Desolace Omnibus Edition

by Lucian Barnes

  Odd, he thought, noting that the view hadn't changed. Almost as if he were not moving. He decided to try pressing the accelerator to see what happen, thinking that perhaps he'd put the truck in neutral. As he touched the pedal, the windshield view lurched toward him. He took his foot off the pedal and the truck coasted to a stop. He looked at the door, trying to find a control to roll the window down. Not finding anything to do it, he decided to crack the door open. When he did, Chris nearly fell out of the seat. He shook his head, thinking that he was hallucinating. The truck was floating in the air! He remembered reading somewhere that something like this was being developed, but he didn't think they'd actually manufactured one for the public.

  He closed the door again and sat staring at the windshield for a moment. He had a big, dumb grin on his face as he sat there dreaming about the possibilities of what he could accomplish now. If only he could find another person, who was actually alive, to share his happiness with.

  Chapter 8

  They had been very fortunate. Not long after entering the Flint city limits, Katie had found a pharmacy. She had managed to find a few bottles of different antibiotics within it, which she thought might be helpful.

  Thankfully, Jack had been able to rouse Melissa long enough to get her to take a couple of pills. All they could do now was wait to see if they would reverse the infection. Likely, it would take several treatments before they would see any noticeable change for the better.

  The group had left the city again, not wanting to press their luck with zombie encounters, and worked their way around to the south using the back roads. Once they were on the southern side of Flint, they found another place to lay low for the night near the town of Grand Blanc.

  When they got up the next morning, Katie checked Melissa, as she'd been doing ever since the attack that had injured her. She still looked pale, but now her skin was tightening upon her frame, making her look like a starving, homeless person. When Katie changed her bandages again before they headed out for the day, she thought that perhaps the dark lines of infection weren't moving quite as quickly as before, maybe they had even stopped moving toward her heart. She could only hope and keep feeding the antibiotics to her every few hours.

  As she cinched the last bandage in place, Katie couldn't help but wonder. Even with the antibiotics, the wounds still didn't seem to be healing. That worried her a lot! Maybe she hadn't given the drugs a chance to work into her system yet, or maybe she'd seen one too many horror movies when she was younger. Part of her mind insisted that Melissa would turn into a zombie, but the other, more rational, part of her mind told her she was being paranoid and foolish.

  As had been the norm lately, when Katie was finished administering to Melissa, Jack bent down and picked her up in his arms and waited for Edward to lead them on.

  They had no more reached the highway and started their way south, when Katie saw something in the road up ahead. She tugged on Edward's sleeve to stop him.

  "What is it?" he asked, turning to face her.

  "I saw something in the road up ahead. I think it was a person, but it could have been another zombie," she answered in a hushed voice.

  "Where?" Edward asked, as Jack and Julie caught up, wondering why they were stopping in the middle of the road.

  "Whatever, or whoever, it was moved off the road into the bushes over there," Katie said, pointing.

  "I don't see anything," he said, squinting to see any movement. "Let's keep moving, but be careful and keep your eyes peeled."

  Having no desire to have another zombie sneak up on them, Katie made sure that her bat was in her hand. She kept a tight grip on it, prepared to swing it at a moment's notice.

  After a couple of minutes, the group was getting very close to the place that Katie had pointed out. Suddenly, a figure stood up from behind the bushes, holding his hands in the air in surrender. "Please. Don't shoot!" he called out.

  Relieved that it was an actual living, breathing person, Katie replaced the bat in its place on the outside of her pack. As she did, the man began to move toward the group.

  Even with the thick winter coat he was wearing, they could tell he was very thin; probably not even weighing a hundred and fifty pounds, soaking wet. He had a mop of shaggy red hair on his head, and a pair of wired-rim glasses perched on his nose. His pale blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight as he stepped onto the highway amongst the group.

  "My name is Brian," he said, offering his hand to Edward. "I must say this is unexpected. I haven't seen a living soul for such a long time. I thought you guys were a roving pack of zombies at first." He laughed weakly.

  "Likewise," Edward said, grasping his hand and giving it a brief shake. "We haven't seen anything aside from the walking dead until you showed up."

  "What's up with her?" Brian asked, nodding his head in Melissa's direction.

  "Injured in a recent attack," Edward replied.

  "Hey. You aren't by chance a healer are you?" Katie inquired. "Melissa is one, but she's too weak to do anything to help herself."

  "No, I'm not," he answered. "I used to be a Catholic priest. How bad is she?"

  Katie grimaced. "Pretty bad. We found some medicine that we hope will help her recover, but so far it has only slowed the progression of her infection. What do you mean that you used to be a priest?"

  "I kind of lost my faith," he admitted, hanging his head in shame. "How could God allow the world to become this way? If he truly exists, and loves people the way I've been taught my whole life, the catastrophe around us would never have occurred."

  Edward looked confused. "Correct me if I am misunderstanding you. Are you saying that you believe there to be only one God?"

