Undead Rising- Transcendendence Reborn

by Roberta Bliss

  When they were relatively far enough away from the deadly scene, Edie motioned for Sam to slow down. "Do you think he's ok?"

  Sam knew that the possibility of David surviving the fall in the manner that he landed was next to impossible, but she knew Edie's state was more fragile than the truth. "I'm sure he'll be ok, he'll slip away and get back up in the ceiling." Sam reassured.

  "Yeah, one time me and David were riding four wheelers and he flew over the handlebars. He just stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants." Bobbi inserted.

  "Shh!" Sam quieted the group. Her senses had become greatly enhanced since all the turmoil erupted." I hear someone," before the words rippled out, the sound of combat boots headed in the direction of her mom's classroom clearly sounded. "We have to hurry!"

  Olivia awoke to the sound of rumbling in the wall. Aunt Lizzy slowly regained consciousness as they now realized that Sam was missing. Olivia almost forgot about all the terrifying events that had happened to them, but maybe they just wanted to forget.

  "Mom!" Olivia heard a loud whisper that sounded like Sam, but the shuffling indicated more than one person. "Mom! We have to go now!" Sam bounded down the crawlspace with Edie and Bobbi in tow. Before Lizzy had time to react, Sam punched out the wall that they had worked on leading to the gym. She guided Edie and Bobbi through and motioned for Lizzy next. Olivia's legs were tired from being cramped up in the small interior, but fear pumped adrenaline through her and the thought of needing a walker was erased from her mind.Olivia put one steady foot in front of the other and she was keeping pace with Sam as they crossed the concrete flooring of the incomplete gym. The walls were partially constructed, except for the doors and windows. The roof had not been replaced yet and they had an unobstructed view of the night sky filled with twinkling stars. Looking at the sky could make you forget what was happening in the world, if only they could stop for a moment to enjoy them.

  Aunt Lizzy halted the group from traveling past the security of the building, "we need to look before we leap," she cautioned.

  "It's all good mom." Sam informed, "I can't hear any movement except on the main entrance and backside of the school, no one has been on this side of the building, there aren’t any tracks in the mud. We should have a clear shot to the little convenience store across the street."

  "How can you be so sure?" Katarina examined.

  "Just trust me, c'mon" There was no time to contemplate whether or not her calculations were right. I made it across the muddy parking lot before anyone else. I looked back at the group struggling through the muck. Edie was farthest behind the pack and fell into the mud face first.

  Sam doubled back to help Edie up. Edie struggled to her feet and let out a yelp of pain. Sam didn't wait to assess the situation as she slung her over her shoulder and took off in Olivia's direction. Aunt Lizzy and Kat had already made their way to her.

  "Man, Olive, you booked it over here!" Katarina was awestruck.

  "I just felt adrenaline in my legs and they took off, was I really that fast?" "Yeah, you could have won the 200 meter at that rate." Aunt Lizzy added. "Sam, are you going to be able to carry her like that all the way home?"

  Sam gently lowered Edie onto her undamaged limb. "Yea, she's not heavy at all."

  "Ok, but if you need me to help just say something. It looks like we still have a few hours of darkness, hopefully we can get home without anyone stopping us."

  "Should we get some food from the store?" Kat pointed to the well-lit interior of the high schools’ favorite before school hangout. Kids loaded up on tacos, donuts and coffee before a grueling day of forced education.

  "It's not safe in there," Sam explained, "I hear someone in there and they sound sick or something."

  "What's up with your supersonic hearing?" Kat teased.

  "I have no idea, but it's pretty cool huh?" Sam grinned. Olivia was the first to venture away from the cover of the convenience store dumpster. They had caught their breath and reformed the group. Sam volunteered to carry Edie as far as she could and Kat tried to keep pace with Olivia, but she easily flitted ahead of the group.

