Episode 12 Guidance: part 1 of 4

February 1, 2016January 31, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Mindy left the plane with a new goal in life. She thought going to New Jersey State was the opportunity of a lifetime. She was thrilled with being asked to assist in the work in the antiquities basement beneath the library. She could not get enough of the rare books, ancient manuscripts and clay tablets, and her grasp of so many ancient languages was rapidly improving. But last fall, her view of it all began to change. She no longer saw it as objective historical and archeological finds—the quaint musings of how ancient people used to view reality, and instead began to see reality through those ancient eyes, and more. She began to see it ongoing in the present day, like an unbroken continuation of the human experience.

She found one of her bags and grabbed it while she thought of her professors. They all taught that they were modern and smart scientists which roughly translated into know-it-alls. Ancient people to them were all ignorant, superstitious people who could only grasp at reality through their myths, legends and imagined tales. Once Mindy broke out of her know-it-all mindset, she realized that a lot of those myths, legends and tales were in fact eyewitness accounts. Of course, she could never say that in class.

She found another bag and reached for it as she heard a voice shout to her from the distance. Mindy turned and saw Connie and a couple of Daughters of the Amazon goons. She decided having to live for another semester under Connie’s thumb just was not fair. She thought about Emily. From all she had been able to piece together over Christmas, Emily gave every indication of being an elect, a warrior woman, a one in a million. She should be the Amazon queen over her own tribe. Mindy’s goal was to join Emily’s tribe and quit Connie’s group of feminist men-haters. She figured they only kept her around to help them with their homework.

Mindy grabbed her last bag before she smiled and waved. Then, with her carry on, she juggled the four bags into position and said, “Ugh,” as she lifted them and trudged slowly toward Connie. Naturally, none of the Daughters of the Amazon would dream of offering to help.

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The Elect, Freshman Year, is the story of a young woman, Emily, who is just trying to get through her freshman year at New Jersey State University in Trenton, and pass all her classes. Not so easy when she learns that she is an elect, a true warrior woman who needs to respond to the strange events swirling around her. Someone is trying to build super soldiers, and testing them on the student body.

Detective Lisa, also an elect, has lost count on the dead bodies around the campus, and the number of missing persons… Latasha, a local high school freshman, and the third elect in town, young as she is, will do all she can to help since dead bodies are now turning up at the high school.

The Elect began posting in November of 2015. You are welcome to click on the archives button on the right side of the blog, select November, and read to the present, through first semester and Christmas break. All chapters (or episodes if you imagine it like a television show) are posted in 4 parts: M, T, W, and Th. Help yourself. It’s free to enjoy, and Happy Reading…

The Elect 11, part 4 of 4: Decapitation

January 28, 2016January 25, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

David and Emily took Anna home, which thrilled her since it meant she did not have to stay a week in a motel and eat out every meal, and especially since it allowed her to watch the bowl games she was otherwise missing. Emily shook her head and wondered what it was about football that could be so mind numbing. Dad enjoyed the company, especially when they rooted for opposite teams. Mother certainly had no interest in football, but she did not mind giving up the kitchen one evening so Anna could cook a Chinese feast.

“Better than take out,” Tyler praised.

Anna and Emily were called out on several occasions, and David drove. Emily brought her sword. Anna carried her case with her spear in two pieces. David had an army knife, but he mostly stood back and watched in awe, especially when Anna and Emily devastated a colony of five. The vampires had taken refuge in the basement of a neighbor’s house since the neighbor was in Europe over Christmas. They imagined they were safe, but as Anna said, they were still too close to home.

“The hard part is the children,” Lieutenant Anthony admitted, but he was getting his squad into shape and even Marion did not hesitate to behead a six-year-old that looked at her with puppy-dog eyes. “Like night of the living dead,” the Lieutenant concluded.

It was New Year’s Eve and Anna was thinking that things were well enough along she could afford to return to her antique shop and Emily could afford to return to school. “He has my number and yours if we are needed,” Anna said.

“I understand,” Emily agreed, but she was still concerned and her face showed it. Thus far, Brad, Duncan and Hoover had not been found. She feared as long as they were at large, this epidemic would never be cured. She spent one whole day on the phone talking to people who had been even remotely friends with one of the trio, but none of them could give her a lead on their whereabouts. Emily imagined they had some secret hideout where they met after school or over the holidays and summer vacation. She guessed they were now using that place as a home base. She assumed it had to be somewhere near one or more of their houses, or near the school, but her searches thus far had proved fruitless.

“Don’t worry,” Anna assured her. “They will be found.”

“You know, I never liked Brad,” David admitted.

“Me neither,” Emily said. “But it took me a while to figure that out. Excuse me.” She stepped outside to the front porch. She wanted to call Pierce and wish him a happy New Year. She sat on the porch swing. She focused on her phone. She never imagined that Brad and his companions would attack her house.

Emily ducked, but the rock grazed her shoulder. As she scrambled for the front door, the three vampires moved to cut her off. “Help!” she yelled, but doubted she was heard over the touchdown. She did then what she had never done in her life. She screamed.

Brad, Duncan and Hoover all paused at the scream, like their brains were trying to interpret the sound. Then Brad spoke, but it was not Brad. “Time for that beating we promised,” he said, and the three jumped her and dragged her down.

Emily fought back, but they had her in an awkward position between the swing and the wall where she could not get any leverage. They hit her, and if they focused on that they might have seriously hurt her, but instead they were focused on trying to sink their teeth into her and she only had to hold off their faces.

The front door opened and Anna and David each tackled one. David landed on Hoover in the front yard, but Hoover was strong enough to push him off. Anna kicked hers off the porch and let her half-spear do the talking. She easily separated Duncan’s head from his shoulders, and she let her spear swing wide as Hoover tried to stand. Her arm was not long enough. She sliced Hoover’s neck but most was untouched. The vampire might have healed its neck if David had not been there with his army knife to finish the job.

Emily shoved Brad back. He hit her hard and turned her head. The punch slammed her into the wall. She hit him back, harder and he crunched against a porch column. Emily saw Tyler standing there with her sword in his hand. She grabbed it as Brad realized what happened to Duncan and Hoover. He turned to run, but Emily was faster, and her arms were long enough. Brad’s head popped off with one swing.

Wicked!” Tyler yelled as Marion, the policewoman came running up the front lawn. A second police car came roaring in, siren, lights and all. Marion made a quick assessment, whipped out her badge and flashed it at the officers.

