I sat up with a gasp and quickly fell into a coughing fit. Flipping over onto my hands and knees, I dry heaved as the world around me swayed uncontrollably. I closed my eyes, but the sensation persisted. It was nauseating. Still, I stayed still and waited for the feeling to subside. Eventually, it did.
"What… was that?"
With my senses finally returning to normal, I took a moment to look around and noticed I was in a dark park. It was night, and the air felt crisp against my skin. "Why am I here?" I pushed myself to my feet but almost fell. Once I regained my balance, I took a tentative step forward and stepped on something wet.
"Mud?" I asked, leaning in for a closer look. The ground wasn't the dark brown of wet dirt but a deep red. "Is that… blood?"
My heart rate increased, and I immediately looked down at where I was standing. The ground was drenched in blood, and pieces of flesh and bone were scattered around me. I gasped and backed away from the gore with wide eyes. "What the hell? What's going on?!"
A sharp, agonizing pain surged through my head, forcing me to lean forward instinctively, my fingers digging into my scalp as if to hold everything in place. Flashes of red and white swirled in my consciousness, accompanied by a cacophony of voices that reverberated through my mind, each one jarring and disturbingly familiar yet utterly alien.
"Look at his eyes. They're so ugly!"
"#ik%germa! #i#iguana! #i$ifroggy!"
"Onii-Chan! Let's watch that show!"
"Isn't that the guy who asked out Orimoto-Chan? What a loser!"
"Youth is a lie."
"#ik%#aya-Kun, I'm appointing you to this club as a penalty for that awful essay of yours!"
"I welcome you to the Service Club."
"W-why is #i%ki here?!"
"What is this?!" I hissed; the images and voices were incomprehensible. I didn't recognize any of them. "Make it stop!"
"Ah, that scored high on Komachi points!"
"Why is this the only way you deal with things?"
"Senpai! You're late!"
"H#%i… I really love this club."
"H#ki$#ya-kun… you don't have to force yourself to come anymore."
"I want something genuine!"
Overwhelmed by the onslaught, I leaned forward, retching, but nothing came out. Leaving me to dry heave. I fell to my knees, clutching my head tightly, as if by sheer will I could silence the disarray swirling in my mind.
But just as abruptly as the pain had seized me, it began to dissipate, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.
"What was that? Were those… memories?" I stood up and looked down at my hands. They looked both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. "I don't know those people. Who… who are they? No, who… who am I? I can't remember my name."
An idea struck me, and I quickly searched my pockets. However, after finding nothing but lint and keys to a lock I knew nothing about, I sighed in disappointment. I had hoped I had a wallet on me to at least help me figure out what my name was. But I had nothing like that. Scanning the area I woke up in, I saw nothing that would help. No bags, personal items, nothing. Just blood and viscera.
A gust of wind blew through the park, causing my hair to flutter and my skin to tingle from the sheer cold of the night. Oddly enough, I barely registered the chill, too lost in my turmoil.
The snap of a twig jolted me out of my thoughts. I turned and stared into the pitch-black trees. Within the shadows, a figure shuffled and began to move toward me, a low, almost animalistic growl emanating from it.
Instinctively, I took a step back. In the back of my mind, I could hear a scream urging me to run. But something within me kept me rooted in place. I stood there and watched as the dark figure stepped into the moonlight.
I gasped when I saw a bloodied and mangled man come into view. His red eyes glared at me with pure, unadulterated hatred. Without warning, he unleashed a roar and charged directly at me.
"W-wait! Stop!" I held my hands up. "What's wrong with you!"
The man lunged at me, but I moved to the right, dodging his swinging hands. He didn't stop; instead, he spun around and leaped at me again, his jaws wide open to reveal bloodied teeth. I gasped at the sight, giving him enough time to reach me.
We fell to the ground, with me on my back. I grunted from the impact but focused on the maniac above me as I grabbed his wrists. He struggled to overpower me, trying to reach my face with his bloodied hands. Strangely enough, despite being a full-grown man, I managed to keep him at bay.
"Get off me!" I yelled, pulling my leg back. Pressing my foot against his hip, I delivered a desperate kick to get him away from me.
It worked. The man rolled back violently. I quickly got to my feet and began to run away. As I ran, I heard a loud snap behind me, but I ignored it.
Gasping for breath, I left the park and stepped into an intersection. What I saw next left me breathless.
In every direction, chaos and blood filled the streets. Cars were flipped over, buildings lay in ruins, some charred and battered, while storefronts were left in tatters, glass scattered everywhere. The most jarring sight was the bloodied, mutilated corpses littering the streets. Above them, dozens of people in states similar to that of the man who had attacked me wandered aimlessly. Some were even eating the corpses with ravenous hunger.
"What is this?" I asked out loud.
Big mistake.
Immediately, all the bloodied people within earshot turned to me and growled. They began marching toward me, releasing a chorus of groans and screams as they ran. Their loud cries only drew more of the deranged individuals from further away, causing even more to rush at me.
Seeing the mob of mangled and crazed people charging my way, I turned and ran as fast as I could.
My breath came in short bursts as I sprinted down the sidewalk, occasionally jumping over debris and avoiding knocked-over vending machines. With only three paths ahead of me, I chose the street with the fewest crazed people. As I ran, some tried to tackle or swipe at me, but I managed to dodge their attempts.
However, the more I ran, the more of those things emerged from alleyways and stores. Their angry, ravenous eyes locked on me as they joined the ever-growing horde behind me.
