Raging War on a Dead World

Earth is a lifeless planet engulfed in an eternal darkness and invaded by the already dead. Ghostly trees stand limp from their roots, the dead lay scattered like leaves. Humans are a thing of the past and now the world is the battleground of zombies and vampires. Will the zombies numbers overwhelm? Will the vampires loyalty to each other overcome the enemy? Or will both sides succumb to insanity in the silence of a dead world.

It's been 200 and 6 days since the beginning of the apocalypse and the undead invasions. As if one of them alone wasn't bad enough or at least I used to think before I became accustomed to how life on this planet is. Im not sure if calling my situation living is accurate but I am at least on the same plane as the once living. Not even a year has passed and the Earth already lays in ruins, not a sign of life or civilization exists anymore. Unless you count the shell that is left of my vast family as a civilization, but I assure you it is not civil in the slightest. No tweeting of birds in the trees and no ominous sounds of small game running through the thick undergrowth of the forest floor. Leaves drooping off the trees that were once so green and full of life.

This is the perfect habitat for the other creatures that now call this seemingly inhospitable planet home. Shadows fall longer and seem darker in every place, camp or winding road. Humans have been extinct since day one-hundred and seven, exactly two weeks after the sun burnt up and destroyed itself. The only light is that striked with branches from the dead trees and flint. As Vampires we have little need for light as our vision is perfectly in tune with darkness. However as creatures of the dark we are aesthetically drawn to the sight of shadows. They appeal to us and our mind shapes its thoughts into figures not unsimilar to that of those eery elongated blank spaces.

Now only two species thrive in this world of stench and death, vampires and zombies. An environment we both find pleasing though vampires do not find it as fitting and essential to be both of these things. Zombies may be stupid and slow but when they form a horde they are an unstoppable force of blind destruction and chaos.

I am Zac three hundredth son of Ragnar the most powerful vampire elder and this is the unfolding story of how both species of undead fought to be the ultimate -and only- species on Earth.

We both faced the joint obstacle of an unexpected curse and a useful solution to the only thing standing between us and total domination. The humans. Once they realised our plan they decided to construct an artificial plague to wipe us out to our cores. Instead of aiming for us it took over their bodies to achieve its main goal, wiping out the pure blood vampires and strongest bloodlines in the zombies. I assumed they used themselves as their weapon of choice because they believed they did not have enough information on our anatomy. I personally find this extremely amusing because they had more than enough information, choosing to ignore and deny its existence and trade it with science was the end of theirs. Even so they effectively reduced our numbers considerably, not without sustaining heavy casualties themselves. This is still a commendable feat considering how unbalanced the odds were. The first step to destroying a worthy opponent is respecting them.

I along with a group of my brethren who are now all regrettably piles of ash -our equivalent to the mortals death- sought out to find the zombies main camp. Their fast paced learning came us a deadly surprise to us and a costly one. They were learning to mirror our movements and skills with weapons making their sheer population a much more formidable and daunting fact. I killed their leader on the twentieth night of september, ten full orbits of the moon Nastur ago. He was the only zombie with half his brain intact and functioning at its full capacity. He was able to control his thought pattern and had a surprising hold of power and leadership over his undead followers.

After I infiltrated their leaderless camp for the second time under the now common gift of darkness with my most talented and blood thirsty warriors, we set up explosives in a spider web -as the humans would say- shape. Many of my family we lost fighting zombies to their second and final death, filling me with the rage and deep hatred necessary for the intense focus and will power needed to carry out such a daring and foolhardy plan.

Although most of us were still locked in combat with the enemy I had to make a decision for the wellbeing of the entire vampire empire and lit the fuse connecting all the death sticks together through a complex network. I doubted every section would go off but hopefully enough would to destroy their camp and their morale. As I had expected quite a few did not explode but those that did were enough to not only obliterate the zombies camp and said zombies along with every lifeless tree and pollute the all the lakes that were of no use to anyone anyway. As well as crumble half the valley where the undead's camp was situated down on itself.

The debri became a deadly force I had not counted upon decreasing our own numbers considerably more than I had anticipated. Underestimating the power of the explosive devices was a grave mistake on my part not to mention a waste of resources. I remember watching the furious glow and expulsion of intense light not seen on this planet since the sun's demise. Enough to blind any vampire or zombie alike. Not helping was the fact that neither species were adapted to light or heat in such concentrated amounts. The sensitive natures of our skin complexions resulted in severe burning and melting of flesh in an agonising wave of pain that would not stop its onslaught upon us. Those who were not luckily enough to have sufficient cover suffered immeasurable agony unsurpassed by the decibels of the combined shrieks of the zombies and the screams of my fellow vampires.

I barely managed to turn away in time unfortunately many of my brothers and sisters were not as fast and were caught in the hypnotic trance of the crackling fire. They continue to stand where they were on that day, around the edges of the valleys not-so-high-anymore-walls with blank looks upon their faces completed by the lack of substance between their ears. The original white of their eyes before it was replaced with an impenetrable depth and hollow character of emptiness.

Those figures still haunt my dreams when I have time for such a luxury as sleep.

*I hope you enjoyed let me know what you thought in the comments.*