Day 1, Year of the Catastrophe – Saturday, 2nd of May, 2020.

09:19 pm –the Kings House –

Daniel sat in total darkness. Only the last remaining bits of light of the sunset gave vision. He had quickly noticed that light attracts the undead that now roamed the entire countryside like a swarm. At first he had seen two, that apparently had turned very recently, stumbling down the garden of another house. Then more and more of them showed up. After an hour he had counted thirty and switched of the lights as he noticed them trying to get into another home where the lights were left on at ground level.

Oddly enough, most of the dead showed no obvious wounds, they had most likely not been bitten. There could be a number of different explanations for that, but the most likely one Daniel was able to come up with was that this was a global virus and only some people would be immune to this. He was also quite scared at this premise, for he did not know if he had to be close to a turned zombie to get infected immediately.

He could be save by immunity or just lucky not to have been in contact yet. A frightening prospect. Aside from that the undead did not seem extremely dangerous. The ones that recently turned had only black veins on their body and an absentminded gaze. Some of the obviously older ones however looked a lot more inhumane. Their eyes totally white, they were most likely blind and followed their instincts. To be fair, they sensed it immediately if a human or animal was even nearby, charging them with a quick walking pace that seemed a little stiff.

Their skin had discolored to a dark brown color and apparently hardened to a degree. But it was mostly their dumb herd behaviors’ that would make it rather simple to think of counter measures and strategies to kill them. Some of them even got stuck in the most simple things. Garden fences, between cars or falling down into a pond.

Daniel studied them, taking notes on their behavior. Then the dead came in numbers. Large numbers. Thousands of walking corpses that got drawn from one noise or light source to the next, adding resisting humans to their numbers. After he had counted six hundred of them, another group at least twice the size swarmed in from the backside of his house as well. The air was filled with the sounds they made. A dry growl here, a wincing sound there and corpses hitting and clawing at random things everywhere. The noise swelled on as they reached higher numbers, attracting even more of their kind wherever they went.

It was clear to Daniel that he had severely underestimated the threat such a large number provided. Doors would be broken down sooner or later if fifty or a hundred dead just walked against it for hours. And if they climbed on top of their fallen ones they might even reach a first floor after a while. He shuddered thinking about it.

“Just don’t attract them and you will be fine”, he told himself. But he was not entirely convinced. This night it was impossible for him to sleep. The prospect of a wooden door being the only thing that stood between him and this wasn’t exactly inviting for him to sleep. Not to mention the noise that would most likely give him serious nightmares.

So he did the only thing he could do in this situation. Grab a piece of chocolate, his warm bedsheets and locked the door to his room. Just in case he dozed off. Which after a while, he did. Their sound was just so monotonous it was almost like sitting in a train or car listening to the rain.

When he woke again, the horde was gone. Like a dream that never happened in real life. Only the chaos they left in their wake showed proof to their existence. Broken glass, destroyed flower gardens and other vandalism. It was still the middle of the night, 3:12 am, judging from his phone.

A bright moon bathed the surroundings in a cold light. It was not a full moon but the total lack of clouds made up for that. The stars were also more visible that usually, with all the lights in the area gone. It was a sight to behold.

Then he heard something odd. A metallic clicking sound, like someone was walking with skiing shoes on asphalt, or the sound a horse made when it stepped on asphalt. Again and again, very rhythmic, it came closer. Apparently something was coming down this street. Maybe some sort of military vehicle? But the lack of motor sounds made that kind of unlikely. A drone? Or maybe-

Daniels thoughts were quickly thrown out of the window as he saw it. A humanoid creature, similar to a zombie, but also entirely different. It wore no clothes and its body was entirely clad in dark red skin. Cleary very thick skin, judging from its appearance it was some sort of armor? The metallic clicking sound came from its legs.

The feet had mutated, elongated claws that looked very sharp had replaced toes in front and a thicker spike to the back grew out of its heels. It looked like a six fingered bird claw. The hands looked even more surreal. Instead of a hand the creature possessed four finger like spikes that were slightly curved like a sabre. They looked very points and sharp. What the fuck was this?!