  "Hey, slow down Olivia!" Sam called to her. Olivia halted in her tracks and waited for the sweaty and winded group to catch up. She had not exerted an ounce of effort even though they had traveled several blocks at a brisk pace. She felt that she was actually holding back and would have liked to have the opportunity to stretch her legs. When she ran, her sense of sound faded away but her vision became sharper and focused on the end result. If Olivia saw where she was headed her eyes only saw that and everything around her blurred. She wanted to see how fast she could actually run with her new found ability. She ignored the pleas from Sam to slow down and practically teleported to the next house. Time seemingly stopped for the brief moment it took to travel from one house to the next.

  "Olivia!" Aunt Lizzy cautioned, "wait for us!" The group reached Olivia's position at a much slower pace than she had traveled. Sam was the only one in the group that didn't look extremely exhausted, Kat and Aunt Lizzy dropped to the grass catching their breath. "I have no idea what has gotten into you, but you just flew from there to here, I've never seen anything like it!" Aunt Lizzy breathlessly described.

  "I feel like I could go faster than that too!" Olivia was more than excited about her running capacity. "Just don't overdo it." Aunt Lizzy placed her hands on Oliva's shoulder, "you have to save your strength for whatever is ahead."

  "But I'm not even tired!" Olivia knew Aunt Lizzy was just looking out for her, but she didn't know how to tell her that this was an incredible experience Olivia was feeling despite the gloomy circumstances that lead to her discovery of it.

  Katarina detested physical education. She was not an outdoor kind of person. Sweat disgusted her. And now her best shopping buddy in the whole world, Olivia, transformed into an Olympic grade athlete. "Great, just great, my new life involved all the activities that I sucked at and mocha latte Frappuccino’s weren’t visible in my future" She mumbled. Her obsessively straightened locks frizzled into a mass of damp, wavy rats' nests. She didn't have access to a mirror, but assuredly her makeup resembled that of a raccoon face. Glamour magazine never had any articles on how to look amazing while surviving the apocalypse.

  The streets and neighborhoods were completely deserted which wasn't unusual in the middle of the night in Bishop Texas, but the overwhelming feeling of danger could not be ignored. Every crack, crevice, and blade of grass that they trampled upon seemed to be telling them to turn back. Olivia still didn’t feel exerted even though they had been on the move for hours. Sam kept telling the group that she heard people in their houses and was sure that someone was following them. Katarina couldn't hear anything except the deafening silence, there weren't even any dogs barking like usual, it was as if they felt the danger too. Cars were neatly stowed in their driveways. Katarina could imagine that all was well out there, but in her heart she knew otherwise.

  They were close to Aunt Lizzy's house as the horizon began to show signs of a new dawn. Olivia tried to remember the last time she had stayed up all night with Kat, but couldn't. They always made plans to stay up all night watching scary movies and eating junk food, but inevitably they fell asleep before the wee hours of the morning. Fatigue was apparent on Aunt Lizzy, Kat, Edie and Bobbi. It was taking them much longer to recover in between houses among the route they took to get home.

  Kat kept falling behind the pack. Edie was still lugged over Sam's shoulder. Sam was tired, but her focus was getting home. She wanted to see her baby brother and make sure he was safe. From there Sam hadn't thought of where they would be headed or what they would need to accomplish next. She wanted to check on their dad, but the group would need to recover for awhile first.

  The light from the rising sun revealed home just a couple of blocks away. Sam forgot about feeling tired and found the renewed energy to sprint towards home. She still didn't have the speed of Olivia, but she was close behind her blur. Their stepdad's oversized bla
zer was parked in the driveway giving them hope that he and baby James were safely inside. Sam waited in front of the garage for everyone to catch up.

  "Do you hear anything?" Lizzy asked with anticipation.

  “ I don't hear the baby, but maybe he's asleep. I think I hear James but he sounds like he has a cold."

  "Are you sure it's James?" Katarina questioned.

  "Who else would it be?" Sam shook her head at her dumb sister.

  "Well, I don't know, things are not exactly normal you know."

