Amazons

Elect II—20 Underground, part 1 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily was still in bed three days later when Jessica and Fiona the hunter joined forces and found Carlos in an unused warehouse meat locker.  He was completely drained of blood and stank.  Fiona guessed he had been hanging for two or three days.  They all kept quiet as they looked around the main room for Mama spider.  Officer Dickenson spoke first.

“I imagine the big spider is long gone,” he said.  He knew it was wishful thinking when the others contradicted him.

aa-warehouse-dock-1“She is near,” Jessica said.

“I can sense something, not far,” Latasha agreed.

Harmony called her troop for backup with a word.  “There may be more babies as well.”

“Not what I want to hear,” Dickenson said.  “But if there are more, we get out, call Schromer and get extra back-up.”  It took some convincing, but eventually the women agreed.

###

At that same time, Sara was in the city hall, waiting outside the courthouse for Paul.  She had come to realize if she did not go see him at work, she might never see him at all.

Lisa came out from testifying against one of the drug dealers Latasha got her mixed up with.  “Off with time served,” she said as she sat beside Sara on the bench outside the courtroom.  She expected Sara to say something about the lack of justice and how the streets will never be safe if the bad guys keep getting off so easy, but that was not what she heard.

“How do you do it?”  Sara looked at Lisa with questions written all over her face.  “With Josh and the kids, I mean.  The only place I see Paul these days is here or over in City Hall where he is working in the Mayor’s office.”

Sara got quiet and Lisa paused for a moment to think.

“I got lucky.  Josh knew what he was getting, police and all.  He knew about my election, not all the details, but that my life would never be normal.  He sent me flowers anyway.  He said his programming job was the kind he could work from home most of the time, and he did not mind being a house husband and doing child care if we should have children.  He said he would always a-trenton-court-hallbe there for me.  How could I say no?”  Lisa smiled and then added a serious note.  “Honestly, I don’t do it very well.  I struggle with guilt the way most women do these days, I suppose.  The days of wife and mother staying home with the kids are pretty much over.  Women work these days because they have to, and the idea that a woman can have it all is a croc.  Either work or Josh and the children are always getting gypped.”

“Not so,” Ashish said.  He had come out of the courtroom in the middle of the conversation, but heard enough of it.  “I think Lisa does a remarkable job of balancing things.”

Lisa gave her partner a brief smile but turned straight back to Sara who looked so serious. Lisa’s intuition was acting up.  “You haven’t told Paul about you and the girls, have you?”

“I have, but not in detail, and I haven’t taken him to meet them yet.  I’m afraid.”

Lisa reached for her hand.  “Complete honesty.  That is the only way to know if he is right.  You don’t have the luxury of picking just any old husband.”

Sara opened her mouth and shut it just as quick.  “When I met the girls I thought I stumbled into a band of superheroes, like the X-Men.  I discovered it isn’t just Emily, you and Latasha.  Each of the girls, in her own way, can do things no human being ought to be able to do.”  Sara stopped and Lisa encouraged her.

“And then?”

Sara took a deep breath.  “And then I found out I could do things that defied nature.  Not big things, but subtle things.”  She looked up at Lisa and let out the smallest grin.  “I can glow in the dark.”

ac-riverbend-3Lisa patted Sara’s hand and stood.  “My pastor says we all have our crosses to bear.”  She returned the slight grin and added the word, “Priestess.”  Then she raised her voice.  “Aurora.”

A young girl stepped around the corner, or more likely appeared from somewhere else.  Sara was not fooled.  She knew this was an elf in disguise.  It was confirmed when Aurora stopped at the bench, looked at Sara, gave a little bow and said, “Priestess,” in echo of Lisa’s word.  She turned to Lisa, nodded her head again and said, “Lady.”

“Anything?” Lisa asked.

“There have been ghouls here, but not here now.”

“Ha,” Ashish interrupted.  “She hasn’t seen the lawyers.”

###

It was on a Saturday, around sundown, two weeks’ shy of finals, when Jessica and Fiona found their way back to that same warehouse.  Latasha, Harmony and Officer Dickenson followed, and all said they knew the trails would return to this place.

“I about have this old warehouse memorized,” Officer Dickenson said while his eyes continued to search every corner for signs of spiders.

“We have been over this place,” Harmony admitted.

“And we found nothing,” Fiona agreed.

“But all the signs point here,” Jessica looked frustrated.

“Maybe we missed something.”  Fiona began to second guess.

boston-5“At least the place is not full of webbing this time,” Officer Dickenson remarked.

“In here.”  Latasha was by the door and everyone looked in her direction.  A young man and a young woman came in.  “That is why I asked for a second set of eyes.  This is my science teacher, Ms. Riley.”

Jessica opened her mouth but said nothing.  The absurdity of Latasha asking her high school science teacher for help was beyond even Jessica’s ability for quick remarks.  Harmony and Fiona were not fooled by the glamours.  Both heads dipped and Harmony spoke.

“Lord Roland.  Lady Boston.”

Boston responded while Roland took a long look around the big room.  “From the way Latasha described things, I am guessing a secret door.”  Boston sat down in the middle of the floor and opened her purse.  She took out a Jar of dust and a stick, which was her wand.

“Your wife is sitting down to find a secret door?”  Officer Dickenson thought they should be tapping the walls and looking for signs on the floor, but in part he wanted to know who these strangers were.  It was police curiosity.

“Yes,” Roland spoke openly to the police officer.  “My wife was a witch before she became an elf.”  Officer Dickerson just shut his mouth like it served him right for asking.  “Like your Melissa,” Roland added for Jessica who nodded that she understood and stepped back to let the woman work.

Boston chanted very softly and waved her wand several times in between her chants.  Jessica could see the orange colored swirl of the magic that surrounded Boston like a fine mist of fire.  Every time she swirled the wand, the mist expanded to cover more of the warehouse floor.  Officer Dickenson asked his question before it reached the walls.

“What is happening?” he whispered.  “I don’t see anything.”

“Hush,” Latasha quieted him.  “It is like a red-orange mist, and it looks like she found something.”

boston-1The mist began to pull together over one round spot on the floor.  Boston got up slowly and brought her jar of dust to the spot.  She sprinkled the dust and spoke, and the round spot glowed with a sparkling golden tint that everyone could see.  Then she spoke.

“This is not a magical door.  It seems mechanical in some way and that may be why our elves did not find it, because they were not looking with the right set of eyes.”

“You did say at first they were not spiritual creatures,” Fiona reminded Latasha who simply nodded and unwrapped her ax.

“Here, give me a hand with this,” Roland said to Officer Dickenson.  Latasha also got down to apply her strength to what for all practical purposes was like a manhole cover cut smoothly out of the concrete floor.  When it was open, all they could see was down into the dark.

Elect II—11 No Earthly Creatures, part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily paused in her reading.  Maria was in her spot on the couch with papers and books spread all over the coffee table.  Amina was in her chair with a book, but she looked ready to take a nap.  Melissa had a math book out and was taking notes.  Emily could not imagine why anyone would ever take notes out of a math book, but then she probably would not understand the math in that book, so it hardly mattered.

ac-melissa-pencil“Anyone find any extra doors around campus that might be open?” she asked.

“No,” Maria answered without looking up.  “No doors to Avalon.  And no apples from Avalon either.”

“Where is Avalon?” Melissa asked.  She put the pencil in her mouth for a good chew.

“Long way,” Amina said.

“But we may never find the creatures that have escaped if we don’t find the door and close it,” Melissa said.

“Yes, I know,” Emily responded.  “There’s trouble in the ranks, whatever that means.”

“Zoe’s Mystery,” Maria said.  “It means the world is going mad.”

All four women spoke in unison.  “Blah, blah, blah.”  They went back to their studies.

###

ac-mindy-a1Early on the last Tuesday morning before Christmas break, Mindy went down to the library sub-basement for her shift.  She was feeling more frustrated than any of them.  Every chance they got was spent looking for apples, looking for a door, and in Mindy’s case not finding anything about the circle with three squiggly lines.  They did not talk about it.  Days went by without mentioning it.  Thanksgiving came and went and now it was nearly time for finals, the semester was almost over and they found nothing.

“How does Zoe expect us to find things that may be invisible or insubstantial?”  Mindy complained.

“I don’t know.”  Bill looked up from the desk opposite hers and shook his head; but Mindy was not finished.

“I mean, what good is a wise woman who doesn’t know anything?  Really?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Bill responded.  He stared at her, and at any other time Mindy would not have minded, but at the moment she was not in a good mood.  She returned a mean stare and he opened up just a little.  “I am the graduate student, but you are so far ahead of me on so many things, and you are just a sophomore.  I mean, you eat ancient languages for breakfast.”

