Emily got on the plane and sat by the window.  She ignored everyone and everything apart from the stress she was feeling.  The clouds offered no distraction and no comfort as she considered all that had happened to her since coming to school.  She thought of the geeks in the frat house, the football players in the sorority house, and the destruction of her ROTC freshman class.  She considered Hilde himself, the end result of his own experiments.  The suck face murders, as they were called.

Emily tried to think about Pierce, but her mind turned to zombies instead, and the Swensons, both mother and daughter.  Emily had learned that Abby’s father and brother were killed in an unexplained accident a few years earlier.  If two plus two ever made four, it seemed obvious to one who believed in witchcraft that Abby killed her father and brother in order to gain her mother’s full time attention.  No wonder Abby reacted with such anger and hatred when Professor Swenson died.  With a little subtlety, Abby might still be around enslaving people to her heart’s content, but Flabby wasn’t that smart.  Then again, Professor Swenson was, and Emily imagined the loss of her husband and son was probably what got her working on the whole idea of bringing the dead back to life.  The cut up murders, as they were called.

Emily coughed, and the middle aged man who had taken the center seat to be next to the pretty young girl decided to move to the empty aisle seat.

Again, Emily tried to think about Pierce, but that just brought to mind the old people murders.  She decided Lisa was probably right.  Granted, they had their hands full looking for the zombie lab, but there was probably a third group out there somewhere.  No telling what they had in mind since so far they had not tipped their hand.

Emily sneezed, felt a chill and had a forehead full of sweat by the time they landed.  She pulled her coat tight and walked to baggage claim, thinking about Latasha and the succubus.  She thought of the vampires over Christmas.  She remembered what Lisa said early on, that if it was some kind of monster she would have been informed.  Emily wondered about this much larger and much stranger universe she had stumbled into, and where it might lead.  When she grabbed her bags, she did not see the ghostly, mist-like thing that exited her back.  Like a puff of smoke, it wafted down to her bag and sucked itself inside among her things.

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

Thus far, Emily, her roommate and friends have helped Detective Lisa shut down the super soldier competition being held by the biology department at New Jersey State University where Emily is a freshman.  They can’t pin it on the Pentagon.  And they can’t seem to stop the incoming zombies, wired to explode when they reach their destination–at least not without finding the zombie lab.  And poor Latasha, the third elect in town, is only a freshman in the local high school where the madness from the university has overflowed.

Chapter 18 (or episode 18 if you have more of a television mind) is being posted this week: today, Tues., Wed., and Thurs.  If you want to visit the blog, you can click on the archives button and start in November 2015, or you can just read chapter 18 and get the general idea of what is going on.  I do urge you, though, to read the whole chapter, like watching the whole television episode…

It is free to read, after all.  Do enjoy and Happy Reading

Jessica and Larry went inside first.  Jessica looked around to be sure plenty of eyes turned toward her.  Of course, after Pierce and Emily came in and he held Emily’s chair for her, Jessica frowned at Larry.  Larry ignored the look and spoke softly.

“This place isn’t cheap.”

“I’m going to the restroom,” Jessica said and stood.  “Coming?”  She was not asking.

Emily stood, shrugged at Pierce and followed.  “What’s up?”  Jessica rolled her eyes but said nothing until they were safely behind the closed door and in front of the mirror.

“Why did I ever let you talk me into this double date?”  Jessica pouted.

“It was your idea.”

“Well, it was a dumb idea.”

“I don’t know.  Larry seems nice.”  He was the semester record having been with Jessica almost two weeks.

Jessica started to say something, but changed her mind and pulled out her lip-gloss.  Then she spoke.  “Do you think so?”

“And he seems bright, too.”  Emily encouraged her.  After all, Jessica said she broke up with Tom because he was not very bright.

“Double major.  Physics and math.”  Jessica smiled.  She had hooked a genuine geek.  “He could use some help with his manners, though.”

Emily looked toward the door in lieu of looking at the table.  “I don’t know.  You can’t judge by Pierce.”

“Yeah, I know.  A graduate student when I’m stuck with Joe College.  What is he, twenty-three, twenty-four?”

“No.  I mean he seems oddly out of place sometimes, like he is older than he appears.  Like the old fashioned way he always holds the door and pulls out my chair and stuff like that.  And sometimes he seems younger.  I don’t know, like old television shows and common knowledge things from when we grew up.  He doesn’t remember them at all.”

“Maybe his parents didn’t let him watch television as a child,” Jessica suggested.

Emily looked again at her friend.  “Twenty-four, I think.”

“When is his birthday?”

Emily paused to consider and realized she had no answer.  “We never talked about birthdays.”

“Larry’s is September third.  He is a junior, twenty-one years old.  What do you talk about, anyway?”

Emily shrugged.

“Zombies and stuff I bet.”

This time Emily frowned.  “It isn’t like that.”

Jessica smiled in response.  “Come on.  We better get back before I start getting jealous again.”

They stepped out the door, took two steps and Emily grabbed Jessica to make her stop walking.  There was a man standing right behind their table.  He was looking up at the ceiling and raising his hands.

“Pierce!  Down!”  Emily shouted and saw Pierce grab Larry and drag him under the table.  Even as Emily dragged Jessica to the ground, the standing man exploded.  Flesh and guts and deadly bone fragments shot in every direction.  Emily got some green glop on her dress.  Jessica had something pink and mushy fall in her lap.  She identified it.

“Ew! I hate liver.”

Emily was already up.  There were people bleeding all over the room.  A couple of them were probably dead, but Emily could not worry about that yet.  She arrived at the table when Pierce finished setting it upright again.  Somehow, he got himself and Larry under and then tilted the table to act as a barrier.  All their plates, utensils and the lovely flowers went to the floor, but the tablecloth remained.  Emily ducked under.

