Welcome to the Apocalypse

by Cathy Gaitan

  Before Mercy can head for the door Julia grabs her by the arm. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” she tells her. “You ambushed me with that Wiccan alliance suggestion.”

  Mercy shakes her head. “I didn’t mean to ambush you. It came to me last night but I couldn’t talk to you about it then because you were super drunk. Then I was super drunk and I didn’t care. I only remembered it during the meeting.”

  “Well it blows,” she huffed. “Now I can’t kill Bibidee Bea without risking a potential alliance. And I really want to kill her.”

  “True, but on the other hand if we form an alliance with the Wiccan community she can’t pursue Titus without endangering her groups alliance with us,” Mercy reasoned.

  Julia thought about it a moment then grinned. “You’re sneakier than I gave you credit for.”

  I throw my arm over Mercy’s shoulder. “Thank you,” I say. “I’ve been training her.”

  Mercy tries to shove her elbow into my side but I grab it before she can inflict any damage. “You have not been training me,” she objects.

  “Of course I have. How many times have you lost to me?” she glares daggers into me. “Each loss is a lesson. With every lesson you learn. It’s called growth.”

  Julia shakes her head. “And I thought Titus was annoying.”

  “He is annoying,” Mercy tells her. “And so is Pink. They both think they are so much smarter than the average Zombie.”

  I don’t say anything I just grin but Mercy knows me. She knows exactly what I’m thinking.

  Titus walks over to us and yanks on Mercy’s t-shirt. “Two days in this t-shirt? It must be your favorite.”

  “Whatever,” Mercy doesn’t bother to argue. She knows Titus will just keep at her.

  “So what happened during girl’s night? Anything we should know about?” I think he must be looking for a beat down.

  Julia pokes him in the stomach. “It’s none of your business. Anything that happens on girls not stays there.”

  “Okay, but did you talk about me?” Of course he thinks they discussed him.

  “What part of none of your business didn’t you get,” Mercy asks him.

  Titus grins smugly. “You did talk about me!”

  Julia grabs him by the hand and yanks him toward the door. “We’re leaving. Call me later Mercy,” she calls behind her.

  Mercy wriggles out of my hold. “Why do you have to do that? You’re as annoying as Titus.”

  “Come on, be honest. If you had to choose between me and Titus who would win,” I ask her.

  She turns around and heads for the door ignoring me.

  “Well,” I’m easily keeping up with her. My legs are way longer. “You know I won’t let it go until you answer my question.”

  “It’s a stupid question. Only one of you helped me when I needed you.”

  “Exactly! So don’t compare me to him again.”

  My phone rings as we exit the door. I look down and see it’s Wendell. “So, I guess you need me after all,” I say in place of a greeting. I’m grinning because the males so cocky it must be killing him to have to call.”

  Instead of Wendell I hear a deeper, raspier voice say, “Looks like your Zombie Apocalypse just got real. Score one Humans.” The stranger laughed as he hung up and I felt a chill deep in my bones.

  When I stopped walking Mercy turned to look at me. She saw my expression she went still. “What’s going on?”

  “I think the Humans just fired the first shot.”

  15

  Chapter Fifteen

  I just invented floral camouflage.

  How do you like me now twisted Titus?

  -Bibidee Bea’s twitter feed

  Mercy Mayhem

  3 hours after the Human contacted Pink

  None of the recruitment team is answering their phones. We’re certain they’ve all been captured by the Humans. Meanwhile Pink, Titus and Julia are losing their minds. In a good way. If there is such a thing. By that I mean their thinking is focused. Bloodthirsty but focused.

  Pinkerton is burning up his phone calling in favors from everyone he knows. I didn’t know he had that many connections. He’s been holding out on me. I won’t call him on it now. The look in his eyes is a little scary. Those Humans better run for cover. I don’t think they’re ready what he’s planning to unleash on them.

  Titus has his initiates scouring social media for tips and intel. Meanwhile he’s been posting messages like a mad man. His twitter feed this morning read:

  Either stand with us or head for the hills.