“I’ve always been good with languages.  That doesn’t mean anything.”

ac-owen-1“That means everything!”  He shouted as much as a scholar can shout.  “In two years you know more languages than I know in six, plus high school where I studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew because I was supposed to be the genius kid.  And worse, you remember it all.  It’s like we are all looking at the tapestry of life and enjoying the picture on the cloth.  You can see the stitching and know just where one color ties off and the next begins.  You are the most remarkable woman I have ever known.”

Mindy could not respond right away.  She was too busy reveling in the fact that a young man called her a woman.  She was short and perky and everyone else just referred to her as a girl.  When she did respond, it was with sharp words.  “Bill, quick.  This way.  Hurry.”  She grabbed Bill’s hand and dragged him through several twists and turns around stacks and cases until she got to a spot on the wall where the pieces of a cabinet lay unassembled.  She grabbed a six-foot dowel as Bill caught sight of what was following them.  To his credit, he managed to maintain enough control of his tongue to ask, quietly.

“What the hell is that?”

“Orc,” Mindy answered as she shoved Bill behind her and held the dowel like a staff.

The orc paused at the end of the aisle.  It stared at them through intelligent, malevolent eyes.

ac-j-j-orcMindy spoke in a language Bill never heard before, and she shifted her hands on the staff to show she knew how to use it without threatening the beast at the same time.  The beast simply barred his teeth, his many sharp looking teeth, and growled in guttural sounds before it turned and walked off.  Mindy was for going down the aisle to see if she could catch a glimpse of where it went, but Bill grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Listen first,” he said.  “Maybe it is waiting for us.”

It sounded wise, but Mindy shook her head.  “It had us cornered here.  If it wanted us it would have taken us, or tried already.”

Bill nodded even if he did not quite believe it.  “So what was that language you spoke?  I didn’t recognize it.”

“Akkadian.”

“What?”  Bill backed up a little.  “No one knows how Akkadian is spoken.  That is a matter for scholars to debate.”

“Well, that was Akkadian all the same,” Mindy said.  “How do you think I learn all these languages?  I hear it in my head as I read it.  If I read enough, non-stop, I start to think in the language and have to make myself think again in English.  I spoke Akkadian, and correctly since the orc understood me.”

ac-mindy-5“What?”

“The original language of the Amazons.  I told the orc I belonged to Zoe and you belonged to me.  I said if he harmed us he would have to answer to Zoe.  He answered that he would go.”

“He answered?”

“Yeah, that growl and stuff.  He answered in orc.”

“I belong to you?  Bill took Mindy by the shoulders and turned her so she would face him.  All Mindy could do was nod her head.  “Wait a minute.  He answered in orc?”

“Yeah.  It’s sort of like Klingon but not as friendly.”

Elect II—7 Orcs on Parade, Part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Once outside, Diane did not have to take them far.  There were a dozen nasty looking brutes a hundred yards off across the parade ground.  Fortunately, there were no people between them and the orcs.

“We may need to run,” Heinrich whispered.

“Diane, go back to the others,” Emily said.

ac-em-diana-2“I’m not afraid,” Diane said, though her voice shook a little.

“Not the point.  You are unarmed.  I said go back.”

“Yes Ma’am, Majesty.”  Diane started out Army and turned Amazon.  Mindy and Amina thought that was great.

“Arrows ready,” Heinrich said as the two parties stopped twenty yards apart.  The orcs were hard to look at, not because they were especially frightening or ugly, but because they looked unstable.  They were on earth, on the parade ground that doubled as a ball field in the summer, but they appeared to still have a foot in some other realm.  Besides that, whatever they once were, elves, dwarfs, imps of one sort or another no one could say.  They all appeared to share the same distorted, mean and pained expression.

“Why are you here?”  Heinrich asked.  “You do not belong here.”

One orc, no doubt the leader, took a step forward.  “We were sent to find the called one and her coven of evil.”  The voice was distorted as well as the face, and hard to hear without feeling the chill of death.

“And what will you do with her?”  Emily had to ask.

“We will kill her and crush her bones and have her for our meat.”

“That doesn’t leave much negotiating room,” Mindy said quietly while Amina spoke over her head.

“The others.  There are two groups.”

“Return to the Second Heavens while you can.  You cannot survive here,” Heinrich ordered the orcs, not that they were likely to listen.

goblin-kingThe orcs laughed, and Emily took that occasion to speak softly to her group.  “Back away slowly, like from a wild dog.”  She was anxious about the others.  She chided herself for jumping before she had all the facts.  She swore once again that it was a mistake she would not repeat, assuming she survived this encounter.

The orc laughter stopped as suddenly as it started.  Diane, Hilde and Greta ran up from behind with military issue rifles.  They must have busted into Captain Driver’s gun locker and ammunition box.

“Armed and ready, Ma’am.” Diane was all military that time.

Emily raised her sword.  “Aim!”  She skipped right over ready.  “One warning.”  She looked squarely at the orc leader.  “Run,” she suggested.

At sight of the rifles, several of the orcs at the back began to move away.  But the orc leader chose to be stupid and charged as Emily said “Fire!”

Of the orcs who braved the guns, five were struck immediately.  One took two arrows dead center and went down, but the others continued on.  The guns fired again.  Mindy and Amina pulled their small knives, but counted on their bows to fend off any attacker until help could arrive.  Heinrich took down two with his sword and without a sweat, but one went for the rifles and the other went after the archers.

The orc leader was the one who was miraculously untouched by arrows or bullets.  He went straight for Emily. And he had a wicked looking sword with a jagged edge.  Emily and the orc went thrust and parry for a good ten seconds, and Emily dropped her shoulder twice when she went for the orc’s legs.  She remembered what Heinrich told her and scolded herself.  When she dropped her shoulder the third time, the orc dropped his weapon to parry, only instead of aiming at the orc’s legs, this time Emily went for the arm.  She sliced through the orc’s arm without even pausing at the bone.  The orc dropped its sword with the arm and looked up, dumbly, as Emily followed up with a slice through the orc’s neck.

Greta and Hilde both shot the orc that attacked Diane.  It collapsed before it reached the girl.  Mindy and Amina double-teamed their assailant.  While Amina blocked the orc’s big club with her bow, held like a staff, Mindy, the short one, slipped under and stuck her knife in the orc’s heart—or at least where a heart would have been in a human.  The orc staggered and Amina jumped up and thrust her knife into the orc’s ear.  Whatever hesitation Amina had with killing, apparently it did not include orcs.

“Quickly!” Amina shouted.  “They are attacking the gym from the other side.”  And they ran.

###

Latasha and Keisha walked to Janet’s house, Keisha happy to have her friends together again, Latasha with some trepidation, but she didn’t say anything.  There was an ambulance out front.  When they rang the bell, Janet’s mother looked to be in shock.  Janet came home from an outing barely an hour ago, and now she was dead.  Keisha burst into tears.  Latasha called Detective Lisa.  She would cry in a minute.

Elect II—6 Secrets, part 1 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily came out from her room and saw everyone sitting in their usual places.  She got her chair and joined them with a casual word.  “So I think I saw Pierce’s brother today.  I’m not sure because he ran off before I could ask him any questions.”  Emily felt the sudden tension in the room and looked at everyone in turn.  Jessica spoke first.

“We saw him the other day, during midterms.”  Jessica tried to keep the same casual tone to her voice, but Maria thought it necessary to apologize.

“We didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to upset you.”

Emily looked around and Melissa nodded and looked into her orange soda while Mindy nodded and looked at Jessica.  Amina had her hand up.

ac-emily-a5“I wasn’t there, but I knew he was around.  I did not say anything because he did not feel like a threat.”  Emily frowned at her and she looked away.  “I am sorry.  I am still learning what to say and what not to say of what I see.  I am sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Emily assured her.  “But this is just the sort of information we need to share.  We need to not keep secrets from each other.  And while I think of it,” she looked again at Amina.  “If you want to go out with Joel, you don’t need my permission.  I’m not your mom. You keep saying we are Amazons, start acting like one.”

“Saved by the knock,” Amina said, and then there was a knock on the door.  It was Sara, the Priestess, and she brought a copy of the picture Jessica drew.

“I got this from Lisa.  She got it from Latasha who showed it to her science teacher who is apparently a very mysterious person.  She says it was an ogre or troll, but turned orc.  That means an earth spirit in rebellion.”

“I said ogre or troll,” Mindy piped up.

“And I would guess where there is one, there are probably others,” Emily said.  Amina nodded.

“Lisa said she may have seen one skulking around her house,” Sara added.

“Zoe’s mystery, do you think?” Maria suggested.  “Like maybe some escaped from wherever it is they belong.”

Jessica had a different thought.  “I never had cool teachers like that back in high school.”.

###

ab-lecture-hall-1Jessica sat quietly in her environmental science class and looked around.  The lecture hall was half empty.  She thought it might be Professor Maynard’s teaching style.  The woman was more boring than a drill.  Then she thought it might be the subject matter.  Emily had the class freshman year and described it perfectly.  It did not matter what the book said, Maynard blamed the human race for every ill on the planet.  It did not matter how twisted and tortured the logic, Maynard made it clear she thought the earth would be better off without people.

