-The Devil Wears Prada, Revive
Tears of joy flooded Noah’s eyes. Relief swelled inside him like a warm bath. He tucked the cane underneath his arm and put his face in his hands. He had made it. He had found his home. Noah quickly wiped his hot cheeks with his palms and sniffed up the loosened snot from his nose. No, he still had to go inside, still had to make it to the doors. He hadn't made it yet. He wasn't safe until he had passed through the threshold, until he had a solid barrier between him and the dead world outside. The house was still half a mile away. Being as sick and injured as Noah was, that half a mile felt like fifty. The warm bath water relief turned ice cold as the realization that he might not make it came over him. His heart could give out at any time. Exhaustion was clawing at him. Hunger was pulling his stomach into the dirt. Put his home pulled him forward.
Noah walked as far as he could until the pain in his thigh took him to the ground. It was as if someone had shoved a hot poker right through his flesh to the bone. Noah tried not to scream, waited for the wave of pain to cease like it normally did, but it did not alleviate. Sweat poured from Noah’s body causing the dirt to stick to his chest and stomach. Noah rolled over on his back and could not hold in the hurt any longer. The pain was not subsiding, only increasing in intensity. He screamed out in absolute agony. More liquid dribbled from the corners of his mouth. The pain multiplied at an alarming rate and even worse, began to spread. Noah could actually feel the disease of the bite worm its way down his entire leg and up into his groin, other leg and stomach. It took hold of his testicles and intestines and squeezed. It felt like everything was being blending in his body, liquified. It was as if piranhas were inside of him, eating away at his insides, swimming and scurrying up and down the lower half of his body.
Noah fought the pain and turned over onto his stomach. He began to crawl. Guttural screeches of misery filled the clear sky and called the creatures to him.
Noah felt chilled to the bone despite the radiating heat of the sun. The breeze was gone. The rain was only a memory. There was nothing and no one to help him now. Goosebumps sprung along his body and raised the hair on his arms. Noah continued to crawl, the dirt and rocks scratching at his nipples, his hair clinging to his forehead like a watery glue. Noah crawled and crawled and seemed to make no progress at all. He didn't even know if he was moving or imagining himself inching closer to his home. Noah’s eyes began to cross and his vision started to blur and go black. The pain came in waves of terrible to excruciating. The painful poison spread completely to Noah’s legs and up into his chest. Noah involuntarily vomited a milky yellow bile. It heaved up in ropey strands, his stomach contracted so hard a rip of pain sliced through his torso and accompanied the pain that was already there. The bile bubbled in the dirt. Small particles were floating in it. Noah crawled through the substance.
In the distance, he could hear the people coming again. The dead people. The things. Maybe one of them was the lady with the tongue? Had the wicked witch melted in the rain or was she one of the survivors? Had he shot her, stomped her with his foot or cane? He couldn't remember anymore. Noah craned his neck back and with his limited vision, he could see the group lurching up ahead of him. He was so close to home but he would never make it. This was it. They were all around him in every direction and he could not stand and fight. He was practically dead. What was going to get him first? The existent bite mark or another bite from one of them? Maybe they only wanted fresh meat? Ever rational, Noah wondered if maybe they'd look over him as damaged, used up, and would go about their way? Is it going to hurt when they bite into me? he wondered. How silly a thought. He was already in so much pain nothing would make it worse.
Light me on fire, peel off my skin, pluck out my eyeballs. It's all nothing compared to...this. This is how it's going to end, after everything. After making it so close. God, why? Why do you let me suffer so much? Just let me go home or kill me now. Take me before they do.
Where are you? Whereareyou...
Noah saw something dancing in his peripheral vision. He looked over and it revealed itself to be a fairy. The tiny woman's skin was made of silk and her wings of glitter. She was snow white and naked, her breasts heaving as she flew around him. The wings buzzed in his ear as she flew around his head. She caressed his chin and ear and quietly sang to him. He reached out to touch her and as he did, she dissolved into a million particles.
I'm losing my mind, Noah thought. The infection was starting to reach his brain. Could he trust what he was seeing anymore? Were these people even real or was he imaging them as well? The moaning from the dead grew in range, twisting itself into a kind of song. The trees above Noah danced and shook their branches to the morbid music that was going to be the death of him. Sunlight came down, trickled through the moving branches, and resembled the sweeping points of light from a disco ball. This was all a production, an elaborate musical number that would accompany his death. The world was putting on one last show before he bowed out. Noah turned onto his back again and slid his hand into his left pocket. He looked up and saw a group of them heading his way. The sun was shining directly behind them, their heads pitch black against the blinding sun, a halo of radiance setting their skulls aglow.
They looked like angels.
Noah blinked through teary eyes. Three woman, one man and two that were indistinguishable. They were fresh. No missing body parts, no gashes or lacerations. Some of them still looked human. Maybe they were. Maybe they were coming to save him. But the groans told him different.
Whereareyouwhereareyouwhereareyou...
Noah reached for the familiar lump and pulled it out of his pocket. He raised the small box to his eye level. He opened it and smiled. The sun shone brightly on the elegant ring that sat safely tucked inside, untarnished. The sparkle carried his mind off into his memories, the one place the sickness had yet to reach, the only scrap of safety he had left.
