by T S Paul
<<<>>>
“Zombies don’t exist,” Anabelle Smith pronounced.
Both WereCats growled but stayed silent. I watched from the window as dead humans walked, crawled, and ran down the street. This wasn’t supposed to be possible. Not on a scale like this, at least.
“The talent is very rare, but Necromancy does exist. Most Covens expel anyone who dares to practice the art, and the Witches Council usually executes them. Most practitioners can only raise one or two bodies at once. Something like this requires a spell,” I explained.
“What kind of spell?” Alicia asked.
I cut my eyes in her direction. “An unpleasant one,” I said. “Someone created a spell like that one. They took it and a large host of evil and unmentionable other spells creating a group of books. Each book is said to be made from the skin of an General who did horrific things to those he fought. They were spread across the land by persons unknown more than eight hundred years ago. Collectively, they are called the Book of Undying.”
“That sound ominous,” Agent Smith said.
“Yeah. Every Witches Council tried tracking the books. Many were recovered and destroyed but a few remained hidden. Every Zombie uprising in the past several centuries can be traced back to a copy of the book. The last was in Haiti. The Council staged an uprising and massacre to cover what actually happened. This is bad. Really bad,” I started to explain.
“If I had this book could I use it?” Anabelle asked.
I let out a dark chuckle. “No. This one needs someone with the gift to make its spells work. The very specific Necromancy gift. Demons don’t have it. Only people from this realm. I wonder if Grandmother knew about Camilla?”
“We need to get moving. You said there was a yacht club or something around here?” I asked Agent Smith.
“Yes, just a couple of blocks up the road. Why?” Smith asked.
“Continue the mission. I was sent to stop Camilla but that, that isn’t her. Not anymore. If Demons are invading, I need to stop them, with or without orders to do so,” I exclaimed.
Smith nodded, “I can see that. What’s the plan, boss?”
I looked at her in disbelief. “You’re insane. You know that, right? But I won’t refuse the help. We’ll arm up and go after that thing. They have to be heading for a boat since armored cars don’t float,” I told them.
“Makes sense. The club I’m thinking of has boats of all sizes. We just need a ten-footer or so. If the Cats can change back, we’ll all fit. Those Zombies might be an issue though,” Smith replied.
“Let me worry about them. Trust me. Start stripping the dead. We all need ammo. Chuck, I need you guys back, please,” I said, then asked my friends to change.
Arming up took longer than I thought it would. Cat took the extra time to clean up and slip into clothes that I think once belonged to my cousin. Grandmother didn’t approve of Autumn leaving the family to live among humans, but she didn’t want Demons eating her. I would have to try to get the Coven to have a ceremony or something.
“How you feeling, sister?” I smiled at a cleaned and dressed Cat.
“Ready to take on the world,” she replied with an equal smile.
“How’s Chuck doing?” I had been worried about him since he had been shot in the chest.
“Hungry, and really sore. He knows better than to race into an unknown situation in that form. What’s the plan?” she asked.
“Find a boat and kill a monster. We’ll have to close a Portal too, but that’s just part of the process,” I explained.
Cat looked out the window and down to the street. “What about them?”
I gave my friend a stern look. “In all the years we’ve been together have you learned nothing? Do you remember what I told you about Zombies and the Necromancers that raise them?”
Cat pursed her lips and stared up at the ceiling. Back in school, I always thought she was burning imaginary holes through the entire building. “Power and thought?”
“You’ve got it exactly. So how does that relate to what’s out there?” I asked. Hearing the sounds of steps, I invited the two human Agents to join us.
“Spells require thought and Witches need power to do anything,” Cat answered.
“Yes, there are Zombies outside but the Necromancer that raised them isn’t here. Everything that we do requires energy. The one that raises those things outside has to give them orders. Very specific orders. And to do that, they need a boatload of energy. This isn’t a movie or TV show. Camilla’s Zombies are pushovers. Quite literally,” I explained.
