Backlash Part 1

Chapter 169: Someone Safe

If Wen Nuan wasn't so worried about her didi she would have stopped to look around more. The world seemed to have been swallowed up into night time. Wen Nuan could see a pale circle of light in the sky that looked a bit like the moon through clouds. It seemed like the sun and moon had traded places just as quickly as the daytime had become nighttime.

Everywhere Wen Nuan looked people were moving like giant dolls. Most of them were covered in blood and dirt, but that was neither new nor strange. Some of them were soldiers, some of them were family. All of them moving with limbs flopping oddly and their eyes vague and dead. Wen Nuan was scared, but her didi needed help. She needed to find someone who could help him and she could not do that by hiding.

Several times Wen Nuan froze expecting a nearby body to attack her. It was a relief when they didn't but also made her very curious. These were most certainly the bodies of both people she had known and soldiers who had attacked them. She was quite certain they were dead. The unseeing eyes and weird movement supported this. They were also attacking and killing people. That was scary. They were not attacking her. That was good.

They seemed to only be attacking the living soldiers. Wen Nuan considered what these moving bodies were doing, and considered what she had seen the soldiers do. If the moving bodies were only killing the soldiers, then Wen Nuan was pretty sure that meant the moving bodies were the good guys. Wen Nuan was quite certain the soldiers were evil, so the ones destroying them must be good.

Wen Nuan jumped as a loud cry of anger startled her. A sword came slashing towards her. She hadn't been paying attention. A soldier must have spotted her and she hadn't been paying attention! Wen Nuan scampered backwards looking for somewhere to hide. The ground was obscured by the cold smoke and Wen Nuan tripped on something she couldn't see. She closed her eyes and braced herself for pain.

No pain came. Wen Nuan cautiously cracked open her eyes and peaked from behind her hands. When had she covered her face with her hands? She was sitting on the ground. The cold smoke felt even colder now that it was pressed against more than her feet and ankles. There was a ghost floating in the air before Wen Nuan. The figure was translucent. Pale with death, and hair whipping in a wind that Wen Nuan couldn't feel.

One of the ghost's hands was gripping the sword that the soldier had swung at Wen Nuan. Wen Nuan instinctively winced, expecting to see blood where the blade pressed against the ghost's palm. There was no blood. This woman was a ghost and ghosts don't bleed. The ghost turned their head slightly and Wen Nuan's breath froze.

"Mama..." Wen Nuan whispered in disbelief. Wen Nuan's chest felt tight and tears pressed against her eyes with new force. This ghost was her mother's ghost. Even if she was translucent and pale. Even if her expression was one Wen Nuan had never seen before.

Wen Nuan watched the ghost of her mother snap the soldier's neck. He collapsed to the ground, eyes vacant and dead. The cold smoke poured into the ghost and he lifted from the ground the same way Wen Nuan's cousin had. The soldier was dead, and now his body was moving and joining the other moving bodies to kill the rest of the soldiers.

Wen Nuan stared in awe as her mothers ghost turned towards her. Her mother's eyes were strange. Not quite normal, but then again her mother was dead. Being able to see her and have her look at her was also not normal.

Wen Nuan stared as the ghost reached towards her. When her mother's hands touched her the sensation was strange. It was not like feeling a hand touch you. It was like the feeling of mist against your skin, cool and tingly. The points where her mother's hands touched her that cool damp sensation and the insubstantial touch suddenly exerted force to lift Wen Nuan to her feet. The translucent hands waited for a bit before letting go.