Hysteric

The day seemed to float by and then night finally came. Arisa could not help but fill Zach’s mind up with silly ghost stories and tales of ridiculous monsters she had read about before they fell asleep in the dark. Once again though, Zach could not sleep. He had no reason to, so he snuck out the door and left again.

Arisa watched him leave wondering why he kept going out at night. He came back in the morning, but Arisa was awake and waiting for him. She made a night trip herself this time. She had a bowl full of mulberries she had gathered that night she now casually snacked on.

“Where do you keep running off to?” She said looking up at him.

Zach walked over to the table and smiled at her, his lips were unusually red. “Can’t sleep, I keep exploring the area.”

“Do you have chapped lips? They’re like… bright red,” she noted starring at his mouth.

Zach’s lips were a vivid red, almost raw. Arisa couldn’t help but feel bad so she leaned her head in closer inspect the damage when suddenly he pulled her in. He slopped a kiss right onto her mouth. It was a quick and a brief kiss, but it took her by surprise all the same. His lips were soft, though they tasted strangely of iron, perhaps his lips had begun to bleed.

Then he pushed her back, “mind your personal space if you don’t wish to start something.”

“Oh… you like me…? I mean like… what just happened…?”

Zach grinned devilishly. “I just kissed you, that’s what happened. I’ve spent a few days with you in isolation, and then you stick your face right in front of mine and I just can’t hold back any more. I like you Arisa.”

She stared at him with her confusion growing, “Oh… I like you too… I just, wasn’t expecting anything… so… I’m surprised…”

He laughed. He had come to adore the girl who was fully capable of surviving out on her own. She was the person who intrigued him and tickled his fancy. She was an escape from his reality.
“Well…” Arisa spoke up, “why did you stop kissing me?”

He wanted to make sure she wasn’t joking before he leaned his head back in this time with her permission to continue what he had started.

The day was spent with little adventure outside of the tree house as the two of them explored something else instead. Neither one had been watched by adult in a long time, nor had they been in the presence of the opposite sex for such an extended period of time. It was a hormonal tragedy bound to happen eventually. They kissed, embraced, and explored one another until the night came and the two fell asleep side by side.

Zach cuddled up next to Arisa, but found he still could not sleep. Once again he crept from the bed assured by Arisa’s heavy breathing that she was unconscious and snuck away. The routine repeated until the second week. Arisa had to know why he kept sneaking away at night. She was growing annoyed waking up alone and she wanted to know what was out there so late at night. She waited for him to depart from the small house before deciding to investigate a second time.

“That’s it, time to figure out where you’ve been going…” she muttered. She let him leave and once she felt he’d be a far off enough distance that he wouldn’t notice her following she leapt down to the floor. She watched him scuttle along the branches long enough for her to pick out the path of his journey.

“Huh… I wonder if he’s been going back to the power plant this whole time.” She changed out of her pajamas back into her regular clothes for the day. She pulled out a soft blue coat that had been stuffed in one of the dressers in the tree house. Some little lady would have looked fabulous and felt warm in such a pretty blue coat.

Arisa’s red hoodie smelled too bad to be tracing someone’s footsteps in and the stink could give away her cover too easily. It was too cold outside for her not to be jumping around without a jacket so the blue coat would have to be borrowed. She pulled up a pair of long shorts, or perhaps they were swim trunks for a male out from within the little hidden closets behind the rotating shelves. Her jeans would slow her down too much. She didn’t bother to throw on a shirt, just ran out with a sports bra underneath that coat. She wouldn’t need to worry about being modest, she was only following Zach. Then she leapt to the pine tree being careful not to break the dead branch.

As she neared the entrance to the plant she was forced to start quieting her footfalls, and slow her pace. The number of zombies was growing the farther away she moved from her tree house. In fact, it was growing close to the number of the horde that stood outside the front door of the factory.

“Oh my god…” she whispered as she moved cautiously through the trees.

