Among the Fallen: Resurrection

by Ross Shortall

  “How about you give me some answers or I’ll cut your fucking head off! I aint got time for your convenient lack of knowledge!” she growled into its skull with growing anger. The creature turned its head and stared at her calmly and rebelliously, almost amused yet strangely proud of her antagonism. His comrades stood startled and the Blind growled like an animal, stepping forward and pausing as Alex pushed her blade closer to the Wraith’s throat. Suddenly, its cape wrapped around her ripping her off and the Wraith snarled grabbing her by the throat, holding her over the side of the bridge treacherously. Her bone blades shattered like glass and the fragments fell into the crowded streets, her arm instantly healing as she grabbed its wrists trying to pull free. She struggled feverishly as the pressure crushed her windpipe and spine, her vision clouded and her head suddenly feeling weightless as she gasped for air.

  “Do not speak, Alexandra! LISTEN!” it said antagonistically. “I am not here to answer your questions!

  I am not here to help you…”

  “Why… why are you… here?!” she croaked as blood poured from her mouth, her throat collapsing under its intense pressure. The Wraith pulled her in close and his foul breath burnt her face, the smell making her stomach vehemently wretch as it glared into her face bitterly.

  “I am to make sure you get to where you are supposed to be” it barked, spitting into her face. Alex shut her eyes tight as the glare from its eyes burnt her eyeballs, their wet surface instantly drying and blistering painfully. “You do as your told, and you do it when you are told, at present your still human, but work with me, Alexandra; and you will become more!” the Wraith snarled furiously before throwing her into the crowd below.

  The Wraith stepped away from the edge and stared down as she vanished into the masses, its eyes growling in bitterness as the cadavers suddenly came alive and huddled over the spot where she fell; waiting patiently and confidently, pending the inevitable while his eyes glowed cruelly. The creature turned to his minions satisfyingly and snarled.

  “Impressive Human!” he growled proudly as his followers simply gave a nod of obedience and loyalty. The creature turned and glared back into the dead army as they huddled around her, her deafening and agonizing screams echoing through the street before suddenly going quiet. The Fallen watched patiently as the dead feasted voraciously below, watching and waiting. His minions stepped further onto the bridge and too watched tolerantly, turning to their master every now and then as the hordes ripped her apart with unremitting desperation. The Wraith merely glared upon them as the riot raged on, the Bound turning and looking at his master clearly concerned, obviously not sharing his superior’s confidence in her.

  Suddenly, his eyes glowed intensely as there was a scream of anger from the savage streets, the hordes beginning to drop in their masses as Alex fought her way through the boulevard. The Fallen stood and watched her proudly before looking down one final time, eventually disappearing over the rooftops and back into the darkness.

  Alex scrambled across the ground as fast as she could through their legs, the pain of every bite they managed to get was excruciating. Her arm was thread bare and skeletal and her body fought frantically to repair as the creatures tore more and more lumps from her. Her vision was clouded with blood and dirt and she was frantically crawling as fast as she could towards what appeared to be a car, a truck maybe; it was just a few feet away, but might as well have been a mile. As she slowly got closer and closer, she screamed in agony and sobbed in pain, pulling the creatures off her and pushing them away frantically before eventually scrambling underneath the car. The cadavers suddenly paused and stood upright, waiting long-sufferingly without a sound as their meal trembled in agony beneath them.

  She shut her streaming eyes and held her face in anguish as her wounds healed, her arm slowly rebuilding with tendons and arteries whipping over bone. The pain was unbearable, but as each moment passed, it slowly subsided as each wound restored and vanished. All over her arms and legs, shoulders and back, the gaping bite wounds closed and re-fleshed mysteriously.

  Alex suddenly opened her eyes and simply scanned around her, the feet of a thousand cadavers all around at every angle, waiting tolerantly for her to come out. She wiped her tears from her face as her bottom lip trembled, her mind blank and her stomach sick with panic. These things were going to tear her apart the moment she crawled back out and a plan was desperately needed. It was becoming rapidly obvious to Alex that however these creatures were tracking her; it was something beyond sight alone, maybe smell or some kind of extra sense; but whatever it was, it was telling them to wait and that’s exactly what they did.

  She looked to her left and saw a shop just a few feet away through the army of feet that lingered creepily; it was the closest point and at present and her only option. She thought for a few moments as her breaths slowly returned to normal, her panic levelling to just worry and severe concern.

  All of a sudden, she noticed the cars gasoline tank right above her face and smiled insanely, her mind swiftly pulling a plan from the depths of her own growing madness as she took out her lighter. The cadavers stood silent and amassed; the roads and sidewalks invisible under the motionless crowds that had swamped the boulevard. The sound of the dogs howling echoed throughout the distant streets as the crows bickered with one another from the rooftops; buildings creaked and crumbled, lightening scorched the horizon as thunder thrashed the crimson skies.

  Suddenly, the car exploded into a pillar of flame and the ground heaved, bodies were thrown high into the air and limbs fell down into the streets as blood rained all around. The shockwave shattered shop windows and pushed over the dead in a perfect circular formation, their tattered clothes erupting into flames as smoke flooded the street; the crows screaming in fright and leaping to the air in terror as car alarms bellowed into the night.