  "You’re not normal." "Girls, really? Do you have to do this now?" Lizzy asked exasperated. "Let's get inside and you can bicker all you want." Lizzy punched the code into the garage door, but nothing happened. None of the houses in our neighborhood had any exterior lights on and Sam could not hear any mechanical noises, leading her to believe that there was no electricity. She still heard people slowly moving in their homes, but no one seemed as active as our group of straggled travelers. She knew she heard something rustling aimlessly in their house but she couldn't determine who it was or exactly what their motive was.

  Sam had her keys in her backpack still and fervently dug through the tangle of supplies and necessities that weighed the pack down. "Found ‘em!" Sam raised the keys in triumph. They entered through the back of the garage and through the kitchen.

  Everything was nearly in its place, everything looked absolutely normal. Sam felt like crawling into her bed and sleeping away the nightmare that had unfolded. She set Edie down on the window seat bench in the kitchen with Kat and Bobbi and told them to wait until she scouted the house before leaving the relative safety of the kitchen. Her first instinct was to grab her bow and arrow for protection. She headed down the back hallway to her bedroom and retrieved her weapon. It felt good holding the one thing she knew she could use to protect her family. She didn't waste time gathering more supplies, hopefully they wound have time for that later.

  Sam heard a bloodcurdling scream from Kat in the vicinity of the living room. Her stomach felt like it dropped, her hearing sense overtook all other senses. She heard a low growl and shuffling movement along with the continuous screams of Kat with their mother yelling at her to go back to the kitchen. Sam heard the lamp overturn and someone fell into the television. Sam jolted down the stairway as fast as humanly possible.

  The sight in front of her eyes in the living room was more chilling than she anticipated. She picked up her mom from where she had fallen into the television set. Kat stood in a shocked motionless gaze. Sam pushed Kat and their mom behind her and took aim quickly pointing her arrow at the once human form that resembled James.

  Dust particles hovered in the air all around her. The eyes that met hers were not compassionate, they lacked any acknowledgement of a former life. Grayness masked the once olive tone of her stepfather’s skin. Blood stained the torso of James in a pattern that indicated a bullet wound. A bullet through the chest like that would spell out certain death, but James was not dead. He was alive, but he was not the James they once knew. He didn’t speak a single word, instead he grunted and growled in a low, husky tone that had no resemblance of human language. His hands were rigid and held in an upright position as if to grab anything in his path. Sam studied the inevitable target that she knew she had to desecrate. Time had frozen for her as the objects around her continued their movements in slow motion. She wanted some kind of sign from James that this was a bad joke or he was just sick and in pain, but the sign never came. Her arm was already extended in the position meant for a stolid release of the arrow. With one quick motion the release was complete and James was thrown back into a state of evident motionlessness.

  Chapter 6

  Silence invaded the room. Sam had never killed a living thing in her life, let alone a person. She knew it was a necessity; he would have killed their mom and maybe all of them if she'd let him live. Sam never really liked her stepfather, but killing him was not something she had ever even fantasized about. Sam's arms were shaking erratically and she lowered the bow to the carpet.

  "Sam!" Her mother broke the silence, "why did you do that? I was trying to ask him where baby James was!" She took Sam by the shoulders and shook her back to state of consciousness.

  "Mom, he didn't know who or what we were, I don't think he would have given you an answer." Sam snapped back at her shrugging her hands off her shoulders.

  "Maybe he was just sick and couldn’t talk, you didn't have to kill him!" Lizzy started breaking down into heavy sobs. "Mom, he wasn't even human anymore, he threw you into the TV!" Sam was tired of having to justify her actions. She knew it had to be done. She picked up her bow and headed to the kitchen, passing a tearful Kat along the way. She didn't even like the guy, what was she all sad about it. Sam mused. Besides, they didn't have the luxury of time to be sad, they needed to find baby James.

  Sam headed down the hall to baby James room. His crib stood empty and still but Sam heard breathing somewhere in the room giving her false hope. Upon further inspection under the dresser was the panicked face of their beloved Piper holding baby James Ernie doll gently in her mouth.