“Marion Hartley,” she said. “Department seven. You two need to watch these stiffs and make sure they don’t get up.” Marion got her phone out. Emily already had hers out.

“Anthony, we got the trio,” Emily said.

“Three more bodies fit for the fires of Hell,” Marion said and both phones closed together. Emily stared down at Brad’s face.

“Hard to believe I actually dated that guy,” she said.

“That had to be fun.” Marion responded with a large dose of sarcasm.

“Not.” David agreed.

Anna was already back inside. They saw Anna clean her blade like it was an everyday occurrence. “What did I miss?” Anna asked.

“My team scored again while you were out,” Emily’s father rubbed his hands together. “Twenty-eight to seven. That means you owe me twenty-one cents.”

The Elect 11, part 3 of 4: Explanation

January 27, 2016January 25, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

David, Emily and Anna Lee sat quietly in the police interrogation room where they waited and wondered if the police might provide lunch. Anna had said to let her do the talking and Emily was inclined to agree. David hardly knew what to say. Thus far, Anna had said little more than hello and the kind of pleasant things about the weather and such questions as a person new in town might ask. Emily gave most of the pleasant answers. David stayed quiet for most of the trip from the airport. He preferred to keep his eyes on their police escort, and on the road.

Now in the room, David sat in his fatigues and examined the forty-year-old woman closely. For all of her age, different appearance, cultural differences—being both Chinese and from New York City—he concluded that there was something very Emily about her. He eyed his sister Emily, her all-American, mid-American self, and concluded there was something shared with this woman in return, only he had no idea what that might be. He was about to ask when the door opened. Lieutenant Anthony, an older man in a suit, and a policewoman with a steno pad and pen came in with an extra chair. The policewoman sat by the door. Anthony stepped up to the table with some folders in his hands. The older man stepped up beside him.

“Sit down, Lieutenant, sir,” Anna invited. The older man sat, but the Lieutenant was not inclined to do what he was told. He slammed his folders on the table and leaned toward the group.

“Damn it, you need to start giving some answers. I need more to go on than you have given me.”

“How about sit down and shut-up,” the older man ordered, and Lieutenant Anthony reluctantly sat. “Miles Hilton,” the old man introduced himself, kindly. “His boss,” he added with a thumb in the Lieutenant’s direction.

“I will tell you everything,” Anna said sweetly, though it was clear she meant everything they would need to know. “You have heard of the Men in Black?” It was a rhetorical question but Lieutenant Anthony answered.

“Fairy tale.”

“Well, Emily is a new but valuable member of an even more secret organization. We deal with things that normal channels cannot hope to handle. You may need to call on her when she is in town. She may call on you at some point so you need to be ready. And you need to not question what she tells you, no matter how outrageous it sounds.”

“But vampires?” The Lieutenant simply could not wrap his mind around it.

Anna turned to Mister Hilton, a person more her age that she felt she could commiserate with. “Maybe Mister Anthony is not the best choice for a liaison.”

“He would be my choice,” Mister Hilton said. “I spoke to your Tomlinson in New York. He explained a lot, but Anthony needs to hear with his own ears. Let him see a few things and he will get on board.” Lieutenant Anthony looked at his boss, like he did not appreciate being talked about when he was in the same room, but he said nothing.

“Vampires.” Anna started again. “Demons cannot infect a host body unless given permission. When they have someone alone, they offer death or eternal life. Of course, it is a lie. The person dies when the blood is drained and the demons move in. It is the demon that lives in the body that is then somewhere between life and death. Tradition calls them the living dead, and it is not a bad description.”

“Eternal life or death?” David spoke up. “What kind of a choice is that?”

Anna nodded. “But you would be surprised how many people would rather die than live, as they imagine, demon infested. People are not so stupid, at least that was true in the past. This recent idea that vampires can have souls and can be lovers and all sparkling inside has not helped one bit. The truth is, vampires are incapable of love. The normal, human feelings and emotions die with the person. Vampires can fake it for a time around family and friends, but it is only to help them get into a position to feed. But believe me, demons cannot love. They can only lie, steal, kill and destroy. It is their nature.”

“Why the blood?” Mister Hilton asked.

“Because, though I am not a doctor, the human system that regularly replaces and makes blood in our bodies is one thing that shuts down rather quickly at death. Vampires need blood to keep their bodies alive as we do and what they cannot make, they take. When demons move into a body that has been completely drained, where the person has died, they need to feed right away. For every minute delay between awakening and feeding, the body dies a little more and the brain in particular shuts down.”

“So if you can keep a new vampire from getting the blood it needs it will eventually die.” Emily said, though it was a question since she was not entirely clear on the subject herself.

Anna nodded again.

“But crosses and stakes?” Lieutenant Anthony was trying.

“The cross is a powerful symbol of judgment. Demons fear it. The sun does not hurt them like in the movies, but they hate the light. They are creatures of darkness. Metal weapons conduct whatever spiritual energy they need to heal. They can completely heal almost any wound, and rapidly. Natural wood does not conduct the energy to heal. Stuck in the heart, it will interrupt the flow of blood, but the vampire will not die instantly. They may struggle for a minute or more, and if they can pull the stake out, they can still heal themselves. Beheading is the only sure way to cause instant death. A body without a head is not worth inhabiting.”

“So what do we do?” Mister Hilton leaned forward.

“We follow them home. Demons know just about everything.” She turned to face Lieutenant Anthony. “They will say things to you, intimate, personal things, twisted and distorted truths about your life to cause you pain and make you doubt yourself. Do not listen. Meanwhile, what the vampire actually knows is contained in the brain of the one they inhabit. They are instinctively drawn to home, work, and friends because it is all they know. That is their flaw. They are brilliant, but have absolutely no common sense. I once asked a man if he was filled with demons. The man answered, “No, there are none of us in here.”

David and Lieutenant Anthony laughed, but it was a nervous sort of laughter.

Anna pulled out a photograph with a business card attached. “George Marcos,” she named the man. “He was infected in New York but lives here in Columbus. His family may already be dead or infected.”

“Infected?”

“Consider it a plague,” Anna said while Emily brought out her pictures. She was up late scanning them out of her yearbook and enlarging them to print.

“Brad Marcos and his buddies Duncan and Hoover. They were the ones that attacked the two women and infected the one that went after my little brother.”

“He is fine,” David interjected. “Mother dragged him to the doctor’s this morning or he would have been here.”

