Dreams of Days Past

Darkness, a cold barren nothingness expanding out before his eyes beyond the edges of his perception, there was no up or down, left or right. This was a place between life and death, a void empty of anything except for one’s own mind, a place where dimensions and physics did not exist.

In the distant parts of his own self, the gentle sound of waves washing against earth touched at his ears, a faint presence watched him from deep at sea, familiar yet also alien. It listened silently without attempt to hide its presence, and made no effort to speak. Gradually his awareness of it faded away as other matters took away his focus.

Matt remembered something important while floating in that sea of emptiness, a name. The name of someone important, someone who he’d already lost long ago.

Karen.

The name brought with it a gentle warmth that embraced him, held him close, made him feel safe. Quickly that warmth escalated, even as it turned into a raging inferno he tried to hold on, tried to hold her but to no avail. Her face appeared before his eyes, “Save them.” The words echoing through his soul over and over.

“Save them. Save them. Save them.”

Before long her image burned away leaving only ashes and a stinging sensation where his heart was meant to be.

Overcome with guilt and loss he was returned to the cold dark loneliness, a place where a man could go mad just waiting for an end that would never come, surrounded by his regrets, by his desire to change that which can never be changed.

He slowly became aware of a distant light shining like the last dying spark of life drifting away from the fire that spawned it; the last piece of the heart that had burned to ash. He felt eyes watching him as he reached out for that spark clutching it with all the strength left in his tired soul.

A distant light grew stronger, stimulating his tired eyes with a reality he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

He was filled with a sudden floating sensation just before he burst to the surface of a shallow river. Coughing up the water from his lungs, he was suddenly dragged out of the water by someone familiar.

“You shouldn’t fall asleep while you walk, might just drown next time.” The youthful voice came from in front of him. “How do you even manage it anyway?”

“I’m fine Ren, just a little tired still.” He replied still coughing lightly thought only droplets remained in his lungs making an unconvincing argument. Ren gave him a hearty pat on the back before stepping back up again, holding out her hand for him.

After wiping his hands ineffectually on his soaked pants before taking her offered assistance. She was also a little wet from having dragged him out of the river he’d accidentally walked right into. She all to forcefully pulled him up, almost making him fall over again from the force of it.

They’d been walking down a familiar brick road while chatting in the morning light. Today they were heading into town for supplies so they avoided making the trip through the heat of the day, which was the reason for his sleep deprivation, and eventual morning swim.

“So, what were you dreaming about as you walked into the river?” She patted at his wet clothes while he made sure nothing was missing. He still had his waste pack hanging from the back of his pants, and all his clothes were still present. He quickly checked to make sure that the seal on his pack hadn’t broken, but his notes were still holding up well.

“I don’t remember.” He couldn’t think back so far, the memories of his dream fading away into oblivion the moment he’d been shocked awake. All he could remember was an unfamiliar warm sensation bursting from his chest just as he awoke.

“Well whatever it is don’t go drifting off like that again, you scared me to death. I thought you were a zombie or something when you just walked right in like that.” She dragged her hand across his scalp ringing out his water-logged hair.

“I’ll try.” Matt forced his self into wakefulness, the brisk wind through his wet clothes helping him to remain conscious. The weather was rather cool today compared to how hot it normally was.

As he stared into the rivers flowing water he felt a shock of fear, something he hadn’t felt for a long while. There was something floating past him along the river, something small and frail, so cold that it made his heart freeze over just looking at her. It was gone in a moment as his dream reset along its initial memory but the fear it inspired in him remained.

His face refused to reflect the emotions brewing within, since this past could not be changed through future reflections and memories cannot be erased, especially those most despised.

He was walking a scripted path, a path that he’d already lived once before a time long ago.

Matt stood up the momentary gloom fading away, today was a few days after his 9th birthday. Ren, who was born on the same day as him, had made an occasion of it. Throwing quite a loud celebration with fires and special food made by Jane. They’d managed to cut through all of their food supplies when Ren tried to make some cookies out of their food paste.

As was like her she didn’t give up until the very last of their supplies had been burnt into a charcoal black liquid that stunk up their home. Even this morning he could still smell hints of that devilish concoction she’d made.

