THE GHOUL RISING

CHAPTER 2 — THE CARRIER'S BURDEN.

My legs pump beneath me, each stride pushing me farther from the shambling mass of infects behind me. Sweat streaks down my temples, stinging my eyes. The trees blur past the hollow skulls of a world that no longer exists.

Then I hear a shrieking sound.

It starts low that gradually build into a louder that seems to split the air itself. My spine turns to ice. Every hair on my body stands rigid.

Something is coming.

I don't need to see it to know what it means. Whatever makes that sound will definitely tear through me like paper.

My eyes sweep the landscape seeing nothing but sparse ruins, fallen trees that are cover with moss, cracked grounds that are overgrown with weeds. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.

The forest that's surrounding this vicinity leaves me shudder.

More kept coming slowly with different varieties of walking bone with skin like wet leather, their movements twitchy and disjointed.

Some of their mouths hang open, revealing tongues blackened and swollen while others own are completely ripped out. Their eyes are gone with nothing but empty sockets where mushroom-like growths sprout in dense clusters, gray and pulsing while those with actual eyes are completely covered in grey.

I pivot right to keep pushing despite what I'm going through.

Another ones emerge from the tree line ahead. These are bigger than the others with broader shoulders and misshapen, arms thick with unnatural muscle that looks like it has been grafted onto their frames by something with no understanding of anatomy.

Spores cling to their backs, spreading across their flesh like moss on stone.

My heart hammers against my ribs as I turn again.

They keep coming. Wave after wave, each iteration larger and more wrong than the last, until—

The biggest one steps into view.

It towers above the others, easily three meters tall, its body a mass of twisted muscle and fungal growth. Its head is completely consumed by the spores, a writhing cluster of pale tendrils and bulbous caps that seems to breathe.

I am surrounded.

I have lost count as I saw army of them drawing nearer. My mind races, calculating any escape route and my last hope to defend myself.

I spotted what looks like a chunk of concrete from a ruin and let my fingers close around it. This chunk is the size of my fist. It feels pathetically light.

I wonder where I'll strike with this and remember how one of the raiders aimed at its knee for me to strike. I look around and notice one nearest to me.

I aimed at its knee and stroke the chunk at it. It did a little by making it stumble. I picked a bigger one and used it to crush it head.

That's one down and eleven more to go.

Another lunges with it's arms outstretched. I duck under its grasp despite my leg screaming in pain, pivot, and slam another rock into its kneecap with every ounce of strength I have.

Like the first one, this time it joint buckles with a wet crack and then drops. I bring the rock down on its skull before it gets up from the ground, hitting it severally until it was unrecognizable.

Now that's two down, eleven more to go.

A third one comes from my left. I sidestep, sweep its leg, drive the rock into its temple as it falls. The impact reverberates up my arm. The thing twitches, then goes still.

Three down.

At this point, it seems I might make it out of here alive.

Hope was showing itself to me when, all of a sudden, something slams into me from behind.

I stagger and when I turn to strike, it's blade-like claws rake across my abdomen.

The world goes white.

The pain is a living thing. It blooms in my gut like fire swallowing gasoline, spreading through every nerve ending in waves that make my vision tunnel.

A tearing sensation that feels like my insides are trying to escape through the gash. Heat and cold war across my skin making me scream.

My hands fly to my stomach, fingers pressing against the wound. Something warm and slick pushes against my palms. I hope it's not what I think it is.

I stumble backward as my knee buckle with each step that sends fresh agony radiating through my core.

I need a place to hide.

A boulder juts from the earth near the forest edge and I make for it while half-dragging myself, my legs feeling like they belong to someone else.

When I reach it, I collapse against the stone, my back pressing into its cool surface. Each breath is a ragged gasp that pulls at the wound.

I'm not making it out of this.

The thought of Sommy settles over me like a shroud, her face flashing through my mind. My stomach knot when reality settles, that I'll never see her again.

My free hand fumbles at my neck, finding the thin cord there. I pull it free. The necklace dangles before my eyes, crude beads strung on fishing line, made by Sommy's small hands months after Mom died.

Her only handmade gift she ever gave me. I clutch it tight and close my eyes.

God, if you're there, please keep her safe. Let her have the life I couldn't give her.

I haven't prayed since before the outbreak. I'm not sure I believe anymore. But in this moment, with my blood soaking into the earth, I pray with everything I have left.

