Steampunk Zombie

The peculiar night transitioned into an even more peculiar morning. Adrian tried to leave, but Rebecca and Doctor Obadiah Lafayette Washington managed to find something different to talk about until eventually the morning became the afternoon, the afternoon became the evening, and the evening had them staying another night. They were located just outside of Talbotton, Georgia, and Adrian was itching to resume their travels.

“I’m serious, Rebecca,” hushed Adrian that morning after breakfast. He and his cousin were stationed beside the large, copper sink. “We’re leaving today. For real this time.”

The kitchen was one of the darker rooms in the manor, clearly unattended with its numerous stacks of dirty dishes along a speckled green countertop. The walls were made of aged brick and from the ceiling hung half a dozen elongated bulbs, dimly putting off just enough light to guide footsteps but not enough to wipe the grime off of the clay dishware.

Rebecca turned off the water and returned the retractable spout to the faucet. She placed the dish on a rag beside the sink. She wiped her hands across her skirt before turning to Adrian.

“Is it that you don’t like being here or that you really want to be there?” she questioned.

Adrian’s brows knit together as he stared down at the woman. “Okay, now we really need to go. You’re starting to sound like him,” he huffed.

Rebecca rolled her eyes and shook her head, but before she could counter Adrian’s statement with a snippy remark, the doctor entered into the room.

“Oh, no, no,” he said upon seeing Rebecca’s wet hands. “Don’t bother with that. I have something especially for that...somewhere.”

The eccentric man looked around the room as he tapped a thick finger against his chin. The goggles he donned today were circular with clear lenses. He wore them over his gray irises, which magnified them quite a bit. He roamed the room – spinning several times – before stopping at the wall to Adrian’s left.

“Aha!” the man cried. “Right here!”

He scampered forward to slide several dishes across the counter. A few crashed to the floor, but that didn’t seem to bother the doctor. He pushed up on his toes until his outstretched arm came in contact with a chain. He looped his finger into the coil at the end and pulled.

A large tin box – half protruding from the wall – started to rumble. A few clicks and clanks came from inside until a conveyor belt along the left side of the counter started to move. It took some of the dishes with it. The doctor scooped up a few more pots and pans from in the sink and placed them alongside the others on the belt until they eventually disappeared inside the mouth of the large machine.

“He had to spin around the room five times looking for that,” Adrian muttered, his head bowed towards the small woman on the right. Rebecca simply frowned.

It took up about half of the wall, and despite the fact that it was covered in a dark film and hidden mainly by shadows, it was a sore enough sight to draw any man’s eye. Adrian and Rebecca winced as the sound of sizzling water and shattering plates boomed from inside.

The doctor moved to the other end of the counter where he waited eagerly for the dishes to reappear. As they moved along the belt, he scooped them up and looked them over.

“Sometimes they get really clean,” he said. “And sometimes they break.”

The doctor shrugged and abandoned the cracked and chipped dishware – which happened to be a majority of it – before walking between Adrian and Rebecca. As they’ve grown accustomed to doing in this man’s presence, the cousins exchanged pointed looks.

“Doctor Obadiah Lafayette Washington,” Rebecca said as she fell in step behind the man. Adrian begrudgingly followed. “You started to say yesterday that you had a theory as to what these things are.”

“Yes,” confirmed the man as he walked through the manor. He didn’t really seem to be going anywhere.

“Well…what is it?” wondered Rebecca as they turned down the same hallway for a second time. “You didn’t actually say.”

“That’s because the theory hasn’t been proven,” he stated. “And therefore has no credibility enough to be revealed as truth. I mustn’t pollute the world with possibilities; only what is and what isn’t.”

“Oh dear lord,” Adrian muttered with a slow eye roll.

Rebecca wasn’t ready to give up. She had gone all day with enough patience to best a mother of twelve, and it didn’t look like she was going to stop anytime soon. She liked a good challenge, and where Adrian was blunt and predictable, Doctor Obadiah Lafayette Washington was a complete mystery.

“What do you need to prove your theory?” Rebecca asked.

“If I told you, then you would know it.”

“Well maybe we can hel–”

“No,” Adrian spat through gritted teeth. He grabbed his cousin’s wrist and pulled her back so that the doctor was walking on without them. “We’re not getting into anything with him. His theories are his own. We don’t need to care about them.”

“You might be perfectly fine getting through in life with no one by your side, but I need people, Adrian,” sighed Rebecca. “You’re not enough. Especially when you barely open your mouth to talk. Tell me that getting to Savannah isn’t a big deal, that we can enjoy the ride and stop when we see people. Tell me we aren’t in a hurry and I’ll leave right now with you.”

