Sublime Awakenings

Sublime Awakenings: Chapter 36

“Dib” had just pealed off the skin on Todd's chest to pin it to a wooden extension on the side of the table when everything went blank. He seemed to float through a swirling mass of nothing, which, while disconcerting, was a welcome change when compared with what he had just endured. Then, just as he was beginning to feel at ease in the void a voice called his name.

“Todd?”

There it was again! A high, feminine voice.

“Todd?”

“Hello?” he asked the darkness.

“Todd! It's me!”

“Letta?” His voice reverberated throughout a small, enclosed area this time, and he realized that the world was slowly coming back into focus. Black faded to gray surroundings, which then pieced themselves together to construct a worn, stone chamber. On the walls, there were engraved shelves, some with burning candles, but most with dried out human skulls staring with hollow eyes. They were in a catacomb.

“Todd!” Letta's hand shot out to grab the boy, pulling them both closer together, further away from the walls, and into the middle of the path that had been cleared by a succession of about thirty people dressed in black robes. At least he didn't look like the injuries he had suffered in his last “dream” were still afflicting him.

“Shh! Get back into position!” A middle aged woman in front of Letta wrapped thin fingers around the younger's upper arm to pull her back into her place at the end of one line while the man in front of Todd turned around to do the same to him.

As he was roughly pulled back into the line, Todd shrugged off the man's hand, giving him a untrusting look. After he turned back around, the boy leaned back across the aisle to whisper. “Letta, is that really you?”

“Yeah,” The girl did the same, “Zim hooked me up to your brain or something.”

“What is this? What are we doing here? And what is this?” He gestured to the black robes that they were both wearing, giving the fabric of his own a quick pull for emphasis.

“I don't know-hey!” Letta rounded on the woman who had just elbowed her in the ribs.

“Pipe down, the Blessed are coming!” the woman chastised.

The Blessed? Todd gave Letta a curious look before peering to the entry of the chamber in dire. If they were still in his mind, with Shmee, then this couldn't end well. He felt himself tense up when three people in white robes, which contrasted the black of everyone else, filed in through the opening roughly six feet behind them.

From the front of the line, a single man stood on a slightly raised surface in front of the only other opening in the room-like structure. “Welcome, Blessed, ye holy fools of God, to your Holy Canonization! Step forward and take this true Holy Communion, the body and the blood, so that, if the Lord Almighty ordains it, ye may live in beatified perfection for ever and ever, amen.”

Each white-clad figure paused to bow at the beginning of the line before moving past all of the attendants to the front. When they reached it, the first one, a young woman with stringy black hair and pale skin who appeared to be in her very early twenties, fell to her knees. “Amanda Judith Ware, your Holiness.”

Letta's hand rose involuntarily to her mouth. Amanda. She had lived with this girl last year...until she had dropped out of kollege to join a religious cult.

“Ah, yes, Judith. Your miracles are well known among us.” The man on the platform smiled down at her before looking up, to the crowd. “Brothers, sisters, let us pray, in Christ's name, for God to accept our sister, Judith, into his numbers.”

As all of the members bowed their heads in preparation for communal prayer, Letta shrugged before lowering her own head. She always faked it in her own church, so it wasn't a big deal.

Todd had to muffle a yelp when the man in front of him kicked him in the shins before he finally bowed his head as well. He really didn't feel comfortable letting his guard down like this, so one eye remained cracked open to watch the service.

“Sweet Zombie Jesus, in your Undead and Holy name, we pray that you may see fit to raise this child, whom you have so graciously blessed, to her full spiritual potential. Lord, give her a mind so fine that no thought may corrupt it. Give her a heart so pure that it no longer needs to beat to sustain her. Give her a soul so perfect that it yields not to any will other than your own. Let her be as one of the Risen to usher in your Judgment, Lord, and to spread your Everlasting Word, for her name is written in the Book of Life.” The Priest paused before speaking to one of the attendants. “It is time.”

An elderly man up front broke free from the line to retrieve a small table to the left of the priest while another man removed a plastic container and a thermos from a cooler. A dressing clothe was placed over the table, which was then adorned with a jeweled chalice and a gold plate, both of which the priest filled with the contents of the cooler.

Todd's eyes had shot open and then closed violently at the first three words of the prayer. He had been right. This was not good. Not good at all. They needed to get out of there. As the table was being decked with unspeakable substances, he looked to the girl across from him with wide, frightened eyes. “Letta! We have to go!”

“Be quiet! You can't just leave in the middle of a Canonization!” This time the middle-aged woman, who, once again, tightened her hand into a vice grip around Letta's arm, wore the face of Sister Veronica, her insanely strict sixth grade teacher from Saint Colbert's Academy.

“In the words of our Lord, 'Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.'” The priest quoted the Bible as the Blessed Amanda first ate from the bowl and then drank deeply from the chalice.

As the followers looked on, Amanda began to sway drunkenly on her knees, apparently loosing coordination. At first, she used her arms to balance, but soon even this didn't stop her from tumbling to her side. Only the two, unconsenting, guests at the end of the line were bothered by this.

