Rookie Mistakes
Chapter 1.
Year: 2004
"Let her go now!" shouted the tall dark-haired officer as he leveled his gun at the short heavily muscled man, who held a gun to the head of a tall skinny girl in a gray shirt, tan shorts and white sneakers with gray stripes.
"You and your rookie better back off or she dies!" shouted the criminal.
"Shoot him now!" hissed the girl, "He's going to kill me one way or another!"
"She's right, he has a cement brick tied around her waste," said a tall well-muscled tanned young officer, also holding a gun pointed at the criminal.
"One last chance," the short man said, "Get me a boat and $20,000,000."
"Not going to happen!" called out the young officer with the tan, "Just let her go, she is an innocent girl with her whole life in front of her."
Good, like that won't piss him off, she thought bitterly.
"Just shoot him now!" the girl said looking at the two officers with anger in her eyes.
"I am so sick of you!" cried the man, "I'll shut you up permanently!" So saying, he shoved the girl hard enough to almost send her over the edge of the dock.
"No you don't!" she snarled in anger and grabbed his ears with her hands even though they were tied and swung back toward the middle of the dock, then started to hop back toward the two officers.
"Ow!" shouted the beefy criminal. "No one pulls my ears and uses me as a human fulcrum and lives!" he shouted. He leveled his gun and aimed his shaky drug-riddled hands at her back, but ended up shooting her in the back of the right shoulder.
"No!" exclaimed the two officers and fired at the man, but he had run up behind the girl and backhanded her, causing her and the block around her waste to swing into the dark-haired officer's line of sight so that she got shot in the front of her left shoulder.
The beefy criminal sat there and laughed, "Not so smart mouthed now are you?"
The girl stood up, wiped the blood from her mouth and hopped full-force into the man's gut sending the two tumbling towards the young officer with a tan. The young officer, being a year out of the Underwater Recovery School and two years out of the Academy and being as green as the algae on the lake in front of him, tried to aim at the man. His little experience with firearms caused him to waver and the bullet to slam directly into the girl's heart.
"Nooo!" shouted the two officers as she stumbled back in obvious pain and shock.
She looked at all of them with a fury that would make the grim reaper himself shake. Just before she fell over the edge she shouted, "You shot me! How could you do that?"
The young officer with a tan ran to the edge and tried to grab her but it was too late, he could only watch sadly a she sank into the cold dark depths of Black Olive Lake.
"Oops, oh well. I guess she can't testify. Wah wah boo hoo," the beefy man said with mock-sadness.
"Come on rookie, let's get this scum ball to jail and fill out the Unintended Death Reports.
"Olive Lake is so deep, we will never find her body. May she rest in peace," said the tall dark-haired man grimly.
Chapter 2.
Year: 2012
Pain! Shock of water so bone-numbingly cold should kill me, and yet, a fire burns like lava down a volcano's side. I thrash and scream and finally I break the bonds that have held me, and I move up toward a brilliant but distant speck of light in the dark recesses of water as black as the Titanic's resting place. I brake through the surface and hull myself onto an old dock. I cough and sputter, then realize I should have drowned when I screamed. I look at the sun sparkling on the surface of the water as it starts to set and I see a very surprised fisherman staring at me. I look down and see a rotted piece of rope around my waste and that my clothes are in tatters. I remove it from my waste and look towards land. I hear traffic, and more importantly a constant chanting, pulling me in the direction of its source.
Chapter 3.
"The spell is cast. The girl, she will come," said the old man.
"Will she do my bidding?" asked a 5 foot 4 inch slender dark-skinned lady with a worried look on her face.
The old man (who looked like the old gypsy leader from Steven King's Thinner) said, "I have performed many spells in my Polymayundi rituals, and I have my white scull candle which I can communicate with and draw her spirit to her body and her body here...the yellow candle to bend her mind to your will and the black candle, for this is dark magic and strong spells."