“Better not,” Anna said. “I don’t mind the military, but this is not for high school gossip.”

“Or any gossip,” Mister Hilton agreed.

Emily spoke up. “I think Brad and his friends were infected Thanksgiving. That is at least a month of activity.”

Lieutenant Anthony was thoughtful and turned to the policewoman by the door. “Marion?”

“Fifteen since the first of November, all drained of blood,” Marion reported. “I could check back further.”

“I did some checking, too.” Mister Hilton interrupted. “We had a special unit on the force that handled things like this in the past but it was especially quiet for the past twenty years and they did mostly regular police work and eventually retired. I am guessing it is time to get things up and running again.” He looked at the Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Anthony looked thoughtful. He had another question. “So how do we identify the infected ones?”

Anna put the same thoughtful expression on her face. “They hate the sun, though it does not kill them like in the movies. They hate the cross. There are ways, like when a family reports that one member has suffered a complete personality change. But to be sure, the only sure way is to catch them in the act, like Emily did. That is standard police work. It is best to catch people in the commission of the crime.”

“Marion?” Lieutenant Anthony turned his head again to the door.

“I’m not being your bait,” Marion responded.

The Elect 11, part 2 of 4: Home

January 26, 2016January 25, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily was glad to be home, but terribly bored. It was the day after Christmas and she was sick of football. It was also two in the afternoon and she was still in her pajamas with her long slipper-socks with the pebble bottoms. Mother had gone out to make returns, a time honored family tradition. The rest of the family declined. Dad opted for football with David who was still home from Thanksgiving and probably would not be deployed again until February. Tyler also opted to stay home and spent an hour sliding around the kitchen floor in his slippers, scaring the cat. Emily could not slide in her slipper-socks because of the no-slip bottoms. Too bad, because sliding around the floor felt more and more like something to do as the football went on and on.

“Hey! What is this! Wow, is this real?” The shout came from upstairs and Emily immediately knew Tyler was into her things. She ran. David followed her. Dad was not moving, except maybe by crowbar.

It was what Emily feared. Tyler had her sword out and was swinging it around the room.

“Sorry about the lamp,” Tyler said. He had already busted it, accidentally.

“Give me that!” Emily yelled, but Tyler was not going to do that. He was too busy playing Obi-Wan. Emily ducked, caught Tyler’s hand, ripped the sword from his grip with one hand and with her other hand pushed him rudely to her bed.

“Hey!” He never saw it coming.

“This is real,” Emily said as she looked for her sheath. It was on the floor behind the bed. “This is not a toy, and I’ll be taking your desk lamp in place of my broken one so screw you.”

“Can I see that?” David stepped up. “I’ll give it right back, I promise.”

“Where did you get it?” Tyler wondered as he rubbed his chest. She kind of hit him to the bed more than shoved him.

Emily pulled the sheath out from the space between the bed and the wall before she handed the weapon to David. “I got it from a friend who is more than four hundred and seventy years old and he made it by hand so it is not only real, it is one of a kind.”

David looked at the weapon closely and made no comment on what his sister said. Tyler laughed. The phone rang, and Emily rushed downstairs. “I’ll get it.” Not that there was any danger that her dad would answer the phone. The call was not what she expected.

“Emily Hudson? This is Anna Lee from New York. We met at Latasha’s house.”

“Yes, of course,” Emily said, though she was not entirely sure which of the elect she was actually talking to.

“I have reason to believe there is a danger on its way to Columbus, if it is not already there. I will arrive at ten tomorrow morning. Is there a chance you can meet me at the airport?”

“Yes, of course. Just give me the information.” Emily wrote furiously on the pad beside the phone. “Can I ask what exactly the danger is that you are referring to?” Emily wrote the word vampires in big black letters on the pad. “What? Local police? No, wait. Lieutenant Reese Anthony.” She grinned when she gave the man’s name. “He already talked to Miriam at the FBI. There was an incident over Thanksgiving. I don’t know what Miriam said to him, but he let me go. What? No, he is the only one I know. I never got involved with the police before Lisa.” Emily looked up and saw David hovering over her shoulder. “Maybe I should tell you when you get here. Yes. See you at ten.” Emily hung up the phone.

David handed the sword back and said just one word. “Vampires?”

Luckily, Emily did not have to answer as the phone rang again. “Hello?” It was Susan and she wanted to take in a movie. Apparently, football was no respecter of persons and Susan just had to get out.

“I’m driving,” David said. He was not going to let her escape without answering some questions.

“But that means Tyler will have to come, too,” Emily whined like Jessica. She had learned the technique well. David just stared at her until she squirmed. “Better get dressed,” she said.

Susan, Emily and Lori sat in the back. Tyler was up front with David driving. Susan and Lori were not thrilled about Tyler being there, but they did not mind David coming along. Emily decided she did not mind Susan, Lori and Tyler all being there. It kept David from asking too many questions.

The movie was the latest blockbuster, not exactly a Christmas movie. When they got to the fight scenes, Emily thought it was too fake for words, but she imagined David thought the same thing having been in combat, or near enough. When it was over, Tyler suggested the diner across the street. Of course, Tyler had no money with him, but that was fine. Emily would cover for her little brother and be repaid, or as the saying went, take it out of his hide.

They stepped out of the theater together and heard the woman scream. Emily ran in the direction of the scream and David came right on her heels. They found Emily’s ex-boyfriend, Brad and his companions Duncan and Hoover and they had a woman backed up to the trunk of her car. The woman had pepper spray in one hand. Her other hand was up against her neck where she was bleeding. There was a second woman, but she was on the ground and looked unconscious, or dead.

Emily grabbed the back of Duncan’s shirt and tossed him over the hood of the pick-up, head first into the fender of a parked car. She kicked Hoover in the stomach and hit him hard enough to send him sprawling. The boy tripped over the woman on the ground and landed face down on the asphalt.

David shoved Brad out of the way and bent down to the woman on the ground. He tried to check her breathing and then tried for a pulse. He looked up at Emily and shook his head.

Emily ducked. Duncan’s sucker punch from behind missed. She kicked back and caught him where he would certainly feel it. David did not duck as quickly. Brad’s punch grazed David’s shoulder, but David was well trained by the army. He punched Brad in the knees before he stood and landed a better punch on Brad’s face. Emily leapt to David’s back and Hoover stopped where he was.