Taking a few careful steps back, the priest addressed his audience. “Let us now sing as hymn of praise to He who was the first to rise. Congregants, please help me usher in this grand transition with Up from the Crypt He Rose.” Bowing his head respectfully, but with his eyes still open and on Amanda, he began to sing. Soon, the voices of other men and women joined his.

Up from the crypt He rose
Death's grip on Christ, he could not hold

Our sweet Lord was too clean of sin
For the earth to take Him in

Amanda was twitching and starting to drool onto the floor like a rabid dog, but there was still a ludicrous smile on her face. Somehow, she managed to raise her hands as if beseeching the Heavens.

Todd didn't want to look. He didn't want to be there at all. But it was like driving by a car wreck.

To the worm, His flesh was sour
But to us, it is nectar of the purest flower

We eat of His body, we drink of His blood
And into our souls his Holy Spirit will flood

Her arms finally fell to her sides as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Then, her rapid breathing slowed and her chest deflated one last time, but never refilled. Her body spasmed twice before she lay completely still.

Letta tried and failed to jerk her arm free from Sister Veronica. She had to keep telling herself that this wasn't real or she was going to cry. Even though she hadn't been friends with the girl that was now lying dead on the chamber floor, she had known her fairly well. And, no one close to her had died in many years...not since her mother.

His disciples, He taught to bring back the faithful
The fruits of the body to be their staple.

The Lord has risen and, with his Saints, He will rein
The Book of Life, it bears my name

Amanda's skin grew even more pale as the time seemed to trickle by like drops of water from a Chinese torture device. If this wasn't a demented dream, Todd would have started to think, and hope, that maybe nothing was going to happen after all. Maybe this sick cult would simply mummify her corpse and add her to the many bodies that already occupied this dank place. But, this wasn't the traumatizing world that he was used to. It was an inner world far more demented and unredeemable.

Her arm twitched. Even though he had been expecting it, he still managed a startled jump.

Forever and ever, I shall stand by His side
My corpse will not fall, for I am His bride

Blessed are those who live to be dead
In the Kingdom of Heaven, their souls shall be fed

Several members had fallen behind on their lines as the twitching body caught their attention. When the hymn was over at last, the priest went back to speaking. “Behold! The Lord has heard our prayers, and has answered in confirmation of the outstanding holiness of His servant! Thank you, Father!” There were several more “Thank you, Father”s and “Amen”s throughout the lines of followers.

As the body began to convulse violently, gasping in useless breaths and releasing dead moans that weren't backed up by its vocal cords, the priest turned back to the elderly man at the front of the line to his right. “Bother Peter, bring the steel cross forth.”

Bowing briefly, the gray-haired man turned to a polished wooden box behind him, removing a thick, steel collar with two five foot long chains attached at either side.

When Amanda's body finally stopped convulsing, it moved with slow and unmeasured stiffness as it attempted to stand.

“Yes! Do you see? She fell to her knees before the Lord, offering herself for his purposes, abandoning that original sin of free will, and now she rises before you Saint Judith! She has died, and yet she lives in perfect Grace! Not just in soul, but in body, she is immortal, just as God promised. She is among the Faithful Dead, who will inherit the Earth!”

As the priest announced the miracle to the applause of the crowd, two members latched on to Amanda's arms, helping her body to stand. She looked around in a mockery of sentience, snapping viciously at the hand of the old man who locked the collar around her neck. After it was fastened, both of her arms were chained together in front of her chest to suggest a state of constant prayer. Then the two who had helped the body up each took a hold of one of the chains. A steel cross hung from the collar around the new saint's pallid neck.

There was barely enough room in the chamber for most of the attendants to back up against the skull-lined walls as Saint Judith was paraded down the path by the two who held her chains. The first man moved in front of her, and the second trailed behind, making sure to keep the chains taut enough so that no one less than worthy would be converted just yet. As she passed, several members reached out to touch her glorious new form in reverent awe, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was tugging against her chains in an attempt to lunge at them.

When the zombie had made its way half way down the lines, Todd could no longer just stand there. He didn't want it anywhere near him! Breaking free of his line, he darted over to Letta, grabbing her free hand and jerking her roughly out of the woman's grip. “We're leaving!”

“Valletta Marie, you get back in this line and pay proper respect this very instant! Do you want me to get the paddle, young lady!” Sister Veronica leaped forward, regaining her hold on the girl.

“Let go!” Letta screamed as Todd attempted to pull her free, and the zombie got even closer. Leaning away from her to gain leverage, she kicked the nun in the stomach, regaining freedom and sending her former teacher toppling backwards, into the first chain holder.

Both the nun and the man went crashing to the floor, pulling the zombie down on top of them. Todd hesitated long enough to see the nun's throat ripped open before turning back to the exit, where he was shocked to see a smug looking Deacon Jasper blocking their path.

In the deacon's hands what appeared to be a long gun with a metal bottle attached to the bottom and a hose attached to the nose. “Not so fast, you heathen brats! The service isn't over yet!”

Todd took one quick look back at the scene of tangled and mutilated bodies behind him and knew that he would much rather face the flame thrower. But apparently Letta had other ideas as the girl moved her arm to grab him back, pulling him in the opposite direction of Jasper and back into the frenzy of a fledgling zombie outbreak. “No, Letta! Wrong way!”