After having walked for hours I saw a white church that looked like it had been once abandoned now standing ablaze in the light of hundreds of white candles held by men and women as they swayed and danced and chanted. One man held a chicken and kept moving in and out of the spaces that other people had made for him while standing in a straight line. I walked up to the doors, pushed them open, and walked in.
"There she is," said the old man with a grin on his face. "The cold of her grave has left her relatively in tact."
"Come here," said the lady with an un-smiling look on her face.
I walked up to their alter and looked and them and said, "Who are you people? What have you done to me and what year is it?"
"Silence," said the priest in a sharp tone, "you are not under her control, and you will do as she says. Do you hear me and obey?"
I looked at him, smiled sweetly, and promptly punched him in the mouth. I snuffed the yellow candle out by ripping the top off and smashing it on the nearest skull of the nearest acolyte. I turned to the lady and grabbed her throat, nearly choking her.
She gasped out, "You were supposed to be obedient! You were supposed to do what I said!"
I looked at her nametag on her white tag coat, "Well, Dr. Tara Price, do more research next time." As I threw her to the ground and went to walk away I said, "Anyone with a will as strong as the spell casters is no one's puppet." I left the church and followed the northwest 81st street road by way of the waterway into the county of Miami Dade.
Chapter 4.
The next day at her modest home Dr. Price and the Polymayundi priest talked about the failed ritual.
"How could you not know about her being strong willed? I paid you to get me a zombie so I could get revenge on Ryan Wolfe, Erik Delco, and Rick Stellar for making me lose my job by squealing to Stellar."
"Worry not, as I told you in jail I can get your revenge. I have another person to use."
"Who? They'd better be more compliant," she growled.
"Oh, he will be, I assure you granddaughter."
As I walked into Miami Dade County, I got a lot of funny looks. It was 7 o'clock in the morning and the sun had risen and hour before and now the waters in the downtown area sparkle like diamonds. As I passed the display window of an old abandoned clothing store I saw my reflection. My shirt was covered in blood from my bullet wounds, the ragged edges around the holes flapping gently in the breeze. My pale skin with gray splotches was almost translucent while my sneakers and shorts were muck-encrusted and short of falling into bits and pieces.
That's when I got a flash of memories: (me falling into ice-cold water, and three men—one dressed like a biker in a gang—the other two like a pair of police officers. The officers cried out and tried to run to the edge to grab me but were too late. The other one just laughed and said, "Oops, she can't testify now.")
I stood there and realized, I'm dead, or I should be. Those other people at the church, they brought me back! I was furious and determined to get my own justice—and get my own kind of vengeful justice—but first I needed a change of clothes. First on my list: the biker. I was livid with him...and I was starting to get hungry.
Chapter 5.
"So what do we have here?" asked Calleigh with a slight tilt of her head to observe the utter mess that was once a man.
"This is Aren Nickson a.k.a. Mr. Beefy," said Erik with a strange look on his face.
"What's wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost," Calleigh said in that beautiful southern voice of hers.
With a shaky breath Erik said, "That's pretty close."
Looking at him with a concerned expression Calleigh asked Delco what he meant.
"Eight years ago I was a rookie, fresh out of Underwater Evidence and Recovery and two years out of the Academy. That was my first real year in the Force and I partners with Stellar. We were trying to stop Mr. Beefy from selling high-end tainted cocaine. He ended up escaping and Stellar and I cornered him at Olive Lake. He had taken a hostage and had a gun to her head and a cement brick tied to her waste. Her hands were also bound. She died in that lake, and we could not even give her a proper burial."
"That's terrible," said Calleigh as she squeezed Erik's shoulder gently. Then she looked at the body. "Well, it looks like whoever did this was definitely looking for revenge."
"Or it could be justice," said a tall slender young man with blonde hair and white skin dressed like a coroner.
"What do you mean Tom?" asked Delco curiously.
"Well, for one thing his head was smashed in from the top and his brain was completely out of his skull, then his belly ripped open and his intestines wrapped around his waist and tied to this brick."
"Erik, who else was there besides the four of you?" asked Calleigh.
