"So what do I do now?" The unknown woman looked at Jeremy and Tanya expectantly. She seemed confused, as if she had been seeing the world through a veil that had suddenly lifted.
"You could start by telling us your name," Jeremy said.
"Oh...I'm sorry. I'm Luna Fairchild."
"Hello, Luna. I'm Jeremy, and this is Tanya. To answer your
question, I don't really know what should happen next. If you've got anybody left here, any friends or family, you should stay with them."
"I don't have any family left," a tear streaked down Luna's face, followed by another. "I was home with my husband and son when those...things attacked. I was in the basement, and when I heard the commotion upstairs, I hid. When I came out, they were both dead, but they didn't stay that way. They tried to..."
"It's OK," Jeremy said. He knew the words were untrue; there was nothing about this entire situation that was anything that could even resemble being "OK", but there weren't any comforting phrases that he knew to express sympathy with seeing one's family rise to unlife after being slaughtered by wandering undead.
"You had to defend yourself, and they weren't the people you knew and loved."
"You don't understand. I didn't want to defend myself. Seeing them like that - mangled and lifeless on the floor of the living room - was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. I wanted to join them. I didn't want to be alone. When they came at me, I just stood there and waited."
"What happened? Not to be too blunt about it, but you're pretty obviously not dead, and I haven't seen anyone who didn't defend themselves survive a zombie attack."
"It's hard to describe. They came at me, and I closed my eyes. I was just hoping it would be over quickly and wouldn't hurt too much, and all of a sudden I felt...cold. My entire body went numb; I thought I was in shock, and that I was going to be dead soon, but nothing happened. It was just...quiet. When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a pile of shattered chunks of ice and blood on the floor in front of me.
"I ran away, but didn't get far. As soon as I stepped out of the house, there were more of those things waiting for me. They rushed at me, same as my boys did. I kept my eyes open, and just stood there. I wanted them to tear me apart, to kill me, to let me join my family. At that point, I didn't even care if it hurt. But when they were so close they could almost touch me, I went cold again. A blue wave spread out around me, and it flicked over all of them. They froze in place and then cracked and fell apart...all that was left were the same little piles of ice and blood.
"I didn't know what was happening, so I kept walking. The further I walked, the more of them I saw, and the same thing happened over and over again. No matter how much I wanted to give up and die, no matter how much I wanted them to take me and let me join my family again, it just didn't happen. I cried, I screamed, I yelled until I was hoarse...and finally I met these assholes.
"They seemed nice at first. They were sitting on the porch of a house on the outskirts of town, drinking beer and joking around. They told me to come to them, to sit down, and just relax...that they'd keep me safe. Like I needed anyone to keep me safe - those things couldn't kill me, no matter how much I wanted them to.
"I think they put something in my drink, because I started feeling really woozy and fell asleep. When I woke up, I was tied up here alone. They'd come by every now and then and untie me just long enough to..." Jeremy was briefly glad that she didn't finish that thought. They all knew what had happened, but he didn't know if he could handle hearing what the men had been doing to Luna, and what they had been about to do to Tanya. "There's not much else to say," Luna said. "I don't know how long they kept me here until you showed up. A day, maybe two. It's all a blur."
The room was silent after Luna finished speaking. She didn't have anything else to say, and Jeremy and Tanya couldn't think of anything worth saying. When the silence began to feel oppressive, Tanya spoke just to break the silence.
"I don't want to say I know how you feel," she said. "I can't, and I don't. I know that I've lost my family, too, and all my friends, but I didn't have to see it happen. There's nothing we can do but pray for you and hope that we can help you find a little peace. If you'd like to come with us, we'd love to have you."
"What difference does it make?" Luna sounded distant and defeated. "If I come with you, or if I stay, it's all the same - I'm just waiting until somebody or something comes along that can kill me. It's the same for you - you look like you've got some fight in you, and you're not ready to give in, but it doesn't matter. All this that's happening...it's the end of the world. Everyone dies, and I don't think we're the lucky ones for living as long as we have. We'll meet the same fate as everyone else."
"Maybe not," Jeremy said. "I think there are a few things we need to be clear on. First, we're headed to Regina - we have it on good authority that there's an army base that's been put together there to keep people safe and help take care of survivors. It's not much, but it's a start at finding out what's going on. Before things starting falling apart, there were signs that this was happening everywhere, but that just means that everyone has had a chance to fight back. It's a chance at life - a new life, and even if it's not what we wanted the old one to be, it's better than nothing.
"Second, there's a difference between the three of us and everyone else out there, and it's not just that the three of us are still walking around with heartbeats. We've all manifested a strange and powerful ability since this happened. Luna, you've got some sort of control over frost and cold; Tanya is incredibly strong and resilient, and I've developed telekinetic powers, and some strange foresight...or maybe just the ability for my consciousness to leave my body. I’m still not entirely sure what that is or how it works.
