Chapter 17 – Zach
My best friend…….Jeremy was my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were babies, when we were kids we were inseparable, most of the time we shared the same crib for god’s sake. I couldn’t believe that he was really gone. I bent down and held Ashley as she cried her eyes out. She had finally found someone to love, someone that wouldn’t treat her like garbage, someone who would finally treat her with respect, and in an instant he was taken away from her. I knew how she felt, before Jeremy had come along and grabbed me to come on the road with him, I had a girlfriend myself. Her and I were the definition of love, but when the outbreak began, she was taken. We were running down a street, she tripped and she yelled for me to go on without her. I had to fight against every fiber of my being not to help her, but I knew she would not want me to go as well. Before I turned my back for the final time, I blew her a kiss, and she blew one right back. I ran as I heard her bloodcurdling screams and the bites and the tears. I knew exactly what Ashley was feeling, So I knew how to comfort her.
“Ash, it’s not your fault. It was fate, Jeremy’s time came, we can’t change that. But what we can do is remember him. We can remember Jeremy for who he was, and what he did for us. You need to remember, Ash, that he loved you very much. He would want you to move on and be happy. He would want all of us to move on, but still remember him." I said, through the cracks in my voice. Ashley looked up at me, and through the tears in her eyes, she smiled.
"Thanks Zach, your right." She said "What we need to do, in honor of Jeremy, is find Morgan and get the information we need." Everyone agreed to this, and at that we all began to return to the RV. As we began to walk back, I remembered me and Jeremy as kids, playing video games, tag, basketball, four wheeling, bicycling, and trampolining. We were the best of friends, and it's always been that way. He went out like a hero, as I expected. Giving his life to save Weir's was probably the most courageous thing Jeremy has ever done. After about 45 minutes passed, we had made it to the RV.
"Pack your things everyone, we're leaving. Haley claimed. I figured that would probably be the best course of action, because the RV was pretty beaten and battered. It wasn't a very good shelter, as well as the fact that it didn't run anymore. Everyone else must have felt the same, because everyone began to gather their things. I had no idea where we were going to go, considering the RV was out only shelter for 3 months. The feeling inside the RV was tense; for many of us, Jeremy was our best friend, for the others, Jeremy was a good friend who was always there when we needed him. For the entirety of our packing, no one said a word. we spent about an hour and a half packing everything, and we decided to go pay our friend Dr. Richard Morgan a visit. We bid the RV farewell and began our voyage for 7926 Sunset Falls, Colorado Springs. As we walked,
we found ourselves reminiscing on the good times that we shared with Jeremy. My childhood with him, Weir and Wilson's gaming binges, Haley's hanging out. We started laughing at the funny things he would say and do. For the last part of his life he even wore bright orange shoes, because orange was his favorite color.
"So what are we going to do once we find Morgan?" Wilson asked
"We ask him what he's up to with these gems and see what they are for. At this point, he is our best shot at finding out what these gems are capable of." Ryan answered. "We find out everything he knows so we know what kind of power we are dealing with. I don't know about you guys, but I've been feeling something strange when I'm by the gems. It's as if they're trying to talk to us, and it seems like they're getting stronger the closer we get to Morgan." Now that he mentioned it, I felt the same way. There was definitely something weird about these gems, something that my mother, the expert jeweler that she was, probably couldn't even imagine. Whenever I would get close to these gems, I feel like there is some sort of……….magic to them. Whatever Morgan did to them, he definitely made them special. As our trek continued, I kept thinking about what seemed like a lost cause. Jeremy and I had such a bond between us that we could almost tell when the other was in danger. If Jeremy had died, I would have felt it. Because of this, I found myself hanging on to the seemingly hopeless thought that Jeremy may still be alive. However, I watched a huge chunk of concrete that must have weighed at least a ton fall 3 stories down directly onto Jeremy. There was no way anyone could survive that……….could there?
"According to the address, Morgan's house should only be about a block away." Weir told us, breaking me from my thoughts. I started paying more attention to reality, and I noticed an orange glow coming from Ryan's pocket that had been getting stronger as we got closer to Morgan's.
"Ryan, what's that glowing in your pocket?" I asked. Everyone stopped, and Ryan looked down at his pocket.
"What the hell?" he muttered to himself. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the gems. He opened his palm and watched them as they glowed. A few moments passed and then, suddenly, the gems began to float from Ryan's hand and began to slowly spin. Their brightness increased and they shone almost as bright as the sun. They then began to float away from us, down the road. They appeared to be floating closer to Morgan's place, so could that be the cause of the gem's mysterious behavior? I guess the only solution would be o follow them. We did so as they spun a bit faster and glowed a bit brighter until they ran straight into the front door of a house.
"This is the place, 7926 Sunset Falls." Weir announced. Ryan put out his hand to grab the gems, but as he did so, the gems seemed to disintegrate into the front door. Ryan froze in shock. I looked over into the window and saw the dark walls begin to glow a bright orange.
"They went straight through the door!" I yelled. At that, Ashley stepped up and kicked the door down. I didn't know what was more shocking, the gems that had just passed through a solid front door, or the fact that Ashley had just kicked that same door off of it's hinges. We followed the gems through the living room and kitchen.
"Aaaaahhh………there you are my pretties! Come to daddy………you truly are my most beautiful pieces!" A demented, psychotic voice echoed from the bottom of the stairs. Ryan held out his arms against the walls and signaled for us to stop. The gems continued down the stairs and enveloped us in the shadows. Before long, we were unseeable, and had the element of surprise.
"Yesssssss…….come to papa my pretties!" The strange man held out his hands openly, and sure enough, the gems went right into his hands. The glow from the gems began to dim, and before long, the room went back to darkness. The man began to walk away, his footsteps fading into the dark rom. After we were sure he was gone, Ryan brought out his flashlight. He silently began to walk down the stairs, motioning us to follow. We proceeded into the darkness and noticed some weird surroundings. Around us, I noticed some outlines of statues of Greek gods, as well as stone tablets. We advanced into the mysterious room, and heard strange chanting. The psycho was chanting some sort of worship to the gems. We spotted a door that had blue, green, white, and orange lights seeping through it's cracks, and decided to head towards it. As we proceeded, the chanting became more understandable.
"By the elements of the world! By the mystical power of the mayans! Allow these stones to absorb thine power!" he chanted. I kept wondering what the hell he was talking about. As we got closer to the door, the temperature rose. It seemed as if all the energy in the state was being directed into this one place. We were all now pressed against the door, listening intently to his chants. "The ancient rings shall call their masters, thus saving the world for sure disaster. Fire, Water, Earth, Air; their combined powers none shall compare. Ancient powers rise by my hand, and restore order to this wasteland. From the power of magic and the power of science, please restore the power giants!" It was clear that Ryan had heard enough of his nonsense. He proceeded to kick the door down, but when he did, we all saw something we never expected.
Kinemortophobia (The Fear Of The Undead) Book 1 Page 17