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Caffeine

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Caffeine was tired, he had barked his best barks.

Dearest Human had made him very worried when he had been laying still and quiet and smelled like hurting. But now everything was good because Dearest Human was back up!

He was anger shouting which was usually not good but this time Dearest Human was shouting at the Stinky Bad Not Dearest Humans. So Caffeine rested while Dearest Human did a lot of anger shouting.

He had watched Dearest Human jump up to yell at one of the Very Big Stinky Not Humans and it squished itself into a much smaller but still very stinky ball.

Caffeine sighed happily and rested his eyes for a bit. He was very sleepy. Maybe a nap was a good idea. His eyes snapped open.

"Breakfast!" How could he have forgotten the wonderful, glorious Breakfast? Caffeine looked over and spotted Dearest Human still anger shouting at stinky Not Humans. He stood up on tired legs and looked around. Most of the Stinky Not Humans were gone or in little unmoving pieces all over.

Caffeine sighed, Dearest Human would have to be comforted so he could calm down and remember that it was time for Breakfast. He dragged his tired feet toward Dearest Human but paused as he passed one of the Not Human pieces.

Beneath the gross stinky smell was a delicious smell. He approached and after nosing around he found a faintly glowing crunchy thing. It was delicious!

Caffeine looked back at Dearest Human, he was still busy floating around anger shouting at things. Caffeine went on a quick scavenge for more tasty crunchy things. Dearest Human hadn't said not to eat them, so it was okay!

He found a few more crunchy treats before he stopped and looked at Dearest Human. Something was wrong. Dearest Human was no longer floating or anger shouting. He was standing still and trembling. Caffeine ran over to him, now feeling much more energetic after the snacks.

He could smell something wrong as he approached. Dearest Human smelled like anger still but now he also smelled like hurting, sick, dying. Caffeine circled around Dearest Human and saw something that made him forget about crunchy snacks and instead filled him with anger fear.

The Brightness was shining in Dearest Humans eyes!

Caffeine ignored the fear. He had beaten the Brightness before, so he barked his anger at it and charged. "Bad Brightness!"

Unfortunately, the Brightness ignored him. Instead it started crawling out of Dearest Humans eyes and over his face. "I will eat you!" He threatened. The Brightness ignored him again so he licked some of the Brightness off Dearest Human's face.

It made his tongue tingle and not in a good "new exciting flavor I found on the ground" way but a hot, hurting, eye watering way. The pug ignored the tingle and kept licking the Brightness off Dearest Humans face. It came off with each lick but more Brightness kept crawling out of his eyes.

Caffeine felt frustration building as he fought against the Brightness. It just kept coming! Finally he decided it was time for Serious Barking. He drew a deep breath in preparation to give the Brightness a good, Angry Bark and the Brightness was pulled off Dearest Human and straight into his mouth!

Caffeine saw the Brightness fade from Dearest Human's eyes as it flowed into him, then Dearest Human swayed on his feet and his eyes fluttered like he was asleep. Caffeine had a moment of triumph. "Hah! Take that Bad Brightness!" Then he realized the Brightness was inside him now and he very much needed to Bark it out. He tipped his head up and Barked his victory to the sky. "Don't hurt my Dearest Human!"

The world shook and Caffeine was very happy with its reaction until he looked down and saw that Dearest Human was lying on the ground. “He must be tired too…” Caffeine walked over and lay down, resting his head on Dearest Human's chest. “Very tired if he forgot Breakfast.” He sighed as he settled in. “I guess another Nap before Breakfast is okay.”

He had just started an exciting dream of bacon and chicken when his ear twitched and his eyes cracked open.

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Eve, Previously

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Eve peeked nervously through the bottom of a storefront window. The dim moonlight illuminated her pale face stained by a few small streaks of dried blood, though no injury was visible and her head was topped by an unruly mop of dark hair.

She had just a moment as her eyes adjusted and then ducked quickly back down when she saw the horde of undead in the moonlight outside. "Shit!" She struggled to keep her breathing quiet as her heart pounded in her chest and strained to hear anything over the blood roaring in her ears.

