REWRITTEN 4/21/16

Samik: Gasp, what is this? Two rewritten chapters posted in as many days? Has Enia been replaced by an imposter?

Merry Christmas!

There was still light in the sky when I finally emerged from the office several hours later, though it was starting to gray and dim. I yawned, rubbing one hand across my sore face. My cocky mask was finally back in place, though I couldn't quite hide the redness rimming my eyes. It had taken me a while to accept the fact that I wasn't dead or dying, that I was safe. Then, of course, I'd started beating myself up over the fact that I had just sat back and trembled without even trying to save myself.

I clenched my fists briefly. I swore it would never happy again. I would never be weak or powerless like that. I would never allow myself to be helpless. I was going to laugh and seize life by its goddamn balls and swing it around until it got so dizzy that it throws up.

The sunlight streaming through the windows stung my eyes, but they adjusted swiftly as I squinted through the glare. The first thing I saw was Teemo crouched on top of one of the bookcases, frowning. I stopped beneath it and craned my neck to look up at him. "What are you doing up there?"

"Arin chased me up here and said that if I come down, she'll hit me over the head with Samik's frying pan then throw me out the window for the zombies," he pouted, flopping into a cross-legged sitting positon and folding his arms. "What were you doing in the office?"

"Oh, having a mental breakdown. You know how it goes."

"Yes, I do. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking." I loved how Teemo didn't press for details. He was one of the few people who understood that if I wanted to talk, then I would. "I'll go see if I can get Arin to agree to let you down."

He nodded happily. "Great, thanks."

I twitched my hand in farewell and walked away, heading towards the cluster of people standing around the Customer Service desk. Samik saw me first and grinned, the skin around his eyes crinkling as he stretched out his hand. I took it gladly and glanced around the circle of faces, noting that everyone was present and accounting for – excluding Teemo who was hiding on top of the bookshelf. "So, I take it nobody's dead?" I asked.

"No, the cavalry got there before the zombies could take a bite out of anyone," Arin answered, still sounding pissed. There were red marks around her wrists from where the rope had chaffed them.

"Thanks for that. Teemo wants to know if he can come down yet."

Arin turned her head to glare in his direction even though he was hidden by shadow. She planted her arms across her chest angrily. "No."

"But he feels really bad about what happened, and he's really sorry," I promised, trying to be as convincing as possible even though we both knew that Teemo rarely felt sorry about anything.

Arin shook her head resolutely and stuck her nose in the air. "No, I'm still mad at him."

"But we're going to need his help in order to make Enia's Christmas Carol plan work," Samik pointed out. He had his arm wrapped around my waist as if he would never let me go, and I was hard at work stealing all his warmth for myself.

"You told them about that?" I asked, turning my head slightly to look at him.

"Yeah," he replied. The sunlight winked off his brown eyes. "We started to plan out some of the details."

"Sweet, less work to be done." I gave Arin a carefully manufactured pleading expression, curling my lips over and letting my eyes grow large. "So will you let him down?"

She sighed dramatically, waving one hand in the air. I could tell she was enjoying this. "Fine, I suppose I was a little hard on him." She raised her voice so that it boomed throughout the library. "Teemo! You can come down now!"

"Hooray!" he cheered and appeared from out of the shadows, hopping lightly down from the bookshelf and bounding across the library. He skidded to a halt before his wife. "Can I have a hug?"

Arin couldn't stop a small grin from surfacing like a telescope of a submarine above the waves. "You're impossible to stay mad at. Come here." She opened her arms to him, and, grinning happily, Teemo stepped into her embrace, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up onto her toes. As soon as he set her down, she pushed him away and stabbed a finger into his face, fixing him with an intense stare. "Don't do it again."

"I won't," he promised, crossing a finger over his heart, but we all knew that asking Teemo not to do anything stupid was like asking a bird not to fly.

"What have you gotten done?" I asked Samik, leaving out the second part of the sentence: 'while I was sobbing my eyes out like a baby'.

"Quite a bit," he said. "There's something you should see first, though. It's pretty neat."

Curiosity piqued, I let him drag me across the library towards a window. He proudly gestured outside, and I leaned past him to get a better look, resting my palms on the sill. I gasped involuntarily. There was a giant, earthen wall running all the way around the library, encasing it in a wide circle. The wall was easily three feet thick, the solid rock shining in the slowly failing sun.

