Chapter 13

     "Where's that Russian!?" I snap my eyes open and sit up in seconds. Everyone stands around me, a concerned look on their faces.

     "What?" Cassie asks

     "Sorry, I must've imagined him being here." I say, lying, I can't let them know that somehow he's in my head. Is this what he means by the neural link? I ask myself.

     "Are you sure you're okay, Jack? You've taken quite the beating over the last couple of days." Says, Cassandra, concerned for my mental and physical state.

     "I'm fine, guys, really." I say, trying to stand. As soon as I'm upright a horrible stabbing pain flares in my ribs and I double over in pain.

     "Sit down, Jack." Cassandra says, motioning me to the step on the back of the truck.

     She feels my ribs, "left side seems to be okay," she says, moving to the right side.

     "Ouch!" I yelp, as she runs her fingers over the middle of my right rib.

     "You have two cracked ribs." She says, "you have to rest your body." She looks me in the eyes. "You can't take this much physical stress, you're going to seriously hurt yourself."

    She looks at me with motherly eyes. The smile lines in the corners of eyes now more prominent than ever. Grey hairs beginning to sprout from here and there on her head.

     "Okay. How's the truck?" I ask.

     "Not so good, the motors completely trashed." Says Devin.

    "We need a vehicle, what about the other car they came in?" I question.

     "It seems okay, but it's four seater cab. Two people are going to have to sit in the bed." He explains.

    "I'll sit in the bed." I volunteer

     "So will I," Alyx speaks up.

    "Alright people, load up."

     Devin throws the ammunition bags in the bed of the truck, Alyx helps me over the tail gate and seats me against the cab of the truck.

"Took another beating, didn't I?" I ask, a smug smile crossing my lips.

"No, I think you kicked ass out there."

"Oh, come on, did you see that giant thing, he nearly squashed me like an insect."

"Yeah, but he didn't, did he? You shoved your knife hilt deep into his eye socket." She says, combating me.

"After I suffered two cracked ribs and nearly having my ankle turned into bone dust."

"But whose still standing?"

"You're a real charm, you know that?" I ask, this time a genuine smile spreading across my face. She smiles back and gives me a peck on the lips.

Terry starts the truck, the engine roars to life.

                                 ...

     Night comes fast. We drove for hours, crossing the line of Pennsylvania into Virginia.

     Alyx lays her head on my shoulder, "ouch, I still have cracked ribs, you know."

     "Sorry, sorry, just need somewhere to lay my head."

     "Lay it in my lap, none of my bones are on the verge of breaking there."

     She chuckles, "you would want me to lay my head there, wouldn't you?" She says, a smile crossing her lips.

    "What can I say?" Attempting to shrug my shoulders, "I'm a man."

     "Men will be men." She says, we both laugh a little. She lays her head down.

     For a moment it's as if the apocalypse doesn't exist. As if we're just a bunch of friends taking a road trip.

     The truck slows down and the fantasy ends. Alyx sits up as Cassie slides open the window on the back of the cab.

     She sticks her head out of the window. "Road block, its on foot from here."

     The truck comes to a stop and Alyx helps me off of it.

     "Here, take this," Devin says, walking up to me, flashlight in hand. "I snatched a couple of these before we left the gun store."

     The road ahead is a shit storm. Cars lay abandoned or over turned. Metal chunks thrown about, glass covers the road. Bodies hang mangled from the crushed metal. A lot of them missing limbs, some of them burnt beyond any recognition.

     "Holy shit." I say, as Terry walks over to me.

     "Need help walking, cowboy?" He asks.

     "No thanks, I think I got this." I can walk, but there's a limp and a sting in my ribs that comes with it. "We need to find somewhere to stay the night, its risky to travel at night." I say, the screeching of nearby zombies emphasizes it.

We make our way through the entanglement of metal and bodies. Being cautious for ones that may not be actually dead.

The wreckage is horrible, it travels as far as the eye can see. The fall of civilization caused a chaos so great that people lost all humanity.

Cassie walks up to my side. "What's going to happen, Jack?"

