He kept jogging, each step splashing in blood. The stink around him seemed to dull, and although he still had the taste of blood in his mouth all that he focused on was her voice. Lindsay's voice.
“I’m not going to do this anymore, Lindsay! I’m resigning first thing when we get out of this!”
His boot caught the leg of a corpse and he fell hard, meeting a dead face. The flesh was gray, and the mouth was full of blood. The smell was now up close and shooting through his nose and mouth, and down into his empty stomach. He almost broke out into dry heaves again, but the sound of his wife’s scream brought him up and moving. The entire front of his body was now covered with blood, and the stink followed him. There was no way to get rid of it now.
The screams were closer. He was probably within a hundred yards. He eyed the bodies in front of him, desperately searching for her. But the screams stopped.
“Honey? Where are you? Keep screaming. I need to know where you are!”
“Help me!”
It was her head. Nothing else. No body, no arms, no legs, no anything. Just her head.
He picked her up, carefully handling her delicate cheeks. Her face was as beautiful as it always had been, but at the bottom of her neck part of her spinal column stuck out.
“I-I-love you.” Tears filled his bloody cheeks as he held her face to face.
Her eyes blinked, and her nose was sucking in air. Everything was normal when he looked into her striking blue eyes. He was weak. Every ounce of strength left his body and he broke out into heavy sobs.
“Kiss me,” she said.
He brought the head to his lips and kissed her. All he could taste was blood.
* * * * *
“Jesus,” Russ muttered. “How long has he been under?”
“I don’t know,” Alan said. “We just found him like this.”
Lisa’s episode hadn’t been this bad. She trembled every so often like a troubled sleeper, that was it. Evan was going into convulsions, and saliva foamed around his lips.
But then it hit him.
“At least two of those things know we’re here.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I just woke Lisa up from one right before you banged on our door. I thought Evan said they could only do this to one person at a time.”
“Shit,” Jennifer whispered.
Alan grabbed a hold of Evan and began to shake him, even though he knew it wasn’t going to work. He had to do something, though. For all he knew Evan could be dying in a real convulsion of some sort. It might not have been a hallucination. It could have been the dust or perhaps the stress, right? Could those drive someone into a seizure?
He wasn’t going to wake up. Russ knew that. Whatever dream world had consumed poor Evan Brown was going to own him until his death. The bastards were pretty smart. They knew that Lisa wasn’t much of a fight for them, so they went after the man who was the most capable of defending himself. They let Lisa go, but Evan would be out for a long time.
“Think we should leave him?” Jennifer asked.
“No, I’m not going to leave this guy. If it weren’t for him I would be dead,” Alan said.
They couldn’t leave him; Russ knew that. He was too useful. The aliens knew that, and so did their little dead friends. There was a reason Russ hadn’t had a hallucination since he saw his mother coming up the stairs for him back at Lisa’s. He had seen something inside of her when she tried to take him. He had seen the creature for what it truly was, and how to destroy it. The infection that over took the corpse of Nelda Allen had reached too far into Russ mind. He reached back.
That’s why the little alien out on Washington Avenue didn’t attack him. He knew what Russ was capable of.
How capable am I?
He knew. For some reason he knew that they were afraid of him. There was something Russ had found that the others hadn’t.
“I can bring him out of it,” he said.
The entire room turned toward him at once. Alan, Jennifer, Patrick, and Lisa. No one said a word.
But could he? Could he really bring him out of it? Why hadn’t anyone else picked up on the little quirk? Was he the only one that tried to fight back in the dreams?
“I don’t know. I’ll try.”
Lisa put an arm around his shoulder and stared deep into his eyes. And he could see what her dream had been. He saw everything. Her mother, her father, the vomit, the blood. It was a twisted show that had been placed inside of her mind just to torment her. At that moment he knew it was possible. The encounter had triggered something in his head that enabled him to resist them.
“I can fight back. I did it when my mother’s corpse attacked me. I learned everything about this disease, at least what I need to know. I can do what they can.”
“You can make hallucinations?” Patrick asked. He had been crouched by Evan the entire time.
“I don’t know. I think so. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s just a feeling –a deep one.” He turned to Lisa. “Remember that alien that we saw and how it ran away?”
She nodded.
“I think it knew. I think it was afraid.”
Alan thought he was crazy. A lot of people could lose their mind in a time like this. Willis sure as hell had. He had locked them down there for some reason or another, and Russ was probably walking the line. But at the same time he found himself curious. What if it worked?
“I think your goddamn crazy, kid,” he said. “But if you want to shoot, go for it. It isn’t going to cause any harm.”
Patrick stood up. “I don’t know how much time we have before they’ll hit us, though. What if this stalls us? Don’t you think we should be running?”
“Can’t leave him here, and if we carried him it would slow us down even more. I don’t see why we shouldn’t give him a shot.”
“He’ll do it,” Lisa said. “I saw him do it before.” She knew now why she felt safe. It was him. It was all around him. He was what they feared.
