F-Rank Frank: Chapter 19 (Patreon)

Chapter 19

Within two hours of leaving no less than three drones had direct feeds and were mounted and following Frank as he made his way down Death Row. Their green lights showed that they were clearly filming Frank’s escape in infrared. This was the color that Frank was the most accustomed to, as it was the color that fed all CCTV cameras of the slums and lower districts.

As soon as he saw the three drones covering him and flying overhead, Frank realized that the drones were likely there to make sure he didn’t cheat. Though he quickly dismissed that thought, when he realized the truth, that these drones were sent to likely find the spot where he died or would succumb to the rot.

Seeing them, Frank felt slightly annoyed. A sentiment that he actually decided to speak out against.

“You waiting for me to die? Well, you are going to be waiting for a long time. For, as my dad was so fond of reminding me, Life is full of disappointments. So you might as well get use to them.” Frank said, only after he spoke did he realize that other than commenting about the zombie girl ruining his first memory by not wearing proper attire for a wasteland apocalypse area, these were the first words he said.

Frank looked up at the drones Frank half expected something, maybe a bobble in the air, or a slight flicker of light, but he got nothing.

Hmph.

With the lack of response, Frank just huffed to himself and began walking. By now he had carved a path through the largest chunks of zombies, and with only a few intermixed sets of undead here and there, the path was mostly clear.

As such, Frank decided to stop cycling his energy into his hands and feet in order to preserve energy. Yet, as he did so, Frank noticed something. Namely the fact that the other zombies either started kept still as he passed by, or if they were slightly closer they actively moved out of the way. Seeing their movement away from him, Frank paused, wondering what it was that caused the zombies to react this way. Before they always seemed to surge and lunge towards him. But now the zombies all seemed to move away from him in that subtle way that finding a superior monster would. Or feeling the effects of an apex predator in their midst.

The more Frank saw their reactions to him, the more Frank grew concerned, wondering if this was just a way for the zombies to encircle him. If he kept moving forward, there would be many zombies on all sides of him. That was when Frank remembered his first experience with death energy, he remembered the way he could reach out and control it. The way the power all but beckoned for him to use it as wildly as possible.

That was when Frank decided something, he reached out and using his hand to guide his sight he focused on a zombie. One that seemed to permeate death.

Focusing his will on the death energy within the monster, Frank pulled the energy quickly, the way one might when trying to do the table cloth magic trick. He yanked the energy so hard and forcefully that the zombie slightly shook as the energy was pulled from it.

That’s when a few things happened all at once. First Frank once again felt his body surge to be fully awake as the stinging hot flames of dark energy filled his body. Simultaneously, the zombies that had been moving around aimlessly, or standing still waiting for food to come, suddenly awoke. At the same time the body that had been animated with death energy dropped to the ground and began to convulse as if going through the final stages of instant death.

Death spasms.

Seeing the dead body twitch like a dying fish was enough to draw the attention of all the zombies who could no longer resist the pull of life.

Frank watched as the zombies from all around heard and saw the flailing body. Then he looked on with horror as the other zombies began clawing at, and tearing away the flesh of the now spasming body. It was a morbidly grotesque image, yet another horrible image that would be burned into his mind about this whole ordeal.

He watched as zombies hungrily tore at the flesh of the body of one of their own. Seeing the actions, it was clear that the zombies didn’t care who or what they ate. They only wanted living flesh. No, not flesh. Frank saw the last flickering lights of green life energy in the cleansed zombie. He saw how the other zombies fought for those green specks of life energy, bypassing meaty arms and feet to flesh at the torso and other portions.

It was horrific.

Then wishing to end everything all at once, Frank mentally reached out to the largest mass of death energy in the pile of moving corpses. Closing his eyes, he found that he could still feel the dark energy which was good, as the sight that was before him was too much for him.

Reaching out, he found the energy, and remembered how when he killed Luther, he pushed in. But that would only kill the one zombie. This time he wanted to kill them all.

Focusing on the dark energy, he imagined the energy burning like a spark and then a flame. He imagined flames erupting from the corpses and then rising out striking the next zombie, and then the next. With so many zombies all gathered so closely the bodies were practically touching, which made the process he imagined easier.

He focused his will on the zombies, on releasing their energy into the world, and then finally something clicked in his mind. Just as he felt a mental click far away, the same type of click one would expect when trying to start a mechanically controlled fire.

Click. Fwoosh!

Just as Frank imagined the click that would generate a spark, it happened.

Startled.

