Two things happened simultaneously, but that did not mean that one was influenced by the other, although there were keen effects felt by both. In the distant east, distant in terms of a pedestrian walking rather than a vehicle moving, a rumbling disturbance could be heard. And above a large property of a fair sized estate, another disturbance could be felt.
The first was noticed by Nathan, who was as usual, pottering about in his garden, but he was not the only one to hear it. The youth swiftly placed his trough and fork, his cutters and hand rake into a bucket of pulled weeds that he had been removing from the rose beds. He hesitated for a moment, staring at the main property and more specifically the room in which Ren Zexian had entered two days ago and had barely left since and thought for a long moment. But then he shivered despite the heavy heat as the pressure of the air around him seemed to change and a strong pulling sensation seemed to stir the winds towards the main property. Nathan did not wait around to see what was causing the second disturbance, fleeing for his home as he rubbed the goose pimples that stood up over his entire body.
Aslan sat up from where he lay, watching his human ward as she stole strawberries from the strawberry bushes, after figuring out the trick of collecting the red ones by watching Nathan. The animal naturally felt both disturbances both distant and near, but it was the latter that made him howl, even as it made Lucy scamper towards him and hug his thick, furred neck.
Patrick dropped the bricks he was causing to float from the rubble pile towards Winston as he used them and a bucket of mortar to firmly bring them together into a sturdy and fairly thick wall. The bricks were not all whole, but the builder could not be fussy and was slowly layering the bricks both length and width ways like a jenga puzzle that could not so easily fall. "Careful," he chided the smaller man, but Patrick was not listening and rushed off toward the main property as if aware that something was about to happen. Harry, who had been using his muscles where Patrick was using his mind, stared after him as did Winston. The two men glanced at each other before continuing their work, while Paul kept an eye out for wandering zombies.
Due to their location and the fact there were so few of them, they seldom attracted humanoid corpses, but that did not mean that the odd farm or wild animal zombie wouldn't drift their way in search of live meat. Already, Paul had bludgeoned a stray roe deer fawn this morning, with Patrick's help, the young creature must have zombified not long after it was born from its size. It was Paul that noticed the distant disturbance, but none of these men noticed anything untoward about the main house.
"Sound's like a storm," he mentioned as he glanced in the direction where a few black clouds could now be seen gathering in the sky.
Winston sighed, but was glad he wouldn't have to waste too much mortar as he dusted down his combat trousers. They really needed a wash, but water was scarce, washing clothes was done only once every two weeks and usually in bath water so even then the water couldn't exactly be considered clean. "Let's pack it up guys," he said. "In case that storm heads this way."
Patrick didn't stop running until he entered the house, heading for the door where Dexter still lingered inside. He shivered as the air changed further, even feeling a little sharp against his skin. Tyler, who despite being sceptical, was not stupid to ignore his gut instincts and grabbed Patrick by the arm and dragged him to the other side of the property.
"What are you doing?" Patrick whined. "I want to see what happens!"
"Are you an idiot?" Tyler questioned him. "Do you have no sense of preservation?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," Patrick grumbled, shaking off Tyler's arm as he made to run back to where he knew the main event was about to occur. As it happened, the feeling that the air was about to implode stopped him in his tracks and he backed further away and both men felt as if they should duck a moment later, though felt stupid a moment later as the sensation of impending doom disappeared without a trace.
The two men let embarrassed chuckles escape them before Tyler coughed and suggested that they both pretend that nothing happened. Patrick agreed and both men drifted back towards the entertainment room door, which finally opened revealing a calm and content Ren Zexian and a grimacing Dexter, who winced with each movement, the greasy, gritty black substance coating his body making his skin crawl with every motion.
Patrick and Tyler stepped back, holding their noses. "No wonder you asked the boy and I to fill a bath tub," Tyler said and quickly backed away.
"Um... did he fail to level up or something?" Patrick asked with a whisper to Ren Zexian, thinking that the mess that Dexter was in was perhaps a penalty for failing to break through.
"No, he did well," Ren Zexian praised, causing Patrick to glance over the man once more and wonder if it was worth cultivating to the secondary stage after all...
*****
The rumbling thunder soon echoed throughout the sky, the clouds had thickened to the point that no sunlight could hope to peak through, giving the feeling that night had come early. As yet there was no water being shed from the steely grey veil, which flashed for a heartbeat, turning white as the streaks ran through the clouds. A breath or two later and the loud thunder once more echoed through the air.
Nathan clutched at his ears, whimpering from where he huddled. Aslan was pacing around him, not quite protectively, but not due to restlessness either. Lucy tugged Nathan's sleeve, trying to draw him from his panicked state. The dog approached them and Nathan glanced up to see his shadow cast over him. The dog quietly huffed, his breath disturbing Nathan's hair and the youth absently set it back in place.
