Half Dead World: Book One from the Apocalypse Tales

by Adrienne Hargrove

  “You are hurt and frightened, do not be, I am with you.”

  He reaches out and cups my cheek with his hand, and suddenly, instead of pain I am filled with warmth, and instead of fear I am filled with peace.

  “There now, that is better.”

  “Yes, thank you.” I am little shocked at the sound of my voice. It sounds normal and I am even more confused that I have no pain and I’m breathing normally.

  “How did you do that?”

  The stranger just smiles. “It is time for me to go, but there is a friend coming, Lucius, will take care of you.”

  “But…wait, what about my parents?” He is standing, and again I am looking at his bare feet standing on the broken glass. “Wait, before you go, please help me out of the car.”

  “You are no longer trapped, you are free.”

  I see his feet walking away. “Wait!” Without thinking I crawl out the car. I’m stunned for a second as I realize how effortless it was for me to get out of the crumpled car. The man is gone, I spin in a circle, but he is nowhere. That’s when I see it, there is hair fanned out on the ground coming from the window I just crawled out of. What the… I crouch down to look and instantly shoot back up, stumbling backwards. It can’t be… this isn’t happening… no, no, no. I stop, stunned, taking in the scene. Our car is crumpled mess filled with blood and glass and the unrecognizable bodies of my mom, dad and…me. The car that hit us is about fifty yards away. There is a hole in the windshield, and it is clear the driver has been ejected. I close my eyes not wanting to see the mangled body of the driver. I look back to our car trying to work up the courage to check on my parents. I reason they must still be alive because they are not here with me and I’m clearly dead. Or maybe…maybe I’m not. Hope flairs. Maybe I’m just having a near death experience. I kneel down to look at my body through the window. “Crap.”

  I admit to myself; it doesn’t look good. My eyes are open it doesn’t look like I’m breathing. I move toward the front of the car to check on my parents, hoping that maybe they have fared better than me. I move on hands and knees and stop short when I see a pair of large male feet in sandals that are very similar in style to mine, but without the heel. I stand and cannot help the look of shock as I take in the guy in front of me. He must be a foot taller than me with dark hair and light eyes, I’m not sure what color they are in the dark, but they have a gleam.

  “You need to come with me.”

  My mouth drops open as I take in his clothes. He is wearing an off-white tunic with thick leather strips sewn together to make a leather and metal belt that hangs low on his hips. The top of the tunic has sleeves that are cut high exposing his well-defined biceps and a good portion of his deltoids. His chest is covered in armor made from leather that is fitted to him like second skin and is studded with metal hobnail. I scan his body from head to leather sandaled feet once more before uttering the only thing my brain could manage to come up with. “What?”

  He steps closer, and he speaks slower drawing out each word as if I am a total moron. “You need to come with me.”

  Irritated at him for thinking I’m dumb, even though in all I honesty I am clearly behind the curve in this moment. I step closer, standing my ground against Caesar’s personal bodyguard. “What I need is to check on my parents.”

  He looks down to me with an expression I can’t decipher. “If your parents are not here, then you should be happy, it means they are at rest. We don’t have much time; the light will fade quickly.”

  I look at the car where the steady rain is falling in through the shattered windows, creating a river of blood that is quickly making its way to the half full ditch. Somehow, I manage to ask the question that I’m afraid I already know the answer to. “Am I dead?”

  His eyes never leaving my face he nods towards the car. “Yes, to that world you are dead.”

  I start to shuffle back, shocked even though I tell myself, you already knew that.

  “Haven…Stop.”

  “How do you know my name?”

  He holds his hands up as if to calm me. “I’ve seen you before. Look, Haven, my name is Lucius. I’m here to help you. I will explain everything, but we must hurry.”

  “Lucius…he, said you would come.” The sentence escapes me barely a whisper, but he hears it anyway.

  “Who said I would come?”

  “I don’t know, the man…he… the one who stopped the pain.”

  Lucius stares at me a question forming on his slightly parted lips. Suddenly, he snaps them shut and looks around. “We have to go now!” The urgency in his tone snaps me from my shocked stupor and I decide I have no better option than to trust Hercules.

  “Where are we going?” I see relief in his eyes, at my question, and can’t stop myself from adding. “As soon as we get there, I expect the explanation you promised.”

  The corners of his mouth just barely tilt up as he nods. “You have my word.” He steps closer and points over my shoulder. “Do you see that darkness moving this way?”

  I look at him with eyebrows raised. “You do realize that it is night, the darkness is all around us.”

  “No, look harder. First look at your car.” I do as he says. “Now look back behind you again.”

  I turn and stare into the rainy night, and then I see it, a darkness that is like the inside of a cave moving toward us. There is nothing visible in that space, the moon glinted rain is missing, it’s just complete darkness. “I see it.”

  I look over to him, his arms are crossed over his broad chest and his feet are shoulder with apart.

  “That is what we must avoid.”

  I nod my head instinctually understanding. Just looking at the slow creeping darkness fills me with anxiety and fear.

  He points to the roadway on the left. “Look closely, what do you see?”

