Dead and Twisted

The wind howled as I looked out towards the open parts of the city. In the twilight hours one could see the shield that held uncontaminated air in and anything that could kill you just by being there out. I had gotten used to the feel of my lungs being burnt, shredded and dissolved and being pulled back together.

The city. The last fully uncontaminated human civilisation left in the world sits in the slate that was once the Pacific Ocean. All water is now either stored in resource stations drifting through the air or in silos under the city.

Six years ago the shields over the eastern district of the city failed. Almost everyone died. Those who didn't either got killed by the watch or killed themselves. Or so the government tells anyone who wants to go to the east to look for survivors. Surprisingly many still do even after six years.

I was one of those who didn't die. See if I told most people they would say I should be happy I lived. But I had to watch everyone I knew or cared about die. Except for two of my friends.

“Hey Alex” a muffled voice said from behind me “you gunna’ come to Leo’s place?”

I turned around and saw a man wearing an old army cadet’s uniform and a MRK III Respirator “I think I’ll stay here tonight Jack”

“Stay here?” jack said motioning all around him “dude this place will be swarmed by twisted in a couple of minutes!”

“Then go” I said looking west “after all, you can’t move quickly”

Jack walked up to me “dude” he pointed at the shield “no getting through that”

“I can get it open” I said turning to him “I can get through, show everyone the survivors out here and then the public will force

the watch to let us in”

“Dude I almost died to get out here” Jack said pointing at his hand. Which had been burnt and shredded by the shield when it turned on over it “even your mutations won’t save you from that”

“I evolved” I said “I evolved to survive here”

“You mutated!” Jack yelled “you mutated and now you’re going insane”

I turned away from him and yelled into the air. After a few seconds I turned and walked up to him “I'm not going insane!”

“Dude!” jack yelled “come with me to Leo’s, and spend time with people”

“No! I- I need to get into that city”

Jack looked at the shield “you are not getting through there”

I laughed “you don’t understand what I can do”

“I saw you level a whole block while half dead”

“And missing both legs and an arm” I started to laugh again “and half my face!”

“And you healed wounds that would kill a normal person” jack groaned “I was lucky my hand survived going through the shield”

I looked through a hole in the wall and saw multiple silhouettes walking around in the streets “you should go Jack”

“Not until you come with me”

“The twisted are down there” I looked at him “go”

“No!” he yelled again “come with me and show you aint going insane!”

“I'm not going insane!” I yelled lifting my hand. The concrete around jack moved over his legs and lifted him into the air

“Put me down Alex” Jack said trying to move his legs

“Tell me I'm not insane” I demanded moving the concrete through the hole in the wall

“Alex” he pointed down “you can’t kill a living person”

“I. have. Killed. People. To. Survive!” with each word I lowered my hand. As I did the concrete moved to let Jack slowly slip

“Alex! Stop”

“Will you listen to me?” I said as the concrete began to break apart as I closed my hand

“Stop using your powers”

“Just listen to me and stop with the ‘you need help’ crap” I said making motions with my other hand

“What are you doing?” Jack said trying to balance on the clump of concrete that was slowly falling apart “you need to stop this”

Just as Jack lost his footing a pillar of concrete shot out of the building across the street from us and pushed Jack back into the building I was standing in

“You are insane!” Jack yelled “you could have dropped me into a crowd of twisted!”

“I'M NOT INSANE!” I yelled as chunks of the walls around us flew into me

“I'm going” Jack said as he headed towards the stairwell “come over to Leo’s place when you are sane again”

With a yell all the matter I had absorbed flew out of my chest and cut through Jack. He fell to the ground with a thud and a pool of blood slowly formed around him

“Jack?” I yelled running over to him “no…”

I flipped him onto his back and saw shards of concrete and other materials protruding from him covered in blood. Then he began to spasm as black veins grew up his neck and across his hands. In seconds his skin turned pitch black and thin wisps of smoke flowed out of his nose.