Frank opened his eyes and saw a dark purple and blueish flame erupt from the bodies that quickly began to melt and wither under the intense flames of the fire. Almost as if they were candles that were left to burn at a temperature that was four times hotter than suggested.

Frank just sat there watching in slack jawed amazement.

Gentle breeze.

The flames were so hot and so intense that they began pulling air towards it, in order to keep burning.

Sputter-spark.

Embers of the flames shot out, propelled by burning and apparently highly combustible particles of dark energy that rocketed out and way, finding other nearby zombies that at first stood still, until the burning flames took root in their own bodies, causing yet more flaming zombies to burn. Only once it was too late did the zombies try to run away, but that only served to spread the flame once or twice more.

Then finally everything within a fifty-meter radius of the initial burst site was dead, and burnt to the ground. Only charred remains, along with a few still brightly burning patches of skin and fat still remained. Everything else was just smoke and ash.

With that, Frank looked around wondering if someone had helped. Maybe a fireball cultivator or someone hiding nearby as a prank, but no, nothing.

As Frank looked around, all that was there was him, a black rock asphalt beneath his feet, zombies off in the distance and then three, no wait there was now a fourth drone watching him and recording him.

Seeing the drones, Frank felt like he had to talk to someone about what just happened. “Did you just see that?”

Silence.

“Yeah, I get it, it’s not cool if Frank does it.” Frank said, realizing he was going to be left alone and forced to endure this trek in silence. All that was left was his own gallows humor, which would likely get a lot worse as time went on.

“Well, screw you all, I thought it was cool.” Frank said, then he spun half right, back towards the place of his salvation and decided to continue walking.

As he drew nearer to the horde of zombies, Frank once again felt that the outliers, those zombies that were at the fringe began to move away from Frank. Almost as if there was an invisible bubble that surrounded Frank and caused the zombies to all move away from him.

He still didn’t know what this was, or what it meant, but he wasn’t going to refute it. By now, Frank was fairly certain that the idea of pretending to be frightened of Frank in order to lull him into a false sense of security was not something the zombies were capable of coming up with on their own.

Which was fine, as Frank didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, instead he used this new knowledge to push more and more zombies into a tight cluster. Then once they were close enough, Frank did what he did last time. First, he pulled the dark energy away from a zombie, causing the remaining corpse to fall to the ground spasming in pain.

Once again, there was a rush as dark energy tore into his body, filling him with a surge to stay alive. Then almost immediately afterwards, the zombies that had been content to be forced into one large cluster, all surged forward, lashing out, climbing over one another, all in an attempt to get at the life infused flesh of the cadaver that just dropped.

Seeing this as his chance, Frank took in a deep breath, then let it out, as he once again focused on finding one zombie at the very center of that group. One who had a lot of dark energy within them. Then reaching out, Frank felt his mind grab hold of and take control of that energy. Once he had it in his grasp, he mentally clicked a spark to life.

Fwoosh!

Once again, there was a spark, followed by a sudden burst of flames, before an even brighter dark purple flame erupted from the pile of corpses.

“Whoa-hwoa-ho!” Frank shouted in joy, as he saw the flames erupt, then he saw the slight look of panic fill the burning zombie faces as they turned to get away from the intense flames, only to be able to turn slightly, and face the next nearest zombie who then caught flame and erupted into their own burning pyre.

Acrid smoke.

This time Frank was down wind of the flames, meaning he got to smell firsthand just how bitter and caustic the smoke from such intense flames were.

“Oh gods, and I thought they smelled bad unburnt.” Frank said, grabbing his shirt and raising it up to cover his nose.

Still despite the burning pain in his nose, despite the whole strange ordeal Frank now found himself in, Frank found himself doing one thing he hadn’t done in a long time. He smiled.

This time when Frank looked up there were five drones up in the air. Seeing that there was yet another drone to the party, Frank couldn’t help but comment.

“Ya’ll coming to the party? We’ve got bonfires, torches, and burning smoke. You should come, everyone’s invited, apparently.” Frank said, talking to the drones.

Silence.

“No takers? Well can any of you play some music at least?”

More silence.

“Yeah, I figured. Why not have it be extra boring and quiet while doing this.” Frank said, then still smiling to himself, he continued to walk.

Flames smoldering in the distance.

When Frank was done talking, all that could be heard were the final few crackles of flames that were still in the process of dying down.

“Well, if you all are going to be boring, I guess I better party by myself.” Frank said, as he began slide shuffling towards the next set of zombies off in the distance.

As he moved, he found that the drones all kept a tight rotation around him. While they were all over fifty feet away, they never seemed to lose track of him or to ever stray too far from his position. He knew that the drones were likely on some type of automated tracking system that would find him and track him through his trip, meaning that no one would even watch his feed until after his death. Even then, he knew they would only document the moment that Frank finally succumbed to energy and died.

