Brian suddenly stood up, holding his arms out wide, lifting his head to the sky, uttering something unintelligible in a booming voice. Moments later, the entire house was engulfed in flames and Brian fell to the ground as if he'd just passed out. Katie and Edward jumped back, shocked by the sudden appearance of the fire. Fighting instinct, Jack leapt forward, sinking his teeth into Brian's coat and dragging him away from the burning house.
After the initial shock began to wear off, Katie noticed something peculiar. The blazing house didn't seem to be giving off any heat! A fire that size should have made the temperature within a few hundred feet almost unbearable! It vaguely reminded her of the Wrath of God type stuff she'd heard about when she was younger. Fire and brimstone, raining down to cleanse and purify the sinners of the world.
She tried to move forward, curious to see if there was any heat at all being produced by the raging fire, but Edward clamped a hand on her shoulder to prevent her from getting any closer.
As Jack neared the truck, Brian began to regain consciousness, struggling to get out of Jack's grip after he saw that a wolf had a hold of him. He flailed his arms, doing everything he could to break free. Finally, Jack let go and stood there panting and watching Brian. "Get away from me!" Brian yelled, fearing that he'd gotten out of the house only to be a wolf's lunch.
Edward took his hand from Katie's shoulder and walked over to Brian. "Take it easy, Brian. It's only Jack."
He looked up at Edward, his eyes crazed. "Are you out of your mind? That's not Jack! It's a wolf!" he protested loudly, still trying to back away.
Edward crouched down next to him. "Remember what I told you last night? That Jack is a werewolf?" He waited a moment for his words to register. "I know it must be a shock to see him this way for the first time, but I assure you, Jack is one of us, not a servant of evil. Use your ability if you think I am trying to deceive you."
Brian considered his words for a moment. It was true, his sense of evil had greatly diminished, feeling like the evil was still present, but farther away than where the wolf was standing. It went against everything he'd ever seen regarding them, but looking into the wolf's eyes, he could almost swear that he could see Jack in them. "Is that really you, Jack?"
The wolf barked once and walked over to him, sitting down beside him and licking his face. Brian managed to smile, slowly raising a hand to stroke his fur. "So, what now?" Brian asked, looking up at Edward.
He seemed to consider the question for a moment, thoughtfully rubbing his chin and taking a slow look around them. It was dark outside, the roaring fire had given off so much light that he hadn't noticed until now. He then turned his attention to the truck. It seemed to be the quickest way to get around, but with Chris dead he wasn't sure if anyone else could operate it. He knew he couldn't, and was sure Jack couldn't either. Perhaps Brian would know, or even Katie.
"Do you know how to work the truck?" he finally asked Brian.
"I never learned how to drive," he replied.
"I could take a crack at it," Katie offered.
"Well, since the immediate threat seems to have passed, I suggest we get into it and rest for a while. Maybe after a little sleep, Katie will be able to figure out how to make it work," Edward suggested.
"Sounds good. I'm exhausted," Brian said, offering a weak smile.
Edward bent down and offered his hand to Brian, helping him to his feet. Brian opened the back door, motioning for Jack to get in. Jack jumped in and Brian hopped into the seat beside him, closing the door. Katie and Edward got into the front, rummaged through the packs briefly, passing a dirty blanket back to Brian and keeping one for themselves. As difficult as the last couple of hours had been, exhaustion prevented them from thinking too much about what had happened. They were soon fast asleep.
Chapter 13
Katie was the first to wake up. It felt like she'd slept for hours, but it was still pitch black inside the truck. She fumbled for the door handle. After a few moments, she found it and pulled the lever, opening the door. Bright light streamed into the truck, waking the others. Moving her blanket aside, Katie stepped down from the truck to survey the wreckage of what had once been her home.
As she stared at the smoldering heap, a realization struck her. At one time, her bedroom window had served as a portal into the world of Desolace. If it had still existed yesterday, it was gone now. She cursed herself for not thinking of it when they'd first entered the house. How were they ever going to get back to Desolace? Remembering the events near the stairway yesterday, seeing what she thought had been her friend, viciously ripped to pieces, pieces that weren't human at all. Just another robot, or cyborg actually, made to look like her friend. Obviously, Julie was still somewhere upon Desolace.
Katie felt something touch her shoulder and she jumped, turning defensively. She relaxed when she saw that it was Edward. She hadn't heard him get out of the truck.
"What were you thinking about just then?" he inquired.
"I was remembering about the portal that used to be here. The one that I entered when I originally went to Desolace," she replied quietly. "It's obviously gone now and I'm kicking myself in the ass for not thinking of it when we first went in."
Edward remained quiet for a few moments, letting her rant. In that time an idea came to him. "Wait a minute," he said, interrupting her. "The man with the mechanical horse that took your friend came from here too, right?"
Suddenly, her face lit up. He was right! If I went through a portal to get there, he must have done the same thing! "You're a genius!" she said, planting a big kiss on his cheek. "Now all we have to do is figure out where the portal is that he used." Her mind reeled, trying to think of the most obvious place his portal would have been.
