Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness Ch.26
Title: Afterworld: Into the Arms of Darkness
By: Pink Rabbit Productions
Chapter: 26
Date: 4 October, 2010
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 |
Afterworld:
Into the Arms of Darkness
Chapter 26
Emma felt her heart thump against her ribs as she watched Natalia disappear through the trap door. She wanted to scream at her to stop, that danger lay in the world below, that she couldn't go, but screaming or crying or holding her breath to get her own way didn't work any more. Months of experience had taught her that much. She could sob and beg all she wanted, but her mommy still had to take risks.
Her mommy had explained it more than once, her tone gentle, her eyes sad. She couldn't fix the world no matter how much Emma wanted it. There were things she had to do for them to survive, and she would be as careful as possible, but she couldn't make them perfectly safe.
It looked like the same was true of Natalia.
Of course it was. It wasn't like the fact they were in a house meant that the world had gone back to the way it was before.
All of that was gone. No more Miley Cyrus, or Saturday morning cartoons, or chocolate sundaes, or days playing on the beach below their house in San Cristobel.
Especially no more San Cristobel because their home was overrun with them...the dead. A shudder slid down Emma's spine and she pushed that thought away. She didn't like thinking about what had happened at home, just like she didn't like thinking about Miley Cyrus or Disneyland or dozens of other things.
Just like she didn't like thinking about Ava or Sam.
Or her mommy and what she was going through. Or that she might not make it.
Emma's stomach knotted tightly. She didn't know what she was supposed to do about that. It had been just her and her mommy for months. She was used to being her mommy's backup, to keeping watch and making sure she was okay.
But this time she couldn't do anything to help.
Something thumped downstairs. The door into the kitchen. Standing on the balls of her feet as if poised to run-her mommy had taught her to be ready to run at all times-she did a slow turn, listening to the soft sounds from the rooms below.
Natalia was moving from point to point, pausing here and there. Probably watching the area outside the house.
Looking for a chance to run for the SUV.
Used to how her mom would do things-case an area, study the lay of the land, spot the zeds, then move-she had no trouble guessing Natalia's most likely course of action.
The kitchen door was nailed shut, so Natalia would have to use a different door. Probably the front or the garage door. Most of the houses in the neighborhood had both from what she'd seen.
Then the sounds stopped.
Natalia must have made her choice.
Heart in her throat, Emma rushed from window to window, hunting for any sign of the woman.
When she reached the barred window in the bedroom she'd been using, she froze, barely breathing as she spotted Natalia just coming around one side of the building.
And then she saw something else. Something really bad...
* * * * * *
Natalia watched long enough to assess the wandering patterns of the nearest creatures, tracking them until she was sure she had a safe window of time to cross the side yard and get to the SUV. From there the plan was simple. Josh had left a small generator in the garage and set it up to use with the garage door opener. With it running, all she had to do was get to the SUV, drive it home, activate the automatic door opener, and drive in. It was gonna be a tight fit next to Josh's truck, but she could just do it. Thankfully, she'd cleared the space recently with the intent of storing spare supplies there.
So... New plan.
Because once she had the SUV in the garage, all she had to do was close the automatic door, then go over the SUV and its contents at her leisure.
The only hard part was the getting there.
That took making a break across open ground. Nerving herself up, she broke away from the cover of the house and started to run. The driver's side door was standing open. No need to delay. She could dive right in.
She got within a couple of yards of the SUV without incident. No dead around and no noise made.
Almost home.
Reaching for the open car, she started to swing herself into the driver's seat.
Only there was surge of movement from her left side and something shoved the door so hard she couldn't hold on.
It slammed shut in her face even as she spun around. Right into a brutal backhand. The blow nearly took her off her feet and she stumbled backwards.
Into a hard, male body.
The shotgun was stripped away before she had a chance to protest and she was grabbed in a painfully strong grip.
The man who'd slapped her grinned. He was dressed in mottled fatigues and some kind of black vest. There was something vaguely familiar about him and it struck her that he would have been handsome if not for the sneer that twisted his mouth. He made a small hand gesture and she caught sight of two men before they disappeared back into the tree line, moving quickly and silently. Not Reavers. They tended to be loud and obnoxious. These men had at least some training. That made them more dangerous. Another two men stepped into her linen of vision and remained. "You and I," he said very softly, his gaze focused on her, "need to have a conversation..." He patted the SUV. "...about the owner of this vehicle."
And then Natalia's gaze fell on the patch on the right breast of his vest.
It was oval with a line drawing of a cliff face and a waterfall.
The text under the drawing read, 'Dark Water Security'...
* * * * * *
Emma ran.
She knew that Natalia was probably too far away to hear any warning and if she did hear, they would too. Meanwhile, her Browning didn't have enough range to do any good. Besides, those guys were probably wearing body armor. They had before.
There was only one way to deal with them.
She dug small fingers into her sleeping mother's shirt front and shook with all her might. "Mommy, you've gotta wake up," she pleaded. Her mommy would deal with them just like she had before.
Olivia's head lolled and she mumbled, but her eyes did no more than flutter ever so slightly.
"You've gotta wake up now," Emma insisted, still shaking. "We need you." Still shaking her mother she leaned close, her voice as loud as she could make it when her every instinct was to be very small and quiet. "They're here, Mommy...the bad men...'n' Ava's daddy...he's with them..."
* * * * * * *
TBC