Charmed Snow, thanks for your review. I'm so glad, that you want to read all the story.
Coleslady it's great, that you've found this story, too and that you like it.
Sorry for the delay once again!
38. Chapter
Soon later, they got off to the town. The zombies had gotten back into the bus reluctantly, but when Cole had promised them, that they would meet their tormentor soon, they had agreed.
Unlike Josh, who flatly refused to drive a bus with a broken door. Of course he didn't say a word about the zombies. But when Amy volunteered to drive the bus back to town, he finally agreed to do it himself. He closed the door with all his might and sat down behind the steering wheel.
Cole and Prue had already set off, to reach the court house earlier, while they had left Danny under Amy's care. It was before lunchtime, when they reached the building. It wasn't full of people on Saturday and only a few visitors went round the old building. Normally no hearing took place at the weekend, only if the jury needed more time to come to a decision, opposite parties would have to be available at the weekend, too.
While Cole had driven the car back to town, Prue had called some newspapers to get information about the current hearings. She had found out something about this special case. Angelo Gomez was charged with attempted murder. The evidences were scanty, but David Morgan was the district attorney. Actually it seemed to be rather unlikely, that Morgan could win, but if he had got some of his zombies in the jury, they would probably try to convince the other members of jury that Angelo Gomez was guilty at this moment.
"Nevertheless I can't imagine, that the zombies are able to convince the others." Prue said thoughtfully, while they joined a group of tourists not to attract attention, because both of them held a plastic bag in their hand. "You told me, that they act like robots, didn't you?"
"Yes, but if they tell you in a monotonous voice, that the defendant is guilty, again and again, most of the members of the jury will have enough of it after a while. They'll agree to go home finally, because the zombies will never give in." Cole supposed. "Or they don't come to a decision and the trial will be reopened."
"Luckily it seems as if the members of this jury think of it in a different way." Prue explained, while they entered the building without any problems.
"It's in the second floor." Cole said and left the tourist group to go upstairs. On the second floor they followed a corridor until they reached a closed area. The rooms where the members of a jury held their discussions were located there.
"Stay here." Cole prompted Prue. "I'll take a close look around. This guy shouldn't see both of us." He explained resolutely and walked slowly along the corridor, until he reached a court official sitting on a chair in front of the barrier.
When he saw Cole, he stood up immediately and approached to him. "It isn't allowed for visitors to come here." He explained in a deep voice.
But Cole didn't stop and walked to the barrier. "Oh really? What's behind this barrier?" He asked with a friendly smile. He took a close look around and saw a long corridor. On the left side was a door to an elevator and a trolley with water bottles and other drinks stood beside the elevator.
"This is the area for members of a jury." The court official informed him, as if this would explain everything. "So if you would leave this place, please." He asked him.
Cole ignored him and motioned Prue to come nearer. "Come here, darling." He shouted and turned to the man again. "My wife will be interested to see this."
Prue walked to them. "What can we see here?" She asked curiously.
"This is the area of members of the jury, darling. Here they make important decisions on life or death." Cole explained solemnly.
The man stepped behind the barrier again. "Okay, take a quick look around, but you won't see anything interesting here." He explained calmly.
Prue looked around curiously. "Well I think it's very interesting." She said and raised her hand. "And will you feed the members of jury?" She asked curiously and pushed the trolley with the drinks a little bit, so that it rolled to the man.
"Of course, we won't let them die of starvation." The man joked about her question and went back on his chair. In this moment the trolley rolled into his direction and knocked against the chair, so that the man, the chair and the trolley fell over.
"Oh no." Prue screamed and jumped over the barrier to help the man. Cole followed her and suddenly an ear-splitting alarm started.
"That's all I needed." The court official cursed, while Prue helped him to stand up. "I'll have to turn off the alarm and tell the others that everything is alright." He explained angrily and walked to the switch beside the entrance.
Meanwhile Cole had picked up the trolley. The elder woman had told them, that it was forbidden for every zombie to eat something in court, but they were allowed to drink. Therefore Cole and Prue hurried up to replace the partly broken bottles with mineral water with plenty of sodium and salted vegetable juice.
When the noise died away and the court official called the head office, they were already ready and walked to the man.
"Okay, everything alright." He explained in relief and looked around for the trolley.
