Spark of the Dead (Part 11)

Laura and Hillary ran to the end of the block and saw the barricade that Joe was talking about. The barricade was just the wreckage of a house collapsed into the street and would only slow someone or something down rather than be a true barricade.

The girls ran up to it stopping only momentarily before they scaled over the broken cement and wood.

Laura was the first to get to the top and stopped.

Hillary asked, “Why did you stop, keep going?”

Laura was motionless with her mouth open in disbelief; staring at the spot where there vehicle should have been. Finally she answered the question, “The SUV is gone!”

“What?” Hillary struggled to climb forgetting again that she could have just teleported to the top of the wreckage to look for herself.

She clasped her hands to her mouth gasping. “I bet those old people took it!” She sat down with her head hung over. “Why did I leave the keys in the ignition? Why oh why would I do something so stupid?”

“Hey,” Laura leaning down to hug her friend “don’t beat yourself up. I’m glad you came to save me.”

“What do we do now?” Hillary asked.

Laura smiled deviously. “Not that it pertains to leaving the town, but I have an idea. Stay here at the top and wait for Ken.”

Spark of the Dead (Part 10)

Fish knew right away who was out there.

He grabbed the radio from Officer Perry and yelled into it, “Frick’n drive! Don’t give him a chance to attack!”

The trio of Laura, Ken, and Hillary walked at a quick pace avoiding the windows as they slinked from house to house.

Ken and the two girls traveled for two blocks before stopping against the back porch of an abandoned house.

Back over where they came from Magnis came bursting through the front door of the house he fell down into. For a short time he looked for them each way down the road before taking off the wrong direction. From watching him they noticed that he was now limping.

Spark of the Dead (Part 9)

Fish jogged into town and saw the lights of what was a police station right at the end of the street.

I couldn’t be any luckier he thought. He ran the rest of the way down the block knowing that now was no time to slow down.

He burst into the police station making his presence known.

“Hey, wha’cha problem buddy?” The question came from an older male police officer that was looking like he was pretty relaxed prior to Fish entering the station.

Fish stood still doing the exact thing that he knew he would, forgetting what he was going to say. “Um… I…”

“You’re either the dumbest drunk ever or the smartest,” a woman officer said from the other side of the room. “Are you looking for a nice cell to sober up in?”

“What? No, my friends are in trouble, I need help right away.”

The male officer got up out of his chair and started walking over to Fish slowly with his hands rested on his belt. “We get it son, your friend Captain Morgan and Jim Beam? Don’t worry, we’ll help alright. Just wait right over here in this room.”

Spark of the Dead (Part 8)

Ken pulled himself up from the ground and saw that Magnis fighting Laura. The poor girl wasn’t attacking back and he didn’t know how long her shield would last taking the beating that Magnis was capable of giving.

He couldn’t believe that he had even found them. It was the most unlikely of scenarios; yet somehow it happened.

Ken ran at Magnis yelling his battle cry to distract him from Laura.

It worked and Magnis turned around in time to meet Ken’s fist across his jaw knocking him flat onto the asphalt.

Magnis recovered quickly and tried to sweep Ken’s legs out from under him. Ken expected it and jumped just in time to avoid it. As soon as he was back on the ground he kicked hard and hit Magnis in the side of the head. Ken’s kick was hard enough to cause Magnis to somersault backwards against an abandoned vehicle.

“The Ken will keep him busy. Make it back to the SUV and get out of here with Hillary.”

“No, I won’t leave you,” she said loudly.

“Laura watch out!” Ken yelled at the site of Magnis picking up the car he landed against.

Spark of the Dead (Part 7)

Higher pitched than the first time a squeal from one of many long purple worms slithers its way through the rubble.

Hillary teleported back inside the SUV and ducked down while her sister yelled demanding to know what was going on. Doing what she did may have been looked on as cowardly, but she was incapable of being able to do anything against them while they were still worms. She knew that she did the smart thing.

One of the worms jumped and flew through the air at the old people. It hit one of the men in the side of the head. While the man flailed on the ground screaming it wriggled its way into their skull.

One of the others quickly shot in the direction of the worms. Purple splatters of their wormy flesh flew through the air. Another fired their gun having the same result against a handful of the worms.

Joe stood ready to fire his remaining shot knowing he would have to reload right after.

Laura sent a wide wave of force forward and blasted a large amount of the fiery debris and worms away from them.