<<<>>>
“This sucks,” Xavier shook the tablet again, repeatedly hitting the buttons to no avail.
“It’s what happens if you let crazy people drive the boat. Were you too busy communing with the spirits or something to see where you were going?” Robert spit out salt water and glared at Hamilton.
“I’m not the idiot that crashed into the dock not once but almost three times. Back off now. I will light you up,” the Mage threatened, wiping his wet bangs out of his eyes.
“Ooh, big man with a wand. You gonna use your wizardly ways to get us off this buoy and back to dry land? The fort is that way in case you wondered,” Robert poked the Mage.
The entire team had made it off the boat before it sank into the bay. They had swum to the closest thing they could see. A channel marker. A plaque mounted to the structure said it was ‘middle ground.’
“Can you dry this out so it still works?” Xavier asked Victoria.
Victoria took the Arcane-issued device and carefully started to warm it at first. She would increase the heat gradually to pull some of the water out of it.
“That cloud worries me, and command must think we died or something,” Xavier commented.
“I’ve been trying to not look at it too much,” Victoria replied as she continued to work on the tablet.
“We could still try to swim to it,” Xavier said.
Victoria snorted, “Maybe you could do that but not I. Have you seen how far that is?”
Xavier shook his head. “I said ‘could try.’ Not that we’d make it.”
“Or we could take a boat to it,” Victoria told him.
Xavier looked up at her with a puzzled look. “Where would we get a boat?”
“Over there. If you ask nicely they might let us onboard.” Victoria pointed at a small speedboat coming right at them.
“Everybody look alive! We’ve got company,” Xavier yelled.
The speedboat slowed as it approached the floating buoy. Four women and a large man stood staring at them. A familiar-looking brunette smiled and asked, “Need a ride?”
Xavier rubbed his head and muttered, “I’m never living this one down.”
Chapter 20
Construction began on Fort Sumter in 1829 but wasn’t completed until some hundred thousand tons of granite and more than twenty years later. Engineers literally built up the island from a simple sandbar. At the time, America was under threat from pirates and potential hostile countries. Empire building is hard work. Protection was needed. The fort was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. For four years it was in constant contention between the two sides.
At the turn of the century the ruins of the past war were cleared away and preparations for another were started. The humans were threatened by European powers, and a gun battery was installed in the heart of the old fort. The installation was continually updated but war never came again.
Modern humans have an incessant desire to learn of the past and those decisions that led to their existence. Museums to delight and horrify became popular among them. Everything from wax replicas to remembrances of the past. Paranormals don’t do the same sort of things. Many of us can remember the events of the past because we experienced them firsthand. Fort Sumter is such a place. What was once a battery to shoot down Demon Bats now sheltered them. Walls that had withstood the guns of the Union Navy were sheltering an army that would bring that very navy d
own. That was our target and we were bringing the fight to them this time.
“How’d you end up on the Middle Ground buoy?” Agent Anabelle Smith asked Xavier’s team as they boarded our small speedboat.
“That thing has an actual name?” TJ asked. His salt-stained combat gi snagged on a cleat just as he cleared the transom. The short Asian man’s arms flailed for just a moment before he went head first into Alicia’s lap.
Grabbing the martial arts master by his shoulders, Alicia smiled and asked, “And who are you?”
“Uh, Tao Jung Lee but you can call me TJ,” he answered.
Robert jumped down into the boat, grabbing the back of TJ’s shirt. “Let’s go, lover boy. Make room for the rest.”
The whole scene brought a smile to my face. These people didn’t trust us but were allowing us to save them. Destruction of Haboryrm was the ultimate goal, and we were going to need all the help we could get.
“How is it you people found a working boat and got past whatever that was back there?” Xavier pointed toward the channel.
“We had help and a map. Didn’t you look where the channels are? That’s sort of what the buoys are for,” I explained. How we got the boat was either by luck or timing. I’m still not sure which.