His eyes shot open revealing orbs of red light as he yelled an unnatural noise. He grabbed me by the neck and threw me into a wall. I broke right through it and flew across the road and smacked into the next building.

As I tried to move spikes of metal and concrete pierced my chest and I felt my body trying to nit itself together again. The black

form that used to be jack jumped through the hole I had made and crashed into me.

He began to bite and claw at me, trying his best to cause enough harm to finally kill me. Until I coated my fist in a block of whatever the bricks of the building I was stuck in was made out of and hit him over the head with it. With Jacks twisted zombie off me I pushed away from the building and turned into a cloud of dust and flew to a balcony and turned back into my normal self

Thinking that was over I turned to walk inside the building. Then I was hit with the force of a train. And I went flying off the balcony and hit a wall with the cracking of bone, then fell into the street below. But before I hit the road I felt something grab onto me and everything went black

************

Everything was fine this morning. The sun was shining and I was on my way to the market when there was a crack of thunder. Looking up at the sky I saw something falling towards town. Before I could act the object crashed into the orchard beside town

“Applejacks not going to be happy about that” I said to myself before galloping off towards sweet apple acres

I woke to the feeling of my chest pulling back together. I got up and saw that my hoodie was completely shredded across my stomach and was covered in blood. And when I looked around my entrails were strewn across the surrounding… trees? No trees grew in the eastern district. Or anywhere for that matter. They were the thing of stories.

I was pulled out of my thought by my left leg cracking into place. Looking at my legs I saw my lower right leg missing, with a trail of blood going into the three line. So I was grabbed by a twisted.

I looked back at my legs to see a bit of flesh growing out of my right knee. Looking back at my surroundings I saw that the trees had red orbs hanging from their branches.

“It landed over here” I heard a feminine voice say from off to my left

“Yea I did see the thing fall from the sky Twi” said another voice with a southern accent

“I began to crawl to a nearby tree to hide from the people who were coming in this direction

************

We trotted through the trees looking for whatever had landed in this orchard when Applejack stopped with the colour drained from her face

“Applejack?” I said slowly “what’s wrong?”

Applejack pointed between two apple trees with a shaky hoof, and when I looked where she was pointing I felt my blood run cold. There was blood. Lots of blood. And various internal organs with bite marks thrown all over the place

“That’s a lot of blood…” I stated feeling bile slowly travel up my throat

“What could've done this?” Applejack asked slowly

“It looks like some creature pulled another apart and started to eat it”

Then there was a growl from somewhere in the trees

“Who’s there?” we both asked

There was another growl as two red glowing eyes appeared in the shadows

“Come out where we can see ya” Applejack said uneasily

Then a strange pure black creature lunged from the shadows and began to sprint at us on its arms and legs. We both screamed when we saw all the blood down its front

************

When I saw the twisted lunge from the shadows I snapped a branch from a tree and threw it. As the stick flew through the air it turned into a wooden knife and struck the creature in its neck. The torn fell, skidding across the ground for a second before coming to rest with grey sludge pouring from around the knife.

With only a stump for a leg I hobbled out into the clearing filled with blood and saw two colourful… horses? Yea horses. Staring at the twisted in shock. One of them was wearing a Stetson while the other had a horn sticking out of its forehead

Both of them screamed like girls

************

When the second creature stumbled out of the trees covered in blood and with torn clothes we both screamed even louder.

Applejack was the first to recover. Galloping up to the creature and bucking it strait in the chest. With several loud cracks the creature screamed in pain and collapsed curling up into a ball

“Applejack wait!” I yelled seeing a wooden knife sticking out of the other creature “I think this one was trying to save us!”

Applejack looked at the black creature on the ground “what if it wants to kill us later?”

“You don’t need to buck it!” I exclaimed

Applejack looked away with a sad expression “I- I wasn't thinking’ strait”

“Damn right” the second creature chocked out clutching his chest “you have one strong kick”

Then Applejack screamed and knocked it on the head. The creature collapsed

“Why did you knock it out?”

“I don’t know Twi” Applejack said “it just kinda, freaked me out