Chapter 8: Alice In Zombieland

With a boom, the door shut behind them. Eli widened his eyes in the pitch blackness. "Alice?" He called out. His hands were stretched before him, though he couldn't see them.

"Man it's dark," Alice responded. Her voice was closer than Eli expected. He stepped forward, and in the darkness, missed the step and fell forward, bumping into Alice who screamed as they both fell the rest of the way down which, luckily enough, wasn't that much of a fall. Eli untangled himself from Alice and noticed that her face was lit by a cool blue glow. "oww," Alice said with a chuckle.

Eli was the first on his feet and helped Alice onto hers. They turned and faced the darkness ahead. The blue light came from a pair of crystals that sat on either side of the narrow pathway. Though they only served to light the immediate area. Eli reached into his bag and pulled out a flashlight. "Flashlights dead," he said to Alice.

"Mine too," she replied. "but maybe we don't need them," she set off, and as she walked another pair of crystals lit up and grew brighter as she approached. "What are you waiting for?" she called out to Eli. With a grin, he approached Alice at a slow jog, as he approached her the glow of the first pair of crystals grew dim until they outed completely, and were taken by the darkness. The process repeated as the pair moved forward, their footsteps echoed as they walked. The crystals they passed grew darker as the ones they were approaching grew brighter.

"You know," Alice said after a while of walking, "You never told me what was up with you yesterday."

"What?" Eli asked.

"Yesterday, at the bus stop, you seemed off." Eli stared at the dim light of the nearing crystals.

"I bumped into Ajax, that's all,"

"Man," Alice said with a stain of anger, "That guy's a real douche, huh?"

"Yeah," Eli agreed, "but." he paused.

"But what?"

"I don't know, it's just that, sometimes, the words he uses are strange, almost like there's care behind them."

"Really?" Alice said skeptically.

"Maybe I'm just seeing something that isn't there."

"Probably," she agreed, "I mean, why does he even treat you like that?"

"Maybe it's because I can't use magic."

"What!?" Alice's boomed. "That, that doesn't, everyone has magic, everyone has to have magic, it keeps us alive."

"I do have magic," Eli explained, "enough to keep me alive, just not enough to spare past that."

"Man, you're pretty unique then?"

"I wouldn't put it that way but yeah, I guess I am." Eli tried to sound cheerful, though by the silence, and the look on Alice's face he knew he failed. As another silence set in Eli came to a realization.

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"What?" Alice asked.

"Is there a draft?"

"I think so."

"Just now, when you screamed, you didn't hear an echo, did you?" Eli took a few steps forward and listened. Their footstep, unlike when they just entered, had no echo.

"well, I don't know, I don't think so. Why does that matter?". Eli didn't answer. He started into the darkness beyond the light of the crystals, slowly, with an outstretched hand, he reached. He expected to feel a wall, but there was none. Maybe a little bit further, still no wall, just a little further. Just then something grabbed him by the collar and pulled, hard. "What're ya doing ya psycho!" Alice said after pulling him back to the lit path.

"There's no wall, we were in a hallway, but now, I don't know where we are." They stared into the darkness, a chill crawled up their spines as the darkness took on a life of its own, a writhing, insidious life. or at least, so it seemed. Alice clutched Eli's arm painfully.

"We should keep going," She said that to Eli though it seemed it was meant for herself. The pair continued forward. Their guts tingled and twisted with every step. On the path was a loose stone, when Eli slipped on it their hearts leaped into their throats. Dread was rising, and with every step became ever more unbearable.

Eli wretched, a sudden stink filled the air. The kind of mind-bending stink that set off all primal alarm systems in their brain, the rotting stench of death. The faint sound of shuffling and clattering came from just beyond the edge of the light. "Alice," Eli called out, "Can you manifest a light source,"

"Yeah," her voice was nasally from pinching her nose, "Though only for a few seconds," She reached for her bag and pulled out a sketch pad, and flipped to a page. With a flourish, a ball of light erupted. As soon as it came into existence it faded out. but the brief show of light was more than enough. Time seemed to stand still as Eli stared at what was before hidden in darkness. A man. His skin was yellow and peeling, his eyes were a milky-white, the nose was gone leaving behind the skeletal cavity and his pitch-black tongue hung limply, without a lower jaw to hold it up.

