Charlie McGee (justbackoff) wrote in safezonethreads, @ 2010-01-29 23:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !narrative, charlie mcgee |
WHO: Charlie McGee
WHAT: A random encounter with zombies leads to a startling revelation.
WHEN: Early morning
WHERE: Just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
RATING: PG-13 (language and violence)
STATUS: Complete; narrative
The weather wasn't much better in Pennsylvania than it was in New York. It seemed as if a record-breaking winter storm had smashed into the east coast with no intention of letting up anytime soon. Between the cold weather, snow, ice, and sleet, and with no one around to keep the roads cleared, traveling was beyond treacherous. However, while this might be a deterrent for most, for Charlie it was little more than a challenge.
Her ability wasn't the sort that worked while in motion, typically. It took massive amounts of concentration to keep the fire centralized in one location. It then took an enormous amount of self-control to reign the fire back in once she was done. However, in the years that she'd spent training to keep her ability in check, she had managed to pick up a few tricks along the way. One was the raising of her body temperature to a level that, while deadly for most humans, was perfectly safe for her and more than did its job of staving off any chill that others might feel.
Another trick she'd learned was to increase the temperature in the air around her. Not to the point of making molecules spontaneously explode but simply making it warmer, in general. She couldn't manage more than thirty or forty feet, but it was enough to make traveling on roads that were slick with ice at least possible. Granted she couldn't go as fast as she would like (although there were times she would get off her bike and melt an entire stretch of road so she could do just that) but she was able to get from one place to another.
Which would be really handy. If Charlie had any idea just where she was going.
She didn't, though. Not even after almost two weeks on the road had she come up with a destination. She was simply on the move, trying to stay one step ahead of memories that she knew she'd never really escape. After she'd laid waste to the first zombie-infested town she'd come across she had felt a little better but it didn't last. Nor did demolishing the next horde. Or any others after that.
In fact, as days bled into nights and then back into days, Charlie was no closer to feeling at peace with the situation back in New York than she'd felt to begin with. Nathan was still gone and, when and if he came back, she knew it wouldn't be the same. He wouldn't be the same. And while she knew that, eventually, she would have to return to the Safe Zone, she simply wasn't ready to do so yet. Nor did she know when she would be.
So she rode. From city to city and town to town. She came across a military envoy once and reloaded up on supplies while showing them the best route to get back to the Safe Zone with the handful of survivors they'd located. Then she'd continued on her way, never once considering returning with them although the offer had certainly been made.
Finally she wound up just outside of Pittsburgh. A heavy snowfall made her take shelter in one of the houses in an outlying suburban neighborhood. It was the first place she'd found with a fireplace that could offer actual heat and a roof that provided protection from the elements entirely. There was even a handful of canned goods left that she was able to make into some sort of mishmash stew that didn't taste half-bad. She ate her fill by the fire then hunkered down for the night with the intention of finally catching up on some much-needed sleep.
However, shortly after daybreak, her plan was derailed when she woke to the sounds of someone screaming.
Charlie was on her feet in an instant. The last recesses of sleep fell away as she rushed to the partially boarded up window overlooking the street beyond. A glance through the cracks in the boards didn't offer much in the way of information. Just the sight of a still-rising sun and a deserted stretch of road with cars that were covered in snow and other, boarded windows from abandoned houses.
Then she saw it. A flash of material, just to the right of the window. Another scream followed and she saw the material flutter. Without much forethought she stepped away from the window and moved to the front door. Shoving the dresser she'd put in front of it out of the way, she was outside and on the front porch before she'd even realized just what it was she was doing.
By then, however, it was too late. No sooner had she stepped food on the porch was she surrounded by at least five or six zombies. Her gaze slid past them just long enough to see a woman being ripped to shreds by the rest of the horde. It was too late to save her, a fact that was proven when the screaming stopped a second later. Charlie just had enough time to look back to the zombie directly in front of her before they were on her.
She didn't think. If she had, she probably would have been finished on the spot. Instead she simply reacted. Let her ability surge to the surface and protect her in a way that had only ever happened once before in her life.
The air around her surged to a scorching temperature within mere seconds. As Charlie's legs buckled and her leather-clad arms came up to protect her face and head from the zombies piling on top of her, she heard the low sizzle of skin boiling. She could feel the breeze of the fireballs as the shot out in every direction around her. Into the house behind her, in a volley across the street in front of her, and consuming the zombies who were doing their best to rip through her jacket to get to her vulnerable skin beneath.
One of them managed to get a fistful of her hair but the grip went lax almost instantly. There was a shriek of pain, a gurgling sound, and then everything seemed to just stop.
Breathing hard, the woman slowly slid her arms away from her head and chanced a glance around. With her heart thumping loudly in her chest and her ability still surging wildly through her veins, she stared with a detached air at the carnage around her. Later, she knew, she would have nightmares. Later, she might even have guilt. But for right now, she simply took in the scene with a well-practiced, clinical eye.
The zombies that had attacked were now laying in smoldering heaps around her. The one who had grabbed her hair was obvious as he was now missing all of the skin on his right hand. It had literally been burnt to a crisp, with nothing but the skeletal structure beneath remaining. The snow and ice on either side of the porch was gone and there was a soft hiss from the steam that now rose where it had all once been. Her attention flickered to the victim that she'd spotted earlier and found that she, along with those who had been attacking her, were all in various stages of death as well. Some were simply covered in burns. Some were still on fire. And others were little more than heaps of ashes in the forms of what had once been human bodies.
With her hands clenched into fists, Charlie began to murmur her mantra - back off, just back off - to herself as she slowly made her way back inside the house. Fire roared around her but she ignored the flames. She simply gathered up her supplies in the living room in a methodical fashion. Once re-packed, she slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way back through the inferno and out of the building just as the walls and roof began to give way in large chunks.
Once she was back on her motorcycle, she chanced one more glance at the ruins around her. It had been a nice little community. Even months after abandonment it had still seemed well-kept and orderly. All of the houses looked newly built. Their owners had clearly loved them. They were all dead now, and it wasn't until Charlie finally took note of the house just off to her left at the corner and saw a pair of eyes staring back at her through the window that she realized why she hadn't encountered the zombies before this morning.
They were holed up in the homes themselves. Trying to survive the storm just as any normal, uninfected human would do. Where the woman had come from, she couldn't say, but part of her had to wonder if the zombies had simply used her to lure the newest arrival out of hiding. Now, of course, Charlie would never know the answer to that.
She sat there on her bike as the neighborhood burned. Kept the flames away from her tires and directed it toward every single home that was still standing. Started with the one that held the zombies and took out the rest, just in case. Nearly half an hour later she finally revved her engine and headed out of town. She still didn't know where she was going, didn't know when she would make her way back to the Safe Zone, but there was one thing of which she was absolutely certain.
The zombies in the sleepy little neighborhood just outside of Pittsburgh would never again lure another human out of hiding and jump them as they'd tried to do to her.