Adrian inhaled sharply. His nostrils flared as he released his grip on his cousin and turned his head. His lips were pursed to the point where they were almost unnoticeable. He kept his jaw firmly locked and said nothing in response.

Rebecca sighed, shaking her head as she turned away from him. Adrian watched her walk down the gloomy hallway until she had caught up with the doctor. Even as kids, he hadn’t spent more than a full day with his cousin. He only sort of knew her.

Later that day, Adrian found himself sitting at the table with Rebecca and the doctor. Spread out before them was a mess of flywheels, cogs, and pistons. Rebecca and the doctor sifted through each gear, inspecting its integrity and dispersing it into its respective pile. While the doctor sat at the head of the table with Rebecca on his left side, Adrian sat a few chairs down on the man’s right with his legs propped up on the table.

Every once in a while, Adrian would sneak a glance over at the other two in the room. He’d lift his brown eyes from the Volcanic Repeater, Le Mat, or the dagger with the clockwork handle – whichever he was cleaning at the time – and stealthily watch the doctor and his cousin until their monotonous organizing had him struggling to hold back his smart remarks.

“What’s the point of sorting through this?” he finally had to ask.

“To build stuff and things,” answered the doctor without looking up.

Rebecca kept her head down, as well, but the corners of her lips lifted into an amused smirk. Adrian puffed his chest out and moved his lips to mimic the doctor as though he were a bratty child.

Adrian flipped Rebecca’s Le Mat over in his hands. He finished polishing the barrel before placing it on the table next to the other glistening weapons. He reached forward to pull the ray gun from the brown satchel in the chair next to him. The glass cylinder was empty. It hadn’t held a charge since it’s first use four days ago. Adrian was confident that it had one more in it.

“What’s that?” the doctor’s voice suddenly broke the silence.

Adrian looked up with caution. He lowered the gun a bit, protectively. He hadn’t expected the weird man to pay him any attention. He hadn’t before.

“Just a gun,” Adrian said.

“It appears like something more,” said the doctor. “Let’s have a look.”

Rebecca finally lifted her head. She watched Adrian slowly push the ray gun across the table until it ended up in the doctor’s meaty hands. Doctor Obadiah Lafayette Washington examined the weapon as though it were a chunk of gold worth thousands of dollars.

“Who crafted this beautiful specimen,” awed the doctor.

“My grandfather,” Adrian solemnly answered. “Bernard Snapp.”

“That name sounds so familiar,” murmured the doctor as he caressed the gun.

“He has a shop in Cahawba, Alabama,” stated Rebecca. “Most of the weaponry imported from England has gone through his hands. He does fine work.”

“That he does,” cooed the doctor. “I must replicate this.”

Adrian waited for the doctor to attempt to take the ray gun from the room. His body tensed as he prepared himself to snatch the weapon back, but instead the doctor just sat there with his beady eyes moving over the gun as though it were a woman’s naked body.

“Um, what are you doing?” Adrian eventually asked.

“Memorizing it,” answered the doctor. “What’s this tubing for?”

“It holds electrical currents that can be used as ammunition,” explained Rebecca. “But it has no more use left.”

“Such a shame,” breathed the doctor. He set the ray gun back on the table. “So it works similarly to the fence I have outside.”

“Yes, how does that work?” Adrian asked with a slightly mocking undertone. The doctor seemed not to catch on.

“A little steam power gets their bodies moving, which harnesses electricity that powers the manor. While everything else inside here is powered by steam – such as my dishware cleanser – the currents are strictly for illumination. Much harder a concept to employ.”

“So the purpose of those things out there is to help power the house?” Rebecca tried to clarify.

“Yes. No. Sometimes,” shrugged the man. “They seem to deter unwanted company.”

Adrian shot Rebecca a look as to say that they were the implied unwanted company and that they should have never invaded the mad man’s manor. Rebecca furrowed her eyes at her cousin before returning to the piles of mechanisms before her. That was the end of the conversation and after several more hours to an unusual yet uneventful day, Adrian eventually made it to his bedroom where he started to get ready for another restless night’s sleep.

Hot air blew from Adrian’s nose as he attempted to unfasten the buttons along his sleeves. He muttered his frustrations under his breath in no particular fashion as one of the buttons proved to be more difficult than the others.

Growing annoyed by its stubbornness, Adrian reached for the knife hanging off of his pants. He struggled with it until it finally broke from its sheath. His arm snapped backwards by its sudden release and the blade went flying across the room.

