The Saved and the Starving

I'm alone. I’m alone to brave this cruel, cruel world. Where the dead walk amongst the living, and where hellish creatures rule the night. We humans, we like to think we own this planet, that we made it ours simply by surviving. How wrong we are. We came here, many years ago, seeking refuge after our home world began to die. No one knows why it happened.

Some say it was our fault, some say it was just climate change, others say the world had already been dying for a long time. Regardless, we took to the stars, to find another place to call home. 'Home' isn't what I'd call this place. Shelter?

Sure. Refuge? Of course. But not home. It has oceans and forests, similar to ours, and deserts too. It has all the things we need to survive, we just have to work a little bit for it. At least, that's what our leaders would say. We thought we were all past having to "fight to survive." We thought that had ended a long time ago, back home. But once again, we were wrong. When we first landed, we did the most sensible thing. We started farming.

Agriculture, the backbone of humanity. Not much is left of humanity, but we can all pretty much agree that food is important. The soil was roughly the same as back home, so we could grow all the same stuff. After a while we started to raise animals; Cows, chickens and the like. Things were good, or so I'm told. But shortly thereafter, things started happening.

There were earthquakes that split the ground open, revealing hundreds upon hundreds of caverns. People got curious, and naturally went exploring. No one returned. Well, that's not entirely true. There was one guy who returned. He was the only one in his team to make it back. There were eleven other people on his team.

He wasn't "all-there" as some might say. Me? I'd just say he'd gone bat shit. Apparently, he and his team had been attacked by "things" down in the caves. But that's not what got people’s attention.

He told tales of beautiful crystals he had seen, unlike any other. No one believed him at first, until he showed them a piece of some stone he had chipped off the walls. According to what I've been told, it was bright blue; clear as crystal and harder than steel. Some local blacksmiths said they could fashion weapons and armor from the stuff. Oh yeah, you heard me. Blacksmiths, we went full medieval shortly after we landed. Anyway, more and more people started entering the mines.

Suddenly, being a miner became the next big thing. Those blue stones weren't the only things they found down there, oh no, they found gold, iron and even some things we had never seen before. There were some weird purple stones that people said were cursed or something, and those they could send you to the underworld. Some even claimed that they had been there. I don't believe it, but hey, weirder shit has happened.

There was some red dust-like stuff too. People said it could conduct electricity really well, but it was a helluva lot more complex than anything we'd ever seen. Some people got it working though, and they're quite well off because of it. Needless to say business was booming for miners everywhere. That one guy, you know; the crazy guy? He kept on trying to warn people that they didn't know what they were dealing with.

That this world wasn't just going to let them take its precious jewels. Well, at least not without a fight. People laughed, called him crazy for saying that. They should have known better. Shortly thereafter, miners began disappearing in great numbers. Those that came back said that they felt like they were being watched by something, or somethings.

I don't know when it happened; all I know is no one was prepared for it. All their precious tools were suddenly of no use. They tried to fight back, sure, but it was too late. Entire cities were destroyed. No one knew how it happened, or what was causing it. The only one who could answer was the "crazy guy", but the only thing he would say was, "You should of listened.

It's too late, they've broken through to the surface, and now that they know you're here, they'll never leave." Our leaders sent out scouts, but very few came back. Those that did each had differing stories. Some said it was the walking dead, others say it was giant insects, and others said they didn't know what it was they saw; strange twisted green things, tall shadowy figures hiding in the mist, among other things. Everyone figured they had gone crazy too. There was little to no hope, most people had just given up.

A few brave souls, however, kept digging deep into the earth. They brought back with them the answer to this blight. Sunlight.

You see, the attacks only happened at night, but no one had ever put two and two together. Most of the creatures burned when they came in contact with sunlight. They couldn't even stand to be near artificial light. We had been living in the dark for so long, all we needed was light. Soon, torches were placed around the outside of cities, and on the inside of homes. People had light with them wherever they went. At least, that's what I've heard.

You see, I've been trapped in my house for a while now. My town was one of the ones attacked. I survived by locking my doors and windows. My food is starting to run out though, I've thought about going outside.

Not all of those things die in the sunlight. Some of them wait. They wait for you to step outside, and then they attack. I saw one outside my window a few days ago. It glared at me, with that horrible scowl on its face. I'm writing this for whoever finds it. I hope some of the information I gathered can serve you, and maybe help you survive. I'm going outside; I have some equipment in a chest behind my house. Maybe if I run fast enough, they won't catch me. Alright I'm... wait... What's that hissing sound?