It's 9092 and the ozone layer is on its thinnest ever. The once firtile Earth had turned into a dry planet, the reddish brown surface looking as one of a huge raisin. The only difference was that this planet didn't provide much water for the earthlings. In these extreme conditions only the best adapted creatures were able to survive. These past fifty years, nature granted the humans an even bigger challenge to survive. The new threat is known as the arrival of the Apocalyptical Hornet. These little bugs, a mutated version of the Asian Hornet, feed themselves from the brains of mammals. Once bitten in your head, you simply die. An untreaten wound elsewhere causes the transformation into a zombie.
Although there had been plenty of research done by advanced scientists, no one really knows where these came from and what was the instance for these insects to develop. This sounds like a story straight out of a horror movie, but this matter was pure seriousness. Many got killed by the bugs, zombies or from starvation. As the bug's poison also infecected mammals other than the human race, such as cows, goats and sheep, the lack food became one of the major issues.
The only way to find a way out of this hell is to repair the DD0606-44 space ship at The Last Post, a military base that was situated in the mountains. The ship got destroyed by its captain himself for an unknown reason. On their way to the post they had to face the many dangers that the landscape offered. Unfortunately there was only one person left who posessed the skills to repair the ship. Adolf, a man in his mid fifties who was the inventor and co-creator of the ship, together with the captain. Fifty years ago astrologers had found a new planet about 2 million light years away from Earth. The planet, called Juvenius, has eightteen times the capacity of the Earth and was only on one eleventh of it's life period. Already eleven billion people were brought there, safely, and a few more were still waiting at the post.
Unfortunately the hornets delayed the journey for years and the ship's captain and it's crew got infected by the bugs. Most crew members died instantly but rumors have told that the captain, named Jo Johnson, still wanders around the mountains haunting its citizens at night. They said you can still hear his faint screams. "Ahoy, ahoy, come on board, I'll bring you to the other world." That's what could be heard each time, but when you get to the place you heard it from you would only be confronted with rotting corpses from which the brains were scattered around the place, the eyes bulging out of their sockets and some dead hornets for the finishing touch. The captain always brought his famous lazer rifle everywhere with him, even in his death. The gun was one of its kind. It was made personally for the captain's seventieth birthday which was four years ago, firing red lazer arrows when using it. It was easy to distinguish between the other, blue and yellow arrows. Blue were for the rangers, who were hunting the zombies day by day. Yellow was for some of the ordinary people to protect theirselves and their family. The yellow arrows were a lot weaker but they did their job.
"Why don't you wake up sailors young." He heard, followed by wicked laughter.
His eyes opened, seeing the wires connected to his once lifeless body. There he layed in his hospital bed, recovering from his artificial coma. Once he saw his bandaged arm his
gaze completely froze. He quickly sat up, looking around him, taking in his surroundings. The hospital bed he layed in stood in the middle of an infirmary tent. The walls were mice grey and made from a light material, which was necessary with the extremely hot temperatures they had to defy. Why was he here? What happened? Whom had he heard in his dream?
Abruptly the sail of the tent flew open and a woman of his age appeared in infirmary clothes. The green of her oversized shirt and pants were in great contrast to the light grey tint of the walls, as if they were fighting their own battle. Meanwhile the woman undid her green mask and threw herself in his arms. Taken aback he schrieked loudly. "Who are you?" He yelped. She was a bit disappointed but not surprised, her husband had been through a tough surgery which made him lose his arm and the poison could've effected a part of his brain. She was already thankful that the father of her child made it out alive. "My name is Amalia Johnson, I am your wife, you just had surgery because you got bitten by one of those bugs while fighting. I don't know more but the things Adolf has told me." "Can you prove me that you're indeed my wife?" She brought her left hand to his. He could see the two rings. Although the red gemstone was more distinct on hers they definitely matched.
Suddenly something hit him, he was suffering from severe memory loss.
"Can you tell me more about myself and the events which happened, causing me to lose my left arm?" She told the story completely, how he was fighting the zombies and one bug bit his arm. Fortunately there was made a bionic arm to compensate it. She had told him how Adolf had saved him and how he would save the human race from the plague.
"I'll let you rest some more, I'm going to eat dinner with Adolf and Eve. We'll continue our journey this evening when the sun has left the horizon and the temperatures have cooled down. " He nodded in agreement.