  I stare seeing nothing. I am about to tell him so.

  “Try to relax.”

  “Just how does a dead person relax or concentrate for that matter?” I asked exasperated.

  “Quite the same way you did before you died.” He says with a grin.

  I roll my eyes and when they come back to center, I see it, I turn to him amazed.

  “There is a trail of light going down the highway. Is it always there?”

  “No which is why we must hurry to follow it.”

  He starts off walking at a quick pace. “Make sure you stay with me. Whatever you do, don’t wander off.” I hurry to catch up with him when I get close, I reach out my hand to grab his arm as I say, “Hold on.” But the rest of my sentence dies away as my hand moves through his body. My hand and his arm disappear, for a split second and I see the most beautiful color I have ever seen. It is so astonishing I feel my eyes sting with tears. “What the…”

  I look up at him and he gives me an impatient look. “We need to hurry.”

  I quickly try to hide my sudden emotional state with my best scowl and focus on my frustration. I mean, anybody in my position would have questions. Geez, I did just die! As if reading my thoughts, he says. “I know you have a lot of questions, but it is urgent we stay on course with the light. However, as a compromise while we walk you may ask one question, once I have answered it, we will need to run. “I can only ask one question?”

  “For now, later, when we are safe, I will do my best to answer your other questions.”

  I think quickly as we walk and settle on the most pertinent at the moment. “Is the light leading us to heaven?”

  “No.”

  “Then where is the light leading us?”

  “Away from the dark, that is two questions, now we must run. Do not worry, you will not tire.”

  I growl with frustration at the situation, I do not like the idea of following a stranger into the unknown. But he is the only way I’m going to get any answers, so I run to keep up with Brutus. We run in silence for a while. I can’t really tell how much time has passed, but I know the area and we have run about five miles, and he’s right I am n
ot tired or winded. It is effortless to move. I mumble to myself. “It must be a perk of being dead.”

  Lucius looks over at me. “What was that?”

  “I was just thinking not getting tired must be a perk of being dead.”

  “Yes and no, it is necessary because we must always be vigilant to stay with the light. At the same time, it also means that we are never at rest.”

  “Well since it is effortless to run, I don’t see why you can’t start answering my questions now instead of waiting until we get to wherever we are going.”

  “Mainly because conversation is a distraction and, as I said, we need to be vigilant, also the things you wish to discuss deserve undivided attention.”

  “Just one more question, please?”

  He sighs loudly, which I take to mean, ask away. “What happened when I tried to touch your arm, what were the colors?”

  He answers in the same way he has answered all my questions so far, matter of fact and without deliberation. “We are souls outside the body. We cannot touch or feel the physical world. But every soul has its own unique aura, like a personality manifested in a color that is all its own. When souls collide, the visual perception of the body disappears, as the auras combine and create a unique and completely unearthly color.”

  “Unearthly?”

  “The color you saw, have you ever seen it before?”

  I shake my head. “No, I wouldn’t even know how to describe it. It was…amazing.”

  He smiles just barely. “I think I need to see that.”

  “Huh?”

  “I didn’t see it before, now, you have me curious.”

  He reaches over to my shoulder and just for a second, I see the color again before he snatches his hand back. His eyebrows shoot up to his forehead like he is surprised, then his features quickly return to his inscrutable mask. “It’s probably best if we don’t touch in front of other souls.”

  “Why, is there something bad about the color?”

  “No, there is nothing wrong with the color.”

  “Then why, I think it’s beautiful?”

  “Because it is beautiful is the exact reason why.”

  “Look, Romulus, that doesn’t make any sense?”

  “Romulus?”

  “You know, Romulus, from roman mythology, the founder of Rome.”

  “Yes, I am aware of Romulus. He supposedly murdered his twin brother. It is not a friendly comparison. Why would you call me Romulus?”

  I point my hands towards his attire. “Really, is it that big of a mystery? I have a little game going in my head to see how many pseudonyms I can come up with for you. That may be the last I can think of.”

  “What are the others?”

  I recognize the tactic he is employing to change the subject, but I play along anyway. “Well, let’s see there’s Caesar’s bodyguard, Hercules and Brutus.”

  He laughs, loud and rich and I can’t help but smile at the sound. But I refuse to be redirected, so after a sidelong glance at a surprisingly nice smile, I refocus on the original topic. “So, why shouldn’t the others see the color we make?”

  “In the interest of self-preservation, I will answer your question. But I swear to you it will be the last discussion until we have settled into the light.”

  “Agreed”

  “The collision of two souls creates a unique color just like no individual soul is exactly the same color.”

  “How is that possible? I would assume there are many souls.”

  “There are more than you could imagine but think about a color and think how many variations could be in a single color. Different shades or levels of brightness all create a unique aura.”

  “So many of the colors, or auras would be similar?”

  “Yes, but the color that is created when they collide is completely different it’s not just a mixture of the two colors. I think of the colors as a glimpse of Heaven because they are so otherworldly. They are all beautiful, but some souls mix better than others. Some combine to form something so phenomenally beautiful that it seems absolute proof of a greater power beyond human understanding.”