Having run through all of their food supplies they had to hurry through the process of gathering more food from town but Ren had other plans in the work as well. This wasn’t going to be just a regular food run but then again, they never did go to town without causing some sort of trouble.

Today he’d been woken up early by Ren who’d suddenly been charged by the idea of moving into town hours ahead of what she’d decided the night before. Apparently, they were to meet up with some of the other members of their family down there.

“So why are the others already in town?” Matt asked flapping his soaked shirt in the breeze to both cool down and dry off.

“They stayed over last night to make some… preparations.” Ren had a wicked smile on her face when he turned to look at her.

“Preparations?”

“Tonight, we’re going to have some fun with the town-kids; see if we can’t get some emotions out of those zombies. Hehehe” She’d already gone into full evil mode.

“Again? Didn’t we do that last month.” Matt thought back to the last time they’d come into town together they’d run around with drums and horns trying to start a concert.

“Yeah but we were pretty far off our normal performance, I think most of them were too scared to even come out and see what was making the sound.” She was sighed with a hint of exhaustion. “But tonight is different, tonight we’re giving them nowhere to hide, ahehe.” She laughed suspiciously while clapping her hands together excitedly.

“Well I guess that sounds like fun but if I don’t get some sleep soon I’m just going to fall asleep on the grass somewhere. I don’t think I can last until night like this.” He yawned just to make the point clear.

“Sleepy head.” Ren lightly slapped his cheek as she walked beside him. “How do you feel tired even now?”

“You woke me up before the sun was up!” Matt muttered forcefully, he never really yelled but occasionally, like now, he put some strength into his words.

Though, in the face of his grumpy attitude, Ren reacted with affection, spinning on the spot and giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder, “Don’t worry so much, we’ll take a nap somewhere in town after we make sure everything is ready.”

He noticed some anxiety in her voice that he’d been too tired to notice earlier. She was a little unsure about how this would go, unlike Matt she put some real effort into these attacks. Whatever reason she had for it he couldn’t understand; not yet.

The landscape around them was peaceful and filled with nature, though it had been thoroughly manipulated to be a limited and controlled ecosystem. The many gaps in the ecosystem from a lack of diversity were filled with mechanical systems, though he was only starting to understand how it really worked.

To his right was the river he’d fallen into only a short time ago, it was populated with a sparse population of fish. Which swam excitedly through the waters often invisible in the waters depths.

The thinly populated forest to his left was sparse enough that it was no trouble at all to walk through, in fact Matt usually preferred to walk through the forestry beside the road rather than the ungiving brick surface he was currently walking on. The forest itself was populated with a trivial number of small animals that were incredibly skittish, he’d yet been able to sneak close enough to catch one but he did get to pat a small rabbit that Ren had caught once.

“So, what kind of preparations were they making, knowing Damien it’s going to make a mess.” Last time Damien had taken lead it’d taken a full month to clean the paint off the towns walls and that was just a plan between Damien and Alex. Today they also had Himself, Harry, and Pete supporting them while Ren took the lead, he believed that it was truly going to be spectacular and quite possibly a little terrifying.

“That’s… difficult to explain, I’ll tell you if you need to know anything. For now you can be surprised. If Harry and Pete didn’t slack off last night…” Ren rubbed her forehead, she had a cheeky smile on her face again. As unsure as she was about it working out she seemed impressed with herself for whatever she had planned. “It’s going to be a fun night.”

Feeling sleep starting to take him over again, Matt attempted to overcome that tiredness by talking, “So why did we get up so early today?” But the conversation revolved around the one thing that he was trying to forget.

“Why not? I couldn’t sleep anyway.” She joyfully skipped ahead for a few steps. “It’s impossible to sit and wait around at a time like this!”

“I guess that’s how you usually are.” He kicked a stray rock into the river spraying water across the area.

“Does it bother you?” She spoke her line quietly, almost hesitant, before waiting silently for a reply.

“Why would it bother me? You’re my best friend because you are who you are.” He reached out for her hand, as much as he didn’t like waking up early he felt a profound loss when he was separate from her. He’d met her several years earlier after he’d been through a difficult time in his life. He felt himself returning to the previous self he had been when she was somewhere out of sight.

