Among the Fallen: Resurrection

by Ross Shortall

  Alex looked at the faint markings on her suit and then at the creatures. She turned and gazed at the burning city as it cried in the distance; it seemed so alone and empty, but she could feel the souls and pain from those down there. She shuddered coldly as its unfamiliar silhouette reached into the sky with unfamiliar skeletal structures, its silent and featureless buildings glowing before her.

  “Why?! I mean why there?” she asked in a state of confusion. “Why Blackwater? Why not New York? London? Why my life?”

  The creature drifted silently towards her, its cape trailing behind and waving with life.

  “The ceremony is being conducted there and it‘s home to your human target, it is the reason this is all happening and the reason you are not allowed to die, complete your task, kill the Judges; Execute the human!” the creature barked.

  A cold silence bestowed over the graveyard, the rain continuously hammering the stone monuments. Alex crouched down and picked up a stone, rolling it around in her hand just concentrating deep in thought. She threw the stone into the abyss and watched it disappear below.

  “Why are you so against the worlds merging?!” she asked abruptly. The ghoul stood high, its joints cracking and crunching as the veins that climbed its face pulsated with every heartbeat.

  “There are many of us that disagree with becoming slaves to a single human, our world is ours and your pathetic selfish little world is yours. If there were anything about your world worth taking, we would have taken it thousands of years ago. Your race of self-important, self-loathing and selfish beings can benefit us in no way what so ever, Alexandra!” the rotting creature explained. “Down there is your home city, that is where you start and the drop before you is the quickest way there!”

  it said before walking away. “You have until sunrise, we suggest you hurry!” it scowled arrogantly as Alex glared into the abyss. Suddenly, it stopped and turned. “Do not bother climbing down, it will waste time you do not have!”

  Alex looked puzzled as she watched the macabre figure fade then looked down into the foggy void below.

  Was the creature serious? Jump? Surly she would not survive?

  Alex paced backwards and forwards nervously. Every now and then she would look down the cliff face and quickly dart back again. The voices in her head from her armour began to chant and she screamed into the night defiantly. She stormed towards the cliff face again and looked down shivering in bewilderment.

  “You are wasting time, Alexandra!” the creature bellowed as it appeared in front of her. Alex turned angrily just as the ghost’s cape wrapped around her body, lifting her high in the air. She screamed and begged as the wraith just stared at her frostily, wrapping her tight in its foul tasting cloth. The creatures eyes glowed irately and callously, suddenly frowning as the cape lashed out into the air; flipping her far out over the cliff.

  Alex plummeted through the cold air screaming, desperately trying to grasp a branch, a root, a tree, anything! The thousands of skulls on the cliff face all began to scream in unison as she freefell through the rain and fog. Cries of souls forever tortured the infinitely punished wept as she fell past them at incredible speed. She smashed through branches and coffins like a bullet through glass, caskets splinted and broke away from the cliff; their rotting contents falling after her, smashing on branches and roots. Alex couldn’t scream anymore, her voice box ripped to shreds by her cries for help, her throat wept blood and splashed its way up her face; her voice becoming nothing more than an eerie croaky gargle. Her smashed limbs and bones just flapped behind her as she tore through the fog like a lead weight, bouncing from the rocky cliff face and crashing through the coffins and branches.

  The darkness below quickly opened up and she shut he eyes as the ground screamed towards her.

  All she could think about was Sarah and how sorry she was, pleading and begging in her thoughts; crying inwardly for salvation and mercy. Suddenly, she hit the ground with an Earth shaking thump and all the blood in her body, entrails and organs splashed to the winds and her bones shattered like glass. Coffins smashed on the ground around her as they fell from the sky and bones rained down, bouncing and smashing on the concrete like china. Her lifeless and empty body just laid there drooling and oozing coagulated blood and slime. Teeth and bone fragments littered the area spreading out as far as ten feet, her brain now a slug like mass of jelly. As the last of the debris fell, a cold and haunting silence fell over the landscape, interrupted only by the calls of the wild dogs in the distance and the crows that called out to each other high above as a new feast had appeared before them.