Adrian watched with wide eyes as the knife pierced the cover of a red book on the shelf. “Shit,” he snapped. He rubbed the back of his head before crossing the room and making his way to the damaged possession. He gripped the clockwork handle and pulled it from the hardcover.

“Shit,” he repeated, his thumb stroking the split binding.

It was then that he felt a slight breeze caressing his right arm. He noticed the end of his sleeve moving and followed the cool draft with a furrowed brow until his eyes landed on a crack along the edge of the fireplace. He extended his arm so that his fingertips met with the indent. His lips parted once he realized that the fireplace was not directly connected to the wall.

He abandoned the book for the movable hearth and pulled on it until it was sliding across the wooden floor. Behind it was a large tunnel, mimicking a wide dirt hallway. There was no lighting. He went for the lantern on the nightstand beside his bed and turned the dial until the flame grew tall.

The orange glow of the lamp cast shadows on the dirt wall that were larger than the worms and centipedes that they belonged to. Adrian’s stoic face burned strongly in the blackness. Shivers crawled over his body, leaving the hairs standing upwards. He noticed two narrow slits of light up ahead and followed them till he was standing before two stone steps that lifted up to the backside of a canvas.

Frowning, Adrian set the lamp on the ground. He rubbed his chilly hands together before stepping onto the boulders. He narrowed his eyes as he peered through the circular opening in the wall. They widened immediately as he watched his cousin pacing in her room. Her skirt lifted into the air as she clapped her hands together, lips moving as she spoke to herself.

“Rebecca!” Adrian called.

The woman’s movements came to an abrupt halt. Her face went pale as she looked around the room, unable to find the source of her name. The corners of Adrian’s lips twitched with amusement, but the shock and frustration that he felt overpowered it.

“Rebecca,” Adrian said again as he tried moving the edge of the canvas. It eventually sprung loose and he was able to easily push it open like a door. He looked down, the toes of his boots hanging over the ledge of the fireplace.

“Adrian!” Rebecca gasped, clutching her chest. “What are you doing? Where did you come from?”

“The fireplace in my room opens. I followed the tunnel here,” he said.

“There’s a tunnel back there?”

“Yeah. Explains why this place is so damn big,” the man huffed.

Rebecca approached the hearth so that her cousin’s shoes were level with her eyes. She peered up at her cousin with a surprisingly vague expression. He cast her a tapered look.

“I know what you’re going to say in response to an idea that I know you’re not going to like,” Rebecca slowly said.

“Yes and yes,” Adrian was quick to say.

Rebecca lifted a finely arched brow. Her lips parted until she was finally able to compose herself. “You want to explore the tunnels?”

“If he has ways of watching us, then I think we should look for a way to watch him,” Adrian stated. “He’s been finding mindless reasons to keep us here. I think it’s about time to find out why.”

Rebecca nodded her head in agreement. She reached up, allowing Adrian to grip her wrists and pull her onto the fireplace. He held her hand as she stepped into the tunnel and then closed the portrait behind them.

“It’s freezing in here,” she said, roughly brushing her bare arms as Adrian took up the lead with the lamp.

“It dips here,” Adrian warned. He reached back to assist Rebecca.

“Are we going anywhere in particular?” she wondered.

“Nope.”

“There’s footsteps,” Rebecca nodded towards the ground.

Adrian lowered the lamp so that the dirt ground was better illuminated. There was no direct bearing or pattern of the footsteps, though they were clearly the doctor’s shoe shape and pushed in deep by his girth. Adrian and Rebecca continued through the tunnel. Some turns led them to other rooms and even brought them to some of the main rooms that they had already seen, but it wasn’t until the dirt started to turn to mud that they stumbled upon the most interesting room yet.

“It’s getting warmer,” breathed Rebecca.

The walls were soft, dripping almost and creating murky puddles like melted chocolate over a crackling fire. The air grew thick with a hot mist, smelling faintly of scorched steam and old water. There was a coppery scent that drifted into the mix, leaving both Adrian and Rebecca with scrunched noses.

“There,” muttered Rebecca, lifting her finger towards a large steel door. It had a circular turnstile; similar to the ones Adrian had seen in the town’s vault. A few bolts were missing, allowing light and steam to move across the tunnel.

Adrian twisted the dial on the lamp until the flame was nothing more than a burning ember. He left it by the wall before following after Rebecca. They pressed their faces against the door and squinted their eyes until they were finally able to see through the smog in the large room on the other side.