As quickly as it had appeared the ball of light vanished, though Alice and Eli stood unmoving, paralyzed. For what seemed like an eternity nothing happened, Eli almost convinced himself that what he saw was a figment of his imagination, but a faint blue light shone in the distance and what followed was an orchestra of blood-curdling shrieks from much, much closer.

They were already running as fast their legs could carry them, but walking corpses from all around lunged into the light. Eli glanced back and noticed that he was ahead of Alice, and only getting farther. That was the only thing that he had which was worth note, his lightness on his feet, except for maybe his tail. He dashed back for Alice. As the pair ran, side by side, Eli racked his brain. He loved magic, he loved maestros, he read about the greatest and their abilities for so long their had to be something he could use. Then it struck him. He glanced at the faint blue light in the distance. "Alice!" he yelled, "you need to build a wall,"

"What!?"

"A wall, around us, just do it!" Alice opened her sketchbook which was still in her hand and struggled to find the right page, but when she did she wasted no time in manifesting a red-brick wall to encircle them.

"Eli, I can feel them clawing at it, they're everywhere, I hope you know what you're doing because when this thing comes down we're zombie chow!" Eli didn't respond, instead, he jumped up onto the edge of the wall, and then jumped off, into the darkness. "Eli!" Alice screamed. That's not right, he wouldn't. terror fuelled tears filled her eyes as the wall began to fall apart. He wouldn't just leave me. he wouldn't. The wall broke, and a wave of living corpses dove for her.

"Eli!" Alice's terror-filled shriek shook him down to his bones as he leaped, floating by unnoticed by the corpses that clawed at her wall. He wanted to tell her that he'd be back, he wasn't leaving her but there was no time. He kept his sights on the dim blue light in the distance as he hit the ground. He prayed that Alice could last. He would just have to believe in her, as she would have to in him. With a powerful kick he set off in a sprint, corpses that had yet joined the hoard lunged at him in every direction.

Alice pressed all her magic into the wall, rebuilding what had been clawed away. Beads of light-filled her vision as her head grew lighter. Her stomach did backflips as her lungs burned. Her muscles gave out as her heart ached, begging for mercy. She couldn't keep it up for long, she knew that soon she'd hit the red in her magic supply and her body would fail. it would collapse before she could reach into her life-magic reserves. A reflex meant to keep a person alive, would be her death.

It felt like a weight fell on her body as she slumped to her knees. She had no more to give, it wouldn't be long before they broke through the wall. And Eli, where was he? He had abandoned her. The first broke through the wall as her sight faded.

Bony, grimy hands grabbed at her, but she couldn't so much as scream. This was it, they were going to dig into her flesh and rip her apart. She braced herself for the inevitable torture but nothing happened, in fact, nothing was happening. All was silent, the bodies had fallen limp on top of her. A sound broke the silence. Alice! it called out, he called out, Eli. her body couldn't move but that didn't stop tears from flowing, partly due to relief, partly due to self-hate, hate that even for a second she doubted him. Finally, she fell unconscious.

"Alice," Eli held her head in his lap, "Alice," he called again. Weakly, she opened her eyes and Eli's eyes welled. "I found light," Eli said as he held up a glowing blue orb. Its glow was different from the crystals, it seemed calm.

She sat up with effort. "What's that?" she asked. She wanted to apologize.

"A battery," Eli said, grinning at her clueless expression. "reanimation requires a source of power, either from the maestro or a stored pocket. and honestly, I doubted that there was a maestro down here." tears flowed down Alice's face as she stared at his smile, how could she ever doubt him.

"Alice," Eli said, "sorry-,"

"No," she cut him off, "I'm sorry,"

"For what?" Alice got to her feet without answering.

"I don't know about you, but the smell is getting to me."

"Yeah, me too."