Nathan has suffered through thunderstorms before, but only in the past couple of years did he have to suffer most of them alone. Before, he had had the nanny to gently coax him with words of reassurance or the gardener, who would simply be close by, puffing on his tobacco pipe, the acrid scent somewhat overwhelming, but as it distracted him from the storm, Nathan had tended to feel more at peace. And on a few occasions, his mother and father would be there and mother would count from the moment the light arced across the sky to the moment the thunder made its presence known and tell him that that was how far away the storm was. The longer the count, the further away. That sort of thing gave Nathan back a tiny amount of control, even though it could not stop or make the storm go away and it could not stop the noise from roaring within his ears.
But they were not around any more. Nathan did not know where they were nor if they were alive and it didn't really matter either way. For as far as he was concerned, they were not here, so all else was irrelevant. However, there was once person who gave him the same feeling of security and comfort as they. He wondered if Ren Zexian might help him through the storm. He curled deeper into his knees for a moment longer as the lightning brought forth its flash once more and he counted to five before the thunder broke shattered the silence in the air. And then, with sudden resolve, he leapt up and grabbed the girl child still clinging to him. Then the three fled to the main house, screaming as another arc of lightning and even closer thunder seemed to chase them.
Lightning arced through the steel covered sky, providing the only light now that the sun could no longer penetrate through the thick storm clouds. Yet this illumination lasted less than a heartbeat and was soundly followed by deep rumbling thunder. As there was no electricity, the men in the main house could only rely on a few candles and a battery powered torch to provide some meagre light. Had the sun descended and set already, they would have simply retired to their beds.
The lightning and resultant thunder broke through the dark, silent sky once more, causing all but one of the men lazily sitting about the living room, to frown. Seeing as the storm was fast gathering pace while approaching them, the wall building had become completely abandoned, while Dexter could only speed up his bath, rather than soak in the water heated by Ren Zexian for his use (after wiping away most of the impurities with a damp cloth. Once gathered and lounging upon the plush sofas and thick rugs, Paul dug out a few bags of snacks seeing as it wasn't safe to attempt to cook without light on the gas camp stove. In addition, there was a bowl of sugar snap peas compliments of Nathan's most recent harvest.
"It's a bit eerie," Patrick said, nervously. "Like the sun was extinguished."
"I was thinking that this would make a great opening scene of a horror movie," Harry mentioned aloud as he grabbed a few peas. "You know, a storm, much like this one with forked lightning breaking across the sky. And there's a mansion, about this size, but older and a bit run down. Maybe there's a group of men..."
"Make it women," Tyler announced, crunching on a couple of pretzels.
"Whatever," Harry dismissed this suggestion as if it wasn't that important. "So they're taking shelter from the storm because their car broke down. They'd been travelling for a while and had no idea that the world had ended while they were on the road. They gathered in a reception room, much like this one, but there are dust sheets covering the furnishings and cobwebs filling up almost every corner. But they're not bothered about it, just glad to be wrapped up in a few old blankets and out of the rain.
"When all of a sudden, they hear a creaking noise, ending their laughter. They whisper to each other; wasn't this place abandoned? There were no lights in any of the windows, but could someone have actually been at home here? One shouts out in greeting, but there's not response, so they reckon that it was a trick of the wind."
The cadence of his voice was almost mesmerising and once he paused to sip from a tumbler of water, the hesitation caused Patrick to breath of a question; "And then what?"
"And then they hear a small scratching upon the door outside and an almost inaudible groan. They all glance out of the glass door, but it's too dark to see anything. So one of them grabs the battery torch that had been placed at the centre of them, with a shaky hand and aims it towards the window. Only to reveal the rotting flesh of a rabid, hungry zombie."
Tyler snorted loudly. "We're living in an actual zombie apocalypse, it puts a dampener on horror stories don't you think?"
Just as these words slipped from his lips, a shriek outside caught their attention and had them all staring at the patio doors, eyes wide and hearts racing. Well, almost all of them. Ren Zexian rose to his feet without change of expression and made his way towards the doors.
"What are you doing?" Whispered Patrick, who'd been listening to Harry's tale with rapt attention, so much so that Dexter had stolen several tortilla chips from his bowl without him noticing, too lazy to get up to refill his own.
Paul gulped to moisten his suddenly dry throat and lifted the torch, aiming it at the patio doors, where two white figures stood and a hound darker than the pit of Tartarus breathed upon the glass. The taller figure reaching for the handle of the door.
"Nooooooo!" Patrick yelled out and hide behind Dexter as the larger man formed a tight ball of lightening upon his palm.