"Did they follow us?" Her hands clenched into white knuckled fists. "How?" she silently raged. "How did they find us again?" A few heartbeats later she realized something. "Why are they just standing there? And what was all that noise earlier? Was someone else fighting them?" She had a thought. "Did they lose?"

She started to lift her head for another look but froze in place. "Are those voices? She couldn’t understand what was being said but it was definitely someone talking. "Two voices," she realized. There were two people out there talking. "Or maybe not people," she thought with a shiver. "Fucking great. Now the zombies can talk."

One of the voices rose into a shout and light bloomed through the glass above her. She popped her head up and stopped, stunned into immobility. "Fuck me…" A booming sound shook the window in front of her but she didn't notice. Her gaze was locked on the monstrosity towering above the human sized zombies that were tumbling through the air below. "That's not fair," she thought as a massive limb descended down towards something in the middle of the zombie horde. "We never had a chance…"

Light flared up somewhere within the crowd of Undead, blindingly bright light, illuminating the creature above in all its disgusting glory. She couldn’t blink away the tears gathering in her eyes. "Fuck you! You motherfuck…"

The descending blow halted in midair with an echoing boom. The light burned brighter and she finally saw the source. A human sized form was floating into the air beneath the frozen limb. She couldn’t tell if it was actually a human or not. All she could see was a blinding white light where it's face should be.

She heard a man's voice screaming and then the abomination started to move. At first she thought it was gearing up for another attack but then its arm appeared to shrink as the monster lurched forward, before a flash of blinding white light obscured her vision. There was a rushing roar that rattled the window in front of her along with a horrible crunching, and squelching sound.

When the light faded a heartbeat later the creature was gone and the figure with the glowing face hung in the air, one arm raised up, motionless and quiet. Above the outstretched limb a dark ball of something hung in the air.

She stared at the sphere, hovering there, illuminated in the glow from the humanoid below.

"Did it…" Something oozed down and out of the bottom of the gory ball that had a moment ago been a multi-story, towering behemoth and now was a human sized ball of meat. "Shit... It did."

The tendril of ooze extended and lengthened, stretching towards the ground below before finally breaking free and falling down. As if on cue the zombies that had been knocked down around the glowing figure, all surged to their feet. The light shining on the floating orb of meat snapped away and down when the figure turned its head, as if turning a spotlight, to point at the ground in the middle of the horde.

She couldn’t tell what it was looking at but the figure roared out with an enraged scream and the undead in the light were ripped to pieces, shredded and sent flying out into the darkness. The ones in the dark behind it leapt into the air trying to reach its back but had barely left the ground before they were all slammed straight down into the pavement with a boom that shook the ground and rattled the window in front of her face.

"Yes! she thought. "Kill the fuckers! Kill them all!"

The cone of light swept further out revealing more zombies, skeletons and even some larger, fatter abominations. Wherever the light shone she watched the creatures, big and small, get utterly destroyed. The light swept over a half dozen zombies sprinting and clawing towards the glowing figure, and their bodies just scattered into chunks and crumbled to the ground. The light passed over one of the bigger amalgamations of horror and it was instantly squashed into a puddle of gore.

The light moved, never stopping as destruction rained upon the undead except for when it lit up a group of skeletal creatures with bladed arms. There it seemed to pause for heartbeat as the undead it shone on, froze mid charge and then shattered into dust. And the light swept on.

The young woman who was huddled behind the window cheered gleefully at the destruction of the monsters that had been haunting her for what felt like the longest night of her life. Cheered silently, at least right up until one of the undead that got punted away from the light slammed into the building just above the window she was peering through.

The window shattered and she let out the smallest squeak of surprise. The sound was almost drowned out by the sound of tinkling glass, cracking walls and the still screaming figure outside, but not quite. The screams stopped instantly and the light snapped to her.

The sudden silence thundered in her ears but she didn't notice. She saw now that it wasn't the face that was glowing. "Holy shi…"

It was the eyes!

"..."

She couldn’t move, couldn’t blink or look away, she couldn’t even think.

"..."