"What do you mean?"

"After we save my dad, I mean. You don't really think we can cure the millions that have already turned, do you?"

"I don't know, Cass. Maybe we can, maybe we can't. If we can't then maybe we can make a vaccine to protect us and any survivors that we come across."

She looks at the ground, running the possibilities through her head. "We'd need a lab, electricity, and time, lots of time." She looks up at me, "all of the things we don't have."

     "But they are things we can and will find."

     "I really hope so." She says, and then falls silent.

     I think of the vision I had before. What did Cassie's father take and how did he stand? Could they already be in Charleston and working on the newest version of the virus? We need to hurry. I don't think theres a lot of time left.

     "Look at that, that looks like a suitable place to sleep." Says Terry, pointing at a motel sign in the distance.

     "I hope they have hot water," Cassandra complains, "I'm dying for a shower."

     Devin laughs, "fuck a shower, I just want a bed to sleep in."

     "Stay on point, people, we're not there yet. Danger still surrounds us." I say, bringing the focus back to the matter at hand.

I do my best to shoulder my AR but I can't hold it for long, the weight of the gun proves too much for my ribs. I wince and lower the gun.

"I'll take point, if you want me to, Jack?" Cassie says, noticing what just happened.

I look over my shoulder, "if you think you got what it takes, then go ahead."

She smiles, "come on, you know I've got it," she says, walking in front of me.

I smile, Cassie definitely has leadership qualities in her. She's a smart girl.

A zombie shambles from the tangled mess of cars. Cassandra lets out a yelp as it reaches for Cassie's neck.

Cassie, calm and collected, like a well-trained fighter swings her shotgun behind her back and ducks to a knee, avoiding its grasp. The zombie stumbles and Cassie unsheathes her knife and draws it across the back of the zombies knees, rendering its legs useless.

The zombie falls to the ground and Cassie plunges her knife in its head. The zombie stops moving, it's undead life coming to an abrupt end.

Cassie looks at me and smiles, I give her a smile and wink. She's definitely a born leader, I think to myself.

She stands and continues the lead to the motel. Alyx walks up beside me.

"I think you've finally met your match." She says, nodding to Cassie.

"She's a fighter, that's for sure, and I'm proud of her. She's come a long way from the girl I saved at the school that I found her at." I say, smiling, thinking back on it.

"She looks up to you, you know?" Alyx asks.

"I know, I try to be the best I can in front of her. She's best qualified to lead if something were to happen to me."

"But nothing is going to happen to you, right?"

"Of course not, but if that odd chance were to come, I'd want her to lead."

Alyx looks at the ground, falling silent after that remark.

The motels parking lot is packed with cars, but none of the windows or doors are busted open. The motel is silent, too silent. I don't like it.

"Everyone on point. Keep your eyes peeled." I say.

A quick sweep of the motel proves my suspicion to be false.

"Okay, people, there's six of us. Two people to a room." I say. Alyx and I take a room, Cassie and her mother go to one and Terry and Devin head to another.

I open the door to the room that Alyx and I are commandeering for the night.

The walls are white with a beige carpet, a painting of flowers on the wall above a T.V. I try turning it on but the screen shows static.

Alyx walks to the bathroom and tries the water. "It's running, and its heating up!" She says with excitement.

"Shh, not so loud, we don't want to disturb Cassandra." I say, chuckling.

"We'll be quiet this time," she says with a wink.

"Uhm, I have cracked ribs, I'm not going to be doing much."

"You can at least take a shower with me, right?" She gives me pleading eyes.

"Of course, you thought I wasn't?"

She looks at me, smiling, but doesn't answer. She begins to undress and steps into the steaming shower.

I slowly and carefully pull my shirt off and slip out of my pants and boxers. I step in the shower and as soon as the water hits me I feel like thirty pounds have been taken off of my shoulders.

I wrap my arms around Alyx, hugging her from behind. We stand there like that for what seems like hours, the water washing away all the impurities on us.

She turns around and kisses me, gently and enticingly. She helps me wash my body. She runs the rag over my slowly, as to not irritate my cracked ribs.

