Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness Ch.50
Title: Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness
By: Pink Rabbit Productions
Chapter: 50
Date: 8 Feb, 2011
Rating: R (for sex and violence)
Disclaimer: Hmmm, characters, not mine, situation, mine, though with the proviso that certain scenarios owe a major debt of gratitude to George Romero. Sex? Likely. Genders involved? Likely all female (at least anything on camera). Also there are likely to be very bad things in this story. I'm not one for prodigious amounts of gore, but this is horror and there is likely to be ickiness and things that might disturb some folks. Seriously. If it's gonna bother you, move along.
Summary: When the dead rise, civilization falls.
Author's Notes: Awhile back, just for fun, I did a faux movie poster that set Otalia in a horror setting and used some elements from an idea I've had running around for ages (what can I say---it was the Halloween season). See the poster here: http://altfic.com/artgallery/otalia/glafterworld01b.htm . Sooo, at some point, it seemed like fun to take a gander at writing them in that universe. I've quite deliberately tried to break away from my usual style and make it a bit faster moving, with frequent chapter breaks, deliberate cliffhangers, shorter scenes and more directed pov. We'll see if I can keep to one pov per chapter (well, they are short chapters...lol).
Dedicated to: My mom. Seriously. All of my growing up years, she would constantly throw me these what-if scenarios and press me to figure out logical ways to survive/get out of various emergency situations. Now, she never mentioned the zombie apocalypse, but I'm sure that was just an oversight or a desire not to scare a little kid (because, really, I grew up as the daughter of a top secret type during the cold war...I already had enough fear issues), but really, that odd little game was the genesis of...well...not just this story, but a lot of my love of writing. So, thanks mom.
Previous Chapters: | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 | Chapter 45 | Chapter 46 | Chapter 47 | Chapter 48 | Chapter 49 |
Author's Note: Once again, many thanks for all the replies and words of support. They are definitely appreciated and helpful. I wish I had time to reply more personally, but alas, not happening. Meanwhile, mom has started chemo and come through her first two treatments with some issues, but her attitude is good and the symptoms don't seem to have been too miserable, mostly just inconvenient and tiring.
Where we were the last time I posted:
Olivia took the lead on the stairs when Natalia paused to look back at the basement grave. It wasn't a new sight. There'd been others, but this one hurt a little more because Blake had been a friend and she felt like she'd let her down. "I'm sorry," she whispered, then suddenly realized that Olivia had already reached the landing at the top of the stairs. "I'm coming," she called up as she hurried after the other woman.
No response, but a soft thump and startled curse.
Dammit, Olivia must have fallen. Probably another of the dizzy spells, Natalia decided as she cursed herself for not making the other woman stay behind. In her condition, the effort was too much and it was a damned miracle she'd made it as far as she had. "Should've just tied her to a damned chair," she muttered in frustration as she hit the landing and pivoted only to pull up short, horror in her eyes.
Olivia was pinned to the wall, a hard hand dug into her throat, her feet nearly off the ground. Her weapon was missing from the shoulder holster.
"Now that sounds like one helluva good idea," Jeffrey O'Neill drawled. He flashed a quick to his left side as though speaking to someone. "Doncha think?" Whatever response he heard, it made him grin. "Oh yeah, that's a good idea," he said softly when he looked at Natalia again, his eyes wild. "A bed would be even better..."
And we're off...
Afterworld:
Into the Arms of Darkness
Chapter 50
Oxygen deprivation is hell. It saps strength, blurs thoughts, and causes its own special kind of panic that torments a body even as it dulls the mind. The battle is primal and desperate, but not neverending. At some point it all drains away, the will to survive morphing into an oddly pleasant lassitude as hypoxia reigns and the body nears its final moments.
Olivia was firmly in the panic phase, but blue hovered at the edges of her vision. Death was hovering close, threatening to make it all too easy to let go.
Caught like a butterfly on a pin, she could feel the dizziness and confusion sweeping over her. She clutched at the hand clamped around her throat, trying to take some of the pressure off her windpipe, but her right hand was weak, maybe broken from the blow he'd delivered when Jeffrey knocked her gun away. She barely had any control and no strength at all.
