When the shit hit the windmill , I had survived the first wave of madness, but only to meet another gruesome fate. I was about to be killed. Killed by the rotting corpse of the city Paperboy, at least I think it was the paperboy. The creature was too far decayed to tell who it once was. Its skin was covered in oozing blisters and open wounds. its bottom jaw had rotted off and was now no where to be found. Chunky, viscous blood dripped from its maw. I was frozen in fear at this point, my limbs turning to jelly as the horror shambled towards me, staring upon me with a depraved hunger in its lifeless eyes. But the thing was, I had been saved from this creature, by a woman who turned out to be some kind of mutant. But I was in no position to judge.

I was no longer a human either.

      Rewind back to the beginning, how all this mess came to pass. How the world 'ended'. All I can remember is the sky turning blood red and blackness that seemed to go on forever engulfed everything. When I came to, I was lying on my apartment floor, confused and groggy. The moment I gained consciousness, the odor of death assaulted my senses and I knew something had gone horribly wrong. 

The last thing I could accurately recall of the cataclysm was the sky taking on a reddish hue. Not like a sunset red, but pure—solid red, identical to a stop sign. The sun had gone black like a solar eclipse, darkening the world below. Once the streetlights and big city advertisements suddenly went out, the screams were nightmarish. Left in total darkness, the hell that transpired was left up to the imagination. That's the last thing I can really recall. Everything before was foggy; Like a dream that you can't totally describe, even though having had it mere minutes ago. But every time I try to think back before then, I see a face. A face of a little girl with golden hair and big blue eyes. I have no idea who this girl is, but I'm positive I've met her before. I remember a promise I made to her. To protect her, even if it cost me my life. It didn't sound like something I'd say. Something as cheesy as that you'd only here in a romance novel. Where this girl was now I had no idea. I just hoped she was safe wherever she may be.

        A frantic pounding sound snapped me out of my trance. I stopped and listened, waiting for another sound. Then again, something moved with an unsettling urgency through the halls of the apartment building. My heart skipped a beat. The way its heavy footsteps pounded the ground with such purpose had my nerves on edge. Fear latched itself onto my heart. When everything went down, my first assumption was some sort of terroristic attack. If something like this occurred, the U.S military should be evacuating civilians as soon as possible. With high hopes, I went over to the door, got up on my toes and peered through the peephole in the chipped wooden door.

        I made two mistakes just then. The first being looking out the peephole, and the second, screaming. What I saw in the dark hallway brought bile up into my throat and I knew that it wasn't terrorist that I should be afraid of. The  utter carnage splayed out before me wasn't the handiwork of a human being.

 As soon as that scream left my mouth, the footsteps returned, quaking towards my location with terrifying desperation. I bolted for my bedroom in childish fear and scrambled under the now broken bed. I heard the snapping of wood as the door was blown of  clear of it's hinges. My breath caught in my throat.

        Heavy footsteps trotted around the living room. I heard the distinct sound of a sniffing. Whatever the hell was in here, it was trying to find the source of the scream. It was trying to find me. Fear lynched my heart like a noose. I had to escape right now. Whatever was here would eventually find me, and I knew good and well I'd end up like the poor dead in the hall. I peeked out from under the bed, trying to build up the courage to make an escape if possible. The heavy footsteps became louder, so I ducked back under the bed, my breath still trapped in my lungs.

        What I assumed to be a foot landed on the ground inches from my hiding location. It was not a humans, as I suspected. It was fleshy and grotesque. Where a foot should have been was a pink, bleeding, mass of fat and skin. Oozing burns covered the length of it, spurting out into different directions as it took a heavy step. It smelt of vomit and feces, suffocating me. It took labored breaths, continuing to sniff at the air. If it even had a sense of smell I'm surprised its own scent didn't make it impossible to smell me, at least I hoped that was the case. I didn't dare peek my head out for fear of what i'd see and what would see me. I just held my breath and prayed it went away. It didn't.

