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              I crashed headlong to an SUV and banged my head against the steering wheel. Dazed, but maintaining a bit of composure, I tried the key in the ignition and heard only a
click
. Smoke started to billow from beneath the hood.

I jumped out of the door and hit the ground running, sensing the way I needed to go. I knew there wasn’t much time left. That power source was going to fail soon enough and, in turn, that barrier would fall. Even though I didn’t have any idea what I would do when I caught up with the crowd, I could at least get in the middle of them. Maybe I could say something.

              Several other creatures ran beside me, screaming and gasping with each breath. It was strange to be so connected as I looked over one of them. Yet the worst feeling was that I had brought this horror on them. They used to be human, used to have families, dreams, ambitions, and a future, until I ripped it away. The creature closest to me still had hair on her head. She must have turned recently.

A frightening realization overtook me.

             
“Eve?”
I thought.

She’d been shot. I watched her die. Or did she? Could these creatures be killed, or had she simply been stunned? Either way, it was definitely her. She suddenly stopped running and looked around blindly, as if not understanding the name.

              “
Who?”
Eve answered. Thousands of voices rang in response, spilling, falling over the others. In that moment I saw her lose part of her humanity.

             
“Just listen to me! No one else!”
I screamed. I could hear my own voice echo in my thoughts, shutting out the others that still screamed.
“Come on Eve, hang on!”

             
“I’m trying!”
she said. The response was so loud. It was decidedly human, decidedly Eve’s. As if on cue, the others stopped completely.

             
“Okay, just hold steady on my voice. Do you understand me?”
My voice continued to echo even if the creatures tried to rant over it.

             
“Yes,”
she answered.

              “
Good. Now Eve, do you remember who I am?”

              “
Noooooooooo…. Who is Evvveeeee….”
Her voice began to stretch like the others. She would have been in the darkness for about a week now. It was beginning to transform her thoughts as well as her speech. Some of the voices started to rise from below as she lost a bit of her grip.

             
“Eve!”
I shouted. The echo sounded between the hordes, killing their rise
. “That is your name!”

             
“It is? I mean, it is! I’m Eve!”
she cried back.
“Where am I?”

              I wondered if this was a split personality of sorts, or if she was just losing herself altogether.

              “You’re here. With me. Just follow my voice. We have to go,” I said, out loud this time.

She didn’t disregard the statement, but simply followed the order. We both started running, allowing myself to reconnect to the horde while somehow keeping Eve removed completely. Never had a voice remained disconnected in this manner, and it was like death. She was wholly gone and the void was unable to be filled. I myself felt the same disconnection every time I had to tear myself away from the strange link as I switched between the horde and Eve.

              We passed the diner from earlier in the night. Looking at it gave me the chills, which somehow transferred to Eve. Even though she was blind, she understood my emotional distress at seeing the exterior of the building and the car I’d hid in during my hallucination.

             
“What is it?”
she asked telepathically.

              “
Nothing,”
I answered. I pushed away the memory since it might drive her into an emotional craze.

              I switched my mind back to the horde and their screams rose again. The thousands upon millions of others protested back to their original ideas. They wanted to be free from the darkness, free from the pain. I tried to share my concern, but for some reason my voice didn’t have the same echoing ability from before.

              Moving closer, we approached the others. They were as close as they would get to the barrier, which was probably still a few hundred yards off. Even from this distance it was completely black.

              I didn’t know how to start, but I needed to gain some control over the situation.

              My eyes started to morph colors as I looked back toward the center of the city. I saw a red hue pulsate along the ground, which I assumed was the power emitting from the core. It moved through the ground, keeping objects powered. But the pulsating was slowing. It was happening. It was happening now.

             
“
Damn it!”
I screamed. There wasn’t enough time, and my shout bounded through the horde and caused a panic.

             
“Listen to me!”
I thought. My voice fell on deaf ears now. The sound of so many screaming was too loud to hear my plea. I wouldn’t be able to get through to them now, not like this.

              I thought about things for a second, how things were about to get worse, how those who needed me to handle this situation were about to be let down. And I thought of Olivia. How I ruined her life. Destroyed her future. All I ever wanted for her was the best, but I committed the exact opposite. She died, scared and alone.

              A deafening quiet shook through the crowd. Millions were watching, feeling, and seemingly understanding what I was going through. I could hear some of them crying. Some chanted the name Olivia. They were sad because I was sad. It overrode their need to be free, at least for the moment.

              My mind pushed further on. I thought back to the moment when the board approved the cure for more testing, even in my protest, even with all the evidence saying it was fatal to humans. The horde cowered in shame and anger. That pain ran rampant. They shook with nervousness and even a few ran to take cover from this grouping.

              In my mind’s eye I could see the test tubes filled with the ‘Cure’. When I’d first discovered it, these were the only samples of the virus. I could have destroyed the samples after the first human testing. My hands shook over the button that would have incinerated all known evidence. The entirety of the horde, millions of them, felt the agony as I waivered to push the button.

             
“Whhhhatttssss gooooinnnnngnggggggg onnnnn!”
Eve Shouted.

             
“Just keep watching!”
my voice echoed back in my mind.

              I recalled seeing the plague spread from city to city on a television set. Countless dead. The others, the ones who turned, began to slaughter all of those who remained immune. War broke out. The television showed the pure and utter annihilation that the world was going through. The horde shared in my blame, shared in my sorrow. The silence was unbroken. Now was the moment to speak.

