Darke Night

As Darkeness Unfolds...

We gathered together. So much needed to be discussed. To be learned. While we were gone,  much had changed in the life at home. There was now a total of 37 evolved amongst our ranks. The totals were strong and we knew that there was many more out there.  We needed to find them and bring us together, even if just as allies. Our future would depend on it. The numbers of humans was much larger, well over 300 survivors and most of them children.  Children were the true survivors of this apocalypse.

The stronghold had grown, a castle and virtual fortress now. It was a strength that we needed. Walls surrounded the entire encampment and individual areas where homes had been originally were given their own walls and defenses in case the outer walls were breached. We would leave nothing to chance. Even the growing fields were protected within defenses. The tops of the walls were covered by double rolled barbed wire and an electrical current ran through a wire that was strategically placed. Everyone within the compound knew how to trip the wires if it was necessary to escape to the other side of the wall, even the children were well trained in survival maneuvers.
The engineer's were geniuses,  truly. They had taken the concepts mom had had in her head and brought them to life. Survival was possible with what we had here now. But what was more important right now, was what Ash and Larien had learned while they traveled. That information alone could determine our fate.

Ash
"We were shocked at what we learned. There were multitudes of survivors along our path to the city. But no one had any true answers,  just empty guess work. Much like ourselves.  We knew if we wanted to get any true answers we would have to go to the source. We had to go to the CDC themselves." He shook his head. "It was true death and destruction. The place on the inside reeked of death and decay. So many lives lost and destroyed. We found no one within those walls. What we did find was their information. There was so much chaos with the sudden transformations that virtually none of their encryption codes had been reinstated.  The computers were free knowledge, and what we learned..." Once again, his dispare was evident. But then his anger surfaced. "None of this was supposed to have happened! The zombies. The death and violence. They never should have been. We were what was supposed to have been. When Adrain's Flu arrived it was evolution. Our natural human evolution. It was preparing the human race for our next steps in life. But the government figured it out and they were afraid. Afraid of something they could not control. Something that after awhile, they might be able to use as a weapon."

Larien continued. "Humans were intended to go through the multiple levels of Adrain's so that they could change naturally, into us. But the government began working on an "immunization, " in order to try and control the change or eradicate it in all except those that they wanted to "evolve." They created the zombies. They messed up. Everyone who got the immunization and got the flu were contaminated with their genetic cocktail and became the zombies we see now, instead of evolved. The government literally created this entire nightmare! " He finished.

"You said that they were trying to control who evolved," I said. "What exactly does that mean? If these zombies where not what was intended, what was?"

There was something close to fear in his eyes, even though fear was no longer a capability of ours. "Something you haven't seen yet? Something monstrous!  They are a zombie, yet so much more. Huge, vicious,  defiling. They are out there. And we have no real idea how many?"

"That's what the explosion was about?" Mom spoke up for the first time. "They couldn't control it, so they were trying to destroy it. Weren't they?"

"Yes." Ash said. "I don't really know if they were successful,  but I do know that at least one survived. It was there in the city. It's howls could be heard above the cries of the twisted metal and carnage."

"We heard it as well. It was bad. Really bad." I said. "Something like that can not be allowed to make it here, to us." Everyone nodded in agreement. There were steps they were going to have to take to prevent the creature from finding them. "What about the explosion? What kind of damage are we going to face from the fallout?"

"Nothing." Larien said. "The extent of the blast was contained within a set radius. It was the genius of the inventor, in-case it ever needed to be used."

"Thank God." Mom said. "I could not imagine how that would affect all of the children here. And us."

"We will be fine from that. It is other things that we need to be worried about right now." Zane said. And the discussion carried on into the night.

© 2014, Aelfwynn MacGregor, AMB