Dawning (The Risen Series Book 1)

by Marie F. Crow

  She is clothed in chrome grills and full-length running steps. Amongst her black body, they shine with blatant attitude that would give any of the men’s motorcycles an identity crisis. She is my own warhorse with her large, southern style tires, allowing her to ride over any obstacle placed in front of her. This beast may not start with a C, but suddenly I am feeling much more apocalypse ready.

  “How fast can you run?” I whisper, as I try to gauge the distance between the large truck and us.

  “We are surrounded by flesh-eating monsters. Your question does not give me a lot of hope in your plan,” she whispers. Maybe she has been paying attention to my scorecard after all.

  “I’m going to distract them. I want you to make it to the truck over there. Swing it around and pick me up. I will jump in the bed.” I try to ignore the voice that reminds me how well my last distraction plan went as our vocal volley begins.

  “Have you lost your mind?”

  “I have been wondering that all day.”

  “What if it’s a stick?”

  I stare at her in mute disbelief before saying, “Wait for me to get their attention and then run.”

  “So, we are not even going to have the stick discussion.” “We are so not even going to have the stick discussion.” “I hate you,” she tells my back with false emotion.

  “It’s a long list,” I return. It’s easier than risking a goodbye. “With the current town population, probably isn’t,” she offers, also not wanting to say the dreaded goodbye.

  I glance back at my best friend with a smile and another prayer to whoever is listening this will not be the last time we see one another.

  Chapter 15

  I run, kneeling to keep the cover of the cars between the feasting Risen and myself. I want to be sure I have enough space be- tween us before I play the role of a suicidal jack-in-the-box. Aimes is a hunching ball of stealth waiting for me as she situates the purse and her position. My mind fights against what I am about to do, causing several false starts before Aimes mouths a word reserved normally for men’s frail egos. It’s so easy to judge when you are not the bait, but I smile at her just the same. I signal back my opinion of her insult with one simple finger. We exchange one last smile and I nod, shutting off my mind’s rebelling screams.

  Time is ticking and we don’t have any to spare for kitty cats under any name.

  At first, they pay no attention to me. The Risen are so engrossed in their current victim and, in total female fashion, I find myself feeling insulted for a moment before using their slow wits to better place myself further from Aimes. I counter her angle with hopes to form a wedge in their path, allowing her to hide from view when she makes her move. It all feels very strategic in my mind and it fills me with hope. I know my soul cannot take another loss. My sanity cannot store any more failures, and my heart, it gave up this morning.

  “Hey! Hey, over here!” I shout and wave my arms, in a total cliché formation of attention seeking.

  I am almost ashamed at the lack of my originality, but a cliché is a cliché for a reason. They work and I really need something to work right now.

  Slowly their heads turn to me, locking their eyes with mine. Their bodies rise in my direction with their slow, unnatural style. Their growls and snarls make my knees grow weak under so much focused hatred. A few stay hunched over, mouths working the dripping meat in their hands, but their eyes watch me as they weigh the possibilities of a new meal versus the mouthful they currently have.

  I bang on the abandoned cars next to me, making as much noise as possible against their metal frames. Each loud sound is drawing away their humanity as their faces melt into an animal-like hunger.

  Lips pull back, showing snarls of discolored teeth. Limp go- re-torn fingers hook into claw-like talons as anger takes them. They are itching to feel how my flesh will shred to feed them. They want to know how my blood will drip between their fingers as they feed from me. Glazed eyes fill with hatred and intentions of destruction as I draw their attention.

  My mind begins to flash images of their previous victims and the potential harm there is as they head towards me. It is like a mental reality check of my actions, snuffing some of my bravado. The dead man’s face is slack from his death, casting an almost sad quality to it. Even now, he appears to lament and doubt my plan. He seems to already be mourning for me and he is not the only one doubting it at this moment with hell’s escapees stalking towards me.

