Turned World (On Hiatus)

9 - Original Turned

  A vehicle was cruising along the badly destroyed roads and debris that littered about. At the wheel was Riverich, a gas mask covering his face. He made an effort to peer forward as the toxic gasses made the entire place foggy. In the passenger seat, beside him, sat Jada, gas mask on, touching up on some drawings, gas mask on as well. In the open trunk of the truck, sat Trein, sitting among the piles of stuff that the previous two owned and deemed worth carrying. He too wore a gas mask.

  All their masks were connected to a large box, about 4ft tall and 2ft wide. An air filtration unit Jada said she made that she called the MSD.

  According to what Riverich had said earlier, they were headed for Sanctuary B, where representatives from all the other sanctuaries would meet up during the horde season to discuss new finds and ways to combat the Turned.

  “Hey, Riverich, what’s that.” Jada’s muffled voice came from behind the mask.

  She was pointing at something off to the side that stood out. It had a human-like shape. It moved. Then several others appeared.

 “It’s the Turned! Sh*t!” Riverich exclaimed as he slammed the brakes on the control panel.

  There were a lot of them. More than thirty, no, more than fifty, more than sixty. One by one they all turned towards the truck and started walking forward.

 “Ya’ll wouldn’t happen to have any weapons on you?” Trien asked.

 Jada leapt over her seat, into the trunk where Trien was and started rummaging through the piles. She pulled out a gun from under some stuff. She turned and fired at one of them. There was a short screech before the turned seemed to explode and fall to the ground.

 There was silence for a second before all the turned began running towards them screeching, arms flailing. Jada shot at more of them, but more continued to emerge from the fog, like an endless stream of turned.

 “Doc, move!” Jada shouted as she stopped to reload.

 Riverich slammed the controls and the wheels started skidding all over the place before launching straight into the the uncoming turned.

  There were many blood curdling sounds of bones breaking and flesh tearing as they collided with the decaying humanoid beings. Jada finished reloading and started firing at the ones in front to smoothen the drive.

 “Damn, it’s a whole lot of them!” Jada shouted, frustratedly.

 “Hey, any of you feel that?” Trien shouted, looking around.

 “Feel what?” Jada and Riverich shouted back, confused.

 “Trembling.”

 “Huh?”

  The vehicle was now out of the crowd and Riverich hit the control panel, bringing the vehicle to an abrupt stop.

 “What trembling?” Riverich asked, turning to look at Trein.

 “Wait.”

  After a few seconds a low tremor ran through the ground.

 “An earthquake?”

  Seconds later there was another tremor, a bit stronger this time.

 “Aftershocks maybe?”

  More tremors came, each one stronger than the last.

 “That’s no earthquake.”

  The tremors stopped. Then a low, very deep voice that seemed to carry for miles was heard, half singing.

 “Fi-fi-fo-fum, I smell, I smell the blood of the chosen.”

  A pause.

 “The leaders who have been broken”

 Another pause.

 “Make the hopeless lose all their focus”

 Another pause.

 “Like a nation seeking salvation…”

  Riverich slowly got out of the vehicle. He motioned to the others to follow suit. They took up the MSD and hastily got out of the trunk and ran towards the demolished building and hid as Riverich directed.

 “What’s wrong?” Jada whispered.

 “That… was…” Riverich whispered back.

 “Scavengers?”

 Riverich shook his head slowly. He turned to face the two.

 “There’s a rumour that has been spreading for some time now, that says that the turned may not be as mindless as we see them to be but an organized unit with ranks among them.” Riverich whispered to them.

 “Wait, what?” Both Trein and Jada nearly shouted in surprise.

 “But to cut to the chase now,” Riverich paused as the voice came again and the tremors were now full blown quakes that threatened to collapse the already destroyed walls around them.

 “But to cut to the chase, we know that, at the highest ranks, there are Turned capable of communication.”

 “Huh?” Trein looked confused.

 “You mean…they have sentience?” Jada said, understanding immediately.

  Riverich nodded then nearly shouted as one final tremor rocked him right off his feet and caused the walls to crash down.

  “What the…” RIverich looked up quickly.

  Within the fog before the now fully destroyed building was a huge silhouette.

  The thing lurched forward a bit and all the toxic gas around it dispersed suddenly.

  Trein blinked rapidly as he looked ahead where the silhouette was. Before him was something huge and pale coloured. There were random pulsating lines that ran along its odd shape which reminded Trein of veins on muscles. It was very thick and blocked most of the view behind it. Below it, on the ground was a longer part of it. That part stretched far out, inclining towards the ground and ending with a rounded shape at the end. The back end stretched out not as far and ended with a larger rounded end. Without thinking, Trein looked down at himself. One of his shoes had fallen off. He looked at his foot. Then looked up at the thing before him.

  No doubt about it now. It was a very, very huge foot.

  Trein’s eyes slowly rolled upwards, taking in the huge muscular form before him. The monstrosity was at least 20 stories tall.

 “There are those who reject creation…”

 The voice undoubtably came from high above them, its deepness sending vibrations through the three humans looking up from below.

  With its lumbering form, rotting stench, its pale dry skin and its humming, it was clear without doubt; this monstrosity is one of those sentient turned.