8 Future Memories

It all started suddenly one night. Everyone afterwards wouldn't be able to forget the day. The globe went dark, all around the world, even if it was still daytime. The sky then was turned red, as if someone's blood was bleeding into the atmosphere. It stayed like this for three days. Everyone was worried, scared at why the earth had done this. Many wild guesses were flung around, scientist saying it was a weird solar flare, some saying that it was death of God, and others saying it was the beginning of the end.

The government tried to keep people at ease, to reassure them that everything was going to return back to normal shortly. We all knew that wasn't true, but we wanted to believe them. They stationed the army to many key points in the country, building camps in case the worst happened.

After three days, though, people didn't really think about the government at all, other than if they were going to be saved by them. They were only focused on survival or they were trembling in fear, afraid to even go outside. This was because, on the fourth day of the sky turning red, the apocalypse truly began.

All across the world, zombies were materializing out of nowhere, attacking anyone they saw. The more highly populated areas were hit the hardest, with zombies appearing in the tens of thousands. The government tried to create order, broadcasting the message that people were to head towards the camps set up by the army.

People were frantic to get there, but arrived only to find smoking piles of rubble and half eaten corpses. The government had been overrun with zombies from the inside out, with only a select few bases escaping from the destruction. It was later realized that the bases were overrun because their firearms attracted the attention of all zombies from miles around.

To everyone, that was the third stage of the apocalypse, the complete fall of the government, with first stage being the red sky and the second stage when all of the zombies began appearing.

Without the guidance of a leading force, society fell even quicker than before, with looting and theft becoming common place. Gangs started popping up, taking control of people, resources, buildings, land, etc. People were being killed by the thousands, with the world's population going from 7 billion to 50 million.

During this time, my sister and I only survived because we only went outside to get any needed things, such as food and water, and stayed huddled in a corner of our house, trying not to make any sounds. I think this played a big role in how we survived the first couple weeks, because while most people were rushing to find resources, escape, or find a shelter, we did only the minimum to keep ourselves alive.

Survivor camps were built by worried extremists as soon as the sky turned red, which lead to them surviving much longer than others. The camps quickly expanded into pseudo cities run by the ones with the most resources and power.

After three years, zombies became a little stronger, and if you killed one, they would very rarely have a weird, luminescent crystal like object in their brain that 10% of the population could absorb the light from it, which made them stronger. These people were called Espers.

This was deemed the fourth stage in the apocalypse, where people gained supernatural powers and were much stronger by absorbing the light from crystals, which people started calling evolution crystals(EC). These crystals were then used as the main form of currency, and only people with powers could effectively hold a territory or pseudo city.

The fifth stage was the worst stage for most people. Roughly five years after the beginning, a very small amount of zombies and animals evolved, some being able to run faster, or being much stronger, and they could also gain some certain types of special abilities. Unlike Espers, which could do things like shoot fire balls from their hands or bend metal with their mind, the special abilities of mutated zombies and animals were things like being much smarter than normal zombies and controlling them to their will, spitting globs of acid dozens of meters, and even becoming very resistant to bullets.

With mutants being stronger, it took awhile for the positive aspect of them to be found. If someone was to eat mutant meat, even if they weren't an Esper, their physical condition increased a little, making them stronger and faster. Although, you could only eat mutant zombie meat after you ate the meat of a mutant animal first. Although the thought of eating a zombie seemed repulsive and stupid, the meat of a mutant zombie, and animal, were very delicious, even when they are eaten raw.

Many survivor bases were overrun during the fifth stage, leading to many people searching for new ones. Roving gangs assaulted many groups then, leading to many people dying or becoming slaves. My sister fell victim to one of these bandit groups when the survivor base we were staying in was overrun by zombies.

I had been on the verge of killing myself when my sister was raped and murdered, but the group I was staying with helped me to push through it. I could honestly say that the group I was traveling with was made up of the kindest people I would ever know in the new, apocalyptic world we lived in.

For the next three years after that, my group wondered the lands, gathering food from abandoned structures and from the wild, constantly moving. Life was tough, and our survival group dwindled down from 10 people to six. Seven and a half years into the apocalypse, one and a half after my sister was killed, I was lucky enough to be in the 10% part of the population to be able to absorb the crystals, which we discovered when, through great efforts, obtained an EC to see if any of us had powers. Although it only increased my speed a little and didn't unlock my ability yet, I was still very eager to get more.

I was sadly disappointed when our group continued to fail to get ECs, even though the number of zombies we killed was in the dozens. When we finally made it to a base, which had a population of around 3,000 survivors, we had only obtained one more EC, but at the cost of three more of our companions. With only three people left in our group, our morale was at its lowest. Making it into a base brought up our morale, but life took another turn for the worst. We were given two options, either to become a slave for the base, and have to suffer through the horrible conditions and orders that our masters gave us, or we would have to scavenge for resources for the base every day, having to meet a minimum requirement of things each day.

Of course, we chose the second options, and we had already been scavenging for things everyday before we came to the base. Furthermore, if someone were to find an EC, they would be granted a month off from work and would be allocated better resources. Brining in the body of a killed mutant would also give people a smaller benefit of a week off from scavenging and a small amount of better resources.

We would the base in the morning, searching through old towns, venturing into the city, and gathering things from the forest to meet the daily quota. We stayed away from large groups of zombies and were very careful to maintain our distance of any mutants. We weren't a survivor party that had enough strength, even with an Esper, so we couldn't hunt zombies and animals for ECs or mutant meat without fear, like some groups. Many groups did try to hunt instead of gathering like we did, but most would be killed rather quickly with only the strongest and the lucky surviving long enough to reap the rewards.

On the ninth year of the apocalypse, things got drastically worse. Before, it was only zombies and animals that could mutate, but now, insects would mutate too, growing vastly in size and strength. Some of the most deadly would be the Ant Queens, which could produce dozens of mutant ants per day, taking over large swaths of land, the Rhinoceros Beetle, which would become the size of a tank with a shell even stronger than one, and the Wasp, which would mutate to up to three meters long, could deliver deadly venom, and could fly over base walls.

This was what everyone called the sixth stage. Although all of these new insect mutations were very deadly, the resources gained from the were very valuable. For example, the shell of an mutant ant could be used as armor, and when treated with fire, would be harder than steel and light as a feather. The meat of mutant insects, similar to mutant zombie and animal meet, provided a small increase in strength and speed, but it also increased an Esper's power by a minuscule amount.

This made insects a very desirable resource for Espers and normal people, making the value of getting the body of a mutant insect just below an EQs value and a little higher than a normal mutant.

A year later, after our group had gained a great amount of experience and had our bodies at the best condition that we could be given our living circumstances, we decided to hunt the weakest mutant there was, the ant. Although mutant ants were one of the most destructive and dangerous mutants, that was only if they weren't alone. A single ant wasn't much of a challenge, and hunting groups just had to be wary of their sharp pincers.

Scouting for half the day for an ant that was alone in an area that was known to contain an ant hill, we had finally found one. We had been very lucky. The ant had just barely won a fight against another mutant, weakening it greatly. Quickly surrounding it, it took just only smallest amount of effort to kill it. When we were finished, we then had two mutant bodies on our hands.

Basking in our luck and future rewards, we failed to notice that a large horde of zombies and mutants were swiftly approaching. By the time that we noticed them, it was almost too late. My two companions grabbed the bodies of the mutants and prepared to run. As I was about to run off with them, one of my closest friends, who had been with me for five of the tens years I had lived in this apocalypse, stabbed me in the leg, leaving me behind so that they could get away.

Screaming with everything that I had, I was eaten by the horde.