"No one. Just me, Stellar, Beefy, and the girl."
"Well, whoever did, I have a feeling this is just the start of things," said the coroner.
Two nights later the Polymayundi priest and Dr. Price were at an abandoned meat-packing plant performing the same ritual.
"Rise up and live again!" roared the priest in a ritual-induced passion.
"Come back, come back. Join us!" chanted the crowd as the danced and swayed.
The priest lit the skull candle and said, "You will obey us!"
As the body began to twitch he said to Dr. Price, "Light the purple candle."
She lit the candle and chanted the words the priest had taught her. He then lit the black candle and the body jerked and twitched and came to life. He jerked and twitched again and looked around, finally laying eyes on Tara Price. She looked at him cold and un-smiling and said with force, "You will do as I say. You have no will of your own. You are my puppet. Do you understand and obey me?"
The tall well-built sand-blonde haired white man stared dully at the two people on the ledge in front of him and in a lackluster lifeless voice said, "Yes master. I hear and obey."
Tara grinned wickedly, "Good. Now, I want you to kill these men." She showed him a picture of Ryan Wolfe, Rick Stellar, and Erik Delco
Chapter 6.
The next morning...
"Hey Delco," said Ryan with a smile as he walked into the CSI crime lab.
"Hey yourself, Wolfe," said the tall, well-muscled 41 year old Delco as he finished up a report on a bank robbery.
"Excuse me, are you Officer Delco?" asked an elderly looking gentleman as skinny as a bean poll and as old as Rob Roy.
"Yes, I am. How can I help you Mr...?"
"Stone, Isaac Stone, and I hope so," he said grimly.
"What's wrong?" asked Ryan.
"You see, three, maybe four days ago if you count today, I saw a young girl who was tall, skinny, and had a grey shirt and tan shorts or what once was a grey shirt and tan shorts and rotten white sneakers on her feet climb out of Olive Lake and walk inland toward the old church about two miles away from the lake."
Ryan and Eric looked at the old man, Ryan was trying to keep a straight face and Eric trying to keep a blank one.
"Ahh? What do you mean she came out of the lake?" asked Delco.
The man looked at the two of them and said, "I was fishin' on the lake and I saw her climb out, she had a tattered rope around her waist and she looked right at me, eyes dead as a hooked flounder."
"What makes you think she was dead?" asked Ryan curiously.
"Don't you condescend me boy, I know a dead person come back to life when I see one," said Mr. Stone irritated. "She was as dead as could be; translucent skin, grey splotches, all rotten here and there."
"So, what are you saying...? That you saw a real zombie?" asked Ryan trying to keep a straight face.
"That's exactly what I saw, city boy," he said curtly.
"So, why come see us?" asked Delco seriously.
The man looked at Delco and said, "I just came to tell you so you could be prepared because I was the coroner's assistant all those years ago. I know that girl's case quite well.
"Thank you, I'll check it out," said Delco.
After he left, Ryan whistled and said, "First 80 degree day brings out the nuts, doesn't it?"
"He may not be nuts," said Delco with a weird look on his face. "Come on, we're going to that lake, it's time I face my past."
Chapter 7.
I found an old abandoned clothing store in the alleyways of an old abandoned mini plaza. I now had a pair of black corduroy pants, a green T-shirt, and grey sneakers and socks on.
I was just starting to walk down the road towards the Ocean Walk Park and public beaches when two rough looking Latino boys came up and said, "Hello sweet thing, what do you say to a quick party with us, downtown?" with obvious grins on their faces.
"No thanks, I have a lot to do," I said. As I walked away they grabbed me, twirled me around to face them, and with a knife to my throat said, "Listen brewha, I will slit your throat if you don't do as we say. Now, will you come, or do I give you a new smile?" he asked in what was supposed to be a threatening tone.
I looked them right in the eyes and said, "Boys, it's time for lunch." I then proceeded to take his knife, stab him in the head, and slit his skull from front to back opening his head like a Chinese take-out box on its side.
