Unknown Soldier

I know not what made me this way. What turned me into. . . this. I don't think any of us knows anymore, if we ever did. Once I had regained certain consciousness I took a look at my body. It looked so horrible, so unreal, extremely grotesque, to say the least. I thought the odor would be enough to make me vomit, but apparently I had lost my sense of smell. Afterwards I had noticed a new change my body experienced, I didn't feel pain anymore. Sure, my body would react to any kind of hazard, but I didn't feel it. Pain only felt like a tickle now.

Then, I found something that I'd had ever since my consciousness had returned. Company. They were all like me, hideous bodies with a subtle hint of a once-existing humanity. Some looked at me, signaling they were back in their senses, or what was left of them; while others looked dormant, but walked with us nonetheless. I shivered at the thought that I had once looked like that too. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on, why we were all together, walking as a group, as a unified force. We were an army, with a purpose alien to us. That was about as much as I'd guessed, apart from what I'd guessed I had turned into.

There seemed to be a big force driving us to a set place. I could make out the towers of a castle in the horizon, I was sure the army would have their first battle. We were useful soldiers, you know? We couldn't feel pain so we'd fight until death. Our second one, apparently.

We had been walking for a couple of hours, the castle seeming ever so closer. Then, on the towers, I started visualizing figures, women, soldiers, children, even; all staring in horror at us. If you'd been there, I guarantee you would've run away, as far as you could. After all, that's the human nature, to run away from anything that looks dangerous, different. I can remember that so clearly. However, there's one little detail that would escape you. Running away would be the same as locking yourself inside the "impenetrable" castle, and once we came through and found you, you'd be scared for a while. Only for a short while since you'd either die, or become one of us. None of which, sound like good options.

We were in the castle walls at that moment. Gods know, I didn't want to go in, not like that, not in that appearance. But there was this force driving me to do it, I was dead in every aspect I could think of.

"Zombies!"

"The enemy's on its way!"

I can hear that so clearly. It pains me to, but it's the truth. I'm an undead now, a zombie. I was once a human as well, but I'm not one anymore. I have no idea why it happened, or how.

The doors to the castle fell a few minutes after our arrival. The force driving us, the undead, was stronger than the huge, wooden door. As it fell, the door buried several dead soldiers under it, making them truly dead. All hell broke loose then, we all ran after the people, I tried not to, but my instincts were extremely hard to ignore. We were hungry, our dysfunctional stomachs asked for food, and after it got a taste of anything it only craved for more. The humans didn't know it, but they were feeding the sickness: us.

The human soldiers valiantly attacked us, but being foreign to the fact that our only weak spots were our hearts and our brain made it harder for them to slay us. We had the upper hand all along. That wasn't a battle, it was a bloodfest. I couldn't handle it anymore. I was doing such hideous things, to the same people I had sworn to serve as a priest. I prayed in my mind to the Goddess of Light. I asked for illumination and self-control.

And she granted that to me.

I ran, away from the battle and further into the castle. Such action had its consequences, I found more soldiers than I could handle. I found an escape route every time, though. After I escaped from the third batch of soldiers I looked at my left arm. It was broken and swinging uselessly, I'd only felt a tickle - or rather pain as I should start calling it now - but they'd managed to break it.

I was happy to know that being between dead and alive also meant never getting tired. The castle's city looked familiar, I'd been here before, I'd LIVED here before. Before I was turned into this monster of nightmares.

Following a way my memory remembered, I soon found a house, little but with a homey look. My home. I would've knocked, but that memory of etiquette I had forgotten.

I was met by a piercing scream, followed by a vase hitting my rotting head. It shattered on hit and did no damage.

"Go away, you filth of a monster!", I recognized my sister's voice, vaguely.

My eyes, I'm sure, glowed with hope and affection. But she didn't recognize me. Instead, she recognized the fear that filled her clearly.

"Dear? What i - stay back, sweetie! I shall deal with this death defiler", my brother-in-law unsheathed his sword. He was sure to make a quick death of me. All hints of a glow, disappeared from my eyes. My brother-in-law walked over to my frozen body, I didn't know undead's were able to feel scared as well. Then again, I was enlightened by the Goddess of Light, so maybe I was different.

Luck struck me then, "No, wait. He looks defenseless, afraid", my sister complained.

"Sorry, honey, this monster is getting what he deserves. He's a soldier of the undead. Nothing but an unknown soldier"

"Stuff it! He looks like Meriidar, my brother, fool!"

"Don't be silly, he's nothing but a lucky corpse"

My eyes shifted from one person to the next, following the conversation.

"If I left him alive there wouldn't even be a place for him!"

I was thrown aback. That was true. What would I do? Maybe it'd be better if I let him finish me off. Leave this world behind, rid the world of me.

"What are you talking about? He's wearing the exact same clothes!"

"Useless"

I made my decision then. My sister would be fine with such a husband. I'd be but something in her memory and I would be able to rest. Climbing to heaven. If there was one.

I ran towards my brother-in-law, arms raised, as if attacking him. It took only one blow for him to sever my head. He'd made me the happiest undead by killing me.

Hold on tight, breathe every breath you can; for death is the thing that takes this blessing from you, my soul whispered as it left my body.