<<<>>>
Just as I said, the Zombies outside of Autumn’s house were pushovers. Chuck actually got the biggest kick walking up to them crying out “Brains!” then pushing them over.
Cat glared at the large man then looked back at me. “Seriously? Make him stop that crap!”
I covered my mouth and giggled. We’d just gone from almost being killed to playing with actual Zombies in the streets. The whole thing was amusing. Of course, we still had a Demon Lord to find and kill.
“Chuck! Stop Zombie tipping!” I broke out into giggles again.
Alicia and Anabelle stepped out through the shattered front of the house just as Chuck’s last victim hit the pavement. “You didn’t save us one?”
Chuck looked over his shoulder at the two lanes of Broad Street. Zombies crawled everywhere. “Sorry?”
Anabelle went straight to a nearby SUV and started trying to get it started, “I think we’ll all fit into this one.”
“Need help?” I asked her.
Raising one eyebrow at me she asked, “Know how to hotwire a car?”
I shook my head. “Not really, no. Chuck tried to teach me once, but it didn’t end well.”
“I’ve got it thanks,” Anabelle replied.
Chuck had been really pissed at me when I accidentally fried both the stereo and the speakers on his car during that particular lesson. My Magick was a bit wonky back then.
“You know what this reminds me of?” Alicia asked me.
I looked left and the young Agent was sitting on the hood of a smashed car, watching the Zombies slowly crawl across the street.
“Should I ask?” The Agent seemed to be a bit of a nerd and she said strange things sometimes. I thought she and Fergus would get along famously.
“There was an old British TV show. Something about snakes but it was comedy. They had this one skit where they had mountain climbers scaling a sidewalk. That’s what these poor folks out here remind me of. Sidewalk climbers. Can they be made normal again?” Alicia asked.
The complete non sequitur threw me off for a moment. I shook my head. “No. They had to die to become like this. If you could see them Magically like I do, you would know for sure. Everything has a specific vibration about them. Humans who are into the metaphysical call it an aura. When I switch on my sight I can read people.”
“Read people how?” she asked.
I looked past the Agent to see Chuck giving her boss pointers on stealing a car, with Cat supervising the whole thing. Bringing Alicia back into focus I answered. “Looking at you that way I can see you’re alive. Dead people and Vampires show up as dark or even black. Your aura is filled with yellows and greens. That means you’re analytical, intelligent, and very hard working.”
“But aren’t all FBI Agents that way?” Alicia asked.
“Not everyone. Both Cat and I have met a few that need to be retested,” I responded, thinking of people in the past, like the Director that tried to kill me and the Agents that Cat had to deal with on her own probi mission.
“You two coming with us?” Anabelle yelled.
Just like the Agents said, there was a yacht club less than four blocks from the house. We had to dodge several Zombies and a few lone Imps but managed to get to the small wharf area without any real issue. I did notice that what I was calling the Zombie Effect only seemed to last for about a mile. That was something to pass along to Grandmother. Not all that much was known about the spells contained inside the Book of Undying.
“What’s that building over there? The yellowish one,” Chuck asked.
“Old prison. They kept Revolutionary War prisoners there.” Anabelle was driving but reached over and gave Chuck a punch in the arm. “I’m not a tour guide. Look it up later.”
I had to laugh at that. Just as soon as we got moving, he started asking questions. Agent Smith was as much of a local as I was back in Briarwood, so she knew stuff.
“What about those boats over there?” I pointed out the window at three boats tied up to a pier.
“Too complicated. Those are harbor tugs. They escort the big ships to be unloaded at the port facility. It takes a real captain to drive those. My dad had a really nice powerboat when I was a kid. That’s about the extent of my powers here. I know the ins and outs of the buoy system and can tell you where to catch good fish,” Anabelle explained. “That’s the yacht club over there.”
Leaning to one side and pushing poor Alicia almost over, I could see out the front window. Just beyond the tugs were a whole line of smaller boats, including some with sails.
