Terrence Brooks Jr's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

Terrence ran through the weeds with the map crushed in his fist. Ahead, the towers of Sunspire City glowed cold and far away. Behind him, footsteps came slow and sure. Too sure. No living man walked like that. He cut between two dead buildings and stopped. The dead end trapped him. He turned, and One2 stepped into the moonlight. The zombie was small. That surprised Terrence. Gold teeth caught the light. Sunglasses hid dead eyes. Torn white shirt, gold chain, sneakers red at the toes. He looked like a kid from any block back home. Then he smiled, and Terrence felt his own soul pull toward those teeth, like a hook behind his ribs. "You took something from the old man," One2 said. His voice scraped. "Everything on this block is mine now. That includes you." He raised one small hand. Terrence felt his chest tug harder. His knees buckled. Something inside him was coming loose. Back in Milwaukee he had never thrown a punch. He was a ballplayer, not a fighter. He had nothing to fight a dead man with. But then the pull touched something buried deep. A warmth spread up his spine. His skin tingled. He looked at One2's raised hand, and he understood the move without being taught it. His body copied it. He raised his own hand and pulled back. One2 froze. His grin dropped. "What—" Terrence felt the zombie's own power flowing through him now, mirrored, matched. The tug reversed. One2 stumbled forward, dragged toward Terrence. Two forces locked between them, straining. The gold chain rattled. The weeds bent flat. "You ain't from here," One2 hissed. He knew something. Terrence saw it in the way the dead face twisted. "You one of them. From up there." "One of who?" Terrence shouted. One2 didn't answer. He ripped his hand free. The pull snapped. Both of them staggered back. Terrence's copied power flickered and died. His arms shook. He didn't know how to hold it yet. One2 backed toward the shadows. He wanted the tunnels safe, and now something stronger than him walked above them. "You go down there," he said, "you never come back up. That's a promise, tall boy." Then he was gone, fast, into the dark between the buildings. Terrence dropped to his knees in the weeds. His heart slammed. He looked at his own hands. They had done something impossible. He could copy anything. The dead man's power had lived in him for one breath. That was how he had survived. And One2 had known him. One of them. From up there. The words burned. The zombie hadn't just fought him. The zombie had recognized what he was. Terrence smoothed out the map against the dirt. The way into the tunnels waited. But now he wasn't only chasing answers about his home. He was chasing the one creature on this block who already knew where he came from.