Tyler came to the corner of the lot followed by Susan and Lori. “Too many people,” Brad yelled and he, Duncan and Hoover ran off into the shadows. The woman with the pepper spray started to faint, but Emily caught her and in the process saw the two puncture wounds in her neck. David pronounced his findings regarding the woman on the ground.

“She is dead.”

“Susan, call for an ambulance!” Emily yelled, but Susan already had her phone out and was calling.

When the ambulance came, the medics confirmed David’s diagnosis. They put the body of the dead woman in the ambulance while they worked on the other woman. She had lost a great deal of blood and they got her on a stretcher and hooked up to an I. V.

Naturally, Tyler’s curiosity took him straight to the back of the ambulance to look at the dead body, so he was there when the woman sat up, starving for blood.

“Help!” Tyler got that much out as the woman went for his neck. David moved first and yanked the woman off his brother, but she simply turned toward Susan and Lori. Emily had her knife out by then. She had strapped it to her ankle just in case, and she jumped. She sank her knife deep into the dead woman’s chest and the woman stopped moving before she appeared to laugh. Emily nodded, remembered her zombie training, pulled out her knife and promptly took the woman’s head off. That killed her for good.

Naturally, the police pulled up right then. Lieutenant Reese Anthony came bounding out of his car, saw the beheaded woman on the ground and Emily standing there with a knife in her hand, but Emily had learned. She cleaned her knife, even if it did not have much blood on it, and she set it down before the Lieutenant arrived and grabbed her. He turned her roughly, though she did not resist, and he slapped handcuffs on her.

Everyone started yelling at the Lieutenant. One of the officers with him was so startled by the crowd reaction, he pulled his gun. Even the medics were yelling at him. He turned away. “Shut them up,” he said to the officers present and got out his phone. He had to walk around the corner to hear anything.

“Hey, people. Calm down. It will be alright,” Emily said.

“But Emily, you should not be in cuffs.” David was her defender, but his voice was calm and that also calmed the police.

“You saved our lives,” Lori said, emphatically.

“Yeah, that lady was trying to eat me,” Tyler added his thoughts. He had his hand up to stop the bleeding from his own neck. One of the medics came up, looked at it, and then took Tyler aside to work on the wound. The other medic came up with a word for the police.

“Ever see a dead person get up and walk around?” The police scoffed and shook their heads. “Well, I have.” The medic pointed to the decapitated corpse. “Good thing she was here, whoever she is.” He pointed at Emily and walked away.

“Wait a minute,” Emily said with a smile. She had been straining for some time, but there was a snap and she pulled her hands to her front, still cuffed, but the cuffs were separated. One cuff had most of the chain links. “Loose link,” Emily said with a smile. The police looked very confused as Lieutenant Anthony came back around the corner. He saw Emily had her hands free and shook his head. He already had the key out.

“I should run you in for questioning in a murder,” he said as he unlocked Emily’s cuffs. “But my boss says I am supposed to cooperate with you and your people. He got a call from the mayor, from the FBI and from Washington. Who the hell are you and your people?”

“Later,” Emily responded quietly. “When we pick up Anna at the airport, she may explain.”

Lieutenant Anthony stepped back and pointed to the dead body. “You decapitated the damn woman. What the hell is this?”

David was the one who answered. “Vampires.”

“Looks like an epidemic,” Emily added as she rubbed her wrists.

“Bullshit!” Lieutenant Anthony was not buying it, but the medic returned with Tyler and ripped back the tape that held the gauze to his neck. Tyler protested, but the medic’s words were clear. “The woman in the ambulance is suffering severe blood loss,” he said. “And look at this.” He showed Tyler’s neck where there were the characteristic puncture wounds. He put the gauze back in place as his partner called.

“Time to go.” the partner got in the ambulance front seat. They had a quick trip to make to the hospital.

“Vampires,” one of the police officers said in a hushed voice.

“What am I supposed to do with this dead body?” Lieutenant Anthony asked, not to say he never dealt with a dead body before. He was thinking that surely the woman had family somewhere.

“Cremation is the traditional answer,” Emily said in answer to the rhetorical question.

“Awesome!” Tyler spouted. “Am I going to turn into a vampire?”

Emily shook her head. “Stupid movie.”

The Elect 11, Christmas: part 1 of 4

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Matthew clicked off the lights and carefully closed the door. The sign on the door said ‘East & West’ in bold letters, and underneath, in smaller print, it said ‘Antiques & Collectibles’. The Manhattan store fit snuggly on the border between Little Italy and Chinatown.

“Another day without an incident,” Matthew said to himself with a smile. “Keep it up and I might be able to pay my rent this month.” He rattled the door to be sure it was locked, turned the collar of his coat up against the wind, and walked off whistling Jingle Bells.

The man across the street, who stood in the shadows of the night, watched every move. When Matthew disappeared into the crowd, the man looked again at the body at his feet. The card he held had the symbol of a simple circle with three squiggly lines that came out of the top of the circle. The man now knew what that symbol stood for. The man had also met the owner of the East and West and he now knew something special about her. The thoughts moved slowly, sluggishly through his dead brain, but after a while he smiled. He imagined what might be in that hole-in-the-wall shop.

###

Anna Lee slipped out of the taxi in front of her antique shop, one of a million nondescript places in New York City. It kept her afloat financially, and allowed her to pursue the artifacts and special pieces that most of the world had forgotten.

Anna picked up her duffle and slung it over her shoulder. She picked up her large, square but very thin case by the strap handle and started toward the door to the stairs that would take her up to her rooms above the shop. The big, thin case she carried looked like an artist’s case that might hold canvas, palate and paints, but the ancient Chinese inscriptions on the outside of the box suggested something else.

Anna paused and stared before she figured out what was wrong. A light got left on in the back of the shop, one that should not be on. Maybe Matthew left it on when he closed up, she thought. That was not a problem. She would just go in and turn it off. She fumbled for the keys in her purse and eventually found them under some tissues. She opened up, but did not get past the entrance. She stopped. She smelled something and immediately bent down to open her big, square, thin case.

A person was going through the jars that Anna kept hidden behind the counter. Anna did her best to sneak up close enough to stop the person quickly, but did not succeed. The person must have smelled her in return when he turned and let out an unearthly scream. He swung a fist at Anna’s head. Anna ducked, swung back and connected with the hip bone where it sounded like something broke. The person shrieked again and kicked out. This foot struck home and Anna found herself flung back into a glass case that shattered. Luckily, her thick winter coat absorbed the broken glass. She rolled free as the person tried to leap on her, heedless of the glass shards. When it bent down, Anna swung from the floor. The half-spear with the axe-like head swung true and the person’s head fell to the floor.

