It wasn't supposed to end like this, but we knew that we were the last hope.
When a virus infects the entire world and turns the human population into zombies, it was ill-prepared to fight back. The Mayans correctly predicted the beginning of the end would start on the twenty-first of December. However, they failed to predict a small band of survivors decided to rise against death and defy its unwanted welcome. Armed with nothing more than the various weapons left behind by the armies and their strong will to enter a brave new world, they will soon do the unthinkable.
Save the world.
Chapter One
Dying to Live
I’d never given much thought as to how I would die.
No, that wasn’t a direct reference from Twilight. Or perhaps it was, but who cared anyway? But the truth was right there. I always considered that I’d drown on a boat (thank you for those gracious nightmares, Titanic), be crushed by falling debris in a tight space (I’m looking at YOU, Ryan Reynolds!) or even die of old age (which is definitely the most boring of the three). On second thought, perhaps I’d given it more thought than your typical hormone-induced teenager …
My name is Ami. And I had progressed into my twenties for clarity.
In the world I entered alongside numerous other survivors, surnames slowly evaporated into irrelevance and death slowly became us. It lingered like an unwanted stench that we did not welcome so easily. But despite our initial unwillingness to embrace it, we found ourselves accepting it like a long lost friend. Before disaster struck, I would have been the first to reluctantly step the hell away from the conflict of differences and fight for survival we faced in these times.
But that was the old Ami. She died the day the world was condemned to its own destruction and the fate of the human race depending on its next move.
I’d always suspected that the good old Powers That Be had a sense of humour when it began on the twenty-first of December. The Mayans had predicted it all along, but many chose to believe we would be devoured by natural disaster and meteor showers raining down from the heavens above the planet.
Japan sought to deliver judgement in a different way …
It came without warning.
At first, it started to infect animals. Some died, giving into the invasion. Others remained defiant in the attack and seemingly survived. That was until their behaviour – and physical traits – changed. In the weeks leading to the twenty-first, people stopped worrying about their Christmas shopping and prepared themselves. The United Nations called a state of international emergency, training the army and public to defend themselves against it.
However, it was too late by the time they managed to get their sorry attitudes together.
The virus spread across the entire world.
Nations fell – including the “prepared” armies – and soon enough, it came here. To me.
To fucking Droylsden of all places.
On the twenty-first of December, I awoke to the sound of my TV fading out. There was an extremely weak signal of a female news reporter – Kay Burley, possibly? I couldn’t tell; I had been so engrossed in my sleep – and the sound of screams slowly echoing from nearby houses. I threw myself out of the bed quickly, fully dressed, and noticed I was alone. The last state of emergency had been declared yesterday and I wanted to be fully prepared when the virus would catch up.
Silently applauding my appropriate sense of loose clothing, I grabbed the Colt .45 on the dressing table. I’d only had a few days to be taught how to use this against the enemy, but I thought I was a fair shooter if I thought so myself. After turning the TV off, I remained still and mentally cursed my heart for beating so fucking hard against my chest.
And as in the typical horror film, there was a loud crash of a plate downstairs in the kitchen.
That may have been the moment to scream and shoot myself in the head, but I wasn’t the stereotypical blonde. Even if I was born that way and slowly developed into a brunette. I was smart.
I ran a hand through my wavy hair. Damn it, I had no bobble to tie it back with. I was ill-prepared for my first kill. It wouldn’t do at all. I swiftly grabbed the lonely black hair bobble on the dresser and did the deed. After tightening it, I felt ready to face what was to come. My heart thumped hard against my chest once again, as I slowly opened the door and found myself standing at the top of the stairs.
The only sound that accompanied the eerie silence was a snarl and movement of someone – or something – downstairs. By this point, I realised I had been abandoned to such a cruel fate. If I was scratched or bitten now and succumbed to the virus, I was going to hunt my entire family down and make them suffer this ordeal for eternity. The thought of it may have been horrifying to anyone else, but it was tantalising for me. I was almost giddy, forgetting that the first kill was right around the corner.
As I walked down the stairs silently, I could make the figure out more. He or she (it was hard now to define gender from hair) was facing away from me, looking into the mirror inside the living room. Was it admiring the ugliness the virus had turned into? I stopped referring to it as a he or she, which was now a she, as I saw her face in the mirror looking back at me. Her eyes were red, her skin was degenerating and her clothes were dirty.
Shit.
I was supposed to stealthy get down the stairs without so much as making a sound and prove that I was a smooth criminal. Michael Jackson, God bless his soul, would be ashamed right now. As the thing quite literally turned its ugly face in my direction, I found myself suddenly feeling brave. And every brave moment was accompanied by a speech, according to the films. Right?
“Oh,” I gulped. “You’re not Joyce. That’s always a good thing.”
A snarl, louder than the last one, was what I received in response.
“If you were a guy right now, you’d totally be Jack Dawson. Wait, what am I saying? You’re not exactly in the Atlantic Ocean and –”
Whoever she – it – was, she (or it? I couldn’t decide whether this person was human anymore) was staggering towards me. Its foot was almost decapitated, disgustingly enough. I readied my gun with both hands and clicked. There was a mixture of determination and fear coursing through my veins. I had shot a gun to prepare for the virus’ inevitable coming, but I had never shot a person before. This would be a moment that would define me, I just knew it.
“I don’t know who you a-are, though,” I rambled. “You’re not Joyce and I didn’t like her before she broke her ribs. Then she never bothered me about, y-you know, everything. She was too bothered about her life going smoothly and having her carer –”
A huge bang emanated from the weapon in between my hands. The bullet had hit the mirror and the glass split, shattering down to the floor into a thousand pieces. My neighbour – one of the nameless ones I’d never bothered to interact with – lunged for me. I stepped back, tripping up on the piece of carpet near the front door, and fired the gun again.
This time, it landed squarely on her forehead. In the brain.
In the few moments that transpired afterwards, her ravenous red eyes transformed back into the light blue ones she originally had. Her humanity was slowly returning, the virus having been defeated by the bullet. But humanity could not defeat a mortal wound such as this. She fell backwards to the floor, killed by my hand. I backed up to the wall of the stairs, staring blankly at what had happened.
I stared at my hands. Her blood was on them.
For the first time since the international state of emergency had been declared by the United Nations several weeks ago, I realised the danger. The truth was sinking in. The world was ending via zombie apocalypse and I was on my own. My family was probably dead, or worse: turned into monsters by the virus.
Fucking zombies …
I rose to my feet, pocketing the gun and stared down at my nameless female neighbour once more. She seemed at peace with her humanity intact now. Maybe I had relieved her of whatever possessed her to become such a monster. From what the authorities knew, the zombies had an uncontrollable hunger for flesh, preferably human, and it grew worse the more they devoured.
There was no way I could stay here after what I’d done, but felt that the neighbour at least deserved a proper burial. I didn’t know what was worse – hoisting her actual body to her back garden, or the actual digging. I felt numb the entire time, refusing to feel anything else. There were no words to describe one of my darkest moments of my life.
I stood there for a minute or two after the burial to pay my respects.
The eerie silence was there once again and I embraced it with open, welcoming arms. It was much better than the inhuman snarl I heard just half an hour ago.
With no family or friends to contact, there was little time to contemplate my next move. Once I returned to my bedroom, I noticed there was no signal on my phone. That was wonderful. I couldn’t see who had survived so far. The Mayans were correct; this was the day the world was going to shit. Especially when I couldn’t go on Twitter and tweet I’d just killed my first zombie.
The first thing to do would be to see who had survived and for that, I would need to pack some things on a long road trip. Clothes were a must, as I didn’t know how long this journey was going to take. I threw them all in a huge sports bag I’d picked up from downstairs in the extension. I found it odd how calm I was, considering I’d just killed my first zombie and buried same said zombie in her back garden. It would seem I’d have to die another day. Oh, how Madonna just had to butt into my apocalyptic situation …
After clothes came food. Thankfully before all this kicked off, I prepared myself by overloading and buying ridiculous amounts from work. I worked – or used to work at – a frozen foods store. Once this was done, I quickly ran into my mum’s room and found the bullets box in the cupboard. We, as a family, had decided this would be the safest place to store weapons (with the exception of emergency ones, like my colt .45).
Beneath them and the vast amounts of clothes hung up, there was a dark case that contained a bow and several arrows inside. I smiled slightly. I was the only one who had chosen to take up archery classes before the shit hit the fan, having been fascinated with the art since trying it out at a holiday camp when I was fourteen.
I was ready to go. This was it. This was the moment I was going to take a heroic moment into my destiny and save the –
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! My iPod!”
Unfortunately, that last valuable part of my packing hadn’t been included. My mum’s car was still in the driveway, which meant one or two things. She, her partner, my sister and brother had escaped in said partner’s car or they had all perished. After committing my first zombie kill, I knew I had to prepare for the worst if necessary.
Once my things had been thrown into the back of the car, I took one last look at my house. I didn’t know if I would return here. The country – and the rest of the world – was slowly being invaded by zombies. It was hard to even think the possibility was there, but yet it was true. I stood there for a moment or two, casually flicking the car keys in my finger … and having to pick it up once because I was so lost in my thoughts.
The neighbourhood was relatively quiet, indicating the zombies hadn’t quite reached it yet. I knew that in a matter of hours, they would. And this was my moment to leave. My feet couldn’t quite move from the ground. They felt heavy. Too heavy.
But everyone had to force themselves to do something they didn’t want to do at some point in their lives. That was me on the very first day, tearing myself away from the place I’d called home for the last eight years. This wasn’t my home anymore. It had been violated by one of those monsters, one that wanted flesh.
My flesh.
As soon as I sat in the car and closed the door, I felt relief sweeping through me. I was closing the door on this part of my life. The next thing I did was take out the small journal from the front pocket of the sports bag. I flicked through the now-meaningless pages of lyrics and reached my destination: the addresses of several contacts.
“Who’s the nearest?” I murmured. “Maybe him … wait no, he’s clever. He probably got out and is already using them as target practice.”
My finger ran down to the bottom of the page, to the one who was the second nearest. I decided he would prove to be a good ally and friend on the road since we conversed regularly, anyway. We hadn’t met face to face, though. This would be an interesting first meeting …
Once the first order of business to get petrol from the station, which was conveniently right around the corner from where I lived, I was hitting the motorway for the next stop. There was nothing to do, but gaze upon the zombies that were wandering aimlessly on the road and streets and tap my fingers excitedly on the wheel while listening to ABBA.
I was heading northeast and had a big two and half hour drive ahead.
The drive was very uneventful. Besides running out of insults to hurl whilst passing by zombies, almost losing my voice screeching ABBA songs and breaking the speed limit a few times, I found myself becoming increasingly anxious. What if my first contact was one of them? Would I have to put a bullet in his brain?
“Well, that’d be unfortunate,” I said to no one in particular.
The determination to find him was so fierce that I’d completely missed the sign welcoming me to Newcastle. Now that I was here, I knew it’d only take another few more minutes to find him … or at least, that was according to the satnav and that had barely gotten me there in one piece after getting me lost in the countryside numerous times.
The city contained more zombies than Droylsden, so I was careful in which direction I chose to drive in. After all, I was in the land of the Geordies and for all I knew, I might have been the final Mancunian in the entire world. The mere thought of that sent shivers down my spine.
After quietly driving down a few small streets, I’d finally found the place – a tall block of flats in the middle of nowhere. Well, this was going to prove interesting. I had a huge loathing for flats and this didn’t bode great for my fight for survival. There was only one lone zombie right near the door, banging on the glass as if he were a drunkard trying to get the local whore’s pants. I shook my head.
These zombies were going to be a royal pain in my arse, weren’t they?
I instantly grabbed for the bow case, unsheathing the weapon and taking an arrow along with it. Using my gun would be completely tactless; it’d only scare everyone – living and dead – and draw out unwarranted attention. I stealthily proceeded to slip out of the car and readied myself. The zombie was being persistent in getting the block of flats. There had to be someone still alive in there, hopefully the guy I had spent over three hours to travel to get here to!
Anyone in my position would have probably felt like Katniss from The Hunger Games or Legolas from Lord of the Rings. That may have been them, but not me. I was on a mission to find survivors I personally knew – not like the homeless crazy man I saw near Leeds, whose name I thought was Jeff – and embark on God knows what. Fight for survival? A quest? Form a new colony? It was hard to put an answer on it at the time.
I aimed for the zombie, just as it had smashed the glass on the door. And then I fired.
“Katniss Everdeen, eat your heart out!” I whispered in excitement.
Good luck was finally showing its true face, as the zombie had been arrowed in the brain and slumped down to the floor. I grabbed the rest of the arrows, put them in the red quiver next to the case and flung both bow and quiver over my shoulder. Finally, I grabbed the gun on the passenger seat and readied it. Once inside, there was no way the bow would be completely effective. And at the same time, I didn’t want anyone it from the car. It was what the Ring was to Gollum.
The first thing noticeable about the block of flats was the numerous trails of blood leading in different directions. My heart thumped hard as it had done so this morning. It wasn’t a good start to finding my friend, but it was a beginning nonetheless. As I opened the door and stepped inside, I held my gun and pointed it ahead of me, now feeling more confident than before.
“I’ve shot a gun before … the only way is up …” I muttered.
He lived on the fourth floor, so it was going to be a long few minutes. Silence was a good friend of mine by now, so I knew I had to adapt or be terrified. If anyone else had been in my position, they would have been making those ridiculous poses they did in the films. But not me. Again. I was in the midst of surviving a zombie apocalypse and I wasn’t about to slip up just to fulfil any fan boy’s wet dream.
As I reached the first floor, I visually imagined it would be so easy if this were a video game. The checkpoint would’ve been activated by now and if I died, I could’ve respawned. It was so funny to think about that, especially when life didn’t grant second chances on that aspect. You either lived to fight another day or your life was snuffed out like a candle. Looking back on those first few days, it was no wonder I’d initially decided to take this whole ordeal seriously.
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, MAN! LIKE, YOU JAMMY BASTARD!”
A guy in his late twenties to early thirties came running down the stairs like his life depended on it. He took one quick glance at me with the gun with bow and arrows in tow, and ran faster. I blinked. So was I a greater threat than what lay upstairs? My first, if brief, encounter with a Geordie would have been viewed as hilarious if it weren’t for the exceptionally unusual circumstances. But unfortunately, he was not the Geordie I was looking for.
And suddenly, the other threat emerged at the top of the stairs – a female zombie.
Now I understood why he was running for the hills.
I nervously pointed my gun at the creature and took aim, as it came staggering down the stairs.
By some miracle I knew not existed, the zombie’s head fell off from its body. I thanked the gods I had a strong stomach. As I walked closer to examine its body, its head had been close to being decapitated anyway. Maybe my Geordie friend had tried to kill it and failed to do so? Either way, he had unintentionally helped to stop it quicker.
A part of me wanted to stomp on the thing and rage about how the apocalypse had taken me away from everything I ever knew, but that was selfish. I remembered why I was here. I knew that I had to find him, the first contact. The one who always had a plan.
Instead of treading carefully this time, I quickened my pace up the stairs. I wasn’t ready to handle anymore Geordies bursting out of nowhere screaming profanities again. I knew what number flat to find. Whether dead or alive, I would be ready to confront him. I was coming for him. I hoped he would realise this, as he was the one who gave the address to me and several others in our social group if things would get this bad.
As I neared the third floor, I heard that all too familiar sound of a plate smashing. My gut instinct told me it was coming from the flat I was heading towards. There was no way I could prepare for the worst. I just hoped he’d jumped because he heard me coming or it was a delayed reaction from me shooting the gun at the zombie.
“Please don’t panic …”
My words probably didn’t matter, anyway. Anyone in this sick, painful world would now have every reason just to do that. I was one of them. Abandoned by my family to this cruel fate of survival, unable to contact anyone because of the world going to shit and yes, the world was doomed. Of course there wasn’t a reason to panic. Oh, how I loved sarcasm. It was such a joy in those times.
By the time I reached the flat door, I found myself barely breathing. It was almost wedged open, revealing lots of blood. I kicked it open, not able to take another second of standing there and unable to decipher what was going on. As it swung to the right, I tightened the grip on my gun and braced myself …
And I found him standing there with a bloodied kitchen knife. He stood there, visibly angry, and his clothes covered in blood as well. I lowered my gun, knowing he hadn’t been taken by the virus yet. He looked back at me, dropping the knife and motioning towards the slumped figure to his side.
“Me mam tried to kill me!” he yelled furiously. “After everything I’ve done for her, this is the fucking thanks I get, you know!?”
Trust the world to have ended that fateful day – the twenty-first of December.