I then turned to his friend and he yelled, "You killed him, I'll kill you, you, freak!" He then took out a switchblade, stabbed me in the neck, and slit my throat. "Now die! Hahaha!" he sneered.
Then he went pale as I pulled the blade out of my neck and said, "No thanks, been there done that," as I proceeded to fillet him like a trout and eat their brains.
One hour later at Olive Lake...
"So this is what the old man was talking about?" asked Ryan with a grimace as he dropped the old rotted rope.
"Yea, my first case, my first failure," Delco said with his head hung low.
"I looked up that case when I cleaned out the Archives Department, you have no reason to be that hard on yourself you really did try and save her," said Ryan as he clapped a hand on Delco's shoulder.
"HE DIDN'T TRY HARD ENOUGH!" shouted a voice behind them.
Ryan and Eric turned quickly to find themselves staring at her.
"You! You're alive! But I saw you drown, and you were shot three times!" said Delco with shock, "unless you're a twin."
She glared at the two of them and started walking forward. She snapped, "I am not a twin. You shot me, your partner shot me, and so did that biker." The girl showed Delco the shoulder wounds and said, "Convinced?"
Delco shook his head and said, "It is you, but that's impossible."
"Isn't it?" she snapped. "That biker got what he deserved. He was first on my list; I wouldn't exactly call him brainy. Now it's your turn."
Ryan pulled out his gun, "Stop or I'll shoot!"
She ignored him and grabbed Delco and slammed him onto the old dock over and over again. Ryan shot her in the side, she didn't even flinch, she just completely ignored him still.
"Stop slamming—ahh! —Me! I didn't mean to kill you I was a rookie!" shouted Delco as he tried to defend himself.
"Well, you did. Now to return the favor," she hissed, anger ablaze in her dead eyes.
Ryan dropped the gun and leapt on top of her trying to remove her hands from Delco's throat. She grabbed Ryan by the underside of the jaw and calmly tossed him back onto the embankment. As she was about to pound Delco's skull in she saw scars as if from surgery and a healed up exit wound.
She paused, looked at Delco and said, "Have you been shot recently?" she asked skeptically.
"Yes, but not recently; three years ago, and I flat-lined three times before they brought me back," said Delco in a wheezing cough.
Ryan slammed a thick branch on her head. She let go of Delco and looked directly at Ryan. "Really? Now you're trying to kill me too?" she asked sarcastically.
Ryan just stood there in shock, not knowing what to say—or to think! That branch was as thick as a person's arm and should at least have her grabbing a goose egg on her skull.
Delco stood up, still trying to breath properly and said, "No he was just trying to help me."
The girl looked at both of them and sighed in frustration, then said, "Well, I guess I consider my vengeance on you satisfied, now to go find your friend..."
As she started to walk off, Delco said, "Wait! What are you going to do?"
She stopped and half-turned and said, "He helped to kill me, I'm gonna make him suffer."
"You can't do that," said Ryan. "It was an accidental shooting."
"It was eight years ago," Delco said.
She paused and turned around and said, "Eight years ago?" in a voice of shock mixed with anger. "I've been rotting down there for almost a decade and no one even tried to get me a proper burial?" fury lacing her voice like a poison.
Delco looked at her sadly and said, "That lake is one of the deepest in Miami and has sink holes 20 miles deep. I'm sorry getting you out was an impossibility."
"It's the year 2012," said Ryan sympathetically. "Your family moved back up north after the murder."
Delco walked up to her and squeezed her shoulder in sympathy and said, "They were too upset to ever tell us your name. I never got to ask them that."
She looked at them and said, "Anna Peppers."
Ryan walked over and said, "How did you come back to life anyway? Do you remember that?"
Anna looked at Ryan and said, "It's only been two days, and yes I remember that." Then she said, "An old guy and a girl named Tara Price brought me back and they had my picture and his (she pointed to Ryan) on what used to be a religious alter."
"Why my picture?" asked Ryan with a quizzical look on his face.
"I don't know, but I know that since they failed to make me do what they wanted, they'll probably try again," Anna said with certainty.
