The Dead Rise

by David Thompson

  The overwhelming force of the link caused the energy field that Jeremy was emitting to fluctuate and pulse with terrible power, feeding back through the electrodes attached to his skin and causing the torture apparatus to explode in a rain of fiery shrapnel, followed shortly thereafter by a similar explosion from the zombie’s skull; bits of bone, blood, and brain shot outwards, coating the officer in a black and grey mist. Death’s blades shimmered into existence in Jeremy’s hands, sparking and glowing with deadly energy. He moved, not through his body’s muscular motive force, but by forcing his body through the air with sheer willpower. The bars of the cell were no obstacle, their molecular structure parting before his advance so that he could pass unobstructed through them. He buried the blade in his left hand deep into the officer’s belly, leaning in close to whisper in his ear as the weapon tore through flesh and bone.

  “You wanted to know how we made our way here,” he whispered savagely. “The truth. We are unstoppable. We are the avatars of forces you cannot hope to understand, control, or dominate. I am the unstoppable storm, the power of elemental air, and the shadow of death.”

  He twisted the blade and pulled it upwards inch by inch as he spoke.

  “We came in search of others we could help, in the hopes that others had similar experiences to us, or that at least we could find that there were other bastions of human survival left in this world. Instead we find chaos and corruption - men who, in the absence of their chain of command, are willing to do anything and everything they please, regardless of who it harms. Your fate is the same as that of the undead.”

  The blade flicked upwards through the officer’s body as if it wasn’t even there. The only other witness to the grim display that followed was the bearded man, frozen in terror over Tanya’s unconscious body. The sight of the officer’s body peeling apart, steaming entrails dropping from the shell of the body into an unceremonious pile on the floor. The upper quarters of the officer’s body split apart from his pelvis with a sickening, slurping crunch. Jeremy’s attention turned to the bearded man, still crouched over Tanya’s unconscious body. His muscles tensed up, as if to flee, but his speed was nothing compared to Jeremy’s. Blades moving so quickly that they flickered like lightning, he stepped through the enclosure of the cell and caught the bearded man in their grasp. Their tips flicked and dipped, twisted and thrust, tearing away tiny pieces of skin one at a time, flaying away flesh until all that remained was bone, and even before gravity had the chance to claim the bare skeleton it was cut to splintered shreds beneath the ceaseless advance of the blades. The entire cell was painted with the deep crimson of the bearded man’s blood, and splattered with bits of entrail, skin, muscle, and organs. Despite the utter barbarity of the carnage, however, Tanya’s body remained clean and untarnished by the brutality, shielded from the ghastly rain by a shield of telekinetic force. With a flash of light, Death’s blades vanished the same way that they’d appeared.

  The commotion was enough to cause Tanya to stir from the depths of her drug-induced coma. She twitched, then groaned, then stirred, raising her head and trying to focus her eyes. The sight of the cell and the realization that she was naked was enough to cause her to try to scramble to her feet. Jeremy twisted and prepared to catch her, but to his surprise she did not lose her balance, despite obviously fighting the same vertigo effects that he’d experienced.

  “What...what’s going on?” Her voice was weak and confused.

  “It’s a long story,” he said, taking her hands gently in his. “Turns out we can’t trust the soldiers up here any more than we could back in Estevan. I should have known...in the absence of a command structure, things fell apart. Their leader became corrupt, and his men followed his every command.”

  “Why is there so much blood in here?”

  “That’s part of the long story. Do you think you’re OK to walk? We should wake up Luna and Michael, and try to find some clothes.”

  “You mean you don’t like the view?” Tanya slid her hand across Jeremy’s back, and he shivered.

  “I never said that. I would never say that,” he said with a wink. “But I would prefer to enjoy this particular view in private, and preferably not somewhere quite so dangerous.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Tanya said.

