Attack of the Kruydehm

Pronounced kroo-ih-dehm. A chapter of All Fall Down.

I stumble and brace my hand on the side of the nearest building for support. My stomach has started aching. First, it was my arms. I thought I'd just overworked them and they were spazzing out. Then it was my legs. I'd thought that they were cramping up. Through it all, I'd been having the most awful headaches. Figured I was dehydrated. Now, I'm not sure that any of those are true. I lurch into an alleyway and tumble to the ground. My head spins and my vision swims as vertigo takes over, if that's what it is. I reach out for something solid to grab onto, but all I get are handfuls of refuse and hypodermic needles. One jabs me, the pain making everything go crystal clear. I pick myself up onto my hands and knees. All I can see is the dark gray concrete, the metallic edge of a sewer and my pale skinned hands, which are-

I blink, thinking that my vision must be going fuzzy again. But when I look again, I see the same thing. My skin is moving. Or, rather, tiny things are worming their way around underneath my skin. Adrenaline courses through my body, every instinct telling me to run, run, run, get away from whatever this is, but I'm frozen with fear. My jaw hangs open, and I remain like that indefinitely until a car horn honks from the busy street behind me, shaking me out of my stupor. I crab walk backward, trying to get away from the horrors that have become my extremities.

My back hits the wall of the alley and I slump against it in defeat. My stomach contracts and my upper body is pulled to my drawn knees by the force of it. Horrible realization dawns on me and I lift up my shirt to look at my stomach. A wave of nausea rolls over me as I realize that my hunch was correct. Little maggot or worm-like creatures, larger than the ones in my hand, move under my skin, busily working their ways around. I turn to the side, letting my shirt fall back down, and empty my stomach onto the ground next to me.

The pain in my stomach intensifies, jumping and ducking, roiling inside of me like a Category 5 hurricane. It feels like it's trying to twist itself into the Gordian Knot. Unfortunately, there's no Alexander the Great to cut it in half for me. I lean forward as my stomach contracts again. The pain is high, just below my ribcage. I press the heels of my hands into my eyes and massage then, biting my tongue to keep from crying out. It feels like someone has grabbed a hold of my intestines and is playing Flow Free Bridges with them. I wrap my arms around my abdomen and rock myself back and forth, trying to ease the pain. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to think of something, anything, to ease this abhorrent pain.

[Radio chatter detected]

... City Panthers won 14-3 in their football game last night against the Shining Stars. And here's an update, the corpse of Carl Jackson was found last night at 4:53 PM in an alleyway off 42nd street. There were no signs of struggle or any wounds. The police are puzzled. You're listening on 783.9 Coma City News. And now, back to our news. The Coma City Panther Marching Band took first place at...

[Radio chatter detected]

...This is an update on the death of Carl Jackson, found dead in an alleyway last week. Autopsy reveals that his muscle, bone, organs, and other tissue have been eaten away, while he was still alive. Tests reveal that this went on for nearly a week before he died, his body no longer able to function due to the amount of lost tissue. Reports show signs of some malnutrition. Doctors speculate that it was some kind of parasite, though none that they've seen before. Also, no parasitic creatures were found on him when the autopsy was performed...

[Radio chatter detected]

...This is an update on what appears to be connected to the death of one Carl Jackson, who died five weeks ago. All of the policemen who found his body and the pathologist who executed the autopsy have died, seemingly of the same affliction as the original victim. Some of the people that they have come into contact with have contracted the affliction as well, as well as seemingly unconnected, random, countless other becoming affected, nationwide. No one knows what causes this disease, and why only some are affected. So far, it seems to affect young and old, female and male, normal and deviant, all the same.

Whatever it is, it's spreading.

Reviews

[Jay_Bluefire]

oooohhhhhhhhhhh this is good =D

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

thanks :) 10 characters