Terror. A dimension mirroring the living one--but morphed to reflect the imagination of its Overseer. And the current Overseer... has refused to relinquish her power for centuries, tormenting her souls--"terrors"--into becoming... zombies.
Arielle f...
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It was time to leave. Jade insisted that if they were to attempt peeking into the Void, they couldn't do it from the dank basement they'd taken refuge in. They had to distance themselves from busy towns with zombies lurking in every alleyway. They had to distance themselves from everything.
A remote cabin in a forest, or a sewer beneath a bridge—those were Jade's options, and she didn't wait for Benny's opinion before urging him upstairs, through the darkened warehouse, and out into the inflamed town.
What town was this, anyway? He almost asked Jade, but she was so busy crouching, swiping her sword in front of them with her every step, twirling on her heels to gauge the area, he didn't dare disturb her. She took the lead, silent, steady, guiding him past decaying corpses—zombies or normals, who knew?—and crumbled buildings that had become piles of ash. She maneuvered them by dumpsters filled with fire, benches and lampposts trampled and destroyed, lines of glass where windows had combusted, and remnants of bicycles, once fenced-in trees, broken signs of storefronts.
The sky overhead bloomed with red, choked by charcoal-colored clouds that seemed to move downward, about to overwhelm them. They pulsated, and streaks of scarlet lightning woke across them, like veins feeding into a heart—the sky itself.
Once they reached a less perilous zone—still on fire, but with fewer buildings and cars, and fewer corpses—Jade relaxed her stance and lowered her weapon.
"You'll get used to it," she said, side-eyeing Benny's permanent frown of disgust, confusion. "You can never stay in one safe house for too long, because these crazies are smart. If they smell you—and somehow, they always do—they'll find a way to sneak in, to creep up on you. They check spots several times, even if they've been there before. They're resourceful, the little fuckers. Despite the poison in their veins, they've retained some of their faculties."
"So they're not regular zombies at all." Benny spun his head to glimpse behind him, at the chaos they'd been walking through, the hell they might have stayed stuck in, if it weren't for Jade's skills. The avenues glowed, awash with fire, and eerie moans echoed from smaller streets to his left and right.
He flipped around and caught up with Jade.
"They're dead, but they're witty, cunning." Jade slid her sword into its holder in her bag. "She chooses the stubborn, feisty ones. So though they're infected, they don't lose their intelligence, even if they sort of lose their wits."
They broke through a dry bush of needles, and into a clearing with—to Benny's shock—no fire. Thick clusters of trees surrounded the area, with a few small passages leading between them. A heavy film of fog loomed, and the grass was slushy and wet, transforming the zone into a gloomy marsh. The air still reeked of smoke, but an earthy scent seemed to swoop in, trying to disperse it.
"What's their purpose?" Benny scanned the ground, searching for something to use as a weapon. They hadn't found anything suitable in the basement, and Jade had said they'd locate something on the way. The crimson-tinted clouds dipping closer and closer to them provided a sinister light to mark their path through the forest, and he was grateful for it.