Still, despite knowing the truth, that he was alone and that no one cared. Frank decided to pretend like the drones were an audience, set to watch him. Then realizing that if they were his audience this might very well be his last chance to show case all the dance moves he practiced in secret, all in order to ask Maddie to the dance. Only for her to call out sick the day of the dance.

Realizing he was just here by himself, Frank decided to speak his mind. Hoping that eventually some of his final words and actions would make it back home to his friends and family.

Pausing for a moment in between waves, Frank chose this moment to stop and look up at the floating drones that were recording his death for posterity’s sake.

“Maddie, I just wanted you to know, this is what you missed by not going to the school dance with me.”

Then before Frank could think differently, he let the songs he had practiced to for so long come to life in his mind.

Flat-heel slide. Pivot foot right, flat heel slide again. Switch, now use alternate foot.

The dances he spent so long memorizing came back to him, as he managed to move freely and gracefully with his enhanced body and coordination. His body remembered the dance moves that were ingrained into his mind through countless hours of practice, and not only were his feet moving, but his hands were moving counter, giving an even more swim like appearance to his moves.

“Maddie are you w’okay?

So, Maddie are you w’okay?

Maddie are you w'okay?

Are you w’okay Maddie?

You’ve been hit by, you’ve been struck by a smooth fireball.”

Frank sang, as he was dancing up near the next gaggle of zombies and not even dealing with stripping the energy from one and causing the zombies to gather. This time Frank just pointed his finger and ignited one that looked to be mostly near the center of a particularly large pack.

Whoosh.

“Maddie are you w’okay?

Are you w’okay Maddie?”

Frank continued to sing to himself as he spun about in place, watching the flames rise higher and spread out farther, before the last zombie dropped, its body burning away like misshapen wax.

Seeing the destruction, Frank continued to dance, until he felt the area was safe to move through. Then not missing a beat, Frank decided to continue his dance, walking through the piles of ash, as his feet made long sliding lines with occasional flutter steps to the side as he moved.

“He came into your apartment,

He left bloodstain on the carpet.

And then you ran into the bedroom.

You were struck down,

It was your doom.”

Frank continued, pointing out silhouettes of zombies that had been burned to charred black husks in the middle of the field. Each line noting another one that was struck down or killed by Frank.

“You’ve hit by,

You’ve been struck by,

A smooth criminal.”

Frank continued, before moonwalking his way out of the zone. Making sure to play up the dancing as he found even the smooth flutter step slide shuffle to be easy to perform.

The dance routine lasted about three gaggles of zombies, before it got to be too much for even Frank to continue. Finally, after the third dance death cluster, Frank decided to stop as the moves and one song that he could remember was even annoying him. Thinking of his fans, he decided to stop and save his energy.

Light.

Frank didn’t realize when it happened, but he stopped moving at one point. It wasn’t because he was tired, he was, but that wasn’t the reason why he suddenly stopped his movements. He stopped as his body refused to move as he looked on and saw something that was so beautiful that he couldn’t help but look on in awe.

There off in the distance he saw lights, first there was a light blue, then bright oranges and yellows, until finally he saw the sun crest the horizon and finally make its rise into the sky. Pausing, Frank could only stare on in amazement at the sight before him.

Seeing the sun rise for the first time, Frank felt a tear run down his face, as it was something he had always dreamed about while living in the slums deep under ground. There he only had stories passed on from generations past about how amazing a sunrise truly was. He remembered stories that his mother would talk about, how her grandmother’s grandmother would tell stories about the sun, and how she wished she could see it just once before she died.

Pausing for a moment, the spell over him eventually broke and he was once again able to see that now a total of six drones were circling him. Seeing the extra one, Frank assumed the newest one was just a daylight drone, that was incapable of filming in IR.

After looking into the cameras for a bit, Frank realized that this might be one of the last messages he could send his mother.

“Hey mom, you likely won’t see this until I die, but I saw the sun rise. You were right, it was just as magical as you predicted and very much worth watching. I hope you get a chance to see it once, though hopefully not like the way I got to see it.” With that Frank looked away and was about to continue his trek, but then decided to add a bit of comedy to his final speech. “Oh and regardless of what they tell you, know that I did not die while screaming in agony, despite what any of these drones might record otherwise.”

Silence.

Frank paused and waited, then after an awkward moment decided to end this recording meant solely for his mother.

“Right well, goodbye. I’ll see you.”

