Call of the Void Ch. 01

Spoiler Tag: No Sex, Prologue, Fantasy, Horror-ish, Dragon, Transformation, Dream, Short, Zombie, Lovecraft

The sun blinded my eyes as I exited the tunnel, the light crashing over me as my feet carried me across the threshold of the darkness. The group I was with ambled towards a section of seating not yet filled, sitting down amid the palpable aura of excitement. I was nervous, unreasonably nervous, as I gazed down to examine the field from my seat. The field was arranged like a baseball diamond, with its half circular half square geometry. Where normal baseball stadiums had walls four feet high in places, this arena had forty foot tall, green monster walls encompassing the entire playing area. The wall was uniform in its composition, a flat surface of denial running in a complete loop, there were no visible exits/entrances. The ground was a flat, neatly groomed grass playing surface, cut in a checkerboard pattern. Arranged like little toy soldiers on a child's imaginary battlefield were around fifty men or women, dressed in a variety of military getups.

On some unnoticed signal, the people in the arena drew handguns and opened fire on one another. In horror, I watched as a man with dark black hair fired three bullets into the back of a man not five feet from him, his victim twitching as the bullets impacted. I clenched in sympathy on each impact. Over there, a man in a duster spun as a woman fired toward him, a slug catching him in the body armor adorning his chest as the duster's momentum carried its trim around his legs in a faux ballroom dancer skirt twirl. He shuddered under the impact before dispatching the woman with a quick bullet to the head. A different man turned his handgun to my section of the crowd and I sat there, overwhelmed and horrified.

Why am I here? How did I get here? I deserve to die, being witness to this spectacle.

Before he could fire he twitched once, a victim to an unknown assailant, blood blooming on his chest like a macabre flower.

The crowd swelled with appreciation, feasting on the dark energy the massacre below was generating, rising like an unseen mushroom cloud to engulf the arena, ground zero for this unholy spectacle. Looking around I noticed my brother, once by my side, was nowhere to be seen. The popcorn like sound of gunfire slowly faded as only a few men remained standing, a few kernels yet to be popped. The crowd screamed and flowed around me like a shallow stream around a pebble as they mad a mad dash towards the exits. Still stunned by the happenings, I turned to see the impetus that had generated the panic in the crowd.

Standing on the edge of the seating were six men in dark robes and sixteenth century physician regalia. At least I think it is sixteenth century... Regardless, they had the long curved mask that resembles a bird's beak with large clouded black welders goggles and a big flat floppy hat that helped obscure their features. As far as I could tell all six of the physicians were uniform in height and build and walked together in harmony, slowly advancing like a marching band across a field. A strange echoing groan/moan rose from the area below me and I turned back, expecting to see a charnel house of blood and death.

What greeted me instead, was something that filled me with even greater revulsion.

Shuffling in pockmarked clumps were groups of pallid grey flesh that were once people. Another moan wormed its way into my ears, this one closer than the others, as I spotted a similar grey man shape maybe twenty feet from me. I call it a man shape because, while occupying the same general volume, it had lost all semblance of humanity.

Zombies, I'm looking at zombies. I pause for a moment. I'm looking at zombies and I'm standing here like an idiot.

To be fair they weren't your everyday, Walking Dead, zombies; their flesh looked puffy and swollen, drinking in the malevolent energy that drifted in shifting tides throughout the stadium. The closest zombie turned to look at me, his saggy flesh drooping from his yellow veined eyes, revealing bright red bags of exposed flesh giving him a vague look of sleeplessness that contrasted heavily by the naked hunger of his gaze. He took a step towards me his eyes locked on mine, and promptly tripped and fell over the stadium seating. I snorted in laughter despite the horrible tableau of reality I found myself in. Another groan drove my mirth from me, as it sounded not very close from directly behind me. Finally, I jerked into shaky motion as the ethereal malevolence continued to surge, almost caressing my flesh with clammy tendrils.

My shaky steps broke down to a halt as I clutched my chest in a frantic attempt to stem the wrenching burning pain that engulfed my chest. It felt like a nuclear reactor churning to life inside my chest, consuming my essence in its ravenous attempts to produce energy. My hands grew sweaty as the heat grew deeper and sharper, a burgeoning sun in my core. Unable to entirely contain the unstoppable reaction the soles of my shoes blew off as flames poured from the bottom of my feet, shooting me skyward like a rocket. The flames on my feet sputtered and my ascent slowed as the flames snaked their way out of the pores of my skin consuming my clothing even as the pain faded, replaced by a horrible indignance that the foul being dared to intrude on my land!

The force of the air on my face forced me to close my eyes as the flames washed over my eyes. Two giant parachutes appendages plumed out of my back, catching the sun. As my forward momentum ran out, I hung, suspended like a fly in amber, glittering in the sky. Eventually gravity caught up to me, its ceaseless greed pulling back towards the ground, back towards that foul maelstrom of malevolence.

Amazingly the heat no longer burnt me, instead it catalyzes my determination to stand against the evil below me. Folding the parachutes tight against my back, a roar ripped it's way out of my throat, echoing through the air towards the defiled stadium. The horde stared back up at me, their mouldy yellow eyes locked onto my suicidal dive. Their arms jerked and twitched as they raised their hands in some strange benediction as I plowed towards the ground. Right before the zombies could touch me I went supernova. The explosion tore its way out of my flesh, embracing the zombies, pulling away their foul essence one sliver of flesh at a time. Like snow dissolving under a spring rain, their skin and bones caved beneath my searing heat.

I'll see you later. A sinister voice whispered in my mind, stroking my consciousness like a bile stained rag as the world faded to white.

I sat up in my bed, cold sweat making my shirt cling to my skin like pallid zombie hands, my heart beating like a scared rabbit's.

Author's Note: I really have no idea where I would want to take this story, so I had a "brilliant" idea to ask people who read this story to see what direction to take. My plan, such that it is, is to leave two to three options that readers can comment on and the most commented story branch wins. Tie goes to the author, of course :P, and my goal, fingers crossed, is to produce one to two thousand words a week. Also, other comments and ratings are always welcome. So... here are your choices for the week.

A: Neko Story (Cat-Girl)

B: Lamia Story (Snake-Girl)

C: Angel Story

D: Make Your Own Suggestion- if enough people go for it, I'll try to make it happen.