I was hoping we’d blissfully pass by and no one would notice until the day after. It’s the little things that really count at the end, right? Killing my mother in cold blood had helped me to realise this after these past few weeks of plenty of panic and no preparation whatsoever. You had to shake your head at the population of Newcastle. Instead of doing what they were advised, they went out and got pissed. In fact, there were many who did that across the country and chose to spend their last days of humanity in the city for best nightlife.
But where were my wonderful Geordie manners? My name is Marcus.
Before all of this, I was your average guy trying to live in this sorry world. I had a job, paid the bills, kept fit by going to the gym, played video games, loved The Avengers and wondered what it’d really be like to be Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series. You would’ve thought my survival rate was astoundingly low if you hadn’t counted my fitness.
When Newcastle was on the verge of being invaded by the ridiculous idea of zombies, I chose to take the necessary precautions. I stole a sniper rifle from an ex-army soldier, who happened to be my neighbour, to be precise. Well, besides the survival kit handed out to the entire country, which only consisted of a pistol and knife. Unfortunately, my mum didn’t share the same incentive.
She chose to ignore the signs and went out to get the weekly shop yesterday, declaring to be a bad arse if the zombies came near her. I would’ve warned her, but I accidentally slept in that morning. It didn’t come as a huge surprise when she barged into the house the next day as a zombie.
Just mere minutes before I heard a gun being shot on a lower floor.
And there went my zombie mum – funny, considering I never thought of calling her that – jumping at the sound, knocking over the plate near the sink. There went the inevitable sound of the smashing.
I readied myself with the survival knife, motioning for her to come forth and lunge at me. Ever since she hadn’t returned last night without the shopping, which I wasn’t sure if I was bothered by that or not, I prepared myself for the worst. With the sniper rifle, I kept watch over the neighbourhood at night and noticed this was the time they decided to come out.
I thought vampires were supposed to play at this time?
Ugh, I didn’t care as I monitored them. No one could get into the flats, as it was safe and secure. I’d wedged my front door in fear that my mum would come and bite me. Literally.
One of the advantages to being a zombie must’ve been having super strength, as she’d broken through the door (although to be fair, I’d only put my white garden chair – which also served as my computer chair – against it) and almost ripped the hinge off.
Going back to the plate being smashed, I was ready for her next move. Super strength or not, I had speed. All she cared about was sating her thirst for human flesh. There were a lot of things I wouldn’t let her do – this was certainly on that list!
She lunged at me, her black teeth rotting in all their glory and bloodied red eyes staring hungrily into mine. I side stepped and grabbed her back, throwing her to the floor. Admittedly, I hesitated for a moment. I was about to kill my own mum. Who wouldn’t have done so if they were in the same position?
I raised the knife in position, ready to deliver the final blow.
As it entered her brain, there was a sign of humanity returning once it landed. Her red eyes turned back to her natural colour and her skin was, too. Slowly, but surely, I took one last look at the mother who had raised me alone and then away again. It was painful, but just another grim reminder that she was going to commit the unthinkable.
Suddenly, I felt very angry and rose to my feet.
My world had well and truly ended with her death. I kept telling myself I had no choice. That she had to die. As I contemplated what I’d done, I heard the door being kicked in and a girl standing there with a gun pointed at me. I looked at my clothes to notice there was blood – her blood – on them. I looked at her blankly, dropped the knife and then dropped my knees next to my mum.
“Me mam tried to kill me! After everything I’ve done for her, this is the fucking thanks I get, you know!?”
“Hello to you too, Marcus,” she simply said.
I had to tear myself away from my mum to look up at Ami. It took me a few seconds to let it sink in that this was our first actual face to face meeting. We’d spoken numerous times during our Assassin’s Creed multiplayer sessions, but that was about it, really. The first thing that ran through my mind? She wasn’t exaggerating her height; she was quite tall for a girl …
“You came at a bad time,” I told her. “A few minutes earlier and you might have been dead.”
But she didn’t say anything. There was the expression of sympathy in her eyes, telling me silently this was what had to be done. In that moment, we both acknowledged we’d be facing death from here and out. As Ami quietly wandered around the flat after shutting the door, I knew this was now a forsaken world and we would have to quit falling to pieces if we were to survive.
By the time I had pulled myself to get on with things, Ami had returned from wherever she had disappeared to with a quilt in tow.
“Can’t exactly do anything else right now, can we?” she explained, finding it hard to meet my eyes directly. “I buried my neighbour this morning and I didn’t even know her name.”
She threw it out over my mum. There should’ve been a part of me that would’ve resisted and put up the fight of my life to prevent her from doing exactly that. But I chose to remain there in blissful silence, staring down at the bloody mess I’d created. It wasn’t until Ami pointed out I was still covered in blood that I realised I had to change my clothes. The blood was strangely comforting at a time like this …
“Where are your family?” I dared to ask several hours later.
We had disposed of my mother’s body – as disgusting as it sounded, you know it had to be done after all – and were sitting in the living room of the flat, staring into space. Ami had taken it upon herself to make us something to eat (cheese sandwiches of all the things) to ease the tension between us. She didn’t look at me when I asked. Instead, she stared at her food.
She did that for the next ten minutes or so, quietly refusing to dodge the question by distracting her with something else whether it was her food or something else she’d spotted in the room. I soon realised it might have been an extremely sensitive question and seemed to be a no-no, especially after what we’d done before.
As the sun began to set, I was unsure if I should’ve turned the light on or not. There were zombies out there and thankfully enough, they hadn’t caught onto our activities upstairs yet. I knew Ami wasn’t stupid, I knew she’d closed the front door of the flat building. But I couldn’t help feeling they were going to jump out at us and that would be the end.
Ami had silently decided again.
She’d grabbed several candles from the bathroom – she’d gotten herself well-acquainted with the flat by now – and lit them with the lighter she had in her bag pack. I imagined she had numerous emergency supplies in there, but I dared not to push her about it. That one single question had pushed her into a semi-catatonic state. As I continued to watch her, I noticed she had turned pale and that was ironic, considering she was quite tanned.
Every now and again, I could see her struggling to keep it together. It was there in her face, her eyes.
She would fight off those emotions that threatened to take control of her body. There were a few times when she would shake mildly, but they only lasted a few seconds each. I had a vague idea of what Ami had gone through today, but not enough to form a full opinion.
As the minutes slowly turned into hours, I couldn’t take the silence anymore. I’d been patient. I’d been lenient. But this was torture. I had to make some kind of conversation here, or else I was going to eventually descend into insanity.
“Look on the bright side, you’ve watched The Walking Dead!” I said enthusiastically.
“I don’t know where they are.”
I took a quick glance at her, noticing tears streaming down her face. She’d finally given in and was no longer holding back. Part of me wanted to hug her, say everything was going to be all right … how could I? This was a different world now and humanity was probably outmatched a thousand to one when it came to zombies.
“They kept saying they were going to leave and go to Scotland,” she continued moments later. “We have more family up there and maybe they’d have an advantage in the hills. But I didn’t want to go up there. We were fine in Droylsden. I said this to my mum and –”
She wiped a few tears away and sighed.
“And she decided that if I didn’t come with them, then I’d be on my own. I didn’t mind that since I’m so used to that. But then they went really early in the morning. I thought they were messing around, but I forgot when I woke up today. I thought they’d been taken or something. I only just remembered before when you asked me. They’re gone now and … well, I was on my own. I did the only thing I thought necessary – start finding others.”
Her journey led to me. I wondered why she hadn’t gone for Mark first, since he was closer in Middlesbrough. However, my answer was right around the corner.
“I was going to look for Mark at first, but there were two reasons why I didn’t,” said Ami sternly. “First of all, I know he’d be ridiculously prepared for this. When we first heard about the zombies a couple of weeks ago, Mark said he was doing everything. And I mean everything – target practice, getting a survival kit, raking in the supplies and so on. I wasn’t worried. But apart from you, he was my first port of call, you know? The only reason you were was because on my way to Middlesbrough, I just happened to come across … a blockade.”
The nature of the situation quickly dissolved into a hilarious story in which the blockade happened to be a bunch of zombies munching on the remains of motorists scattered across the roads. After realising Middlesbrough was closer to her than Newcastle, Ami changed her satnav and inserted Mark’s address in. With the unfortunate blockade coming into place, she had to make a U-turn and drive west towards me. I was sure it was an embarrassing story she’d chosen to remove from her inner monologue.
We descended into blissful silence once more and stared at the few candles surrounding the living room. At least my mum’s scented candles were being put to use for once, anyway.
It was safe to say we were appreciating the peace and quiet that came without talking. We’d talked for hours after the blockade story, but always avoided the inevitable issue of what we’d do next. The issue of finding Mark in Middlesbrough was running through my mind constantly and I highly doubted any of my friends or family were even alive right now. I’d prepared myself well for this time, but never thought it would come to pass. I figured Ami would be taking the lead into finding Mark tomorrow. She was well-prepared and I had to admit, I was impressed.
I knew I’d have to leave this place tomorrow.
It wasn’t safe in Newcastle anymore, as evident by my mum craving for my flesh and Ami’s fight to get here. I figured the city wouldn’t hold well against the monsters, anyway. They were all still probably getting pissed, ignorant that they were being slaughtered by their once fellow humans-turned-zombies.
At least it wasn’t us.
Thinking about the future caught me off guard. An hour had passed by and yet it felt like time had stood still. I noticed Ami was lay on the couch, her head turned away and comfortably on two pillows stacked against one another. I walked into my room, pulled out a spare cover and threw it on her sleeping body when I came back in. She unconsciously and protectively pulled the cover against her chest as if she were holding onto it like a safety blanket.
“You’re not going to have to keep leading us,” I whispered.
I sat down on the chair opposite her and put my face in my hands. She’d once called me the man with the plan and even though I liked to brag now and again, she was right. I’d planned well since my mum had disappeared to do the shopping. Her memory led back home and I was ready for her. Finding Mark was the next plan of action. However, there was one more person we could have turned to for help should we have needed him. We had become pretty good friends over the past few months. He was someone Ami knew, although not on the same level as me. She wouldn’t have him in her address book.
I rose to my feet, proceeding to the window and peeking outside from behind the curtain.
The zombies were still walking around the estate aimlessly, wondering where their next meal would be. I didn’t know if the world had ended or if this was the beginning of its destruction. If I were to be truly honest, I’d expected the world to end so much differently – meteors reigning down from the skies, natural disaster to take hold, World War III …
This was most certainly Doomsday.
I was suddenly distracted by Ami squirming in the background. She was tossing and turning repeatedly, almost as if she were suffering from a nightmare she couldn’t escape from. I swiftly ran to her side and grabbed her hand.
Instantly, I was shocked by how warm she had grown in the past few minutes. There was no way she could’ve gone that hot in such a short space of time. I examined her face, seeing that she was under much pain. I tried to call out to her, tell her that she was dreaming. But the more I did, the more she tossed and turned. As her temperature continued to rise, I felt myself feeling lightheaded. Was this exhaustion finally taking hold of me?
But before my head had time to hit the ground, I knew I was elsewhere.
I opened my eyes to notice that I was lay down before a throne. I rubbed the back of my head to realise I hadn’t injured myself. As I took in my surroundings, I saw I was inside some sort of castle. It highly resembled the throne room from Game of Thrones I’d seen once. I stood up, wondering how I’d managed to travel thousands of miles to get here.
“Marcus.”
It was Ami’s voice, there was no mistaking that. She came to my side almost immediately, checking that I was fine. She was still wearing the same clothes as she was before. Had we been transported here? The last thing I remembered was trying to wake her from a nightmare and then –
I’d ended up here.
“What’s going on?” I dared to ask.
“That’s what I asked the first time I came here,” she shrugged. There was a sad smile on her face, the type that I didn’t like. “I was here last night before I came to find you, before all this started. I didn’t know what was happening at first because I’ve never had a dream that seemed so real.” She paused to take the sight of the throne. “And then I realised that maybe there was a reason why the world had gone to shit.”
Once she’d said her words, something compelled me to walk towards the throne. I suddenly found myself unable to control my legs.
“I realised why I was here.”
As hard as I tried to fight, my legs wouldn’t comply with my commands.
“And I knew that I had an unusually hyperactive imagination, but perhaps there was a reason for that. Maybe it was their way of telling me …”
“What are you talking about!?” I barked.
She was speaking in riddles and it was so … un-Amilike. As I chanced a second glance, she was still wearing that sad smile, as if someone had just hurt her puppy. But when she saw I was getting nearer to the throne, she took a step forward as if she was about to stop me. However, after a quick deliberation, she realised it wasn’t the best thing to do.
“This isn’t a dream,” she said. “Well, it is, but you have to understand that this is just as real as our conversation before about the blockade. You have to see why I had to come find you.”
My feet came to a halt just before the throne.
“You have to see the binds that have tied us and why we’re all bound.”
“Us? All bound?”
He appeared out of nowhere in human form, his golden eyes looking into my soul. His long silver hair swayed in the air and his clothes were very aged, but well-presented. I looked back at Ami, who was looking just as intensely at me as he were. You may have thought I was bullshitting you with all the fancy descriptions of a very important, but mysterious man and falling into a dream that wasn’t real, but was at the same time. However, if it had been yourself …
“Yes, you are all bound,” the newcomer merely said. There was no tone in his voice, nothing to indicate how he felt to be here. “You, your friend and four others. Only together can you achieve the seemingly impossible.”
“Who the hell are you?” I half-shouted.
“Itzamma,” he replied without hesitance. “You are to embark on the same journey your friend has already started. The two of you form a third of the six, who will hopefully save the world from its chaos and destruction.”
I glanced at Ami again. She had to know what was going on, unless this was just another one of those fucked up dreams I kept having. I was seriously going to have stop eating crap at such an unreasonably late hour.
“This is not a dream, Marcus,” Itzamma stated.
“You know my name!” I gasped, quickly turning back around.
“And your friend, Ami,” he continued. “You are all bound by your sacred duty to the world. We correctly predicted the world would begin its cataclysmic end thousands of years ago, but we did not know the methods. We did not know the abominations would return.”
“Abominations? You mean –”
“The zombies,” interrupted Ami.
She was standing by my side now, her eyes fixated on Itzamma. There was fierceness in those green orbs I’d never seen before. And the more she did it, the more I started to realise this wasn’t a dream anymore. No, shit had just got real after all.
“You, me and the others … we’re the only ones that can save the world and stop the virus. There’s something different about us, something that binds us all together and it’s why we came into each other’s lives.”
Ami looked at the big man once more.
“I thought last night was just a figment of my imagination, a relapse of this whole situation,” she reluctantly said. “But I gave it time to think over as advised. I knew you were right when I was driving towards Newcastle. Everything you said – my family leaving, the zombie downstairs … you knew it’d all happen and yet I didn’t want to believe in a ridiculous prophecy!”
“Ignorance is not a sin, child. It is a natural instinct that we instilled into you and your siblings.”
“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” I butted in.
The cryptic language was beginning to get me. Riddles weren’t my strong suit either.
“My people predicted the world’s end on this very date, which has come to pass,” explained Itzamma. He proceeded to sit on the throne and rested his hands. “There are those who heeded the warnings in recent times. There are others who mistook them for the world destroying itself. And then … there are the six, the Chosen. My people and its civilisation deteriorated after many years, as the world began to expand. The Mayans were finally subdued over three hundred years ago and our prophecy was almost lost, but vague.”
“Itzamma is a Mayan god,” explained Ami, elaborating further. “He’s the founder of the Maya culture and is the last of his kind … except he’s not. We are as well.”
And that was where the plot began to feel twisted. As Itzamma launched into a useful, but boring explanation of how he separated six of his families into the corners of the world to maintain the bloodlines, I couldn’t help thinking about how the zombie apocalypse fit into all this. So our ancestors – it felt awfully strange to think of it that way – predicted the end of the world many years from their time, but didn’t know what from? It all felt very farfetched, except for one thing.
He said the abominations had returned. Had a disaster like this happened before? And as if he could have read my mind, Itzamma supplied the answer.
“It has, Marcus. My people were attacked by the same infection before the separation. By the time we had reached the colonial period, the gods had all but faded away into immortality. They had chosen to watch over our people after they grew and learned to live without our help. I grew wary of their decision, so I chose to remain with my people hidden in human form. And then the Spanish came when we spent time dwelling in their lands in the seventeenth century.”
The whole time he was explaining the past, I kept a close eye on Ami. I expected her to jump out and wake me up, saying it was a big joke. However, that intense look in her green eyes said otherwise. Instead, I saw determination and fear at the same time. Was it possible? Were we really descendants of the Mayans, those that had warned the end of the world and it was left to us to be mankind’s last hope? Were we really the ones to decide its destiny?
Maybe this was another reason as to why Ami was being so quiet before. I had never seen her like that, so reserved and silent. She had lamented the huge task on her shoulders – had she been sent to me? Was this really true? Was I another descendant like her? Like anyone else in the situation, I told myself that it was a dream, some stupid dream I’d inevitably wake up from. But even as I backed away from the throne, every step I took was so real. Itzamma glanced sympathetically in my direction, doing the whole mind trick thing again.