One of them had made it past Laura and went right for Ken. His electrified shield stopped it upon making contact with him. It squealed on the ground before it passed out next to the vehicle.

Ken’s foot stomped down hard on it splashing it’s insides against the door of the SUV.

Everyone stayed ready to attack again if there were any worms left.

Laura’s telekinetic blast had both cleared the way for their vehicle and probably crushed the worms that were still in it.

Fire crackling was the only sound while both groups stood waiting.

Silence was broken from the man who had the worm invade his body getting up. In a quick motion he reached down for the gun he dropped when he was still in control of his body.

Joe fired his shotgun into the face of what was no longer his friend but a monster. It dropped to the ground both the host and parasite being instantly dead.

The woman leaned down to the body and wept softly against their chest.

Joe ejected the empty shells from his gun and reloaded. “Perhaps I was wrong to judge you folks… I would say that an apology is in order and a thank you.”

Laura thought for a moment. “Apology accepted if you point us to the nearest hospital or somewhere we can find a first aid kit, anything to help our friend.”

Spark of the Dead (Part 6)

Laura tries to keep focused on the road but can’t drift her thoughts from what had just happened to Magnis and what she had to do to him.

She continued to struggle with this until she stopped the vehicle and threw her head onto the steering wheel crying loudly.

“Laura we can’t stop now,” Ken said from the backseat.

Through sobs she said, “I know. I just need a moment.”

Hillary patted her on the shoulder. “Here hun, let me drive.”

“Ok,” Laura said sniffing softly as she took her head off the wheel.

The two girls traded places quickly and Hillary started driving as soon as she clicked her seatbelt in place.

No one was saying anything as they drove. Every once in a while Laura or Ginger would let out a sob each from their own pains, mental or physical.

“Hey look, there are some lights up ahead, coming out of the woods,” Hillary said loudly. “Let’s hope there is help for Ginger.”

Spark of the Dead (Part 5)

About Two Hours Earlier…

Yang teleported all the way into the room he was staying in.

He sat down on his bed and felt his head.

I should have known better than to mix unknown chemicals with a cocktail of my own, he thought. If what Magnis says is true, than our compounds together have me overdosed on vitamins.

Yang itched his arm rapidly. “Dang bug bites,” he mutters. He pulled his sleeve up to scratch at it better and had to sit down from what he saw.

One of his mosquito bites had started swelling up at the same spot he had injected himself with Magnis’ needle. It was about a quarter in size and the skin was raised up only somewhat.

“What is happening to me?” he said stunned.

Spark of the Dead (Part 4)

The remaining six of them ran out of the cabin into the open. Being in the frantic state they were all in, they didn’t know where they were running to, only that they were getting the hell out of that cabin.

Magnis stupidly turned around to see if the worms were after them. As soon as a false sense of security was in his head one of the worms shot through the air and started digging its way into his head through his ear.

He yelled and flopped down on the ground. He gripped onto its long body the spines cut and slashed his hands as he tried in vain to pull it out of his head.

Laura ran over to him and put her shield up hoping that if another was near it would stop it. As she reached Magnis’ body she felt one crash into the side of her head. The shield kept it out of her for now.

Magnis screeched in pain as the tail end of the worm crept the rest of the way into his head.

“Magnis! Magnis!” Laura screamed at him.

Spark of the Dead (Part 3)

“Fish! Holy shit! Put some clothes on!” Magnis yelled at his friend leaning on the doorway completely naked.

Hillary of course was eyeing him up while the rest of them were covering their eyes or turned away.

“I heard noises, one can’t bother with clothes when his friends might be in trouble.”

“Fish… The noises you probably heard were over three minutes ago,” Magnis said.

“Oh…” He paused for a moment. “What’s Yang doing on the floor?”

Magnis lowered his hand to explain and quickly remembered why his hand was covering his eyes in the first place. “Can you put some clothes on? I really don’t want to talk to you right now.”

Everyone in the room laughed except Fish and Hillary who shot Magnis a mean glance.

“Fine.” He turned around and said, “Sorry if you’re too insecure to appreciate the human body.”

“That was odd,” Ken said.

“Look at this,” Laura said as she lifted Yang’s sleeve to show a large red bump.

“What the hell is that?” Ginger said appalled.

“It looks like that is where he injected himself,” said Magnis. “I don’t know why it’s so huge. I never had anything like that happen to me.”

Ginger leaned closer to look, “Is it moving?”

“The Ken doesn’t think that it could—Holy shit!”