That evening they did as told. Adolf's crew tidied the tents, the infirmary tent was the last one on the list. Thom was already disconnected from the monitor and was preparing his lazer rifle. It seemed like how to handle guns was the only thing he hadn't forgotten as he helped the camp to survive a minor zombie attack less than one hour ago. No one has gotten severely hurt as his shooting skills never had left his side. Once everything was packed they continued their way to the main destination, The Last Post.
While walking for hours in the pitch dark, his sight got more blurred and it was harder to stay attentive. He was walking ahead together with Adolf and a few of his guard rangers. Amalia and Eve following together with the other nurses and surgeons. The crew and the remaining survivors were following with the Jeeps, carrying the tents. Their GPS led them to a drinking place on their way. It was a good opportunity to fill the water bottles, which were already empty, and refreshen themselves a bit. Although these were the last eight hours of their journey, the last climb is the toughest. Not only the heights difference will play it's tricks, the mountains were the main home where the notorious Hornets were housing.
Suddenly their feet touched softer sand, which was slightly moist. "This is the place where the water source should've been." Peter, one of the faithful rangers, commented. "Only the bed of the oasis could be seen. The water has already dried up."
"That's horrible news." Adolf mumbled quietly. Meanwhile Thom was looking around trying to see clearly. He saw something shimmering beyond them. "It could be that this little pool wasn't a source, but the progress of a river. A bit closer to thé mountains I could see something reflecting the moonlight. That thing might be water." Thom reasoned. "That's a smart thought, Thom." Adolf replied with a smile, patting Thom's shoulder. Peter nodded at the response, facing the direction where Thom saw the water.
Once there some of the survivors, including Amalia, ran to the river and drank from the water. It was only when the clouds slid away from the moon when they saw the substance of the water. The water was definitely spoiled and drinking from it would bring horrifying consequences. "Stop drinking!" Peter said, trying to limit the damage, but some wouldn't listen as they were almost starving from thirst.
"Look at the water!" Amalia looked up and saw corpses and dead insects floating in the brown liquid. Rotten corpses, some even ripped from eachother, laid face down into the water. She immediately panicked and shrieked loudly. Still thirsty as she was first, now there was a immense chance to get sick. The other people now also noticed her panicking state as they slowly brought their head to the level to also be able to see the disaster. It became an ultimate chaos as people ran in different directions, making each other to fall over to the ground and trampling people to their death. "Stop!" Adolf suddenly yelled. All heads, from the ones who were still alive, turned into his direction. "All who drank from the spoiled water can go to the nurses, they will give you disinfectant medicines."
Once the crowd had cooled down a little, and everyone had took the medicines, they continued their way up in the mountains. They had lost some precious time but without further obstacles they would reach The Last Post before the sun starts heating up the planet and fries its residents. They continued their way from road to road, passing name signs decorated with bullet holes. They were high up in the mountains and it wouldn't be more than forty minutes before they would reach their destination. It wouldn't hurt if they made a brief stop at a little old town. Ofcourse they need to be on guard as zombies would be able to jump in on them out of nowhere. Step before step they entered the deserted town, rifles in hand. At first sight there was nothing to be seen, nor heard. The only sound was their faint footsteps tapping on the slippery cobblestone. Within fifty meters stood a huge water fountain. Hopefully, if luck once was on their side, the water was clean so they could refresh themselves and supplement the water reserves. Peter stood next to the car while one of the other rangers tried tasting if the water was drinkable. Fortunately it was. He gave a thumbs up and with this all the people stormed to the water source, drinking from it, refreshing theirselves and filling their bottles with the heavenly cold liquid. It finally got all better, or so they thought.
Suddenly they heard a loud ploff, followed by an alarm going off. On top of the car where Peter stood, laid three zombies who slowly were getting back on their feet. Pointing his gun to the three creatures, Peter backed away. Before they knew it they were surrounded by at least eighty of them. The zombies were circling like vultures. They totally didn't have the time for this as it already was later at night, of rather early in the morning. If they wanted to arrive at The Last Post before the sun rises, then they needed to handle quickly.
