Kellie's Diary: Decay of Innocence (18 page)

Chapter 4

              I woke up much later, feeling like I had suffered a massive case of hangover.  I was weak, dehydrated, dazed and my head throbbed.  A bright light seared my eyes, piercing into the already existing headache.  The light moved away suddenly, and I made out a few shadows behind the background light of wherever I was.  There was a faint rhythmic beep in the distance.

             
A few voices trickled through, muffled at first but then they formed into words, most of them too big for me to understand.  I felt a gloved hand against my forehead, and in my stupor I jerked away from the touch, only to aggravate the pounding even more.

             
A picture appeared in my head of me struggling to reach the door of my house, seeing my clothes covered in blood – it hit so fast it almost physically hurt me to think about.  I winced, the aching in my body becoming much more pronounced, and I became intensely aware of the fact that there were wires connected to various parts of me.

             
The hand returned, followed by an older man's voice.  “It's all right, son.  You're safe.  Nod your head if you understand me.”

             
Though I was still confused, I did in fact understand him.  I think it was just the uncertainty of what was going on, but I didn't exactly feel like I was in danger.  I gave a small nod.

             
“Good,” he said.  “Now I'm going to raise up part of the bed so you can sit up.”

             
The light hum of a machine started, and I felt my head and back being bent upward slowly.  I was still extremely dizzy, and I realized how much my throat was hurting.

             
Nearby I heard a woman talking:  “His vitals look good, Doctor.”

             
“Excellent,” the man responded.  “We'll do a few more tests to make sure everything checks out, but so far he's looking good.”

             
I didn't know what kind of tests they were talking about.  I vaguely spied the doctor scribbling something on a piece of paper on a small table next to me.  I didn't feel like moving, but when I looked down, I noticed my wrists were bound with heavy straps.  I tried to yell for help, but all that game out was a raspy grunt, causing my throat to hurt more.

             
“Take it easy,” the doctor said calmly.  “It's been a while since you've been normal, you need to rest for a bit longer.  My name is Dr. Scott, and this is Gracie.” He pointed at the nurse.

             
I barely glanced at them; I wasn't sure what he meant by “normal,” but I willed myself to stay calm.  My mind raced; I had the words, but there was difficulty saying them.  It was as if I'd forgotten how to physically talk.  I tried anyway, speaking slowly.  “Why... am I... tied down...?”  My voice sounded as if it had gone through a paper shredder – I almost jumped hearing it.  The aching began to fade, and the beeping of what I assumed was a heart monitor slowed to a steadier pace.

             
“When you were waking up, you were seizing,” Dr. Scott explained, removing the latex gloves and disposing of them.  “In fact, it was the fourth episode.  To be frank, we didn't think you would survive the process.”

             
I was as confused as ever.  “What... process...?”

             
The pictures returned again in pieces.  The mass of chaos, the red-eyed freaks that were terrorizing the people, my witnessing the possible downfall of the city... Danielle.                “Where... where is my... sister?  Her name is... Danielle.  She's 13, long brown hair, brown eyes... deaf.”

             
Both of their heads sank a little.

             
“We don't know,” Gracie sighed.  “You were found alone.”

             
I felt my eyes watering, confronted with the possibility that she was hurt too.  Then again, maybe she was still alive, if I could get back home somehow and check on her.

             
Dr. Scott approached me and I managed to focus on him, but I was once again shocked as my attention focused on his eyes.  The whites weren't white, but a clouded dark gray, just like the lunatics, and the irises glowed brightly – except they weren't red, they were sky blue.

             
I think he picked up that I was looking at him funny.  “I understand,” he assured me, “everything will be explained to you once you're rested and recovering.”  He undid my wrist restraints, followed by the feet, while Gracie took off the wires from my head and chest.  He looked up and gave me an odd look, like he was both relieved and concerned at the same time, which doesn't seem possible.

             
“Gracie will help you to your bed, and I will come check on you in a bit,” he said.

             
She helped me turn to the side and sit up.  When I looked at her, she had the same weird eyes that Dr. Scott did.

             
“I promise you will know everything that's going on,” Dr. Scott repeated.  “Welcome back to humanity.”

             
Survive Entertainment had its early beginnings in 2003, with lots of stories, scribbles, notes and ideas being thrown around.  Both Thomas and Angeline, the co-founders, have roots as gamers, so the first stories they came up with they wanted to turn into games.  Turned out there was a slight bump in the road: neither of them knew anything about game programming or development.  They had art (Angeline) and writing (Thomas) handled, just no programming... and they knew no one with the skill that wasn't already loaded with other projects. Networking issues aside, they continued to refine their stories and began writing them out.

             
The most developed story to-date is called
Survive
, from where Survive Entertainment gets its name. 
Survive
is their first true brainchild, but is still a work in progress and has been in development since the group's formation in 2007.  There is plenty of character design artwork and concept art available to view on their website.

             
Other major stories are in the woodwork, but the other defining tale of theirs is
Kellie's Diary
.  What started as a video series quickly evolved into a graphic novel, and has been steadily created on since its debut in late 2012.  Now with 3 entries to the story and much more to come,
Kellie's Diary
stands to be around for quite a while – as long as Kellie can stay alive, at least.

             
Many other stories and projects are either planned or in-progress.

Thomas Jenner

             
Originally from Los Angeles, California, currently living in Austin, Texas. Tom's unique imagination runs at high speed, as if entire universes reside within it. He approaches storytelling based on what it would look like as a movie rather than how it should read in a book, which gives his stories an interesting flow - different than the norm but still gripping on the mind.  He cites his main inspirations as
The Matrix, Resident Evil, Doom, Mission Impossible, Stargate, 24, The X-Files
, and
The Walking Dead
.  His most recent hobby is building computers; no word yet if this will speed things along.

Angeline Perkins

             
Artist by trade, writer on the side, rock star in the closet. Angeline has a wide spectrum of interests: music, art, cooking, computers/technology and gaming to name a few.  She has been involved in digital art and graphic design since 2006. Graduating in 2013 with a BS in Computer Animation and Game Art, she has committed herself to digital art and uses that passion to help bring her projects to life. She helps maintain the visual appeal of storytelling through the use of 3D modeling and painting; her belief is that art tells stories just as well as words do.