  Chapter Eight: Undying

  The crows circled in the red sky for a few minutes, watching the ground as the last of the debris hit the road. Slowly, they started to drop down, squawking and chattering loudly as they scrambled up to the blood splashed tarmac. As the crows carefully investigated the mess of meat, they began to peck at the flesh; quickly gawking around as their tiny paranoid eyes scanned the area; swiftly plunging their beaks in and guzzling down Alex’s innards as they lay scattered across the ground. As the crows feasted to their hearts content, wild dogs howled in the distance as the horizon shimmered with flames, the lonely road lit pathetically with distant light.

  Suddenly, one of the scavengers cried out and the others leapt into the sky, squawking as tendons and arteries lashed from the putrid mess, grabbing at the panicking bird as it stumbled. Its bones crunched and twisted as it struggled to break free, its wings flapping frenziedly as it slowly succumbed and faltered. Suddenly, the crow exploded into a cloud of black feathers and the gore began to curdle. The blood began to bubble and steam, threads of muscle started to wisp as the bones snapped back together slowly; the organs beginning to mould back into shape whilst the carnage slithered across the ground like water. The skull reformed as muscle and flesh twisted over the ivory within seconds, the cracks sealing and vanishing flawlessly. Strands of tendons, arteries and flesh whipped out and snared her pieces, dragging them through the mud and dirt, back to where they belonged.

  Moments later there was a skeleton stumbling on its feet in agony, flesh forming rapidly and blood pouring from every point in its body. Its muscles glimmered as light hit its glossy wet limbs, the skull crying out in indescribable agony. As its voice box reformed it squealed like a pig, its suffering made apparent by a muscle clad body missing its skin. The nightmarish and bleeding body stumbled and tripped, crying and screaming as the cold air chilled her wet exposed muscles. Strand upon strand of flesh lashed and whipped layers of sore red raw meat over bone as the macabre body fell and crawled along the floor, clawing at the dirt in deep despair. Suddenly, white fleshy spots appeared and bled over the muscle, skin as thick as glue warped and wrapped, quickly tightening as she clambered to her feet until suddenly, she stood upright, panting and coughing as her organs finally fell into place.

  Just moments later, Alex had reformed and was shaken off balance, shocked to the very core of her spine; she dropped to her knees shivering in fright as tears poured from her black soulless eyes. She sat for a few moments getting back her breath as she looked around cautiously, shivering in cold and terror as she stared blankly into the darkness before her.

  The main road into the city sat ahead of her, leading off into a slick and haunting darkness; the red sky almost hidden by the dense decaying trees and woodland that seemed like it went on forever.

  She stood up and turned, staring up at what seemed like a massive pillar of skulls and bone leading up to the now invisible graveyard above. Caskets extruded, all rotten and decayed and skeletons hung from the walls, gripping the Earth and frozen in pain. Around the bottom were cables and dead power lines where the awesome pillar obviously had shot from the ground at some point, burying itself into the thick sky miles above. The floor was littered with skulls, coffin pieces and bones; people with no identity, face nor respect as she merely glared over the macabre sight with thoughtless bewilderment.

  She stood shivering and cold as
the trees stood around her like giants, the sky red and lit up on one side from the fires that burnt in Blackwater city. As she walked, her legs stumbled and gave way as if she had not used them before. Stumbling and crying, she crawled her way to the side of the road and just sat staring up at the atmosphere. Hundreds of thoughts were racing through her head, questions with nobody around to answer them.