Letta only keep running, weaving in between panicking members, most of whom weren't infected yet, but posed an obstacle nevertheless. She had to ram her shoulders into a few and shove a few others out of her way, and probably into harms way, but they both reached the other side of the chamber, and the second exit, with their brains in tact.

When they exited the chamber, Todd was breathing hard and grasping Letta's hand even harder. One of the zombies had almost caught his leg as they ran by! He looked around desperately. There were corridors everywhere! “This place is like a maze! How are we going to find the way out?”

At the sound of a chorus of swelling screams from the room they were just in and a flash of light, Letta began running again. “We're just going to pick one! Most of these things have multiple exits!” Still pulling Todd behind her, Letta darted into one of the many tunnels to the right.

Because they were underground and there was no lighting in the passage, seeing was near impossible until a long blast of fire shot through the first ten feet of the tunnel, which was thankfully behind them, and a short blast of light premeditated their surroundings. It also illuminated the figure of Jasper in the entry way. “How DARE you infidels violate the sanctity of this sacred ceremony!”

The two sped up their efforts as light flashed through the passage in intervals. It finally came to an end, but they were presented with yet another set of tunnels.

“Shit! How deep are we?” Todd's eyes widened as he realized that, since this wasn't the real world, there might not even be a surface. Or the ground might shift to keep them in or simply to keep them lost. But he pushed those unhelpful thoughts away as Jasper burst out of the tunnel. “Here, this way is up!” This time he took the lead, pulling Letta into another passage. Even though he could hear the heavy breathing of the Deacon behind them, this time there was no fire to light their way.

Soon the walls of the path could no longer be felt as it opened up into a larger, but still pitch black, area. They slowed down, but keep going straight, hoping to make some type of progress.

“Todd! Can you see anything at all?” Letta whispered loudly to the boy in front of her.

“No. Wait. There's something here.”

“A wall?” Damn! A dead end!

“Yeah, but something else too.” The boy cautiously moved his hand along the back wall of the apparent room that they were probably cornered in, feeling the same type of shelfing from the previous chamber engraved into the wall. This time, however, there were no skulls. There was something else...something cold and rounded. “Jars.”

“Jars? What is this, a pantry?”

“God, I hope not.”

“Don't worry, Squee. I think they have to keep the meat refrigerated or something.” At this point, she wasn't sure if they were worried about infected zombie sacrament or zombie feed...if they even feed the zombies nonliving meat.

His hand trembled as he felt the seal at the top of the jar. He could have sworn that the jar had just moved! Well, it was a very slight movement. And it could have been caused by his hand. Still. “They're cold...and the lids are sealed.”

“It's probably just stored water for the members that live down here...but we still need to find an exit. Why hasn't Jasper come in here yet?”

“Just give me a minute! I'm busy rechargin' my flamethrower!” Jaspers voice spewed forth into the chamber in a gleeful drawl, probably because they were trapped like rats on a sticky pad in the church basement.

There was a sudden, small glow when the deacon lit a match to see by as he exchanged the used gas container for a new one that was attached to his back in a holster, and Todd instantly backed up into Letta as the severed, undead head in the jar he had just been touching made vain bitting motions at him. “Ahhh! What is this place!”

“A repository for past Saints, where they bask in the eternal and perfect Grace that God has bestowed upon them! Plus, after a while, they start falling apart if you don't preserve them.” Jasper answered matter of factly as he began to screw in the second container.

Todd stared at him stupidly. “Ummm...thanks. Anyway, we'll just be going now.” He pulled Letta forward with him, attempting to shove Jasper down before he could adjust the refill for his weapon.

Just as the boy was upon him, Jasper dropped both his match and the bottle of gas to the ground so that he could land a hefty blow to the side of Todd's skull with the flamethrower.

When Todd fell back from the hit to his head, Letta barely managed to catch him before a huge burst of flame consumed the space just in front of her. She instantly backed up into the chamber, patting out the fire on Todd's pants with her shoe as Jasper screamed in pain. He was flailing about with his entire body on fire, which wasn't surprising since he had been standing right atop the gas and match. “Squee! Are you alright?”

“Ow. That really hurt. Why does it hurt?” Lifting a hand to rub the lump on his poor head, Todd slowly opened his eyes, but regretted it upon seeing at least fifty zombie heads, in various unnatural shades and states of decay, staring at them by the light of the fire. “Hey, does that one look like Richard Nixon to you?”

“What? How can you even tell?” Not many of the heads looked at all like she could even guess at who they used to be, even if she had known them alive.

He shook his head. “Never mind. It must be the head trauma.”

“Here, let me help you up.” Letta pulled him to his feet, hoping that his legs weren't too burnt to run, even though this whole thing was starting to seem hopeless to her. What was the point of her being there if she couldn't get Todd OUT anyway! “ZIM! What the hell am I supposed to be doing! At least help us get to the surface!”

There was an irritated sigh that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once before Zim's voice sounded in both of their minds. “Pathetic Earthinods! I can not SEE anything with your Pit-if-ful human vision on the screen! What?” He seemed to be talking to someone else as well. “Alright, hold on...”

