Sorrow: A Novel Written by Brian Wortley

by Brian Wortley

  Before reaching the downtown area, Brady slipped inside a building. There he stashed the device in a place he hoped none would find it.

  Brady made his way slowly towards the downtown area but came to a large wall constructed of cars, twisted metal beams, and random building material all mashed together into a defensive perimeter. Brady made his way along this for some time until he came at last to an entrance on the south side. Several zombies crawled about the gate guarding it. By their limber movements, he assumed them to be level two zombies. Trying to show no signs of fear, Brady entered. They gave him no hassle about passing through the gate but scraped his head deeply leaving three gashes as he passed under them.

  Once inside the perimeter, he felt it. Like a deafening heartbeat it throbbed through the barren streets. Without even knowing its source, Brady knew he’d lose himself to it if he proceeded deeper into the downtown area. It sang to him like a siren’s spell. As a rope, it lassoed his mind bringing it to its knees. His vision grew blurry at its beat. Knowing he had no choice, Brady couldn’t help but stumble forward deeper into the downtown area succumbing to its power.

  It came to him as a tide engulfing first his feet and moving up along his body. The insanity of it swelled against the door of his mind and everything within him desperately tried to keep it out. With his whole mind, he fought its onslaught but in the end the waves could not be defeated. His grit teeth relaxed and his furled brow unbound. The fortress of his mind was overthrown and cast into the ranks of the enemy.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  What ensued shook Brady to his very core. He exchanged everything he knew for a terrifying nightmare swallowing his mind whole. At first, he knew only the throbbing and sat under its emanating power for a season. It spoke to him saturating his mind in its filth. With that complete, Brady knew only darkness for another season. At first he thought he slept but the horrors before his eyes reminded him he remained fully awake. For an eternity it seemed he drifted outside of himself as if in and out of the ranks of others. He woke only for the briefest of moments to find himself performing unthinkable terrors. And so reigned a season of tortuous abominations to Brady. He woke just in time to feel his fingers gouging out the eyes of a human or his teeth sinking into the juicy arteries of a fallen human warrior. Where he was or how long he’d been in this state, he could not tell. After a prolonged period of darkness, he woke finding himself howling in the night like a wolf and then diving again into his victim’s corpse. The intoxicating feel of blood seeping between his teeth sent shutters through his aching soul.

  These moments of terrifying consciousness left him hollow. With tragedy happening at his unfamiliar fingertips, he lost a little more of his humanity. He knew not himself anymore and shuttered at the terrors he found himself committing. Time after time he would regain a small portion of his humanity and wake to find himself mourning over the hideous acts he did. At one point he desperately tried to think of how many people he killed but found himself unable to recount. Perhaps the deepest grief carving through his soul came upon the fact that there seemed no end to these nightmares. A guilty prison hewn by his own bloody hands caged him.

  Once his mind had given itself over completely to his new life, he struggled no more with guilt. Waking again, his clawed fingers came to him shoveling in a recent kill and he felt the fresh organs now sweet against his tongue. All feelings of shock abandoned him and he regarded his killings with no more distaste than when he used to devour the meat of animals. All the while the throbbing continued like a glowing light to guide his way. Unquestioningly Brady obeyed.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  Brady opened his eyes as if for the first time discovering himself in the bowels of the darkened city. In a great crowd he awoke and for the first time stood still against the flow of zombies. Mindlessly they proceeded past him unaware or uncaring of his new found consciousness. The city’s small skyscrapers loomed above him as dark towers blotting out the sky.

  The landscape of the city had been changed dramatically. He no longer recognized his once beautiful city. Twisted beauty greeted his eyes in glorious displays. Similar to the downtown landscapes of art city dwellers created during the Neon Age, these zombies had built a city forged on zombie architecture. They had transformed the entire downtown area to be a magnificent display of death. Buildings had been covered in a black substance that had dripped down onto the streets. Rotting bodies and twisted skeletons were woven into a sick art. Blood and other body fluids, used like paint, decorated many areas.

