I fell violently onto the floor, the door slamming as the last of us filed in. My breath caught in my throat, and for a tantalizing, dangerous moment, I thought I might choke on air and cough, revealing my position, our position, actually, and killing us all. They would hear...No, sense anything. They would feel the vibrations, they would hear my falter, they would know...and they would come, in their horrible, lovely swarm. Yes...They would come and kill us. Devour us. Finally. Yes...
A sick, tired and crazed smile passed my face as I considered it, hand shoved over my mouth, trying to stop myself. But...what if I didn't? If my hand would slip? How long...how long could it hurt? Death. Being eaten by a swarm of the ones you used to adore. Better than living like this, right? Right?
Yes. Better.
Slowly, my hand began to slip away from my mouth, slowly, slowly...Or so it felt. Less than a second after my hand had began it's withdrawal, had another hand slapped across my mouth with a silence, too-strong force. Another hand--no, fist, thinking back--rammed against the back of my head, and I heard a rough, angered moan. Quick and choppy, and growing with the unison of our little five-person group.
Had I known nothing, I would have assumed it to be a zombie here to take me at last. It sounded just like one: perfected my months upon months, turning to nearly a year of precise practice. It had to be perfect. failure would've meant death, of course...We had learned that in time.
We always learned in time, but it seemed that even that small pleasure was running out.
This noise was our only communication. The only sound the monsters would ignore: a moan matching their own. We had created a code, learning to read the message by the tone. This message meant: "You do anything against our interests, and we'll kill you more violently and slowly than any zombie would ever dare." This had been proven by example before. Only once, in front of us all. We never needed another one, you know. We weren't even...allowed to look away from it. Not even blink, for all of the hours it took to end his suffering.
I still remember his screams: hands, arms, feet nailed to a crucifix, left hanging above the zombies gnawing at his feet. There is no such pain as being bitten by a monster like that. He told us himself. We sat in a tree, watching him in the open field. Leader...he shot arrows...he shot arrows at him. At his throat...at his groin...his heart...never deep enough to kill him, though. No matter how he begged. Oh, and how he begged. Until...until he could no longer breathe. I remember that last noise. He...cried. He had never cried before, but...he sobbed to us. He sobbed for hours. He was sorry. Sorry to God. Sorry to Us. Sorry to the creatures. Even...Sorry to Me...To Mom and Dad, who had died so long ago...Sorry. Sorry. Sorry...And then he was silent. Silent for a moment.
Then he screamed.
So loud. So inhuman. In his eyes...I could see it. He wasn't human. No. No. Not human. He had died and become one of them. He moaned, so loudly, so enraged. I don't know...if he had been thinking. But, it was our strongest message. Our most urgent...most angry and unforgiving. Over and over...
"Shut up!! Shut up! Shut up!!"...
...I closed my eyes, sighing silently, steadying my breathing. That was the last time I had seen my brother. Six months ago...So long...I couldn't go that way. My right mind started to return, and I opened my mouth, still blocked by a tall, dark fellow's hand, and emitted a low, choked-sounding gargle.
I didn't open my eyes as suddenly all of the zombies that had seen our leader and were searching let out a simultaneous, disappointed moan from outside the closed door. They recognized my faux cry as nothing but the sound of death. They presumed the human to be dead, and continued in their aimless, thoughtless wandering.
My answer had been clear to my companions, however: "I concede." It was the ultimate show of inferiority that was not taken lightly. Death couldn't be taken lightly with so little of us left. Not after all we had seen.
They all looked down at me. There was a pattern in their gazes: doubt, relief, doubt, relief.
That explained them, I noticed as my mouth was gently released, a low and immediate, "Sorry" moan rewarded to me, and the back of my head where I had been hit in warning was rubbed apologetically.
I stared in wonder at my companions: my forced-friends. The first one to demand my eyes was no one but Leader, who had been the one to strike me in my fall.
Leader. That was what he was called, but his real name was Octavius Maes, and the first time we had met--the last time we'd spoken--his voice was deep and commanding, holding hints of a Greece accent.
His eyes were hard and disgusted as I met them. He had always hated weakness, for all that I'd known him. He was tall and pale, with a threatening stocky build. His light, light blonde hair was shorter than the rest of ours--only to his ears. He was the only one to try to cut it with his pocket knife, explaining that it showed him to be the Alpha if we ever met another group. We never did.
It revealed his ears, which, like the rest of his features, were large, but surprisingly pointed and rigid. Thusly giving him the look of a princely elf from a fairy tale. His cold, sparkling blue eyes shone with the hate and indifferent depth of an oblivious eternity.
If Hell should ever freeze over, Leader would be the new Satan. He would be King of the Iced "Under-Realm", as he calls it.
He held my gaze for but a second, before standing up to his enormous height and kicking my gut, scolding me as he so often did. I was his least favorite--the only other woman being his chosen mate.