The walls were steel-reinforced concrete and the floor was bubbled rock. In-between the crevices was a concoction of undetectable fluids, though it reeked of piss, blood, and ethanol. Chains hung from the ceiling, blowing gently by the gusts of hot air that shot from the tubes along the wall. A large cauldron sat to the left with clear glass cylinders of aerated liquids above.

To the far left, in a tall rectangular cage, sat a brown woman, hunched and sobbing. Her pale rose dress was torn and covered in dirt, while her black hair was haphazardly wrapped upon her head in a beige fabric. She hurriedly mumbled prayers beneath her breath. Her skin glistened with sweat from the hot steam in the room.

Further down the wall stood Doctor Obadiah Lafayette Washington. He was once again wearing his white lab coat. A garish apparatus covered his head as he flipped through numerous magnifying lenses. He was preoccupied with a man chained against the wall. His arms were bound at his sides. He appeared weak and terrified.

“No, no, no,” he was panting. The chains that bound him clanked as he attempted to throw his body away from the doctor.

In Doctor Obadiah Lafayette Washington’s burly hand was a large cogwheel. He caressed the device as though it were an endearing child. He picked up a scalpel with the other hand and stepped towards the chained man. He lifted the blade to the man’s left eye.

“No, no, no! Please, don’t. Don – noooo!” screamed the man as the doctor slowly pressed the knife around the man’s eye socket.

He loosened the skin, cutting deep so that blood coated the man’s face. He placed the cog against the wound and pressed until the eyeball was flush with the opening in the middle. The doctor then proceeded to stitch the outer parts to the cog until it was secure in place, forcing the man’s eye open.

The doctor turned so that Adrian and Rebecca could finally see his face. He was calm, going about the room as though this were nothing short of normal, which apparently – for him – it was. He hummed to himself as he picked through the piles of gadgets that he had previously sorted with Rebecca. He eventually found a few wheels that he was pleased enough with.

The man was in pain, desperately wanting to blink away the blood that now wetted his bulging eyeball. His creamy white skin was now dark with blood, grime, and bruises. The doctor returned to the man, where he blithely cut apart the side of his neck, creating enough room to insert the pieces as though he were creating a puzzle.

The edges of the sliced skin tore as the doctor turned the wheels. They moved almost like a clock, rotating jaggedly and widening the gap. Blood spewed from the man’s mouth as the damp, smoggy air in the room entered his body.

“Urgggmmmah,” the man sputtered, his one eye clenched tight and his head rolling in delirium. The blood consuming his throat had his words slurring.

The doctor moved about normally. He gripped both sides of the man’s beige and cream pinstripe shirt and tore it open, causing the four buttons of the placket top to rip from the fabric. He then moved to a wooden casket that was propped upwards against the wall. The doctor twisted open the lock and chains.

The figure inside was wrapped like a mummy, with a straight jacket across its chest and a gas mask upon its face. It moved erratically and fought against the doctor as he led the creature towards the man. The doctor reached towards the mask and unclasped the lower flap to reveal the screaming mouth of a dead man. The creature’s jaw was covered in dried black blood.

The man’s intact eye widened as his fear grew. Tears dropped down his dirtied cheek and he pulled against the chains in vain as the doctor led the creature towards the man’s exposed chest. The carcass jerked in excitement, his jaws snapping as he longed for a taste of the man. The doctor gave slack on his grip and the creature bit down on the man’s chest, tearing away the flesh and eating away at his body until the bone and muscle were exposed.

The doctor let the creature feed until the man passed out. He used a taser to usher the being back into its cist. The doctor brought his fingers to the limp man’s neck, counting out the pulse until the man’s chest no longer moved. He moved feverishly after that.

He went for a brass aquatic helmet, similar to the ones that the creatures in his front yard were wearing, and lifted it onto the man’s head. He drilled screws into his chest, keeping it in place before reaching for one of the vials of lustrous liquid on the table. He poured it into the open wound, causing mint green smoke to sizzle against the flesh.

“C’mon,” muttered Adrian, grabbing his cousin’s arm and pulling her from the door. There was nothing more Adrian needed to see to know that they couldn’t stay there any longer.

“What…what did he just do! He just….that man was alive!” stammered Rebecca.

“We’re leaving. Right now,” muttered Adrian as he reached for the lamp. He didn’t care so much about getting back to where he had entered the tunnel. Any exit would suffice.

“Adrian,” whimpered Rebecca. “I’m so, so sorry I didn’t leave when you wanted to.”

