The last man in the infested ruins

Chapter 1: the ruined city

Cooper walked out of the bunker, and the scene of the war torn city greeted him. Every building was destroyed or wrecked, even the tallest skyscrapers were reduced to half their height. The sun peeked through the dense clouds, and the warm wind blew on him. He was shocked at the devastated site of the city, but nevertheless, he walked through the pavement and pass through the fenced gate. At the highway of the city, there were remnants of army tanks and sub machine guns scattered with numerous cars and trucks.

"What happened here?" He asked himself in his head.

The asphalt of the road felt slightly rough and warm on his bare feet as he walked past the tanks. Everything was quiet, the only thing he can hear is the wind blowing and his stomach growling. His main priority is food and drinks, as he fears he wouldn't last long if he would starve to death or die from dehydration. When he reached at the riverfront district of the city, he looked for any restaurants or cafe he can eat at. Then he heard growling and screeching at the distance, so he hurried to look. He got the feeling that he isn't alone, as there's some kind of creature who smelled the scent and is on the hunt. Luckily, at the end of the street, he found a cafe.

"Riverfront cafe" he read the sign.

He entered the cafe, and the place was a mess. There's broken pieces of glass from the front window on the booth and on the floor, few tables that looked like they were thrown across the cafe, chairs that are broken into pieces, and even the cash register has been smashed. He walked over to the counter where there's a rack used for displaying pastries, but the pastries on the rack were long since grown mold and the smell made him nauseous.

"Isn't there any fucking thing that I can eat!?" He yelled in his head.

He wanted to yell verbally, but since there's no one around, he kept quiet and doesn't want to sound crazy. He then saw few bags of chips on the counter, not to mention a mini fridge used for keeping bottles of water cool. He took one bag and opened the mini fridge, there were dozens of water bottles, so he took one too. He sat down on the floor, removing his oxygen mask so he can eat and drink, and opened the bag of chips. He was lucky that the chips are still good enough to eat, then he started eating them. After eating, he took a swig of water to wash it down and rehydrate him.

"That hit the spot, that should last me two hours" he said to himself.

He brushed his hand on his face, and it felt rubbery. He started to question himself about if his rubbery skin and visible blood vessels are a permanent side effects of hypersleep, or a partial mutation. He reached his hand and picked up a mirror, he can see his reflection staring back at him. He can see few visible blood vessels on his forehead, and the light from the remaining lamp on the ceiling shines on his face. Then he sighed, knowing that this us a side effect from hypersleep. Suddenly, there was a moan coming from the room that is labeled employees only.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He asked, picking up his oxygen mask.

He put it into his pants pocket before pulling out his pistol, and he reloads it in case if there's a dangerous monster. He got up and walked over to the employees only door while taking careful steps, then he opened the door. Past the door, it was a break room containing a table with chairs. Something caught his eye, a peculiar humanoid creature was walking over to the fridge. It has vivid pink skin, two tentacles that covered it's mouth as it's head resembles an octopus, two whip like arms with human hands, solid green colored eyes, and human feet where the toes were melded together. Curiously though, the creature is wearing the same uniform he was wearing, except it's jacket is tattered and missing pants.

"Was that a soldier? Was he was put into hypersleep like me?" He thought to himself.

When the creature looked at him, it let out a loud moan as it charged towards him. He doesn't want to shoot a fellow soldier, so he kicked it in the face. The creature then extends it's whip like arms to wrap around him, so he wouldn't punch nor escape. He grunted as he tried freeing himself, but the creature is pulling him towards itself. He spotted a name tag that reads:

"Prvt. Kent".

"Private kent?" He said.

The creature stopped as it stared into Coopers blue eyes, as if it was trying to recognize him. It soon let him go, but he wasn't sure why.

"Do you remember me? Do you have any memories before you... mutate?" He asked.

The creature thought for a moment, it tries to reply to him, but it came out as gurgling and unintelligible. He had to pick up a piece of paper and pen, before handing it to the creature. Then the creature writes on the paper for three minutes, and handed over to him.

"I am Private Kent, I woke up a year before you and explored this city. I had an unfortunate exposure to radiation left over from a bomb at downtown, and I since started to go feral" the paper reads.

"I'm sorry to hear that, soldier. My skin is rubbery and my blood veins are visible, and my guess is that it must be a side effect of being in hypersleep for too long. In case if you forgot my name, I am Cooper. Rank: Sergeant" he said.

Private Kent nodded, clearly wishing he haven't went to downtown to investigate.

"Maybe there's a cure for your condition, it might turn you back into a normal human. I'm not sure where it's at, but it can help" assured Cooper.

Private Kent's eyes light up with hope, getting a chance to become human again.

Both Cooper and Private Kent (Who is a mutated creature) exit the employees break room, only to find that there's several mutated spiders coming to the cafe. When the mutated spiders saw the duo, they crawled towards them since they found their meal. Cooper and Private Kent ran upstairs rather than fight, because they were outnumbered. Cooper shoots one mutated spider that had blocked the way, while Private Kent used his whip like arms to crush the other mutated spider. When the duo reached up to the rooftop, there wasn't any way to go other than jump on the rooftops to escape.

"Come on, soldier! We have to escape those monsters!" Said Cooper.

Private Kent shook his head, and pointed westward for Cooper to escape. In other words, he wanted to stay to buy Cooper time by fending off the mutated spiders.

Cooper wanted to object, but concedes as the Private chose this decision. He had to run, and when one mutated spider crawled up to the rooftop, he stomps on it in order to kill it. His left foot is covered in dark green goo that was inside of the mutated spider, but he had to worry about it later as he jumped over the gap and continued running. As he stop to turn around, he watched as Private Kent gets hounded by the mutated spiders until collapsing. He bared his teeth before continued to run, trying not to cry upon losing a soldier.

Authors note: what do you think of this chapter?