The Awakening
---Einar! Einar, Einar!! Ein---
Blackness was all around. No Einar. No zombie. No ocean. His heart was running sprints in his chest.
The voice came on again in his head. {Now, wasn't that fun. But don't go away, we have lots more for
you, our valued customer}. "No, #!%& you!!!" Jack was furious, the son of a b---h had just 'bout given
him a heart attack. He wanted to kill the little b-----d, but all that surrounded him was black. {Ok, Jack,
time for fun, pleasent nightmare #2}.
~The sky was the color of hot coals and ash from a well-burned, on the verge of extinguishing, fire. The
rocky craigs of the cliffs in front of him looked hard and merciless, and gave the area a dead look. It was
a canyon. Jack was standing on a small rock outcropping, only about a 150m in total surface area. Behind
him, tall, jagged rock cliffs towered above him. In front, a cliff went down off the edge of "his area", down
about 300-400m to a narrow gulch below. A dry streambed was snaking its way down the canyon. And
surrounding it were jagged rocks and thorny, dead bushes. Across from him was a cliff, with an outcrop
nearly identical to the one he was on. On it, a figure dressed in a long, frilly bridesmaid dress lay. The
figure began to move, first streching its legs, then popping its back, and then finally getting up. Jack let
his mouth fall open in shock. He recognized her at once. It was Mindy Bloom, his High School sweetheart.
He hadn't seen her for nearly 30 years. He remembered they were the most talked about couple in school.
Homecoming King and Queen, Winter Formals, movie dates, those were the days. But, a few weeks after
they graduated, some idiotic drunk driver had been going...too fast...
The image of her laying there in the street, her beautiful face contorted, her curved, sleek body twisted,
and blood. Lot's of blood. He tried to shake the image from his mind. How can this be, he thought. She died
so long ago. Yet there she stood, in a gorgeous dress, a bridal wreath on her head, looking stunning and alive.
And consdering the surroundings, she was the only thing worth looking at.
"Jackie, is that you?!" she yelled across the gulch. At first he was too dumbstruck to speak, then he found
his lips and yelled back, "Yes! Wow, Mindy, I can't belive your here!!" "I know, crazy huh! By the way, just
where is here?" Good question, Jack wondered. The dead, desolate area didn't seem to have any purpose or
(dream) reason to exist.
It doesn't exist, Jack, and niether does she. It's all a dream, remember? She died 30 years ago, and not on
a dead, lonely canyon, but out in the street in downtown Detroit. Remember?
He did remember, but nonetheless she held his attention. As he looked fondly at her, a soft, haunting crack-
ling noise met his ears. It was coming from behind Mindy. "Gosh, its so good to see you, Jack!!We shared some
wonderful times, didn't we!!" He watched in numb shock as two zombies and a--a FlesHorder--pulled them-
selves out of the ground, and began walking toward Mindy. "Next time we get a free moment, lets go down to
the local show, Jack, just you and me, hows that sound?" His stomach flip-flopped as the zombies grabbed her
arms.
"What the---," her scream cracked the lifeless air around them(and Jacks eardrums); as the FlesHorder put
its claw around her onto her chest. She watched in utter terror as it made its way down to her bosom. There, it
took one of its claws and tore a hole in her dress. "Leave her alone, you b-----ds!!" Jack hollered. But at that
the FlesHorder only glanced up and smiled, and went back to its prey. It reached in through the tear, above her
left breast, held it there for a moment, and then pulled it back out. Mindy let out a little gasp, then glanced down
to see the FlesHorder's clawed hand holding her heart.
She screamed.
The FlesHorder bit into the heart, and then grinned as it chewed. Blood oozed between its decayed teeth. Then
it took the remains of her heart and mashed into its own chest. Then it signaled the zombies. They began to move
her toward the cliff. She struggled a little, but it was usless. She cried out to Jack to save her.
How he hated this. Just a dream, Jack. "The #@$% it is!" he yelled. But there was nothing he could do. He
watched in utter rage as they picked her up, and threw her off the edge. He thin, lovely body got smaller and
smaller. Her screams reverberated off the walls, and danced about Jack. Then----SPLAT!! He turned away, the
anger, the misery, the evil of it all tearing him up inside, like a starving dog going after a huge, juicy T-bone, but
can never quite reach it, and then some jerk comes along and snatches it up and eats it in front of you, and there
isn't a thing you can do about it. He looked across the valley, expecting to see the FlesHorder and his brethren
laughing their brains out.
They were nowhere to be seen. He was all alone, on the dead rocky outcrop.
All of a sudden, the ground beneath him began to move. He looked down the see pebbles and sand dancing at
his feet. The rock he was standing on was moving inward. He looked back and saw the part where his outcropping
met the mountain cliff at a right angle. There, it was dissipearing, like the stairs of an esculator going up dissipear
under the metal when you reach the top. He began frantically looking around for a place to go. Nowhere. There was
nothing but vertical cliffs all around and jagged rocks below. Now what he was standing on was no more than the
size of a table jutting out from the cliff. Then a small counter. Then a ledge. Then--
He was falling. The last of the ledge dissipeared, and he plunged downward. Faster and faster. He felt no air at
all rushing past him, but nor did he care. He rolled over in mid-air just in time to see the ground come speeding at
his face. "NNNOOOO----
---OOOOO!!" Blackness again He was gasping for breath. Then the voice of the Thing came on in his head. {Now
Jack, wasn't that quite a rush, or what? But enought fun and games. You have been a reat sport, Jack, now it is time
for your reward}. Jack turned slowly. His rage briefly left as he saw the sight before him. Though there was nothing
else but black void, before him stood the thing--Judgement-- and his servant, the FlesHorder. On the FlesHorder's
chest, there was a heart stuck. It was still beating. But what shortened his breath was what sat between the two of
them. It was a guillotine.
{Step on up, Jack. Your destiny awaits.}
"No."
{Jack, don't make me have to force you into this. You know I can, don't you?}
"No. This is not real. Yes, maybe that could kill me, but this is a dream, an illusion, and I control my dreams, not you!"
{Jack, Jack, Jack. You really don't get it, do you. I can, and will kill you. I will kill all of you stupid humans. So it is
in you best interest to quit trying to be brave and DIE NOW!!!}
Jack closed his eyes. Concentrate. He saw himself on a driveway, with nothing else around. Concentrate. He saw him-
self on a driveway in front of the mausoleum. Trees. And bushes. Oh, don't forget the tunnel. And that sweet car
parked out in front. Wake-up, Jack. He opened his eyes.
He was in a driveway. With a mausoleum. And trees. And bushes. And that tunnel, and that sweet car out front.
And that stupid monkey on a bike who gave him all those damned nightmares.
{Jack, you are a fool. You have no clue what you are messing with. You are a stupid jackass Jack, and you will die
like one. I gave you an easy way out. Now you are going to suffter. You have damned yourself. Stupid human. Even
more of a reason to kill you all.}
Not going to suffer, going to survive. He turned and ran.
to be continued...
Chapter 10: The plot thickens...