Curious Daniel observed. Was this maybe someone that was especially receptive to the virus? Or was it the cause and origin of all this? Aliens in the meteorites? His mind raced to conclusions. Maybe all the zombies would die if he killed it? Similar to Game of Thrones? No, he could not be that lucky. Besides, fighting that thing? No bloody way.

It looked like it could turn him into a Kebab in two seconds and slaughter a family of five at the same time. Oh, hell no. David scribbled down the rough outline of the mutant in his notes and dubbed it “Red Claw Zombie” with a big question mark next to it.

His musing of its origins was quickly canceled when the brutal looking mutant slowed down its run and came to a halt. About ten meters away from Daniels house. Then its face turned towards him. Looked at him. Out of dark black eyes. A shudder ran down Daniels back. Did it actually SEE him? He tensed up in his chair.

Then the mutant let out a very loud shriek, to the point of it being almost metallic. Daniel now stood up and went inside. Maybe it would just leave if it didn’t see him anymore? A foolish thought, almost like a small child. Fear started to build up. And rightfully so. One by one normal undead arrived and stood around the red creature, that still had its eyes fixated on the now empty balcony. Oh please god, let it leave!

Daniel wasn’t a very religious person. He believed there was some form of god, he was raised christian, but aside from that… He had never prayed in his life before. But this… this THING was something else. It did not move until around twenty, maybe twenty five normal undead had gathered. It was hard to count them, as he tried to hide form it’s gaze still, but it was roughly accurate.

Then it turned its head. Towards the entrance of the house. Another ear-shattering shriek later the undead threw themselves against the front door.

With a loud thud the bodies clashed with wood and began knocking and clawing away. Daniel knew this focused attack would sooner or later collapse the door. He hurried out of his room, clashing against wood himself. He had forgotten to unlock the damn thing! It was only mildly painful, but he remembered he would need some sort of weapon if at all possible. He grabbed his wooden katana. A nerdy collector piece, but still a blunt weapon and better than nothing. Hurrying down the stairs he almost fell but made it to the door.

Where he felt silly. How could he even defend that? He could hardly open the door much less anything else. Waiting for them to break it down? Barricade it? If he waited long enough they might leave right? For a few seconds he contemplated his options before he decided to distract them from the door. He hurried to a nearby window that was nailed shut. It was small and from the outside at a height approximately 160cm. So the zombies would not be able to go through that, even if they ripped out the wooden barricade, anytime soon. Daniel knocked hard against the wood trying to be as loud as possible. Then he placed the kitchen alarm clock for cooking eggs there and hurried back to the front door.

He watched through the door’s spy hole, to see if and how many undead were still trying to force their way inside there, when splintering wood and a sharp pain in his right hand distracted him immediately. Four long red claws had pierced though the door and struck his hand after piercing the wooden door with easy. Immediately Daniel watched again through the spy hole only to see the other claw coming closer. The mutant was breaking down the door. Another loud splinter as the claw ripped the door spy out of the wood and a good chunk of the door with it. The claws were seemingly unhurt. If that continued the door would break down in minutes.

Immediately Daniel gave up the door, even barricading would not do much at this point. He opened the door that led down in the cellar, locked that one as well and hurried towards the bunker. Who could possibly deal with such an insane mutant?!?

He pulled on the heavy steel door to close it. It was really heavy and it took quite a while to pull it towards the locking mechanism embedded into the concrete walls. Just as he heard the front door shatter to the floor, he closed the bunker and turned the large wheel inside to lock it for good. Immediately a tiny, battery powered LED light turned on and gave a little visibility.

Daniel sank down at the wall, breathing heavily. He scratched his large belly with his right hand when the pain in his hand made him look. It was only a scratch from the end of his middle finger towards the base of his thumb on the back of his hand, but the wound had already turned to a grayish black. A few dark lines radiated from the wound.

That couldn’t be great. Sighing he stared at it, wondering what to do. He eyed a large axe that rested in a corner. Normally they used it for garden work. Then he eyed his hand. He sighed.

Just great…