Run From Thy Grave

Sergey's POV.

Record number two, August fifteen, year two thousand fifteen, eight thirty a.m.

There is something strange happening. Even more strange than a zombie apocalypse. It seems like everything's wrong: the weather, the city, everything!

It had been raining really hard from midnight until sunrise. It was not so unsual for a rain to occur in August, yet so heavy ones are a rarity here, in Siberia.

And I've been listening to the radio for at least an hour. It's all static, yet there is something... Just something. Like a... Uh, like whispers... Or maybe I've started hearing things, heh. Uh, I don't feel alright. It's not that I'm sick or anything, it's just the feeling that something, somewhere is not right. Not a disastrous-type "not right" but something else... Like, if all your stuff in your room was moved a little bit. It seems the same, yet it isn't...

It's probably stress or something similar, I guess. I haven't talked to anyone in any way for half a month, and it starts getting to me. Uh, this silence is unbearable... And the moans from outside didn't make it better until I took care of them.

So, fifteen minutes ago I went out the apartment and killed all zombies within thirty meters radius. There is only silence now.

Uh, and I've remade my mind. I'm not going south, no way. Well, there is a reason for that. While it's warmer there, most of survivors will go there, and bandits will follow them. And, uh, when zombies will be frozen here, well, when winter comes, it will be easier to kill them. It's not like they wear anything good for winter, eh? So, the cold'll help, I suppose. Besides, I can't possibly move fast with everything I've packed.

So, uh, what've I been doing...

I reinforced and blocked the windows in my apartment, making it hard for anyone outside to look through them. I've left window leafs unblocked, so at least a little sunlight would light the apartments. And, of course, I kept the window leafs opened. It's fucking hot! Conditioner, of course, doesn't work now, so the only source of cool air is the open leaf, especially when it's night.

I've moved all of useless things to the room I don't use, the guest room. Computers, two TVs, lots of books, magazines, and a lot of other stuff that isn't needed for survival. So, now there is enough room for everything I need to survive. Thankfully, I had a lot of bottles of clean water, lots of canned food, batteries, candles. Well, I have everything to stay here as long as possible, not drawing any attention. And, thankfully, this building I live in has thick walls. Like, half a meter wide! It'll keep the cold out once the winter starts.

So, my plan is to clear this part of the district I live in, secure it, and wait for winter to come. And get some guns for self-defense, if it's possible.

It's pretty safe here, being the outskirts of Novosibirsk. Not so much people lived here, and they were mostly old men and women, along with their families. They're smart people, so most of them escaped, as far as I know.

Ahem, let's get back to making everything safe.

So, I locked the door of the porch, so there are eight apartments for me to take. All of them are empty, no one's inside, I checked. Everyone's left as soon as they heard news, it seems.

As far as I know, there are lots of food and water, some instruments and other useful stuff. And I found a safe! A long, sturdy safe, attached to the floor. It means that there's a gun inside! Well, if this safe is what I think it is.

Frankly, I've never fired anything besides AK-74 and Makarov, so I don't know how to properly fire a shotgun or a rifle. Well, it's never late to learn, right?

I'm going to open the safe in the evening. Right now, I could use some sleep.

Sergey out.

Celestia grunted in pain and opened her eyes. Everything around her was a blur, a big green blur.

Celestia was lying on her back. She rolled and stood up, unsteadily. She shook her head, focusing her eyes. She looked left and right and saw her sister lying near her. Celestia sighed in relief, hearing Luna's steady breathing. Finally, she looked around.

She found herself in a forest. She and her sister were lying on a path through it. Celestia looked left and right, and found this forest peaceful: birds were chirping, the air was fresh and smelled after rain of grass and wood. She deeply inhaled, enjoying the scent.

Finally, Luna moaned and opened her eyes.

"Tia?" she called, standing up. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea. In those visions I had when I looked through the Arch, I saw nothing like this... It's peaceful here."

"Yes..." Luna looked around and inhaled deeply. "That reminds me of a time when we were fillies... Do you remember running off into that forest near the city? It smelled the same."

Celestia smiled.

"I do remember. It was a pleasant time back then... But we must find out what happened in this world and fix it." Celestia's smile dropped. "Sometimes I wish everything would have stayed as when we were fillies, sister."