"So they voodood you?" asked Delco with a puzzled frown.
"No it was like voodoo but darker, and everyone was wearing white and there were yellow and black candles and a white candle shaped like a human skull," Anna said.
"Sounds like voodoo to me," said Ryan.
Delco, however, had a serious look on his face and looked at least three shades paler than normal and stated darly, "It was polymayundi; an evil version of Santaria."
When Anna and Ryan stared at him with questioning looks on their faces, he shrugged and said, "My grandmother told me about it when I was younger."
Chapter 8.
Later that afternoon Rick Stellar was walking to his car when Dr. Price stepped out of the shadow of the old building it was parked next to.
"Well, well, if it isn't the former Dr. Price. What do you want?" said Stellar with a smirk on his face.
She stared at him coldly and said, "You and that stool pigeon Ryan Wolfe got me fired and ruined my life and reputation. Now you will pay!"
Stellar, with an unimpressed look on his face said, "Leave now and I'll pretend we never had this conversation." As he reached for the car door, a strong but mostly skeletal hand snapped his wrist.
"Ow!" Stellar gasped as he stumbled back in pain. He looked up to see a tall, well built, sandy haired white man, partially rotted on his right side and on his wrists with stringy bits of skin flaking off, showing his bones.
Dr. Price smiled evilly, "Now in case you are wondering, yes, this is a real zombie, and yes, you are so screwed! Make him suffer!" she screeched.
Stellar shot the man six times but it didn't even make him flinch. "You stole the pills that were dead people's property and evidence in idling cases! You had to go to jail!" he screamed as he continued shooting the zombie.
"No I did not have to! I never hurt anyone! Besides, they didn't need them anymore!" she spat.
Stellar punched and kicked the man in the family jewels, that didn't even make him groan. Oh no...oh no...
"Wait!" shouted Delco as Anna started to cross into the waterway under the northwest 81st road. She turned around to see Ryan and Delco running towards her.
"I never got a chance to apologize for shooting you and I never really told you my name," said Delco.
Anna looked at the two of them and said, "Ok, so tell me your names."
"My name is Eric Delco and this is Ryan Wolfe, and we work for the Miami Dade Police Department and crime lab."
She said, "Thank you, and thank you for telling me your names, and thank you for at least trying to rescue me. It would have been nice to meet you under better circumstances."
Just then, Delco's cell phone rang. "Hello, CSI Delco speaking. How? When? Really? Is he alive? We'll be right there," he said.
Delco turned to her and said, "Anna, you can't have your revenge on Stellar."
"Was that your partner? The one who also shot me?" she asked.
"Yes, yes he is."
She looked at Delco with a hint of anger brewing, "Why? Why are you trying to stop me from getting my revenge on him?" She said this with teeth clenched so tight they should have cracked.
"Because he was just brought to Miami Medical Hospital with a broken wrist and he was choked so badly he's in a coma."
With a white-hot fury burning throughout her veins she snarled, "Someone will pay for denying me my vengeance!"
"If we can trust you not to kill him, you can come with us," Ryan said.
Anna looked at Ryan and said, "I will go, and I will keep my eye on this Stellar."
"But will you kill him?" asked Delco.
She snorted and said, "I never wanted to kill him, I just wanted to make him suffer."
Chapter 9.
In the car...
Anna was sitting in the back and she said to the two guys, "Clearly, whoever did this hates him as much as I do."
Delco said, "His shooting you was the result of Aaron Nixon backhanding you so hard you stumbled into the path of Stellar's bullet."
"So that was the biker's name, huh?" she said with a semi-interested grunt.
Ryan said, "Yea, that was his name. And Stellar's a jerk, but he's not a stone-cold killer."
"That was excellent! I am pleased that Stellar is in a coma now and all we have to do is finish him off! Hehehe!" cackled Dr. Price like a schoolgirl.
"What if we let the girl finish him off for us?" asked her grandfather, "It would be easier."
"No! I want her to die! She defied our demands! Have Thomas find her, maybe he can get rid of her."