  They stepped outside of Tanya’s cell, hand-in-hand. Jeremy lifted his free hand and gestured at the doors to Luna and Michael’s cells. More easily than ever before, spindly tendrils of telekinetic force sprung forth from his fingers to do his bidding. While exercising his telekinetic abilities was normally an exercise in enduring cold, numbing extraneous appendages, these tendrils were merely cool, almost natural, and he could actually feel the air around them, and the metal of the locks on the doors. The tendrils ripped the locks to shreds, and the doors swung wide open. Tanya gave him a surprised look.

  “Showing off, are we?”

  “Not quite,” he said, trying to wrap his head around both the new experience of engaging his power and the information dump from his connection with the zombie - a process that was still ongoing, sorting itself into vague recollections and ideas, none of which yet explained what was really happening to him. “I’ll explain as soon as we’re out of here, but something happened while you were unconscious. I feel...different. More powerful. I’m not sure how to explain it yet.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense any longer than you need to,” she said sweetly, and they walked in to their companions’ cells - Tanya into Luna’s cell, Jeremy into Chris’. They shook their respective companions gently, waking them from their slumber. It didn’t take much effort; the effects of the drugs were rapidly wearing off, and it was much easier to help them to their feet than it had been for either Jeremy or Tanya. Realizing that they were also naked, Luna tried to cover herself with her hands, eyeing Tanya suspiciously. Michael, on the other hand, eyed up Jeremy with hungry eyes and a hint of a lustful smile. Jeremy rolled his eyes and clapped Michael on the back.

  “Come on, guys,” he said. “I’ll explain as soon as we’re out of here. We need to find some clothes and go.”

  Considering all that they’d been through, this latest development didn’t seem to bother either Luna or Michael as much as Jeremy had expected that it would. They nodded their assent, and Jeremy lead the way to the iron door at the end of the room. Death’s blades shimmered into existence in his hands again, and as he approached the door, he unleashed a powerful blast of telekinetic force - enough to knock the door off its hinges and blow it into the corridor beyond. As they stepped into the corridor, he was amused to see a startled guard, narrowly missed by the door’s trajectory, frozen in place at the sight of him. Jeremy levelled both of his blades at the guard’s throat, closing in on him in the blink of an eye.

  “I’d rather not kill you,” he snarled, “but I’ve had a rough day, and it might make me feel better.”

  The guard whimpered quietly in response.

  “I’ll tell you what. Show me where our clothes are, and I won’t skin you alive.”

  The guard pointed to a pile by the empty frame where the iron door had once been. All of their clothing had simply been dumped into the pile; apparently the guards who had stripped them hadn’t been interested in sorting through it. Jeremy smiled, and struck the guard in the side of the head with the edge of one of his swords. The blow connected hard, with a sickening crunch, and the unfortunate guard dropped to the floor unconscious. The group wasted no time in donning their respective clothing. Satisfied that they were once again fully modest and ready for anything, they peered down the long hallway.

  “I don’t suppose any of you are familiar with the Legislature’s floor plans?” Jeremy asked hopefully.

  “Can’t say that I am,” said Michael. Both Tanya and Luna shook their heads.

  “Right,” he said. “So much for the easy way. I guess that leaves the fun way.”

  “Wait,” Tanya said, grabbing his arm with enough force to stop him in his tracks. He winced, and she released
her grip. “Sorry...I keep forgetting that I’m a little stronger than I used to be. Anyway, you said you’d tell us what’s going on.”

  “A little stronger? I recall you hurling a car through the air just a few hours ago, so I’d say that’s an understatement. But I suppose that I did say I’d tell you what’s going on. I’m still sorting things out, so bear with me a bit.

  “I woke up before you three did. I guess that’s a good thing, considering everything that happened. An officer in an army uniform interrogated me - he wanted to know how we got here, and who we were. He didn’t say much, but it sounded to me like they’ve been running into some serious zombie problems. Serious enough that they’re losing men, and quickly. It doesn’t sound like there are any other civilian survivors here. The son of a bitch was so sure that surviving out there is impossible that he tortured me to try getting me to talk.”

  “Didn’t you just tell him the truth?” Tanya was aghast at the idea that the armed forces - their alleged protectors, keepers of the peace and bulwark against the evils of the world - would actually do what he was describing.