All she was and all she knew in that moment was the murderous rage that crashed down upon her and the certainty that she would die. "I'm dead..."

Then the light was gone, now shining up into the sky where something plunged into view and instantly pancaked into an unseen surface directly above the floating, glowing, Monster. Her eyes watched as it moved back and forth in the air, picking off the last few stragglers of the undead horde but her mind was still frozen, uncomprehending and trapped in the murderous light. "Dead."

She remained unmoving and crouched at the window. Her unblinking eyes didn't see the small shadow running around among the broken remains of the monsters while the glowing figure finally settled back to the ground and stood there quiet and still. Her eyes did see when the small shadow stepped into that awful light. When what looked like a tiny dog ballooned up and out until it stood face to face with that deadly Monster. "I don't want to die..."

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Her vision began to blur as tears welled up in unblinking eyes. The now giant dog was licking the glowing figure's face when darkness began encroaching into her vision but her mind still processed none of it. "I can't die..." Just before it all went black there was a booming sound that shook the world.

Eve blinked.

Air rushed into her lungs and she collapsed onto the floor as she gasped for breath. "What the fuck!" Her mind whirled as she struggled to grasp what had happened. "Fuck, Fuck, Fuuuck! What the hell was that freak!?" She finally noticed the glass digging into one of her hands on the floor. "Shit!" she hissed. The pain did little to clear her mind as she fought to calm her panicked breathing and racing heart. "I'm okay… I'll be okay!" she thought desperately.

With cautious movements to avoid the glass, Eve managed to get up on her hands and knees. She slowly and hesitantly raised her head to peer out the broken window. But froze with her head just below the window sill. She had a terrifying feeling that when she looked out the window she would find those glowing eyes right in front of her, waiting for her.

Eve swallowed a lump in her throat and squeezed her eyes shut as a tear ran down her cheek. "I won't be scared!" Her hands were shaking and she clenched her fists until the burning sting of the glass still digging into her hand drowned out the fear. Then she saw the Notification...

Her teeth clenched tight. "I am not dead!" Eve took a few slow breaths, unclenched her hands and waited for the shaking to calm down. "Zeke needs me!" She pulled the small shard of glass out of her flesh. A flash of stinging pain and the tinkling of glass on the floor and one deep breath later and she was ready. She lifted her head and looked out the window.

Something grabbed her arm.

As she simultaneously tried to scream and draw a breath, while also attempting to leap to her feet on numb legs, a whispered "Eve!" sounded out. She toppled over into more broken glass and just lay there, too wrung out to even cuss out her little brother. "Eve! Are you okay?" the aforementioned brother whispered while shuffling over to her in a crouch.

He paused at the window and looked out. "NO!" Panic flashed through her mind at the thought of that "Thing" seeing her brother. She drew a breath to yell at him not to look but he was already turning away from the opening to look back at her. Eve sighed in exhausted, terrified relief as his hands reached her and he started trying to help her up. "Are you hurt?" he asked, still whispering. "I heard a lot of noise. What happened out…"

She interrupted him, "What's out there?"

He paused. "What? Out where?"

"Outside the fucking window. What did you fucking see?" she hissed in a whisper.

"Nothing," he whispered back. When she didn't respond he added, "it's dark."

Eve struggled back upright, ignoring the new pricks of broken glass and finally looked out the window. It Was dark.

That horrible light was gone and only the moonlight remained casting everything into vague shadows. Strangely shaped lumps were scattered across the parking lot outside along with a large spherical one that made her shiver.

"Ow!" Zeke yelped and let go of her arm that he had been pulling on, trying to help her up. "Eve! You're hurt!" He exclaimed, barely managing to whisper.

"No. Wait…" She started right as he whispered.

[Purifying Light]

"Damn it. The light…" she thought, as a golden glow enveloped his hand and then flowed into her when he touched her arm. Looking at the glow coming off his hand should have blinded her darkness adjusted eyes, but it didn’t. It was instead the relaxing glow of a campfire on a cold night. The warmth that emanated from it sank into her and soothed her eyes, along with every muscle in her body.