Finally she reached her favorite mulberry tree and peered out. The boulder that closed the cave entrance had been moved, so Zach already made it inside, but now… there were too many zombies. They covered the area preventing her from going anywhere.

She took a deep breath and tore off a loose stick from the tree as quietly as she could. She chucked it off into the distance. The stick hit six trees down and landed with a loud CRACK against the trunk. The zombies turned their heads and slowly started shambling towards the sound. She sat back watching them as they began to move, and then carefully harvested another stick and aimed out for the seventh tree.

The zombies were getting more aggressive as they swarmed the tree. It sounded like something edible might actually be out there. More of them moved away farther away from the cave entrance, and she might be able to get them far enough she could make her run for it. One more stick she thought. She reached up for a twig and then SNAP! The branch she was standing on broke and she fell to the ground.

The zombies that still lingered nearest to her made a horrible screeching noise alerting the rest of the horde of her location. Without thinking she leapt over the zombie in front of her and ran for her cave. The only thing she could do now was get underground before they got to her. Most of them had moved out of the way thanks to her distraction and she was faster than they were so there was a chance she could outrun them.

The fast zombies came screaming down from the tree running after her as she bolted. She jumped and sprung herself into the cave as if she were the roadrunner landing in a black spot to escape Willey Coyote. She tugged at the boulder to seal off the entrance the best she could. The zombies began to reach their arms down and one crammed his face down trailing after her arms. He bit widely in the narrowing space and pulled a chunk of Arisa’s hair away. She screamed and punched the zombie in the eye with enough force behind her fist she was able to knock him out of the opening and finish closing it.

She breathed heavily as she stood at the top of the narrow passage. It wouldn’t be long until those zombies rolled away her boulder and she’d be running again. She looked down glad to see that there weren’t any movements below her. She took a deep breath and began to the climb down.
“I guess that’s the end to my vacation resort,” she whispered to herself. As she reached the bottom of the cavern she laid down on her belly and began to creep through the water fall. If anything was standing on the other side of that waterfall she had intentions of knocking it down before it could see her.

Slowly but surely she inched her way along until she emerged out from the blanket of pouring water. She was soaked in that coat now, but the shorts lightened the weight she would have felt otherwise. A single pair of wet foot prints walked down the path toward the power plant.
“Perhaps he caught their attention and wasn’t able to get back to me… I guess it’s a good I bailed when I did then…” she sighed.

She followed the footprints until they dried up, but she knew where he was going footprints or not. She felt terror while walking along the edge of the wall. The zombie mass had grown. They were pounding at the walls on the sides of the fortress, beating at the weak spots causing cracks to form and chunks to fall.

“They’ve never been over here before… oh God… how long are those walls going to last…?” Arisa needed to speed up.

It was doubtful Zach would have noticed this, where as Arisa knew exactly what she was looking at. She ran down to the loading gates. The trucks were coming in late this night, with even more dead trying to worm their way in. Bullets were being fired even before the gates could close. They were trying to build a barricade of zombie bodies to block off the other zombies.

Oh god… she thought to herself, what is happening?

She clambered down to the sniper's box very careful not to make a sound as the two men inside finished off a round of bullets. Arisa waited for the sound of a reload and then very carefully crept down off the edge.

She had been able to sneak past Silas many times and the other times when he caught her he was usually kind enough to let her run off but tonight was different. She dropped down to the ground and when she looked up her gaze met with Silas’s aggressive stare. He was wearing the armor of the ground fighters and the only bit of his face could be seen through a pair of transparent safety goggles.

He was an eerie silent as he stared at Arisa with a hard gaze and weapon pointed at her. His breathing had heightened which alerted Silas’s partner. The other man turned around to look at Arisa in the same eerie and silent fashion. The partner had a full helmet cover on and nothing could be seen. Arisa flicked her attention back to Silas and his face, his eyes holding no meaning anymore, just empty. His breathing heavy and hard as he stared at the girl who he would have once called friend.

