The smell of ancient decay, and chill in the air would have sent anything living from the place in a near panic. It was old, long before civilization began. One of the lairs of the elder darkness. The being known as brother Silence.
A strange being to be sure, often maligned as being an 'evil' force, Silence had also been regarded highly in some eras as the bringer of ultimate peace.
The primordial spirit of eternal night, and serenity, Brother Silence had many names throughout the world. Thanatos, the angel of death, the grim reaper, all were names of this ancient being.
Many call him demon unjustly. In truth, he is simply an aspect of creation, performing a needed duty. It is only through Brother Silence's final kiss that the true peace at the end of a long hard life is reached. Silence was the ultimate in non-bias, for he cared not if you were emperor or new born babe. When it was time, your soul was reaped, and rest from life's toil your reward.
For untold millions of years that had been the way of things. Yet, over time the other advents had become restless. When Father unveiled his plans to Mother for a new race, similar to them in many ways, with their own spirit and sensibilities all of their children rejoiced.
All save one. Brother perfect who was the most powerful of the children was greatly disturbed. He had the power of foresight at that time to allow him to see the possibilities. Children who were like Father and mother almost completely, would inevitably gain the ability to change reality with their thoughts.
Brother Perfect abided a time, to see how things would be. A mere million years after the inception of these new children, and he already knew.
The new children were evil, willful, and lacking in discipline. They venerated mother and father in one one breath, and cursed them with another. They killed each other for the least reason, and performed horrifying acts against themselves, father's spirit, and the body of mother.
Brother Perfect, ever the most sensitive to such things slowly grew restless, and finally outright hateful towards these children. In a bold move, he gathered up many of the lesser spirits and tried to convince Father to cast these betrayers from his and mother's beautiful garden.
When Father would not allow for that, as he had other plans Brother Perfect slowly went completely insane. Believing he knew better than father he led his minion spirits in a war against the children of earth in an attempt to cleanse their sickness from the body of the mother once and for all.
Ultimately father was forced to intervene, but the damage was done. The perfectly balanced paradise filled with the love of mother and father had been irreparably damaged. Yes, they could have joined together and reformed it from the beginning, but all the work would have been lost.
Brother Perfect had become a thing of bitter hatred and cruel malevolent insanity. Gone was the beauty and wisdom he once represented. Now only darkness, and lust for the destruction of the children of earth remained.
Father was forced to create a place far beneath the surface of mother's body to house him. A place akin to a celestial 'rubber room' a spiritual padded cell to seperate him from the rest of creation, allow him time to reflect.
The spiritual holding cell turned out not to be quite up to the task, and some of Brother Perfect's insanity did leak out little by little. These random evil rantings became demonic spirits, and nightmares that plagued the children by blighting the forests, drying the streams, and mutating the animals into monstrosities.
In time some of the children began to feel the same as brother perfect. They came to hate life and themselves. They longed only to kill and torture their own kind. These poor children, horribly corrupted by brother perfect had to be removed from the natural cycle until the insanity left their system.. with nowhere else for them, they were placed within the confines of the very same cell as their tormentor.
The children of earth for many millenia knew only despair and fear. Brother Silence worked over time to collect all the souls for safe keeping as the children began dying in record numbers due to the long icy winter that began after the 'perfect' war.
Father and mother, seeing that something had to be done drew together once more. They decided it was time to birth one more child. A child that could uplift the most downcast spirit. One that could fight back any level of despair and bring strength to those that needed it.
Upon the birth of this beautiful new child they proclaimed him 'hope'.
An excerpt from the book of time and seasons. Reputed to be a possible 'natural' history of the world.
Chapter 11: The Greater Darkness
The deeper woods held many secrets in these days. Scott was certain that there must be things more dangerous than the undead here. He had been coming here daily for two months, and been attacked several times.
Each time had disturbed him more. The zombies seemed to be more intelligent by the day. He had been trapped several times and barely escaped with his life.
Today for instance, he had just managed to elude a zombie search party. As strange as it seemed from what he'd known of them for months, these particular members of the undead ranks hunted him in stealth and almost seemed to be harrying him towards some unknown location.
A few would pop out of nowhere and attack, and after two or three were slain, they would actually flee into the woods. It was incredibly nerve racking, and made him fearful for the lives of those he had chosen to protect.
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'Lockheed, take Ghambol and Hollock to the ravine. That foolish human is almost there.' came the mental command from the one that would be known as 'The Greater Darkness'. As the lieutenant of Father Silence, he ruled with total authority his lesser brethren.
The ten foot tall monstrosity that received this command growled at The Greater Darkness and said, "Why do we keep taking orders from a runt like you. You never do anything but sit here and bark orders."
The shrouded creature of average height glared harshly at the brutish giant and thrust it's clawed hand forward. A wave of raw destructive force lashed out and hurled the massive Lockheed back, crushing him brutally against the wall of the earth chamber.
'Two things Lockheed. Two things you will not do. You will NOT speak here, save with your inner voice, as your speech disturbs our father. The other thing is that you will NOT question my command you over grown undead monkey.' counciled the not so ancient, but definitely powerful creature.