Emily warned her not to take the class, but she needed a science class and figured this would be an easy “A.”  All she had to do was blame humanity for everything in her tests and papers and move on.  Apparently a number of other students figured it out as well, but she was still surprised they were not in class.  Attendance counted as part of the grade.

“All right.”  Maynard put down her chalk and stopped lecturing.  That caused Jessica and others to start paying attention, at least temporarily.  “Professor Orlov and I are still in need of additional volunteers.  We have plenty of Center for Disease Control money so we can pay you for your time.  We are mapping the relationship between the brain and immune system in combination with certain environmental factors.  We need samples only, and no, I don’t mean brain samples, and it won’t hurt.  Please consider volunteering.”  Professor Maynard smiled, but it was a pitiful thing.  “Class dismissed.”

Jessica stepped out of the building and saw Mindy, Melissa and Amina walking toward the campus center.  She thought she might join them, but then she might not.  She felt frustrated, pointless, unworthy…  She could not find the right word.

The Priestess was right.  All of the other girls were seriously talented and special in some way, and Sara, the Priestess, was just as talented in her own way, even if she did not see it in herself.  Jessica wondered, what a hunter was, anyway?  Did that mean she had to become a redneck and take her bow and arrows out in deer season?  Fat chance of that happening in Beverly Hills.  She felt useless.

Okay, she said to herself.  Emily and the others expected her to be in charge when Emily was not around, but what did that mean, really?  Okay, she joined ROTC because she discovered she could do things she never imagined, like all the physical stuff and fighting and weapons.  Oddly enough she found the course work interesting as well, unlike Maynard’s stupid class.  But what did that really mean?

Jessica shook her head and thought of Jack.  She thought, Jessica Brinkman and wondered if every woman thought such things at the beginning of a relationship, just to see how the name fit.  He was nice.  She really liked him, not the least because they shared so many interests, including the army.

Jessica made up her mind.  She was going to sign up for a time of service.  The upper class of ROTC, the junior and senior class was only for those who signed up for service after college.  And she might marry Brinkman, or someone like him, and be an army wife.  That would not be bad.  And then she could put all this Amazon stuff behind her and not feel useless anymore.

ac-jessica-8Jessica stepped down to the walkway and made another decision.  She was going to change her major to political science.  She really did not like business.  She knew her CEO father would not be happy, but he could not be more upset than he was when she told him she was going into ROTC.

She paused.

Jessica’s nose went up into the air to get a good whiff.  Something did not smell right.  There was a fire somewhere.  She stepped around the corner toward the faculty parking lot and found a small campfire made mostly of twigs.  Three students, two boys and a girl were bouncing around it, excited, touching it and pulling their hand back to lick with their tongue and stick their fingers in their mouth.  It was like they never saw fire before.  Jessica recognized the girl.

“Megan, you missed Maynard’s class.”

The girl looked up and Jessica saw nothing behind those eyes.  The girl shrieked and the boys echoed the sound, and they all ran off toward the distant woods.

“Hey, your fire.  Hey!”  Jessica yelled, but they did not respond.  Jessica stomped out the stick fire and commented out loud.  “That was weird.”

Elect II—4 Venus de Jekyll and Hyde, part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily made the women march in formation.  Jessica and Emily marched out front.  Amina and Mindy brought up the rear with Heinrich behind them all.  A number of students saw them, but since they were all still in uniform and walking with a history professor, they thought it was some ROTC or history thing and raised no alarm.

Emily stopped them before they reached the street.  There were houses across the way where a number of faculty and grad students lived.  Granger’s house was one lot in from Harbor road.  She and Jessica went up to the curb across the street, just the two of them, and spotted several men in gas masks on their side of the street watching the perimeter.  There was also a line of men outside Granger’s door, but Emily did not want to think about that.  They snuck back to the group.  Brinkman was there with several of the juniors and seniors from the upper class, and they were all armed.  Emily immediately made a speech.

ac-rotc-1“Don’t cross the street no matter what, and don’t go near Granger’s house.  You will just get sucked into the web and we might not be able to get you out.  This has to be military, covert.  There are men around the perimeter wearing gas masks.  They are heavily armed.  Silence and surprise are your best weapons.  Bring them back here, especially the gas masks.”

Brinkman signaled the men, divided them two by two and sent them out.  Emily called Lisa and explained the situation.  “And for God’s sake, keep Ashish and the other men back from the house.  It looks strong enough so even being a woman might not help.”  Then they waited.

“Heinrich?”  Emily asked.

“He went with Brinkman.  They had an odd number.” Jessica answered.

Emily nodded, and they waited some more.

Maria and Melissa came up to where they were standing, within sight of the house, but back from the street behind some bushes and trees.  “Melissa calculated the straight path from the gym to Granger’s house, thinking to catch you on the way.”

“Good thinking.  We don’t know how bad it might be over there.”

A shot was fired some distance down the road.

“Do you have the vials?”  Emily finished her thought.

“Hey, hey!”  Jessica got their attention.  They saw a man in what looked like a radiation suit come to the door.  He looked around the line and went back in.

“Right here.”  Melissa held out a leather bag.  There were two vials strapped to the inside.

ab-granger-1Maria pointed to each as she talked.  “The pinkish one is probably not a cure, but at a guess it might tone her down enough to save her life.  If not, the red one should produce the Hilde effect.”

“What’s the Hilde effect?”  Hilde asked.

“Not you, Hilde.  Professor Jack Hilde.  He invented the endocrine formula that Granger has abused.  He died in a ball of flame from overdosing.”

“Spontaneous internal combustion,” Maria explained.

“Good thing that wasn’t you.” Greta nudged her friend.

Emily tied the leather bag to her belt and spoke to the girls that were leaning in to look.  “Assignments,” she said, and outlined what she expected them to do to the best of their abilities.  “No guns.  If you are fired on, get out of there.  The police will have the whole area cordoned off.  We can lay siege if we have to and starve them out.  Jessica, you and I go inside.  No one else.”

When Brinkman and his men slowly straggled back, they had nine gas masks and eight prisoners.  They left the dead one, minus his mask, but brought the man Heinrich had only wounded with one of his knives.

“Greta.”  Emily made a quick decision.  “Take my phone.  Get in touch with Lisa and tell her you need a gas mask when she gets here.  Then wave to us from here when the circle of police is complete.”

“Oh, but—.”

“Soldier.”  Lieutenant Brinkman spoke harshly.

“Yes, ma’am.”  Greta took her position.

ab-granger-3“Brinkman,” Emily spoke up so the prisoners could hear.  “If any of these men try to escape before the police can take custody, shoot to kill.”

“Don’t have to take their heads off this time?”  One of the seniors looked at her and smiled.  He fought the zombies last year.

“Not this time,” Heinrich spoke in answer.  “But you can if you want to.”

Emily said nothing.  When her girls had their masks all in place, they rushed to their positions.  Melissa and Maria started down one side of the house.  They used their staffs to break the windows as they went.  Amina and Mindy started down the other side.  Mindy used Greta’s spear.  Amina used her staff and was ready when a man in a radiation suit stuck his head out the upper floor window she just busted.  Amina thrust up with her staff and caught the man in the neck.  The man was pushed back into the house and did not stick his head out again.

Natasha, Hilde and Diane guarded the men who were in line to be sure they made no hostile move.  Emily calculated that trying to force them to back up might have provoked them.  It was enough to be sure they did not interfere as Emily and Jessica cut ahead and burst into the house.

Emily was in front and leapt to the guard on the far side.  Two men were dressed in radiation suits, but like space suits with an independent oxygen supply.  Both had machine guns, but when Emily shoved the one’s gun into his belly, his finger inadvertently squeezed the trigger.  His fellow guard got gunned down.

Emily kneed the man and ripped his protective headgear right off.  The man tried to fight back, but ab-granger-2Emily’s fist soon stopped him.  “Jessica.”  Emily shouted through her gas mask.  “Go back out.  It is too strong in here.”

Jessica was carefully watching the dozen or so men inside the house.  They were naked and enjoying being so close to the sex goddess.  “Out!”  Emily commanded, “And get the troops away from this house.”  Jessica went when she saw Emily put on the man’s headgear with oxygen attached.  When Emily saw that Jessica got out and got the door closed without letting in a flood of men, she slowly opened the sliding doors.

There were any number of men around the room in various degrees of death and unconsciousness.  No man was built for that level of unending stimulation.  There was also a woman on the floor rolling around, making sounds of ecstatic pleasure.  There were bills everywhere, hundreds and thousands of dollars.  Emily guessed the woman was collecting the fees until she became overwhelmed herself.  Emily felt whatever it was in the air.  Her breasts began to throb, and she was becoming wet and ready for unending sexual pleasure while her mind turned to thoughts of orgasms.  She knew this had to be quick.