The other man placed an arm on Silas’s shoulder and shook his head. With that the two men turned back around and resumed their job of shooting down the wall of undead. Slowly Arisa backed away. Something was wrong with those two silent men… something was very wrong.

She peered out over the wall taking one last glance at the action occurring around the trucks. The armored men moved with malice in there motion. They cut down any stray zombie that was foolish enough to step inside, but that was not the part that frightened Arisa. She watched the zombies chopped to shreds and the ones at the door get shot down, but she also watched zombies smart enough to stand back. Some that would move away and take cover to avoid getting hurt.

She held a scream down and decided it was time she found her friend. In the few short days that she was away from the power plant something had gone awry and it was not a change for the better. It was time for her to leave the colony once and for all.

Arisa had wanted to warn Silas about the swarm along the weak points crashing against the border but as the two men kept their backs to her the only concern she had now was that she wanted to find Zach. She ran down the energy reserves of the outside listening to the growing sound of wailing zombie hatred outside the walls of the facility. Their groans and grunts were louder than usual.

Upon entering the facility she saw that the containment cells that should have been holding the new colonists were all empty. The rooms would have been silent hear but the wails from the undead were so significant that they penetrated into the building. Arisa moved around searching for any sign of human interaction. She peered around the offices before spotting a familiar white coat.

“Doctor Gupta?” she called in looking at the back of what appeared to be a female doctor.

A little giggle was heard from somewhere in the lab areas. The doctor turned around and Arisa stifled a scream. Gupta’s body rose up off from the desk she was bent over with a twitchy shambled motion. When the doctor turned around Arisa looked into the same distant and aggressive eyes that Silas had. She had been turned to an undead zombie, but instead of charging at Arisa the doctor stood there quietly.

A hand reached out from behind her and Arisa jumped as it landed on her shoulder.
“Why aren’t you at mass?”

Arisa turned around stepping into the room with Doctor Gupta. Danny’s stitched up face glared menacingly at her as he moved forward pushing her towards the sickly Doctor.

“Dan… Danny?” Arisa stuttered.

The tortured boy’s lips formed a manipulated grin, “you know,” he stated moving in closer towards Arisa forcing her to move back, “it’s not so bad… the priest and his religion. At first we were scared, we were all scared.”

He made a fast motion forward and Arisa jumped back frightened. The Doctor reached out for her but she ducked under the slow motion of its arms.

“What did you do to Gupta!?” Arisa moved back away from Danny and the Doctor. A slow hiss escaped from the mouth of the un-human doctor. Danny gracefully sauntered over to the medical equipment that Gupta previously stood over.

“She’s been baptized. Blessed by our beloved father.”

“Blessed…” Arisa’s mind flashed back to the image of the fair haired priest walking in with the other survivors. “You left… you and your friend Meg… you walked out of here…”

Danny gave a devilish grin as he lifted up a scalpel, “you were told wrong. Meg and I wanted to leave, we were still afraid. And then we found all those zombies outside and we knew it was time to come back. We had to make sure he could get in. Someone had to tell him how your system worked. The pain inflicted doesn’t hurt so bad anymore when he’s around us.”

Danny lifted up the sharp object letting it gleam under the florescent light of the first aid station, “sometimes it just feels so good to hurt a little bit.”

He slammed the scalpel into his own arm and began cutting downward opening up the flesh and showing off the bone within. Arisa screamed and back up to the wall. The doctor stood by his side and let out a low grunt, but remained where she stood.

“Oh no, don’t scream. I don’t think they will like that, besides, look, it’s okay.” Danny’s arm began to instantly heal. The areas he sliced through almost magically seemed to stitch themselves up by itself. “Once you’re baptized everything will be okay.”

Arisa decided she had seen enough of this medical freak show. She darted out for the door now where Danny stood at the other side of the room. The boy angrily chucked the scalpel at her and the short blade imbedded itself into the door frame as she ran by. He laughed, and laughed as she ran. Rambling on about the baptism and what was coming.

