Dead World Rising

by Katerina Petrova

  'Oh god,' I screamed as I came. She looked at me, smiling with that perfectly carved mouth of hers. I pulled her down, climbed on top of her, listening to her moan at my touch. I kissed my way down her body, feeling the hunger inside her, needing to be the one to feed it. I rubbed my fingers around her clit, watching as she squirmed. Smiling, I felt satisfied, I loved to make her squirm. I pushed my fingers inside, hearing her moan louder. I slid them in and out, as I cupped her breast with my other hand.

  'Don't you dare stop,' she panted. I slid my tongue between her legs, feeling just how wet she was. A brief wondering of whether Jensen had ever made her feel this way crossed my mind, but I pushed it away as my fingers went deeper inside her. I loved the feel of juices in my mouth, she screamed as her body quaked, I felt her come, but I didn't stop. The more I licked, the louder she screamed. She clung to the bottom of the bed, as another orgasm racked her body. She relaxed, having let out all the tension that had building. I flopped down aside her, feeling far more awake than I had earlier.

  'That was certainly a good way to start the day,' she said smiling.

  'You certainly woke me up,' I laughed. We laid there for a little while longer, just enjoying each others company. While we were intimate a lot, our relationship was mostly about just being together, and catching up on lost time. I still hadn't fully told her what had happened to me in the last five years, some parts of it were so painful, but I knew I would tell her eventually. After we got up, we went to check the fencing we'd put up around the lake. It held well, the few corpses that had washed up, we took care off. We hadn't had any more trouble from Nathaniel's men thankfully, so our lives were pretty quiet. I often worried about her being away from her family, I knew she missed them but she never made me feel second best nor did she complain about it being just the two of us.

  'It's pretty cold today,' she said shivering.

  'I know, but we're in need of more food so we'll have to scavenge,' I replied.

  'Alright, come on then. Let's head out, I want to be back by dark,' I told her. It was lucky for us that I'd found us more petrol for the car on my last run, we'd got enough in the tank to last a while, plus there was two cans full in the boot. I checked the map, we were going to Portree, the Isle of Skye's largest town.

  Going there would mean bigger risks, but hopefully bigger rewards. We hopped in the car, and off we went. I drove, Frankie knew how but I like being behind the wheel. It was still pretty early in the day, so hopefully we'd be back well before dark. Portree was only a half hour drive away, I just hoped that as it was the biggest town on the island it wouldn't be too full of the dead.

  The drive was just as beautiful as the castle we lived in, long roads, tall green mountains with snow covered tops and lush rolling hills filled with the most vibrant flowers I had ever seen. Despite the beauty of our new home, the view of the island still astounded me. Given that we mostly stayed in our castle, locked away from the horrors of this life I often expected the world outside to have simply fallen away.

  'I still can't get used to this,' I said happily.

  'Get used to what?' Frankie wondered.

  'This place, I know we still deal with the odd corpse but this place is so serene,' I answered.

  'I know what you mean, it's like the rest of the world ceases to exist. I wish it could be like this forever,' she replied thoughtfully.

  'I don't see why it can't,' I smiled.

  'Now who's the dreamer,' Frankie laughed. I laughed with her, back in the old days it was Frankie was the idealist whereas I was the realist. Now it seemed that this was another change in our relationship. Despite being happier than I had been in half a decade, I still longed for a reminder of the old days.

  I had always known I was gay, even since being a small child. I knew I was female, I never had any doubts about that but the purpose of boys- well I didn't think they really had any. I was only a year older than Frankie, but even when we met I felt so much older than her. She was like this timid little cub that had not yet found her roar, I knew right away that I felt something for her. Yet it was three months before I made a move, I felt nervous as I wasn't particularly open about my sexuality back then.

  I remember our first kiss, it was a cold Winter's day in late December. The snow was falling heavily as we sat in our spot, it was a church hall garden not five minutes from where she lived. It was a small place with a stone path that led round the back. It's garden was not overly large, though its grass was brightly coloured even in the harsh, bitter coldness of Winter. There was barely five stone steps that led to the grass area, behind it was an iron gate which led to the road. To the right of the steps was a large patch of bushes with a hole just large enough to get in, inside was small secluded wooded area in which we spent many days lazing about in.

  I sat with my legs outstretched on the frozen snow covered ground, the cold didn't bother us as we were occupied talking about our future plans.

  'I can't wait to be eighteen, I'm off to Scotland for university,' I said happily.

  'That's sounds awesome, but I'm afraid my mum wouldn't let me go. Since my brother left for the army she's become so overprotective,' Frankie sighed.

  'I never met your brother, what was he like?' I asked curiously. 'He joined the army at eighteen, I was ten when he left. He was tall, much taller than me. He had hair of sunshine gold, eyes as clear as the ocean itself with skin so pale it makes me look tanned. My brother was kind, loving and fiercely loyal, I miss him everyday and before you came along I spent my days waiting by the letterbox in a hope of hearing from him,' I heard her voice begin to break and saw the tears forming in her eyes.

