Undead King

Chapter 1

10 years ago I woke up in a back alley in some city I didn't recognize. I couldn't remember who I was or anything else really. What I do know is I wasn't alone in that alley. There was a man and a woman there too. They looked like they were in their mid-twenties and at first glance seemed to be making out. Unfortunately I got more than a single glance.

The young man was tearing the woman's throat out with his teeth. The fronts of their shirts were drenched in her blood. That didn't seem to deter him though, if anything it seemed to encourage him to be even more vicious. All I could do was sit there in horror for what seemed like hours. Eventually he lost interest in what was left of her upper body and let go. She fell like a sack of bricks and I got a front row seat to the psychos handy work.

The flesh around her jaw, throat, chest, and shoulders were thoroughly shredded and mangled. I was surprised her head was still attached there was so much muscle gone. Her jaw wasn't ever attached on one side anymore. The chest and shoulder wounds weren't much better. They resembles half eaten, super bloody, roughly ground hamburger. The horrendous appearance made me gasp, which to my despair caught the man's attention.

When he turned around I noticed two things immediately. First his eyes were completely blood shot and lacked focus, almost like he had 2 glass eyes. The second thing I noticed was a large looking knife sticking out of his chest, right where his heart should have been.

This was my first encounter with one of the undead, and it happens to be my first memory. I thought I was gonna die that day, but the creature just went about its business. I sat there watching it shamble away while trying to understand why it hadn't attacked me. After a handful of minutes I stood up guessing it had eaten its fill already. As I turned in the opposite direction I heard a shuffling noise from the lady's body.

To my disgust and horror, she was slowly but surely getting back up. I was paralyzed with fear, all I could do was stand there in disbelief as she got to her feet. When she was finally standing I released my breath. I hadn't even realized I had been holding it. It made a small noise when I exhaled though, and while it was quiet it might as well have been a scream in the silent alleyway.

Her head snapped towards me much faster than what should have been possible for someone missing that much tissue. She looked at me and I noticed that her eyes looked like the guys now, Bloodshot and lifeless. Her jaw swayed slightly, dripping blood every few seconds. Much to my confusion however, she turned away from me and walked off in the same direction as her killer.

The moment she rounded a corner and left my sight, it felt like a spell I was under broke and I was able to move again. Since that day I've learned that not only do they treat me like one of their own, but like a leader.

They obey nearly every command I give them without question or hesitation. The only time they ignore my commands is when it's something they simply can't do. I once told a group of them to fly and they promptly ignored me. Telling them to backflip was interesting though, most just jumped onto their backs while a few ignored me.

During this time I learned to avoid people outside of safe zones and towns. While most were harmless many weren't. Bandits and marauders are pretty commonplace in and around the city. Those known as marauders were far more dangerous than bandits. Bandits would just steal your stuff and maybe kill you in the process. Marauders would steal you and your stuff. Race, gender, and age didn't matter. Women are often kept as slaves while men are used for entertainment.

One gang had erected a gladiator pit where "champions" would be sent in unarmed and told to face a horde the creators had managed to trap. They would then bet on how long the victim would last, and how many he would take out with him. Death was often swift and a few even managed to kill one of the moving corpses. Unfortunately for the "gladiator" it was always in vain, as they would soon become a replacement the one they had just removed.

Safe zones were less violent but not much safer. Corruption was common and while the undead and known criminals were kept out that doesn't mean you could let you're guard down. From the free I've visited I learned that everyone called the sudden appearance of the undead The Event. I've also learned that the the city I woke up in was known as Kramble. Most people avoid it since rumor says it's the source of the infection but aside from the unusually high number of undead there I haven't found any real proof.

I've been hanging around the settlement known as Sharmlen for roughly a month now. Some may call it an After Event City, but really it's little more that a small town. Most of the buildings are wooden, though a few are brick and mortar. There are a couple concrete and metal structures but their just the town's panic rooms incase the outer walls are become over run.

There is no prison here, like most places it seems. Rather than collecting all the sneakiest and most dangerous people under the same roof, they've chosen the Trinity System. I could go into further detail, but it's pretty boring. All you need to know is everyone is either forgiven, banished, or killed under this system.

Sharmlen is roughly a 4 day walk to the northern side of Kramble. Despite the relatively short distance between them, the weather is drastically different. Whereas Kramble tends to be quite temperate year round, this place is always covered in snow except in the dead of summer.

The settlement used to be twice as large, but a few years ago the leaders made a big mistake. They tried to rush an expansion project and ended up getting half of the town overrun. Its kinda funny how they tried to expand and ended up losing a large portion of the city. Now it's walled off and the rest of the expansion money went into fortifying what was left.

"Last call! Drink up and get out!"

I glance out the frosted windows of the tavern and see the daylight is starting to fade. Seems like I lost track of the time. I toss a couple of coins onto the grimy counter and start to head for the door.

"Hey buddy. You forgot to tip." An expecting voice says behind me.

Without stopping or turning I say behind me "You want a tip? Water and a rag work wonders for cleaning a bar."

"Why you son of a-"

The rest gets cut off by the closing door but I can imagine what he wanted to say.
I should get moving, the sun will be soon and I still haven't found what I came here for.

I don't like staying inside the walls past sundown since I don't actually live in town, and like most places there's a curfew.

Now you might be thinking "wait wouldn't it be easier to sneak around in the darkness at night?". Well instead of it being easier to sneak out during night time it's actually harder. It seems counter-intuitive I know, but its just as hard for me to see as it is for the guards. The guards, unlike me, however have flashlights, search lights, and more importantly, numbers.

The number of guards at night quadruples to make up for the lack of sight, and every fourth guard has a flashlight. So while it's easier to hide at night, its harder to sneak about when you need to move quietly through a bunch of rubble, broken glass, and loose trash with a small army looking in your general direction.

And to make things worse nearly every wall around the city has 3 guard towers each with its own search light, generator, and mounted machine gun. If one of those lights catches you, you can kiss your rump goodbye. The guards in the towers don't care what or who you are. If it moves outside the walls at night and isn't wearing a guard uniform, it gets a healthy diet of bullets and arrows until it stops moving. Thankfully the towers facing the lost wards were badly planned. They look like they are strategically placed, but in the rush to secure the wall they failed to realize just how many blind spots there are.

The rest of the town is about as haphazardly set up as the western wall. That taverns cleanliness is pretty much the standard for this place. Just clean enough to just pass any general inspection with a small bribe. Most taverns and inns are located on the south side while homes and restaurants are lined along the eastern and northern walls. The Town Hall and Barracks are located along the lost wards' wall. Various shops and businesses are scattered throughout the center.

Seems even an undead scourge can't get rid of the class system. The lower class tends to closer to the eastern wall or out on their farms. Many middle class live above their shops and restaurants, while the high class live in overpriced homes near the northern wall, or by the town hall. However that's enough about the city and its set up for now. We've managed to reach the city's center. The mess of buildings known as the the market place.