A Man Out Of Time
By MarqueeMoonGirl
part FOUR : The Dream's Dream
---
It gets hard
The memory's faded
Who gets what they say
It's likely they're just jealous and jaded
Well maybe I don't want to take advice from fools
I'll just figure everything is cool
Until I hear it from you
---
"Son of a bitch, let go!" Grunting, Mud tried to pry the creature's grip off his arm. The zombie had him in a surprisingly strong hold. It quickly brought the teenager's limb to its own mouth, and he felt the zombie attempt to chew through the leather of the jacket. Curling the fingers of his free arm into a fist, he rammed it into the zombie's face. He felt the weak bone break, removing the zombie's jawbone from the rest of its face. The zombie stared at Mud for a second, then it howled loudly again, the call echoing.
Noodle was on her feet, and swiftly decapitated the zombie with a flick of her katana.
Suddenly, another zombie was on him. And another, and another, and another. They kept streaming up from the landfill until his sight was completely filled with nothing but cannibalistic zombies, separating him and Noodle. The undead clawed at his face and hands with their long nails and were trying to chew through his clothing. All of them stared hungrily at him with dead, clouded eyes, or if their eyeballs had decomposed, empty black sockets.
The blue-haired man inside the studio had empty sockets for eyes too. Despite his current situation, Mud suddenly wondered what had happened to that man's eyes.
He tried to wrench himself out of their grip, but if it had been difficult to escape from one determined zombie, it was impossible to escape from a hungry flock of them. They yanked and jerked him around, as if they meant to split him in two, which was very possible.
One long nail ran across his temple to his ear vigorously, drawing blood. The zombie responsible for the cut eagerly bent over, trying to work a fingernail into the cut, preparing to tear Mud's face off his skull.
"Mud-kun!" Noodle was furiously hacking away at the teeming mass of zombies crowded around him with her katana. He could hear Noodle's sword cut through the air with a humming sound, slicing through several zombie's necks. But it wouldn't be enough. There were too many for her to handle at once, she's never get to him in time.
Mud suddenly became aware of the fact that he was going to die. It was going to be painful, it was going to be messy, and when it was over, the only sign he'd been here at all would be a smear of blood on the base of the demon statue with a colossal penis.
"NO!" Noodle shouted.
A rippling pain shot through him.
Then there was nothing.
---
The doors to Kong Studios opened slightly. A hand quickly threw out a lit homemade bomb, and hastily shut the triple-reinforced door again. With a blinding flash, the device went off, causing the zombies to scatter. When the last one had crawled back into the landfill, Murdoc, 2D and Russel opened the door and ran out.
"Where's Noodle?" 2D said frantically, three seconds away from breaking down into tears. "I don't see her! Where is she?"
"And there isn't a sign of adolescent Murdoc either." Russel said, then clenched his hands around the flashlight. "Goddamn it, I heard her yell! If we'd come out sooner, maybe they'd still be here."
"Russ, Noodle may be able to handle a wild pack of zombie by herself, but we can't. The bomb was the only way we could break 'em up quickly." Murdoc said coolly.
Russel glared at Murdoc. "You look pretty calm for someone whose very existence is being threatened by all of this. I mean, if Little Murdoc goes bye-bye, you go bye-bye too."
Murdoc shrugged. "So what?"
---
Mud was having a nightmare.
He was tied down to a stone altar with heavy metal chains, the demon statue glaring down at him. Thousands of zombie hands were clawing at him, ripping off large bloody chunks of flesh. Mud yelled and screamed. Pushing through the hands, Noodle tried to undo the chains, but her translucent hands went through them instead. Still tearing at the chains, she faded out of sight. His hands strained outwards, against the metal chains. "Don't go!" he cried.
The statue abruptly shifted into the form of the older Murdoc. From the statue's pedestal above the altar, Murdoc leered at the teenager, his elongated tongue hanging out of his mouth. Around his neck hung a large gold inverted crucifix on a thin chain, which dangled mockingly over the teenager's forehead as the older man leaned down to speak to him.
"You'll get used to it, Murdoc. You can't imagine how fast all of this will become second nature to you."
From behind his back, the older Murdoc pulled a knife with a razor-sharp steel blade. With a cruel grin, he plunged it down into the teenager's chest.
"Murdoc. Hey." Someone was shaking his shoulder. "Didn't hear you come in. How was the concert?"
He opened his eyes.
Mud was in his friend's apartment, lying facedown on top of the pile of blankets. Bright morning sunshine poured through the window, lighting up the clock. Twenty-six minutes past eight.
The owner of the apartment he'd been sleeping in that night, Mike Hell, gaped back at him. His long brown hair was still messy and uncombed, which meant he had just woken up. "Whoa, man. What happened last night?"
"What?" Mud said, still bleary. "What do you mean?"
"Yer face. Looks like you got mugged or something; it's all scratched." Joe frowned. "Eh. Whatever. It's none of my business." Shaking his head, Mike left the small room, and a few minutes later, Mud could hear him snoring again on the sofa.
"Scratched?" Mud asked quietly. His hands trembling, he slowly traced a thick gash across the side of his face with his fingers. Even when he touched it lightly, it stung like a mother. He grimaced. There went the whole 'it was only a dream' theory. How the fuck had he ended up back in Mike's apartment? He'd been a minute or two from certain death at the rotting hands of zombies.
"…is he gone?" The stereo system asked.
"Gah!" He rolled off the temporary bed. What the Hell was that? Warily, he stared at the cabinet where Mike housed his cassette deck, radio receiver and turntable. In the past twenty-four hours, he'd had enough weird shit to last him a lifetime.
Noodle poked her head out from behind the speakers of the expansive set-up. "Mud-kun?" Her mouth pulled upwards into a glad smile. "You're all right!"
"Yeah. I guess I am." Mud said. Considering he'd kept all his major body parts and had only minor cuts and bruises after a massive zombie attack, he was doing pretty well. "How 'bout that?" He grinned.
Noodle, covered in dirt and zombie guts, darted out from behind the stereo and hugged him. Then she began to cry.
Shocked for a moment, Mud quickly came to his senses and patted her back.
Quietly sobbing, Noodle put her head against his chest. She could hear his heart beat, and could feel his chest move gently as he breathed in and out. "I was afraid for you." Noodle said, looking up at Mud. "I don't like being afraid." Looking down, she said "You are very brave."
Mud squeezed her shoulders. "Brave? I was fuckin' terrified, love."
Love.
Noodle let that one word drift through her brain for a moment. "Mud-kun," she said quietly. "Do you love me?"
The question took the teenager by surprise, but then he grinned, once again revealing his pointed teeth. Without a word, Mud brought her chin up with his fingers, their eyes meeting. For a moment, green eyes, still wet from crying, looked into the red-and-black ones. Then Mud closed his eyes and brought his lips to hers. Blushing furiously, Noodle closed her eyes as well and tilted her head back slightly, accepting the kiss.
Noodle let her body melt against the teenage boy's. Her first kiss. She wished that time would stand still and let her have this moment forever.
He was the one who broke off the kiss. "That's a 'yes', by the way." Mud said.
"Obviously, silly Mud-kun." Noodle said playfully, tousling his hair.
END : part FOUR
MarqueeMoonGirl SEZ: Awwww. How cute. Once again, a big thank you to my reviewers. I love seeing what people think of my story.
The chapter title comes from Television's 'Adventure' album (they have such great names for their songs), while the lyrics are the Gin Blossoms 'Till I Hear It From You'.