Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness Ch.45
Title: Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness
By: Pink Rabbit Productions
Chapter: 45
Date: 10 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 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 |
Author's Note: Heartfelt thanks to all who've written and commented. Would that I could offer more of a reply. However, please believe that all feedback is much appreciated and often helps me figure things out while writing.
Afterworld:
Into the Arms of Darkness
Chapter 45
Even buried in the depths of sleep, some part of Olivia registered the softly spoken vow and the warmth fo the other woman's breath on her face.
Instinctively, she knew what was coming. Lips soft and full against her own.
Knew too what it would lead to. Flesh and sweat and more comfort than she had any right to. That she'd never been with a woman and was comfortably certain Natalia hadn't either didn't figure into the calculus. The would be the easy part. It was the emotions that would make it hard because neither of them would be able to control those. Words would be said, feelings confessed, promises made.
And after that?
Hearts and flowers and a future built together? Or just more pain and loss and disappointment when she and Emma and probably Natalia too had already had too much?
Unfortunately, she already knew the answer to that question. No happy endings in Afterworld. As long as Natalia had a son to wait for-no matter there was almost no chance of his coming home-she wouldn't leave. Olivia understood that drive all too well. If not for Emma, she would have done anything to go after Ava despite the near-zero chance she'd survived the fall of San Francisco, and their relationship was difficult on its best day.
Meanwhile, Olivia knew she couldn't stay. There was nothing to build on in this place, only a slow, unstoppable decay. No matter what, that wasn't a future she could allow for her daughter.
She wanted to scream and rage and howl at the moon at the unfairness of it all. Afterworld giveth and Afterworld taketh away. Welcome to religion in the new world. The perfect balance of Yin and Yang. Every vague moment of happiness came predestroyed with the promise of an equal or greater bit of misery.
All of which meant she couldn't just let it happen, no matter what temptations might call to her.
So instead she forced herself to crawl up from the depths of sleep to blink owlishly at the woman poised a hand's breadth away. It broke the moment. She saw dark eyes snap wide as Natalia jerked back just like Olivia had known she would.
"I-I...uh...you're awake," Natalia stammered, uncertainty reflected in her eyes.
Olivia pushed into a sitting position as she struggled against the clinging tendrils of sleep and come up with a logical, non-panicked reason for her sudden surge of movement. "I...uh...just..." she exhaled, the words coming in broken syllables.
"You okay?" Natalia questioned as she pushed upright with one hand and laid the other on Olivia's forearm.
Olivia stared at the hand as her heart kicked into overdrive, then flinched as Natalia yanked it back as though stung. She tipped her gaze up, taking in parted lips and frightened eyes. It wasn't like in the closet, where she could blame things on the demons in her head or encroaching death. This was...
Real.
Maybe more real than any relationship that had come before it. There was a certain temptation to just chalk it all up to the circumstances, blame it on the stress and the need for companionship. Or hell, maybe just the need to get laid.
Except, if Olivia was honest with herself-not that she had much choice, Afterworld had a way of stripping away all the mind games and conflicting motives-it was a lot more than that.
"Olivia?" Natalia said, worry seeping into her tone.
Shaking off the daze, Olivia's mouth worked for a moment as she realized she'd been standing there staring at floating dust particles while Natalia was clearly expecting a response. "Emma," she said abruptly. "I need to check on Emma."
Arched brows drew into a frown and Natalia blinked, then a look of understanding filled her gaze. "Nightmare?" she questioned worriedly.
"Something like that," Olivia answered as she pushed free of the sheets. She staggered, nearly fell, then righted herself while Natalia was still scrambling for her feet. The other woman came around the end of the bed, reaching out as if to offer support, but Olivia waved her off. Now was not the time for supportive touches. That might just unhinge all of her resolve to do the right thing.
Natalia pulled up short and peered at her, hurt reflected in those dark, expressive eyes that threatened to hold Olivia captive. Damn things were more effective than quicksand.
