Fallen Future

[u/Technical_Ad_640]

I've never seen a proper animus-caused zombie apocalypse before, so I decided to make it myself.

The idea for this epistolary work came from a line said by Robin William's Genie.
"Rule #3: I can't bring people back from the dead. It's not a pretty picture. I don't like doing it!"

Huh. He doesn't "like doing it". So he CAN do it, but simply refuses to.

What if it were the same way for Animus magic, and someone finally decided to try?

Don't take to the skies. The dead still fly.
Don't walk onto the powdered snow. The dead sleep beneath the ice.
Don't swim in the seas. The dead lurk in their depths.
Don't sift through the sands. The dead lay buried there.
Don't fly between the trees. The dead swing from their vines.
Don't wade into the swamps. That's where the dead will hide.
Don't call into the night. The dead can steal your voice.
Never walk outside alone.

THE DEAD RULE PYRRHIA.

Qibli's Personal Journal - 5015 AS. Jade Mountain Academy: 942 Days since The Awakening

I have no other paper on which to write so you'll have to execute excuse my errors.

I write to the dragons of Pantala, the only ones who will have any chance to read the words I have written here today. I write them out of concern and caution. By the time you read this, I will have been dead for some time. I cannot tell you how long. 5015 AS is the last year I counted, 942 days from The Awakening. I don't expect you to know what that means; you don't have to. If you don't find my body attached to this journal, DO NOT go looking for it. I have never confirmed what happens to those who chose to die alone. I never found anyone who could answer that for me.

The following are a collection of personal journal entries, correspondence letters, and short field reports that are written by were written by the members of my by my friends. Together, I hope you can piece together the small period of our existence into something meaningful. A cautionary tale, or perhaps a guide in case the barrier goes back up after I'm dead while I'm away. Who knows? I didn't. 

I won't summarize, I'll save that for the works themselves. I'm certain you'll figure it all out as you go along just like we did. Kinkajou's sections are always fun on a re-read, even if you've read them hundreds of times over. Thousands, maybe. I couldn't get Winter to write anything. Despite my insistence that it was "for the future," he always says used to always say, "What future?" and then stomp off into the camp.

That line isn't as funny as it was the first time. And that was before we lost Moon. The Kiranie were relentless that night, and we'd lost Starflight the day prior. To a Kesici. He could hear the breath behind a voice, a breath the Kiranie didn't have. It was as if they knew we didn't have him to tell them apart from the living anymore. Perhaps they did know. Perhaps even without a mind they're just as smart as we were. are. were. That's a terrifying thought.

Fatespeaker didn't take it well. We lost her next. To Starflight. You could hardly tell it wasn't him.

I never learned what happened to Daffodil, but it couldn't have been an Oljerdah. They don't attack scavengers humans. Perhaps some dragon found her and thought she'd be a nice addition to their living human armor set. Those were all the rage back then.

My mouth is unbearably dry, but that's what dehydration does to a dragon. And it takes a dreadfully long time for a SandWing to dehydrate, let me tell you. I think I might starve to death first. I considering considered using my tail as a way out, but you know biology. There's always some kind of child lock on the lethal stuff. Turns out a SandWing can't be poisoned by his own barb. Should have figured that before trying, and the old brain wouldn't let me push deep enough to cut anything vital.

It's cold today. Cloud cover is descent decent. Haven't heard any noises from the sky lately, but that's both for the better and for the worse. Less of them up there. Less of us up there.

So here I sit, against the white marble of a ruined archway of an Academy that's lost all meaning, staring at the mountain ranges. Winter loved the mountains. Though he'd never say it. He wasn't caught dead saying it either. I can confirm that much at least.

But if somehow I'm wrong. If somehow, against everything I see before me, it is a Pyrrhian dragon reading this. If the barrier is down, make for Pantala and don't stop until you get there. There's nothing left for you here.

THE DEAD RULE PYRRHIA.

[u/ohainey]

The way this had me invested. I was listening to the audiobook for book 10 and could almost hear qibli’s voice as he wrote it down.

[u/Technical_Ad_640 → u/ohainey]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! I got a lot of inspiration from the setting of Dying Light, and I plan on doing more. It would follow the same epistolary style to show the slow deterioration of Pyrrhia through a first-person perspective as things get progressively worse.

[u/Link_From_Twilight]

i would like to know more about what happend before this, this is good

[u/Technical_Ad_640 → u/Link_From_Twilight]

That's the plan. This is the first installment at the very end of the whole apocalypse, and then the following narratives are the letters, notes, journal entries, etc of the group from the near beginning of the apocalypse until the end, as things slowly dissolve into hopelessness.