  The wreckage quivered with heat as smoke spewed into the air, its metal buckling and interior polluting the air with poisonous fumes as the ground burned with jittering corpses. Suddenly, the debris started to move and shift as a small shape crawled its way through the firestorm. As Alex lurched through the furnace, her skin vaporized and her muscles blackened; crying and stumbling, she scrambled over the burning bodies and climbed through the shop window, her healing body fighting against her boiling blood. As the blackened skeleton threw off its burning jacket and kicked away its melting trainers, it squealed with suffering which suddenly switched to an insane laughter, then back into an agonizing cry.

  Thick heavy smoke filled the shop with noxious air as the crying carcass stumbled and tripped, its charred flesh turning red and her wet and exposed muscles glistening from the fire light outside.

  Within moments the creature re-fleshed and Alex became whole again, swaying as her steaming body glared upon the flames and burning bodies outside.

  She stood for a few seconds looking around, her body and hair still smoking as the flames danced furiously in the ruined and flattened street behind her. She pulled down the shops security shutters as the burning corpses slowly advanced through the wreckage, the intense heat stripping the dead flesh from their bones. She suddenly stepped away from the front and stumbled through the shop bewildered and tormented, dropping into a corner and watching the dead crowd as they gathered outside; observing with a bitter gaze as they slowly collapsed in the heat, only to be replaced by another.

  As she brushed the soot and ash from her skin she stared at the unholy creatures with more anger now than pity, her mind adjusting to the situation as anticipated by her guide. These creatures were nothing more than animals, driven by instinct and the need to feed. Thinking about it, there was nothing spiritual or even demonic about them, the Wraith said they were nothing to do with them and considering the theory, he was probably speaking the truth. They showed no signs of intelligence, communication or even the simplest of abilities; they just followed their food and ate it, the simplest and basest of human instincts.

  So where did this leave her?

>   She was definitely uncertain about the whole situation that was for sure, uneasy? Definitely; but these creatures, if that was the word for them, were absolutely lethal in great numbers; maybe staying away from the main streets would be a better plan than most; keeping an eye out at all times was now important and this whole damn game had just got even more complicated and barbaric, which only served to add insult to injury.

  Alex stood to her feet and took a quick glance over the shop. Televisions, Radios and all manner of electrical equipment, nothing of any use to her; she was relying more on the hope that there were some sort of back exit or window at very least.

  All of a sudden, the televisions switched on one by one, lighting the shop around her in an eerie glow of static; the store suddenly rampant with moving shadows and gleaming screens. Alex fearfully sat in the corner, watching curiously as the channels started searching for a signal, flickering between stations as they hunted automatically through Blackwater’s many signals. As the glare of light cast over her face of intrigue, she looked away suddenly as cars continued to explode and car alarms cried out before faltering, the fires spreading throughout the deserted streets. Suddenly, the screens stopped, revealing what appeared to be a CCTV video of a street. Alex calmly stood up and approached the largest of the televisions and watched intensely. The image was black and white, very grainy and a time stamp ran in the corner as it looked down into a strangely familiar street.

  The cadavers strolled about lost and fires burned in the vehicles, their details lost and the flames being nothing more than a white glowing blur on the screen. Alex frowned as she stared at one of the burning shops on the screen and turned, seeing the same shop immediately across the street opposite her current position, its flames lashing up the walls and ripping through its foundations.

  Suddenly, on the screen she saw a cadaver thrown into view, and then another, the creatures suddenly turning and headed off camera. Alex turned and looked through the security shutters; sure enough, the cadavers were walking away and vanishing towards the end of the boulevard. Pushing up against the shutters tightly, she attempted to see where they were all going, more importantly; what was attracting them, but the slight curve in the street along with the wreckage and burning cars made any kind of visibility next to impossible.

  She stormed back into the shop and stared at the screens as the creatures were thrown and tossed about, ploughed down by something out of the cameras range. Alex watched the screens intensely and nervously as they lit up her black eyes, waiting for whatever had the cadaver’s attention to come into view. Suddenly, a man walked into range, his size almost colossal, twice the height of the creatures that lumbered towards him. His features were grainy and blurred but he wore a long black coat and stomped through the streets, knocking down cadavers and throwing obstacles aside effortlessly. Alex watched in fright as the man grabbed a car and threw it down the street, knocking down the dead and crashing through posts and debris. Alex turned startled as the car bounced passed the shop with a deafening crash of twisted metal. She glared out the front of the shop, clasping the gates and listened with desperation as the chaos outside grew closer, the man’s loud footsteps stomping through the street towards her. She immediately ran to the counter and leapt behind it, watching a monitor above her as the strange giant approached her location, her hands trembling in fear as a long deathly shadow was cast into the shop. She watched on the monitors as he stood patiently, glaring into the shop as his deep and laborious breaths echoed around her. She held her mouth and breath, shutting her eyes as the shadow hovered over her, the man’s gasps heavy with congestion and almost animal like. Her body started to shudder and her eyes streamed in panic, the giants broken gasps continuing behind the shutters. After what felt like a lifetime, the shadow suddenly pulled out of the room and she watched on the televisions as it walked away from the shop, eventually disappearing off camera. Alex breathed an overwhelming sigh of relief and started to cry uncontrollably, instantly stopping and regaining her control.