  It was then that I took her hand in mine and gazed lovingly into those sapphire and told her, 'You don't need to be sad any more, I'm here for you.' It was the first time she truly smiled, I raised my other hand to wipe the tears from her gentle face all the while not taking my eyes from hers. Without thinking, without really knowing what I was doing I felt my face move closer to hers. My heart began to beat so fast, that I feared it might break through my chest as I felt her breath on mine. She did not blink nor move away, she stayed frozen as if afraid to move. I leaned in closer, hearing her breath slow right down. As our lips met, the snow fell from a top a tall tree and landed on our heads yet still it did not disturb our intimate moment. Within moments our kiss had transcended from a petty teenage kiss to one that would define us, our arms wrapped around each other pulling us closer as my very soul was set on fire. I knew in that moment we would never be parted, our souls were entwined in a way few others could comprehend.

  And from that moment, until I left for Scotland three years later we were never truly apart.

  Chapter 10

  Roy

  As I walked along the desolate road in this tiny village of Holywell Green, I couldn't help but think of whether I was doing the right thing. I'd been in the army since I was a teenager, I was now thirty. It was all I'd known in my adult life, but even now in the midst of the fiercest war the world had ever known the memories of my old life plagued my mind.

  I was born in 1985 to Kevin and Denise Hannibal, who were not your average parents. My dad was forty when they had me and my mum was thirty-two, suffice to say they were rather old-fashioned. Well my mum was, my dad was actually pretty laid back. I also had a sister, a baby sister named Mildred. She was just a child when I left, I know it broke her heart far more than it did my parents. I tried to keep in touch with her, but after a few years she found it too hard to keep writing. My parents however, never failed to send a letter.

  My life as a child was a relatively normal one, my only hardship was my father's failing health. As a young man he was quite the adventurer, but as time wore on he was crippled by arthritis. Yet as his health deteriorated, he still did not lose his jolly nature. He was always one to make us laugh, to guide and comfort us in our hardest times. He was to me, a god among men. While I loved my mother deeply, it was my father that I turned to.

  I had m
any regrets in my life, the one that plagues me the most is not returning home when this terrible war began. I would never know of my families fate, I dared not hope for their survival for it would be asking the impossible. No, I could only ask that went peacefully.

  There was one image that replayed in my head more than most.

  I could see it clear as day, it was the 15th May 2002 the day I left my home forever.

  'Roy please, please don't go,' my little sister begged as she clung to my legs. I knelt down on the grass beside her, we sat in our back garden, the sun beaming down in the cloudless sky on a scorching May afternoon. My sweet sister could not bear to be apart from me, it was she who almost convinced me to stay. She had hair of fine spun gold, with eyes of ocean blue and pale skin that sometimes made her look dead. She clung to me, her face reddened from crying, her shoulder length hair clinging to her tear stained face. I remember what she wore, it was a little midnight blue velvety dress that had thick straps and came to her knees, underneath she wore a black t-shirt and thin black leggings with a pair of those blue jelly shoes that were so in fashion back then. I held her in my arms as she wept, my parents stayed in the kitchen looking out the window with tears in their eyes.

  'Millie, don't cry. I'm going to help make our world a better place,' I told her softly. 'But my world won't be a better place without you here,' she cried. I didn't know what to say, how could I argue with her words when I knew them to be true. I had known from a young age that I wanted to serve in the army, I could not explain the pull that I had felt all my life. I knew I had little other skills, I passed school with only acceptable grades. I did not posses any talents that would help me with a career nor did I have any desire to go on to college or university. My only true desire, was leave the world in a batter place than when I found it.

  'I promise you, it won't be forever,' I tried to reason.

  'If something happens to you, I'll be so sad,' she replied. I lifted her head to look into those beautiful ocean eyes, I smiled, 'Nothing will happen to me, but this is something that I have to do. I want to help little girls like you, to protect them from the awful people out there. To give them a fighting chance.'

  She sat for a moment, to let my words sink in. After a few moments she smiled, 'You'll be like a superhero,' she said almost proudly.

  I laughed, my baby sister loved superhero's and was always reading comics and playing video games.

  'I hope I will be,' I smiled. She told to me stay put while she ran back inside our house, moments later she returned not only with a smile on her face but with her favourite locket. Inside the locket was a picture of us together, from about a year before. It was taken in one of those silly photo booths you find in bowling alleys, there was a giant red heart around our the picture of us and underneath us there was a line which read, 'I'll love you to the moon and back.'

  'I want you to take it, so that I'll always be with you.' My little sister was already wise beyond her years. As I hugged her one last time, and looked at my parents standing tearfully in the window waving at me. I knew I had something that most people longed for, a real family. I had always meant to return, I never wanted to stay away for so long but as the years wore on and I rose through the ranks I could not stop the work I was doing.

  A year before the outbreak I stationed in Afghanistan as rumours that Osama Bin Laden had developed a serum that would give opposing soldiers extraordinary speed and strength in battle. Little did we all know, the serum he created would be the death of life as we knew it. I saw first hand the beginning of outbreak.

