Superbeing

Chapter 6 - Death

At the very moment his back slammed against the wall, my legs threw me forwards. I ran, with no concern of whether or not the zombies could see me. I ran, my heart feeling like it was disintergrating with every step I took towards Grandpa. When I reached him, I ripped off my shirt and tried putting pressure on the wound. But it was no use. My shirt was soaked in an instant in warm red liquid, the blood reaching my hands. "Lee," whispered Grandpa, his eyes gazing at the stars. His throat was dotted with purple bruises from the zombie's grip. He must have been super strong. "It's no use. He got my internal organs. I'm not going to make it." All feeling of hope left my body as if it had been sucked away by an invisible force and I felt despai hug at my soul.

“No, Grandpa don’t say that, you have to keep faith otherwise you won’t come out alive. Do you know what that means? It means your going to die, Grandpa!” Tears that had been brewing in my eyes suddenly spilled out, the tiny drops dotting Grandpa’s shirt.

 “Lee. Just give it up. I know I have always taught you to always do otherwise; in this case there is nothing more we can do. As a superbeing, I still have many years to live, but it seems I will be going to the other side a little early. But I know that I will have no regrets. It is you, Lee, who has made that possible for me. When I found you in that forest all those years ago, you reminded me of how I was when I was your age. Lost. I didn’t have any path in life set out for me. As a superbeing, I didn’t belong here; I didn’t fit in with anybody. Wherever I went, the society would somehow always segregate me from them, never accepting me. I don’t know what it was about me that they didn’t like. When I found you in the forest, I didn’t want the same thing to happen to you, a child of just ten years. So I made you my son, and tried to guarantee you a life free from the suffering that I went through, a life of acceptance. I don’t know whether or not I have achieved my goal, but I know that you are a boy who will grow into a fine man one day.  As a teacher, I want you to surpass me in strength. Even though may not be of the same element, I want you to show the world that you are a strong, capable person. As a father, I want you to be strong willed. Make your very soul strong, so you will reach your goals that you set in life. And the girl, Michaela, make sure you take care of her. She might seem strong the way she dances about on the battlefield, the way she smiles, the way she acts openly towards people. But in reality, she is broken on the inside. I’m entrusting her to you, Lee. You have to be the man who mends her broken soul; because I know you will do a good job.” His eyes widened and he coughed up some blood. He lifted his arm and laid his hand heavily in mine, pressing a chain into my hand. A smile crept onto his lips, and he looked directly into my eyes, into my soul. “Make me proud,” he said, before his chest rose once more, and fell, slowly, to a final rest.   His gently eyes glazed over and I reached over and closed them as he fell into his eternal sleep.

 Despite the screaming in the background, my world passed in silence for a while, tears free falling from my eyes. Finally, stuffing the chain into my pocket, I stood up and faced the culprit. He was large, and when I looked at him anger burned in my chest, replacing the solemnity of the death a moment before. I felt something inside rise with my anger, enveloping me in its mysteriousness. I felt it run through my veins in my blood; I felt it being pumped through my muscles. I felt my heart suddenly returning to its place, pumping with what seemed to be a long lost vigour. Then something crazy happened. With one hand, faced behind me, I flew forwards, the wind rushing past me, my feet lifted off the ground. My body was acting of its own accord, as if someone was in control of my body. I flew into the group of enemies and my legs raised themselves, impacting with two unsuspecting heads. I felt the bone crack under my feet as I pushed them both to the ground, myself landing a few feet away from them. My wrist suddenly flicked and I was lifted off the ground, the wind whipping around me. I felt the wind on my back as I flew forwards once more into the zombies, smashing two heads together with my hands on the way. They cracked like eggs. My arms reached for another zombie’s hair, and I could feel my muscles flex as the zombie was swung around, a circle of zombies falling like dominoes. My hands let go of the hair and he flew into a wall. I didn’t even look to see if I had missed or not, the sound of bone hitting wall was enough.

 Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Michaela crouching against a wall, her daggers lying just out of reach and three zombies creeping up to her. With a blast of wind I was there. In a flash my arms had reached for the first head, smashing it down against my knee. There was no pain as I expected there to be. My hand lifted the head from my knee and smashed it into the second, the two bodies splayed on the ground like lovers. The third zombie turned and ran, but with a simple flick of my wrist, he was flung against a wall his head splitting on impact. I turned to Michaela, one arm sliding under he knees whilst the other supporting her shoulders. My feet pressed against the floor and I leaped off it, running at an insane speed, through the throng of screaming villagers and bleeding soldiers. I ran, bursting into the in, and charging up the stairs into Michaela’s room. I set her down on the bed. “Quick, get your stuff,” I said hastily, before going to my own room and packing my own clothes. After a few moments I emerged from the room, meeting Michaela in the hallway. “Lee, I need answers. Where are we going and where is Grandpa?” she asked, a curious look on her face.

 “I’ll tell you later. For now, we need to move. It’s dangerous here. There are two horses in the back ready to go. Come on.” We made our way down the stairs and out of the inn. The sky was still black and the screams were still audible in the night. After getting on the horses and a nod of thanks to the stable boy, we set off down a path and out of the village at a fast pace, so that Michaela could catch up to me, and so that I could distance myself from the village itself.

 Many hours passed as we rode in silence, the only sound being our steady breathing and the constant sound of the horses’ hooves hitting the ground. It was very quiet, and we broke off from the path, not wanting to leave trails should there be someone on our tail, and entered the forest. “Let us stop and rest, Michaela. Could you make a fire please? I’ll be putting up the tents,” I said, breaking the silence. My voice came out low as thoughts of Grandpa flowed coursed through my mind, threatening to push tears out of my eyes. After tethering the horses to a tree and putting up the tents, I fished into my pocket, bringing out the chain that Grandpa gave me. It was silver, twinkling like a star underneath the gaze of the moon. Attached to it was a slab of silver which housed a single engraving. A lotus flower. Confusion took hold of my mind as to what the meaning of the lotus engraving was, as I was unable to think of any affiliation that Grandpa would have had. Except for those hooded men, of course, but they did not carry with them any chains of the such as the one in my hand. Unconsciously, my fingers traced the engraving as my mind wandered once again to thoughts of Grandpa, his memory ever present in my mind. To me, although I called him Grandpa, he was the only person I had in this entire world that resembled a father. He was kind and caring, but these qualities did not impair his ability to educate me on what was right or wrong.

 My thoughts were disturbed by a familiar voice, which turned out to be Michaela’s. “Lee. I need answers. Where’s Grandpa?”

 “He died.” My voice remained low, as if it was locked in that tone, as if something was stopping me from speaking how I normally would.

 “He what?” came the reply. Her voice was loud, amplified by the silence of the night. a shocked expression made its way over her features, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.

 “One of those zombie guys back then when we were fighting stabbed him in the stomach with his own hand. Then he chucked him against the wall. I tried to help him but I was too late. All he left me was this.” I held up the chain into the light of the fire, so that she may see it. “So what are you going to do now?” she asked, her voice suddenly quiet, her figure bathed in the light of the fire. “First, I need to find out what this chain means. It seems to have some kind of importance since he never once showed it to me. Secondly, I need to find out where others of my kind are.”

 “Your kind? What are you some kind of superbeing?”

 “Yes I am. Apparently.” A smile made its way to my lips, a puzzled expression washing over her features for a second. After a while of talking, we retired to our tents for the night.