The Undead Journey - Chapter 4

I came to my senses again when the sun sank into the earth. I was in the basement of a small apartment (surprisingly it had a basement), and could somehow feel the sun setting. My eyes opened slowly, and I stared around the dark room. To my surprise, or maybe it wasn't so surprising after all, my eyes adjusted quickly, and I was soon seeing things as if a light were on. I sat up slowly; my body was stiff and my back gave me a few aches and pains. My muscles didn't seem to want to work, and it took a while of moving to get them working normally again. A flash of something popped into my head, and if my heart had been working, it would have raced. During the day, I had dreamed. No, that wasn't quite right. I had dreamed, but they hadn't been pleasant. They had been terrible; perhaps it was because of my death and my new change, or maybe it was because I had been sleeping in the basement. I wasn't sure, and at the moment I was too frazzled to care. Shakily, I rose to my feet and popped my back and moved head slowly to get the joints working correctly. My body, satisfied, allowed the aches to vanish. I eyed the stairs to the ground floor carefully, remember the house I had woken up in, and the fire that had been blazing through it like a bulldozer. I listened for any sound of crackling flames, but heard nothing of the sort. In fact, I heard noting at all, which seemed rather odd to me. Surely I wasn't alone. Wait--exactly where was I, anyway? I thought back to the night before and remembered Alex. We were at his place. My gaze wandered around the room, but I seemed to be alone. Where was he? Maybe he was upstairs, waiting for me. I took a breath that I really didn't need, and edged toward the stairs. My right foot had just touched the first step when a voice startled me.

"Good evening, Tom."

I spun around to come face to face with Alex. I let out a startled yelp and stumbled back, directly into the stairs. Sitting on one and clutching at the stair rail, I took in a nervous breath. "Don't do that," I mumbled.

He smiled, showing his teeth. Though his canines were neatly retracted, they were still slightly larger than the rest, and slightly more pointed. "Sorry, kid. Didn't mean to scare you."

"Scared? Who's scared?"

"Well, you were certainly doing an excellent impression of it," he said with a smug smirk. I scowled and mumbled something beneath my breath. "Anyway, I'm not too sure how safe this basement is; it floods sometimes when there's a lot of rain. I suggest you find a more permanent sleeping place."

"So we do sleep?" I asked, confused and trying to understand exactly what it was we did throughout the day. I could remember some of the nightmares, some of the fear, but I hadn't really been sleeping. It hadn't felt like sleeping, anyway. In life, when I had had terrible dreams, nightmares if you will, I had simply remembered that I was asleep and had made myself wake up. That hadn't been the case today, though. Oh no, I hadn't been asleep, for the sensation of peace hadn't been there, nor the sense of relaxation. I had been out, that was a better way to put it.

He shrugged, unaware of my inner rantings. "Not sure. Don't think so, but who am I to judge? I think it's different for each of us. I call it sleep; you can call it whatever you wish."

I shrugged. "Doesn't really matter to me."

He nodded to the stairs. "Shall we, then? Or do you wish to remain here?"

I rose to my feet and hustled up the stairs, opening the door. I held it open once I'd emerged from the basement, but Alex didn't follow. I frowned, and then felt eyes on me, and spun around. Alex was leaning against the kitchen doorframe, watching me with amused eyes.

"I thank you for holding the door open for me, but then that's not really necessary."

I shrugged and shut the door. "You're welcome...I think."

He smiled, showing his teeth again. "Do you wish for a quiet evening, or would you like to go out? I find myself to be rather restless when I've nothing to do but sit around all night."

I paused and thought that over. "What do you have in mind?"

He smirked. "There's a lot to do when one looks for the right things and opens their eyes." he turned to leave the kitchen. "We'll figure something out, I'm sure. I've no wish to suffer from inactivity."

"...Boredom?"

"No. I never allow myself to be bored. Being bored only leads to impulsiveness and more boredom, sometimes other things, but usually does nothing for one's self. Inactivity is as far as I'll go; I've trained myself in patience to ignore boredom altogether."

"Wow. You must be pretty patient."

He raised and lowered a delicate shoulder. "At times, yes. So, shall we?" his eyes sparkled.

I smiled. "We shall." I followed him as he walked through the small living room and opened the main door. He closed it behind me and locked up, and then walked silently down the sidewalk. I followed after him, glancing around at the surroundings. I had never been to this part of the town before, but then, I was new here. "So...what do you have in mind?"

"Anything. We can catch a late movie, go to..." he paused. "No, you're not old enough for that...hmm..." he shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, I guess. I could get the others together, but I figure you want a little time to adjust before meeting them. Am I right?" at my nod, he smiled. "Okay. Movie?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

He nodded and rounded a corner. I followed silently.

"Stop right there," a sudden, growling voice said. I paused and froze. Alex sighed and stopped walking, not bothering to turn around. I did, though. I turned and saw a man standing there, a scarf over his mouth and nose, a hat moved down to cover his eyes. He was dressed in a black sweater and black jeans. Although he was blending in well with the shadows, my new eyesight allowed me to glimpse what he had in his right hand.

A small revolver, aimed at my chest.