The two looked at the path. Celestia and Luna had only two options: move forward or move backwards. The didn't know if the forest was large or small, so they feared that they may get lost if they don't follow the path. So, they went forward.

Sergey woke up because of a sudden noise. He looked at the clock and found out that the time was 4 p.m. He yawned, stretched and got up from his bed.

Sergey was a white male, one meter eighty five centimeters tall. He was pretty muscular, wide in shoulders.

He had cleft and narrow chin, thin lips, sunken cheeks and low cheekbones, his nose was short and straight. His eyes were different from each other: the left one was dark-green, the right one was albino-red. His right eyebrow was white, as well as the right side of his short hair, most of which was black. His left eyebrow was divided into two part by a scar. The straight scar ran through the left brow and up the forehead to the hair roots, where it became thinner and thinner until there was nothing but smooth, undamaged skin to see.

Sergey had no facial hair.

He put on his combat boots and walked to the window to make a peek at what's going on outside. He was sure that something loud has woken him up from his slumber, and he was eager to find out what.

He found a lone zombie walking towards the forest. Sergey, being a smart man he is, put two and two together and decided to take a short trip to the forest to find out what's caused him to wake up.

Well, his block of flats, which consisted of four porches with eight flats each, stood at the edge of Akademgorodok, the farthest part of Novosibirsk. The block was surrounded by forests at two sides, while the other two faced the Akademgorodok  and main road of it, Morskoy Prospect.

Sergey put on modified motorbike protection, as well as a ski mask and a full-view gas mask which used two anti-dust filter, the gas mask being GP-21. Sergey ensured that no blood of infected could contact his own skin, to minimize the chance to get himself infected. It was a little hot to wear all of this, yet the protection was full enough, restricting Sergey's agility just a little, maybe a little obstructing his view, but nothing that could put him to a certain death.

Sturdy motorbike protection was modified for a better agility. Sergey tested it on a zombie, and zombie couldn't bite through the protection. It covered Sergey's torso, his legs, arms and shoulders, making him look like a policeman from Latin America countries.

So, Sergey put on his tactical gloves and picked up his soviet axe. He jumped in place, then readjusted his gear to fit him a little better. He looked at himself in the mirror, nodded, opened the door to his flat and exited it, closing the door. All of this took him a little bit more than five minutes.

Celestia and Luna have been walking for quite some time, yet they couldn't see anything but the green of leaves.

After another five minutes of walking, they saw two wide pipes crossing the path and a metallic construction which allowed to cross the pipes.

"What is this?" Luna spoke, walking closer. "What are pipes doing in the middle of the forest?"

"Perhaps they were made to transport water or other liquid..." Celestia replied. "Here's two pipes. Perhaps one of them is for cold water, and another one is for hot water?"

"Well, there are some kind of white markings here..." Luna inspected the closes pipe. "Uh, I don't know the language..."

The 'marking' was 'Анархия - мать порядка!'

"And there's a strange sumbol," Luna continued. "Letter 'A' inside the circle. I wonder what does it mean?"

"I think we'll find out soon. Let's continue moving." Celestia suggested, walking on the metallic construction.

The two left two pipes behind and continued their walk on the path. They had seen a bike but didn't see its owner. They shrugged it off and continued walking. They started to notice that there is something behind the forest that looks like buildings.

"We're close, I think." Celestia said. "And..."

A raspy moan came from behind the trees and a lone, half-rotten zombie came into view. It's clothes were torn, his face bloodied, half of its left arm missing. Zombie turned to two alicorns, growled and started slowly walking to them.

Luna shuddered. "It looks like a... Zombie. Slow pace, blood, missing limb..."

"What are you talking about, sister?"

"Zombies are mindless creatures. I've read about them in sci-fi fiction."

"Are they hostile?"

"Well, they'll try to eat you..." Luna pointed her horn at the zombie. "And then you'll become one of them."

She tried to cast a spell, but failed, her horn sparkled and a headache appeared.

"Uh!" Luna exclaimed, stumbling. "Magic doesn't work!"

The zombie was close to the two. The sisters took a few steps back, keeping their eyes at it. Suddenly, a masked man appeared from behind the bushes and dashed to the zombie. It turned around, hearing loud footsteps, only to be met with an axe to its face. Zombie fell on the ground, upper part of his head missing.

Two sisters looked at the man in shock. He stared back.

"Охуеть, не встать!"