Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness Ch.25
Title: Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness
By: Pink Rabbit Productions
Chapter:25
Date: 3 October, 2010
Rating: R (for sex and violence)
Disclaimer: Hmmm, characters, not mine, situation, mine, though with the proviso that certain scenarios owe a major debt of gratitude to George Romero. Sex? Likely. Genders involved? Likely all female (at least anything on camera). Also there are likely to be very bad things in this story. I'm not one for prodigious amounts of gore, but this is horror and there is likely to be ickiness and things that might disturb some folks. Seriously. If it's gonna bother you, move along.
Summary: When the dead rise, civilization falls.
Author's Notes: Awhile back, just for fun, I did a faux movie poster that set Otalia in a horror setting and used some elements from an idea I've had running around for ages (what can I say---it was the Halloween season). See the poster here: http://altfic.com/artgallery/otalia/glafterworld01b.htm . Sooo, at some point, it seemed like fun to take a gander at writing them in that universe. I've quite deliberately tried to break away from my usual style and make it a bit faster moving, with frequent chapter breaks, deliberate cliffhangers, shorter scenes and more directed pov. We'll see if I can keep to one pov per chapter (well, they are short chapters...lol).
Dedicated to: My mom. Seriously. All of my growing up years, she would constantly throw me these what-if scenarios and press me to figure out logical ways to survive/get out of various emergency situations. Now, she never mentioned the zombie apocalypse, but I'm sure that was just an oversight or a desire not to scare a little kid (because, really, I grew up as the daughter of a top secret type during the cold war...I already had enough fear issues), but really, that odd little game was the genesis of...well...not just this story, but a lot of my love of writing. So, thanks mom.
Previous Chapters: | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 |
Afterworld:
Into the Arms of Darkness
Chapter 25
Natalia literally felt the color drain from her face, felt the warmth slide away to be replaced by a chill wave. A tremor slid down her spine.
Nothing in her experience or reading had prepared her for this.
"You...they're...it's..." she mumbled, struggling without much luck to put together some kind of a response.
"Yeah," Olivia exhaled weakly, her tone ironic, as though she understood Natalia's difficulty too well. "They're in my head...saying things..." Her gaze became distant. "Whatever's happening...it's begun...and I...I don't know how long I can fight it."
Her eyes slid closed and for a moment, Natalia thought she'd fallen back into the uneasy slumber, but after a beat, she shook her head, seeming to physically push something back. "You need to get to the SUV," she said with effort, each word coming at a carefully measured pace. "Get the notebooks...now."
"Olivia, I think it can wait-" She couldn't imagine leaving the woman alone in this condition.
"No," Olivia snapped and then collapsed onto the mattress, her chest heaving as she fought for air.
Not knowing if it was the hallucinations or something real, Natalia just tried to soothe Olivia's fears. "Try not to worry. When I can, I'll-"
"Shut the fuck up," Olivia ground out. She dragged in a breath and swallowed hard, clearly struggling. "Everything's coded...Emma knows how it works, but she's just a kid..." Her gaze was incredibly sharp for a dying woman. "It would be better if I could show you...and if you can...get it now...maybe I can still...go through it with you." She winced as if in pain and tipped her head back, letting it fall to the mattress. "But you need to do it now...make sure nothing gets stolen...or lost." She exhaled harshly as though the air had been driven from her lungs by a hard blow.
For the briefest second, Natalia thought she was gone, but then Olivia gasped and surged upward. "Promise me," she rasped, fixing a hard stare on Natalia. "You'll get those papers...they're in the front passenger's side...on the floor. There's a laptop computer too...looks like a kid's toy, but it works...and Emma knows how to use it. There's a spare car key pinned inside my jacket..." She was shaking violently, struggling to breathe and keep the tremors under control.
Struggling to hold off whatever voices were calling to her.
Sensing that even the slightest distraction threatened to undo the fierce effort, Natalia waited.
"You don't have much time...gotta move fast...and whatever you..." Her eyes slid closed as she fought to continue. "Dark water," she whispered at last. "Don't let Emma near dark water."
Natalia frowned. "I don't understand...what?"
But Olivia's eyes were unfocused, her lids fluttering. She'd clearly used every last bit of strength to say what she had and was failing fast. "Keep...her...safe..."
"I will," Natalia promised as she leaned close and cupped a hand along Olivia's cheek. "I swear." But Olivia had already slid back into whatever nightmare world absorbed her when she couldn't maintain consciousness. "Olivia?" Natalia spoke her name several more times, but there was no response.
