Last On Earth

Chapter 1: The Beginning After The End (Uneeb's Perspective)

 As I tried to open my eyes, my vision blurred n distorted, a flashing beam flickering through my sight. As I started to gain focus, I could see red-painted walls and flickering hanging tube lights from the ceiling. I started to recognize the place as my vision started to clear. It was my classroom, and it was not in a condition I had ever seen before.

 The red paint on the walls was not paint at all, but blood. Tube lights, split in half, hanging from the ceiling burnt out from life. My eyes had just taken in the details of the classroom from above when my gaze slowly descended to observe the scene on the ground. My heart began to sink as my gaze settled on the mess on the floor.

 Dead bodies were ripped apart and scattered all over it. The feeling of doom dawned upon me as my brain started to analyze that something bad had happened. I could see all my classmates, friends I had spent my entire school life with, laying down haphazardly on the floor. 'This must be a nightmare, this can't be real!', I started to repeat so I could assure myself of the disbelief of this insanity.

 I dashed out of my classroom and down the corridor. My classroom was situated on the 3rd floor of the school building. I reached for the elevator, but it was stuck with someone's head between the doors. The feeling of nausea started to reach my throat. As I went towards the backside of the building to access the emergency stairs. I made a run down the stairs mostly sliding down with the reeling. As I reached the ground floor I exited the staircase and came to view a landscape I could never have imagined before.

 The sky was covered in a cloud of red, and the school playground looked like a battlefield. Students n teachers behave like monsters, eating, killing, n ripping each other apart, the victims running in the opposite direction. Other people were chasing after them, no, not people, monsters, with completely distorted bodies and blobs and cysts on their skin, they were looking psychic and clearly not in their senses, ruthlessly attacking others. I could see the school gates in front of me, far across the school playgrounds, I dashed across the fields with my eyes closed, praying those monsters would not deem much attention to me, forgetting to breathe as I marched forward towards my hellhole escape when I noticed a figure that had started to chase me from behind.

 I started to see my life flash before my very eyes as what I thought was to only reach the gate as a last strand of hope to somehow save my own life. As I was dashing towards the open exit out of school, I could feel frantic breaths and presence following right behind me. It was my homeroom teacher from 3rd grade who I had most adored. Now running after me for the lust of blood and flesh. I have had a trait or a self-defense mechanism since I was young. I would turn off all my emotions including affection to ensure my survival. In the heat of the moment, that part of me woke up as I abruptly stopped to hold my ground, I turned around, clenching my fist to face my teacher running towards me. I threw my shoulders loose, letting off a left hook punch straight into her jaws of her.

 The impact felt powerful as she scampered back with the pain, and I took this opportunity to flee from the gates. The view from the outside appeared much worse compared to the one from inside the school. Cars crashed into each other, bloodstream running down the roads, but I was glad I could not see any entities situated outside. I started to look out for my getaway ride, my Honda central deposit 70 cc bike I had always adored since I started high school. I took out the keys from my back pocket, unlocked the handle lock, and switched on the bike, it was a self-start model, so I kicked it on as it throttled and roared on acceleration as I went all out on the road, burning the tires and gaining speed as I drive it towards my home. My brain is filled with only one thought now, my family.

 I was hoping for the fact that this was just a horrible nightmare, but I still was preparing myself for the worst-case scenario. Looking at the condition of the people he had just encountered, he was afraid of the consequences his family would have faced from such a disease, curse, or whatever it was supposed to be. As I drove on the main road of our society, I could feel the eariness and emptiness filled in the surroundings, cars crashed into each other, and blood splattered from place to place. It was the most horrific scene I could've imagined. As I turned left from the main road to the street, I could see my home upfront and the neighborhood I had spent my entire childhood in, now filled with dead bodies of my friends, neighbors, our street dog, and our mail-man, all ripped apart and splattered across the street. "I really really hope this is just a bad dream". I abruptly stopped my bike as I got off and started to walk slowly across the street, my house situated at the end of it.