             
“Listen to me,”
I thought. I spoke with earnest sorrow and commanding authority. I needed them to realize what was going to happen. “
We don’t need to be afraid anymore. We are one. Stay with me. And focus!” I shouted.

             
Only a few voices stirred, but they were drowned out in my echo.

             
“Stop,”
I ordered those few lingering voices that tried to overthrow my command. Those who refused to quit were soon silenced.

             
“I’m here,”
Eve moaned. She sounded near hysterical, but resolute.

             
“Good,” I sighed. “Now let me show you what you need.”
I don’t know how I did it, but I let them see through my eyes. All at once, a million blind creatures were able to see what they’d lost. I felt the million souls linked to me, staring, gawking as if their vision was mine, and mine was theirs. We were one.

             
“Stay with me!”
I screamed in my mind. Millions replied in one single, enduring cheer. Finally one of them was directing, and it was me. I felt connected to them like they were my children. Together we found the chains to hold us together, and we understood one another. From here on out, never again did they have to exist without a voice to guide them.

              I looked at the ground. The red pulsating of the core had stopped. We felt the barrier drop throughout the crowd. Daylight started to break through the darkness. A high-pitched whine sounded deep within the center of the city, followed by something like an explosion. The core had finally run out of power. Thunder and lightning burst out as if they would only do so for one last time. The beginning of the end was underway. What happened in the next few moments was completely up to me.

Epilogue

             
If my memory serves me, and my math is correct, today is August 18 of 2020. As I write this it’s been a long six months since the barrier fell. A lot has changed, yet some things remain the same. There is no cure for the Alaco Virus and the transformation process still takes place on a person’s twenty-sixth birthday if they aren’t completely immune. Thus far, I am still the only one who has turned but remained physically the same.

              We still are forced to live in this broken city that is still surrounded by an unending desert. Life remains difficult. Things I used to take for granted back before The Forgetting are everyday difficulties. Water especially. But even more-so with the dark walkers living among those who haven’t yet turned of age.

The transition for the “unhuman”, I just can’t call them creatures anymore, has been rough to say the least. There was a lot of fighting and warring over what many called beasts, demons, and monsters. The few dozen, out of hundreds, left Downtown refused to accept my unhumans from beyond the barrier. Instead, I led them Uptown, where fewer people lived. We carved out a niche, trying to exist without chains. It wasn’t easy for my kind to be accepted so quickly. Though they realized after a time that they were, after all, human before.

             
“Jackson,” a shrill little voice came calling. “What are we doing today?” I looked back. The dirty blonde-haired girl stared at me with a smile that could melt any heart.

              “Give me a few, sweetheart. Then we’ll go see how our friends are doing,” I replied.

Olivia nodded in agreement and bounded out of the room.

             
Olivia is well, has been ever since I left her in the care of our dearly departed Susan and Kyle. That reminds me, I should at least recount for her few weeks without me. Her boldness never failed, and in fact, was the only thing that saved her life in the end. She managed to follow my tracks Downtown when I hadn’t arrived that night like I promised. She even tried her hand at the rope bridge on the highway. Thankfully, Glasses found my girl before she got the chance to take the full crossing. She had been in his care ever since. Also, Glasses is completely okay. He never really explained what happened that day down in the alleyways, but he never really had to. All I knew was that Olivia was okay, and I found my renewed vigor to exist.

              I didn’t have much trouble with Frank and his crew, or really anyone anymore. They were too afraid of what I brought from the city’s center. And Frank actually turned during the few hours I had spent in the darkness. He was now part of us. Selfishly, he was probably the ugliest turning I had seen since. His mutation caused him to lose a leg, and a crack tore up his face rather nastily. Though I didn’t really feel sorry for him. He did, after all, kill Susan and Kyle and had me thinking I had lost Olivia in the process. But he became one of us, and I had a certain connection with him just like the rest. So I couldn’t hate him as much as I wanted to.

              Susan and Kyle were buried in a plot in the backyard of their home. Olivia and I place flowerers there at least once a month. I try to ask for mercy, and even now, I can’t forgive myself for what happened to them. I just hope they have found some sort of harmony in the afterlife. They had lived such hard lives and deserve some peace at last.

              “Jacccckkkkkssssssoooonnnn,”
a voice lingered in my subconscious
.

              “Eve,”
I thought.

             
“I… I… can rem, re…remmmmembbbberrr. Sieeer… Siiee… Si, Sierrrrraaaaa’ssssss Barrrrrr.”
Eve struggled to speak, but with every passing day, I was getting her closer to the way she had been.

              “Yes, that’s right.” I smiled slightly.

             
Joey has become a new sort of leader of the Downtown area. He had been an integral part of helping us adapt the best we could to the area, to this new life. And I thank him every day I see him.

              As for myself, it hasn’t been easy. Every day I fight with myself with what I did, try to make it seem like I couldn’t do anything. That the virus would have spread no matter what. Though I know otherwise. But I will never let myself drown in this emotion. No matter how long it takes, there will come a day when I will be able to reverse this change. These people will be made whole again.

             
“Jackson!” Olivia ran into the room again.

              “Yes, yes. Okay Olivia.” I put the pen down. I could pick this up later. Grabbing Olivia by the hand, I lifted her into my arms and moved out the front door.

              “I love you,” Olivia hugged my shoulders.

              “I love you too.”

              The day outside was bright. The hot orange ball of fire managed to hover in the sky above, and it was sweltering.