As the zombies kept strolling towards their opponents, the humans came in action. A mix of yellow and blue arrows colored the dark sky. Before the three zombies could cause any harm to Peter, Thom rolled in front of him, shooting them once he stood back on his feet. "Thanks dude." Peter smiled to his friend. It by far wasn't a fair fight. Although the zombies were half as fast as humans, their strenght was their fearlessness and brute force, but humans were a lot smarter. The amount of the humans was a lot bigger than these of the zombies, not everyone is weaponed with the advanced rifles. The best solution was to find shelter in the buildings. All the survivors without weapons went in the houses and deserted shops, waiting for the storm to be over. The survivors with guns guarded the houses at the doors or from upstairs when a house had a balcony. Most of the rangers ran through the streets or on the stairs to get to the flat roofs of the houses. From there they had an amazing view over the whole city and they were able to eliminate zombies without the risk of getting hurt themselves.
Meanwhile Thom and Peter had a worse time guarding the Jeeps. They both sat on their knees on top of the car's roof, trying to divide their weight so the roof wouldn't collapse under their weight. They were both expierienced shooters, but the zombies however kept trying to get on top of the car.
The duo killed zombies one by one until they heard the overwhelming sound of a horn, one you can find in the mountains of Austria.
Suddenly the zombies ran into the opposite direction, apparently having changed their minds as they ignored the rangers now completely, even while they kept shooting. It seemed as they were posessed by a strong force from above. The rangers waited for another fifteen minutes, making sure the zombies wouldn't come back within a short amount of time, before bringing the survivors back from their shelter. They communicated the strange behavior of the zombies to Adolf, not knowing why they acted like that, nor where that sound came from. Adolf immediately recognized it as the call of the zombiefied captain. They thought it was the best idea to leave the town as fast as possible once they have enough water to continue the journey before the zombies would come back. They needed to be early at the post so Adolf could repair the wires of the ship while the air is still cool. Fortunately it didn't took them too long to find the post as they
arrived within forty minutes.
The Last Post was pretty quiet. The whole place was clean of zombies. Some people started to feel worse, which maybe was an side effect of the medication. All took their time to load their batteries while Adolf was repairing the ship. The rangers took shifts to guard the post while the others were asleep. It was a very peaceful moment. Thom was never the one to take powernaps, he took advantage of his free time to clean his weapons and catch up with Adolf.
"How's the job going, Adolf?"
"I'm almost done with repairing the ship, can you and Peter go back to the little town to fill the water bottles? We might need those. When you find any food on your way, don't hesitate to bring it with you. Extra food reserves can always be helpful." The elder replied. "Ay ay captain." Thom said smiling. "I'll call him. Once done repairing, can you already bring the goods inside and let the people take place on their seats?" He added.
Thom and Peter went back to the town, ofcourse weaponed, after Adolf nodded at Thom's question. Fortunately they could use the Jeep so after only a ten minutes ride they arrived back at backside of the town. They drove down the old town road, entering the town. It looked still as deserted as last time, but they knew there would be zombies lurking in the dark, watching their every move. Slowly they stepped out of their Jeep, keeping their rifles within arm's reach.
There were thirty-nine waterbottles that had to be filled. Slowly but steadily they made their way to the water fountain in the middle of the town. They were in the middle of the process of filling the last bottle of water when they heard something falling in the building nearby. It seemed the best idea to leave the bottles in the Jeep before checking out the alarming sound.
The rotten wooden stairs of the old wearhered house creaked as they made their way upstairs, trying to divide their weight so the stairs wont break. They arrived at the door of the room where they heard the noise from. Both of them held their right ear to the door, hearing something scratch the door at the other side. They looked in eachothers eyes for approval. Carefully Thom pushed the door to a slight crack, peeking through it a little bit. Suddenly he felt the bottom leg of his trousers getting wet. Slowly he lowered his gaze to his feet and he almost couldn't believe his eyes.
Next to his left leg stood a black cat, looking straight at his soul as he put his back paw back down. Before Thom could react the cat speeded out of the building. He heard some quiet chuckles which faded as he eyed his friend, whom on his turn had the hardest time keeping in his laughter. "Seemed like we were alarmed for nothing." Peter confirmed. "Maybe. But if there aren't any zombies here, then where are they? It's impossible that we had killed them all some hours ago." The two men became serious again. There were no words needed to know that they both Found out where the undead was haunting, and whom. "Fuck.." It was the last thing Peter said as they ran back to the car, jumping inside and speeding back to the post.
