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Decay always had a distinct scent Kalim had come to learn. The scent lacked an essence that was associated with life. It was something many humans didn't have to become familiar with. Decay was a scent, a state that accompanied the boogeyman humanity feared.
Death.
Where decay lingered, death was nearby. Looming like a shadow, silent and watching. Death while around us everyday, was something that many didn't have to become familiar with. Didn't have to become familiar with its lingering effects, its decay that consumed everything it touched. There had been a time, once in Kalim's life, when he was one of those lucky ones. Where he was one of those blessed to not become familiar with it. But decay, it always comes for everything eventually. Paving the way for death to come through. And eventually Kalim was affected by its contagious touch, in the worst way possible. A building, once vast and full of life, was now empty and devoid of it. A home he once knew, once grew up in was now nothing but a graveyard. Kalim swallowed the lump in his throat, staring at the crumbling home that was once his safe place. A home that had become a hell scape within the span of a night.
An argument, loud and damning. The last glimpse of a friendly face, twisted with anger. The sudden horror that was unleashed. His mother's scream before it became a gurgling. Eyes once belonging to a loved one, vacant and hungry, teeth that tore into his mother's-
"Kalim hey you good?"
The man snapped out of the memories. Red eyes flickering towards his companion. Ruggie stared at him, his gaze for once holding concern. A weakness in a place such as this in Ruggie's eyes and yet he showed it to Kalim. Brief and masked but there. Kalim blinked a few times, forcing the darkness to go back to it's deepest corners. Offering a smile that didn't reach his eyes Kalim just patted Ruggie on his shoulder.
"Ah sorry Ruggie, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
Blue grey eyes narrowed at the answer, not believing a word. Yet he didn't press, instead letting the dogs lie for now. Kalim forced himself to look away from the other's all too knowing gaze. Instead focusing on counting his gun's ammo. In a place like this, it was wise to have your weapons ready. Least you wanted to end up like them. The creatures that once wore human faces. Creatures that haunt Kalim's nightmares every night, as well as Ruggie's.
".....We should make it quick. Staying here for so long might attract something."
Ruggie's warning made Kalim nod, the white haired man getting his firearm ready. Ruggie's own weapon, an axe was clutched tightly in his hands. His body wound tight and ready to strike should he need too. The two exchanged a look, before making their way further into the neighborhood and closer towards the house which was once home to Kalim. Debris filled the empty streets, with cars that sat abandoned in them and in driveways. Homes, much like the one up ahead stood silent around them. Falling apart with broken windows and ruined doors. All of them once alive and occupied. All of them eventually filled with the screams and wails and shrieks of innocent lives lost in a span of a night.
He could still see them, the people running away from those things. Men, women, children, some lucky. Some unlucky, instead falling to the gnashing teeth of what was once fellow human beings. Of what was once neighbors. Even after all these years, the image was as clear as day for him. That night when his life was taken from him. Like so many other survivors who managed to get out in time. Kalim gripped his gun, his gaze hardened and sharp. The usual lukewarm warmth within them gone as he remembered it all. The recollection was shattered when he heard something up ahead. Causing him and Ruggie to freeze. Weapons drawn and ready. Silently waiting for it to reveal itself.
It didn't take long.
It shuffled into the street, its movements janky and unsteady. In its rotting hand was a knife, stained a rusty red. Its body hobbled, its gaze empty and soulless. It turned its head unsteadily, as if it sensed the two living beings. Finally it turned its gaze onto them. Eyes, boring and suddenly hungry took them in. Black veins beneath its flesh spiderwebbed across its face and neck. It let out a hissing gurgling sound, before lunging at them at an incredible speed. Its blood stained teeth on display to bite into one of them. Kalim and Ruggie moved quickly. Kalim took aim and shot it, slowing it down while Ruggie went to take its head out. The only way to kill it for sure. A lesson both of them had learned by force.
A familiar face, void of emotion, staring at him in his kitchen. His mother's blood and chunk of her neck in it's mouth. Its teeth biting down on it, eating her. Its eyes.......its eyes that held no familiarity as it lunged at him. Forcing him to grab the tenderizor to defend himself. He could still hear it, the cracking of its skull as he'd beat it in. Sobbing and screaming the entire time. Covered in blood, forced to stare into the eyes of the very person who he'd argued with. Now gone forever.
They finished it off in no time, the two of them skilled beyond their years. The duo continued onwards on high alert, the neighborhood now silent once more. A corpse of what once was left behind them. It wouldn't be the last one either, they both knew this. As they continued further within Kalim felt a breeze hit, causing the hair accessory to touch his cheek. Gentle and soft, like it were trying to comfort him. Grounding him in the present. In the here and now with Ruggie. He couldn't entertain what ifs, because there was no changing the past. The only thing he could do was continue onwards, and maybe help others who survived this hellish reality. It was the least he could do.
For him. He'd do it.