The Curious Fate of Nelsonora (Fractured Universe Series Book 1)

by Marissa Nofer

  Edmund picked up my trunk of belongings and followed me out the door. “Does Diana live with you?” I asked.

  “Yeah she does.” He answered uncertainly.

  “I don’t think I want to be alone right now.” I admitted sheepishly. I was exhausted, and too freaked out to go sleep in a building where anyone could be the next addition to the zombie hoard. Edmund was essentially a stranger, but I had more questions for him than my brain could sort out tonight. He smiled genuinely, and it was a sight to behold. I reminded myself that for all I knew this guy was my cousin. He gestured left and away from the heart of the town. I had a feeling he was keeping me in sight to be protective. The town was silent aside from the sounds of the harsh wind in the trees and the occasional rumble of a patrolling vehicle in the distance.

  ***

  Edmund’s house was on the farthest edge of town. It was a small country house with peeling gray paint and a bright purple door. It was so dark aside from the front porch that I couldn’t make out very much of my surroundings. The door swung open, and I heard Diana gasp loudly. I realized what an intrusion this could be for her if she didn’t want me here. I had nowhere else to go, but I could probably stay with Westly until I figured things out. A loud squeal of joy told me I’d misunderstood.

  “Give her space, Diana. It’s been a hell of a day.” Edmund chided. She sunk back into her spot on the sofa obediently.

  “You have to be careful not to touch me. I have iffy skin contact problems.” I warned politely. At this point, I didn’t know when my death visions would or wouldn’t happen. I suspected she wanted to tackle me with affection, and I was curious why. She just nodded and looked up at Edmund. She wasn’t sure how much I knew, and frankly I wasn’t either. He just shook his head dismissively.

  Within just a few minutes, Diana had the sofa made up for me to sleep on, and a big bowl of stew set out for me on the coffee table. She gave me a quick rundown of where the bathroom was, and where her room and Edmund’s room were. Then she reminded me at least six times that I was welcome to anything I needed. One bite into the stew and I realized I was ravenous. Edmund had disappeared into his bedroom without a word at some point, and I got the sense that he was a fairly stoic individual. He was Diana’s opposite. She was vibrant and seemingly enthusiastic about everything.

  I don’t remember when she left the room, but I fell into what may have been the most peaceful sleep I’d ever had. I didn’t dream at all. I wasn’t on a lumpy futon mattress. There was very little chance of anyone waking me up by burning me, but just in case, I slept with my arms inside the blankets. I had never been so welcomed in a real home before.

  When I woke up in the morning, I could hear the vague sounds of a radio announcement coming from Edmund’s room. Both bedroom doors and the bathroom were located off the same small hallway, but his was less than fifteen feet from where I slept on the sofa. Diana’s was further down the hall. Now that I was well-rested, I realized how bare the interior was. There were no photos on the walls, and minimal furnishings. They had stacked moving boxes in a few corners of the house, and I realized they hadn’t been here very long.

  The kitchen had charming vintage style and a bright yellow tiled countertop matched the white and yellow checkered flooring. There were fresh flowers in a large jar on the table. I found a glass and filled it with cold tap water repeatedly. Then I paused in front of Edmund’s room to hear the announcement being repeated. “There have now been eighty-four incidents of self-harm reported, and fourteen additional people reported missing. Residents are required to stay indoors until further notice.” The message was playing on a loop. I heard the radio switch off and scurried back to the sofa quickly.

  When Edmund emerged from his room, I had the sudden realization that I must look like absolute hell. At least I’d brushed my teeth already. I felt my wild curls self-consciously and ran my hands over my bare arms. I was wearing a tank top and my pajama shorts. I wished I’d composed myself instead of chugging several glasses of water.

  His eyes were wide as he looked at me, and neither of us spoke. Diana came out of her room beaming and blurted out “Happy Birthday! You have tattoos?” I had forgotten my birthday again. I rarely celebrated it.