  The Zombie brigade is coming!

  Word of warning: I make death look good!!

  Of course that witch Bibidee Bea was the first to respond to his tweet:

  Count me in! I volunteer to stand right beside you. P.S. I wholeheartedly agree about the death thing.

  For once Julia didn’t let the witch bother her. She just said, “Ask her if we can count on the Wiccan community for support. Individual support is great but we need all the help we can get.” She’s all business today. She’s so furious she’s practically vibrating with it.

  Instead of tweeting back to witchy Bea Titus picks up his phone and dials. “Is it just you or is the whole Wiccan community allying themselves with us,” Titus says when she answers. He’s as business minded as Julia right now.

  I can’t hear what the witch is saying just a lot of chattering. Titus rolls his eyes and orders, “Get back to me.” I guess it’s just her right now.

  “It’s only her. The witch says she’s requested a Skype meeting with the rest of her community and will get back to me.”

  “What? No crystal ball communication? I’m telling you, real magic is dead,” complains Julia. I have to admit, I’m with her.

  When Julia’s phone buzz’s with an incoming text Julia quickly scans it. Whatever it is she’s not happy. “My contact in Washington says they’ve tracked down the recruitment teams’ van. It was found abandoned in the alley behind a storage facility. He says the inside was covered in blood.”

  Pinkerton picks up the gavel Molly had given him and tosses it through the window raining glass everywhere. “I am going to make that Human scream,” shouts Pink.

  “I guarantee you. He will suffer,” Titus promises.

  “Does your contact have any idea where they might have taken Wendell and his team,” I ask Julia. The most important thing right now is finding our team members.

  “No. He says they’re working on it but don’t have any solid leads right now.”

  “Wendell might be wearing a tracking device,” Torin says excitedly. She and Molly had just walked in with coffee and sandwiches. “He was working on something with Devon.” Molly nods her head in agreement.

  “When was that,” asks Pink.

  “A couple of days before they left,” Torin answers. “Wendell said they’d put it inside his ear plug. They’d been testing it out just around town but were excited to have an opportunity to use it on an actual mission.”

  “Devon’s with him. He probably has the tracker with him,” Molly sighs in defeat.

  Torin shook her head. “He had the hand tracker but Devon was working on a system to keep tabs on all our field operatives.”

  “Operatives,” I ask. I didn’t know we had operatives but I like it.

  Torin nods in agreement. “That’s what he liked to call them. Anyway, I think we need to check his home computer. There is a good possibility it’s linked to the tracking device.”

  “Why didn’t he tell us,” Pink questions.

  “I think he they wanted to wait until they’d worked out the kinks. They wanted to impress you,” Torin said sadly.

  Pink is running to the door with Julia and Titus right behind him. Molly hands me a key ring. “Devon always left me a spare key just in case.” I didn’t bother asking ‘in case of what?’. Devon was a ‘cross your t’s and dot your i’s’ kind of guy. He leaves nothing to chance.

  I don’t waste any time fo
llowing the others. I barely manage to catch up to them. I guess all that 5k training wasn’t a total loss. I hold up Devon’s key but Titus kicks open the door instead of waiting. I don’t bother saying anything to him because who cares? This is life or death. A broken door is the least of Devon’s problems right now.

  Devon’s computer system setup is kind of awe inspiring to Julia and Titus. To me it’s really intimidating. He has three computer screens for reasons only he knows. Okay maybe everybody but me knows. Whatever! He has speakers and a lighted keyboard. The keyboard catches my eye because the keys are rainbow colored and light when you press them. Awesome!

  It doesn’t take Titus long to locate the tracking system. I’m guessing from the flashing green dots he found what we needed. “Hot damn,” Titus crows triumphantly.

  “See if you can transfer that to our mobile devices. I need my contact to start searching,” Julia orders.

  “I’m on it,” Titus grinned. For once I didn’t mind his grin. Instead I leaned over and hugged him. “Way to go, Titus!”

  Julia looks at all of us expectantly. “Who’s ready to go to Washington?”