There, naked and under warm water with someone who had come so close to my heart almost made the apocalypse not seem so bad.

I kiss her and help wash her, she turns the water off and we dry our bodies, not bothering to put clothes on we go straight to the bed and within minutes both of us are asleep.

...

I stand in the middle of a white space. So white, in fact, it hurts to keep my eyes open for too long.

A table appears in front of me, with a chair planted in front of it. Something tells me to sit and I do. My head is locked forward, I try, but can't move it at all.

In front of me the air shimmers and an image of a human appears, the face still unknown. The images walks closer and the face comes into view.

The Russian.

He walks to the table and I struggle to stand up but I can't move my body. Nothing is strapping me to the table or chair. I just can't move.

"Having trouble are we?" He asks, his accent pissing me off.

I look him dead in the eye, not saying a word.

"That girl, the one you're interested in. She's very beautiful." He says. I struggle to rip my arms from whatever ethereal force is holding them down but no matter how hard I try I can't move them.

Another image starts to appear beside him. The air shimmers just as it did when he appeared. He turns his head.

"Ah, well, what do we have here?" He asks, an ugly smile crossing his face.

The image becomes full. Her body a familiar shape, one I'd seen naked only twice yet I knew every curve.

Its Alyx.

She smiles at me and turns her head to meet the Russians. He puts his hand on the back of her neck and brings her in close and kisses her. Right in front of me.

Anger doesn't even begin to explain what I felt. I struggle so hard to free myself from whatever unseen force is holding me that it feels like my arms would snap from the pressure.

My vision is fully red, the warrior in me foaming at the mouth. The Russian turns his head back to me and releases Alyx.

He leans over the table and looks me in the eye.

"I. Will. Kill. You." I say, pausing between each word, emphasizing my hatred for this man.

He smiles as both his and Alyx's image fades.

The rooms walls twist and warp into shape. A door on each of the four walls. The walls a deep grey, almost black. A single light is overhead, attached to a high ceiling.

Whatever was holding me down is gone. I stand from the chair and run to the door on my left. I snatch it open ready to kill whatever, if anything, is on the other side.

I stop dead in my tracks. Inside the room are my friends. All of their backs turned to me.

"Hey, guys!" I call out. They slowly turn around.

All of their eyes completely lifeless. A milky white, skin almost yellow, and lesions forming on their face. They moan and shamble towards me.

It takes everything inside of me to close the door. My heart lays in my stomach as I walk to the next door.

I open the door and on the other side is similar to the one I'm in. All grey walls with a high ceiling, a lonely light in the middle.

There's a body that lays under the light. My body.

A syringe lays next to my arm, a yellowish liquid dribbling out of the end of the needle.

I take a step into the room and the eyes on my body snap open, the second me jumps to his feet and runs through the door in front of him, laughing maniacally.

I close the door and walk to the next. I barely crack the door and a hands of the undead burst through, swiping and scratching at the air.

     I push the against the door, struggling to get it closed. The force on the other side proves too much and the door is pushed open.

     Undead of all types, the rabids, regular walking and running ones, and even the giant, hulking one. I back up into the wall. Imminent death standing in the same room as me.

     Maniacal laughter starts out faintly but gets louder until the door next to me bursts open. My second self comes flying through, sending an elbow that caves half of a zombies head in.

     The laughter stops, he's literally slaughtering the zombies with his bare hands. Single hits take down zombies, he's incredibly fast also, it's hard to make out what he's connecting.

     His fists and arms blur and zombies just drop. The giant zombie tries to smash him but he catches its hand. For a second, it looked like even the zombies were confused.

     With a simple twist of his wrist, the beasts arm snaps, the bones shattering, sending shards through its skin. The arm hangs loosely by his side. My second self looks at me and smiles.

     "GO!" He yells as he continues his slaughtering spree. More zombies pour into the room and I run for the last door. I throw it open and sprint through.

     I take the first few steps but then the floor just ends. I try to stop but it's too late. I fall over the edge, descending into darkness.

                                  ...