  “Tell him what? That we’ve got super powers, and we laid waste to everything that got in our way? I tried, actually. He didn’t buy it. Anyway, skipping the gory details, the peak of the torture was pumping electric current through my body while letting loose a zombie in my cell. I guess he figured my grisly death would get some cooperation out of the rest of you, but something happened. I don’t know if it was the stress of the situation, or the electricity, or both, but...well, all I know is that I suddenly became way more powerful than I had been before, and they didn’t survive it. The zombie that was attacking me...I somehow merged with its mind, learned things from it. Strange things - kind of like a genetic memory. I’ve been seeing glimpses in my mind of the rise and fall of the zombies, over and over again.”

  “You mean this isn’t the first time that this has happened?” Luna laughed. “I’m pretty sure we’d have heard about it before now. Kind of hard to miss.”

  “Yes, and no. I think...I think that this isn’t the first time that they’ve destroyed human civilization. I keep seeing cities - modern, advanced cities, but with architecture unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before. I see death and destruction come to them, and...I don’t know.”

  “That’s not as crazy as it sounds,” Tanya spoke up. “I mean, we have bits and pieces of historical records going back, what? Maybe forty thousand years. Biologists think that Homo Sapiens has existed in basically the same form for over a million years, if not more. Our usual assumption is that we just cowered in caves and huddled around campfires for most of that, but it could be that civilization has developed before...only to be struck down.”

  “Wouldn’t that set you at odds with the bible?” Luna asked.

  “Maybe,” Tanya said. “At least, if you’re trying to take the bible literally. I’m honestly not sure how to reconcile my personal beliefs with what’s happening now, to be honest. Right now, I’m just hoping to keep moving and surviving, and sort it all out as we go.”

  “And on that note,” Jeremy said with a flourish of his hand, “we should get moving.”

  “Where?” Michael sounded, for the first time, despondent. “I mean, if what you’re saying is true, it doesn’t matter where we go. Civilization will die, and there’s no safe haven.”

  “Maybe,” Jeremy said. “But I don’t think it really matters. The way I see it, we’ve got a choice - sit here and whine like little bitches that the world’s in rough shape, or man up and do something about it. If we do the latter, maybe we end up getting killed, but at least we’ll do it taking some of those zombies with us. Besides, we’ve met and killed two of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I’m not sure about you, but I’d like to find the others and let them know exactly what I think of their role in our collective destruction.”

  “Go out with a bang, eh?”

  “Something like that,” Jeremy said. Michael mulled the notion over, finally nodding his assent. With everyone in agreement, they stormed down the corridor, Jeremy in the lead, followed by Tanya, then Luna and Michael. They didn’t travel far before spotting a sign that said Main Lobby, with an arrow pointing them in the right direction. After ascending a short flight of stairs, they found themselves in the same trashed lobby where they’d originally been ambushed. This time, however, it wasn’t unoccupied - half a dozen soldiers lounged about, not even noticing the group ascending from the lower corridor. They were not granted an opportunity to rectify their inadequate diligence; sweeping tendrils of telekinetic force knocked them aside like dust in the wind. The blows were sufficient to render the soldiers unconscious without being lethal, although Jeremy decided that he certainly wouldn’t want to be in there position if some zombies should just happen to come wandering by while they were unconscious. He reached through the air, telekinetically probing the thick doors of the Legislature and severing their bonds at a molecular level; the doors crumbled to a fine grey dust that swirled in the breeze and vanished into the air. Jeremy and his companions stepped through the open portal, and into a world that bore little resemblance to the familiar one they had left behind when they entered the Legislature.

  Chapter 10

  Day 6 – 14:30:00 CST

  Legislature Building, Regina

  The parking lot and flower gardens that had surrounded the building was gone, as were the military emplacements, replaced by a wide cobblestone pavilion that looked like it came straight out of a fantasy movie. The lake beyond the pavilion was still present, though it stretched out to a distance far greater than it had previously; a wide cobblestone bridge stretched across its length, leading up to a steep hill beyond which had not existed previously. The path stretched up and off into the distance, fading out of sight long before it ended. The sun was setting, throwing brilliant orange and red light across the sky, streaked with thin grey clouds that hung ominously over the scene. The air was utterly silent and still aside from a very slight breeze; there was no sound of any wildlife, or even the far distant growling of undead that had seemed ever-present.