"Perhaps, but maybe she will get rid of him, she has a strong will, but so do you, granddaughter."
At the hospital...
Calleigh had already set up guards for Stellar but left before Delco, Ryan, and Anna got there.
Staring at Stellar seriously, she said, "He's a little older...but that's him." A sour expression was curling around her lips.
Eric looked around for a nurse to ask what Stellar's vitals were when he saw Isaac Stone talking to a young nurse at the reception desk.
"Mr. Stone, what brings you here?" he asked curiously.
Isaac Stone looked at Delco and said, "Ahh Mr. Delco, good to see you. I'm here to spend the lunch hour with my granddaughter. What brings you here Mr. Delco?"
Delco said, "My friend Ryan Wolfe and I are here to visit our friend Stellar, and make sure he's okay."
Isaac nodded, looked over at Stellar's room and frowned, his face growing serious. "I see you've found her."
Delco turned and said, "Yes. But she just wants justice for what was done to her."
Isaac looked at Delco and back at the girl and said, "Did I mention I might be able to help her rest in peace?"
With a surprised look on his face Delco asked, "What? How?"
"I may have left out a small piece of information when I last talked with you, but I didn't want you to think I was a nut," he said with a small smile.
"What bit of information was that?" asked Ryan as he walked up.
He looked at the two men and said, "I am a retired Santeria practitioner, what you would call a voodoo priest, except my religion is smaller and less well known."
Chapter 10.
With Wolfe and Delco out of the room, Anna stood at the end of Stellar's bed contemplating whether or not to just snap his neck.
She was wrestling with the idea when Delco said from behind her, "Anna, I want you to meet an acquaintance of ours."
She turned around trying to look friendly and Ryan said, "I want you to meet Mr. Stone. He may be able to put you at rest."
She looked at them and said, "Nice to meet you, but I'm not ready, not yet."
Mr. Stone looked at her and said concerned, "It is not natural for the dead to walk among the living, and you must go back. I know you were forced to come back here, but you don't have to obey anyone."
Anna looked at him with a flicker of anger traveling across her face, and then it was gone. Then she said with a derisive snort, "I obey no one. I am exacting my own vengeance."
Delco said, "But didn't the ones bringing you back tell you to kill him?"
Anna looked at him with a sour expression on her face and said, "The old man and the young woman wanted the guy on the bed and Mr. Wolfe dead. I just want justice."
Mr. Stone looked at her with kind, yet sad eyes, "Revenge can seem like justice, but it is not."
Time had passed and soon Ryan and Delco were snoring gently as Anna stood watch thinking about how easy it would be to finish Stellar off and what about what Isaac had said?
Around midnight, twelve acolytes, the old man Dr. Price and Jonathan (the other zombie) forced their way into the hospital. The head receptionist took one look at them, gave a shriek, and ran. Anna heard the scream, looked out the window on the door and went cold with fury.
Chapter 11.
"Wake up!" she said as she punched Delco on the shoulder and shook Ryan.
"Wha-what? What's wrong?" mumbled Delco as he was trying to wake up.
"They are here and they have a tall, well-muscled white man with sandy hair with them."
Delco snapped awake—he knew immediately who it was. "Come on Ryan, wake up, this is serious, they have Jonathan with them."
Ryan tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes and said, "Jonathan...isn't that the guy who tried suing you and who's wife continued to sue you after his murder?"
"Yea," Delco said, "But that was way before Anna's murder, how'd they get him?"
"Probably the same way they got me, but that would explain why he is rotted on half his right side and his wrists," Anna said with a slightly amused snort.
"Where are they now?" said Ryan as he took out his gun.
"Down the hall and coming fast. You two can't use your guns—one spark and we all go boom!"
"Then what are we supposed to do?" asked Ryan with irritation. "We can't just run and let them kill Stellar."
"Bring out the girl!" yelled Terra angrily.
"Delco, did your grandmother ever teach you any spells, chants, or anything useful that could help us now?" said Anna as she paced in a circle around the room.
