Around The World (Part 2)

Off the coast of South America, laid the small Easter Island.

A group of people were currently walking down the roads of the former town of Hanga Roa. They were currently discussing their plans for the future.

They were not natives to the island but inhabitants that ended up there purely by chance.

Before The Path's emergence, they had been enjoying a vacation with their families, friends, and coworkers.

But when The Path emerged, that had changed drastically.

Since a large portion of the crew and passengers had been turned into zombies, the remaining people had been forced to fight for their lives in an enclosed space.

During one of their battles to clear out the engine room, one of the survivors had used a skill that was akin to a fireball.

Due to his lack of experience, the fireball had splendidly missed its target. What it did manage to hit however, was a barrel of fuel that had been stored in the room behind his intended target.

The fire and subsequent explosion had managed to destroy any chances that the survivors had of keeping the ship functional.

The only saving grace, at least in some of the survivors opinions, was that the explosion had consumed the man responsible for leaving them as nothing more than driftwood in the middle of the ocean.

Eventually a large group of survivors had overcome the zombie infestation on the ship and managed to rid themselves of all the monsters.

Unfortunately, since the ship had no power to speak of, they were left adrift with no way to influence their destination.

Since none of the navigational equipment was functional, no one had any idea on where exactly they were in the Pacific ocean.

Some people decided that they would take their chances and boarded a rescue boat and tried to flee on them

Others however, reluctant to leave the relative safety of the giant ship, remained behind.

After two weeks adrift, the boat somehow managed to crash land into Easter Island.

When the survivors exited the boat, what they found was an island overrun by different types of zombies and monsters.

Even after clearing the island of all the zombies and monsters, they had been unable to locate any survivors.

What they had found though, was a lone elf.

Well, to be more precise, the elf had found them.

After some tense back and forth, the human survivors had managed to establish relatively friendly relations with the elf.

Eventually, after multiple meetings, the elf had them to something it had called a 'dungeon'.

*****

A few hundred feet underground, in a large room located within a state of the art bunker sat a massive table.

Sitting around the table, were a few men and women in suits.

Next to them, were a few older men in garbed in their military uniforms.

"Mr. Vice President, it has been two weeks since we lost contact with the outside world. We have no way of knowing the situation outside. I would recommend that we wait another few weeks to allow for any staff still alive outside to reach out and contact us."

"General Smith, how can you say that? You saw what was happening outside before we came down here to the bunker! Do you really think anyone is still concerned with us? Even if some of the military and their staff have managed to survive, I doubt they would concern themselves with us!"

"Madam Second Lady, I am simply following protocol. In the event that we are cut off from the outside world, we are to do our best to protect the chain of succession. Since we have no way of knowing the status of the rest of the cabinet, your husband is the highest ranking individual. And it is my duty to ensure his safety."

"I understand that! But you can't expect us to hide out here in the basement while god knows what is happening up top! We have to do something to protect our citizens!"

"I commend your valiant spirit and desire to protect the general populace ma'am. But, I must ask, what if we are the last surviving humans? Do we really risk going out onto the surface until absolutely necessary?"

While the Second Lady of the United States and the highest ranking General in the room went back and forth with their debate, no one else said a word.

Everyone had been waiting for the man at the head of the table to finally speak but he remained silent.

What they didn't know, however, was that the Vice President wasn't remaining quiet because he wanted too. He was too scared by what he was seeing to even utter a sound.

While his wife and the general had been going back and forth, a small fluctuation in his vision had caused the Vice President to glance into the corner of the room.

What he had originally believed was simply his tired eyes, turned out to be anything but: because when his vision landed on the corner, he could see a faint outline of someone or.. something.

As he continued to stare into the corner, suddenly, what appeared to be a group of eyeballs suddenly materialized.

Yes, a group of eyeballs.

The thing that he was looking at didn't have just two eyes... it had hundreds.

It was as if the entire being was made up of eyeballs that had somehow been mashed together to form a creature.

When the eyeballs noticed the Vice Presidents line of sight was directed right towards it, a small mouth suddenly appeared at the are where the stomach of a normal human would have been.

As the color drained from the Vice Presidents face, the mouth moved.

"I am impressed you can see me, human... or should I call you.. Mr. Vice President."

The last part of the sentence was laced with what the Vice President could only assume was condescension or sarcasm. It was hard to tell because the voice was so stale and gravely that it barely fluctuated in tone.

When the others in the room heard the voice, they immediately jumped to their feet and pulled their firearms from their holsters before looking around trying to find the source of the voice.

After a few moments, the 'creature' gradually dispelled its camouflage skill and appeared within the room in all its hideous glory.

Seeing the creature appear, everyone aimed their weapons at it.

"Who are you and how did you get in this room?!" someone yelled.

"This bunker should be completely sealed off from the outside world! How did you get in here?! And who or what are you?!" scream General Smith.

Although the people were terrified by the fact that the creature appeared out of nowhere, not to mention its hideous nature, they managed to maintain their composure to a degree.

They quickly moved to protect the Vice President and put themselves directly between him and the 'creature'.

Seeing the humans' movement, the 'creature' was amused.

"Who I or what I am are of no consequence to you. Especially since you will all die here momentarily.

I simply afforded you a few extra minutes of life because I was curious about the leaders of this planet and based on some research that I had conducted since my arrival on this planet, I discovered that the highest ranking members of your planet would be in a bunker beneath the so called 'White House'.

Imagine my delight to find that was true.

Though I cannot believe that the people of this planet would ever follow the leadership of someone who hides away in a box underground while their people suffer and die...

Truly despicable if you ask me..."

Before anyone in the room could even respond however, the creature suddenly began to swell like an overinflated balloon.

When the Vice President and his people saw this, they immediately had a bad premonition.

In an attempt to save their own lives, they began pushing, shoving, and trampling their fellow humans in a bid to rush out the door.

None of them so much as managed to take a few steps, before the room began to disappear.

As the 'creature' had expanded, it had suddenly imploded in on itself and a miniature black hole had appeared.

Everyone and everything in the vicinity was quickly being pulled towards the hole.

The screams of despair momentarily filled the room before the sound, their source, and everything else around them disappeared.

On the surface directly above the location of the bunker, an old hunched man who smelled of rotting flesh and death stood hunched over. The cane in his hand appeared to be the only thing standing between him and being flat on the ground.

Surrounding the old man, were numerous 'creatures' that appeared similar but very different from the one that had appeared in the bunker.

Having sensed the disappearance of the humans beneath him, the old man turned to the 'creatures' before walking away.

"Follow me.. my beautiful creations... I need some suitable test subjects... these humans are so weak!"

*****

Less than a hundred miles south of Washington DC in a small Virginia town, a father, mother, and daughter were quietly huddled in the walk-in cooler of a local business.

The cooler was no longer working, but the metal construction of the cooler and single entrance provided them with some semblance of safety.

For fear of attracting attention, the three remained silent for hours on end.

However, at one point, the daughter spoke, albeit in at a barely audible level.

"I wonder if Grant is still alive..."