Hearing the growls and groans at my back pushed me to run even faster. I needed to escape. I didn't know what was happening, but whatever those people were, they were not normal humans. They were something else. Something dangerous. I had to get away and find a safe place to figure everything out. So, I ran. I ran as fast as I could until my surroundings practically blurred past me.
As I continued down one road after another, turning at every corner only to meet a dead end, I saw more of those creatures everywhere. Their numbers kept increasing.
"There's nowhere to run. I have to get off the streets," I scanned the road I was on and saw an untouched storefront with its metal shutters down.
As I made my way there, I slid to a stop and nearly crashed into the store's brick wall. I looked down and finally noticed that I was barefoot. With a wince, I lifted a foot and saw no injuries on my bare skin. Which was weird considering I just ran barefoot through the city. Hearing the groans and screaming of those things growing closer, I approached the door and gave the handle a tentative pull. It was unlocked. Once inside, I locked the door behind me and tried to calm down. Oddly enough, despite all the running, I wasn't out of breath.
"M-must be the adrenaline," I gasped as I looked around.
Shelves lined the store's walls, filled with clothing, while aisles of men's and women's clothes stood neatly on their racks. I looked down at myself and saw that my pants, jacket, and shirt were ruined and stained with dried blood. Oddly enough, I had no injuries. So then, where did that blood come from? I decided that didn't matter and looked around the store. I needed to check the building to ensure it was empty. I didn't want to be surprised by one of those things.
While searching, I discovered the store's bathroom. I stepped inside, flipped on the light switch, and examined my reflection.
"Is that… me?" I touched my face and messed with my black hair. "Man… I got some dead-looking eyes."
Raising an eyebrow, I touched the pale scar on my forehead. As my fingers touched the scar, I flinched.
"Do you know what happens when one of those things bites you? You'll-"
"Become one of them. I know."
"I see... then, I shall ask you this. Do you wish to die as a human, or do you want to die as one of those things?"
"A... human."
I gasped in pain as the images of bloody, ravenous humans, the sounds of gunfire, green-clad soldiers, a crying girl, and a gun muzzle flashed through the forefront of my mind.
"No! Stop it, please! He just needs help! Onii-chan! Don't shoot my Onii-chan!"
"…Komachi," the name left my lips before I realized it. Despite not recognizing the voice, hearing the girl scream in pain caused my stomach to twist. "Komachi? Who… is that?"
I tried to bring more of those memories back, but nothing came. I sighed in frustration; the bathroom vanity cracked slightly under my tight grip.
"That girl... She called me, Onii-Chan, right? Could that be… my sister? Is that who Komachi is?"
With no clear answers or clues about the girls or my own identity, I turned off the light and continued searching through the building.
Once I was sure the coast was clear, I walked back into the main store and browsed through the men's section. After selecting a new set of clothes to keep me warm during the February chill, I leaned over the checkout counter and held my head in my hands.
"The rest of those people I saw... who were they?" I asked myself, trying to recall the flashes of images that had surged through my mind during the worst headache I'd ever experienced—or at least, I thought it was the worst.
While I couldn't recall any of the memories, they had passed through so fast, I could vaguely remember two silhouettes.
It was of two girls: one with long black hair and blue eyes, and the other with short peach-colored hair in a bun, possessing brownish-red eyes. Besides those features, everything else about them was blurry. Even so, I sensed they were important to me.
Before anything else, though, I needed to figure out who I was and why I woke up alone in a bloody park.
For some reason, I couldn't remember my past or my identity. Oddly enough, I was still able to think and function. I was aware of everything I had learned and experienced, but any personal knowledge about myself was fuzzy and unclear. It made no sense.
"Amnesia?" I raised my hand to the scar on my forehead.
Growing irritated, I walked over to the small television set behind the checkout counter and turned it on. Maybe the news had the answers?
It was in that moment that the world outside erupted into chaos.
The power suddenly cut out, plunging the building into an oppressive silence just moments before a violent shudder coursed through the ground beneath me. My instincts kicked in as I gripped the counter with all my strength, bracing myself against the shattering tremors that reverberated like the heartbeat of a mad giant. Outside, the distant sounds of explosions cascaded one after another.
"What the hell?!" I let go of the counter and ran outside. Forgetting the possible dangers that could be waiting for me.
As I burst through the door and into the luckily empty street, my breath caught in my throat at the spectacle above me. Two fighter jets streaked overhead, their engines roaring. They sliced through the sky with astonishing speed before unleashing their deadly payloads into the horizon.
The sharp crack of their munitions was almost drowned out by the inhuman growls and shrieks of the undead that echoed through the streets, creating a macabre symphony of destruction. Turning back towards the street, I caught sight of a relentless tide of the undead, their mangled figures clambering over one another in a frenzied rush.
"Shit!" I gasped, my heart racing as I frantically scanned my surroundings. There, several buildings down, was an apartment building. Without hesitating, I sprinted toward it.
Each footfall echoed in my ears as I ascended the stairwell, reaching the fourth floor just in time to witness the relentless wave of undead as they flowed past the clothing store I had just stood in front of, like a river of the dead. The sight was both horrific and mesmerizing.
As the last of the infected ran past, I leaned against the cold metal handrail and stared out at the cityscape. Block after block, the vibrant lights that had once illuminated Chiba blinked off, plunging the prefecture into darkness. Only the flickering flames of distant fires danced across the streets, while the bright balls of fire from the earlier explosions slowly began to vanish.
"…What the hell is going on?"