"It can't be a coincidence that the dead start rising out of their graves, and all of a sudden three different people all start doing things that would be considered superhuman. I don't claim to know what's happening or why, or where it's going to lead, but I do know this - we're different. Special, somehow. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that means that we're here for a reason. All we can do is find out what that reason is."
"I knew something was up when furniture started floating in the air," Luna said with a weak smile. "And I don't know if I can make any promises about what sort of travelling companion I'll be or whether I'll be of any use to you, but I guess you're right - there's something different about us. We may as well try to figure out what it is."
Taking the lead, Jeremy walked out the front door of the bar and into the twilight that laid beyond. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the crisp fall air as he tried to catch his bearings. The overhead street lights were dark, and in the fading light of the day he could see small piles of glass shards pooled underneath them. He couldn't resist rolling his eyes at the foolishness of their former captors - no matter how remote this town was, and no matter how well armed they were, the most foolish thing they could possibly have done was to remove one of the most prominent sources of overhead lighting. All they had managed to accomplish was make themselves easier targets in the dark. He could see the green sports car they had rode in on parked further down the street, in front of the makeshift barricade they had first encountered. As Jeremy, Tanya, and Luna cautiously walked towards the vehicle, all three of them were hyper-aware of their surroundings, reacting to every bird chirping and cricket humming just beyond their field of vision. As luck would have it, they reached the vehicle without incident. Jeremy's heart soared as he saw the vehicle's keys were still in the ignition, and then his heart dropped as he saw that their captors had apparently been using the vehicle for target practice; several large bullet holes were torn through the hood and into the engine, and a glance underneath the car revealed a thick pool of various viscous fluids pooled underneath.
"Damn it!" Jeremy swore forcefully. "So much for an easy getaway."
"There have to be other cars around here somewhere," Tanya sounded hopeful. "We should find something before it gets too dark."
"I want to get out of here," Luna said, "but I think you're right. I've seen enough of those undead things to last the rest of my life - however long that may be. I don't want to have to fight my way through them in the middle of the night with no light to guide me."
"That seems reasonable," Tanya said with an accommodating smile. Jeremy wondered how she could seem so relaxed and at ease when everything that they had known was falling apart around them; he certainly had no problem remaining calm and rational about it all, but he was anything but peaceful.
"What about up there?" Luna pointed to the roof of a nearby motel. "It's taller than anything else nearby, and I used to work at the motel - there's only one way up there, and we should be able to block it off."
"I think that's a great idea," Jeremy said as he gazed up at the roof. "It should be easy to defend, and we'd have plenty of warning if anyone tried to come after us. It's the best chance for a good night's sleep."
"Not that I disagree about trying to get the high ground," Tanya said, "but there was an earthquake in Estevan just a few hours ago. You saw what that did - are we sure we want to be on top of a building if something like that happens again?"
"I've been thinking about it," Jeremy replied. "And I don't think the earthquake was entirely natural."
"You think so?" Tanya scoffed.
"Setting aside the obvious fact that there's no fault line in Estevan that would cause an earthquake," he continued without acknowledging her interruption, "it was directly after a violent manifestation of my telekinetic abilities that the earthquake happened. I'm not sure exactly the details, but I think I somehow set that off. And before you say it, yes, I realize that what we did to those guys back there wasn't exactly a happy and peaceful encounter, but it doesn't seem to have kicked off any kind of seismic events. Whatever happened to cause that earthquake doesn't seem to have happened again. I think we'll be OK."
"Well, I guess the alternative is hiding out in the open, which would likely result in us being zombie food. Let's do it."
"Let's get going," Luna motioned to the motel's front entrance.
"Just a minute," Jeremy said. He stretched his hand out towards the barrier that blocked the street, and a web of silvery-white strands twisted and leaped out of his fingertips, intertwining and rushing towards the barrier. The strands slid over and through the barrier, interweaving themselves and locking together until he could feel a solid grip on the barrier. He pulled the strands with sheer willpower, yanking and twisting at the barrier until it crumpled and tore itself apart. The broken remnants of the blockade slid across the road, bouncing and jerking themselves to a stop at the edge of the motel's wall. "We'll need to blockade the exit, and make sure that nothing sneaks up on us," he explained. "That seems like a good use for this garbage, and it leaves us with a clear path for a quick exit tomorrow morning."
Both Luna and Tanya assented that it was a good idea, and the trio proceeded to the motel; the lobby was deserted and silent. Luna stepped behind the front counter and rummaged through a drawer until she fished out a small keychain.
