Aberrant: Dead Rising - How to travel without going anywhere [Complete]

[Mr Fox]

Two days after returning from Dallas:

Morgan had been thinking a lot about one of the biggest problems they faced. Travel. Flying was good and all, in fact it was the thing he loved most about being one of the supers, but it only benefited him and he could only transport what he could carry, or double that if Dan assisted. Especially now that he would be formally elected leader of the Refuge and he was having more responsibility he couldn't spend the hours at a time it took to fly off and pick up a load of stuff and come back. What they really needed was something more direct and faster. Something that wouldn't require him to constantly be taking off to all kind of places.

He pondered that while he walked through the compound greeting people as he passed, but not paying anyone much attention. After half a hour of making his rounds he realized he needed some space to think. Keying on the radio he called to Jules and Ger, "Guys, I'm going to take a quick flight over to the ridge. I should be in radio range, use the private channel if you need me."

Once there he sat down to do some serious thinking.

[Mr Fox]

This was one of his favorite places. It afforded a nice view of the Refuge valley looking down toward the river. From here it was really apparent just how much progress had been made. Before the refugees it had just been seemingly empty land except for the quonset hut and chain link fence. Of course it had contained an underground nuclear missile base, but that wasn't apparent by intent. Now, however, things very different. Outside the fence were several large farm fields with enough food planted to help the refugees make it through the winter even if they didn't have stockpiled can goods. That was assuming the weather permitted a good harvest. Inside the fence there were over a dozen permanent buildings, a small tent city and well over a hundred vehicles ranging from small fuel efficient cars up to 18 wheelers. There was even a small fleet of cement trucks.

Over the whole site there were people everywhere. Dozens farmed the fields with armed guards standing ready to pick off the occasional wandering zombie. The walls had dozens more working, some putting up cement forms for pouring, others operating the cement trucks and as always more guards. The real triumph was that he could see children happily playing in among the buildings. That was what it was all about.

Sitting on the fallen tree he picked up a stick and started making drawings in the dirt at his feet as he considered. One mark to the right represented here. Another mark on the left represented the destination. Fastest method between two points was a straight line. That was what he'd been taught in school. He had already achieved that with flight. Being airborne cut out all the detours and obstacles like abandoned vehicles and zombie hordes. That just wasn't fast enough or efficient. There was something tickling at the back of his mind. Something he'd seen in a tv show about there being a faster way, but he just couldn't think of it.

[Mr Fox]

The more he thought about it the less he was able to bring to mind whatever was just beneath the surface. Finally lulled by the warm spring sun and the peaceful time without anyone bugging him for answers he slipped into sleep.

It probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but he'd done a decent look around and the patrols fanned out further than this ridge line so he was pretty comfortable that there weren't any zombies near by. The light sleep became deeper and finally he dreamed. It was a strange dream to be sure. He was in space, and he had a strange sense of dread that something dangerous was around. He turned around, although how you would turn around in the vacuum of space with no gravity and nothing to stand on, was ignored as irrelevant. Behind him was a huge space ship, but it wasn't the ship itself that caught his attention, it was what was behind it that made him gasp in shock. Even in the dream he was aware that gasping wasn't possible in a place without air, but he let that pass too. What he was looking at, or rather not looking at was an immense emptiness in space that was drawing the ship in. He could feel the crushing weight of the pull from the black hole. Then in the dream he watched safely from a distance as the ship elongated toward the event horizon of the black hole. In the dreamspace he understood, this was the scene from that movie. He was in Event Horizon but somehow watching safely as the ship was graphically made on with the singularity. When it was over he was left floating in space with a profound sense of understanding. He knew how to travel. You didn't cover the distance between two points, you made the two points become one.

When he woke a moment later he still had the feeling of understanding from the dream. It all seemed so simple, so he reached out and drew in his energies and focused them on making this spot he knew so well meet up with that spot in the gym in McKinney he'd seen a couple days ago. That place stood out in his mind because of how vivid and haunting the memory of the dead teens was and how the blood stains left on the floor after they'd been take out left the place seeming hollow. The two places met. That was all he could say if asked. Where they met an opening formed about three meters on a side and he was looking into the darkened interior of the Gym. He could see that a zombie had gotten in and was shambling toward the light that his event horizon was making. He quickly released his energy and let the points separate again. It still felt almost like he was in a dream, but he wouldn't have dreamed the zombie and it was all too real.