Out of nowhere, an industrial strength, heavy, metal flash light appeared in Letta's hand. “Well, at least it's something. Thanks, Zim...I guess.”

“Whoa. He can give us stuff?”

“Looks like it. Now, let's go before the infection spreads.”

“That sounds like a plan.” He followed her swift pace out of the chamber and around the smoldering body of Jasper until they finally reached a shaft at the highest elevation. His legs ached where the burns were, but the joy he felt when they passed through a subway station and then reached the city above seemed to overpower the pain. But that joy was not to last for long.

“Sweet Zombie Jesus!”

“Letta!”

“S-sorry, it seemed appropriate.”

“That...was a really fast infection rate.” Todd made a full circle to take in all of the zombies roaming the usually busy street as a shiver ran down his spin. They were everywhere! Across the street, a large hoard of them were banging fiercely against the large, reinforced glass windows of the Taco Smell as if some part of their blood starved brains had been conditioned to feed there in life. The streets were full of wrecked cars and bodies that had been picked clean. A dead business man at the nearest street corner held a cell phone to his head, making low moans and hollow grunts into the device even though a good chunk of that side of his face, including the ear, was missing.

And then he spotted them, and the phone hit the pavement of the sidewalk, breaking into several pieces. His arms outstretched towards potential food, he took uneven, limping steps toward them.

Letta tightened her grip on the flash light that she still held as the business man let out a loud moan. That seemed to attract the attention of surrounding zombies, who were abandoning the Taco Smell or whatever else they were doing to close in on the only living beings on the block. She looked desperately back to the subway station only to see a group of black robed and burn riddled zombies emerging. They were surrounded.

Grunting irritably, Todd threw his own black robe to the ground harshly, revealing the same clothes that he had borrowed from Pepito that afternoon. They were no longer soaked in blood, but were burnt on the lower legs. The robe would only make it easier for the zombies to grab onto his person. “WHY isn't there a way out of this! ZIM, we could really use some help right now!”

There was a sudden wight pulling his hand down: a bag of Halloween candy. “What is this?”

“Throw it at the zombies, worm-baby! They will be distracted by the sugary bits that their undead, rumbling bullies crave instead of your blood-candies!” There was a pause as someone else barely be heard talking to Zim. “What? ZIM is no idiot! It worked last year for me!”

As Letta grabbed a handful of candy, Todd shrugged and chunked a jaw-breaker at the business man. It hit him directly in the forehead, and seemed to disorient him for a few seconds, but he keep going all the same, not giving the candy a second look.

“Move NOW, Zim, or so help me-” Gaz's voice wasn't quite as loud as Zim's.

“Unhand Zim, Pepito-worm! Uff! Fine, Dib-sister, if you think that you can do better that the Mighty ZIM, then be my guest.”

“Good. Dib, get your big head over here and tell me what these buttons do! I can read Zim's stupid language.”

“Uh, guys, could you maybe...go a little faster?” Todd had his back to Letta's as the zombies closed in on them. When business man got within two feet of him, he swung the bag as hard as he could, smacking him in the face and sending him tumbling to the curve along with a quarter of the candy that had been in the bag. But, he would be up again in a matter of minutes. It was kind of ridiculous to be cornered by something as slow as the walking dead, but when there were this many of them, they really were an unstoppable force.

“Got it! Try these!”

Gaz's triumphant voice sounded in their minds as the bag of candy and flash light were replaced by automatic rifles. Ammunition belts wrapped around their waists and slung over both shoulders.

“Wow. Thanks, Gaz!” Letta aimed at the closest zombie, firing a thick stream of bullets into the crowd of zombies, wounding many, but taking down surprisingly few. Refocusing her efforts, she easily got the hang of aiming for the height of most of their heads.

The two continued to make a stand, fending off zombies on all sides, for what felt like hours. And the undead just kept coming. It must have been something about the moaning. It seemed to signal other zombies that food had been spotted. She supposed that it made sense since zombies were much more efficient hunters in hordes. Soon, they would have a wall of fallen, and completely dead, bodies on all sides. Maybe that would give them a reprieve from their continuous shooting. “Hey, Todd, do you think that all of the people in the city are zombies now?”

“All the ones that haven't been eaten? Yes. Until Shmee feels like inserting some live ones for whatever his purposes are.”

“Oh, yeah.” She had almost forgotten that there really were no people. No zombies. Only a sick game between herself, Todd, and a stuffed bear. The word alien flashed in her mind, but that was too much for right now.

Suddenly there was a commotion amongst the surrounding zombies, which were being thrown and shoved out of someone's way. “Move, bub! This ain't no free-for-all! If there's live meat in there, it's mine!”

Todd and Letta shared a panic-stricken look as the new comer, a large, muscular man in a tight yellow and blue spandex costume, parted the crowd with long blades that protruded from the knuckles of his hands to come face to face with them. When he did they could see that his lips and most of the connecting flesh had deteriorated, revealing teeth that seemed far too long without their gums to hide the roots. Oh, yes, this man, this legend, was dead. Undead.