With that Frank felt his voice choking up as he didn’t want to say anything else that might a lie. He didn’t want to promise a return, that he would see them. No, all he could do now was honestly try his best. He took a half step away, and then almost as an afterthought, he added. “Oh, and miss you as well dad.”

There, with that Frank nodded, happy that his farewells were in order, as he continued walking.

As Frank went on, he found that even after stealing both death and life energies from zombies only did so much for his body. While he could repair damage quickly, there was still the toll his body was now feeling, as his mouth was dry. Hunger was one thing, as he had dealt with hunger for most of his life, but lack of water, especially with how suddenly hot the day was becoming, was almost too much for him.

The more he moved, the more lethargic he felt. Suddenly he began to understand, or at least sympathize with the zombies who looked like they had spent years slowly rotting away under the sun’s rays.

To his surprise, the zombies apparently had their own way of dealing with the sun as they all huddled closely at condensed patches off to the sides. This meant that nothing was on the black tar runway that Frank needed to follow to freedom. Realizing this, Frank felt a surge of energy fill him as he wanted to use as much of this time as possible to make it as far as possible.

Running.

Before Frank even realized it, his body was cycling life qi quickly within his body. As he passed certain clusters of particularly powerful zombies, he could feel a few stir, but none seemed to move in his direction, given how fast he was moving.

Tinge.

Then finally, Frank felt something snap in his body, causing him to collapse on the ground. As he fell, he felt the black asphalt tear into his skin, scraping his body, but ultimately doing little than causing minor burns and irritations to form.

Panting.

Frank lay there on the ground, trying to catch his breath, trying to find the energy to rise up again, but his body was sore. His mind was exhausted, and he still had what appeared to be halfway left to go.

Rolling to his back, all he saw was the sun high overhead, bearing down on him, with his only solace being the now seven mini round orbs that floated around him.

“Ya’ll just going to watch me die?”

“Isn’t this bad even for you all?” Frank said, as he rolled over onto his knees and forced his way up to his feet.

“Can’t a kid get bread and water at least? Or is starving to death part of the fun of this? Watching a kid die of dehydration if the zombies can’t get to him?” Frank said to himself, using his anger at the uncaring drones to give him enough energy to continue pushing on.

Gurgle-grumble.

His stomach was empty, forcing him to clutch at his abdomen, while he fought to move on.

Frank knew he was on his last legs, but he was close, so close. “I’m close, so close. Just over halfway now.”

As he moved, Frank began speaking all his internal thoughts out loud realizing that there was no need for decorum, now that he was dead. Going to be baked alive on the black asphalt, or swallowed up by the zombies that would eventually come for him, he felt no need to hold back.

“Fuck you all. Letting a kid die so you can what? Laugh? All because an asshole with connections tried to kill me, nearly succeeded. Then when I struck back and succeeded, I get sent away to die without food or water? Or I make this trek without food or water? All some sick game.”

Frank said, then finally had to stop speaking as his mouth felt dry from so much talking.

That’s how it went for the next half mile, until Frank still needing some rage to use to press onward with dredged down deep.

“Fuck you Camello.”

Frank didn’t notice it, but two of the drones actually stopped following for a second, before quickly recovering and taking up their place in the formation that followed Frank through Death Row.

“You go threaten me. Torture me. Beat me up everyday, then send your thuggy friends to beat me up, to kill me because you were too weak. Then next time we meet, you shove me full of death energy hoping that will kill me? You can’t stop me!” Frank shouted, and with that shout so too did some of the last vestiges of rage that he held inside him.

His mind was on a mission as he just continued to trudge forward. One foot in front of the next, in front of the next. Until finally, he couldn’t move anymore. He stepped forward, trying to take a step but his leg locked up on him, causing him to stumble and fall.

Once again, Frank found himself on the ground, this time he knew that unless something drastic happened, he would not be able to rise. That or if he did, he wouldn’t be able to do so for long.

Just when he was about to close his eyes and accept his fate, he heard it, the faint whipping sound of blades cutting in the wind.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Frank hoped and prayed that the aircraft was coming for him. He was ready to even ride in a death trap of a helicopter if it meant no longer having to crawl his way through this gauntlet of death.

Of course, Frank soon found out that his luck wasn’t that good. In fact, it was still terrible, for the craft he eventually saw come for him was little more than the size of a small box, not even large enough for Frank to sit on if he tried. And definitely not strong enough to lift him out of here.

With his last hope dashed, Frank rested his head, and felt his mind drift off into nothingness, even as he felt the gentle breeze of the box sized object whir from the sky and swoop down to rest in front of him.