Denai cocked her head and scowled. “They have someone who is psychic with them.”
“Truly?” Baelil said in an off-handed manner. He’d allowed Kendra’s taunting to get under his skin and was struggling to keep from charging the house and putting her in her place.
“I think it’s a male, but I can’t be sure,” Denai continued with a worried whisper. “Whoever it is has strong energy. My magic is being blocked too.”
Denai considered herself an average psychic with a few magical tricks up her sleeve. She’d let them believe that she was far more powerful than she was. She didn’t actually say it in so many words, but she also didn’t deny it when they praised her for her powers and skills. It had been good fortune that since she joined the populous of Center Land Village there had been no one to challenge or put her abilities to a serious test. Everyt
An eerie silence greeted Felix as he rushed into the house. “Auntie, he’s invisible. Get Eugene! Hurry! He’s after Eugene!”As he raced across the great room with his eyes focused on the nursery door, he tripped over something and tumbled to the floor. Picking himself up with an urgency, he scowled as he looked in the direction of the object that had caused such havoc. The words of frustration and anger toward the object that were on the tip of his tongue were quickly replaced by gasps of shock and worry when he realized that it was Olga’s arm that he’d tripped over.He lifted his torso from the floor and was just getting to his knees when he saw Eugene being carried out of the back door. Baelil was still invisible, so it looked like the baby was floating, but he knew better.Blood oozed out of Olga’s temple as she groaned out the words, “Go after him.”“I’ll be back,” he
Kendra moved amongst the fallen zombies and men, salvaging what arrows that she could from their corpses. When she came upon Baelil’s lifeless body, she was amazed at how accurate her aim had been in such poor lighting. It just showed what a driving force hate could be. Determining that the arrow was too damaged by the bone that it had shattered on its way to his heart to be of any further use, she moved away from him without a backward glance.The movement of a zombie that was felled but not killed caught her eye. She walked over to it, pulled out her knife, and drove it deep into the creature’s skull. Memories of looking into the human-like eyes of the zombies that had surrounded the tree that she’d used for safety floated through her mind as she wiped her knife clean and returned it to its holder.Making her way back to the house, she could see Rex and Olga casually leaning against the railing on the porch. Had t
It’s the aftermath of an apocalypse of life on earth as we know it. The planet has suffered a devastating alteration to its surface composition. Although the earth has been resilient in the face of catastrophe over the millenniums and has already begun to rejuvenate in some way or another, there is speculation that it might never completely recover from the nuclear war that raged as a last resort for the powers that be to hang onto the control of the planet and not lose it to the few humans who were assisting with the invasion of a dominant alien race. There are only a select few areas that aren’t affected. These areas were quickly seized by the invading aliens and the humans who’d worked with them during the takeover for habitation, leaving the rest of mankind to struggle for survival in a damaged world.With many of the natural resources impaired, most of the conveniences that society enjoyed have been lost or deliberately removed b
The sun beat down on the scorched and barren land with such intensity that its rays glistened off the tiny particles of soil that was so dark that it almost looked black. Thick heat waves hovered in between Kendra and her target, making it difficult to focus for a clear shot. She knelt on one knee in hopes that the mountain’s shadow would dull the sun’s rays enough to improve her vision. She silently cursed as her stomach announced its need for sustenance with a loud rumble that softly echoed off the boulders on either side of her. Holding her breath, she hoped that it wasn’t loud enough to alert the big cat of her presence as it languidly stretched its long body across the surface of a flat boulder while it bathed in the sun’s intense rays. Beads of sweat trickled down her torso as she slowly pulled the bow string and released the arrow. The cat’s wail of surprise echoed off the boulders that lined the barren valley
Where there was one mountain lion, there was generally a mate. This was her thinking as Kendra headed back out the following day with her bow slung over her shoulder. She wanted to take advantage of the possibility of the cat’s mate still being in the area. It wasn’t easy to come across big game that had escaped genetic mutation enough to be edible; never mind an original. Most of what she brought home was of the aviary family. Since her kill was a genetic original, she was fairly certain that its mate would be too. She just couldn’t pass up the chance to build their stores of protein with quality meat.She was so lost in thought about the soups and stews that her aunt would produce with the abundance of meat that she planned on supplying with this second kill that, when she came to the kill spot from the day before, she was surprised to have arrived so soon.She heaved a sigh of disappointment when she
“Another cat?” Olga said with a smirk of delighted surprise as she stood in the cave’s opening with her hands on her hips.“I’m going to be sick from the smell of sweat and sunbaked blood,” Kendra groaned as she wiggled out from beneath the bulk of the cat and heaved it onto the hook that was driven into the rock specifically for such purposes. Her mood had only slightly improved during the journey home. “It was a long walk.”“You’re limping,” Olga observed.Kendra pulled off her blood crusted shirt and tossed it to the ground. Then, she limped to the nearest stump so that she could sit and remove her boots. “The cat was heavy and I bruised my foot on a boulder cluster.”Olga disappeared into the cave and returned with a fresh shirt. Tossing it at her niece, she barked, “Cover yourself before the boys come out.”“Why are the
Ari held tight to her mare’s reins as she carefully maneuvered through the thick grove of trees that bordered Center Land Village. She wore an expression of concern and disappointment. She’d been searching for the Schiele family for almost five years. The girl that she met hunting on the edge of zombie territory, Kendra, fit the description, but she couldn’t be sure without knowing her family name. Was she the daughter of the two scientists who’d unleashed the zombie virus?It was well known that the child of the scientists was but an infant when they were executed and the reversal of the zombie virus was lost with the lives of the scientists, but they were banking on the fact that she was present during their discussions about it as well as during their daily routines enough for things to have been absorbed in her subconscious. It was hoped that, with the technology available to them, there was a strong possibility that either
Felix practically fell onto the small patch of grass that the hillside offered when Olga finally gave the order to stop and rest. Walking wasn’t easy for him under the best of circumstances. The ache of having been the recipient of Rupert’s angry fists the night before and having a good amount of their belongings strapped to his back only hindered him more. Even so, he had no intention of complaining. He knew that his aunt and Kendra were toting the bulk of their belongings on their back as they took turns pulling the overloaded wagon. He was also well aware that Kendra had an injured foot. Not to mention the fact that he knew that she’d experienced a fitful night with minimal sleep; which was understandable after Rupert’s almost rape.“Where will this lead us?” he asked as he wiped the sweat from his brow and the back of his neck.“It’s awfully close to zombie land,” Kendra said.&ldq