• The sun slowly peaks up over the broken horizon. A thin mist slowly crawls along the shattered streets and trails, dragging along with it, their lost memories. Small stars shine among the broken rubble and debris that once stood tall and proud. A cold breezy gently twists and turns around the endless corridors of destroyed remains of a once proud race. Arrogant. Too proud. But then, it's always been that way, hasn't it? Ha. Always looking for the next big thing. Always looking for the next big way to boost themselves up toward the heavens. Closer to the gods. Closer to avoiding the one thing that they all feared. Death. But that's what started this whole mess. They thought they had finally found a cure to that one unsolvable problem. Ha. A cure for death? the idea seemed to laughable. But then, did they really expect death, to play by the rules? Play fair? Of course they did. At first everything was great. As long as the body wasn't to beyond repair, you could be with your loves one's again. It was a miracle. But that was before the mutations began. Through a process of energy transfers, they were able to pick up on a bodies energy signiture, or "soul", and give it an intelligence of it's own, almost literally, bringing it to life. So to speak. After that, it was simple. The "soul" simply needed to be reunited with the body. There was a problem though. They underestimated the energy level that a single "soul" could contain. As the soul rejoined, the energy was too much for the bodies and it began to mutate their DNA, bringing the person back to life, only to have them moments later to be changed and mutated into these empty shell like creatures called "The Husks". But what would I know about all that? Ha. I'm just a kid. A lowly mechanic at that.

    "Hey, Joshua. Bring me that wrench, would you?" Darren asks, his attention focused on the large contraption he was currently working on.

    A small curious looking black shadow gently floats over to him, dragging the heavy metal wrench in it's wake. Darren brushes his heavy leather gloves off on his light blue overalls, rolling up the white sleeves of his shirt and tightening the red handkerchief tightly holding his messy spiky brown and blond hair in place. The sun slowly starts to peak up over what use to be the proud city of downtown new york. Panic ensued, extermination began. Darren chuckles to himself. Too bad the government didn't realize that the husks were the next cockroaches. All that was left was ruins. A soft tug pulls at one of Darren's legs. Darren looks down.

    "Oh hey Joshua. Thank you". He says, bending down and taking the heavy tool form the small mass of shadows.

    Joshua floats up onto the top of Darren's contraption. Darren watches him fascinated. Joshua was a free floating spirit that he had found a few days after it had all happened. The bombing. Only 3 days after Darren's 14th birthday. But that was at least 3 years ago. As far as Darren knew, there, was, no one. Joshua was his only companion. Named after his kid brother he lost during the bombing. Oddly enough, Joshua showed no desire to find a new body. Which was very unusual for spirits. Maybe Joshua knew what happened when and if he did. Maybe he didn't want to become one of those mindless husks. It's was very strange though. At night, darren could remember seeing all the spirit, wandering around the streets as if they were lost, taking refuge in any place or thing they could. They were very fragile beings. Now, have the world is haunted because all the wicked and evil cant go to their rightful place and any who are fool enough to take refuge in dead remains. Darren shudders.

    "Well Joshua, it's going to be a long day. I can tell. Better get to work".Darren says, setting right back to work.

    Joshua blinks once, staring blankly at Darren with his wispy eyes. Darren looks out over the broken city and sighs. He knew perfectly well what evils were just waking up, and beginning to lurk around the streets. And they, were the reason he never slept at night. Not without reassurance that none could get in. He never slept. But for a very good reason.