“Thanks, you’re a good friend Matt.” She relaxed as she softened her grip on his hand, which he hadn’t noticed had tightened in the first place.

They walked along the path quietly for a time, enjoying the scenery and the quiet company. The wispy clouds above blew across the sky gently, there was no chance of rain anytime soon. The slight breeze caught the trees in the forest releasing a quiet hushing noise, luring him towards sleep.

Up ahead looming over the tree line was what appeared to be a large wall but was in fact just the beginning of the adult world. Gun grey buildings of identical size and box shape, containing adults working in a world that was mystically distant to his childish mind.

“Do you think Mr’s Hinagawa will be okay with all of us skipping out today. She does travel rather far just for our lessons.”

“It’ll be fine, she just drops off notes for us to study on our own anyway.” He belligerently waved her hand to the side, unlike her Matt occasionally needed to talk with his teacher to actually understand the notes. “She always tells us to learn it for ourselves anyway.”

“It’s easy for you to say.”

“Don’t worry about it so much, if you have any problems you can’t understand just ask me!” She enthusiastically called out, understanding the reason behind his hesitance. “It’s never really that challenging anyway.”

“I asked her last week to get me something about plants too, though I guess that I kinda prefer reading about that by myself.” He mumbled pulling out a notebook from his waterproof bag.

Inside were countless sketches of plants and animals that he’d come across in the forest and rivers around his home. Though apparently, there were far fewer species than used to populate natural reserves on this planet. Mrs Hinagawa once told him that most died out because of habitat destruction through wars and land clearing before the fall of humanity.

This area was one of the few areas on the planet with a fully functioning ecosystem, the rest of the planets ecosystems were currently being regrown from the destruction caused by the last world war centuries ago.

“You sure like plants. I don’t get it myself their so… boring.” She muttered looking at the pages as he flicked through them. “What’s so interesting about them?”

“I’m not sure,” he said as flicking through his notes, “It’s like, they are living too but… so much different from us. They don’t really move all that much and barely talk to each other…”

“Plants talk!!” Ren screeched grabbing onto his shoulder and pulling him away from the forestry back towards the river.

“Not really, it’s like they spray chemicals and things to send messages I guess. I don’t really understand it myself, the book I read it from had too many long words.”

“So the plants aren’t spying on us?” At first Matt thought she was joking, just playing the part of a frightened young kid but as time ticked by and her grip on his shoulder only grew stronger he thought about how to reply.

“I don’t… think so?” He was still clutching onto her free hand as she started to relax, still eyeing the trees making sure that they were always in the corner of her eye.

“They’d better not be.” She fiddled with a lighter she’d pulled out of nowhere, “You hear that, if you are spying on me I’ll burn every last one of you into ash!”

With Matts encouragement, she returned the lighter to her pocket as they started walking again. Matt trying to comfort her continued with where he left off.

“Unlike us humans there aren’t any expectations on them, they live until they die and that seems to be it. No need for a greater purpose or serving a larger system.”

There was a period of silence that followed as Ren thought over his words, still stressed over the thought of talking trees, “I guess I can understand why you’re interested in something so strange, but it’s not like we can really live like that. We need each other and I find that really beautiful because we live for more than just struggling against death. I like humanity. I really do.” She concluded, stepping forwards. “I would hate to be a plant, I wouldn’t have met you, or Mrs Hinagawa or any of our family.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that.” Matt kept flicking through the pages on his book refreshing his mind again on the plants and their properties. “It’s still interesting though.”

They progressed further along the road as they talked, the forest that was on their left opened into a grassy plain though much of the grass was artificial. As the forest turned into a plain, the river flattened out and became wider but shallower, the sound of water flowing past rocks took the place of the hushing trees that they left behind.

“What do you think happens when we die?” Ren’s words came out of nowhere as she walked ahead a little.

“Why ask me?” Matt turned to her with uncertainty. “I mean Mrs Hinagawa told us all about the old myths but they’re all so silly.”

“Heaven, wasn’t it? A place where everyone is happy and everything is good… I’d hate that.” She walked over to the river briefly, splashing up water as she got her feet wet.