Agent Smith pulled us up to a brick-walled drive and a gated entrance. The gates were down. “Can one of you open the gates?”
I reached for the door handle. “Chuck and I can get them.”
“Agatha, I can do it,” Cat started to say.
Stopping her, I replied, “What sort of leader would I be if I didn’t lead by example?”
It took Chuck more time to get out than he took getting in. “Hold on, I’ve got this.” He scrunched up his massive leg and pulled it out of the door. Once one was out the rest of him was easy. “I hate these new tiny cars!”
“That’s what happens with fuel economy, buddy. Good thing you can run fast.” Closing his door, I smiled at the girls inside.
Meant to deter thieves, the gates were imposing but not beyond my Magick to raise, if need be. “Let’s see if we can open them.”
“Hold it right there!” A man’s voice spoke from the guard booth.
“We’re with the FBI and need a boat,” I explained.
“Too many funny things happening around here. What’s the FBI wanting with a boat?” The unknown man asked.
“Can you step out and talk to us? My friend here gets a little jumpy around strange threats,” I said. Chuck had his gun already out and aimed at the small building.
“You tell him to lower that there gun! I’m a police officer roundabouts here. I’ve got the both of you covered,” the man continued.
I sighed. They weren’t ever going to let us back in South Carolina after this mess. “Officer, we just need to get to a boat. Do you see that big cloud out there?” I pointed out toward sea. “We have to go there.”
“Where all the Demons went? You’re crazy!” The man took a single step out of the booth.
All I could see was the brim of his hat, but it was enough. I twitched my hands and cast the freeze spell instantly. “He’s all yours, Chuck.”
Chuck jumped the gate with a single bound and grabbed the frozen man. Even in his human form he was impressive.
Reading the man’s shirt pocket, I asked, “Officer Sales is it? Any reason you were holding us up like that?”
“Billy. Billy Sales. Doing my duty. Protect a
nd serve. All that. You really feds?” Billy asked.
“We are, and we need a boat. Any recommendations, Billy?” I asked him.
“Will you unfreeze me? Cause it’s a bit hard to turn my head like this here,” Billy replied.
I waved my hand, dropping the spell. Chuck caught Billy just before he fell over. “Whoa there, buddy.”
Righting himself, Billy thanked Chuck. “There’s a speedboat, one of those cigarette things tied up at the dock over there. Faster than a rooster on killing day!”
Chuck raised the gate and Anabelle joined our conversation, “No. Too fast for me. What about a cabin cruiser or speedboat, any of those here?”
Billy thought for a moment and then looked over his shoulder. He snorted. “My pappy didn’t raise no fool, but if this is a free crime we’re about to commit, I say take that first boat right there. It’s fast and will hold all five of you. Even the big guy.”
“What’s so special about this one?” I asked him. The little man had a gleam in his eye that bothered me just a bit.
“Mayor’s boat. He uses it for chasing bigwigs. Serves him right if you take it,” Billy replied. “I can get it started for you and everything. Come on.”
Chuck and I followed Billy toward the boats. Anabelle looked for a place to put the car.
“Have you seen anything out here other than Demons and Zombies, Billy?” I asked him.
The police officer stopped in his tracks suddenly. “Zombies? This ain’t New Orleans. We don’t do that Voodoo thing ‘round here. More Gullah than Cajun.”
“Don’t go near Washington Square, then. Quite a few dead people walking around. So how do we start the boat?” I asked, before we got too far off topic.
Billy hopped onto the boat and reached up under the seat. “Use the key of course.”
“Use the key he says, Chuck,” I replied, then turned back to Billy. “Thank you,” I said to him.
“Aw, don’t thank me, thank the Mayor. His boat, after all. We do things a bit different here down South than you Yankees. You goin’ to steal, you’ve got to know who to steal from,” Billy explained as he checked the gas and gauges. Giving the key a turn, the boat’s twin engines roared to life in a cloud of exhaust. “Give ’em a minute to warm up and you’re good to go.”