The Adventures of Mr. Dirge & Lady Freckles [ Part III ]

Rapid Dane & The Dizzy Sorceress

Parts: [I] [II] [III] [IV] [V] [VI] [VII] [VIII] [IX] [X]

“What were you singing ?”
“A dirge, for a lost… friend”

I woke up under massive tree. Its trunk was thick. You can empty it out and turn it into a house. Its branches were long, thick and heavy; they provided the cover we needed. I had chosen that tree the night before, because it would be easy to hide behind its massive trunk. I woke Freckles up with a kiss; we had been running all day, the day before, and we were tired. Hunger took over, so I left her there for a while and went looking for wild berries. I walked along side a trail of bushes that ran far, far enough for it to seem like an endless trail. Looking at the sun, I had guessed it was about seven in the morning. I figured we needed to get going if we are to reach the foothills, from which we wanted to climb up to the mountains. I had finally found some berries when I heard a gunshot echo. Without even thinking, my feet turned around and I started running. I ran fast, kicked trees and jumped over stones while I unsheathed my katana. When I got to the tree, what I saw made me laugh. Some guy had decided to jump in on Freckles, he was probably running away from the beasts too. She was faster with the shotgun, though. She had fired a warning shot that got him to stand in his place. Then she put him on his knees and pointed the shotgun to the back of his skull, waiting for me to get back. She knew I’d hear the gunshot and I’d come rushing; I’d always come rushing for her.

I walked slower towards them when I realized that she had gotten control of the situation. I got behind her, I put my arms around her waist and I kissed her right cheek asking, “You've got this?”. She smirked pridefully, looked back at me and said “I've had this even before he could see me”. But I didn't hear those last words because I had just realized who that guy was. “Get up dude, it’s me” I said, as I walked towards him. He turned around and his face flipped from helpless to happy in less than a second. The crazy lady wasn't going to kill him. He was an old friend; who wasn't really a friend but also wasn't anything else, really. His name was R-Dane, short for Rapid Dane. I extended my hand and pulled him up. “Who’s the crazy lady, Dirge?” Dane asked. “You can call her Freckles, Dane, and you can’t handle this one” condescendingly I spoke as I turned my back and walked back towards her.

“I had been in Amchit, for the past week. Two days ago, fucking monsters walked out of the sea … what the hell is happening?” Dane said as he slammed his palms against his pants to dust them off. He then told me how he had escaped them and how his friends all perished. Except for one, Yuri, and he couldn't seem to find him. Apparently they were separated when they were attacked by some zombies in the woods. I told him to join us but he refused to leave before finding his friend. I looked at her and decided that we should sacrifice an hour of our time to help Dane. He took us back to where he he had been attacked by the zombies. Looking around, I found a pack of cigarettes. “What does Yuri smoke ?” I asked. “Gitanes Lights” Dane replied with a questioning expression on his face, he did not understand why I would ask this. I picked up a half-smoked cigarette from the ground, “Gitanes Lights” I said. I saw his face as he made the slow connection. “It’s still warm, he’s still around” as soon as I finished my words Yuri jumped out from behind a tree. “I remembered why we called you Rapid, Dane.” jokingly Yuri said while he walked towards us swinging a broken wooden branch.

Yuri told us how after the zombies attacked Dane and himself, he hid in the bushes on the far left side of the field we were standing in. He found a broken branch on the ground and picked it up as a weapon. They had been attacked by five zombies, Yuri killed two, but the other three were still roaming somewhere. In my head, I realized that the zombies that attacked us, and those five zombies that attacked Dane and Yuri, could’ve been scouts. They could be roaming the area to report back to their leaders, I thought. I asked the guys if they wanted to join us in our journey to the foothills, and then up the mountain. They started wondering as to what else they could possibly do. At this point I was the only one with a valid idea that could actually save our lives. Dane was finally convinced when I explained my theory about those amphibious zombies. It made sense. At night, they hid at sea. During the day, they walked on land.

I sat still; I asked them to wait and be patient. I sat upon a stone, and went into silence. I asked them to try and catch a nap or something while I finish what I was doing; which none of them -except Freckles- understood. But they stayed silent and waited either way. I closed my eyes and focused my ears and listened to the woods. I started singling out the sounds and echoes made by the beating forest. After some time, I could hear the river. I jumped up, woke Freckles from her nap and called out to Dane and Yuri who at that point were just sitting awake staring into the woods. I told them that we should head north, because that is where the river was. Then we needed to walk along the river to reach the foothills.

We walked for two hours —which seemed like an eternity— without water. Our throats had gotten so dry that even the thought of uttering a word caused pain. I could feel them starting to doubt whether we are on the right track or not, even Freckles. But I knew that it was just dehydration. I was used to walking distances, and still dehydration had me hallucinating. Hallucinations that stopped only one minute after, when we reached a point, around one of the hills where the river can be heard clearly. At some point between the trees, we could see it in the far away woody horizon. Their legs had failed them. Freckles had to sit down because she could not hold herself up anymore. Dane had, at that point, realized that dehydration had been holding us back. He jumped up like he had just gotten a boost of energy from some invisible force. He asked me to hand him the bottles we had, and told me that he was going to run over there, fill them up, have a drink and rush back. Rapid Dane, he could run.

