"Newt! Run!"

Kaine and his brother sprinted across the run down bunker towards the emergency escape. A shriek that made Kaine's skin crawl and his blood freeze echoed through out the room as a group of humans pounded on the door, trying to get inside.

Well humans was putting it nicely, the things that were trying to eat them alive were not people. Not anymore. After humans destroyed the planet with their own creations, a new life form emerged.

They call it Decay.

No one actually knows where the hell it came from but everyone has their own crazy, messed up theories. Science project gone wrong, alien invasion. Its all just a bunch of guesses.

Decay's first "host" didn't even know what they had until it was too late. It changed them, and not in a good way. Decay poisoned their mind, turning them into a savage, bloodthirsty monster. With just one bite or scratch from an poisoned being, you became infected. Then it changed you physically. Imagine 100 billion years of evolution and adaptation happening within 24 hours. You morph into the best thing you can be, or in our case, a perfect predator. Once infected the origin spread Decay across the globe, there was no stopping it.

The poison spread throughout the remains of the world like wildfire, infecting unsuspecting people and destroying the little amount of humanity they possessed.

Those of us that are left called them Hunters. I don't even know how many humans are left. For all I know, Newt and I could be the last survives in the entire bloody world!

But I guess its always been that way for us. I wish it would all go back to "normal". Back to when the world made sense, when it was safe to go to the supermarket to buy milk without being freaking ambushed by a hord of Hunters. Now we live like this. Constantly on the run, being stalked by things you only find prowling inside the darkest of nightmares.

Kaine snatched up his backpack and the pair slide through the door just as the monsters broke through the front door and entered the filthy bunker. Kaine risked a glance over his shoulder before disappearing around the corner.

There were at least six or seven, the Hunter's looked like a group of animals had been sewn together to create a monster. Some had long tails with barbed spines that flicked dangerously about, others had long claws that dragged along the ground with every step they took, easily slashing a human clean in half if it wished.

The brothers sprinted down a darkened corridor, flickering lights faintly lighting their path. Shriek's, groans and hisses followed after them. The air seemed to burn in Kaine's lungs, every step felt like he'd ripped out all his muscles and stitched them back on again and again. Sweat trickled down his neck making his tshirt cling uncomfortably to his body like a second skin.

Sliding around the corner, the brothers continued down the hall, tripping over corpses that smelled months old. After a few more twists and turns, the creatures seemed to fall back, their agonized sounds growing fainter and fainter until they all but disappeared into the darkness. Kaine and Newt slowed to a jog. Sweat dripped off his brothers face and they struggled for fresh air.

They looked nothing alike, almost complete opposites. Newt looked like a younger version of their father; short, curly jet black hair, blue eyes, a thin jaw and straight nose. Kaine on the other hand had inherited his mother's wavy, reddish-brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He had a wide jaw and a fighters crooked nose to top it all off. The two boys mirrored their parents.

Well that was apparently what everyone had said anyways, Decay took both their parents when the boys where only young.

"You good?" Newt puffed hunched over, his hands resting on his knees.

"Fine. You?" Kaine replied clutching a stitch that had began to form in his ribs. Newt gave him a thumbs up before straightening himself up. Unhooking his water bottle from his backpack, Newt drank before putting it securely back. Couldn't waste a drop of that stuff, clean water was one of the most desirable sources in the world along with fresh food and some metals.

"Come on, we can't stay here." Kaine finally said, breaking the disturbing silence around them. The brothers made their way down another corridor. Their steps matched the deathly quiet, the air inside was stuffy and made it difficult to breathe. After a while they made it back to the surface. Checking if the cost was clear, Kaine and Newt clambered out of the hatch that connected the underground bunker to the outside world.

The sky was a deep grey colour that casted a haunting light over most of the land. What remains of a city sat across the bone dry lake, the once mesmerising and proud skyscrapers that made up the city were now reduced to a ghost town that was occupied mostly by Hunters. Rubble and rusty metal building frames were the only things that told that there was anything there in the first place.

I sometimes imagine what I would've been like, to live in the time before Decay. The type of freedom and greatness that we'd only ever seen in history books. We used to spend hours reading about the society we used to have, technological advancements and the weird creatures that humans used to share the planet with. Weird organisms called 'cats' and the miniature monsters 'snakes'. But I guess we'll truely never know what it was like.

"So where are we going now, Kaine?" Newt asked, breaking his brothers train of thought. Kaine pushed a button on a thin silver band on his wrist and a hologram flickered to life. A small globe appeared before them. Earth. He moved his hand across the interface and they zoomed into a small red dot that pulsed rapidly, signalling their current location. He studied the hologram carefully.

"Well from here, we could head for either Acilas or Emiarion." Kaine explained. His brother was quiet for a second before answering.

"Emiarion, it's further away from the main cities and it has more protection if we get ambushed."

Kaine nodded in agreement before closing the hologram. "Alright, pack your shit. It's going to be a long walk."