June, 2048. The corporations had succeeded in finally controlling the world population. The ruling elite had developed this… pathogen. It literally killed off anyone that didn't have a specific gene. They released it, effectively eliminating thirty eight percent of the world population. But the pathogen had an unaccounted for side effect.
Before the pathogen was release that August, the amount of people on Earth was nearing nine billion. Within months of the release, the world suffered a crippling blow. Yes, thirty eight percent of the human population died off. But so did most of the plants, animals and all around general planet.
By July of 2050, only three hundred fifty thousand humans remained. Most of them had a dog of cat with them. Or as they called it, emergency rations. The planet was essentially dead. Anywhere away from the oceans was badlands. Chalky, crumbling soil that was devoid of even bacterial life. And the sad thing was…
I Survived.
My wife and children were taken by the sickness. Followed closely by my mother and father. Then, as I watched helplessly; my friends, co-workers… Hell, even the guy that made my coffee died.
I was alone. No one, no thing. Only the dust and the quiet. Normally claustrophobia inducing L.A was suddenly lonely. I fell into a deep depression. I contemplated suicidefor days on end. But I never went through with it. Then insanity set in.
One night, a sound ripped me from my sleep, about five months after the pathogen had been released. I sat in the bed, listening. When it happened again it sounded like something was rummaging through the cabinets downstairs. This had happened before, turning out to be stray dogs or cats. I grabbed the ball bat I had found, ready to chase it off. Heading down stairs I saw a shadow in the moon light through my window. It was shaped like a human. When I rounded the corner I came upon my wife and oldest son.
May 6th, 2051
Location: Abandoned military base in Oklahoma…
There was a man, his face covered from the dust and his head shielded from the sun by a shemagh. He carried a book in one hand, open and reading aloud. In a voice that would have made any southern Baptist jealous, he preached. "The Lord is my shepherd! I shall not be in want-ah! He makes me lie down in green pastures-ah. He Leads me-ah! Beside quiet waters-ah. He restores-ah! My immortal soul-ah! He guides me in paths-ah, of, righteousness-ah, for his name's sake-ah." Another figure approached, this one hunched and sickly. "For though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death! I shall fear no evil!" He drew a side arm and fired into the hunched figures head. Holstering the sidearm and uncovering his head, he bent over and examined the corpse. "For I am the badest mother fucker on the face of this planet." He flipped the rotted body over on its back and rummaged in its shirt for something. Withdrawing and removing a set of dog tags, he looked down at the mangled body. "Isn't that right, Derek?" He stood up and wrapped the tags around his wrist with the others, a seemingly solid band of stainless steel formed nearly to his elbow. Checking the dead soldiers body, he found a Colt 1911. 'Ooh, lucky me.' The man thought to himself. He snatched the soldiers magazines, emptied the chamber of the pistol. 'Forty-two extra rounds.' He chuckled to himself from the mental reference. "Hmm…" he said into the wind and dust of the incoming storm. "Maybe today isn't going to be so unlucky after all." He turned back towards the structures of the base, dark outlines in the whipping dust. 'What hopes do you hold…' He thought to himself.
Location: Sub-Basement 9.
The elevator descended further into the earth, the security panel hanging open by a solitary screw. "Thought they'd know better…" he mumbled to himself. Reaching in a pocket on his vest, he felt around a little, looking up at a security camera in the ceiling of the elevator. He pulled out a digital voice recorder, closing the pocket. Keying the record button, he began. " Eric Johnson. Year one, month five, day six. post rising. I've entered the military compound I scouted out yesterday. Seems that the Lazarus are only outside the structures. I'm currently heading to the lowest level of the facility, maybe there is a way to fix all of…" He waved his hand about, "…this, and return a sliver of live to this world." Eric keyed off the recorder and returned it to its pocket. "Gonna have to venture into town if there aren't any watch batteries here." He mumbled to himself, scratching his head and looking all together quite strange. He fidgeted slightly, shifting his weight left and right on his feet. "I hate town… so many Lazarus… wastes ammo, time… gotta save time. Its running out…" he kept mumbling to him self as the elevator dinged, signaling its descent from sub-level eight to sub-level nine.
Sighing, Eric pulled both of his pistols in succession checking the round count in each clip and cycling the chamber. Next he fit a magazine in his M4A1 assault rifle. "Ok, all set…" he muttered under his breath. He fit the butt stock in the crook of his shoulder, bringing the rifle forward so he could fire first if he needed to. When the elevator doors opened he brought his rifle up to the front. Preparing to fire on anything that seemed a threat. He keyed the rail mounted flashlight, scanning across the room. There were several computers, a couple of bookshelves and file cabinets, and a pane of glass against the far left wall. Carefully, slowly, he moved out of the elevator. "Here kitty, kitty. I got a treat for you…" he called softly in a singsong voice. "Come out, come out where ever you are."