"It's probably okay," she thought and gave in to the relaxation and let it wash over the terrors of this terrible night. "Besides I doubt anything could survive out there with that Monster." Eve closed her eyes as tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks.

"Eve?" Zeke asked in a whisper and she could hear the tremor in his voice. She reached out and pulled him into a hug. He broke and wrapped his arms around her as sobs started shaking his small form. Eve squeezed him tighter as golden light shone against her closed eyelids.

"I… I'm... sorry." He managed to get out, between the body shaking sobs.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"It's my fault," he cried. "I was too scared."

"No," she murmured. "it wasn't your fault."

"But, I could have…"

"NO!" she cut him off, her voice well above a whisper now. "It wasn't!"

"Mom said…" he started.

"Zeke…" she sighed. "Zeke, I hate to break it to you, but mom and dad are… were, idiots." She flashed back to that moment, when her mother had said those hateful, horrible things to Zeke even as she was literally being eaten alive by the undead.

She shoved the memory away. "They had their heads so far up their imaginary gods ass that they…" she trailed off. "That stupid bitch!" Eve wished that evil, petty woman was still alive, so she could go punch her in the face. "Well… she might be a zombie now… I could..." Eve shook her head. "Focus! Here and now."

"Zeke…" He just sobbed as he sagged in her arms. She held on and lowered both of them down until they were kneeling on the floor. He tried to pull away but she refused to let go, holding onto him all the more. The golden glow had faded and she couldn’t see much of anything in the dark room.

Eve turned her face to look out the large broken window at the moonlit parking lot. Her eyes had adjusted enough and from this vantage she could see the tops of the pines across the way.

"Zeke," she whispered. "I would be dead if not for you." He stiffened for a moment but kept crying. "Remember when I got those big scratches on my arm?" She continued. "I would probably be a zombie by now but you fixed it." Zeke settled a bit, his crying winding down. "Remember when that other zombie was dragging me down and you touched it and poof it was gone? Remember?" She felt him nod against her chest ever so slightly.

"You helped me too," he mumbled in between hiccups. "you carried me."

Eve held back the shiver at the thought of that memory. That thing had been about to sink its rotten teeth into her throat and then it was gone in a flash of golden light. She wasn't sure if Zeke had seen that every single one of the undead turned towards him the moment he did that. She had been so scared when he nearly collapsed after that. She had picked him up and ran… She fought off the memory.

"We're in this together Zeke," she told him gently. "you take care of me and I'll be here for you. Okay?"

He nodded, hiccuped, and murmured into her shirt, "Okay. I will."

"Good. Now we need to get back to the room." She scanned the interior of the building as best she could in the gloom. "We'll grab some more food and…" she trailed off when a sound from outside caught her attention.

"What is that?" Her heart rate spiked. "There can't be more of them already… can there? No wait… that sounds like a…"

"Is that a dog?" Zeke whispered, his eyes trained on the dark outside.

Eve got to her feet slowly and as quietly as she could while helping her brother up too. Her eyes scanned the dark parking lot outside, looking for movement. "Where is your light?" Zeke whispered beside her. "Shit! I forgot about that," she thought and then whispered to him. "I dropped it. Look around, it should be nearby."

Glass crunched underfoot as he turned to look and she added, "quietly," and then cursed under her breath when her own footsteps crunched.

"I could make some light," Zeke whispered.

"No!" she hissed, a little too loudly, "no," She repeated more softly. "Save your strength." She didn't mention her worry that more undead might be out there still and may be drawn to him.

A moment later she spotted a long black cylinder contrasted against the pale tiles below. "Found it." She picked up the large Maglite and her fingertip found the button on the side but didn't push it. She moved slowly back to the window, staying to the side to try and avoid the broken glass. Her brother moved behind her. "Ready?" she whispered. "We might have to run again so be ready to grab some food once the…" She paused when she heard the sound again. "That really sounds like a dog whimpering."

She shot a glance at her brother then pointed the flashlight towards the sound and clicked the button. Nothing happened.

