Elias

Elias Pheryll trudged through the drifts of white that piled up behind the trees, abandoned sheds, and greenhouses. The snow had been falling long enough for warmth to be a forgotten concept, and the agricultural seasons of the past had faded and become the hungry, scavenging present. The world Elias and the others had found themselves in was not hostile at first. Despite the signs of humanity that filled the rolling hills, the people who found themselves there could find no civilisation, no matter how far they ventured. The broken fences and sheds made the landscape feel like an infinite garden, and the crops and consumables growing in abandoned beds allowed subsistence farming to keep the unwitting settlers fed. Newcomers were occasionally found, dazed and confused as to how they arrived, and were welcomed into the fold.
The communities had prospered and thrived for years before the vicious, unending winter had set in; previously, bountiful harvests had frozen in the ground, and all vegetation withered and died in the first week. Used to a constant supply of food, Elias' colony had stores that lasted the first month with severe rationing. The colony fell apart quickly when the last morsel was consumed, and Elias left before the infighting began, fearing the side of people that desperation would draw out.
The cause of the extreme weather had started growing out of the fertile ground like strange trees—keratinous cylinders that grew to an immense height and began to spew supercooled air and ice crystals into the sky like grey biological chimneys. The surface could not be cut into and was too smooth to climb, and by the time the communities tried to dig down and uproot them, the ground was completely frozen. The freezing air turned into an enemy of life, waiting just outside shelter to surround any wanderer and steal the heat from their bodies and the breath from their throats. Still, the towers grew. The vast garden was now covered in snow as the beige light filtered slowly through the thickening clouds.
Cresting the top of a small hill, Elias could see the garden stretching out before him. Frozen skeletons of trees dotted the landscape, dwarfed by the titanic pillars of bone feeding the snow clouds billowing above the blanketed terrain. He had stopped to gaze sullenly across his whitewashed world when his hunger pangs started up again. Agonising contractions sent waves of pain through his stiff body, and he doubled over until they subsided. Breathing heavily, he looked up at the world again, spotting something not present before. A dark figure moved across the canvas of the snowscape, catching Elias' eye and lending much-needed energy to his limbs. His numb body had grown all but immune to the aching pain of the bitter cold, but it still trembled with every step. His jaw moved like he was laughing at a hilarious joke, but the only sound was the clicking and scraping of teeth that had been broken and sharpened from attempts to eat frozen food. The shape in the distance grew closer, resolving itself into a shivering human—the first Elias had seen in a very long time. Walking closer, the pair examined each other, and the man spoke.
"Wh-where is this?"
The man was staring at him with fear etched into his face; his arms were wrapped around his body, and his clothes—although wet from snow—were in good condition. Elias did not answer the man's question; he did not even comprehend it. He was focused on the man's warmth; standing this close to him, Elias could feel the body heat radiating out into the hungry air. Soon, all that heat would disappear into the environment and be lost forever. Elias could not allow this most valuable of resources to go to waste.
The man backed away as Elias began to walk closer, but he was not used to this environment, and he could not hope to outpace the emaciated form of Elias. He still tried. Elias tackled him as he turned to run and sunk his jagged, frozen teeth into the man's spine. The screams echoed across the wintery country, softened by the still air but continuing for a long time. Elias kept his prey alive as long as he could while feasting to keep the blood warm and the meat fresh. The incarnadine snow was the only colour to be seen among the greyscale land as Elias staggered away from his meal. Overwhelmed by the sensation of the eternal hunger and cold briefly receding, he stopped to rest in the lee of an enormous bone tower. The winter may have robbed him of his reason and his memory, but his base instincts still carried him across his harsh world, and the will to survive would endure without any self-aware thoughts to question it. Elias Pheryll sat in the titanic shadow of an osseous spire and digested the remains of a man. He sat and dreamed of spring.
Category:Tales