Arisa moved to the side rail of the upper floor listening carefully. Danny had not followed her, but there was another sound that caught her attention. The sound of a roaring audience, the sound of applause. Arisa edged down the steps realizing that the noises were coming from inside the auditorium. She peaked open the door and peered inside. Almost the entire population of the colony seemed to be in attendance. She could see the PBW and the engineers, all of the people.
The intellects sat nervous and silent while the others cheered with a ravenous frenzy that was border-line to extremism. On the stage stood Meg next to Fiona. The two seemed to be giving an empowering speech that only furthered the crowd’s excitement. The engineers and living doctors sat sectioned off, sitting silently with grave focus. Patrolling the isles were the armored men ensuring that no one would run out.

Arisa closed the door trying her hardest not to be seen by the armored men. Nothing was right, nothing made sense. She steadied herself and attempted to move away. Her foot greeted the base of a fake potted plant and the object crashed downward smacking into the door. Arisa looking down at the broken plant with horror knowing just how dangerous an error like that could become. She ran back to the upstairs area as quick as she could hoping not to be seen.

A few of the armored men stepped out peering about trying to find the person who made the clatter. Instead of running back to the hospital area where Danny and his doctor resided she moved to the other side where the rooms for the elite of the colony were located. She was desperate to get away from the events occurring around her, the strange happenings that left an unsettled feeling of fear within her. As she moved into the living space the whispers of a conversation caught her attention. As quietly as she could manage she crept into the area of the voices trying to hear the conversation.
“Ah, the prodigal son, come back another night? Its hard being like them isn’t it.”
Arisa turned the corner and spotted the fair-haired priest standing over Zach. A feeling of relief washed over Arisa when she spotted her companion, but something was still off with this scenario. Why was Zach so amicable to the priest he earlier stated he despised? The priest spoke maliciously towards Zach who stood next to him holding of look of implicit calm.

“It’s worth it for her… she’s different…”

The priest raised an eyebrow and walked over towards something in the corner of the room. Arisa peered in further and spotted another colonist member. One with blonde hair held high in a pony tail. A younger girl who teetered on top of her feet. Arisa held down her chokes of fear, anger, and bitterness as the girl turned around. She was a zombie, the bit mark so deep into her neck no human should be standing alive like that, but it wasn’t the zombie that scared her it was the face. The face she recognized. Tears streamed down Arisa’s cheeks as she looked at Cassie. Arisa placed her hand over her mouth and bit down on her skin to prevent a noise from escaping her throat.

Though Arisa wanted to scream she knew that now more than ever she needed to hold her tongue. Her sister was a zombie, but that was hardly the most disconcerting part of the scene she observed. The zombie was calm and composed. It stood there without ever advancing on the other two humans in the room. The zombie was complacent and seemed to just coo in the presence of this priest.
“You can’t fight what you are, and you can’t pretend to be one of them. Your very presence makes my job… difficult. What would your father say? I suppose you shall hear from him soon enough, he will be coming here to personally start the invasion.” The priest stroked his hand down the length of Cassie’s cold dead face and Arisa fought back the sensation to vomit.

Zach starred angrily at the priest, his eyes starting to fade from the brown that they were. Red eyes, both of them had red eyes.

“Attend mass tonight Zach, many people are going to be saved tonight, why not join us?”
“You’re sick Joseph,” Zach seethed.

“Not as sick as you are. You keep denying yourself of the pleasure that’s in that sweet little tree house you found; you’ll only make yourself sicker.”

Zach retorted, “I haven’t denied myself, if anything, I’ve indulged.”

“Indulged in all the atrocities of man but still have yet to truly eat what you desire. I can give you all that you want, but it will not quench your thirst.”

Zach grimaced, “let’s just get this over with, I want to return to her tonight.”

The priest cast a wicked smile and motioned toward the exit of the room. Arisa gulped and quickly jumped behind an office plant hoping to remain hidden.

