By Soshika
Chapter Three
I was having the nightmare again.
It only happened once in a great while, like a cloudy day on this baked world. Once in a long time, but it was too soon every instance. I could never be ready for the nightmare, and it was the same every time. Conquering it was useless. Pointless. And so, I faced my nightmare headon, without a hope to tame it. Ever. My only hope was that when it was finished, it would release me back into the real world as it did every time.
There was always a chance it wouldn't let me go.
I was standing alone in a vast baked wasteland, but the sand was red and caked tight. Cracked, like a flash flood had run through. Everything was tinted red, as if a paintbrush dipped in blood had swept over the landscape sloppily as if guided by a child. First there was nothing before me, then there were sounds. Far off sounds, and the wind pulled at my hair and coat. My breath caught in my throat because I knew what was coming next. Like a terriable monster rising out of the sand, I knew what was next.
An echo of a child's laugh danced across the landscape, echos of dogs barking. This was what drew me in every time. For a moment the world flushed slightly blue, but the heat only intensified. The echos grew louder, clearer, hammering in my head until they weren't echos anymore they were voices! Voices directly behind me, and this time I knew they had to be real, they had to be alive....No! Clenching my hands at my sides into fists, my arms shook inside the jacket sleeves. I squinted my eyes shut and gritted my teeth. "No, I know what I'm going to see..."
Blinking open my eyes the landscape had turned around me. I was facing a city, a city bathed in red. The clouds above swirled in a hellish vortex as if some massive demon was being released onto this world. Husks of shattered buildings, their componants scattered across what used to be a street like building toys of some reckless child. The laughing was gone all that was left was an echo, a mournful wailing far away echo. A scream, a laugh, a crying? I couldn't tell, I couldn't know, but the city's destruction burned into my eyes, swathed in red. The wind moaned and tugged at my knees.
Then the people began to move. Broken, burnt, torn up people lumbering without purpose, their eyes sunken in and their mouths slack. They looked like corpses, corpses moving across the wasteland yowling in a far away sound. A zombie army of the living dragging themselves out of the destroyed city, their cloths and hair and faces all tainted red, a swirling flowing red. Their hands were like claws, and they groped through thin air for any purchase like blind rats on a table ledge.
"N...No..." The word escaped my lips like it did every time as my body began to shake. The first of the faces turned towards me, its head lolling to one side in some sort of farce on an owl. Cracked and dried, the person...its tongue spilled out of its mouth as it forced a step towards me. A rasping hiss like wind through machinery clawed its way out of the creature's throat as others mimiced it and began to stagger towards me. My eyes were wide open now.
The hard ground hit my knees as I fell, but I sank slightly. Cracked and dry the ground might have been, but it was soft with soaked blood. My hands were trembling so I could barely hold myself still as the walking dead began to close in on me, moaning and grasping as if I could do something. "No," I rasped out and shut my eyes, grabbing the sides of my head and writhing my fingers through my hair to try to shut them out. "No, I can't help you damnit! You're all dead! I can't save the dead!"
Spidery hands grabbed at me, pulled and tore at my cloths and face and I screamed, screamed and kicked....
"Hey! Wake u-OW!"
With a gasp, I jolted awake in my own sleeping roll. Moving one hand swiftly over my chest, face, arms...I checked to make sure I was all there, that the creatures hadn't torn me up. I sighed when I realized I'd been let go, again.
"Jeez, you don't need to hit so hard in your sleep you know," Lighting quick reflexes jumped awake and the barrel of the silenced pistol was aligned with the nose of he who had awakened me. He blinked green eyes twice before I realized it was the blonde guy I'd met earlier. Oh, that was right. We were travelling together. Glaring and twirling the gun around my finger on its trigger, I caught it by the barrel and held it back. The idiot. What did he want now?
"You alright kid, you sounded like you were havin a nightmare."
The gun was in his face again. "Don't call me kid."
If his tone was anything but mock-afraid, I had a hard time placeing it. The blonde man had no fear. He'd dodged three bullets, but that had been long range. This close? Hmph. Well, we'd just have to wait and see. "Whoa, sorry. Just wanted to know if there's anything I can do."
I snorted air through my nose and lay back quickly, folding my hands behind my head, trigger finger resting along the side of the gun. "You can start by shutting up and going back to sleep."
For a moment he sat up looking at me before folding his own arms behind his head and laying back down. "Moody. See ya in the morning."
A faint smile tugged at my face as I stared up at the stars and dual moon circling above. How many more nightmares were there? And what did any of them mean?
Only time would let me know, and it was very good at keeping its secrets until they were due.
