And some gained the ability to slip out of time and see it as a corridor. They perceived and could experience the past in a way previously unthinkable to humanity. In perfect clarity, these special few could revert back to the past and examine every detail.
Perhaps through some hint subtly woven by the hosts, the realization dawned on Sara and her company that they viewed the Nex facility in Denver sometime in the past. The terrible beings, now seen clearly to be employees of Zalac, became passionate about several of these new characteristics some of their victims produced. Whenever any subject began showing potential, the victim was carted off to be “trained” in another part of the facility.
The three hosts were starting to show potential in their respected areas when the Nex started to close. Zalac’s troops came rushing through the hallways shouting and killing those who happened to be in their path. The three hosts, in time past, hid under the bodies of other dead remaining in their cells until another came to rescue them long after the facility had been shut down. Their rescuer called himself Protocuss and helped them out of their cell.
Protocuss told the three he had been a part of a group singled out for “training.” Because many of the subjects underwent severe brain damage, robotic assistants retrained them on the English language and human habits. Protocuss, who showed potential for creating things, took his new pupils aside preparing them for the outside world. He had visited Denver a few times out of curiosity but came to prefer the solitude of the Nex. His companions, having no love for the Nex, wanted to venture into the outside world. In the end, the three and Protocuss parted ways for he would not leave the solitude of the Nex.
The three wandered about several weeks after the virus hit avoiding zombie interaction. All the while, Reginald and Constantino started showing signs of possessing the ability to create. They came to rest in their current hotel and simply created anything they desired.
The impact of the three hosts telling their story in this manner left the audience dumbfounded. When the company awoke from the host’s dream, they came back to life slowly as if from a great blow.
Everyone woke in the upper room unsure of what happened. They glanced at each other waiting for someone to speak.
“What just happened?” asked one of the men.
“I feel like I just ate a whole cow,” Val said.
Sara let them continue their discussion and went to find her friend Corpus but as it turned out she ran into Reginald first.
“What was that?” Sara asked.
“Imagination is creation.”
“What are you?”
“I am you. A true symbol of humanity stripped free from dust and debris. We are humans ripped from thousands of years of crippling DNA. We understand ourselves in a brand new way. You have no idea the power of the brain you carry around in your bones. Unlock the clock to find you walk the very halls of time!”
“Corpus has been teaching me. What else do I need to know?”
“We got this gift by scalpels in our grey wrinkles and radiation in our eyes.” He leaned very close to her widening his eyes like a wild man. “How did you come by it?”
“It was a gift from my husband.”
“Such a thing is not a gift. Ask the fool of a man Corpus is. It has reduced and loosed him. But I will tell you more of this tomorrow.”
∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙
Sara went outside to consider the oddity of the experience. She thought a good walk might clear her head. She discovered Connor must have had the same thought for he hobbled out in the distance already. She turned around to retreat to the solitude of her room but stopped. Although she battled reluctance, she finally approached him.
“Do you mind company?” Sara asked.
Connor seemed startled she would ask. “You don’t mind being seen with an outcast?”
She sat down beside him.
“Do you hate me?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I guess that’s honest.”
“I don’t want to hate you, but you’ve been such an asshole lately. And in the past apparently…”
“I know.”
“How could you do those things to her?”
“I wasn’t thinking of much else besides having a family and getting America back. I know I’m awful. I want to change. I honestly do. I’ve been out here almost every day soul searching. I’m trying to change, Sara. I don’t want to be the kind of man Val hates.”
“I want to like you. Help me not hate you, Connor.”
The two sat together in silence for a time. Connor felt grateful to have someone to sit with for once.
Finally Connor spoke, “The journey has been very strange since... we left. This hotel is bizarre and I do not care for it. Nothing is like I thought it would be. Sara, I want you to lead us. I still have some sway in the group and I could get you in that position. I’m sure Val would be ok with that as long as she didn’t know I influenced it.”
“I don’t want to lead.”
“Why not? You would be the perfect leader. You are passionate and people look up to you. They’d follow you.”
“My burden is elsewhere. I think I know, but I will not say.”
He desperately tried to think of comforting words but found none. “I know this doesn’t mean a lot coming from me, but I’m sorry things turned out as they did.”
Sara moved to her feet to head back inside.
Connor struggled to his one foot and made a startling comment, “And I’m sorry about Brady. I wish he were here.”
She looked into his eyes and softly replied, “Thank you.”
Connor watched Sara walk back and enter the hotel. Connor started hopping out into the distance. When he was a ways off, he fell without warning. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and wept. Stretching it out upon the ground, the dim sunlight touched these words:
Like a child, I cuddled you in my arms as your sweet smile filled my heart. When you looked up at me, I felt invincible. Stronger than the darkness I stood in your eyes. I believed you and fully became this knight of your dreams. And so I took my blade to fight the dragon. Forgetting I was only a man. And the snarls frightened me. And the fires engulfed me. And I couldn’t live up to the look in your eyes. Being cast aside like trash, I watched in horror as the dragon broke into your bedroom. I’m a failure as a father. I’m a failure as a husband. Everything I touch slips away. And I’m left alone shaking in the dark. Daddy couldn’t save you, Aiden. I wasn’t strong enough to be your hero, Britney. I failed you as a husband, Rachel. I’m failing you still, Valerie. Everything I touch ignites in flames. The whole world burns behind me. I miss you all so much!
