Swarm (Book 3) (8 page)

In the darkness, with wet grass underfoot, with howling wind and a starless sky, they ran. Laura checked over her shoulder, seeing the lights of the house slowly shrinking into the distance.

Something was surging through her, a sensation overcoming her. It was… joy… happiness. She couldn’t understand why she felt this. It was without cause, and yet, as Laura ran, she began to find some. She had escaped. She had left it all behind. The rain felt beautiful against her skin. The world seemed to stretch in front of her, an endless night for her to sprint into. She didn’t care why she felt so good. It didn’t matter. Her fear was gone.

Above her head, the storm raged on, its weight, its power – Laura felt it like some benevolent force, watching over her, cheering her on, and casting its influence over everything. Adrenaline rushed through her veins.

“Laura,” Zack shouted, after they had been running for some time.

Laura turned around, noticing that they were a considerable distance behind. She waited for them to catch up. Macy was on Zack’s back, while Stones ran by his side.

“What are we gonna do?” said Zack between breaths.

Laura realised that her own breathing was unaffected, as if she hadn’t been running at all.

“We need to keep going until we find somewhere,” she felt herself smiling.

Zack glanced behind him, put Macy down, and lifted up his shirt. Laura could see that he was hurt. He prodded his wound, and took a sharp intake of breath. Laura checked her own body. For the first time realising that she had multiple injuries. They didn’t give her any pain, even when she touched them.

“Can you walk okay?” said Laura.

“Yeah… yeah… I’m fine,” said Zack.

They kept moving. The wind worked against them, the cold numbed their faces. As they put more and more distance behind them, Laura started to feel less motivated. What the others couldn’t see was that this place was special, the storm was special. It was so much bigger than everything, so much more profound.

“Laura!” she heard Zack shout.

She glanced over to them and realised that she had stopped walking.

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” she looked back at the sky.

“Come on.” said Zack.

Laura sighed. They couldn’t understand it — the significance of the storm. Well, she would align their goals with hers. It would be easy.

They pushed on. The darkness swallowed them up and hid the world around them. They came to a road. Laura followed it right with her eyes. It ran for a short distance and lost itself amongst trees, nothing more than a moody clump of shadows. Laura felt a strong pull in that direction, and knew that this was a sign. She told the others where she wanted to go. Zack gazed in the direction of Laura’s suggested path.

“Why?” he asked.

“Trust me Zack,” she said.

“What’s there?” he said.

“I don’t know exactly, but I know it’s this way,” she said, starting to walk.

The others followed, as Laura hoped they would. She noticed a disconnect between the darkness and what she could see. The road, the stone wall that ran either side, the trees ahead and the sprawl of nature all around – she could see it all so well. The darkness wasn’t masking things as it should. Her vision, she realised, could cut through it like never before.

As they entered the wood, the road curved left and sloped upwards. They carried on, their footsteps echoing in the quiet, the only other noise coming from Stones, as he walked by their side, panting loudly. To her right, Laura saw a dirt road, breaking off from the asphalt and sinking into the depths of the night. But she knew that wasn’t the way, and kept moving past it. They went further and further up the hill, finally coming back out under the dark, clouded sky.

“Over there,” Laura said, pointing across a square field to a building in the distance.

They followed her once more, as she climbed over a stone wall and headed towards it.

After a short while, Zack spoke. “Is it that building… Is that it, or…?”

“Yeah that’s it.”

They continued on, the mud sucking the weight out of each step. Finally, when they were close enough, they could see that the building was a house. Laura stopped walking and stared at it.

“Is it safe though?” Zack asked.

“I think so,” said Laura.

“Can you feel any zombies?” said Zack.

“No.”

“So that means it’s safe?”

“This is all… This is all fucking crazy… I can’t say, like, everything is a hundred percent, in my head, you know? But I- I think it’s safe. But we should be careful, yeah? Just… you know…”

“You know anything about it?”

“No… Not really, but this is where the storm is telling me to go – it… it has to be somewhere safe… I think… it has to be”

“What?” He moved his head closer to her, struggling to hear over the wind.

“It’s probably somewhere safe.”

“What do you want us to do?”

“Let’s circle around. Check it out.”

…

Zack looked at the house, and its dark lifeless windows. They had viewed it from every possible angle. No sign of life – human or otherwise, except for a car parked in the driveway.

“Come on,” said Laura.

“Wait… what… how’re we doing it?”

“The door’s not locked.”

Together they walked towards the building, coming to the entrance. Laura pushed the door open, revealing a dark corridor.