  "I used to," Brian admitted, "but after the virus struck, I began to doubt his existence. I found myself wondering if perhaps earlier cultures, with their multiple Gods, had it right after all. I picked up some books from a library in Toledo on shamanism while I was there, hoping to shed some light on the matter."

  "Where I come from, there are indeed multiple Gods," Edward told him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "They make their presence well known and often create quite a mess of things. Especially when there is conflict among them, which is something that seems to be escalating lately."

  "And, where exactly do you come from?" Brian asked, one eyebrow raised.

  "Long story," Katie interrupted. "Perhaps a story for another day." She smiled.

  "Mayhap one we can share with you when we find a place to settle in for the night," Edward began. "We should really focus on covering more ground."

  "Where are you guys headed?" Brian asked. For some reason that he couldn't explain, Brian no longer had the urge to keep heading north. This group had been traveling south when he'd met them, and he assumed they would be continuing in that direction. Was his newly acquired sense somehow telling him that he should accompany them? Surely his new skill would be useful to them.

  "Katie believes that if she returns to her home town, we will be able to find our way back," Edward replied, hoping that he wouldn't ask for further explanation right now.

  "Can I tag along? Being in the company of others would be nice, even though you seem to be headed in the direction I just came from."

  "I don't have a problem with that." Katie smiled, looking hopefully to Edward and silently praying that he felt the same. "We could use the extra help, that's for sure."

  Edward nodded his agreement.

  "Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but where exactly are we headed?" Brian laughed awkwardly.

  "Misty Hollows, Ohio," Katie replied with a grin.

  "What part of Ohio is that in?"

  "It's somewhat close to Toledo, so we should be able to get there in the next few days I would imagine," Katie informed him.

  Great! Right back into zombie central, he thought, giving her a nervous smile. He wasn't relishing the thought of not being able to breathe. He had to find a way to get more control over his new ability so he didn't become a liabilit
y to them. He hoped that he could do a little more studying when they stopped for the night, but didn't think he would really have much opportunity to do so. Likely, they would be spending the night in, or close to, Detroit. As if that weren't going to be enough of a distraction from his studies, surely Edward would take the opportunity to divulge the story he was holding back.

  Chapter 9

  Once he got used to driving it, Chris absolutely loved the Raptor. The way it hovered over the road made it handle like a dream. Potholes in the road became irrelevant, as did the normal hazard of getting a flat tire. Who needs tires when you're floating through the air?

  At first, the projected image on the windshield had been annoying and sometimes nauseating to watch. After a couple of hours driving the behemoth truck, he was more thankful than anything for the view it offered.

  More often than not, with the widened view it gave him, he was able to avoid zombie incursions from getting too close to him. He only had to worry about them when he encountered road blockages, but even those weren't that big of a deal. The Raptor had more than enough torque to power its way through most of them. Also, the heavy brush guard in front of the truck was sturdy enough to ram against the stalled or wrecked cars without even scratching the paint.

  It was great for obliterating zombies, as well; if they dared step in front of him. So far, he hadn't used the truck for that very much. Only when there'd been large groups of them, such as the ones he'd encountered on his way through Cincinnati and Dayton. Those had been some extremely large groups.

  He worried a little when he'd come upon the first giant mass of them in Cincinnati. There must have been at least a thousand of them milling about in the road, why they were there in such numbers he didn't know. Perhaps they were feeding on people that had died, trapped in their cars after crashing in their haste to get out of town. Whatever the case had been, it didn't matter much now. They were nothing more than splattered gore and strewn body parts after the Raptor had plowed its way through them.

  Things were calm now, but Chris was sure that he'd run into a similar situation when he reached Toledo. Detroit would likely be even worse, but after that he didn't expect too many more problems before reaching the Canadian border. As he pushed down on the accelerator a little harder, he contemplated the possibility that he was the only survivor of the virus. Surely there had to be more people like him out there somewhere, right? Otherwise his life seemed shallow and meaningless. He had to find someone else alive before he went mad.

  Chapter 10

  After a short debate, the group had decided that Detroit was too large to go around. It would have taken a day or two, maybe longer, to do it, and Brian had begun to feel a sense of urgency as they crossed into the city. He had an odd feeling that told him going out and around Detroit was a very bad idea, and he voiced this opinion to the rest of the group.

  Katie finally agreed when she got out the road map, looked at the route they would have to take to avoid the more populated areas, and figured it to be at least an extra fifty miles, maybe more, if they were to detour around the city.

  Since he'd met them, Brian had told the others about his new ability to sense when evil was close by. How it seemed that this skill had manifested itself after he'd begun to study the books on shamanism. He was finishing telling them about this new sense, and how it effected him, as they entered the city limits.

  He wasn't sure if his new ability had stopped working because, so far, he wasn't having any trouble breathing. That seemed very strange to him, knowing that the city was virtually crawling with zombies, having been through here not so long ago.

  They found a house to stay in for the night that seemed to be in a more upscale neighborhood, if there was such a thing anymore, just before dusk. For the first time in days, since they'd left Dafter in fact, they happened upon a house with a fireplace. Luckily, a tidy stack of wood sat beside it on the tiled floor that surrounded the hearth.