She was there, a mold made from his mind, a memory in flesh and love. He saw her there at the coffee shop, at church, in his bed. Black hair and bone pale skin. Piercing eyes that fell in the color scale somewhere between emerald and sapphire, piercing him through and though. Pink lips that he never tired of tasting. A face that swelled his heart, a love that swelled his soul. The way she understood the little things, accepted his flaws and transformed his life just by being in it. The promise that he made to her when everything changed, when everyone died. Two flesh becoming one. A promise he feared he would not be able to keep. His love for her had been strong enough to bring him to the home they shared, strong enough to carry him this far. He only hoped his love would be strong enough for her to feel, whether she was in that house or wherever she happened to be. He ran a finger over the smooth finish, the simple diamond that sat atop the ring. A small, fragile tear worked itself up in Noah's eye before snaking down his dirtied cheek. The ring illuminated in the shining sun, mimicking the way she illuminated him, his godsend, his blessing, the only beautiful thing he had ever known. His absolute everything. Noah's heart felt full, despite beginnings of failure.
The groaning brought Noah back to reality, back to the blood and dirt and pain of the world. They were there and Noah's resolve strengthened despite his body that begged him to give up. He reached for his gun.
It wasn’t there.
Panic temporarily overtook all other emotions as Noah plunged his hand into his right pocket, then his left. He patted down his entire lower half. It was not there, only pain. It was gone.
I must have left it back when I stopped to rest! How could I be so stupid? How could I have done that, God, how could I have done that?! Whereareyouwhereareyouwhereareyou...
It was probably best the gun wasn't there. He would have used it on himself when they began to devour him. He was pretty sure he had one bullet left. He knew it was a sin but the pain was so unbearable. He might go to hell but maybe he was already in hell. Hell was the world and demons were people. God brought people and people brought pain. A bullet to end the pain of people. A bullet to open the door, to create a path to some hopeful paradise. It would be much faster, much less painful than being slowly eaten to death. Noah had felt enough pain, pain that wracked his body so hard he shook. Something wet came out of his mouth. Maybe it was the last vestiges of vomit or maybe it was liquified lung. He didn’t want to endure any more but it looked like he would have to, would have to watch and listen as they tore the flesh from his arms and legs with a wet, shearing sound. They’d jam their fingers into his stomach and peel back the thick skin until they reached the rich, meaty center. They’d spread out the slimy tubes of his intestines and bite into them, breaking the protective barrier of connective tissue and sucking out the thick substances inside. The acrid smell of blood would douse the air in death. The only question is would they leave enough for him to come back as one of them or would they tear him apart completely, so disassembled that he wouldn’t be able to get back up? Maybe they’d tear his brain out so he’d never have to know the experience of eating someone else. Noah began to giggle.
The people closed in all around him. Noah closed the box and gently wept. He slid the boxed ring back into his pocket so that no blood would get on it. He clasped his hands together and prayed through his sobbing. He tried to talk out loud but his throat was too raw. He mumbled instead, his lips limping around his teeth. He had lived in sin, no doubt, and he was being punished. The pain overtook him.
******
Noah woke up bleary eyed and moving. His eyes rolled from the back of his head to the sky above and all around. He was gliding on his back. Confusion joined the pain in his body. He was getting farther away from the people in front of him. The disappointed groans grew quieter and Noah thought he might have been floating. The shards of light that fell from the trees passed over his skin and blurred his eyes. He felt a tug at his wrists and realized his arms were being pulled. Someone was dragging him away from the dead. Someone was saving him.
Noah’s head was spinning, dizzy from the pain. He wanted to throw up, to pass out again to relieve himself of the nausea and agony but he needed to see who was pulling him away from danger. He looked up to see the identity of his savior. Noah lost his breath. Those piercing eyes. That hair and skin. The slender arms and body. Even upside down and blurred through tears and delirium, Noah knew it was her. She had come from the house to save him!
Ah, you were there God, with her the whole time, protecting her. Thank you, God. Thank youthankyouthank....
Noah collapsed under the relief of it all and let himself sink into darkness that floated below him and offered peace and no more pain. She was his darkness. She would bathe him, dress his wounds and they would leave together, find safety, shelter, salvation. Even if the darkness that was devouring him was death, he was glad his final moments were with her, that she was still safe, that she would carry on and and he prayed that God would spare her his suffering. Noah's eyes cleared and he looked up to see her. She was staring at him, love in her eyes, relief that he was still alive, that he was all hers. Her red lips were smiling. Noah closed his eyes.
Noah's lover dragged him the rest of the way, carefully avoiding the clutches of the dead. With the tenderest of touches, she heaved him past the stairs to their home. She pulled him through the threshold and then closed the door.
The sky reached its darkest dark as night spread across the land. The collected dead began to disperse, defeated and hungry, blinded by the dark, scattered like marbles to find fresh meat.
******
The next morning, light shone on an even deader day. The air was silent, cool. Even the dead that stuck around the house were quiet this morning, staggering, lost. There was movement within the house of Noah and his love, however. The front door slowly opened. The sun set its gaze on the lovers' faces. Two pairs of blank eyes stared ahead. Hand in hand, and with one finger bejeweled with a simple diamond ring, Noah and his love walked out of their home, down the steps and back onto the road, ready to receive the world as their wedding feast.
Happy Halloween!
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