My love. My children. My dream in flames.
Slowly, Connor read over it one last time before he pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit the corner. There Connor watched it burn until it was nothing more than ash. For a long time he sat thinking alone.
∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙
Two days from Sara and Connor’s conversation, Connor convinced Val to speak with him. He presented it all formally as if he had some business proposal that needed her decision.
Val waited for him on the roof of the hotel. Connor found her overlooking the wilderness. There, far off to the south, an abnormally dim sun barely peeked above the horizon. It reminded Connor of pictures he had seen of a red Martian sunrise.
“What’s on your mind,” she said in her formal voice.
Connor tried to be as brief and blunt as possible for fear she’d cut him off at any moment. “Val, I thought I’d dealt with my family’s death years ago-”
“Connor! I’m not interested in your personal life anymore. I thought you had something informative to talk about.”
Connor fell to his knee. “Please hear me out! I’m begging you!”
Connor reached out and almost touched her. “Valerie! PLEASE!”
“Why should I listen to you? Give me one good reason, Connor!”
“Because I kn
ow I’ve failed you miserably. I want to change! Please give me a chance to change.”
“And let you into my life so you can break it again?”
“I have no good reason why you should talk to me again. I’m just asking for your mercy.”
“Where was your mercy for me?”
Connor only extended his handcuffed palms to her.
“Leave me alone, Connor.”
Connor rose and moved back inside. He watched for hours waiting for her to come in from the growing darkness.
∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙
For several more days things went on much as they had. Val grew restless and wanted to be on the move. She spent much of her time sniping on the roof and reported a steady increase in the number of wandering zombies with the growing cold. At first she believed it to be just the cold weather driving them to warmer grounds, but as it continued she feared it was orchestrated. She became convinced the zombies were heading east.
With the cold came a lesser amount of sunlight. The days became so dreary that some plant life could no longer survive. The already pale surroundings were overtaken by a complete lack of healthy vegetation. The company was shocked at how barren the earth had become. The stark landscape made Val even more nervous.
But still, despite Val’s warnings, Sara advised they remain at the hotel. She sat with Corpus for long hours throughout the day until utter exhaustion overtook her and she collapsed into her bed.
Finally Val had enough. “What are we waiting for? These people are idiots! They sit around all day watching TV. They don’t want to help anyone. This is a waste of time.”
“I think we have lingered too long,” Moses chipped in.
“You don’t understand what’s going on here,” Sara replied. “I know I’m endangering everyone by staying but I’m learning so much. I can help us.” She grabbed Val’s sleeve like a crazy person. “Val, I’ve been walking through time! You have no idea the secrets I’ve found in the past!”
Val cast a worried glance to Moses. But before they could reply, the noise of gunfire came echoing down the halls. Everyone in the company went running towards the sound. They found that one of the soldiers had killed a zombie as he had come through the door.
“They’ve never entered the building before,” Val said.
A terrifying howl like the blast of a medieval horn shook the earth. Val ran to one of the nearby dingy windows and glared out across the dim horizon. As she watched, the farthest landscape viewable disappeared in dust. A great wind beat against the windows kicking up anything loose on the earth’s surface.
Bear, wide-eyed, pulled his jacket tighter with an unsettling devilish smile. “She’s a comin’!”
The debris pelted against the windows exaggerating his words and the crazed look on his face. The view from inside the windows quickly turned to almost nothing as a great cloud of dust overcame the structure. Sara felt that overwhelming sensation she had right before the nuclear bomb had exploded. She could feel the people around her and could almost single out those she knew would die.
“Who’s coming?” Val asked Bear.
“The Witch. She always lets her prey know she’s a’comin by bellowing on that horn of hers. It’s kind of decent of her.” Bear stood up and started to make preparations to leave. “Well, children, I need to be taking these old bones elsewheres.”
“You’re leaving us now?” Val said furiously.
“Coward!” another yelled.
Bear simply stood tall paying little attention to their words.
“Why are you leaving us?” Connor asked.
“Think I’ll soak my bones in a hot springs somewheres,” Bear said with a smile.
Val took a few steps towards him and yelled, “And this desire just happened to overtake you right before we’re under attack?”
“Like I telled you, I ain’t want nothing to do with this war of yours.”
“You failed to mention that before,” Connor said angrily. “What you did do is make a cryptic reference to having a mutual agreement with the zombies. Are you working for them?”
“Nay. I ain’t.”
Connor grabbed him by the collar of his jacket. “Connor,” Val broke in with a tone that went straight to Connor’s heart, “he’s not working for them. He’s had dozens of opportunities to betray or murder us in our sleep. Let him go.”