She stepped in, quickly found the switch, and brought a couple of hanging, round lampshades to life. Without hesitating, she began to walk again. Zack hated her carelessness, the way she moved as if this was her own home.

“Stay here,” he said quietly to Macy, “Hold on to Stones.”

To his right was an open door. A sitting room – already fairly visible due to the light from the hall. He crossed the threshold and fumbled with his hand against the wall, finally bringing the room’s lights on. It was tidy, well maintained, with inviting sofas and armchairs. A middle-class room, except for the small, cheap-looking TV.

…

Laura picked up the car keys, having found them on the kitchen table. The further she had come into the house, the safer she had felt. Zack had been making her doubt herself with all his questions, but that was stupid. No, she was on a path. And this was all a part of it.

…

Zack looked up the long, steep staircase, his senses straining for any kind of movement. He looked behind him, seeing three switches. His hand moved to them. The hallway lights turned off and on again, and then the security light outside turned off.

Laura came back along the hallway. She held up some keys.

“We’re going to take the car.”

“Where are we going?”

“We can’t stay here.”

Zack understood. They were still relatively close to his grandparents’ house. It made sense to put more distance behind them.

“Where are we going?” Zack asked again.

“I don’t know,” she smiled – an expression so out of place that Zack instantly felt uneasy.

“But can you feel it? Where to go next?”

“Like… sort of… yeah.”

“…Okay”

Together, they went back out into the rain.

…

“Can you feel it?” Laura said loudly, her eyes fixed forwards, as she drove along the narrow country road, her headlights lighting up the rain.

“What?” said Zack.

“The storm! Oh God…
I
can,” said Laura, her voice full of wonder. “I need to get somewhere higher. Stacy’s ahead of me. Yeah she’s ahead of me. But I’m getting higher than her. Bitch.”

“W- We’re going up?”

“Yeah! Somewhere high! Get closer to it!”

“To what?”

“Yeah! The storm. The storm.”

“Why?”

Laura laughed, like she had just told a joke, and gave him no reply.

“Laura, why are we going up?” Zack said.

“Oh it’s going be clear. It’s so clear. I can’t tell you. I don’t know. You just have to trust me. Trust me, yeah?”

Laura stopped the car in the middle of the road. The rain pelting the metal roof like machine gun fire.

“You stay here,” she said.

“Why?” said Zack.

“Trust me. It’s better. I can’t explain.”

“B- But where are you going?” said Zack.

Laura turned, leant over to the back seats, and ruffled Macy’s hair. “Okay princess,” she said reassuringly, before opening the door and getting out.

“Laura!” Zack shouted after her.

Laura stuck her head back inside. “Stay here. I’m going to come back. You and Macy… and Stones will be safe.”

She turned and closed the door. Before her, the earth stretched up to create a dark, towering hillside.

Finally, she was outside. Finally, she could breathe it in. The rain came in sheets, slicing the air into a million pieces. The heavens had been filled by huge black clouds. Fast-moving spirits tracing paths above her. They would have been indistinguishable from the sky, if it were only darkness up there. But each one had a purple tinge, which was most dense at the bottom, so that it gave an outline to the lower parts. The effect was an uneven tapestry. Light and dark. Like the surface of some alien planet.

She began her ascent, able to see her way quite easily with the purple light. The wind howled, constantly finding new directions from which to throw itself against her. After a few hours, the ground began to level to a gentle slope, before finally revealing a plateau that stretched on in all directions. Laura froze. She spotted a figure. They were in the distance, wearing a luminous green jacket. Laura felt a tremendous excitement pass through her.

She started to walk closer. It looked like a woman. Her arms were outstretched, her face pointed towards the sky. Laura kept walking until she was a few metres away. The woman had her eyes closed.

“Hello!” Laura shouted.

She looked at Laura, and her arms dropped to her side.

“Hi!” — her voice was friendly, enthusiastic and followed with a big smile.

“Are you here for the storm?” said Laura.

“Yeah!”

Laura ran to her and hugged her. This lady, in her arms, wasn’t just a person. Her rain soaked clothes were bliss. Her skin against Laura’s skin was the ultimate sensation. A brutally intense energy. And it felt like Laura could melt into her.

“Who are you?” said Laura.

“Maria,” she smiled from under soaking, matted hair. Her face was radiant and youthful – strangely unaffected by the harsh cold of the wind.

“Are you okay? How did you get here?” said Laura.

“I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m so happy to see you,” said Maria.

“Yeah! Oh God. I’m so happy to see
you
. Are you like me?!” Laura shouted, over the noise of the wind.