They hadn't arrived at the post yet when the car suddenly stopped driving. "We ran out of gasoline." Peter said, punching the steering wheel. Both of them carried a plastic bag with filled bottles as they continued to walk the last nine hundred meters. They stopped in their tracks as they heard the frightening screams. "Ahooy, ahoooy, I'll bring you to the other world." The voice sang, followed by blazing red arrows flying around them, one slightly cutting the skin of Peters leg on its way.
"It's the captain." Peter stated. "What do we do now?" "There is no use of running away, we'll have to fight him." Thom replied. "Have you forgotten about the bugs?" The elder said, not satisfied about Thom's answer. "I know, but we have to for the others. There is no other solution." Peter sadly nodded. There was no time left as they came eye to eye with the captain.
"Captain Jo Johnson will bring you to the other world." He moaned out, loading his gun on the way. Thom immediately recognized the face, although it was very maimed, accentuated by scars. From the dead eyes which were once lively, the thin lips which would proudly curl up in a smile when Thom said his first words, or whenever he had great results at school. Now from the same lips, there was drool dripping down his wrinkeled face. Bugs were dancing in the grey hairs of his beard. For Thom the time stood still at that very moment.
"Father." Was the only word that came out of his mouth as he was completely in awe. This was the reason why his dad had disappeared. Adolf had just told Thom that the space ship had crashed down on The Last Post as there was something wrong with the wires. Now he knew that was a lie. The zombie seemed to have recognized his son as a single tear fell on his grey wreathered cheek. He was still looking at his zombiefied dad as blue arrows flew through the thick air, hitting the captain.
"No!" Thom screamed, but it already was to late because Jo's lifeless body already laid on the ground. Thom fell on his knees as his loud sobs left his mouth. Peter stood next to the crying man, trying to comfort his friend. "I'm very sorry, but I had no choice. Our people are losing their lives while we are wasting our time. Your dad never wished to become a monster, it was the best for him too to finally be able to rest peacefully." The younger nodded as he knew that what the ranger told him was nothing but the wicked truth. He stood back up, continueing to walk the road, not waiting for his friend. Peter quickly picked up his pace as he ran next to his friend, walking together, back to The Last Post.
The Last Post was a complete mess when they arrived there. Dead People were all over the place, some killed by the bugs, some by the zombies. Sadly the medication didn't work as many had gotten sick, intoxicated by the spoiled water, were crawling and crying for help. The veins of their heads popped, causing their skulls to expload and bugs to walk out of their heads. This time many more zombies had gathered at the post to attack the survivors. There were at least 350 of them, 365 to be exact. The rangers started shooting at the zombies. One threw a poisonouss grenade, killing fifteen zombies at once. Although the zombies frightened the Earthlings, they were desperate to survive and protect their lives and these of their loved ones. And never forget, the desperate ones are the most dangerous. It took them forty minutes, forty-five seconds and nineteen lives before all zombies laid on the ground, lifeless.
After the great fight most people were asleep, regaining their energy. Meanwhile some of the rangers guarded the post. Thom however couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about his wife whom kept getting sicker without an ending in sight. Suddenly Peter ran to him, panting as he stopped in front of the younger. "Amalia." Peter sighed. "There is something wrong, the veins in her head look like they're about to expload." Thom frowned, running to the tent his wife was sleeping in.
They arrived just on time to witness how the purple veins popped, her skull cracked open as a coconut and a grey substance flood out of her head. She laid on her back, her dead eyes having a staring contest with the ceiling. The poor lady had been awake, suffering from pain, when she faced her ending. Thom couldn't believe his eyes as everything he lived for just laid dead on top of the hospital bed, the mother of his child. It felt for him as everything he loved slowly died in front of him. First his father got shot, now his wife died in front of him. Now he would have to raise his daughter on his own.
It had been a whole day of cleaning up the place. All corpses, both zombies and humans, got buried at the cemetary. The corpse of the captain had already been retrieved to The Last Post where he too had been buried, nearby his space ship, on top of the mountain. The first peaceful week came, but the deaths of Adolf and Eve were still fresh in people's minds.
Although Adolf seemed immune against the poison of the bugs, the zombies had driven him over the edge of the cliffs, falling to his death.
