Michael´s Backstory

It was early in the morning, the desk lamp on Michaels desk gave off a dim light, while the rest in his room was just as dark as it had been many hours ago when the sun was still nowhere to be seen.
It was when he saw the first rays of light shining through the little holes in the window shades and the many empty cups of coffee standing right next to his laptop that he realized it: He had spent the entire night just working on that project he was advised to by his boss. But it was strange...he was not able to remember anything about the project, nor did he remember the reason why he had to pull an all-nighter for that very project. A sudden strike of pain in his head stopped his effort to try and remember the reason for all those sleepless hours that he invested, which now seemed completly wasted. As he tried to get up from his chair, still feeling that excruciating pain in his head, his vision started to turn black and he fell over.
The second he woke up, still very confused and feeling dizzy, he was sitting at a dining table, atleast that's what he thought it to be but he was not entirely sure. The room was clad in bright light that was shining through the windows. It was now that he was able to see all the colorful decoration that was hanging from the white ceiling and a cake, standing in the middle of the table. Michael noticed  something written on the cake with icing, it seemed like a name. Strangely enough he was not able to read that name. It seemed to be blurry, maybe he suffered from a head injury. As he tried to search his head for any kind of injury or maybe even a bandage that was covering up a possible hole in his head, he saw several empty chairs. He was able to count exactly 6 chairs, including his own, one of which was standing more closely to the cake than the others. Michael looked at the clock that he just noticed on the other end of the room, it seemed to be stuck at 3:04 pm. When he turned around he just stared into what seemed to be just an empty  living room, but it smelled more like .... garbage? He was not entirely sure. Fact is that it smelled very gross.
"Don´t just stare into the living room *******!"
What was that? He was sure it was a male voice but he didnt see anybody nearby and the chairs should still be empty. And what was that last word that the voice said?
"*******, you should know that the birthday is a very important event in a childs live, right?"
Again! The first word was impossible to understand.
This time it was a female voice but he was still not able to locate the person that owned it, nor could he remember anybody with that kind of voice. He felt that he should be able to recognize that voice, but it was simply impossible. As he started to think about it harder, the familiar pain in his head started to appear again.
He then started to turn around again, why, even, was he still staring into the empty living room?
Just when Michael thought that things couldn`t become any stranger, he turned back to the supposedly empty chairs ... just that  they werent so empty anymore.
Right next to Michael on his left side he saw a woman and on his right side he saw a man, both probably around 30 years old. Closest to the cake he saw a small figure, he realized that it was a child. On the other two chairs he saw a man and a woman again, this time only slightly older.
It seemed to be a strangely happy time for those people, they all had their heads turned over to the windows as they were laughing.
Michaels head was just a huge mess, he had so many questions but he decided to ask just the simplest question:
"W-Who exactly are you?"
The laughing stopped.
"You can´t even remember us anymore? How could you forget us? Is it so easy for you?"
It was the females voice again, but it didnt seem to come from these people, it was more like an echo in his head.
He wanted to answer, but he couldnt speak anymore. His mouth moved normally but his voice could not be heard.
"You can´t even remember us anymore? How could you forget us? Is it so easy for you?"
It asked again, this time more angry.
The people started to look at him, but ... what was that? He could not see their faces?!  There was literally just some kind of grey shadow that was concealing their faces.
"YOU CAN´T EVEN REMEMBER US ANYMORE?! HOW COULD YOU FORGET US?! IS IT   SO EASY FOR YOU?!"
Those empty faces were still looking at him, the colorful decoration started to dwindle, and the light turned into flickering dim light. When Michael frantically looked out of the window, he saw fire and shadows moving outside.
He then closed his eyes, wishing none of this would have happenned.
When he opened his eyes again, the room was back to normal. Reliefed he uttered the words "Thank Goodness!",which were followed by the sound of a door bell. He unconsciously walked to the door but why did he know exactly where it was? Why was he so scared to open that door? Why couldnt he stop his hand from opening the door?
As the door started to open slowly, Michael heard moaning coming from behind it. It was a far too familiar sound, which inexplicably  filled his heart with anger and fear at the same time.
The door opened.
There was a woman standing infront of him, her skin peeling, her body cluttered with deep wounds partially revealing bones and rips.
Before Michael could even utter a word, the womans jaws opened and bit off a big part of flesh from Michaels left shoulder with unbelievable force. When he looked at the completly disfigured shoulder, his vision immediately turned black and he fell on the floor.


„The sun's coming up. It's time to get moving.“

Michaels eyes started to open slowly, he then saw his good friend that he met in this nightmare of an apocalypse, one of the few people he actually wanted to remember the name of. His name was Ethan Tucker.
Still confused about that weird dream, which at the same time didn´t seem like a dream at all, Michael started to get up.
His sleeping bag, which accompanied him since he left Germany, smelled like a worn out pair of socks.
"No wonder, it had been used for a long time now." Michael mumbled to himself, just when a feeling of nostalgia overpowered his mind for a second.
He shook his head as hard as he could to get rid of that stupid mischief-maker and quickly got up to get ready for another trip, a trip in a world he would not have believed to exist before, a cruel and nightmareish world controlled by the undead.


And so, They were on their way.