  "Come here girl, here Piper." Olivia was too scared to leave Edie and Bobbi in the kitchen alone. She knew by the voices that Kat, Aunt Lizzy, and Sam were ok, but the events that unfolded in the living room were beyond her scope of reasoning. The changes that were taking place in the world as they once knew it weren't properly registering in her brain.

  The garage door flew open and a shadowy figure slid through it. Sam raised her bow in the doorway of the kitchen taking aim at the unwelcomed object.

  "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" A familiar voice panicked, "Chillax! I heard the commotion and came to see if you all needed help!"

  "You're lucky your head is still attached!" Sam chastised as she lowered her weapon when she recognized that the shadowy figure was Quinn, one of their friends from school.

  " I've been following you since you left school."

  "Why didn't you say something before now?" Sam wondered. "I wanted to make sure you guys weren't infected. The whole damn world is turning into zombies!"

  " What are you talking about?" Sam questioned as Kat and Lizzy filtered into the kitchen.

  "Well, yesterday I stayed home from school to go to the doctor for my finger that I sprained at football practice, but when we got to the doctor there were so many people waiting, mom just decided to take me home and give me one of her pain pills. I turned on the TV and there was nothing but news people talking about a virus that literally turns you into a zombie."

  "Are you kidding me?" Sam interjected.

  "But Sam that makes sense, kind of. I mean our school was overrun by the CDC." Kat added.

  "Yeah, and remember what Amy looked like in the library?" Bobbi included.

  "Ok, so is there a cure or something?" Sam asked. "Well, from what I saw on TV, once you get it that's it. They showed Corpus and it was like a war zone. I guess everyone here took the advice of the news and stayed in their houses, except my mom, she left to go get my brother at school and never came back. I couldn’t get her on the phone so I went to the school to find her but it was all surrounded by the army or CDC I guess, so I waited by the gym until you guys came out."

  "What exactly is it?" Lizzy pushed for information.

  "It's some kind of virus, you know like the flu , except you die and turn into a flesh eating zombie." " How do you get it?" Lizzy continued. "The news said you can get through a bite or scratch, some thought you could catch it from bodily fluids of an infected live person just before they die."

  "This is really bad, really bad." Lizzy shook her head and took a seat next to Edie.

  "The news people said that healthy people were being taken on boats in Corpus."

  "Then that's where we should go" Edie piped in.

  "How are we gonna get there? Mom's car is still at the school" Kat reminded.

  "We can take James' blazer" Sam explained. "We just can’t take too many supplies." "Ok, but I think we n
eed to rest and wait until dark to travel, for one thing the blazer overheats, and I think our chances of not running into anyone will be better at night." Lizzy continued.

  Sam and Lizzie continued to strategize, but Olivia's mind wandered off to her own world of disbelief. Although her physical abilities had drastically improved, mentally she was still a freshman in high school, not ready to take on the world. She liked not having to worry about the future because she knew that no matter what she chose to do she would be ok. Her mom's money had a way of putting her at ease, but all of mom's money couldn't get them out of the future that was developing in front of them now. She guessed she never appreciated what she had. She wasn't sure if she would trade being able to walk for going back to the life she had before, but at this point she thought it would be a fair trade.

  Kat knew this was the end of the world because mom used her favorite leopard print throw to cover James with. Kat didn't know how to feel about James being killed. Of course she was upset, but she was so worried about themselves that taking time to mourn her stepfather just didn't seem to be a priority. She didn't really like him, she didn't hate him either, but she liked the way things were before he came along. She figured she was more worried about the impact on baby James and mom than anything else. Mom seemed out of place, like nothing registered yet. She couldn't feel sorry for herself when she knew how bad mom was hurting.

  Kat couldn't get the strength to leave the position she was planted in watching for any movement from James under the blanket. She had never witnessed something as morbid as this. Olivia finally came and got Kat from the living room and took her into the kitchen where she was greeted by exuberant wet kisses from Piper.