Broken Mirror: Apophis 2029 Read Online Free Page A

crooked in its cracked frame against the far wall where its corner had been exposed to the rain.  Time seemed to stop for me in such moments; it was the way my mind seemed to cope with the stress of what my life had become and what little of it I had left to cling on too.
     

Apophis
     
     
      I cannot count how many times I have asked myself; "is it even worth it all?"  Honestly, I don't actually think there's anyone who didn't ask themselves that question a hundred times over since the day of the impact.  Understandably, there were no rulebooks to go by and very few 'intact' families had managed to survived this long; everyone knew the definition of loss in one form or another by now.  Watching a close family member or friend turn into a dysfunctional cretin or a raging lunatic was tough, but showing sadness or distress over their suffering would only put you on a watch-list as a suspect of also being infected.  Any emotional signs of remorse or sadness mirrored the early stage symptoms and people would treat you like you were a rabid animal until a medical diagnosis could be administered to test your health; that is, if they didn't shoot you stone dead first. 
      Due to these symptoms mimicking emotional grief, the human race quickly drifted into becoming calloused and unfeeling; in ways making us worse than the poor victims who contracted the disease itself.  In its wake, mankind lost an important sliver of its own basic humanity.
      I gathered my strength and scrambled up the side of the shattered wall, finding the smooth concrete was dreadfully slippery in the pouring rain.  Daring to look over my shoulder, I caught a glimpse of one the weepers standing in the muddied clearing staring back at me.  Whether its sex denoted it as a he or she was unclear, for its skin was covered with grime and tangled hair.  It just stood there in a hunched pose, as if in pain; and I could feel its glare wash upon my face as a low growl issued from its broken lips.  I was a little astonished that they were able to pursue me this far through the storm.  Human sense of smell is pretty weak compared to most animals, especially so in such harsh weather; but they might have retained their more predatory traits that enabled them to track my path through the woods.  In my haste I hadn't exactly been as quiet as I wanted, snapping several branches as I pressed through the forest undergrowth after losing my balance more than once in the slick mud and brambles. 
      I was guessing there were two, maybe three still on my tail.  There was no guarantee what would happen when they eventually caught someone.  Sometimes a victim would just be stripped of their food and belongings or would be beaten senseless if their prey struggled.  In the rare cases, they were killed violently and their bloody bits and pieces consumed if the infected were exceptionally hungry.  Humans were scavengers after all, and have been since the dawn of time.  Regardless, any type of physical contact whatsoever signified a high chance of contamination, so when you saw a Weeper you either hid or ran. 
      There were more than a few isolated cases where gangs of survivors assembled hunting raids to clear out the dangerous weepers who had escaped their isolation camps.  Ethically, in my point of view the infected were still people, and it still made me sick to my stomach whenever I saw them shot in cold blood and the callous execution of the ones that were clearly unthreatening and helpless.  Some people accepted it as a form of mercy, but it was outright murder in most cases, especially when they put down the children.  As far-gone as they were, there were still those who looked scared in that final moment before the end; ad if it was some vile act of betrayal by their own species.  After the government staff had abandoned the clinics, hospitals and quarantine camps, everyone began to assume there was no actual cure nor ever would be. 
      Truthfully, it