Chapter 34: Awakening by DoubbleDutch

The fight was almost three days previous.

Michelle stared at the small mound of dirt in front of her, marked with a crude wooden cross; the only marker that said her brother had ever been anyone, had existed. Her family had never left a big impact on the world, or even shown an interest in it. They hadn't patrolled and fixed the lines because they were employed to do so, but rather because they always had. They'd stuck together and cared for each other because that was the way life was, and nothing else was even imaginable. Her mother had died just after her birth, falling down a ravine in the dark, and the three that remained, her, her brother and her father had just got on as well as they could. She'd been so close, that was what people didn't understand. And then he'd gone off all full of hope and a better life just a hundred miles away from their turf, and he'd never come back. She'd heard of his death by radio, seen it on a TV screen.

Michelle felt a small inkling of a sensation she'd become increasingly used to, the feeling of life in her location. She turned and saw the two figures behind her, Tier and Alexander both keeping a respectful silence. Alexander was the first to speak, approaching her and gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "The others wondered where you were, you've been gone almost two days, have you been here all that time...? I guess it’s hard to remember what with all this that we've lost a few people. I- I'm sorry; I guess there's not really anything I can say is there? I guess you were really close. Michelle sighed "You have no idea; the only time you saw anyone else was either when you bumped into another patrol by chance, or once a month when we went to Skite for supplies. Can you imagine that? A town called Skite." She laughed bitterly. "Course, it was really nothing more than a supplies store for parts and food, we were never given real wages as such."

Alexander paused, he was way out of his depth here and he knew it. He didn't even know what the hell he'd come out here for, or what he'd been going to do. "Uh, so you've still got your father? What now?" There was a long pause before she answered in a small distant voice. "I... don't know. My father can join another patrol, or retire; he's always talked about it. I don't really think I can go back, not now." Alexander stood in the uncomfortable silence then eventually wandered away, with the odd backwards glance, leaving the two zombies together.

The silence persisted for the best part of half an hour, Michelle losing track of her thoughts, being roused from her contemplation only by a quiet cough from Tier. "I warned you about this. I said there was no going back." When it came, the reply had tones of ice. "So what? So that’s it then? Don't think I didn't plan for this! Perhaps you may think it fine to go around all emo, but I for one plan to use this to my advantage, whatever I do!" There was another silence; zombies had a lot of time on their hands to think things over. Finally Tier spoke. "I'm going to this dinner party everyone's talking about, and I'm quite sure you will to, not that we'll be eating anything." In the meantime I suggest you go have fun with your new friends, they have a lot to be thankful for.

Tier turned and headed back the way he'd come. He'd only been there to show Alexander where Michelle had gone, and he'd known her location more out of prediction than anything else. The sun was setting but the darkness held no fears for him anymore. He felt strange these last few days, a feeling he was finding hard to pin down, it certainly wasn't excitement, or fear, anger or hatred or anything else that could be caused by this latest conflict. He'd seen wars before, up close and from a distance, hell, he'd seen everything pretty much, and this new... eagerness perhaps? was worrying him. He was welcomed at the door by Susan who, he guessed from the vague odor of alcohol was out for a bit of fresh air and a recovery. He'd never seen anyone so sensitive to booze, it was amazing she didn't get tipsy just breathing the fumes from inside, where there was a kind of low level social event had been going on for the last day or so. It was far too subtle to be called a party, more like a get-together.

"Hey, I hear you're inviting yourself to Parker's big dinner party; be careful huh? I really don't like the feel of this whole thing. Tier smiled, but it was a smile with no humor in it, one that always unnerved anyone he talked to. "And if I'm not? What then? What can they do to me? Shoot me? Set me on fire? Cut me to pieces? You saw Michelle with those wolves, she was never in danger of getting hurt, she didn't feel anything and there's not a scratch on her now. There's nothing they can do to either of us and you know it. The refugees at least admit it; you can see the looks we get." Susan smiled back, if anything it had even less goodwill in it than Tier's "Yes, but my friends will go with you, and if anything happens to them..." she broke off in mid sentence and went back inside. Tier went out back and worked on some plumbing. He'd be there till morning when things had quieted down, and then there would be the wounded to see too. After all, he didn't drink or sleep and there was work to do. There was always work to do, somewhere.

Michelle stood in the darkness and saw through it perfectly, eyes that didn't see cutting through the ebony night like a lance. She saw the lives dance around her, split, change and fade away, the whole world glowed. And she strode through it, aloof and unchanging, a sliver of darkness in the noise and tumult that was existence. And she had power, incredible power. She would never end, never change, never grow weak or old or tired. She grabbed a passing moth and crushed it; felt a tingle of energy as it gave up its life force to fuel her.

And she could reach out so much further than she'd ever dreamed. She stretched out a hand and watched as a tree wilted and withered to a rotting stump, she twirled through the night riding the cold and the dark, capturing life force to continue the mad dance.

And couldn't stop. She saw her friends around her, running and screaming at her approach as she whirled past them the crumbled to dust amid screams of anguish. And still she feed, off the noise, the screams, the life Nobody was safe, friends, family... her father; they were all gone in a flash of feeding. And others fell too, too many to count, the forest burned and the seas dried up, land moved and stars died, the universe flowed around her as she sucked the light from it.

And then it was over, nothing but cold and dark and quiet, a universe of silence and death. And she was alone. And there was Tier, watching her in the darkness with dead eyes, still and silent and cold as the rest of creation, alone with her in a prison of a thousand years.