Vampires have a peculiar smell. Anna always likened it to the smell of lavender and death.

Anna got out her phone. She told Matthew he was going to have to get the cabinetmaker in the morning. She left a message on police Detective Tomlinson’s phone. “The rash has broken out again.” The mortuary picked up.

“The usual cremation?”

“Yes, the fires of Hell,” Anna said, and she looked at the business card taken from the vampire’s pocket. It was George Marcos, that nice tourist from Ohio she met recently in the gallery in Soho. It did not take much to put it together. She hated to leave New York, but Tomlinson had a whole staff trained to deal with this kind of outbreak. She did not know about elsewhere. She fingered the plane ticket she took from the vampire’s pocket. It was a ticket to Columbus, Ohio.

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Emily is going home for winter vacation…to Columbus Ohio. You know, she could use a rest after first semester. Stick with the holiday chapter…be sure to come back tomorrow, wednesday and Thursday for The Elect, Freshman Year.

Happy reading

The Elect 10, part 4 of 4: To the Roof

January 21, 2016January 10, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily found herself tossed by six women and flew straight up. She reached the roof, but dropped her knife to grab on to the ledge and haul herself up with her left hand. How she held on to her sword, she could not say.

When she got to her feet, she found there were lights up there, but away from the edge so as not to be obvious from below. There was also a woman.

“Professor Swenson.”

Emily recognized the woman. The woman leaned over a console and simply raised one hand to wave without breaking her concentration. “There,” the woman said at last and turned to face Emily. “And what are you going to do, kill me with your big sword? It is too late, you know. I am not in this alone.”

“You and Hilde were in a competition?”

Professor Swenson laughed lightly. “It was not really much of a competition. His ideas were too unstable as he found out in his own person. Now, I have discovered how to bring the dead back to life. Sort of god-like, don’t you think?”

Emily stepped forward, and for all her bravado, the professor stepped back. When Emily raised her sword, the professor spoke again.

“I tell you it is pointless to kill me. You will stop nothing.”

Emily grabbed her sword with both hands, turned and brought her sword down on the console. She all but split it in two. It fried itself, and the power also surged up the sword, but Emily’s handle was well insulated. She was not hurt.

“No!” Professor Swenson screamed at her. It took Emily a second to yank her sword free of the electronic trash, but then she turned and found Professor Swenson charging, her hands up, fingers spread like claws, her face growling. The woman was prepared to fight in the good old-fashioned girly way. Emily simply went to the ground and the woman could not stop. She tripped over Emily, stumbled to the edge and never did get her balance. She fell three stories to the ground below where she made a horrific crash and broke her neck. Ironic, but just, Emily thought, as she considered the poor student dude among the library stacks.

Down below, the elect all finally arrived. The ROTC troops began to back off as the zombies closed on them. Two dozen more police showed up from wherever they had run under Lisa’s instructions. They carried wicked looking knives of their own. Both sides were ready to meet when Emily smashed the control console. The zombies went spastic. They were still just as dangerous, in a way, but they did not know what to do without clear, steady directions. They began to try to kill whatever they could touch. As often as not, that was another zombie. Necks began to snap everywhere, and as the women waded in, followed by the police and most of the ROTC, they had a much easier time of it than they expected, if they were careful.

###

Friday morning Emily’s freshman English final was interesting, to say the least. Somehow, Emily managed to finish the exam before she was mobbed with questions. Emily took Jessica by ROTC, but Captain Driver was nowhere to be found. After that, Jessica and Emily started toward the police station and Maria and Amina caught up with them outside the student center as planned. They were quiet most of the way except for Maria’s comment.

“If I am ever tempted to name a child Abby, please shoot me.”

At the station, things looked just like a normal day apart from the three wreaths hanging behind the front desk. There were pictures of the slain officers attached to the wreaths, and the atmosphere was somber.

“Morning,” Mitzy spoke up from the desk, but she was not her usual happy self.

“I lost two sophomores,” Emily said.

“Worse. Miss Farmer died in the library,” Jessica countered.

“Who is Miss Farmer?”

“Was. Art History.”

Emily looked at Maria. “There goes that idea.”

Lisa was in a mood, and not a good one. Most of the elect had already returned to their homes. There were a few hanging around. One said she did not have to go home until Sunday and thought she might cross the river and see the Liberty Bell. Two agreed to go with her.

Miriam was there, with Anna from New York, and Ellen Martin from Toronto. Latasha and Libby Carter were also present and Libby said more than once that she was surprised she survived this one.

“What?” Emily looked at Lisa and did not have to spell it out. Lisa waved at Ashish and paced.

“Colonel Pickard has already been bailed out. The police spent all that time and nearly missed the battle searching out line of sight to the library. They found Pickard with a whole camera crew on top of your science building where they were filming over the tops of the trees. He only said, “This isn’t over. There is another,” but he refused to answer any questions and we were forced to release him early this morning.”

“At least we destroyed the film,” Lisa interrupted before she started to pace again.

“Tough luck,” Maria tried to sound sympathetic, thinking this would certainly upset her, but Emily interrupted.

“That is not the problem that has them concerned,” Emily told Maria. She turned and stared at Ashish. “So what is the real problem?”

“Yes, I was getting to that,” Ashish told Emily and glanced at Lisa who simply smiled ever so briefly. “We figure the other one is probably Swenson’s partner, likely the electronic genius who created the brain implants. Also, her lab is still out there somewhere. If they have her formula, they can probably make more of the life elixir. Then with the implants, they might try again.”

“I don’t know,” Amina said softly. Lisa stopped pacing and hushed the others. “I’m sorry.” Amina looked up. “I don’t know where they are. Something is darkening my eyes.”

“That’s okay,” Lisa reassured her. She had been told, but was not convinced about this Sybil business.

Emily sat, so the others sat except Lisa. Emily spoke. “You know, all I really want to do is pass biology. Instead, I have been fighting biology all semester.”

“Yes, please. Just help me pass my finals,” Jessica agreed.

Lisa came over at last. “You need a good Christmas break. Don’t worry. We will not be able to search very much before you get back. You won’t miss anything.”

“To be honest, I would not mind if I did miss something.”

Everyone chuckled, but only a little.

“So, what do you want for Christmas?” Anna asked. Emily thought of Pierce.

