Chapter 16

UNEDITED-

Marisol-

I don't know why Betty died and that man from before didn't. It doesn't seem fair, but life isn't fair. Looking back to August I saw him wiping the blood off his hand.. and in the other he was holding the katana that I'd given to Betty. He must have picked it up while I was preoccupied.

I wiped my own hands and wiped the blade on my trousers before sheathing it.

"I'm sorry" August mumbled.. I knelt down infront of him holding his little hands in mine.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, sometimes bad things happen. We just have to be strong when they do. Okay?" I asked softly.

His watering green eyes looked back at me and my heart sank into oblivion. "Why do bad things happen?"

"I don't know" I pulled him into me and he immediately wrapped his arms around me. "But whatever happens you will be alright.. I promise"

He squeezed me tighter. I broke away from the hug when I heard a banging on the front door.. the growling made it evident that one of the dead was knocking. "We need to go.. keep this close" I pulled the katana up in his hand.. He nodded and we went through the house looking for the key, all the while more of the dead were being drawn by the first one. Well I ended up back where I started and August pointed out a bowl on a thin counter in the hallway by the front door. He walked over and pulled out a bunch of different keys.

August sat in the passenger seat and put his seatbelt on. Finally I was opening the garage door to leave.. I knew I had to be quick as there were a group of five or six of them banging on the front door, only a low hedge between us. I jumped into the drivers seat and started the blue porche, speeding away from the house like a race car driver. Somehow the way I tried to drive in other cars matched perfectly with this one. It felt like an extention of myself as we swerved in and out of various obsticals in the road. One road was completely blocked so I drove down the street, splattering a few heads as the car went smashing into them.

Half way there and feeling comfortable in the drivers seat I felt like I could conquer the world.. and then I turned a corner fast and was confronted with a swarm of the dead.. at least 100 waddling bodies blocking the street. We both flung forward being held in by the seatbelt. I reversed back down the road we came and was confronted with another huge swarm that rounded the corner seemingly out of nowhere.. Snarling mouths appeared in every direction. I decided we should at least try to make a run at them. I wheel span the car and let it rip.. countless bodies went rolling under the car but before I knew it the car was in the air, we hit something.

Glancing over to August in mid air I felt like we were in slow motion, I saw the world spinning through the window behind him. My head turned back and then everything went black.

When I awoke I couldn't open my eyes.. I tried to move my hands but nothing seemed to be working. I panicked and screamed but it muffled in my mouth. Using every bit of strength that was left in me, I pulled my hands up. They broke free.. clutching at my face I began to remove a think skin like substance that seemed to be covering me. Once my face was free my eyes traveled to the seat next to me. It's empty.. Where the fuck is August?. His airbag has deployed but mine didn't.. I clicked my seat belt and fell on my head as I had been hanging upside down.

As I looked back up to where I'd been sitting I noticed my clothes, at least the colour they had been. But they have become apart of this silicone, skin like substance. Shit that means.. I'm naked. I grabbed the clothes from my bag and got dressed laid on the ceiling of the car. My t-shirt got caught on my back.. I reached my hand over my shoulder and felt a large spike sticking out, upwards from my shoulder blade.. I reached over to my other shoulder and sure enough it was the same. I took my shirt back off and tore two holes in the back of it.

I grabbed my katana and thought again about August. My mothers blade, the one he picked up after Betty.. isn't here.. which means he has it. He must think I'm dead, why else would he leave?.

I crawled out from the window of the car. As I looked around my heart began to race.. it's as though I've gone forward in time. Seedlings are sprouting from new cracks in the road.. they look like old cracks but they are certainly new to me. The street is almost bare.. Apart from the several withered bodies on the ground. They are growling and moaning but are barely able to move. Like they haven't eaten in years. Some even have plants growing from their skin.

Apart from the dead, it's beautiful to see mother nature taking back the world. I don't think it ever really belonged to us.. we never had a right to try an take it, to pollute it and poison it.

I don't know what to do now.. my only option is to go back home.. maybe that's what he did. Pulling the bag from the car and slinging it over my shoulder I started walking. I've come to think that I don't have bad luck.. I am bad luck.

My walk turned to a jog as I noticed a couple of shuffling bodies down the street from me. As I hadn't got tired I carried on jogging all the way up to my street. My car is still here but Samantha's is parked across the street and looking weathered. Flat tires and grass growing around around them. As I walked down the path to the front door my foot caught in a rope loop. It tightened around my ankle, my body flipped upside down, the floor met my head with a crack as I was lifted into the air. Hanging from the tree in the middle of my front garden. The cold wind brushed along my back creating a new sensation.. like movement all over.

