Wraiths

Blaze Barrot didn't know the total death count but they were up to four billion by the time the electricity shut down and turned off his window to the terror gripping the world. Still he didn't need television to know that all of mankind was fucked, and doing the math, if it took two weeks for four billion, by his calculation most people should be dead by now. The kicker was, he was still alive. He also planned on staying that way.

Blaze assumed the reason he was still alive was because he had chosen to hide underground, and while he was quite happy to continue staying where he was without any human interaction or companionship of any kind, he was running out of water, and the cans of tuna and kidney beans once long forgotten at the back of the kitchen cupboard had all been eaten. It was time to make a decision. Whether he stayed or left, he figured he was on his way to being on the wrong side of a very depressing statistic.

It wasn't war, famine or disease that plagued the world. It wasn't even aliens or zombies. For the first few days of round the clock news broadcasts, nobody even knew what to call them. Blaze was pretty sure Channel Two was the first station to call them Wraiths, and the name stuck.

That first night the creatures had appeared in London, thousands of them. Starting from one point, they spread out in all directions, each one a black nightmare gliding through the streets, sucking the life out of any living thing in their path. They could travel through walls, they could take form to destroy them. Footage from street cameras showed them glide through the air, black blobs without definition in the night, just visible in the glow of street lights. It was a surprise attack and nobody that crossed their path had survived.

Blaze took a small sip of water and once again calculated how many more days he could stay in his current home before the water ran out and he started to die of dehydration. Over the last 24 hours he had begun to realise that the point was mute. Even if he could survive a week or two on the water he had, which was three bottles of the spring variety and a half full bucket of stale water he'd scribbled "last resort" on, he was hungry. See if I can catch that rat I keep hearing and eat it raw hungry. The food had lasted two weeks at one meal a day. It was now the second day of no food and the lack of it was starting to play tricks on his mind.

The main problem Blaze faced, apart from the Wraiths of course, was a lack of anywhere to go. He was in Australia, on a one year break between school and college. He'd only been there for two days before the shit had hit the fan and had really only talked to one person since arriving (Donny, who was probably dead). He didn't know anything of his surrounds apart from the five blocks he'd explored the one time he'd left the backpackers, and even that wasn't much help because prior to exploring he'd been in the bar drinking pints with his new friend Donny.

Blaze sighed. There was nothing like being alone in the ass end of the world only to find that it was ending.

Chapter Two

The day the world changed seemed so distant to Blaze who now sat on the basements cold concrete floor, the only light coming from the door he'd dared to leave open a crack. It had started with a hangover and a desperate need to go to the toilet. He was on a tight budget, and just as he shared a bedroom with nine other travellers, he had also shared a common bathroom.

Grabbing his towel and bag of toiletries, Blaze travelled down the graffiti covered corridors of the dorms and through to the common room, the halfway point to his destination. It was a large room, filled with abused furniture and the stench of stale booze and cigarettes. He was surprised to find a lot of people in it for early morning, a large group of twenty somethings bunched around the only TV in the far corner, not saying a word, just listening. That in itself was odd, and Blaze tossed up what to satisfy first, his curiosity or his bladder.

Blaze's bladder won, but he decided to forgo his shower and rushed back to the commons to see what had everyones attention on the tube. He spotted Donny and sidled up beside him whispering "What's the go?"

Donny flicked his head in Blaze's direction, his eyes wide and startled. Realising no threat he said nothing, but turned back to stare at the TV. Seeing no response coming, Blaze did the same.

Of course on that first day it was all a bit surreal to everyone standing there with Blaze in Sydney Australia. England, a country miles and miles away were currently experiencing a night of horror, just hours in. There were no real facts being relayed out to viewers, it was news reporters rambling on about footage of black nightmares laying carnage on the streets. It was the first footage of a man being torn in half. The first of a ladies screams stolen from her lips as a black mist flowed right through her. It was chaos and while everybody was horrified, Blaze was pretty sure he wasn't the only one thinking that at least it wasn't happening here.

However if that sentiment was shared, it was short-lived. The day after the first attack, the Wraith's had disappeared, leaving the people of England to regroup and try to get to grips with what had happened. The people mourned their dead, while the politicians planned out some sort of defence. Patriotism rose in Blazes heart at the news that the US were sending troops stationed in nearby regions to offer any assistance. The Prime Minister, on a live broadcast urged everyone for calm,  and that while the previous night was hopefully a one off occurrence, it would be best to keep indoors come sundown. Everyone already knew walls were no barrier to the Wraiths but the people listened and as the sun set over Britain, the world viewed the deserted streets of London on their televisions, through the hundreds of cameras and lights set up by all the networks, waiting to capture anything that moved. In this regard there wasn't disappointment.

Broadcasts from England didn't last long that second night. Probably as long as the whole population did. Blaze watched with the rest of the world as the Wraiths returned to fill the air with a darkness the moon and artificial light couldn't penetrate. The final footage was of a news studio, as dozens of them came through the walls, showing Blaze for the first time the savage triangular red eyes that pulsed and glowed as they sought out prey. On reflection that was when he first knew that the human race was fucked.

After that footage, all channels cut to Ireland, and then some European countries as it became evident that the swarm had turned into an army spreading out at a very fast rate in all directions. Water was no barrier, and their numbers just kept growing. They no longer kept to the night, occupying the shadows by day. One was safe in the sun, but even in northern countries the sun always set.

Blaze watched with others as Asia, Africa and the America's joined the casualty list. He watched as nations armies failed in their defences. Bullets, bombs, nor blades could stop them. And then the TV transmissions stopped.