TDI: Torture Cruise
Chapter Eleven: Six Months Later
Six Months Later...
"I'm sorry, Ms. Nakamura, but I'm going to have to deny your request to be reinstated to covert duty." the CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's CIA) official informed the teen spy.
"But why? I was cleared of all those charges stemming from the cruise ship...incident, and I'm perfectly fine and healthy. What happened had no impact whatsoever on my performance! You've seen my glowing evaluation on the practice ranges!" Heather testily argued her case.
"I have. And that's the problem. Our psychiatric staff believes you're suppressing the trauma of what you went through. No one should be able to brush off mass murder committed before their eyes so easily. No one's that cold!"
"Oh, you don't know Heather. She's like that all the time!" DJ chuckled.
Heather briefly flared her nostrils, then sweetly said "Could you excuse me for a moment? I have to speak to my...associate."
Out of earshot, Heather laid into DJ "When I asked you to accompany me, DJ, it was for moral support. Not to imply I'm sociopathic!!"
"Sorry, Heather! I'll be quiet."
"Good."
But no matter what Heather said in her defense, the decision of the government official stood.
Heather would globe trot no more, and be relegated to desk duty for an indefinite period of time.
"Well...It could have been worse. You still have your job!" DJ looked on the bright side as the couple walked down the streets of Ottawa.
"DJ, you don't get it! Without field experience, my career at CSIS is over!" the raven-haired one bitched.
"Oh." DJ frowned. Then he turned that frown upside down! "Hey, if you're on desk duty, you'll be spending more time at home!"
"Yeah! How about that!" Heather said with a plastic smile. She meant it sarcastically, but the gentle giant took it as sincere.
Heather sighed and smiled (a real smile this time). It was impossible to stay mad at DJ. As Heather herself once said, "The power of nice is huge!" And DJ had nice in spades. It was the one thing that could defeat the normally conniving teen. DJ was so nice, Heather's nasty jibes and mean-spirited put-downs had no effect. So, most of the time around her boyfriend, Heather didn't even bother with the bitch persona she usually wore like super-emotional armor. What would be the point of acting that way, if the desired response wasn't generated? Plus, someone treating her well when she was laying on the hate only made Heather feel worse.
Gwen and LeShawna could have beat Heather a long time ago if they had been nice to her every time she perpetuated some terrible prank against them. Instead, they took the bait and sunk to Heather's level, the level where she alone was the master.
"The worst part is, most people watching the news and reading those trashy tabloids think I had something to do with that cruise ship nightmare, so I'm stuck with this crappy job! But without my spy cover as an international jet-setting celebrity, I'll never get my dream job - my own TV show called 'The World According to Heather'. It'll never happen now." she moaned. "I always wanted to be famous, but not like this!"
"Cheer up, Heath! Something will come up. You'll see!" DJ's upbeat mood was infectious. Even Heather brightened.
"Maybe you're right, DJ. Maybe I do need a change of...Huh?"
Heather saw something that couldn't have been there.
Or, rather, someone!
Is that...Gwen? Heather thought as she passed a store window in which an image of the deceased goth teen appeared. And why does she look so...upset?
"Heather? You drifted off, girl! You okay?"
"What??" the long-haired teen spun around. The apparition of Gwen was gone
"I'm okay. I'm...fine. Just tired. That's all. It's been a long day."
"Okay. Why don't we have dinner at home? I'll make your favorite - spicy noodle soup - and we'll turn in early!"
"Sounds great! Lead the way!" Heather replied, then wrapped an arm around her boyfriend and sauntered down the street to home.
Heather worriedly gazed at her reflection in another store window. Were they right? Am I cracking up?
Then she saw someone who wasn't a ghost!
"Oh! I just remembered something I have to do! Go ahead and I'll meet you at home. Love you!" Heather unexpectedly kissed the big guy and ran off.
"Uh, okay." DJ, puzzled, scratched his head. "See ya!"
Meanwhile, in an apartment he could no longer afford, the former male model, Justin, stared at his own reflection in the mirror and debated whether to take off the bandages that covered his acid-pocked face.
Suddenly, a sound from the next room interrupted his lonely reverie.
At the place he shared with LeShawna (their own place; not his Mom's home), Harold walked into the kitchen to make a snack.