Eve almost felt like an idiot but she was just too tired. "Stupid Magic!" She held back a sigh and sent a trickle of 'Mana' into the button and down into the 'Magic Battery', or whatever it was supposed to be called, that she had built earlier.

It wasn't very good but it was the first thing she had created using the knowledge that had appeared in her head at the beginning of this nightmare. When she thought about what could become possible with more testing and practice, the implications worried her. Although, given what she had just witnessed, she was starting to think it still wouldn't be enough.

She stopped the Mana flow when the battery started to feel full. She was worried a bit about breaking it, which she knew might be slightly explosive, but she also knew the battery wouldn't hold a charge for long, even now she could feel the energy radiating away from the poorly crafted device.

She swore silently to herself that she would master this new tech, no matter the consequences. Even if she became the next Oppenheimer, she would do whatever it took to protect what was left of her family. The only part of her family worth saving.

Eve pushed the button again and this time the light swept out across the parking lot revealing all the gory details. Her hand shook slightly when she saw the carnage outside. "So many…"

Bodies and pieces of bodies littered the torn and shattered pavement. And in the center of it all a small gray dog was sitting and whimpering at them. "It 'is' a dog," Zeke whispered.

"It could be a zombie dog," Eve replied. Though she was pretty sure she had seen a dog out there earlier when… Nevermind.

"Maybe… But none of the zombies ever made any noise," he murmured quietly. "Did they?"

She thought about it. "Huh." They had been eerily quiet if you didn't count the one she was sure had been talking earlier, but she didn't want to mention that to Zeke, he was scared enough as it was. Her brother didn't need to know how fucked they were. She played the light back and forth across the lot. "It could be a trap," she said, though she didn't really think so, not after that Monster.

Zeke was quiet for a bit. "If it's wounded, I could save it before it becomes a zombie."

Eve's heart ached at the hopeful sound in his voice. "Damn..."

She carefully scanned the area in view but couldn’t see that floating freak anywhere. "Maybe it flew away… or better yet died." Though she didn't think that last option was likely.

Decided, Eve turned and shone the light across the shelves until she found what she wanted. She stepped up to the window and shook the bag of beef jerky before ripping it open and whispered, "come here. Good boy." She didn't want to risk yelling or whistling. Not yet. Just in case.

The dog only whined pitifully.

"Maybe it's hurt?" Zeke whispered.

She looked around the store again pausing when she saw something. "Good idea," she thought but continued searching. "Later." Finally she saw what she wanted.

Eve and her brother stepped through the somehow still intact glass doors of the truckstop and out into the night. Both carried large steel tools meant for use on something that she didn't know. Zeke held his weapon with both hands, his head turning and jumping at every rustling leaf and wind carried sound.

She carried the flashlight in one hand and the blunt instrument in the other. The icy air was still with only the occasional gust that set the nearby treetops swaying and filled her head with visions of towering monsters all around them. Every step was tense, every sound sent them both jumping, but nothing happened as they neared the dog.

When they got closer she realized the dog was sitting next to a bloody body and it kept lying back down to rest its head the body's chest only to sit back up and whine at them.

It was an old man, she realized when she finally saw the white beard on his face. "Poor bastard," she thought but hesitated when she saw that his chest was rising and falling. "He's still alive!" She whispered incredulously.

Zeke hurried forward, one hand outstretched. She knew what he was thinking and snatched his arm before he got too close. "Not out here," she whispered to Zeke. "Let's get him inside first."

The dog, a gray pug she could now see, was quite friendly and because even more so when Zeke pulled a piece of jerky from his pocket. After handing off the flashlight to her brother and a cautious verification that he was actually alive, she discovered that the old man was surprisingly lightweight and rather than drag him she simply scooped him up and headed back inside.

"How the fuck did this old man survive out here with that Monster?" She wondered. "He better not be some psycho freak." Though the friendliness and loyalty of his dog was somewhat reassuring. It had even dropped a piece of the jerky on the man's chest. It was honestly a little touching. "Can't be all bad," she decided. They slipped back inside the truckstop and headed for the shower they had holed up in before.

"Maybe he knows something about that Monster that was floating around..."