The Divine Infection

Chapter One: Death Or Disgrace

Darkness. Fog. It's all I can see, for miles ahead of me. Endless shadows. I hear a loud screech and quicken my pace - if that's even possible - as I run as fast as my aching, bruised legs will carry me down the dark, slippery road. In Beccles, Suffolk, it's meant to be quiet, peaceful. So far into the country, and away from London, that the infection shouldn't have spread here. Well, that's what the radio transmissions all said about the town. But it's far from it, now.  

"Leigh! Just keep running!" I hear someone yell, to my left and rather far behind me. My brother, Caleb; always alert, always trying to keep me safe. We've been settled in our old house in Beccles for years; as a happily-settled part of our family before this whole ordeal, and then as a close-knitted pair of clueless survivors for the past year. We've never had to leave, never had to move away from our house, we've been lucky like that. We've never even considered the idea of leaving, not even when dad went off to find supplies and didn't come back; not even when mum - pregnant at the time - went to find dad when Caleb and I were asleep and ended up dead in the middle of the woods. My brother and I have lived in that little house since we were kids, since we were both just toddlers. We've never considered leaving, because that house is our home, our memories, our haven, our life - considering the idea of relocating is simply unmentionable.  

Or at least it was just three hours ago. Now? It doesn't seem like a half-bad idea. Or rather a plan.  

"Caleb, hurry up!" I yell, trying to fight the urge to look back over my shoulder. Caleb advised that I avoid doing such a thing, it'll only slow me down.  

"Don't worry about me! I've got your back!" He sounds too far away...so far behind...  

"Just hurry the fuck up!" I yell, before hearing another loud screech. Inhuman, ear-splintering, terrific...almost like a monster.  

That's because it is a monster, though. A horrible creature; one that, by the laws of nature itself, shouldn't even exist; one that wants to kill me.  

And not just one. There are hundreds swarming around this area alone.  

"Leigh! Keep focused, you prat!" Caleb shouts. "Stay- agh!"  

"Caleb!" I stop dead, fear pounding through me as I turn quickly to see my brother, to see what's wrong.  

And that's when I see it. The blood, splattered across the rain-soaked tarmac of the road. The lifeless form lying on the road. The head, unattached from its body, rolling to the side mere feet from the body, carelessly thrown. The wide, staring turquoise eyes on the detached head, staring right on ahead, right through me and into my soul, empty and lifeless. 

"Caleb...? Caleb!" I move to run towards him, hand shaking and head spinning, eyes burning and throat stinging...but then I see what killed him. The monsters that slaughtered my brother in cold blood. Decaying forms of what must have once been humans: their hair falling out; skin blue-tinted, peeling, infected, inflamed; eyes seeming deflated, the colour lost from their depths; limbs rotted, decaying and decomposing. "The fuck?" I whimper. What are these things? These monsters? Are these the creatures that started this outbreak, this disease? 

These blue-ish purple figures begin to creep forward towards me, their movements stiff and forced. I open my mouth to scream, unable to move as I just stare at these horrendous creatures. Four of them; nightmare-enducing, disgusting, putrifying bastards. Their skin, in places, is frothy, where their skin is liquefying, and the horrid smell of decay hangs in the air as these walking corpses release horrid bodily fluids and gases. Their eyes are leaking a horrid grey substance, as are what appears to be their noses and mouths - their faces are too decayed to be recognised as actual faces. Flies are swarming in the air around these creatures, but they're not the things creeping me out here; these monsters are. And more than just creeping me out.