Immediately, his keen senses alerted him to danger!
Also, he saw black-garbed ninjas hiding under the kitchen table, behind the island counter, and on the side of the refrigerator.
"LeShawna!" Harold called to his lady love who was in the living room. "Did you order any ninjas?"
"No, hon! Not me! Uh uhh! Why you askin'?"
"Oh, snap!" Harold exclaimed. "Er, never mind!" he responded to his oblivious girlfriend.
"It's on!" Harold took out his nunchuks, twirled them around and challenged the three martial art masters to a duel. He waved to them to start their attack. "Oh, yes. It most definitely is!"
At a nightclub where he was scheduled to perform a concert that evening, Trent did a soundcheck.
From out of nowhere, a group shuffled into the club and approached the stage.
"I appreciate you want to listen to my music!" Trent said. "But the club is closed now. Come back later and hear ALL my songs!"
However, the crowd wouldn't leave, and got nearer and nearer to the stage.
In his basement lab, Cody puttered away on one of his inventions.
Suddenly, the music on the radio was replaced by static.
And the static seemed to sound like...somethingelse!
In her Toronto home, Sadie fixed a lonely meal.
In fact, all her meals were lonely, ever since BFFFL (Best Female Friend For Life) Katie...passed away.
Then, a knock at the door.
Or was it a knock?
It almost seemed more like...scratching?
"What the hell are you doing, following me?!!" Heather had snuck up on the person shadowing her and jumped the multi-pierced stalker, driving the goth to the ground! "Wait! I know you! You're Gwen's friend! Pixiefrog!"
"My name's Pixiecorpse! And I wasn't following you! Now get off me!!" shouted the dark-clothed girl who was in an unbreakable hold Heather had learned in spy school. Her inability to move soon convinced the goth teen to adjust her attitude and loosen her tongue. "I wanted to ask you something, but I thought you might think I was crazy, so I hesitated."
"I'm listening. Ask away!" Heather instructed.
"Have...Have you seen Gwen?"
Heather was shocked into silence. Her mouth gaped wide. Her eyes became big as coasters.
"You have, haven't you?"
"DJ? Oh, thank Bondye (the good God) I found you!"
DJ wheeled around on the Ottawa street, the crisp autumn air chilling his face, and beheld someone quite unexpected.
"Grams? What are you doing here?? I thought you were in Jamaica?!"
"There's no time for that! You and your friends are in terrible danger!"
Immediately, Justin was beset by a horde of shambling figures!
Meanwhile, Harold was kicking ninja ass!
"Ha! Not this time, bitches!" Harold yipped as he sweep-kicked the home invaders to the floor!
After defeating the last of the black-clad trio, Harold bent down, pulled off his opponent's ninja mask...
...And got the surprise of his life!
At the club, the crowd rushed the stage and attacked Trent! Using his guitar, the musician fought them off! Trent was about to flee, when he spotted a familiar face...
The odd sound on the radio was a voice!
And, even odder, Cody realized whose voice it was!
"I'm coming!" Sadie called out in an attempt to quiet the eerie scratching at her front door. She slowly opened it. Then, Sadie saw who was standing there...
"Nice try! But I'm not falling for your freak tricks!" Heather screamed at the goth who had been after her.
"It's no trick! Somehow, Gwen came back!" the terrified teen yelped.
"That's insane!" Heather got up off of the one known as Pixiecorpse, but wisely kept her distance. "And so are you!"
"Listen to me! Sometimes, for laughs, me, Gwen and a couple of our friends would break into graveyards and do these weird rituals. I thought it was all fake, but I think we did some real magic! Now Gwen's spirit is back, but I don't know why!" a frightened Pixiecorpse gasped out her theory. "It, it's like I heard her in my head and she said to warn you!!"
"Get lost, freak!" an extremely skeptical Heather yelled. "Boo hoo, you lost your friend! But don't think you can drag me into your crazy world to make up for it! I better not see you again, or..." Heather threatened as she walked away.
"You know I'm telling the truth!" Pixiecorpse shouted at the departing Heath. "You'll be sorry!"
"I'm already sorry I ever met those losers!" Heather muttered.