Keeping a tight grip on his rifle, Eric reached out and opened the drawers to the file cabinets. 'Empty…' he thought, un-surprised. He turned to face the computers. Each one he passed, he pressed the power button. The last one began to boot. 'A Unix mainframe…' he noticed once it finished. He knelt down in front of it, typing rapidly, searching the database for anything useful towards a cure. He stopped searching on the first inked document he pulled up, a shadow of a thought influencing him. He typed in commands rapidly, trying to find user names and bypassing security protocols as they appeared. Quickly, he found the fruit in the preverbal tree of knowledge. Only one golden apple was left, and it was actively growing. "Where are you, you worm?" he asked no one. Upon accessing a supervisory file, he found the user was next to him. "Ah!" he exclaimed joyously. Running up to the Lexan window he shouted "Hey! You there! I'm human!" The disheveled scientist jumped out of his seat and fell on the floor, scrabbling back towards the other wall in fright. "Don't worry," stated Eric. "I'm alive. Hey! You should let me in!" he reassured and suggested almost simultaneously. "I can help!" the scientist shook his head desperately.
"Aww… Please?" Eric pleaded innocently. The scientist stood up, over his fit of surprise. He walked over to the window and keyed his Mic.
"Who are you?" the man in the lab coat demanded. Eric gave the man a puzzled look.
"Me? I'm the guy with all the notes from other facilities!" Eric smiled, holding up several key chains with around a hundred or more USB flash drives. Jangling them gently. "These are from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, South California, North California…" he continued listing off state after state, never ceasing for breath. Eric continued to name flash drives, now detailing which facilities by city or military base.
'This guy's nuts…' the scientist thought. Once Eric finished, the scientist nodded. "Head into decontamination and I'll meet you at the door." He pointed to his right. Eric looked over in the direction that the scientist was pointing, nodding.
Eric and the scientist, now distinguished as Dr. Strauss Ph.D., were reviewing the documents. "It seems you've gathered a lot of useful data, Eric." Dr Strauss congratulated. Eric smiled and nodded.
"Thanks. So what about that cure I talked about? Will any of this help?" Eric asked, a hint of hope in his voice.
Strauss shook his head. "Yes, and no. You gathered quite a vast amount of useful data –data that is critical to my research, but not for a cure." Eric gave him a confused look. "Let me explain. The cure was abandoned when the world began dying. All hope of fixing that is lost. But what we did find is a unique anomaly here in this lab. With Quantum algorithms and high levels of gamma and ultraviolet radiation, we found that it appears to be a way to travel to a new and habitable world." Dr. Strauss reached under his desk and revealed a ball of glass with a slightly singed flower in the center. "the problem with using it is that it burns anything that is in the event. But with this," he motioned towards the research documents displayed on the screen. "I finally have a way of stabilizing the event."
Eric looked at the doctor like he was the mad one here. "But there is still a chance of fixing this world. Why not just neutralize the pathogen and terra-form the badlands back to the way it was?" to Eric, this seemed the easier and safer of the two ventures.
"Because of the remaining population," Strauss stated. "uninfected living human beings would be the workhorse of the terra-forming project and, well, there aren't enough of us left. For all we know, you and I may be the only two left on this continent." Strauss returned his view to the computer. "If I factor in these variables and this segment into the algorithms, I could send you through to the other world, gather the rest of the humans, and we could begin anew."
As Strauss did the math, Eric thought about what the doctor had said. Now that he stopped to think about it, sending the remaining populace through would be quicker and easier. And the population really was too low for any major terra-forming. 'So this is what we're forced to do,' Eric thought bitterly. 'Run away with our tails between our legs while out great mother planet dies alone and sick.' He didn't like the thought, but it really was the only way.
"Alright," Eric said. "Send me through." He walked over to the free chair, sitting down and wiping the sand off of his face. He stared at the doctor as he placed gizmos and machines around the lab area. 'Dumbass…'
Eric was standing in the red taped square that Dr. Strauss had designated. "Alright Eric!" Strauss shouted over the noises of the machinery. "When I say go, jump higher than one foot into the air! You will be caught in the event horizon! If you don't make the jump at precisely the right time," he shook his head slightly. "Let's not think about that, shall we?" Eric gave him a thumbs up, confirming he had understood.
As the devices surrounding Eric began to whine and spark, he watched Dr. Strauss, waiting for the signal. That's when things started to go wrong. Strands of energy and radiation began to arc all around the room. Strauss was panicking, and understandably so. But what caught Eric's eye was the Lazarus coming through decontamination. 'What the…' he thought. 'How did it get inside?'