After he had taken this knowledge in in a very brief pause, Todd opened fire, blasting into the Marvel hero's head.

The thing that was once Wolverine just laughed. “Sorry, kid, Adamantium plating. And that don't hurt neither.” He pointed to his masked skull. “Looks like you're outta luck.”

“B-but,” Todd faltered, “the other zombies can't talk! They can barely even think!”

“Yeah, well, I ain't no doctor, but I guess the plague affected us mutants a little different, now didn't it?” He took a step closer, raising his right claw. “Too bad for you.”

Just as the mutant zombie brought down his bladed hand, a silver streak swooped down from overhead, scooping the two living humans up before they could be eaten alive and speeding away so fast that neither passenger had time to think about what was happening until they were dropped a short distance onto a high roof.

Looking up, they saw a slender, silver being standing agilely atop a surf board that matched his skin.

He looked down at them without much expression as he made his usual announcement. “You're world has been surveyed, and though it supports only meager life, it will be sufficient for the needs of the great Galactus. He has been summoned and will arrive very soon to convert this world into elemental energy for his sustenance. This will mean your deaths, but you must understand that it is an honor to be devoured by Galactus.”

Letta cocked an eyebrow. “Then...why did you just save us down there? Not that I'm complaining.”

“I have seen what those abominations have done to this world. All remaining life should long for these horrors to end! But, those uninfected deserve an honorable, painless death, such as that offered by the Destroyer of Worlds. You should be safe here for now. Do not worry. Your time, and theirs,” he gestured to the seething city, “is short. Prepare for the end.” And with that he was gone, once again a silver streak against the darkening sky.

For a few good seconds, Todd was at a complete loss as to how to feel about this newest revelation. And then it came to him. “What the hell is this, a cross-over! I'm starting to be really disappointed in my imagination here. Do you hear that, Shmee? This plot sucks!”

“Uh, actually, Squee, I think that a lot of this is mine.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I'm the one who told you about the Resurrectionists, and I knew some of those people back there. Remember my roommate that I told you about? Amanda? And Sister Veronica and, of course, we both know Jasper.”

“Well, what about the super heroes?”

“They're not heroes anymore. They're Marvel Zombies.” At his blank, unimpressed look, she continued, “It's a comic about-”

“About the Marvel heroes becoming zombies? That's great. Remind me to write whoever thought that up a fan letter after this.” Dropping the sarcasm and moving to the edge of the building, Todd surveyed the damaged and zombie infested city below. The streets over which they now stood weren't crowded with a dense pack of the undead like the one they had surfaced on had become, but there were still several of them moving around. “Is Galactus really going to come?” At this point, that didn't sound too bad. Being converted to energy and absorbed had to be better than being eaten by zombies...or worse, becoming one.

“Yeah. The mutant zombies strike him down with the power that they get from eating the Silver Surfer and then leave the Earth to find more food after they feed on him.” Letta's voice was low and careful as she said this. After all, she was basically saying that they were as royally screwed as Anne Boleyn. “But maybe Wolverine will forget about us.”

“What?” He turned around to face her. “They can't eat the Silver Surfer! His skin is designed for the vacuum of space, for stars and black holes. It's impervious! And Galactus is a primordial space god, a cosmic force. How can zombies eat a cosmic force? The fleshy bits are just for show!”

“I don't know, Todd! I'm only telling you how the story goes. And you're a real nerd, ya know that?”

“Well, the story is stupid! And this dream-thing is stupid! And of course I know that! Everyone knows that! That's why most people hate me.” When he turned again, with a huff, to look back down at the streets, what he saw had him piping down immediately. A couple of the zombies below were looking up the side of the building as if they could hear them shouting. “That and my loud mouth. We're going to have to be quiet,” he whispered as he slide down below the railing to sit, out of possible sight of any spectators on the ground.

Letta followed his lead by sinking to the flat, concrete roof as well, pulling her riffle to her side as they lapsed into an uneasy silence. After a while, when nothing new seemed to be happening, she saw Todd's eyes close.

“Dear God...if there is a God...help us, please.” At first, not surprisingly, nothing changed, but when she lay on her back on the hard surface, Letta noticed a small, dark dot against the gray sky. She dismissed it instantly as her imagination, but after a few more minutes, and several enlargements of the spot as it grew closer and revealed itself to, in fact, be several people-shaped dots, she realized that being in a dream world meant that imagination was reality. “Todd. Psst! Todd, wake up!”

The boy's eyes shot open at her hushed words. He hadn't really been asleep exactly anyway. It was more like a stress induced attempt at a black-out. And a mostly failed one at that. Maybe if he could stop thinking, nothing else would happen. “What? What is it?”

As she pointed up at the ever descending figures, her lack of explanation was interrupted by an eerily resonating sound of trumpets blowing from all four directions.

Todd immediately sat up. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!”

“That doesn't sound like nothing.” He finally looked up, squinting at what she had been pointing at. “It doesn't look like nothing either. What is that?”

“Well...I sorta...I didn't think anything would really happen!” Looking back to the sky, she could see that the forms were definitely people...people in flowing white robes.