“This is hard to comprehend, Marcus, but this is what the stars have in store for you. Ami was initially hesitant at first to comply with destiny. And yet I fear you will have to believe in the same way she did.”
Ami’s face turned from relaxed to jumpy. She was about to dart in my direction until he somehow stopped her.
“He will believe as you did, Ami,” said Itzamma. “It may not be ideal by some of the things he may see, but the others … they will shape the man he is destined to become. He will accomplish many feats like you.”
Almost immediately, Ami quietly gave her consent. She took a step back, but still wore that panicky face I didn’t like.
Itzamma walked towards me and I found that running wasn’t going to be the best choice. If all this were to be true and Ami was still standing, then I suppose it had to be worth a chance to see what would happen next. As he stopped right in front of me, he stretched his index finger out to my forehead and there was no time to ready myself for the moment that would change my life forever.
I began to see … my future.
A montage played before my very mind, showing the many kills I would rack up against the zombies, the people we would meet, the losses we would suffer, getting closer to our ultimate destiny … and then the shadowy figure of someone betraying us. It was this image I focused on particularly, as it meant the only person I could trust for now was Ami, my fellow Mayan. Soon enough, the picture washed away and was replaced by the many feats I would accomplish as Itzamma said. Feats that I would never have thought possible.
And although we would face many grave dangers ahead, I could see the finishing line. It didn’t come without sacrifice, a sacrifice that was too vague for me to fully see. But a brave new world was in sight – and we were the ones that would bring its shape. Once again, most likely to my instincts of trust, I only saw Ami by my side. I tried to picture anyone else, but the memory was too bright to point them out.
“You will both wake soon,” I heard Itzamma’s faint voice in the distance.
“And find the others, I’m assuming,” stated Ami, who was just as far away.
“Let my Sight lead the way. He is not very far from you at all. In fact, I would go as far as to say the two of you are more than well acquainted.”
I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the ceiling, my ceiling. A sudden realisation hit me.
“MY FUCKING BACK!” I wailed.
“Good morning.”
Ami was standing above me, that fierce determination back in her eyes. She meant business, I supposed. Hoisting myself onto my feet, the dream came flooding back within a few seconds. It had all happened. It was all real. Itzamma had tasked us, two of the six remaining Mayans, to save the world and stop the almost-inevitable apocalypse. Well, that wasn’t my typical week, but these were exceptionally unusual circumstances.
“Get your things, we’re going to Middlesbrough,” she said.
Let’s rewind a little bit there because maybe I did want it to happen to some sick bastards.
What I didn’t want was to be some kind of fucked up fantasy adventure that could’ve easily been a director’s cut of a JRPG (Japanese role playing game for you delinquents who had the brain of a peanut) and end up having to save the world with the most random bunch of people I’d ever have the misfortune to know. Well, to be fair, that was only half of them …
As for whom I am? I’m Mark. Not Marcus, the guy that Ami found first, just Mark. It wasn’t hard to differentiate the two of us if you kept up the entire time.
Marcus was the all-out action guy, who always had a plan.
Me? I’m the sassy, but pissed off bitch you don’t want to cross.
For starters, I never gave two shits about the end of the world. I didn’t believe in superstition and would refuse to conform to it as well. I laughed at the Americans last year in October when they thought it was seriously going to end. Some of them started selling their belongings, so they could repent and be accepted into heaven. Ah, bless them! It didn’t matter to me, anyway. I’m going to hell and meeting up with the rest of my friends there.
On the other hand, I never thought this would look like hell.
Zombies. I always fucking hated zombies.
I ignored the signs at first. I thought the Americans were being more outrageous than usual and chose to be blissfully unaware. However, as time dragged on and every news station in the entire world began to report on our upcoming demise, I knew I had to wake up. Ami even texted me up to seventy times a day to be prepared. She even sang the Lion King song down my voicemail once; the memory still sends shivers down my spine today.
After much coercion on her side, I caved in. I armed myself with a goddamn survival kit, followed the news in almost every waking minute, did research on the internet and practiced how to shoot a gun. The latter was very fun and nearly resulted in several accidents. Whoops!
But even after all the training and whatnot, it came too quickly. The virus hit Middlesbrough.
I wasn’t sad to see the place go up in flames at all. The place deserved it if anything.
In retrospect, I was adamant that I wasn’t going to be taken down by some zombie that used to be human and wanted to eat my flesh. My family had the same attitude, as we’d initially gathered our things together a few days before the world started to end and drove off into paradise. Except it wasn’t paradise, it was my own personal journey to hell. We found ourselves in the middle of nowhere on the motorway, surrounded by fools that were running around and screaming that they were going to die.
“That’s not going to be us,” I told everyone.
My mum, dad, granddad and brother all turned in my direction. Fuck’s sake, you could’ve literally cut into that tension with a knife. What was wrong with some optimism?
“This is the end of the line,” said my dad almost emotionlessly.
Everyone started to climb out of the car, except for myself. I was sat in the middle at the back of the vehicle, staring at them all in confusion. I knew I was the last to know. After all, I didn’t blame them after the last family drama we’d suffered through a few months ago. They looked back at me, their faces blank. I remembered how time had stood still and I was powerless to do anything, as the chaos out there took a hold of them.
I watched in horror, as thugs grabbed them and threw them all to the ground. They didn’t resist in any way. What was going on? I couldn’t have anticipated this move back then. When I’d asked where we were going some time ago, my mum just said that we were going to go somewhere better than this. Of course I thought she was going on about Middlesbrough being crap and all, but never this. Never this …
But I dared not to watch what was to happen next and I didn’t care. I didn’t want to know, as one of the bastard thugs started running to the car. I had no chance to think, I had to do something. So I jumped into the driver’s seat and turned on the engine. As he neared me, I set the car going and made a U-turn. That prick thought he could just do whatever he wanted and get away with it? There was no fucking chance he was getting a hold of my car!
In the short version, I ran him over.
I never felt any regret, as I watched his limp body hit the front window and slump onto the ground. There was no time to even feel either. I had to drive the hell away from the madness, get back home and form a new plan. Giving in and probably killing yourself was the fool’s way out. As much as I could have misinterpreted the signs, I wasn’t about to do what my family decided. I was going to fight these monsters with my very last breath.
As I sped down the motorway and headed back home, I couldn’t help feeling there should’ve been a song playing right now if this very moment had one in mind. And in that moment, I knew I was going to give the zombies hell.
I didn’t bother to park the car neatly on the drive as I got home. No, every second from now on would count. However, I did take note to lock the vehicle. I wasn’t about to let one mistake deter me from my path.
But even as I unlocked the front door and smelled the overwhelming homey scent, I didn’t know what to do. I closed and locked it once more, lost for words – or thoughts – for the first time since I drove down the motorway and broke the speeding laws for the first time in my driving career.
What the fuck was I going to do now?
I knew that I was to fight this overwhelming apocalypse with all the weapons everyone had left behind, but I couldn’t do it alone. As I plopped myself on the sofa and had an internal chat with myself, I knew this wouldn’t be easy. There were people I could’ve called upon. But then I’d noticed the signal on my phone was gone. Then again, the people I would’ve called were probably long gone by now. I was left to deliberate my fate silently, daring not to think on the images I’d seen before on the motorway. It felt selfish to be the only one of us left here, but I couldn’t have let death take me.
There were many who had spoken out on the news about defying death. Were they telling the truth, or had they gone to such lengths to sugar-coat the world? My train of thought continued …
Seconds turned into minutes.
Minutes turned into hours.
And in effect, the hours turned into days.
Three days later, I woke up and knew the world had ended yesterday. It was the twenty-second of December, the day that I’d decided to do something about my situation. Bearing in mind of yesterday’s uneventful times of shooting zombies that were threatening to break my windows, I glanced at the cardboard I’d managed to put against them. It wouldn’t last too long and soon I may have been overrun by the bastards.
“Too much thinking and not enough moving,” I told myself.
I winced slightly, knowing my little problem wouldn’t solve itself. So far, I was fighting fit. There’d be no problem for a short while, right?
“I can see movement inside, I just hope we’re not too late,” came the sound of an unfamiliar Geordie voice.
“Oh, but you didn’t hear what he said?” enquired a second soft voice. It was female. “We’re the protectors of the earth, yada yada yada and the immunity. Wait a minute … don’t tell me you didn’t hear the last bit?”
“Ami, it’s my job to make up fun and jokes. You’re the leader; will you do the listening please?”
“Seriously?”
“You forgot one very important thing, mate. I’m Captain Marcus –”
Unable to take the bickering for another minute, I kicked the door open with my left foot and found myself pointing my gun at Ami and Marcus. They were both doing the same, as if they were both on high alert. Ami lowered her gun first, followed by Marcus who chose to do his slower. Finally, I lowered mine and clung onto the doorway for support. Marcus was by my side in a few seconds, supporting me as we headed into the living room.
“Nice place,” remarked Ami. “I never quite saw the inside, did I?”
“I’m amazed you could remember where it was,” I nodded.
“And I don’t remember the part about you injuring yourself,” added Marcus. He helped me to the couch. I lay there and found his hand extending towards me. “Marcus, but I suppose you already figured that one out.”
“Mark.”
Next, I watched Ami surveying the living room. Before I knew it, she was off to explore the rest of the house alone. I was about to get up, but Marcus pushed me down with his hand.
“It’s a thing she does,” he explained. “She did it when she came to my house. Now onto the point, what the hell did you do to your leg?”
Ah, I knew that I could have distinguished the two of them straight away. Since I already knew Ami, she was the team leader and scouter. I could imagine she was already trying to contain her excitement by what she’d find upstairs. Then there was Marcus, who was the man with the plan and her right hand man. That was my conclusion, at the very least.
I refused to answer about my leg, but I could feel myself deteriorating quickly.
“Nothing, I just tripped,” I lied.
“Oh, all right.”
Had Marcus just let it go like that? Not that I was desperate for attention, but I had just practically lied to his face and he couldn’t tell? I fought hard to keep a straight face, as Ami emerged at the bottom of the stairs and walked back into the living room. For the first time, I noticed she had a bow and arrows on her back. Did the girl think she was a female Legolas? I tried to internally picture her with blonde hair, but my mind just wouldn’t function properly for once.
“So what’s your story?” she blurted out.
Excuse me? She’d just asked what’d happened to me? It was quite a un-Ami thing to say, really. I sometimes thought I knew the girl better than she knew herself, but now I could see I was quite wrong to think that. There was something in her eyes that had changed her. It wasn’t just the zombies, but it was linked to it. Marcus glanced at her worryingly for a moment before turning his attention back to my leg. There was now blood seeping through my jeans.
Fucking great!
They were going to think differently of me when the truth came out.
“Thinking this needs to be patched up first,” said Marcus.
I was all, but powerless to stop what was coming next. As he held me back from the maddening amount of pain I was subjected to in a few seconds, Ami rolled up the sleeve of my jeans at the bottom and saw the huge scratch near the bottom of my right leg. She looked away for a moment before silently looking at Marcus for guidance. I looked up at him, seeing him nod back at her.
“What the hell are you two doing?” I dared to ask.
“Well, for starters, I thought we were the Power Rangers –” began Marcus.
“Marcus, inappropriate time for that!” Ami said loudly, studying my wound.
“But I thought about it and then decided we’re the Avengers –”
“How is this anything to do with what you’re doing!?” I interrupted.
“One of them scratched you, didn’t they?” asked Ami. “You were fighting a horde off, or maybe a couple depending on numbers. You managed to kill them all, but you were forgetting about the clever one hiding behind the living room door. I can see the bloodstains of that poor soul soaking dry on your carpet in the front entrance. You dragged him out because I saw his remains on the front garden. But you chose to suffer in silence. Why, Mark? Why couldn’t you just be honest?”
I could’ve asked my family that. The question hit close to home and I found myself being unable to answer it. Maybe she had a point, although she didn’t know my story. She’d deliberately asked, but at least had the decency not to push me into revealing it. Perhaps I’d tell them one day if we ever made it through this shithole of an apocalypse.
“Is there a cure?” asked Marcus.
“I’m not sure,” said Ami after a few moments of deliberation. “Itzamma never mentioned a cure, so I just assumed we had to kill all of them. But then he never mentioned anything about the killing either. I don’t know what to do. The reports said scratches, bites or infection can take up to forty-eight hours to kick in.”
At least I could’ve breathed a sigh of relief.
I didn’t know what they were talking about over some It guy, but I knew the virus hadn’t quite kicked in yet. I thought back to yesterday and realised my two days weren’t quite up. I possibly had thirty-six hours or less left. I felt weak, but still human enough to know that I didn’t want to eat any flesh. Ami and Marcus appeared to have known more. I didn’t know why, but it felt like they were hiding something from me …
But I didn’t want to press them. Right now, they were looking into my scratch. I hoped to fucking God that they didn’t have to chop off my leg. I didn’t want anything to go!
In the time that Ami and Marcus discussed the possibilities of preventing the virus spreading in a cryptic language I couldn’t decipher, I thought back to the first thing I did when I returned home. Ah yes, that zombie apocalypse survival guide – which was conveniently named ‘How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse – 10 Essential Rules!’ Now I had laughed at first when I read this a couple of years ago, but that wasn’t when I realised how essential it would be today.
Approximately over six billion humans dominated the planet. But this article depicted that there may be a time when it comes to pass that zombies would soon be the dominant species. And as cleverly predicted, one or two individuals were infected with the virus. Soon, it spread rapidly from person to person, town to town, city to city, across country borders and eventually worldwide. I grimly thought back to the Japan crisis. The sheer volume of zombies had outweighed the world’s military forces – and civilians – until there were only a few million survivors left. The world population hadn’t been determined yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the case. Humans were fucking thick and that was a rare compliment in comparison to whatever other insult I could’ve dished out.
Perhaps the reason why some of us were still alive was due to the fact we decided to uphold the rules the article stated, whether directly or indirectly.
I thought back to the first rule and my heart sank quicker than the Titanic.
Apparently, you shouldn’t get bitten, scratched or exchange bodily fluids.
Yep, this was me. And fucked, I was.
I brushed aside the Yoda voice in my head and thought back to the part about zombie scratches. I knew it could infect a person, but it would take longer for the virus to spread. Maybe Ami knew this and was thinking of an alternative to the obvious. She knew that she’d have to chop off my leg if she couldn’t. Judging by the sad expression in her eyes during her talk with Marcus, it was clearly obvious she didn’t want this.
“What else did he say? Are you sure there’s no way we can prevent it?” asked Marcus.
“The scratch is making him slightly mental, you can tell he’s seeing things now,” said Ami with full confidence. I resented that. “But remember what Itzamma said. There’s something different about us, about our blood –”
I didn’t like the way they were speaking about me as if I was their burden now. I was growing weaker by the minute and if I could muster the strength to even utter anything, I would have told them about the genetic research that had occurred in Japan shortly before the virus was unleashed. They had intended to form stronger human antibodies, develop virus-resistant cell structures or counter-viruses to fight it. But of course, all of these had been fruitless.
There were only two choices here.
One would be to chop my leg off. I’d have only one leg, but I didn’t want to see the blood. The blood would send me into frenzy and then make me want to kill myself, unable to live with the prospect of one leg for the rest of my life.
The other would to kill me, anyway. The research also dictated that the virus moved fast, heading towards the brain with the speed of the heart pumping it through the circulatory system. The willpower to stop this was practically impossible. I knew that I was doomed after being scratched, regardless of where the location was.
In a day and a half, I would reanimate as one of them and my fate would be sealed. I’d be dead and be craving human flesh. Their journey had been wasted. Ami and Marcus would have to dispose of me. My brain was dangerous and I could’ve ended up killing them, ending it all …
“I have an idea,” Ami suddenly said.
She had been sat by my side on the couch for a few moments. Marcus stopped holding me back and I finally stopped resisting. I had the horrible feeling they were going to consider amputating my leg, but now it seemed there was a third option involved. Those four words snapped me out of the daydream, which involved me screaming in agony and shouting profanities at Ami, as Marcus did the nasty deed to my leg.
And for the first time, they did not speak cryptically.
“What if we cut out just the part where he’s scratched?” she suggested. “Mark is one of us and extremely resistant to the virus. He’s suffering from the side effects, but in time he’ll succumb to the virus and we can’t afford to lose him.”
“And what if it doesn’t work!?” snapped Marcus. “We may be different as Itzamma said, but what if this goes to shit? We may still have to kill him!”
“Marcus please, you have to trust me on this. It’s not something the Japanese thought of and they certainly didn’t know about us existing either.”