This merciful gesture of Val’s took Sara by surprise. Sara was convinced Val would want to shoot him before she let him leave.
Connor heeded her words but mostly because he wanted to remain on her good side.
The question of Bear’s allegiance became moot when a loud crash echoed through the halls. The zombies broke onto the hotel like a swarm of ants. The doors on either end of the hallways broke as rotting arms came crashing in. Soon zombies were pouring into any opening they could squeeze through. Gunfire filled the hallways as Sara went charging down back to the main room.
“Will you not help us?” Sara screamed to the hosts sitting casually in their loft. Corpus glanced quickly to her but a look from Reginald stopped him.
Zombies broke through the main hotel doors spilling into the room where they were.
“You-of-all-people-should-know-the-value-of-the-right-timing.” Reginald said one word at a time perfectly spoken during millisecond-long instances of silence nestled against the roaring clamors of war. Sara was stunned he had successfully predicted the exact moments he would be able to get his words through to her.
She tried to reply but the noise of gunfire prohibited her speech. She drew her swords and ran forwards to cut down the initial enemies. Others took up positions further back in the lobby creating a defensive barrier. With fighting on all sides of them, the hosts sat watching the television silently moving out of the path of any objects able to invade their lofty perch.
Frustrated by the host's lack of help, Sara yelled and spun around the room slashing all in her way. Like a dance she repeatedly stepped out of the grasp of rotting hands all around her. Furiously they clutched for the phantom unable to grasp anything but air. Without giving up any space to the onslaught, she weaved herself among them slashing off limbs and crippling others.
The three turned to watch the Sara's elegant dance of death before them. For the first time since the company arrived, smiles crossed the faces of all three hosts as they witnessed her spinning about the room. Like the movements of a ribbon through the air, she dodged and attacked her foes perfectly in tune with time.
Those held up in the back of the lobby were suddenly overtaken by zombies from the halls. Several of them were overcome before the others realized what was happening.
By the time Val and Moses made it up to the second floor, enemies poured in through the door to the roof. They shot up to the third as they continued to climb. Several zombies leapt over the railing on the third floor falling down to the first as they grabbed for the two. Despite broken bones and lacerations, every one of them rose again to its feet. One, with broken bones jutting from its skin, clawed its way back up the stairwell. The third floor was overrun and couldn’t be helped. Val and Moses retreated down to the second floor finding it uninfected. Throwing two grenades into the stairwell, the two of them turned and shut themselves in the second floor hallway. The doors blew open for a moment from the blast but then closed again. The seemingly relentless horde finally slowed for the moment. Peace lasted only a moment as they realized the hallway behind them was filling up with the undead.
Desperately, they dashed down the hallway reaching an open door before the horde overtook them. Val emptied her clip reducing the front two enemies into bloody ribbons. Their rotting heads blew apart like particle board under her bullets. One zombie managed to make it inside before they could close the door. But Val watched in shock as Moses beat it to death with the door of one of the toilet stalls beside them. She quickly moved to slam the door and lock it. She knew this would buy them only a moment and so she ran to the window and broke it. A stinging orange light
full of whipping dust pushed her back. In the confusion, she’d forgotten the storm raging outside. She bolstered herself and stuck her head out the window despite the wind. Outside she saw more zombies pouring in and through her squinted eyes saw a familiar figure. There in the disorienting sand, she saw Bear’s figure merrily strolling away from the hotel. To her amazement, the zombies parted for him making a line. Ignoring those around him, he untied his animals and meandered off never to be seen again.
“Any ideas?” she yelled back at Moses who pressed his full weight against the door.
Moses surveyed the room. His eyes rested on a rollaway cot and instructed her to tear off the mattress. Neither of them had time to consider why a bed should be setup in a bathroom. She unfolded the bed just as the zombies beat down the door and gouged out the sheetrock from the walls. A grubby hand shot through the wall clutching for anything it could find.
“I can push them into retreat if you can keep them off my back!” Moses yelled over the horde.
“How are you going to do that?”
But a new force against the door stole his answer from his mouth. She forced her eyes to look down to reload her clip breaking their fixation on the fingertips poking through the wall. Their progress was halted as the tunneling hands found unmovable steel beams holding up the sheetrock. One of the zombies leaned in as far as he could, straining to push his body through the tiny opening. Val couldn’t tear her eyes from him as he realized he was being pushed through the opening despite not fitting. Like spaghetti his head and half of his torso came squeezing through the tiny opening. Once through, it fell to the floor connected by stringy sinews and veins to the other half of his body in the hall.
The frenzy, now viewable through the wall, reminded Val of a beehive. The zombies pushed in on each other trampling some in their insanity. The crazed look of their feral eyes sent shutters down her spine despite all the combat she’d seen. At the sight of her, they climbed over each other gnashing their teeth as if starved. The most disgusting grunts and howling sounds escaped their hideous mouths.
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