“You didn't think what would really happen exactly?” Todd asked wearily as he continued to watch the white-clothed people as they finally landed on an especially tall building across the street. At the moment he wasn't feeling particularly trusting of robe-clad people. Or any people, even if they had just descended from above. Some mutates could fly after all. Bending down quickly, he retrieved his riffle to spy upon the other building through the scope.

“You probably don't want to know.” Even so, he was about to find out. Standing up with her own gun, Letta moved to the side of the building to do the same. She zoomed in to see a closer version of the small, white-robed group. One man, who stood tall in the middle of the group, parted a long veil of brown hair to the sides of his cadaverous, sallow face to look forward in their direction.

“Letta, this is my imagination, and it is dangerous! Do you think I want to die like this?”

“I'm sorry, Todd, but how was I supposed to know this would happen?”

“Because you obviously have some major issues in this area!” He made a broad sweeping motion with his hand to indicate the entire dreamscape. “Shit!” He quickly dropped back to the ground, pulling Letta with him when Zombie Jesus outstretched his almost skeletal hand in their direction.

“Todd, this is bad! This is so bad!”

Leaning forward, the boy took her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him as he spoke firmly. “Listen to me, Letta. Are you listening? This is impossible. All of this. Dead bodies can't move. Without oxygen being supplied to the cells of moving muscles, lactic acid build up causes rigor mortus. They would be paralyzed. Do you understand?” Maybe if they could just think rationally, the logical contradictions would go away.

The girl shook her head violently, the friction making tears run more to the side of her head. “ Todd, I don't know what the hell you're talking about! Saint Colbert's Academy only taught Christian science!”

“Then how did you pass biology last year!”

“One of my friends had the tests from the year before.” Her emerald eyes grew large in fright as she saw four of the white robed zombies from the other building moving across the sky in a slow motion toward them over Todd's shoulder. “They're coming!”

Todd only spared a quick look back himself before pulling Letta to her feet and making a dash for the other side of the building. He gave the pad-locked door that lead into the building an unsure look. There was no way that going inside could be a good idea. There were probably zombies all throughout the building. And the fire escape only lead to the streets where more of them lurked in the shadows. This couldn't end well. “ZIM! Take her out!”

“No! No, wait!” The young woman dug blue, painted nails into Todd's shoulder as she pushed him to the side, stepping in front of him. The white-robed figures had landed on the ledge, and she couldn't take her eyes off of the one on the far left.

Stepping ahead of the others, the figure pulled back the hood of her robe, revealing long, curly brown hair around an overly thin, overly pale face with dull blue eyes over dark bags of bruised skin.

As his hand shot out to grab the one leaving his shoulder, Todd's voice came out in a sad, strangled plea. “Letta, no.”

“M-mom?”

The figure slowly approached, holding out her arms as if entreating a hug.

“Let me go, Todd.” She tried to pull free, but only ended up jerking Todd around by the hand as his gripe tightened. Dropping her gun to the ground, she attempted to dislodge his hand with her free one. “I have to go.”

“No. That's not your mom.” Jerking their hands back in return, he pulled Letta back farther.

“But it is! That's just how she looked when....when she..”

“When she died, Letta! Think about what you're saying! This isn't real.” He could feel tears starting to sting his dry eyes to match Letta's as pity fought against fear and anger.

“You don't know that!”

“Yes, I do!” This time he swung her around fast, letting go so that she fell to the concert behind him as he took aim with the gun he still held. He closed his eyes as his finger pulled the tiger, releasing a round of bullets into the head and chest of the closest zombie, which happened to resemble Letta's mother.

“You shot her!” Letta climbed quickly to her feet, ignoring the scraps on her knees in favor of screaming at her companion. “You shot my mother!”

“No I didn't! She's not...she's still coming! Why isn't she dead? I mean...you know what I mean!”

“I don't know, Todd, why do go shot her again and find out!” When more bullets blasted through that familiar woman, Letta charged the teen, knocking him to the roof. “Oh my God, I was being sarcastic, you asshole! Leave her alone! Didn't you get enough of a kick out of killing your own parents?!”

Todd shoved her off roughly, swiftly taking the gun back into his hands. “Letta, she's going to kill us! And she is NOT your mother! This is not real!”

“But-”

“No! It isn't! It's a delusion based on our fears, our weakness, your pain. I mean, look at that Jesus!” He pointed a slightly trembling finger at the traditional western, though zombified, rendition of one of the world's most popular messianic dying gods that was now landing on the ledge, quickly returning his eyes to the blond before him. “The historical Jesus would have looked nothing like that!”

“Todd.”

“And the nail wounds would have been in the wrists. You can't suspend a human body with nails through the palms.”

“...How do you know that?” She tore her gaze away from Zombie Jesus to give the other a rather disturbed look.

“Because my neighbor is a homicidal maniac. Anyway, it's just a popular image in your mind.”

Ug. Not the “Scary Neighbor Man” thing again. He had some nerve lecturing her about delusions, but she shook this thought from her head as she looked back a the zombie. “Todd!”

“I know, they're still coming.” But he didn't know what to do about it if he couldn't take them down, and he and Letta had no where to go. “You need to get out.”

