Rise of the Death Walkers (The Circle of Heritage Saga)

by Lawrence Nason Jr.

  “I doubt that.” I grumbled and the whole family laughed.

  Mrs. Grant spoke up for the first time. “It will only be a couple more weeks Jason. Your grandfather is working on getting your room finished. I have been out there a couple times to help your grandmother with the interior. She is such a sweet woman.”

  “Mimi is great and she keeps Grandpa Sam in a flat lope twenty-four hours a day.” I said grinning.

  “How old is your grandfather, Jason?” Mrs. Grant wanted to know.

  Dr. Grant spoke up. “He turns eighty-six this year dear.”

  “Eighty-Six? My lord he doesn’t look a day over fifty!” Mrs. Grant exclaimed.

  “He says he owes it to clean living, Mrs. Grant. And running from my grandmother every time she gets her tick up at him.” I said grinning. They laughed again at what I had said.

  Katie jumped up and started clearing off the dishes from the table but Mrs. Grant stopped her. “I will do that Katie you and Jason better get a start on your day.”

  “Ok mother and thank you. I am not sure when we will get home. I want to take Jason up to Ogdensburg and have a look at a late birthday present for him.” She reached for my jacket and tossed it to me then she put her own jacket on.

  “When was your birthday Jason?” Mrs. Grant asked.

  “It was the eighteenth of September Mrs. Grant.” I said “Two weeks after the beating.”

  “That’s a shame that you missed it this year.” Mrs. Grant said. “Ok run along you two and don’t be too late tonight.

  “We won’t Mama.” Katie said as she rolled me out the door.

  Once outside I spoke to Katie. “You don’t need to get me anything for my birthday. Besides I haven’t gotten you anything.”

  “Your waking back up was enough of a gift for me, Jason.” She said softly.

  We arrived at the school and Katie helped me get back into my chair. "I really like your car Katie. Not too sporty and just enough of the look of a truck to make me feel at home."

  "It's ok." she said non committed. "I would have rather had the Corvette but daddy wouldn't budge.”

  We were entering the sports facility as she said this and then I realized I did not even know where anything was located. "How about the full tour of the school? I just realized I have no idea where anything is."

  "You will have time for that later. Mr. Moore will be waiting for us." She wheeled me to the door of the boys locker room and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "I would help you get changed but we would get in trouble for being in the locker room together." Her lips caressed my ear and then she giggled at me and left.

  The images her comment triggered in my head were very intense and provocative and I could feel my face getting red. I shook my head to regain my composure and pushed the door open to enter the locker rooms.

  The rooms were very large and the sounds made by my chair bumping into various obstacles echoed off the walls. They had this hollow feeling made me feel as if nobody was in the room.

  I changed as quickly as possible into my swim trunks. Then exited the locker rooms through the door that was marked ‘Pool’.

  When I entered the pool area I saw Katie standing and talking to an older man at the side of the pool. I stopped when I first saw Katie. My heart went into overdrive. She was wearing a yellow swim suit that could have been stuffed into a gum pack and still have left room for a few sticks of gum. There was no doubt in my mind that she was female and my heart was beating so fast it could have run the Kentucky Derby and left all the horses two laps behind. She looked up at me and smiled and waved me forward. I cursed at myself and wished to god I had a way to hide the reaction my body was displaying in seeing her like this for the first time. I somehow managed to control my heart beat. I imagined myself sitting stake naked in a snow bank in the middle of a blizzard. By the time I reached her my reaction was not as pronounced and my face was only slightly warm.

  She smiled at me and glanced down. Her face flushed as she quickly returned her gaze to my face and she said with great restraint on her part. "Hey Jason this is Mr. Moore he will be helping us today and show me what I need to know."

  I extended my hand and managed to control the tremble in my voice. "Thank you Mr. Moore for helping us with this."

