CHAPTER 1: BLACK SNOW
From night to day, Dawn breaks at Green Dew shelter illuminating its marvelous vegetation, mountain ranges, and the great wall and glass dome that surrounds the area
As the sun came out, light shines into the room of Ryo gently landing on his face revealing his smooth brown skin, dark golden-brown hair, and light golden-brown eyes.
Although he could not be classified as one of the finest men in the world, he was ok in terms of looks with most girls noticing his deep brown eyes more amongst his other features
It was a beautiful day for making new contraptions and machines which was his hobby.
In the spur of the moment due to the beautiful radiance within the room that caused all his inventions to glow, he got up from bed too fast and as a consequence his eyes blacked out and he fell to the ground likely due to the fast change of balance and rush of blood.
As he staggered to get up, he couldn't help but feel of that the day was a bit off. He felt like it was gonna be a terrible day. Which was unusual to him. It isn't unusual for a person to get such a feeling but this feeling of his was a bit malicious in its own right. Ryo felt like the universe was sending him a message trying to warn him of something but the message itself was to vague and was passed off as just another weird feeling of déjà vu.
When he finally got himself, he got up from the floor, put on his brown sandals with black buckles along with is new red shirt, black trousers and old bronze metal with brown leather watch which his dad made for him a few years ago and then proceeded down the stairs to the workshop in the basement to work on his newest device.
As he went down the stairs, he was surprised by the large encore of his family as they congratulated him on his 18th birthday.
"Happy birthday Ryo," said all with joyful smiles.
"Wait, today is my birthday," He said with a surprised look on his face.
"Typical you, forgetting your birthday. Sometimes I wonder if you are a smart person or just plain old stupid." His little sister said with a disappointed face as she nodded her head sideways.
"Don't say that to your brother. Remember that he is always like this" His mom said while smiling, trying her very best to hold her laugh.
"Ok, ok that's enough, we get it. Remember it's his birthday, let's let him enjoy it while he still can. But before that son, I need you to go to the new market district at the west wing of the wall and get some foodstuff for the family. Can you do that?"
"Yes." He says enthusiastically. This because he was running out of materials and saw it as a chance to get some new equipment as well as replenish his resources.
"OK, here's some money, get me some melons and use the rest of the money. I put a little extra as your birthday fund so enjoy yourself"
"Thanks, Dad I'll be back soon," He said as he left the house and ran to the market.
As he left the house, he could still not shake the bad feeling that he had when he woke up. Even if it was his birthday he knew that today wasn't just his day. Nothing had happened yet but he just had this lingering feeling of misfortune at the back of his mind creeping closer and closer to him like a ghost out for blood. It was quite chilling experience. But nevertheless, he ignored it and went about his day in a normal fashion.
The nearest market was about two kilometers away. Now usually he would have taken the bus but he felt like moving his body and testing his limits so he ran there as fast as he could which took him about ten minutes.
The average human could run two kilometers in eleven to nineteen minutes while a professional athlete could do it in five minutes. Ryo did it in ten minutes which meant he was only a bit faster than the average human which was disappointing to him because he ran laps around his neighborhood on a daily basis but wasn't seeing much results. Unlike his brain, his body seemed to be lacking. Ryo was born with an iq of 222 but in terms of physical abilities, he always found himself on the less than average scale but that didn't stop him from pursuing greater physical strength due to his lack of it.
He got to the market and bought the melons and materials he needed and headed home. When he got home, he opened the door and to his surprise, the whole family shouted "Happy birthday" once again.
He then realized that they just wanted to get him out of the house so they could set up the decorations for the party. As he realized this he was overjoyed and went into the house to hug them all. After hugging they sat, ate, talked, and just in general had fun.
When the party was over he excused himself from the room and went to the workshop in the basement to work on his newest project. While walking down the stairs, he remembered the memories of his father teaching him the art of creation and other scientific methods. He couldn't help but smile, as he stepped on each step a new memory was revealed, and when he got to the basement he straight up started laughing as more and more memories came to him. He was truly happy and said.
"If there is a God somewhere out there thank you, I never knew that life could be this fun," he said while smiling and started working.
He soon finished what he was working on which was a gun made in the image of a slingshot capable of shooting prey from long distances that he made with hopes of hunting to help support his family. Now this gun wasn't his most interesting or versatile creation but he made it either way just for hunting. His dad was a great scientist but because of the discord between him and the Mayor of Green Dew shelter, he couldn't find work and was ostracized. His father Park Ezra and his family only survived cause the people in his neighborhood new that his creations where good and continued to patronize him, which is also how he met Ryo's mother Nina Ezra.
"Its done. Time to go into the forest to find something to kill". Ryo said with a scary grin on his evil looking face and then put on a brown jacket on his red shirt in preparation to leave the house.
When he got to the forest he looked around for tracks of animals and proceeded based on the rabbit tracks he found. His dad taught him how to hunt, so it wasn't so hard. He got closer and closer to his prey and then loaded the gun and aimed at the rabbit that he saw from approximately one hundred meters away through the scope of the gun and pulled the trigger
"swosh"" Bam"
The gun sounded and the rodent died. Overjoyed he took the rabbit and started walking home.
While walking, the skies started turning black like it was about to rain cats and dogs outside. Who knows maybe he would have seen a flying pig which was part of a story his dad would tell him. So he decided to hurry back home and was now walking faster than usual.