  “Well, this is interesting,” Michael said, gaping open-mouthed at the scene as he stepped out of the doorway.

  “Not quite the way we left it,” Jeremy said with a hint of a smile.

  “You don’t seem very concerned about it,” Luna commented.

  “I think I’m starting to get a little perspective,” he said. “I don’t claim to know what our fate is, but that path is a trail of breadcrumbs if I’ve ever seen one.”

  The stillness of the water in the lake was broken by a ripple, then a fin that broke the surface. The fin sped across the water for a moment, then burst free and into the air - first, the massive, terrifying serpentine head that had confronted them in the lake once before, then its scaled, scarred neck, and then a massive body flanked by enormous wings and legs as thick as tree trunks; a long, thin tail trailed behind the creature, its scaly tip the last thing to break free of the surface of the water as the massive dragon took to the air, wings beating with enough force to carry the gigantic beast aloft and into the sky. It vanished behind the gathering black clouds, moving with tremendous speed.

  “How’s your perspective feeling now?” Luna poked Jeremy in the ribs.

  “It’s...well, not quite what I thought it was,” Jeremy said, his eyes still pinned to the cloud cover above, looking for any trace of the creature.

  “What do you mean by that?” Tanya’s eyes were fixed to the same point in the sky as Jeremy’s, though she saw nothing that he did not.

  “Turns out that perspective is tricky business.”

  “Uhhh, guys?” Michael broke the awkward exchange. “I don’t think that’s the only tricky business we’re about to meet up with.”

  He pointed off in the distance, at the very furthest point that they could see on the cobblestone path. Even from the great distance, bodies could be seen in motion, moving in smooth coordination. Torchlight glittered in thei
r midst, marching ever closer by the second. No voices could be heard, and if not for the uniform lockstep of the footfalls that echoed across the lake, it would have been tempting to assume that the creatures were nothing more than mindless zombies.

  “And so it begins,” Jeremy said. “I’ve seen this before. We’d best do what we can to get ready.”

  “Why? What are those things?” Tanya strained to make out details from the distance.

  “They are the harbingers of War, my dear,” he said. “His foot soldiers.”

  “That makes that dragon...what? A general?”

  “Not quite.”

  As if on cue, a familiar screech cut through the air, and the massive dragon sunk below cloud cover once again, swooping down to the ground with meteoric speed. Despite the unbelievable speed it moved with, it landed at the nearby end of the bridge with catlike grace, rearing up on its rear legs, only to shrink and morph into something much smaller, but no less frightening. The creature’s form coalesced into a rider upon a massive warhorse, dressed in heavy armour the colour of coal, emblazoned with brilliant red accents. A heavy black and red cloak trailed out behind the rider, fluttering as if moved by a heavy wind, despite the stillness of the air. In the rider’s left hand was a massive broadsword covered in flames that licked eagerly at the air. The rider’s face was obscured by a heavy horned helmet that covered everything except for a pair of malevolently glowing red eyes.

  “Ladies and gentleman,” Jeremy said, “I give you the third horseman of the Apocalypse - the dreaded War.”

  The horseman’s foot soldiers had finally closed in, their forms finally visible in detail. They were covered from head to toe in the same coal-black armour as their master, with similar helms marred only by black pits where there should have been eyes. Although their weaponry was not aflame, they were very clearly their master’s men. The entire army - numbering over five hundred men by Jeremy’s rough estimation - came to a halt behind their master. For a long time, everything remained very still. Neither Jeremy nor his companions wanted to move or speak, afraid to draw the horseman’s attention, and the horseman simply watched them with those baleful eyes. The silence was finally broken when War spoke in a thunderous, booming voice that sounded like the clashing of sword against shield and armour, and the dying screams of men abandoned on long-distant battlefields to fight their most hated foes to the death.