Wanting to test the power again but not startle anyone he focused on another place he was very familiar with, his rooms in the bunker. It was odd, but it was almost like he was born to do this, or perhaps it was just that the two closer points in space were easier to make meet? He'd have to test that later and try someplace far away that he'd been before. Maybe one of his duty stations in Asia or Europe? That would be a good test. He was afraid what he would find though. Europe and Asia were much more densely packed with people so the zombies would be much thicker there per square mile than here where there were wide open spaces between cities. Not wanting to face that discovery just he he settled for stepping through into his bedroom, and scaring the hell out of Jules.

"Crap, I'm sorry Jules! I didn't expect you to be here in the day. I just discovered how to open doorways like that and thought this would be the safest place to go..." He looked away quickly because he'd noticed that she was not dressed, but not before getting a look at her backside. She was beautiful, but it wasn't the beauty that put a lump in his throat. He couldn't imagine how terrible it must have been for her but now he understood why she wanted so very badly to go back to that prison in New Mexico where they imprisoned survivors. It made him burn with a shared anger for anyone that would do such a thing but more than that somehow seeing it made him very sad. It was like someone intentionally slashed a priceless piece of art, or smashed a Stradivarius.

He still wanted to scout the place before going in, but there was no longer any question in his mind of guilt or innocence. Those people deserved to die and worse.

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Morgan hadn't been around, though she'd locked the door. In the privacy of their shared room, she'd felt safe enough to strip down and evaluate her healing progress in a mirror. It was something that she did from time to time, just to reassure herself that the scars were fading. They were slowly disappearing, and she smiled a little as she traced a lash mark that curled around her ribs. It was almost-

Light behind her made her spin; her nakedness made her spin back and lunge for something to cover up with. Morgan's shirt was hanging from the post of the bunk bed, and Jules snatched it and pulled it around her. She held it shut, turning and expecting to see an attacker or a super zombie. It was only an apologetic Morgan, and Jules sagged with relief.

"My god, Morgan," she gasped, sinking down to sit on the bottom bunk. "I nearly peed my, uh, non-pants." Her words reminded her that her legs were bare under the tail of his shirt, and she scrambled for covering before he thought she was done and turned around. "Ok, I'm decent," she said, then realized she hadn't buttoned the shirt. Her copper skin went as red as cherry as she turned her back to her and buttoned up. "What the heck was that? Do you have a new trick?"

[Mr Fox]

Despite what he had seen her reaction was so very human and even a little comical that it cheered him back up so when she asked her question he replied, "Yeah, I've been thinking for a while now that one of our biggest limitations is travel. In the old days we could hop a plain and be anywhere in the world inside of a day and there were shipping companies that would deliver anything anywhere within a day all it took was money to make it happen. We don't have money or planes or UPS any more. All we have is us, and while Dan and I can fly we have more important things to do than constantly fly around with a big sled strapped to us. So I got to thinking there had to be a better way. We were already able to get from point A to point B in the fastest possible time by flying and that wasn't good enough. So I came up with this... I bring point A and point B together and make them one using the energy that powers our special abilities."

He had started pacing as he considered the possibilities. "In the short term this will solve our supply problems. I can fly out to find stashes of food, open up a gateway and people from here can rush through grab the food and go back in a matter of minutes. I'd take a couple of people with me as backup and to help pile up the supplies so they'd be ready to moved as soon as I made the opening. Besides three people alone are far less a target than a big caravan and we'll draw fewer zombs to us as well. I'll want to make sure my backup is a super too, at least one of them." He finally wound down. "Sorry, it's just that this is some good news for a change.

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

"Some good... Morgan, this whole place is good news," Jules said, standing from her seat on the bed. As he glanced at her, she said, "Where else can you find a place like this, where people can be safe and fed? You don't even ask anything from anyone, except that they do their part and not hurt each other. You don't demand that they make a tithe or somehow venerate you."

Morgan hugged herself, her dark eyes intense. "I've seen how precarious it is out there. I'm not talking about Paradise; I'm talking about how easy it is to lose everything in a heartbeat. After leaving Paradise and before being found by you, I was with another group. They were good people, lived in a caravan that kept moving and stayed ahead of the zombies. And then they were caught and overrun.