The woman came close and peered into her eyes. Laura stared back. She saw soul and life, a mini universe mapped out in the speckles of her eyes. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed as if they were giving off light.

“Yeah…” the woman smiled. “We’re the same.”

“How did you get here?” asked Laura.

“I just came here for the storm. I wanted to be close to it. It’s so beautiful.”

“Oh it’s
so
beautiful. So beautiful,” Laura agreed.

“I’ve been so scared,” said Maria. “Oh wow.”

Laura hugged her again. Somehow Maria’s body had transformed into pure comfort and joy. Waves of happiness radiated out and into Laura, flooding her with a warmth unlike any other.

“We’re okay,” announced Laura — a kind of affirmation.

“Yeah. I feel safe up here,” said Maria grinning. “It’s so important to feel safe. It’s so important…”

“We’re okay!” Laura said again - this time shouting it, and jumping up and down.

“We should stay here, you know?” said Maria, her voice shaking slightly. “I just want to be here. Are you going to stay with me?”

“Yeah, I’m going to stay,” Laura smiled.

Maria pulled her in for yet another hug, she was incredibly strong. “I just feel so good up here. Do you feel good too?”

“Yeah,” said Laura.

“Do you promise? You’re not just saying that?” Maria said, her voice suddenly serious.

“No.”

“I want you to feel good too!”

“I feel it. I feel it. We’re the same. We’re going to stay up here! You and me!”

“Yes! You and me!” said Maria, now moving her attention back to the surrounding area. “Everything is right here. Can you feel the rain? Isn’t the rain amazing?”

Eager to share the same experiences, Laura did as Maria was now doing. She held out her arms, looked to the heavens, closed her eyes and concentrated on the rain. Laura felt the cold like never before, how it packed so much sensation into each drop. Pleasure came from being overwhelmed. Pleasure came from dying a million icy deaths.

“Oh, it’s heaven. Oh wow,” said Laura.

She felt a pounding, emphatic validation. Like the storm, she was profound. Like the storm, she was carried by her own energy.

“Are you getting more powerful?” said Laura.

“Oh… yeah I think so. I can do more now.”

“What are your powers?” asked Laura, knowing – without needing to be told, that Maria had some.

“Um… It’s so hard to explain. It’s like I can just see more. Like I knew that this big hill was here. And I know there are no zombies and… it’s just like more awareness. Usually I can sort of see what people are thinking. Not you though.”

“No. I can’t read you either,” said Laura.

“That’s cause we don’t need it on each other, we just need it for them, the zombies,” said Maria

“Yeah… I guess but-”

“That’s why we’re here. We have to fight the zombies. No it’s true. We have to take them out. The storm is giving us the strength,” said Maria.

“I controlled them you know,” said Laura.

“Really!”

“Yeah. I made them kill themselves,” said Laura.

“That’s amazing. See! That’s why we have this. It’s because we’re the ones that are gonna stop them. It’s destiny. It’s actually destiny.”

“Yeah I think I killed them as well, like, I didn’t even mean to but I blew up their heads. I think it was me,” said Laura.

“Oh shit… that’s sounds amazing. We could kill them all, just clean up the world man. You and me. You and me. What’s your name?”

“Laura.”

“Laura… I love it.”

“Seriously though, do you feel this… connection between us…? This like… This like… I could just thrust myself upon you.”

“Yeah, well… what do you mean?”

Laura felt a twinge of regret over her choice of words. “You know, like… I’m not going to do it. I just feel… I just feel good with you.”

“Yeah. I feel really good too.”

This slight moment of awkwardness troubled Laura. Before she had felt unity. Now she felt discordance. Why had Maria said that she felt good, instead of saying that she felt good
with her
? She should say that she felt good with her, Laura thought, because that was what she had said to Maria. And why wouldn’t you say it back – when someone had laid out their feelings for you?

“Who are you?” Laura shouted.

“Maria!”

“Who is that?” Laura said, trying to express how little she truly knew about this woman.

“What do you mean?”

Laura saw a look of concern play on Maria’s face.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m just excited!”

“Okay… me too. Let’s talk later, okay?”

“Okay.” Laura smiled back.

Panic was starting to grip her now. Why didn’t she want to talk anymore? She wanted to be left alone with her thoughts. What were her thoughts? Laura thought about herself, about how she might be coming across. Maybe she seemed crazy to this woman. Maybe this woman was scared of her and saw her as a threat.