  Splitting into two groups, they began their methodical search of the house—as had become their normal routine—searching for undesired occupants and for supplies. Jack laid Melissa down on the carpet in the front room, not far from the fireplace, and waited for the others to return. Since her injury, he had become very protective of her, attending to her every need, hoping that her failing health would soon get better.

  He stroked her ruffled brown hair gently, trying to wake her. Melissa's eyes fluttered open to look at him and even in the dim light of the room, Jack was disturbed by what he saw. A multitude of tiny streaks of red, radiating out from her brown irises, literally blotting out most of the white's of her eyes. He didn't remember them looking like this before, even when the infection seemed to be at its worst.

  He reached into his pack and pulled out the bottle of pills that Katie had found, opened it, and shook out a couple of them into his hand. With one arm, he tilted her head up and placed the pills to her lips, which had started to take on an unhealthy, darker shade than normal. The pills stuck to her lips, and being too weak, Jack had to force them the rest of the way into her mouth. He pushed his pack under her head to keep her head propped up, hoping she wouldn't choke on the pills, and pulled out a bottle of water. He placed the bottle to her lips and tilted it, the contents running down her face more than into her mouth, as she tried to work her throat to swallow. After a few moments, she managed to open her mouth wide enough for Jack to see that the pills were gone.

  The others returned to the room with the items they'd found. It wasn't much, just comfort items like blankets and pillows. Like every other house they had stayed in, the kitchen was like a barren wasteland, offering nothing except dust and cobwebs. Edward noticed the look of concern on Jack's face. "Is everything okay?"

  A lump formed in his throat, making his voice crack as he answered. "I'm not sure. Near her wounds, the infection seems to be slowing, maybe even reversing, but it looks like its popping up in other places now." He turned his head away as a tear rolled down his cheek.

  "Maybe if we can get her warmed up she will feel a little better," Edward suggested, walking to the fireplace to get a fire going.

  "I hope so," Jack mumbled sadly.

  Katie walked over and knelt beside Jack, wrapping an arm around him, hoping to comfort him. He turned to face her, giving her a weak smile. "She'll pull through," Katie whispered, hoping that she was telling him the truth.

  "Can I get one of those?" Jack asked, seeing Brian standing a few feet away with blankets in his hands. He walked over and handed one to Jack. Julie was beside him a moment later, handing a pillow to him. "Thank you both," he said, managing a weak smile.

  Quietly, Brian and Julie withdrew, setting the rest of their stash into a pile nearby that the others could grab from when they were ready. Brian went to the fireplace to join Edward. The fire had just begun to catch and he was bent over, blowing softly on the flames. Once the fire began to spread, Edward stood. Knowing what had to be done, he gathered everyone near the fireplace, with the exception of Jack and Melissa. He didn't think it wise to move her any more than necessary, and he was reasonably sure that Jack wouldn't leave her side.

  Once everyone was gathered and seated comfortably, Edward began. "I told you before," he said, looking at Brian, "that our story was a long and complicated one. I will try to relay every aspect of this story as accurately as I can. There may even be bits and pieces of it that the others haven't heard yet either," he continued, glancing from face to face.

  With all eyes on him now, save for Melissa and Jack, he sighed deeply before continuing. "Keep in mind, that time has grown strange for me. I'm not sure what is at the root of this feeling. The only thing I am sure of, is that since everything began, I have no idea how much actual time has passed."

  Even though Brian thought the introduction to Edward's tale seemed confusing to say the least, he kept his mouth shut and waited for him to go on.

  "Not so long ago, my mother requested my aid for a mission that she felt would be next to i
mpossible to complete. The town elders of Elysia had asked for her help, but she was too ill to take on the mission herself." The firelight reflected from his eyes as he spoke, giving it the feeling of a ghost story being told around a campfire.

  "My mother tasked me with putting together a group of adventurers, telling me that the group must be comprised of individuals not from our world. A world known as Desolace," he said, stopping for a moment to take a drink from his water bottle.

  He cleared his throat and resumed. "There were to be individuals within this group that possessed certain abilities. A hunter, fighter, healer, holy man or woman, and a person capable of performing magic were to be the required personnel for successful completion of the mission."

  Despite his best effort, Brian had to stop Edward there. "Wait a minute. Are you saying that one of you is some sort of wizard?" Brian asked, astonished.

  "That would be me," Edward chuckled, opening his palm and producing a small flame to prove his point.

  "Fascinating." Brian watched the tiny flame dancing in his hand for a moment. "I'm sorry for interrupting. Please, go on."

  Edward closed his hand, extinguishing the flame. "I was instructed to create a portal, which would bring me a vital member of the group. That is where I found Katie."

  "I was originally from here," she interrupted to explain. "I used to live in Ohio. It was the year 2010 when I stepped through the portal into Edward's world. Initially, I had thought I was dreaming. Boy, was I wrong!"