  I know I cannot run yet, but they are not moving fast enough for my plan to form. They stalk me with their eyes. Their bodies are waiting to spring forward with the hunt. Even as the first few gather close around me, I must stand my ground. I know with them this spread out I will not be able to keep their attention and allow Aimes to slip behind them. They move in clumps of different degrees and motivation, making my plan falter before me with their refusal to cooperate. Panic dances inside me as I watch them while trying to decide what to do.

  I know the few left occupied will not notice her, but if one of the others standing should alert them to her presence, they will overrun her before my eyes. I have already seen it proven once. One haunting is enough. I have failed too many today. I can’t fail another.

  I stand, keeping my ground, even as my mind is screaming at me. Even as my knees begin to grow weak from the adrenaline rush screaming at me, I stand my ground. Even as my heart beats so fast it feels like it is trying to break free and run away from this itself, I stand here screaming and courting Death. I flirt with him as well as any well-dressed courtesan ever has, all in hopes he will not be tempted to take another from me today. My flesh for her flesh. My death for her death. I stand before him offering myself to him all in hopes to save another.

  I can smell them now as they begin to enclose me. They wear rot and death as if it is a brand of cologne. Waves of their scents roll towards me, crashing upon my already fragile senses. My screams come more out of a release as fear mounts me. They know it. They seem to smile at me as their animation reaches its start. What they had once started as slow calculated steps, now gathers speed at such closeness to my flesh and scent of my fear. It is my own style of perfume to them and they lust after it.

  I begin to inch backwards, still waiting for them to gather more tightly around me, but Aimes gets the point. She begins to inch around the car’s hidden comfort zone while keeping her eyes on me. I can see her own fears growing as she begins to mentally plan the path before her. We glance one more time at each other and it feels like a goodbye. I turn to run, dragging hell with me and hopefully salvation for her.

  I use the parked cars like an obstacle course, swaying and blending around them. Some of them follow my every turn. Some continue to run straight around the cars. Separated like this, I can see them begin to spread out around me. Instead of being a stalking shadow, they have now become a surging plague threatening to overflow this small one-way street.

  Their sounds bounce off the buildings, echoing terror through me. It spurs me faster in pure panic. I fight to keep my wits about me, but every reflection in the stores’ windows strips me of all logic. I realize too late they do not have the restraints like I do. They do not feel their bodies crashing into the cars with such force that they rock the vehicles with their frantic movements.

  They can push their bodies faster than normal. Their muscles do not cramp or their lungs ache with the abuse of oxygen levels. Mine do and, beyond all my efforts, I am slowing down. My mind screams to run faster, but my legs are slowing down.

  With the clarity that I cannot outrun them the first hot tears of acceptance blur my vision. The reflections keep showing me how fast the gap is closing between us with each passing storefront window in a strobe light effect. I can feel them now even before they actually touch me. Their shadows are reaching my senses first. The first fingertips brush against my back, trying to grab me. I scream with each feather-like sensation of Death’s greetings. The panic of my mind steers me to cross the street in an attempt to regain
some illusion of hope. My heart begins to accept my death and I begin to lose the strength to keep going.

  I struggle against each store’s locked door I am running past. Sounds of frustration with each discovery of disappointment mingle with my sobs. The windows shatter any hope of escape with the scene reflected behind me. I watch, almost detached, as the first one reaches me. I have run out of Grace and am falling into their hands.

  A male grabs a handful of my hair, pulling my head back. It ex- poses my neck in an arch of pale ivory with the force, and I fall to my knees with sacrificial acceptance. My plan was to keep them from reaching Aimes. It was never to survive myself. I offered Death myself for her and he is here now to collect the bargain.

  I feel the sidewalk connect with my knees. The pain flashes white-hot through my legs even as I slip further down upon my hands. His hands desperately fight to pull me backwards against the fall, forcing them to lose their grip against gravity’s strength. I struggle forward, finishing gravity’s encouragement with the ripping of my hair. Freeing myself from his grasp, I fall into the brutal arms of the other’s.