Well that would be bad. Because Maria must have powers of her own. What were they? Laura walked a few steps, trying to make it seem casual by looking at the sky. Then she stole a glance at Maria, and saw that her eyes were also skyward. Laura moved her gaze away again. Had Maria seen her look?

She kept walking, knowing that she had to put distance between them. Her mind raced. Maria wasn’t really like her. Laura changed direction, and took a few steps back towards her. Maria was looking at her now, no longer smiling.

Does she know
?

Laura moved closer and closer, until she couldn’t take any more. She lunged, her hands moved to Maria’s neck and tightened around it. Maria grabbed Laura’s arms and pushed them away, breaking out of her grip, then knocking Laura back to land on the wet rock. Laura sprang back up.

They both stared at each other.

“Laura… don’t,” said Maria.

Laura stared at her, but she saw through it. It was an act to make her put down her guard.

“Okay… I’m sorry… It’s just the storm. I don’t know,” said Laura.

“I feel it as well. But it’s nothing. We’re not enemies,”

“Come here,” said Laura, opening her arms for a hug.

“No…” said Maria, hesitantly.

“Fuck!” Laura screamed. Maria’s eyes widened. Laura charged at her. Her hands once again reached for her throat. Maria side stepped and pushed her down. Laura leapt up. She began to creep closer, slowly circling around Maria, who circled the other way.

A bolt of lightning split the sky.

Laura and Maria were close now, both of them squinting against the wind and the rain. Laura stepped forward, hands raised like a boxer. She jabbed. Maria lent back, dodging it, before striking back and connecting with Laura’s jaw, knocking her head to the side. Laura recovered and punched again. Again Maria blocked, Laura threw a punch with her left hand, and then followed it with several more from both. Maria parried every one. Laura was forced to do the same, as Maria came back at her. A blur of hands grew between them, as the speed of the fight increased, each of them throwing fists, each of them blocking attacks, each of them caught in the movement of the other, in a furious dance of hands and footwork.

Something changed in Maria. She got faster, stronger. Now Laura only defended. Her hands open, as her palms pushed away fist after fist.

Laura lifted her leg to kick. But her movement unbalanced her slightly, enough for her to miss a block, enough for Maria’s punch to skim past Laura’s fingers and knock her head sideways.

Before Laura knew it, she was on the floor, with Maria on top. Maria’s hands lunged for Laura, but Laura caught hold of Maria’s wrists before they could reach her neck. They become locked in a slow struggle as Maria forced her hands down and Laura fought against it. Maria’s hands inched closer. Her fingers pinched Laura’s skin.

It felt like a snap. Something so profound, so deep, that Laura’s whole body shook with it. Maria flew backwards through the air as if hit by a car. Laura struggled for breath. Every part of her tingled, so raw, so present, that it was almost unbearable. She lifted herself up and ran towards Maria – who was also picking herself up.

Laura lifted her palm, without knowing why. A tremendous surge trembled through her. A ball of red light burst out from her hand. It bent the air around it as it flew past Maria and off into the night.

Maria stood there. Laura stood there. The storm marked out the seconds. Now Maria ran. Laura followed. She pointed her hand. The surge travelled through her again, but her arm shook so much that the ball of light flew into the ground ahead of her. Chunks of earth flew up and fell with the rain. A plume of dust rose. She came out the other side and her vision cleared. She stopped running, knelt down, extended her arm and held her wrist tightly. She took a deep breath. Another ball of light shot out through the air. It hit raised earth. Another plume rose. Laura stood back up and sprinted.

Her whole body shifted as the earth shifted. She dropped as the ground dropped and rose as
it
rose. This was hers. This was all hers. And Maria was hers too. Laura drove onward in one, long, unceasing sprint. Maria grew in her vision. Laura felt herself cutting through the darkness, cutting through everything towards her target.

She caught up with Maria and clipped her leg. Maria stumbled. Laura was on top of her before she hit the ground. She grabbed Maria’s hair. Her body ached with strength. An incredible tension gripped every part of her. Maria tried to fend her off, but was unable to. Laura kept pulling. She felt the hair rip free in her hands. Maria was screaming. Laura threw it into the wind, a shiver of pleasure passed down her spine.

She moved her hands to Maria’s throat, but did not squeeze. Instead she pulled, applying pressure up and into her jaw. Her arms felt like pistons. Something else was inside them, powering them. Maria was quiet now. Laura could feel the neck stretching. She twisted the skull. Her whole body shook with effort. Slowly, ever so slowly, the head moved further away from the shoulders. She grunted and strained. Then with a final, loud cry, the tension broke. Her hands jerked upwards. She lifted the head up to the level of her eyes.