Spark of the Dead (Part 2)

The seven of them sat around a campfire together at the front of their cabin. Fish had taken a short nap and was now officially cut off. He admitted that it had been too much and perhaps his ancestors had a bit more practice than he did.

The couples of Magnis and Laura along with Ginger and Ken were sitting close together by the fire. Fish was nursing some water to help with his hangover. Yang and Hillary sat by themselves enjoying the night with the company of their friends.

“Does anyone want to go swimming tomorrow?” Ginger asked cuddling closer to Ken as encouragement to answer the way she wanted him to.

“The Ken is up for it, anyone else?”

“Fish here is from a long line of champion swimmers, right bud?” Magnis said nudging Fish.

“If only your head was as smart as your mouth,” he said slouching badly and taking another sip from his bottle of water.

Magnis chuckled, “Glad to hear your back with us.”

“I’d rather be sleeping.”

“Go ahead and turn in if you want,” Laura said kindly. “I’d rather you feel better for tomorrow than sit here feeling like crap.”

Hillary jumped up from her seat. “I’ll help you inside. I was just about to go get one of those leftover burgers you grilled.”

Fish gagged at the mention of food. “Ugh, just don’t take it out till I’m in bed. Last time I saw it, it was outside of my stomach.”

Hillary giggled and jumped over to him. The two went inside together with Fish walking slowly, his arm over Hillary.

“You take your injection sweetie?” Laura asked Magnis. “You were going to this morning but I made you finish packing, I think you forgot to after.”

“Shoot. I did forget.”

“Injections?” Yang asked.

Spark of the Dead (Part 1)

In the spirit of Halloween I'm writing another short story involving many characters from Spark: Evolution together on a vacation to a lakeside cabin deep in the woods of northern Oregon. This is a great excuse for me to put several people together that would otherwise be at each others throats.
The actual story in this first part is going to be a bit shorter because I take time to give a few extra details before the story starts that are key to understanding things. I'll be putting up new parts each day until I finish the story. As always, I hope you enjoy!

Char Notes: (Some things to be clear on that I don't want to go into extensive detail mid story.)

Magnis and Laura are married here and in the series. Magnis and Fish (James, but most everyone calls him his random nickname.) are part of the group named Nowhere. On the other side of the war is The Institution. It's members include Laura, Ken, Yang, Hillary, and Ginger. These organizations don't mean anything in this short story, but it is a background to those who don't yet know that info.

Nowhere = S.O.U.L = Engineered strength and agility multipliers installed in the arm(s) and/or legs.

• Magnis has them in both his arms and legs. He is very strong and buff. (The way he starts in Evolution is not this description, but something that he becomes over time.)
• Fish has S.O.U.L only in his dominate arm (left). Almost equally as strong as Magnis but still really buff as well.

The Institution = Spark = Evolved part of the brain that gives the privileged individuals access to amazing powers.

• Laura has strong telekinetic abilities she unleashes in a frontal cone. She can use her spark to encase her body in a protective shield. She also has the ability to manipulate small parts of matter, at the cost of a percent of her own spark, to appear as things such as animals.
• Yang is an skilled fighter and his spark makes him very deadly by allowing him to have short range teleportation and cold-fire. The visual of cold-fire is a blue glow around a peson's hands as a burst of artificial adrenaline surges through their body. It grants them increased agility and reaction times without the after effects of real adrenaline.
• Ken is strong and built like those from Nowhere. His spark allows him to channel electricity through his body electrically charging his unarmed attacks and those who touch him can also be electrocuted.
• Hillary is able to teleport and use an ability called tethering. Using that ability she can move objects to or away from herself.
• Ginger has a stronger spark than her twin sister and is also in control of the tethering ability as well as telekinetic abilities similar to Laura.

Spark of the Dead

 Part 1

 

“Oh God, they are surrounding us! Can’t you do something heroic?” Hillary yelled frantically at Laura.

In a panic driven tone she yelled back, “What do you expect me to do, they already got everyone else! What can I possibly do against them?”

Both girls closed their eyes and screamed loudly as the zombie horde closed in on them.

Six Hours Earlier...

Heavy breathing persists in the soft darkness of night. The stars and moon lit the area only enough to see.

A flash of blue cuts through the trees and disappears with a rustling of leaves and brush.

“Show yourself! You coward!” Magnis yelled while holding his left arm, blood running down it and dripping steadily onto the ground.