“Todd, he's changing!”

“What?” Looking beyond “Letta's mom” and past the other three who were slowly approaching as well, he saw that Zombie Jesus had indeed changed to match that of a typical first century Palestinian...well, a typical first century Palestinian zombie anyway. He was now about Zim's height with darker, olive skin. His hair was also darker, short and curly. The beard was gone, which in this instance made him look even worse as more necrotic flesh was exposed.

“He..he looks different now. Jewish. And the zombies...in the comic Colonel America lost the top of his head and brain, but he didn't ..umm..die or whatever until the whole brain was pulled out. I think the rules..the rules are changing.”

“Yeah. We're changing them.” The words were said aloud, but they were really directed more at himself than Letta. If they could change things, then why couldn't biology stop the zombies before? Maybe Shmee was just feeling out whatever he though would possibly scare them more. Or maybe he just didn't care about the little details of the nightmare as long as the effect was achieved. Or maybe...

“We're changing them. So, she's not...” Her chest convulsed with a sob before she could stifle it. This wasn't her mother. It really, really wasn't. Her mother was long dead and gone. She would never see her again. She was simultaneously relieved and crushed by this truth.

“No. She's not.” Todd quickly swiped Letta's gun from the roof, thrusting it back into her arms as they backed up even farther. “I have an idea. Help me with these broads.”

“What broads?” She hadn't noticed any broads before, but sure enough, when Letta turned around there was a pile of them laying against the back ledge.

“These. We can get to the other building if we can lay them across both ledges!” Todd smirked slightly as they both lifted one broad at a time to do as he had said. So they really could change conditions to their benefit. But that power seemed to have serious limits. If they made it to the other roof, they could possibly take refuge in the green house there, but after that he had no idea how they were going to get out of this.

The zombies were still coming for them, and, in fact, almost upon them, when they finished moving three of the broads into place. Wiping nervous sweat from her brow, Letta turned around while Todd made sure the boards were sturdy, only to find that the zombie of her mother was mere feet from her position. Her hand instantly, blindly, found the boy's shoulder, pulling roughly on his shirt. “Todd..”

“Yeah?” As soon as he turned around to answer, the sight of the dead woman, with her arms still outstretched, had him backing up as far as he could against the ledge of the building, his slight fear of heights disregarded. Slowly, he leaned down to take hold of the nose of his gun. “Letta, get on the boards.”

Taking another wobbly step forward, the zombie sucked in some air to help produce a sound that was too deep and too dry to actually be considered a word, but might have been one all the same. “Daaw-taa-eer.”

That had Letta's careful climb onto the make-shift bridge coming to a quick stop as she turned around again, with one leg already on the boards and the other still on the concrete of the roof. “She knows me.”

“Letta, go! It's not real, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Taking in a deep, resolute breath, the girl climbed the rest of the way onto the boards, trying to suppress the innate fear of being so high on something so flimsy. She had to try to keep her weight evenly distributed amongst the three boards as she took sideways steps above a dark alley.

When the girl started moving away again, the dead woman let out a feral, inhuman growl, lunging forward with long, dirty nails brandished before her.

Todd quickly turned his gun around, jabbing it out to clock the zombie in the forehead as soon as she was close enough. She fell to the ground with a mildly confused look before climbing to her feet and coming at him once again. This time he hit her hard, at an angle to knock her to the side before landing a powerful kick to her middle, sending her toppling off the building, moaning all the way down, not in fear, but in the familiar agitation of unfed corpse.

Then the other zombies were still advancing on him, so he quickly climbed onto the boards himself, shuffling across with only a small fear of falling because, really, that wasn't the worst thing that could happen in this world. By the time Letta had reached the other side, he had caught up with her. He leaped from the boards, and they ran to the large green house that rested atop the new building.

Letta's body slammed into the side of the green house with frantic momentum before her hand went for the doorknob, only to be covered and held by Todd's. “What now?”

“Inside the green house...there is a large, steel desk, big enough for both of us to hide under.”

“How do you know that?”

“I...I can see it through a crack here.” He pointed to the latch of the door, which he actually couldn't see through at all. But Letta didn't need to know that. He needed her to believe that because he didn't trust his own belief alone. Faith was never something he was great at, never something he had really needed. All of the preternatural things seemed to seek him out, making his belief motivated by prof and experience, instead of the other way around.

“Okay..so can we go in now! They're still coming, you know!” As soon as his hand left hers, she threw the door open, running across the rows of plants to the steel desk near the back that Todd had spoken of, though she didn't think it would offer much protection from the undead.

“Hide under the desk.” As the girl crawled under, Todd pointed his gun toward the roof, opening fire in a sequence of crucial patterns. Luckily, no glass actually fell yet. As the door opened once again, he too crawled under the desk, leaning down to peak through the space between the desk and the floor, watching as the robed figures filed into the green house.

The zombies moved surprisingly fast throughout the glass enclosure, knocking over many a plant in their search for the living flesh that they seemed to sense inside. All the while, the Zombie Jesus stood in the very center of the green house, as if attempting some air of regality in his undead state, until finally, he dropped to all fours, crawling ever closer to them like some hunting dog, seeming to smell the two humans under the desk through his rotting nasal passages.