“Why? Isn’t it supposed to be perfect and change depending on what you like?” Matt questioned her as he walked up beside her, staring at the few fish swimming up the river. “Like our family living happily forever or something.”

“What if you don’t like perfect?” She muttered before suddenly diving into the river straight at a fish. “Oooaaah!” She managed to slap the fish into the air but as it fell for the second time it slipped from her grasp and swam away as if it’s life was at risk.

“Why did you just…?” Matt was stunned for a moment before he remembered who he was with, answering his own question. “Because Ren is Ren. Anyway, now I’m not the only wet one.”

“Well I always wondered if they were real, so I wanted to check.” She waded her way back to the shore before patting her wet clothes down.

“If… they were real?”

“Well, I see them under the water all the time, but I’ve never seen one outside the water, never touched one with my own hands, never heard what sound it makes or known what it smells like. I was thinking it might just be another lie so I checked.”

Introduced to her thoughts in their raw nature Matt was struck voiceless. He could never fully understand how she thought about things, how she saw the world, but every time he heard her thoughts he found himself thinking it over and learning more than he ever had just by reading Mrs Hinagawa’s notes.

He thought about it as they started moving again, both drenched in river water that was sure to dry soon in the warmth that beat down on them for the length of their travel.

Up ahead the town was starting to appear on the horizon still veiled by a thin layer of trees on the outskirts of town. Nearby a pair of young men with the appearance of trouble makers, were doing something suspicious on the rocky shore of the river. They were dressed in clothes that weren’t the usually supplied regular clothes.

“Hold it right there!” At the sight of them Ren picked up pace charging right at them as fast as she could, the image that came to his mind was of a bull charging at a matador, though he only seen pictures of such things.

Matt followed after, a step behind as always. The two trouble makers turned to look at them as they charged forwards Matt struggling to return his notes to his bag. The two boys were a little older than they were and had some noticeable muscle mass, it was obvious that they were more physically capable than both himself and Ren.

Though Ren had them totally beat when it came to spirit. “Harry! Pete!” She waved her arms madly in the air as she got closer, “Is everything ready!”

“Sir, yes sir.” Harry turned to Ren and gave her a sloppy salute, “Everything is primed and ready to go at your orders.” His head of blonde hair was sloppily cut short just above his eyes, waving around loosely as he walked towards them. His shirt was cut down the front and hung loosely opening his chest up to the air, which he claimed helped him to feel cool. While the sleeves were altered to include their family crest. That of a line sharply zigzagged at the centre, apparently it was supposed to represent a heartbeat but he’d never understood how.

Pete followed more reservedly, carrying a small bag with him. “We just finished up actually, it’s getting pretty exciting already though I think a few of the town-kids have realized something is going to happen soon.” Pete had a head of brown hair cut shoulder length partially covering his glasses.

He was dressed in a completely outrageous outfit dyed so many colours that he looked like he’d been swimming in a rainbow, let alone the spikes and protrusions coming out everywhere. He also wore their family crest on his shoulders.

“Well who was the one who gave it away then?” Ren spoke directing her words at Harry who was doing all he could to look elsewhere; to make matters worse he started to whistle in the ensuing silence.

“So what’s the plan then?” Matt felt he finally had to break the silence formed as the weak attempt at whistling failed miserably.

Harry desperate for a change in conversation replied quickly, “What you don’t know yet? We’re actually going to be- eh” Ren was suddenly holding the front of his shirt threateningly.

“First you spill the beans on our plans to the town-kids, and now you’re about to do the same with Matt. Ruining the satisfaction of revealing it myself. Is that what’s going on here?” Ren managed to lift Harry off the ground for a moment as she coldly spoke at him.

“N- N- No.”

“Good… good.” She let him down slowly before giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“You always look so demonic when you get serious but I’ve never seen you actually throw a punch.” Matt quietly spoke to Ren after she’d backed off a little.

“Do you really think a talented demon like me would ever need to punch someone?” She retained a hint of evil to her eyes as she spoke. “Now let us be off.”

