Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness Ch.7
Title: Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness
By: Pink Rabbit Productions
Chapter: 7
Date: 7 September, 2010
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).
Previous Chapters: | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
Author's Note: My apologies for not posting yesterday. Stupid stomach bug.
Afterworld:
Into the Arms of Darkness
Chapter 7
Natalia felt the woman under her start to struggle and twitched her knife, skimming it against the vulnerable flesh of her prisoner's throat to draw a bright bead of blood. A trickle flowed along the edge of the blade even as another crimson rivulet trailed down the elegant line of muscle and cording. Her prisoner stilled almost instantly.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The woman denied the charge so quickly, her expression so blank and confused that Natalia would have believed her if she hadn't seen for herself. Fury rushed through her that even now, with humanity at the edge of extinction, people felt the need to hurt and kill and lie. She'd never killed another human being, even in the midst of all of this, but in that moment, she nearly slipped past that invisible line. "Lying bitch," she hissed, fingers clawing into the hair caught in the grip, forcing her prisoner's head back as she leaned closer. Mouth near a delicate ear, she whispered in a voice as soft as a lover's, "I saw you through the window."
Tension turned the figure beneath her to stone, driving Natalia to tighten her grip on the hunting knife and press more firmly against soft flesh. She felt a wince shake the figure caught beneath her and knew she'd drawn more blood. For a moment, she even imagined she'd sliced deep enough to send her prisoner to hell, the sensation so intense she could almost feel the heat of blood on her hands.
A wave of nausea slid through her, but she didn't ease her grip as something deep inside of her threatened to shatter and break loose.
"Why?" Natalia hissed, her voice ragged as she fought to quell her rising gorge at what she could feel herself becoming. But even as the horror slid through her, she tightened her grip on long hair, forcing her prisoner's head back, opening her throat for the final cut.
A sharp gasp bobbled the woman's throat, pressing her flesh more firmly against the blade and drawing more blood.
Somewhere, the dead were banging and pressing for entrance, but for the first time in months, they had ceased to be the first thought on Natalia's mind or the biggest threat to her existence, though whether that was the woman trapped in her grasp or her own darker self, she didn't know. "Nothing to say?" she ground out, emphasizing each syllable with cut-glass intensity.
"I didn't kill her."
The denial nearly drove Natalia to murder. She knew what she'd seen. Her hand tightened on the weapon, the small movement dragging the blade against soft skin and drawing a pained gasp from her prisoner. "I saw-"
"She was already dead," the woman hissed, the words too sick with horror to be doubted. "Had been...for...days," she added between harsh breaths. Despite the obvious pain caused by her twisted position and the steel against her throat, she shook her head ever so slightly as though trying to wipe the image from her brain. "I just..."
Natalia's hand went lax where it was tangled in long hair, the blade suddenly resting against soft flesh rather than pressing. As she watched, jade eyes slid closed and the woman swallowed hard.
"...ended it...shouldn't have wasted the ammo, but couldn't leave her like that...not after what they'd...how they'd...used her..."
Her stomach rolling, gorge rising, Natalia abruptly pushed away from her prisoner, staggering to her feet, then back another step.
As if she could escape the story that easily.
She didn't want to believe, didn't want to imagine what it all meant, wanted to deny it so much that it was tempting to pretend it was a lie and slice through soft flesh anyway.
But she had to believe.
And she did.
Keep it together. The words rang inside her skull with such force she wasn't sure whether or not she'd spoken them aloud. Think. Act. Don't react. This time it was Josh Lewis' voice that reverberated through her head, calming her and giving her the wherewithal to cut off her emotions and focus on the problem at hand. He'd been so good at it right until those final hours. She had to be practical, had to cut her losses, help who she could, and get through.
Just like she'd done before.
Blake was gone. She couldn't do anything more for her and vengeance wasn't possible against the dead.
Meanwhile, there was...
Blood.
A lot of it. On the woman she'd saved and on every surface she'd touched. No time to clean it all up before the things outside got inside. The excitement was drawing them too fast. She could hear it in the way the door rattled and things bumped against the wall on that side. Her neighbors and friends were coming home, hoping for one last party.
She shook that thought off, trying not to think about who-no, what-lay outside, trying to get in.
She knew she could escape to the second floor and leave the woman behind. The dead would probably get through, but they'd eventually tire of the place when they ran out of victims.
But if the woman on the floor hadn't killed Blake, then...
Then she had to help her if only for the child hiding upstairs.
But the blood was a problem that had to be dealt with or they didn't have a prayer.
Suddenly she was moving, pulling drawers open and grabbing for things, grateful they were in the kitchen so she had what she needed easily at hand.
"We've got to get you out of those clothes," she snapped.
"Geez, you didn't even get me flowers," came the dully sarcastic reply as the woman on the floor stiffly pushed into a semi-upright position.