Letta's nails dug roughly into Todd's arm as Zombie Jesus let out a multi-voiced wail only a few feet from their position, drawing the other undead in as well. She felt his arm lock into place around her just as the decaying savior dove at them, knocking the desk over. She could hear both herself and Todd scream loudly, though she had no conscious control over it, as Todd pulled them both back into the overturned desk. The desk was now open on the front, but still covered all other sides, including the top, so they were relatively safe when the glass making up the roof of the green house fell in large sections, slicing into the Holy Dead.

Todd closed his eyes a second too late as a substantial, triangular piece of glass cut through the chest of Zombie Jesus, ripping his right upper shoulder, neck, and head from the rest of his body, and sending it all toppling to the floor in a twitching, still-not-fully-dead heap. He only heard the rest of the glass fall as he raised his free hand to his eye, rubbing it until tears were forced out in vain hopes of cleaning it before it was too late. Wiping away one of the tears, he raised his finger to have a look at it as all of the noise finally came to an end. Blood. Undead blood.

“Todd, we did it!” The girl hugged him tightly before taking careful steps out from under the desk and around the somewhat dangerous remains of Zombie Jesus. “They're all down! Come on, I think all of the glass has fallen out by now.”

Standing unsurely, Todd followed her lead, avoiding the body parts that littered the ground. His heart was already beating too fast, though that could just be hypochondriacal. His hand shot to his heart as it suddenly felt like it might have skipped a beat, and his breathing speed up. His throat felt too dry, and he was quickly becoming unexplainably dizzy. He swayed on his feet, almost falling in the clutches of one of the undead mouths. “Letta...,” He paused a beat to force mental focus. “You need to shoot me, and then you need to get out of my mind.”

“Don't be stupid, Squee, we just beat them!”

“Beat 'em, did ya?”

Quickly looking away from Todd, Letta's eyes landed on a familiar figure. Wolverine was back, though he was now missing an arm from his fight with the Silver Surfer, and he had brought friends.

The ex-hero laughed yet again. “Ditt'in think that we'd hear all that glass shatterin' up here, did ya? Well, this time there ain't no silver freak on a souped up skate board to save you. Right, boys?”

There were several nods from other mangled Marvel zombies that could now fly thanks to the power cosmic that they had absorbed from eating said “silver freak”.

“Oh, shit..shit..shit. They're everywhere.” The blond backed up closer to Todd, who shoved his gun firmly into her hands. She aimed at the ex-heros, though she knew that shooting them would do little good.

Shaking his head, and instantly regretting it as a wave of nausea overtook him, Todd grabbed the girl's arm, spinning her around to face him instead of the mutant zombies. “Letta, you have to shoot me!”

“I can't!”

“You have to! Please!”

Her eyes widened in disgusted horror as she finally understood exactly why she had to shoot him. He was very pale, almost as pale as Amanda when she had become a Saint, his pupils were so dilated, his body was trembling. It was amazing that he was even managing to stand like that. More tears rolled down her eyes.

As her finger closed in on the trigger of her gun, Todd took in a deep breath and closed his eyes in preparation for the impact. A few seconds later, he heard the gun fire off several bullets, and fought an instinct to drive to the concrete at his feet. But he shouldn't have had that long. Swallowing down a wave of dread, he forced his eyes open again to see the bullets flying through the air at an increasingly slower speed. The marvel zombies attacked in slow motion as Letta disappeared into thin air. Before the panic could set in he noticed that they were disappearing too: the zombies, the bullets, the city. It was all blurring and fading as it approached him until there was only darkness again.

Notes:

-”give her a mind so fine that no thought may corrupt it.” is a paraphrase of “He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it.” by T.S. Eliot (about Henry James).
-The Resurrectionist hymn “ Up from the Crypt He Rose” is written by me, and was slightly inspired by "Low in the Grave He Lay" by Robert Lowry.
-"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." - John 6:54
-”Sweet Zombie Jesus!” is a quote from Futurama, as is the reference to Richard Nixon (his head is preserved in a jar, but he isn't undead in the series).
-I don't own Marvel Zombies. It is copyright Marvel Characters, INC, written by Robert Kirkman, and illustrated by Sean Phillips.
- “This is my imagination, and it is dangerous! Do you think I want to die like this?” is a paraphrase of a quote by Delia from Beetle Juice.

- Saint Colbert's Academy was founded twenty years after the death of Saint Stephen T. Colbert (of the Roman Catholic, not of the Resurrectionist Church). It is based on his teaching through both his renowned political commentary, 'The Colbert Report', and his award winning book, 'I Am American (And So Can You!)'.
-The Christian Science reference comes from a girl I meet in Bio 101. She was failing the class because she had no real science education. Her homeschooling had consisted of what she called “Christen science”. Very sad.
-This should be obvious, but the Resurrectionists are a satirical religious group meant to express problems in religion by blowing them out of proportion. They are not meant to represent real-life groups. Also, Zombie Jesus is not supposed to be the real, historical Jesus.