Pollution, the filth that humans spread upon the earth. Their home. They created things to bring even more decay as if the taint they already brought upon themselves wasn't enough; Weapons, disease. No matter what they already had, they created more filth to tarnish the beauty that once was. That's the thing about human beings. Their greed ensued and the rot they prided themselves on was never enough.
Not only had they upset the beings that co-inhabited their planet; they upset life themselves. The entirety of life, the planet; was depicted as a young woman in most history books, the few she was in. The humans that worshipped her gave her the name "Nyx", a name that instilled warmth and love into the ancient societies hearts. She had a brother in mythology, one who represented the opposite of her. The end of life, and all misery life held. His name was Morbos in scripture, and he was famine, war, death, pestilence; all of it. They shared a mother who was known as the entirety of the universe, often depicted as the moon in lore.
As the years went by her worship slowly trickled off and was replaced by modern Christian and catholic ideologies. Many have depicted the outbreak as the doing of their one and only god, but it was Nyx herself to blame.
The virus was a last-ditch effort to save herself and her planet, which was prophesied in her mythology and lore from the very beginning. The end of days was brought upon the human race due to their actions and they truly had themselves to blame.
Nyx found herself in an endless loop of darkness; ultimate nothingness. Years had gone by but to her, it felt like days, maybe hours. She had retracted herself from the human world to protect herself, killed the human form she had taken for years. But As the prophecy foretold; she came back.
The piercing light of the moon blinded her icy blue eyes as her lids slowly peeled themselves open. Her weakened arms raised to block the ray of light that had rudely awakened her. She weakly pried thick green vines from her body which prevented the small woman from moving. The girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens turned her dreadfully stiff neck to look around her, taking in the scenery. A thick forest lined with plants, flowers, and large pine trees.
Her slim fingers grazed against the tall blades of grass that surrounded her, a few dandelions poking out from the sea of green plants. Nyx sat herself up, her sensitive eyes finally adjusting to the bright light of the full moon that she somehow found comfort in; even in such an unfamiliar place. She remembered nothing about herself, who she was; what she had done. Her grey-blue eyes trailed down to her hands, examining the faint bite marks that adorned her fair skin. She followed her eyes up to her exposed shoulder, which also held a bite mark. The sight brought a ringing to her ears which had been there the whole time, but she blamed the shock rather than anything else.
Her instinct warned her to get moving, where she felt unsafe and she was right for the most part. Especially since a few of the undead that had fed off of her were lingering nearby. Her ankles gave out during her first attempt at standing, but she pressed on. She used a tree trunk to balance herself while she determined which direction she would head in. A groaning sound deterred her from heading west, so east it was.
By the time she had made it to a clearing, her bare feet were screaming for help; they were scraped, bruised, and all-around sore. In the distance, she noticed what seemed to be a person stumbling along towards the tree line. Being naive, Nyx stumbled after him in hopes he would help her. At least help her identify herself and where she found herself.
"Excuse me-" her hoarse voice spoke. She sounded as if she either was a daily smoker of twenty years or the latter, a dehydrated teenager.
The man seemed to not respond right away, his goal seeming to remain inside of the forest. Either he had been ignoring her, or hadn't heard her.
"Please-" she begged again, reaching a hand out to the man. Now that she was closer, she noticed his smell; the smell of rotting flesh and burnt hair. It made her empty stomach turn. "Help me-" she attempted to communicate one final time before the man whipped around to face her.
His eyes were milky white, and half of his mouth had been either ripped off or decayed with time. It frightened Nyx, causing her to take a step back from him; which turned into multiple steps backward.
"Stay back-!" she threatened, grabbing a brittle stick from the ground in order to defend herself. It wasn't much, but it was better than having absolutely nothing. The brittle pieces of wood pricked her skin, her wide eyes locked on the glossy ones of the undead creature approaching her. Its grey teeth gnashed against themselves while he followed her, he shambled as if his life depended on him catching her.
Once she had enough distance between herself and the creature, she sprinted off toward the woods in a panicked rush. Roots protruding from the loose dirt by large trees were her worst enemy. Nyx found herself tripping over them left and right, but being able to take off each time breaking into a sprint.
She seemed to have been running for hours, but it only had been a few minutes until she deemed herself safe. Her lungs burned, and her eyes were watering uncontrollably. Her tears of irritation turned to ones of fear, her shoulders shaking a little while she quietly sobbed. Her eyes were locked on the trail behind her while she tried to calm herself but her efforts were futile. She fell to the ground, her weak legs finally giving in to the conditions they were put through, causing her to fall to her knees.
Out of pure confusion, the girl cried, staring up at the starry night sky. The stars soothed her, and the moon seemed to sing to her heart. Jagged vibrations on the ground alerted her, but she was unable to pry her eyes off of the sky. She was ready to give up, accept her inevitable death that she knew was coming.
The shadowy figure of a woman lingered in her view, a single tear streaming down her cheeks. She silently begged for it all to stop, closing her eyes as if that would make her death painless.
But she felt no pain. In fact, she hadn't moved. She opened her eyes to see the creature on the ground, its thick black blood drenching the bed of grass below it. Her eyes slowly trailed over to see the barrel of a gun and the owner of said weapon. She was thankful to be alive, yet terrified all the same.
The stranger offered her their calloused hand, which she hesitantly accepted. She felt safe, at last.
