Zombies On Fire & Other Short Stories

Take Over The World

The small, light form floated in front of my eyes. Silently hovering. It was too close to focus on. I squinted for a better look. A butterfly? A dragonfly? I couldn't quite make out what it was. I scanned through all the words I knew, but couldn't come up with anything to describe this strange form.

I pulled my head back to give my eyes room to focus. I gasped. Pulled my hand up over my mouth and giggled. It looked like a small woman. With wings. What was this strange thing?

"Hello! Who are you? Or better yet, what are you?" I asked.

The small creature tweeted brightly and floated in closer to my face again. She went out of focus. She tweeted a few more times.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you are saying. Are you trying to tell me something?" I continued pulling my head back to get her back into focus. She wasn't much more than an inch away.

I held up a finger to push her back. She buzzed right around and flew back in closer. Tweeting wildly now. She was starting to get irritating. She sounded like a mosquito. I wanted to squash her like one too.

"Hey, back off. You're too close. I can't see you correctly."

I put my whole hand up in front of my face and pushed her back. She was light. Like a feather. Floating around before me.

She came back around, but this time she floated past my eyes to the side of my head. It felt like she was blowing down my ear. It tickled. Like when your nose tickles, and you want to sneeze. Only I couldn't sneeze through my ear, of course. I just shook my head and tried to get her out.

Suddenly, her tweeting stopped and became words that I could understand.

"Hello, Montana. I'm Cedarmist."

I felt the flutter of breeze again in my ear as she flitted her way out. I shook my head again. Rubbed my ear and wiggled my jaw around to get the itchy feeling out.

Cedarmist floated back around the side of my head and into view.

"Uh, you talk," I said.

I could have slapped myself. That was a goofy thing to say. It was impolite and probably offended her.

"Of course, I can talk," she replied. "You're the one that couldn't talk with me before. I had to make you understand me."

I frowned at that. She wasn't making sense.

"What do you mean?" I asked bluntly. "I've always talked."

Cedarmist giggled, "No, you haven't. I just created you."

"Yes, I have," I retorted. "I've spoken all my life."

The little ball of light in front of me shimmered and shined.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asked."Do you have any memories before this?"

I paused and cocked my head to the side. I tried to remember something before just now. Anything at all. But no memories came.

I couldn't remember who I was. Or where I was. Or what had happened before this.

I started to breathe heavily. I felt like walls were closing in on me.

"What's going on?" I demanded angrily, trying to control the panic that started to well up inside of me.

"I just told you. I created you. This is your beginning."

"My beginning," I heard myself mumble.

I looked down at my hands. They were hard. Plastic-like. But the tips of my fingers were soft. I could feel my hard forearms as I ran my fingers up them.