  Hands clutch my legs, my feet and my shirt as they pull against my escape with their hunger-driven desperation. I can feel myself losing ground as they pull me backwards down the sidewalk. My nails and my fingers are shredding against the rough pavement I am clawing along to gain any inch I can. I fight for every inch that I lose, feeling them dragging me backwards to them. Teeth grind upon the fabric of my jeans, making me scream from the pain as my legs bruise under their assaults.

  They fall upon me one-by-one. Their weight is pressing down any attempts of my escape. An escape I have accepted will not happen when a child’s face, covered in a blonde shroud, stares back at me from my mind’s eye. She is watching me fall under my own imprisonment of death with her cold blue eyes. I was not brave enough to wonder what Ashley’s last moments were. I keep the knowledge of the details of her death wrapped in tissue-thin paper so easily ripped with too much handling.

  Now as my body is wracked with the pain of their attack, I know. I know the terror from which I did not save her. The paper is ripping and spilling all around me as they tug and bruise me with their many hands and teeth. They are fighting and seeking to discover any access to my death when the first shot fires.

  One moment, I am looking over my shoulder at what I know will be the first real bite, sealing my fate because when the others smell the blood pouring from the wound it will become a frenzy to further tear me open. His teeth are exposed from behind his shredded lips. His hands press down to firmly secure me in place with his weight upon my shoulders. Like a gag from a rapist, the anticipation of my death locks my throat from the screams swelling within my mind.

  I see no flashbacks of cherished memories before me. No white, comforting light of which to ease my pain illuminates now. There are just the teeth of a dead man seeking my throat, while his dinner mates seek their own tender spaces of flesh to dine on. There are just his hands upon me with crushing reality, squeezing my collar- bone in his excitement for a new meal. Just my heart racing with the truth of what is about to happen and I’m watching it all.

  His head suddenly rocks sideways with a jerking force so ruthless the left side of his head explodes, coating the pavement behind him with his blood and thicker fragments. He falls limp upon me, covering my upper back as the screams finally free themselves at the sensation. My Angel walks away. She leaves me alone again to face this world now that she must wait for me to join her.

  Risen after Risen jerk around me, before falling limp in a helter-skelter pattern amid my screams. I feel strong arms lift me, holding me tight against a warm body and my screams still pour from me behind my closed eyes. Each scream growing rawer until I am nothing but soundless motions.

  I can hear my name coming from what seems somewhere far away. Someone is holding my upper body in a rocking motion as hands search my legs and waist. For a moment, my mind tells me that I am under attack again. I want to struggle. I want to fight off these new attackers, but my body refuses to obey. My mind begins to slip under a dark blanket of safety it creates for me. My senses close down to avoid what I am sure will be the first flesh-tearing sensations at any moment. My limbs begin to fall limp, too heavy to support themselves as comforting darkness overtakes me. The Risen are chanting my name with this new attack upon me and in the last conscious moment that I hold on to, I wonder how that can be.

  Chapter 16

  With one daring sense at a time I wake. My sanity is slowly testing the safety of it. I can feel myself resting on soft fabrics wafting musty smells around me. They wrap me in the warmth created from my own heat. My legs are tender with any movements and throb even with stillness, but otherwise, I feel none of the white-hot searing pain I thought my death would incur.

  The confusion encourages me to slowly open my eyes against the bright sunlight. It filters in through the plaid country-style curtains over the small bedroom’s windows. I can hear birds singing their many wordless melodies in a clash of who is the loudest somewhere close. The walls are covered in faded white bead board. It climbs the length of the walls, as the only décor upon them, and touches a stenciled border of ivy. Cliché is the flavor of the day.

