"Can you remember the sweetness of the fruits?"
"The freshness and the smell of those spring mornings?"
"The warmth of your loved ones?"
Those are the questions that I have asked myself for the last five months, but the answer has been always the same: I can’t, I forgot those sensations a long time ago.
My life was great, I had a good job, a nice house on the suburbs, but most important, a beautiful wife to whom I loved with all my heart and a daughter who was my whole world. Everything was perfect, but one day, something that no one could imagine happened, something that sealed the destiny of our world.
Now, two years after that fatidic day, the only thing that I can taste is the burning flavor of the ash that falls over my head and the only smell that surrounds me is the stench of decaying bodies lying on the streets and within the structures of this dead city that is slowly being consumed by the fire.
Everything began with an old tale, we all knew the legend of the “Faust's Box”, an artifact that supposedly contained a great power, the mysteries of the universe or something like that, the legend always had different versions, but all of them had something in common, the artifact should never be found, otherwise, it would mean our extinction.
However, the desire for knowledge and power of one person was all that was needed to begin the end of our time. A group of scientists led by Twilight Sparkle found it under the ruins of an old civilization hidden in the deepness of the badlands. Many tried to stop her, even both Princesses were opposed to its opening, but Sparkle didn't listened.
I was there the day she opened it, the day that all hell broke loose. There was something inside that thing and it took many lives that day, including those of the elements bearers. Lucky bastards, they didn't live long enough to witness the nightmare that followed.
One month after its opening, the first sign that something was wrong appeared, Princess Luna fell sick and people all around the world started to have gruesome nightmares, many of them used to say that when they slept they could hear voices calling their names, voices ordering them to kill their loved ones, some even spoke about shadow beings that haunted their houses, it became mass hysteria and Luna was blamed for it. The best doctors tried to heal her, but in the end, she died and her sister couldn't overcome it. Celestia went mad by the pain and committed suicide shortly after. That day, a solar eclipse was witnessed, the moon vanished from the sky and the sun turned red and has stood high in the sky since then.
With both princesses dead, the leaders of the nations turned against one another in a war for power and supplies that had begun to run low. Entire cities were turned into ashes; thousands of innocent lives were exterminated, but a bigger horror was still waiting to show itself. At first it was just a rumor, but the sightings of unknown beings coming out from the debris of some cities started to rise in number, fierce creatures that mercilessly hunted the survivors to feed with their flesh and blood. Like a plague of locust, these monsters spread their terror over the remains of our civilization and what remained of the great armies soon was wiped out and the whole world went silent.
This is how I spend my days now, hiding in the shadows to avoid being killed, struggling to find something to eat, surviving day after day. I hate this, I've lost count of the times I've been about to blow my head off, but just one look to my old necklace, to the worn faces on those pictures of my wife and my daughter, is enough to give me strength to continue.
While walking back to my makeshift shelter, I can't avoid thinking that today was a good day, I found some cans of food, a boat of coke and even a package of Twinkies, of course, I had to kill a couple of those "shadow stalkers", what a stupid name, a more fitting name, in my opinion, would be "howlers" because that's their hunting technic, they wander through the city and when they find a survivor, they start to howl in order to indicate the position of the food to other monsters, there is no escape once they find you, they will maul and eat you in the best of the cases, in the other scenery... well, I don't like to think about it.
From the second floor of a parking lot I give a last glimpse towards the east side of the city, it seems that the beasts on that region died with the fire, that gives me a little hope, if I‘m able to find a car that works, I may be able to finally escape from this shithole. I've been stuck in here for the last three weeks since I crashed my truck, I'm running out of ammo and the food that I have will last for a couple of days at most.
Something that bites the back of my mind is the fact that I haven’t found a single survivor in all the time I've spent here, I don’t have any hope now, at least not of find normal people. The last time I talked with someone was two months ago, he said his name was Joel, he was a good guy and a hell if he knew how to fight those beasts, even I learned a couple of things from him. I asked him to come with me but he refused and we parted ways, I think it was for the best in the end.
After eating a can of peas and the Twinkies, I start to feel sleepy. I think that the fight against the howlers took its toll in me, one of those bastards wounded me on the chest and now it burns like if hundreds of bees were stinging me. Carefully, I remove the gauze covered with blood and place a new one over my chest; it helps to ease the pain.
It's futile to fight against the fatigue, despite the fact that I need to sleep to recover some of my forces; I hate to do so, because I always have the same nightmare, a cruel reminder of the day I lost everything I loved.
They attacked the house while we slept, I fought against them trying to protect my wife and daughter, but it was all in vain, one of them grabbed my neck and started to choke me, the last thing I saw before losing consciousness was to one of them ripping off the head of my little girl while others dragged my wife out of the house towards the darkness, I still can hear her screaming my name, screaming for help.
Something is wrong; I can hear them howling in the distance. Walking towards the edge of the wall and looking to the surroundings I can see a big group of those bastards getting close to my position, shit, I'm in big troubles now.
Grabbing my rifle and the last of its magazines I take cover behind a car. I have a clear view of the entrance to the floor, they will come through it, somehow, that will give me a slight advantage, however, they're too many, I don't know if I'll get out alive this time.
What’s the point anyway? Why should I keep on fighting? I think... I think I should take the easy way out and send a bullet through my head… No, there wouldn't be fun in doing that. If I’m going to die, I'm damn sure going to take some of them with me. I see them appear on the threshold of the stairs, their eyes are like doors to hell.
“Bring it on, motherfuckers!” I shout them and they pounce on my position.
After pulling the trigger, I can hear their wails of pain when they are hit by the bullets. Some of the try to jump on me, but I hit them easily. My weapon sings a melody of death; I can feel the adrenaline running down my spine and the fight rages on for several minutes that seems like an eternity to me.
The rifle runs out of ammo, several still stands and begin to corner me. One runs directly to me, I barely can take my knife out when I feel an intense pain on my shoulder, the son of a bitch bite me with all his strength and I plunge the blade into his neck, his lifeless body falls to the ground as I take my last gun out.
This is the end, I can do nothing more. Without warning they stop, something starts to light up the sky and makes them flee in terror. Behind me, I can hear a violent explosion, the shock wave throws me to the ground and a tremor collapses the building.
After some moments and with great difficulty, I’m able to remove some of the debris that fell over me and a sharp pain makes me look over my body just to find out that a steel rod has pierced my chest. I stand up with a cry of pain, my blood is starting to stain the pain and my breathing becomes more erratic with each second.
Looking towards the sky I can see the sun; it seems to be bleeding and grows bigger with each minute. My legs fail and I end up kneeling, my eyelids feel heavy, I think that finally, the time has come to rest.
I feel the heat, it burns me and the pain is becoming unbearable.
A lone tear runs down my cheek as I look into my necklace.
“My dear Ditsy… soon I’ll be with you…”
“Dinky… don’t worry… daddy’s coming home…”
I close my eyes, nothing matters anymore.
