As the figure slowly made it's way round the corner, the whole street came to a standstill. "what...what is that..." Klara stammered as she tried to suppress the sudden fear she had just started feeling. In fact, it was not just her, everyone suddenly felt a chill run down their spine. " What's this, I'm shaking?" Alden mumbled to himself as he observed the palm of his hand. " aah guys, I don't know how to explain this but my knees...they feel weak all of a sudden. I also can't really explain how or why but I feel... terrified" Mike said visibly shaking as his eyes lay on the silhouette that had recently emerged. Nathan grinned his teeth upon hearing Mike's statement, oddly enough, he felt the exact same. Not just him but every one on that street.
All this time, not a single person still conscious had drawn their eyes away from the figure. It looked...human but in a really grotesque manner. The figure looked like a male, slightly taller than the average person. However there were striking differences that stood out, even in the evening hue of the atmosphere one could still clearly make out these features. It's arms although slender, seemed to have black veins bulging on its surface. Not just it's arms, but its neck and legs too. Furthermore, the man looked sickeningly pale with veiny eyes and grey hair.His clothes had almost been completely ripped off and was now surviving on a dirty half torn shirt with a ripped pair of trousers but the scary thing was, he showed no reaction to the cold evening weather. One could even say he completely disregarded the cold. Some blood dripped down his fingers and stained his clothing as it continued flowing and the terrifying part is, it did not look like it was his.The man basically looked half dead.
He slowly scanned the whole street with a gaze and let out a smirk. Suddenly he dashed forward at full speed and rammed into a nearby man. Because of his speed and momentum he carried on the motion, still connected to the man he rammed, and rammed a second time into a car parked on the street instantly shattering the windows and leaving a massive dent on the cars side. The man unfortunately enough to be caught between the two instantly died.
There was pin drop silence for a second as the car's alarm went off then almost in unison, panick and screams broke out on the whole street. " everyone, enter the café!" Nathan shouted as he reacted first and dashed in. As everyone scrambled on the streets and screamed in confusion, the five as well as others nearby dashed into the café. Alden however never took his gaze away from the figure. It didn't look to be in a hurry. However, something shocking happened. Alden saw something like a red and blue gas, leave the remains of the dead man that the figure had just killed and enter the figure standing above the corpse. The figure seemed to close it's eyes almost as if it were savouring whatever had entered it from the dead man's body. Alden didn't know if he was imagining it but he thought he say the skinny figure suddenly gain some muscle even though it was by a miniscule amount. "what!?" Alden whispered to himself as he made his way into the café.
Immediately he was in Freya shouted "barricade the doors, bring chairs tables.... anything you can find. And switch off the lights" as she approached to grab Alden by the arm and led him away from the door. "Are you fine?" she asked with a shakey voice as she leaned in to hug him "you almost got left outside." "I'm fine, I did get in didn't I?" Alden replied as he reciprocated the hug, wrapping his hands around her waist and giving it a light squeeze in a comforting gesture. Often, Freya had a very bold, dominant and straightforward personality however whenever she was with Alden, she softened up massively and would only act vulnerable around him but this was not always the case. Before they got together, Alden too was subject to her fiery nature and personality often receiving death stares if he happened to glance at her in a way she didn't like. But that was back then.
"There they go again those two love birds, they're both almost completely different people whenever they're together compared to when they're with us" Mike nagged . "Give them a break, if you're so desperate for such affection yourself why don't you get a girlfriend " Nathan stated as he walked to take a seat. "you're right..." Mike exclaimed as he turned around to look at Klara while smiling mischievously. "Get lost you idiot" Klara said walking away without even looking at him twice. "well, it was worth the try" Mike said to himself .