The priest made a whistling noise, then a call. “Andula, come here my blessed child!”

Arisa held her tongue and watched a human girl walk out from one of the corners of the living space.
Had she been here that whole time? Arisa wondered as she watched the older member of the PBW.
The human woman entered the room and let loose a heavy sigh her voice clicking as she rasped, “Another one left the ceremony, I’ll get someone to handle this.”

The priest smiled, “You’re such a dutiful and loving child Andula. You clean up all my messes.”

The woman was pleased with the compliment she received from the priest and as she tried to leave the room but Zach stepped up blocking the doorway.

“I hope you weren’t planning on leaving; didn’t you hear? All the humans are going to be baptized tonight,” as Zach spoke his eyes glowed menacingly and he opened his mouth up revealing sharpened razor-like teeth that spanned the width of his mouth.

The man Arisa would have earlier called her friend transformed into a ravenous monster. His mouth clamped down at Andula’s neck and he drew the life from her. He tore away a large chunk of her skin and swallowed the flesh leaving a similar injury on Andula as was left on Cassie.

That’s when Arisa connected the dots; it was Zach. It had been Zach the whole time. He was the monster she invited to her home, the monster she let in, and the monster who took Cassie from the world of the living. Zach’s lower jaw seemed to drop further as he moved in to take a second large bite from the flesh on Andula when Arisa finally screamed. Nothing could stop it, the loud sound that escaped from her lips.

Zach looked up wildly at first with an animalistic glare, and then as soon as he realized who he was looking at his eyes softened.

“Arisa…” he whispered as he dropped the woman onto the ground without a care for her being. He moved forward to his human of interest but Arisa could only see the blood that dripped from his lips. Already Andula’s fingers began to twitch as the zombie virus took hold of her body. Zach had made a temporary meal out of her before spreading the infection.

The priest stepped over the dead Andula and pushed Cassie back against the wall commanding it to remain still.

“Ah, this is your precious girl Ires? The one you tried to hide from me?” The priest spoke.

Zach’s eyes widened up with a new found fear, “she wasn’t supposed to leave… the zombies… I moved the zombies out to stop her from running away…”

Arisa thought back on the increase of the undead surrounding the entrance to her cave but not near her tree house. Had he placed them around to keep her trapped in the tree house? The idea horrified her greatly and Arisa turned to run as fast as she could to get back to the snipers boxes. To get back outside and out of the infested colony.

As Arisa bolted down the hall she ran into a fellow colony member.

“We’ve got to leave,” she said grabbing the hand of a man as he was walking to the living cells, “somehow we’ve got to get out of here… it’s not safe. The zombies… they’ve evolved. I don’t know they’ve become like… vampires or something.”

The person laughed at her and shook her off, “get yourself saved kid. See the ceremony tonight, and find your salvation with God.”

The more she tried to get people to run the more she realized that the priest had somehow brainwashed them. Her vacation in the tree house probably saved her from this mindless craze for the undead’s baptism. Arisa decided that it was too late for the stranger and left him standing in the middle of the hall.

She ran down the hall and when she rounded the corner she was greeted with an awful surprise. Somehow the Priest stood before her blocking her path into the medical facility, and blocking her from leaving. Zach stood behind him with a worried look. How they had beaten her to this point she could not figure out.

“So, you are the new corrupter of my power; the last ounce of resistance. Let me save you child, or I cannot protect you in the next life.” The priest smiled evilly as the words escaped his lips.

“I prefer not to live up to your definition of the next life; there is no protection in being a zombie!” Arisa hissed.

“So be it,” he brought his hand back and slapped her across the face. His fingernails were unusually sharp and cut along her cheek.

“NO!” Zach screamed, “you’ve killed her… you’ve killed her!”

The priest pushed him back, “these beings are too fragile Zach. There is no point in wasting your time on mortals.”

She felt the blood drip down, the same kind of scratch that took her mother.