Harry started laughing loudly, huge belly chuckles that caused him to double over in hysterics. The others glared at him horrified as Ren Zexian opened the door and let the two figures and dog enter the room. Signs of relief escaped the men, followed by coughs of embarrassment, blaming their reactions on the atmosphere. That was right, it was the fault of the eerie atmosphere that was all.
Ren Zexian ignored the laughter and silliness happening behind him, his eyes firmly upon the boy as he entered, the latter wide eyed and filled with anxiety. He'd kept a small distance between himself and the boy, for there was something about the youth that stirred feelings he had considered long since dormant within him. For instance, when those large beautiful eyes stared openly at him, until he met them with his own which caused them to flicker away or fall downcast. Or when Nathan spoke softly, lovingly towards the plants in his garden. Or more recently when he witnessed the fragile and tentative relationship blossoming between Lucy and Nathan.
If only Nathan would continue to look at him. If only Nathan would speak to him in that way. If only he was the one developing a relationship with the boy.
He was ten thousand years old, he did not believe in love at first sight, but that did not mean that he was unaware that there were people out there who could stir his interest within a moments meeting. Who could stand close by and have his body or soul react to them. Yet he would never label Nathan this simply. It was far more complex an array of emotions that stirred within him, no longer just a protective instinct and increasing each and every time his five senses happened to note the boy was close by. Even now, his arms ached to rise from where they hung casually at his side, to wrap around the boy and gather him close to his chest, to feel him warmth, to offer him comfort for his pains.
Before he could react on impulse, the lightning once more lit the sky, this time tearing through the cloud cover to split the air and crash somewhere just beyond the village boundaries. Nathan sank to his knees and clutched his ears, the thunder loud, deafening even those without his sensitive hearing.
"Christ!" Dexter cried out and hurried to close the patio doors even as Lucy buried herself against the dog, whimpering and Ren Zexian hovered, his composure a tiny bit out of sorts, over Nathan. Just as the doors closed did the heavens open with a heavy downpour and Ren Zexian felt the poison core within him stir.
"The taint is in the water," he whispered, partially to himself, but Dexter heard and understood his meaning well enough.
"Yeah," the man sighed, heavily. "We figured as much. Its why we put up with Tyler and all of his nonsense. There was only so much bottled water floating about."
"Arsehole," Tyler crossed his arms about his chest, but his anger melted as Lucy crept closer to him. He offered to hug her, comfort her through the storm, but soon discovered, as her belly rumbled, that actually she just wanted his pretzels. He shared with her without complaint.
Ren Zexian was lost in his own thoughts, wondering over the corrupted Yin he could feel within the rainfall. It was not heavy, but accumulated within a body, surely it would build up to cause sickness. One would either rise stronger or fall into the state of the walking dead from drinking the water the sky produced. The thunder punctuated his gloomy conclusion, but hands suddenly grasped his loose robes and quickened his heart, causing the gloom to vanish as smoke.
Glancing down, he saw two beautiful eyes staring at him, filled with a hope of fulfilment. But what it was that Nathan wanted of him, the boy would never freely tell. So he dropped to his knees before the boy, still keeping his hands from reaching out lest he frighten Nathan away. "What is it?" He asked in a calmer voice than he felt, aware of the heat of the boy's body, finding a little contentment in their closeness to the point that his core seemed to settle. Or perhaps, he just forgot about the discomfort, his attention completely captured by Nathan.
"I don't like the thunder," Nathan whispered in response.
"I see," Ren Zexian replied. "I can't stop the storm, however."
"That would be impossible," Nathan said in agreement.
Ren Zexian glanced over the boy clinging to him with clasped fists, as well as quickly noticing that Paul had begun moving candles out of reach of tiny fingers, while Patrick coaxed her into trying the uncooked peas. The child no longer seemed to notice the storm, finding comfort in filling her small belly and Aslan at her back. He returned his attention to Nathan who winced visibly when the thunder crashed loudly overhead. "Do you wish for me to stay with you and help you through the storm?"
"Yes," Nathan replied and his pink lips curved into a small, but satisfied smile, which stole Ren Zexian's breath away. He dare not start breathing as Nathan inched closer to him, seeming to find as much comfort in their nearness as did the older man.
"It's uncomfortable here," Ren Zexian told him, worrying that the boy might be cold beside the glass door. A touch of coarseness marred his usually clear tone of voice. "Let's sit over there, we'll be away from the window as well."
"Alright," Nathan agreed, remaining close until Ren Zexian settled upon the floor in lotus position. Dexter nudged Harry as the boy curled close to the older man, the pair producing a picture of harmony despite the continued chaos of the storm outside.
ความคิดเห็นย่อย
คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ
นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า
เข้าใจแล้ว