  “I um… got most of these shortly after I turned sixteen.” I muttered. I had tattoos on my arms, thighs, and rib cage. I also had a couple on my shoulder and collarbone. I mostly took them from phrases and symbols from the materials used in psychic readings. Certain ones stood out to me in my dreams.

  “I think they’re lovely. You didn’t have them before.” She said complementing me genuinely.

  “Christ, Diana.” Edmund muttered.

  “If you knew me before my memory became fuzzy. I would’ve only been thirteen or fourteen at most.” I figured uncertainly. Diana exchanged an uneasy glance with Edmund.

  “What would you like to do for your birthday?” Diana asked, as if we weren’t banned from leaving the house because of monsters and chaos.

  “I would like for Edmund to tell me why he seems to know more about my life than I do.” I replied slowly and deliberately while looking straight at him. I wanted to make that perfectly clear.

  “Who is Westly?” Edmund inquired. He masked his annoyance poorly.

  “Is that why you were up all night?” Diana scowled at him in disgust.

  “Are you twins?” I countered.

  “Yes.” they answered together.

  “Westly is family.” I answered.

  “New family.” Edmund muttered.

  “Family is family.” Diana corrected. “Would you rather her be lonely this whole time?”

  Edmund shook his head.

  “Can I have a notebook?” I interrupted. I got the feeling they could argue all day if left to their own devices. Edmund went into his bedroom and returned with a leather journal. The leather had a sun design tooled into the front of it, and the quality was impressive. I admired the binding and felt the pages. It was beautiful.

  “Your father made that one.” Edmund said hesitantly. “Isaac.”

  “My mother?” I asked.

  “Abigail.” Diana answered softly.

  “They’re dead, huh?” I figured, sadly.

  “We don’t know what happened to Isaac for certain, but Abigail went down making sure I got you and Diana away safely.” Edmund said. He watched me the whole time as if I might disappear or explode if he said too much.

  “Who is Diana to me?” I continued.

  “Your sister!” Diana chimed. Edmund ran his palm down his face. “Like a sister.” She clarified.

  “I’m not your brother.” Edmund added to me. I realized I was hugging the journal to my chest.

  “Where have you been?” I asked, looking from Edmund to Diana and back. Edmund turned around entirely. I hadn’t meant the question to sound accusatory. Diana sighed and smiled wistfully.

  “When the war went full force, someone gave our names to the guard. They raided the house at night. There was a dozen of them at least, and your father fought them off while the rest of us ran.” Diana began.

  “We left my father to face a dozen guards alone?” I interrupted.

  “Isaac was a beast.” Edmund said defensively. “You were our priority.”

  “Anyway,” Diana continued pointedly, “they caught up with us, and Abigail told Edmund to get you out of there. Then she took out at least half of them before we were out of sight.”

  “She was a beast too, I guess.” I interrupted again. Edmund laughed despite himself.

  “Abigail was a force of nature.” Diana admired. “Like you.”

  “If that were true, I’d have joined them.” I countered. It sounded like I was quite the cowardly kid.

  “Nelsonora, your dad told me when the war reached his property, I was to knock you out and get you to safety or he’d rip my head from my shoulders and bury it over your body, so I could spend an eternity reminded of whatever I let happen to you.” Edmund explained. I laughed. I couldn’t re
member my father, but he sounded reasonable. Diana looked from Edmund to me and squeezed his shoulder as she left the room. I guess it was time for him to take over story time.

  “What happened next?” I urged him.

  “I got you and Diana to the church building. Your family had allies in there. Before we got inside Diana was cornered by the guards. I handed you off to the people inside and went back for Diana.” Edmund explained hesitantly. He didn’t have to explain that the guards could not enter a church building. They could kill you right outside the doorway, but they couldn’t come inside or assault the structure.

  “Which camp?” I asked, knowingly.

  “Edison.” Edmund replied. He seemed grateful to skip the details. I could deduce what happened next. He went back for Diana and took on way too many guards. They were captured. That meant there was something about Edmund, Diana, and my parents that earned them the label of genetic abnormal. Edison was one of the most controversial and brutal government camps. I couldn’t even imagine what they experienced there. I had one last question.