  At the time we didn't know what it really was, or what the virus would do. I remember the terror that I and my troops felt, going into battle with these enhanced soldiers. As they were let out of large trucks the enemies raced towards us, eyes as black as the night and decaying skin covered in black veins. We shot at them, but they did not die, a few fell but soon rose again as their hungry faces stared at us, filling our hearts with a fear like no other. In the midst of what could only be described as an unholy battle, we faced our foes as best we could. Yet as they loomed closer, I began to realise that it was futile. I called for a retreat, not wanting lose any one.

  All it took, was for one just one of my men to be bitten. It was my closest ally, Kieran that was infected. A single small bite to the cheek. We kept him in quarantine, it was a sight that I was forced to watch as I oversaw his care. The doctors and few scientists that we had used all of their resources to cure him, but within a day he had turned. Our base fell under attack, too many good men and women died that day.

  As I flew back to England for the first time in years, I did so with a heavy heart. While it was not until a year later that this deadly virus reached the UK, I and a few others already knew what was to come. Yet still I was not allowed to return home, I could not warn my family or friends, I was forced to stand idly by as the plague took everything I had ever known.

  The closest I ever came to going home, was two years after the outbreak when what remained of the army forces was sent to burn down the most dangerous towns and cities. I watched as Manchester fell to the fire, knowing that there was still innocent living people inside, I heard the screams, watching as the burning, fleeing people died. I could only hope that my loving parents and sweet baby sister were not among them.

  My mission now, was to help find the cure for this deadly virus. There was a woman, Morgan Wells, she was one of the lead scientists along with her husband that was frantically trying to find a cure. She disappeared five years ago, it is believed that they fled to a secret lab, though we do not know where. Many of our forces have searched the southern towns, villages and cities in search of them. Too many of my friends had died for this cause. We now had fresh information that their children Finn and Faye were not only alive but also in the area, if Morgan and her husband shared any information about the cure it would be with their children.

  I stood for a moment, staring into the half broken window of what used to be a little corner shop. I still looked like me, ridiculously tall, short blond hair and the same pale skin and blue eyes as my sister. Though I was far more physically fit than I was when I first entered the army, and I could see the faint age lines that had started to appear on my face that made me look older than my years. I still wore the British army uniform, how I longed to wear some normal form of clothing. It seemed strange to want something so menial in a world like this, though I often found that it was the small things I missed such being able to shower on a regular basis or being able to sit and read a good book or even just to have a normal conversation.

  I turned to look at my only remaining friend, Jack. He was a scrawny lad of twenty-four with short sandy coloured hair, pale brown eyes and tanned skin. He joined us at eighteen not one year before the outbreak, he was good at his job but I feared that the knowledge of losing his family was weighing on him. Some of us that survived were given news of our families, though I wasn't one of them. Poor Jack, he lost his three sisters, two little brothers both of his parents and several aunts, uncles and cousins. While he had received this information a few years ago, I could tell he held much guilt over not being there to protect them.

  'Do you really think those kids are still around here?' He asked interrupting my thoughts.

  'I've no idea, but we have to keep looking. Orders are orders after all,' I replied.

  'I know, I just wish this war would end,' he said sadly.

  'Without the cure it's not going to. No matter how many infected we kill, more will always come. That's why this mission is of the highest priority,' I told him fiercely.

  'I know, I just hope we're not still doing this in ten years. I'd like to have a normal life again.' 'So would I Jack, so would I.' As we walked about in the arctic October weather, we checked every house, every shop but there was no sign of the kids or Morgan. I still didn't understand how two kids could have survived all this time, it seemed impossible. I was beginning to think that staying around here was futile, as the su
n began to set we headed back to our base. We holed up in the wooded area just outside Outlane Golf Club, not too far from Holywell Green. I'd been stationed here for just over a month and in that time I and thirty of my officers had build our own base. It was reasonably safe from the dead, but we did have our troubles. Fortunately I'd not lost any of my troops: yet.

  'Any luck on your end?' I asked my troops over the radio.

  'Nothing here Major General,' Tyreece said. Tyreece had joined the army two years before all this began, like me he joined at eighteen. He too wanted to make the world a better place. He was a tall muscular man whose family had originally come from Africa. Though I knew they had died not long before he joined us, he had no siblings nor any other family. In a way he was lucky I thought, at least his family died normally. He'd shaved his hair off not long after joining, and his dark brown eyes always made him look as if he were in a daydream.

  'Nor here,' Sam told me. I known Sam for six years though we weren't really friends, we got along but never spent any time together other than on missions. He was a tall but skinny guy in his late twenties with olive skin and deep brown eyes. I know his mother died when he was young, he had an older sister and father but like many of us didn't know what happened to them.

  'There's nowt to report on my end either,' Jackie answered. I liked Jackie, I got on really well with her. It was hard for anyone not to like her though, she was a kind and loyal woman. She was among a few of the older people in my team, she was thirty-three and of average height and was quite muscular for a woman. She had long shiny chocolate hair, hazel eyes and beautiful bronze skin. She joined the army back in 2004 when she was twenty-two, she had a husband who died not long into the outbreak but no other family.