Whilst he looked none too pleased about the plan, I started to see things clearer for the first time. Ami was definitely the leader, but instead of being the last to know everything, she was the one in the know. Marcus was following her lead, yet detested the decisions she was making. For the first time since I met them, I decided to speak up.
“What do you mean when you say I’m one of you? You’re both talking about what to do with me, but did you ever ask me? I mean … I invite you both into my home, I’m slowly dying …”
“He’ll explain everything for you,” Ami answered calmly. She had a sympathetic look on her face, accompanied by a sad smile seconds later. “Close your eyes.”
As she softly touched my cheek with her hand, the last thing I remembered seeing was Marcus taking out his survival knife. Trying as hard as I could have no effect on the outcome. I remembered feeling angry because I thought I was going to die. Ami was killing me. It was a wonderful way to leave the world; I really needed to thank her when she joined me up in the clouds, or probably in hell as I’d thought many times before.
Those were my thoughts at the time and as time itself passed, I soon realised what she had done had saved me in more ways than one. I opened my eyes, noticing I was in a throne room. Jesus, I wasn’t going to watch Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings again anytime soon. However, when I noticed Ami standing next to the throne itself, I realised what had transpired. I rose to my feet, instantly seeing there was no scratch or blood on my leg.
She seemed awfully calm. Was it a dream?
“You’re not dead yet,” she finally spoke. “I just had to bring you here because it was the only way I could ease your suffering.” She was speaking in such a formal tone; this was very unlike her. “Mark, you’re much more than you know …”
As opposed to Marcus who had bitterly asked a thousand questions under the sun, I chose to do the opposite. I rose to my feet and walked near to the throne. This was probably what they’d both kept from me at the time when my mind was racing. In fact, my mind had never felt clearer since the scratch. I stood there, watching a man appear sitting down on the throne. It made me jump a little.
Just a little.
“Mark, this is Itzamma.”
There was the reason to remember the name. I was quite shocked that all of this was happening while I was sleeping and Marcus was cutting out the scratch in my leg, but I trusted Ami. She motioned towards the enigmatic man himself. He was staring right at me, as if he were seeing into my soul. As I came closer and neared towards him, he offered me a sympathetic smile.
“For once, I see you are lost for words,” whispered Itzamma. “Do not pity the dead, but fear the living. I trust the wound is being appropriately removed, Ami?”
“Yes …” she said with such fear and admiration.
“What’s the truth, really?” I dared to ask.
“In not so many words, this is like Final Fantasy and we have to save the world … except there’s isn’t magic, theatrical villains or even Sephiroth!” replied Ami nervously, turning back to me. “Itzamma’s touch, it’s the way to knowing infinite knowledge of who he is, who we are and what role we have to play in this fucked up game.”
“You may be pawns for the time being, but I am sure that you will rise to become the kings and queens of the land in due course,” stated Itzamma.
Without such as a second thought, he grabbed my hand and then I started see everything.
I was viewing the past, seeing the monsters spawn from before in Spain. They had almost destroyed the Mayans, but Itzamma had sent away six families to maintain their culture – and bloodline. He sacrificed his own mortal life to ensure they were all destroyed and could only view the world from his plane, this very same world that I now stood upon. Time shifted forwards, showing the same planet we lived on. The planet was now being devoured, the threat of the zombies greater than ever.
Then the future came.
There were many battles, some of which did not necessarily we would win without sacrifice. I saw many losing their fight to the virus, the ones we would have to forcibly kill. Some were strangers and we didn’t hesitate. But others were our nearest and dearest. They may have been in our own group of survivors. There were at least seven of us dwelling the forsaken earth, saving it. I saw it all.
I knew we would visit many places: Rome, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Washington … all of the capitals. Some places were unfamiliar, but still vital to our quest. I saw myself walking amongst Ami and Marcus the entire way and I knew in that instant. I knew what had to be done.
The vision didn’t end quickly, however. Instead of seeing things for the last few images, however, I found myself living them before they had chance to pass.
Bodies littered the battleground we had won our latest fight. We were in London, as Big Ben had struck upon twelve o’clock. I had no idea how the clock itself – or anything else – were still functioning; it was a miracle by any standard. I gazed around me, noticing there was a figure in the distance. I couldn’t make out whether it was a he or she. They saw me and came quicker, noticing I was watching them. The machete was in my hand. I could’ve stopped them …
Almost instantly, they grabbed me by the throat and shoved me up against the wall.
I dropped the machete in shock, unable to breathe and comprehend what was going to happen next. Was this showing my death? It felt very real and I knew I would have to relive this again in the near future. Either way, I didn’t want to leave this way. I didn’t want the feeling of accomplishment to be coursing through my veins, only to have it ripped away by someone choking me to death.
As I contemplated the possibilities, they released me and I slid down the wall, relieved I could breathe again. I grabbed the machete, astounded they hadn’t grabbed it to strike me down. I rubbed my throat, which was now bruised by their astonishingly tight grip, and used the other hand to point my weapon at them.
“Why?” I barely whispered.
Their voice was inaudible. It was a low whisper, one that I could not define by gender.
“This was how it was meant to happen. We were only following the warnings of your people and hoped that the world would be rebirthed once the tide came in. Itzamma predicted I’d come to steal your glory and betray you. He was right, but he didn’t know I had my own ancestor to converse with. There was another civilisation that cut off from your own, wanting to be free. What we want is to restart again, is that so bad?”
“And become some … kind of fucking … messiah!?” I spat out furiously.
“Tabula rasa, Mark … that’s what we strive for. But if there’s a personal gain to lead the people of tomorrow, then I see no problem in becoming a messiah.”
In that instant, my eyes snapped open.
The first thing I felt was no pain. I was alone in my bedroom, surrounded by the memories of my teenage years through the form of posters. I could’ve shed a tear because I had a feeling it would either be the last time I’d ever be in here, or that I would just be leaving for a very long time. My path to ridding the world of zombies had to start somewhere. I knew I would have to go with Ami and Marcus, wherever that may have been.
Quickly, I sat up and rolled up my jeans.
“It’s gone,” said Marcus, who had just appeared and was standing in the doorway.
I looked at him for a moment before I motioned for him to come inside.
“You squirmed a little like, but I was able to get rid of that nasty bugger of a scratch somehow,” he continued. “One of my mum’s friends was a nurse and taught me a lot of things while I was growing up in Newcastle. You’d be quite amazed by how many accidents I had and was still able to put them all right by myself.”
“Thanks,” I nodded gratefully. “So what’s the plan? I mean, we are three of the last six Mayans, aren’t we?”
“Still trying to find any concrete evidence that we’re not? Well, good luck with that one, mate. We’ve all had the Itzamma touch and seen what’s going to happen. Ami told me she tried denying it at first, but she actually saw her own movements the very next day before she did them all. And try as she might have done, she couldn’t change them. She found me after all. I didn’t expect her to come, but I’m glad she did.”
He paused for a moment and looked back at me.
“And I’m glad we found you in time.”
As he left the room to find our fellow Mayan downstairs, I was left to ponder over what I’d seen before. Someone was definitely going to betray us in the future. So far, I’d seen Ami and Marcus standing by my side on the journey. I wasn’t too sure whether I could trust them or not. My mind started racing and for the first time, I was glad I was alone. If we were really going ahead with this grand plan to gather the six Mayans and save the world, I knew I wouldn’t be having much alone time. It could have very well been any of them two who would betray us and practically nearly choke me to death.
My name is Drake and I’m the biggest zombie-slaying hunter you may ever come across.
It was Christmas Eve when I first looked upon the spectacle of London, its shining blaze of glory torn down by the state the entire world was under. It had been mercilessly struck down by these creatures, the very parasites I had just struck down in the face with my twin Sais. I watched all five of their bodies fall from the bridge into the dirty water below, which led to the underground water system. I felt grateful I had removed them from society; they’d only go on to bring more misery and death upon the city.
The zombie epidemic was just the first in the prediction that a rising force would swiftly take the world by storm. As soon as the rumours went global, I decided that was the time to flee my home and isolate myself. You see, I knew I was different from everyone else. I didn’t necessarily care about which song was number one in the top 40 music chart, or which celebrity was shaving their head next. Everything I had suffered my entire life – from pain to happiness – had been a trial.
You may have thought I was crazy for thinking this, but a series of dreams caused it all.
When I turned thirteen, they started and continued almost every night. Every dream had a man – or a god, perhaps – whispering about the end of the world in 2012. At first, I thought he was crazy, or that maybe I was seeing things.
But as they continued – with the accompanying images of the day it would all go down the drain – I took action. I requested several things from my parents: martial art lessons, compulsory after-school sessions …
I saw my role as a protector of the earth. And even so, I knew I wouldn’t be acting alone.
There were at least five, perhaps six or seven more, individuals I’d be standing with to save the world from what would devour it. The dreams showed me that they would find me and all I had to do was wait. And as I emerged from isolation in wake of the apocalypse beginning, I did exactly that. Except for one thing.
Those infectious pricks wouldn’t be breathing the same air.
Having trained in the way of the Sais with a master during my teenage years, I spent the first few days patrolling the outskirts of London and killing every zombie I could. However, I had restricted myself to very few rules.
Firstly? Never confront a huge group of parasites; they would overwhelm and kill you.
Next, loot the nearby areas for essentials – food, water and medicine.
And finally, never stay in one place for so long.
These three rules had gotten me far in the meantime. Yet at the same time, the wait for the resistance force was testing my patience. I knew it hadn’t been even a week yet, but the time for standing around and doing nothing wasn’t my style. In relation to my third rule, there were little places around London that I hadn’t dwelled in before. I supposed their invitation to the capital of England had gotten lost in the post. I cracked a smile. At least that sounded funny in my head …
But I wasn’t entirely robotic.
No, you could classify me as a typical bloke who liked a pint at the pub and bought Nuts magazine. From when I was younger and saw the dreams, I knew I had to maintain that part of my life until the time came. Until this time came.
As the owner of the Final Fantasy fan site, Beyond Final Fantasy, I had made contact with a lot of people before the eventual apocalypse arrived. Knowing that the twenty-first of December was the day the world began to end, I created the site with preparation in mind – but to also be fanatical for my favourite game series, who wouldn’t be? – and establish contact with anyone I knew would be great assistance over the next few months when the time arrived.
All I could do was wait, moderate, make some of them staff members and interact until then.
But the time was here now and once again, I remembered how impatient I was growing. The last edition of Nuts magazine, the October issue, was becoming tatty and almost unreadable. I threw it on the floor and walked to stand on the edge of London Bridge, still continuing to watch the zombie bodies being washed away.
From a distance, I heard the snarl of another. Excellent, more prey.
I readied the twin Sais, twirling them in my hands. I felt my secondary weapon, a whip, tucked in my jeans belt. I would’ve used this to grab them and throw them into the water, but felt it was too much effort. As it neared towards me, it appeared to be male. He looked very familiar, as if he were someone highly important in the country. He was big, fat and unable to walk in a straight line without limping. And to top it all off, he had ginger hair. Ginger!
“Frankie Boyle, we meet for the first … and final time,” I spat.
The Frankie Boyle zombie snarled in response. Whether or not there was still some humanity in him was not the question here; neither was whether he had any humour – or lack of it – left. No, it was what move he would make next. I felt cocky for once, finding the situation amusing to my taste. There were no controversial jokes that could grip the newspapers’ headlines, no one on Twitter to hit back at anymore.
No, this was a battleground between me and the most disgusting Scotsman I’d ever laid eyes on.
However, for a zombie, he sure took his time deciding what to do next. In that moment, I thought maybe he did have a small speck of his former self left. Maybe it took him a while to come up with the supposed jokes he posted on Twitter? Either way, I was ready. And as he came staggering towards the Bridge, I wasn’t about to waste any more time.
I darted forward, praising my loose clothing for not chaining me down to the earth, and prepared myself to hunt him down like the whimpering bitch he was.
But as I neared towards him, I noticed dozens of them marching.
I stopped in my tracks, unable to take the amount of zombies that were headed in my way.
Then I turned around in the opposite direction. It was the same story with many of them opting to come after me rather than go for the rotting dead bodies that littered the London streets.
There was no fucking way I was going to come this far to wait for the others, only to be struck down by an army of zombies and join them willingly. No, there were two choices here: fight them and survive through slim odds, or throw myself from the Bridge into the water and hope for the best. The latter didn’t seem the fitting choice personally, so I knew what I’d do.
Putting my Sais away, I unleashed the whip on Zombie Frankie Boyle. I successfully managed to grab him around the neck and pulled him down to his knees. The zombies coming in both directions did not stop; their fellow zombie’s imminent death – and the irresistible smell of my flesh – only spurred them on to reach their destination. I held onto the whip tight with both hands and flung him into a pole that was sticking out of a nearby car. His brain was destroyed on impact and I silently praised myself for that feat; it wasn’t an easy one.
Next, I turned my attention to my other, bigger problem.
I neared the edge of the Bridge, realising my only chance of survival lay in my former choice of two from barely moments before. The impact of hitting cold, freezing water may as well have killed me, anyway. But I wasn’t ready to turn into one of them either. It could’ve been a moment of madness to do that. However, one of those was just around the corner …
The Tower Bridge was just ahead. Perhaps if I could just reach it, maybe I stood a fighting chance.
There was no time to think, as I flung my leg over and was now standing on the very edge. One false move and I could go hurtling down towards my death. Survival was the only thing on my mind, as I carefully walked towards the Tower Bridge. The zombies may have had trouble, as some cars were blocking their way to me. I readied myself and went quicker with each step I took.
Reaching it proved to be one of the greatest tests I’d ever faced.
The zombies may be slow, but they weren’t dumb either. A few launched themselves against the cars blocking their way, their arms reaching out for my body. Although the temptation to hit back at them was there, I knew revenge wasn’t the answer. At least not just yet, anyway.
Thankfully, before the apocalypse began, the Tower Bridge remained lowered. I knew that if it wasn’t, only then would I have to jump into the water.
Things were going smoothly thus far. Not a single zombie had grabbed me until –
“YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Anyone would’ve guessed it – one of them had me by my arm. I prayed to God that they wouldn’t scratch me. I knew that a scratch took longer to transform anyone into a zombie, but there was no actual cure apart from chopping off that part of your body. And as clichéd as it may have sounded at the time, I still wanted use of my right arm.
With the struggle, I lost balance of my footing and fell.
My left hand grabbed onto the edge and the zombie came tumbling down with me, hanging onto my right arm by just a single thread. She wanted to claw the hell out of me, but was more concerned about survival, too. I found this mildly entertaining, but remembered she was using me for that.
I kicked her in the face several times before she no longer had the use of her eyes and hurtled down into the water to her death. From what I knew, zombies couldn’t swim …
But then I was still hanging on, too. I outstretched my right hand to grab the edge to give myself a fighting chance of seeing this through. For the first time, I was faced with the feeling of facing death. I closed my eyes, knowing it was impossible I’d actually get back up again, and prepared myself to face the other world –
“TAKE THAT, YOU JAMMY SODS!”
My saviours had arrived in the nick of time. How ironic was that?
The voice belonged to a Geordie; there was no doubt about that. I heard the sound of a gun being shot numerous times. Footsteps came next – and the sound of metal. Was that a rod? There went the grunts of another Geordie, although I suspected he wasn’t actually from Newcastle. The two pairs of footsteps were fighting off the zombies that had come for me, as I noticed several of them falling into the water metres away from me.
I shuddered at what hell they’d been put through, but knew they deserved it.
Not a second later, there was a girl carefully climbing over the edge and extending her hand to me.
“Take it!” she shouted, almost in a commanding voice.
Without a second thought, I did exactly that. Once I did, she heaved me back up onto the ground and I took in the sight of her two companions for the first time. The first one, who had a sniper rifle on his back, was currently shooting zombies in the head like no tomorrow. The second one was whacking them with his rod, taking the time and care to stick it in their brains. It didn’t take me long to realise this team of survivors was well prepared.
“Is this him, Marcus?” the girl half-shouted.
The guy with the sniper rifle looked in her way and smiled when his eyes met mine. He nodded abruptly before kicking a zombie down into the water. I was lost for words, wondering what was going on. I blamed my near-death experience, as I hadn’t come that close before. The girl appeared to be the leader of the small group. She smiled at me as if she were satisfied. And then she took out her bow from her back to shoot an arrow at a zombie that was going to attack her rod-wielding friend.
“You’re a fair shooter,” I duly noted.
She shrugged. “I’m barely past the beginner stage, but I appreciate the compliment.” I offered my hand, realising she’d saved my life. Still smiling brightly, she willingly took it. “I’m Ami. Finally nice to meet you, Drake. These two are Marcus and Mark, though I’d find it hard to confuse the two. They’re practically two different people, anyway.”
