A Whispering Meadow

It was a dark, damp and cold night, when I first came upon the object that would change the fate of the world. I was on one my normal night walks when I came upon the shiny pebble that looked so innocent that I did not realize it was a homing beacon for the Goldans, who have now ravaged our world, PGH200, and left us all for dead. It appear that these creatures are of a parasitic nature. I could not believe my eyes when they came crashing down on a meteor, we never suspected a thing, seeing how we are close to a meteor belt we have them crashing all the time. At first it was merely a nuisance but it quickly became an infection that was well beyond out ability to control and maintain.

The creatures have slowly infested the durillium, our supply of drinking liquid that sustains us, they had avoided all of our sensors. I was one the working employees of the durillium processing plant where we purify the precious resource, which has cause many a wars. That's when it happened, the creatures had infected one the other workers who worked with me, I had no idea that he was infected or that there was an infection that was ready to unleash a fury unimaginable. Topher approached me as I was about to activate the incinerator to kill the microscopic bacterium that reside in the durillium, and attacked me from behind creating a gash that was deep and wide. I turned around to see who had struck me, the only thing I remember was seeing a shadowy figure that no longer resembled Topher, and then only blackness remained. I awoke several hours later strapped to a chair, my head surging with pain and all I can recall was being struck from behind and nothing else.

I was groggy and nauseous, when I started to look around the room, I thought I was in my office but I could not be sure, things were not as I had left them. It was then I remember that Topher was the one who had struck me, just then I saw two people arguing through my hazy door window, I could here one them was raging with anger. Then they both entered the room where I being held captive against my will, I could hardly recognize Topher. He had been mutated or disfigured beyond reason, and I wasn't sure who the other was.

They approached me and began their inquisition.
"What do you know about us?" asked the unknown.
"Let me go, I haven't done anything to you." I screamed.
"I will ask you again, what do you know about us?"
"I...I...I don't know anything" as I finished saying that, I was struck yet again in the back of my head.

I awoke several months later, and to my horror I was still trapped in that room, but something was different about it now. There was a putrid smell in the room, I searched around for the source of this stench, to my horror I saw Topher laying there. His belly was burst open covered in the same mossy goo, it appeared as if something had exited from from it. As I struggled in my chair to free myself from this prison, my hand slipped from the bounds holding them to the chair. I took another look at the room for signs of the other P45'er but it was no where to be found. I made my way out of the plant, in which a strange mossy growth had take a hold.

As I exited the building to the outside, horror and contempt took over me, I could not have ever imagined that something like this was possible. The whole world was covered in that mossy growth, and it was pulsating with a rhythmic purpose. There were dead bodies like that of Topher lay about the streets. I searched for hours and hours to find nothing, not one person was left alive, not even plant life was left surviving. It seemed that all was at a loss, when I heard sounds so familiar that I began to weep. Finally someone is out there, and I get some answers as to what happened. I stated for the direction the sounds, and as I approached the sound became deafening, I had to cover my sounders. Just as I came over the cliff that was hiding the sound generator, I saw what we feared the most, a giant weapon aimed at the planets core, this was our best weapon, and all I could do was watch in horror as this thing fired.

BOOMMM!!!!!!
Was the last sound I heard before everything went white. I must have been blown away to a great distance, because I have yet to hit the ground. Time passed and I was unable to do anything about my current predicament, I was on a piece of the planet hurtling through space, there was a shield around me, though I have no idea of where it came from. What seems like years passed when something slightly familiar came into view. It was planet that looked similar to our planet but there was lots of different hues of colors there that I did not recognize. Soon the meteor was pulled in to its gravity field and began its descent into the planet. A few minutes later I crashed in what appeared to be a dry and unused land. The shield was no longer there to protect me, and I was struck with some kind of micro-organism, because I was starting to loose my sense of balance and could not stand up anymore. Several days pass and my body had acclimated to this new environment, when I saw the mossy growth in the cracks of the piece of planet that I was on.

"Noooooooooo, this can't be happening again, I thought I was free." was all could think before some strange sounds captured my attention.

I saw some strange looking creatures, they only had two arms and two pupi. They had some strange objects in their, what I believe were hands, and they were shaking it at me. I started to speak to them and they dropped their objects to the floor, and cupped their sounders. I was shocked that my sound would do that them. I started to make gesture with my hands, but they did not recognize them. Before I could warn them they were attacked by the mossy growth. Soon after my life drained from me and I was left to die there on this strange planet, filled with strange upright walking creatures that resembled our primates.
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A Change

It was dark outside, but as I looked outside to see the storm all I saw was my own reflection; pale and horrified. what happened?... I thought to myself in dismay as I stared at my features. I had always been small; short, little eyes, little nose, little mouth.
Except for one distinguishing feature; one that had been recently added.
A huge red gash running from the corner of my eye down to my mouth. I didn't notice until then that I could not remember where it came from. I searched through my brain, thoughts ranging from playing outside on the swings to clenching an ax and swinging for my life; feeling the warm tingling sensation of blood spattering of my face with every blow. Then I recalled falling down a couple of flights of stairs earlier."Yeah, real graceful." I mindlessly said out loud. Thinking about it, I noticed how quickly the world had turned into shambles; from a place of some order to chaos. All this thinking had me severely distracted; that was a huge mistake.

