The Awakening

by Ryan Sova

  Officer Casy responded, “Ok, you might have a point but be careful about what you do. You don’t want to go making another scene like Dalen did when he killed Sarah.”

  Detective Klaben became agitated and very concerned, “And what about the scene that Garry will make when he starts telling people what we are!”

  Officer Casy calmed Detective Klaben down and then said, “Now listen to me. One raving lunatic screaming that the zombie apocalypse has come is no threat to us. So stop worrying about it. Even if he does know what we are, which he probably doesn’t, who will he tell? And now let’s just assume that one or two people actually believe this crazy story of his, what of it? As I said before, he’s no threat to us.

  Even if he somehow manages to assemble his own lynch mob to chase us down and pull us off the streets, we can just let them kill a few of us. Those few poor souls can then forgo their healing for a few months, maybe even a few years if need be and effectively play dead. At which point, Garry and his lynch mob are arrested, problem solved. You see, no matter how you look at it, he’s no threat to us.“

  “So you want me to do nothing!” Detective Klaben said angrily.

  Officer Casy continued, “No, that’s not what I am saying. If you are going to kill him though, it needs to be done quietly. We can’t afford to have you on the five-o-clock news bludgeoning him to death. The Master will have all our asses if we are foolish and expose ourselves again. So take this advice before you do anything. It needs to be done quietly or not at all.”

  Detective Klaben shot back an innocent smile and said, “I can be subtle. He won’t know what hit him.”

  Officer Casy answered, “Fine, just be careful and remember what I told you. You do not want to face the Master's wrath, trust me on that!”

  Detective Klaben still had an innocent smile on her face, “No problem. Now if you will excuse me. I need to go murder my whole family.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Garry woke up and lay paralyzed in his bed. What do I do, he wondered, already starting to go into a panic?

  Everything that had just happened in his dreams was still all just sinking in now. A part of Garry felt like he needed to run and hide, like right now! He felt as if any moment from now Detective Klaben was going to burst into his apartment and kill him. But another part of Garry’s conscious mind reasoned that he needed to approach this in a calm and rational fashion and that if he allowed himself to go into a full panic, he would only worsen his situation.

  It won't do me any good if I just go and freak out. I need to think this through and come up with a plan on what I am going to do.

  The only problem was that Garry didn’t know what he was going to do. In all of his years of facing horrific visions night after night in his dreams, he had never faced something like this—something that actually put his life in real danger.

  Garry’s first instinct was to immediately and without a moment of hesitation run to his car and start driving, then hope that his aimless driving would eventually lead to some secluded area far away from people. Once he reached this safe haven, he would then hide.

  As Garry thought about this plan, he realized that there were some obvious flaws. The first problem that he would undoubtedly face is hunger and thirst. In order to stay alive and not starve to death, he would need to return frequently to civilization and buy more food and water. That would be a problem because, in order to stay off the radar and not get caught by the police detective who would obviously be searching for him, he would have to stay far away from civilization, not return to it every few days. Food and water, though, were only the beginning of the problems that he would face. Where will I go to the bathroom? Where will I bathe? Where will I go to clean my clothes? What will I spend my days doing (staying cooped up in a car will get old very fast)? Will I still shave? Will I still brush my teeth? What about when winter starts in about four months, how will I keep warm then?

  These were just a few of the problems that Garry knew he would face if he let his panic take over. Also, after a moment of reflection, Garry realized that hiding somewhere far away from people might actually work to Detective Klaben’s benefit. Garry remembered back to the conversation between Detective Klaben and Officer Casy last night. Whatever she does to me, she needs to do it quietly. She can’t have me making a big scene about it. If I am out in the middle of the woods, there will be no one to hear my screams, but if I am here in this apartment complex and I start screaming, people will notice.

  Or maybe they won’t…

  Shit!!!

  As Garry was contemplating his situation, he realized that his neighbors had actually grown accustomed to hearing him screaming in the night. No one in this neighborhood was going to respond in the slightest to Garry’s cries for help if Detective Klaben ever came to murder him at his apartment.

  Garry stayed in bed contemplating his situation. He stayed there for over an hour almost afraid that if he got out bed, he would need to have some kind of plan about what he was going to do next. He still didn’t have one, though. As Garry was sitting in bed, he did realize something odd though—something that he had failed to realize this whole time since he had been awake. He was not in pain, not even in the slightest. Garry touched his neck where the knife had impaled Detective Klaben’s neck last night and marveled, this should hurt like hell, but it doesn’t. After a moment of reflection, Garry reasoned with himself that maybe it was because of the strange ghost form that he had taken after Detective Klaben died. Maybe that is what spared him from the agony that he would normally face upon waking up from such a dream.

