To Kill a Cactus - How it all begun

Hello :)

Due to popular demand, we decided to start writing a story based on the idea we had for the book To Kill a Cactus, at the time it was obviously ment as an April's Fool Day joke, but since then i have been pondering the thought of writing something down, so here it is. 

Chapter 1 - How it all begun

There are a lot of things in this world that don't make sense. Like this - how did we get here? There's only sand and dust beneath my feet and as far as I can see, not a person, not a single living soul. But there in the distance, the place that I escape from, the darkest evil has taken control and I don't want to go back, but I know I have to, there's nothing here that I need, but everything there that might need me, so I must go.

I should explain, and since the road back to insanity is a long and tiresome one, I might as well tell you what has happened. Years ago the world was struck by a century long heatwave, not a drop of rain, not even a cloud in the sky and as a result the fresh water supplies were running out faster than anyone wanted to admit. The scientist had to find a way out of it. They did experiments, many of which the public would've deemed immoral and unacceptable, but due to the demand for results, a scientist Dr Norval created a medicine, something that would help people consume less water, need it less, store it better, noone know exactly what or how he did it, but he made it and people were more than willing to sacrifice all to get it.

But as with all things that sound too good to be true, it soon backfired, Norval himself was the first person to test it out and it seemed to work, he didn't have to consume any water for months, living on premade powders that he consumed daily, he was ruled healthy by all professionals that examined him. After a year some not so pleasant side effects started to appear, his skin lost most of it's elasticity, eyes dull, hair falling out, he seemed numb, hallow, living, but not alive. He locked himself in his house with his family and refused to leave it.

People jokingly had started calling him a zombie, others called him the human cactus, noone took it seriously, noone knew what he had created. A few years into taking the medicine, if you can call it that, his body started to fight back, it wanted water, but there was none, he got agressive, angry, what exactly happend to his family, noone knows and could only speculate, but they were never seen again. 

One that was certain, as the cases of people experiencing this side effect increased, if there was no water in sight these beings, barely humans, started attacking other humans, biting them, trying to get the water they craved from them, it was not a nice sight. Theose who survived the attacks would turn into creatures similar to Norval and his followers, the disease caused by the medicine spread faster and faster. Everyone escaped, including me, but during my days of hiding, I realised I can't do this forever, it's time to make a change and nobody is going to do it for me.

That's how it begun.

Kaiela :)