The only piece of furniture in the room was a bed, and Granger was tied to it, spread eagle and unmoving.  Emily touched the pink liquid and looked again at the dead and dying around the room.  She looked at Granger, but there was no recognition in Granger’s eyes—eyes that never blinked.  She risked touching the woman, but found no pulse.  If the woman was still alive, it was not likely enough to save.    She pulled out the red vial and forced it down the woman’s throat.  She stood back to watch.

ac-hilde-endNothing happened for a few seconds which felt like an eternity.  Then the fire sprang up in the woman’s belly.  It slowly spread up and down the woman’s body while Emily leapt out the broken window.  She staggered away.  She told herself it was an act of mercy.  Even if Granger could have been saved, the woman would have had to remember being raped over and over.

Lisa caught her at the edge of the street.  “It’s all right.  I’ve got you.”

“I think Granger was already dead,” Emily said as she whipped off her mask and coughed.  “Even so I would not fetch her remains until the morning.  The house needs to air out and the pheromones need to dissipate.”

Lisa looked at the house.  “Maybe the house will burn down.”

“That would be a mercy,” a woman said.  Emily looked up from where she was on her knees.  It was Sara who spoke, and she had the shepherd’s crook Heinrich picked out for her.  Emily smiled before she spotted someone else.  It was Courtney Chase, Channel 5, Eyewitness News followed by her ever faithful cameraman.

“How did you get through the police line?” Emily asked.

“Power of the press.”  Lisa looked back toward the police line and it was not a kind look on her face.  Courtney continued.  “Joe.  Get the camera from that angle.  Joe?”  The camera fell to the ground and Joe stumbled across the road like a man in a trance.  “Joe!”

ac-news-2“Does he have a last name?” Sara asked.

Courtney shrugged.  “Joe the camera guy.  Say, where is he going?”

“Bad drugs,” Emily said, and Lisa grabbed the reporter’s hand to keep her from stumbling off in the same direction.

“Maybe you could work the camera,” Sara suggested with a smile.

Courtney looked at the camera and again at Joe.  “I have no idea how that gizmo works.”

“I hope it didn’t break when he dropped it,” Emily said in a not totally insincere voice.

Elect II—3 Antiques, part 1 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily came in late and snuck passed the two professors that were talking quietly in the front.  She slipped into her seat and nudged Maria who had to remove her ear buds to listen.

“What is Maynard doing here?” Emily whispered.

Maria shrugged, but before she could verbalize her thought, Professor Maynard left and she had to put her ear buds away.

“Class.”  Professor Orlov said that word every time he wanted their full attention.  “If you have wondered about my day job, Evelyn Maynard and I were enticed by money from the Center for Disease Control.  We have been working on the immune system in relation to the brain, something that will come up in this course in a future chapter.  In the meanwhile, we have agreed that our work is ready for some serious testing.  If you wish to help in this work, I assure you it will not be dangerous, but we would appreciate any volunteers.  There will be a small payment for your time.  No reason we should keep all the CDC money for ourselves.”

ac-emily-a1Emily’s instincts made her squirm in her seat.  There was something about brain research and Maynard, knowing how she professed to hate all people, that made her uncomfortable.  She looked at Maria, but Maria was looking forward and did not notice.  She looked over at Joel, the boy who sometimes joined them in the library for study-time.  He looked back and looked uncertain, like it was something he might consider.

“You can stay and see me after class if you are interested,” Orlov concluded.  “Now you see, with a real day job I can’t be a vampire.  Besides, I would think life as a vampire would really suck.”  He thought he was funny.  A couple of students groaned, quietly, as Orlov continued.  “Turn in your books…”

Maria wanted some evening library time before it got too late, but Emily begged off.  Heinrich gave her a real workout that afternoon.  Even with Heinrich un-empowered, Emily could barely keep up.  The man’s skill with a sword was amazing.  Four hundred and seventy years of practice, she reminded herself.

 

***

 

Emily walked back to the dorm and slowly climbed up the stairs, thinking, Professor Orlov would not know a vampire if it bit him.

“Emily?”  It was Sara Michaels standing outside her door.

“Priestess?”  Emily responded with the same question in her voice.

ac-sarah-4“Sara, please,” the woman said.  “I am sure you don’t want me referring to you as your majesty out in public.  Besides, that is something I am still getting used to.”

“It suits you,” Emily decided as she unlocked her suite door and dropped her back pack in her room.  “But what brings you here?”

“We have an invitation,” Sara said.  “And we will be late if we don’t hurry.”

Emily went into the bathroom to the mirror.  It was automatic if she was going out.  “No time for a shower?”  She knew there was not time if they were nearly late.  “Where are we going?”

“President’s house.  I was invited with the instruction that I bring you along.”

Emily nodded.  Henri Batiste probably had no idea who she was last year, but no doubt he spent his summer reading.  She could only imagine what the man intended to say to her.  “Mostly faculty?”  Emily asked.

Sara shook her head.  “This is the beginning of the year staff gathering.  You know, the pep talk and all.”

Emily nodded.  She was only a side note and probably would not be expected to stay for the party.  They left the suite to walk across the campus to the President’s house.  Emily felt it was just as well they take their time.  She needed to spend the time with Sara and get to know her a bit.  All she really knew about the woman was Sara was Zoe’s selection.

Sara sensed Emily’s curiosity.  “I’m twenty-seven.  I came here out of seminary, but after last year I realized I was not the best student counselor.  My father used to accuse me of being too mature, even in junior high.  I put in for a nice associate position in a big church, but apparently I am stuck here for the next three years.”

“Not stuck.  You have a definite job here, and the maturity is probably what we need.”

“Not stuck,” Sara agreed.  “But I don’t know what help I can be.  It may take me three years just to adjust the way I view the world.”  She looked at Emily.  “I’ve been meeting with Mindy.  She is keeping a journal, and some of the things she has told me.  I mean, bogymen?”

“I know,” Emily felt like she hardly believed it herself.

“Truth is, I have met with all the girls, except you.  I was beginning to think you were avoiding me.”

a-n-campus-2“No,” Emily said.  “I didn’t realize.  I’ve just been concentrating hard on my classes, trying to get ahead of the game, because…you never know.”

“I understand.”  Sara fell silent for a minute.  In that moment, Emily lifted her head and stopped moving.  She scanned the area that was shrouded in the dark.  Something was there and it didn’t feel human.  Sara saw it first and pointed

“What is that?”

Emily shrugged.  It was generally human in shape, except it was too big and it had upper and lower tusks in a mouth that was much too large.  Emily pulled the knife she kept strapped and hidden beneath her pant leg, down by her ankle.  The thing had to see the glint of light on the metal and stepped for a second onto the campus path beneath the streetlight.  It was an enormous beast.  It was far bigger and looked far stronger than any NFL linebacker might ever hope to be.  It just stood there and stared back at them before it faded and vanished, like it went invisible.  They both heard it push through the bushes and head toward the science building and the library.

“What the hell was that?”  Sara said, and added, “Sorry.”

Emily could only shrug.  Last year, she would have chased the thing, but now she knew running off would have left Sara alone and exposed.  She was learning.  She had resources and generally it was better to know what she was facing before she jumped in.   “Jessica is a bit of an artist.  We make sketches and let Mindy do the research.”

Sara nodded.  “You are all so talented.”

Emily shook her head.  “Not me.  I’m going to be a nurse.”

They stopped in the dark before they stepped up to the front door of the President’s house.  Emily put her knife away as Sara spoke.  “I’ve been thinking and praying about all of you and all of this.  I have come to understand that you six are the most remarkably gifted women I have ever known.”

“I don’t—.”

“Even the ones less obvious now, like Maria, Mindy and Jessica.” Sara interrupted to get out the thought she felt was vital.  “But I think the admonition you gave to Melissa needs to apply to you all.  You must all be careful never to use your gifts for selfish or self-serving reasons.  That way leads to darkness.”

Emily nodded.  She had realized the same thing.  They stepped up to the door and found Bernie the campus cop hanging out on the porch.  He stood up in front of the door, like he was blocking their way.

“Bernie, do you know Reverend Michaels from the Chaplain’s office?”

“We’ve met,” Bernie gave a sloppy little salute.

“How are your new bosses?”  Sara asked, and Bernie explained for Emily.

“After what happened last year, President Batiste fired and replaced the whole senior security staff.”

ac-bernie-1“That’s not fair,” Emily objected.  “It wasn’t their fault.  There wasn’t anything they could have done about it.”

Bernie bit his lip.  “I don’t know the new people well, yet.  They are different, but they all want to meet you.  I’m supposed to tell them when you arrive.”  Sara and Emily said nothing.  They looked at each other and followed Bernie inside where he passed them off to Sergeant Valenko, a security guard with stripes.

“Emily.”  It was a voice Emily did not want to hear.  She did the introductions.

“Courtney Chase, Channel 5, Eyewitness News, meet Sara Michaels, Campus Chaplain.”

