The PRL Event: CZS Epilogue
“Breaking news of a very sensitive nature tonight. Police and firefighters responded to a call at the 63rd exit of Highway 85 after reports of billowing smoke that reduced visibility on the highway and could be seen in nearby neighborhoods. First responders are reporting that two men were responsible for a fire that sent flames high into the sky. After firefighters put out the fire, they were shocked to find what appeared to be human remains. No word yet if the two men are being charged with murder. This comes just hours after destruction at a local apartment complex where the death toll is still rising. So far, fifteen people are confirmed dead. Police are still not releasing many details on the incident at the complex, but a statement released by the sheriff shortly after news of the incident broke, explained that they were investigating the explosion of gas lines in at least two buildings in the complex.The incident off the exit and the incident at the apartment complex are not believed to be related. We will keep you updated on both incidents as new information becomes available…”
Police Force
by Maxwell Roberson
Manuel rests his head against the metal bars of the cell inside the Kannapolis Police Department. He stares out at the flat screen hanging just next to the ceiling and it is loud enough that the sound fills the room. No one else in the department seems to be paying attention to the tv screen, but Manuel is delighting in the fact that he knows the real story behind the headlines. It is not a true delight. He had been through an ordeal in the past couple of days and the news report threatens to bring up scary images of the monsters he had slaughtered along with his partner, Adam, and a few other extraordinary men. Manuel wonders if he will ever see them again. He and Adam had decided to take the fall for the bonfire of monsters so that the other men could put a stop to the incident more permanently, but he and Adam didn’t really have the time to think their decision through.
Not Manuel, anyway. Adam knows exactly what he plans to do. He is exactly where he wants to be and he is hoping that the players behind the entire zombie incident will come for him and Manuel to exact revenge for the destruction of their creations.
Adam isn’t watching the TV. He can hear it, and occasionally he looks over at Manuel and catches him smiling, but he is waiting. And it doesn’t take very long. They are at the station for maybe a couple of hours before people in nice suits arrive and Adam watches them talking with the police of the department, flashing badges. He is too far away to hear them, but when a police officer points in his direction, Adam knows that his true enemy has arrived.
The police officer leads the suits over to the cell where Manuel seems to be oblivious and Adam stands at the closed door.
“You are Special Agents Adam Altman and Manuel Gonzalez?” one of the suits asks. They all wear dark shades and their identification is not visible on their clothes.
“We are.” Adam says with a nod as the police officer opens the cell and enters to cuff both men.
“You are now in the custody of federal police,” the suit says. “I assume you both have been allowed phone calls?”
Adam nods, Manuel is silent as they are led out of the police department and into the backseat of a nondescript black car. There is no partition, and when the two suits occupy the front seat, Manuel looks to Adam with questions in his eyes. They have known one another long enough that they are able to communicate the following with raised eyebrows of varying height, and gestures with their shoulders (their hands are cuffed in their laps):
Manuel: I’m gonna ask them who they are.
Adam: Just leave it alone.
Manuel: Don’t you want to know?
Adam: We’re gonna find out! (Adam wants to maintain his cavalier mystique and he thinks that being the first to talk would shatter that.)
Manuel: I’m saying something.
Manuel clears his throat. “So where we going?”
There is silence from the front seats.
Manuel looks at Adam who indicates with his being: Leave it alone!
“Are we going to have a court date or something?”
The men in the front seats look to one another and then the passenger says,
“You are both going to die.”
Worthington’s Experiments – Conner Worthington
by Wesley Livingston
Conner was in his studio, putting the finishing touches on the portrait of his father. He had worked to finish it in earnest over the past couple of days and he was happy to see it finally coming together. In his mind, he had done it. The portrait showed his father for the hard man that he is; the man who had tacitly, and overtly, taught Conner that he was not good enough and probably never would be.
Conner stared at it. He felt light headed, he had felt light headed a lot lately, and he was slurring his words even when he wasn’t drinking. Sometimes, when he stood still, it seemed like his mind was fogging over and he would have to shake himself awake. Conner attributed his symptoms to the long hours that he was giving to the classroom. He was assisting two professors and leading sketching classes for undergrads on the weekend, and he figured that it was just catching up to him.
As he stared at the face of his father, his vision doubled and then crossed, and Conner fell to the floor. He lay on his back, staring up at his ceiling and he couldn’t form any thoughts. He didn’t know if he could move his limbs. He could only see, and feel hot saliva running down his cheek. And then there was nothing.
Until there was something. Conner slowly stood to regroup and then he went back to staring at his painting. The world looked different to him. He was cold and there was a sluggishness in his mind that made the world move in a haze, like a visual echo.
Conner cocked his head to the side and watched everything turn with his perspective before it settled into one scene again, and he was looking into the eyes of his father. He stared and he growled, and he foamed at the mouth.
Conner wiped his mouth, grabbed his car keys, and he decided to take a trip to see the man.
When Conner opened his front door, a student of his was there with a blank look in her eyes.
“Conner…” she said it like it was a strain and she has foam in the corner of her mouth.
“Sarah…” Conner pushed past her, then grabbed her wrist, hard enough that he could feel her bones strain against his grip. He dragged her to his car and they got inside. Conner didn’t have to think in order to drive, he was in autopilot.