Then Natalia appeared on the landing, horror filling her gaze as she discovered they weren’t alone.
Lost in a haze, Olivia tried to track Jeffrey as saw Natalia and spouted off with the predictable suggestive remarks, but it was like he was talking to Natalia and someone else as well and she found herself hunting for other people.
Which made no sense, Olivia mused distantly, feeling calmer now. Jeffrey had to be alone. She’d killed his flunkies and any newcomers would take him for dead or dying and put a bullet through him.
But still he kept up his odd, multi-way conversation.
Puzzling over this conundrum, Olivia sank a little deeper into the cottony warmth surrounding her brain. She was starting to float away when Natalia's voice suddenly penetrated and sounds formed and reformed into words.
"You're killing her," Natalia's voice cracked with stress. She sounded downright panicked, her voice abnormally pitched and tremulous.
Which kinda made Olivia smile. Despite the refusal to leave, Natalia did care.
"That's pretty much the plan," Jeffrey shot back with a happy giggle. "Don’t worry. When we’re finished with her, we’ll still have time for you...then we’ll take sweet, little Emma home." He grinned wolfishly. "A girl needs a daddy, and now that hers has...moved on, it's only right that I should step in."
The cotton morphed into stinging nettles, pricking Olivia's skin everywhere.
Like bloody, fucking hell!
Her gaze dropped, taking in the bloodstained front of his fatigues. Not much point in going for the usual point of male vulnerability. Instead, she crashed a booted heel into his right knee with all her might.
An agonized scream was torn from her tormentor's throat and suddenly Olivia was hurled end over end. She hit the floor of the narrow hallway, then tumbled several more feet to lie sprawled on her stomach. Pushing up on her hands, she stared up at Jeffrey as she dragged air into oxygen-starved lungs.
His eyes were wild, barely focused as his gaze flicked this way and that. Meanwhile, his lips were pulled back from gritted teeth in a feral growl and he shifted his weight from foot to foot as faint twitches slid through his muscles and occasionally jerked his head to one side. "Tha's right," he mumbled and glanced to his left for a brief second, then back at Olivia. "She will." Then his mouth twisted into a mad smile.
He was like she'd been, Olivia realized as oxygen hit her system and cleared her head. Her one-time tormentor was trapped in that strange place between life and death, not quite one, not yet the other, where feeling and sensation were fading, but strength and speed increased with every passing moment. She'd escaped because of Emma and Natalia. She couldn't imagine anything that would pull Jeffrey back. That dark place was something he'd been seeking all his life. He had no humanity left to retrieve.
Then suddenly, Natalia knocked the smile off his face as she slammed into him from behind, flailing at his head and shoulders. Roaring in fury, he shoved her away, then delivered a brutal backhand that sent her sprawling.
He spun to go after the downed woman, muttering his insanity under his breath.
Olivia was just as glad she couldn’t understand more than one word in five. The few things she did grasp were bad enough. A better look inside his head was an experience she could do without.
But the horror was a hell of a motivator, driving her to go after Jeffrey with inhuman determination. No thought, no plan, just pure fury. The world tilted and spun around her, but she ignored the vertigo as she thrust to her feet and launched herself at him. Colliding with his back, she got a forearm around his throat and managed use her other arm to lock her grip in place and ratchet up the pressure.
Gagging, Jeffrey twisted, then rocked backwards, hammering Olivia into a wall and nearly knocking her free in spite of her desperate grip. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Natalia scrambling for her feet. Blood ran freely from the other woman's nose and a cut above one eyebrow and she visibly staggered.
She was in no shape for a fight.
Jeffrey crashed into the wall at his back again, hitting hard enough to leave a fresh layer of bruises down the slope of Olivia's back and set her ears ringing.
She wasn't in much better shape than Natalia. The world spun and for a brief second, colors ran like wet paint. Or maybe not as good.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey was just getting stronger.
They needed to get the hell out of there fast.
Another rocking slam into the wall left Olivia's teeth rattling. Much more punishment and she’d go down for the count. Redoubling her hold, she braced a foot on the wall at her back and kicked off with all her strength as she roared, "RUN!!" The kick threw both her and Jeffrey forward, opening up enough space for Natalia to get past them.