It began towards my bed with an awkward gait, making it seem almost zombie like. It's fat stubs leaving a trail of sticky discharge. I couldn't see past the things "knee" and could only imagine what ugly face it must have had. It stopped once it reached my hiding spot, its stumps now inches from my face. Unidentified liquid spewed out of a sore, and just nearly missed my face, thank god. But it was a short lived relief. The thing let out a sharp shriek and reached its hand under the bed. Its hands were fat and swollen, open sores all over the bloody palms, identical to it's fleshy hands. I screamed and backed myself up frantically to avoid it. It found me. As it got down on its knees to crawl under and flush me out, I took the opportunity to make my escape. I rolled out from the other side of the bed and use the springy mattress to propel myself out of the bedroom, making great distance from the thing pursuing me. I ran to my window, not wanting to go out into that hellish hallway, and tried opening it to jump out. It didn't budge. frantically, I scream and pushed with all my might. I could hear the monster gurgle in anger and redirecting itself to its target. It's voice sound like a person being drowned. Heavy footsteps pounded from in the hallway and my bedroom. They'd be upon me in a matter of seconds. The glass was webbed with hairline cracks. I banged on the glass with my elbow hard enough to widen the fracture. 

I smelled the monster closing in. I frantically wailed away at the window, advancing the crack farther and farther towards the edges of the frame.  

I felt its hot breath on my neck.

Smash! In a spray of glass shards and dust, the window fell apart. I leapt through it just as I felt the things heavy hand come down on my shoulder. I took a quick look back, truly wishing I hadn't. Its face was a melted pool of yellow and red. Its right eye was totally missing and its left was dripping out of its socket like a liquid. Its nose was totally gone, melted away or maybe fallen of and rotted somewhere in the apartment, and its mouth was nothing more then black gums lined with putrid yellow teeth. Its body reminded me of a zombie Boohbah—Bloated and bleeding from several places. Its entrails spilled out of its midsection, secreting a greenish vapor that'd probably kill me if I breathed it in. I was to busy looking back at Zombie Boobhah to see the ground race towards me. I fell awkwardly into a cherry bush, which wasn't to comfortable, but at least it wasn't the hard ground.

         The warmth of sunlight bathed my skin and the scent of fresh air soothed my burning nostrils. I took in a full breath, not stopping to enjoy the break. I hauled ass, straight up the street. As I surveyed my surroundings, I notice that the streets were void of life. The asphalt was cracked like an earthquake split it. Buildings and billboards that once stood now no more than run down structures. Despite the post-war torn scenery, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue, no clouds to be seen. The sun seemed bigger and brighter than ever. Seriously, it seemed ten times closer than usual, so close that even with my bad eyesight, I could clearly make out the bright corona of the star. I stopped gazing at it after I realized it was making my already poor eyesight even worse, but I was so distracted that I somehow tripped over a slab of uneven concrete. I landed face first into the pavement, a paralyzing jolt of pain shooting up my nose and through my skull. I banged my mouth pretty hard against the sidewalk and the blood was beginning to drip out, staining the ground. I felt each tooth, making sure I didn't chip any, but suddenly retracting my hand when a sudden, sharp pain emerged from where I had touched one of my front  teeth. Slowly, I touched the tooth that had caused me to recoil but...something didn't feel right. It had a almost needle-like point, similar to the canines of a carnivorous animal. I assumed I had chipped it, but then realized I was dead wrong.

        I felt around some more and notice that my other front canine...was sharp and pointed.. Realization hit me like a knockout punch.

        I was a monster. No longer human. The same as the monsters inside the apartment.

        That HAD to explain why I had lost my memories. They had been tampered with. Someone, maybe the government or maybe even terrorist, had done something to the populace, but somehow I didn't end up like those creatures. This was an incredibly unrealistic scenario, but what else did I have to go off of? 

 I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. What had I become? Am I the only one like this? And the biggest question: How long has it been since I'd fell unconscious? The way the environment looked, it would seem like decades had gone by without any human interaction. Things only began to get stranger and stranger, but I decided to suck it up and press on. Maybe if I made it to the next block over, I'd hopefully get some answers. I wiped the blood from my lip and picked myself up. I chose to walk now, as there was no sign that zombie Boohbah or the like were still chasing me. I shoved my scratched up hands into my jeans pockets and trekked forth.