When I open my eyes, I saw them emerging from the sides of the boulder but thy didn't attack me like they do, instead, they form a ring, taking their places in the circle.

I can see that they are completely blind, so how do they know that I'm here?

The massive one steps through, each footfall a small earthquake. Up close, it's even more horrifying, it's a cluster of all the infects with parts of the bodies hanging out. Its chest heaves with breath it doesn't need. The spore cluster that is its head turns toward me, tendrils writhing.

"You." it growls slowly, stunning me. It's sounds like it was straining itself with little or no voice. Wait! It can talk? "Who. send. you?"

"Nobody." I grit my teeth, "were you expecting somebody?"

It leans towards me, studying me and then, it starts clicking.

The infects came at me, grabbing my arms and legs. I felt my inside drip out of me as they rose me up.

"My name is Uurok, I am the Carrion Lord." It introduce itself to me. "How did a lowlife of a race disturb my presence?" Even they see me as one. A lowlife.

I struggle to get off their grips and it seems it fascinates it because it's lips curve into a smile.

"I'll make you my vessel for this."

It rose and slowly turn away.

'What? It's just going to leave? Worse with his minions?'

Well, that's what I thought until they also start moving behind it.

Wait! What?

I struggle but even my body refuse to respond. It has been so battered that the only part of my body that was moving were my hands as my stomach threatens to drop whatever was hanging on, painfully.

There is one thing I know, if a predator hasn't kill off the prey from the get go, then it's either brings it home to its family or it wants to hide it from other predator to devour it slowly. Savouring everything.

Either way, both spell disaster.

Ahead is a black hole that open out of thin air with electricity sparks flying out of it and I watch as that thing walk into it.

It's a portal!

As we move, I mentally prepare myself for what to expect. Will it sting? Stretch me? Or do something more? Since I'm not the same specie as them, it's going to be a bit different.

The moment we were absorb into it, all thoughts and fear vanished. Nothing happened. Instead, I see reality morph into something else.

We weren't at the garden again, that's for sure, but it looks like we are in garden.

After what feels like hours, we finally came to a halt in front of a giant gate that was completely sealed

It was as shiny as a metal but it radiates a bad feeling for me, simply because I'm their menu.

It said something utterly different, like it's own language, and the door opens. Another journey to where I don't begins.

I use the opportunity to glance at the extremely high ceilings with walls made of the same metal like the door but, it's painted in red and black.

Capes drape at the windows and a massive red carpet lays on the ground, left for us to walk on.

Ahead stood an empty throne and the moment the giant zombie placed its foot on the stairs leading to the empty throne, they all stop.

I wonder what is going on? Why did they stop?

It communicates something to its minion that looks like it activated something in them and that's when they began.

Some had their claws dig into my flesh as others pull in different directions. I feel myself coming apart at the seams.

The agony is beyond description.

My bones grind against each other as they pull. Tendons stretch and snap like guitar strings tuned past their breaking point.

I scream until my throat is raw, until no sound comes out at all.

Through the haze of suffering, I see it gesture one of them to pull my shredded body and in the excruciating pain, it drags me up to the throne.

I felt the roughness of the carpet as it stroke painfully on my open flesh. Even in this state, I wonder why I'm still alive........and conscious.

It let's go off me and the back of my head falls hard to the ground. I would have groan, but even that sound didn't form on my half-open mouth. It is at this point that all I pray for to for this suffering to come to an end.

I lay there, my bloody eye staring at it as it threw me what looks like a mocking smile. It was pleased in my suffering. Watching a human get toyed to the point all that is left is void.

I watch it pull something out of it and for a brief moment, I could see what looks like. A green hard object, like a shapeless ball, before it was forced straight into my mouth.

I couldn't breath as whatever it shove inside me was swelling.

Another round of tears form in my eyes as I watch the giant figure slowly rising from it throne and raise its arms for it's people as the ceiling of the tower gradually opens, revealing the bloody full moon that was fix at the edge of the sky.

It almost looks like the moon was also mocking me in my sad state. Everything around me is definitely doing that.

All the zombies made sound that must have been a kind of cheers. I thought zombies were brainless mindless flesh eaters.

Suddenly, I watch it rise a foot that eclipse what little sky I can see and then, It descends, crushing me.