Currently, inside the café, there was about 12 people. The 5 students plus another seven. "Gather round everybody" a rather bulky man with a grey bushy beared said to everyone. By then the night had already started crept in but in order to avoid drawing unwanted attention, the lights were kept switched off. Also the creatures didn't seem to have intelligence high enough to realise a barricaded door meant people inside, otherwise it would have probably broken in earlier. It moved on pure instinct and a desire for whatever it absorbed from the dead man it rammed into.
"Good evening fellers, my name is Nico Gredig, but Nico will just do, let's go round introducing each other shall we?" the beared man spoke. After a round of introductions, he officially began, " Anyone has anything to say? Anything?" Alden slowly raised his hand and cleared his throat, "Do you have any clue as to who or what that thing was back there?" everyone nodded in anxiety as they all also had the same question. Nico look down and sighed before looking back up to Alden and answering in a rather childish manner and smile "no clue whatsoever " almost letting out a chuckle. They were all taken a back by this sudden change in demeanour. However Nico got serious once more " I'm not sure but the closest reference I can think of from what I have seen are zombies, even though that one fell more on the monster type rather than zombie." . "C'mon are you playing with us, you really expect us to take that seriously " Mike stated and even as he did, one could pick up the traces of fear and anxiety in his words. For the first time, or rather one of the few times, Nathan didn't rebuke him nor did the rest. They hoped Mike was right, however, what they had just witnessed was beyond explanation and the field of possiblities was just So wide anything was fair game and possible at this point.
Nico paused for a bit, then said " that figure I believe was a man that happened to be on that other Street when the sky turned red and that strange liquid rained down, I suspect the two are connected. Also from how he looked, he had to have at least been engaged in a fight with someone or some people in that short window of time which if I have to guess, he came out victorious "
Nathan spoke up, "What about that feeling...I know I wasn't the only one. When I felt his presence, it was as if...". "you couldn't move? unexplainable fear?" Nico finished his statement for him. "that... I can't think of a way to explain it. Sure it is normal to experience fear of the unknown but that felt like something more, it was as if my body refused completely to obey my mind. I was rooted to the ground, no matter how much I tried I could barely move. And my heart was pounding. I Don't know what that was" Alden looked up at the group after pondering for a while "I suggest we leave this town. We still have no idea how that man ended up like that or if it's possible for him to infect others and make them like himself. The best option would be to get away from densely populated areas of that's the case."
"Northwest of here, I know of a small cabin. it's owners are out of town and it's unlikely they'll be back soon." Nico added."alright then let's leave first thing in the morning " Nathan announced. "Any objection?" The other 6 people in the café were terrified by the whole situation and simply agreed with everything. However Klara spoke up " wouldn't it be better if we waited for the police or military to come and perform an evacuation? otherwise we are just heading out in the open begging to be killed". "That wouldn't do, from the last time I checked my phone before it died, I remember seeing that this was happening on a global scale. if so, we can only assume that they already have their plates full trying to evacuate larger cities and those with a hire population meaning where more of those things are likely to appear. And also, say it is infectious, the longer we sit and wait, the larger their numbers grow and it may reach some point escape becomes impossible." Alden said in a low casual voice. "He's right, the sooner we leave, the better " Nathan added
"uuhm there's something I'd like to add" Alden suddenly spoke " when that creature killed that man next to that car, I saw something.... unusual."
"What did you see?" Freya asked. everyone turned their heads towards him in anticipation of the news. "Well... you see after it had killed that man , it walked towards him and...." suddenly the sound of the window shattering echoed round the room as the glass landed on the floor followed by a soft thud of someone landing. They were all frightened and immediately all moved back and observed. The silhouette stood there at the centre of all the broken glass shards with the same physical appearance as the figure before. Arms covered in black veins, deathly pale skin, decolored hair and traces of someone's blood. However this time it appeared to be a woman. As she stood before them under the moonlight shining through where the window once was they were all thinking the same thing "crap, why did this have to happen" . She smirked and before long 4 others were making their way in through the broken window. " This is not looking good" Alden thought to himself as cold sweat ran down him.