Courtney barely let the fake smile touch her lips before she turned to Emily.  “Have you thought any more about the interview?  I would be willing to let you look at the questions first.”

Emily shook her head.  “Nothing to interview.  I am hoping to do well in my classes this year.  That’s it.”

“Sorry mam, no cameras, please.”  The sergeant stepped between them.  “This is a private meeting.”  He put his hand up to the cameraman who dutifully trailed behind the reporter and filmed everything.  When another security officer came up and began to move the cameraman back to the main room, Courtney naturally followed the camera.

“Call me,” she said to Emily, and shoved her way back enough to hand Emily a card before she scooted off in search of some other hapless interview.

Sergeant Valenko said, “Ladies,” and he pointed down a hall away from the sounds of the gathering.

“That was Courtney Chase,” Sara said, like a fan of the evening news.

“We don’t need the publicity,” Emily shook her head, but placed the card in her pocket.

“No, I suppose not.”

Sergeant Valenko escorted them to a back room and asked them to wait.  He was a short, barrel-chested man, like one who was determined to make up for his height by lifting weights day and night.  He had fuzzy blond hair and marched rather than walked.

“A bit too military,” Emily commented quietly.  “But then lots of security people are former military, I suppose.”

ab-pres-studyThey did not have to wait long.  The three top security men on campus, two Lieutenants and their Captain, came in.  They said nothing.  They did not even introduce themselves.  Sara decided to sit.  Emily found her feet pacing, just like Detective Lisa.

Henri Batiste came in with a smile, and the two lieutenants left.  He shook Emily’s and Sara’s hands and introduced Captain Gouldos.  The Captain neither smiled nor offered his hand.  “Now, the reason I wanted to see you is simple.  You have probably guessed.  I would like a quiet school year this year.  I am sure you understand.”  The man never lost his smile.

“I would like a quiet year, too,” Emily agreed.  It was pointless to explain to the man that she was not the cause of any of the trouble last year.  All she did was save the lives of everyone on campus several times.

“Splendid.  But now, the reason I invited you here tonight is so you could meet my security staff.  You can see they are a very competent crew.  I want you to trust them and let them do their job.  I am asking, if you should become aware of something unusual this year, please call them and let them take care of it.  That is what we are paying them for after all, you see?”

Emily nodded.  “Campus security was called all the time last year.”  Bernie the campus cop was the only one who ever showed up, she thought.

“Splendid.  Now the other reason I wanted you to come was to meet Ms. Michaels from the Chaplain’s office.  She is here to help and counsel whatever the need.  And if it is something she cannot handle, she has the resources to recommend, competent professionals to help whatever might be troubling you.  I am not saying anything is troubling you, but I urge you to get to know her well.  She can help you enjoy the full college experience.”

“I can assure you, Sara and I will spend plenty of time together over the next three years.”

President Batiste looked at them both with eyes that wondered why all this went so easily.

“Henri?”  A woman called down the hall.

“Un moment, mon petite.”  Batiste called back before he turned again to the women.  “My wife.  My guests.  Please excuse me.  You are welcome to stay.”  He left.  Captain Gouldos glared at them before he followed the president.  Sara looked at Emily.  Emily frowned and took the priestess out to the porch.  She grabbed Bernie by his loose tie and dragged him with them off into the dark beyond the house and beyond any snoopy reporters.

“The new security staff is into something up to their necks and Batiste is their leader.” Emily spoke without any preliminaries.  “I need to know what your new bosses are up to.  I don’t trust them.”

a-n-campus-5Bernie let out his breath like he was holding it in for a long time.  “I don’t trust them either,” he said softly, and they looked at the Chaplain.

Sara hedged.  “I caught the body language and tone of voice, but I’m in the love and forgiveness business.  I think hanging out with you might make me paranoid.”

“I was thinking that just the other day,” Emily admitted with a grin.

“I live in paranoid,” Bernie said with a glance at Emily.

Emily shook her head.  “I don’t live there, I just commute.”  When the others stared at her with big questions in their faces, she explained.  “Well, Jessica wasn’t here so I said it for her.”  Both Sara and Bernie nodded that they understood.

Elect II—2 Amazons, part 3 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Are you looking forward to school?” Maria asked, kindly.

Melissa, who walked with her eyes turned down to the sidewalk like she was thinking deep thoughts, nodded before she thought to say something.  “A little scared, considering, you know, last year.”  She took a breath and added, “Summer school helped, but there weren’t so many people around.

Maria understood and offered what she had.  “But this year you have a safe room and a suite full of friends to watch out for you.”

ac-melissa-7“A whole Amazon tribe,” Melissa said with a smile.  “That is what Mindy and Amina call us.”  She opened the door to the dorm and walked up the stairs with her roommate.  When they stepped inside, they found Mindy and Amina unpacking.  Jessica came in a moment later, followed by a boy.  She must have been right behind Maria and Melissa.

“Everyone, this is Phillip, a sophomore transfer into ROTC.”

“Jessica!” Amina turned red.

“We haven’t finished unpacking,” Mindy explained, without explaining.

“Hey.”  Jessica turned to a bewildered looking Phillip.  “I found him wandering around the campus center.  I may keep him.”

“What?”  Maria asked while Melissa joined Amina in turning red.

“You keep saying we are supposed to be like the Amazons of old,” Jessica said as she ran her hand through Phillips hair.  “I’m willing to do my part.”

###

Emily got to the top of the stairs, thinking hard, and slowly opened the heavy door.  It was dark when she stepped into the lounge area of her suite.  She flicked the light on when she shut the door, and everyone jumped up and yelled, “Surprise.”  It was not really a surprise, but it warmed Emily’s heart to see it.  Unfortunately, Emily’s mind was preoccupied, so she said nothing in return.  The others stopped and watched as Emily shifted one chair to face the end of the couch, by the door, and scooted the other tight beside it.  She went into her room and grabbed her desk chair and Jessica’s chair and plopped them down side by side.  The chairs and couch made a U shape around the cheap coffee table and faced the door with the open end.  Emily sat in her own desk chair at the head of the table, so to speak.

ac-emily-8“Meeting first,” Emily said, and she waited for their response.

“What happened to your ribs?” Jessica wondered how she could carry those chairs from the other room.  She sat in her own chair beside Emily.

“I thought your leg was broken?” Maria looked more concerned than curious as she went around to sit on the middle of the couch.

“All healed,” Emily said, and she waited while everyone sat in the correct order without having to be told and only left the seat empty at the end of the couch nearest the door.  “I met Zoe,” Emily said and Amina’s eyes got wide and her mouth opened as she certainly saw something in that statement.

“Zoe who?”  Jessica wondered.

“The queen goddess of the Amazons?”  Mindy wondered.  “But she almost never shows up in the record.  Are you sure it wasn’t Artemis or one of the others?”

Emily looked at Mindy.  The girl was in danger of believing everything she read.  Of course, given some of their encounters Emily could hardly blame her, though Emily was planning to remain uncommitted on the divinity of her visitor.  She stood, retrieved her sword from her room and sat again with the sword across her lap.  Then she began to speak.

“Zoe said an Amazon queen never acts alone.  She always depends on and listens to her council.  The three on her left hand face the darkness and the three on her right face the light.”

“Wait a minute,” Maria interrupted.  “There are only two of us on the right.”

“There are three on my right,” Emily said.  “The third is our priestess who always stands a little apart from the rest of us.  Zoe said she would be provided,” and there was a knock on the door.

Melissa was closest, but Amina was already out of her seat.  She looked back at the others and ended with a stare at Emily.  Then she grinned impishly and opened the door.  There was a woman just shy of thirty-years-old who started to speak.

ac-sarah-7“I’m Sara Michaels from the chaplain’s office.”

“Yes, Sara,” Amina interrupted.  “We have been expecting you.  Your seat is waiting for you,” and she pointed to the end of the couch.  Maria kind of ruined the spell by shifting over and patting the cushion beside her.

The woman came in and sat but looked and sounded rather confused.  “I got a message that I needed to be here.  I don’t understand.  I never make night calls unless someone dies.  Did someone die?”

“Only my denial,” Emily said, and without any preliminaries she began.  “We have Zoe’s permission to be an Amazon tribe, but she has a message for each of us.  You have already heard mine, that an Amazon queen always listens to her council.”  Then she began on her left side and talked about the ones facing the darkness.  She talked to each one personally; Jessica the hunter, Amina the Sybil and Melissa the spell caster.

“Spell caster?” Sara asked.

“Witch,” Melissa said the word and wiggled her finger.  Her cup of orange soda lifted into the air and floated in her direction.  It did not look too stable and Melissa looked like she was seriously concentrating.  When she grabbed the drink, she spilled a little and immediately looked at the newcomer.  “Sorry,” she said.  “I’m just learning and I am not a very powerful witch.”

“Spell caster,” Jessica corrected.

“We are all just learning,” Maria encouraged her roommate.

Sara turned her eyes to Emily and said something that surprised no one.  “Emily Hudson.  We talked about you last year.”

