Peter laid wide awake in bed, several thoughts flirting briefly with his mind before joining the crowd of other mental notes.
He sighed in the dark, he knew that his friend, Zamuel, who was at the other side of the room was awake too.
But both boys were trapped in their own different worlds. Each, a world of darkness and confusion.
They all have been hit by reality. Sweet and harsh. The reality was that Zammy's parents were probably dead already.
And the tingling excitement of an adventure. A time travel adventure to save humanity.
It wasn't a lie that he would give anything to get a glimpse of the thoughts of his friend. Peter couldn't deny that he was confused as to which emotions to embrace.
Peter rolled in bed, this time to face the wall and away from Zammy. He did need to gather his thoughts.
Okay.
The information from Professor Hanan had left him without breath. More like it did hit out the air from his lungs.
How could it be? He was going to become a kind of hero. He and his best friend together. All this actually did feel like another nightmare, just that this was different in that it was calmer.
Peter reached into his pants for his phone. He needed to confirm that this was real.
He cringed in silent pain when he began to see the notifications.
STAY INDOORS: Zombies infestation!
He was definitely not ready for this, so he tucked his phone back into his pants.
He felt the need to communicate and so he turned back to face Zamuel's side of the white room.
"Zammy...", He called out gently to his friend.
There was silence. No response. No movements too.
Peter was sure that Zamuel was awake. He was certain and so he decided to continue.
"I'm sorry about your parents. But you remember that professor Hanan did say we will revive them if our mission is a success. You needn't worry, okay? We'll save humanity". even Peter wasn't so sure about his last statement. How?
He listened patiently in the dark. He had been sure that Zammy was awake, but now, he wasn't.
Just when he shut his eyes, thinking that no words will come from the other side of the room, Zamuel spoke.
"My parents, I wonder how they are at the moment"
"They're surely safe in the house"
"We both know that's a lie"
I knew how much pain he was going through. "We can't be sure", I said softly.
There was silence again.
"Even if they are still safe, for how long will they be?"
"We can make sure they are safe by completing our mission"
This time, Peter knew that the silence was the final one for the night when he heard Zamuel snoring.
He had never found it hard to sleep. He had once been so tired that he slept off under the shower.
Peter let his mind wander off again.
He only thought that time travelling was a concept in movies and books. He wouldn't have believed I'd someone had told him it was real.
And then, there was the prophecy that professor Hanan did talk about. Those two friends were him and Zammy. It was unbelievable that nature would choose them to save man.
He remembered asking professor Hanan earlier that day why the facility was all painted in white. His answer?
"It's a compound I created from all nasty kinds of elements. It distorts the sense of the infected, making it almost Impossible to smell the presence of blood. Since we will need space, we dressed the facility in this, in and out".
Peter wasn't even aware that he was smiling. These people were geniuses. All of them, even Rose, the girl.
There was something dark about her that he couldn't quite figure out though. Like she was hiding a sad part of her.
Slowly, he drifted off to slumber into the dream world.
********
Peter was running again. It was dark in a sinister way but he almost knew this path so well. He had run through it several times in the past weeks, even without moonlight.
Since he already knew that he was dreaming, a nightmare, he somehow managed to control his fears.
He burst out of the woods and onto the road. His heartbeat raced from all the adrenaline.
He turned around, and there was the green infected zombie, staring at him.
Just like the last time, it and several other zombies did pounce on him and began to tear out his flesh, however this time something different happened.
Somewhere from high up in the sky, light broke forth, bathing him and his predators in golden rays.
The light seemed to bring relief with it. The bites from the zombies suddenly didn't hurt anymore. It felt like they weren't even there at all.
"Peter Archer, it's been long, friend", a voice said from within the light.
Peter thought for a while before answering. "You don't sound like anyone that I have met, who are you?"
Peter's eyes widened when a young man came out from the light.
His whole body was shining, so it was hard to see what his face looked like.
The man walked calmly towards him, and when he was close enough, he began to speak.
"You're my friend. But this time, I came with a message. To tell you of the three tides".
Peter was confused, utterly. This was a person that he had never seen before in his whole life. How could they possibly be friends?
"What do you mean by the three tides? '', Peter asked, still perplexed by the facts that a few seconds ago, he was in excruciating pain and now he was not feeling anything.
"This is all I am permitted to tell you now. Three souls shall travel. Two souls shall return. One soul shall pay. Those are the tides. Choose wisely when the time comes."
"What are you even talking about?", Peter asked. His confusion was already hitting its peak.
He didn't hear the reply of the man because he felt himself waking up back into the real world.
The last thing he saw in the dream was the smile of the man, fading away.