  “I already have a plane waiting for us,” Pinkerton informs us.

  Titus’ phone buzzes. He stops what he’s doing and looks down. “The Wiccan community just offered us their full support. It looks like the Witches and Zombies are allies now.”

  “Great,” Julia smiles a little too brightly. Before she can say anything more her own phone buzzes. When she looks up from checking her message her eyes are glassy. “Titus you need to hurry the hell up.”

  “What happened,” Pink inquires apprehensively.

  “A Zombie torture video just went viral,” she bit out. “That demented Human is messing with our family and taking pleasure in doing it.”

  Titus’s fingers are flying across the keyboard. His face is strained with anger but he doesn’t say anything besides an occasional mumbled curse. Pink and Julia’s phones ding when he sends them what they need. I don’t receive it because my flip phone isn’t compatible.

  “You need to get yourself a real phone,” growls Titus. I ignore him. No sense in getting in an argument right now. We have things to do.

  “Let’s go,” Julia orders. She messing with her phone. Most likely forwarding the tracking system to her contact in Washington.

  Deputy Dodd, Molly and Torin are sitting in Devon’s living room waiting for us. “We want to go with you,” Torin says. Julia is shaking her head before she even finishes speaking.

  “We are going. They’re ours,” Deputy Dodd says his voice is shaky like he’s trying not to cry. “We need to be there for them.”

  “They belong to all of us,” Pink informs him. “Right now we are at war. You need to stay here and lock down Happyville. This is the Zombie mecca right now. If the Humans find out about this town they come at it with fire and brimstone.”

  “Pink’s right.” I know Julia didn’t want to have to stop and explain herself but she did. I think she understood the mantle or responsibility the sheriff must have been carrying. “You’ll need to set up checkpoints on all roads leading in and out of this town. Arrange rotating guard duty along the perimeters. Everybody needs to be armed. My team is at your disposal.”

  The sheriff relented. His town came first. It needed to. Titus and Julia exited the house leaving Pink and I to say goodbye.

  “I know this is hard,” I tell them. “But we’re going to bring them back. I promise.” I don’t look at Pink because I know he hates that word. I hug Molly and Torin then pat Sheriff Dodd on the arm.

  Just before we leave Devon’s house Pink stops, looks back at Sheriff Dodd and adds, “One more thing, TRUST NO ONE.” I should have seen that coming.

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

  “I think I’m going to puke.” We’re in a plane heading to Washington floating miles above the ground. I’ve never been in a plane before. At least not that I can remember. If I was it was during my Human existence which doesn’t count because I don’t remember that life.

  “Why,” ask Titus. “Are you afraid of dying.” He laughs demonically.

  I ignore him and concentrate on squeezing my own hand. I read somewhere that it’s supposed to ground you. I’m thinking it must be a total lie because all I feel is nauseous.

  Pink grabs my hand and squeezes. Well, there you go. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

  “We’re almost there,” Julia tells me. Before we left she’d received word that Wendell, Devon and the others were being held in a vacant warehouse.

  As much as it killed her to do so she asked them to wait for us. We don’t know how many Humans there are. If we want this rescue to be successful we need to have sufficient numbers. One Zombie and a Human won’t cut it.

  “Ollie said he’d have a car waiting for us at the gate. He stashed some weapons in the trunk.”

  As the plane started making its descent I close my eyes and start counting in my mind. Another grounding technique. This one kind of works. It distracts me enough to make the landing not as awful as the takeoff. Or maybe it’s because the plane is jerking like crazy but Pink is steady as a rock beside me. Is it possible to transfer serenity to someone else?

  The SUV is waiting just like Julia told us. The keys were hidden in a magnetic box inside the wheel well. They weren’t joking about the weapons either. Everything we needed and more were there. The location was already set in the GPS.

  Titus is driving and Julia’s giving us orders as she’s strapping on her weapons in the front seat. “Titus and I will lead. Ollie and his woman right behind us. Pink, you and Mercy will need to cover us. Do not, under any circumstances, separate. We need to do this in teams.