Emily ignored the comment, turned to her right hand and talked to Mindy the wise woman and Maria the healer.  When she told Sara that she was to be their priestess, Sara’s eyes got wide, but she said nothing.  Then Emily went on to share that Zoe gave them an assignment.  There was a mystery on campus and they needed to solve it.  “She said, somewhere there is a door open to Avalon.  Creatures have escaped.  You met one.  The world is in danger of going mad.  Blah, blah, blah.”

“Blah, blah, blah?”  Jessica had to ask.  Emily hushed her and looked at Sara.  They all waited in silence for Sara to speak.  Sara understood the stares.

“But what if I don’t want to be your priestess?”

“No one will force you, but you are the one Zoe selected,” Emily said.  “Your request for transfer has been or will be denied.  You will be here with us for the next three years.”

Maria added a thought.  “I suppose if you don’t want to be our priestess you will leave us spiritually empty and morally bankrupt.  But the choice is yours.”  She looked around the room and saw the looks of agreement on the other faces.

ac-sarah-6Sara sat for a time and looked at her hands in her lap before she spoke again.  “I think I need to have a talk with this Zoe of yours.”

“Oh, I am sure you will,” Amina said cheerfully.  “And soon I imagine.”

“Somehow, that does not encourage me.”  Sara just sat for a minute and worried her hands.  The others were mercifully quiet and patient until the woman finally looked up.  “There is one thing.  I am not really a priestess.  I’m a Methodist minister.”

“That’s alright,” Maria responded and reached over to pat the woman’s hands. “Amina and I are Catholic.”

“Southern Baptist.”  Mindy raised her hand and her voice.

“U. C. C.,” Melissa said softly.

“Presbyterian,” Emily said and looked at Jessica.  They all stared at Jessica until she spoke.

“My mother used to like to go to the Crystal Cathedral.”

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

Monday, be sure to come back for the Elect II-3 Antiques.

Until then, Happy Reading.

Elect II—2 Amazons, part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

As Emily limped to her suite, her thoughts turned to Ms Maynard, her Earth Science teacher from last spring.  The woman was not like the other Professors.  She did not just hate the students.  She hated the whole human race and acted like she would not mind if everyone just died.  Emily wondered briefly why the woman came to mind.  She was trying very hard to forget that class.

Emily shook her head to clear her mind, but thoughts about her destiny kept bubbling up to the surface.  She decided that given the chance, this whole being elect business could make her paranoid.  She was seeing shadows around eye-witless news, professors Granger, Maynard and this new professor Orlov.  There might not be any shadows at all.  She took a deep breath even as something occurred to her that she had forgotten.  Pierce once mentioned that he had a younger brother.  And Doctor Zimmer, his maker was still missing.  Please, she prayed, don’t let them come back here.

zenobia-3“And why do you not want them to come back here?” A woman asked.  The woman was pacing Emily, and Emily did not even know it until the woman spoke.  It startled her, but in her mind she responded, because she did not want that kind of fight if she could help it.

“Yes, it is wise not to fight unless you must,” the woman agreed.  “But I thought you were afraid he would remind you too much of Pierce.”

“Yes,” Emily whispered her admission, but her mind mostly thought that she just wanted a quiet semester.  As far as it went, she told the reporter the truth.

“And I wish you could have a quiet semester too.”  The woman smiled and Emily stopped cold.  This woman was reading her mind.  “Sit,” the woman said, and Emily saw two chairs around a small table where there had been only grass.  She suddenly realized they were just outside her new dorm, but she knew she did not limp nearly that far.  She sat slowly because of her ribs, and saw a tall to-go cup on her side of the table.  “Chai Latte.”  The woman pointed to the cup and picked up a bottle of water for herself.

“Who are you?” Emily asked.

“Zoe,” the woman said, and added, “Yes I am real, and yes we are really here, not dreaming, and no I am not an angel.”  Zoe gave the answers even as Emily framed the questions in her mind.  “Honestly!” Zoe sipped her water and rolled her eyes just like Emily.  “Angels are sexless.  I can’t imagine it.”

Emily sipped her Chai Latte and examined the woman, and Zoe was all woman.  She was dressed in what looked like a toga, but more like a mini-skirt version.  The sleeves barely went beyond the shoulder and the neckline plunged more than necessary.  It was pure white besides, and clean, which at the least said something about the woman’s choice of detergent.  Zoe’s sandals tied up to her knees, and they were brown, a match for her light brown hair.  She also wore a choker with a small stone that Emily guessed was supposed to be an emerald.  The green stone matched the woman’s green, deep set eyes which were so piercing, Emily had to look away.  All the same, Emily put out her finger to touch the woman’s shoulder, just to be sure.

“There, feel better?” Zoe asked.

Emily nodded and got a question all the way out.  “So what do you want with me?”

“Here’s the thing.”  Zoe shifted in her seat so she could face Emily better.  “With all I have on my plate right now, what with the Kargill-Reichgo war starting up,” Zoe paused to point at the sky so Emily might guess that was something outer spacey. “And earth politics and international relations bottoming out.  Don’t get me started.  And Melanie fighting off dimensional interlopers, and poor Lockhart trying to take over after Bobbie retired.  And my little ones.  There is trouble in the ranks!  Who would have thought it in this late day and age?”  Zoe clicked her tongue.  “Well, it is more than a lot.  You see, I am not sure I can handle the revival of a real Amazon tribe right now.”

“I’m not sure I can either,” Emily admitted.

“But here is the thing,” Zoe repeated.  “There is something about this place, this campus that is hidden even from my sight.  If I had the time I would never let such a mystery go.  Alas, as my elect, you will have to figure it out.  You and your tribe will have three years to do it.”

“Your elect?”

“Of course, silly.  Who do you think elected you?”

“I thought it was all the ancient goddesses and stuff.”

zoe-1Zoe just looked at Emily and smiled before she spoke again.  “As my elect, you must be queen of the tribe, but you must learn that an Amazon queen never acts alone.  She listens to her counsel.  There are three to her left that face the darkness and three to her right that face the light.  On your left is the hunter, that is Jessica.  The spirit of Artemis is in her though she hardly knows it.  Beside her is the Sybil, your seer Amina.  She must learn it is not always wise to say everything she sees.  Closest to the darkness is your spell caster, Melissa.  I know her power is small, but she is the one always in most danger of falling into the dark.  Her rules are simple.  First, she should not practice her art against those who have no such power to defend themselves.  Second, she must never practice her art for selfish ends, not ever.”  Zoe shook her finger at Emily.  “All of you must do you own homework the old fashioned way and get a good education.  Am I clear?”  Emily felt the scolding in her gut, and nodded as Zoe sighed.  “Just like instructing my children, but then that was five thousand years ago.”

Emily swallowed.  “And what of the three that face the light?”

“To your right hand is your wise woman, Mindy.  She knows the lore, the legends and the ancient ways.  When you face something inexplicable, she is the one who can find a way to explain it.  Her stories are instructive as well.  Let her whisper in your ear.  Beside her is Maria, your healer, filled with the spirit of Eir, though she does not know it.  Every Amazon tribe needs a healer, and Maria has the drive and the smarts to become a great one.  And the last is your priestess, set a bit apart.  She is your Liaison with the source of all things, with the light, with me, and with the universe.  She will not only keep you morally grounded, but spiritually grounded as well if you let her.”

“But wait.”  Emily held up her left hand and counted.  “Jessica the hunter, Amina the Sybil, Melissa the witch.”

“Spell caster,” Zoe corrected.  “A much nicer term than witch, don’t you think?’

“Spell caster,” Emily repeated and held up her right hand.  “Then Mindy the wise and Maria the healer, but that is everyone.  Who is this priestess?”

“I will send her.  I got her reassignment rescinded.  She will be here for three more years with you.  Now I must go.”

“Go?”

ac-emily-7“Lead your tribe.  Solve my mystery.  Somewhere there is a door open to Avalon.  Creatures have escaped.  You met one.  The world is in danger of going mad, blah, blah, blah…”  Zoe disappeared.  She literally vanished and took the two chairs, the drinks and little table with her.  Emily fell hard on her butt in the grass.

“Hey!”  Emily instinctively reached for her broken ribs before she paused.  She stood and ran in place for a second.  She jumped up and down several times.  She Planted her feet and twisted her trunk to the left and right.  There was zero pain.  She was completely healed.  She could not help looking up to the sky and mouth her thoughts.  “Thank you.”

She only felt slightly surprised, and maybe a little disturbed, when she heard the words plain as day, “You’re welcome.”

Elect II—2 Amazons, part 1 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Emily got to the suite early on Wednesday and unpacked before the others arrived.  She was not too impressed.  There were three dorm rooms, a small common lounge area and a bathroom with two stalls, two sinks, two mirrors and a shower.  That was not going to be enough for six girls.  Emily shook her head.  It was still just a college dorm after all.

