What Lies Ahead
Chapter Two
Fever
I know. I've been gone forever again, but I haven't been feeling so well and have been struggling with both my mental and physical health. However, some good things have come from my time away.
I have an announcement for you guys!
I've decided to go back and edit out the Walking Dead parts of these books to make it my own series and publish it!
That being said I am a little uncertain about how to go about the romance if I'm going to publish it and figured I'd ask you all for your opinion.
Should I keep the reverse harem theme or write it out and stick with one guy?
Also, I will still be updating this story on here while I'm editing the first one and trying to get it published.
"Here they come, oh
Take an angel by the wings
Beg her now for anything
Beg her now for one more day
Take an angel by the wings
Time to tell her everything
Ask her for the strength to stay.
-Angel by the wings by Sia
Her mind felt hazy and foggy, but a heat kept forcing its way through her veins, burning her alive. In the rare moments when she was lucid, or thought she was lucid, Remi could hear someone urging her to keep moving, the voice fleeting, their grip on her flimsy and painful, but not as if her mind thought it should be and scrambled to figure out why it felt as light as a feather. The fear in their tone urged her on, chasing away her ability to question it.
Why were they afraid?
Thoughts came to her, slow and disjointed, not entirely pieced together.
She was… running.
Or trying.
Her legs felt like lead, but that harsh voice refused to let her fall, refused to let her stop.
Remi just wanted to stop.
To take a break.
It felt like her bones were grating against one another, turning to powder.
Her head felt like mush.
Why did she feel like she was on fire?
Her skin felt too tight, as if it was trying to suffocate her inside her own body.
But that sensation of burning alive was what kept her from fully succumbing to her body's desire to lose itself entirely. It was like her body was attacking itself… something was eating her from the inside out.
Why did it hurt so much?
Scenery flashed before her eyes. Green… limbs… snarling faces that were far too close… too close… but then there was that voice… guiding her from harm.
Remi felt everything on a molecular level, her brain overloaded with sensory pulses, all demanding to be known, and far too much for her fever-riddled brain… and she was slipping away once again.
She didn't feel safe.
But… why?
What had she been doing?
Something… important.
Groans: hungry sounds from the monsters inside her head were far too loud; a scream wanted to break free from her lips. Then there was that voice again, and her hand pressed against her mouth, forcing the scream back down her throat as pleading drifted through her ears.
A familiar voice… that had guided her before.
Who did that hand belong to?
"Remin-… danger…. quiet…. die…"
Her mind was floating again.
Back to that space where the war between her and an unknown entity fought for dominance.
Something… foreign was fighting to change her, to twist and disfigure her so severely that there would be no coming back.
Was she dying?
Is this how it felt?
Sanity slowly losing its hold as pain and fire burned you from the inside out?
The hold on reality was slipping through her fingers like water, and every time her fingers clenched, only droplets clung to her, little pieces of information that made no sense, but Remi knew it was important.
"Avoid… people who eat… no… safety…"
Information drifted away, jumbled together, leaving a mess of confusing hoarse whispers that fell in a frenzied mess from her lips.
"Charming…man… fake…"
The voice urged her, causing her to stumble, but then she was pressed against something hard, cooler than her heated skin. She whined when that sensation was torn from her by her own feet as she stumbled over uneven ground.
"North… not safe… swarming… dead…"
Groans filled her ears again causing her to lose focus as the sight of teeth and hungry reaching caused her heart to flutter dangerously.
"Sick… sick… pigs… birds… sick…"
Her words left her mouth in more of a frenzy; the warnings were jumbled as the scene in front of her, reality blurred with the knowledge that she shouldn't have.
She gripped tightly at her other hand as the voice guided her, her nails digging into her skin, and for a moment, she felt a hunger swarm inside her mind, urging her to keep digging in, to claw, tear, and eat…
Amber eyes darkened, and the hooded way they were half closed became milkier for a millisecond before whatever had a hold of her loosened.
"Sick… avoid… eat… pigs… man… man… man…."
Flashes of horrifying images reared themselves into her consciousness, showing Remi every horrible thing she knew would happen as her fevered mind tortured her more, breaking her will.
"Dead… dead… dead… dead…all dead…"
Someone was speaking to her again, trying to calm her, to battle with the other voices in her head, but nothing broke through her crazed mutterings. She had to get it out. This person needed to understand her warnings.
They needed to be protected.
People… vital to her.
If she died… what would happen to them?
Who… were they?
Her mind simmered down, and the frenzy that had led her to muttering quieted down, and so did her desire to speak.
Inside, something terrible gnawed at her. Breaking her. Attacking her DNA, everything that made her uniquely her… was being fiercely rewired by the fire that filled her veins and only held back….
Her thoughts drifted again.
The next time anything came to her in stark clarity, Remi was by herself, stumbling aimlessly. Everything felt water-logged like her entire existence had been saturated, and she was moving through a thick layer of mud.