  The hardwood floor is cold with the lack of a summer’s sun to warm it. My legs scream in protest at moving, but the cool floor feels soothing beneath my bruised feet. The small daybed is made with a simple sheet set, and other than a small dresser, it is the only furniture in the room. I have no memory of this room. Nor of how I came to be here, sleeping in just my tee shirt and a matching shade of panties. Neither of which I was wearing when the trip started. This worries me more than where I might be.

  My legs are various shades of red and purple. My own natural coloring has hardly any space to show through with the many bruises of irregular shapes upon them. Bruises you know will linger for a good amount of time before the sickly yellows and greens start to show through. My shoulders are too tender to move. It allows for only small movements of my neck as I glance around the room. Even those rip gasps of pain from my throat.

  My fingertips are raw with thick, meaty scabs covering them. My nails show shattering at the tips from torn, jagged edges left by the cement. Each injury flashes before me like a movie premier showing their starring roles and I am repeatedly a victim again back on the sidewalk. My breath shakes from the memories that engulf me and I am becoming as scab covered as my fingertips with each new ordeal I survive.

  The soft hum of male voices drifts from the other side of the room’s wall. It drags me from my private hell with my curiosity upon hearing their sounds. The gap in the curtains shows a large wooden porch nestling in a clearing of tall trees. Sunlight is casting through the many shades of fall leaves and the trees’ bare branches, causing shadows to dance among the wooden planks with soft breezes. I part the curtains further to gather a better idea of my predicament and I see a sight that brings calm to my soul.

  My lighthouse is balancing upon the wooden railing, gazing out into the surrounding forest in front of my window. He is lost in his own memories as his eyes stare at nothing and everything at the same time. He is lost between regrets and wishes. He is without his identifying leather vest, and for once, I can see him as we were before. When we were just a boy and a girl, testing the thin ice of life, praying for it to hold our weight as we prayed to always hold each other’s hand.

  I remember how afraid I was at the thought of being on his blacked-out motorcycle the first time, and how it made him smile his shy grin. I remember how the first ride turned from the feeling of fear to a feeling of freedom as it roared under us, eating up the highway before us. The smell of the skin of his neck as I rode pressed up against him. The way he would randomly throttle the bike faster just to feel me grab him tighter. The sounds of his male laughter floating back to me in the wind with each of my squeals. I remember our ling of fear to a feeling of freedom as it roared under us, eating up the highway before us.
The smell of the skin of his neck as I rode pressed up against him. The way he would randomly throttle the bike faster just to feel me grab him tighter. The sounds of his male laughter floating back to me in the wind with each of my squeals. I remember our late-night chats. We would lean upon my car after I closed the bar on the nights, we were both seeking reasons to avoid heading home. We had become each other’s blankets of comfort. The soft fabric of it served to soften the edges of life’s hard lessons. We wrapped ourselves in it so tight that we have become the others main source for comfort in this life. Its seams were sewn from the many shared laughs, the heart-felt moments and our stolen glances. The fabric has been wearing thin as of late. The seams are shredding as the threads unravel. I would give anything to have that warm blanket wrapped around me now.

  Pulling on my pair of folded jeans on the floor, the fabric feels like sandpaper upon my tender flesh. Gripping anything sends pinpoint of pains through my fingers. At this moment, I am very happy for slip-on boots. I am not happy with their new marks. They seem to be as battered as my flesh, with deep gouges through the leather mimicking my many bruises. The toes are scuffed beyond repair from my desperate sliding along the rough pavement from trying to escape. I am so engrossed in the damage to my boots, and the disappointment it causes, I do not notice the person coming into the room. His deep cologne of leather and stale cigarettes announces him for me.

  J.D. rests against the white wooden doorframe, watching me with his soul-seeking eyes. Neither of us says a word to the other for a few moments in mutual silence. His eyes are taking me in as he waits for any female minefields, he fears he will have to navigate. I wait for his anger to whip through the room at my actions in the form of his own male minefield. When nothing explodes between us, a smile slips upon his face, tugging mine out to play.