the human responsible suffers a sensory overload.

But those people who survive this mental backlash gain something from it. Some find they can hear the battle orders sent out to the armies. Some are able to sense when those armies are close by. Others gain possession of even more potent abilities, stolen from more powerful monsters they kill.

Maybe, by stealing these powers and using them to fight, they can start to take back their world.

CRIT█̀͢CAL INFOR͏M̀̀͟A҉͘T̀̕¾͏ÓN

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Spoiler: OOC Info

I've no idea if anyone would be interested in this-- or if I've been too vague/atmospheric in describing it. It's got quite a lot of planning and detail that would be rolled out, although aside from some Ideas to keep the plot moving it would be open for interpretation and influence by the people taking part.

Also, it wouldn't take place in Paris- that's just a nice image I picked for a header :V
It would probably be a generic city/cities/country, to avoid bogging everyone down having to know details about where things are. Anyone can invent locations as they're needed - the place is gradually being burned down and rebuilt by these creatures anyway.

 

[LocKeii]

Count me IN.

 

[Kiyoko Tomoe]

Well, seems I've stumbled upon something interesting.

 

[FabulousTrash]

I'm hella down for this

 

[Angelofwishes7]

I'm interested!

 

[Tarmagon]

Well now, this is interesting.

 

[Kloudy]

*Interest*

 

[Edric Yuma]

Interested!

 

[Gummy]

Very interested

 

[zenguardian]

Also interested!

 

[vesania]

HCK YES

 

[aengers]

YES, sounds so cool.

 

[Blemmigan]

...Guess who forgot to watch their own topic? Whoops.
Wow at the interest though! Thank you.

A thread with more details about the creatures and the abilities has been finally posted here. Once I've got the CS thread sorted, I'll make an OOC topic and tag everyone who expressed interest, if you're still up for it with all this extra info!

The details are posted in-character, in the guise of someone who has been making notes of this sort of thing. Just for fun. He probably won't feature much in the actual RP though.

 

[Damafaud]

*Peek in*

 

[Gunny]

Very very interested