They walked towards the buildings that were situated close by, already they could see some town-kids varying from toddlers to teens wandering around aimlessly. The sight of their comparatively large group composed of renown hooligans and clothed in bright colours caught the attention of everyone but the most they did in reply was to get out of their way.

The buildings were mostly of the same size made from clean cement walls and roofing. Inside they were lined with the exact same bunk beds that he’d gotten out of this morning, lines of lockers, and a small shower room. The outside of the buildings were adorned only in the scars and holes born over time.

The kids were as plain as the buildings that they lived in, none expressed any great emotion as they walked and what passing conversations they heard lacked any passion.

“Did you do your studies yesterday?” A teen on the verge of their late teens spoke dispassionately.

To subdue the empty atmosphere that was overflowing the city, Ren started to talk with intentional effort, “So why was it that Jane didn’t want to come along anyway?”

“Jane isn’t coming?!” Harry cried out heartbrokenly.

“No, she said something about making a new recipe or something.” Matt rubbed at his bag uncomfortable for some reason.

Ren had a troubled look to her face as she walked, “It just seemed like there was more, didn’t she seem terrified when I talked to her yesterday?” She asked Matt.

“That might’ve been because you just yelled out, “To town!” and started dragging her by the shoulder.” Pete standing next to him cringed as he listened.

“She’s not good around the zombies.” He spoke waving his hand at the scatted town-kids around them, “They remind her too much of what she used to be.”

Ren kept walking her hands forming fists that clenched and unclenched and whispered quietly, he thought he heard the words, “Isn’t that true for all of us.” Her eyes starting to water as she looked over the strangers surrounding them.

“Let’s go!” She suddenly ran off knocking past several zombies who didn’t bother to voice their non-existent outrage at her rudeness.

Matt trailed after her, keeping pace a few steps behind. He was always half expecting her to race off like this, whenever she was uncomfortable she had a habit of running, though usually it was towards what made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t strange to see her dive head long into her fears.

“Wait up! I’m still tired from yesterday!” Pete called out loudly while falling behind.

“Haha don’t talk just run or get left behind!” Harry called back barely keeping up himself.

Ren carved her way through the city crying out loudly to the crowd while she focused on the rush, Matt kept pace holding his small bag down uncomfortably as he chased her.

Before long he’d been led to the food supply depot, a small metal box in the centre of town. A large drone was setting down on the platform when they turned the corner, Damien and Alex were standing by its side as it landed.

Guided by four large rotors and painted completely silver the drone was equipped with a series of clamps that doubled as landing gear for when it was unloaded and could lift an incredible amount of weight.

Breathing deeply to recover from the exercise, they came to a stop beside their seniors. Damien was a tall young man only a couple of years older than them with a large frame and considerable muscle mass. He was pretty good at everything and whenever they had a problem with something he usually had the skills to help. Though he wasn’t a leader like Ren was.

Alex was a blonde young girl about a year their senior, her hair was kept long and straight while her face had sharp features, she really like to paint and draw and had gotten really good at it lately. For some reason she liked to hang out with Damien a lot lately, when asked she replied that he was her artistic muse whatever that meant.

“Have you sent the food?!” Ren called out the moment she was by their side.

“Where do you think this thing came back from?” Damien stated as he turned to face her. “Just plugging the program in now.” He was putting a small data drive into the drone before its platform retreated.

Harry rushed around the corner breathing heavily, “Be careful with that…… ha…ha…haaa, I’ve spent the last… few weeks programing that damn thing.” He knelt down hands on his knees trying to catch his breathe.

“It’s in,” Damien blurted out as he pulled his hand away from the retreating drone before the doors closed on his arm.

“We’re finally ready for the party!” Ren called out pulling a small electronic remote from Alex’s hands raising in the air with a sense of victory.

“Party? I thought this was a prank again.” Matt joined the conversation with a little confusion.

“To these kids a good party is so much scarier than most pranks.” Ren took it upon herself to reply still ecstatic about their plans.

“So, we are still starting tonight, or are we going to go for it now?” Matt patted Ren’s back lightly.

“We wait for twilight before bringing this town to its knees, mwhahahaa.” Ren attempted her best evil laugh possible while leading them off towards a nearby forested area.