"If what you're saying is true, Grams..."
"I wish it wasn't, grandson. But it is."
"Then I have work to do!" DJ tied a headband on and became very, very serious! "My friends need me!"
His assailants piled on Justin, and brought him down.
To Harold's surprise, the face under the ninja mask belonged to...
...Duncan!!
"What?? How? You're d, d, d..." Harold stuttered and squirmed away from the brought back from the dead delinquent. His mind whirling, Harold struggled to come up with a workable defense strategy.
All while the ghoulish Duncan crept ever closer to the petrified teen.
Then...
Bang!
Duncan was shot in the back, sending him sprawling to the floor!
"Follow me if you want to live!" Chef exclaimed.
"What? Awesome!" Harold complimented.
"This old thing?" Chef glanced at the shotgun.
"No! What you said!"
"Come on, nerd!" Chef barked. "That ain't gonna stop him for long!"
Already, zombie Duncan was slowly getting to his undead, shaky feet.
"LeShawna, my love? Time to go!" Harold yelled to his unsuspecting girlfriend.
"Whutchu talkin' 'bout, sugar?" LeShawna said. Then she walked into the room.
"Eeeeeee!!!"
"Bridgette??" Trent bellowed in surprise in the darkened nightclub. "How, how can you be here??"
Unfortunately, the shock of seeing ALIVE someone who was supposed to be DEAD delayed Trent's escape, and the undead horde caught up to the musician!
"Beth?" Cody said, as if the radio voice could hear him.
"Katie?" Sadie anxiously said upon seeing who was outside her door.
"You again?" Heather bitched when the image of Gwen appeared to her a second time. "I'm not playing these games!"
"Come on, come on! Answer the phone!" a worried DJ snapped. "Zeke? You okay? Phewww! That's a relief! There's something strange going on! Yeah. Stay safe! I'll call back in a few minutes!"
Marshaling all his strength, the scarred former model threw off his attackers!
But the shuffling monstrosities were far from defeated. They renewed their assault, and Justin realized he knew one of them.
"Noah? Is that you? Wow. You don't look good! Of course, I've seen better days, myself." Justin said as he avoided Noah's clumsy attack and then punched the dead know-it-all in the face.
Retracting his fist, Justin noticed half of Noah's face came with it, leaving a formless, pulpy mass on top Noah's shoulders.
Seizing his advantage, Justin tore into the rest of the undead, and the fighting-mad model soon had all of them writhing helplessly on the ground.
"Let me say it this time!" a new voice yelped. "Follow me if you want to live! Boo-yah!"
It was Harold and Chef.
"So, pretty boy! You can do more than strut across the runway! I'm impressed!" Chef approvingly said as he, Harold and Justin ran through a gauntlet of zombies blocking their exit from Justin's apartment.
"Where'd you get the mad fighting skills, dude?" Harold asked.
"I didn't have a choice. I knew I couldn't rely on...my body to protect me like I used to. Not after what happened to me!" the face-bandaged teen cried.
"Haven't the scars healed by now?" Harold inquired.
"They'll never heal!" Justin snapped. "And isn't Chef supposed to be dead?"
"Yeah, probably not the best time to bring that up." Harold replied as the trio hacked and slashed their way through the zombie army.
"So? You're okay?" DJ, holding the phone to his ear, asked.
"Sure, man!" Tyler replied. "It's quiet out here in the boonies!"
After DJ asked, for some strange reason, if Tyler was close to any cemeteries and Tyler responded 'No.', DJ requested he go to a safe place and wait for further instructions. So Tyler left his grandparent's home (his grandparents were away at the moment) and walked past the neighbor's farm on the way to the bus station in town.
Suddenly, a field the farmer used for...disposal...of dead fowl stirred.
A tiny head popped out of the ground.
Followed by many more.
Very quickly, Tyler found his path blocked...
...By zombie chickens!
Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! he screamed and ran.
But the re-animated poultry caught up to the fleeing boy, jumped all over him, and pecked.
And pecked
And pecked some more.
"Uh uh, I ain't going anyplace anymore with Darkman and a crazy dead guy unless someone starts spilling!" LeShawna demanded of the very much alive Chef before she'd get in the car with him, Harold and Justin. "What the heck's going on, why ain't you dead, and where's Chris??"
