Dead Ones

Chapter 17: Dream

My conscious drifted into a dense haze. Darkness surrounded me. I wandered in this darkness for a moment. A figure became present to me as I moved. "Hello?" I called out. No response from the silhouette clothed in shadow. He stood from a distance. I looked over his physique. He was muscularly toned and quite tall. He stood with such an inhuman posture I could not bring myself to replicate it. "Who are you?" I asked, moving closer. He did not speak a word, but I could hear his raspy struggling attempts to breathe. I stepped so close that I could smell him. Still, his face was shrouded with shadows. He smelled of rotting corpses. He opened his mouth to exhale. His breath smelled unimaginably worse. I covered my nose and coughed once. He spoke finally, in a deep raspy tone. "Let me show you something," he wheezed out dryly. The black surroundings around me morphed into a familiar place. It was the Hive. It lay in ruins. Fire was everywhere. I looked at the dark figure. "Is this a vision? Will we truly win?" I asked. "Win?" he said. "Is this a vision that we will win the war with the Hive?" I repeated more clearly. "No one truly wins a war," he said. The surroundings morphed to the Refuge. It too, lay in ruins, smoldering slightly. The surroundings changed again. I was standing in the town in between the Refuge and the Hive. Bodies were piled in the streets. Many were enemy soldiers. However, a few familiar faces could be seen amidst the carnage. "What does this mean?" I asked the figure. "Everyone you love will die, and there is nothing you can do to stop it," he said. "Yes I can. This is just a dream," I said defiantly. "Your people may win, but in the end... you lose," he said. "Nothing can prevent them from dying. Many of their fates will rest in your hands, and it will be your fault they meet their demise," he said. "You speak lies! You're just in my head!" I shouted. "Exactly," he said. He leaned forward, removing his face from shadow. He was horribly disfigured. His face was changed beyond all recognition. He looked like a dead man, still somehow alive. "I am just in your head... because I am you," he said. "You lie!" I shouted. "You simply cannot accept the truths that are presented to you so clearly," he said. "Get out of my head," I screamed. "You'll have to kill me," he said. I drew my pistol from my holster and put it to my own skull. "If I kill myself, you won't exist," I said. "Oh but I will. Killing yourself will not save your friends, nor will it get rid of me," he said. "Death itself cannot die," he said. I pointed the gun at him. "Wanna test that out?" I said. "The only reason your friends are alive now is because you abandoned them back in the days of your service. Had you stayed, they would not be here. But you would. You'll always be here. The only chance you have to save them now is to abandon them once more. Leave while you still can," he said. I pulled the trigger, striking him in the forehead. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the ground. There was silence. I holstered my gun back in its place. He began to laugh. His figure morphed. He sat up and looked at me. He was no longer himself, but a female. My wife. Blood streamed down the bullet hole in her forehead. She smiled and giggled. She looked at me and stuck out her tongue playfully. "I am not the reason you died," I said. "Hmmmm. Maybe if you'd come home sooner..." she began. "Stop it," I said. "I dunno. Kinda feels like the only option you gave me was to, you know," she said, making a finger gun shape and putting it to the side of her head. She made an explosion sound with her mouth and let her head fall sideways. She began giggling again. "I'm just kidding with you, Bub," she said. "You know I love you. I always have and I will never stop," she added. "You did when you gave up hope in me," I said. "Not true! Every day I wait for you to come home but you never do. I just wish you would hurry up and join me. I miss you," she said. "I haven't found my peace yet," I said. "I thought I was your peace?" she said, a disappointed look on her face. "You are, but in your note, your final wish was for me to fix this damn world, or at least try," I said. "That would take too long though," she said. "I miss you and you've been away forever! Come home to me!" she said. "No," I said simply. Her jaw dropped. "No?" she said, taken aback. "I'm not done yet. My people need me," I said. "Your people don't love you like I do! They think you're a freak!" she shouted. "Regardless, let me make this very clear. I'm not done yet," I said calmly. "You just don't love me anymore!" she shouted. "Take that back," I said. "You probably love that girl Sophia more than me, don't you!?" she said. "You're wrong. She's more like a sister to me. She's young enough to be my daughter! The daughter I never had," I said. "Right, the daughter you never had time to have because you were always off fighting in a war that wasn't yours," she said. "That wasn't my fault! And despite all odds, I disobeyed orders, killed hundreds, and still somehow made it home. All for you," I said. "I won't wait here forever," she said, annoyed. "If you still love me you will," I said. She looked hurt at that statement. "If you loved me you'd say 'screw it' to your so-called people and just reunite with me already!" she fired back. "Once I find my peace, you will have me. In the meantime, I refuse to die," I said. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Fine. But when you get here, no cuddles for a week, since you're making me wait," she said. "Fair enough," I said. She morphed again. Cole now stood in front of me. "Are you making me have this dream? I asked. "Certainly," he said. "Why?" I asked. "To remind you of my warning, and what is awaiting you on the other side," he said. "You're saying if I don't run away or kill myself, I'll become that.. that thing?" I asked. "Exactly," he said. "I warned you, if you started this war, there was no turning back," he added. "But you're giving me another option," I said. "If that's what you would like to call it, yes," he said. "You know I'm gonna ignore those options, right?" I said. "Then you will find yourself looking in the mirror and seeing that being that you do not wish to become," he said. "That won't happen. I'll make sure of it," I said. "Grim, you are destined for great things, but at a great cost," he said. He placed a finger on my forehead and pushed me backward. I lost all my sense of my body. I fell backwards and jolted awake in the chair at Sophie's bedside. My violent lurch also woke her from her sleep. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Just a bad dream," I said...