Chapter Six

What greeted me above was different but expected. A wall of dark purple clouds hung above me. The few breaks in between the sheet of purple were dark spots, signs of their thickness. I sat up and looked around me. The ground was black dirt, with collections of gray rocks sprinkled in with tree husks. To the left of me were mountains, far off into the horizon. To the front, right, and back of me, nothing. As my vision became clearer, some of the rock piles transformed into broken walls and disintegrating buildings. I stood up, using what little strength I had accumulated, unsure of where to go. I felt no hunger. It was strange, as I thought that the punishment for greediness would be an insatiable hunger, following me the moment I awoke. The little voice from before started poking my brain. Give up already, I thought, as I headed towards one of the destroyed buildings. It wasn’t much taller than I was, but it looked like it could shelter someone from some of the elements. With each step I took, my hearing began returning to what it was before. I could hear distant gusts, as well as the soft steps on the ground in front of me. I stumbled a few times, still trying to control the muscle in my legs, but I walked well enough to reach the first wall.

I walked its length, heading towards the hole that led to the inside of the falling structure. Enough of my strength had returned for me to finally stand straight, though I had my left hand on the brick wall to keep me stable. I walked into the hole and before I could look around inside, I heard a gasp. I turned to my left and saw a woman, only a bit older than me, frozen, yet I could only detect a bit a fear in her expression. We stared at each other for a few seconds before she reached for something behind her. It was a crossbow, shabby in its design. I wouldn’t be surprised if she built it herself. There was no fear within me anymore. I don’t know if it was due to the pain Dawn inflicted on me or because of my punishment, but I didn’t care what she did to me. The woman fired a shot that landed directly between my chest. I didn’t feel anything. I thought it had shot right through me, and that it would take me a few seconds before registering the pain, but when I looked down, I saw the arrow sticking out of me. There was no blood, no pain, no feeling other than a foreign object in my body. Strange, but not uncomfortable. The woman, shocked, loaded more arrows into her crossbow but every single shot afterwards missed me. I don’t know if she was aiming at something specific, but the shots landed everywhere around me.

After seeing that I still stood, the woman dropped the crossbow into the ground. It hit one of the rocks nearby, and the sound clicked inside my head as something familiar. I took a step back without my control. The woman pulled a knife out of her pocket and held it in front of her. Fear had overcome any other motion she might have had. She didn’t rush me and instead prepared for me to come to her. I didn’t know what to do. I raised my hand towards her, and she tightened her stance, ready for anything I was about to do. I felt a tingle in my throat and opened my mouth, ready to do something I had done every day of my life.

“Stop,” I said in a weak, raspy voice. I felt a heavy force in my lungs, as if this was my first word. The strength it took to produce that word drained all the effort I had placed to keep my body straight. I caught myself before I could fall, trying again to stand up straight. When I turned back to the woman, the fear in her eyes was replaced by shock once again. She stood up, knife still in front of her and stared back at me.

“You…talked,” she said, in a voice unsure of the words spoken. “How did you do that? You aren’t supposed to talk.” Upon hearing those words, a familiar sensation returned to me: confusion. With my right arm still extended towards the woman, I placed my left hand on the wall before trying to speak again.

“Yes, talk,” I said at a snail’s pace. “Strange, if I couldn’t.”

“It’s strange that you can!” the woman exclaimed. “I’ve never even heard rumors that a thing like you could talk.” Being referred to as a thing gave me pause. My eyes were trying to force the woman in front of me to understand the confusion I was in. I could feel every part of my body now and it all felt normal. I didn’t feel any growths or extra body parts. I didn’t know what this person was saying to me.

“Talking is normal,” I said, staring at her. The woman’s eyes widened, and her breath was taken away. “What is strange? What am I?” The fear that had overpowered the woman had all but disappeared, being replace with a curiosity that seemed familiar to her.

“What are you? You’re a talking zombie!” she exclaimed. What little force I had to keep my body upright evaporated away, and I crumpled into a pile where I stood. I looked at my right hand and focused on it. It wasn’t the light skin that I grew up in that greeted me, but a horrid shade of blue and light purple splotches on it. My nails had grown long and discolored, matching the state of the rest of my hand. I looked at my left hand to find the exact same thing. I looked to the left of me and noticed the shine of a broken mirror. I looked at the reflection and saw what the woman saw: a thing. My blonde hair was no longer shining, but rather frazzled and unkempt. My face, which I went great lengths to protect from the sun, and who was accented by the makeup I put on every day, was replaced by the same blue and purple splotches my hands had. I noticed a rough, crescent shaped scar that cut through my eyes and nose and the moment I noticed it, I knew where it had come from.