"Olivia?" the younger woman whispered very softly, her tone questioning, though exactly what she was asking felt confusing to Olivia. Move forward, hold back, explain, confess, or just conclude the unfinished, almost-kiss of moments before.
Only Olivia couldn't do any of it, barely understood what the hell was happening. How long had it been since she'd felt anything for anyone other than Emma? She didn't even know. She'd had her fair share of lovers in life-bodies that meant little more than physical satiation, and were carefully selected to not interfere in her real life, her empire-not to mention a husband or two, usually chosen through some rare breed of desperation that usually left chaos in its wake.
But this?
She had no preparation for this. It was soft and sweet and protective in a way nothing else had ever been except maybe her relationship with with Emma.
Meanwhile, Natalia was still watching her with eyes that were impossibly deep pools of trepidation.
Feeling the need to assuage any perceived hurt, Olivia reached out, fingertips barely touching a velvety cheek. "I just..." she trailed off, the words drying up as she was faced with bringing the growing emotion between them out into the open.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
She couldn't do it.
"Emma," she repeated the lie, then comforted herself that it was a small one. Plenty of times she'd woken and needed to see her daughter to break completely from the nightmares that haunted even the occasional catnaps she'd gotten on the road. And maybe this was just one more nightmare in its own way, and she needed her daughter to remind her of reality. "I just need to...see her."
Natalia nodded. "I understand," she said reassuringly. "I know how that can be."
Nodding, Olivia fled, her gait stumbling and ungainly, though she managed to avoid going down face first. Now that would be a special moment. Trying to ignore all the thoughts and temptations while Natalia was helping her up, leaning close, probably insisting on helping her make her way to Emma's room while plastered up against her side. Yeah, that would help.
She forgot all those thoughts a moment later as she stood beside her sleeping daughter. Emma was half on her side and half on her stomach, her breathing slow and steady.
This was why she was doing it all, Olivia reminded herself as she smoothed a hand over her daughter's hair, then retucked the blankets around her small frame. Her own survival, her own emotions, her own life were secondary to this.
Without meaning to, she cast a quick glance at the caged mockery of a baby crib.
She wouldn't see her daughter like that, locked in an ever smaller world that collapsed around her until it became her cage.
Then she saw the framed picture sitting on the high dresser. A thin ray of moonlight slipped in through a lightly curtained window. Just enough illumination to make out the image when she picked the frame up and peered at the photo.
She realized the truth in an instant. It simply hadn't occurred before. Clearly Natalia had known Josh and Reva, had considered them friends, but she hadn't paused to consider the obvious possibility. Reva had been carrying something when they'd collided.
A wave of nausea slid through Olivia as she suddenly realized what the bundle in the dead woman's arms had to have been.
Much as she'd hated her ex-husband and his ever-present, once-and-future ex-wife, she wouldn't have wished for this on her worst day.
Her head swung around, eyes finding the perverted crib. It didn't take much imagination to envision how that had gone. Reva never had been one for accepting any reality she didn't like. Probably thought she could scream the poor kid back to life. Josh, meanwhile, never could refuse Reva anything.
A shudder slid over Olivia's skin.
And they were still out there, wandering around. The perfect undead, nuclear family.
She was still standing like that when a slim hand reached past her shoulder and carefully plucked the frame from her fingers and set it back on the dresser. "His name was Colin," Natalia said very softly, sounding sad and lost.
Olivia tensed, but didn't twitch away as she felt the warmth of Natalia's cheek against her back and the cling of strong hands at her waist. Without meaning to Olivia dropped her hands, resting them on narrow wrists. She didn't pull away when those same hands wrapped around her body and held on tight.
"He got sick one day...it was a couple of months after the evac order. It was still cold out and the flu was hitting hard. A lot of small children..." Natalia's voice choked off and she fell silent for a long moment. "Maybe that's what it was...maybe something else. Antibiotics and antivirals didn't help. He just..."
