Where petals don't fall - Chapter 1 "Nightly encounter"
I awoke on a beach. I don't know how I got here, my clothes are soaked, partially ripped and every part of me hurts but I'm alive and that's all I can ask for at the moment. The sun is shining brightly... it must be noon. Slowly getting up, feeling like every bone in my body starts cracking, I start looking around. It looks like I have been washed ashore at a large beach area together with some flotsam... probably from the ship. Speaking of the ship: I can't see it anywhere. It must've sunk to the bottom of the sea, making my chances to leave this place anytime soon nonexistent. Realizing this I start checking the goods but it seems the only things lying around are a few wooden planks, a bucket with a hole and some electronic equipment... probably not operatable anymore. No food or anything else I could use at the moment. In the meantime the sun started setting and the sky is slowly turning red. I need to sleep so I'm well rested and can look for food and water tomorrow. Now the only question is where to stay for the night. After taking a quick look around the area close to the beach I decide that it'll probably be enough for tonight to just rest under the starry sky. It's already pretty dark, so there's just not enough time left to search for a shelter. Finding a nice patch of grass on a small cliff near the beach I lie down and slowly start falling asleep to the soothing sound of the waves hitting the shore.
I awake in the middle of the night. A loud moaning is filling the air and it seems to originate from the beach. Still sleepy I sit up and turn my head to see what's creating that noise. I couldn't make out anything specific though, only silhouettes. It does sound human though... maybe there's another person there. Someone who saw the ship sinking and is now looking for survivors or just valuable flotsam. I quickly stand up only to have great pain shooting through my body violently remind me that I haven't rvecovered yet. So I slowly make my way towards the beach and just as I arrive there and follow the moaning sound I see somebody walking around, stopping occasionally. As I suspected this person's probably checking out the shore after witnessing the ship wrecking. Getting closer it appears that it's a woman wearing a ragged hoodie standing with her back turned to me. Did she encounter the same fate as I did? I approach her and ask "Hey, are you alright?" I recieved no response, so I put my hand on her shoulder and asked her again.
This time she reacted and let out a loud moan while slowly turning towards me. Listenening closely to the moaning it starts sounding like she is muttering a word. "...leAvE", that's what I think it was like but something about it is... off. As if said by someone who hasn't spoken a word for decades. It gets worse when she finished turning towards me and I see her face. It is missing pieces of skin and flesh and her eyes... empty and starring at me. That is not a normal human. I start to slowly back off when she repeats the word with a moan... it seems louder than last time and just as I'm about to turn around and leave as quickly as I can she lunges towards me. Dumbfound I clumsily try to dodge her but she still manages to hit my chest leaving scratch marks on it. Pained I stumble back a few steps and start running from her ignoring the pain in my chest and limbs. While it normally might 've been possible to take her down I am in no contidion to do so right now, so the only option is running. Still hearing a slight moaning noise following me.