Starter Scrolls: by Nick Venom (best ereader for graphic novels txt) 📖

man noticed them, glancing over his shoulder at Suit-Man and the teen---who shot him a deranged smile---before clearing his throat to speak. “Who are you guys?”

“Gage, t-this is Millie.” He said. “We barely managed to get on the fire escape before… you know.”

“Oh, you were the one who called for help. Fortunately-” He glanced at Suit-Man. “-somebody helped you, instead of abandoning you.”

“Shut it, foreigner!” Suit-Man barked. “I make more money than you and your large family will ever make!” The man had ingrained himself as a stereotype in the brains of everybody around him. A skinny worn-out white CEO who had everything he ever wanted; born with a silver spoon lodged deep into his throat. To add to the stereotype, he was ignorant towards people from other races and ethnicities. A clear disgrace.

“I’m not a foreigner, my family and I were born in America. Speak to me like that and see what happens.” The man threatened, standing up. Suit-Man scoffed before turning over to his side, facing away from them. The man sat back down, waiting a moment to allow the sudden rage to dissipate, before turning back to Gage. “The name’s Fred, this is,” he pointed at his girlfriend, “my girlfriend Violet.”

“Oh,” Gage muttered.

“Oh,” Suit-Man mocked. His back was turned away from them.

“Ignore them, that piece of trash can’t do anything but complain now that he doesn’t have any servants,” Fred remarked.

Suit-Man ignored them, keeping his eyes closed, basking in the humidity.

“Anyways, now we have a large problem. I have a candy bar on me, but that’s all. We have no supplies.”

“I saw a grocery bag on the sixth floor.” Millie chimed in. “It was on a doorstep.”

Fred, Gage, and Violet stared at her hard for a moment before springing up. The grocery bag that Millie saw must’ve been hot and semi-fresh food delivered by Uber or other food services. Either way, food was waiting for them. 

“I’ll go get the food, but I doubt it’ll be enough for us.” He glanced at everybody except Suit-man and the psycho teen. “We’ll split up and venture to floors six to eight. Find as many supplies as you can and return here.”

Can I go?” The psycho teen picked herself up, walking towards Fred and the others. She licked her lips as she neared him. “I want to help.”

Fred looked at Violet, who shrugged her shoulders. “Take her, we’ll need an extra pair of hands.” She told him. Fred nodded, motioning for the psycho teen to follow him. They then headed to the fire escape, descending and spreading throughout the remaining floors that weren’t submerged. The psycho teen, however, lingered behind to take a peek at Suit-Man, who didn’t join them with their scavenging trips. He showed her a thumbs up, igniting a spark in her.

“How lovely their screams will be.” She muttered to herself. “I can’t wait to hear their pure screams for help.” She smiled creepily to herself as she went to the eighth floor where Violet was scavenging through the rooms. She walked up to Violet, showing her a large smile. Violet didn’t trust the smile, almost disgusted by it.

“Stay clear of me and focus on getting supplies before the water rises,” Violet instructed her.

“Sure, whatever you want.” The girl responded in a meek voice. The voice sounded like it was a chained tiger, unable to come out. The voice she displayed wasn’t her true voice; sounding like a mouse when she was a lion.

“Oh okay.” Violet looked away from the crazy girl. “What’s your name? Mine is Violet.”

“Gina,” She responded, tilting her head. “But you can call me Death.”

Hello All!

 

Thank you for reading this short story. Writing the short story felt like writing the first chapter of a novel as I feel like I had put a lot more descriptions and thought into dialogue and characters. Justin’s story was interesting and---funny enough---dragged on longer than expected. Calamity was meant to occur within the first thousand words, yet was dragged on to later. Conversations between Justin and his family were all improvised and never decided on. The incident with the tree was a spur-of-the-moment decision rather than something I prepared.

As for the vague religious aspects embedded in Justin’s family and, even, Blake’s inclusion was unexpected miracles to come during the writing process. This has been such an inspirational story for me to write about. It almost felt like I was writing the first installment of a Harry Potter-like franchise. Almost.

Thank you for reading this short rant. Until next time, I bid you all a good day.

Want to read other stories by me?

You can read similar stories to The Day The World Broke and other apocalyptic, fantasy, and horror titles by checking out my main Bookrix.com account of Nick Venom. You can also find more stories on my Nick Venom account on Forgefiction.com.

Infection: Episode One - The Apocalypse {Season One}

An alarm blared, ricocheting off the walls, repeating the annoying chirping sounds. A tanned hand stumbled out of bed, swatting at the alarm clock. It searched for the snooze button, slamming it off.

The hand returned to its owner. The rest of the body tore off the blankets covering them before getting out of bed. Rin, a frail high school student, sat on the edge of his bed, looking at the alarm clock. In bold were the numbers, 9:50. Rin’s eyebrows jumped above his forehead as he scrambled towards his closet, throwing on his school uniform. School started two hours ago, meaning he was late.