Latasha still had the ax she carried like a baby. She held it up. “I already got my Christmas present.”

Emily looked at her hip where she felt slightly naked without her sword. Santa-Heinrich already gave her a Christmas present, too. She imagined she might always see the man as a bit of a Santa—the way he first appeared to her, but she said nothing.

When her last class was over on the following Wednesday, Emily said good-bye to Amina, Maria and Jessica. They all left early Wednesday when she just began to pack. She was not leaving until the following afternoon. She told her parents she had a paper to finish, but that was not strictly true. She had gotten it finished on time after all only she never mentioned it.

The campus was eerily empty Wednesday evening. There were a couple of exams scheduled for Thursday morning and the dining hall would be open for breakfast, but with most of the students already gone, it was quiet and relaxing. Emily felt as if she had not relaxed all semester.

I knew first semester, freshman year could be hard, but nothing like this, she said to herself. Then she felt good because she was getting a B in biology and had aced the final. In fact, she was getting all Bs and one A in ROTC. That was not bad at all, considering. And then there was Pierce.

Pierce met her at the student center. She did not know if he had anything special in mind, but she did not care. She took his hand and said very little as they walked. He was quiet as well, seemingly content to let her lead him along. She took him straight to her empty room and they stayed there together all night.

Emily woke up alone. She did not mind. She was very happy. She grabbed a shower and hurried to finish packing. She found the rose and note. It was Shakespeare. “A Rose by any other name…” No one ever wrote Shakespeare for her before. She could only smile.

Detective Lisa drove her to the airport. They hugged good-bye and Emily boarded only to wait on the runway for a half hour. She spent her time wondering. If that was first semester, what could second semester possibly be like?

************************

Next week, Emily finally gets her Christmas/winter vacation, but it appears the undead follow her…Well, you have to see for yourself on Monday.

Happy reading everyone.

The Elect 10, part 3 of 4: Armies are Made

January 20, 2016January 10, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily saw Heinrich in the distance and quickly cleaned her sword and knife before he arrived. Ashish had gone over to the police huddle even as Lisa returned. The police had some plan going, and they soon scattered out across the campus.

Lisa came right to the girls while Maria spoke. “Sybil, where are they coming from?”

Amina dropped her eyes and spoke softly. “There are tractor trailers three blocks away, but they are empty now and leaving and something is preventing my eye from following them.”

When Heinrich arrived, Amina took one look and went to her knees. Emily paused to lean over her friend and speak. “You stay here and stay safe. That’s an order.” Amina nodded.

“Now what do we do?” Jessica interrupted.

“We get that fire alarm turned off,” Lisa said.

“Sorry,” Jessica said. She was the one who thought to trip the alarm.

“No, that was a good idea” the others all said. “That probably saved a number of lives.”

The fire truck was still on the way, but the fire chief was already there. He just held out the alarm key to any takers. “Inside the front door.” He was not going anywhere near the building once he found out what was going on inside.

“Come on,” Lisa said to Emily. To be honest, she wanted to assess the situation up close, even if they were unable to go in and shut off the alarm.

“Coming?” Emily asked Heinrich.

“I would be honored,” he said with a little bow to Lisa. Lisa frowned, but Emily noticed she did not turn down the man’s help.

They ran up to the door and paused. Emily pointed through the glass door to the fire alarm. Lisa pointed to the main room. Where there had been a dozen, now there were fifty or sixty zombies and more were arriving all the time. There appeared to be no way, but Heinrich calmly opened the door and they were obliged to follow him in. Emily stood on one side, knife and sword in hand. Lisa had her two knives out and stood at the ready. Heinrich did nothing for a second. Then he suddenly raised both hands and something came out of him like a force or a hurricane wind. It was a palatable force. Emily thought it tasted bitter. The nearest zombies were lifted from their feet and flung twenty feet away to crash into others. The whole front end of the main room was suddenly cleared and Lisa had no trouble keying off the alarm. The zombies started to get up right away, but the three did not wait around for them to attack. They were back outside and ran to the walkway in time to see a sight.

Only three of the women were there so far. The others were coming from further off, but two old army trucks came up and parked where their headlights shone into the library. The ROTC, both sophomores and upperclassmen raced out of the back of the trucks, armed and ready. They immediately got into firing formation while Captain Driver stepped over to Emily and the others.

“Hope we’re not late,” he said. Emily wondered instead how they got there so soon, armed and ready the way they were, but she could not worry about that just then. The zombies were beginning to come out the front door. She began to pace behind the firing line and shouted instructions to any who might listen.

“You have to shoot for the heart. Hitting it in the chest will not stop it. Even a perfect shot to the heart will only stun it and slow it down.” She stepped to the front of the line. “They are not as slow as in the movies, and they are strong. They can break your arm or your leg but they will try to snap your neck. They have nails like claws and can shred you and scratch your eyes out. You have to penetrate the heart, but even then, the only way to completely stop them is to cut their heads off. When they get close, you might think hard before you wade into them with your little army knives.” She pulled her sword in front of them. “Good luck,” she said and went back to the others.

Six of the women were there by then making eight altogether with Emily and Lisa. Seven more were on their way, riding in the same van, but that was it, apart from the ROTC crowd and the police who seemed to be very preoccupied. Emily looked and already there were maybe eighty zombies lining up in a ragged line by the library front doors. She did not like their chances even with Heinrich and his magic force or bitter wind or whatever it was. She turned to her friends.

“Maria. Jessica. You might take Amina and find a safer place.”

“If being behind you isn’t safe, I don’t think anywhere in the world would be safer,” Jessica responded.

“No, she is right.” Lisa spoke up. “We assume they want to test what they can do en masse. If we fail to stop them, there is no reason to suppose they will go rampaging throughout the university.”

Captain Driver yelled fire and the troops let off a volley even as Lisa’s phone rang.

“What? What?” She had to say it twice before she put down the phone and began to look all around the area. Last of all she looked up and pointed. “Get some lights on that roof,” she yelled.

“Fire.” The guns went off again as the zombies began to move forward. Twenty of them were knocked down from those twenty-two guns, but even if a few were hit in the heart, it did not stop them from getting up again.

Jessica got Maria’s attention and they ran to the army trucks. The trucks had spotlights attached to the passenger side windows. It took a minute to figure out how to turn them on and direct them up, but then everyone had a clear view of a person on the roof watching over the scene.

“Emily, you need to go up.” Lisa yelled.