  The clouds raced across the sky and the rain slowed down as if it were about to stop; the trees creaking and swaying and the silence broken only by crickets and the occasional wild dog far away; howling in the mountains as crows squawked at each other in amusement. She sat on a downed tree and held her arms shivering as her teeth chattered in the cold, her wet and dirt streaked eyes looking all around her as natures creepiest noises taunted her from the darkness. She sat there for a few moments then stood up slowly, examining the suit bewildered but calm; it’s leathery and slick feel intriguing her; the symbols and markings only just visible to the naked eye in the pitch black that surrounded her. Rubbing her arms, she began to walk down the dark road before her, treading carefully as every step painfully cut into her feet.

  As she walked, she could feel her mind starting to return, not memories as such; just her normal thought patterns and the stuff she usually thought about in ambient situations of nothingness.

  Every now and then she cried and stopped, her emotions getting the better of her as she walked the long path alone, her feet crying in pain, her body exhausted and tired; she actually wished she had stayed dead and wondered just what the hell was going on.

  She thought back to that night of the crash, most of it a blur; a haze of wobbly and shoddy images, but she remembered the two men fighting and the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if there were more. A lot of it actually didn’t make sense, she saw just the two but there were the sounds of feet all around them and the strange voices she heard just added extra confusion. She saw images of Sarah laying in the rain, her spine shattered and cold; the man that ran up to her and killed her, wearing what seemed to be an all-black uniform of some kind, round glass eyes like a gas mask or maybe military.

  That was strange?

  She never remembered seeing the features of her killer before, but now she had suddenly started remembering the smallest of details? She shivered and continued to walk in the darkness until she came to an opening in the blackened forest. She knew where she was now, Gabalia Cove. She was definitely on the road to Blackwater that was for sure, yet it didn’t stop it looking any less surreal.

  Gabalia Cove was a cliff edge that overlooked the forests and was popular with sight seekers and ramblers as you could see the whole bowl of picturesque woodland as well as Blackwater itself.

  She stepped through the clearing and stood on the cove, looking around it as its benches and resident Ice-cream van that just sat there abandoned. The public toilets were locked and the wind chimes that dangled from Lovers Tree, chiming in the wind gently, each one representing a suicide from the thirty-foot drop or so from the cliff itself. She stood mutely, staring out over the horizon as the wind howled around her, the city a glow with fires that lit the sky with the occasional burst of lightening that struck the city ruthlessly.

  It was definitely a strange and haunting sight to behold that was for sure and Alex, despite all that she saw, was certain her father was in there somewhere, and where exactly she could narrow down almost instantly into two specific areas. At home protected by his legions of Special Forces or at Beaumont Pharmaceuticals, again; protected by legions of Special Forces. Whatever was going on over there was definitely turning the city into a war zone, yet strangely, she could hear no sounds from the city at all. She sighed hauntingly and sat on one of the benches looking out over the city as it glowed with blazing fires in the distance, her head in her hands beleaguered and in denial.

  The city that she was born and raised in looked like it was crying out silently in the darkness, pillars of smoke billowing into the sky in their thousands and as still as stone. Suddenly, the wind chimes got louder and clanged as the wind picked up, lightening clapping on the horizon and the trees rustled furiously in the forests below. Alex stood up and looked around warily, expecting something to happen; someone appear like they did in the graveyard; but they never did. The wind soon calmed and wind chimes slowly went peaceful again, the calm ambience of sound lowering on a ghastly glowing backdrop that haunted her and made her worry for the people she knew and loved.

  Suddenly, she heard a creaking door, as loud and clear as it could possibly be; almost deliberate and obvious. She turned her head and saw the door on the public toilets swinging gently in the wind.

  She frowned to herself bemused and stood up, her bones cracking as she stretched; it felt like every time her body relaxed for just two minutes, her body seized up and felt like concrete. Slowly and carefully, she approached the toilets, gazing upon them in uncertainty as she little by little crept closer. She leant in the doorway and peered around the dirty tiled wall, the smell swiftly repulsing her, not the smell she expected though, more like a rancid rotting meat type smell; something somewhere had been long dead and left.

