barely able to begin a brief shriek that was yanked from her lungs as she collided and was pulled forward much to her relief. Her attackers, not wishing to embark on the same route and apparently trying to capture their prey before it escaped, quit their chase with the most animated activity they seemed to be able to use to express their disapproval with her escape and simply left once Alice Was out of their sight and unable to be intimidated by their horribly fierce antics.
Down, down, down Alice slid as if she were in a hidden water slide. She quickly forgot her terror and calmed down, her mind too preoccupied with wondering what was at the bottom of her destination to be concerned with the terror shed experienced. She tried to comprehend why she hadn’t heard a rush of water as it cascaded but Second City was a quiet humble place and such matters were best left to the engineers who designed the tunnels initially.
It had been to Alice’s relief that this section of Second City was artificially lit with each light turning on as she approached and shutting off as she passed. The gentle yet elusive light assuaged her fear of the unknown and she began to time the on and offness, as she called it, of the matter. In fact, to be completely truthful, Alice slid for so long she became quite bored. She was; however, very impressed with the consumermanship of Second City, for as she fell she began to notice various objects which had been discarded by the Second City residents.
She had no fear of being hurt by the wonderfully created and designed multitude of contraptions for they were made of ploam. Ploam, the durable lightweight material Second City consumermen used to create household objects such as plates, forks , knives, clothing, or whatever else they needed was created from recycled materials and sent down a special chute to be disposed of once the item had outlived its usefulness.
As she continued her hand brushed against a clock. She picked it up and wondered for how long she had been sliding. She was quite damp all over and although the water was cool, she decided she’d much rather be dry and warm since she had left the sunshine of the park. Alice wondered how her parents were doing as well. In her rush, the thought of contacting them had leapt from her ear and escaped the creatures long before she had the intuition to run. Thinking of her guardians she tried to contact them but when she retrieved the digital device connected to her arm she found it was damaged by the water and most certainly inoperable. She wasn’t sure if she’d have been able to get a signal regardless. The tunnel didn’t seem to allow for repeaters and communication would have most likely been limited at best.
“Poor father,” She intoned, “He must be ever frightful of where I’m at by now. I wonder if he will exercise his consumer rights and if he has called the Peace Officers yet for I have been sliding diagonally for some time now. He must be in distress either worried about my lady hood or harried by my unexpected disappearance. How shall I ever make this up to him? I’m sure I’ll simply have to set firm and relay the events to him as they occurred. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
When it came to the notion of what specifically had attacked and killed Robert and had chased her to her current local, Alice found she was at a loss. Proper consumermanship dictated she refrain from using the term zombie, although that is what the creatures resembled. Alice couldn’t be sure because she’d never personally seen a zombie and hadn’t a definition for the being. She could vaguely recall the term zombie as well. When the matter had been brought to her attention by friends, she’d promptly been told that it was the imaginings of children and best to be forgotten. As she aspired to be a proper consumer, she’d forced the term from her mind and admonished her friends for distributing such propaganda. In Second City, zombies did not exist nor any other city for that matter. The officials of Second City would most certainly know what was best for its citizens so such absurdity was left for children and those who were of lesser mental constitution who worked the more unsavory occupations.
With that Alice let the matter drop in her mind for she really had no other choice as she plummeted off of a ledge herself. As she was thrown from the precipice, she managed to be spun around and landed six or perhaps six point five meters below in a large pool although she couldn’t tell as much as presently she was under water. At that very moment she came face to face with a decrepit deteriorating visage. As her body decelerated and before she began to resurface, the water swollen face rolled its eyes downward and stared at Alice before opening its mouth and reaching for her.
Alice’s body had twisted as she fell into the Second City water and she kicked furiously propelling herself upwards. She screamed then remembering where she was, held her breath as she wasn’t sure how far down she’d gone. The pool was just deep enough to keep the grasping hands that beckoned her to be a part of a meal slightly out of reach. However, there were others down there tall enough to knick at her legs as she broke the surface of the water. Alice gasped breathing in water and air, chocking and muttering, she saw trees and immediately started for them. She could feel brushes against her leg and unsure as to whether it was her imagination, water, or the walking terrors, she fled for the safety of anything but where she was at.
Land wasn’t far away and she hoisted herself up the side and looked down at where she had landed. As if they were walking in slow motion, things with the shape of humans piled toward her with their arms outreached and there fingers twitching for her skin. The ploam seemed to be congesting as the ripples of the ploam waterfall carried them away into the ploam river. The inhuman carnivores could still be seen below and Alice decided that as the case may be she might want to exit the river all together since she now had the capability of deciding which direction she would like to wander.
“For it cannot be exploring,” Alice determined, “Because one cannot explore what someone else already has knowledge of but however shall I get home?”
Waving her hands in the air and wringing her hair, Alice tried to think of the best way to get home. She was quite unsure as to which direction to take after escaping a most horrific fate but thought she would prefer to do so post haste and without another breath she began to step in the first direction that didn’t look like it was inhabited by what no proper consumerman would call the undead as they most certainly did not exist.
“Would it be reasonable to presume that there may be some sort of facility about?” Alice asked herself unsure if she wanted to advance into the new scenery around her as she danced from side to side trying to determine if she might end up in the hands of certain peril. There were benches by the waterfall and having moved past these, she found herself surrounded by trees having completely overlooked the path that was just behind. She had a general sense of her surroundings. She strongly speculated that she was currently located in the remnants. Then she corrected herself.
“Alice, it is rude and thoughtless to think of the past culture that birthed Second City as backwards and contrary. They were merely ignorant and hadn’t been properly educated in the ways of consumerism.”
She nodded her head with certainty at her own reprimand and then looked to her left and right wondering how she was going to navigate through the thick growth that sprawled before her. She was surprised to see that there was such a wealth of foliage on the banks of the ploam river and then considered that the vegetation may purify the water from Second City that assisted the ploam on its journey to the recycling plant.
She looked back over her shoulder with reservation and considered the pool of things she couldn’t name. She would have been more than happy to at least attempt to climb back the way she came despite the trouble but then she pondered that if she slipped then she may slide all the way back down and it would have hardly been worth the effort, especially if she were near the top. Beyond that, the horrible fate that she may not be so lucky to escape a second time might strip the flesh from her bones. In regards to the top, she wasn’t sure how she arrived at her destination either and that would mean attempting to wind her way back to the entrance she slipped through with Robert.
“Poor Robert,” she sighed and then remembered that those troglodytes, a word her father used in reference to the remnant’s inhabitants but had strictly forbade her to use so she only said it in her mind, might still be about and that particular meeting would be most unsavory indeed. All of which left Alice still dripping wet and hesitant to enter the lush greenery before her or turn back to the slide which had brought her to the place she was standing at that moment.
That was until a large splash that didn’t sound like ploam erupted behind Alice and she became quite convinced it would be in her best interest to conclude her brainstorming session and decide on a course of action.
“Well, left and right, I suppose I have need of you again,” and before she could finish her sentence, Alice dashed off into the garden of trees before her on another path hidden by tree limbs. Unfortunately, Alice didn’t know the path behind her would have shortened her journey through the forest by a considerable amount. Fortunately for her, the path was guarded by pig cards that were looking for someone else. Unfortunately for Alice, they delighted in hurting and torturing those
Alice's Zombie Adventures in Under City: Downward Spiral Page 4