Where could it be? She searched her memories of that time as if she were looking for a needle in a haystack, which in a sense she was. One possibility was his house. That would be easy enough to check, it wasn't far from here. As she was about to say this to Edward, another thought occurred to her. What about the park in Oregon? Didn't he use the lodge over there to display one or more of his victims?
"I have two ideas regarding the possible location of his portal," she told Edward, excitedly. He looked at her with interest, waiting for her to continue. "His house would be the closest place we could check. If it's not there, then I think it may be in a park that's about twenty minutes from here. Assuming that we can get the truck working," she added with a grin, moving past him to the open driver's door.
Poking her head inside, she looked at all of the different switches, knobs, and buttons. The first thing she had to do was figure out how to start the damn thing. After that, she could fiddle with everything to see what did what. She looked near the steering column for the ignition, expecting there to be some sort of high-tech way of starting the truck. She tried to remember what Chris had done to turn the engine off when they'd gotten here. As she jostled the truck in her search, Brian sat up sleepily, rubbing his eyes and brushing fur from his lips. Apparently, he had been using Jack as a pillow. He shot him an apologetic look, though the wolf just stared impassively back at him.
Not expecting what she saw, Katie nearly dismissed it as a mirage. A set of keys was dangling from the ignition! She reached over and turned the key. The motor instantly jumped to life. "Woohoo!" she shouted, immediately hopping into the driver's seat. "Get back in here Edward." She smiled, seeing the grin on his face as he stood at her door. He hurried around to the other side of the truck and got in.
It only took Katie about ten minutes to figure out which buttons and switches were vital to the operation of the truck. A couple more minutes and she had the truck hovering in the air and slowly backing down the driveway. At first, every time she tried to turn the truck it resulted in a jerky movement that made the truck lurch to one side or the other, but by the time they actually reached her old bus driver's house she was starting to get the hang of it.
She pulled into what had once been his driveway, now comple
tely overrun with grass and weeds. So much so that the driveway beneath was barely visible. She brought the truck to a stop alongside the house, but left the motor running in case they needed to get away quickly.
"Make a quick check of your gear before we go inside, please," Edward instructed.
They took a quick inventory of the remaining weapons they had available: a shotgun and a baseball bat. There were still two boxes of shells left for the gun. Edward glanced at the remaining members of the group to figure out the best way to distribute the limited supply of weapons.
Jack was still in wolf form, so he didn't require a weapon. Not that he would be able to use one. Besides, he was probably close to the best weapon they had just being a wolf. When Edward turned his gaze on Brian, he saw that he wasn't even looking at the weapons. He probably doesn't need one either, considering what he did back at Katie's old house.
Katie made the decision for him while he was figuring things out. She grabbed the bat, leaving the shotgun for him. Katie hopped down from the truck and waited for everyone to join her. As Brian stepped out, she paid close attention to his eyes, making sure that they weren't glazed over.
"I'm not sensing anything here," he told her, when he noticed her scrutiny.
Katie smiled. "Good. Then we shouldn't have any opposition when we search the place."
Once everyone was out of the truck and ready, Edward led the way to the front door. He glanced back to make sure everyone was with him, then turned the knob and pushed the door open. Thankfully, they weren't greeted by a surprise zombie attack as they entered.
There was a staircase on the right, the sight of which sent shivers down Katie's spine. Several rooms could be seen from the foyer in the downstairs section of the house, who knew how many were up on the second floor?
"I'll take Brian with me and check upstairs. You take Jack and search down here," Edward said. "We will meet up back here when we're done with the search. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you run into any trouble, you know what to do."
Katie eyed the stairs warily. "Be careful and watch out for hungry stairs," she teased, trying to lighten the mood.
Edward shook his head and laughed before turning toward the staircase. He glanced over at Brian as they made their way to the stairs. He appears fine. No sign of labored breathing. No sign of his eyes clouding over. We should be fine, he thought, convincing himself that there wasn't any danger present.
It didn't take long to go through the house, fifteen minutes at the most. Katie was standing by the front door, nervously tapping her foot while she waited for Edward to return, resisting the urge to go check on him.
Moments later, he came sauntering down the staircase. "Nothing," he said when he saw Jack and Katie waiting for them.
"Then I guess we're going to the park. I hope the portal is there, because if it's not I'm out of ideas." Katie sighed.
They went outside and piled back into the truck again. Once everyone was in, Katie backed the truck to the road and started driving toward the park.
Ten minutes passed when Edward began to notice a change in Brian's breathing. He looked into the back seat to see if he was okay.
"I can definitely feel something. The longer we're on the road, the stronger the feeling is getting," he told Edward.
"How much longer until we get there?" Edward asked, tapping Katie to get her attention.
She wasn't sure if she'd heard his question correctly, her hearing was still muddled after the shotgun going off next to her head. "About ten more minutes," she answered, hoping she'd guessed correctly about his question so she wouldn't look like a fool.
"It's not a choking feeling this time," Brian began when he noticed that Edward had turned his attention back to him. "It feels more like I have something heavy sitting on my chest."
