The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan opened his eyes to the sound of creaking wood. His vision blurry, the first thing he saw, or rather felt, was a burning sensation on his left hand. Pulling it towards his chest before even opening his eyes all the way, Hao Xuan forced himself to sit up.

His head was ringing like a church bell. He couldn't hear much of anything other than the dull sounds that were coming from every direction.

He felt hot, so unbearably hot that his body felt like it had been taken out of boiling water, making him feel utterly weak.

The first thing he did was call out for his trusty helper.

"Baracus, where am I?!" he tried to shout but a weak murmur escaped his lips.

A high-pitched noise came into his ears, forcing Hao Xuan to promptly bury his head in his arms but that did very little to lower its intensity.

The pitch of the noise kept changing, adjusting itself constantly until it turned into the same old slightly robotic masculine voice that Hao Xuan remembered.

"Ca- y-u hear me?" breaking up at first, the last two words managed to come in clearly.

"Yeah, what happened?" Hao Xuan asked, shaking his head left and right.

A hot sizzling sensation suddenly erupted from both his nostrils and a black liquid was forced out.

All of sudden it felt like he could think again, like someone was holding him underwater and only now he was finally let out. There was still a ringing headache but he was used to it by now.

Hao Xuan opened his eyes and examined the surroundings. He was surrounded by fire on all sides but one.

The sound of blood-curdling screams was coming in from somewhere in the distance. He looked to the right and saw the Glaive laying beside him.

Grabbing it, Hao Xuan used it as support to stand up. His legs felt like jelly and he couldn't even stand on his own.

"What...happened...?" he repeated with some effort.

"Unknown," Baracus replied, "Data corrupted."

"What? What...time is it?"

"...Unknown..." Baracus's solemn voice sounded clearly in Hao Xuan's ears.

With a deep frown, Hao Xuan closed his eyes to try and recall what had happened but the last thing he remembered was vomiting his guts out.

He looked around but couldn't see anyone else in the cabin, not even the rotting corpse that he had stabbed before.

But most of the cabin was on fire already so it could just have been turned to ashes by now. He felt there was something missing but no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember.

The sound of hurried footsteps came from the front, waking him from the stupor.

Putting such thoughts to the back of his mind, Hao Xuan placed his hand over his face to call out the mask but nothing happened.

With a raised brow he tried again but there was no response. He could 'feel' the mask's presence somewhere inside him but it could not be called out no matter how hard he tried.

"For fuck sakes," he cursed.

*Crumble*

With a loud grinding sound, a part of the cabin's roof collapsed, falling right onto Hao Xuan. Thankfully he was able to react in time and leap out of the way.

Left with no other choice he stood again and used the left hand to cover his face from the flames. He ran into the blaze since the only exit was on the other side.

With some minor burns and scratches, Hao Xuan came out of the blaze that had quickly spread to the remainder of the cabin.

He came out on a stone-paved street. Everything around him was on fire, as far as the eye could see.

Smoke covered the night sky but it couldn't block the raindrops from coming through, as infrequent and light as they were.

Hao Xuan reached out and let a few drops fall on his hand, letting out a breath of relief.

It wasn't a blood rain anymore.

"AAAAAH!" another scream came from his right, this one much closer than before.

Hao Xuan started walking towards it as fast as he could. As soon as he exited the living quarters he could see where it had come from.

It was a group of natives surrounding one of the guards, the same one Tomas had warned before.

The guard was flailing about helplessly, trying to push them away but it looked like he didn't have any strength left. The ground underneath was covered in blood.

"Did they finally revolt?" Hao Xuan couldn't help but mumble seeing the situation but it was still quite strange. The guard was a cultivator and could kill these few mortals without lifting a finger. So...how did this happen?

It looked like the guard heard him since he looked over, extending an arm with a missing hand towards Hao Xuan.

"H-Help me...plea-" he tried to ask but before he could finish, one of the natives bit at his throat like a wild dog, pulling out a chunk of skin, flesh, and cartilage.

Hao Xuan's eyes almost popped out of their sockets and his mouth fell wide open watching the gruesome scene. But he couldn't look away for some reason.

The sounds of bones breaking and flesh tearing were all he could hear now. It was a whole minute before he realized what was happening.

"O-Oi! What the fuck are you people doing!" Hao Xuan shouted.

The natives stopped, all at once. They slowly stood up and turned around to face him.

Hao Xuan's heart skipped a beat when he saw their appearance. They were walking corpses with dead eyes and rotting flesh. Some of them were even missing skin and bones here and there.

"RAUUUGH!" one of them howled and sprinted towards him at full speed, prompting others to follow suit.

They weren't like the slow-paced "zombies" Hao Xuan knew from the movies back on earth. These ones were running on all fours like wild animals. Their moths opened to several times their normal size, lined with crooked but sharp teeth. Their limbs were longer as well, twisting into sharp hooks.

***

Authors Notes:

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