"Is the Refuge perfect? No, of course not," Jules said, shaking her head. "Life is so precious now, so fleeing; all this place does is supply life to anyone who seeks it. That this place exists at all is the best news in the world."

She gazed at him, earnest and intense, hope in her eyes.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan was cheered by her words as well as by his new ability to travel. "Thanks. Yeah, I just want to see us get back to something resembling civilization and be happy and relatively safe." He grinned, "The upside to this new trick is that we can scout out the courtry and maybe make contact with the other enclaves that survive. I'm more than a little leary of the wanna be united states remnant. We're going to have to find out more about them. Anyone that orders the massacre of survivors needs to be dealt with. Even if the compound to the north was researching the virus for some nefarious purpose, and I don't believe it was, they killed a lot of innocent people and tried to cover it up to make it look like a zombie attack. Sooner or later they will come here wanting us to submit to their rule."

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Jules nodding, rubbing her face. "I wonder if there are other para-military groups out there who'd be willing to oppose them," Jules mused. "If we can find them, we might be able to use them against these others."

She paused, clearly deep in thought. It wasn't about the RUS, because she switched the topic suddenly. "Morgan... they're going to heal. You know that, right? Someday, the scars will be gone, completely, even the... burns. I mean, some of them are just a few days old, but even they'll be gone soon." She gave him her cute half-smile. "I know you saw, you big peeping Tom, you."

She was teasing him, lightly; she'd been more relaxed recently, and he was seeing some of her wit come out as she asked, "So, you going to put a doorbell on that tunnel of yours? Or can we say that blipping right into our bedroom is off limits?"

[Mr Fox]

Morgan blushed. "Yeah, sorry about that. Bedroom: off limits from now on, got it." He grinned then continued becoming more serious, "I am sorry about that, I didn't mean to see what I saw, I only came here since it was someplace I knew really well and I thought you'd be running around the compound somewhere. But about your scars. I'm sure they will fade in no time, but it's not the ones on your back I worry about. After next week, hopefully the real scars can fade too. I... I no longer need to see the situation with my own eyes to pass judgment. Seeing what they did to you is all the evidence I need. When we go next week there won't be any question in my mind about what to do with those people, only about how best to exterminate the vermin that imprison and torture others."

He wasn't really sure what else to say so he just added, "If you ever want to talk about what happened, I'm here." He waited to see what she would do or say to that. These personal things were not something he'd ever been good at and he felt like a blind man groping in the dark. He just hoped he wouldn't put his foot in his mouth or make the mistakes James had.

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Jules' face fell a touch before she said, "I'd have to be in the right... mindset to talk about it. It was... pretty awful." She fell quiet, her gaze distant as she contemplated her memories.

"It's largely unimportant anyway," Jules finally said. "The scars are fading or are going to fade. We're going to kill Hornsbeck. We'll save those women. It's all going to be in the past, soon." It sounded like something she said to herself a lot.

Fiddling with a button on the borrowed shirt, she added, "It's ok. About seeing, I mean. It's... better now. I wouldn't have wanted you to see before, but now it's ok." She sighed and said, "I'm not making much sense, am I? Well, Hornsbeck branded his name on my back. I had Jill burn it off. I had to," she added at the look on his face. "Myf wasn't sure she could remove it, so I had Jill obliterate it. Now its just a scar, instead of an attempt to mark me. So I don't mind you seeing it now."

[Mr Fox]

Morgan kept silent for a moment. The scars were fading? If that was faded he'd have hated to see them fresh. Still, he hoped that she found some peace after they had completely faded and she'd gotten her vengeance. "I know you don't want to be reminded or to have that witnessed by others, but you might want to consider letting me take a picture of it. We are trying to establish a society here with a rule of law, and while I don't have any doubt that the people responsible need justice administered, it would be nice to have evidence that could be submitted to an authorized court even if that court is just me. That way if anyone ever questions our actions in the future we can point to actual evidence to justify what we are about to do."

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

A picture? Jules swallowed hard, her expression oddly hurt. Her scars fading was the best thing about having them; a picture would only remind her later that she'd had them at all. Yet, she knew that she carried worse scars, other than the ones on her back. They couldn't be filmed, and there was only one way to get rid of them - time. Time to forget, time to find someone else to touch her with love instead of possessive lust.