“That doesn’t matter now,” Adrian said as he felt along the wall for a way out. “I knew he was insane. I just didn’t realize he did that to living people. Thought he got them already dead – aha!” Adrian pushed on something bumpy, realizing it was an escape into the kitchen and pulled Rebecca out behind him.

“Adrian, wait!” cried Rebecca. Adrian shot his cousin a cross look. “Our things! The weapons! We can’t leave without them.”

Adrian sighed, knowing she was right. “Fine. But hurry!”

Adrian and Rebecca raced up the two flights of stairs until reaching their rooms. They hurriedly grabbed their things and threw everything into their bags. Adrian didn’t bother shutting the fireplace. He met his cousin in the hallway and they returned to the first floor.

“How do we get out?” Rebecca questioned.

“Same way we came in,” Adrian stated, heading down the hall towards the tall statue. He bent down and reached for the hatch.

“Adrian, stop!” Rebecca suddenly cried, slamming her foot down on the door before he had even gotten it an inch open. Adrian looked up at her with an annoyed scowl. It wasn’t until the woman cast a finger towards a thin wire that Adrian understood what she was warning about.

“Shit,” he hissed.

“It’s a trap. He’s probably rigged all the exits,” she groaned.

Adrian’s eyes darted across the floor as he thought. His brows furrowed together once he realized that the doctor was already one step ahead of them.

“No, not all of them,” Adrian said as he stood and cast a look at the front door.

“Adrian, are you mad?” gasped Rebecca. “The whole front yard is full of those things!”

“There’s a lever by the front gate. That must turn off the power. All we need to do is make it to there and we’ll be able to shoot out the lock,” stated the man.

“But what about those things!” cried Rebecca.

“The doctor has them weighed down. They’re slow. We can get past them,” said Adrian. He turned to his cousin and gripped her arms. “Stay by me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Rebecca wanted to argue, but she knew that her cousin was right. There was no way out of there. Most of the windows had bars on them, stated by the doctor that it was for protection. She now knew that it was all a lie.

“Okay,” nodded Rebecca. “I trust you.”

Adrian pursed his lips and nodded. They stood before the tall set of front doors. He removed the thick plank of wood that was fashioned between the golden handles. He twisted the locks until the doors were free.

It instantly drew the attention of the meandering creatures outside. The electricity along the fence sparked and popped as they walked around. The late night sky was dark and starless.

“Adrian,” whimpered Rebecca. “This is more than there were when we first got here!”

She was right. The five that they had seen only a few days ago had nearly doubled, leaving the yard more crowded than Adrian had expected. He pulled the Volcanic Repeater from his belt and grabbed Rebecca’s hand with his other.

The rough bottom of the tall doors ground against the flat stone patio as Adrian pushed them open. The sound immediately drew the attention of the mechanical monsters roaming the front yard. Their heavy bodies struggled to turn in haste, leaving them to stumble over their transmogrified exteriors. They groaned and screamed, their voices coming out in wet chokes as they called through the bubbling liquid in their helmets.

“C’mon,” Adrian urged, pulling Rebecca down the steps.

The path directly ahead of them to the gates was growing narrow as the creatures reached for the cousins. Adrian nudged one with his shoulder, causing it to trip back from the shift of his metal chest. Large bolts held the plate in place against his graying flesh. The skin was starting to stretch and tear from its heaviness.

“Adrian, there’s more of them!” gasped Rebecca once she noticed that the number of dead had increased by three since their first arrival.

Adrian looked around with a stern face. The grip on his cousin’s arm was growing damp with sweat. He released her to wipe at his brow, eyes darting from figure to figure.

Adrian raised the pistol and aimed at the creature standing between him and the gate. The sound of the bullet leaving the chamber added to the chaos of the snapping waves of electricity coursing through the fence links. The bullet ricocheted off the copper chest piece. Adrian and Rebecca dropped to the ground as the bullet flew back in their direction and cut through an accordion tube that was sticking out from one of the bodysuits of the creatures. Hot steam spewed wildly from the house.

“Ahhh!” Adrian roared as the powerful mist sprayed over his hand. He snapped his arm back and rolled between the impending bodies of the dead.

The top of his hand bubbled as the steam faded into the cool night. His brows furrowed and his lips tightened as his anger took over. He flipped back onto his feet with his left hand clutched to his chest and his right shoving the tip of the pistol against the glass of a dead woman’s helmet. He pulled the trigger, causing the glass to shatter and the green liquid to fly into the air.