Well, no intentional response. Olivia's eyes danced and darted under her closed lids, while her muscles knotted and cramped. It was as though something else was climbing into her body and taking control inch by hard-fought inch.
It was alien and horrifying and it made Natalia want to run and hide.
Olivia had taunted her about playing Wild Kingdom in studying the dead, and while she'd responded defensively, there was more than a little truth to the charge. She didn't so much study as watch the dead- the living and the dying too. It helped her survive.
And not just in this world. In the one before too. Watching people, studying them, learning how to stay clear of their spite and cruelty was how she'd survived. It had taught her how to dodge the random swings from a father with a bad temper and little use for women beyond the obvious, helped her avoid the grabbing hands of any number of employers who thought giving her a job meant they got the bennies, and helped her learn to dull the petty judgments of people who saw a Hispanic teen with a small child and decided they knew who she was.
Sitting back quietly, watching, trying to understand, was how she'd always functioned. In the old world, it had helped her survive one way, in the new one, it helped her survive in another, far more literal way. It kept her alive, kept her sane, passed the time. She tried to see their patterns and understand, tried to find the bits of their old selves that were still left, tried to come up with reasons not to destroy them because it just hurt too much.
In so doing, she'd come to understand that they followed some very distinct patterns. They reacted certain ways, had definite limitations, might show flashes of their old impulses, but were still very much carnivores.
They were animals in a way, the newest predator at the top of the food chain.
But in all her watching and studying of the dying and the dead, what she was seeing with Olivia was new.
She wanted to stay right where she was, watch, study.
Avoid.
"Damn." It was so tempting to rationalize staying with Olivia. She could come up with a hundred reasons to ignore the promise. Olivia wasn't in her right mind. Natalia had no business taking risks now that she was responsible for Emma. The SUV and the papers weren't going anywhere.
She didn't want to go out there.
Which maybe was one more reason why she had to.
Suddenly she was spinning on her heel, not letting herself think any longer. A body could get stuck in those thoughts, forever debating and never moving.
Time to move.
Closing the bedroom door behind herself, she grabbed her bomber jacket and shrugged into it. The tough leather wouldn't do anything against a full-on attack, but it did wonders to retard stray nips. That done, she retrieved the shotgun rig from its position on the wall and slung it on, then clipped the hunting knife to her belt at the small of her back. A few adjustments to make sure the shotgun draw was fast and easy, then she checked the weapon to make sure it was fully loaded.
Five shots. It would be better if she didn't need any. Enough of her neighbors were still wandering the area that any noise was likely to bring plenty of company.
So she needed to do this carefully.
From the roof, she could scan the area. Most of the locals were back on their regular pathways, moving at the normal pace. With timing, she could easily avoid them even though she'd have to use the garage entrance rather than the kitchen door-she would have to fix that, but no time now. That would put the SUV in a blind spot for a couple of minutes, but with care, it should be okay.
She was more worried about the wanderers who still hadn't left the area, Josh and Reva among them. As far as she could tell, they were well away from the SUV and the path she'd need to travel to get there. Her biggest worry was the thick forest on the other side of the vehicle. That offered a lot of cover and sometimes it seemed to her eyes that she caught hints of movement. Her eyes tricking her, she mentally insisted. The dappled shadows could shift and play and easily fool a body into seeing what wasn't there.
But...
Digging out a pair of binoculars, she watched the area, trying to decide whether what she'd seen was real or not. Definitely a flick of movement. Quick and smooth.
Maybe a deer. Ironically enough, the dead completely ignored them, and without humans to hunt or chase them out of gardens and flowerbeds, their population was growing.
She looked again, but this time there was no sign of anything. Just a deer, she decided after a beat. Nothing else in the area would have moved so quickly through the thick trees.
That decided, she headed back inside and dug out Olivia's car key, clipping it to a key ring that she looped around a finger for fast access.
Suddenly aware she wasn't alone, she looked up to find small eyes were watching from the doorway.
Emma cut straight to the chase. "You're going back out."
Natalia nodded. "Your mom wants me to get some papers from your car." She peered seriously at Emma. "She says it's important." The question was implicit in her tone.
Emma's chin bobbed in a small nod. "Mom's plans," she said very softly.
"Yeah." Natalia considered saying more, only to decide against it. "I'll be as fast as I can..."
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TBC