Mark Tufo - Alive in a Dead World

“Do you know where Gentry was from?” Tomas asked.

“Pretty sure it’s Louisiana. Yeah, New Orleans because he was always going on and on about the Cajun food and how he misses shrimp.”

Private Bucks thought he must have passed out for a few minutes. When he sat up, he realized he was on Gentry’s rack and the stranger was gone, if he had ever been there at all. The only thing he could focus on was the mounting headache starting to take root in the base of his skull.

Tomas headed east. Even without getting a location from Bucks, he would have been able to follow whatever Gentry was carrying. It was a faint trail, but it was there if you knew what to look for, and now he did. Did Eliza? He pushed his horse harder, but Gentry and possibly Eliza had three weeks on him.

It took Tomas nearly a week to get to Gentry’s family home. It was a ramshackle hut built of varying pieces of wood and held together more from force of habit than anything else.

A nearly toothless old woman sat on the front porch. She was strumming a banjo and stooped down every once in a while to pick up a jug with unknown contents. She would drink her fill and then put the container down to begin again on her picking.

Tomas was coming up on her blind side when she spoke. “You from the government?” she asked before turning around. When she did turn to the approaching boy, she spoke again. “No, not the government, you’re a powerful one, you are. What do you want with my boy?”

Tomas saw no reason to be obtuse with her. “He has something of mine, of my sister’s, actually.”

“The stone. That damned blood stone, I knew it was bad, and now it’s brought you.”

“Better me, old woman, than my sibling. You would not be having this conversation with her.”

“I can feel that thing in my house. It itches under my skin, like a tick. It burrows under the skin and spreads.” She shivered, even though the outside temperature was hovering around the mid nineties and the humidity had drenched her clothes. “He won’t give it up willingly.”

“I can be pretty persuasive.”

“I bet you can. Step closer, boy, so I can see what you are.”

Tomas did as she asked.

She put her instrument down and grabbed both his hands in a surprisingly firm grip for someone so fragile looking. She spoke as if in a trance. “You walk in both worlds, unable to die and unwilling to live. You have light in your heart, but a darkness where your soul should be. You have seen much pain and misery, yet you try to do as much as you can to prevent it as you go about your journey. You are much, much older than I, yet you look younger than my boy. I do not know who or what you are, but you are the rightful owner of that accursed stone, I can feel it in my bones.”

“Is your son home? The sooner I get what belongs to me, the sooner I can get going.”

“I think that would be for the best. Gentry!” she yelled, never letting go of Tomas’ hands or looking away from him.

Gentry came around the side of the shack and almost started to run when he saw the stranger on his porch.

“Don’t be a damned fool,” his mother said, not witnessing one nuance on his face as he came up behind her. “This young man,” she began and then winked at Tomas. “Says that you have something that belongs to him.”

“Ma? I don’t know what either of you are talking about.”

“You’ll kill us both if he won’t give up the stone, won’t you?” The old woman asked.

“Yes, and still, it will be a better fate than the one my sister would bestow upon you.”

“You’re the white witch’s brother?” Gentry asked, almost collapsing.

Tomas did not need to answer.

“I killed my best friend for that stone and I became a deserter. Both things are punishable by death and still I don’t know why I did it. I can’t even stand to look at it, yet I carry it with me everywhere I go. It’ll be a relief to get rid of it,” Gentry said as he reached far down into his pocket and pulled out a stone, which he’d wrapped in a small piece of cloth.

Tomas took a big intake of air as the stone was placed into his hand, now that the old woman had finally yielded it.

“What will you do with me now?” Gentry asked. All the spirit had been drained from him.

“You will go on with your useless life such as it is, knowing that you killed your friend for a stone that is valuable to no one, save one. I wish that I could feel pity for you, but I don’t. Good day,” he added for the old woman as he turned to leave.

“What is it? What is the stone?” Gentry asked.

Tomas held it up to the blazing sun. Two occlusions were outlined through the fiery red brilliance. And then like a comet flashing across the sky, the answer came to him. “It is my sister’s soul and that of the medicine man that trapped her here.”

It was the old woman’s turn to breathe deeply.

“Get it off my property! It should have never been here, there are things going on that should never be!”

She was still raving as Tomas found his way down the tree lined pathway that led away.

Post Script – If you have asked yourself the meaning of the picture that heads each of Michael’s journal entries, it is a simple and powerful explanation at the same time – it is his path home.

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Zombie Fallout 2: A Plague Upon Your Family

Zombies have destroyed Little Turtle, the Talbot’s find themselves on the run from a ruthless enemy that will stop at nothing to end their lineage. Here are the journal entries of Michael Talbot, his wife Tracy, their three kids Nicole, Justin and Travis. With them are Brendon, Nicole's fiancée and Tommy previously a Wal-Mart door greeter who may be more than he seems. Together they struggle against a relentless enemy that has singled them out above all others. As they travel across the war-torn country side they soon learn that there are more than just zombies to be fearful of, with law and order a long distant memory some humans have decided to take any and all matters into their own hands. Can the Talbots come through unscathed or will they suffer the fate of so many countless millions before them. It's not just brains versus brain-eaters anymore. And the stakes may be higher than merely life and death with eternal souls on the line.