Two pairs of arms wrapped around me defensively, and angry, apologetic moans erupted from my two defenders, our Alpha Female and Hunter, the lanky, dark man from before, while the Executioner raised a calm eyebrow, and moaned sharply, signalling for the two to be silenced.
Hunter, who seemed to have retained the most humanity of us all stuck his tongue out at Executioner, then turned to smile reassuringly at me, patting when I had been struck again gently.
Hunter's real name was Jamaal Smith, and I think he was the only one who spoke anymore, and he only did to me. Always almost silently, when we had found refuge from the monsters and Leader had taken Madam off and away, and Executioner had gone off to ward off whatever creatures may be coming our way with his rituals.
He would always smile at me, and talk to me in his shy, I think it was shy, I couldn't tell anymore, little way. His voice was never dampened by his stress, and was more often than not gleeful as he told me how hard it was to hunt under these conditions. Guns couldn't be used, due to their noisiness, so he had taken up dagger tossing and was learning archery from Leader. So difficult! He would chuckle, and, for the first time in days, I would smile again, and maybe, for the first time in a month, I would almost laugh.
For every chill Leader would give me in his icy demeanor, Hunter would wash it away with his sunlit smiles. He was a knight, still gleaming, even without light.
He snapped his deep eyes away from me and stood up violently, marching to Leader, and looking truly meek compared to Leader's thick pride, moaning out the closest things that we had to profanities, and even going off into loud incoherences.
Madam flinched and looked down, guilty as Leader barked back a reply, lifting a hand as if to strike Hunter. I knew he wouldn't, though. Hunter was everyone's pet. We all envied those little, infectious smiles, and clung to Hunter like he was our last pocket knife and we were surrounded. He was the youngest, after all, and that was what I found the most impressive. Someone at least two years younger than me, I was twenty-three, could handle all that I couldn't and face these moments with glee.
I shook my head, and opened my mouth to call off Hunter, but Madam placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, her reddish, waist-long hair draping over her eyes so that no one but me could see the emotion in them. She shook her head, and I understood. Should I involve myself, I would only goad Leader into another fit, and Hunter would be in the center of it.
My mouth twisted sympathetically, grey eyes meeting her brown ones, and I nodded, sinking down. Madam's word was law, because Leader declared it, and his word was the Bible to us.
I moaned sadly, and Madam patted my shoulder sympathetically. Her eyes tried to reason with me. She wanted to help, too, but...
I looked away. I knew. She couldn't go against Leader...No, I meant that she wouldn't. Hunter, Executioner, and I couldn't. Madam could do whatever she pleased, and she didn't fancy reigning in her Alpha Male, apparently.
Madam's real name was Janessa Williams, and when we had first met in that little school gym, somewhere in western Ohio, she had been the most strong-willed, deeply-moralled person I'd ever seen, her thickly accented Southern voice soothing any listener. She, Leader, and a group of thirty others had come to save the ten survivors of our town. She wouldn't have let someone touch a fly wrong...but I sat in silence as Leader backhanded Hunter with a deafening crack, and Madam sat, unruffled by this act. From forty strong, happy people...to five children in the guise of adults in a hellish wonderland within the time of less than a year.
Executioner sat up from his almost ever-present slouch, eyes widening as we stared at Hunter's stricken face, a welt reddening the unblemished flesh.
A voice echoed through the thin silence, and we all froze as Leader opened his mouth to speak, "I...will call her whatever I wish to, Hunter." his voice echoed with authority, and my ears rang at the familiar, deep voice that I hadn't heard in so long.
His words sank in the moment his eyes flickered to me and he addressed me, "Do you disagree, Dead Weight?" his blue eyes glowed with hatred as he challenged me.
My throat grew dry as the meaning of my label drenched my every pore, leaving me quivering. I lifted my chin in vain, trying to maintain some dignity, "No. No, I do not, Leader."
All names were given for a reason, after all.
I forced myself to my...to my foot, leaning heavily on the cold roof-side railing by my side, arms steadying me.
My left leg had been all but severed for weeks now. I was getting worse and worse, my leg decomposing, spreading up my body...Attracting them. They loved the smell of dying skin...That's why we had been chased. That's why they had seen Leader--he had been trying to save me. They had been trying to amputate my leg for so long, but could never find a saw. They wouldn't kill me...They promised they'd watch out for me...And Leader already hated me, after just a few weeks. Executioner eyed me as he used to our sacrifices. I wasn't real to them, anymore.
Gatherer, Dakota Fallaem, had already died in their eyes.
I gagged at the thought, nearly falling over, but suddenly Madam was at my side, supporting me. She wouldn't meet my eyes, and was starting to shake. She lifted a thin, quivering finger to her lips.
I should have stopped talking then. I should have made them stop. We could have...We should have...
There was another crack, and I looked over in time to see Hunter standing at full height, his eyes frantic, fist raised, and Leader was kneeling on the ground, clutching his cheek, "Shut up!" he screeched. I heard my brother's screams again, as he hung on the cross. Shut up...Those words so strong...To silence someone...To kill someone...That was what it meant, right? Anymore, that was the only way to silence.
