Eating my experiences (26)

TOME 31

My lungs were still inundated by phlegm when we started our journey again leave me dependent on my inhaler and coughing with each incline. My throat sore and jagged as the cold air bristled past it, sometimes leaving me gagging. Zach looked like a shell of his former self, not quite recovered. We didn't speak much for the first day back on our feet, but that seemed to be what each of us wanted.

I allowed myself to meticulously remember stories once heard during my life before the collapse. I wandered through old creepypastas and SCP files in my head, ignoring my surroundings. There was little else to do, simply walking straight on an abandoned path. The days passed in a haze before we got to Santa Cruz, and my anxiety spiked, leaving my daydreams in the dust of the beaten path we had taken.

"Okay, I think we should try going straight to my old apartment and get Gabe's head" I knew it would be dangerous to wander through the town with Zach in tow, but couldn't bring myself to cleave out group into pieces. My friends somberly nodded their heads and we began toward my former abode, weaving through back streets to make our way into downtown.

We approached the apartments with their overgrown ivy and slipped in as quickly as we could. As we walked everything seemed too still and the air was filled with a putrid smell I would never forget, the smell of rot and dead things. I couldn't help but gag, leaving a small spot of bile at the entrance to one of the staircases. I plodded on on shaking legs hoping to see a preserved head of my dead loved one, knowing full well that was unrealistic.

We rounded the corner up the stairs to my old apartment, my neighbors door splintered open, along with the doors above me, along with my door. I carefully swung the door open, my heart beating in my throat, my head swimming. The apartment was thrashed, down to the mattress being flipped and standing on end against the closet, all clothes scattered across the floor and dishes broken against a wall. I swallowed my sorrow before running to the back balcony.

My heard sank into my stomach as I saw my plants withered and smashed, clothed and pans thrown over the short wall containing my old balcony, but no Gabe. All that was left of him was a stain on the wood. I already felt my strength leaving me, my limbs tied to the ground with boulders of despair. Zach came behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"We should probably get out of here" Alex murmured, holding a shard of my favorite mug. I collected myself, wiping my eyes of threatening tears before leaping up, determination filling me.

"You're right, I'm going to the militia apartments, I think they have Gabe, and I need to kill whatever zombie ate him." Anger began boiling inside me. I leapt down the stairs two at a time, bounding out the front gate, wild and wheezing. My friends scurried out behind me, Alex seeing the impending doom I may create to simply feel better. Alex stepped forward cautiously, hand outstretched to placate me, but I side stepped away from him before whirling away, darting toward the apartments we hardly escaped the last time.

My friends knew better than to plead with me, knowing only that it wouldn't help. I took an alley that backed into the fire escapes we had gotten to know so well. I grabbed the first ladder flailing as I pulled myself up the six some odd feet to where it was. Alex followed suit, and Zach behind him, but Zach was uncharacteristically weak, uncharacteristically tired, sluggish.

When Zach reached the first floor a twinge of fear struck me as I realized he was not at all better from our shared illness, but it was short lived as I needed to find Gabe, and I needed to extinguish him. A thought I had hoped never to have, I only allowed it to burden me a moment before sweeping up the second ladder and into the window. The musty stench of zombies filled the halls as I knew the strange experiments took place in here, but where to start?

I began by checking the doors, one by one, with no particular order, spiritic and panicked, sweat lubricating my palms. The first door that opened was filled with zombies on gurneys, flesh held open, brains exposed, neck flesh removed, guts spilling out. I approached one suddenly realizing there was little way for me to know which body encased the mind I once loved so much. Letting out the first gasp of a sob, alerting the zombies to my presence. Three zombies eyes snapped open, staring at me as the shock set in, they were all alive.

I backed up in a panic bumping into a table with a sprawling zombie on it, brain picked apart and oozing. It grabbed me before letting loose a pained wail that filled the hallways with the curse of attention. I could hear several pounding footsteps coming through the hall, filling me with a fear that took on its own life. Shadows stretched up the walls, threatening to take me away before I hid under the table closest to me, leaving Zach and Alex to fend for themselves.

Alex made it to a hiding place, but Zach had an untimely coughing fit, bringing him to his knees. The group of guards entered the room clumsily, seeing Zach coughing and gagging on the floor. "Well, isn't that interesting?" One said stepping forward, grabbing Zach by his hair to tilt his head up. "The boss will overjoyed to see you again." He hissed, grabbing Zach by the cheeks before spitting on him. The guards gathered him in their arms before whisking him out of the room, grunting and coughing as he went.

TOME 32

Alex and I waited a small moment for the room to clear before sneaking behind them in the hopes of eventually rescuing our friend a second time. We tip toed through the hall, hiding behind doors and holding our breath. We eventually got to the end of the hall, where the boss stood tall and proud, a confident smile crossing her face.

"Oh, there you are, my precious play thing...hmmm. Shall I kill you or zombify you?" She asked with a small poke to his nose with her finger, allowing herself to giggle lightly. Zach only coughed, only wheezed. "Eh, you're gonna die no matter what, huh? I think I'll just...eat you." She let a vindictive laugh fly through the air before removing a chisel and mallet from her bag, cracking his skull open as his shrieks split the world between us. She carefully picked up pieces of his brain with her long, elegant nails.

"I'm too civilized to gnash at a skull like the others." She said playfully winking in my direction. "I see you there, silly girl, thank you for bringing me my little play thing." I fell back, fear and even more loss plaguing me as the world spun, and I fainted.

TOME 33

The world came back to me in red velvets and silks, and the enchanting voice of the head boss singing, sitting at a vanity while holding a small chunk of brain in her right hand. "Ah, you're awake, silly. I figured I'd take care of you for a little for bringing me that tasty little thing. Keep you as a pet of sorts" She trilled with the wind chime of a laugh. I will admit, she was enchanting in her silken robes, and her candle lit room. She had long straight brown hair, satin and soft, pale skin peppered with freckles, and the most alluring green eyes. I couldn't help but be a little entranced.

"You have my friend in there, right?" I asked timidly, sitting up on the red velvet couch and pushing the satin blanket off my lap. "In your brain, I mean." She allowed me another of her melodic laughs.

"Why yes, why do you think I see your allure, pet?" She had crossed the room, pulling my chin up with her knuckle. "You really do have nice skin, don't you." She said as if hers wasn't radiant, you would never guess she was actually dead. I allowed myself to enjoy hey, to watch her move with grace for a long while before speaking again. I watched her brush her hair, and apply creams to her face as she hummed.

"May I have some water?" I asked in an somewhat absent voice.

"Oh dear, sorry, I had forgotten you living folk need water, silly me, I'll have some brought to you right away." I was surprised at how kind she appeared to be and suddenly understood why Zach was in no rush to leave. when a small being I could almost call a child had it not decomposed so intensely came in bearing water just moments later. As I sipped it the cool water calmed the rough soreness of my throat.

"Oh, uh...where is Alex, the dude that was with me?" I was ashamed that it took me so long to think of him, leaving him to wait in the back of my mind.

"Oh him, I decided to keep him intact for you" She said beaming as though that were worthy of the Nobel peace prize. "Zach told me he's rather important to you, so you can keep him as long as you're good."

"O-oh, okay, uh...thank you...what should I call you by the way?" I asked somewhat confused by this sudden transition.

"Oh silly me, you can call me Mel ,but my name is Melinoë. I named myself after the goddess of nightmares." Another cascade of giggles, she sure seemed a happy person and I found myself entranced by it's beauty, but the sudden shift of tides to something more palatable.

TO BE CONTINUED...