The nightmare that won't go away chapter 6 – The infected
Agatha Prenderghast looked around at her surroundings. By the look of it, she had teleported herself into a mist-covered landscape which was so thick that she could barely see her own hand in front of her face. Despite the terrible weather conditions, Aggie began to walk forward into the unknown for she was determined to get as far away from Blithe Hollow as she could; away from Norman.
Even if there WAS a way for her and Norman to be together, Aggie couldn't go back to the village now for she knew that as soon as she teleported from his sights, she had broken his heart. Aggie couldn't go back because she knew what pain Norman would feel if he saw her again because she had said that they couldn't be together; she slowly began to regret those words.
Agatha suddenly heard a voice calling out to her from the distance through the mist. "Turn back" the voice said. For some reason, Aggie couldn't help but feel that the voice sounded just a wee bit... familiar. As she turned around to proceed further, Aggie knocked into someone else. The person was wearing a maid's outfit and had a smile on a face that Aggie knew all too well. "Mommy?"
At those words, the women hugged Agatha tightly; she returned it without hesitation. "What do I do, mommy?" Aggie asked. The women released her from the embrace, looked her daughter in the eyes and said "Turn back". At this, Aggie felt tears come to her eyes but did not dare release them. "I-I can't, mom. You saw the look on Norman's face. I can't go back there; I've broken his heart." In response, the women got on one knee to look her daughter in the eyes (Aggie's mom is quite tall) and said "that was not a suggestion, Agatha. It was an order; you WILL turn back."
Even if she was talking to her mother, Aggie couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated. "Mom, I CAN'T!" the young girl shouted. "I don't even know where I've teleported myself! How am I meant to get back even if I wanted to!?" Her mother sighed as if to calm herself down and when she opened her eyes, Aggie saw a glint of horror in them.
"Dear daughter, you don't have a choice; you HAVE to go back to Blithe Hollow. Since the time you've been gone, something terrible has happened and my senses tell me that YOU are destined to fix it. And as for the 'I don't even know where I am' thing; you're witch powers teleported you to the afterlife on instinct so you could talk to me." Aggie's mother put her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "You MUST go back, Agatha. For me, For Norman."
At this, Aggie nodded slowly and the mist around the pair began to disappear as did Aggie's mother. "WAIT!" Aggie called. "How will I get back to the village?" her mother smiled brightly. "It'll be okay darling, your witch powers will take you back to the village centre but you must know ONE very important thing." Aggie gave her mother a stare telling her to 'go on'. "The time span of the afterlife is much different to that of the livings. Here, only 5 minutes have passed but in reality, a whole 2 weeks would have gone by; just thought you should know that. Good luck, Aggie." And with that, Agatha landed on her knees on a rock surface.
As Aggie raised her head from the sight of the ground, she felt tears come to her eyes at the sight of the village that she had called home...
For Blithe Hollow had been reduced to ruin.
Cars were crashed or on fire, buildings were either destroyed or partly beat in, blood was splattered almost everywhere you looked and villager's bodies scattered the ground.
Tears began to fall down her face like waterfalls as Aggie stood to her feet and began walking around; staring at everything in wonder. Her mother had said that something bad had happened to the village and that Aggie would be the one to put things right but she didn't think things would be THIS bad. As Aggie passed by the old witch's statue (which she still despised greatly), she heard the static of a radio. She looked in the direction of the sound to see the radio in the palm of a dead villager. Slowly and reluctantly whilst having her eyes closed, Aggie took the radio from the villager's cold hand and spoke into it.
"H-Hello?" she asked into the radio. "You all right there? No shakes? Chills?" replied a male voice. "Ok listen to me and listen carefully; by your expression at all that I would be one to suggest that you have no idea what's happened, correct?" Aggie looked around to see if anyone was watching her; not a single living person in sight. "T-That's right, I have no idea what's going on" Aggie replied. "Listen, I'll explain everything soon but right now, we have to get you to safety. See that church ahead of you?" the man asked. Aggie raised her head slightly and saw the church instantly. "Yes" she said. "If you had a telescope, you'd see me standing on the roof. Ok now, you just make your way here and I'll guide you. Oh and be quick." The man then cut the connection.
Whilst looking at her surroundings to be sure nothing was watching her, Aggie slowly walked through the streets of Blithe Hollow which lead to the village church. When she was about half a mile away, Aggie began to think about her 'family'. What had happened to the Babcocks? Were they at the Church? Were they at their home? Were they even alive? Agatha's thoughts were cut off when a blood-curdling battle cry of a scream went through the air. Suddenly, the man called her on the radio.
"It's the infected! Run; run for the church!"
Without a second thought, Aggie began running for a life in the direction of the church. She ran and ran as fast as she could; determined to get away from the thing that had let the blood-curdling battle cry loose into the air. When she was about a minutes sprint from the church's gates, Aggie looked behind her and her eyes bulged in horror as she saw a man sprinting after her; screaming in utter madness. The man had bloodshot dark red eyes and his skin was the colour of a raincloud; his cloths were covered in the blood of others. Now knowing that a madman was after her, Agatha's legs seemed to shift into the next gear as she sprinted faster. As she was barely a few feet from the church's gates, a woman with the same eyes and skin colour as the man jumped out from behind a wrecked car and after screaming her own battle cry, hit Agatha around the head with a monkey wrench. Before passing out, Aggie could've sworn she saw the two mad people topple over onto their sides after something passed through their skulls...
Later that day...
With the strongest of headaches, Agatha began to wake up. Her head felt like it was on fire from when the mad woman hit her on the head with the wrench. As soon as she sat up, Aggie noticed a man sitting in a chair next to the bed she was in. He was wearing a lab coat on top of all his other clothes and his blonde hair was in a mop style; his bright blue stood out greatly from his tall, lanky and skinny body. As soon as the man saw Aggie, he smiled a small smile and stood up before walking over to her bedside.