 I start to walk slowly towards it, my heart races at every step that I take, overwhelmed by the dread that awaits at his doorstep, with the courage and intrepidity built from within, I finally reach the hymn of my front door leading inside my house, I reach out for the doorknob and twist to unlock the door wide open, all I could see in front of me, was blood, a body of my mother leaning with a wall, her head crumpled and bashed in while her blood spoiled across the floor, my father was spilled in 2, his legs and his torso scattered across the lounge, my sister sprawled across the floor, her chest ripped apart, and my brother, standing right in front of me, his eyes no longer showed the circles of his pupils, completely blank, his mouth wide open, drooling with flesh and blood combines, his hands twisted in a weird angle, and he faced towards me, waiting to attack, to consume, to destroy.

 My brain immediately switched off again, losing the grasp of emotions or sanity itself, I positioned myself again, waiting for the chance to retaliate against my own brother, my right leg stepped behind, waiting for the swing, as my brother started to reach out more towards me, I gained a strong foothold with my left leg, leaning down and start to twist my hips as I observe my brother movements.

 They were haphazard, not of a predictable attacker, but I still took the gamble for a one-shot kill. My brother plunges forward, reaching me with his mouth, trying to have a munch off me, I time my shot as my body twists along the hips momentum, making my right leg gain speed as my left foot rotates across the floor, my right leg reaches high up, advancing for a Brazilian kick and aiming for my brother's vegas nerve, until I get a perfectly timed kick, breaking my brother's motion as he stumbles forward and clashes into my body, we both scrambled across the floor, he still tries to scratch and grab my throat but it was the moment I knew I had taken a good hit, but.....

But nothing happened, he still continued to peel the skin off my throat and try to choke me, my hand pushing his head away to stop him from having a good bite off me. I realized that my brother was a stronger mutation than a normal human. So I had to give one final strong blow to ensure my victory. I grab his head with both hands, facing his face towards me as he continues to injure my collar skin and neck, I rest my head back on the floor, trying to gain as much space between our heads for a good head bump.

 I abruptly pull my head upwards, clashing my forehead against his with all the force I could muster, and I drive it inside his forehead. I am a mix-martial artist and I was known for the immense impact I could create with my forehead, which could break bones apart, it did the trick the same as before. My forehead broke through my brother's skull bone driving through it and bashing it open. My brother sprawls back and hits the floor, completely still. I get up from the ground, feeling the blood trickle down my collar, but I was happy, I was happy that I survived.

 Despite the way my family has split apart, my schoolfriends crushed and eaten alive, the way my brother had gone berserk, and the way I had crushed his skull open, I still felt relieved. My brain switched on again while tears started to trickle down my eyes. The tears were a mix of physical pain, emotional pain, disbelief, sadness, and last, but not least, relief. "Well, I always was a nutcase, to begin with", I said to myself. I switched on the TV that was still intact despite all the ruckus inside the house, a news coverage streaming right in front of me:

"Breaking News: A virus has been unleashed, causing people to turn into zombies. Symptoms include extreme hunger and an insatiable need to infect others. All survivors are to regroup and head to your nearest radio station. please Do not try to contact anyone who has been infected. To look for symptoms of your own self, not the following changes:-

After getting infected, you would get a rash and a rising fever. You'd start to overheat and cough up blood, your body's condition worsening. You'd start to lose motor control. As time went on you would lose color in your skin as your skin would start to suffer some of the effects such as bruising and the rashes would turn into boils and cysts. You would begin losing more and more blood, probably from things such as frequent nose bleeds or coughing it up. After you've lost a lot, your skin would start to erupt, boils popping, and things of the like. You would also stop voluntarily moving, instead, their body would resort to jerky spasms of movement."

I stare at the screen and let off a giggle out of disbelief as I said to myself:

"Looks like it wasn't a nightmare after all."