"Most of the bottles are undamaged." Prue told him.
"Better than nothing. I really don't want to order new drinks at the weekend and these were the last bottles." He said, when the gong sounded beside the elevator. "The food." He murmured and gave Prue and Cole a dark look. "And you'll vanish here. You've already seen what can happen, if unauthorized people stay here."
"Don't worry, we are already gone." Prue told him and took Cole's arm. Together they walked slowly along the corridor. "As if it was my fault, that the trolley fell down." She said in a loud voice.
Meanwhile the bus had reached the town, too. Like always Josh parked it nearby the Lafayette Square, but probably this was the last time, he thought and sighed.
While the ride he didn't say a word and Amy didn't know, what he was thinking. "Is everything alright?" She asked unsteadily.
"Well you probably know, that I've lost my job, don't you?" He asked Amy. "So everything's just fine of course."
"If that's the only problem." Amy said and forced a smile. "I thought, that you feel nervous about the zombies. Because you don't have to, they are actually quite nice."
Josh looked at her in disbelief. "You haven't convinced me yet, that these people aren't prisoners." He explained firmly.
"Oh." Amy let out in surprise. "So why do you help us?"
Josh shrugged his shoulders. "I've always waited for the right opportunity to throw down this job."
Amy looked at him in surprise. "Well that sounded different not long ago."
"Hey, I need the money for living and this job was well payed, that's everything." Josh explained. "But someone like you can't understand that."
"Do you want to go on talking, or will you finally let us go?" The sturdy man wanted to know meanwhile. "Otherwise I can press open the door again."
Josh shrugged his shoulders. "It's out of order, I can't open it from here. So you can do whatever you want, I don't care."
The man opened the door with his muscle power and got off the bus. The other zombies followed him to the street. In the end only Amy and Danny were still standing inside of the bus. "Will you come with me?" She asked and looked at Josh begging.
Josh sighed. "Well I don't have any better plans for today, so why not." He finally explained and got off. "And you can give me the brat."
"What?" Amy stopped rather shocked and looked at him. "He isn't a brat, that is Daniel."
"Well, whoever." Josh said unimpressed. "Come on, give him to me, he's too heavy for you."
"No, he isn't." Amy said angrily and walked on. "And I would never give him to you."
"Oh, why not?" Josh asked in surprise.
"Because you called him brat." Amy told him.
"So what? Believe me, his parents won't mind, if I take him." Josh said confidently and took Danny away from her. The little boy watched Josh sceptically and couldn't decide, if he should start screaming as a precaution. Josh gave him a friendly smile. "Don't worry, I have three little brothers and sisters. I'm good with bawling brats."
"Stop calling him brat." Amy hissed at him.
"Okay, Daniel." Josh said and grinned at Danny, who just decided that it wasn't worth it to cry. "What did I tell you? We understand each other."
"Mm." Amy said sceptically, while they reached the court house and entered it without attracting too much attention. They looked around in the hall, where Prue and Cole were already waiting for them.
Cole looked at Amy in disbelieve and took Danny away from Josh immediately.
"Don't worry, it didn't kill him." Josh said angrily. "You don't have any problems to let him stay in a bus together with so-called zombies, but if I take him..."
"Does he talk so much all the time?" Cole wanted to know from Amy meanwhile.
Amy shrugged her shoulders and asked curiously. "And did all go well?"
"If they are thirsty." Cole said and looked around. "But where is the rest of them? These aren't all zombies, are they?" He wondered.
Amy and Prue looked around and noticed to their surprise, that only half of the zombies were standing in the hall, most of them were women.
"This sturdy guy and some others made off." Josh informed them, and it didn't seem to bother him. "And well I'd say this guy was looking like a violent criminal, so the people of New Orleans should be happy that you've let him go."
"For God's sake, how many times do I have to explain it to you?" Prue asked in a gruff voice. She didn't want to take into consideration that there could be a real criminal among the zombies. Therefore she added rather convinced. "These people are zombies, innocents, they came under Morgan's influence through no fault of their own."
"If you say so, lady." Josh said cooly.
"And don't call me lady, my name is Prue, if you forgot it." She reminded him as friendly as possible.
Josh lifted his hand in an offhanded way. "No problem, Prue."