Everyone said be there at six.  They said they wanted to celebrate the beginning of a new school year, but Emily could not move that fast.  She was going to be late.  She had to visit Professor Schultz first and bring him up-to-date on her summer activities.

ac-heinrich-1Heinrich Schultz, history professor, was born in 1640, though he hardly looked over sixty.  He was a member of the council of fifty men from around the world that were raised up to keep a careful eye on the women known as the elect.  He told her last year that when the goddesses made the elect at the beginning of history—the so-called “one in a million” warrior women, they neglected to take into account human fallibility and weakness in the face of temptation.  The gods responded by making a small council of plain ordinary men but for the long life who could be activated and empowered for short periods of time to deal with things unseen by the goddesses—like an elect gone rogue.  Heinrich’s mere presence made Detective Lisa nervous, but Emily thought he looked like Santa Clause.  She kissed his cheek and thanked him again for her sword, and smiled when she left him.

Emily also smiled when she talked to her sister elect Lisa earlier in the day.  She was glad to hear that everything around Trenton and around the New Jersey State campus was quiet.  After freshman year, she needed a quiet semester.  Lisa had the good sense to only mention Pierce once, and that was to say she was there if Emily ever wanted to talk about it.  Emily did not want to talk about it, but she appreciated the offer and said so.

ac-latasha-2Emily made sure she talked to Latasha early as well.  Latasha was going to be a sophomore at the high school near the campus.  Emily felt it was important to encourage the girl in her schooling every chance she got.  God knew the girl got little encouragement from her family, friends and neighbors.  Sure, Latasha’s mother loved her well enough, and she had a couple of good friends in Keisha and Janet, but that was it.  She struggled against a terrible cultural headwind designed to keep her down and isolated, and isolation was especially dangerous for an elect.  Given her power, if Latasha was ever tempted to lash out, the consequences could be dire.  Lisa and Emily discussed it.  It was important for them to remind Latasha that she was not the only one, that she was not alone and that they were there for her no matter what.

Emily made a quick stop at the student center and her post box.  She found a note regarding the fall schedule.  They hired a teacher for Anatomy and Physiology, which was good because she needed that class, but they could only schedule the classes as night classes, so her schedule got changed.  The note from the new Professor, a man named Vladimir Orlov said he had other daytime obligations until the end of the year, but do not worry.  He was not a vampire.  Emily rolled her eyes.

She lifted her head and saw Ms Morgan Granger float by.  The woman now had seven hunks and two gorgeous women in her train.  Emily knew the woman was dabbling with Professor Hilde’s Jekyll and Hyde juice, but it was something she wanted to ignore.

When Emily looked toward the door, she saw a woman she only vaguely recognized.  She was prepared to ignore this woman too, but the woman went straight for her and even attempted to trap her by the mailboxes so she couldn’t escape.  The woman put out her hand to introduce herself.

ac-news-6“Courtney Chase, Channel 5, Eyewitness News.”

Emily opted not to shake the woman’s hand by putting her hand to her ribs instead.  “You surveying students?”

“You are Emily Hudson?  I understand you had quite a year last year, and I missed it all.”

Emily had to think about how to answer the woman.  The last thing she wanted was publicity, but then she was hoping for a dull, uninteresting year where she could actually focus on her nursing studies.  “You didn’t miss much, and I expect this year will be just as unexciting.”

“I heard the freshman ROTC got into some bad drugs.  Did you have to kill any of those young men?”

“Most of the freshmen transferred out.”  Emily shrugged.  “That’s all.  It happens.  We have a few sophomores in the class this year.”

“But what about the dead people walking around campus.  You were seen cutting off people’s heads.”

“Actually, there was a person last year who was into mass hypnosis, but she was taken care of by someone else.  It wasn’t me.”

“But I heard—.”

“You heard a bunch of nonsense.  This is a college campus, for crying out loud.  College kids do crazy things, but I am not sure any of them are newsworthy.  Excuse me.”  Emily squeezed past the woman and limped toward the door.

“How did you manage to get hurt?”  The woman seemed to notice for the first time.

“I fell off a dog.”

“You fell off a dog?”

“It was a really big dog.”

“Interesting.  I would love a camera interview.  Say, a week from Thursday, four o’clock so it is after classes?”

Emily stopped in the doorway.  She put on a big smile.  “You want to hear about my nursing classes?  That could be good.  Maybe we could encourage young people to consider going into nursing.  All projections say there will be a shortage of nurses in the near future.”

Courtney Chase, Channel 5, Eyewitness News frowned.  She did not have her cameraman with her.  She showed a thousand questions on her face, but all she said was, “Maybe later.”  Emily escaped.

She limped away from the center with her hand still around her middle.  Her chest was wrapped.  One of her lungs collapsed back when they first got her to the hospital, but she survived.  She did not doubt that she would.

###

Latasha felt good about being back in school even if Janet and Keisha were being dips about it.  She only had a couple of years to get her grades up to where she could go to Mercer Community and study Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement.  She had her heart set on the Police Academy and following in Detective Lisa’s footsteps.  Sadly, everything around her, including her friends dragged her down.  At least she got along well with her science teacher.

boston-5“Ms Riley, I thought you weren’t coming back after freshman year and, you know, the succubus incident.”  Latasha glanced at her friends.  They did not remember much about it.

“What suck-you-bus incident?” Keisha asked.

“You mean that time Mister Santos the bus driver tried to shoot you?” Janet asked.  Latasha just shook her head in response.

“That was my plan,” Ms Riley explained to Latasha.  “But things have changed.  Right now there is something going on in this community and I have been asked to stay for a while.”

“If there is something bad happening, Latasha could beat them up,” Janet offered.  Latasha gave Janet a mean stare before she looked again at her teacher.

“Something I should know about?” Latasha asked.  Latasha was not exactly sure who Ms Riley was except she knew the woman was no ordinary teacher.  Last year Latasha caught a glimpse of the woman all skinny with pointed ears kissing a man of the same description that she said was her husband.  Latasha was not sure what all that meant, but she knew Ms Riley was one of the good guys and that was all that really mattered.

“Right now all you need to know is your biology homework,” Ms Riley said with a smile, and that rather ended the discussion.  Once in the hall, Keisha had another thing to say.

“Why did she move up a grade with us?  Wasn’t it bad enough we had to have her last year for environmental science?”

With that word, Latasha had a moment of insight and stopped walking so the others stopped.  A year ago, she would have been right in there with Keisha, agreeing with the girl and badmouthing the teacher, but the truth was, Ms Riley was not only one of the good guys, she was a good teacher.  Sure, biology was going to be hard, but damn it!  Latasha was going to the Police Academy.  She was going to do something with her life and she was going to get ahead.  And maybe that meant she had to stop listening to her friends.  Maybe she had to close her ears to the whole culture in which she lived.  She did not know if she could do that, but she was going to give it her best try.

Latasha started to walk again and realized Keisha and Janet were talking about all of their teachers and classes in the most negative terms they could devise.  Staying out of it was not going to be easy.

When they got to the parking lot, Keisha pointed.  “Hey look, Bobby Thompson.”  She nudged Janet in the side.

Latasha looked, but all she saw was a drug deal going down.  “Hey!”  She shouted at the boys.  She started forward, but the boys noticed and ran off.  Latasha would have run after them.  Bobby Thompson appeared to be the one with the drugs, but Janet moved faster than Latasha thought possible for such a big girl and she got in front of Latasha to block Latasha’s way

“You leave him alone!”  Janet said with a wag of her head like her mother did when she meant to be obeyed.

“Bobby Thompson?  He’s dealing.”

Janet shook her head again and pouted her lips.  “I don’t care what he is doing.  You stay away from him.”

“Janet?”

“Janet is sweet on him,” Keisha stepped up.  She thought it was funny.

ac-lat-janetLatasha tried to talk sense.  “Janet, the guy is scum.”

“He is not scum to me,” Janet said.

“What, he was nice to you once?  He’s been nice to half the girls in school.  You are nothing special to him.”

“Fuck you.  I am.  You don’t know nothing.”  Janet’s hands went to her hips and she wiggled them for emphasis.

Latasha backed away.  She got out her phone.  She had to call Detective Lisa and she had to decide what she was going to do about her friends.  She wondered briefly if Janet was pregnant.

The Elect 18, part 4 of 4: Amazons

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Jessica and Maria walked out front.  Amina and Mindy followed behind like a couple of shadows.  Jessica complained.  “I hurt.”

Maria knew what to say.  “Did I mention you look great?”

Jessica frowned and then grinned, “I know,” She showed herself a little before she frowned again.  “That Schultz is a slave driver.”

“I’m enjoying it,” Mindy said.  Of them all, Mindy was the shortest and smallest, like the runt of theab archery 2 litter, but she had the energy one might expect from looking at her fire red hair.  Maria was almost five foot four, and Amina was closer to Emily’s height of five-six.  Mindy shaded her eyes as she looked up at Jessica.  “If I can, you can.”  She put on her determined face.  “Anyway, I especially like the archery.”  They had convinced Professor Schultz to let them have that much of a weapon, and the padded staffs.