The area was covered in short grass and tall trees but little else, further outside of town the plants become a little more numerous and varied but the sad truth was that what they had here were only a small fraction of what he’d seen in history books.

“Lets… rest up.” Ren suddenly fell into the grass with a sigh, closing her eyes as she faced the sky, practically falling asleep. Matt soon joined her staring up into the shifting image formed by the slowly moving clouds, enchanted by the sight and exhausted from the early wakeup call he quickly fell unconscious.

A dream within a dream fleetingly passed by his eyes as he awoke to a dawning sun in the middle of a grey town. Ren was resting beside him, limbs thrown around so ungainly that she likely would’ve fallen off a bed had she been sleeping in one in the first place.

Everyone else was slowly rousing as time came for their party to start up, apparently, the others were exhausted from last night’s preparations as they managed to sleep through a large amount of the day.

He had a strange feeling in his gut looking over the sleepers, Matt looked over the group again counting heads as he went.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

7?

He started mumbling still a little dazed from his sleep, “Ren, Pete, Harry, Alex, Damien is five then- oh wait I forgot myself… but that’s only six.” Finally feeling a little more awake he found a new face amongst them, laying closely enough that she just blended into their group even though her clothes were still normal.

Before he could say anything, Ren woke up.

“I’m alive!” Ren shouted to the world as she launched herself into the air only a brief moment after waking up. Her loud voice waking up many of their delinquent friends from their slumber and attracting the attention of their new member.

“Time for a quick look over the town of yesterday before we recreate this place into something better.” She was still clutching the small remote high in the air, having slept with the thing.

An unfamiliar voice spoke up while Ren distracted with waking up the others, “Something better?” It was their newcomer the zombie who’d chosen to sleep in the grass like the other animals.

“Waaaah!” Ren cried out in surprise staring at the new girl, “Haaaa!” screamed happily as she leapt at the girl quickly enveloping her into a bear hug.

“Hey- st- stop that.” She even managed to make a reply which was rare for a town-kid.

“No, you’re mine now.” She claimed forcefully, holding onto the girl until she stopped resisting.

“So w- what was that about?”

“You’re alive!” Ren shouted out, shaking the girls hands around crazily in a mad dance. “You’re going to come with us and make this place better than it ever was!” Ren didn’t leave the girl much room for escape, and after a few more attempts to refuse her the girl gave up. Strangely she had a small smile on her face.

Quickly rocking, yelling or kicking everyone else awake Ren soon had everyone standing to attention while she introduced their new member, “This survivor has come far to join us on our merry quest. What would you like to be called?”

The girl, frozen by their stares just stood still watching them unable to voice any words. “Okay then, me first!” Ren cried out happily, “I’m Karen but everyone just calls me Ren, I like to run through forests, play pranks on the town-kids and to chase small animals until they’re too tired to run away from my love anymore.”

Harry through his hand in the air, “Me, me, I’m Harry, I like to make programs and talk to computers and stuff, my favourite place is the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Aahhh just talking about it is nice and relaxing.”

The girl was staring at them in turn as they spoke, the fear in her eyes fading away every time someone spoke up.

Alex as the oldest girl in their group spoke up next, “I’m Alex, it’s nice to meet you, I love to make pictures, and to stare up at the sky. If you want help with either I’d be happy for the company.” Her cheeks blushed and she nearly misspoke a few times.

Pete took a step forwards thrusting his chest out, “I am the great prophet of-” Ren punched him in the chest losing his breath.

“This is Pete, he’s really good at making new clothes but goes too crazy with it on his own. He also says a lot of stupid things feel free to ignore him.” Ren waved to Matt who at her suggestion stepped forwards.

“Hi, I’m Matt, I like plants and… ah well everyone here… I guess that’s it.”

Ren slapped him on the shoulder as she took over, “He’s really good at listening too, he’s the only one to put up with Pete’s stupidness. That and he never gets lost, we once walked into the forest through the entire day and he was able to lead us all the way back in the dark!” This caused Matt to blush at the attention suddenly on him.

