That Which Does Not Die

It had been two years since everything had ended. It had been two years since the world had died. In that time all that remained was ashes, bitter tears, and the constant struggle to survive.

Things had not always been this way. The world had made sense once. There was a time when the nightmares stayed in their dark corners. A time when the mind of man did not write itself large upon the script that was everyday life. That time, now over, would come again. This was the steadfast hope of every single human being left alive in the after times.

People called it the apocalypse. Some called it justice. Still others referred to it as utterly ridiculous and insane. In many ways all of them were right.

The old world had fallen, in one week. That's all it had taken for everything everywhere to end. The first few days were utterly brutal. Savage street justice became the norm. The only law was the law of the hammer and gun.

I made my living in the shadows of the monsters that owned the world. The demonic former men and women of my race. Even the animals, the plants, the land itself had seeped downward into some shadow spawned version of itself. Mother earth, if such an entity truly exists, must weep inside her closet for the once beautiful world.

It wasn't all terror, and things that slither and refuse to die. Some of the remaining people had developed abilities. Minor talents really, but ones that had helped us survive. I for one suspect that the same force that brought nightmare into the living world had somehow dug deep into our psyche's and led us to a personal means of salvation. For good or ill it was here to stay and we had to deal with it.

My job in the past, even my name, are unimportant. What I have chosen to do now is the reality. I chose my trade and my name based on a dream I had while running from the horrors around me. A largely thankless job, but a necessary one. I was given a choice, and I chose.

They called the horrors many names. Zombie, walkers, stenches, and the risen were a few of them. My job was to cleanse the land of them, making it safe for the last remnants of my former race, and to free the afflicted from their cursed life.