  A soft squishing noise attracted his attention. As Brady turned, he perceived a tube not unlike how he thought a colon would look. Through its transparent walls, Brady saw the horrifying faces of the dead. As he sat to watch, hundreds of fallen humans squeezed their way through the tubes. The faces pressed up against the walls distorted and twisted. The corpses moved within some cloudy liquid. As Brady examined it closer, everything within it moved upon a pulse as if some pump pushed them.

  Perhaps the most attractive piece of the whole city came upon the wind to Brady’s ears. Silence. A peace such that Brady had never known permeated the air. Not a sound, except the soft pattering of rotting feet invaded the atmosphere. Brady thought that nowhere else on earth could he find a more perfect place. Tears almost came to his eyes as he gazed upon the beautiful city. At last humanity had peace. All his terrible actions of killing and eating took place outside these hallowed walls. In here, he found only a dark and mysterious serenity.

  Looking about, Brady noticed many of the downtown buildings had been damaged. There in an intersection he found a curious object. A tank, driven into the side of one of the buildings, sat with a skeleton hanging from the main gun. As he examined it closer, he found the skeleton was not completely bare for his head remained completely clothed in skin. Brady guessed some vigilante took it upon himself to cleanse the city in a tank and paid dearly for it.

  Brady stepped out of the crowd to the side of the street and watched as waves of zombies churned like the sea. Though at first, they seemed to have no patterns or purpose, they moved in a reasonable madness. For the first time his mind turned to Sara. But as soon as he thought of her his mind buckled overwhelmed at the vast numbers before him. Finding her would be an enormous task.

  Although he maintained a slight resistance, the great throbbing within the city still maintained a great control over him. He found himself still often giving in to its temptation. He could not tell if he lost himself for hours or weeks when he entertained one careless thought and slid back into the throb’s domain. Sometimes it seemed months passed between sessions of consciousness. He finally came to realize that all his energies must be focused on maintaining his sanity or else the darkness would take him again.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  One day, a great silence came over the crowd so thick Brady thought everyone stopped breathing. None moved. The hideous throbbing intensified and Brady now gritted his teeth almost unable to bear it. The darkness swelled throughout the street as a fog.

  To Brady’s horror, he spared the strength to open his frightened eyes and beheld the most hideous creature he had ever encountered. The ringing inside his head stopped long enough for Brady to focus on the monster before him. It slinked out of the building and onto Brady’s mind as if straight from fantasy. With a great effort of will Brady peered at the creature and identified it as a third level zombie. But this monster seemed altogether unlike Leonard of the mountain. This hideous beast bore a body barely tethered to the mortal world. Not even a madman would dare cast this beast's classification into the realm of humanity. Its burning spirit cast its twisted and disfigured body carelessly into the world of men.

  Brady knew this being to be the source of the throbbing. The eerie connection he felt in the mountain paled in comparison to the overwhelming force he felt emanating from the creature before him. It consumed his mind bending Brady’s will like a twig.

  Brady, obviously struggling to main
tain his sanity, fell to his knees shaking under the weight of his burden. Something lifted his head and he found the creature’s face only inches away from his own. His empty eye sockets glared into Brady’s soul despite their lack of vision. Brady looked its face up and down to find a gnarled figure with a large gaping hole where the nose should have been. From this triangular valley came a great rasping noise that Brady could only assume was the creature’s way of sniffing. Brady’s skin crawled at the unnerving sensation of being inspected.

  The thing sniffed for a moment as if taking in Brady’s scent. It then peered deeply into Brady’s face and a slight smile crossed its face. He moved back, a gesture Brady mistook for leaving, and then lunged forward with its twisted arm and placed his rotting hand on Brady’s head.

