The Earth's Unknown

Prologue - Beginnings

In 2015, the Comet fell.

At 15 kilometers per second, it fell with an unknown might. It struck the Earth at exactly 12:02 A.M. on Tuesday, April 7th. It hit the Atlantic Ocean, burning it's way through the ocean, its inhabitants, and burying itself deep into the ocean floor. The comet's diameter was measured at about 40 kilometers, on of the largest on records. Its tail was around 600 million kilometers, and dark, blood red.

The hurling comet about to change the face of the planet was not the worst thing that happened that day. It was the things that came from it that really changed Earth, and not for the better. The comet completely destroyed the Earth's climate and O-Zone. For weeks we dealt with the constant weather changes. Intense heat one day, horrid acid rain the next, and then a day of ice. Constantly, things changed. No one could predict the weather anymore, not even the most high-tech systems could plot out the outrageous cycle the weather was forced into. Since the comet, none can go outside for extended periods of time because of the harmful rays that they were now fully exposed to. Dark visors and skin protection was required to even walk short distances. Without those things, your eyes would burn and your skin would boil from the rays. But even all of this, the severe weather issues, the destroying rays and the dwindling resources, was not the factor that caused the apocalyptic state the planet is currently in.

It was the Curse. The Curse brought on by the comet.

This curse didn't have a name. We just called it the Curse. This wasn't one of those curses like are received to those whom disturb a Pharaohs tomb. Those curses are myth, and only afflict the naive and gullible. No, this wasn't one of those curses. This was a real curse. The day the comet hit, exactly 4 minutes after impact, people whom were near, (those who were not blinded by said impact, that is.) reported seeing a strange black mist rise from it. Everybody shrugged it off like it as ash or dirt. Just bits of the sea floor.

That was not the case. 

This "mist" was the Curse, emanating from the burning rock. For one day it searched the sky the Earth as a sentient being. The Curse attached itself to any weak soul it could find and infested it. The Curse turned these people into monsters. It gave them strange, almost tribal, markings all around their faces. It turned their eyes black as coal. The Curse made them powerful, and bloodthirsty. The Curse thrived from violence. It controlled the mind of its host and commanded the host to kill. Most would develop strength and speed to a factor that allowed them to chase most anything down and rip it apart. The more the hosts, or as we call them the "Harrowed" or the "Suffered," killed, the more the Curse spread. At a point near death, black mist would exit the Harrow's mouth down the mouth of the victims. Here it would consume the body, take over the mind, and have another puppet. The Curse spread quickly. Two days AI (After Impact) most of the world had been infected. First the curse took over the weak of heart. These people were the best subjects for the evil to take root in. Then it started to hunt for more. This is what destroyed the world.

Now, there are only a few humans left. Some people have fled to hidden sanctuaries where the Harrowed cannot reach. Though still many are being killed and turned everyday when they leave these sanctuaries.

There are some who hope that one day the Earth will be purged from the Curse and everyone who is not dead will return to normal. Sometimes miracles do happen, and for a catastrophe of this extant, we'll need one. Rumors have arisen that some whom were infected on Day One weren't changed. They were resistant. Maybe the key lies in one of them, if they even exist.  

The darkness is here. It came. And we weren't ready. Now, we can only hope that we can find the light. Darkness swallows, and light purges. And the light is just the one thing we can't find in this dark world. This is all we ask: Where has the light gone?