Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness Ch.43
Title: Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness
By: Pink Rabbit Productions
Chapter: 43
Date: 2 December, 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 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 |
Author's Note: Just a quick note of thanks to everyone who wrote or commented. Thank you so much for taking the time. I wish I could offer more personalized responses and thoughts, but life's kinda complicated right now. Please do know that I appreciate and read all the comments, and they do help a lot.
Afterworld:
Into the Arms of Darkness
Chapter 43
Natalia couldn't take her eyes off of Olivia. At first she told herself it was for safety's sake, the need to be certain that the other woman really was herself.
Then it was the need to make certain she was stable and didn't make herself sick again.
And then it was just the pure miracle that she was alive at all when all of the others in her shoes had succumbed.
Then it was something else entirely that she didn't know how to give voice to.
She watched Olivia eat, watched her smile at her daughter, felt her heart thump when that smile turned her way. It was easy, relaxed, not the practiced expression she'd seen before that was part charm, part denial, and more about getting through and surviving than any sense of genuine pleasure. This one was real, sincere, with no ulterior motive, not even the need to avoid the truth to preserve sanity.
It just was.
And it felt so damn good to see it and be bathed in its touch. It had been so long since Natalia had been around any kind of positive social interaction that it felt strange and more than a little alien. It occurred to her that maybe Olivia was feeling some of the same strangeness because she was mostly quiet as she ate and watched her daughter and offered up that sweet, faintly hesitant smile now and then.
Emma, meanwhile, was chatty enough for all of them. Some of her fear relieved by her mother's apparent recovery, the adrenaline rush had melded into a giddy kind of near-hyperactivity that was both sweet to behold and utterly exhausting to be around. She talked about her drawings, some books she'd found upstairs, the food she'd eaten, having a bath, and anything else she could think of while both adults just listened in bemused silence, grateful for a chance to enjoy something so simple.
But finally, as is wont to happen with emotion-driven rushes, it burned out, leaving Emma's head nodding and her eyelids fluttering as she struggled to stay awake. Not too surprising. In a strange place, with her mother at death's door, she probably hadn't slept any more than the adults in the house. With a hot meal in her belly and some of the stress off her shoulders, she was fast winding down. Smothering a yawn, she scrambled up onto the couch next to her mother, then onto Olivia's lap when she laid her plate aside. In a blink, she melded from a hyperactive adolescent into an exhausted child. As Natalia watched, the little girl snuggled into the arms that wrapped around her and heaved a relieved sigh. Back where she belonged.
They were all silent for a long time, simply basking in the quiet time, then Emma tipped her head up from her mother's shoulder. "Are the bad men really gone for good, Mommy?"
Natalia saw the way Olivia tensed and the flash of emotion in her eyes. Equal parts fear and fury unless she was mistaken. The older woman cast a quick, questioning glance at Natalia as if seeking guidance. The subject had been dealt with before, but only in the briefest manner. Clearly Emma had spent the hours since thinking.
And worrying.
Not knowing what to say, Natalia froze for a beat. She knew from their discussions that Olivia wasn't one-hundred percent certain of the answer. Nor was she. "I...uh...I told Emma what I could," she explained when she finally spoke. "But ...after the explosion..." She shrugged, uncertain how many of the details Olivia would want her daughter hearing. "There was a lot I didn't see."
Olivia nodded slowly and Natalia could almost see the gears turning in her head. She'd made it clear that she was always honest with Emma, but Natalia had to believe that the honest was often couched in terms a child could understand. And she really had no idea how to honestly explain the situation in terms an eight-year-old could comprehend when she couldn't understand it terribly well at thirty-five.
"I know some of them are dead," Olivia said after a long moment.
"Ava's daddy?" Emma asked with such trepidation that Natalia wanted to gather her up and promise to protect her from the world.
She felt the same way about Olivia when she saw the way she flinched as though struck by an actual blow and swallowed hard, then shook her head slowly.
Emma had asked Natalia much the same question, but she'd seemed brave and uncowed at the time. Now she looked very much like the frightened child she was. Unfortunately, Natalia hadn't been able to answer the question. She knew Jeffrey had been wounded and run off, but hadn't seen any more than that. Given the confusion and her condition, she wasn't sure Olivia had either.
Meanwhile, green eyes glittered with indecision. Finally, Olivia took a deep breath and admitted, "I think he's gone, sweetie...but I'm not sure."
Natalia's heart threatened to break as Emma shuddered and buried her nose back in her mother's shoulder, while Olivia held her and petted her hair gently.