Natalia staggered forward, her gaze meeting Olivia's as she drew close.
She wasn't moving fast enough.
"GO!!" Olivia snarled, the sound ending in a sharp gasp as Jeffrey spun and rolled his shoulder at the same time, using momentum to throw her off his back and send her hurtling toward a wall.
She hit hard, pain exploding through every nerve ending. The world went black before she even hit the floor.
* * * * * * *
Thump, thump, thump.
It took Olivia a second to realize the repetitive thuds echoing through her head came from the bump of her own skull against the floor-carpeted, thankfully. Blinking, she peered up through narrowed eyes, taking in the length of her own arm stretched out above her, then the hand gripping her wrist with punishing strength and the bloody breadth of a man's side and broad shoulder. Then Jeffrey's hard profile with narrowed eyes and gritted jaw swam into view.
"Right, right," he mumbled without looking down at her. "You're right. Wasn't thinking. She should apologize for that...she had no right...."
Jeffrey. Full on crazy Jeffrey, unless she was vastly mistaken.
Don't warn him you're awake. The thought went through Olivia’s head as she bit back on a scream. Her body was bumped and dragged, careless of old bruises agitated or fresh ones inflicted. A quick glance around confirmed she was still in Natalia's friend's home-
Natalia!
Panic nearly overwhelmed Olivia as she remembered the other woman and the condition she'd been in the last time she'd seen her-bloody, bruised, and blocked in. Shit. Olivia had no idea what had happened to her, but she was terrified it was the worst.
Then Jeffrey grunted, "Stop that," and he briefly came to a halt as his whole body seemed to wrench to one side.
What the fuck?!
And then Olivia caught a brief glimpse of slender, jean-clad legs scrambling for balance.
Natalia. On Jeffrey's other side-pinned against him to judge by her position-and being dragged along for the ride.
Some of the pressure on Olivia's chest eased as she realized the other woman was still alive and still able to struggle.
Then Jeffrey twisted and shoved, flinging Natalia onto a couch even as he released his hold on Olivia’s arm. Her head and body thudded onto deep carpet and she caught a brief glimpse of Natalia as the other woman hit the couch. She was bloodied and bruised, but there was no sign of any serious injuries.
Then a booted foot caught Olivia in the ribs. Biting back on a scream, it took every ounce of self control to remain limp as she was tumbled onto her stomach to lie in a sprawl at Jeffrey’s feet.
Her nemesis, meanwhile, was babbling. Not quite incoherent, but the next thing to it, he kept muttering about the unfairness of it all, his voice sliding over into whining as he complained about all the ways “she’d” wronged him-there was no doubt in Olivia’s mind that she was the woman in question-how she’d ruined his life, driven him out of his home, cost him his daughter’s love, denied him a safe place, all because she thought she was better than him.
“Lying bitch,” Jeffrey grumbled and kicked again.
This time Olivia couldn’t hold back a soft whoof as his boot caught her just under the ribs and the air was driven from her lungs.
Thankfully Jeffrey was too lost in his delusions to notice, but Olivia caught sight of the faintest twitch-nothing more than a brief flick of the eyes-that told her Natalia had heard the tiny sound.
Hopefully, she’d be ready to take advantage of any chance that came along.
Olivia barely contained a scream as another kick careened into her side,
“Stop it!” Natalia shouted and half rose from the couch, drawing Jeffrey’s attention when he started to turn toward Olivia.
He spun back, moving quickly now in spite of his madness, and shoved, throwing Natalia into the cushions with an inhuman snarl. “You don’t tell me what to do,” he growled.”No woman,” he paused for the briefest second, “tells...ME! What. To. Do.” As he spoke, he chocked his fist back, tension running along his muscles, the blow clearly intended to inflict as much damage as possible.
Olivia rolled enough to see, catching Natalia’s gaze as the other woman straightened, determination in her eyes. “But if you kill her, you’ll never get to Shangri-La,” she warned him.
He quivered, his breath ragged, his fist still poised to strike, but he didn't let the punch fly. "Explain..."
* * * * * * *
TBC