The Risen

Chapter One

Hello, and thanks for clicking on this novel :). It's worth noting that this books original story is based off of a minecraft web series that I created that shares the same name. This is a heavily adapted version of it, that only really keeps the key events and characters. We added tons of characters, and events and conflicts into this book. But this is why the main character and I share the same name. Because that was the character I played, (he and I have very little in common by the way) and please let me know about any spelling or grammar mistakes along the way.

Enjoy!

Act I:Fort Black

A New World

Jayce Slade

I yawned as I rolled out of bed, what was today? Thursday? Ugh, at least I didn't have to go into school today. I was twenty seven years old, single, in the later schooling of becoming a lawyer, and living with my brother, was it a great life? No, but I was happy. I threw on a pair of jeans, a plain white no sleeve shirt. and walked out of my room into the living room/kitchen of our apartment, My younger brother Ryder and I live in a two bedroom single floor building in Central City right across from the market. my Dad is friends with the owner, Jack Turner, Dad got a discount on it for us. I stuck in two pieces of toast in the toaster. and pull out the peanut butter from the cabinet. I check my brass watch, its 10am. I slept in something crazy.

Tomorrow, Ryder and I are leaving to go to visit Mom and Dad at the ranch, its been so long since I've visited the ranch that we grew up on, I wonder if Skipper, my childhood pet horse is still as fast as he was when I was little. Plus it'd be good to see Cassi again our younger sister, it's been several months since I last seen her. She is living on the other side of Central City, with her Fiance Patrick. Nice enough guy, and I imagine he'll also be coming for this little family get together tomorrow

After I finished my toast and grabbed the vacuum from the closet I begin to clean the place up before Ryder got home, Ryder was twenty four and training to become a police officer. When I entered his room to vacuum, his carpet I notice that his bed was unmade, which is usual, but what was weird was his wallet was still on his dresser next to his bed. I turned off the vacuum and walked over to his dresser and decided to try calling Ryder's cell. I pulled out my phone and clicked his contact on my phone. I got a NO CELL SERVICE notification pop up, I shrugged it off. It was probably nothing, I looked back at Ryder's wallet' his credit card, debt card and drivers licence was all in his wallet. Where would he go without these things? Unless one of his crazy exes showed up at the door, "maybe I should call the cops" I laughed.

I decided to walk out into the market to get better cell reception. it's a Thursday morning as on any other morning I would bump into someone within seconds, but when I stopped and looked around I saw, nobody, I mean most people would be working so the market isn't to packed. But there was nobody in the entire market, all the stands were open, but nobody was attending them, there wasn't even a car on the main road. Did I just walk out at a bad time?      

I stood there and waited. 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes, a hour. Nobody. I was scared at this point, I shouted "WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYBODY!" I started having wild thoughts, I could steal everything, I could smash windows and steal things, be rich. the wild thoughts were quickly out weighed by fear, no, something was seriously wrong, maybe I should call the cops.

I dialed 9-1-1 on my phone, and again I got a "No Cell Reception" Notification popping up on my screen, This wasn't normal. That much I knew for sure.

I ran back inside my house and flicked on the TV, I changed to the news channel, and the time said it was Wednesday March 21st. I could've sworn that was yesterday. I was right, along the bottom of the screen it said "This is a recording", Why did they shut down the news? Where was everyone? Why did the Cell service not work? Was this some sort of sick prank? Everything was fine yesterday. What the actual fuck could've happened in less then a day. Suddenly the power went out, I jumped in shock and panic took over. This was bad, this was very bad.

I was pacing in the apartment, I had to find Ryder. There was nothing else I could do, When Ryder became my roommate I made it a mission of mine to keep him safe, not that he needed it. He was more capable of handling himself that I was, but still it's what older brothers do. "Okay." I thought out loud "Let's take a look around the market, see if we find anybody" I thought out loud.

Maybe this was some sort of infection, or maybe we were going to war with another country, I did live on the outer parts of Central City, so it's quite possible for them to have evacuated this part overnight and maybe they didn't find me? No but Ryder would've gotten me. None of this is adding up yet. I decided to walk out into the market. I started by checking over the counters of the stands and looking through the windows of the restaurants. I tripped over a stack of boxes. When I wiped the dirt off my jeans and stood up I realized that the streets look...abandoned, as if the people weren't able to pack up for the day and go home, almost as if they were forced to leave.

This sight secured my theory even more. I was truly alone.

That's when I hard a moan of a man behind me, maybe I wasn't alone after all. I was filled with hope as I turned to see a man struggling to get out under a pile of heavy boxes. I ran over to the pile of heavy boxes and started throwing them off of him. 

"Sir, don't worry I'll get you out of there." I spoke tossing the boxes aside one by one. I started asking questions while digging him out like "What happened here?" "Where is everyone?" The Man continued to moan, was in injured?

"Sir, are you alright?" I asked, he didn't answer.

When I got down to the last few boxes I breathed in heavily and coughed out a awful smell, it was like rotten eggs, cow dung and mold. This man stunk something fierce. That's when I saw his face, it was dry and pale, his eyes were almost yellow. He looked like he was living on the street for a week and then died in a ditch somewhere. 

Sadly what I learned was he probably did die in a ditch.        

The Man lunged me and tried to bite me, he was clawing at me as he made a hissing noise as he crawled out from the boxes to attack me. I jumped back still on the ground.

"Sir! Jesus! What are you doing!" I shouted in fear.

I got to my feet and backed up. The Man stumbled up to his feet and started walking towards me. He dragged one of his ankles as he walked. The dragging ankle was clearly broken badly, this was stopping the man from jumping at me.

 I backed up onto the door to my apartment, and ran inside,  I slammed the door and locked it behind me.

I smelled him coming up the path, moaning, the moaning was awful. I heard the loud Thump of him attacking my door, he was pushing his body against it trying to break it down. I had to act quick. it was him or me, something took over me. 

I rolled the carpet up next to the front door, and opened a trap door. This was Ryder's stash of random items he didn't want people to have access too. They weren't drugs or anything, mainly survival items. Inside the secret trap door was a couple thousand dollars, A Map of Central City and the surrounding area, a loaded five seven handgun, along with a small box of ammo, and a small viking like sword that our parents bought us as a joke for Ryder's birthday last year

I lifted the small viking sword defensively and spoke loud and clearly "Sir, Leave Now!" the Man acted as he didn't hear me and continued to bang on the door, after a few moments the door was forced open, and the man stumbled towards me again, his mouth opening and closing. His yellow eyes were almost animal like, not human. 

I yelled at the man "Sir, I don't want to hurt you!" The man limped towards me with his dead eyes, drooling mouth and arms out to grab and claw me. In one motion I stabbed the man with my sword right in the chest, but the man tackled me as if he didn't even notice. I was on the ground crying, trying to keep the man's mouth and teeth away from my body. The sword was stuck straight through the man's chest. He didn't even seem to feel the sword in his chest, what the hell was wrong with him?

I muttered under my breath. "Screw it." I threw the man off me, and crawled over to the trapdoor where I pulled out Ryder's five seven handgun and while on my knees I pointed it at the man's head. "Sir, last chance!" I spoke. He struggled to stand up, moaned again then right before he tried to jump me I pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The man was on the ground, dead.

I was a murderer.