  Mr. Moore's voice was a mid bass when he replied to me. "It's my pleasure Jason. I used to help in a hospital with hydrotherapy." This was a good thing to know. At least he would know what needs to be done. "Now Jason we are going to fasten this floatation device around your chest. We don't want you sinking to the bottom while we do this." He smiled at me and wrapped the flotation belt around my chest. "Err... hmmm I will have to get one with longer straps I can't seem to get this fastened. I will be right back."

  I nodded at him and when he walked away I leaned forward and whispered to Katie in a hoarse tone. "Good lord girl do you know how good you look to me now?"

  She giggle at me and replied. "I wanted to wear a one piece but I wanted to see your reaction to this one first. I have to admit it was pleasing to see"

  "Remember Katie your father the shotgun the not being able to run. Are you trying to get me shot?" I smiled at her as I spoke.

  "What father does not see will not hurt him Jason." She said with a frank expression on her face. She blushed.

  I noticed that Mr. Moore was returning and said quickly. "I made a promise to your father love and its going to be hard to keep if you keep tempting me like this."

  She looked pleased with herself. "Sorry I will try to be nice." She attempted a contrite look. "But don't hold me to my word."

  "There we go." Mr. Moore said as he approached us. "This one should fit. I wasn't expecting you to be as developed in the chest as you are Jason." He fastened the floatation belt around my chest and then continued. "You need to back up a bit for the next step. I want you to be able to get into the pool with as little help as possible because clearly this young lady would have difficulty lifting you out of the chair like it's normally done. Lock the wheels of the chair in place." He looked around and spotted what he was looking for. "Katie grab that slide there and place it on the front of the wheelchair. Katie grabbed what he pointed at, came and lifted my legs out of the chair foot rests. She swung both foot rests to the side and fitted the slide onto the front of the chair letting her hands linger for a bit on the back of my thighs. I hoped Mr. Moore didn't notice.

  "There" She said "They are in place."

  Mr. Moore stood back as he directed. "Help him slide forward and down the slide Katie. Jason use your arms to move yourself along."

  I did as he said and shifted forward in the chair Katie helped stabilize me as I slid down the ramp. "Ok Katie, I can slide to the pool now." Grunting in the effort is took me to move myself on the tile of the floor I was happy that someone had wet the area already. It helped me slide forward easily.

  As I moved my legs over the edge of the pool Mr. Moore moved in to stop me. "Now Katie, get into the pool and position yourself in front of Jason. Leave enough room for him to slide into the water. He will go under when he slides in you just need to catch him so he does not go too far." Katie gracefully jumped into the pool "Now Jason ease yourself forward slowly."

  I did as he asked and slid into the pool. Of course I sank but I felt Katie's hands catch me and bring me back up above water. Her face was close to mine as she did and I could smell her sweet breath on my face as she looked me in the eyes. "Careful there love." She murmured to me "I am right here."

  Mr. Moore was saying something but I didn't really hear what he was saying I was totally engrossed with the proximity Katie was to me. Up until now we had never been this close with so many parts of our bodies lightly touching. My mind was boggled and slow to respond to anything but this delightful creation in front of me.

  "Like this Mr. Moore?" Katie asked while lifting my leg at the knee.

  "Yes Katie you want to move the leg in every natural movement a leg would make." He slid into the pool and placed Katie's ha
nds in the proper position. "Massage the muscles while you are doing this. It will stimulate the nerves as you perform the exercises. Traditionally speaking the facilities provided here do not constitute what is needed for a proper hydro therapy session so we will be concentrating on range and motion exercises. You will need to also use the facilities at the hospital for alternating warm and cold temperatures. This will stimulate the muscles and nerves. Do this before you come to the pool here for your motion exercises."

  I spoke up for the first time after controlling the emotions I experienced by having Katie this. "Mr. Moore do you think I have a chance at walking again?" Katie slapped me lightly as I spoke.

  "It's hard to say Jason. I have seen many wonders happen in cases worse than what yours. Sometimes it is just a matter of getting the brain to properly communicate with the nerves and muscles."