  She crept in slowly and just gazed upon the dishevelled and derelict toilets as the eerie red night beamed softly through its frosted glass windows, casting shadows of the empty cubicles on the dirty grease tiled wall behind her. The sinks were soiled and grimy and one was full of water, blocked by the toilet paper that floated like a mist under the surface; its taps dripping with long pauses in-between each drop. Suddenly, she heard a cough, as if it were released and then covered by a scared hand.

  “Hello?!” Alex mumbled with a scare. Her heart sank in her chest as silence fell upon the cold and lonely room. She waited for a response for a few moments but nothing came. She frowned and stepped closer, her feet treading cautiously and leaving tiny footprints in the grime. “Hello?!” she said louder, but only to be greeted by the ghostly stillness. Alex got down on the floor and looked under all the doors of the cubicles, gazing from one to the next, but they all appeared to be empty.

  She stood up confused and clearly frightened, unbeknown to her that a man stood in the corner, his featureless face hidden in the shadows as he simply observed.

  She suddenly felt his gaze upon her and turned her head staring into the now empty corner, the man gone without trace or clue. She rubbed her head frustrated and tired, thinking that maybe her senses were playing tricks on her, her sight and hearing being toyed with by the night and her own growing paranoia. She walked further into the toilets, slowly pushing open the first cubicle revealing an empty toilet. She moved on to the next and tapped the door.

  “Hello?!” she said softly, her ear placed on the wet wooden door, listening patiently for a response.

  Suddenly, someone knocked back at the door at end and Alex jumped back with a heart dropping fright. A long drawn out silence suddenly fell upon the morbid bathroom, the trees blowing frantically outside, distorted as they lashed against the frosted glass. Alex took a few steps forward as the ghost watched her from his corner, observing as she slowly crept up and got on her knees, peering under the gap and into the cubicle. She stood up and placed her palm on the door, pushing it carefully as it slowly opened.

  The cubicle was splashed wall to wall with blood and scratched with words; her first guess would have been Latin or something similar. The toilet seat and lid was down and the white rim was covered with congealed blood that had set all around the porcelain bowl. Alex covered her face as she wandered into the cubicle cautiously, peering over the system but finding nothing of real interest. On the wall, hidden among the scratched Latin verses, she saw scratching’s that were carved in English.

  Message on the wall in the public toilet, Gabalia Cove, Blackwater Approach.

  When the city is over cast by the red skies and the dead, the fathers and the sons watch in shock as the illness is spread. Sitting alone we find our way among the fog of death; we can do nothing but watch the city ga
sp for its final breath. As the evils of the visitors spread their vile way of life, the survivors struggle and weep as they reach for gun and knife. As the battle wages against the under Earth aliens and infected, the men and women so fall as two worlds are connected. Anon

  Alex sighed and rubbed her face with worry as the lightening flashed outside the windows, the room falling into another unsettling and creepy silence as she read the poem over in her confused and tortured head.

  She turned and cautiously left the toilets as the silent man watched her, this time standing in the opposite corner of the room, his naked and scarred body lit up in glowing red light. His eyes and mouth were painfully sewn shut and his skin covered his weak skeletal frame like paper; but he did nothing but watch with blind eyes as the young girl walked away from his tainted soul; leaving him alone within his cursed dwelling.

  As Alex left the toilet the cold fresh air hit her face and she took a deep breath as the rotting smell faded from her nose. She looked over at the burning city one more time before heading back to the road, continuing her journey back to the home she once loved whether she liked to admit or not. In all honesty things had changed; her views and opinions were now altering through desperation. The city she always wanted to leave, she now mourned and the father she once hated, she now preyed silently for his safety. As more and more of the night unveiled itself, as did more of the feelings deep within her it haunted, a future standing before her of very little hope and good times in her mind saddened by events she still knew nothing about; walking alone in the darkness just made her think more, more about what was waiting for her in the city of flames just over the hill.