Where had the person who was with her gone?
Hadn't…. somebody been guiding her along?
Why was she all alone?
She collapsed, her legs giving out as the sensation in them became harder to cling to. The stars above her swirled, tilted, and whirled at such a dizzying speed that her stomach rolled. When she closed her eyes tightly, the sensation didn't disappear, and now, instead of the sky moving at neck-breaking speeds, it was her body.
A whimper escaped her lips.
It felt like her entire being was vibrating, moving in opposite directions, as they collided with one another, causing that sick feeling to intensify.
She was going to die here, lost in her head, and the fire that burned away clear thoughts and left behind a mess of disjointed pieces of herself that were too jagged to fit back together.
Remi could feel the ground beneath her. Her cells reached out toward it, joining with the dirt, worms, and nature below her. She could feel how she was decaying and changing, and soon, she would be nothing more than a part of the world around her.
It didn't bring relief to her frazzled mind.
She didn't want to drift on the wind, following an unknown path, as her new existence and hunger led her forward.
Teeth flashed across her vision, a whine leaving her lips as blood and gore flooded her thoughts.
Her hand twitched, moving to pinch herself, her mind focusing on the technique to tell her what was real and not, but the pain was drowned out by everything else her body was sensing, and Remington was left floundering as her mind played horrible tricks on her.
Hunger, never-ending, consumed her entire being, and a groan, one animalistic, fell from her throat, and she felt how something wrong swarmed and tried to take over once more. A film-like substance covered her vision, and the amber of her eyes dimmed as a milky white covered the once brilliant color.
Another moan escaped from her.
A flash of blood, tearing teeth, and clawing hands gripped her mind, and that hungry sensation heightened.
She was falling… losing herself… being taken over…
"Remington!" A harsh hand gripped her shoulder, dragging her to a sitting position, and the realness of it, the first thing that felt solid since the fever hit, pulled her from the terrifying thoughts. The hunger faded away. Her eyes cleared up. "Thank God I found you."
It was hard to concentrate, but his hand digging into her shoulder kept her from slipping again.
Not the voice from earlier.
"J-Jenner?"
"We've got to get moving. The dead are coming."
She didn't think she could move. As clarity set in, Remington was certain that part of what had kept her moving earlier was that hunger deep inside that was still trying to win.
"I'm… dying."
It's not what she had meant to say, but it was truthful nonetheless. This was like nothing she had ever experienced before.
Or…
A memory prickled at her mind… what had been more prevalent then was the fear, the terror a different kind of pain that had disappeared in the blink of an eye, snuffed out as soon as the loud noise had filled that small room, but … before… before…
Jenner's tugging and pulling dragged her from the memory of something that had felt important.
"You're not going to die. Not today." He was dragging her; her feet weren't moving properly, but they were moving, which seemed to satisfy Jenner for the time being. "You'll defeat this fever. One of three with the chance to do so."
He was rambling, and she could hear the words, but none made sense as she drifted again.
Flashes of green… brown… snarling faces… repeat… repeat…repeat…
The groans in her ears were heightened by trauma and the fever. It felt like she was surrounded, but Jenner never screamed, never shoved her aside to save himself, even as her weight was dragging him down.
Perhaps… most of it was in her head.
His dull, soft, whispered words never stopped, and Remi began to understand that he was trying to keep her calm and grounded in the present… to reality.
It didn't matter that she didn't understand the scientific logic behind what he said. It was the fact that he believed she wouldn't die that kept her sane. She wouldn't come back to feast on her family, a crazed monster.
She would defeat the fever and fire in her veins.
Suddenly, Jenner swung around, pushing her behind him, and she heard the click of a gun. There was a flurry of movement, confusion clouded her dizzy thoughts, and then there was a hand on her cheek. The touch was soothing, like an ice pack against her burning skin, and her eyes fluttered as they tried to focus on the person it belonged to.
This was no longer Jenner touching her.
This was one of those people her fevered mind had been trying to find—someone she loved.
Needy and desperate, she pressed her cheek firmer into his hold as safety encompassed her whole being. If he was here then she was safe. She felt that numb, tingling feeling in her legs grow, but it was okay now; she would be safe. Her body had done all it could do, and now it was time to focus on doing nothing but saving her.
"Angel."
His voice was so sad, an emotion she didn't like hearing from him, but nonetheless, being called angel was an almost heavenly experience.
"Daryl-."
She wanted to warn him what was to come.
The sensation that flooded her caused all control of her body to be lost, and she pitched forward.
He would catch her.
That was something Remi was sure of.
Daryl would always be there to catch her.
His strong arms were the last thing she felt before she succumbed to the darkness that beckoned to her.
And that fire engulfed her.
What did you guys think?! It's been so hard sitting down and writing this chapter because I kept wanting to start with someone else but then Remi kicked down my creative block and said it's my time to shine again lol.