"Alright," she said, standing and looking vulnerable as her dark eyes met his. "If you have a camera right now, we should get that done now." She managed a wan smile. "I'm half-naked, and you've already seen the goods today; might as well get it done."

She turned her back and started to fumble with the buttons of his shirt. If she pressed forward on it, he might now try to talk about it; he might just do it.

[Mr Fox]

Fox understood what it cost her to agree. "Only one shot and that of the scars on your back with the date/time stamp on the picture. We'll bury it in a file when I fill out a report on our actions. No one ever has to see unless we get questioned on why we did what we did and even then all they need to see is evidence of what was done to the people there. They don't need to see your face or know that it was you. Being in special forces I did a number of covert missions during my career and I know how congress would go poking into things later and it always helped to have your ducks lined up when that happened. Not that we have a congress, but we might have one again someday and I want to be ready to justify my actions now to someone questioning why we did the things we did." He laughed a little bitterly, "Hell, I hope we're fortunate enough to someday have those kinds of problems rather than the ones we have now."

Grabbing a Polaroid he took one quick picture close up of Jules back showing nothing but the scars, and then put the camera away again. He placed the picture into a manila folder in his desk in the outer room then returned business done. "I am really sorry to ask that of you Jules, I just have this strange feeling that someday it might be necessary to cya, and even if it isn't I want the histories to show we did what we did for the best of reasons. Here's hoping we have history."

Her back still too him Morgan felt terrible that she had to even think about what had happened. He walked over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder in comfort.

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Listening to him with half an ear, Jules pulled her shirt back on slowly. She saw his point; she even agreed with it. But no matter how few of her details were shown, she had a distinctive tone to her skin. Most people would be able to figure out who it was.

She didn't care, not that much, she told herself as her fingers paused on the buttons. It was still a little distressing to know that the scars still existed, and now always would, in a way. She just told herself it had to be done-

Click to reveal.. (Flashback)

Ben looked up at her with tear-filled dark eyes, scared out of his mind. He was quiet, thankfully; it was hard for him to cry with his thumb still in his mouth. After Z-Day, he'd started that again. Jules would have worried that it was the sign of emotional damage, but she was far more worried about his physical survival to give it much thought.

And his survival was definitely in question right now.

"Well?" Hornsbeck grunted. His minion was holding Ben against his front with an iron grip on the boy's arm; the man's other hand pointed a large-caliber gun at Ben's temple.

Jules stared at him with hate. She hated them all, but Hornsbeck had been the one to start this, and the first to threaten Ben. She wanted to kill him, more than she'd ever wanted anything in her life. She didn't have time to kill him before they killed her son. "Fine," she said, feeling her stomach twist.

They released Ben, and the boy ran to her, crying now. Jules hugged him tightly. "Baby, baby, listen," she whispered in his ear. "Mommy's got to go do something, and you have to be brave and stay in this room by yourself." He began to sob refusals immediately, but Jules insisted, "Baby, Benny, you have to, you have to be strong and Mommy will be back soon."

"Hurry up," Hornsbeck said irritably.

"You scared him," Jules said, the hate raw in her eyes and voice. "You didn't have to do that."

"We'll do worse than scare him if you don't get your ass moving," Hornsbeck snapped.

He wasn't going to give her the time to calm Ben before she left. Jules closed her eyes and whispered, "Benny, I love you. I'll be back." Carefully, she unwound him from her body, fighting off his feeble attempts to cling to her with maternal gentleness. She couldn't trust them to do it and not hurt him, so she closed the cell door herself, holding him inside gently. "I'll be back, baby," she promised one more time as the men grabbed her arms.

They were grabbing at her already, but Jules ignored them, looking back at Ben's face pressed to the bars, his hands extended toward her. Then they were around a corner, and all she had left was to do what had to be done and get back to her son.

-and she always found the courage to do what had to be done.

His hand on her shoulder startled her, and Jules spun. For a second, it was just a male hand, touching her without permission and scaring her, and almost hit the person at the end of the arm. She saw it was Morgan and managed to stop herself.

Shivering at how close she'd come to blindly striking him, she sagged forward, putting her head on his shoulder. "Jesus," she sighed, feeling his hand move from her shoulder to a more natural position high on her back, "I was a million miles away. You scared me shitless." She slipped her arms around his waist and hugged him. "Didn't they tell you not to sneak up on Injuns?" It was a lame joke, but she was rattled.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan hugged her back and kept his mouth shut. There was nothing he could possibly say that would make her feel good so he did the only thing he could do, he held her and didn't let go.