It would be wrong to say she awoke, for she hadn't been sleeping, as such. It was more a drift back to reality. It hadn't been a dream, or a nightmare, just a train of thought that had left the tracks. She'd still to get used to not sleeping, or crying, breathing or the many other small changes this 'life' forced upon her. She shivered in the dwindling light and made her way back to the house. She needed the light and the noise to drown out her thoughts.


A long time ago...


"Hey c'mon! What are you? Rabbits or shellians?" Adric heard the yell and fumed under his hard hat. "Fine for you ya blowhard; you're not the one risking life and limb!" Technically that wasn't true Adric knew, but still this was risky and boring work. He stared at the pile of rubble in front of him, then at the hillside it was half buried in. Judging by the shape of the former building it had been some sort of barracks; so it probably didn't have anything worth salvaging in it, but you never knew, once he'd happened upon a stash of jewels in an abandoned kitchen, and there were stories of guys striking it lucky in this business. He set the explosive charge and stepped back. That was all of them. He scrabbled over the already evacuated rubble to the safety zone, called out the warning signal and detonated the charges.

There was the usual loud boom and the building partially collapsed. The machines moved in to salvage any metallic fragments found. Amidst the noise and commotion Adric moved in, now was the perfect time to scavenge anything valuable. Technically of course he was supposed to report any finds, but why should other people benefit from his hard work? Some of the things you found were valuable too; there was the inevitable gold and jewels, and plenty of spent ammunition, not surprising considering they were digging up an old war zone, but some of the most valuable stuff were the antiques; ornaments, jewelry even odd things like old jam jars; after a hundred and fifty years in the ground they were suddenly worth a lot to the right people.

(-); the building had been filled with debris; all the floors had collapsed; probably due to a bomb hit; there would be little of value inside and excavation would take up most of the metal inside. He removed his earmuffs and trudged back toward the explosives shack. It would take several hours of course; there were bound to be the remains of rabbits inside which would need to be collected and sent off for proper reburial. Then rather suddenly, a large piece of wall tilted and tipped over, nearly crushing several evacuators. "Hey c'mon people! Let's be careful huh? This is a salvage site not a playground!"

Utterly terrible! People didn't know their butt from their elbow around here! Adric stalked off to the explosive and equipment shed, there was a technically illegal bottle of whiskey there and he needed to destroy the evidence. He didn't make it halfway across the quarry before the yelling started. It was quiet and confused at first, but rapidly grew in intensity. Several people rushed past Adric, then a few seconds later ran off in the other direction. Someone started shooting and Adric got worried, guns weren't allowed, but lots of guys carried them 'just in case'. After several more shots were fired there was a final strangled scream, then silence.

Adric realized he'd been crouched behind a pile of scrap metal; he'd nicked his leg somehow too, and it was bleeding profusely. The right thing to do would be to back off, call for backup, then approach the scene with caution; raids were rare on salvage parties, but that didn't mean they could be any less deadly. However Adric was incurably curious so he cautiously approached the attack site. At first there was little to see aside from discarded equipment, he kept hidden, crouching behind machinery or rubble until a rather warm, wet sensation underfoot made him look down. He quickly wished he hadn't when he saw what, or rather, who he was standing in. He staggered backwards in shock, staring at the soft red mess that had once been his supervisor. There wasn't much left. He shouldn't have done that either, now he had an undisturbed view of the site and what had happened to the people there. About a dozen rabbits hadn't made it, though it was hard to tell from the scattered remains. Adric slipped on somebody's arm and was almost sick. He turned to run and was knocked to the ground.

Adric stared up in sheer wordless horror at what was now on top of him. What it was was hard to tell; its features shifted and twisted into horrible shapes, but it was vaguely shellian shaped. It snarled, splattering Adric with unidentifiable gore, then giggled. It was a horrible sound, half choked and eerie, something from a broken mind. It stared at him for a few seconds as if trying to figure out what he was, then spoke. It was a strangled, weak voice and sounded as if it hadn't been used in a long time.

"The... date... what date?"

Adric panicked "Monday! It's Monday!" He tried to get up but the creature was pushing him down with a force that seemed greater than its weight would allow. It snarled again. "Day! Month! Year!" Adric told it, and it sat still for a long time. As it did it got less and less repulsive until it finally dawned on Adric that it really was a shellian sitting on him; its appearance however did not do anything to sate his fears. While it was distracted Adric took the chance to wiggle out from under it and hide behind a pile of rubble. It was still sitting there, staring blankly into space when he dared look, several minutes later. It was obviously some sort of zombie, silver garlic would stop it right? (-), no, hang on...

It was giggling to itself; rocking backwards and forwards slightly, and gigglingand muttering to itself! Despite his terror, or maybe because of it, Adrian leant closer to try and hear what it was saying. The words were very indistinct and slurred, as if from a drunk, or someone half awake. "Hah hah! One hundred and fifty four years! Hee hee hee!" The words were repeated over and over, shot out like bullets from a machine gun so fast as to almost be unintelligible, finally the creature stood stock still and let out a hideous yell before dashing off into the distance way too fast for something dead to be moving.

There were shouts behind him, someone had sounded the alarm. Adric turned around and walked stiffly toward the rapidly approaching figures. Right now he wanted to drink and to forget; when the asked what had happened he told them it was a raid by bandits.