Currently I have about 5 fiction stories dancing around in my head – and am having a hard time getting any/all of them out.  So, on suggestion, I’m going to use this blog partly to release one of these ideas.  The plan is simple – to release a new chapter every week or so.  This story is a short story (flirting with the title Phase 1), but I do have some ideas on fleshing it out into a much longer piece.  We’ll see how it goes.  Remember to leave a comment, as this goes I will look to your ideas on the final direction of this tale.

Chapter 1 – Uncontrollable

Bite after bite, the tearing of muscle fibers between the remaining teeth in my mouth become easier to manage.  By now, the routine of satisfying basic nourishment should be customary to me.  Kneeling in a pile of dirt, my knees bare of clothes, and to that matter – skin, I barely make out the final whimper of the poor creature in my hands.  Blood continues to bath my mouth as the small animal in my hands slowly dies.

I feel myself rise in place and with the limited vision left in my eyes, I’m able to see that I am moving again.  With my appetite sated momentarily, the control over my eyes start to lessen as my body once again becomes beholden to the virus.  I begin to wonder how much longer it will be before I have to endure the sight of my strong urges winning over my desires.

The increase in both my hearing and sense of smell always amazes me after a meal.  I’ve lost count of the days a long time ago, but vague recollections of laying motionless, trapped in the snow, remind me that at least two seasons have passed since the virus took its hold.  If I knew then the state I would’ve ended up in, there wouldn’t have been any hesitation in turning that gun on myself.

With my ears and nose operating at super levels, my vision slowly returns to further remind me of the world as it is now.  The stretch of road before me is sparsely littered with those unlucky enough to share my present condition.  As I move I wish I could call out to them, to see if they are afflicted in the same way I am.  ‘Always looking for answers!’  Those were the words constantly said about me by Lauren.  My once beautiful Lauren who I saw mangled and destroyed by this virus.  I struggle to release a tear, to ball my fist, to have any physical reaction at all.  As usual the cold reality that my body is no longer mine to control slaps me back to my senses.

My vision begins to change as the sun begins its descent into darkness.  No longer viewing the world on a spectrum normal to man, my eyes begin to pick up every heat signature within a 3 mile radius.  I’ve been able to distinguish at least between the Breathers and those who are like me.  As the flickering signs of my peers shuffle around me, various steady signatures can be seen in the distance.  I still haven’t figured out how my body determines which of the steady’s to go after.

Armed with the increased hearing and smell, satisfying the hunger always becomes easier at night.  The uninfected who at this point haven’t learned how to survive have come to meet the night’s hour with unspeakable fear.  A fear that makes finding and ending them much easier than I could’ve imagined.

– POP! – POP! – POP!  With the loud thundering shots, all of the flickering signatures within my field of vision begin moving in the direction of the apparent gunfire.  I try to prevent myself from moving in that direction, still trying to grasp some of the control that my long hunger afforded me.  I know what will happen if I found myself among the Breathers and being so long with a conscious mind, so close to finding a way to overcome the virus’ effects will totally be undone.

A fourth shot rings lonely in the air.  My slow, shuffled steps start to take on a more hurried pace.  As if awakened by the prospect of inflicting death, the sparse beat of my heart floods my body with the resurgent virus.  The world opens up even more as I again witness my body prepare itself to satisfy this hunger with the kind of meal it needs for survival.  The familiar aroma of warm coursing blood floods my nose and my body reacts as it begins to dart straight for the nexus of this scent.  The once barely filled street is now becoming crowded a bit more with my new kin who seem to appear out of nowhere.  Our moans of hunger now replace the still air that those shots ruptured.

Normally, screams should be dancing through the air by now if what lied ahead were a normal pack of Breathers.  A pack of us this large would almost dissolve the psyche of a group so small.  The closer I get, the smell of blood grows stronger.  The five steady heat signatures up ahead seem to stand in place, as if awaiting this coming horde of shuffle footed demons.  A couple hundred flickering signatures now stand between me and those five damned souls that still haven’t moved up ahead.

As the horde moves closer, the heat signatures, for a moment, flare up similar to an athlete’s right before performing a feat.  Mid-flare, a bevy of thunderous gunshots are thrown into our horde.  Body after mangled body drops under the weight of gunfire.  Many of the shots target the head, as well as separating the arms and legs of some of us.  Panic takes over my mind as I use all of my willpower to stop myself from advancing into the slaughter.

The head of the body directly in front of me explodes upon impact with a bullet that eventually pierces my chest.  The recoil knocks me back as both the headless one and I crumble onto the ground.  My mouth still chattering, moans still singing in the air, I lay there as more and more are decimated by the well planned hands of those five Breathers.

“I totally kill-…  You ain’t -…”  I can barely make out the voices but it is clear that the gun portion of this meeting is done.  In place of the sounds of war, the relief of survivors fill the night’s air.  My hearing fades in and out as my body tries to assess the damage inflicted.  Times like this I am thankful that I can’t feel pain.

“Destroy their brains.  Decapitate as many as you can but save your strength.  We have a long hike back to camp.”  This voice of authority I hear perfectly as I try with all my will to see anything.  As my eyes move under my own control I feel the need to scream out in excitement.  With my head perched to the side, I’m able to catch glimpses of two people hacking at the heads of the afflicted.

I roll my eyes around the sockets a bit and just bask in the relief of having some control over my self again.  If only I could yell at them and tell them how futile their actions are.  The head isn’t as important as the heart!  In moments, the wound in my chest will heal and as the virus regains control of every part of my body again, I will be up, searching for more food.  such minor wounds I’ve found take longer to heal.

A loud scream sends the small group into a fevered state as I watch one member fall to the ground in terror near to me.  Those head wounds at this point should be freshly healed, meaning many of the horde will be up and ready to feast in moments.  As I move my eyes and follow the scurrying Breather on the ground, my eyes become locked off to me once again.  In the darkness, all I see now is a lone heat signature, scurrying within my reach.  The flickering signs of my kin can be found in a few clusters, clammering at each other for a piece of the other members of the group.

I scream in silence as my nose is once again filled with the aroma of his blood.  My arm shoots out with a clenched grip onto this poor soul.  My body awakens again, the hunger driving me out from under others just as hungry but unable to move as yet.  Within no time my mouth is filled with flesh, his blood entering my body and fueling me – no, fueling the virus – with new life.  Bite after bite I consume this man whose screams stopped a while ago.  As the world fades away around me, the night’s air is no longer still with the sounds of life.  Death, once again, triumphs over all.