"That's not her name, Octavius!" Hunter growled, and met Leader's eyes with fury, "Your name isn't Leader! My name is not Hunter! Janessa isn't Madam, and Roger isn't Executioner!" he held up Leader by the collar of his shirt, and his eyes were pleading, "Jesus, listen to me, Octie, just one more time: Koda isn't Dead Weight, either! We're humans! We're stupid, confused humans who've been trying to live where we don't belong for too bloody long!" Hunter's voice started to fade, and his eyes were watering.
His face was the epitome of torture as he whipered, "Octie...I'm so sorry...We need to die now..." Hunter swallowed loudly as we all froze, finally understanding, "I wont let you become a monster, Octavius. I owe you...that much for this long..." It was madness. It was madness, with it's sweet promise of an end. Maybe it was what we wanted all along. Someone to tell us to go on and die.
Leader began grasping at Hunter's hands, that were on his shoulders, "Hunter...no, Jamaal..." he closed his eyes, and we heard the words we'd never expect from Leader. "I'm sorry, Jamaal...Roger...I'm so sorry to you, Dakota. I guess that this is goodbye." Leader stood up straight, and looked at Madam, who was staring, wide eyed, mouth agape. He tried to smile, "Janessa...I love you. So much. Please, Hades, don't think I don't...Please. Let's meet in our next lives, 'kay, 'Nessa?" and for the first and last time in my life, I saw warmth in Leader's eyes.
Hunter let go of him, though, and we all watched as Leader dived off of the building.
Madam screamed, tears welling up in her melted chocolate eyes as she ran to the side of the building after him, causing me to nearly fall, but I found the ever-silent Executioner holding me up before I could. He looked out to Madam, who only made it there in time for us all to hear a gut-wrenching, wet, crack. I forced my self not to look as Madam vomited, sobbing and calling out to Leader. Our Leader, who would never come home again.
Hunter turned to the entrance to the roof we were on, trying not to show his tears, motioning for Executioner to turn me away as we heard Madam sob and dive after him, and I winced as the sound of a corpse against concrete met my ears again.
I wouldn't have noticed how badly I was crying if Executioner hadn't wiped a tear away, "Don't." he commanded, his voice a little strained as he handed me to Hunter, moving toward the entrance. I watched as he hesitantly dropped his trench coat, all of his weapons scattering around. "I'll...go first." he looked over at Hunter and I, "I'm sorry it must end this way. Dakota. Jamaal." He lifted his chin and put his hand on the door handle, and through the small window, I saw them. There was a swarm, all of them clawing at the door, smearing blood all over the glass.I swallowed hard, trying not to be afraid...I had never seen them this close before. He sighed, "I will miss you."
"...Roger..." Hunter looked down, then patted my shoulder, whispering, "Can you feel your leg, Koda?" his voice was too soft. Too comforting.
I shook my head, "No...Not for the past week, H...Jamaal." I forced myself away from he labels. We weren't anymore...We'd never be again.
He smiled a little, "Good...It might not hurt too badly, then." He closed his eyes tightly, breathing in shakily. "Roger..."
Roger looked over at us again, "Are you ready?"
Jamaal nodded, crying again. "God...I'm so glad Nessa and Octie are gone...Maybe they can meet in their next life. They'll have one. They weren't bitten, after all..."
Roger sighed, smiling a little. It was the most emotion Roger had ever shown, "You are good, Jamaal. You both will have new, better lives, too...And, when you do, remember me as what I was. Remember me as a murderer." he bowed to us, "Miss Dakota. Sir Jamaal." And, Roger flung open the door. My eyes widened as he was engulfed in a sea of decomposing flesh as the monsters grasped at him, scraping off his skin. He stayed silent, through it all, though writhing in his pain.
They were on Jamaal and I before they had finished him, and I screamed as their nails and teeth dug into my flesh, ripping and tearing it. I felt myself sobbing, and in the chaos, I heard the low, gurgle. Roger had died. It didn't occur to me. I saw red, warmth seeping from my flesh, my skull...My leg was gone, I think. They'd amputated it themselves, the demons.
All I remember was hearing Jamaal whisper in my ear, his voice strained and fading, "C...Close your eyes tight...Koda...It..ll end s...oon..."
I think at that last moment I heard my brother, echoing through the emptiness in my skull. "Welcome home, Dakota." it resounded, like church bells throughout an empty town, "You've been dead for a few hours...Wouldn't you like something to eat? We saved little Hunter, just for you..."
Please let this nightmare end soon...
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A/N: OH HO HO HO
MEEERRRYYY CHRIISTMAASSS <3
Pfft...I'm gonna hate this story in the morning, but it's 2:09 AM, AND I'M KEEPIN' THIS!
I HOPE IT WORKS! AND I USED MY OWN NAME FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER, CAUSE EVERY OTHER NAME I THOUGHT OF STARTED WITH A "J" <3
FAIL!