Eventually she seemed to have had enough and moved to separate. Morgan let her go wishing it didn't have to end. In his life he didn't think he'd been hugged since childhood and the comfort it gave was surprising for a man who didn't think such things were really necessary. Or perhaps they were necessary and he just hadn't realized it until now. Even in his special forces days, when shit hit the fan he was the one everyone looked to to hold it together. The Z hadn't changed anything, it only increased the numbers of people who depended on him.

Without any joking he said, "Thanks, I needed that. Now lets see about what needs to be done around here. I want to figure out how we can use my new gift to help out the refuge."

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

"Morgan, stop," Jules said, and the words were out of her mouth before she realized it. Having said that, she could only push on and finish her thought. "Slow down, just for a second. You're always on the run, always doing stuff. You make my over-working Dan..." Her smile faded a bit.

"You look a lot like him," she said, apparently unaware that only three of the buttons on her shirt were done up, leaving a tantalizing flashes of rarely-seen copper skin. "I'm sure you knew that, though. It's just... I looked at pictures of Dan, and they were different than how I saw him, in my heart, you know? You... you look way too much like that image of him, Morgan. Like Dream Dan cubed. And it's really messing with me."

She laughed awkwardly and looked away. "Not much you can do about that, I know. I probably shouldn't have said anything, sorry." She stepped back and crossed her arms.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan just flat out wasn't sure how to react. He hadn't had anyone close to him in his life since Dan when they were children. When it came to women they were... well, they were not something to be concerned with. They came and went in his life regularly enough that he never felt any particular need or lack. At least they had till the Z. Since then there hadn't been time to think about it. Until Jules moved in. Despite the scars she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Sure Violet and Gabrielle were 'super' pretty, but that wasn't natural, Jules was beautiful in a human way. She wasn't a model she was a real person and that made it all the harder to remember that she had been his brothers wife. Hell, according to some of the bible stuff his mother had read them when he was small were they required to marry their brother's wife if he died?

Morgan crushed that thought and just tried to be himself. Jules was right, he couldn't help how he seemed to her and it would be up to her if that would matter or not.

He just nodded and gave a crooked smile, "Yeah, I have to remind myself sometimes that you were Dan's wife."

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

"Yeah, this was as awkward as I thought it would be," Jules said softly, backing away a little further. There was sorrow in her eyes as she spoke, it given the topics they had already covered, it was hard to say what was getting her down the most.

"But what I was saying... you should take a little bit of time off from time to time," she added quickly. "You might be super and have your body and mind be ok, but your soul, your heart needs some time to relax." She gave him a smile, hoping that it conveyed, I'm concerned about you, as whatever we are and not anything awkward or uncomfortable.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan nodded decisively. "Ok, tomorrow I take the day off. I'll use my new trick to take a break and see what I can do with it and check out some other places, places without big dead populations." Mostly he would. He hadn't accomplished nearly what he'd wanted to down in Dallas and with this new trick of his he wanted to see if he could find some things that would give the people of the refuge some comfort. Besides, without people around he wouldn't be slowed by having to navigate ground obstacles.

"You are welcome to come with me if you want. Things are quiet at the moment and I think Markham and Ger can hold down the fort for a few hours if you want a break yourself."

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Jules immediately response was giddy delight - he'd asked her to come along. Her, not Violet or any of the other women, or any other person. She swallowed that and made herself think - could she go? Did she have anything that she had to do?

In all honesty, even if she did have something, she couldn't think of it. Giving up, she nodded, grinning. "That sounds great. We can pack some food, check some things out, make a day of it."

She was excited, probably too excited. There was a part of her that felt like the night that Dan had asked her to dance, and that was dangerous, so dangerous. The more mature part of was simply quietly happy, and that was dangerous, too. Maybe after New Mexico. Maybe she could test the waters then.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan smiled at her happy response. It was good to see her grin, there hadn't been much of that since she'd arrived. "Sounds like a plan. I'll leave the preparations to you and I'll just go let Ger and Markham know we'll be gone. No need for others to hear that over the radio. Seems like every time I leave the area and people know about it something crazy happens. Not this time!" He gave her a wink and strode out the door.