“That’s because you are good at it.”  Jessica looked down at the girl and was determined to be grumpy.

“But you’re better,” Mindy said.  “You are better at everything as far as I can tell.  No weak spots.”

Jessica shook her head.  “I don’t think I am best at anything.  That is probably why Professor Schultz rides me so much.”

“So, what are you suggesting?”  Maria poked at Jessica with her elbow.  “Do you want a real weapon like Emily’s sword?”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” Jessica responded.  “At least to learn how to use a knife, what with the zombies around again.”

Maria stopped, so they all stopped.  “But nothing has turned up since the restaurant,” Maria pointed out.

ac jessica 6“Jessica,” Mindy looked up.  “How tall are you, really?”

“Five-seven and a half,” Jessica said.  “I used to model in high school.  Back then I was almost five-ten.”  Jessica grinned again.

“I think you need something more like a spear,” Mindy suggested.  “That would suit your height and long arms.”

“And you know?”

Mindy’s determination turned quickly to a pout.  “I read.  I know some things.  I’ve studied these things, though I must say there is nothing like first-hand experience.”

“Maybe Jessica needs a ten foot pole,” Maria suggested

“Not funny.”  Jessica reached for Maria, but Maria slapped her hand away and took a short step back.  If it was not for the book bags, the two looked like they might go for a friendly tussle right there.  “It’s not right.”  Jessica let out her full-fledged, parental approved whiney voice.  “You are really kicking with the karate, Mindy hits the bull’s-eye almost always and even Amina has the staff down pat.  I bet if they didn’t have those pillows on each end, she could really do some damage.  I repeat, I am not best at anything.”  The others did not know how to respond because as far as they could tell, Jessica was best at everything, not counting Emily, of course.

“But there is nothing Professor Schultz has shown us so far that you are bad at.” Amina spoke for the first time and tried to be encouraging, but Mindy spoke overtop.

“You are best at the running part.” ab ar jog 2

“And something else,” Amina stopped.  As soon as she stopped, Mindy and the others stopped and turned to listen to what Amina had to say.

“You are very good at everything.  We all have weaknesses.”

“That is true,” Maria confirmed, and Mindy nodded.  Jessica also knew that was true, but it was not enough.  She wanted to be best at something and have no doubts in her mind.  She started to walk again so the others started with her.  “More important,” Maria was not finished with her thought.  “There are side benefits here.  I never felt so strong and capable in my life.  For the first time I feel like I could actually do something if I had to.”

“Like help somebody in need,” Mindy offered.

“Yes, and maybe not end up a victim in a bad situation.”

Jessica nodded but added another note.  “More important, there is so much going on around here that most people don’t know about, like dead bodies of old people showing up everywhere.  Emily is probably the only one who can do something about that, but she can’t do it alone.  She needs us to back her up.  I get that.”  They all understood.

ac julie1“Did I mention I heard from Julie Tam?”  Maria changed the subject.  They stopped walking again and looked at her, except Amina who appeared content to look at the ground.  “She says given the anatomical slices taken with surgical precision from the old bodies, it looks to her like someone may be doing some genetic testing.”

“That was English?”  Jessica made it a joke, but no one laughed.  Mindy took a look at Amina and spoke her concern.

“Are you alright?”  She reached out and touched Amina gently on her arm to get her attention.

Amina looked up and needed a few seconds to bring her eyes into focus.  “I see trouble ahead.  I see death beyond the great white light.  I do not know what that means.”

“Emily?”  Maria asked.

“No,” Amina assured her.  “It has something to do with us, but I can’t get a clear picture.  All I can see is trouble up ahead.  I have to work on it.”

“I see trouble ahead.”  Jessica pointed to the dorm door.  Connie, her friend Lilly, and a half-dozen other women were standing there, waiting.

“Hate men parade,” Mindy said under her breath.  No one scolded her for telling the truth.ac mindy 5

“Emily’s not here,” Maria said, as they got close.

“I know,” Connie said.  “We just came to pick up Mindy and Amina for the meeting.”

“What meeting?’  Maria asked.  She closed ranks with Jessica.  Mindy and Amina were still behind them.

“I quit your club,” Mindy said.

“I never joined,” Amina added.

“Sorry,” Jessica smiled, but put down her book bag.  She did not like the tension in the air.

Maria did the same, but paused.  There was someone in the corner, watching.  Mindy saw her, too.  The woman was twenty-something, so not likely an undergraduate.  She stood about five foot, eight, had long light brown hair and deep-set green eyes.  She was also intensely beautiful, but the thing that attracted their eyes was the woman’s dress.  She was wearing what Mindy called a peplos, a style of Greek dress that was ancient.

Connie returned Jessica’s smile.  “Look, you are giving us a bad reputation.  I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

The woman smiled at Maria and Mindy.

ac lilly 1“I do,” Lilly said and she took a swing at Jessica, the big one.  It was a right hook, but a very sloppy punch.  Jessica simply tilted her head back a little and the fist completely missed her face.  She pushed the arm to continue Lilly’s movement in that direction.  She put a foot on Lilly’s butt and shoved.  Lilly sprawled into the other women and took two to the ground with her.

“See?”  Maria’s attention was taken by the action, and she spoke to Jessica.  “You did that very well.”  She finished putting down her book-bag, just in case.

“You bitches!”  Rage and frustration poured out of Connie.  She shoved Maria out of the way and went straight for her roommate, Mindy.  Mindy was the least practiced of them all, being new to the workouts and training offered by Professor Schultz, but she was already convinced that pulling hair and scratching at the face was not a good technique.  She also knew that women did not have the upper body strength of a man, but could use their legs to great advantage.  She practiced her scissor kick, first on Connie’s knee and then on her hip.

Connie felt it, but her rage moved her forward, her hands still outstretched to grab Mindy’s hair.  Mindy, the little one merely ducked, moved forward under the arm and threw whatever upper body strength she had into one punch.  It landed in Connie’s side, in the ribs below the arm.  Connie fell to her knees, then shouted and fell to the side as she reached for her hurt knee.  Mindy simply picked up her backpack and stepped up beside Maria and Jessica who were keeping the other women away with their stares.ab angry look 1

“Book bags,” Maria said, and they picked up their bags and entered the dorm talking like they had never been interrupted, but Mindy took a glance to the side.  The woman was gone.

“So, I guess that was the trouble you saw?”  Maria turned to Amina.

“No, something else.”  Amina shook her head and seemed oblivious to what just happened.  “I have to think about it.  I need a bath.”  She ran up the stairs to her room.

###

Jessica’s phone rang shortly after sundown.  Emily was still not back to the room and she thought it might be her, but it was Amina.

“Get out,” Amina yelled.  “The zombies are coming here.”

“To the dorm?  Is that it?”

“That is what I was feeling.”

Jessica hung up and raced to bang on Maria’s door.  Maria opened it and hushed her.  Mindy was taking a nap.

“Amina,” Jessica held up her phone.  “Zombies, coming here.”

a dorm room 3“What?”  Maria shouted.

“Huh?”  Mindy poked her head up from the bed.  Jessica and Maria went to drag her from the bed, but there was a noise in the hall and they knew Mindy would never wake in time. They flew to the door even as a zombie appeared in the opening.  Maria stuck her foot out and flat-footed the zombie in the chest.  She got scratched, but the zombie was knocked to its back and Jessica got the door closed and locked.

“What’s happening?”  Mindy asked as she came awake and saw Jessica and Maria with their backs to the door.  There was a loud Bang!  The door jiggled along with Jessica and Maria, but it held.

“Zombies,” Jessica said as Maria grabbed her chair and shoved it under the door handle.  Mindy went straight for the window.  They were in the new dorm where the windows were long and skinny and generally not made for escape.

“If we can get the window off here, I think I can get out and get help,” Mindy suggested.  She was the only one who might have been small enough.

“The advantages of being little,” Jessica said as she and the door jiggled again to another Bang!

“ I got 9-1-1,” Maria said.  She had one hand leaning heavily on the door above the chair, but her phone was in her other hand.  Jessica still had her phone in hand, but she had not thought of using it.

“Amina is out there.  She will get help,” Jessica said as Mindy screamed.  A zombie came up to the window.  There was a sudden brilliant flash of light, and a heartbeat later, there came a series of a zombies 2explosions.  The door crashed into the room and landed on Jessica.  Maria flew back and hit her head on the cement-block wall.  Mindy covered her face, but caught plenty of glass from the shattered window.  No one said the light and explosions should have come at the same time.

Less than a minute later, Amina showed up with Bernie the campus cop.  Another minute later, Emily arrived.  She was on her way home when she heard the explosions.

Maria was out cold.  Jessica had a broken arm.  Mindy was kneeling, shivering and crying from the pain of a thousand cuts.