  After a substantial amount of time, Garry decided that it might be time to tell Detective Grant the truth. He didn’t know how the detective would take his story though and was afraid of what his reaction would be. He didn’t know what else he could do though. Running to hide somewhere was a crazy idea. After spending the whole morning thinking about it, Garry realized that there was no way that he could just go somewhere and disappear, not without help at least. Garry’s only hope of being able to disappear would be if someone paid for him to stay in some secret location and brought him food at his hiding location regularly. Garry pictured a sort of witness protection program set up as this idea evolved in his head. Garry hoped that Detective Grant would be able to set up something like this so that he could dream in peace without the risk of being murdered, or at the very least allow Garry to stay with he and his family at his home.

  Garry nervously dialed Detective Grant’s number.

  Detective Grant answered the phone, “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. What is it?”

  Garry answered, “There are some things about my dreams that I have not been telling you.”

  Detective Grant answered, “This sounds serious. Okay, I’m listening.”

  Garry paused a moment, thinking about what he was going to say and then began, “Four months ago, I started feeling a strange creepy feeling every time Dalen Strong would approach my register at work. Later you called me to the police station because of a 911 tape where he was stabbing his wife to death. At the time, I didn’t know what any of this meant, or why I was feeling this way about Dalen, but now I do. The day that you called me to the police station about this 911 phone call is the day that I started dreaming about the past.”

  Detective Grant interrupted, “You are saying that this farm was real then? Garry, you were dreaming about medieval times with sorcerers, SORCERERS Garry. And what about this empire from your dream? What was it called again, the Vestillian Empire? Tell me, where might I go to read the history of this so-called empire?”

  Garry answered, “I know how this sounds, but it is real. It’s all real.”

  Detective Grant answered, “How do you know?”

  Garry answered, “Because it is linked to what is happening right now. I started seeing creepy people, people just like Dalen Strong in my dreams the night that you called me about the two drowning victims. Only the sorcerers from back then had this w
oman chained up and were carrying her as a prisoner because they knew what she was, a zombie.”

  Detective Grant laughed, then answered, “I am sorry Garry, but what you are saying is crazy.”

  Garry answered, “I know how this sounds. Believe me, I do! But I can assure you that this is real and we are all in very real danger!”

  Detective Grant suddenly became very serious and sounded very concerned as he spoke, “No Garry, it’s not. There is no such thing as sorcerers or zombies, not now, not ever. This is all just a dream Garry, and it is not real. Please, you have to listen to me. None of the things that you have been seeing are real.

  “Garry, I am starting to get very worried about you. Your dreams have always been very hard on you in the past, but now I am starting to think that this gift of yours might be turning into a sickness. I would like you to talk to someone I know. Her name is Doctor Amy Rosford. She is a psychiatrist that works with the police department from time to time.”

  Garry was infuriated. “IM NOT CRAZY!” he yelled.

  Detective Grant answered, “I am not saying that you are Garry, but what you see in your dreams is hard enough on you when you’re seeing real-life crimes. Now your dreams are getting you worked up over things that are not even real. Garry, even the most stable person can get stressed out if…”

  Garry hung the phone up on Detective Grant. “THAT SON OF A BITCH!!!” Garry screamed out in a rage.

  Garry threw his phone across the room. It hit his futon and bounced off onto the floor. Moments later the phone started ringing. Garry knew that it had to be Detective Grant calling him back. Garry had no intention of answering the call.

  After all we have been through! How dare he call me crazy!!! Or tell me that I need to get help! He should fucking know that I am psychic by now!!!

  The phone rang two more times before Detective Grant finally gave up. The detective did, however, leave him with a text message. It took another three hours before Garry had calmed down enough to even look at his phone.

  The text message from Detective Grant simply stated, “Garry, I’m sorry that I upset you. I am really worried about you. Please give me a call when you get the chance.”

  By the time Garry had finally calmed down, it was almost time for him to start getting ready for work. Garry thought about the possibility of staying home and devoting himself to figuring out a plan to keep himself safe from Detective Klaben. One main problem with this idea was that he still didn’t have a plan. The only solid idea that he had been able to come up with so far was to ask Detective Grant for help and that plan didn’t work out so well. Garry knew that it would only be a matter of time before Detective Klaben would come for him and he needed to come up with something before then.

  Garry paused a moment, wondering what he should do. After some reflection, Garry realized that work was actually the safest place that he could be right now. Detective Klaben’s only hindrance to killing him was that she needed to do it quietly, with no one to witness her crime. There was absolutely no way that she could do that while he was working as a cashier in a grocery store. Garry also realized that he needed this job if he was going to maintain a steady paycheck and with that any semblance of a normal life. If Garry suddenly became homeless, it would only be that much easier to kill him quietly.

  Garry reluctantly started preparing himself for work. He went through his normal routine and then left his apartment. In the back of his mind, Garry wondered if he was making a grave mistake by carrying on with his life like nothing had happened, but he could not think of anything else he could do right now. Unfortunately, he needed this job and he couldn’t just not go to work if he wanted to stay employed.

  Throughout the night, Garry nervously waited for something horrible to happen. Garry was relieved, though, that nothing out of the ordinary happened that night. He didn’t even get a visit from Detective Grant, which was something that he was expecting ever since the abrupt ending to his phone conversation with the detective this morning.

