Chapter 36 End or Beginning?

Parkson and her young charge came to the end of their parcour. They were only some 30 meters from the exit through the sewer when Alice made them stop. Facing them, silently and patiently were over 40 Z's. The plan was obvious: wait until Parkson opened the door or until who ever controlled them decided that time was up. Parkson moved back with Yukio until they were hidden from the Z's. - So, here we are. There are not many options. We wait until we have a better idea or we kill ourselves. We cannot allow the Z's to go in Tokyo under any circumstances. Do you understand? - I do. While we wait for the Kami to make their wisdom known to us, would you mind telling me how you became like me? Parkson took some time to formulate her answer. Then, she explained about the trip to the beach, the attack on the family and her surviving. Then, drawn by this young girl not unlike she had been years ago, she explained how she had struggled to be accepted in a society that was not only a secret but also highly elitist. - You have to remember that at that time, women did not have the right to vote. Or only in some rare country. Imagine now a situation where Men are the leaders and some of them have been for centuries. It makes for a long debate until any changes can be accepted. There was one woman who was in their mist and who fought with the best of them. Her name was Chloe and she was from Greece. She fought with a spear, bow and arrows and a Falcate, the Greek sword. She was truly magnificent. And I was there, filled to the brim with anger, rage and an almost suicidal desire to fight. You have to understand, I sought solace for my guilt. I felt responsible for the death of the young ones. Why should I survive and they die? It was so unfair! I felt…unclean and unworthy of my life. So, here I was, pestering the teachers to let me learn to fight and after a month, they let me join the men on the training course. But I was reckless. I sought to learn to fight but I forgot…I knowingly put my friends in jeopardy. I did not do anything to hold my blows; I used underhand techniques and did whatever I could to win. Then, after two or three months, while I was practicing in the training court, she came. She came in the gym wearing combat fatigue. Her brown hairs were gathered in a tail on her back and she wore a silver pendent with a moon speared with a sword. She ignored me and started practicing. I was stunned by her grace, speed and power. Where I was stumbling, she was nimble. Where I screamed with rage, she was deadly silent. Where I looked like a berserker, erm…a barbarian full of rage if you prefer. So, where I looked like a berserker, she was calm and poised. I was…shamed. Here was a woman who did was everything I wanted to be but who refused to let anger rule her world. I moved to talk to her but she kept ignoring me. When I got close, she moved away. I followed her through the gym and finally, getting tired of the game, I stepped in her swing. I looked at her grey eyes as her blade moved toward my neck. I almost smiled, thinking that at least, the end was here. But, with a silent snarl, she held her blade and stopped before slicing my throat and decapitating me. Her eyes held nothing but contempt. Still keeping silence, she started to put away her weapons. I was shocked. Here was another woman, exactly what I was hopping and wishing to be. Obviously respected, accepted in this Male directed world while I had to struggle just to be allowed to learn the basics. I became angry. Which was not too hard in my state. I moved toward her and started yelling at her: “Who do you think you are? We are the only females here and you dare ignore me?” I then made a very stupid move. I Punched her. Alice chuckled, remembering the scene. I was way too slow, uncoordinated and over all under-trained to be able to land a blow on her. She side stepped me, caught my wrist in her hand, moved behind me and with a sharp twist, sent me flying and crashing on the floor. I got up as fast as I could and launched a barrage of punches and kicks. None of them even came close to her. She totally dominated me. When I punched, she blocked, slapped and overall made it impossible for me to hit her. When I kicked, she sidestepped, blocked and threw me on the floor without even breaking a sweat. It was humiliating and mortifying. But I could not stop myself. I tried and tried until I lay exhausted on the floor. Then, to my surprise, I started crying. I was lying on the floor, in a tangle unable to move and unwilling to do so and tears were flowing from my eyes like the Niagara’s snow melt. I felt a hand on my head and a compassionate voice spoke to me: “Let it out. Let it all out. You are not to blame for what happened and you could not have done anything to save them. It wasn’t your fault. I cried harder. I felt that my heart would explode from the pain. I wanted so much to die. But the arms holding me tight would not let me go. The voice kept saying soothing things to me. Finally, I managed to get a hold of myself and the tears stopped. I laid there, resting in her arms totally spent by my tears. I felt a bit better and finally moved away. Still holding my hand, she smiled at me. Without a word, we left the gym and she took me to eat. We talked a lot. She became my teacher, my friend and eventually, with her help, I let go of the anger and hatred. It took a long time, but I finally made peace with who I was and what I had became. Where is chloe now? Asked Yukio. She is dead. She died 30 some years ago in a fire. There were humans trapped with Z’s and some idiot shot an incendiary grenade. Chloe tried to help the survivors but she never made it out and the whole building burned to the ground. We were in India. Fire there was a disaster. No water fountain to help the firefighters, streets to small to let the trucks pass, it destroyed two third of the city before it was contained. What happened to the one who sent the grenade? He… let’s forget this. Now that you know where I’m from, what I went through, I only want to offer you my help. Right now, you are still not processing everything that happened to you and the fact that there are monsters right that way makes it harder for us to… Parkson stopped talking. Something had happened. She could feel it. Yukio turned her head so their eyes met and she too had felt it. “It’s the Kami. They are telling us to make our move.” Without hesitating, she grabbed Parkson and made it to the exit point. There, the Z’s were in a kind of fit. They shook on place. Some tried to raise their gun’s but were stopped by their own body. Other simply stared at the far wall. None of them was able to do much harm as Alice and Yukio made their way to the exit. The young Japanese girl pressed for more speed arguing that the Kami would not be able to contain their enemy for long. Just when Alice thought that her body yould simply crumble under the strain, they reached the extraction point and closed the heavy steel doors behind them. As the door locked with a sharp “click” sound and medics helped them lay down on stretchers, a wail of hatred rose behind them. Obviously, they had made it out alive to the disappointment of whoever controlled these Zombies. Now, with everyone safely out, the counter measure could be applied. As they left the train station on a chopper, a bright white light shown through the dusk. It blinded the two women and a sound like a strong wind was heard. Where once stood the train station there was nothing. A huge crater the size of the station with smoke rising was all that remained. Alice rested her head on the pillow and smiled to Yukio. Her first true smile in a long long time. Well, it looks like we will be together for a while, it you want to? Yukio’s answer was to hold her hand. They made the voyage that way, each taking comfort in the other’s presence.