Zombie soup

[vile]

All encompassing blackness. Not a single thread of light can be seen once Jonas comes to. A heavy feeling of dread weighs him down and he knows something is awry. The air is thick and foul, stained by the reek of old piss and rotting fecal matter. It smells like an abused alleyway, port-a-potty or plain ol' raw sewage. If only it weren't quite so uncomfortably hot, so humid, so damned unpleasant. But oh! That stink. And stink it does, making it so very difficult to breathe. In a couple of breaths, he begins to hack and gasp for air. Vomit surges up his throat and he twists his head to the side, the booze he'd consumed released in a violent upheaval. The hot liquid splatters over the walls of his tiny space and soaks him as well, having nowhere else to go.

Terror overtakes him and screams pierce the silence. Arms flail and lash out, soon finding that he's trapped in a very small coffin! The texture is soft but strong, yielding but not. Flail, shout, kick and scream. But there's no kicking: his legs refuse to move. The fact his lower extremities are unresponsive and curiously numb is only one more thing to be worried about. A deep breath is sucked in and he goes quiet. Screeching does no good, or so it appears.

Think! Phone. He has a phone. The device is yanked out of a pocket, fired up and several wrong numbers dialed. Cursing, he tries again and manages to place a call to Delilah. It goes unanswered. Another call is sent out, one to Sisip, but it goes to voicemail. "Sisip, this is Jonas. I'm...I don't know where I am, I--" BEEP!. A buzz interrupts him. The signal was lost. Another call is attempted, one to Kevin. "Jonas?" the squidman answers and before he can reply, the call is ended. A check of the phone display reveals only one bar that blinks in and out of existence.

The power gauge dwindles as well and the screen flickers ominously. Thinking quickly, the phone is yanked around and used to survey his surroundings. The inside of his coffin is silver, almost beautiful the way it glimmers. The appreciation for his new decor is interrupted when he notices something strange: some objects protruding through the ceiling, disappearing into his right thigh.

The realization comes quickly: he went out for a drink with Devon. He left and walked down the sidewalk then decided to take a leak in an alley. And then there was an invisible obstacle and...then he was taken by monstrous spiders. Now he lies in a silken tomb. His lower half is numb and paralyzed because it's being liquified. There are fangs in his thigh. He's lunch. But the thing that horrifies him more than the fact he's being eaten alive is: what happens if I regenerate here.

It's a horrifying realization, one that makes the breath catch in his throat. Not only will he die here, he'll respawn here only to die again. With shaking hands he stares at his only hope: the phone that's on the verge of dying. Hot tears fall down his cheeks, the device is turned off to conserve power and he lies there, waiting for venom and death to overtake him.