"There you go. You can manage it." Prue said and looked around. "How long do we have to wait, until the salt will do its job?"
"Well it worked immediately, when I ate the peanuts." Kirk Landon said in a low voice.
"Great." Prue said and noticed a journalist, who was talking into his phone rather excited.
"If we are lucky, we won't be in for a long wait." Cole said confidently.
About an hour later, the courtroom was opened to make the verdict in the case of Gomez public. The spectators were allowed to enter the room and the zombies sat down in the first row, while Cole, Prue, Amy and Josh watched from the back row. David Morgan was sitting on the place for the public prosecutor and smiled confidently. While the defendant and his lawyer were sitting opposite to him, waiting for the verdict with rapt attention.
The judge entered the hall and let the members of jury come inside. After the jury had sat down, he asked them, if they passed judgement on the defendant. The spokesman of the jury, a man with gray hair and a dark suit, stood up and affirmed it. A court official walked to him and the man handed over a piece of paper to him.
Cole noticed Morgan rubbing his hands rather satisfied. Cole grinned, he wouldn't believe it. "Morgan looks forward to the verdict." He whispered to Prue.
"Well he shouldn't do it." Prue said and took a close look of the members of jury. She tried to make out the zombies among them and it wasn't too difficult. There was a young woman, who seemed to be rather helpless and a middle-aged man shaking his head in disbelief all the time. There were two other men, Prue wasn't sure about, but when she tried to watch them more closely, she saw that the judge just got the piece of paper with the result of the jury. He threw a quick look at it.
Then he looked up and expressed his thanks to the members of jury for their work and let the defendant stand up. After that he explained in a deep voice. "The jury finds the defendant not guilty."
While Angelo Gomez's tenseness eased, David Morgan jumped up angrily. "You've got them wrong." He said in a loud voice and looked at the members of jury.
A man, who Prue couldn't make out earlier, jumped up and pointed at David Morgan. "This man tried to coerce us into finding the man guilty." He screamed.
The other two zombies of the members of jury stood up, too. "He is right! He has killed us."
They started to scream all at the same time. The zombies in the audience pointed at Morgan accusingly, too. "Murderer!" They shouted and the photographers started to make photos rather excited about the situation.
"That's slander." Morgan shouted, he was beside himself with anger and starred at the judge.
He hit his hammer on the table angrily. "Be quiet!" He shouted, but he couldn't stop the zombies. They stood up from their places and tried to get to David Morgan.
"Oh no, what have we done?" Amy wondered unhappily.
"Wow, that's so cool, at least a little compensation for the loss of my job." Josh explained grinning.
"Quiet!" The judge shouted again, but he couldn't stop the uproar. The armed court officials tried to maintain order among the excited crowd and it seemed as if they succeed slowly, although the zombies were very strong and weren't afraid of weapons.
Meanwhile David Morgan looked around, searching for an escape route. "You'll bear the consequences, you all will do it." He roared at the judge and rushed to the exit. A court official just managed to clear the way to the door and Morgan seized this opportunity to run out of the room furiously. But in the corridor he suddenly stood face to face with Cole, looking at him with a satisfied smile on his face.
"You!" Morgan hissed. "I should have know that you are behind it. But don't start celebrating too soon. Perhaps you could escape us once, but now you'll suffer even worse."
"Well I doubt it very much." Cole said coldly. "Now you can see, what I'm able to do. Your zombies are free and they are wild about taking revenge."
"There's no danger for me. They can't defeat me and no more you." Morgen flashed at him. "You're just a poor demon."
Cole grinned, rather unimpressed. "I've been the leader of the underworld before, so I can't be as weak as you are thinking."
"Underworld?" Morgan gave a sneering laugh. "Nobody is interested in the underworld. Soon I'll be the leader of the upper world and that's the only thing that matters." He explained and disappeared, before the zombies could leave the room.
"Now he'll run to his mother to pour out his heart to her." Cole said rather annoyed.
"This guy is a mummy's boy, isn't he?" Josh asked grinning. "It's getting better and better."
"We mustn't let him escape." Prue told the others. "Who knows, what's going on in his ill brain."
"You are right." Cole agreed and they hurried to follow David Morgan, who rushed to the exit.