  There was only one undead customer Garry spotted throughout the night. When Garry encountered the man, he was surprised at how easily he could calm himself in the undead man’s presence. If anything, Garry expected to be more freaked out than ever now that he knew what these creepy people actually are. But somehow, knowing what they are actually helped him to control his behavior. This was because Garry feared what the undead might do to him if they were to realize that he knows what they are, as if the only reason they're not trying to kill him right now is because they're ignorant to the fact that Garry knows their secret.

  It was an irrational fear to say the least, especially seeing that one of the undead was already intent on killing him. Somehow though, this irrational fear made sense to Garry’s terrified mind. As crazy as it was, it was helping him act normal, which was the smartest thing he could do right now Garry reckoned. Letting everyone, both living and dead, know the truth would serve absolutely no purpose. The living would think that he is crazy, just as Detective Grant had so wonderfully demonstrated this morning, while the dead would see him as even more of a threat than they already do now.

  Garry’s workday ended as peacefully as it started. With what he had witnessed last night in his dreams, Garry half expected to have something horrible happen to him at work. As Garry was preparing to go home for the night, he started to wonder if Detective Grant was right. Maybe this is all just in my head, he wondered. He started to consider the likelihood of a global extinction event occurring with the only person who knows anything about it being just one middle-aged grocery store clerk. The more Garry thought about it, the more far-fetched it seemed.

  As Garry entered his apartment his irrational fear was still there. The fear that Detective Klaben was waiting for him in the bushes by his apartment door, or was already in his apartment, waiting for him to get settled and asleep in his bed before she jumps out of a closet and kills him in his sleep. Garry pushed these fears aside as he opened the door to his apartment.

  Once Garry was safely inside his apartment, he began to closely ponder his situation again. Maybe Detective Grant was right. Maybe I do need help. What I am experiencing seems disturbingly similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia. I am paranoid, delusional, easily agitated, and I have been both seeing and feeling things that may or may not be real. Maybe my psychic gift has actually turned into a sickness, just as Detective Grant suggested.

  His plans earlier today to come up with some kind of plan to escape from this murderous police detective had been completely discarded by now. He was not ready yet to seek professional help though. If it had not been for the last ten years and all the visions he had seen that were, in fact, true, he would most certainly be seeking help by now. But as it was, Garry was still not fully convinced that his feelings and dreams were wrong. He had been right so many times before that he could not fully convince himself that this was all just a delusion.

  Garry took a seat on his futon and continued to ponder. If my dreams are right, what can I possibly do? How am I supposed to stop a zombie apocalypse when I am the only one who knows anything about it?

  Garry was still a bit uneasy as he prepared himself for bed. He sort of half believed and half didn’t believe that his life was in danger. His nerves were still on high alert that the moment he started to fall asleep Detective Klaben would jump out of the closet and kill him. Garry tried to calm these nerves by performing a thorough search of his apartment, but the fear was still there all the same. Garry stayed awake for hours wrestling with this fear and once it seemed like there was no chance that he would get a wink of sleep at all, Garry finally fell asleep.

  ****

  “This is a nice little town,” Eliak stated once the group was all seated.

  Cambridge was small, almost as small as the Homestead village was. The town reminded Nephal of home. The people living here were all so very close. Everyone knew everyone here, as if the entire town were one big family, just like it was in the Homestead village ba
ck home. Nephal had always thought that every village, town, and city in the kingdom was just like this when he was growing up. But his travels had shown him that, more often than not, this was not the case.

  Cambridge was located deep inside of a dense forest. A large plot of land had been cleared where the town was first built. The town was surrounded by a wooden wall that protected the town’s inhabitants from the dangerous wildlife in the area. A gate had been built leading into the town and one more gate leading out of the town. The forest had also been cleared forming the path where the road was built through the forest.

  Many of the creatures that they faced in this forest were strange. Even Nephal had not ever seen anything like them before. The detachment of soldiers had been attacked numerous times by the wildlife in the area as they were traveling to Cambridge. Fortunately, the soldiers were well prepared and on high alert. They knew that this was a dangers area.

  There were a few minor injuries that resulted from animal attacks, but nothing too serious. Atonick had decided to stay a few more days than normal in Cambridge to give the wounded soldiers a chance to recover. It was now day three of their visit to Cambridge.

  It had been almost ten months now since Nephal had first left the Homestead village. Still, not a day went by that he did not think about Debra or his child.

  Nephal, Eliak, Fargh, and Atonick were all seated at a table at the inn. Nephal responded to Eliak’s comment, “Yes, this is a nice town. It reminds me of home”.

  “How much longer till we head out for Jargur?” Fargh asked Atonick.

  Atonick answered, “Depends on how fast Harold and Racabith recover. My guess will be maybe two or three more days.”

  “Won't that set us back on our arrival to Bragsdale? I thought that we were expected?” Nephal asked.

  “The king has already been informed of our delay,” Atonick responded.