'What's going on,' Strauss thought. 'This is wrong. I gotta stop the process. I'm getting to many gauss readings in this.' Strauss entered command after command but none seemed to be working. "Dammit," he screamed. "Eric! Get out of the area! Go!" he waved at him to signal him to run.
"Doctor! There's a Lazarus! Look out!" Eric fired at the zombie like being that had entered the room, running at Dr. Strauss. Even though he aimed for the kill, the bullets missed the target, landing in the creatures knee. 'What the…' He thought, but he found he had bigger problems now. The Lazarus was running towards him now, and his gun was malfunctioning.
Just then, a bright light filled the room, surrounding Eric and the living dead. Time seemed to stop, the light became darkness. Eric found himself stuck with his hand on his knife and an undead monster inches from killing and devouring him. It seems I've found one worthy of the trials of a pure heart. But will you survive? It was a feminine and soothing voice. 'That's it,' Eric thought in this suspension. 'I've gone totally bonkers.'
Time began again, the Lazarus continued its charge towards him. His previous action carried through, his knife pulling free of its scabbard and landing a solid chest blow. The creature made a strangled hissing noise, akin to a clogged drain with air forced through it. "Sick bastard." He commented. The creature charged at him again, slashing out with its nails. Eric sidestepped and lopped off its mangled hand with a single swipe of his kukri. The thing stopped and stared at the stump, obviously stunned. "And that's what you get for not being careful." Eric stated as he sank the full foot of cold carbon steel into and through the monsters neck. The body fell to the ground, lifeless once more and forever.
Night had fallen on whatever planet he was on, and the large crematory pyre burned a white flame ten feet high. He knew what this pathogen could do, and he wasn't going to let another world fall prey to it. He checked again for any spot he had missed. Finding he hadn't, he returned to his watch of the large fire. "Pretty sure no one wants a wild fire…" he muttered to himself. Sitting down on a fallen log. He sat there for about an hour, a feeling of being watched crawling over his back.
"I know your there." He called out into the darkness a few hours later. The fire had burned itself out and the moon had receded under the horizon. Daybreak was on its way. "You can come out, I won't hurt you. I promise." Something in the trees behind him moved, breaking a twig. Slowly a midnight-blue equine with a single black horn and wings appeared from the shadows.
"So you did survive," spoke the winged unicorn. "I see I made the right choice." Eric kept his eyes focused on the night sky, noticing all the constellations were in exactly the same places. "Do you like what you see Eric?" the horned pegasus, what Eric remembered from Mythology class in college as an Alicorn, asked. He closed his eyes, humming contentedly.
"I thought I would be depressed, not having finished my goal of saving my home world," He said. "But the madness, the blessed madness has passed. I'm myself again." He opened his eyes, looking directly at the Alicorn now. "And yes, it's magnificent." The Alicorn pawed at the ground with her hoof, blushing slightly. "A night like this inspired the greatest painter on Earth to make the most coveted and well known piece of art in history." He returned his gaze to the sky, lines tracing out the signs of the zodiac in his mind from all those years ago as a child. "Why did you save me?" he asked her.
The Alicorn looked at him, blissfully lost in memory and wonder. She had made the right choice for now, but she could not see where this path would lead. "Because you were pure of heart and strong of will. You saved a man you knew nothing about at the risk of your own life. You killed a beast that would have surely destroyed all of this splendor and grace. You made sure the affliction of your home did not become the affliction of mine. Is that not reason enough, brave warrior?"
Eric smiled and sighed. "Strauss would have done the same things had he been given the responsibility." He reached into his vest pocket, removing a photo of his family before the sickness. The life he had had that he could never regain. Softly, as if it was an ancient relic, he touched the image of his wife and son. This sent a pang of hurt through him. He wadded the photo, throwing it into the embers. The chemicals in the Polaroid photo causing the paper to bubble and smolder.
The Alicorn watched as he destroyed his only tie to his past, accepting his new predicament with full resolve. "Yes, but out of duty. And I doubt he would have risked his life to save you."
The sky had begun to brighten, illumination approaching from the rising sun. "Maybe." He said, though he agreed wholly in his mind. "Before you leave, may I have a name?" he asked.
The Alicorn stopped in her tracks, surprised he could notice the slight sound of her moving. She noticed this high sense of awareness through the ether. She had not gone astray, now she was certain. "Luna, Princess Luna of Equestria." And with that, she disappeared into the shadows.
"My lady." Eric said, dipping his head in reverence.
I would like to say, I am sorry for abandoning this story prematurely. My reasons were my own, (the consecutive deaths of some close family friends chief among them) and stemmed mostly around a large amount of writers block. Yes, the horror Genre is easy for me to write because of my fascination with all types of anatomy. And yes it does get tedious. But fear not. I shall finish this story. So please Read and Review, I need the input to keep it going past the next few chapters.