riordan

Rough and Uncut

Marcescent: The Beginning

Ch. 1: A new breed

The world has now changed in many ways. New threats ravage our planet, invasion, disease, natural disasters. Cities and towns had become to much of a breeding ground for corruption, crime, and a hiding place for unimaginable evil. Buildings were torn down, homes lay in ruin. Compounds were set up for complete control by the government. Our biggest threat was people from other planets wanting control of new territory. A branch of the government, Cerebra, had been arranged to protect us from such possibilities..........................................................................................................


I lay there wondering what had just happened, our home had been cracked down to the foundation. Some sort of shockwave had just swept through the whole town. I walked outside and notice atop the hill that Cerebra lay untouched. Cerebra was a branch of the government meant to protect us from interplanetary invasion, so how could something like this have happened. Surely it was a foreign attack. I was only 17 at the time so this was the biggest thing that had ever happened to me. I went to check on my father and he lay there choking with the flesh dissolving right off his body. I didn't know what to do so I ran to my mother horrified. She had been knocked out by the blast and was just waking up. I thought she was fine then she began choking and then the flesh once again began to melt and decay. I stumbled outside and there were hundreds of people in the streets dying right before my eyes. Scared and alone had a new meaning at this point.
I notice Cerebra's army heading down the hill at this point so I decide to hide. I shouldn't have been afraid of a government meant to protect me but something told me this wasn't right. Trucks filled with men dressed in hazmat suits began showing up after the soldiers. I was hiding in a closet and I stayed quiet and listened. A couple of the men outfitted in the protection gear entered our home. I heard one say, "Get that one and look for others". I could only assume they are looking for what was left of the bodies. They walked into the room I was in. I watched them gather my half decayed mother into a body bag. Then one man said, "should we look for survivors?". The other man laughed saying, "If anyone survived this Cerebra didn't do their job did they?". I was completely puzzled by this. It appeared as if it was a planned attack by our own government. Like some sort of weapons test.
After a few moments of silence I decided the men were gone. I crawled out of the closet and looked around to make sure I was alone. I saw the trucks and men heading back up the hill to Cerebra. I stepped outside and to my amazement every last body was gone. My life, my home, my compound was now a ghost town in a matter of minutes. I went back inside to try and figure out what to do. I began feeling ill and with my knees weakening I collapsed to the floor. My insides felt like they were on fire and every muscle in my body was cramping. I lay there screaming in pain thinking now I'm to die, I kept looking at my skin to make sure it was still there. I looked once more then passed out. Two hours later I came to, thrilled I wasn't dead I didn't even notice that my muscle structure had changed and my vision and hearing were more adept than anything I had known.
I slowly got up from the floor still in a daze from whatever had happened. I went to go outside and as I opened the door I broke the handle. "What have they done to me." I thought as I was staring at the handle in my hand. Just then I noticed men driving back down in a military truck. I wasn't sure how but they knew I was here. I hid in between two of our buildings. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do, but I had to do something. The three men split up and one was walking towards the place I was hiding. As soon as he got there I grabbed his arm which was holding the gun and I broke it almost in half. Then I wrapped my arms around his neck and snapped it. The next man was searching down an alley. I had took a knife from the other guy so I just snuck up behind him and put it through his lungs. The third guy would be easy, he had no weapon. He was standing by the truck, soon to be my truck, smoking a cigarette. I casually walked up behind him, "got a light". He turned around shocked and I shoved the knife in his face. You may think I'm violent, you may think I'm wrong, but if you watched your family die before your eyes what would you do?
I looked around me, I knew there would be more soldiers coming when the others didn't report back. I took two of the guns the soldiers had then hopped in the truck.........................................