| Twilight of the Apocalypse | ||||||||
| Chapter 4: Survivors | ||||||||
| Free Haven- Trimoire Island 0715 hours, 15 June 2016 | ||||||||
| "Survivors! We've found them! Take a look," Ryan exclaimed. | ||||||||
| He was right. I peered into the hole, with Ryan aiming a beam of light into the dark | ||||||||
| foreboding room. I could see five men; four cowering in a corner and one in the center | ||||||||
| of the room. | ||||||||
| Adrian went forward and tried the knob. The door wouldn't budge. I tried. Same results. | ||||||||
| Furious, I slammed my body on the door. My exo-skel combat suit expanded once more, | ||||||||
| and the door fell forward. My visor display showed 5 white dots- civilians- within the room | ||||||||
| I was now in. With renewed hope, I dashed towards the nearest man. | ||||||||
| "Hey, you okay?" Blake asked, as he knelt before the man. | ||||||||
| The man lifted his head and nodded, acknowledging our presence. | ||||||||
| "Look at me. Keep your eyes on me, and tell us what happened here," I questioned. | ||||||||
| "Oh, its bad. Very bad," he replied, his bloodshot eyes staring intently at me. | ||||||||
| "What do you mean?" Ryan asked. | ||||||||
| "Look around you. We're all that’s left of this town," the man said, coughing. | ||||||||
| His untidy black hair fell wildly over his face as he spoke. | ||||||||
| I scanned the room once, then looked at the man again. The others were | ||||||||
| as haggard looking as this man was. | ||||||||
| The man coughed again, and blood trickled down his chin from his mouth. | ||||||||
| He clenched his teeth and tried to move, but I held him down. | ||||||||
| As I touched him, my fingers hit something hard. Looking down, I unbuttoned his | ||||||||
| torn and tattered coat and shone my flashlight on his body. | ||||||||
| "Hell, whats happened to you, man?" Ryan shrieked. | ||||||||
| "I don't know, something hit me real hard from my rear," the wounded man | ||||||||
| struggled to get the words out. | ||||||||
| I squinted and saw that the man's body was ripped to almost shreds in some places, | ||||||||
| particularly his chest and abdomen areas. His arms were covered in a thick layer | ||||||||
| of drying blood and the white of bone could be seen beneath the flesh. His legs | ||||||||
| were almost gone. Below the thighs, all that remained were a bundle of purple and | ||||||||
| blue colored veins. The calves were nowhere to be seen. His shoes lay metres away | ||||||||
| from his body. | ||||||||
| All of a sudden, the man started shaking violently. His body spasmed and convulsed | ||||||||
| uncontrollably, and he seemed to be in great pain. | ||||||||
| "Oh my god, he's dying. You gotta do something," Adrian spoke. | ||||||||
| "Blake, hold him down. You help me too, Ryan," I ordered. | ||||||||
| Blake held the man's arms down, but his fingers sank into the dying man's soft, | ||||||||
| flesh and blood spurted out of the new wound. The man screamed pitifully, and | ||||||||
| I felt fear and panic build up in me. The other men in the corner looked at us as if | ||||||||
| we didn't know what we were doing. | ||||||||
| Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the man stopped moving. He lay motionless, | ||||||||
| his body unmoving. I stood up, and was filled with despair. As I turned my back to | ||||||||
| the dead man, I heard Ryan exclaim, "Look, captain! Look at him!" | ||||||||
| Turning to face the corpse, I watched in utter horror as the body started shaking | ||||||||
| again. There was absolutely nothing we could do now, because we all knew the | ||||||||
| man was dead. How he was still moving was a mystery we all wished to solve. | ||||||||
| "Get back, everyone. Something strange's going on here," I shouted to the rest. | ||||||||
| Suddenly, a terrible agonizing shriek broke the deathly silence. | ||||||||
| "His lips ain't moving!" Adrian said, as he watched the scene with wide eyes. | ||||||||
| "Sir, I'm picking up an unknown entity on radar. Its approaching us rapidly," | ||||||||
| Blake reported. | ||||||||
| "Watch out!" I yelled, and pressed my back against the wall. | ||||||||
| "Look at the size of that thing!" | ||||||||
| "It's back," one of the other survivors whispered in a frightened tone. | ||||||||
