The City Of The Dead

Chapter One

Life in active war is lonely. There is only so much land to travel and see. Besides that, I think the world has a bit of a bigger problem on our hands, and it's not simple to solve.

Three hundred forty-five dead. Eight more alive. The sound of claws against skin filled my ears as I was pummeled into the ditch. I looked next to me, unsurprised I saw a man who was bleeding and calling for help. No one responded. This war has been going on for decades, attack after attack, death after death. After fighting for years, I have gotten used to the sounds and horrors of war.

The gore and loss has become so real to me that I can almost feel it.

Being put into the front line regimen was scary at first, now I don't feel sadness, nor pain. In fact, sometimes I wish to fight. I just want this long war to end. The monsters raided the earth years ago. Killing my family and most of my friends. I lived in a bunker with my hamster waiting for the war to be over. At that point I had waited too long. I had nothing to lose, I wanted to help.

One robotic arm later, and I am still fighting strong, and risking my life, every single day.

A hand wizzed past my head. In order to avoid it I fell deeper into the ditch. I crawled into the medic tunnel below to hide. Screams flooded past above me. I ducked back and tried to seem invisible. The ground around the entrance started to rumble, and I heard the thump of a person's body smack against it.

The impact caused the ditch to cave in. I was safe, but trapped inside. I pounded against the loosely packed wall of dirt, screaming for help.

...

No sounds were able to pass through the thick dirt. I kicked the wall and cursed quietly before sitting down. My life was never this quiet. Let alone half quiet in general. For some reason I enjoyed it. I pulled open my shirt, revealing my chest, and dropped my rifle onto the dirty ground.

I opened my metal water bottle and poured the rest of the water into my mouth. I dipped the wide metal tip into the bucket and scooped up some other water, filling the bottle up.

The only sound was the little mice that crawled around me. That is when it all came back to me. I had realised what had happened. I was trapped in a dirt cave, alone, with no airtube.

The ground behind me rumbled. I cursed again and felt the roof. Whatever was coming was big. Not just big. I mean massive. The earth was shaking and dust was pouring over my head. I smashed at the wall with the butt of my gun and battled to be free.

I smashed harder and fought the wall. This time throwing my whole body against it. I saw a little whole in the wall that allowed light to shine through. as the dirt behind me crumbled. I screamed and pushed against the wall harder.

The ground seemed to clamp around my leg. I smashed the wall with my fist and it tumbled over just in time. I got my head to stick out through the large whole right as the wall crushed my lower body. The rumbling stopped and a monster reached toward me.

I held my breath as drool pelted my face.

A blood-red claw grabbed me and lifted me out of the dirt. Drool from the creature rolled off my face, and I closed my eyes. I was being held by a Daycrawler. It kills its prey by dropping them, then eating your head down.

I closed my eyes and prayed, hoping I would be saved. All of the sudden I felt the claws release. I fell face first onto the dirt. My bones were not broken, and I could stand up fine. The Daycrawler seemed to lean toward me and I rolled out of the way. The beast fell straight to its face.

The wind all around me slowed almost to a stop as I crawled back to my feet.

The Daycrawler had fallen and I did nothing. My arms were bruised up and there was dirt all in my eyes. I could not have saved myself, I was too beat up. I had a feeling someone else saved me, I knew I was not the only one around.

A bright blue light shone through the dust. It dimmed as it moved closer until it stopped right in front of me. I picked up my handgun and limped backwards pointing the barrel at the light.

I reached toward the trigger but the light moved out of the way. KUSO!!! It was behind me. I turned around to shoot it and missed the shot. The bullet turned around in the air and wizzed straight into the center of my forehead.

...

A bright light shone into the room, blinding everyone around it. The sound of birds woke me up from what seemed like a forever nap.

There was a big room to my right and a door to my left. I stood up and walked over to the big room. I was not injured and could walk freely. The room was pearl white and the ground was a marvelous teal color.

I ran my hand across the wall before stopping at the corner. I peered back at the door. It was metal with no windows and a bar for a handle. It looked very heavy.

Tempted, I sprinted toward the door and thrust myself back pulling the door open.

A light shone through. Could it be heaven? I hesitated. Was I actually dead? The bright light was calling my name. It seemed to pull me toward it. I had to give in or else I would die. If I was still alive, I would need food.

I stepped into the light. My eyes burnt and I fell to my knees, I was light-headed and could hardly breath. Did I make a wrong choice?

All of a sudden, I was dumped onto the same battlefield from earlier. This time I was unscathed and no one was fighting. I brushed off the dirt and rose up from my knees. No dust was in the air and the land looked cleaner then earlier.

I walked over to the tree line. The red river that was filled with pollution and blood was clean. This was nothing like the blood-bath of Japan I saw earlier. This was different.

Laying next to the stream was a basket. The basket was filled with scrumptious goods. I dug through it hoping to find a weapon to protect me, but nothing in that sort was there.

I cursed under my breath before continuing on the long walk to my war camp.

...

After a while, I finally arrived. It was nothing like before, instead it was empty and run down. KUSO, KUSO, KUSO!! I realized I was not in the same world from earlier. This was somewhere else. I flopped to the ground and pounded on the dirt. Where could I be? What has happened to the Japan I know!?