“Are you all right?”  Pierce and Emily grabbed each other and spoke at the same time.

“What the hell was that?”  Larry was getting his bearings.  He saw Emily and Pierce were embracing and kissing, so he thought to find Jessica.  Jessica had her phone out.

“Maria, call Detective Lisa and Julie Tam.  The dead have risen.  They are moving again.”

“What the hell was that?”  Larry repeated himself.

Jessica temporarily covered her phone.  “Zombie,” she said.

“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.”

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

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…

Katie Lockhart sat off to the side in the police room where she would not be in the way.  She placed a gentle hand on her baby belly and smiled.  Anna from New York and Miriam from the FBI came from opposite directions.

“You need to come with us,” Miriam said in her best FBI voice

“Come on,” Anna smiled and helped Katie to her feet.

“Over here,” Ellen Martin waved.  “You have to see this.”

“See something?”  Katie asked.

“Surprise!”  The dirty old interview room was set up with chairs and the decorations said boy or girl?  Lisa was there, with Emily, Latasha, Miss Libby, and all of the others.  And there were presents and punch and plenty of treats with an over abundance of donuts.

###

Miss Libby Carter was from Arkadelphia, Arkansas.  She was eighty-eight and a ball of fire as well as laughs.  She took Latasha under her wing from the start and met with her every day when Latasha came home from school.  They told Latasha’s mother she was tutoring Latasha in history, and her mother bought the story.  Latasha did learn a lot of history, too, but mostly it came in the form of stories about growing up in the south and living through the depression, the World War and the booms and recessions since.

“Good times and bad,” Libby said.  “And don’t swing that thing quite so far on your back swing.  Follow through is important, but you might hit something unintended behind you if you are not careful.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  Latasha called her ma’am.

“And it is Libby.  I am your sister, not your ma’am,” Libby always responded.

“Yes, ma’am, Libby.”

They were out front on Wednesday, practicing as well as they could without arousing suspicion, when Libby shook her head sadly.  “We need practice dummies,” she said.

“I have three older brothers,” Latasha suggested with a very broad grin.

“Your mother might not appreciate that,” Libby responded with a look at the house.

A van chose that afternoon to pull up across the street.  It caught their attention.  The back door opened and two zombies came out of the back.

“In daylight?”  Libby reacted.  The late afternoon sun was still up.  “Hold still,” she told Latasha and stuck her hand out to be sure the youngster did not rush out to attack.  “Do not waste your energy going to them.  They will be here soon enough.”  The van roared off, but it might have been just to the corner to watch or maybe to turn around.

“Pick your target and your time,” Libby instructed.  The zombies came on to the front property, and Libby said, ‘Now.”  A small knife flew from beneath the shawl the old woman wore against the cold.  She had on about five layers of clothing.  She was from Arkansas, what did she know about New Jersey in December?  The small knife struck perfectly in one zombie’s heart.  The zombie stopped moving and looked down as if somehow trying to judge what just happened.  Libby moved, and Latasha moved at last.

Libby pulled her very long knife from somewhere in all those layers.  Her stroke took the zombie’s head off without her getting a scratch.  Latasha’s ax was more forcefully driven.  It easily separated the head from the body, but sent it six feet in the air to bounce into the bushes.  Then she got a small scratch on her upper arm as she fumbled at the button for the spike.  She got it and quickly finished the job, but by then her mother came to the door.

“Latasha, what are you doing out there?”  She sounded confused, upset, concerned, and like she did not believe what she just saw.  Libby intercepted her.

“Just some practice dummies.  We were talking the World War, you know bayonets and such.  Hands on learning is always the best.”  Libby caught Latasha’s mother by the elbow and gently directed her back toward the house.  “Tasha tells me you were born in Shreveport.”

“Yes.”  Tasha’s mother let the old lady lead her to the steps but her head remained turned and her eyes stayed on her baby and what certainly looked like two dead bodies.

“My connection to Shreveport was the race track.  My husband used to love going to the Louisiana Downs.”

Latasha’s mother turned her head to the old woman.  “My father used to work the stables every season.  I grew up around those horses.”

“Of course, Shreveport was where we had to go for our liquor, ours being a dry county.”

“Why Ms Carter, I never would have guessed.”  They went up the stairs to the porch and back inside.

“I have a great recipe and all you need is some cherry vanilla ice cream and some brandy.”

“Why Ms Carter!”  The door closed.

Latasha cleaned her weapon and saw that Ms Carter’s long knife and little knife were already gone.  Cleaned and returned to their place, she thought.  She was going to have to work on her speed.  Once her ax was clean and her spike clean, she returned the spike to its place inside the handle.  She got out her cell, but she could not call right away.  Her big brother Darren, the brother that was into so many of those drugs stepped out from the bushes, the severed head gripped by the hair.

“You dropped this,” he said and let it thump to the ground.

“Thanks,” she responded, but she did not have time for more.  She hit the contacts button.

“Does Mama know you are killing people?”

“These were already dead,” Latasha held her phone tight.

“I can see that.  Wonder how they managed that.”  Darren gave her his best stare.  It was the one that said she best not try to lie.  “Nice ax.  I think you better explain.”

“No.”  Latasha got mad.  Darren was not asking because he cared or was concerned about her.  All he was thinking was how could he use this to his advantage and maybe squeeze money out of someone.

“I could beat it out of you,” he suggested.

“You would lose,” she responded and he rushed her.  She put a stiff arm right in his chest and knocked him back on his butt, hard.  Then she ignored him and made her call.  Darren looked bewildered, especially when he heard what his sister said.  “They know where I live.”

*