"This should get us up there," she said with a triumphant grin. The expression was contagious, and Jeremy and Tanya both couldn't help but break out in wide grins. It seemed that victories were becoming fewer and further between, and they all knew that they had to find solace in any small victory that they could. The trio continued up to the roof with Luna leading the way. Tanya broke open an emergency fire enclosure, smashing the glass clear and pulling out a razor-sharp axe. She hefted it as if it weighed as little as a feather, and held it at the ready. Realizing that he was at a bit of a loss for improvised weaponry, Jeremy reached into a small candy bowl sitting on the edge of a counter in the lobby. He pulled out a handful of small breath mints, which lifted up into the air and circled around his hand with almost no conscious effort on his part. Tanya giggled and shook her head, but all three kept moving towards a door labelled "stairs". Five flights of stairs later, they stepped out of a heavy wooden door and onto the roof. The sun's light was already nearly completely gone, and flickering streetlights struggled to light themselves without much success. The power grid must be failing, Jeremy thought. Hardly a surprise, given that the people who once maintained it are all either dead and buried, or worse.
Surveying the rooftop, Jeremy looked for any possible spot which could be vulnerable to attack. The door behind him was the obvious choice, but he also saw a large tin ventilation shaft open on the opposite end of the roof; covered with a cone-shaped top, it likely descended into the kitchen below. He reached out mentally and crushed the top of the ventilation shaft, crumpling it and crushing it into the shaft, effectively blocking off access from within, no matter how determined a zombie might be to scale the shaft. As Luna closed and locked the door behind them, Jeremy leaned over the side of the building, looking for the remnants of the broken-down blockade down below. When he spotted the debris below, he focused his mental energies on it and heaved it upwards, lifting the entire mass of wood and sheet metal to the edge of the roof. The exertion caused beads of sweat to break out across his forehead, and his entire body trembled with exhaustion. He did not stop to rest, however, and directed the individual pieces of debris into place by pointing at them and sweeping his arm towards their destination, much as if he were conducting an orchestra. The debris moved at his command, seized by invisible arms of force that leaped from his fingertips and carried them through the air. It took only a moment to arrange the debris in front of the door on the roof in such a way that the door was effectively barricaded off.
"There," Jeremy said with a mixture of satisfaction and hopefulness. "Providing that the zombies haven't learned how to climb walls, I don't think any are going to be getting up here any time soon. I think we can all try to get a good night's rest."
"I think I'm actually too tired to sleep," Tanya said. "It's been a long couple of days, and I think I'm running on enough adrenaline to keep a herd of elephants moving."
"It seems like it's been a lifetime since I slept last," Luna's voice was little more than a hoarse croak. "At least, since I've had anything more than being passed out for a minute here and there since they..."
She never finished her thought, and for a brief moment silence reigned. The awkward silence was finally broken by Jeremy.
"You know, we have plenty of firewood up here. If we're careful about it, I'm sure we could rig up a campfire that wouldn't burn down the building. I don't know about the two of you, but I think it's going to get pretty chilly out here tonight, and I've been cold ever since we first started running from zombies. We may as well enjoy what little comfort we can get up here."
"I've got a lighter," Luna said, digging around in her pockets until she was able to produce it. Tanya nodded her approval of the idea, and the three set about building a makeshift fire pit from the remnants of a metal barrel that had been part of the barricade on the street. In moments, a blazing fire had been built, and they gathered around it, each sitting cross-legged in front of the fire and basking in its warm glow.
"Jeremy," Tanya picked her words carefully, almost reluctantly, "I've been wondering...how does it feel when you...you know..."
"When I what?" Jeremy feigned ignorance. "When I dance a jig?"
"You know what I mean," she said, playfully slapping at his leg. He grimaced and tried not to recoil in pain, though she obviously noted his flinch.
"Yes, I do," he said, the smile fading from his lips. "It's a bit hard to describe. It starts with this weird pressure in my head, like a bass drum is being pounded in the middle of my skull. Then it feels
like...hm." He struggled to find the words he wanted. "Have you ever ran across a beach covered in hot sand, only to leap into the water and find that it's absolutely frigid?"
"No, but I think I have an idea of what you're getting at."
"It's pretty much like that. All of a sudden, it's like I have a phantom limb - or two or three - sprouting from my body. All of them feel like I've stuck an arm in freezing cold water and then starting reaching around. It's hard to control, but it feels like an extension of my own body. They’re a weird silverish colour...sometimes so faint that it’s almost invisible. I’m not sure how else to describe it.
"There's more to it than just that, though. A couple of times now, I've actually had out of body experiences. I was just standing around, doing my thing, and all of a sudden, bam! My mind was somewhere else."
The Dead Rise Page 10