He was almost out of the forest when he noticed that it was snowing but not just any snow, this snow was black and glowed like dark blue fireflies in the cloudy sky. He attempted to hold one of these snowflakes but as he is about to, he noticed that the bushes around him had mysteriously caught on fire and suddenly a chill fell down his spine as he saw that the beautiful snowflakes that fell on the bushes ignited them into the obsidian-blue like flame that covered them. He then began to run as fast as he could but could not outrun the snowflakes as some of them fell on him and ignited his hand into flames.
He staggered as he fell to the floor and tried to put out the flame by rolling in the dirt but it had no effect, he then decided to take off his jacket and quickly got rid of it, leaving it to be enveloped in flames and then he finally made it out of the forest.
Finally out of the forest, Ryo was welcomed by a more horrifying sight as he saw people running around on fire while others where already dead and all he could do was watch them burn as his face turned cold cause he already knew he could do nothing to put out the flame. He then looked at the wall and noticed that there was a hole in it. The hole was about one hundred meters in radius and was on fire which didn't make sense to him because the wall was four hundred meters tall and fifty meters thick and made out of nonflammable compounds. Even the dome that covered the wall had multiple holes in it which was weird because the glass was made up of reinforced glass. It didn't make any sense.
"How is this possible," he said to himself.
Soon the undead army started to spill out of the hole like liquid from a pressurized water pipe while some fell from the sky out of the glass dome.
Ryo ran as fast as he could to his house to see if his family was okay, that was his hope as he prayed in his mind hoping that a God out there would answer him while his face filled with desperation and shortly got home.
He could see that the door was open and he could see a trail of blood at the entrance. Along with the pitch-black sky that surrounded the area, it was truly a terrifying experience. His face started to show more and more fear as he looked at the blood and his breathing became faster and faster. Ryo then summoned up the courage and went into the house to check on his family and have them evacuate before the monsters came for them.
He walked through the house slowly, he was cautious and seemingly ready for anything life could throw at him. Ryo then made it to the kitchen and slowly peeked into it and saw his sister on the floor scared out of her mind and crying with both tears of sorrow and fear. He busted into the room and held her and as he looked back he could see a monster that looked halfway dead biting down on his mother's neck while standing leaving her suspended in the air. His eyes turned black as he shivered with fear looking at the sight and crying at the same time. While he looked at his mom, all he could imagine was a single white rose falling down a waterfall of thick red blood with skulls as rocks at the bottom, and as it hit the bottom, the white rose then became red. He had no idea what made him think like that but could relate the feeling to what he felt this morning. He soon got himself and took his sister and said
"Rachel we have to go while that thing is distracted," He said to his sister and picked her up and ran.
They first went into the basement to get his supply bag and survival kit and exited the basement through the kitchen passing the monster feeding on their mother once again and finally making into the hallway.
As they ran out of the kitchen and into the hallway, Ryo was greeted with more blood as he then saw his dad's corpse hung on the chandelier through his neck with blood dripping from his impaled neck and severed arm into the puddle of blood on the floor at the main pallor of the house. He teared up and was shocked but didn't stop and kept going and exited the house with his sister in his hands. Soon they got to a place he thought was safe and he dropped her only to see that her hand was bitten.
Ryo knew very well what was gonna happen next. He slowly fell to the ground as tears gushed out of his eyes as he realized what he had to do. His sister knew what he had to do to do as well and said
"Don't worry. I know it's gonna be hard but you have to do it, I know you don't want to but you have to, I understand. Don't forget, even if you are broken you can always build yourself back up. That's what Dad told us right, so no matter what keep living ok"
She said while crying with him. She didn't want to die but she knew what had to be done. Ryo took his sister in his arms and embraced her as tightly as he could and said
"No matter what this world throws at me, I will survive. That I promise you "He says while crying and sobbing.
He embraced her for a few seconds while holding in his screams thinking that if he screamed one of those creatures would find them. He instead cried silently. It was the last time he would see his sister again. Ryo could could see her skin getting paler and paler and new that her time was coming to an end and so, he took out a knife that he had and said
"I'm sorry Ray" and stabbed her swiftly in the heart trying to make it as painless as possible. Her blood gushed out and his tears seemed to be limitless like they couldn't be stopped.
He stood there for almost fifteen minutes embracing her corpse and kept crying. He never knew that he would ever cry this long, not only for his sister but for his mom and dad too. His birthday just turned into the day that he lost his parents to monsters and killed his sister.
One could only imagine how painful it could be.
A few minutes later, since he didn't have a shovel, he crunched down and started using his hands to dig a hole to bury his sister.
Ryo scoped sand after sand with a pale expersionless face. He looked more like a dead man than an alive one with such a face.
He buried her corpse and carved her name unto a large stone that he found, and after taking a look at the grave said.
"Don't worry. I will live. Watch over me from heaven ok." And then slowly waked away.
As he left the grave, and slowly wondered around the forest seemingly traumatized by the events, he didn't watch where he was going and then stumbled upon a gigantic figure standing at about ten meters tall that had the appearance of a black and blue female human insect like hybrid with gigantic teeth, black metal like skin with six wings which were on fire on its back in front of him and within a split second it picked him up with his huge hands and smiled. A smile so horrifying that could strike fear in the bravest of men.
Although this entity was scary, it had a relatively beautiful face and a nice very much feminine figure, the first thing Ryo thought when he looked at it was a cockroach, which was probably because of its antenna, metal like skin and the wings on its back which looked lick cockroach wings but on fire.
Ryo was scared but at the same time depressed so his face was still pale in the face of danger.
"Your mine now, I finally found you" the monster said.
Its smile intensified and it put Ryo in its mouth and took a bite that would seem to slice Ryo in half. Ryo screamed out for help but no one answered as he blacked out from the pain and gave up on his will to live with the fangs of that beast deep in his body.
To be continued.