"No, she just taught me about the candles and their different uses and colors," he said kind of sheepishly.
Ryan looked at Anna as he helped her to barricade the door with a desk and two chairs and said, "How come you're not as rotted as the other zombie?"
Anna thought to herself, of course he'd ask that question at a time like this, and then she said out loud, "The short answer is I was well preserved in a cold setting, and whoever did his embalming clearly didn't do it well."
"Now bring her out and I will give her a quick permanent death," said the old man with a sneer.
Security tried and failed to apprehend Terra and her uncle.
"You can't hide forever, now come out or I'll have my zombie eat this nurses brain!"
"Ow!" cried the nurse as she struggled to get away from the zombie.
"We have to help her," said Delco angrily as he removed the chairs and desk from the door.
"If you leave, they will kill you and then your friend," said Anna darkly.
Ryan looked at her and said, "Why do you care? You tried to kill Delco, and probably would have killed Stellar yourself if this hadn't happened."
She turned to Ryan and said, "If I had done this, he'd still be awake, and he'd know exactly who'd did it. He wouldn't be lying like a vegetable in a produce section."
Grabbing the chairs she hauled them away from the door and grabbed the handle to leave. Delco put a hand on her shoulder and said, "You can't go out they'll kill you."
"That's all they really want anyway."
Delco looked at her and said, but I don't want that, it would be on my hands again."
That's when Anna's stomach growled. She said, "Well, better them than you," opened the door and walked out. Just as she was walking out the door she said, "I'll go out and distract the other one, you two stay here, they won't dare try to get passed two zombies and what will no doubt be a very long fight."
Unbeknown to everyone involved but Shiela (Isaac's granddaughter) had seen the group coming and had called her grandfather for help.
Anna came out of Stellar's room and stood staring daggers at Dr. Price and her group. She looked directly at Dr. Price and said, "Awww, what's the matter? Couldn't get your own way so you had the old man get another dead person to zombie up?"
"You! Should have done as I said," snarled Dr Price in rage, "but now that time has passed and you shall be killed permanently!"
She sent two acolytes to destroy Anna, but Anna broke their backs and used a paperweight to crush their skulls and eat their brains. "Buuuuuuuuuurp, oh, pardon me," said Anna with a wicked grin on her face, "where are my manners?"
"How dare you!" shouted the priest. "For that you will pay!"
Dr. Price sent Jonathon to kill Anna, and so the fight began. The nurse who was being held by Jonathon ran screaming after he let her go and had begun to swing his fists at Anna.
The acolytes guarding the hospital heard a strange sound coming from the woods and went to look.
Chapter 12.
When they got to the spot where the woods and parking lot meet, a white powder flew into their faces and they passed out. A man dressed in a white t-shirt and green pants and shoes stepped out and walked toward the hospital with a black bag.
Jonathon and Anna had been fighting for a half-hour, turning that section of the hospital into a mini war zone. You will never defeat him, I control him, laughed Terra with an awful grin on her face. Anna had had enough of Dr. Price and her flippin' attitude and her snotty manners.
"Oh just shut up you stupid twit!" said Anna as she shoved Jonathon into the computer consol on the receptionist desk where he got shocked with a large amount of electricity as it broke under his weight.
"Silly child," sneered the old man, "he cannot be electrocuted or stopped by anyone."
"We will see about that, Joe Beir," said a voice behind him.
Dr. Price and her grandfather whirled around to face the man that had spoken.
"Isaac Stone!" shouted the polomayunde priest in angry surprise.
"You have done a horrible vile thing!" shouted Isaac vehemently.
"You will not stop me! I and my granddaughter will have our revenge!" exclaimed Joe Beir, the priest.
Anna was tossed through a door, stood up, and looked around for a weapon and then saw Isaac's granddaughter instead. Jonathan tried to get to them but was blocked by debris from the broken door and other things.
"You're real? But how—it's not possible, you can't be alive!" said Shiela in clear shock.