“If I die, you die with me monster!” She stood up and charged at the priest. He caught her around the neck and lifted her from the ground with ease. She was but an insect within his grasp.

“I’ll make an example of you tonight. In front of everyone you love, every person in this facility, I will make an example out of you.”

Zach watched her with a terrified expression and as she choked grasping at the priest's hands trying to get them off of her. If he had any feelings for her, he needed to step in now to let her escape. He needed to give her the chance to die in peace away from this monster.

He turned his head and walked away instead. She tried to scream out, but the grasp around her neck prevented her from making a sound. The Priest walked along with her held in his hand until he reached the railing of the balcony set before the front gates.

“Let this be seen now!” He said dropping Arisa down to the floor.

The auditorium door opened upon the booming of the priest’s voice. The people were led out by the armored men. Arisa looked wildly around at the exiting population. Not everyone was being pushed back, there were still a few citizens being held inside.

Meg walked front and center standing next to Fiona, and only Arisa could see the danger. Meg’s eyes glowed the same red as the ravenous priest that held her, and as Zach’s did before he betrayed her. The armored men moved quietly to the outskirts of the room blocking the exits. Something was different about these men. Arisa tried to run away but the priest stepped down on her back forcing her to stay put.

“Let us make an example of her! Of the charlatan!” Meg called out raising her fist. The crowd of colonists roared with approval.

Meg continued her rant, “It’s time to be saved! For all of you, especially our men who protect this fortress! It is time you received the reward you have fought so hard for!” The men lowered the baseball bats, axes, blunt ended weapons, or whatever else they may have managed to gather, “This little girl has decided to make this an early communion, so let’s begin!”

The priest raised his arms up and the armored men removed their helmets. Glass blue eyes stared out at the people, rotting faces, and incoherent sounds were made from the men and women that once protected this colony. The priest and Zach must have gotten to them at some point and turned them.

“No!” Arisa screamed along with the rest of the mass. The soldiers moved in all too happy to partake in the body.

The priest kicked her over, “silence! I’ll not have it from a corrupting rebel like you! Did you think you could change him, make us human?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Arisa spat blood onto the floor.

His kick hit her hard bruising the inside of her rib cage. She felt the pain well up in her lungs but she was not ready to give up yet.

“Hmmm, looks like you found out just today then. Rather unfortunate you had to come back. You’re already dead, might as well not let your meat go to waste!” The priest seemed to un-hook his jaw and screamed like horrible possessed soul standing before her.

As he jumped down to crawl after her Arisa lifted her foot and kicked him in the mouth. He bit down at the back of her ankle and she screamed out.

“Don’t scream… it’s an honor to be eaten. To be taken by the holy one…” the voice of the people still conscious as they were being consumed scared Arisa even more than the snarling priest trying to eat her.

She swung her fist again and again until she was able to get his head off of her. Then she scrambled up and took a leap of faith off the railing bounding toward the ceiling. He yelled out and tried to reach out for her and as he did it was almost like his arm was extending the length she jumped trailing after her but he could not make the reach.

She grabbed a hold of the pipes and metal rails hanging at the top of the ceiling rafters. She had caught the bar. She swung herself across the ceiling as though it were the jungle gym monkey bars. The Priest was unable to catch her, or unwilling; he stood instead at the railing and roared. She found the hatch at the far left corner to the ceiling. She twisted her body and kicked it open. The panel to the roof flew open and she hoisted herself out on top of it. It had begun to rain again. Lightening cracked in the distance. Arisa ripped a sleeve off the blue coat and tied it around the bite on her ankle.

“Fuck this!” she hissed. She ran over to the proper roof entrance and tugged at the metal door. It opened almost by itself. She took a few steps back and saw Zach walking towards her with a few of the armored men behind him. The creatures snarled and growled at her.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered.

The armored man nearest to her picked up his bat and whacked Arisa against the back of her head. Finally she fell down, unconscious and asleep to the awful events happening around her.