"He was hurt..." Olivia explained, her voice eerily soft and soothing given the subject she was explaining to an eight-year-old. "...bleeding badly...and there were...things...after him...but I didn't see if they caught him."
Emma whimpered softly, the sound faintly muffled.
Natalia wanted to ask a thousand different questions, but was too afraid of both the possible reactions and answers. Instead, she offered what little information she could. "I've checked several times...and I don't think his Hummer's been touched." She swept her gaze back and forth between woman and child, her heart quailing that the most comfort she could offer was the hope that another human being was dead. It went against everything she'd ever been taught, but it was all she had. "The door's standing open...and nothing's moved."
That earned her a grateful look from Olivia as she held her daughter a little tighter. "His men are dead...I know that," she said firmly.
Trying to convince herself as much as her child, Natalia thought.
"And he's a coward..." Olivia tucked a finger under her daughter's chin. "Without them to back him up...do his dirty work...he'd run if he could."
Narrow shoulder's straightened and Emma nodded ever so slightly, getting herself back under control.
Natalia understood the need, but hurt that a child couldn't afford to cry for long in this world. Children shouldn't have to fear anything more serious than the monsters under the bed or in the closet that could be killed with the flip of a light switch.
"The fact that he hasn't," Olivia continued, her tone increasingly firm, almost business-like, "tells me he can't. And the fact that he was bleeding and being chased by ... by a dead...person..." She shook her head slowly, the confident image she was projecting slipping for a moment. "I don't see how he could survive, Em."
"He did before," the little girl said very softly, her tone not exactly accusing, but definitely not convinced.
Looking like she'd taken another blow, Olivia nodded jerkily and appeared to struggle to find an answer. "And if he did, we'll fight him again." Then she cupped her hand alongside her daughter's cheek, her tone low and serious as she continued, "But understand something, Em, even if he is alive, he's not going to stop us. I won't let him," she promised, then pulled her daughter into a hard hug, "Okay?"
It took awhile, but Emma finally agreed and relaxed into her mother's hold. Nosing into her mother's shoulder, she held on tightly while Olivia rocked her gently and sung a soft lullaby that Natalia didn't recognize.
Thinking they needed some alone time, Natalia carefully rose, then pointed at the gear they'd dropped after retrieving it from the garage. As Olivia watched, Natalia indicated the second floor and mouthed, "It'll be safer upstairs."
The other woman nodded, then ducked her head again to press her cheek against her daughter's hair, still singing softly.
Moving as silently as possible, Natalia slipped in and out, tracking the pair as she ported things upstairs, but mostly leaving them on their own. When she'd finished moving everything, she cleaned up the kitchen, packing away the leftover pancakes in a Ziplock bag. They'd serve as bread for the next couple of days. The gravy that was left should hold at least until dinner time. The slab of bacon, she carried back downstairs, storing it in the meat cellar Josh had dug into the basement. Dug into the earth, it was dry and several degrees cooler than the surrounding air. It had served well enough to preserve the bacon and ham that Josh had cured after slaughtering the pigs at Cross Creek. The ham was all gone now, but there were still a couple of slabs of the bacon. She'd been keeping them in reserve in the vague hope that Rafe might show up one day. Bacon had always been one of his favorite treats. But with Emma to fatten up, she'd accepted the greater immediate need. Same for using up one of the last cans of milk.
More immediate worries.
She paused in the doorway, silently watching the way Olivia gently rocked her sleeping child. As she stood there, fear gripped her chest, clawing into her sternum and squeezing her heart until she shook with the force of the emotion.
She'd gradually stopped being afraid along the way as everything she cared about died or slipped away, leaving her an uncaring husk simply going through the motions.
It was terrifying, this new wave of emotion.
Or more correctly, this new wave of old emotions, nearly forgotten, believed dead and gone.
Another shudder wrenched through her and her knees nearly buckled. Natalia raised a hand to her chest, feeling the thud of her own heartbeat with such intensity that she couldn't help but wonder if it had shut down for a time and was just now coming back to life.
Just like the rest of her.
She might as well have been dead and gone, but suddenly she was alive and vested again, and far from certain that was a good thing. There was a oddly comfortable safety in death, in not caring, in just shutting down and wandering through the days.
It suddenly struck her that it was no wonder that she understood her lost neighbors so well. In an eery way, she'd become dangerously like them.
Olivia half dead, had been more alive than Natalia had been in months.
That thought still in her head, she finally turned away, focusing on the rest of her daily chores, watering the vegetable plants in the various window boxes, checking the locks and doors, checking her dwindling stores.
Not good. There was enough to keep them all going a few more days, but past that, times were likely to get very lean.
Something was definitely going to have to give soon...
* * * * * *
TBC