Little droplets of the iridescent preservative splashed against Adrian. It nipped away at his clothes, leaving pinprick holes in his pants and shirt. The creature reached for Adrian, but the man grabbed his blade with his other hand – ignoring the pain that shot through his scorched fingers – and thrust it into the woman’s skull. Her scream was cut short and she fell to the lawn.

“Break the glass!” Adrian yelled as he looked back over his shoulder at his cousin. “And don’t get the liquid on you!”

Rebecca stood back up with wide eyes. Her lips were quivering but she managed to nod at her cousin in understanding. Rebecca pulled the Rock Launcher from the ground. She dragged it through the dirt, stopping only to wave her arm to get the attention of the other dead walkers. One by one, they turned away from Adrian, shifting their hungry desires onto Rebecca as she moved back towards the porch.

Rebecca dug her hands into the trampled flowerbed. Her nails grew black with dirt. She shoved the rocks into the barrel of the gun. She struggled to lift it, taking a nervous step back as the robotic corpses closed in on her. Her finger pressed on the trigger. The unconventional ammo flew from the trumpeted opening. The rocks went soaring, shattering two of the helmets, cracking another, and knocking several tubes from their bodies before falling back into the dirt.

Rebecca dropped into the flowerbed, lifting her arms to shield herself from the curtain of steam that was building up from the exposed hoses. She dragged the large weapon to the side of the house, losing the creatures’ attention as she crawled behind the dying bushes.

Adrian was across the lawn, lingering before the gate as he stood a few feet back. Golden sparks flew from the posts each time a wave of electricity reached the top of the fence. Adrian’s brown eyes went to the lever fastened on the right post. His left hand still throbbed from before and not wanting to char another limb, he hesitated.

“Adrian!” he heard his cousin cry.

He whipped around, just as a dead man brought a balled fist down. Adrian ducked the blow. He stepped to the side, moving more nimbly as the other man struggled with its clunky gadgets. Adrian kicked the being behind the knee, snapping the leg’s integrity and causing the creature to fall to the ground. The heavy weight of the copper that was melted into its body made it impossible for it to get back up.

Taking the opportunity and pushing past the reluctance, Adrian gritted his teeth and yanked downward on the lever. There was a loud fizzing noise as the currents waned down into nothing. The fence loomed above him, nearly two stories high and now cold to the touch.

Rebecca watched from the bushes. Her heart leapt into her chest as the meandering dead turned back towards the man. She pushed from the bushes, thrusting her hand outward so that the blade sprang from the compartment on her wrist. She drove the knife into the temples of the two bodies whose shields had broken entirely.

She then went towards the one whose helmet was only cracked. The dead woman teetered side to side as she hissed. Rebecca lifted her foot and then brought the heel of her boot into the glass. The barrier broke and Rebecca’s shoe dug into the woman’s face until cloudy matter spewed from the head and clung to her boot’s heel.

Rebecca swerved through the other three, the remaining fourth still squirming against the ground near her cousin. She came up beside her cousin just as he aimed his revolver at the chain wrapped around the bars of the gate. The links fractured into little bits as the round broke the fastening. Adrian pushed the gate open, once again grabbing his cousin by the hand and leading her into the trees. He took the Rock Launcher from her and threw the strap over his shoulders.

“Adrian, what about –” Rebecca cried out. She looked back to see the burdened dead pushing past the gate and breaking out into the woods.

“Not our problem,” Adrian breathed.

The sky was dark. Clouds hid the stars, leaving the cousins to navigate through the unfamiliar trees in blackness. The modified figures quickly fell behind, but Adrian refused to slow his pace.

“Call them,” Adrian said as his eyes adjusted to the night and he was able to see the field through the tree line.

Rebecca brought her fingers to her mouth and exhaled forcibly until a sharp whistle broke through. She continued her summon until a light flash moved ahead of them. Rebecca’s lips turned upward into a smile as she caught sight of Gizmo. The horse’s ears turned in the direction of his human’s call and his hooves dug into the ground in excitement. Without any break from her run, Rebecca gripped the saddle and pulled herself onto Gizmo. The horse continued the pace as they cantered onto the field.

Adrian’s horse remained still, lifting his head nonchalantly with his lips smacking across a bundle of long grass, acting as though the world was not overcome with any danger. Adrian strapped the Rocket Launcher onto the back of the saddle before placing his foot in the stirrup and pulling himself up. He dug his heels into the horse’s side and urged him forward with a secondary click of his lips.

Adrian didn’t care what direction they were headed so long as they put miles between them and the mad scientist in the stone manor.