I sit up holding my chest in pain. The burning sensation slowly starts to spread as I fall out of my bed. I try to scream for help but nothing comes out. The pain starts to get worse and worse than all of a sudden it stops. I start to breath deeply trying to calm down. I stand up going over to my window. I push it open trying to get in a breath of fresh air. The town is quiet tonight. The road is empty as many houses around us are shut up for the night. I look to the moon and see it huge tonight. The cold air feels amazing on my skin. I stay like this for a little bit until I hear a voice behind me.

“Hello Zack Day.” I freeze and turn around looking at the man. He stands in the doorway. He stands about a couple inches above me. He wears leather armor and a black cloak with his hood up. His white skin almost shines in the moonlight and his deep purple eyes stare into me. I start to panic and try to find a weapon. I reach for a nearby staff but it gets knocked away from me. I try to dive for it. He stops me and pins me with his foot to the ground.

“Get off me!” I say trying to get up. I see a smile come across his face as he removes his hood. He looks strong, angry, intelligent.. He is beyond words to describe.

“So… you are my replacement?” He looks me over and frowns. “You won’t last a week.” I go to speak but I cough in pain as he presses his foot down. “I didn’t say you could speak.” I close my eyes trying to breath. I feel the foot disappear causing me to open my eyes. The man is gone with no sign that he was ever here. I run out of the room rushing to my brother’s room. I run through the door scaring him awake.

“Zack! What the hell are you doing?!?” I look at him trying to not freak out.

“There is a man inside the house. He attacked me. We need to find him.” He frowns getting up as fast as he can. We quickly search the house slowly finding nothing. He glares at me as we walk back up the stairs.

“Next time, make sure you aren’t dreaming.” I frown trying to figure out where that man went.

“But I swear..” I get cut off when he slams his door in my face. I sigh annoyed going back to my room. I look through it one more time. I get back into bed looking around one more time before going back to sleep. I wake up in the morning with my brother knocking on my door.

“Wake up. We have training to do.” I groan sitting up. I feel awful like I didn’t get any sleep at all. I quickly change into some clothes. I open the door to see my brother walking down the stairs. I follow him outside to the small backyard that we have. I see the usual training course we use when we aren’t working. My brother starts to stretch as he looks at me annoyed. “Tired? Good. Don’t come wake me up in the middle of the night.” I roll my eyes slightly.

“Sorry. It won’t happen again.” A lot of people say that we look almost exactly alike. We both have average height except he is taller than me by a few inches. We both have brown hair and brown eyes. The only difference is that he is stronger and bigger.

“Whatever. Let's begin.” We start training for the next couple of hours. Ever since my brother came back from the army, he has been motivated to make sure that we were ready for whatever. He doesn’t talk about what he saw. After our workout, he tosses me some money. “Can you go get some food for tonight? I have to go work with Jefferson down the street.”

“Yes I can.” I head inside and clean up. I grab a quick bite to eat before heading out to shop. I head to the open market that is near us. Farmers bring in fresh vegetables from the small farms that they own. Our town is pretty far away from any major cities which is a blessing in disguise. I walk through the stands looking at all of the food. I walk past some kids as I watch them place. I linger too long on them as I bump into someone. I turn to face them, “I’m sorr..” I stop seeing the man that was in my room. I go to hit him but he grabs my arm and puts his arm around me.

“Not here. We need to talk somewhere alone.” I frown struggling trying to get away from him. He acts like I am nothing moving us to a nearby alley. Once there, he lets me go. “I’m sorry that we have to meet this way.” I punch him across the face. He doesn’t move an inch as my hand feels like I punched a brick wall. I grip my hand in pain glaring at him.

“Who the hell are you?” He removes his hood and for a second he looks the same as before. However, he looks a little different. He doesn’t look angry or strong. He looks calm and peaceful. He even looks a little sad even.

“I am Flint Stark. I am sorry to say that you are taking over my role.” I pause for a second.

“Flint Stark?” He pauses making a face. It looks sad with regret.

“Sorry. Nightmare. I am Nightmare.” I pause and start laughing slightly.

“Nightmare? You mean the guy who won that war years ago? I’m sorry buddy but I think you need to get off whatever you are taking.” He frowns slightly for a second mumbling something to himself.

“We need you to finish a few things for us Zack. But you need to retrieve the cloak from Union Square.” I frown angry.

“How do you know my name Flint?” I say with sarcasm. Out of the corner of my eye, a man starts to walk down the alley. Flint looks over at him and anger briefly flashes across his face.

“You need to leave quickly Zack. Go home and get your brother. You need to leave and run far away from here.” I huff starting to walk away from Flint.

“Whatever.” As I walk past Flint, the man attempts to grab me. I dodge out of the way as black ooze drips from the man. Fear shoots throughout me. “... The Infection..”

“Run Zack.” I start to run as I can hear the Infected creature run after me. I take a few steps and hear a woman scream. I turn back to see the creature attacking people. I almost stop but I know it’s too late. I run as fast as I can to get to my house.

The Infection was created in a lab from a far off place. It is an all encompassing disease that takes over any living thing adding it to its power. It corrupts its host and causes them to become this almost zombie like crazy. They start to eat to overcome this hunger deep inside them. They force themselves to eat anything and everything. They are usually seen partially covered with black tendrils. The longer they been infected the more infection will spread until they cover the until body. Everyone thought that the Infection was defeated a couple of years ago.

I run home to see my brother starting to leave for work for the Jefferson. He frowns seeing me. “What’s wrong Zack?” I try to catch my breath.

“The.. Infection..in town..” He frowns heading inside looking worried. I follow him watching as he goes to his room. He comes back with two bags. He hands me a gun causing a frown to appear on my face. He loads his gun looking at me. “Don’t let anyone touch you. We need to leave now.” We head outside getting into the car. He starts it up pulling out of the driveway. I turn to see people starting to run down the street towards us. He hits the gas speeding down the road. I see people running from their houses as their infected neighbors start to attack them. I take a breath and look at my brother.

“I thought this was all over?” He looks at me for a second. I can tell in his eyes that he knows more than he is letting on. The car hits something large and black. My head bounces off the dash causing me to black out. I wake up some time later with my vision fading in and out. I look over to my brother seeing him unconscious. I reach out for him but my vision fades back out. I come to again see a large infected creature ripping the door off the car. It starts to sniff me with a mass of tendrils moving around its face. I try to point my gun at it but it reaches in grabbing my brother. I frown shooting it once in the chest. It doesn’t react as pulling my brother out of the car. I fall unconscious again. I wake up again to see someone dragging me away from the car. I try to say something about my brother but I ultimately pass out for the final time.