“This is why you don’t press snooze so many times.” He thought out loud. “I’m so dumb, I can’t believe I overslept. I have three tests today; oh, I’m so screwed.” He grabbed a belt, looping it through his royal-blue trousers. He threw on his thin black hoodie, covering his black tee-shirt. 

He ran to his bathroom, dousing his mouth with toothpaste, moving it from one corner to the other, before mixing in water. He spat out the combination into the sink, taking in more water from the faucet before spitting that out. He turned towards a small table next to the sink where the toothbrushes were.

“Maybe, I’ll use you tomorrow.” 

He ran to his room, grabbing his backpack from its place on the floor, sweeping books laying on the ground inside the bag. He picked his bag up and equipped it, grabbing a loose pencil from his bedside table and his phone---powering it on but not looking at it---putting it in his pocket and laying the pencil on top of his ear, grinning to himself. “She’ll scold me for this, but it’ll be worth it.”

He exited his room, grabbing his keys on the way out, and headed to the living room, going down a hallway and around a corner to reach it. The television was, for some reason, powered on, displaying the news. Neither of his parents was in the house.

Rin’s father was always gone by sunrise, but his mother would’ve been home to find him oversleeping. However, she wasn’t there. She left for work at 1 PM, a few hours from now. 

Rin dashed to the kitchen, searching for some type of note that told him why his mother was gone. Nothing. He tried his parents’ room; nothing. Kitchen… nothing. He tried his room, sifting through his mess. He quickly discovered a brightly yellow post-it note on his pillow. He ripped the note off his pillow, skimming through it.

I’m sorry we can’t be here for you. It was never our intention to leave you alone in this cruel world, but we must. One day we will come back for you, but until then - survive. The house is fully stocked with supplies and there’s an M1911---1-3-4---under our bed. Use it for emergencies. - Mom and Dad.

Rin tilted his head as he furrowed his brows. What were his parents talking about? Cruel World? Survive? M1911?”

“What is happening?” He asked himself, staring at the note. He was thoroughly confused by the situation. Something then shot through his brain. Check the news!

He raced to the living room, staring at the television. The volume was muted, showing two silent news anchors. Rin turned around and quickly found the control, which strangely rested on the middle of the floor. He pressed the mute button before the ‘increase volume’ button. He raised the volume until he could comfortably hear the anchors.

“-streets are crawling with them. These beings, which scientists have classified as ‘zombies’, are taking over the town. With the majority of the police knocked out during the initial chaos, there are no more defenses against these zombies.” The female anchor pronounced ‘zombies’ as if she was talking about underwear - as if it was a joke.

“The government has stated that these zombies are dangerous beings carrying a virus that they spread through their saliva. Bites are the easiest ways for the virus to spread so stay a considerable distance from any zombies or infected people!” The male anchor exclaimed.

“The difference between zombies and infected is their appearance and symptoms. A zombie is dark green in color and their flesh is rotting, which gives off a putrid smell. Infected people are normal humans suffering from high fevers, high blood pressure, continuous coughing, and blood vomiting. There is no current cure for this virus, so stay clear of any infected and especially of zombies.” The male anchor looked to his right, his eyes widening. A few members of the camera crew shouted, “zombies, zombies, zombies!” As the growls and snarls entered the news station. 

The female anchor stood up, her face flushed. She raised her hands to her mouth, covering a silent scream. The male anchor grabbed her arm and dragged her away as the camera feed cut off. The audio, however, remained so the audience could hear the desperate pleas of the camera crew as zombies munched on them.

Rin muted the volume, his eyes widened and his mouth ajar. “What… How?... Where is my-” An explosion interrupted Rin’s stammering, taking his attention from the television to the outside. He tiptoed to his front door, which had a small window looking out towards the street - that didn’t have a curtain covering it. He peered outside, watching as chaos erupted in his neighborhood. Men dressed in black with ski masks threw bricks and other heavy items at the windows of a house across the street. The large group of men charged into the house, ransacking it. After clearing it, they split into two groups; one group heading to the neighbor’s house while the other group headed towards Rin’s house.

He ducked out of sight, laying flat on his stomach. The men were nonchalantly walking up to his house, their voices loud and obnoxious. 

“Yeah, I can’t wait to find a pretty girl in one of these houses. What a score it’ll be!” A man exclaimed.

“Shut up, I get the first turn.” A second man responded.

Rin was sick to his stomach, deciding to stand up into a crouch. He crouched-walked away from the door. Once he was a comfortable distance away, he sprinted to his parents’ room. He dove to the ground, hearing the men knocking on the front door, before reaching under the bed. There was only a single black box under the bed, not even a speck of dust at its side.