When the Earth Tilts

VIII

My hand trailed the wooden railing of my stairs, my eyes climbed up to the concrete railing. The distance was so close yet so far. I stuck my tongue into my cheek, my mental gears felt rusty after the zombie bite. I peeked back behind the hole and saw the familiar large tin rectangle. The tool shed! There was a filthy ladder in there, and I prayed the Kyongs didn't fetch it.

Clinging to the front of my house so the Kyongs didn't see me from the windows plopped into the overlooking front, I skulked back to the tool shed, my hand encircling on the handle. I released a breath, but mimicking my breath was a more coarse, bitter smelling breath trickling my neck. "Oh, no." I whispered. I yanked the door open, wanting to get to the tools quicker now. The door unhinged and I stumbled backwards,  clocking the zombie on the temple. The zombie yelped, tumbling to the ground. I tossed the door to the ground, right next to the zombie's crumpled form. I fished for any tool I could find. My hand fell to a wooden staff of some sort and I thrust it out of the shed, seeing it was an axe and jolted it down on the zombie's lightning mark, the only place I seem to be able to kill them.

The zombie's eyes searched me, and then looked at the axe as they clouded over, his head falling back into the mud. I plucked the axe out of the zombie's chest and looked at it. Brown blood was still dripping off of the sharp steel edge. The top was rickety and small, as if it had been used too much in the past. It could've been shaped  to an extent of pure adrenline rushed fury, but it wasn't. I twirled it in my hands for a moment, before nodding. This would be my weapon. It glided through the air when I held it just the right way and it was as if it was a match made when this apocalypse was planned.

I smirked at my own mental joke, but realized this was no laughing matter. I clutched the axe and fished in the tool shed, searching for something to hold the axe while I climb up the ladder. As soon as I jutted my hand out, it fell onto a leather parcel, tucked away in the corner of the shed. I pulled it out and examined it, looking at the black leather flaps, like a vest, with a matching dark zipper. On the back, where the flaps connected, was a long, staff shaped hole. Almost perfect for the axe. I tried to slide it in, it almost fit, but it was a little loose. I knew it would do, however. And I slid it on and zipped it up.

A perfect fit.

"Woah," I said audibly, sliding my hand down my chest where the leather was perfectly wrapped around my chest, perfectly strapping in the axe. The world started to spin, not like a tilt, but like I was getting dizzy.

"Ah!" I yelped as my knees buckled and a flashback-like thing crossed into my eyelids. It was like the nightmare I'd been having, but more.. familiar...

The sound of someone flicking a needle, I was ebbing out of consciousness, sometimes I saw the green grass surrounding the tool shed, sometimes I saw that I lay on a hospital gernie. "Patrick..." The name flopped out of my mouth, Patrick? I thought. Who the hell is th-- Suddenly, the name came out again, but more urgent. "Patrick!" I came out as slightly more than a mutter, and a lady nurse hovering over me jumped, as if I wasn't supposed to be awake. A scream rippled through the air, and I thought it was the nurse, but the scream was indentifiable. Candace.

I jolted up, out of my odd fever dream. "Candace!" I yelled, securing the axe in it's strap and thundering to the shed, finding a rusty old ladder and storming to the side of the crumpled stair case. "Candace, don't worry!" I called up, standing the ladder up and unfolding it so it was perfectly leaned up against the concrete railing. I smirked, taking my first step and grabbed the first step of the ladder, climbing up as quickly as I could.

I finally reached the second to last step, my hands were tightly callused, I could already tell. I yearned to reach up and tug at the broken skin like I did when I was little, old habits die hard. Or not at all, in my case. Suddenly, a wobble broke through the ladder, I instinctively shot my head up to meet the cold eyes of Elder Son. Of course the Kyong clan would send a soldier to get rid of me. What did they want with us? I bit m,y lip and ran up to the top step, just as he shoved the ladder down.

I jutted my hand out, kicking back the ladder, trying to get a hand hold, only catching air. I closed my eyes, feeling doom chase me as the ground below me. Lightning speed, I reached back and unsheathed my new axe and slammed it down, praying itwouldcatch on something useful. As it collided, I heard a crunch followed my a quick yelp. I must've gotton Elder Son's leg. I smiled to my self, using the flesh as a hold and threw myself over it, sliding over the railing and managing to make some impact with my foot to Elder Son's face. Elder Son stumbled back, leaving me room to catch the railing.

But I didn't, my jump was too short and my inner thighs made impact with the concrete railing, causing a high pitched yelp of pain from me, feeling the familiar waves of unspeakable pain that all guys have the pleasure of feeling. I grunted as I started sliding down, desperate to find another hold. My hand got a hook in one of the rougher parts of the concrete, but as soon as I flung my self up, something caught my leg, pulling me down. A small scream escaped my lips as my head smashed down on the concrete. I let out a quiet scream again as the world started spinning, unsure if it was a tilt or just my head, and I started uselessly sliding down the railing, too dazed to even try to find a hold. I screamed out for help, when suddenly a rough, broad hand grabbed mine, hoisting me up.

I fell into the person's chest as they wiped blood from my head and started to ask me questions.

"What's your name?"

"Caden..."

"Caden what?"

I hesitated, my brain failing me for a moment.

"B-Bell...Bell... Bellroy!" I said suddenly, shaking off my daze.

"Good, do you recognize me?"

I peeked up at the person, seeing two and at first getting scared one of the Kyongs was back. But he two pressed together, forming the familiar creased face and brown hair, now flecked with grey.

"Dad?"

"Dad." He reassured me, pulling me into a rough hug, pushing me into his chest so hard I felt my respitory system failing me.

After a while, he pushed me out of the hug, eyeing me carefully. "Nice axe." He smirked.

I found myself smirking as well, "Thanks. Just got it."

His smirk spread to a ghost of a smile, but it faded, his eyes darkening. "Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"I'm serious, Caden. I thought you were dead."

My jaw dropped, but I picked it back up. Our life was so normal before the tilt, no one would've thought that the other would be dead, unless they were. But our life wasn't normal anymore. The tilts pulled Mom from us, and I know think she was the glue of our family. I looked at him, feeling the burning of tears. "I'm sorry."

Dad shook his head, "No. Don't be sorry. Candace and I should have never sent you on that trip. It was too dangerous!" I noted mentally that only Candace sent me on that trip, not Dad.

 Dad's eyes trailed on me, I felt my self-consciousness slowly growing under his watchful gaze. "I'm sorry aboutt he argument." I whispered, looking at my feet.

Dad shook his head, preparing for an absolute disagreement, but he was interuppted by Candace screaming again.

I jumped, shaking Dad's hand off my shoulder.

Dad looked at me, bewildered by the scream. "You ready to kick the shit out of some Kyongs?"

I smiled.

"Hell yeah."