The Sand Tribe

The Sand Tribe is a story serial written by BionicleChicken detailing the fall of the titular Sand Tribe as they become infected with a plague that turns them into psychopathic murderers and slowly mutates them into hideous monsters. This may not be canon. This story will be written in a rather nonlinear narrative.

Chapter One
I scrounged through the box, searching for any possible supply for me to use to survive the night. There wasn't much. There was a container of water, one sip indicated it was drinkable. I held myself back in order to prevent any significant loss of my new supply. I need this to last for my journey out of this place.

After I stored the container into my pouch, I looked into the box more. Trash, trash, and more trash. Eventually, I managed to salvage a fresh Thornax fruit. I used the usual check to ensure it is not tainted, and confirmed its outward appearance's trustworthiness. I placed the fruit into my pouch, careful not to make much noise. If I make a lot of sound, the monsters and the psychopaths may come for me.

If they came for me, I wouldn't be able to escape Atero, would I? I checked my belongings and took inventory. Enough food, steady amount of water, and emergency weapons for me to take out at a moment's notice. I was ready. Now was the best time to find a place to rest. A quiet place where the monsters wouldn't be able to find me immediately and either tear me apart or eat me. Those were the two results of what happens when you encounter one of them.

Some have gone so crazy they will do anything to make sure you're one hundred percent dead. The others have gotten hungry and beastly, it doesn't matter if it's cannibalism. Survival is key right now. That's the infected's mindset right now, and mine's. But reasons are different, see. They thought they were in danger and that to live they had to kill all they considered threats. I'm those that are trying to live because I'm one of those "threats".

I need to find a place to stay. Away from the main streets and in someplace they wouldn't look. But insane minds are hard to predict, so this objective is going to be very difficult. I carefully left the box, making sure I didn't do anything to make its contents tumble out and make noise. With that, I walked down the small street, trying hard to ignore the burning market booths and the dead bodies with chunks of flesh bitten off.

Suddenly, I heard skurrying and running. From how urgent it sounded, I deduced it was a group of them. But I wonder why are they in a group? The infected are beyond xenophobic right now. They will kill anyone that's not them. Unless they got ideas. I looked around, searching for a place to hide. I saw a wrecked merchant booth and dived right at it. I removed the planks blocking the opening the merchant and customer would usually look each other in the eye through and jumped right in. I grabbed the planks I removed and put them back up in front of me, blocking any visuals on my presence. I crouched down and hid behind the counter, peering through a hole next to me. It wasn't big, but it was big enough for me to look through.

So I did. I looked at the deserted street, nothing but litter, body parts, and flaming objects. I had no idea how any of these caught on fire, but I heard of people burning "threats" to death. I heard the running come closer and saw it: these infected were in a group.

They were searching through bins, and peering through the windows of the buildings that lined on the sides of the street. I saw some of the mutated ones, too. Their tails swung around like they had a mind of their own. They had tails, but they were not completely changed. I saw that they were still straight-spined, and their feet were only beginning to sprout the clawed toes. Their small recently sprouted pincers clicked. They growled.

"Rrrr, I know I smelled something here," One of them said. Another walked up to him. He was still normal, physically anyways. He was also holding an Agori. From what I could see, he was still alive. But I can't go out there, no matter how much I wanted to help the poor fellow. It was either him or me right now.

"Was it this?" The holder snarled. The mutated one that spoke previously stared the Agori in the face.

"Sssssss, I smelled an Agori, so I think so."

"Kill it!" A third one said. "It might report to someone. Someone that can hurt us!"

"Yessssss," the mutated one hissed. "Yesssssss. We can't let you live, little one." He snarled at the Agori, who was whimpering and had his eyes closed.

"Please, let me go, I...I won't kill you, I can't....my...my legs....they're....they're...." The mutated leader grabbed the Agori and slammed him on the ground.

"We can't risk it!" The leader yelled. "That last Glatorian group, they wanted to hurt ussss. Kill usssss. We can't take any chancesssss."

"Please...." The Agori pleaded quietly. The leader then roared and stabbed the Agori with his tail, killing him instantly. After twisting the sharp end of the tail in the body's chest, he pulled it out.

"Do we still have food?" The leader asked the non-mutated infected. The latter shook his head. "We need to survive....and we are hungryyyy..." With that, the leader sank his teeth into the body, ripping out its throat and chewing it.

I laid still, trying not to be disgusted and disturbed by the sight. I covered my eyes and ears, but I could still hear the crunching of meat and the psychotic victorious laughter of the infected just a few feet from my hiding spot.

It then became one of those times I wonder what went so wrong. I shook my head and wondered what went wrong as I couldn't help but listen to the infected enjoying their meal. I couldn't help but remember the good times before the infection started. The memories should be comforting, but they just seem more painful with what's happening right now.

Chapter Two
To be written...

Trivia

 * This story is inspired by I Am Legend, the original and remake of The Crazies, and Marvel's Last Gun On Earth trilogy. It's also inspired by BobTheDoctor27's every popular story Besieged.