Damien being the last to speak paused for a moment, his tall stature accidentally intimidating the young girl. “I am Damien, I’m good at helping people with things but don’t like to take the lead. If you ever need help with something I can probably help.” His voice was more subdued than usual as he fearfully eyed the girl.

Ren eyed the girl expectantly still standing beside Matt, she was grasping his hand so tightly that she was digging her nails in.

The girl obviously still nervous opened her mouth a few times as if searching for her voice, “I… I don’t know my name.” She said in almost a whisper.

“What do you want your name to be?” Ren spoke back keeping her excitement in check as best as she could.

The girl was frozen in thought for a few moments, suddenly her eyes swelled with emotion as she let out a name, “Selene.”

“Selene! Welcome!” she snatched a patch out of her pocket and taped it to the girls shoulder while the girl was still winding down from her emotions.

“Selene.” She whispered again as she fell into Ren’s arms, “Thank you, Selene.”

Ren comforted Selene until she was able to walk on her own again before leading them through the towns streets while a dying thoroughfare of zombies passed through.

Most town-kids were home by the time night fell so they wouldn’t have many people out on the streets after this. Which must have been a part of Ren’s plan.

“Look at these drab grey walls and this dull concrete road. Listen to the dead silence so cold that even a whisper will travel to the end of the road. This town needs some pizazz, this town needs some life to it.” Ren skipped along at an uneven pace making sure to walk in a round about fashion. They weren’t heading anywhere, but rather everywhere.

Selene looked and listened carefully as if she were a newborn babe seeing the world for the first time as Ren described what she made of their world.

On their path Matt looked at the parts of the town he’d intentionally ignored every time he came here. The lifelessness, the eerie appearance of only dull colours, it made him feel almost as if he’d lost his ability to see in colour.

The silence that filled the spaces between Ren’s words were so complete as to drive him to question his hearing. No shivering of trees in the wind, no whispers of insects in the air, and very few quiet voices breaking into that thick silence.

“No wonder the people here are so lifeless, they’re just reflections of their home, and tonight we’re going to change everything about this town!” Her words were starting to invigorate him again as he came to a better understanding of everything wrong with this town.

Arriving in the centre of town where the drone pad was positioned, surrounded by a small open court and tall buildings; Ren yelled out as loud as she could, her voice reverberating through the darkening town. “Tonight, we bring the dead back to life!” She slammed the button on the remote she was holding high and a loud sound erupted from behind them.

The doors to the drone bay opened suddenly releasing swarms of the food delivery drones, all of them splashed with bright coloured paints. Never before had Matt seen so many of them in flight and never before had he heard any noise so loud as what bore through the speakers that they carried.

“Music?” He spoke though his voice barely carried through the loud music playing overhead. Matt soon recognised the music as the classical collection that Ren was in love with, and listened to it roar through the town of the dead.

“Hahaha, beautiful.” Ren stared up at the sky reaching out as if to grab at the drones that were doing her bidding with one hand and reaching out to Selene with the other. In that moment colour seemed to fill the girls eyes as she saw the impossible happen.

The drones were doing more than just playing music, Damien and Harry looking on nervously as the machines went to work spraying out colours onto every grey surface in the town. With their extraordinary numbers the courtyard they were currently standing in was soon covered in colourful murals.

“It worked!” Harry called out turning to Damien who’d put his work into action and hugging him tight, “They’re doing it, I even recognise some of the art.”

“That’s the one I made!” Alex cried out loudly pointing at a nearby wall which had in only moments been precisely painted with what seemed to be a colourful horizon without any walls or barriers.

“They’re using all of the ones from the textbooks too, can anybody see any repeats? are they all different?!” Harry was calling out questions excitedly wanting to know everything about how his work was being performed.

“This is perfect! Hahaha,” Ren snatched his hand and chased after one of the nearby drones hoping to keep up with the mechanised vandal.

The music played for hours after, but like all good things it soon came to a close as the drones ran out of paint and returned to base. Matt wasn’t sure if this would change anything about this town in the long run but one thing he knew was that this was the best night in his life.

The dream faded away as light started to shine through his closed eye’s and he was left with one last whisper from a familiar voice as the dream came to a conclusion and the waking world stole him away.

“I’m alive.”