  He moved Katie's hands to a new location on my left leg. And for the first time since I had awakened in the hospital I actually felt something from my legs. "Hey!! I felt that!" I exclaimed with delight evident in my voice.

  "Really Jason? Oh that’s wonderful!" She removed her hands from my leg and threw her arms around me in an enthusiastic hug. The action caused both of us to sink under water and I flailed a bit in instinctive reaction. She grabbed me and pulled me back up. "Opps, So sorry!"

  Mr. Moore laughed at us and asked, "What did you feel Jason?"

  "Well its sort of just a pressure on my leg, nothing more." I replied.

  "That's good. That means we are doing something right. That's generally how sensation returned to people who have experienced an injury like this. It will develop and become more sensitive as we progress." Mr. Moore smiled at me then turned to Katie. "Keep it up. Do this for about forty minutes per session. Don't do more than one session per day. We don't want to over extend Jason." He chuckled then continued. "And if you’re intent on keeping Jason for a longer period of time I would suggest that you don't try to drown him again."

  Katie blushed and watched as Mr. Moore walked away and entered the door to his office. She turned back to me and smiled shyly. Her voice was so soft and emotion charged as she said, "It nice to know your are not only attracted to me for my mind and caring attitude Jason."

  I blushed and replied. "Err ummm who could not be attracted to you the way you are currently dressed. It's a wonder that every male in a fifty mile radius hasn't been drawn to this room."

  "I am not interested in any other male but you. I am going to have your children Jason White. It may not be immediately but I will have your children." She moved in closer and tenderly wrapped her arms around me. "I knew the moment I saw you that I had met my other half. I believe two souls are destined to be one and its only rarely that two soul-mates meet. I know we are meant to be together and nothing in this world will tear us apart." She leaned forward and kissed me tenderly.

  The emotions that surged through me were unbelievably indescribable. My heart pounded like a jackhammer on high speed. The blood rushed through my system causing a throbbing in my ears. I lost all awareness in my surroundings. The only thing that counted was this wonderful female in my arms. I became hyper aware of her body being pressed against mine. My hands started moving of their own accord until I recalled the promise I had made her father. I forced them under control and concentrated all of my will power to focus my emotions just in the kiss we were locked into. Finally on the brink of my self-control I broke off and gently created some distance between us. Laughing weakly I said. "Katie Grant, are you sure you’re not trying to get me shot?"

  She laughed at me lightly and replied in a sensuous tone, "Can you think of a better way to go?"

  Still laughing I said. "I think it would be better later to go like that than sooner or are you tired of my company?"

  "Not by a long shot, Jason. You are mine and I am going to keep you a long time." She said in a husky voice.

  We then continued with the therapy and by the end of the session I had found several more spots that I felt some kind of pressure on. Katie was ecstatic beyond belief with each new spot. We would have many other encounters during the time of my disability and each time would prove harder than the last to maintain a proper self control.

  Chapter 9 - Planned Destiny

  I sat at the table in our kitchen and listened to Mimi for the hundredth time dwell on the same topic. “Sam we have to tell him before it’s too late. We don’t even know if we can trust this girl he has been seeing at all.”

  I slammed my fist on the table. “Silence old woman! What do you want me to tell Jason? Should I come out and tell him that although he has direct ancestry to the people of this planet his immediate descendants come from a world one hundred and twenty-five light years from here and he is the chosen one of two thousand years of genetic crossbreeding? He hasn’t even been able to truly tap into his abilities yet.” I raised my hand and the sugar bowl floated up from the counter where it was sitting and glided to me at the table.

  Mimi reached out and slapped me in the back of the head. “Fool old man! Are you trying to ruin everything we have been working toward for twelve hundred years?”

  “Calm down old woman. Every member of this reservation is from the home world. It’s not like in the south, with only a few couples spread out among the tribes located there.” I sipped my coffee and then continued. “Katie can be trusted. I feel this in her. And she has proven to be the only compatible female we have found. This time we did not have to tamper with her mind at all like we had to for that useless piece of garbage that sired Jason. Thank God that he was so unreliable as a family man that he left shortly after the twins were born.”