  “Edmund, why blame yourself? I wasn’t your responsibility.” I questioned. He sat down on the coffee table facing me and looked at me while he sorted his answer. I felt my heartbeat speed up as he reached his hands to either side of my face slowly as if I was a stray animal that might take off if he spooked me. The contact sent chills all the way to my feet. It wasn’t just that he had the answers to my every curiosity, or that he was gorgeous. No one had deliberately touched my skin in at least four years without fear.

  I was still marveling at that sensation when his lips met mine. His mouth was warm and soft. I felt the vague pokiness of his unshaved face. He was still and hesitant with his lips against mine, but I didn’t pull away. No part of me wanted to. I realized he was looking for permission and I wrapped my arms around his neck. The intensity he responded with would leave a tingling feeling on my mouth that lasted for hours. I could have stayed in that embrace forever, but Edmund didn’t give the kind of kisses that ended with your clothes on. He paused without moving away from me. I realized his hands had moved to the back of my head and into my messy curls. He kissed me firmly with a closed mouth, and again three more times with each kiss landing softer and shorter than the one before. He pulled away from me allowing his hands to travel down my arms until he was just holding both of my hands.

  “You are twenty-two years old today.” Edmund said. He kept watching me intently. My mind was reeling, but he continued, “Your mother’s friends had to hide you, and I think whatever they did to accomplish that made you seem young enough that you wouldn’t end up in a camp, and you wouldn’t remember any of us or your home in Tavern Falls.”

  “They couldn’t have left me somewhere other than with Connie?” I doubted.

  “Connie is the one who sent the guard after us. We still aren’t sure why. When she realized you were still alive, she took you from the church and no one could go after you. They had just lost phone communications, and no one could tell the authorities to look for you without putting you and themselves in danger.” He explained.

  “And they locked you up until they closed all the camps.” I concluded.

  “I was released six months ago, but believe me, there are still camps. They just aren’t public anymore. I spent five months searching for you until I heard about a girl who saw death and found Connie’s shop. We moved here planning to get to know you slowly, but I couldn’t just watch you be in danger with all the shit happening outside.” He said gesturing towards the town.

  “And I’m twenty-two?” I repeated in shock.

  “Twenty-two.” He nodded.

  “Do I look twenty-two?” I wondered.

  “You look about sixteen, but that’s what you get at your height.” He teased. His smile faded as he joined me in looking out the window. I wondered how many more incidents there were while I slept.

  “I think it’s all my fault.” I admitted.

  CHAPTER 9

  I spent the next few days gathering the names of the known zombie people as they revealed them on the radio. I was growing close to Diana, and I only saw Edmund in passing. These events were happening in other populated areas, and the panic spread nationwide to all seven of the former states still occupied after the war. There was a total of ten livable regions, but they filled three of them with government camps and official buildings that the general population could not access. I went to Edmund with what I found.

  “This isn’t your fault, Nelsonora.” He insisted.

  “Fine. Blame Connie then, but it is certainly related to the work we did in the shop. I told every single one of these people how they would die, and they had either avoided that death already or were planning to.” I argued. I showed him my journal.

  “I’m rounding them up. I’ll get rid of them.” He reasoned with me.

  “The hospitals are filled with people who were attacked by these things, and they barely have the right supplies to treat a sprained ankle.” I continued.

  “I know!” he yelled. I jumped at the sound of his anger and he looked remorseful immediately. “I know what’s going on out there, and I swear to you I will do everything I can to make it stop. I sent word to David. He’s got some experience that could help with things like this. Come outside with me, let me show you what I’ve been doing.”

  ***

  Edmund opened the door to the barn-sized warehouse and inside I saw rows of chain link cells. It reminded me of an animal shelter. There was a smogginess to the air inside that carried a bad smell akin to warm blood and stomach acid. There were at least eighty of the shan within the cages. He separated them like beta fish, yet they were still attempting to devour each other one mouthful at a time through the fences. “What the hell is this?” I groaned.