“What?”

“Ladies.” Twelve hands grabbed Emily. Four hands at her knees, four at her middle and four at her shoulders. While they swung her, Lisa spoke quickly. “It is too far for you to jump back down without injury. Good luck. I’ll say one, two, go. Ready? One, two, go!”

The Elect 10, part 2 of 4: Afternoon to Kill

January 19, 2016January 9, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Thursday, mid afternoon, Emily and Jessica took Maria for a latte. Amina, already there, held the table. The problem was Maria found her new roommate impossible to live with. The only sleep she had gotten lately was on the floor in Emily’s and Jessica’s room. Emily and Jessica were fine with helping their friend, but it was becoming a strain on them all since the rooms were hardly big enough for two.

“You don’t understand. All Melissa does all night long is burn incense and chant praises to glorious Abby. I mean, who is this girl?” Emily had an idea in the back of her mind but she did not say anything because the word witch sounded so insane. Fortunately, she did not have to say it.

“She is a power,” Amina spoke up even as she looked down at the table. “She is a witch of great power and I see no good in her.” No one questioned what Amina saw. She rarely spoke that way, but when she did, the others had learned to listen.

Jessica broke the spell when she spoke. “Maybe Emily could knock Melissa unconscious every night so you could sleep.”

“Ha, ha.” Emily did not laugh. She rubbed her stiff shoulder, instead. “I just had the first real workout in my life. That old man is strong.” The others said nothing. “Stronger than I am, and quicker, but he says strength and speed are not the keys. He says after he finishes his task he will go back to being normal so I will have to take it easy on him. I don’t know, though. The man’s skill with weapons is amazing.” She probably should not have said that much, but she was not in the habit of keeping secrets from her friends.

“Hey, Emily.” Someone called from across the room. It was Connie, and Mindy came with her and several Daughters of the Amazon.

“Hey,” Emily was not unfriendly, but she had her sword up on the table and felt sorry it was too late to hide it.

“We have missed you at the meetings,” Connie started right in. “And you,” she turned to Amina and paused.

“Amina.” She gave her name.

“Right, anyway—“

“Is that real?” Mindy interrupted.

“Of course it is,” Amina responded. “And the reason Emily has not been to the meetings is because she is not a Daughter of the Amazon. She is the real deal.”

Emily turned an eye on Amina, but Amina was serious and did not imagine she said anything wrong.

“Riii-ght,” Connie drew out the word with sarcasm in her voice. “Anyway, it will be good to see you at the next meeting.” She turned and her followers turned with her, except Mindy who hesitated and looked at Amina.

“I believe you. I have learned about such things. The queen is always one of the elect.” Mindy whispered, and Emily frowned again at Amina, but Amina just smiled in return and stood up to the frown.

“It is true,” Mindy said and said no more, as Connie came back to drag off Mindy. Mindy’s eyes pleaded with the girls, but that was one can of worms where they were not yet willing to open.

“No word on any attacks?” Maria thought to change the subject.

Emily checked her phone and her beeper and shook her head. All of the sisters were given beepers so they could all be notified, simultaneously. They could call in and be told where they were needed. Presently, ten of the younger and hardier souls were camped out around Latasha’s house. When the call came, they had plans to drop Latasha’s family at a motel for the night, all prepaid.

“ROTC has been put on alert, sophomores as well as the upper class. There is not much they will be able to do, though,” Emily said. “I don’t suppose they will even be able to gather fast enough before it is all over.”

“I don’t know,” Jessica thought aloud. “They are mostly big, strong, well conditioned young men.”

“Does Tom know you noticed?” Maria teased.

“Yes, they are,” Amina whispered at the same time, and several eyes went to her.

“What would your family say?” Emily teased, but felt bad about it the minute she said it. Amina’s face reddened and Emily felt obliged to give the girl a hug of reassurance.

Jessica ignored them. “I was saying they ought to be worth something in a fight.”

Emily nodded. “I am sure they would do well. Trust me, if it was just me in this thing, I would be depending on them, big time. The thing is with so many sisters here it is just as well they only act as back-up. We have lost the freshman class already.”

The library was the next stop in the itinerary. They all had to study for finals, which New Jersey State got in before Christmas break. Even Jessica studied, but as the sun set, she was also the one who reminded them they needed to get to the dining hall before it closed.

“That library is a madhouse,” Jessica added as they walked.

“What would you expect?” Maria said. “Everyone has papers and projects to finish and some of those back areas and side rooms are still the best for study groups. Dorm lounges are too tempting to not get serious.”

“Or to sneak off to your room for a nap,” Emily added though Maria rolled her eyes as if to say, if only she could.

“So of course the library is a madhouse,” Amina concluded.

“Isn’t that what I said?” Jessica finished that conversation.

They headed back to the dorm after they ate and saw Melissa outside the dorm with three other women. She was sitting on one of the outside chairs under a spotlight, talking, and the others were at her feet, shivering.

Emily’s beeper went off.

“Did I mention she now has some glorious Abby disciples?” Maria said, but Jessica put her hand to Maria’s arm to quiet her as Emily got on her phone.

“They’re in the library.” Emily began to run. The others kept up as well as they could. By the time they arrived, people were screaming and streaming out. Emily raced through the main room, not terribly worried about the people there. They would get out well enough. It was the ones in the side rooms and in the stacks among the books that might be caught.

At the third side room, she saw a group of students inside. Two boys held the doorknob so the zombie could not yank the door open. A second zombie arrived just before Emily and cracked the window that looked out into the stacks. The students all screamed.

Emily pulled her sword and sliced off the head of the one at the door. In a perfect execution of the move she practiced for two hours after lunch, she followed her stroke with a stab to the heart. The handle of her sword was strongly insulated now, so she did not feel the shock. One was down, but the other was on her. Her left hand shoved her knife into that heart and the zombie stopped and looked at its chest for a second with the same bewildered look Libby had seen. That was enough time for Emily to leap back and two hand her sword through the neck. The head rolled away. Emily had to force open the door and sent both boys sprawling in the process.

“Get out!” she yelled once and ran on.

A moment later, she heard the fire alarm go off. Someone was thinking. Then she heard a male voice in the muffled area among the books.

“Dude, Halloween is long over.”

Emily heard the crack as she rounded the corner. The zombie had grabbed the boy and snapped his neck. She stopped that zombie from killing again, but there was already one death she was unable to prevent.