  “You are certain about this Katie?” You know how much the future of this is dependent on Jason and any of the children that come from his line in the future generations.” Mimi washed dishes absent mindedly. She was so distracted she had three towels drying dishes at the same time as she was manually doing it with her own hands.

  I cleared my voice nodding in the direction of the towels beside her. She turned bright red at her lack of composure. The towels were returned to the drying spindle and the dishes to the proper place in the cupboard.

  “I am as certain of Katie as your father was of Angela’s mate. My family has handled the primary line of descendants for one hundred generations now and we have not slipped once. You know the chosen one was to be seen at the end of a five generation female cycle and was to bare the mark of Goltar. Jason has this mark and is the first male in six generations. Everything fits. We just have to carefully nurture him while keeping up the vigilance we have been keeping to protect the human race from the Soul Extractors.”

  Mimi sighed and looked at me. “Sam, he is too young and since this beating he has received his mental lines are all twisted. There was only so much I could do while he was in that hospital. He needs to be here with us for me to be able to treat him properly.” She tossed her towel on the counter in aggravation.

  “He needed time with Katie, Mimi, I sensed that in him when I was driving him to the celebration. Little do our cousins know that the honor they bestowed upon him is but a fraction of the honor he will earn a few Earth years from now. When The Plan was laid out on the home world after our discovery of The Origan, the best mentalists of that time were involved in the research. Since then, every generation has been checked to make sure they are following the course of The Plan and they made the minute changes that were required to lead us where we are now.” I shook my head at Mimi and said. “Jason needs time to build his bond with Katie before we tell him everything. It's going to be hard enough to tell him that his mother was brutally murdered by that worthless piece of garbage she was with and that his sister lost her mind as a result of killing him to protect her siblings and herself from that deranged man.”

  “About Jenna,” Mimi started softly “I need to go to her and undo the damage that the treatments drugs are doing to her mind. I hate keeping her detached from the full capabilities that her mind has.�
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  “The Plan calls for Jason to be the one who restores her mind. Our job is to make sure they don’t damage it beyond the capabilities we have to repairing it.” I gave heavy sigh.

  “Next weekend Jason will be at home and you can begin his treatment.” There is so much depended on him reaching his full capabilities soon. The frequent attacks on the human kind natural to this planet had been growing proportionally in the past twenty Earth years and it was beginning to be more difficult to contain the Soul Extractors. The question still loomed in my mind ‘Can we trust the culmination of twelve-hundred years of selective breeding to the hands of a now fifteen Earth year old boy who had not even begun to tap the true potential of his mind.

  After I changed from my trunks to my street clothing, we went out to Katie’s car and drove to the City Hall. The City Hall was located on Main Street in Massena across from the movie theater. I turned to Katie and asked. “They have the car here?”

  “Well,” she said cheerfully “It’s not exactly a car it’s more like a van only smaller. It’s specially made with disabled people in mind and all of the controls are hand operated so it may take a bit of time getting used to it.” She parked near the curb and then got my chair out of the back.

  A man came out of the entrance to City Hall and waved at Katie. “Your dad called and said you would be here now.” He came to my side of the car and opened the door. “Hi, my name is Stewart Trevic. I am one of the City Councilmen. Here let me help you out of there.” He reached down and lifted me from the car into the waiting chair. “The van is in the back parking lot. If you would, please follow me.”

  “Thank you very much sir. The Council really didn’t need to do this you know. I fully intend on being able to walk again.” I still could not wrap my mind around the fact that people were being so kind to me since all of this happened. It was a bit uncomfortable and bordered on embarrassing at times.

  “Nonsense, it’s the least we could do after the disgusting occurrence in the school that resulted in you getting hurt.” He smiled at me as he turned the corner into the back parking lot. He waved his hand toward a maroon van parked there. “There she is, the newest vehicle designed for the disabled.”