'Yes.. Greater Darkness..' moaned the former man. It could actually feel pressure on it's skull as tiny fractures began to form. It wondered for a brief moment if it's 'master' intended to destroy it.
The Greater Darkness turned away abruptly and faced a blood red symbol on the cave wall. The wave of force dissipating. 'Go, perform your tasks. Do not return without the heart of our enemy.'
'By your leave..' murmured the creature before loping off towards the entrance. Two much shorter but still very strong creatures joined him a moment later.
Lockheed smiled grimly, yellow fangs glinting in the mid-morning light. The giant could already taste that sweet living flesh. He would enjoy hearing the human's screams as he paid with his life, for the indignities he had to suffer this day.
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meanwhile back at the ranch... well island really..
Maribeth was playing with her tea-set and Mr. Bear, her special friend that only she could see, in the garden while waiting for her Scott to come back. She hated how he had to leave everyday. He had to keep returning to those icky woods and when he came back he was always so beat up.
It was just awful.
The little girl was musing while she played when she heard a voice she recognized very well.
"Mari..!" came the feminine voice. A voice she'd longed to hear for so very long.
The little girl called excitedly out, "Mummy! I'm here, where are you?!"
"Come to the bank sweety, i'm in the boat." said the voice, a little distantly this time.
Maribeth gaped and then ran towards the sound of the voice. Chloe called out to her as she zipped past, but the little girl didn't stop.
"Mummy!" exclaimed the girl as she rounded the corner of the house. There was her mummy, right there in the most beautiful boat she'd ever seen! She had missed her so very much!
Maribeth's mother smiled beatifically with a subtle hint of teeth and reached her arms out towards her lovely little girl. Arms that seemed just a little too long for some reason.
Chloe came barreling around the corner just in time to see little Maribeth step onto an incredibly shoddy looking raft. What terrified her most though was what was on the raft. It had to be at least seven foot tall, and it's arms reached down to the logs that made up the raft.
"Maribeth!" shrieked Chloe as she ran full tilt towards the girl.
Suddenly the illusion dispelled itself and the little girl found herself in the waiting arms of the most hideous looking thing she'd ever seen.
A shot rang out from the tower, hitting the creature dead center in the forehead. Dougie, currently on duty had heard the outcry and acted to save the little girl. To their horror though, the head that now sported a perfect hole through it's center, snapped back into place and revealed a feral grin.
Even more disturbing was it's voice as the thing actually spoke, "Naughty naughty.. you silly meat. I'm going to have SUCH a headache."
Maribeth shrieked in terror, as the small raft launched and angled itself out towards the current that would take it to shore. No hand seemed to guide it.
Dougie seemed to be trying to line up another shot, but the creature to their horror yanked Maribeth into the air and used her tiny little body as a shield against the apparently useless bullets.
Deranged laughter could be heard from the creature on the raft, as it meandered towards the shore.
Laughter, barely heard over the cries of fear and outrage coming from the small island community.
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Scott panted heavily. The constant onslaught of these undead bastards didn't allow him a moments peace, or respite. He'd been harried into the beginnings of what seemed to be a rocky looking ravine.
Pressed farther into this obvious death trap, he was not surprised at all when a series of convenient landslides boxed him in with no way out but to climb over.
What disturbed him was the ring of zombies that appeared over the rim the ravine. There had to be at least twenty of them.
Scott hefted his reinforced sledge-hammer and took a deep breath as they all walked forward and fell the fifteen or so feet to the floor of the ravine.
While disturbed he had no real fear of this situation. Whether they were becoming slower and weaker, or he simply was getting stronger he didn't know. What he did know was that he knew he'd survive this. These things couldn't beat him.
He raced forward and swung his trusty weapon with calculated force, crushing the skull of the nearest zombie. He'd killed three in this simple manner before the rest had managed to get to their feet.
Their numbers did them only a small amount of good as Scott backed up, and fired off a few of his heavy metal balls, breaking the heads on a couple more in quick succession. He'd had the idea for those balls months back, thinking that if they were heavy enough they could crack a skull and they took much less skill to nail someone with than a knife.
He'd thrown a many a rock in his youth, and hitting a head was much easier than a tiny aluminum can. Even if the head did move a little.
He continued this method of assault until he ran out of ammo, and half his problem was solved.
By now though, he was being backed into a corner. Ten, maybe twelve more of these undead idiots to go Scott looked at his situation and grunted.
These things weren't grouped tightly, but had the area covered. They had every intention of forcing him against the walls for some reason.
They might be getting smarter, but apparently not very good at strategy yet, despite the trap. They'd have much better success trying to surround him.
When his back hit the wall he smirked. Their numbers would be useless now that he didn't have to watch his back.
His smirk faded when suddenly a pair of large craggy hands ripped out of the ravine wall and gripped him tight. Mad laughter came from the top of the ravine as the biggest zombie Scott had ever seen peered down at him with shimmering black eyes.
