Chapter 10: Dreams

A little boy is walking down a steep incline in a cave. Random bits of phospherous and softly glowing lichen. Though it is a place of slithering serpents, shadows, and ancient rot, the child is unaffraid. In fact the child is happily playing and skipping merrily along.

He hadn't visited mother in ever so long and he missed her quite terribly. She'd been feeling poorly of late and he'd come to cheer her up.

Down, down into the earth the happy child of light skipped into the darkness. He stopped skipping only when he heard crying. Soft sobs, and softer whispered words of pain.

He ran into the room and skidded to a stop when he saw his mother crying. His lips refused to work for a moment as he stared at this sight. She'd always been so happy and filled with love. A love she shared for everything that walked or crawled.

"Mother? Why are you crying?" the little boy asked. His chocolate brown orbs shining in the darkness, as he too started to cry a little.

She stopped suddenly and looked at him a small smile crossing her lips. "Hope! It's been so long my sweet boy, where have you been?"

The little man in training smiled happily upon seeing his mother smile back and said, "I've just been playing with friends! I'm sorry, have I been making you sad by not being around more mother?"

The matronly woman who was now revealed to be quite stunning in her beauty truly smiled this time, the tears beginning to dry a little. "Oh bless your little heart sweety, you've been trying to cheer up the other children?"

"Yep! They seemed to need it too, they're always sad and depressed and even fighting each other. It's so sad mother. I'm sorry I haven't been around as much.. please don't be sad! I think i'd die if you kept being sad!" exclaimed the little boy before running over to hug his mother.

The smile on the woman's face beamed brightly, actually seeming to light up this chamber in the earth.

Her smile died down a little a moment later though, "Your brothers have been playing with the other children too, sweety.. but I think maybe they've been a bit rough."

The little boy pulled away and slowly forming tears began to edge around his eyes, "Those big bullies are always so mean to them. Hmph! They always think they know best."

Mother smiled at her sweet little hope and said, "Well, sometimes they do go a little overboard don't they honey? Maybe you should go talk to them? Your older brother Silence isn't that far away. i'm sure he'd love to see you?"

Hope winced and drew back a little, "But.. mother...! Silence is soooo creeepy! He's always playing with those dead things!" whined the boy. He loved his brother dearly, but he was a freak.

His mother laughed a little at that, "Well, true, but you know why he does that don't you my little hope?"

"Cuz, he can't get a girlfriend?" snarked the little boy.

"HOPE! That's mean spirited! Is that the kind of thing those other children are teaching you?" asked his mother incredulously. Her little boy had never said such things before.

Hope had the goodness of heart to blush and apologize. Mean sarcasm wasn't really something he was accustomed to using often. Even if secretly he did wonder if his brother Silence only played with dead things because he couldn't find a girlfriend.

-------

Scott bolted out of bed, his breath labored and feeling disoriented. That stupid dream again. Every night since the attack by whatever that was he'd been having that same dream. That woman in his dream didn't look at all like his mother so he didn't quite understand why he would keep calling her that.

None of it made any sense to him.

He glanced over at the little alarm clock and noted it was only three am. He'd want to wake up in a few more hours, He planned to Scout the forest to see if he could find whatever it was that had attacked two weeks ago.

----

Hammerhead yawned and stretched a little as the sun came up. He'd be on duty at the guard tower soon and he was getting a little breakfast before hand.

He reached a tattooed hand up to open a cupboard and begin searching for cheerios. They always seemed to disappear whenever he wanted some. It was some sort of caucasian conspiracy he'd convinced himself.

He muttered, "Screw the asian dude, no cheerios for you." as he kept rattling around in the cupboard. Sure, he could simply turn on a light, but that required him to stop looking. He'd gotten the name 'hammerhead' for several reasons though, all of them legitimate.

After a moment he found the object of his morning culinary affections and cackled happily. He spun around to head towards the table and came face to face with a fully armored and outfitted Scott.

The box of cheerios flew from his hands into the air as he tried to jump onto the little counter behind him. It took him a moment to realize who this was and then he exclaimed while breathing hard, "Holy shit man! Don't do that!"

Scott handed him back the box of cheerios that he'd caught as they descended and nodded. "I'll endeavour to be more careful."

"Y-yeah man.." stammered the former gang member.

The armored man pivoted and moved towards the fridge to get his own breakfast, then settled down at the table to eat opposite of hammerhead.

"S-so.. you goin somewhere.. today?" asked the somewhat buff asian man.

Scott nodded. "I have to find out what attacked us a while back."

Hammerhead nodded but asked, "Yeah man but how? That thing or whatever could be anywhere?"

The resident knight of the isle nodded again, then between bites of deer sausage said, "True, but I have to start looking anyway. I'm thinking it'll probably be in the deep woods. I've never come across anything like that on the outskirts when i've hunted on shore."

The cheerio devouring man took on a critical look, "Do you want any help with that?"

Scott thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. "You might be able to help at least, with your skills and background, but.. if anything attacks again the others would be next to helpless with both of us gone."

Hammerhead sighed whether sadly or in relief, who knew. He had some mid-level martial arts training, and was used to a good fight since he'd been in an all asian street gang. Sure, he was a statistic but the way he thought about it, mostly it would be violent gangs that had survived. Which included pockets of the military.

They were armed, aggressive, and used to working as a team. It would be the rare situation to find someone with absolutely no survival skills or support that still lived, and street gangs had both.

"So we doin buisness as usual while you're gone?" he asked.

Scott quirked an eyebrow and then nodded. "Yeah i'd suppose so. I mean not much else to do really. heh."

---------------

In the deeper woods...

A fortnight the shadow had spent cultivating the seeds of its wrath into these thirty of his children. Stronger, faster, more agile than their brethren. The spectre had even returned to them some semblance of their former humanity in the form of useful memories.

Many more had come than the thirty it had chosen, but those would not do. The ancient shadow needed the worst of the former betrayers to fulfill its plans. It kept the murderers, the thieves, all those filled with the scent of the blood and despair of their former race upon their souls.

The rest he sent out to continue their 'lives'. They had been less than adequate to the task. Many would have been random housewives and children. The more or less true victims of the zombie infestation.

In the two weeks since it had began remaking these chosen of its children, they had shifted and changed. Some had become elongated with longer arms and sharp claws. Some had shrunk becoming shorter but far stronger.

A few had become giants with limited intelligence compared to their new brethren, but far outstripping them in raw power.

One of his chosen had sparked though, and the ancient figure had momentarily almost been certain it had felt an emotion deep inside. If it had not been so fleeting, perhaps such a thing might have been called pride.

This most glorious of its children would be its champion. A creature capable of weaving the flows of spirit and dark emotion to combat that blasted champion of the betrayers.

For a moment thoughts of that particular betrayer filtered through its multi-millenium mind and it had a strange feeling of familiarity again. It almost thought that it knew this betrayer, yet it could not quite place the beast in its mind.

Soon my children, soon you shall feast. The horrible creatures that burned, ravaged, and mutilated mother in their arrogance shall feel the wrath of her true children. The betrayers will be made to pay for all the horrors they unleashed on her. Father be damned.

The ancient figure laughed then. It wasn't a heartfelt laugh of joy, nor truly one of emotion. It was a simple dark thing with no life to it. The skin of any creature foolish enough to hear it would have crawled and bid them run in terror.

----

Well there we have chapter 10. Sure, it was more or less filling in a bit and far too short, but I felt that it would add a bit more complexity to the situation.

Oh and to shadowsintherain88. Good guesses, but you're a little off. :P

What is really going on you might ask?

Now that.. is a secret!