“What are you talking about?” Patrick asked. “This is nuts!”
“I saw him at my place. He fought his way out of the dream. Then he used it against one of the creatures.”
Hearing that at least one of them believed the theory settled Russ. However, Russ didn’t know how to start. Previously he had just been thrown into it. He didn’t know if there was a way he could enter another man’s dream. But he had seen Lisa’s though. All that he did was look into her eyes and every little detail of that sick little show had passed through him, but Evan was still under. He couldn’t see into his eyes because they were rolled up into the back of his skull.
Russ knelt beside him and not knowing what to do, he just closed his eyes and tried to see something. Anything would have been ok, but there was nothing. Everyone stood around him silently. Patrick had a smirk on his face that made Lisa want to punch him, but she didn’t say anything.
Evan are you there? His vision was still black. But there was something new. It was a smell. Very strong. It stunk like garbage or a dead animal, but this was just too big for that. It went further. He felt like he was in the middle of a land fill.
Evan?
There was a coppery bitter taste like one would experience after a bit tongue. Blood. He could taste blood in his mouth. Where was Evan? Was this even working?
“Evan! Answer me!”
Russ opened his eyes, and threw up whatever was left of the dinner he had with Lisa at Roy’s Diner. It was a field of dead bodies, and it stunk to high fucking heavens. Seeing images like that on the television was no preparation for the real thing. Russ keeled over and tried to vomit again, but there was nothing left in his stomach.
If I can do what I think I can, I can change this.
Russ closed his eyes and he saw the creature that was causing the hallucination. It was a woman, and it was standing next to Reverend Willis. She had probably been his wife –yes she had been his wife. They were trying to hold them there for something.
Her
e’s a taste of your own medicine bitch! Russ grinned when he saw into her decaying mind. Could he really backfire it on her?
First thing’s first. Evan has to wake up.
When Russ opened his eyes he pictured a basketball court around him, like the one at his old high school. It was a fair enough place to have a small talk –a lot better than a field filled with dead bodies, from which his eyes were still watering because of the stink.
And the gym formed. Everything he thought of was there. It was like the creation of the universe back in Geneses. The basketball goals, the empty bleachers and most importantly, Evan. He was kneeling on the golden floor as if he had been praying. Then he looked around and stood up.
“Evan!”
“Russ?”
“You’re having a hallucination. None of this is real.”
“I thought so, but how are you here?”
“I’ve figured something out. Don’t ask me about it now. Reverend Willis isn’t on our side. His undead wife is walking around giving him orders up in his office. We need to get up there and get rid of them as soon as we can.”
“How can I wake up?”
Russ stared down at his feet. “Guess, I didn’t think of that part.”
“So we’re stuck here?”
“I’m generating this dream,” Russ said. “If I can be hit on the head or something we should both wake up.”
“What are you talking about?”
Russ sighed. He didn’t feel like explaining what had happened. He just wanted to get out.
“Duck!” Evan pulled the desert eagle from his side. Russ dropped to the ground.
“Fucker!”
Two shots whizzed over his head, and when Russ got up the woman he had seen with Willis was on the ground. The front of her head was caved in with a bullet hole and blood emptied out onto the golden gym floor. She knew about Russ’s newly found talents, and she knew that he was going to try to use them against her –and her people. It may have been too late. For all he knew, Elsie Willis could be ripping Lisa’s throat out.
“Bitch was trying to take control again,” Russ muttered.
Evan didn’t know what he was talking about and was more confused than he had ever been in his entire life. First there was The Field of the Dead, then Lindsay's talking head, then the basketball court and now Russ was trying to tell him he was in control of the dream somehow.
“I don’t know how you did this man, but I need to wake up. I’m starting to lose it.”
Russ dropped to his knees and closed his eyes, hoping that everything would go away.
* * * * *
But it didn’t. There was something wrong and out of place. It wasn’t him. It was Elsie. Her body was still on the gym floor, leaking thick blood into a puddle beneath her. But how was she still holding them under? Or was she?
“Could you please explain to me what the hell is going on?”
The two stood at half court, neither of them taking their eyes off of the body.
“Before I met up with you I was at Lisa’s house, and we were attacked. I had already had a couple of hallucinations, but the one I had there was different.”
“How so?”
“This one came from my mother, or whatever the hell she had turned into. When she tried to torment me and tried to get close, I was able to resist her. It was like I took over the hallucination for myself somehow and forced her out of it.”
“What happened in the hallucination?”
He felt a little embarrassed saying the next part, but he thought putting it out there would help him make sense of it, so he spoke: “I walked into a room with Lisa and Jessica, and they were both naked and trying to get me to sleep with them,” he paused and when he realized Evan wasn’t smirking at him, he continued. “I knew it was a hallucination, and I knew it was coming from my mother. I also knew that if I didn’t get out of it she would bite me. It was at the point when I closed my eyes and pictured a black room, with nothing in it. Then I saw her, my mother, the undead version. I could see everything inside of its head. It was nothing more than an alien bug infecting a human body. I could tell that her body was soft, like a ripe fruit. I knew it was strong, though, but I had already decided how I could kill it.”