I turned around, still perplexed and thinking about "life" now days and I felt evil. It was a horrible feeling, but for some reason it gave me the need to laugh. I can imagine now; seeing a petite girl standing in the middle of what used to be a crowded mall super center, dirty and bloody, laughing her head off. Creepy. Then I saw it, out of the corner of my eye, a movement in the shadows. My defense instinct kicked in and I got low to the ground and stopped breathing... and laughing like a madman. I could hear it all, the low growl of the thing that resided in the dark corners, the building creaking as it swayed in the wind, and the quiet patter of the rain outside; probably the only pure thing left in this world. If I had been more alert earlier; not thinking about stupid things that didn't matter; that had not mattered for a year now, I probably would have seen the shape of the shadow, noticed what it was and what it wasn't... but I didn't. It jumped out at me; out of training over the year I quickly drew my gun out and fired at the thing; another bad choice. It was not a "thing" at all, it was what I had seen, a shadow. A ghost. It passed through me, and I felt the evil intensify, the feeling that it gave me was more than a want to laugh, it was a want to destroy, to ruin, to kill. All feelings flooded though me, at the same time, and left just as quickly, leaving me paralyzed. The thing came back around, and stared at me with it's cold red eyes. It talked to me; but its mouth didn't move. The voice was deep and disembodied, more than scary. "Don't fire upon that which is unknown, you only start a war, bad first impression my friend. This will cost you." With that it disappeared and in its place arouse a Morfid, the things that have infested the world. I never learned much about them, I just know that they come from a meteor, as if the damage it caused wasn't enough. They invaded, they are primitive, brainless, soulless. They feed off all things with flesh, everything. If you find yourself looking one in the eye; you're dead. That is unless you get "lucky" and it just bites you, then you turn into one of them. It launched at me, still paralyzed the only thing I could do was watch. I was stunned by how fast it moved, in a fraction of a second it was on me, the next I could feel its ragged teeth sink into my head. So this is the end... I thought. With that I slipped into the darkness of oblivion.

I woke up on the cold floor, in a room that looked hardly familiar. What in the world...? I got up and was immediately disoriented; blood rushed to my head and I almost fell over. As I stumbled across the floor, I heard a loud crack and my foot stepped on something smooth, a mirror. I instinctively looked down and was mortified at what I saw. I saw me, of course, but different. Changed. I could tell mostly from my eyes; they had red rings on the soft skin that lined the corners of my pupils. Out of instinct I raised my hand to touch them, and all I felt was pain, it was terrible. In unexplainable fear I ran out of the building, and was hit by the blinding rays of the sun, something I had not seen in weeks. I hissed because I was not used to the light, but I immediately giggled at the fact that I had actually hissed at the presence of the sun. I had an indescribable urge to skip down the street, to sing, and to dance, and to destroy everything in my path. "Whoa," I thought, "where did that last thought come from?" I shrugged it off and ran through the destroyed ruins of what used to be Berlin, and smiled the whole way, like a child running to gamestop on their birthday with a hundred dollars beaming to buy their first game for their new X-box. Then I stopped dead in my tracks; there was a bench in my way. I grinned, "So what will I do with you?" I said out loud. The next few moments were life changing. I was only a witness, I felt it happening but I could not control it. I reached down and grabbed the bench in front of me. It only took a little flick of my wrist; suddenly the bench was ripped out of the ground (it was screwed down to the solid concrete) and it was flying through the air. I should have been like "hahaha, OH MY GOD, THIS RULES," but instead I was horrified; I stared at the gaping hole left in the ground where the bench used to be, and everything came rushing back. The night before, I remembered it all. It bit me, the thing bit me, I'm changing. I'm dying. It bit me... it bit me... it bit me...I'm going to die..... was all I could think. I remembered what my friend had told me before he died (he was bitten as well, this was back when the infestation was not out of control) he had said "Listen, the doctors told me... this thing, it destroys the brain, it takes over, it needs a host." he laughed, "It's almost the way they breed, like flies... When they disconnect me, its not me that they are killing, I'm already dead. I can feel it, I'm loosing who I am.... Just don't try to stop them or whatever, because I know how you are and you would probably sue them and charge them for murder or something." With that I could see the change. He suddenly lurched at me, driven by a force unknown. I was struck with "good luck," because in that instant he pulled away the cords that were keeping him alive and he stopped dead, literally. I remember that day, as I walked out of the hospital in a daze, I remembered the fear, thinking "What is going to happen? They can't keep this under control, what happens when they take over?" I was completely right. Shortly after everything in the world, every powerful country, was over run with the disease/infection/invasion/phenomenon. The earth was destroyed from the inside. Not a single thing good lasted.
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