• Darkness, nothing but pure darkness. Suddenly, the sun rose and revealed a small town in the middle of nowhere. It was the perfect example of the American Dream. Little houses with big front yards filled with lush, green grass spotted the area. The yards were surrounded by white picket fences that were flawlessly painted. Every house had an attached garage that could hold two cars, perhaps one for the Mr. and Mrs. of the family. Some houses had yards that were peppered with toys like dolls and toy dinosaurs; this town was an excellent place to bring up children. There were also small, family owned businesses that sold all of the essentials for living—luckily this slice of heaven hadn’t been tainted by massive corporations.
    But then, in the blink of an eye, the sun began to set. The clouds grew black and the sky was tinted a dark, eerie red. The grass started to shrivel and die, twisting and contorting into little brown corpses. The wood of the white fences rotted, and the paint chipped and cracked. The houses and stores slowly aged and fell apart—windows breaking and planks falling. The perfect American Dream morphed into a distorted Hell on earth.

    “Wake up, kid, we need to go, NOW!” I was rudely awakened by a large man with a crew cut and a beard that covered the bottom half of his face. I was going to ask him what was going on, but I realized the moment I saw him feed more shells into his shotgun. The settlement I had been staying at for the past week was under attack. By what, you may ask? People have called them Demons, Zombies, Creatures, all sorts of names. Most people nowadays, however, call them Stalkers. They used to be humans, just like you and me, but not anymore. People suddenly started changing into Stalkers because of the appearance of a new virus. I don’t know much about the origin, but I know the name and what it does.

    The virus is named Renascentia Splendens. A doctor I met on the road informed me that it is Latin for Shining Rebirth, so it’s accurately named. The street name for Renascentia Splendens is Radiance. Once in your system, Radiance likes to lie dormant for about twelve hours. Think about it like this: You have to rally your troops before an attack. Once it gets moving, there’s absolutely no stopping it. It shoots into your brain and starts going after its first objective: your sanity. It eats away at you, making you paranoid and taking away your ability to reason. This stage is easy to overlook—most people have gone mad during this apocalypse—so it can be the most deadly.

    Next, it expands and strengthens your muscles. You gain near superhuman strength and speed. If you’re wondering why, think about it for a moment; it’s easier to get food if you have enough strength. The next phase is what severs the link between humans and Stalkers. It deteriorates what makes us unique—our thoughts, preferences, memories, essentially our souls—turning us into mindless, virus-producing animals. Sadly, this is only the beginning. Radiance was only turning you into a blank canvas, ready for reprogramming. That’s where the final changes start. Radiance, for some reason unknown to me and many others, contradicts itself. It requires light to produce the energy needed to take over the rest of your body, but it’s mainly active at night. That is why it has adapted to be bioluminescent—using internal light to jumpstart chemical reactions. This also has an eerie effect on the body; blood, saliva, and even urine glow neon green. This is how Radiance got its name.

    “There’s no time to daydream, we need to move!” The burly man snapped me out of my daze. I grabbed my duffel bag—which I had been using as a pillow for quite some time—and pulled out a revolver and a few extra rounds. “I’ll cover the front, just watch my back. We need to make our way to the gates as soon as possible.” He didn’t directly state it, but I could tell he doubted my abilities with a gun and didn’t want me to get in the way. Nevertheless, I nodded and followed his lead, leaving my bag behind—the only things it contained were some clothes and the gun I had taken. As we made our way to the center of the settlement, I noticed it was dark, so I looked down at my wristwatch. After clicking the side button to make it shine a light blue—a green light could get you shot nowadays—I realized it was nearly midnight. As we approached the center of the camp, we could hear screams and gunfire.

    The central campground was streaked with blood, both bioluminescent and crimson. There were only a handful of people left, slowly getting picked off by flashes of green light that escaped my sight as fast as they had entered it. To be honest, this was my first hands-on encounter with a stalker, and I was terrified. “These guys are all goners, and it’s just a matter of time before the Stalkers finish them and come for us. Save your ammo, we need to move on.” As immoral as it sounded, he was right. Most of the people here were dead or dying. Our last hope was to meet up with people that had survived the chaos here and made their way to the gate. We went the long way around the settlement, deciding it would be the safest. Although there were a few Stalkers, we were mostly right. I was fascinated by my companion’s combat style. He would charge in like a madman, but his shots were clean and precise. I, however, had to concentrate on every shot I took, which is never a good thing amidst the heat of battle.

    As the gates came into view, we witnessed something astonishing. It was one Stalker, bigger than the rest, killing off all of the survivors. His muscles looked distorted and his eyes were completely green—most Stalkers only had glowing pupils. Without saying a word, the man I had been following charged at the Stalker, his gun ready. I thought he was going to dispatch of it with ease like he had all the rest, which is why I was surprised when the Stalked disarmed him and knocked him unconscious. As it raised its claw to deal the final blow, I took a shot. I was relieved when I saw neon blood spill from the creature, until it turned and looked at me. I had missed all vital spots and merely hit his shoulder, causing me to charge angrily at me. He knocked me to the ground with ease as I tightly gripped my revolver. He hovered over me, ready to finish me off as I raised my gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Click. The sound of an empty chamber was the most terrifying I have ever heard. I should have counted my shots…
     
    The following is a piece of a report from a scientist working in an underground facility that was lucky enough to dissect a fresh Stalker.
    Virus Name: Renascentia Splendens
    Effects: Severe mental deterioration; heightened muscle growth; bioluminescent blood, saliva, and urine; skin slowly begins turning gray due to caked on, dead skin cells.
    Side notes: Before transformation, patient seemed to show touches of dementia and paranoia. After, vocal cords and organs not needed for the wellbeing of the virus were broken down and used to fuel the body. The blood of the transformed patient was more liquid than anything else, and a microscope revealed it was filled with dead cells.
    Apparently, some of the blood from the patient got in a small cut on the scientist’s finger. Within one week, his entire medical branch had to be “cleansed” of the infection.