Monster in the Storm

The sky above lit up with a great crash of sound. Momentarily blinded and deafened, Ciere groped around for the nearest object. Her hands landed on the soft material of a shirt, and that shirt was connected to the warm body of the one before her. The body was reassuring to her, knowing she wasn't alone. The very last thing she or anyone wanted, was to be alone during these horrid times. Her hearing came back before her sight, and although her vision danced with spots, she was able to make out the shout of the one she was holding on to. 

"Ciere, stay close! There's no telling what will come next!" The voice of a male cried out over the orchestra of the storm. It was hoarse due to the amount of yelling he had done in only the last hour, and she had no doubt hers would be the same. The raging storm was far too loud for either of them to carry on a normal conversation, thus they yelled whenever the situation required them to speak, but generally, the pair stayed silent. She nodded to the words, although soon after she realized he didn't see the motion and she pulled herself closer to the warm body. 

Blinking rapidly, her vision slowly returned, only to reveal to her the horrific scene of the surrounding area. Littering the streets were piles upon piles of motionless bodies, some ripped into several pieces, others nearly whole, with what seemed like bites taken out of them. 'No, those don't seem like bites, they are bites.' She thought to herself with a shiver. It seemed like a lifetime ago, that the world had gone to hell. Who would have ever known, or even imagined, a thunderstorm would be the trigger to the apocalypse. The end of the world, of humanity itself, would come crumbling down like a house of cards with something as simple as a storm. It wasn't even something normal, such as a flood or great freeze as some predicted. No, it was an apocalypse consisting of the undead, something that was only seen in movies. 

Over the sound of thunder and the constant pouring rain, Ciere could hear another, distinct sound. A guttural growl that came from her right and another flash of light lit up the nearby alleyway enough for her to see a silhouette of a human. The limping, shuffling gait it possessed, as it started forwards, told her it wasn't quite human though. She noted with displeasure that the unholy figure was able to move quite fast despite the road being slick with water, blood, and gore. Her eyes went wide as it approached her and her companion, and her voice and body disobeyed her silent command. All she had to do was release a scream, alert her companion of the danger, but she simply couldn't. Her voice was caught in the web of terror and she was unable to break out of the sticky trap. All she could do was watch in horror as the creature came closer and closer until finally converging on her partner. He was ripped out of her grasp at the two fell to the wet ground. His screams of terror and pain echoed in her ears and she could feel the warmth of his blood as it splattered onto her body.

 Now she found her missing voice, and it came out as a high pitched, terror-filled scream. Her limbs shook violently as she stood, frozen to the spot, and watched her partner being torn to shreds, too afraid to move. In an instant, he had become another body added into the masses that already littered the streets. All too easily it could have been her in his place. Momentarily her mind wondered why she hadn't been the victim of that sack of rotting, cannibalistic flesh, but the thought quickly fled. Her heart may have cried out in the sorrow of loss if it wasn't already thundering to the beat of horror. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and sent shivers up her spine, as blood pumped in her ears.

 The dark of the stormy sky hid the facial features of the monstrous creature as it turned on her, but not enough to hide the glowing, demonic eyes. She was silently thankful for the darkness, for she wouldn't have to see the gore than now covered the being's face. The remains of her traveling companion laid in a pile, but she gave him not another thought as she turned tail and ran. She knew the best word to describe her would be a coward, and she had no explanation as to why she didn't dispose of the inhuman creature, nor for why she wasn't bringing the man's remains back with her so he could be properly put to rest. She was well aware that she would be shunned for this, possibly even cast away from the group of survivors she took refuge with, but these thoughts only flashed through her mind. Ciere was more focused on keeping her legs moving and the creature far behind her. 

The slippery road made her footing treacherous, and it only took a single misstep to have her sprawling on the ground. Her head made contact with the asphalt, and with an audible crack, she could feel the skin breaking and her blood dripping down her face. The puddle of icy water she landed in soaked whatever warmth she had, away. A final bolt of lightning illuminated a shadow before her, the shadow of the creature behind. Her will to move, to fight, to live, vanished at that moment. As she laid there in the rain and wind, dazed and ludicrous with fear, tears mixed with the rain. This was truly the end. After two hellish months of living off of canned food and hiding in abandoned buildings; traveling by foot through the subways, and fearing death around every corner; all it took was one rainy night to end it all. It was almost poetic in her mind, a rainy night signaled the start of her journey through hell on earth, and it seemed a rainy night was when she met her very own end.