  “I needed time to see if I could kill them myself… or save them.” He explained.

  “They’re gone! They’re total fricken zombies.” I insisted as I gestured wildly towards the monsters in cages. I didn’t expect the surge of anger I felt. I wanted this all to be over, and a cure seemed insane. They were missing body parts and decomposing; there was no cure short of having a time machine.

  I yelped when someone cleared their throat behind me. I whirled around to find myself face to face with a young man who looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. His black hair was disheveled, and his gray sweat pants were filthy with smudges in a way that usually only small children would disregard. It looked as if he’d climbed around in dirt recently. He had deeply bronzed skin and his eyes were the color of root beer. Edmund had mentioned that David’s family was originally from South America. When he looked at me, I felt as if I had been electrocuted slowly from the feet up. “She’s right, you know.” He said looking over me at Edmund who just rolled his eyes.

  “This is David. My brother of sorts.” Edmund introduced us. I just nodded, as they hugged aggressively.

  Seeing them both together was overwhelming. They were similar in build and opposites in their coloring and demeanor. Edmund reminded me of a noble knight from a fairytale, and David had a gloominess to him that was unmistakable. I noticed Edmund eyeing me as I surveyed David and I felt my cheeks grow red with sheepish embarrassment.

  “Let her get it over with. She’s the only one that ends this, and you know it,” David said severely.

  “She’s the only one that can kill her shan, but if I could find another way and break them down enough. There has to be a limitation to what they can recover from.” Edmund reasoned. It was the first time I heard anyone call them shan, and I soon grew to hate the word.

  “There isn’t. You mess with fate, you befriend death.” David sighed, looking at me. They continued arguing in hushed tones.

  “I’m right here, so include me in the conversation or keep my name out of your mouths.” I finally groaned at them. David laughed in agreement, and Edmund glared off into space in anger.

  David went to the nearest cage and broke the lock open between his t
humb and index finger. He looked at me hesitantly and my eyes grew huge as I realized he was about to let one of them loose in the warehouse. I didn’t even have time to marvel at the strength he must have to break the metal padlock like that. I took a few steps backwards and looked in panic at a now furious Edmund. It was as if someone lit a fire in his eyes. David looked at me. “You want that axe,” he advised, nodding to some tools hanging on the wall a few feet away from me.

  I hesitated. I knew he was right, but there had to be a less dangerous way for me to kill them off. I could burn the warehouse down or hire an exterminator to help me gas them. I didn’t have time to reason with him, he’d swung the door open wide and the creature was advancing on me and making hellish snarling sounds with each clumsy step. I hurried to the axe and tried to dismiss my mind’s insistence on identifying the man as a specific former client. His name evaded me, but I recalled that he was meant to die on a hunting trip when an overzealous animal broke his legs and trampled him. I could still remember the squelching sound of his skull crushed under hooves. I swung the axe and nearly missed the creature. I took steps back as it advanced and soon my back was against the metal walls of the warehouse.

  Swinging an axe was more difficult than I might have imagined. It was heavy, and my movements were awkward. The shan was less than eight inches from my face when it was thrown back violently by Edmund who planted his boot squarely on its chest and growled towards David. “What now, genius?” He demanded in a rage. Spit flew from his mouth when he spoke, and David was unfazed. I knew what came next.

  I swung the axe down into the creature’s abdomen nearly splitting its frail bloated body in two. It didn’t die. I groaned in disgust and frustration. It sprayed me with rancid blood and David stood over it quizzically before calmly asking, “How was he meant to die?”

  “Trampled. They crushed his head.” I hissed. I realized the only shan I’d successfully killed was meant to drown and only died when her blood filled her throat. Edmund began to protest, but I picked up a bag of concrete mix that had to be at least forty pounds and dropped it onto the shan’s head. It stopped moving immediately. Edmund removed his boot and sighed.