Myriad

Chapter 1 - Moonrock

The Maintown Hospital - Cycle 499

The still quiet surroundings of me startled me. A few seconds ago, it was filled with crickets chirping and flies buzzing about. Now, the silence enveloped me. Until now, I never expected that I would fear the silence. Ever since that event, I isolated myself in grief, blocking myself out of reality. No matter what anyone did, I never listened, and did things my own way.

It was 3 or 4 years since the Final War. People from governments all around Myriad started creating dust bombs (bombs in this story are called dust bombs). Basically, everyone was nuking left right and center, however, a month into the war, aliens invaded Myriad. The governments withdrew fire on each other but redirected their bombs towards the aliens. The Final War wiped out 60% of the human race, while the aliens, who killed everything they saw, killed off 33%. Of the remaining 1%, 1/2 of us died by natural causes or dustdiation (radiation from dust bombs) exposure. As a result, only a million humans are left. The survivors either formed packs to sustain themselves, or hid underground in fear. I was one of the ones to hide underground.

We call the aliens that invaded our worls the Deathless. After all, no one was reported to have even killed one before.

That fateful night, a Deathless came into the hospital and killed everyone, except me. I happened to be outside for a while.

In fear, I had ran off into the nearest woods. It was then, everything went quiet around us.

Goosebumps appeared on my skin as a dark aura appeared. A Deathless is generally a creature that is entirely black, with no discernable features to differentiate them, yet this Deathless, seemed to be different. It was a tinge of very dark blue, and it had a scar over where its eyes were supposed to be. It seemed to be keeping its distance from me.

My breath hitched.

Why was it staying away from me? Do i actually have something to stop it?

I stood still for a few more seconds, before the Deathless went away. A few meters away from me, something released a faint yet visible light.

In curiosity, I walked closer. A small chunk of rock, about the size of my palm, illuminated in the dark.

I was stunned. This was moonrock. One of the only things that came along with the Deathless invasion. It was highly valued as it not only gave out light, it also warded off the Deathless. A small bit was already worth a million Zinc, yet this was worth at least 10 million Zinc! What were the chances?

Pocketing my discovery, I ran back to the hospital.

"LOOK WHAT I FOUND!" I exclaimed. Echos rebounded off the walls, only to return to me, unheard. I had completely forgotten that everyone had died.

Their corpses lay on the hospital beds or the floor, their eyebrows drooping out of their sockets, blood flowing from everywhere possible, and their body parts bent in impossible angles. It was a gruesome murder scene.

I fell down, shocked at the scene in front of me. My only comfort was the moonrock that was in my hands. To me, it was the most important thing now, keeping the Deathless at bay.

Silently, I grabbed a change of clothes and stuffed them into a backpack.

There was no one left. It was not like I had any friends anyway.

I pushed all the things I could get my hands on into the backpack until it was full. I was never returning ever again. I might as well survive in the outside with my moonrock, and hope for the best. By leaving behind this place, I realised that I would be fully susceptible to all kinds of danger. What if I fall sick? There will be no one to take care of me. What if I get injured? No one can help me. What if I am on the verge of dying? No one can help me.

I hiked for 2 weeks (with rest of course) with no particular purpose in mind. All I wanted to do was to get away from everything.

The world is quiet, not a single sound can be heard. Along with the monotonous trudging of my footsteps, I viewed the world in darkness, without colour. To me, the world was just a miserable place to live in.

I looted several places that still had food and water in them to ensure my survival. I even stocked up on medical supplies such as medicine, casts, and gauze.

Every night was the same thing over and over again. I had to set up camp, put fires all around to scare off any evil creature, and dangled the moonrock on a piece of string to ward off the deathless. Then, I ate my dinner, which was usually a chunk of biscuit and bread. Eventually, I started falling sick and as a result, I travelled a distance which seemed to get shorter after each day.

Finally, on the 15th day, I fell down and bruised my arm. I was having a high fever and the medicine I had was not helping me. With my eyelids getting heavy, my footsteps getting heavier, my strength depleting, I stopped moving.

I fainted.

When I came to, the first thing I saw, was a black silhouette of someone unfamiliar to me...