@Man to Man · 9 months ago
2012:
2012. That’s when they said the world would end. Well, they were partially right. That’s when it all started to fall apart, but it was a matter of progression.
There was no great Earth shattering destruction like in the Hollywood version. The religious community had it all wrong too. God didn’t descend from Heaven to take the righteous home and destroy the rest. There was no “Zombie Apocalypse,” well at least not the way we traditionally think of it.
The Mayans. They came the closest. They predicted the “End of an Age” and the beginning of a new one. It was supposed to be the beginning of an “Age of Enlightenment.” Mankind was supposed to experience transcendence, almost like a worldwide Renaissance. As I said, close, but not quite. As it turns out, it became a descent into madness.
It all started with the “Zombie Attacks” in the news. People just going ape sh*t and eating other people. I remember when i first saw the news reports I actually laughed out loud. Just seeing the word zombie in a real news report. As the reports unfolded, I became only slightly more concerned. I just thought that there wasn’t much to it besides the dr*guse or the insanity. God, how I wish I’d paid more attention. I was so wrong.
Within the following months were similar reports from across the U.S., and a few from other parts of the globe. Seemingly unrelated and separated enough by time and distance and no one really suspected anything. Of course there were some who felt that the “End of Days” was approaching. Some religious groups, zombie enthusiasts who were sure that their prayers were being answered, and the like. The general public, however, had not adopted the idea.
As 2012 gave way to 2013, those who were unafraid before, were scrambling to find answers, to seek comfort in rationality. They found none. In early 2013 the reports of cannibalism were accompanied by massive reports of heinous murders and rapes, robberies, shootings, all of these things, and more, from all corners of the globe. Civilization was quickly slipping away.
In the midst of it all, as people tried to seek refuge through faith, even religion fell victim to the madness. Somewhere around July or August of that awful year, several prominent religious leaders, from many different religions started coming together. They were now unified under a new god…man…the self. In the beginning their newfound religion was referred to as Satanism because of its self-centered nature. That could not have been further from the truth.
Satanism does allow for an individual to do as he or she pleases, but not at another’s expense. ESPECIALLY not if it will bring physical or emotional harm. This new religion however, had no such caveats. Their law, “Do what thou wilt.”
Their followers were beyond depraved. They called themselves “The Horde” and they knew nothing outside of their mad new practices. They would celebrate the birth of a child (the ones they didn’t eat) with a barbecue. Sounds normal enough, until you take into consideration the fact that they were barbecueing one of the sick, old, or crippled of their flock or one of the “Infidels,” as those of us nonbelievers were called. They would tie them to a long steel pole, naked, and set them up on a makeshift spit, and slowly roast them, alive. As the person cooked, the others in attendance would standby and laugh at their pain. While they also prepared for the coming feast, sniffing the air and salivating like animals, which they were only steps from becoming.
This was only the tip of the iceberg. As their numbers grew, their activites grew more and more bizarre and twisted. They also became more powerful than any regime on the planet. As their religion took hold across the world, governments fell. Their officials quickly adopting this new religion and allowing its doctrine to become law. If you were not with them, even God Himself, it seemed, could not help you.
On top of the cannibalistic rituals they held massive orgies. Hundreds of bodies all writhing in pleasure. All the while, amongst the throng, people were drinking each other’s blood from slit wrists or bite wounds in their flesh, which they were also ingesting. No act was too vile or disgusting for The Horde. If they wanted it, they would have it. Soddom and Gomorrah were NOTHING compared to what these people were doing.
Amongst all the chaos, ****, and bloodshed, small resistance groups were forming. Their numbers were nothing compared to The Horde and they didnt last long. Within weeks of these groups forming they were disbanded piece by piece and bite by bite. I cared for neither side. I wanted no parts of this disgusting “religion” and I knew that no amount of resistance could stop them.
I holed up in the basement of a nearby high school that was long abandoned and forgotten. It was damp and cold, but it was a sanctuary all the same. The only entrances were the double steel doors leading in from outside and the single door leading in from the first floor. There were no windows. The doors leading outside were chained and padlocked. No worries there and the other door was a non-issue. It could be easily watched and provided no one knew where I was, I could rest easy.
I lived there, in secret, for weeks. I was able to scavenge for food and other necessities at night, sleeping during the day. Little did I know that my secret existence was coming to a close. I was out one night, slinking from shadow to shadow and making my way to a nearby gas station. All was going quite well until I stuck my head around the corner of the post office adjacent to my destination. There, just beyond arm’s length was one of the most horrific and terrifying scenes i had ever seen outside of a movie. There was an old woman, lying dead on the pavement, three young children crouched over her naked, filthy,_ and feeding. One of them had his hand deep in her abdomen fishing for something. Another was sloppily chewing something whilst trying to gouge out her remaining eyeball with one grimy little finger. The third, she was scalping the poor woman’s corpse. She did it quickly with large jerky strokes of what could only be called a sharpened rock. She then took the scalp, slapped it on top of her filthy head and danced around, laughing like a lunatic!
I slunk back into my shadowy hiding place trying to steel myself to move. I had been hiding for so long that I hadn’t realized how far these people had regressed. Their children….I had to push past my disgust and pity. I had to get to that store. I stole one last glance at the children, they were in a frenzy. I took my chance and made a run for it.
I made it to my destination unscathed, and so far as i could tell, I hadn’t been noticed. I ran into the store and started grabbing food items as fast as humanly possible. Right in the midde of my shopping spree, I froze in terror. Outside I had heard a noise, shuffling feet perhaps. Then, just outaide the store front, I saw movement. It was fast and, I knew. In that moment, I knew I had been found.
I clamored to solidify my thoughts and formulate a plan. Just then, I noticed the back door out of the station. It was my only hope. I bolted out the back door, found my bearings, and fled for my basement sanctuary. Despite the distance, and my fatigue, I made it in record time. Once inside, I practically collapsed to the cool concrete floor panting. After a few moments I realized that I had probably been followed. Well, at this point, all I could do…is wait….
Somewhere amidst my wait, I had fallen asleep. It was fitful, filled with nightmares, and eventually interrupted. I awoke with a start, simply because I was unaware that I had fallen asleep. I could hear shuffling and breathing in the darkness. Then, I was pinned to the floor. In my own sanctuary, pinned, by tiny, but strong hands. Then, I heard a voice. It spoke slowly, as if the words were slightly foreign. It croaked, “We caaan seees yooou.” Then, the teeth. At least a dozen or more sets of tiny teeth set upon all parts of my body. Chewing, ripping, slurping, feasting. Then…darkness.