He in front of the grave of his zombiefied fafher. His loving daughter stood next to him, consoling him for his loss. Ofcourse she too missed her mother and although his father and him never had the best relationship, it's horrible to lose a parent. Amalia has helped him to dig a grave before she passed away so the notorious Jo Johnson could finally rest in peace and quit haunting the citizens of the mountains. As sign of respect she laid a flower wreath made of poppies on top of the grave which was rather sober. After saying his last goodbyes he went back to his tent. The famous rifle layed on top of his desk, a small note next to it.
"While cleaning the rifle I found a piece of paper in the holster. I think your dad might have left you a message." -Peter
He lowered his gaze back to the firearm in the holster which was once frightening for the earthlings. He brought his face closer to the holster of the rifle, from which indeed, a piece of paper was sticking out. Carefully he plucked the little thing out using his fingers. With trembling hands he has opened the letter, which had gotten yellow through dust and dirt, scanning his eyes over the sentences formed by a sloppy handwriting. He immediately recognized it as his dad's.
As he was reading the letter, the last puzzle pieces connected. The captain was indeed his father, and he destroyed his beloved space ship because Juvenius wasn't a planet made for humans to live on. Even more people got killed there due to toxic gass coming from the planet's surface, suffering a horrifying death as the gass filled their lungs. He could imagine the skin of their faces turning blue, their purple lips crying for help. He could imagine them grasping at their throats desperate to catch some oxygen as they slowly but surely suffocated until the veins in their heads popped out and their brains stopped functioning. Other died from the radioactive radiation as the ozone layer was even thinner than the one on Earth. The miniature shield wasn't sufficient to protect their bodies from the radiation of the star which offers more death than life.
He also had read that Adolf was the scientist behind the plague, he developped the bugs in his lab to persuade the people to leave this Earth, which hadn't offered any life anymore. He knew of the dangers of the new planet, but he was so reckless to take the risk and lose millions of lives.
Because of the loss of trust in Jo after the destruction of the ship, Adolf sent his bugs to kill Jo and his crew before they could spoil his plan to the world. Unfortunately Thom was listening to everything that was told, resulting in Adolf trying to kill him. This execution fortunately for Thom didn't go as planned. Sadly he had lost a big amount of his memories and although his left arm got shattered, he still had his right one to hold the world. Now it was his task to bring the survivors back to Earth, where they belong, and hopefully find a solution together. After Adolf's death Eve too comitted suicide, making an end to all their lies and promises. Now he has the task to bring back the survivors as his dad had written down the remedy to destroy the Apocalyptical Hornets.
As he turned his back to the desk, the sail of the tent laid on the ground, ripped in pieces. He stared right into the empty sockets as dried blood framed the place where once its eyes had been. He gulped at the sight of the slender figure standing in the doorway. Dirty clothes were hanging from the grey corpse. Because it was a corpse, not a living body. The intestines hung through the ripped abdomen as bugs were feeding themselves with the rotten flesh. Thom had already witnessed many zombies, and even killed them, but somehow he couldn't move his body. It was as he was frozen in time and space. Slowly the zombie moved forward to the man as he hadn't done any attempt to flee, slowly but steadily picking up speed. Abruptly the zombie threw himself to the poor man, who was waiting for his death to arrive. With high speed the zombie crashed into the man's body, screaming, yelling, crying unhearable things, but six letters, two words to be exactly, could repeatingly be distinguished from the horrifying pounds and screams.
"Wake up!"
He woke up in his room from the home of elderly. His daughter sat next to his bed with his eight year old grandson on her lap. Her husband stood next to her, carrying their baby girl.
"Someone laid flowers on grandpa's grave. It's a flower wreath of poppies. It's one of those mom would've brought if she hadn't passed away. I added a bouquet of red roses to grandpa's grave, and some new yellow tulips to mom's one." His daughter cheered. Thom could only draw a reassured smile on his face. Although he had lost his dad in the second world war as the captain of the Dutch marine during the Hitler regime, and his wife had past away due meningitis, God had granted him some of his angels. His daughter and her husband would always be at his side to care for him. It was 74 years after the ending of the First World War and 47 years after the Second World War and the dragging and the mourning of it could still be felt.
Although the scars that the two World Wars had brought would never heal, and his arm couldn't be returned, in contrast to his dreams, he'll always carry some impressive stories with him to amaze his two healthy grandchildren.