Bi-Daylight: Collapse

Prologue

Lumini, New York

8164 Crestwing St.

20:30

"Don't worry baby, I'll be right back." I whispered to Ilene.

  Don't worry baby... this is the same exact line I use every sunset. I nearly tripped over my words today, but I need to continue practicing. I timed it perfectly though, considering Ilene's body had already started catching nosebleeds. A good sign that she won't remember my slight error.

  "Try not to come home late, ok?" she said as she gave me a light kiss on my lips. I could already feel what she was thinking through her passionate and loving kiss. She was thinking of me, and our beloved 15-year old daughter, Kyra, asleep in her arms. I was thinking about how much time I had left. I can see the contrast in the two. Though they shared the same amber eyes, Kyra neglected her black natural hair from her mother with dyes of dark blue along her straight, chopped short hair. Not that it mattered anymore.

  As I quickly parted my wife's kiss, I stood up in a slightly hastened manner as if I was assigned a chore. With a sweet gesture of a blown kiss, I abandoned my company of Ilene and Kyra and walked out of the master bedroom of our home, locking the door behind me. It wasn't big, being a two floor townhouse with my bedroom shared with Ilene to the back, as Kyra's room upstairs was the only one of that floor aside from the storage room. I closed the door behind me and let out a deep sigh. This routine was never going to end. The streets outside were noisy. Bustling conversations and cars driving back and forth was just the same repeated background of a busy day in the big city. I marched on quietly into the comfort of my bathroom. It gave a vintage, lounge-like feel with a small but warm light signaled by the flick of a switch. I gazed upon the bathroom mirror, exhausted and trying hard not to break down. I knew exactly what was happening. It's been two months since the infection had broke out. It... changed people. Everyone lived life normally, and the news reports said nothing of the leak. A strain of some sort went into the air, killing everyone and everything, save for a few "unique" people. The infection, strange as it is, keeps people alive in the day, going by unnoticed. But after dusk, the people previously dead begin to go violent and hungry for other living things not infected. It didn't take a complicated equation to get it all together: I saw it first hand, and continue to.

  I stepped out of the bathroom and back into my living room. I proceeded to go down the hall towards the foyer to the staircase. That's when it hit me, like every other damn day.

KNOCK!

  I heard loud banging on the master bedroom door. Thanks to the delay of my alarm on my wristwatch going off, it manage to get the jump on me today. More banging and groans continued behind the door by those who would be my wife and daughter. My mind convinced me to try my best to ignore it. After all, it was never going to end. I won't let it. I proceed on down the hall, and began climbing the steps up to Kyra's room, which served now as both my bedroom and study. As I walked in, the noise outside changed. What was once cars obeying the laws of traffic safety and small talk of political events was now only the collision of panicked vehicles and monstrous growling of creatures who were once human. Beside Kyra's bed was an iron lever I installed, and now was the right to pull on it. I gripped the cold steel of the improvised lever and pulled down with all of my strength. The exterior of my house would exchange the wooden panels for what I would call "Solar Shields", devices I invented myself that conserves solar light only to reflect and emit it back out in a blinding and scorching light. Closing the blinds, I sat on the study table besides the closet of the room. I needed to focus today on constructing something that rely's on solar energy. Sunlight was the only weapon best used against them, or at least this infected side of them. I've only ever killed one of those creatures. To correct myself, I didn't kill the creature. I murdered the carrier. I reflected on my notes in which I've written all that I know of those "things".

  Solar light fed the corpses of these "now-dead" people, keeping them satisfied and alive, almost like photosynthesis. However, when the sun is absent, the strain inside the host goes wild and gets on a rampage for it's second source of food: flesh. Nosebleeds trigger when the normal amount of sun rays affecting a host is changed, marking sunset. The nosebleed itself moves the strain to then feed on the memory of the brain, causing it to forget all events that took place after the nosebleed. Lastly, solar energy results to the host losing all abilities and enhances that the strain provides, leading to the host appearing less feral and more "human". Mr. Hicks, my neighbor, was the test of this today when he had installed light shutters onto his windows. The fool...

  Five hours ago, I went into his home, armed with a knife and a solar flashlight. The solar light was enough to cause his feral side to quickly calm down, allowing me to then murder him. I would say it was a progressive day, though I am going to miss him. I crashed my head down against the tables surface lightly. There was no way I'd be able to invent something now. I am too exhausted. I switched from sitting on my wooden study seat to resting on Kyra's blue covered twin-sized bed. I pulled out Kyra's MP3 player which I keep in my pocket, and place the earbuds within both ears. Soon, the chaos outside, the haunting groans and the decaying breaths of the dead was drowned out by albums from U2.

What a lovely night...