We sat with our backs against a huge stone, and waited while Dane rushed to get water and save the day. Suddenly, I felt a vibration as though the stone is shaking at a very slow rate. It got faster and faster, I looked at Freckles and Yuri to see them passed out. I couldn't seem to stand up and I had started panicking. I felt helpless. Freckles and Yuri were passed out and I couldn’t help them. That rock kept on vibrating but more heavily. I heard a crack that silenced my panic. The rock had stopped vibrating and started splitting in half. A cinnamon skinned beauty walked out of the split in the rock. She had short brown hair. Her eyes were a shade of yellow, a weird shade of yellow. Her skin glistened at the reflected rays from the tree leaves. My eyes followed the trail of light drawing her curves into existence while my all was taken by her beauty. She walked over and kissed me lightly on the lips. A kiss that brought back my legs and took away my thirst. It felt like walking out of a cold shower on a hot summer afternoon. It felt majestic. It felt like I could take on anything. She walked over to Yuri and kissed him on the lips too. Before I could point to Freckles, the cinnamon skinned beauty blinks herself to the other side where Freckles had passed out and kisses her too.

Taken by the power imbued in us from her kiss, we stood there and stared at her, waiting for her to speak. “They call me the Dizzy Sorceress, I wake up dizzy every morning” she uttered in such a soft sensual voice. “My nights are dark of memories, and my days are spent remembering my nights.” she continued. I walked over and thanked her for saving us just as I heard Dane’s rushing footsteps suddenly slow down in surprise until they reached a stop. I turned around and said “You’re late”. “Fuck you” he replied jokingly, “What… what’s going on?” he continued, more seriously now, as he stared at the cinnamon skinned beauty. Yuri explained to Dane how the sorceress had kissed life back into us. Bit by bit we could see Dane swell up with frustration “Don’t I get a kiss?”. I giggled and took Freckles to the side, I had to talk to her. We haven’t had some alone time since the guys joined us.

In the background, and as I walked away, I can hear the slow footsteps the sorceress took towards Dane. And I could hear the kiss land on his face.

“How are you feeling darling ?” I asked her, looking into her eyes to catch hints of subtle evasions. “I’m fine,” she said, confidently but softly “The long walk had gotten to me, that’s all”. I smiled and held her at the waist as she put her hands around my shoulders and we kissed; a long and overdue kiss. Walking back to where we left the sorceress with Dane and Yuri, we heard Yuri explaining to the sorceress what had happened. Claiming to have foreseen it, she suggested that we take shelter in her cave for the night and that she would create a protection spell around a radius of one kilometer. She then explained that she needed our help. She explained how
the kiss she gave us will give us enough energy to channel to her as she prepared the spell.

We headed to her cave as night was falling, and again, we could hear loud screeching noises from afar. Entering the cave, she told each one of us to sit at a specific spot and then tried to teach us how to focus our energy towards her so that she would have enough power to enact the spell. We did as she asked.

“It’s working!” she shouted, after 1 hour of exhaustive meditation, “you can all get up now, let’s go out and watch the spell draw a shield around us”. I was the first up above ground, Dane followed and then Yuri. Freckles and the sorceress followed close. As I looked at the sky, I could see a plasmic energy shield drawing itself from the skies downwards. The loud noises were fading away. “We were too late” I shouted as I pointed at the massive platoon of zombies that had managed to get inside the protective dome before it was complete.

I didn't think, I turned around and wrapped my left hand around the sorceress’ waist, and my right hand behind her back. I leaned in and kissed her, long. I got up, unsheathed my katana and pulled out my Glock. Like a lunatic I ran towards the platoon of what seemed to be about 40 zombies. The zombies started running faster too, towards me. As soon as I got them in range, I pulled a rock star-grade power slide; shooting and slashing left and right. I took out a couple of them. I was then standing in the middle of a bunch of angry monsters, whose friends I had just killed -with ease. But I felt strong, like I was filled with enough power to change the path of a cosmic body; like an asteroid, or fate. I heard Freckles calling my name, running towards me -shotgun in hand- she takes off the heads of a couple of them too. I put my back to hers and we ripped black holes into blue monsters in a green field on top of a hill. It was majestic. None of the zombies stood, but one and he seemed to be running away in fear. But he would hit the walls of the shield behind him and fall on his ass, then get up and do the same again. Dumb beings. Dumb beings ? Then how are they organized ? … the question lingered in the back of my head as I walked towards the helpless zombie and ended its life. Slashed his head straight off his shoulders without even putting too much punch into my swing.

Yuri & Dane had also taken out a couple of zombies that had slipped past me and Freckles, so did the sorceress.

It was late night, and the five of us had decided to stick together as we walked towards the river.

Dumb beings, I thought, but how are they organized?

Suddenly, the sorceress started screaming, in pain. As though something was eating her up from the inside. Her words were incoherent, we couldn't understand what she was trying to tell us. Her yellow eyes glowed bright, “Run” she finally uttered “I’ll find you in the morning.”. I didn't think much, I took her word and ran. They all followed. I looked back and I saw not a gorgeous sorceress, but a majestic wolf. She howled at the moon, jumped across the river, and ran into the dark of the woods…