“Ami …”
“Oh, you know who I am, surely? I’m that funny one who’s always posting on your forum, right? The self-proclaimed proud girl to have over a thousand posts! Anyway, it doesn’t matter now as such since we’ve found you. I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner, but we were overrun by the damn bastards in York and so we had to hide.”
They couldn’t have been the resistance force I’d been waiting for?
“I – or even we – aren’t what you expected, right?”
How did she know that? I stared at her, suspecting her of either reading me very well, or that she could read minds. With zombies taking over the world and being called up for a great purpose, I thought anything was possible at this rate.
“That’s fine,” Ami sighed sadly. “I know that I’m a little outspoken, Marcus is such an action guy and Mark is all sassy, but –”
My mind wandered, as she got lost in her ramblings. Did she know about our legacy? If she did, then she was fooling me. There was a part of me that wanted to speak about it, to test her. But as I watched her go on about the differences between online identities and real ones, I knew I had to. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that the four of us had found each other. They had to know about the vital part of the apocalypse.
“As much as I’d like to chat all day, Ami, there’s one thing I have to ask,” I interrupted. “The three of you – are you part of the Six?”
As soon as my last word was uttered, her entire expression changed. Ami turned to Marcus and Mark, who were finished dispatching the last of the zombies. They had both heard the same word and were now re-joining her. Marcus did not look happy about it being said, whilst Mark looked curiously on.
“He’s one of us?” questioned Marcus.
“So you are then,” I nodded. At least now there was some clarity. “I’ve been expecting you for quite some time now.”
“That reminds me of that one time I was in a lift with people and I said, ‘I bet you’re all wondering why I gathered you here,’” mused Mark.
I looked at Ami, the only one who seemed to know more than the other two. She wasn’t saying anything, but still wearing that same serious expression.
“This whole Mayan thing, I’ve known about it a lot longer than you three probably have. There’s a lot that you need to know and not in so many words either.”
“Itzamma already told us everything,” said Marcus.
I turned away from them and felt myself tense.
“Did he also tell you about how the actual world was going to be saved? I’m sure he left that part out because he knew you’d be too scared to even go ahead with this whole quest in the beginning. The entire world is going to die if we don’t do something about it. I’m going to suggest that already, there are only a few million survivors left from the virus. I’ve seen what’s going to happen; someone is going to have made that ultimate sacrifice …”
“SACRIFICE!?”
“But I thought this was going to be like your average RPG –”
“It makes sense. The hero always dies in the end just like –”
“There’s a long way to go until we can think about it,” I said, cutting them all off. “From what I know, this sacrifice has to be made where it all began – where our ancestors were last seen. Alive.”
“And that’s not saying much!” hissed Ami. “Why do I get the feeling you’re the one with all the answers and you’re not telling us anything?”
“Maybe Itzamma should answer everything for you, but I’m thinking that maybe he doesn’t want to give spoiler alerts. This sacrifice might not be anything at all. Even I’m not entirely sure what it means.”
I scanned their shock-filled faces and knew the single question that played on their minds. Should I be trusted? Did he really mean it when there was a sacrifice involved to save the world? Unsure to the first, the answer to the latter was yes. I was certain of it. My dreams had been vague lately and I attributed that to the world going to hell.
Ami appeared to be the most curious. I knew she was in the know about everything – possibly almost as much as myself – and seemed determined to get to the bottom of things. She was definitely the type to be as open as possible with her friends and family.
Marcus was nearly the same, but didn’t seem happy as well. His eyes told me a story, one that depicted he’d seen a lot of things … maybe too many things for one lifetime that had occurred in a few days. Although he was Ami’s right-handed man, I suspected he had a strong will of his own.
Mark didn’t want to know an awful lot. The whole time when I’d been speaking about the sacrifice, his attention wandered elsewhere. Maybe he was like Marcus – scarred from the effects of death and its tidings. He was most certainly the one I had to watch out for in the future.
“You’re expecting us to take the news well then?” asked Ami rhetorically.
“Ami –” began Mark.
“No, Mark. We can’t just be left with a bombshell like that and be expected to carry on with this suicide mission!”
“Suicide mission? I thought this was what you wanted?” challenged Mark.
They continued to bicker amongst themselves for a few more minutes. I took this chance to glance around, noticing we were still alone on London Bridge. I mentally thanked my fellow Mayans that they had taken out a lot of our enemies. Then I turned back to witness the tension that was building. I wanted to interfere, to say that this wasn’t the answer. We didn’t need to be fighting amongst ourselves when there was a traitor to confront soon …
However, that was why I didn’t get involved.
The traitor, we didn’t know who he or she was. There wasn’t much evidence so far to suggest it could have been one of them. I had to keep watching for now and cooperate. We would have to work together to find the other two of the Six. Two thirds had been united, but we’d need the full strength of the Six to achieve the impossible.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help caring about the fact my family might still be alive!” Ami was raging on. “And I’m terribly sorry you had to kill your mum, ok? It wasn’t the right moment to walk in on –”
“Have you heard yourselves?” hissed Mark. “At least you both had choices to make. What about me, eh?”
As much as the atmosphere was growing intriguingly dramatic to watch, I had to cut in.
“This isn’t the time to get emotional because we all know what has to be done!” I yelled. “Do you have a car? I’ve got some things, not too many, just up ahead on the first floor of the corner shop. We have to keep moving or else they’re going to find us.”
“Yeah, it’s just up ahead,” nodded Mark.
With Ami and Marcus debating the driving laws now as they were defunct with the collapse of government, I followed them to the silver Toyota Aygo up ahead near the end of the bridge itself. I looked at the waste of zombie filth left behind and fought the urge to smile. Today wasn’t a victory to be celebrated; it was a reminder we had much work to do before our real task began.
Before I could reach the car, however, I felt a sharp burning sensation in my wrist.
I rolled up the sleeve of my jumper and felt my eyes widen, as I stared down at the two words now tattooed on my right wrist.
An old man had uttered those words ten years ago when I was passing him by one day on my way to high school. It had been an ordinary Tuesday morning, littered with weak sunshine and a slight breeze in the air. I didn’t understand what he meant, but I politely thanked him for the words of wisdom, as I’d originally thought, and was on my way before additionally wishing him a good day. I remembered the way he looked at me with those black, glass-like eyes. He wore no expression; however, there was the slight look of sympathy struggling to break out.
Ten years later, I finally understood.
Many would’ve said he was crazy. Others would dismiss him. Few would listen. Fortunately, I fit into the latter category.
My name is Dawn.
Everyone recounts their tale at one point in their lives – most possibly when they’re older – but I wanted to do it when I was still young and alive to tell it. I suspected that the vast majority of the beginning had been uttered already, so I knew where to start: my home of Calgary, Canada.
It had been like any other city that you once saw, bustling with people, shops, businesses and whatnot. Before the apocalypse could reach it, it was prepared. After the many so-called ones before this, we saw the evidence and knew what to do. Calgary was prepared to defend its walls as long as it stood. The people of the city rallied together as a family and decided upon one thing.
If the world was really going to end, then we would do our best to be its last civilisation if that was what it took.
For four endless weeks, we worked together. We abandoned our own principles and came together to do what we thought was right. Men, women and children of different walks of life contributed to the final society. We maintained our strength and courage, even as we witnessed the fall of the world on the international news. We would not go down without a fight. Those zombies sure as hell were not going to get us …
You may have thought it was the first nail in my coffin. No, the first one came much later.
“I’m going to patrol outside the walls with the boys,” he said, holding my hands with his and wearing an earnest smile on his handsome face. “I’ll be back in a couple of days. Those zombies have got nothing on us!”
Adam.
His enthusiasm was unwavering, magical even.
There had been several patrols before to ensure we weren’t touched and all had turned out to be successful, so I initially knew I had no need to be worried. But at the same time, I was incredibly anxious. What if he didn’t come back? Or worse, what if he didn’t come back the same as he was? There was a part of me that wanted to tell him to forget it, to carry on strengthening the walls we’d built around the city. That his strength was needed more here …
But I didn’t refuse him. Instead, I found myself agreeing to the very thing I was set against.
“I love you,” he whispered into my ear that very next morning when he left.
Those three words pained me. What if he was leaving and never returning? But the same angelic smile was there again and my body wouldn’t let me argue against him leaving. I found myself muttering the same back to him before watching him leave with the boys. It was a painful sight, but something I knew was bound to come sooner rather than later.
“They’ll return, Dawnie!”
The squeal of cheerfulness came from a little blonde girl called Bethany, who had been stood near me the entire time we watched them go. The crowd surrounding us began to disperse and I found myself alone after I waved goodbye to my small friend. I sighed sadly, feeling guilt. What if he was going to die for a stupid patrol and I was going to live here alone?
No, I couldn’t let Bethany’s optimism die like that.
Two days later, it was Christmas Eve. I spent the majority of the day helping the city and its errands.
The next day, Christmas Day came around and I slept alone, silently crying.
When the twenty-sixth of December decided to rear its ugly face …
“Dawnie! DAWN!”
Bethany’s piercing screams awoke me from a peaceful slumber, the first I had since Adam left with the patrol boys. I rubbed my eyes and looked around my room. There was silence – and too much of it. Already dressed from the same clothes I’d been wearing since yesterday, I threw myself out of bed and followed Bethany half awake, half asleep. Something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t like her to be running in here, unless there was an emergency.
My heart sank while I was jogging with her.
Adam!
He was dead, wasn’t he?
I knew I had that gut feeling, but I knew I should not have trusted my instincts so easily. As we rounded the end of the street, I came to witness what was either the biggest miracle in the world or the most idiotic stunt ever pulled.
In front of us was a ruined, burning plane – which I could only assume was private, as there were contents of champagne and posh chocolates littered across the floor – and four suspicious individuals lay on the floor being treated by Doctor Zee and his two nurses, Joy and Noreen.
One of them was a girl, whose injuries included a gash across her forehead and a suspected broken arm. She seemed to be the most conscious of the four, as she looked at me and acknowledged my appearance with a nod. However, she soon paid for the price for her stupidity when Doctor Zee pushed his white cloth harder against her head.
Next, I glanced at Joy and Noreen, who were treating the other three guys. One, a brown-haired guy with a goatee, glanced worryingly at the girl. The second, bearing dark brown hair and a whip around his belt, had his eyes closed. The final one, with a crossbow in his hand, was panting for breath.
“What happened?” I asked Beth after taking the scene in.
“They crash landed from the sky!” she exclaimed.
There were a few men and women rushing over with buckets of water throwing them into the plane to control the fire. As they continued to do so, the few firemen we had left in the city were preparing the hosepipe.
“Well, they’re certainly not from around here …” I mused out loud.
“Take me to your leader!” the goatee guy said loudly.
“Shut up, Marcus!” hissed the dark brown haired one.
The girl gave them a quick glance before turning it towards me once again. I had this strange feeling urging my deep subconscious that she knew more than what she was letting on. My concern went for the guy with the crossbow. He still had his eyes closed, reeling from the accident the four had endured. I took a few steps towards the girl, who was sat quite a distance away from the guys. She still had her iron gaze fixed upon me – and that freaked me out, to say the least.
“Who are you?” I dared to ask.
“The better question is … do you know who you are?”
Her words slightly startled me, but I was not thrown off so easily. I couldn’t explain it at the time, but the longer I stared, the more I had flashing images striking my mind. The images were vague at first, depicting a symbol. It was yellow and had several circles thrust upon it with lines drawn down upon the middle circle. My head started to throb and I came down to my knees with an almighty thud.
The symbol kept on flashing with each glance I threw at the girl. Her green eyes looked into my very soul, almost as if she was looking into my soul. I couldn’t tell how she was doing this, but I could tell she was an individual that possessed an uncanny power.
“But you don’t, do you? You’re not going to find the answers by giving in.”
“Stop toying around with her, Ami.”
“Drake, you know as well as I that she needs to realise greater forces at work!”
The symbol stopped flashing in that moment.
Next, I looked at the guy who had told Ami – I’d assumed that was her name now – to stop fooling around. I took in his physical features with much examination this time and realised whom he was.
“Drake … you’re Drake …” I murmured loud enough.
Suddenly, I felt memories of being at home flooding back to me. Before all of this started a month ago, I would spend quite a few hours a day at most on a Final Fantasy forum. Beyond Final Fantasy, wasn’t it? The names of Ami and Drake rang alarm bells. I knew them … from there. Was that true? I’d also added them on Facebook. They were distant memories, considering the world we found ourselves living in now.
Next, I gazed at the other two. Yes, there was Marcus, our news journalist. Then by his side was Mark, who always had some scandalous gossip to share with us all. But why were they all together? Was there a memo I’d missed before the world decided to end?
“Merry Boxing Day!” exclaimed Marcus.
And then came the faint screams.
They were easily recognisable, coming from the edge of the city. There had been one or two occasions when this had happened and we managed to fight them off, but barely. I noticed Beth cowering behind her older brother and tugging at his leg, motioning that they should run. I had the same instinct, but found my feet bound to the ground by gravity.
Immediately, I sensed that Ami was the leader. The way she jumped to her feet, grabbed the bow and arrows lay on the floor beside the damaged plane and rushed into the face of battle with her domineering presence astounded me. Marcus was right behind her, wielding his survival knife, and I sensed he was her right hand man. Next up was Drake, who unleashed his twin Sais and effortlessly wielded them in his hands. He offered me an understanding glance before joining the fray. Finally, Mark was staying behind somewhat, taking a position behind a car and aiming his crossbow.
It may have seemed like a scene from an awesome film like The Avengers – which I still loved to this very day – but the reality of things hit harder.
Our city, possibly the last civilisation this sorry world had, would soon be crumbling. The zombies had broken through our defences and come to its very core where we all stood now. Some had chosen to do the sane thing: run. But with the presence of the four newcomers, I didn’t know why I felt like I had to stand with them. It was as if we were connected in a way, as if we were family …
“DAWN!”
I snapped out of my daze and witnessed Mark smacking a zombie down with his machete. Having slammed it onto the floor, he stabbed it in the brain and winced slightly when blood exploded everywhere. With going into shock that this was all happening, I’d forgotten my surroundings and realised I was now in a warzone. I offered him a grateful smile and he took it by returning a warmer one. We both noticed the influx of zombies was rising second by second and we couldn’t waste any more time.
Mark flung the bag on his back, which I hadn’t noticed before, onto the floor and unzipped it. Inside were numerous different weapons I could only assume they’d picked up on their travels.
“Get one and fight!” he said fiercely before re-joining the battle.
There was one weapon from his bag that I had my eye on the moment I saw it – the samurai sword.
Its holster was gold, a beautiful touch to such a fine armament. I unveiled its shiny blade upon taking it out and remembered I also had my revolver gun on the belt of my pants. It had always been my one true defence just in case incidents such as this occurred. Shooting at zombies was no easy feat, as the mere sound of the bullet erupting violently from a gun was enough to break my nerves of steel. It was natural to feel confident with such a new weapon in both hands.
As I joined the fray alongside the newcomers, I felt the rush of determination. It guided me to the zombies I had to kill, the ones that had dared to come here. This was my home!
There was no remorse when the blade slashed through a head. It still didn’t come when we heard the sickening sound of it dropping slowly onto the ground. In those few single moments of fighting, there was nothing that could stop me. I knew the others felt it, too. Although I knew not why at first, I knew I was about to find out …
Ami continued to shoot zombies that kept on surrounding her. She seemed to be well prepared for this, a professional almost. Once she had dispatched those, she climbed up onto a pickup truck and unleashed her bow, readying her arrows. Zombies continued to stagger from a distance, enough time for her to continue slaughtering them.
Marcus was the same. He was effortlessly shoving zombies away, armed with protective gear that may have been stolen from the army, with his knife and other surrounding weapons in the area. He jumped onto a car near Ami and valiantly climbed up onto the bus next to it. From there, he took out his sniper rifle and started to shoot enemies in the distance.
Mark was being physical, swinging his machete around and slicing zombie’s heads off. When he had the chance, he would seize the opportunity to shoot more with his crossbow – whether near or far. There were moments I feared he’d be overwhelmed by the need to be quick, but those fears were quickly washed away when he rose to the challenge without fail each time.
And then there was the mysterious, but ridiculously strong Drake. I had a high opinion of him from our time spent talking together, however, I never realised he could be this … ferocious. He was easily slaying zombies like a bad ass, armed with the twin Sais in his hand and the whip tied around the belt of his jeans. Drake was definitely a champion in the making.
Although I personally felt that I failed in comparison to their awesomeness, I wasn’t doing too badly myself … well, for a beginner, anyway. I’d just sliced and diced my fifth zombie head and was proceeding to higher ground like Ami and Marcus had done so. The zombie numbers were steadily increasing and I couldn’t tell how long it would be until we may be overwhelmed. Of course, the cavalry in our city were helping, but they were inexperienced compared to our new company.