I barely heard the front door open over the ringing in my ears, my white vision soon cleared to see Samantha weilding the katana out infront of her. A man who I don't recognise stood behind her weilding a machete. Both of their eyes were wide with shock.. "Marisol?.. Is that really you?"..

"You know this person?" The man asked.. Soon Bella came out the door .

"Are you going to let me down?" I asked.

"Do you bite?" He asked with a serious tone still brandishing his weapon.. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion while all of them waited for my answer.

"I'm not going to bite I swear.." I looked up to where my foot was caught in the rope, that's when I noticed the long black things dangling over my shoulders and down past my head.. I lifted my hand over my shoulder, my fingers traveled down the smooth spikes, finally realising these long feathered things are coming from me.. no wonder they all looked so astonished.

Sam untied the rope and gently let me down. "Where have you been?" She asked throwing her arms around me. I saw the man get visibly uncomfortable but I hugged her back anyway.. His attention soon shifted to a couple of the dead approaching. He swiftly disposed of both and ushered us into the house before we drew more attention.

"Where have you been?" Sam asked as we entered the kitchen. Most of the boxes have been moved and there are various new objects in the room. Different radios and strings hanging clothes across one side.

"We got trapped by the dead and I crashed the car.." I tried to naunchalauntly feel one of the new additions coming from my back. It seems the feathers have retracted back into the spikes somehow.. my stomach turned over on itself just thinking about it.

"Why didn't you come back?"

"I told you.. I crashed the car and blacked out.. now I'm here.." ..Well if they don't know about the crash then August hasn't been back here. "How long has it been since we left?"

"Almost seven years.." Bella stated, I felt the blood rush out of my face.. I crashed the car seven years ago. August could be anywhere by now. I knew it must have been awhile, but until it was said I had no idea what level of fucked I was on.

"So you were what?, unconscious the whole time?" The stranger opened his mouth, putting the pieces together for himself..

"Who are you?" I asked abruptly.

"Blake.. who are you?" He asked as though I'd insulted him.

"My name is Marisol.. you're standing in my house" I spoke calmly. He looked to Sam and back to me. "Where is Alex?" I asked ignoring his presence.

"Who's Alex?" The Blake questioned..

"Please can you just keep your mouth shut while the grown ups are talking?" He scowled but didn't say anything else. Moving his hand through his slick back brown hair he left the room.

"He's not a bad guy Sol.." Sam tried to plead his case..

"I don't think he is a bad guy.. I think we have important things to talk about and he has nothing to add.." Fair enough I didn't need to talk to him the way I did, but can you blame me? I'm pissed off. "So where is she?"

"Well.. she went to look for you"..

"Why the fuck would she do that?.. when?" I couldn't help but show my frustration.

"A few months after you left.." My heart sank into the pit of my stomach.. I bawled my hands into fists, doing everything I could not to destroy the entire room. So August is gone.. Alex is gone.. the only one left is Samantha. She seems to have done okay here. They look healthy enough. Though now that I'm paying attention you can see the years have had some effect on them. Neither one has their usual coat of make-up and glam.. the frown lines and crows feet on their faces have also grown.

"Do you have any idea where she could be?" I don't have a the first clue how to find August but maybe I can find out what happened to Alex.

"She was going to Betty's lake house.. did you ever actually get there?" Bella added making a really good point.

"Right the lake house.. well I'm glad to see you're both alright. But you know I have to go."

"Wait.. where did the, 'wings' come from?" Sam asked before I could leave the room.

"The same place as my ears probably" I better get used to them.. I wonder if they work..

"Can you fly?" Bella chimed in again.

"I saw a flying one once.. they're rare.. hard to kill".. Blake came entering back into the room, stuffing his face with a plate of food in hand. Some kind of meat on the bone.

I looked over to him slightly surprised. There are more like me?. "You had to kill it?".

"It's kill or be killed.. the Hallows weren't happy about it though"

"The Hallows?" I'm intrigued.

"The head of the Hallows was bitten, and it changed him. Apparently he got hungry and ate a chunk of his wife.. only she didn't fully turn, she ended up like him. And then he carried on through his family, making each one a different version of himself. Eventually they got hungry and ended up changing a few of their gang members..They have places set up all over the city.."

"How do you know so much about them?"

"I used to live in one of the camps.."

"When did you leave?"

"About five years ago.."

"How long have you been here?"

"Two years I think.." He looked to Sam who nodded affirmatively.

