The Rising

As soon as the others took off so did I, hitting every zombie that got in my way. Zombies grabbed at my clothing as I moved my way in and out of their clustered groups. I didn’t stop until I heard nothing but silence.

Panting, I closed my eyes and leaned against a tree for support. It was quiet…too quiet. I opened my eyes and glanced around, finding myself totally alone. “Uh, guys? Vere are you?” I called, pushing myself away from the tree. Not surprisingly, I got no reply. I guess we had gotten split up somewhere.

“Damn,” I muttered, running a hand back through my hair. This was just what I needed-to be all alone during a zombie apocalypse. I doubted I could survive very long on my own. Suddenly, a twig snapped and I spun around to meet the source, my gun pressed firmly against the culprit’s chest.

“Relax, kid!” A familiar voice chided, a gloved hand tilting my head back. “What in the name of hell has got you so worked up, anyways?” A pair of steel gray eyes met mine.

“R-Reinhardt?” I sputtered, unable to believe what I was seeing. How could he be there? Last time I had seen him, we were in a field…and just a few minutes after, I had woken up in the plane. Hadn’t he been a dream?

“Who else would I be?” Reinhardt cocked an eyebrow, pushing my gun away from his chest and stepping back. “Are you okay?” A look of concern flickered across his face. As soon as it was there, it was gone, leaving the same expressionless look as before.

“Yes…O-of course.” I blinked, stepping back as well, shaking my head. It took me a minute to realize I was speaking German instead of English. Odd…When had I switched languages? “I’m just…confused.”

“Confused about what?” Reinhardt asked, forcing me to sit on the ground. He took a seat next to me, resting his gun-which I could now see was a sniper rifle-against the tree beside him.

“About everything, I guess. About how all of this started, and about what happened to my friends, all of that.” I sighed, leaning up against the tree, pulling my knees to my chest. “…And of course I’m confused about you. How are you here? How do you even exist? I thought you were imaginary?”

I looked over at Reinhardt, and caught a glimpse of what I thought was a smirk, but when I blinked his expression was blank as usual. “Well, I’m certainly not imaginary, Gustav. As for being here and existing, I’m here because I just am and I exist because I just do…I didn’t ask to be alive, you know.”

“I know, but last time we met we were in a field and when I blinked I was back in a plane that was about to crash.” I commented, trying to make sense of all of this. I was certain that Reinhardt had just been a dream, something my subconscious had created just to fuck with me. But if he was, how could he be sitting here right next to me, talking with me? I sighed, resting my chin on my knees, staring straight ahead. This made no sense to me whatsoever. Then again, what made sense anymore?

Reinhardt’s gaze flickered over to me, a sigh escaping his lips. “You know kid; I think you hit your head pretty hard when you fainted.” For a moment a silence passed between the two of us before Reinhardt stood, dusting off his pants, and offering a hand to help me up.

I didn’t argue, I just allowed him to pull me to my feet. Why should I argue anyways? I could tell he was there. I could see, hear, and feel him. He was a solid figure. So how could he be a dream if I could do all that?

“Come on, we need to get moving unless you want to be a late night snack for the enemy.” Reinhardt ordered, a bitter laugh mixing with his words.

“Lead the way,” I replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Do you even have any idea where we are?” I asked, stumbling over a tree root for the thousandth time in the last hour. “We need to find shelter before it gets too dark.”

“There’s no shelter in the middle of the woods, Gustav. Sooner or later we’re bound to get out of here and then we can find somewhere to stay.” Reinhardt replied with a dismissing wave of the hand. I groaned, and started to move to fall in step with him, but he stopped me by placing a hand against my chest.

“Look at that. There’s a cave.” Reinhardt sounded proud of himself, as if he’d just stumbled across a mansion. “It isn’t luxurious, but it’s almost dark and we need somewhere to stay.”

“Is it safe?” I asked, following him to the mouth of the cave and peering inside. Reinhardt shrugged, as if to say he didn’t know and didn’t care. Frankly, I didn’t either. It was safer than sleeping out in the open.

“Do you have a flashlight or something we could use?” Reinhardt asked. I nodded, unhooking a flashlight from my belt and flicking it on. Together, we made our way through the cave, listening for any sounds that could tell us if there were zombies or wild animals in the cave.

After awhile of scouting out the cave, we both returned to the entrance. “We’ll need to take turns keeping guard,” I commented, placing my backpack down by my feet. Reinhardt nodded once, as if to confirm he understood.

“I’ll take the first watch,” he said after a minute, turning around to look at me. “Get some sleep, okay? I’ll wake you up in a few hours.” I nodded, and lay down on the floor of the cave, watching him go stand outside. I closed my eyes for a second, and then opened them again, just to check if Reinhardt was still there and that he wouldn’t leave me all alone. To my surprise, I found him still there, softly humming a song.

With that comfort, I allowed myself to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.