        After about thirty minutes of walking and mulling over my current situation, I had reached a sign that read,  1340 Silver St. I had no memory of ever hearing that street name, or being on this street. My heart ached when I realized I didn't even remember my own name. As hard as I tried, nothing seemed to be popping up in my head. For all I know, I may have never even been a human being. But of course, I know for certain that isn't true, because I remember the moments before the blackness like it happened hours ago. It probably did, matter of fact. I tossed these thoughts out of my brain and continued down the street. Out of nowhere, the familiar odor of the dead caught my attention. It wasn't as potent as before, but it was enough to make me gag. I pulled my bloodstained T-shirt over my nose in an attempt to block out the fetid stench. But of course, it was no use. The smell came from every direction. I became reluctant to continue until recognizing that I had no where to return to. So what other options did I have but forward?

        The stench only got worse. It was burning my nostrils at this point and making me sick to my stomach. Something within me told me to run as far away as I possibly could, but something stronger kept my feet moving onward. Dread started to dig its way into my core. When the stench could get no worse, I'd expect to see mounds of dead bodies and an army of melted monstrosities. I was painfully certain I'd find only death. But. . .I was mistaken. In the center of the street, I could make out a human like figure. There was no way to be positive, so I crept a little closer. Once I was within twenty feet of the figure, I was certain it was a human. from behind it looked like a young man. I couldn't tell his age and I don't think it mattered anyhow. He just stood there. In the middle of the street, wobbling back and forth almost as if he were drunk.

        That's when I made the mistake of calling out to. . .it. It was stupid and I did it in pure desperation. The moment sound escaped my mouth, the man spun around to face me. The instant I saw his face, I bolted. Not the way I came, there wasn't anything back there. No, I sprinted like a bat out of hell and ran between two abandoned buildings to my right. kept running, not looking back for the fear that I'd have to look upon his face once again. Remember when a said I smelled the stench of death? Well, I had no doubt it was that man I had smelled. His face was no longer a face. The only way for me to accurately describe the sickening sight is by comparing it to a squirrel, smeared on the street by a car, and left to fester. His face looked like bloody road kill. That creature was literally something out of the Walking Dead. I kept running between buildings and streets, more and more zombies began cropping up until I reached a large stretch of trees where city broke way to forest. I took no time to consider heading within.

That was my fourth mistake.

  Not looking where I was going, I foolishly managed to trip over a thick root that looped from the ground like twisting arms, planting my face in the soft dirt. I had no will to pick myself up this time. All I wanted to do was lay there and cry, but apparently I hadn't seen enough horrors for one day. A mindless moan cut through the eerie silence of the woods. I knew exactly what I'd see when I looked up. Towering above me, was the shambling corpse of the city Paperboy, or at least. . . yeah you get it.

        This is where we were at the beginning. Me, about to be killed by a flesh hungry monster. But there was one part that I left out. The part where I was saved.

 It happen in the blink of an eye. I didn't see their approach or even sensed their presence, but as I was about to be devoured, something sliced through the monsters skull. chunky, yellow blood spewed out from what left of its head. It's head top lay on the ground an arms reach away. It grasped at air in a final attempt at dinner, then crumbled to the ground across from me, dead. Then all at once, a chunk of memory flooded back into my brain. It wasn't much, just the lines of a story and the little girls face again.

He found a person, but it wasn't really a person, it was a zombie. But before the zombie could eat his brain he was saved by a—

 The intensity of the memories sent a bolt of pain through my temples. I went tunnel vision and the last thing I saw was the outline of a. . . person? They were tall, but my vision was too blurry to make out if it was a person or another monster. The last thing I saw was a long, almost snake like thing wrapping itself about their waist. Then everything blinked out of existence as they walked over to me. I was saved? Or was everything just going to get worse.