Olivia could feel the movement as the younger woman shrugged. "Slipped away," Olivia finished for her and felt Natalia nod. Olivia wasn't surprised. She'd been lucky with Emma, but a lot of young children hadn't survived that first winter. Gossip and rumors had abounded, though the government insisted it was just a previously unseen strain of avian flu. Of course, they'd still been insisting that the dead didn't walk and any reports to the contrary were simply a matter of media hyperbole.
"Those first months," Olivia husked as her gaze swung back to touch on her innocently sleeping child, "I was so scared for Emma...watched her like a hawk...tracked every sniffle or sneeze or tiny fever..." She shook her head slowly, trembling gently as she mentally revisited that nightmare time. "She had a cold and I just about died from sheer terror." Another head shake. "But after a couple of days, she was okay...and she's been okay since, I just...just say thanks and try not to worry too much." Reaching out, she smoothed her thumb over the glass protecting the photo, heart breaking a little as she thought about how Josh would have hurt to lose a child. Even Reva hadn't deserved that fate.
"You were lucky," Natalia whispered.
"She's why I keep hanging on." Without Emma, Olivia was far from certain she wouldn't have long since surrendered to the horror of the world.
"I understand," Natalia admitted, her voice soft and bruised. "I keep thinking maybe Rafe will..." She didn't finish, the silence that followed a sad reminder of just why Natalia would never leave this place.
Probably for the best, Olivia told herself. It would be too easy to forget reality and indulge in a bit of fantasy which, unfortunately, had the power to leave them both slashed and bleeding. She felt strong arms tighten their hold fractionally and leaned into them. Even knowing nothing could come of it, there was no sin in accepting a little comfort, right?
They stayed like that for a long time, then finally Olivia glanced over her shoulder, smiling a little as she noted the faint gleam of moonlight on dark hair. "You should get some sleep."
"So should you," Natalia chided gently.
Shaking her head, Olivia continued to study her daughter. "I need to stay here for awhile." It wasn't about avoiding temptation anymore. The mournful quality of the room was enough to kill the earlier bout of hormones. No, having seen the photo and the crib and realized to whom they'd belonged, she suddenly felt the need to stand watch over her child. Pure paranoia. She knew that, but that didn't change the compulsion.
She was startled when Natalia released her hold and broke contact, and tried to ignore the surge of disappointment as she realized the younger woman was going to take her suggestion and return to her lonely bed.
For the best, Olivia reminded herself firmly as she straightened her shoulders and resisted the urge to beg Natalia to come back if only to drive back the loneliness for a bit.
Which made it doubly startling when, instead of leaving, Natalia stepped around in front of her and cupped a hand along her cheek. "She's safe and she's all right," the younger woman soothed. "And you can protect her a lot better if you take care of yourself, rest and take the time to heal."
"I..." Without meaning to, Olivia's gaze swung to touch on the nightmare crib.
Natalia followed the line of her gaze, flinching as she realized what Olivia was looking at. "I should have gotten rid of it," she said very softly. "We'll get it out of here tomorrow." She drew Olivia's head back around until their eyes met. "But tonight you need to get some rest."
It was on the tip of Olivia's tongue to deny the charge, but her equilibrium put in its two cents before she had a chance, turning the world into a giant roller coaster ride for a moment. She had to fight for her balance and might well have gone down if not for Natalia's steadying hold. When the wave passed, she found Natalia watching her with a wryly patient expression.
Natalia clearly knew exactly what had happened and had waited for it to pass, but wasn't going to overlook the dizzy spell. "Before you fall down," she said as she offered a wan smile. "Because, honestly, I don't think I'm up to carrying you."
Olivia managed a tiny grin at the mental image that brought up. Brown eyes continued to peer up at her with serious intensity until finally, she nodded, silently acquiescing. Probably never had a chance, she mused.
Natalia caught her hand and twined their fingers together as the tired smile melted into a more triumphant one. Knowing she'd won, she tugged Olivia out, leading her back to the other bedroom, though she was patient enough to wait while Olivia checked the locks on the basement door before she would surrender completely.
They hit the mattress and were both asleep within minutes...
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TBC