There was no repentance in their faces, no indication that they still retained any part of their former humanity. It only emerged upon their death and even by then, it was too late. I prayed I wouldn’t have to do this again. This had been the biggest attack since the virus epidemic began – and no one certainly wanted to keep reliving this nightmare.
After cutting through my sixteenth head, my strength was beginning to diminish. I knew I couldn’t give up hope.
Not for the likes of Beth or even Adam …
Days had passed since I heard his loving voice and there was nothing I could do. I wasn’t strong enough to go on the patrol with him, yet was for this invasion. How did that work out? However, even so, I knew that I’d made a significant difference here today. There may have been many bodies littered across the city’s floors, but their lives definitely outweighed our own. As their numbers began to decrease, I noticed we had a few casualties.
Two zombies had bitten through into Simon, an old man who lived two doors from me, and so he had succumbed to his wounds. Beth’s mother, Tina, had also suffered from the same tragedy. I tried to hold back my tears and fought against them, as I didn’t want to be the one to tell Beth.
The final zombie on the battleground stared at me strangely. He staggered towards our group of survivors slowly, almost as if he was after something other than the obvious. When he raised his head and looked right at me, that was when I silently fell to the ground in tears.
In that moment, we all knew the patrol wasn’t returning. They had been overwhelmed by the zombies outside and had either been turned or killed. It was such a cruel fate. But it was an even crueller fate to see the loss in Adam’s eyes. He saw my tears and also fell to the ground onto his knees. His hand grabbed the pebbles scattered across the floor and he dropped them again, eternally lost in his conquest for human flesh.
I looked up to see Ami preparing her bow. She was fighting tears, too. She knew who he was.
Drake came to her side immediately and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head at the same time.
“This isn’t the way,” he said quietly. “You know the other way.”
“But we can’t find the other way yet,” she whispered back, almost challenging him. “You know how, but we don’t know where.”
“I would gladly try to save everyone I can. I’ve killed only those who’ve tried to take me down, even those that I love. But look at him, Ami! We once thought that they couldn’t even feel. He hasn’t attacked her. He was the last to return. He wanted to make sure she hadn’t faded away … or maybe if she’d been turned, he’d come for her.”
I hadn’t made sense of what “way” they were discussing, but I did understand what Drake was saying just a moment ago. Adam may have been a freshly-turned zombie, but there was still something there. His path, as it had turned out, was not to be intertwined with mine – for the time being, at the very least.
As I turned back to face her, Ami appeared to have accepted what had been said. She bowed her head low at Drake and then turned to the city’s civilians.
“You’ve seen what’s happened here today!” she bellowed, her voice now stronger. “All, but one has attacked you all. I want someone to take Adam somewhere quiet, somewhere safe, somewhere –”
“HE’S A MONSTER!”
“He ain’t human anymore!”
“What you want to do is suicide!”
“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?”
“We’re the bitches who just saved all your lives!” Mark barked back.
“He’s right,” nodded Marcus in agreement. He came to my side, sniper rifle hanging over his shoulder with one hand and knife in the other. “And if we hadn’t come when we did, you’d all be dead or worse right now. So give us some credit!”
Drake pulled me to one side. “There’s a lot about yourself that you don’t know about, Dawn. There’s a reason why we came here.”
“And what is that reason?” I dared to ask.
“Take my hand,” said Ami, joining us. She offered it to me, but I silently declined. “Ask yourself this: have you ever felt different from everyone else? Do you feel like you’re wasting your life away, knowing that there’s a greater purpose out there to serve under? Because trust me, you and everyone else here in this small, dysfunctional band of British misfits knows the feeling and why they have it.”
“Thanks for putting it so bluntly,” smirked Drake.
She offered him a cold glare before returning her green eyes back onto me. “I know this is all so strange at the moment, Dawn, but all of us … we’re the same. You’ll understand if you take my hand. You’ll realise why you’ve felt so different, why you feel that it’s your time at the world’s most critical state.”
Now she was being very cryptic.
Her hand was still extended and I could feel that all the answers to my questions lay with a single touch. But at the same time, I felt that single touch could sign my death sentence and make me endure a long wait until doomsday. However, everything she’d said made sense. I had been wasting my life away, knowing that I had a greater sense of purpose for the world. It may have sounded strange to anyone else – bar those I’d just met – but it was how I truly felt.
“There are greater forces at work here!” Marcus chipped in from behind us.
“It’s not like she can force it on you, but I’d take it,” stated Mark.
“But what about Adam?” I quickly enquired.
The answer I sought was not in their words, but in their expressions. Whilst Ami continued to have her iron, but determined gaze on me, I saw the others determined to fight against what the others thought. This may not have been their city, but I was one of them. I felt like one of them since the moment I chose to take the samurai blade as my own and fight together. The smile, if not a little awkward, I received from Drake sealed the deal.
“I’m not coming back here for a while … am I?”
The next answer was once again in their faces. This higher purpose that they had all surrendered to, they’d used it to come and find me. I extended my arm to Ami and felt the single touch overwhelm my entire body, thrusting my mind into a deep darkness that soon turned into a bright light that cleared the way for the true knowledge of who they – and I – really were.
Before I had the chance to meet the almighty Mayan god that would change my life forever, I found myself in a dream. I felt the soft grass under my body. My sight was blinded by the dazzling sunshine. The fresh air was wonderful to smell, something I hadn’t enjoyed since this whole thing began. And as I rose to my feet, still dressed in the same clothes as before, I saw someone standing next to the waterfall in front of me.
He turned to face me; his smile melting my heart like it had done the first time we met.
“I’m fighting for you,” whispered Adam.
I walked towards him, our fingers intertwining together.
“And for our future,” he continued to say. “But you have to go.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere, not without you,” I shook my head defiantly.
“There’s nothing more I’d like to be here with you forever,” Adam smiled sadly. “And at the same time, you have to go with them, these British people. They’re the ones who can show you the way to your destiny. Your destiny is shared with theirs and for the time being, we’re not heading for the same road.”
I closed my eyes and felt him kiss the top of my head.
“I love you more than anything, so I’m going to keep on fighting. I’m not going to crave for human flesh. But you are going to see the world and it’s going to embrace you with the rest of your kind.”
“My kind?”
“He’s going to show you the way. He was able to reach out for my humanity and bring us together one last time. Itzamna believes in you, he believes in all of you …”
And with that, my time with Adam ended. The sad smile on his face was the last I saw of his humanity until such a time came when it may have been fully restored. I knew I had to believe in Itzamna because Adam was my driving force to see this ordeal through. I saw the almighty god. I heard his words, what he expected of each and every one of us while Ami stood behind me as the guide. I had a sneaky suspicion that this wasn’t the first time she’d endured this. Her eyes told this.
There was nothing left in Calgary for me. Beth, perhaps.
But even so, one little girl couldn’t keep me from staying in the city. The outside world would soon embrace us as the Six. It felt weird to hear the Six in my very mind, let alone out loud with words. I gazed upon the death and destruction one last time before crossing the border with Ami, Marcus, Mark and Drake. They knew the way to the final Mayan – and we had to be ready for the inevitable.
“But I saw it and she didn’t? I don’t get it! Stay the hell away from me!”
“You heard her! You’re nothing, but maniacs that are taking advantage of her.”
“Can you even hear yourself right now?”
“I’m sorry, Geordie, but it’s the only voice I’d rather hear right now.”
“Oi! You’re lucky I’m not going to blow your brains out.”
“I take it back; I’m definitely not sorry.”
“Stay the hell away from us or I’m going to blow all your brains out!”
“Let’s not get hasty here. Look at me, I’m not a Brit –”
“I DON’T CARE WHO YOU ARE! YOU DON’T THROW THIS SHIT ON ME!”
It was an intense day from what I remembered: the blazing sun burning down on Indiana, the furious confrontation that pitted two of us against five of them, a dream of the future that I was never meant to see and questioning everything that had happened since the virus outbreak. I glanced to the right and saw Carlie tensing up, pointing her shotgun at Ami. But my Mancunian friend didn’t seem fazed by what was happening. Her bow was on her back and colt .45 in her pocket, but she didn’t unleash them. Not once.
My name is Mandi. I am of the Mayan Six, the final one to be found on this journey.
Before this, life had been simple. I was a mother to a beautiful son, a wife to a handsome husband, a daughter to a wonderful family. Like anyone in this sorry world, I struggled to make ends meet but I survived. We survived. Even when the beginning of the end of the planet came around, we vowed to carry on with life as normal as possible and remained a strong family unit.
That was until my husband and son went to visit family, leaving me alone at the worst time ever.
The people in town started to fall to the virus. Zombies invaded, causing many to flee. But there was no way I was being forced out. I grabbed the sheriff’s rifle – he’d run away at that point, the coward – and started shooting at them like no tomorrow. In the midst of the situation the world had thrown at us, we had two choices: live or die. I chose to live, to fight through to the next day and repeat the cycle every single day until this hell was over.
But the cycle started to drive me insane. With this whole freaking town either run out of their homes or been shot down by my hand, I was alone. I had never relished in the peace and quiet of my own presence for a single moment. As the days progressed, I’d feel a sense that this was karma being a bitch. The other side of my mind told me that I had done nothing, but be a good member of society and been there for my friends and family … I couldn’t possibly be screwed over by being isolated like this. I chose to believe the former – until a glimmer of hope appeared on my doorstep a few days ago.
Like a bat out of hell, Carlie had somehow made her way to Indiana. It was three o’clock on the morning according to my watch and I was literally sleeping with one eye open. You could never have been too careful when there were flesh-eating zombies involved. The young girl ran around the neighbourhood banging on doors and screaming, pleading for help – or human interaction, even. It felt like all my prayers had been answered at once.
When I reached the front door and saw her standing in the middle of the road, engulfed by the furious pouring rain, I may have embraced her too quickly. I ushered into my house swiftly as I could, taking care to dry her shivering body as soon as we got inside. There was no need for words; we both needed one another that horrible night. Our sanities were restored, as well as our hope in that there were still survivors out there …
Yet was it possible for two people to become exceptionally close in a short space of time?
I found the answer when I once again saw Carlie aiming her shotgun at Ami. The girl had become fiercely protective, willingly accepting me as a mother figure in this collapsed, dysfunctional world. Although her companions were almost panicking or reacting violently to my friend’s stance, Ami did not move once. She kept her eyes fixed on me. Damn it, those green eyes were burning right into my very soul and I had no idea how she was doing it.
“Mandi, please ask her to stop,” Drake said almost pleadingly.
I didn’t need to ask how he knew my name. Once again, my favourite Mancunian had already filled them in about me. But was it really just about saving the world? I was so confused.
“I don’t care who your friend is, Mandi, but you can’t just have her kill Ami!” begged Mark.
Then there was Mark. He’d been my friend for some years, too. He was just as sincere in the flesh as he was online. His blue eyes weren’t exactly looking into my soul, but he was trying to find some common ground. Being told that I was different and had to go on this journey with them to save the world may have sounded clichéd, perhaps even “the most fucked up RPG ever” as Marcus had stated.
Carlie had reacted the way she had since we hadn’t encountered anyone other than ourselves when the world decided to throw the apocalypse out there. In my heart, I knew I was different. I wasn’t like everyone else. But then I knew that I had to wait here, to see if my husband and son would return someday. Even if they didn’t return the same, I had to wait.
“She has to come with us, right?” piped up Dawn, glancing at Drake and then Ami. “She’s the one who unites us all and shows us the way, isn’t she?”
“She has a name!” Carlie spat furiously.
“No need to be so aggressive,” said Drake calmly. He had his twin Sais at the ready, but wasn’t necessarily going to be dumb and make the first move. “We would like to talk to Mandi alone.”
“You can forget your fucking quest, she’s not going anywhere with you crazy retards!” the Puerto Rican yelled.
“Oh, so Mandi doesn’t speak for herself now, does she?” remarked Marcus.
“Shut it, Geordie! Who asked you?”
He readied his sniper rifle. “I don’t remember how you’re relevant to this …”
Ami finally tore herself away from me and looked at Carlie’s shotgun.
“I don’t want any trouble at all if you don’t mind,” she said, taking a few steps forward. Carlie readied the gun, but didn’t take the shot. “My whole life has been full of relationships that have ended too soon. When the virus spread across the world and took people that I cared about, I felt so lost. But when I met these people – these extraordinary people – I found myself again. They were all there, waiting for me. They jumped out of their seats and were ready, even though a few didn’t want to believe what I had to say. The way their eyes sparkled, I just knew …”
She strode forward to Carlie and placed her hand on the shotgun, forcing it down onto the ground. Carlie didn’t even make the attempt to fight. I knew that the words she was hearing were genuine true – and so did I.
“I just knew the world could be saved.”
“We all believe it, too,” agreed Dawn. “Ami was the one who found us all –”
“With help,” muttered Ami. “I can’t take all the credit –”
“But found us nonetheless,” smiled Marcus. “She’s the only one who showed us our goal. She’s the link to our ancestor –”
“If you’ll just let me get onto that part –”
“Who has all the answers to your questions,” interrupted Mark. “Mandi, you have to trust us –”
Ami crossed her arms at this point, unable to take being it anymore.
“The bottom line is that we have a world to save and the only way you’re going to know if this is real? You have to take Ami’s hand,” said Drake. He put his Sais away and then walked over to my side, eyeing Carlie’s stern expression whilst doing so. “You resemble perhaps the biggest symbol for us all: courage.”
I thought over what everyone had said today. Being confronted about joining them to save the world did seem like an insane idea. The fact I had entertained it as an idea was offensive to say the least. Carlie’s over-the-top reaction hadn’t provided clarity in my mind either. Hearing Ami’s speech had moved me. She told me her story – one that was ten days old thus far – from awaking in her home to reaching my home on this very day. It was no wonder her eyes had that effect on me after all – they showed the tale of an exhausted, but determined heroine in the making. All of them were heroes in the making, even.
She extended her hand once again.
This time, she did it slowly as if she didn’t want to pressurise me. I felt the compelling power of her hand drawing me in, as if the answers lay behind the touch and in her actual mind. Now my mind was clearer, I wondered if the other four had felt this before when Ami had found them.
“Courage,” whispered Drake. “Remember who you are. You’re brave enough to face death in the eye and defy it. This is everything that’s about to shape you, Mandi.”
“We all represent something from our humanity,” elaborated Mark. “From what we know already, he’s Knowledge. The sneaky sod knows everything and has been able to prepare himself for the apocalypse for quite some time.”
“I’m Truth,” piped up Marcus. “Apparently, I can’t keep lies or secrets. This means I can see right all of you by the way.”
“Faith is my symbol,” said Dawn, smiling encouragingly at me. “He showed me that I have this unwavering belief that’ll guide everyone into a brave new world.”
“He?” I dared to whisper.
“And I’m Power,” added Ami, forcing me to turn to her once more. “I’ve no idea what that means, but right now I’m hazarding a guess it’s this hand business.”
Without any further hesitation and ignoring the warning signs Carlie was giving me, I took the plunge and grabbed her hand. There was no time to waste, as I felt darkness overwhelm my entire body. For a few moments, it seemed as though I was descending down into somewhere. I could hear myself rushing at the speed of sound – I had no idea what that even was – and dared not to open my eyes. In the light of becoming Courage, there was fear coursing through.
But even as I continued to fall down to my next destination, I couldn’t stop myself from having my eyes shut for the entirety of forever. A throne room filled my sight immediately and I was just mere moments away from reaching the ground. I floated down slowly, unable to control which direction my body went, and hit the gold floor with ease.
I saw the throne chair in front of me, however, it was empty. Perhaps the grand king had yet to show himself? I looked around the mighty, well-designed room and admired its beauty. When I turned around fully, I almost jumped out of my skin. Ami was stood there, dressed differently in rich fabric robes. She didn’t seem alarmed at my state and in that moment, I could tell she had done this several times. Her reaction wasn’t exactly normal, but it was comforting at the same time. She stood there with a gentle smile on her face, as if to tell me everything was going to be all right.
“Well, I have to admit,” she said, “this is the first time I’ve dressed like this.”
“I think the time for observations are over, Ami,” came a loud, powerful voice from afar.
That was when I caught my first glimpse of the almighty Itzamna. He was sat in the throne chair, looking straight at me. He had the same effect as his subject, staring right into my soul. His robes were the same, although they were gold instead of the mixed colours of Ami’s. The god appeared to be human, but there was something about this whole place that suggested otherwise. My answers were so close, yet so far away at the same time.
Itzamna was hesitating and judging by Ami’s confused expression, I could tell this was the first time he had done this. Was I a special case?
“Of course you are special, Mandi,” said Itzamna.
My jaw dropped. How could he have read my mind?
