A Cut Above The Rest

Chapter 3: A dream to remember.

I watched the fire burn brighter as the monsters provided it with their gooey kindling. It was relaxing, and I felt as though I could just stand there and relax until sunrise. I started to close my eyes, the hour was growing late. I had no idea what time it was but it was certainly past midnight.

My eyes began to flutter as I tried to stay awake but I just couldn't keep them open. I started to drift off.

Deep sleep, I could hear the embers of the fire crackle in the back of my head. I could have easily forced myself awake but something deep inside was telling me to relax and drift off into nothingness.

Falling?

I was surrounded by darkness. Slowly falling into eternity, into pure darkness. 

Feeling?

My foot had touched something. A platform. I descended slowly and pulled myself upright for safe landing. I felt uncomfortable and looked in all directions but I didn't see anything other than the pure, thick darkness. I wanted to start moving but i feared the possibility of losing my footing since I couldn't see the ends of the platform. I looked down, hopeless, only to notice something gripped tightly in my left hand.

A flashlight! 

I immediately clicked the soft round button on the handle and the light turned on. It was very bright. At first it was pointed towards the ground. The floor was made of wood, nothing out of the ordinary. I lifted my hand up to point directly ahead of me and saw the big scary face of one of those zombie creatures!

I jumped back to gain some distance and then pointed the light back up at the monster. I tried to stay calm but my breathing pattern was enough to tell you I was panicking.

I saw the zombie, it didn't seem mad or rushed to eat my brains like the others earlier tonight. It was just standing there, immobile. 

I took about a minute just examining it's green skin that seemed to be pumping liquids within itself since even though it wasn't moving, the body was never completely still. The blubber was also a bit transparent. It had no bones or veins and completely baffled me on how it was able to stay standing, let alone run. It's face looked sad, depressed even. 

I moved the flashlight around to see that the platform of wood seemed to follow a path behind me, opposite the creature. Without hesitation I followed the given path and it eventually led me to a window. Bright moonlight was shining through now so I shut off my flashlight, pushed out the wooden boards that held the glass and peeked my head out.

A large field on a big spiraling hill. On the very top rested a big wooden house supported by large beams. Not too far from there resides a small shed before the hill begins to steepen. It all looked so familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I stared out to the field for a while until a saw a small wooden fence reach out from the side. It was very well hidden by grass from underneath, and by the curved inward drop from above. I felt accomplished just by finding it. But all of my excitement was replaced by fear when i started to hear the zombies moan. It sounded so familiar, but it wasn't coming from behind me?

I looked down under the window and there resided at least 50 of those green creatures all looking down at something. A few of them were bent over. It was almost like they were eating something but I couldn't see past the crowd.

Shivers. Shivers went up my spine as I was quickly distracted by the feeling of a finger tap on my right shoulder. So much was happening at once, and everything was becoming harder to see, as if it was all fading away. I turned quickly and saw Patricia standing there above the darkness. Her toes were pointing downwards as if she was floating in mid air. She had a frighteningly mad expression on her face as if I had done something terribly wrong, even I had the feeling in my gut that I did. Nevertheless, I was comforted by her presence as I was no longer alone.

"Patricia!"

I cried out as I began to walk towards her.

"Stop!"

She put out her hand in a halting signal and my feet stopped moving. I was frozen in place, my feet were still in a walking position but I couldn't move them, nor could I talk. I couldn't even breath!

"How don't you react to killing your own brother!"

She screamed at me as her eyes began to shed an incredible amount of tears. I has no idea what she was talking about yet my left eye still shed one tiny, meaningless tear that fell off my cheek and down into infinite darkness. I looked down to watch it fall but instead caught a glimpse of my left hand that used to hold the flashlight, but was now covered in dark red blood.

"Oho!"

My head flew forward as I tried to breath, I felt as though I was drowning and needing air desperately. I took a few seconds to relax and then let out a big sigh as I noticed my return to in front of the still burning shed. I seemed to have slid down my scythe and have been laying against it.

"A dream eh? If only I could remember it clearly."

I scratched my head and watched as the fire went out. I could see a huge pool of green slime almost covering the entire area where the shed once stood.

I lifted myself up with the help of the scythe's steel pole and dusted myself off. I was absolutely covered in ashes and light glowing embers that thankfully did not catch fire. 

Only two questions filled my head at that moment: why wasn't my sleep disturbed by a crazy zombie monster? And where do I go now?

I didn't exactly have an objective in mind so I was completely clueless on how to deal with the situation. Do I start running as far away from the monsters as I can? Or do I look for they're source and eliminate them all? And if it was even possible, where do I go to do so?

I started scratching my head with both hands now trying to remember the fuzzy dream that might lead to where I have to go. I open my eyes and see 3 very large red barns in the distance. They were on the very end of the hill, and the one on the far left looked as if it would fall over the side of the steep hill at any moment. For some reason they looked familiar, especially the open glass window on the second stage of the farthest barn to the right. 

I picked up the scythe, wrapped the belt firmly around my left hand and immediately began rushing to my next destination with nothing but blind determination and intuition.