"Living dead actually," said Anna tersely as she grabbed a bottle of bleach and tossed the liquid all over Jonathon.
"Do you have a lighter?" asked Anna quickly.
"Yes, but why? He isn't going to be scared of a little fire," said the girl with a little whimper of fear in her voice.
"Just watch and learn," said Anna as she tossed the lighter at the zombie outside of the janitor's closet. A small explosion of flame rolled up Jonathon's legs and torso. Anna took a mop bucket and shoved it as hard as she can toward him. Jonathon fell forward into the bucket which then bounced off the wall and into the acolytes who were almost to Stellar's door. Grabbing Shiela's wrist Anna helped her out of the wreckage that was once the janitor's closet and hurried her over to Stellar's room.
"Stay with the men in there, they are the good guys."
"Thank you for helping me," said Isaac's granddaughter as Delco and Ryan let her into the room. The acolytes ran screaming in pain and agony as their clothes caught fire, which was quickly put out by the fire alarm sprinklers in the ceiling.
"Joe Beir, your abomination is dead and your revenge will never be had, it's done."
"It will never be done because I will always use my powers to get our revenge."
Isaac looked at them with a little bit of sadness and said, "Then I have no choice." He took out a gray powder, chanted, and then blew it on Dr. Price and her grandfather. "I have taken away what powers you had, now you are only a regular man and woman."
The police had finally gotten to the hospital, taken away Dr. Price, her grandfather, and the remaining acolytes to jail and Jonathan to the morgue.
Chapter 13.
Stellar was just starting to open his eyes and when he looked up he saw Ryan, Delco, Calleigh and at the far end of the bed looking surprisingly alive, Anna.
"What are you doing here, and where am I?" he asked a little groggily.
"You're at Miami medical hospital," said Calleigh gently.
Suddenly realizing where he'd seen the girl before, he tried to sit up but was immediately pinned down by pain. He looked to them and said, "Dr. Price had a real zombie, I know it sounds nuts but it's true," he said weakly but with strong will.
"We know," said Ryan and Delco together with exhausted but triumphant faces.
"What do you mean you know?" asked Stellar with simultaneous shock and skepticism.
"They know because we've been working together to make sure you actually got to wake up and you should be grateful they're here. I was planning on having you for lunch."
Stellar turned his head to see a tall skinny girl with dark grey rotted patches on her legs and arms and translucent light grey skin. He said, "You, you're her zombie too?"
Anna just gave him a withering look and said, "No, although she did try to make me do her bidding."
"You're here for your revenge—it was an accident," stammered Stellar trying to inch himself away from her.
"Yes, I know. I've already talked with Ryan and Delco and there isn't really much more I can do to you that haven't already been done. So, don't worry about me trying to crack your head open like a melon..."
Four days later, after everything had been settled and accounted and statements provided for official reports, Delco and Ryan stood outside the Miami Dade Police Department with Anna as the sun rose into the sky, already starting to heat the early morning air.
"Well, Isaac said it was unnatural for you to walk among the living, so where are you going to go now?" asked Delco with concern.
Anna looked at the rising sun, then turned back and said, "I dunno. I suppose I could wander around for a little while. I'm still pretty good lookin'. It's not like I need to sleep or anything."
Ryan said, "You know you could always go find your family I'm sure they would love to have you back."
Anna looked at Ryan with an amused grin and said, "Eh, sure, nevermind the fact I've been dead for the past eight years and I should be a rotting corpse. Nahh, I can't go back. But I think I know where to go."
"And where is that?" asked Delco.
"I think I will go down to New Orleans. They got enough cemeteries there; I don't think they'll notice an extra body laying around. And, since there's always grave robbers over there I'll always have something to snack on," she said with a grin.
"Well, good luck to you," said Ryan, "and if you ever come back, well, make sure you eat first then look us up."
She smiled and said, "Ya know, for a couple of living guys, you're not so bad. If this is the worst thing that ever happens to you, consider yourselves lucky." She turned around and walked passed both of them with the sun behind her lighting her path.
The End