  From behind me I hear, “Who am I with?” I almost jump out of my skin. Pink doesn’t even blink. He has his weapon trained at her head before she finishes speaking.

  “Who the hell are you,” he demands to know.

  At the same time Julia is shouting, “What the hell are you doing here witch?” Ah, the mysterious Bibidee Bea.

  Unconcerned by Pink’s weapon the witch stuffs her pointer finger inside the nozzle. “I’d think twice about that Zombie kicker. Things have a way of malfunctioning around me,” she says as Pink hisses and drops the gun discharging a bullet into the back window.

  Titus slams on the break and turns to glare at her. “Witch, you do that again and we will have words.”

  “Ooh,” she leans over the back seat and shoves my head out of the way. Fluttering her lashes at him, she coos, “Naughty words I hope.”

  For a minute I think of ducking because I’m sure Julia’s about to empty her weapon into the crazy witch’s head. She has more control than I gave her credit for though. Julia simply says, “We don’t have time for this. Put your seat belt on and shut up. There are Zombies depending on us.”

  The witch huffs and rolls her eyes as she does as Julia ordered. “That’s why I’m here Queen Z. I’m answering the call,” she replies popping her bubble gum. “Titus sent an S.O.S. and I answered. I’m helpful like that.”

  “How is one witch supposed to help us,” Julia was clearly not impressed.

  “Are you kidding me? A single witch is mightier than a league of Zombies. I disarmed him didn’t I?” She points in Pink’s direction. Bibidee Bea inspects his face and says, “You’re not bad looking. You ain’t Titus but still not bad.”

  Titus begins to chuckle and Julia glares at him so hard he should have turned to stone.

  “The only reason you were able to disarm Pinkerton is because you surprised him,” Julia insists. It wasn’t true but she was holding firm.

  “First of all, that’s a load of crap and second,” the witch pauses in confusion. “No, I guess it’s only the one thing.”

  Pinkerton looks at me and smirks. “The witch is even crazier than you are.”

  Bibidee Bea reaches over the seat and jams that same damn pointer finger into his temple making Pink yelp. “I’m not
crazy I’m alternative. Recognize the difference.”

  Pink turns and glares at her. I’ve got to give it to him she’s shocked him twice but he’s still not scared. “What the hell is that even supposed to mean?”

  “It means I’m different and proud of it. This witch has swag!”

  I kind of like the witch. I turn carefully and look at her. She’s wearing floral camouflage like she’s planning on hiding out in someone’s garden. I almost laugh but I’m too scared she’ll give me the business end of her finger.

  She turns and looks at me and I freeze. I don’t want to make her angry. Witchy Bea winks at me and says, “We’re kindred spirits you and I. Messy minds with troubled souls.”

  Kindred spirits? I like it. “I’m Mercy,” I introduce myself. I don’t want to be disloyal to Julia but I think this witch and I were destined to be friends.

  “Mercy Mayhem,” Bibidee Bea says. “I know. I helped bring you back home.”

  Now that is simply not true. “I brought myself home. Julia didn’t kill me after all.”

  The witch smiled sadly. “Physically you lived but she massacred your spiritual self. No way would your sisterhood have survived without my assistance.”

  “Our sisterhood,” I ask.

  Witchy Bea nods and blinks at me. “Isn’t that what we’re talking about? Queen Z wanted you back but she’d severed the sisterhood. I had to do some major resurrection to reverse the damage she’d done.”

  “Wait,” Julia shouts from the front seat. “We went to you to raise Mercy from the dead. Not to resurrect the sisterhood.”

  “You can’t resurrect what’s already alive. The sisterhood is what you killed and it’s what you wanted back most of all,” the witch spoke slowly as though she thought Julia was slow on the uptake.

  “What’s dead is this conversation. We’re here. Everybody quit arguing and get your heads on straight. It’s show time,” Titus orders.

  “Yes sir,” Bibidee Bea responds with a salute. She pulls on a cap that matches her uniform and whispers to me, “I like a man who knows how to take charge.”