  What the hell was that?

  There were creatures and demons everywhere and Alex held her face in grief as her lips trembled, her thoughts stricken with grief, panic and paranoia; this game of the Fallen becoming even more dangerous with every passing moment. Alex slapped herself around the face a few times, trying desperately to regain control of her tattered emotions, heaving as her stomach turned in fear.

  Slowly, she stood up. The televisions suddenly went dark and the shop fell into darkness once more. She stood for a few moments gazing at the floor, not looking directly at it though, it just happened to be where her head was pointing when she started to think and ponder. The fires continued to burn outside and a few cadavers returned to the front of the shop, their blistering skin filling the shop with the foul barbecued flesh smell that she couldn’t seem to escape. She turned her head and stared at them for moment or two, her mind filling with a hundred questions and zero answers. Alex approached the security shutter and held it calmly, watching as a cadaver approached. Suddenly, she pulled her hands away as the cadaver snapped at her fingers, and then swiftly stood upright before lowering his head again.

  “What the hell are you?!” she whispered with a deep frown as the cadaver stood as still as stone, waiting with infinite patience. Alex walked away and made her way through the back of the shop, ignoring a corpse that sat in the corner of a small warehouse area. Dust fell and blew around the main floor as the air conditioning faltered randomly above her, the crates glowing with patches of red as the light beamed through the windows. She swiftly looked over the bland warehouse before approaching the backdoor, looking out into the adjoining street with caution.

  Alex frowned intensely and opened the back door and strolled into the deserted street, stomping across the road hastily and walked straight through a window across the boulevard without even flinching, glass shattering and crashing on the ground with a deafening clatter.

  She grabbed a puffy black sleeveless body warmer and a pair of joggers, complete with a new pair of trainers and put them on, tying her hair back into a tight ponytail and grabbed a rucksack; swinging it over her shoulder before storming back out into the street. She took a look around then darted into another shop, grabbing more cigarettes and a couple of lighters. She hurried down the aisles grabbing more vapour-rub and smearing it under her nose desperately, snatching anti-sickness tablets and a map. She threw it all into her rucksack and left the shop.

  She stood staring at the cindering cars and wreckage for a while, almost hypnotized by the flames as they lashed up the bricks intensely, the whole street a glow with a dim light and mischievous shadows. The air was filled with tiny black floating slithers of plastic, smelling of burning chemicals and smoke poured across the far end of the street. As the city cried, she just stood debating on what her next move should be, the clock was ticking and she still had four Fallen to find. She watched quietly as a few of the cadavers entered the street and some seemingly dead bodies twitched on the ground, making it pretty obvious that once these things fell over, they found it hard if not impossible to get up again. As the flames flashed light all around the walls and the ornamental trees burned, she contemplated as memories of the past started to come back to her in little amounts, popping into her head, before vanishing again. .

  Why had they taken most of her memories?

  Maybe they hadn’t, maybe being dead for three months has that effect on a person’s brain. As the dead writhed and struggled in frustration, she simply stepped over them as she wandered the miserable horizon, tactfully pushing over strays that got too close to her.

  She suddenly stopped and stared at one that she he had pushed over, curiosity swiftly getting the better of her. She grabbed its forearm and snapped it off violently; the cadaver never even flinched nor reacted. No blood?!

  Well there was, just not liquid blood. She stuck her finger in the hard fleshy stump and heaved as she pulled out a congealed lump of brown jelly as the truth quickly daw
ned on her. The reason these things could not move properly is because their bodies were practically solid inside, coagulated and gel like. Alex contemplated for a split second as she wiped her finger down her trousers and threw the limb to the floor. These people are dead but not, her appearance in the city obviously drew them out and it is pretty obvious what they are hungry for. She came to the conclusion that one or two would not be a problem, but huge crowds of these could be a real pain; but why had the Fallen done this? It had to have been them… surly?

  She soon decided she was not going to get anywhere just brooding about it, so she turned and made her way to the end of the street.

  She walked briskly and ignored the land of the dead; she was becoming quite accustomed to limbs, blood and entrails; as long as she didn’t look into their faces she was fine and held it together pretty well. Over in the distance she saw the silhouettes of more cadavers as they made their way into the streets. She paused and waited, but they didn’t seem to notice her, or at least they didn’t respond to her. She lit a cigarette and walked towards them as few of them got closer, some shuffled silently under a street lamp revealing rotten decaying faces, grey off skin; huge chunks of flesh missing and their clothes almost shredded. Webs of veins and arteries crawled under their skin and their flesh was encrusted with mud, blood and dirt. There was still part of her that fell sorry for these people, it was not their fault and executing every single one of them didn’t really appeal to her morally, but what other options were there?