"Oh well and Cole." Prue said meanwhile and forced a smile. "Do you think it's a good idea to try to impress someone with your inglorious time as the leader of the underworld?"
"Why not? Now he finally knows whom he's in trouble with." Cole told her shrugging his shoulders, while they squeezed past some people from the press.
Meanwhile the crowd increased and they caught a look at Morgan leaving the building just in time.
"Get out of my way, won't you?" Prue hissed at a man looking admiring at the ceiling in the entrance hall. He looked at her deeply offended and stepped aside, so that Prue could pass by.
When they arrived at the stairs in front of the court house, they were witnesses to a strange drama. It seemed as if the lost zombies had robbed a shop for old weapons, because each of them held a peaked knife or an antique sword in his hand. They had formed a circle around David Morgan, who tried desperately to escape.
The sturdy man, who had already showed off in the buss, stormed at Morgan with a wild battle cry. He plunged his knife into Morgan's stomach and the other zombies did the same. The circle was getting closer and closer. Finally nobody could see Morgan anymore, while you could hear the sirens of approaching police cars wailing.
"Oh my god, what are they doing?" Amy let out in horror.
"I'll give you three guesses." Cole said cooly and smiled. "His own creatures will kill him. Irony of fate."
"But it's terrible, no matter, what he has done. It's cruelty. It makes me sick just to look at it." Amy explained.
"Well, unfortunately he can't become the leader of the upper world anymore." Cole said satisfied.
"Mm." Amy didn't looked at it anymore but hid behind Josh, when Kirk Landon put his hand onto her shoulder.
"Amy." he started weakly and fell on his knees.
"Oh no, Mr. Landon." Amy kneeled down beside him and held his hand.
"The unnatural power dwindles away." He explained calmly and tried to hold her hand with all his might. "Free my soul, will you promise me?"
Amy nodded. "Yes, Mr. Landon." She said resolutely. "And if you meet Adam, please will you tell him, that everything is alright, that I'll never forget our time together and that I don't regret anything."
Kirk Landon nodded. "I'll do Amy." he promised her in a low voice and closed his eyes.
Meanwhile the elder woman turned to Prue. "It's time, I have to go." She said calmly. "My grave is waiting for me."
Prue nodded. "I know." She said sadly. "And I promise you, that we'll free your soul, so that you can finally rest in peace."
"Thanks!" The elder woman whispered and suddenly it was as if she was walking on air. Most of the zombies did the same and disappeared from the place in front of the court house. They were on their way into their graves. Some of the people passing by rubbed their eyes in disbelief and it was obvious, that they wouldn't believe anything of it later on.
The other zombies were lying on the ground unbudging. "It's hard to believe something of this." Josh said and looked around rather confused. "What's happened to them?"
"Morgan's power, which made them stay alive, is broken with his death." Prue explained calmly.
"Yes, and as it seems, you would have lost your job whatever you would have done." Cole said turning to Josh. "Because now there aren't any prisoners anymore."
"Well, you could be right." Josh said, still shaking his head in disbelief. "So they had really been dead before." He stated.
"But why did only half of the zombies disappear?" Amy wanted to know and looked down to Kirk Landon's dead body.
"Because not all of them already have a grave." Prue informed her. "Nobody knew that Kirk Landon died and he didn't have a funeral."
"But now he'll get one." Amy said resolutely.
Meanwhile the police had reached the place and some policemen looked around and found out to their surprise, that there were some dead people lying on the place. Some eyewitnesses bombarded them and the policemen had their hands full to maintain order.
"I think we should better go." Prue turned to the others. "We shouldn't attract too much attention."
Josh gave her a confused look. "You want to go." He wondered.
"Listen, do you want to answer any question of the police?" She wanted to know annoyed.
Josh looked back at the square in front of him. "No, you are right, I don't want to."
"So come on, let's go." Prue decided.
"And what will happen to Mr. Landon?" Amy wanted to know sadly. "We can't let him lying here."
"But we also can't help him at the moment, Amy." Prue tried to convince her.
"There you are." Cole gave her a piece of paper. "You can write down his address, so that they can find out who he is, at least."
Amy sighed. "Okay." She said and wrote down Kirk Landon's name and address. Then she put the piece of paper into his pocket and stood up. She looked at him for a last time, before they vanished discreetly.