One more corner and she saw seven zombies inside, and more streaming in the back door. She was not going to get to check upstairs. She turned and ran toward the front, hoping that she was not already cut off. There were a dozen zombies in the otherwise empty main room when she arrived. She got up on the tables, ran and leaped from table to table to get out the door.

Maria and Amina were on the front steps. “I didn’t get to check the upstairs,” Emily shouted through the sound of the fire alarm. Amina and Maria did not care about that. They grabbed Emily by the arms and dragged her to where Jessica was standing back, safe, watching. Lisa ran up the walk as they stopped.

“They are attacking Latasha’s house,” she shouted before she came to a stop as well. “There are twelve who won’t be here.”

“Twelve?” Jessica asked.

“The ten we sent plus Latasha and Libby Carter.”

“That leaves how many?” Maria asked.

“Fifteen, if they all get here.” She looked all around and then ran to speak to Rob Parker and the police sergeant when they arrived. Ashish came huffing and puffing along a moment later.

The Elect 10, Zombies Overdue: part 1 of 4

January 18, 2016January 9, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Heinrich walked the campus to get acclimated. He wanted a good feel for the environment before he set down roots. He knew his presence made the elect nervous, but he had felt out the three and found Lisa, young Emily and even Latasha, young as she was, were serious about the work. He had no qualms there and thought he might even help them now and then. True, the influx of so many elect disturbed him. Some felt off color, but not terribly so, and he knew this was just a temporary thing. He hoped being around so many good sisters, as they called themselves, it might encourage the off color ones to straighten up.

Heinrich laughed to think of these women all running around like headless chickens, brandishing their weapons, waiting nervously for the main event. Centuries of experience had taught him to relax and wait, and not to worry so much about weapons. Weapons could be found. When the time came, he was his own best weapon, even if he had nothing in his hands.

Heinrich stopped. He heard a noise by the old gymnasium that stood beside the parade ground. There were soldiers gathering there—no, young men. Emily’s ROTC men, and they were getting into the back of a truck. He lifted his nose and took a big whiff of air. He decided he must be getting old. He ran faster than any ordinary man toward the library.

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There are in fact three elect in Trenton, NJ. Emily is a freshman at the university, Latasha is a high school freshman, and Detective Lisa and the Trenton police are having to deal with things at the university that are, to say the least, not normal. Now, Heinrich, a member of the mysterious council has shown up, along with twenty-six more elect gathered from all over North America. The zombies have already gone after Latasha’s house (chapter 9). It is only a matter of time before they are let loose on the university campus.

The Elect, Freshman Year began in November of 2015. You can begin the story by clicking on the archives button and selecting November of 2015, or just enjoy it from this point… Every chapter (episode, like a television show) is posted in 4 easily digestible parts over a single week. So after today, you will find parts 2, 3, and 4 of chapter 10 on T, W, and Th of this week. Enjoy. It is free, and Happy Reading.

The Elect 9, part 4 of 4: A Controlled Experiment

January 14, 2016January 5, 2016M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“I don’t think we can wait any longer,” Latasha said suddenly, and she grabbed Miriam’s hand and dragged her to the upstairs front window. They turned off the upstairs hall light and she had the woman climb out on the porch roof with the intention of peeking over the side. She thought they might count the zombies out front and maybe send a group of women off the porch roof to attack them from behind. If they could eliminate the ones out front, the zombies out back would be all that remained.

Miriam grabbed Latasha before she stuck her head into the light. The rooftop was in the dark and Miriam thought they might not have been seen, yet. She pointed at the van across the street as Anna and another woman appeared at the upper window. Miriam quickly got Anna’s attention. She pointed again at the van across the street, then to herself and to Anna and to the side of the porch roof. Anna nodded and sent the other woman back downstairs with some sort of instructions before she climbed out on to the roof to join them, the two pieces of her spear in her hands.

“I’m going,” Latasha whispered. “So don’t say stay here or I’ll scream.”

Miriam smiled and pointed to Anna, Latasha and herself saying only “rear door, passenger side door and driver’s side door.” It was going to take all three. Latasha drew up her chin and whispered.

“Okay.”

They inched to the far edge of the porch roof, jumped as far from the light as they could and rushed back into the dark as soon as they landed. They got to the street, but stayed behind the bushes as Anna said, “Wait.”

It was a minute before three women jumped off the front of the roof to land behind the zombies. They quickly killed two, but that caused the others to turn in their direction. “Now,” they shouted, and the front door flew open. Four women, including Libby came barreling out and shoved the zombies off the porch and to the ground. It did not seriously hurt the monsters, but it gave the women some fighting room.

“Just hold it!” The woman with the broken arm shouted behind her. She and the one that had been so badly scratched held the front doorway to be sure none of the zombies got inside. The china closet was being pushed against the back door by Latasha’s three big brothers, but they were complaining that they could not hold it where the women had taken turns one at a time holding it.

“Yes you can,” the woman with the broken arm encouraged them, and they did hold it, but barely.

As soon as the ruckus outside started, Anna said, “Now.” The three from the shadows moved quickly as Miriam had pointed out that they might have sensors outside the van.

Anna tore open the back door. One man turned with a gun in his hand, but Anna threw her spear blade. It cut the man’s arm off. The arm and gun fell to the floor before he did. She took her stick end and bludgeoned the man at the console until he was unconscious. Then she shut everything down, and the zombies, without a constant stream of instructions, began to wander aimlessly.

At the same time, Latasha and Miriam yanked open their doors which had no doubt been locked. Miriam pulled out the driver and knocked him hard to the ground. Latasha found no one in the passenger seat.

“Damn!” She shouted and assumed Miriam guessed there might not be anyone there. She slammed her ax into the seat, effectively carving it up before she turned and ran back to join the fight at the house. She killed a zombie out front, and when the women split and ran down both sides to the back to finish the job, she killed one out back, too. Then she felt better about herself, even though killing the zombies was not so hard once their instructions were cut off.

“Open up,” she yelled at her brothers through the back door when it was over.

“No way,” her brothers were too frightened to back off, so Latasha shoved and all three boys fell back. Unfortunately, the china closet also fell and it made a terrible mess. Latasha did not care about that just then. She stepped in, her axe over her shoulder and looked down on her three bewildered, big older brothers. She spoke to them in a calm and quiet voice. “I said, open up.”

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Monday, chapter 10, Latasha’s house is just a distraction…the real attack is at the university library, not to say zombies are big on reading…

You can be big on reading…