  “Are you saying that our soul mixture is beautiful or phenomenally beautiful?” I glance over at him and he looks so unbearably uncomfortable that I already know the answer to my question.

  “I don’t get why that’s a bad thing? Is there something offensive about me, some reason why you wouldn’t want your soul to mix well with mine?” I ask feeling suddenly insecure and angry about it.

  He shakes his head. “No, it is not that at all. It is just that I have been here for a very long time and most people have several soul matches. I have only had one and that one is no longer here. And of all the matches I have seen, I have never seen one as extraordinary as ours.”

  I am speechless for a minute, lost in his explanation and the thought that we might be soul mates. I mean he is cute, but I’m dead and we can’t even touch so what good does any of it do me? Not to mention so far, he seems pretty bossy and aloof.

  “Wait, I thought people only had one soul mate? You said most people have several.”

  “You think that because your culture sexualizes everything. But try to think of it as more like a kindred spirit. Some souls just harmonize more naturally.”

  “So, you think we are just kindred spirits?”

  “I don’t know what we are, but I don’t want to figure it out in front of the entire assembly.”

  “The assembly?”

  I look at him for an answer, but he is already raising his arms and pointing towards the woods. And I see it in the middle of the dark rainy woods there is a huge dome of soft light. It’s as if there are a million candles lit in the middle of the forest. I can almost feel the warmth from the glow of the light, and I forget everything but my desire to go to it and be in its comfort.

  “The assemblies are places where the watchers go to gather. They are places of light that rarely go dark. The path of light on which we are traveling, for instance, will fade and may become overrun with darkness. The light that was with you when you died, the one that enabled me to find you, will soon be gone. We are traveling to a home of believers. The believers are filled with light and that light protects us from the darkness.”

  That statement snaps me out of my daze. “So, you’re telling me that our safety is dependent upon whether or not we can find believers to gather around?”

  “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.”

  “Huh?”

  “It’s from the bible.”

  “I know that!” I say a little too defensively.

  I catch a glimpse of a smile cross his lips. “Pardon me, I did not mean to imply anything. I was just answering your question. You see the living tend to think that the spiritual battles they fight are only for them. But this is one of the scriptures that was given to show them that their decisions are about so much more than mere earthly happiness, or even just themselves. We are all affected when one of the living believers allows evil to overtake their spirit.”

  “Do you mean “all” as in all the dead people?”

  “Well, I can’t speak for those in heaven, or those at rest, or those still living, for that matter. I am referring to those of us in the in between.”

  He stops us just inside the light, on the fringes, and I feel a little thrill as a wave of joy washes over me. I can’t stop the goofy smile from erupting on my face. He looks at me and smiles back and, if my heart was still beating, I’m sure it would have stopped. He is breath taking when he smiles, and his eyes nearly glow in the warm light. They are grey with silver streaking through them.

  “Do you feel it?”

  I answer breathlessly. “Yes”

  “You will always feel it, the peace and joy of the light, when you are in it. But I think the first time is more special.”

 
“Oh…oh…oh” I can’t help repeating myself as I realize, embarrassingly, that we were not talking about feeling the same thing. He gives me a curious look but says nothing. I search for something to say to ease my mortification. “This isn’t the first time I’ve felt it.” His eyebrows shoot up and I am mortified all over again because, now, I know for sure that he knows what was on my mind a second ago. “The peace I mean, I’ve felt this warm peace before.”

  His brow furrows. “When?”

  “It was not long after the car wreck. I was trapped and I was in so much pain. I hurt all over, and I kept trying to call out for help. I couldn’t get enough breath to make the words come out. Then I saw a flashlight and…bare feet. There was a man with rich brown hair, and I remember thinking he was going to cut his feet, but he walked on the glass like it was soft sand at a beach. He talked to me and it was like he could hear me even though I know that no were words were coming out of my mouth. It was such a relief to know there was someone there to help. He was so calm and reassuring. But then I started to panic again, because I couldn’t breathe, and the pain was so intense. He… “

  I raise my hand to imitate his movement and I fall into a daydream like state as I finish recounting the events.

  “Then, he reached out and touched my face and instantly all the pain was gone, and I could breathe. I felt amazing. I wasn’t scared or hurt, just warm and safe. He started to leave, and I tried to follow him but, he told me that I needed to stay. He said that a friend, Lucius was coming to help me.”

  Little by little the magnitude of everything that had happened and who had helped me started to sink into me, layer by layer, as if I still had flesh and bones for it to sink into. I hear Lucius clear his throat and I snap out of my reverie to look up at his visibly shocked face. With his voice thick with emotion he asks, “He called me a friend?”

  His face crumples like he is crying, and he instantly turns his back on me in order to reign in his emotions. A few moments later, he turns back, and his face is transformed, he is completely elated. “The Son of Man said I was a friend!” he cannot contain his excitement and laughs warm and rich, and the sound of such pure joy causes me to chuckle along with him. I move to pat his arm in a congratulatory manner, and he quickly dodges me. I quickly snatch my hand back trying not to be offended and failing miserably. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”