014: Lost To The Waves

[Primus]

Standing underneath the bright blue streetlight on the sloped street behind me is Melis in her tattered clothing, a torch clutched tightly in her hand. “I said leave him alone,” her voice rings out, loud enough to wake the dead.

Or to scare them. The bodies surrounding me scatter back, reaching for the edges of the shadows and safety.

The afflicted aren’t really dead, or at least, they never officially died. But they also aren’t what I’d call alive anymore, not really. The transformation that overtakes them steals their inhibitions and their pain, but amplifies their needs and wants to a point of madness. First, their bodies sicken with a fever that burns so hot their body becomes covered with blisters. When the sickness ends, they rise from their illness, their bodies slowly rotting. But because they do not feel pain in the same way as before, they rise stronger, and far less careful.

There is only one exception to their lack of caution--fire. For the afflicted, it is a ba