It’s Not The End Of The World

But you can see it from here.

Today, August 7th, 2022, I have reached 24 years of age.

At least, I THINK it's August 7th. I wouldn't be surprised if a few days faded away from my mind, with me none the wiser.

My calendar has been marked day by day till this point, so hopefully I didn't miss this significant milestone in this dead shell of a world.

Well, I guess it could be considered more lively than ever, considering how many damn trees there are.

It has been at least one whole year since those objects dropped from the sky in a blinding flash.

It has been at least one whole year since the world became like this.

It has been at least one whole year since I watched my family scream, cry, and tearfully eke out their final goodbye as their flesh was taken as fertilizer by the plants swiftly growing on and in their bodies.

It has been at least one whole year since the worlds common devices and tools, from generators to firearms, and even clocks, simultaneously seized function in all ways possible.

It has been at least one whole year since devious "beasts" came from the newly arisen massive forests.

It has been at least one whole year since the worst birthday of my entire life.

The first two days, I cried, I screamed, I raged- thankfully for my at the time lacking self preservation instinct, someone was kind hearted enough to bring me to my senses. I was "lucky enough to not be one of the ones to die, so I should live on." In the end, his kindness got him killed by another.

Yet live on I did.

And on the 5th day following the world changing, the human body followed.

In the group of people I found myself in, men women and children began to double over in groans of pain. I was one of the last to do so, as I stared over their crumpled bodies in bewilderment.

When the pain set in, I was no different.

My body throbbed, I felt my insides rearrange, I felt my brain swelling, and I felt my pores oozing. Yet through all the excruciating sensations-

I felt myself improving.

My eyes behind my glasses seemed to blur, not only from the pain, but from how they seemed to become worthless to my sight in real time.

I felt the pounding, deep echo of my body's interior within my own ears, before it subsided- yet the sharpness of the sounds of the outside world was still increased from before.

The human body of every survivor was strengthening. The innate cap on the human body's potential seemed as if it was massively increased to a level never seen before- perhaps a side effect from the dropping objects that came to be known as Eco-Drops?

Soon after it seemed everyone's feelings of pain had subsided, and confusion and wonder seemed to settle in...

At least half of the 50 odd people went mad.

They started to pounce on their fellow man in screams of rage, with an undercoating of glee- as if they turned into a pack of wild beasts.

And a pack they were indeed. None of the group of maddened individuals, men, women, and children, attacked each other. I froze in shock in the face of the gore that unfolded before my eyes. As I saw a child literally get ripped limb from limb, my body kickstarted into action.

I ran.

There was nothing I could've done, I said to myself.

But was there really nothing I could've done?

Or is it just that I was nothing more than a coward?

At the time, I didn't know the answer. But now I do.

I was a coward, it's true; but cowards survive.

And after that, I knew what I had to do.

Survive.

Starving and thirsty, I ran and ran, until I stumbled into the streets full of empty cars, away from the suburban homes turned from comforting abodes into greenhouses for all sorts of plants.

Yet I had to turn back.

I broke into a home on the edge of the neighborhood, to both gather food and drink as well as get away from the location of the nightmarish incidents that shocked me to my core. Or so I thought.

But the nightmare was all around me.

As I tearfully ate slices of bread from a vine covered cupboard, procured a backpack, and drank some water from a pack of carefully organized bottles, I heard a growl.

I immediately stopped, and strained my ears, which by now felt sharper than ever before.

And out of the corner of my eye, poking through the slit of an opened window, I saw a bestial eye looking right back at me.

I didn't dare to move.

The moments I stood there, stiff as a century old oak, felt like an eternity when they were merely a few seconds.

Then the eye rolled at me as if seemingly amused, an unseen nose snorted, and it went away.

All I saw was the eye, nothing more- but I know then that I was merely lucky to survive that encounter. Whatever that thing was, it was both intelligent, and utterly contemptuous of human life.

I stood there for a whole minute more, covered in a cold sweat, before I could finally get moving again.

I shoveled as much long lasting food and several bottles of water into the backpack I held, and swiftly left.

That encounter was when I knew for sure the world I once knew was never coming back.

I knew what I had to do.

I had to train.

I had to think smarter. I had to get stronger. I had to get braver.

I had to improve qualitatively.

The world has turned up it's difficultly setting, and my skill level has to adjust accordingly. I couldn't afford to stake my safety on another person. I was all I had left.

I have to bend to suit the rules of this new world, or I have to break, and let myself become fertilizer in this eldritch, seemingly country wide forest.

What is the state of the rest of the world?

Back then, I didn't have the time for that. And right now, I honestly still don't; but there's a difference. I've encountered much more, and I feel I might be on to something.

There is a secret to unravel behind all this.

I only hope I can live long enough to uncover it.