"Not sure if that's better or worse," Edward said, his eyebrows drawn down in worry, wondering if Brian's feeling was being caused by a mass of zombies or because of the portal itself. After all ... if there was a portal there, it was likely created by the Black Knight.
A short while later, Katie announced that their destination was only a minute or two away. Edward wasn't paying any attention to her. He was focused on the changes that were manifesting in Brian.
His breathing had become very deep and slow, his eyes were starting to look cloudy, and when Edward tried speaking to him he didn't respond. Not even an acknowledging nod. Edward was growing very nervous, but was trying his hardest not to let it show. He had to project confidence, even if it felt like he had none.
Moments later, Katie pulled into a short, gravel driveway and brought the truck to a stop. "Holy fucking shit!" she nearly yelled, drawing Edward's attention back to the front.
In front of them was a wall of zombies. There had to be at least a couple of hundred of them, probably more. They stood in a giant circle, unmoving, radiating out perhaps twenty feet from the cabin at the center of the mass. It almost seemed like they were guarding the building. Does the Black Knight's influence reach into worlds other than my own? Edward wondered. It was the only explanation for what he was seeing. If the portal was inside the building, like he now suspected, how were they going to get through all of the zombies to get to it?
"How are we going to get to the building?" Edward asked, voicing his thoughts. "They're obviously trying to keep us from getting inside."
Katie considered his question, and after a few moments she knew. "Like this!" she yelled triumphantly, putting the truck back into gear and stomping on the accelerator.
The truck leapt toward the zombie herd surrounding the building. As the Raptor slammed into the leading edge of them, Katie spun the steering wheel, smashing them with the side of the truck. She kept the gas pedal pressed down firmly, attempting to do something she hadn't done in a really long time. A giant doughnut, like the one's she used to do in her dad's car sometimes when she went out with her friends, showing off.
It was a good plan ... in theory. She plowed through the zombie herd like a hot knife through butter. Until she got to the opposite side of the cabin. She hadn't seen it until it was too late. The truck smashed into a good sized tree, cracking it enough that it looked like it might tip over and fall on the truck. For a vehicle this big, the Raptor hadn't fared too well against the tree, the trunk of which had crumpled the hood to the point that it was almost in the cab of the truck.
"Grab your weapons and let's go!" she screamed. "Before the zombies regroup!"
They quickly piled out of the truck. Jack got in front of everyone, determined to sacrifice himself if need be. He growled and slashed at any zombie that got within reach of his powerful claws.
"Head for the door," Edward shouted above the noise. "We'll have a better chance of fighting them if we can get inside. Only one or two would be able to attack us at the same time if we force them to come through the doorway."
Brian was stumbling around as if he were blind. Katie grabbed his arm and headed for the door set into the back of the cabin. So far, Jack was keeping the zombies at bay, but he couldn't do it forever, not with that many of the hungry fiends closing in on him.
When she got to the door, Katie turned the knob and pushed. The door didn't budge. Edward joined Katie and Brian. Even with the three of them pushing against the door, it still wouldn't open.
"Jack! We need you! Smash this door down!" Katie screamed in panic.
Jack turned at the sound of her voice, hearing the urgent tone of hysteria laced into it. He saw them struggling to get inside the cabin and charged over to help. He hit the door with such force that it sent splinters of wood flying through the air like a thousand tiny daggers. Instead of landing inside, his body vanished...
City of the Dead
Chapter 1
Katie and Edward watched in astonishment as Jack disappeared after going through the doorway. Was it the portal they were searching for? Even if it wasn't, it was surely better than being lunch for the pack of hungry zombies, which were bearing down on them at
this very moment, only a matter of twenty feet or so from them.
She looked at Edward and shrugged her shoulders. This felt a lot like when they'd followed Melissa through the underground portal. They could only hope for better results this time. Dragging Brian with her, Katie plunged through the doorway. Edward took one last look at the zombies, hoping he would never encounter such vile creatures again, and stepped into the opening after them.
The strange sensation he remembered having when stepping through the portal with Katie when he'd first met Melissa hummed through his body for a moment. Seconds later, when his eyes adjusted, he saw the glow of several monitors.
"Oh my God! What is that fucking stench?" he heard Katie shout. It took a minute, but he soon realized where he was. Right back where they'd started from! The Outpost they'd been in before they'd gone down the stairs to the underground river.
"Yes!" he yelled happily, knowing now that at least he was back in his own world. Suddenly he had the urge to run outside and kiss the ground. He went to the door and placed his hand in the familiar handprint that he knew would open it. Twisting his hand in the mechanism, he felt a slight tingle of electricity as the door began to slide to the left.
It was dark outside, but he didn't care. "Come on out here!" he shouted to the others. Moments later, they were all standing outside in the much better smelling air. The bank of floodlights atop the Outpost suddenly flashed on, temporarily blinding them.
Together, they moved far enough from the building that the lights turned off again. Edward fell to his knees and looked up at the familiar moons above him. Thankful to finally be back home, he began kissing the ground, causing Katie to burst out laughing.
"You're not glad to be back, are ya?" she teased.
"I can't imagine being any happier," he told her, spitting dirt and grass from his mouth and laughing as he spoke.
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