It wasn't the smell that woke Thomas from his sleep if you can call it that. The awful smell of mold a and rotted wood in this dank room. It wasn't the flat partially molded mattress he was laying on or the sound of corpses wandering around outside of this small 2 story house he was taking shelter in.
Of all the things it had to be the nightmares that awoke him from his slumber. nightmares of the choices he had to make to get this far. choices that led to the deaths of his friends and fellow survivors. It was too late for them and it might be to late for himself but maybe there was a reason he survived, or maybe there wasn't.
Either way Thomas begrudgingly sat up and turned towards his camping stove, pulled out a can of beans and began cooking breakfast.
Its been 6 months since the world went to hell. It all started when WEB, a multi-million dollar company began research into human genetics. Experimenting on coma patients and volunteers all for some secret military contract. They promised the families of coma patients that they would take good care of them and that they had new studies with promising results. Little did they know they would never see their loved ones again, at least not as anything human.
Thomas shoveled steaming hot beans in his mouth as he looked outside his window at the ruined city below. There weren't as many of the slow moving behemoths as usual today. Normally one would think that to be a good thing, but Thomas knew the truth. It meant there was a survivor nearby that caught the attention of all the mutants in the city.
When you alert one of the monsters it sends a signal of sorts to other nearby mutants as they begin to converge on your location. Which means somebody is having a hell of a time right now. Setting down his empty bowl, Thomas swept up his backpack and wrenched open the door he barricaded last night.
Making his way down the stairs he approached the door leading to the street and cracked it open. After making sure there wasn't any mutants around he decided while they were being distracted by some other survivors he could use this time to restock.
In the light of day he hurriedly made his way down the street a couple of blocks until he came across a store called Sam's Beans. Thinking it was as good a place as any he slowly entered through the broken glass in the front.
Thomas swept his gaze from left to right upon entering the store, he grabbed a brick lying on the ground and chucked it in the middle of the building in an empty space and waited with his ears perked.
After only a couple of seconds he heard a crash deep in the building. Then another one closer this time. Thomas reached over his shoulder and pulled a heavy sword out of its sheathe. Its something he managed to find one day when looting some unfortunate bandits that had the same idea Thomas had. All of a sudden a mutant appeared straight down the aisle from him. As soon as it saw its prey it rushed forward recklessly knocking cans and bottles of the shelves.
Thomas readied his heavy iron sword and waited patiently for the creature to approach. 3 seconds...2 and 1, he swung towards the mutants neck with all his might as soon as it got close and lunged at him. In the blink of an eye Thomas paused at the end of his swing with his sword in the air as the mutant struggled around on the ground behind him with its head separated from its body.
"Lucky it was just the one this time." Thomas said with a sigh of relief. He lowered his sword and pulled out a piece of cloth to carefully wipe away the black blood. Thomas had seen many people in the past disregard the mutants blood only to join them in eternal suffering shortly after. It doesn't happen to everyone but its better to be safe than sorry right?.
Now that Thomas has dealt with any threat it was time to stock up on supplies. Contrary to what people think nobody had the chance to loot and pillage when the mutants first appeared. everyone was too busy running for there lives or were in the process of being eaten. When it first happened everything was peaceful just like everyday was before, but then all of a sudden there were hundreds of mutants appearing on the streets in the blink of an eye and everything changed.
While thinking of this Thomas was busy shoving can after can of beans and canned vegetables into his pack. He always goes for the beans considering how fulfilling they are and how well they preserve. After that he picked up a couple rolls of toilet paper and three bars of chocolate that were left on the shelves. Thomas made his way out of the store and continued down the street.
Only a few blocks from where Thomas was currently was a young boy running from what looked like a few dozens of mutants. From the looks of this boy he was already on his last legs. Sweating through his shirt and stumbling every few steps. The boy ran and slid over the hood of a blue car blocking the road While the group of mutants chasing him slammed into the car slowing them down a bit.
Out of breath and running out of time this boy opened his eyes in surprise "Hey you! Please help me!" He yelled while reaching out.
In front of Thomas was huge group of mutants hungrily chasing some haggard looking boy. Deciding this had nothing to do with him Thomas started to turn away only to pause for a moment, Thinking about his past and the ones he couldn't save, about the people he cared about.
In one swift move Thomas pulled his sword out with a metallic sound and dashed towards the boy who seemed to have given up and now sits prone on the ground. In the span of 3 seconds Thomas was on top of the mutants closest to the boy. With Expert movement he slashed the head from the first one with gross green skin and random mutations all over its body. The next one had its face caved in by a steel toe boot. "Get the hell up if you want to live!" Yelled Thomas while grappling with the last mutant directly next to the boy.
With his face lying in the dirt the max had given up completely. There was no way out of this situation he thought to himself. That was until he heard Thomas shout at him to get up. That seemed to have returned some energy into max's body as he stood with much effort. He saw Thomas struggling with one of the mutants and quickly raised his heavy iron pipe and with all the remaining strength in his arms he swung towards the mutants head.
The pipe managed to strike the mutant in the neck making it stumble backwards for a moment, but a moment was all they needed to escape before the horde was upon them.
"Thanks for the assist. Names Max." Max said while tightly shutting the door to the building they ducked inside. "Thomas. Don't mention it." Thomas replied. "What was so important to risk running into every mutant in the city?"
"Just bad luck you know." He said while averting his gaze for a moment. Max didn't want to reveal the medicine in his pack for fear of having it stolen. Thomas nodded and walked up the stairs into the second floor to check the windows. It seems without their prey the mutants spread out in this area, wandering aimlessly.
Thomas pulled over a wooden chair and sat down. "Looks like we wont be going anywhere anytime soon. I hope you brought some provisions."
Thomas words seemed to agitate max as he began looking through each window for a way out of this mess. "There has to be a way."
"What's the rush? Were not in any danger as long as we stay here." Thomas said
"Its my sister. She's sick and if I don't make it back soon I don't think she's gonna make it.
"That's rough, but trying to get through that horde is near impossible." Thomas replied while eating a biscuit from his pack.
"There has to be a way, I cant give up after coming this far." Max knew he couldn't ask his savior anything more than he's already done, but he was desperate.
Thomas Had no interest in helping this guy, he already got him out of any immediate danger and didn't owe him anything. Plus he stopped helping people a long time ago. he didn't even know why he helped him in the first place. Everyone has a sob story and max is no different. Thomas doubted his sister would make it even with medicine these days.
Even though he told himself there was nothing to gain and he would probably just end up dying in the process, there was something in the back of his head telling him to help max.
Against his better judgment he decided to help. "I'm definitely going to regret this." Thomas sighed.
"Did you say something?" Max said still looking out the window.
Thomas stood up and started looking around the room, at the ceiling and out above the windows. "Nothing." He replied.