  In a deafening voice, Brady heard the beast's words echo deep inside his head, “You are mine.” With them still ricocheting between the sides of his skull, his eyes failed him and he plunged into darkness. Then, as he feared, his hellish nightmare of existence returned.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  Brady passed out of consciousness and found he again had no means of perceiving the passing of time. Eventually he felt himself entering a third season. To his amazement, it seemed one of clarity. Fairly consistently now he remained conscious. He felt others around him in a new way as if they were objects that could be grasped. The swirling insanity of his world lessened and he discovered some semblance of control. He found his thoughts performed by others as if they were an extension of his mind. The finesse and efficiency of how he killed greatly increased. Few humans, even with powerful guns, could resist him. All, it seemed, fell prey to his insatiable hunger.

  During an assault, Brady perceived something like lines on the earth and knew them to be the best way to attack. Effortlessly his mind grasped the zombie objects around him and forced them into these lines. His minions, the lowest ranking of all zombie-kind, jumped into obedience. Soon Brady saw the human encampment falling to his lesser minions. Their horrible guns finally silenced and their wretched bodies reduced to food.

  Brady screeched over his minions when their victory seemed complete and they echoed back his celebration. Brady tore into a corpse to feed and felt the warm flesh in his mouth. But his pleasant feeding was cut short when he felt the control of a nearby object rip out of his mind without reason.

  In reaction, Brady stood and felt another beside him simply disappear from his control. He guessed some human killed them but lately he’d felt the presence of a beating heart when humans drew near. And now he felt nothing. Another and another left Brady’s control until finally Brady chanced to see a gun sticking out from a ledge several buildings over. Rage consumed him at the enemy’s deception and the loss of his minions. In his furious mind, Brady could already see his perfectly placed fingernails scraping across the enemy’s face.

  Brady bolted into position behind the building where he saw the enemy. Now that he was close enough, Brady felt two beating human hearts. Their rhythm only fueled Brady’s rage into an uncontrollable frenzy. In his mind, he made a call to all nearby minions to assist him but heard none echo his command. Seeing the humans had murdered all his companions, Brady could contain himself no longer. He tore through the door and crashed up the stairs towards the thumping hearts.

  In his anger, Brady came bursting through the wall. Sheetrock and boards flew out from his new entrance. The humans had heard Brady’s noisy approach and were prepared. Both fired their side arms as soon as Brady came into sight. He absorbed their attacks and grabbed the human on his left. Like trash he effortlessly threw her through the window of the second floor. Glass shattered as she desperately tried to grab onto anything she could reach. But her fingers failed to find hope and she plummeted down onto the street.

  The second human fired off the remainder of his pistol’s ammo and scurried into the bathroom next to him. Brady pulled himself to the opening of the bathroom and eclipsed the doorway. To Brady’s surprise, a sledgehammer came crashing down onto his hand. Brady screamed out in reaction. Brady pulled back his hand and looked at it in fury. The human came charging from the bathroom with sledgehammer raised above his head. Brady felt its blow against his chest and almost laughed. With little effort, Brady slipped his fingers around the human’s chest and lifted him into the air. The human tried to swing his hammer again but Brady simply knocked it away. As if Brady were a boy and the man a doll, Brady put one hand around the victim’s neck and simply plucked off his head.

  Brady stood to take in his well earned silence but found the beating of the woman’s heart outside still infecting the world. Moving down to the street, Brady found the woman crippled on the ground. She had tried to crawl away but her wounds were too great. He overshadowed her and she tried to pull herself to safety.

  Brady perceived only a beating heart that needed ending. He saw it in her chest defying him. With his good hand he punctured a hole through her skin and dug into her heart. He felt it pulsing against his fingers. With his dirty fingernails he pierced its side and felt the release of warm blood. The woman helplessly latched onto his arm and tried to stop him but her crippled strength could not begin to refuse him. Brady punctured again and again the evil heart before finally he damaged it enough to stop its horrific beating.

