I don't own any of this Paranorman belongs to Laika, all other characters belong to their respectful companies. And The Stand belongs to Stephen King.
June 27
Raz found himself in the middle of a cornfield. He knew that it was a dream as his psychic abilities told him that it was, but it was rather odd.
He figured that with the horrors he faced in the facility, he would be having a nightmare, but instead Raz is rather having a nice peaceful dream with the sound of someone playing a beautiful melody of a guitar in the background.
Raz fallows the song to a one story house, from the edge of the field Raz could see an elderly woman playing in a rocking chair on a porch. The woman stopped playing upon noticing him standing at the edge of the cornfield, as for Raz he can feel a strong psychic energy coming from her.
That shouldn't be right as this is a dream and dream people don't give off psychic energy of any kind. "Hey there young psychonaut, what kept you?" The woman question.
"I've been lost in the corn." Raz replied.
"Praise God, that you were able to find your way out." The woman smiled.
"Who are you madam?"
Abigail Freemantle, but people around here call me Mother Abigail. You gotta come see me lad, bring all your friends."
"I don't understand madam? See you where?" Raz asked for he is really confused, was this a dream or what?
The whole area suddenly disappeared into a black void, Mother Abigail's voice calls out from everywhere. "Hemingford Home, Nebraska. If I'm not there, you must go to Boulder, Colorado."
"Nebraska? Colorado? Why do I need to go there?" Raz's question echoed through the black void with no answer.
Raz awoken in his bunk slowly, he sits up wondering about that weird dream. Raz didn't know what to think of it, why was that woman giving off such a strong psychic energy? What was the purpose of that dream? Most importantly, why did he have the urge to head towards that location the woman has given him?
This is something that Raz couldn't understand. Perhaps Lili would know some answers about this phenomenon, but as Raz got out of bed and to the door he is visibly nervous.
The superflu struck the facility hard. Raz and Lili were surprised to learn that they were immune to it, which was a great relief. But that didn't spare them from watching the facility workers get sicker and sicker then drop like flies from it, until eventually he and Lili were the only ones left.
Opening the door Raz is met with the horrible smell of death, then upon exiting his room he is met with dead bodies, spread out through the hall in various positions.
Raz clenches his nose to keep out that putrid smell, he looks in both directions as he tried to figure out which way to go in order find Lili. Raz eventually picks the mess hall as that place virtually had no bodies lying around.
Walking down the hallway, Raz passes many bodies, he passes a control room where bodies either lie on the floor or are slumped over from where they were working. Raz also passes by the restrooms; in there a female is slumped over with her head in the toilet.
Raz is getting close to the mess hall, as he does Raz felt a disturbance in his psyche. "Something's wrong."
Raz focused in on the trouble, he gasped as it's Lili who's in trouble.
Lili stood in the middle of the mess hall in a fighting stance, but it was a difficult situation where she doesn't want to fight. "Sasha! It's me Lili Zanotto!"
Sasha stood in front of her with the tables floating around him thanks to his telekinesis powers. Sasha is in the deep stages of the superflu, he swayed as he struggled to keep himself upright.
Sasha coughs loudly, the tables bounces to stay in midair as his powers weren't up to their full strength. The superflu also gave him delusions, so he was seeing Lili as an old enemy he used to fight. "I'll defeat you! You'll won't cause any more trouble once I'm through with you!"
Lili is placed in a difficult spot, she didn't want to fight Sasha as she knew that he wasn't himself, but she had to defend herself from him. She jumped out of the way as Sasha threw the tables at her, the tables crashed loudly with some breaking apart.
Sasha then rabidly fired several PSI Blasts, Lili jumped and dodged each blast. "Sasha, You gotta get a hold of yourself!"
"You won't trick me again!" Sasha reached out with his hand, Lili is stopped in her tracks, she fruitlessly grabbed her neck as something wrapped around it while also being lifted into the air.
"Sasha please." Lili cried out.
Sasha gritted his teeth in anger and tightens his grip. Lili chocked while struggling to breath, her face began to turn blue, her eyes rolled up, and she can see darkness surrounding her vision.
Suddenly the tight grip around her throat is released, Lili dropped to the ground coughing as air returned to her lungs. "Lili, are you alright?"
Lili looked up to Raz who's knelt down in front of her, she scans the area and found Sasha lying next to the wall. Lili turned back to Raz clearly terrified over this whole ordeal. "Raz! Sasha nearly choked me to death!"
"It's a good thing I came in here and used a PSI-Punch. Though I didn't like using it on him." The two looked over at Sasha, he clearly wasn't breathing, it looked like Raz's attack is what finally did him in.
Lili gets back up to her feet, she coughs for more air, her throat hurts very much. "Come on, let's go somewhere less sad." She spoke in a raspy voice, Lili grabbed Raz's hand then lead him out from the mess hall and away from Sasha who had blood flowing out of his mouth.
The two went to the front lobby of the facility. Here you have to be checked in and out by the guy who's assigned to it, but Raz and Lili walked past with no trouble what's so ever as the guy is leaning back against his chair with his mouth gaping open in what looked like a frozen scream.
The two sat on some chairs, then after getting some-what over on what had happened with Sasha earlier, Raz proceeded to tell Lili about the strange dream he had.
"So what do you think of it?" Raz asked her.
Lili thought about it, it's definitely a rather peculiar dream that her boyfriend experienced. "Well, I don't know what to say as I've never experienced such a thing. But perhaps it means something, considering you stated that the woman in your dream gave out such a strong psychic energy."
"So what are you saying? We travel all the way down to Nebraska to see if this woman in your dream is real?"
Lili softly shrugs. "I don't know." Lili looked over to the dead man behind the glass. "But you know what? I rather go out and see, then stay in this place that stinks of rotting bodies."
"It's going to be a rather long journey." Raz stated, he felt rather uneasy about this. Lili places a hand on his shoulder, looking over to his girlfriend, Raz saw her giving him a reassuring smirk. "Come on Raz. We're psychonauts. Perhaps the only two psychonauts that are left in the world. We can handle anything that's whatever's left out there."
"You think so?"
Lili's smirk grew wider. "I know so."
Thinking hard, Raz knew that they had to leave the facility, there is no doubt about that question, but to actually travel to Nebraska because of that weird dream, now that was totally a different question all together. But hey, since they obviously had nothing else to do or no further missions, he might as well give it a shot.
"Alright Lili, but when should we go?"
"Now should be fine."
"Really?" Raz question.
Lili nodded. "Why not? We got plenty of daylight, plus I really wanna get out of here."
"Alright, well let's get the hell out of here then." The two got up from their seats, they exited through the metal doors of the facility right into the outside world, breathing in the fresh air that made them forget about the horrible stench of the dead.
The two stood on top of the steps, looking out into the parking lot where parked cars will never be driven by their owners again. Beyond the parking lot is the Michigan wilderness.
Raz turns to Lili, "You ready for this?" Lili turns to him with that smirk. "Ready as I'll ever be."
Gripping each other's hands the two went down the stairs of the facility. From on top of the roof, the crow watched the two go out into a world devastated by the superflu. The crow caws several times, then flies off for the opportunity that it has been waiting for is finally here.