"Did you ever come across a little boy? his name is August, he has brown hair, green eyes-"

"I've seen many faces over the years, I really wouldn't know, I'm sorry"..

"It's alright.. thank you for sharing what you do know.. and I'm sorry about how I acted before. As you can probably tell, I'm not having a very good day".. He just nodded as though he accepted my apology. "I am glad that your all alive but I really do have to go.."

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"Stay safe" Samantha hugged me and Bella joined in. Blake stepped out of the door with me and closed it behind himself.

"Please keep them safe" I asked as I walked away from the house.

"I will" He nodded before going to reset the trap that I'd triggered.

As I began jogging I thought about my wings.. wings.. it's still even weird to think about. But what if I can make use of them? Blake did say he saw one fly.. I stretched out my arms to try to get the wings to come out but they didn't. Reaching my hand around I tried to pull them out but that didn't work either. I shook my body and nothing.. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine how they felt when they were out.. how the wind tussled through the long feathers. I heard a swoosh and opened my eyes. Looking to my sides I inhaled deeply. Large jet black wings spread either side of me.

Feeling the use of a new muscle is the strangest feeling. I tried to move them as I wanted, but it was almost like trying to stick up your middle toe on it's own. They swished around sporadically, almost throwing me around the road before I finally got them under control, slowly flapping each one.

I began a run, just to see if they could float me.. I ran and they flapped once, sending me twenty feet in the air, I came crashing down rolling twice and finally coming to a halt. Lifting my hand to my head I stood back on my feet. It wasn't that bad. Maybe if I flap again I'll just keep going up.

Taking another run I propelled myself into the air, as my body fell back to the earth I flapped.. once again I was launched up into the air chaotically. My heart was pounding in my ears, arms thrashing around as I tried to steady myself in the air. In the panic I managed to carry on gaining hight. Before I knew it I was soaring over my neighbour hood.

After awhile this flying thing didn't seem so hard. I made my way back to Betty's wrecked car in barely any time at all. Almost every roof top is green.. a small apple tree perched in a drain pipe caught my eye and I smiled. How can it be that in the middle of all the pain there is still beauty to be found. If I set myself aside and just look at what the lack of human intervention has created, I can't help but feel a sense of peace.

I made it to the car and soon realised I'm not sure how to get down. I let myself fall and flapped once.. let myself fall and flapped again..I did the same once more before dropping to the ground onto my knee. I can't say it didn't hurt a little.. I did fall almost ten feet. My wings tucked back neatly into the spikes purtruding from my back.

I climbed into the car and quickly found Betty's map. Looking at where I had been sitting for 7 years, I broke a piece of the cocoon off and it crumbled in my hand. It seems to have dried out pretty quick. Out of nowhere a scream echoed through the tall buildings. I quickly crawled out from the car and got to my feet. Hearing another scream I began to sprint towards it.

In no time at all I rounded the corner to see three men and a woman holding a man at gun point. Watching from behind an old car 20ft away I saw that one of them was restraining a woman with his arm around her neck.. "Quiet" The burly mustached man spoke holding his hand over the womans mouth.

"Show me your ID" The muscular woman spoke, half of her brown hair was shaved and the rest hung down over her shoulder.. one of her ears is pointed like mine.

The man stood infront of them began to pull his shirt up to his neck.. I almost gasped at what I saw.. this disheveled looking man looks like he's had chunks of meat stripped from his body. "We better get you home then" She spoke in a deep voice once she had seen his brand. All I could see was a circular scar in the middle of the bottom of his back.

"Please don't take us back.. we'll do anything"..

"Anything?" The woman asked as she approached him. He nodded.. "Well I am kinda hungry" She grinned, grabbing ahold of him and tearing a chunk from his neck. Before I could even think of saving the frail woman she was already being ripped into. She quickly went limp as the man holding her tore into her flesh. I couldn't move, my eyes fixed to the spot as I watched through the mucky car windows.. the woman passed the man over to one of the other men who'd stood waiting patiently. It was almost as though he was just handed a sandwich. As they continued to share and pass around a their meal I still stood stuck to the spot. Is that how Alex see me?

One of the men stopped eating and lifted his head.. he sniffed the air for a moment before speaking.. "Someone is watching us.." He looked straight over in my direction and the rest of their eyes followed his.. all of them drew their weapons and pointed them towards the car.. Fuck.

"I can hear your heart beat.." The woman announced slyly.

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NOTES-

I hope you have enjoyed the story so far. It has gotten a little crazy but I'm enjoying where it's going ahaha. It's just a crazy world they live in I guess. Anyway take care of yourselves. Peace.