Natalia ignored the weak attempt at wit as she skidded to her knees beside the other woman and laid her bundle of supplies aside before grabbing for the bottom edge her shirt. Batting resistant hands aside, she felt her prisoner still as she slipped the knife blade the soft fabric.
The prone woman sucked in a breath and froze, clearly expecting the blade in the gut.
Instead, Natalia bunched the worn cloth with her other hand, then sliced cleanly through it. She cursed a beat later when she saw the heavy flack vest that had been hidden from view. It was buckled into place with tough webbing straps. No cutting through those in one swipe, and undoing the buckles would take time.
More banging at the door reminded her that time was a luxury they didn't have.
The vest would take too long to remove. It would just have to stay for the moment. "What's your name?" The demand came short and sharp, her tone meant to shake the woman out of her obvious daze.
"Olivia." The answer was slurred and a little uncertain.
"'Kay, Olivia...this is gonna hurt." Flicking on a flashlight, Natalia caught it between her teeth, tilting her head to focus the narrow beam on the other woman's face, quickly spotting the cuts at the hairline that had bled so heavily.
The tiny tube in her hand would deal with that.
Bracing a hand under Olivia's chin, she ran a narrow bead of super glue along the worst cut, absorbing the raw flinch and sharp gasp that shook the other woman in response to the sting of the material hitting damaged flesh. With two fingers holding the tube, she used the other two to pinch the injury shut, knowing it would only take a few second of pressure before the bleeding would stop. Rick had taught her the trick early on as an emergency way to stop bleeding. Purified versions of the material were used as medical glue to suture flesh. It worked fast and held firm. The industrial grade wasn't quite as ideal. Still, it would do in a pinch.
"Whuthafuck?"
Natalia ignored the hissed complaint, instead focusing on getting the next injury sealed, and then the next. Olivia quickly stopped resisting, instead simply leaning back on her hands, any fight knocked out of her.
It seemed like it took ages, though it was really only a minute or two. But finally Natalia got the worst of the injuries closed, and grabbed for the wet towel she'd brought, wiping off most of the blood streamers with quick, efficient hands. She swiped up the deepest puddles on the floor, then shoved the towel into one of the plastic garbage bags she'd brought with her.
Outside, the dead were still gathering, pressing to get inside, drawn by the sounds of excitement and the stench of blood. Normally, they ignored the door-Josh had camouflaged all entrances after noting the way the dead would work on them, some tiny memory driving them-but any time they saw the trick, they'd pay attention to the hidden entrance for awhile. Usually only a few hours, but those hours were invariably wild ones. With all the noise, there would be more than usual. They might well get through the outer doors and into the house. They'd managed the trick a couple of times since Z-Day.
Working quickly, she slid the woman's jacket free followed by a heavy shoulder holster and finally a sodden shirt. Hopefully, the cloth had absorbed the majority of the blood and the flack vest wasn't too saturated. That done, she sliced down each leg of Olivia's jeans, dragging them free in spite of the other woman's near-deadweight status. The woman's left knee was laid open and Natalia took a moment to super glue that shut as well.
Then everything got shoved into the garbage bag with the wet towels. Another fast mop up with the last towel to try and get as much blood off her patient as possible, then she shoved that in as well and spun the bag shut.
Behind her, the hammering was rattling the door and making the braces bow and bounce in their latches.
Pushing to her feet, Natalia threw the garbage bag into the stairwell through which Emma had disappeared, then turned back. She considered leaving it behind, but the gear was too valuable to risk losing and the bloodied clothes and towels could be disposed of out a window if necessary. In fact, they might make a valuable bit of bait for getting the dead out of the house.
Olivia was leaning heavily on her hands, head drooping forward onto her chest, eyes closed. She was so perfectly still that for a moment Natalia wondered if she'd died in that perfectly braced position and simply hadn't fallen over yet.
No. Still breathing.
"Up," Natalia ground out, leaning down to grab the front of Olivia's flack vest. "Now!" she added, her voice low but sharp enough to score glass. "We don't have much time." Redoubling her grip, she bodily hauled the other woman to her feet, steadying her when she would have gone down again. "C'mon, you can do this."
She barely got a limp nod in return, but Olivia cooperated as best she could as Natalia pushed, pulled and dragged her across the kitchen toward the door Emma had disappeared through.
Behind them the doors creaked and bowed, pressured by an ever growing crowd of milling dead.
Natalia was still hauling Olivia toward the door at the bottom of the stairs when she heard the center bracing bar on the door crack. Twisting, she looked just in time to see it warp and splinter just enough to bounce out of the support on the left side of the door.
The bar at the bottom of the door was only seconds behind.
They had almost reached the stairwell when the brace at the top gave way...
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TBC