The Rocking Dead: A New Beginning

Chapter 4: Nightmare

Tom's POV: I continued running down the dimly-lit hallway, holding onto the walls as I stumbled. My breath is fast and shallow. The sound of his boots pounding on the floor got closer and closer, faster and faster. Everytime I looked behind me I saw his figure turn the corner, making me run faster. The hallway seemed to get longer and longer with each step I took. Eventually, I found an open room. After taking another look back and seeing nothing, I darted into the room, quickly shutting the door. My breathing finally started to slow down as I pressed my forehead against the cold steel door. The room was dark except for the little light coming through the window at the top of the door.

Suddenly, I felt a hand across my mouth. Before I could react I was flipped around and my back slammed against the door, the hand still covering my mouth. I was frozen, staring into the eyes of the man who chased me. I tried to scream, but all that came out was a small whimper despite using all my vocal strength. My entire body is shivering in fear, not knowing what he wants to do to me.

"Hush darling." He growled, "As long as you do what I want, you won't end up like him." He gestured to a dead, naked body in the corner of the room that I didn't see before. I felt a tear fall down my face. "Oh, don't cry." He said, wiping it away as I tightly shut my eyes, "It won't hurt that much."

Within an instant he threw me to the ground. Before I could move he straddled on top of me, pinning me to the cold concrete floor. I tried to scream again, but still couldn't make a noise. He was unbuckling his pants when I looked over towards the body.

It's Eric. His throat is slit, blood from it everywhere.

My eyes widened and I started crying at the sight. I knew these people were evil! I fucking knew it! Within moments I felt my own pants being pulled down. My crying continued, barely any noise coming out. When he inserted himself I started squirming, trying to get away. He quickly pushed my head into the ground, rendering me unable to move. My gaze was fixed on Eric's corpse. I had no choice but to look at it as the man continued to violate me, making me cry more and more.

I quickly sprung up when I awoke, in a cold sweat and hyperventilating. My vision is blurry and spinning, making it difficult to figure out where I am. I heard nothing but ringing in my ears as I tried to come back down. A muffled voice came from beside me but I ignored it, still having hyperventilating and trying to adjust my vision.

"Tom!" The voice became clear as someone put their hand on my arm. I quickly yelped as I pushed it away. When I saw it was Eric, I finally calmed down. "You ok?"

"No. No I'm not. I had a fucking nightmare." I said, shaking my head. Eric pulled me in close, rubbing my back. I couldn't help but break down in his arms. As of right now I never want him to let go of me.

"It's ok. Calm down. Everything's fine." He whispered, his voice soothing. What felt like an eternity later we laid back down and I fell asleep in his arms.

I woke up before Eric the next morning, and I quickly went to searching the books on the shelf. There's gotta be a psychology one in here somewhere. Actually, I've found a few. I kept flipping through each one, trying to find a reason behind my nightmare last night.

"The hell's going on here?" Eric said, chuckling. I assume he's referring to the fact that I'm sitting on the floor surrounded by books.

"I'm trying to figure out my nightmare from last night." I said, flipping to the next page.

"Tom you can't harp on that." He said, "You're only gonna make things worse. It was probably just a side effect of your medication. You don't have many pills left so just wait until then and see what happens." I just ignored him and kept looking. My page flipping got faster and faster until I threw the book out of frustration.

"God damn it." I said through gritted teeth, my head falling into my hands. Eric knelt down beside me and started rubbing my back. "You were dead in it. Why were you dead? Why did it happen? Why did I dream all that?" Eric didn't say anything, but kept rubbing my back. When there was a knock at the door, he slowly got up to answer it.

"Joan said Negan wants us to meet downstairs in the main room by the furnace. Apparently something's happening." I heard Blackie's voice. Eric closed the door a few seconds later. I slowly got up and got dressed...