“You are one of the Mayan Six, chosen to save the world from the plague that once threatened to wipe it out many years ago,” he continued to say. “Power, Truth, Empathy, Knowledge and Faith have gathered to you to complete the circle, Courage. You are the final piece of the puzzle and now the way to your destiny is almost clear.”
“What do you mean, almost?” hissed Ami angrily, coming to my side.
“I wouldn’t piss him off, Ami, he seems pretty powerful,” I whispered.
“That’s just part of his allure. Trust me, when you’ve encountered him in your dreams as many times as I have, it starts to wear off.”
“While I do not approve of your reaction, Ami, I can understand your frustration,” said Itzamna. He rose to his feet. “The path is not clear because the betrayer is still in your way. He does not know of his role in the war yet, but has inadvertently caused it at the same time. The curse that now spreads across the planet originates from our endless battles with the Aztecs.”
The Aztecs? Suddenly, everything became even more confusing. I could tell Ami hadn’t been informed of this new information and then I realised that everyone else must have be the same.
“There is a lot of the history you both and the Six are not aware of, not even the history books have been able to depict our relentless battles. Both civilisations have been depicted as existing hundreds of years apart from one another, but our existence continued right into their very birth. At this point, we had scattered. Our people still maintained their beliefs, but found them conflicting with the Aztecs. They sought to end us because our intellect – knowledge of maths, astronomy – vastly outmatched theirs. We refused to share it and with good reason.”
He waved his hand and closed his eyes, chanting quietly to himself. Suddenly, the others were right in the room with us. Unlike Ami, they were still wearing their normal clothes.
“Here we go again,” sighed Dawn.
“Speak for yourself, I still can’t get used to this and I was the first one to be found!” exclaimed Marcus. “Wait a minute …” He glanced at the others and then at Itzamna. “Oh, did we just start a history lesson?”
I looked at Itzamna confusedly.
“Truth, Empathy, Knowledge and Faith now all know what has been discussed so far,” he explained.
I was not reluctant to accept what was happening. Having been subjected to mind reading before, I was beginning to realise they were right after all. The world was ending and we were the ones to save it. Right? There was a part of me that was still waiting to wake up, though.
“The Aztecs were never mentioned once in my dreams,” stated Drake.
I had to agree with Drake. In my knowledge of history, I’d never thought the Aztecs and Mayans had clashed numerous times.
“The final time that we clashed, they unleashed the curse upon us,” said Itzamna. “With the world now in jeopardy, we did the only thing we could do. The gods surmised a plan to rid of it. Their sacrifice meant the plague was defeated, but only temporarily. Their power was only enough to hold it back until a permanent cure would be found. The Aztecs possessed unearthly magic, mixed with the sacrifice of twenty thousand slaves in a four or five day period, which would create the zombie epidemic that you now face today. The slaves had their still-beating hearts ripped from their chests and offered to the gods, which they accepted. The corpses that remained would rise again. Slaves again, but this time to their hunger of flesh.”
“So this whole thing is a voodoo curse?” Mark rolled his eyes.
“You pretend you do not care, but you are more caring than you think, Empathy.”
“And what am I supposed to do, just go along with this plan!?” I shouted.
As everyone rounded their gaze on me, I realised what I’d just blurted out. It wasn’t intentional, but it had been bubbling inside the whole time. Although I had come to accept that this was what I had to look forward to for the time being, I couldn’t just go along with it at the same time. My husband and son were still out there. What if they were on their way home? What if they were both fighting at this very moment? I didn’t want to waste any more time, trapped in this history lecture.
Mark was the first to come to my side. Being Empathy, he knew what I was going through. All he did was throw his arms around my waist, pulled me in and hugged me. I wanted to fight against this new affection, but couldn’t. I didn’t have the motivation to do so. The others threw sympathetic looks.
“We’re going to find them,” he whispered. “I’m not going to give up until we do. You’ve held on for so long, Mandi, and that’s amazing. You’ve only just started to show your emotional cracks. It’s been ten days! Do you have any idea who you really are? Courage. You’re going to be the one who keeps us going with exactly that. You’re the one who has to tell us to get our arses into gear, keep us hopeful of a better tomorrow!”
“I want them back more than anything, Mark,” I said, burying my head in his shoulder.
“Everyone has loved ones that they wish to fight for and see again,” said Itzamna.
I slowly tore myself away from Mark and looked at the Mayan god again. This really was all true, wasn’t it? We were going to do the insane thing: fulfil an ancient prophecy that I’d glimpsed before when I touched Ami’s hand and save the world. The first questions in my head were not: will we be recognised internationally? When are the book and film deals going to come rolling in?
No, we all wanted to know: will we see our loved ones again? Would we all, if any of us, make it home in one piece? As if he were sensing my distress, Itzamna immediately looked upon me. He had remorse in his eyes, strangely human enough for an almighty god. Perhaps he shared the same fears. After all, he’d chosen to remain behind to guide us on this journey. All we could do was be slaves to the fate we had surrendered to. Even Itzamna …
However, one thing was certain.
I had always been brave. That kind of courage wasn’t typically found in anyone. I had been courageous enough to see through the end of the world so far. Now I knew that I had to see through the rest of it. The disappointment and fatigue were seen in my companions’ eyes, as we all stood in silent bliss. Although Dawn represented Faith, I, being Courage, knew we had to work together to motivate everyone until this had been done.
“We’ve all been shown what the end looks like,” I spoke up loud enough, so that everyone could hear. “We don’t know how, but we know it’ll happen. I don’t know about you guys, but this cowgirl is up for killing some zombies until we do get there. So who’s with me?”
“And there’s that stereotypical, ‘Go, Team!’ speech I was waiting to hear,” remarked Marcus.
Our resolve burning brighter than ever, the world went dark once again. I didn’t like the feeling, but it did not deter my courage. It led me back home, to outside my home where we had all blacked out without warning. I was the very last to wake up, as I noticed Marcus and Drake holding Carlie at gunpoint as a hostage. Although anyone else would have found the situation amusing with their British sarcasm, I did not. I tried to move quickly, but Ami and Dawn prevented me from doing so.
“You need to take it easy,” Dawn smiled warmly. “Getting back up from these dream sequences is not as easy as it is on a video game.”
“Not so tough now, are you?” said Drake.
“Worst line delivery ever,” muttered Marcus, holding the sniper rifle in Carlie’s face.
“You’re just a bunch of freaks! If you’ve done the same to Mandi –!” she snarled.
“Chill your tits, you need a good shag,” Mark rolled his eyes.
Dawn, having witnessed the intensity, turned her attention to Ami. “What now, leader?”
The Mancunian took in the scene for a few seconds before glancing back at me. “Your call, Mandi. She might be a raving lunatic that wants to kill us all after I accidentally took your hand and showed you the future … but she’s still your friend.”
I appreciated the afterthought. Gratefully accepting the help of the two girls, I was hoisted up back onto my feet and supported on the way to Carlie. The Puerto Rican was still aiming offensive remarks at the three guys. After everything that had happened, Ami was right – she was still my friend. I didn’t know where Carlie’s place was amongst us, but I knew I had a decision to make.
“All right, boys, you’ve had your fun,” said Ami, waving them off. She threw a sneaky glance at me. “Oh, the advantages of being Power, eh?”
Almost defeated and ready to run away, Carlie slid to the floor when Marcus and Drake stepped away. I bent down to her, but she did not look at me once. Had I really become a freak to her? Had her perspective of our friendship become so warped in such a short space of time? Perhaps only a mere half hour had only passed since we had all fell into our comatose states. There was something different about her. She seemed more hostile … afraid?
“Carlie, I have to go with them –”
“You’ve become a freak, too. That’s fine, I get it. Freaks have to stick together.”
“And I want you to come with me –”
“What?”
“Let’s face it, Carlie,” I whispered. “We were lost without one another until that day came. Another day without human contact and I might have gone insane. But these people are special, I’m like them. And they’re off to try and stop the chaos that’s going on.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child, Mandi,” she said calmly. For the first time, she looked directly at me. “You have gone insane. I don’t know what’s going on and they may be reliving the whole Mission Impossible movies, but I’m coming with you. I’m not sure why you trust them all of a sudden. And maybe … maybe I’m overreacting. But let’s just see how things go for now. Let’s see if you’re really … going to save the … world.”
I raised an eyebrow. Who told her of who we really were?
“The Geordie wouldn’t shut up about you six being the chosen ones or some crap like that,” muttered Carlie, explaining. “Maybe you’re all insane. Or maybe we all because of what’s happening. Who knows? We won’t know just sitting around in this town.”
And so the almighty Mayan Six, accompanied by Carlie, set off on our journey many hours later.
It would be lying to say that everything went smoothly from then on, only because they’d found the missing puzzle piece – me. Ami was still trying to unravel the truth about being Power, Marcus was challenging himself by telling the difference between truth and lies, Mark failed in pretending not to care about everyone, Drake was learning too much with each passing day and Dawn still believed that the world was going to be saved … far too much.
On days like this, I missed watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Sneaking a glance at the almighty Mayan Six, I found myself more isolated than ever before. It was easy to be compelled into feeling that way, especially since I was surrounded by strangers and thousands of miles away from home. Most of them weren’t strangers to be fair, but I’d never quite dared to hold down a conversation with any of them yet.
My name is Lex, the lone Scotsman of the dysfunctional family of misfits making the ridiculous attempt to save the broken world.
“There’s no need to look so glum.”
To my side was Carlie, my faithful Puerto Rican buddy who was also an outsider, sat there and aimed a warm smile at me. Ever since all of my University pals had tried to make me their next meal – bastard zombies – all I’d been armed with was an axe I found in an empty museum and steel gauntlets I’d pried from an abandoned house. Fortunately, I hadn’t been forced to make my first kill.
Well, yet, anyway.
“They’re fucking huddled among the fire and we’re freezing our balls to death fifty metres away!” I moaned, then proceeding to play around with the axe in my hands.
The temperatures in America were almost the same as Britain, if not a bit frostier. Carlie wrapped a blanket around my shivering figure and I mentally cursed her Puerto Rican advantage to withstand cold temperatures. But then again, I realised I’d rather be with her than the others at this moment in time. Carlie and I had had our many Skype calls every few days; we were used to each other’s habits.
“So what the hell are they talking about now?”
Carlie shrugged, but then had a sneaky smile etched across her face. She started to creep behind one of the cars we’d stolen on the highway two days ago and indicated me to do the same. As manic as she was, I had to oblige to Carlie’s latest scheme. We’d always wanted to hear what the Mayan Six were discussing. After all, weren’t they deciding the fate of the world?
Ditching the blanket, no matter how cold it was, I crept to Carlie’s left. So if these were our saviours that would save us from the zombies, we had to know what they were like. I knew what most of them were like, but what of the few we didn’t? Thinking on that, there had to be some kind of role for us both to play in assisting them.
Then again, I did have Mass Effect on the brain …
“Heading to Washington won’t be an effective plan,” Drake was saying.
“And you think my plan will go to shit then?” challenged Ami.
I was tempted to laugh at her sarcastic, but serious remark.
“No one’s questioning your authority, Ami,” said Dawn, offering her two pennies. “But this can’t be a dictatorship. Itzamna might be guiding you right now, but who knows if we’re going the right way? Didn’t Drake also say London is where the final battle will take place?”
“Yeah, but that’s not necessarily set in stone,” Marcus pointed out, jumping to Ami’s defence.
“And I think Washington might be a great start,” stated Mark, doing the same. “The world’s gone to shit, but think of the White House – there may be loads of resources there that could aid us.”
Mandi, however, was being quiet for once. She’d been very vocal in the direction where our group of survivors – or warriors, if you will – were heading, but the stress of not seeing her husband and son anywhere was beginning to take its toll. The other five looked at her for an opinion, but she shook her head and sat down with it in her hands.
Ami crossed her arms. “I think the majority has spoken.”
Drake didn’t give up, unfortunately. “Look, I know this has to be the six of us deciding what happens from here on out, but I still think Carlie and Lex need to start having a say.”
“What, to give you the advantage, eh?” joked Marcus.
“Marcus, fuck off, you Geordie twat,” he said, rolling his eyes in response.
“Bring it, man. I’ll get you.”
Dawn coughed. “Boys …”
Whilst the banter continued between, I turned my head in the direction of the final outsider of the group – Anne. We knew her commonly as Fangu, but for once, the Norwegian wanted to stick by her original name as if she were still clinging onto the old, unbroken world. She was sat on the back of a red pickup amongst the other vehicles. She was shivering and did not seem interested in our scheme nor what the Six were discussing.
We picked her up the day after they found me. She hadn’t said so much as two words, either. Perhaps something had happened to her and that was how she’d arrived here in America. What we did know was that she was all alone and had almost latched onto us the moment we found her.
“Fangu will be fine, Lex,” whispered Carlie, rubbing my shoulder to reassure me.
“I know, it’s just not like her,” I muttered desolately.
“There’s still the case of the traitor to deal with,” Mandi was saying.
Carlie and I turned our attention back to the Mayan Six, who were all eyeing each other carefully. We ducked down behind the car, hoping they hadn’t seen us. I’d heard Marcus muttering something about a traitor in his sleep before, but I didn’t know if it would ever be brought up in conversation. I shrugged in Carlie’s direction when she looked just as confused.
“And here was me thinking we were going to discuss this elsewhere,” remarked Drake.
Mandi crossed her arms against her chest defiantly. “Look, I agreed to come with you, but I only really want to find my husband and son. Do you think I want to go around the world to destroy zombies and save it when it owes me living!?”
“Everyone, let’s just calm down,” said Ami softly.
“Look, we’re all tired from the last horde that almost got us ten miles back,” stated Dawn. “Why don’t we get some rest? I’ll take the first watch with Drake and we can talk about this when we find somewhere more permanent.”
With everything settled, Carlie and I quickly crept back to where Anne was. She blankly looked down at us and then proceeded to stare back at the stars in the sky. Carlie went back to her routine of checking how many shotgun rounds she had – not that I wanted to be on the receiving end, the girl had quite the temper when Mandi was threatened – and I jumped on the back of the pickup to join in on Anne’s activities.
“Still don’t wanna talk?” I dared to ask.
She tried to concentrate on the sky, but slightly faltered at my question. It was as if there was something she wanted to tell me, but couldn’t bring herself to do so. Anne turned onto her left, facing away from me, pretending to sleep. I rubbed my eyes and checked the time on my watch. It was getting late after all; it was almost one in the morning. Before the whole chaos began, I would have deemed it too early to be going to bed. But with the new world, I just couldn’t take the risk.
Before I had the chance to close my eyes, however, Drake had made his way over to the pickup.
“I know you and Carlie were listening in before,” he said.
“You’re talking to me like you’re my dad or something,” I challenged.
“Look, Lex, I don’t want any trouble, mate, all right? But the world is going to end if we keep going at each other’s throats. I want you and Carlie – and even Anne – to have a say on what happens next. We might be these six holy warriors – in such a poorly written RPG, I might add – that are supposedly destined to save the world, but you three should be involved as much as you can.”
Was he trying to make peace?
Six days ago, when the Six and Carlie found me walking on the road in the middle of nowhere, I had the feeling Drake didn’t trust me. I knew he was still the same old Masa I’d spoken to on Skype before, but at the same time, he wasn’t. It was as if he’d transformed into this fearless warrior that was going to be do what was necessary to survive. I had to admit that he did look like a bad arse with his whip and twin Sais. The guy could have very well been fucking lethal …
But alas, maybe he really was trying to put the effort in.
“I appreciate the effort,” I half-smiled. “After all, some of us still want to graduate from Uni, despite the world going to shit in practically a couple of weeks.”
“Happy New Year to you, too, mate,” smirked Drake, shaking my hand when I offered it.
Drake may have made peace with me, but that did not deter the others from mistrusting me. I felt Mandi’s iron gaze over the next few days, almost as if she believed me to be this so-called traitor. It made me realise I had done nothing, but help in every way possible since I’d went off with the group. The same applied to Ami, Marcus and Mark, all of whom were trying hard not to interact with me – or Carlie – over that period of time.
On the other hand, Dawn was a little more trusting. She decided to take night watches with me while everyone else got some sleep. I was willing to do anything to be trusted.
Carlie was the same, but did not exactly possess the same level of enthusiasm. She only interacted with the Six when it was necessary and would spend any spare time with myself or Anne.
As for Anne, she was still not speaking. It didn’t necessarily make me think she was the traitor, but I found it suspicious how she hadn’t told anyone what had happened to her. Initially, we found her wandering a backwater town with nothing more than a Kahr K9 pistol and a three-sectional staff – ironically identical to the one Fang held in Final Fantasy XIII. There was no emotion in her eyes, nothing that told us anything about her ordeal. But I didn’t think her silence was dignified, either.
