The sound of the shoreline waves washing in then taking a pause and retreating back to the sea, the dry sand that uncomfortably stuck to my exposed skin, the intense natural warmth of the sun finally forced me to wake up and I opened my eyes to see the clear blue sky. Seagulls where flying high up in the sky circling around me, maybe they thought I was some dead washed up animal on the beach. And so as I rolled my body over to face the ground to push myself from it to get up, but I notice that my arms where skinny, barely with any muscle. Did the rest of my body look like this? If so then I could’ve been mistaken for a mummy or some sort of zombie. And knowing this, I expected myself to be weak and although this was true, I still had strength and therefore was able to lift my own weight from the ground to find someone or maybe more importantly something to eat. And as I brought myself up to my two legs and looked forward I saw a tropical forest and when I turned my head I saw the coastline, and I realize that the beach curved inwards to create a gulf, it was far too long to walk around.
- “How did I get here?”
I didn’t understand why I landed here of all places, the entrance to the gulf was so narrow that I didn’t even think a ship can get past there without getting stuck. And in fact I suggested to myself that there is some sort of reef there. And that maybe I was on a boat that got stuck on the reef that I supposed was there. I thought of going there to get some resources, but then reconsidered the idea of that the wildlife must’ve already gotten to it by then. So I turned back to the tropical forest, though I knew with the ragged clothing I had on right now I would’ve not had much protection against anything, but what else is there to do? I began walking to the tropical depths of the forest, I pushed giant leaves away from my sight to be able to see. The tropical forest got thicker and thicker, with more leaves and the ground I was walking on seemingly got harder to walk on until my foot had slipped in between two rocks which hid a hole. I tried releasing myself from the grasp of the two rocks but had realized that I couldn’t get it back out, it was stuck. I looked around, panicked, not knowing what to do, my breathing increased and eventually started screaming for help.
-“HELP! PLEASE SOMEBODY!”
The tropical birds flew from the trees when they heard my screams for salvation and I began thinking, maybe I might die here of starvation. Until I began hearing footsteps from a distance, and eventually from the thick plants came a person with a barely noticable orange-tinted armor. The reflection of the sun beams off the back of the person’s armor, giving them a divine yet frightfully powerful appearance, though the armor barely noticeable to be almost to be colored of a bright crystal which had bathed in the sun, giving it the same color of flame. I had expected this person to be my savior, to help me out of the crooked rocks which my foot had been caught between I had never expectwhat had soon to come… The person in the armor had no weapon but the seemingly unbreakable iron in the gauntlet landed again and again on my face, the metallic smell of my own blood filled my nose and soon after my ankle was annihilated from the unrealistic force of the blows.
-“PLEASE STOP! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!? WHO ARE YOU!?”
I screamed at the top of my lungs but to no avail. This person would kill me or maybe beat me unconscious, and in the dense tropical forest like this one I would surely have died from an infection later on from the wounds. My life flashed before my eyes like a flash grenade exploding each time the person in armor landed a blow, death seemingly became possible to me at that time. My body which seemingly was already dead couldn’t handle the abuse, my jaw had been dislocated, my ankle ripped, and my nose flattened to the point where I couldn’t breath through it. So I guessed this is how the world works.
I felt my heartbeats begin to crawl to a stop, inching closer to death each moment. I felt a quick yet gentle breeze pass over my face, and as I shook while looking up, expecting to see another punch instead I find that the person who was attacking me, had vanished.
-“What? What happened?”
The damage that they had done wasn’t fake, I could’ve said that much. But as I look around I see on the floor where the person in armor should’ve been was the armor, bones which had hollowed and cracked from what could’ve been years, and flesh which had been seeminingly drained of all life.
-“No, I might just be going insane or something. Zombies do not exist… Right?”
I saw the glimmering metal on the armor and thought of wearing it for protection. As I tried moving towards it I felt the sharp pain of my ankle, nearly unbearable. Still, needing protection from harm I endured the pain and roughly dragged the armor towards myself against the ground.
-“This might help me while I wait to get help.”
I opened the chest plate and inside where the bones which didn’t fall while I dragged it towards me. It doesn’t stank of anything, instead it just smelled of dust and of old age.
-“If I get to some town I might be able to sell it for a hefty price. Probably some food with the money I’d get from selling it too…”
Blood was dripping out of my nose and ankle, fast. So I had to take my foot out, even if it hurted like hell, I needed to do it. So I counted to prepare myself for the sharp pain.
-“One… Two… And THREE!”
The wound had opened further with this quick pull, but at least I could move more freely now. I started covering myself as much as possible with the armor, my weak body was basically broken, and with barely any muscle each blow left a heavy impact, in short, I was malnourished and my body almost seemed mummified, so all those hits did more damage than it would to a normal person. Though I didn’t feel much of the pain, and I believed it to be due to the shock and the adrenaline.
-“I should clean my wound and probably seal it with something.”
There was barely any time for me, it was already about to be sunset when this whole event occurred but then it was turning night. I need to hurry, but my foot was in agony, I guess I had to power through it again.
-“I have to be the unluckiest person right now.”
The armor I whore covered my torso and my forearms, I couldn’t carry much weight due to the shape I was in. Especially with the wounds and I felt my face begin to swell from the impacts, I agree on the fact that I should’ve been more careful though it was too late then, I had barely any time to prepare for the night and slept under the cold moon on the beach. And thankfully only a few mosquitos and flies came by while I slept on the roughly made bed with the leaves I had gathered while preparing for the night and soon afterwards I fell asleep.