Russ paused and shifted his gaze to his feet, recalling his mother’s dead face. He could see her on top of him all over again. Her teeth lowering to his neck, blood dripping from them-
“Stop it!” he shouted. A laugh echoed around the gym.
“What the hell?”
“She’s trying to fuck with me.”
All of the light was suddenly sucked from the room. It didn’t shut off like a normal light, it was literally sucked away like dirt into a vacuum. There was no light. He felt like he was buried alive.
Scene change, Russ. Enjoy the show. You’re going to be here for a while.
“Shut up, I’m stronger than you!”
Keep telling yourself that honey.
“Evan are you here?” Russ couldn’t see anything. She had just put him into a room of nothing, with only darkness. But then there was light, and he saw something he hoped he would never have to see.
He was back on Washington Avenue, standing ankle deep in blood. The over turned Hummer was still there, as were the other two. But there was no sign of human life. There was a sign of the walking dead though. There was a man in the distance with a sick smile on his face. He was wearing a business suit, and his face was a pale gray, and cheekbones were sticking out from the skin. It was his father, and he was dead.
“Hello, son. I’m surprised that you haven’t joined us yet.”
Russ shook his head and started taking steps backwards. His father smiled and paced toward him one bloody step at a time.
“You’re not my father. You’re a fucking disease.”
“But I’m happy,” he stretched out his arms as if to hug air. “I’m happy and so are all of the people like me. We don’t have any worries, and we can have anything we want. You seem to feel alone most of the time, son. If you become like me you could fuck any woman you want.”
“Get the hell away from me.”
“I know you’ve been eyeing Lisa. She’s a beautiful gal, no doubt there. So is Jessica. You could nail them both, son.”
“This isn’t real. None of this is. You’re a fucking dream.”
Russ dropped to his knees and could feel the blood splashing onto his cold skin. None of it was real, and he couldn’t let himself forget that. He could also change it. He could change it into something that would piss off Elsie. But what would that be? Was there something hiding deep within her decaying mind that would bother her?
Yes.
He closed his eyes and pictured her and almost immediately knew everything she did. She was forcing her husband into holding them captive for the aliens. They had something planned and Elsie, herself, didn’t know what. But it was coming. They had given her orders to keep them. As soon as he could wake up he’d make sure everyone would be out of the church. Russ wasn’t going to let this happen. He was more powerful.
And there was a star shining in his face. The secret that bothered Elsie wasn’t known to her until she was undead and found it deep within her husband’s religious little mind. It gave her feelings of disgust and anger, but also failure and sadness. She was going to feel again it soon. The dream had backfired and she was going to have serious problems.
“It’s your turn, Elsie.”
Who is this?
“I am your end.”
Where am I going?
“You’ll see soon enough.”
24
Elsie couldn’t move. She was in her bedroom, tied to a chair. Despite the strength the bug had given her, she still couldn’t escape. The rope seemed to be made of steel, but when she looked down at it, it was nothing more than normal. The peach colored walls and the king size bed were as they always had been. But something was wrong with this picture. There was a woman sleeping in the bed that wasn’t her.
/> She wasn’t asleep. She was well awake actually, and comfortably under the covers. James was in the bathroom, which they had added onto the bedroom when they moved into it. They had made love in the shower many times. Elsie missed it.
But it wasn’t her tonight. It was Cecilia Welch. She pulled down the covers from her body, revealing a youthful body in sexy red underwear probably from Victoria’s Secret or one of those. Elsie closed her eyes. She had no idea about it until she became undead, until she could see everything in James Willis’s perverse or maybe religious mind, if you call cheating on your wife with a young whore religious. Those that served God weren’t always righteous.
The only way out was to change the scene, but she couldn’t. No matter how hard she tried to imagine something else around her it didn’t happen. The kid was too strong. The kid was right. He was probably stronger than her and there was nothing she could do about it. He was holding her there, making her watch the most horrific thing he could think of. There isn’t a lot worse than being forced to watch your husband screw another woman.
He walked out of the bathroom with a smile on his face, a fucking smile. Undead Elsie struggled within the rope, but it wasn’t happening. She couldn’t move it. James paid her no attention as he walked toward the bed, taking his pants off.
He had to be at least twenty years older than Cecilia Welch. But she was still going to let him do the nasty. Elsie had never noticed how wrinkly the backs of his legs were. It was almost enough to make her glad it was over, but it wasn’t. Cecilia let out a playful cry as he pulled her panties off.
“Stop it, you fucking shitface!” Elsie screamed, but they went on as if they couldn’t hear her.
And maybe they couldn’t. Maybe Russ Allen was smart enough to seal every possible escape route. Elsie tried to close her eyes, but she could still see it, like a sick movie playing inside of her head. She couldn’t move. She was being forced to watch her husband of almost forty years stick his dick in another woman, right in the place where she had slept. It was even on her side of the bed.
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