Chapter One: The beginnings of a strange new world

Sirios woke with a start, a pain exploding behind his eyes in waves, threating to take him back into the darkness that was unconsciousness. He narrowed his eyes to the bright sun overhead which didn't help seem to his throbbing skull. Thoughts flashed through his brain at a rapid speed making it hard for him to even think about where he could possibly be right now. He presses two fingers to each of his fingers and slowly rubbed them in a counter-clockwise motion in attempt to get the unbearable pain under control. Slowly, he felt the pain subside and his thoughts became more correlated and linear. Once the pain had died down a feasible amount, the first thing that registered in his mind was that he was on the ground sitting on his back. He slowly ran his hands through the lush grass below him. How had he gotten here? Sirios sat up, too quickly he may add, and was immediately hit by the horrible feeling of nausea. He collapsed and fell backwards looking back, once again, at the blinding sun overhead.

"Just where the hell am I?" his voice came out raspy and dry as though he hadn't had a drink in ages.

He turned his head and carefully examined his surroundings. He was surrounded by a lush green forest, peppered with trees. Sirios automatically knew that he wasn't back home in London. The climate was too warm and the trees too numerous. Sirios felt the nausea recede and gave a deep breath, glad that he would not taste what he had eaten for breakfast a second time in a more…unsightly manor. He sat up at a leisurely pace and got a better look at his surroundings. Directly ahead showed him nothing but, the vast expanse of the forest he currently resided. Behind him the forest seemed to continue but, his eyes were too weak I to see that far. His eyes… Sirios reached for his face in panic realizing that his glasses were missing. He felt something inside his pocket and quickly fished it out, not expecting what he found. He turned what appeared to be a fairly large, touchscreen phone in his hands. He was slightly puzzled taking into account that his own cell phone was like this but smaller and with a gold trim around it. This one was simply black without a hint of uniqueness about it. Sirios felt around the edge of the "cellphone", his dim eyesight heightening his other senses, as he searched for some way to turn it on. His heart gave a leap of joy as he felt a small protrusion. As he clicked it, the backlight illuminated the phone's display. Several icon arranged themselves on screen but, none of them were of those he recognized.

"Inventory?" he muttered scrolling through the icons. "Crafting? Chat? What is this thing going on about?"

As if on cue, the "Chat" icon highlighted itself. He quickly scrolled to it and tapped the small speech bubble picture. The screen shifted and five simple words appeared:

"Find Shelter before the Night."

Had he written that as a reminder? Sirios mind raced as he tried to make sense of the message.

'Why do I have to take shelter?' he thought looking around. 'Sure, I don't like being alone in the dark but, why would I need to take shelter?'

He did not know who or what had made this message but, something in the pit of his stomach warned him that this message was urgent and crucial to follow. Sirios rose to his feet and took a glance at the sun. It had move slightly from its original place high in the sky and sunken confirming that it was significantly later in the day. Sirios took one more glance back at the phone's screen which had now turned black, the message he received still echoing in his mind:

"Find Shelter before the Night."

Sirios had traveled what felt like several miles before he finally declared himself lost. He had no idea where he was heading and had no possible way of finding out…or did he? He pulled out his phone and clicked it on. He quickly scrolled through the icons finding a small icon resembling a map. He tapped it and a vibrant and incredibly detailed map appeared on the screen. He looked at the small red triangle, which he knew to be himself, and examined the area around him. From what he saw, he appeared to be in some sort of forested area that extended for what he could only amount to as miles, before gradually transitioning into what appeared to be a desert.

'Last I checked,' Sirios thought walking in the direction of the desert. 'Deserts don't naturally occur so close to the forest.' He did a quick 360. 'Unless this is some sort of massive oasis…which is…doubtful to say the least.'

Sirios continued to trudge onward towards the strange wilderness when something caught his eye. Turning, he saw what appeared to be a large hole leading down into the earth. He wandered over in its direction and peered down into the large, dark abyss feeling the unwelcome chill of the depths below. As he stood close to the cave, he could here what sounded to be…moaning? As he prepared to inspect closer he threw himself back away from the hole as a zombie appeared from the darkness. He scrambled away and prepared to fight as the zombie found its way above ground, slowly making its way towards the startled boy. The white haired boy lifted himself off ground and raised his fist, preparing for a fight. He'd been trained in hand-to-hand combat in the past. While he wasn't great at it, he knew he could put up a hell of a fight. Before the zombie got close to him, it passed through a ray of sunlight that radiated through the canopy. Instantly, the zombie ignited and gave out grunts of pain as it desperately made its way to his location. Once he was sure the zombie was in his range, he lashed out with three quick punch, knocking the zombie down and incapacitating his foe. Sirios exhaled and lowered his guard.

'Zombies…really,' he thought looking checking his surrounding for more trouble. 'What the hell kind of world is this? Christ, I hope this isn't some sort of bleeding post-apocalyptic world.'

He looked back at the remnants of the zombie that was now starting to dissolve, much to the boy's disgust. As he looked at the corpse something that had happened earlier was played back in his head.

"Why did that zombie catch fire light that?" he looked up at the ray of light beaming down through the treetops. "Is sunlight that harmful to them?"

"Apparently."

Sirios gave a strangled cry before spinning around with fist raised. He lowered his guard slightly when he realized a strange girl with green hair and hazel eyes had snuck up on him.

"State your purpose!" Sirios demanded the mysterious girl. "Don't come any closer before you do. Do so and you'll regret it."

The green haired girl giggled and gave him a coy smile. "Calm down guy. I'm not here to hurt you rather, I'm actually here to protect you from my kinsman." She took a quick glance behind me. "It seems as though you might not need my protection after all."

"Your kinsman?"

She pointed to the spot where the zombie had once been. "Yeah, that zombie and all the rest of them are related to me somehow. Not when they were alive thank god. My family would have been massive if that were the case."

Sirios tensed up. "So basically what you're telling me is that: you're a bloody zombie, and you want to help me?"

She smiled and twirled her finger in the air. "Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! The prize happens to be that you'll get to survive the night. Now you can take it or," she motioned the white haired boy in her direction, "you can sit out here and face the horde tonight when the sun goes down. You're choice Whitety, take it or leave it."

Sirios hesitated. This strange girl didn't seem to raise any warning flags in his mind but, something about her seemed too…trustworthy. His mind raced but, all in all came to one final conclusion.

"Sure," he said with a hint of suspiciousness in his voice. "I'll follow you. Just…don't try and deceive me. I've been known to see past a clever guise."

The zombie girl smiled. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not like that rude relative of mine that attacked you earlier. Besides, if I wanted to kill you I would have done it a while ago. Now enough talking, we've got to find us some shelter! The sun won't wait for us you know!"