"Twenty-five of us went into the jungle that night. Only five came back out." the shell-shocked veteran mumbled.
"LeShawna, we have to go. Now! I mean, gosh, there's zombies and who knows what else after us!" Harold moaned.
"No. I'll tell her. You deserve that much." a much more lucid Chef interjected. "It started as just another challenge. Voodoo zombies. 'Won't that freak the campers out!' Chris said. He also saw it as a way to finally get some work out of those lazy interns, who kept on dying on us! I didn't like it...at first. Then I saw what zombies could do for us! Sighhh." Chef's eyes glazed over as he recalled a particularly steamy encounter with a female zombie. "Then it all went wrong. We tried to cover it up as best we could and bury the whole thing, but something...escaped. Chris thought we could fake our deaths and run, but the past always catches up to you."
"Wow. I thought Chris was messed up before, but screwing around with zombies??" Justin whistled in disbelief.
"So, um...Where is Chris?" Harold asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Chris is dead." Chef coldly replied. "Really, really dead! None of this coming back to life stuff for him! Not after what she did to him. What she plans to do to all of us!"
"She??"
"Trent! You finally answered your cell! I was starting to get worried! You okay, man?" DJ asked over the phone.
"Dude, the dead have come back to life!" Trent replied. "Of course I'm not okay! I'm totally freaking out!!"
"But you're somewhere safe? Good! We're all meeting up at Cody's. He thinks he has a way to stop this whole nightmare. Talk to you soon!" DJ added. Then he received a call. "Harold? And you're in a car with LeShawna and Justin? Great! What do you mean Chef's with you? Is he a zombie, too? He isn't?? Oh, never mind! Go to Cody's place. Yeah, I got in touch with Zeke, Tyler and Trent, also. They're okay!"
"I, I did what you wanted!" Trent trembled as Bridgette and the other undead horrors held him tight, their zombie spittle and bodily fluids oozing all over him. "Now let me go, Izzy!"
"Maybe later, music man." the zombie queen cackled. "First, tell me where your friends are going."
"That only leaves Sadie..." DJ ran through the rest of the TDI survivors.
"Katie!!" Sadie shouted joyfully and threw her arms around her best friend. "It is you!"
"...And..." DJ continued.
"What are you doing??" Heather bellowed to the apparition of Gwen. "You're in my head! You're real?? What do you mean, Trent's in danger and I'm the only one who can save him?!" Heather asked Gwen's ghost, who was now gesturing frantically.
Following Gwen's pointing finger, Heather turned around.
And saw...
Eva.
Courtney.
And Owen. Plus a few more standing in the shadows.
All dead. All re-animated. And all there for her.
"So, this is how it's going to be, huh? Fine! Bring it! I never liked any of you, anyway!" Heather dared the undead battle her.
"Katie? What, what are you doing?" Sadie nervously asked as her BFFFL (Best Female Friend For Life) grabbed Sadie's meaty arm. Then Katie demonstrated that, since she wasn't alive, she wasn't Sadie's friend any more.
"...Heather?" DJ worried over the fate of his sweetie.
Though Eva was a formidable opponent while alive, as a juju (voodoo) zombie she was no match for the agile, former ballerina's spy agency-honed martial arts prowess.
Courtney and even the extremely large Owen both fell before the flashing feet and karate hands of the ticked-off teen.
But numbers were on the zombies' side.
Heather was sneak-attacked from behind!
"Hey! Quit pulling my hair!" an annoyed Heath barked.
Turning 'round to face her unknown assailant, Heather was shocked to discover it was...
"Lindsay?? Not you, too!"
Distressed that even the blonde whose life she tried to save was attempting to kill her, Heather lost her edge.
And was immediately overwhelmed by a wave of unstoppable, undead flesh.
"She's not answering!!" DJ cried as he frantically punched in Heather's digits on his cell over and over again. "Oh no." He feared the worst.
"Eeeeeek!!!!" Sadie screamed in terror and pain as zombie Katie took a bite out of the heavy-set girl!
Next:
The TDI trilogy is wrapped up with a twist in the most unexpected episode yet - The Big Finish!
It's really good! So don't miss it!!