The Day It All Began Was The Day It Also Ended

Joseph Stokes was foraging for things to bring back to the base with his daughter. Since it was in the middle of the day, they were able to look for longer.

It had been three months since the apocalypse started, and the people that still remained on this planet had gradually adapted to the new life that they led. Whether they belonged to a base, or if they were vagrant wanderers, everyone now knew a thing or two about the zombies.

If they wanted to avoid most casualties, they had to wake up early, and cultivate patience.

Right as dawn broke was the time where most zombies fell into a state of lethargy, making it easier for them to be killed.

While they could wait until the sun was shining bright, they would still have to avoid the zombies that 'slumbered', so if they were foraging when zombies were still in the building, the humans would have their hearts pounding in their chest the entire time.

Thus, most of them had adapted to waiting for the break of daylight before quickly slaughtering the zombies still in whatever building they were looting for the day.

Joseph and Jane had already taken care of the zombies in this corporate building, allowing them to slowly search.

They cleared the floor day by day, slowly inching upwards from the bottom.

Ever since the apocalypse had started, Joseph's entire life had been overturned. Nothing was the same as it was before the apocalypse, and all his common sense was overturned. It did a complete 180 and there was no way for him to go back to that life at any time.

Sometimes, Joseph even felt like he had transmigrated into another world, where the humans were no longer the predators out there but instead the prey.

But what could they do? There was nothing they could do but adapt.

While neo-humans had it better with their newfound powers, Joseph and his daughter didn't have anything of the sort.

They were as ordinary as ordinary could be, so their adaptability to unfavourable situations had to be stronger than the others.

One wrong move and they would face an untimely death.

Before the apocalypse hit, before the zombies had made their appearance in his country, Joseph had a beautiful family.

A wife, two daughters, and a son.

By all accounts, they had been living happily with few ups and downs, and life was relatively peaceful. They weren't rich, but they were happy and content. They were healthy, and wife and husband never had a quarrel.

He'd been a car mechanic, making an honest living on a meagre salary, but they were beautifully happy.

Were.

With the appearance of the red haze, his wife had succumbed to the virus, turning into what he now knew was a zombie.

She'd bitten his oldest daughter, Amanda, and ripped off an arm from his only son.

His lovely Sophie had already eaten her fill from Jamie, casually discarding his body by the side, while she just barely started on his oldest daughter when he hurriedly entered the room.

It had been the screams and choked sobs that had caused him to burst into the room with a metal bat in his hand, alarmed.

Joseph had been shocked. He'd been horrified, his mind uncomprehending.

What was happening?

Why would she do that?

His mind screamed at him, but his instincts took over as he swung the bat, and his arm followed through, the swing as strong as he could make it.

There was a wet crack as he split open his wife's head, which caused her to collapse, blood splatter all over the clean carpet. Some of it even splattered onto the walls, while her brain leaked onto the floor.

Joseph felt like he was going to be sick, and he was.

He vomited messily onto the side, heaving until there was nothing but bile in his stomach.

He only just barely managed to pull himself together because of the faint sobs that still resounded through the silent room.

He couldn't even look at the gory remains of his son on the ground as a whole-body shudder went through him.

Oh, god. What had he done? What had he done?

There was nothing that could convey the sheer amount of devastation that he'd felt in that single moment when he realized what was happening. He wasn't dreaming, he wasn't having a nightmare.

This was real. Too real for him to handle.

"Jane, Amanda, come here," Joseph rasped, his voice struggling to sound calm and collected. His hands were still shaking as he hugged both daughters to himself.

Joseph dragged both daughters to the bathroom, shutting the door to the room that contained both his wife and son's remains.

He couldn't look at it right now.

He was still in a state of disbelief as he comforted both of his daughters.

He didn't know how he did it, but he managed to dress his daughter's wound. She was catatonic and wasn't reacting to anything.

Joseph was terrified as he thought about what Sophie just did.

He clutched Jane to himself, shushing her as he rocked her. If there were silent tears that trailed down his face, he would punch anyone that dared criticize him.

He'd just lost the love of his life, and his son, Jamie.

Just why?

He didn't understand. Just what could have overcome her, causing her to do such a thing?

What happened next was a swirl of events that happened so quickly he still didn't know how they functioned.

He blocked out the horrors that still gave him nightmares every time he slept.

City NL was an abandoned city.

With the appearance of N1 base, the inhabitants that hadn't been turned into zombies all fled there, seeking refuge, and they were lucky that they had originally been living in the newly constructed base before the apocalypse happened.

It meant that he still had a home.

Even when he could see their shadows in every corner – sometimes, he thought he would rather have moved out instead.

Just as he was about to call out to Jane to tell her they were going to move a floor up, a dark shadow cast over them. The fear and pressure that crashed over them made Joseph remember the day it all started.

Joseph looked up with shock, whisper-shouting for his daughter. "Jane!"

Jane appeared, running towards him.

Daughter and father hid behind a corner as they glanced up in the sky.

What was happening now? What terrors would this new thing bring them?

Joseph clutched his daughter's shivering hands as they braved the aura that was emitted from the skies.

It was then that Joseph caught sight of what was in the sky.

It was a giant creature that he had never before seen in his life.

It looked like a black giant whale, only it had six pairs of dark grey wings lined along its back, casually flapping.

The winged whale was gliding through the sky without a problem, floating casually as it defied all physics.

"Holy smokes," Joseph muttered absently as a sense of despair hit him.

"What the fuck," Jane blurted out.

Joseph lightly whacked the back of her head. "No swearing!" he corrected absently.

Then, a giant eye glared directly at them, causing shivers to run up and down their entire body.

Yet, they couldn't move as fear rooted them to the spot.

Even if they should have started running, their legs didn't listen to them as both father and daughter collapsed to the ground, the killing intent that the mutated whale gave them was more pressurizing than any of the zombies that they'd come across.

Joseph gritted his teeth. He had to get his daughter out of here even if he had to sacrifice himself.

The shadow over them darkened and Joseph knew that he was running out of time.

"Come on, come on," Joseph said, hitting his prone legs. He struggled to his feet, pulling Jane up with him.

"Come on, Janey! We have to move! Now!"

But it was too late.

The giant eye had already made its way towards them, peering into the window.

Joseph gripped the crowbar in his hands tightly. He was prepared to throw the crowbar at the creature's eyes as he allowed Jane to make a run for it, but the eye disappeared as the whale moved away from the window, startling them.

There was a blur of black from the back of the creature in the relative brighter room as the twelve-winged whale moved away from the building.

Just as Joseph put down his heavy heart, there was a crash as the glass from the window shattered inwards, sending little shards of glass throughout the place.

A figure rolled into the place, dressed in black from head to toe.

Father and daughter stared blankly at the person who'd just made his way into the room from the window.

"What the fuck," Jane said blankly.

This time, Joseph didn't chide her because he wanted to say the same words.