"Hello there" he said simply. "My name's Dr. Crawden, what's your name?" he asked. "A-Agatha" she replied quickly. As soon as he heard her name, Crawden sighed. "Well if that is your name then you're going to have to wait here a moment whilst I go get some people; they've been worried sick about a certain 'Agatha' or 'Aggie". The doctor who could pass for a janitor the left whilst Aggie simply looked around the room at her surroundings; by the looks of the decorations in the room; she was in the church and someone had saved from the mad people. A few moments later, Dr. Crawden returned with Sandra, Courtney and Perry Babcock by his side, they were all smiling greatly.
"Aggie!" Sandra shouted as she went to hug her 'daughter' with which she returned tightly. "We're so glad you're safe" Perry said from the doorway. As soon as Sandra let go off her, Aggie looked around and noticed that Norman was not in the room. "Where-where's Norman?" she asked; both parents and sister frowned in response. "Could you give us a moment alone please?" Perry asked Dr. Crawden and Courtney who after the request left the room and shut the door. As the two parents pulled up some chairs to Aggie's bedside, she could've sworn she saw Sandra wiping away a few tears. "Ok" Perry started. "What do you wanna know?"
"Ok. 1. Who was that man in the doorway, 2. What happened to Blithe Hollow and 3. Where is Norman?" she asked as if her life depended on it. Perry cleared his throat and began to answer the first question. "The man's name, as you know is Crawden; he is my brother and works for a worldwide company called 'Wide spread'. He's the one who was contacting you over the radio whilst you were out in the streets AND he's the one who saved your life from those people." As Aggie was about to ask who the people were, Perry raised his hand to stop her. "Let me explain; this ties in with the other questions..."
"I suppose you could say it started two weeks ago when this man came knocking at our door just after you left; he simply asked if we was Norman Babcock's family and after we said yes, he pulled a gun out on us and held us captive in our home. Next, he had Sandra call Courtney and tell her to come home to which she reluctantly agreed. As soon as Courtney came into the house, the man pointed the gun at her an had her give him her phone to call Norman so he could 'get his job done'. I remember the conversation EXACTLY because he put the phone on speaker so we could listen in.
"What do you want, Courtney?" Norman had asked and "Hello, Norman" was how the man replied. There was silence for a moment before Norman said "Who is this?" in a pitch very unlike him. The man told him that it wasn't his sister and that he should watch his tone; plus that for now, we were fine but Norman should choose his next words very carefully. After they had arranged a meeting point, the man took me, Sandra and Courtney with him to your tree, which Norman was sat at. As soon as we came into his view, Norman sprung up and began arguing with the man, who had finally revealed himself as a Mr. Byron White; a merc who works for the same company as Crawden. For a while, everything seemed calm but when Byron pointed the gun at Sandra's temple, something... changed inside my son; something snapped."
"His eyes turned yellow, his skin and hair went dark green and his clothing went to a moss green shade; not to mention that his hair was like static electricity. Suddenly, he released some sort of shock wave from his body which passed over me, Sandra and Courtney fine; Byron seemed effected but not much and everyone else... what I'm trying to say Agatha is that... Norman's gone."
At those words, all three of them burst into tears. From Perry's description, Aggie came to the conclusion that Norman's anger against Byron White was too much for him to control and he released his inner witch but despite everything, there was still something Aggie didn't get: what happened to the villagers? "Err, Sandra?" Aggie asked. "Yes dear? Sandra replied through tears. "Can you tell me what happened to the villagers? I don't understand." At this, both parents stopped crying and turned serious before Perry stood up, opened the door and called "Crawden, you're needed." Almost at will, the doctor re-entered the room; a knowing frown placed upon his face. "I guess she wants to know about the villagers?" he asked to which the parents simply nodded. They then left the room and shut the door before Dr. Crawden took one of the seats that the parents had been sat in and looked at Aggie with honest eyes.
"They're called the infected; at least that's what we call them. They're the victims of that shockwave that my nephew sent out from his body when his inner Witch was able to take over his mind. The shockwave was made of what we call 'death energy'; the reason we call it that is because those who are hit by the shockwave would be given the gift to see the dead.
Or at least, that what would happen with you or Norman."
"Turns out only people with a certain body chemistry mix can have this gift. Anyone who doesn't gets turned into one of those... things out there. Those in our family are able to fight this... mutagen with no problem what so ever. All the others here in the church are only alive thanks to their strong immune systems, those with weaker ones... weren't so lucky; they became... infected.
There are two types of infected; the warriors and the officers. The type that you encountered out there is the warrior infected; they were victims of the shockwave who had blood groups A or B. They have no self control; they just wanna... kill anyone who's not like them. They'll use anything they can get their hands on to kill you from guitars and pipes to knives and trophies. They've lost practically all their humanity.
The other type of infected are the officers; they are the victims who have a blood group of Ab or O. Unlike their suicidal counterparts, these ones have a bit of humanity still left in them. They still want to kill everyone but they have a bit of self control. This type IS able to communicate with us through language and they tend to kill us at range with firearms instead of CQC style with a melee weapon. However, they WILL if they have to."
Dr. Crawden took a breather after his long speech and looked at Agatha; who was simply looking at the masses of destruction outside the window. "Agatha, I believe that there IS a way to fix this and we WILL find it but until that time comes, I hope you're ready to take an inhuman life because...
We humans and the infected are at war..."
(A/N – Just a quick notice – because the 'infected' will be mentioned so much in the next few chapters, I will not even be describing their clothing so YOU can choose the clothing of them for yourselves unless I point out a certain infected's appearance).
