The Heart of the Virus

Chapter Eight: Within

He woke up thousands of miles away from the place he called home to a million eyes and a broken savior, made of the purest gold.

Ashley's POV
We couldn't come up with any ideas by the end of the day so I just went to bed in a tree, they didn't stop me seeing as how the caves were their homes and I'm a human. I spent a good chuck of the night trying to come up with ideas for my situation. They did too, seeing as how they don't sleep as much as I do. I came up with nothing and eventually drifted off to sleep.

It took until sometime in the afternoon for us to come up with any reasonably okay ideas and even those were quite a bit of a stretch by any means. It took until evening to come up with three ideas that might work somehow. One, meditate and try to discover and work my powers; two, train me to be able to mimic the three types of known sane zombies; and three, keep the prophecy from happening by keeping me away from most other zombies and buildings.

They all made sense in their own way; if I discover and am able to use my powers, we should avoid the whole thing altogether.

I couldn't really do much against the zombie in the prophecy so we decided that if we train me enough like a zombie, I can either avoid or change a part of the prophecy or maybe discover my powers or how to use them and avoid it that way. Option three was just a precaution of the others didn't work.

We have an option four, but that one is the absolute last resort if all else fails. We can also use it if the prophecy comes true, because I wouldn't have lost control completely at that point. We all hoped the last resort wouldn't have to be used, no one really wanted it to happen.

We decided to use all three ideas and save the last resort as a last resort, coming up with a schedule for the first two, and making sure one of the three Nightstalkers were always there watching just in case.

Then Brad, as I discovered, left to go and find a Runner friend of theirs, we would worry about terror training later, if we had to worry about it. I doubted I would make it past halfway in the Nightstalker training if I even made it there so we had a long ways to go before it so we should be set that way.

Mediating didn't take much planning, all I had to do was sit and try to find my inner voices or powers and control/work with them. If it somehow did come to the last resort, I don't know how I would react, I'm not really ready or expecting it, so I just prayed if it did happen, it didn't happen until I'm somewhat emotionally ready for it to possibly ruin what little humanity remains within me.

While we waited for Brad to come back I meditated and went searching for some herbs and spices. Whenever one of the boys caught something we'd cook it and eat it, I saved whatever leftovers were left for myself because I ate more then they did.

It took a few days before Brad came back with the Runner, they turned out to be a male as well named Chris. We waited another day or two so Chris could get settled before starting zombie training.

Chris always was at least two arm's length away and was very polite for having less control then a Nightstalker. He taught me the runners crouch, how to maintain it while moving, growling101, the rules of being a zombie, and a great many other things.

When we finished those sessions, I'd pretty much have a makeshift workout session; lots of laps to work on endurance and speed, and branch lifting, slowly but surely working my way up to heavier and heavier branches until they gave me a very study branch and big rocks they carved out to branch lift.

Whenever I got breaks or took them, I meditated and/or had lunch. Mediating was at the very least relaxing from all the yelling I received from training, and sometimes it felt  like I could make contact with my powers, but before I could actually make any contact, I kept getting pushed back to reality by the guys for training and other things.

Then one day as I took a break, I felt the connection, only this time it was slowly reaching out for me too. Just before I could make a true and full connection, I was brought back to reality by the boys again.

"Ash, come on, let's get moving, we got a lot of work to do." Alex said, waiting for me to respond. I shook my head no and continued to stay in the meditative position. Alex snorted at my response and said, "Ash, let's go, I don't care how tired you are..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence before I said, "Alex, shut up, I'm almost there, I need more time." I hoped he would understand because I wasn't gong to say anymore in the matter.

Letting go of the world again was difficult but I did it, searching inside myself for the connection again. The only reason I found it was because it reached out for me again, this time without any interruptions, we connected and another presence formed in my mind, I investigated it, seeking understanding of it and how it worked when all of the sudden it opened up and swallowed me, taking me into its depths.

Guys, I am sooooo sorry this was super late, I had a wedding I had to go to and I just didn't have time to post it until now. I apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused you. Happy Camping!