Scott's chest screamed in agony as the bones began to compress due to the stress of those large powerful arms that seemed to take on the color of the earth itself.
Insanely Scott slammed his head back in desperation, and to his relief found a meaty resistance instead of solid rock.
Those reaching arms loosened slightly, and the would be hero of our story, spun forward using, one arm and the torque from this movement to throw his attacker over him and into a nearby zombie, that had managed to be only a few feet away.
He followed this up with a wide spinning motion with his hammer, sweeping an arc outwards that knocked the next zombie off its feet.
Seeing a brief opening, he lunged for that escape hole, only to find his leg caught by yet another pair of rock like hands.
Knocked to the ground, and struggling with his feet to break free of that deathly vice like grip, Scott never noticed the giant leaping from the ravine's rim to the ground below.
The zombies nearly on top of him, the man who'd spent the last several months in silent hunting knew he had no choice. He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out the gun he'd liberated all those months ago in the first days of this nightmare.
A weapon he'd practiced with for accuracy but never allowed himself to use in combat, until now.
Safety off, Scott pulled the trigger on the hand cannon that was his .45, aiming at the leering gray and brown face of the creature holding his leg.
A look of almost comical shock washed over its features just before its skull exploded into random fragments.
Even given that the creature was now once again deceased, it still took Scott several precious seconds and two more shots from his weapon on the nearing zombies, including the other rock zombie, to free himself.
His hammer in hand he limped away from the mass, and finished emptying his gun on the tightly packed number.
He'd had only six bullets in the weapon to begin with, but one hit had been a two-for. As the bullet had traveled through one zombie's head to destroy the brain of one immediately behind it.
Scott dropped the gun, and took a two handed swing at the nearest zombie, barely managing to tag it's chin, but snapped its neck all the same.
As it lay there twitching, Scott gave it a wide berth while attending to his next opponents.
He raised his hammer and lunged forward, only to find the zombies and then himself knocked flat against the ravine wall several feet away. A large rock had come hurtling there way, and only the bodies in front of him had saved the man from being utterly crushed.
He was breathing heavy for a moment, and then felt something gnawing at his armored leg. Scott's hammer slammed down, crushing the skull of the mindless idiot, and then he turned his head towards the horror before him.
It had to be at least ten feet tall. A mountain of muscle, with large yellow fangs that protruded from it's mouth. This was obviously the leader of this band of undead assholes.
Scott barely managed to lean out of the way as another large rock slammed into the spot he'd just occupied. A process that was repeated several times, until two hapless zombies had been crushed by the uncaring beast.
"Heh.. tougher than you look, meat." snarked the monster to Scott's growing horror.
His mouth getting the better of him for once, the young man replied, "When did something as ugly as you learn how to talk?"
The monster's last rock hurtled toward him then, to once again miss the man, and then fall off the wall to crush the skull of a twitching zombie below it.
All the mini-players in this game now out of commission, it was just Scott and the beast mano-a-ugly freako.
"Heh.. i'm going to enjoy devouring you, meat!" snarled the creature as it began running towards Scott, the earth shuddering slightly at its passing.
The man didn't even try to guess what this behemoth must weigh to cause that kind of reaction, as he barely had time to avoid a fist bigger that his skull slamming into the ravine wall with enough force to start another small landslide.
Luckily that landslide fell on the massive creature.
Scott caught his breath a moment, as he stared at the rubble. After a few minutes he shrugged and then walked over to the only still 'living zombie' and crushed the twitching skull.
He started towards the original landslide to try and climb out, when a roar from behind him filled him with an emotion akin to dread.
Flying rock fragments pelted him, before he turned to stare at the now freed monstrosity.
The worst part is that it barely seemed to have taken any damage from the multi-ton rockslide...
He sighed at the sight and then hefted his hammer, "... alright."
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Whelp that was chapter 11. I'm sure most of you might find Scott's defeat of so many zombies as unlikely, but eh. They're not much of a challenge to him now. He's been fighting them in meelee combat for several months, and as such they usually (until now at least) held no surprises.
Add in the fact that they've slowed down considerably and they have physically gotten weaker, and his extensive experiene fighting them. It pretty much takes this many to really cause him problems.
It's always been a major sticking point with me in all those movies and such.
You'd think that if people knew the zombies were slow as hell, they'd wear thick tight fitting clothes when having to leave their little homes, and simply walk a little faster.
The only things that generally get people killed in zombie outbreaks (unless they're return of the living dead, or the dawn of the dead style running zombies) is fear, stupidity, and the selfish jerks around them.
Any reasonable person that can find the strength to fight back the horror such creatures cause, could fend off a small pack of these shamblers. Heck, unless they're boxed in, you could simply walk away a little faster.
If you hate my inclusion of stronger undead, then oh well. Flame me. This story only has a few more chapters left anyway. :P
so.. let the hate flow through you.. yess... yesss...
Oh and to those who forgot he had a gun since her never seemed to use it... shame on you for forgetting such an obvious plot device. No gummy bears for you.
He prefers not making much noise, because he's always suspected the zombies are drawn by sound.