Despite all of this, suspicion was still hanging over my head like a broken halo.
As the days continued and the apprehensive glares continued, I felt more alone. Carlie was mostly keeping to herself and Anne, well … Anne was the same as she usually was. Drake still had my back and urged me to continue on, knowing I had nothing to worry about. He was trying to convince everyone to be nicer, to stop all the paranoia. It didn’t stop mine, however.
The same routines of shooting down zombies, moving place to place, eating, sleeping and stressing weren’t healthy. We were almost at the border of New Mexico and the only thing that excited me was if there was any Mexican food left over. However, we had to bear in mind it had been a mere few weeks since the phenomenon of December 21st. Even so, my stomach couldn’t take any more bread. Bread was disgusting.
“We’ll cross the border in the morning,” announced Ami.
The group had set up camp in the evening, just before the sun was setting. Along our way here, we’d taken – or stolen, if you preferred the normal term – some camping supplies, which meant we could sleep in tents now instead of the vehicles or even the ground. Night watches at borders were always tense, so I felt relieved when I realised it wasn’t my turn to take it …
“Drake, Mark, get the fire going,” ordered Ami. “Dawn, Mandi, gather the food supplies and let’s see what we have left. Carlie, you make sure Anne eats something. Lex, you’ll be taking the night watch with Marcus.”
I could’ve punched the bitch in the face.
“And what will you be doing, oh, fearless Mancunian leader?” I bit sarcastically.
“Securing the perimeter,” Ami said, rolling her eyes. “My target practice has gotten better, so it’s best if I make sure we’re not taken by surprise.”
“If it’s not too much of a problem, Ami, I don’t want to do the night watch. I did it last night.”
“You can do it again, Lex. You got plenty of rest on the way here, so unfortunately, you’re going to have to help out a bit more.”
This time, I wanted to lunge at her. Drake was there before I could even make the attempt. He took me aside privately in the woods and shook his head.
“She’s under a lot of pressure right now,” he muttered quietly and released me. “Things are getting really intense and she’s not sure which way to go.”
“I thought the outsiders were going to get a say?” I scoffed.
“And you will. Ami needs to get her head clear because if she can’t, then we’re all screwed. No one is going to dare take the leadership when she’s best for it.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Drake had an important point: no one really did want to take up the burden of leader. The Mancunian really did know what was best for now. Survival was essential to our little suicide mission to save the world and she was doing a superb job. After giving a comforting pat on the shoulder, Drake left to go back to the new camp and make the fire with Marcus. Night would be falling within the next hour or two if my watch was correct.
I took out the steel gauntlets from my bag and put them on, remembering that zombies could have been around the perimeter, even though Ami was currently securing it. Quite a few of those bastard creatures had been punched in the face with these hard core things. I smirked, vaguely recalling how I had been used as bait for numerous zombies, and had to bash them around for a few moments before Marcus and Drake tag teamed all the monsters.
With all that we’d been through as a group, it was hard to forget we were only human at the end of the day. However, now I didn’t know if that term applied to the chosen six I admired and feared.
Ever since that night when Carlie and I were listening in on them – despite Drake catching us, although I hadn’t told her that yet – it was hard not to ask exactly that.
It was also hard not to ask how the hell all of us had come together and not be in different groups with strangers. I could imagine that scenario instead of this, which made me wonder that fate had probably brought all of us together. With the Six being as they were, Carlie being close to Mandi and Anne still shut off in her own little comatose world, I was beginning to think that I wasn’t even special at all.
Perhaps not even significant to the cause …
Several minutes had passed by the time I realised I was heading deeper and deeper into the woods.
Had I really been thinking for that long? It was common to waste so much time thinking about life and what the future had in store, but this was unusual for me.
Suddenly, there was a loud rustle in the bushes and I was almost certain this was the end. I pulled out the axe from my belt and readied it in both hands. As I surveyed the area around me, I saw the swinging of a large object coming swiftly in the direction of my face and then nothing, but black.
It felt like an eternity had passed when I finally felt the stream of consciousness.
However, it was fruitless to say that everything was clear. It wasn’t. I remembered the white flashing lights glaring down at my weak, broken body. The blow to my head was harder than I’d initially anticipated, as it was still throbbing heavily. Wherever I had been laid down, it was comfortable. Was it a bed? I hadn’t slept on one of those in weeks. Even so, for the first time in my life, I was genuinely scared when I laid eyes on the needle on my right side.
“The test subject is awake, sir,” came an unfamiliar female, yet robotic voice. It was American; there was no doubt about that.
My vision adjusted when the lights were suddenly pointed away from my direction. I could see the woman who’d just spoken, staring at me emotionlessly through her smart glasses. Another man with glasses in the opposite direction was also studying me intensely. His posture reminded me of the ghastly Professor Hojo from Final Fantasy VII. What a sick bastard he turned out to be …
I saw him approaching and tried to get up, but noticed my hands and legs were cuffed to the bed. I struggled with all my might to no avail.
“There’s no need to panic,” said the man, his accent being English. “You’re perfectly safe here.” He looked at his colleague and then back at me. “You’ll have to excuse Linda; she uses the term ‘test subject’ loosely.”
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, YE BASTARDS!” I yelled.
“He’s Scottish? I thought he was English like you, sir?” enquired Linda.
“The majority of them are spread out throughout the United Kingdom, yes, but that includes Scotland.” The scientist – I knew that was what he was, what with the white lab coat – paced around the room as if he were pondering his next move. “But he’s the leader. Shadow squad was and still are certain of it.”
“I swear, I’m going to fucking cut your balls off when I get out of here!” I snarled.
“Relax, Alexander, no one is going to harm you,” he smirked.
“How the hell do you know my name?” I whispered.
Was this the part where I died and they were going to dissect me? I certainly hoped not. To come this far and for this to be the end was not the way I pictured it. I’d already lost so much back home and coming to America was my best shot. It was grim to remember how survivors had been evacuated on a plane, how complications had arisen in the air and we had to make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere in the States.
I remembered being discovered by the group and hesitantly taken in. I was always glad I never had to make an argument against them killing me or for letting me travel with them in the first place. The almighty Mayan Six had become reluctant to trust anyone since Carlie had joined them with Mandi. I could understand that, but I didn’t like to be singled out. Carlie, Anne and I had to stick together; it was the price we had to pay to remain with the others.
Throughout my musing, I noticed the man in charge hadn’t made an attempt to answer my question.
“So who the bastard hell are you then?” I growled.
“Johnson,” he replied quickly.
“Is it really that simple?” I spat furiously. “You knock me out stone cold, tie me up to a bed, think I’m someone I’m probably not and that’s all you give me!?”
“I work for an organisation that has taken a particular interest in you, Alexander,” continued Johnson, ignoring my previous outburst. He glanced at Linda, who was taking notes. “I suppose disclosing who we really are at the moment is unnecessary. Think of as … the Others, if you will. The Others that want to know what you really are.”
“Someone’s been hitting the bottle pretty hard since the world went to shit then,” I retorted.
“By now, I’m assuming they’re looking for you. Without their leader, the group will be lost, am I correct? After all, you’re the key: the one that’s holding everyone together – including the world. It was unfortunate it had to suffer Doomsday. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, or perhaps it could’ve happened hundreds of years ago, but was halted …”
Johnson was talking gibberish by now. However, I was beginning to understand something. He thought I was one of the Mayan Six, he thought I was the leader: Ami. As he kept droning on with himself, I cast a quick look at Linda. She kept surveying my reactions. I had to play this cool. I couldn’t let them know I knew about the Mayan Six because let’s face it, who really did? And I had to pretend I didn’t know them, too. This was going to be a difficult scenario to escape.
“… I always thought that the apocalypse would come, but no one believed me. No one thought that the brutal clash of the Mayan and Aztec culture would culminate once again. And yet, that clash is well hidden in history. Curses of zombies were easily hidden in the past, but the Others took an interest in the end-of-the-world phenomenon. They wanted to ensure the world would be ready, but it would be too hard to discover the six of you in a modern world –”
It was my turn to cut short the boring one-sided conversation.
“Johnson, I don’t know what the fuck you want, but I’m nothing special. I’m just a Glaswegian who wants nothing more than to keep on surviving. So! If you’d like to just let me go and we can forget this ever happened, aye?”
“You do not understand the fundamentals of this, Mr McKeever!” Linda said loudly, springing right up from her seat.
Wow, I hadn’t expected little Linda to pipe up.
“Linda, this is neither the time nor the place,” muttered Johnson.
“He’s trying to deny his heritage, Professor Johnson!” she protested. “Either he doesn’t know about it, or else he’s trying to get outta here. I can’t sit back and listen to you replay the same tactic, whilst he’s plotting a new one every few minutes.”
As the two entered a heated debate, I surveyed my surroundings. It was fortunate to see my steel gauntlets and axe were on the side. It surprised me more to see they were perfectly clean. Perhaps they’d tried to take DNA swabs for whatever testing they wanted to perform? Either way, it was an added bonus. It had been a bitch trying to get the zombie blood off the edge of the axe …
I pulled myself from my inner delight and focused. They were both distracted with one another and it presented a rare, perfect opportunity to get out. I was disappointed to see that one of my arms wasn’t as tight as the other. It annoyed me that I hadn’t noticed this before, but shook my head and started to wriggle my right hand out of there, also paying close attention to the needle on the side, too. If I couldn’t get to my weapons, maybe that was an option I could’ve taken.
My hand became loose, but I looked back at the two doctors, professors, whatever they wanted to be nowadays, to make sure they were still distracted. Linda had taken to walking out and reporting Johnson to their superiors. Johnson hadn’t even taken a second glance at me, as he ran after her.
Perfect! Talk about awesome.
Before I knew it, I was free from the bed and wiping the dirt on my clothes. I noticed my phone amongst my personal belongings and noticed that a text message had been sent to it. How was this possible? I was almost certain all communications were down after the apocalypse had spread from Japan.
Get out now. Bastards will be back soon. Walk out the door and await directions. – MD
There was no number. And I had no idea what MD stood for. There was no I knew personally or from our group of survivors that possessed those initials. But I had to be a fool not to take the advice. At this moment in time, I was ready to accept any help to get out of this hellhole.
I put on one of the gauntlets, held my axe in the same hand, placed the other gauntlet in my bag and held the phone in my spare hand. Slowly creeping out the door, the hallway was visibly quiet. I felt like an idiot waiting outside the door when anyone could come back and get me to surrender right there and then. Fortunately, my phone vibrated again – I’d turned the bastard thing onto vibrate only, didn’t want any fucker hearing my Mass Effect ringtone – and the elusive MD had sent me my second text of the day.
Janitor’s closet is down the hall to your right at the end of the corridor. Security is distracted right now. Move quickly and quietly. Get in the closet and get to the computer. – MD
First, they were able to send texts to my phone and now they could get in touch via a computer? I was beginning to think my mysterious saviour was a hacker for some odd reason. Pushing the questions out of my mind, I did exactly what they wanted me to. I crept down the hallway, trying to make as little noise as possible.
When it seemed I was about to reach the janitor’s closet, my phone went off again.
Abort. Go to the door on your left. Remain in there. Security investigating breach. Will be safe there. – MD
A breach could have meant the death of me. But I was willing to abide by what they were telling me and almost sprinted into the nearest door. I closed it behind me and noticed it was a small, unused office. I saw a desktop computer that was gathering dust. The screen turned on and a message appeared.
Lock the door behind you. No one will look in here, is a storage room. – MD
I silently obeyed and locked the door quietly. I put my bag down and sighed frustratingly.
“Ok, who the fuck are you?” I whispered.
Who I am is of no important at the moment, your survival is. The security breach was unexpected, but it is your friends. They have come to rescue you. – MD
I had to admit: it was very strange talking to a computer.
“Do you know who they really are?”
They are the Mayan Six, destined to save the world from the virus that threatens to wipe humanity out. You are right to not trust the Others; they only want the Six to further their cause. – MD
“What cause?”
To take advantage of the broken world and rebuild it in their own image. They believe that the Six will save the world with a cure. – MD
“A cure … what’s the cure?”
This information cannot be disclosed where you are most vulnerable. Only you will discover the cure for yourself, but it is not the right time to uncover it. – MD
“How much do you know about the Mayan Six?”
History has not only hidden the Mayan and Aztec clash; it has also disclosed the Mayan Six that would scatter across the world and keep their respective culture alive. Their existence would remain secret in the hope that should the Aztec use the curse again, they would be ready. That time is now. – MD
“A curse? You’re saying the apocalypse is a curse?”
This information has only been exclusive to the Others thus far, but now the information is passed onto you. It will be displayed here, but it will also be transferred to your phone. Please await the file transfer. – MD
Things started to make sense that day. Amidst all the chaos that was happening in the Others’ facility, someone out there in the world was helping me escape and informing me of the relevant information needed to aid the Six. I could finally feel like I was full of worth to them at last.
Standby for the information, this is going to be a lot to take in. – MD
At the heart of Aztec religion lay the belief that in the past the world had been created and demolished by the gods four times. At the end of each era, the sun was destroyed and the earth depopulated. Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, and his twin Xolotl journey in the Fifth Sun, to the underworld land of Mictlan, the lowest of the nine underworlds, ruled by the god of death; in order to restore humankind to life, from the bones of those who had lived in the previous four eras. By dripping his blood onto bones, human resurrection began. Men therefore, are the children of Quetzalcoatl.
Aztecs believed that it was their sacred duty to provide the gods with ‘chalchiuhuatl’, a precious form of nectar found in human blood. To the Aztecs, the human heart was the symbol of life itself, and Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, needed to be fed both blood and human hearts, so he would not wreak his anger on the Aztec people. Feeding the sun was the warriors’ business for the offerings were prisoners of war. Quetzalcoatl, the compassionate god, was rarely offered human sacrifice.
Humankind was thus born from the sacrifice of the gods themselves. And this gift had to be repaid in the blood of sacrifice. The Aztecs believed they were the “chosen people” and that the end of the world could be avoided by “feeding” the sun human blood and flesh. The cycle of life on earth; birth, death and regeneration was recreated with a level of human sacrifice never before approached by other civilisations, which at its height sacrificed as many as 20,000 victims at a time.
Sacrificial victims were believed to have become sacred. Eating their flesh was the act of eating the god itself. This communion with superior beings was an important aspect of Aztec religion. Exactly how common its practice remains an area of dispute among academics.
The fate of a man after death depended not on how he lived but on how he died. Sacrificial victims and battle casualties could go to a heaven associated with the sun and later be reborn as hummingbirds and butterflies.
“What the … what … what the fuck is this?” I whispered, almost disgusted.
This is the official history of the curse. The information does not explicitly state it is a curse, but a series of sacrifices made to the gods for their reincarnation. The terms “hummingbirds” and “butterflies” are incorrect. The Aztecs believed that as the “chosen people”, they had to extend their sacrificial rituals as a horrific curse that infected the weakest of humans and transform them into the creatures you have already witnessed. – MD
Zombies.
“And what about the Others?”
They interpreted this information and chose not to relay it to the necessary authorities. Many would agree they would not take the history of an ancient curse seriously. The last time this happened was almost three hundred years ago and was ended by the Mayan, Jacinto Canek. – MD
“Ok, Jacinto Canek – download his history to my phone? I don’t think the Others are going to want to know his contribution to this whole shit.”
The relevant information was added to your phone alongside the curse file. Your friends are coming down the corridor to the janitor’s closet. Go and reunite with the Six. – Medic Droid
With the unveiling of my informant’s name, I realised this was the last message I’d be receiving for a while. Pocketing my phone in my bag, I heaved it over my shoulders and wore the other gauntlet on my spare hand. Axe in hands, I slowly crept out of the office and readied myself.
“PUT YOUR HANDS UP!”
A series of guns were pointed in my direction, as I found my back against the wall. There were soldiers – security, I was assuming, aha – pointing their rifles. I gulped slightly, but only slightly lost grip of my axe. Had Medic Droid just messed up my escape, or were they leading me into a trap?
“I SAID PUT YOUR HANDS UP!”
I just couldn’t understand my streak of bad luck. The group didn’t trust me, I was an outsider, a case of mistaken identity, kidnapping, the worst migraine ever, a glimmer of false hope and an inevitable capture … had I endured years of wasted pain for my life to end this way? My “friends” weren’t coming like Medic Droid said. I couldn’t stop a tear flowing down my cheek.
Once my axe and bag were lowered, I put my hands on my head. I’d wanted to open up to the Six more than anything. Whilst I thought it wouldn’t happen in that moment, I felt glad that at least Drake had given me the chance to do that. I looked into the eyes of the soldiers, seeing they were determined to take me dead or alive. Whatever choice they made did not matter to me anymore.
Just like a moth drawn to the flame, I was pulled into the danger of this new world.
