When the Sun Fell

Chapter 1 - Someone to rely on

Joel

A year ago, sitting alone at a rustic wooden table and staring at the dead, brown leaves of an abandoned tomato plant wouldn't have been how I would plan to spend my mornings. But there was nothing else to do anymore. You could either sit idle and hope for the best, or fight and risk everything you had.

The world I lived in had turned to shit in a total of 7 days. 7 days, and 7 plagues. In my year of experience in the full-blown apocalypse, I had only seen glimpses of the plagues, their victims already turned to husks of a human shell before I was aware enough to grab sense of reality. My gruesome, horrible reality.

I may not have had much experience with the plagues, but I was still intrigued by the suddenness of it all. Something was working it's way through the arteries and veins of the Infected, and I wanted to know what it was. Unfortunately I wasn't very inclined to leave the penthouse I had called home for the last year, and any hopes of mine for research into these plights were currently at a standstill. I wouldn't be surprised if they stayed that way for a while, either. How was a sixteen year old girl supposed to find the cure to a plague that had stumped even the smartest of us? I was hopeless. However, the younger version of me had decided to create a list of the 7 evil things that brought our world to dust. I kept it with me, maybe I would find a use for it at some point. But for now, I used it as a reference guide, almost a game to see what plague had rid each corpse of it's soul. I read it every morning, almost religiously to try and hold on to what small amount of information I could keep with me.

F57 (Conjestion)

Clogs head, forcing blood to collect in veins. Causes major headaches, sore throat, and swelling of the eyes and lips. Those affected will begin to go crazy, eventually killing themselves or dying naturally.

F93 (Firestuck)

Rises body temperatures violently, eventually boiling blood. Causes red skin, unexplained burns, and dehydration. Once asleep, victim will not wake up.

F62 (Famine)

Victim will feel extremely hungry, but not able to eat. Causes stomach pains, diarrhea, and vomiting. Victim will typically starve to death at a faster pace than normal.

F19 (Calenitis)

Seems like an ordinary cough, although it will take only a small portion of time before the victim will start coughing up organs, and drown on the inside.

F27 (Atoltitis)

Victim will become accident prone, losing brain cells quickly. Once they reach less than 50% of their original brain cells, victim will go crazy, destroying everything around them, and slowly start to die.

F43 (Fleshburn)

Victim's skin will turn from shades of red to purple, experiencing unexplained bruises and rashes. Victim will scratch skin uncontrollably until skin begins to bleed, and will keep scratching until killed, death by loss of blood, or suicide.

F109 (Murder)

Similar to the Bubonic Plague, the victim will begin to rot from the inside, aquiring large black lumps on their arms or legs. Once all utilisation of the limbs have been lost, typically within 3-5 days of exposure, the victim will fall to the ground, dead.

Reading the list a second time over, the growling of my stomach told me not-so-subtly it was time to go find some food. At this point, it had been about a year since the apocalypse started, and I was getting pretty bored of my surroundings. Maybe it was time to scope out a new living space. For an apocalypse girl, I had been pretty spoiled living by myself in this penthouse. There was a huge pantry filled to the brim with non perishables, but those cans had run dry and it was time for me to embrace the fact that things would probably never be the same again.

Taking my green backpack from its rest on the red-stained marble countertop, I felt prepared to go out and gather supplies. This was a silly assumption. I had hardly stepped out all year. Nonetheless, I took my father's pistol, which he had left behind when him, my mother, and my little sister left for an isolated island where no one had been infected yet. In truth, I didn't know if they were alive. I couldn't bother myself with details like that right now though, my food supply was running low and I finally felt ready to face the world in all it's horrifying glory. I grabbed my sack of ammo and a few other necessities, like the pocket knife I'd owned for nearly five years and a bottle of water. I pulled my blonde hair up into a ponytail and began walking down the empty hallway, catching my own eye and turning to face my reflection in a mirror. A small scar ran over my eyebrow, hidden by overgrown bangs. My grey eyes still had a tint of warmth to them, and my pale skin mostly unfazed by the apocalypse. I had managed to mostly survive in the penthouse of our building. I was, and always will be, a city girl, and I was in no way willing to leave my small modern sanctuary unless I was in danger. This time, starvation threatened my survival. However I had no idea if I would ever make it back here again. So I whispered a small good-bye to the apocalypse-stained walls before turning to the door.

"Shiska! Come!" I called. My malamute came running up to me, excited to go. Tonight while I was out, I would scope out another space for us to live. It was too dangerous to stay in one place too long, and oh boy how I had been pushing that rule. We climbed down the stairs of the old, run down apartment building. I carefully took a step out the door, ready for anything I thought, but obviously I was mistaken. A slight movement in the distance that later turned out to be a leaf blown by the wind scared the shit out of me and I instantly retreated. Flattening myself against the wallpaper, I took a few deap breaths before stepping out again.

Shiska waited behind me for me to walk out first. I sighed and closed my eyes as the wind hit me. I was feeling a bit better about it when all of a sudden a dirty, well-prepared girl about my age rolled in from the bushes and pointed a rifle at my head. Then she dropped it, along with her bottom jaw, and ran up and hugged me. I stood in shock for a moment, until I realized what was going on.

"Lauren!" I shouted. "I had no idea you were still alive! Oh this is great!"

"I didn't know you were alive either! Where are your parents? Is Shiska still alive?"

"Yes, Shiska is fine. Her and I are headed out to scope out a new living estate, if you know what I mean," I said jokingly, avoiding the first question. "Any of your family still alive?" I asked.

"No. Came home a few months ago not being able to find any of them, leave my sister who had caught Fleshburn. I put her out of her misery before she got in... the Plight." she said, a sad look in her eyes. The Plight was the state that the Infected fell into after drastic mesures of sickness had overtaken their bodies. They would become pale and slim, much so that ribs and joints were visible through the skin. If you were to cut one open, you would find no blood, beating heart, or tensing muscles. The Shades, as we called them, would be filled to the brim with green liquid, a texture like that of tar. Somehow, this pus managed to keep the body functioning, the only real organ used was the brain. Thus, the most efficient way to kill a Shade would be to put a bullet, or blade, throught it's head. I stepped towards her and gave her what I hoped was a comforting hug, but I hadn't had any human interaction since a few weeks ago when a looter came to steal from me. He met an unfortunate end though, and I wasn't able to use my bathroom again for anything, the smell of decay coming from the bathtub was too strong.

Lauren nodded at me, as if saying she understood my interaction predicament, and after a few more spoken words of planning and sympathy, we took off, Shiska close behind.

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A/N
This is my first book on Wattpad, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading the first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!

If you like the story so far, a little tap on the star at the bottom of your screen would be really nice!