“Let’s go find my dad.”
There are others like them in Wilmington; falling down and then standing back up, foaming at the mouth and then seeing the world completely different.
Eakran’s Experiments – Gertrude “Crude” Lilip
by Wesley Livingston
She should have died. Worthington’s lab went up in a fiery ball that shocked the entire campus of Duke University. Everything inside had seemingly been destroyed, and one corner of the building had completely disappeared. But before firefighters arrived on the scene, a woman staggered out of the flames. By all appearances, she was no longer a monster, just the same, smaller than average woman that she had been before. She was naked and confused and when someone noticed her limping into the woods, she ignored them and kept walking. When she felt a hand on her shoulder, she screamed and swung her arm, that changed into the monstrosity that it had been, and sent the poor man who had meant to help her, flying to the ground. Crude looked at her arm that was longer than the other, and almost green in color. She panicked and then she tried to calm herself, breathing in and out, and she watched her arm change back to its normal length and color. She ran off into the woods before someone else spotted her.
Love as Power and Amazing Elroy
by Roy Cureton and Maxwell Roberson
It was good to finally have visitors. It was the first time that Alia and Kevin had anyone at their home in Wilmington, and after the chaos their lives had spiraled into, it was good to relax and feel normal for a little while. Kevin had invited Clay and Ivan to Wilmington, and they had accepted. The couples decided to fly the distance and they were there in little time.
Kevin gladly imagined a grill and he fired up steaks and burgers for everyone in the back yard. Alia sat with Clay and they talked about how she had helped Ivan change his glowing form into the fire form that now manifested when he powered up.
“Just like I told him, you have to allow yourself to know yourself to fully realize what’s happening to you.” Alia put a hand on Clay’s chest and she felt that her mind was being repelled, like her mental form was being denied entry into Clay’s head space.
“I don’t know,” Alia said. “Your mind is off limits to me. But I know Ivan can help you.”
“I just don’t want to lose control. Sometimes when it happens, I can’t control myself and I need Ivan there. I can’t handicap him like that. I’m not his pitbull.”
“He fears the same things,” Alia said, smiling gently at Clay. “Only he doesn’t want you to be the one that’s handicapped. Can I tell you something that I didn’t tell Ivan? Something that I don’t know if he should know.”
“What?” Clay asked.
“He needs you more than you need him. And he is not good for you, not now anyway. But you’re strong enough to figure it out, and you will. I know you will. But if I told him that, he would run away from you to save you. And he wouldn’t survive that. He needs you.”
Clay grimaced. He trusted Alia implicitly. Her big, brown eyes reminded him of his mother and he felt safe with her. He nodded and he looked at her resolutely. “I’m gonna marry him.”
“Yes, you are.” Alia smiled and hugged him. “Keep him safe until the next time we have to do this. And don’t let him run away from you. He only does it because he thinks it’s best for you, not because he wants to.”
Ivan stood with Kevin at the grill and they caught up on their lives since the last time they saw one another. Then they traded stories about the emergence of their powers. Then Kevin looked over his shoulder at Alia laughing with Clay.
“I’m glad you’re happy.” He said to Ivan. “We’re trying our best. Well I am.” Kevin turned his attention to the grill.
“Alia seems nice.” Ivan said. He remembered the conversation he had with her on the mental plane where she admitted that she wasn’t sure if she loved him. “Do you enjoy being with her?”
“I don’t know,” Kevin said with a chuckle. “She’s beautiful, I can’t do better than her. But she’s complicated and sometimes I don’t even think I understand her. We get along good. But sometimes it feels like I’m just a…I don’t know, like I’m just a tool for her. Like she’s using me. And if she’s using me, then it’s probably for something that I can’t even understand right now. She can see the future, you know that?”
“Possible futures,” Clay corrects. “She admits that she doesn’t know the truth all the time.”
“Well, she’s afraid of something, something she expects to happen soon, and not even the shit we just dealt with.”
Ivan understood Kevin’s uncertainty. “But you guys will get through it. We all will.”
When Kevin finished cooking, the couples sat at the table inside. They enjoyed their time together, laughing, pretending that everything was as alright as they wanted to believe.
The Carolina Zombie Society
by Wesley Livingston
Dr. Roy Worthington has friends in very high places. He’s not in the Illuminati. That is a fictional organization that people made up to sell rap albums and Dan Brown books. Worthington’s friends have actively shaped the course of American history for decades now and they do it by attracting men like Worthington. Impressive men with a chip on their shoulder that they can exploit for their own goals. Their true goals are a mystery to Worthington, but he impressed a lot of people with his research and they were excited about the potential of his monsters. They are so impressed that they rewarded Worthington with a cadre of scientists and assistants to perfect his methods. Maybe the results of his experiments were not his intended result, but his friends were encouraged. They wanted Worthington to make his zombies on a bigger scale. They said, “Next time, we want chaos in the streets.”
Worthington had crossed a red line when he gave his son a parasite that slowly ate away at his mind before it killed him. On the new side of the line, Worthington is game for some genocide. And so it came into existence, the Carolina Zombie Society of Medical Professionals, dedicated to bringing horror movies to life. Worthington has already been North Carolina’s greatest son. His society would make him the most notorious.
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