  With the humans killed, Brady stood to take in the silence. Everything now seemed right to him. He plucked up the woman’s dead body and began eating it. As he did he felt an unnerving feeling as if he were being watched. When he stood completely still, he could make out the faintest beating of a heart far away.

  The air felt suddenly cold on Brady’s broken skin. Some evil thing seemed to be looming in the buildings. This complex and strange emotion surprised him for he had not known fear before now. In reckless rage, he charged into nearby buildings searching their inner rooms. Even though he found no one, he felt something sinister nearby.

  The entire experience unnerved him and he felt as if some evil thing transpired. But he paid it little attention for his king’s call came beckoning him to return.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  Rushing back into the bowels of the city, Brady quickly became aware of the reason for his recall. With new minions to extract information from, Brady felt an attack on the underside of the city. His king confirmed his need to be there. Fresh from one battle, Brady ran to enter another. His mind prepared itself and reached out to nearby minions.

  Beckoning those nearby, Brady created a horde to overwhelm the enemy. A fury rose at the audacity of these humans to attack their very city. Even as he thought, Brady started moving faster and his rage consumed him. By the time he came close enough to hear the gunfire, Brady worked himself and his minions into a frenzy. These vile enemies broke the beautiful silence of the city and Brady could not tolerate this. His king should never be threatened.

  Brady charged into the fray in full strength. At the sight of so many enemies and now Brady, the humans retreated. But Brady, under the fury of his king, could not let them live. He chased down one as it ran into a building. Breaking through the doorway, Brady entered the structure and perceived the heart in the next room. It defied him with its beating. Brady thought of nothing but ending its horrible rhythm.

  Moving in for the kill, something startled him so deeply it made him stop. The human, though it bore a beating heart, echoed into Brady’s ears the greeting only a zombie could give. He stopped to consider it and found the human’s mind not unlike his own. Brady attempted to enter and control it and was refused but it still bore the marks of influence from the king. Brady found it advanced and matured but on a completely different path than his own mind. This creature had not followed the normal progression through the first level and then the second level. Somehow it seemed altogether different. It still retained parts of its humanity.

  Brady sneered at the thing unsure of what to do with it. In one way, Brady seemed fascinated with it. His mind desperately wanted to explore the other mind and learn its secrets.
Brady had no idea anyone like this existed. But a second part of his mind screamed for him to kill it. It appeared altogether more human than any minion should.

  All Brady’s curiosity was trumped by the king’s call. The king asked for Brady and this new creature to appear before him. Brady forced his mind to disengage the fight and turn its attention solely to this new minion. Brady stretched out his hand and carried this new creature back with him into the city of the dead.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  Soon Brady stood before one of the large buildings and awaited his king. He dropped the minion callously and watched it rise on its own two feet and await the king next to him.

  Brady turned his head to look the thing up and down again in curiosity. It took offense to this and snapped at him speaking words he could not understand. Brady considered crushing the obstinate thing into the ground but knew his king would be displeased.

  The king, like a burning brightness, descended upon them. The great throbbing of his mind forced Brady and his companion into submission. It came against them like powerful waves crashing into the shores of their minds.

  In an instant, Brady felt a strong emotion within his king. Brady’s companion shrieked back under the power of the king’s mind. Though Brady was not privy to their telepathic conversation, he could see the weight of the king’s anger crash against the minion’s beating heart like an avalanche. His anger, like a fire, burned the minion.

  Brady watched as the king performed something Brady did not know to be possible. In complete distaste for the creature, the king rose above it and cursed it. In a powerful display of anger, the king violently severed his mind’s connection with the minion. This horrible disgrace and shame crushed the minion. Brady saw, like a line, the king’s influence retract from the minion and it became altogether worthless.

  In utter anguish the creature fell to its knees with hands out. It pleaded and begged but the king would not tolerate it. Without this link to the king, the minion appeared naked and without protection. Its human elements shone through and it began to appear altogether appetizing. Several nearby minions approached it to devour it.