"Wow," I whistled. "Why the hell didn't we think of that earlier?"

Samik shrugged. "None of us are smart."

I couldn't argue with that. "I don't think an entire horde would be able to get through that monstrosity. Did you make it?"

He nodded. "Teemo was…incapacitated at the time."

"It's awesome," I said and raised myself up on my tiptoes slightly to kiss him on the cheek. Samik turned his head to catch me fully on the lips, and I let it deepen, curling my arms around him.

Nearby, Onyx coughed loudly. I broke away from Samik to glare at her, promising blood and guts and horrendous death. Her eyes laughed at me. "What Lover Boy was going to say before you distracted him," she gave me a pointed, mocking look, "was that we ran across the street and carted a drum set, some mikes, and a few giant speakers back to the library. We got some wires and crap, too, but none of of us know how to work them."

"I know how." David pushed his way to the front of the group, a thick book clenched in his fist. "I've been reading up on it, and I think I can get it set up. I also think I figured out how to string them across the rooftops so we can broadcast across the town."

"Just don't blow anything up. We've had enough of that for one day." My gaze slid over to land on Teemo, and everyone laughed. He shrugged unabashedly. I looked back at David and nodded. "Go ahead. Try and be back in a couple of hours."

"Okay," David agreed. "Got it. Come on, William." The big, blonde werewolf came forward, refusing to look at me, and the two of them hurried away, bounding down the stairs and out of sight. I was glad I wouldn't have to deal with William for a while.

"What should the rest of us do?" Onyx asked.

"Hm," I muttered, casting my eyes around as I rubbed at my chin.

"What's Christmas without a Christmas tree?" Zeus piped up. She was the resident Christmas Spirit expert, and she looked particularly festive bedecked in a green snowman shirt, red penguin pants, and a penguin pom-pom hat. She had packed a suitcase full of actual clothes when we'd stopped by her house, but she had chosen to be a walking poster child for Christmas Spirit.

I jumped at the idea and snapped my fingers at her, shooting her a finger gun. "Perfect."

"Where are we going to get a tree?" Minka pointed out, one earbud dangling down her shoulder.

"Uh…outside?"

"What about ornaments?"

"I'm pretty sure there's a Christmas store about two blocks away," Zeus said. Of course she would know that. She probably had an annual membership card there.

And so it was decided. Zeus grabbed her rifle as the rest of us strapped our various swords and cudgels to our bodies, and then she led the way downstairs. A cold wash of electricity ran down my spine as we entered the first floor. There were blood splatters everywhere. Pooled on the floor. Slashed across the walls. Dripping down the bookshelves. The corpses were gone, though, but I could still tell exactly where each had fallen. The remnants of my failed barricade lay scattered beside a shelf in the center of the floor, and I quickly turned my gaze away. A stench hung in the air: a mixture of blood, vomit, and fear, but the open windows were slowly circulating it out and replacing it with cold, fresh winter air.

"We cleared all the bodies away," Samik explained as we walked through the front door. "Dumped them outside the wall, but no one wanted to deal with all the blood."

They had missed a few eyeballs, smears of skin, and a finger or two, but other than that, the ground between the library and the wall was completely clear. It towered over us as we stood in its shadow, cresting just beneath the the windows of the second floor. A set of hand and footholds had been carved into the wall's side, and Onyx and Minka used them to scamper to the top as the rest of us used our magic to propel ourselves into the air.

I landed easily on the top of the wall and peered in either directions, searching for threats. "Clear!" I called, because I thought it made me sound cool, and let myself drop to the ground, bending my knees to absorb the impact. Zeus remained in her hawk form, carving great circles in the air as she flew off to find the Christmas store. I ran after her, the others following close behind me. I could see shadows shifting in the corners of the buildings, but no monsters dropped by to attack us.

The store was silent when we arrived, and nothing stirred beyond its grimy, darkened windows. Zeus dropped to the ground, human before her feet hit the dirt. I could tell that something bad had happened within the building. Shelves were tipped over, and ornaments lay scattered and in pieces across the floor. Small droplets of plod splattered the windows, but I could see no people or corpses.

I slipped forward cautiously and rattled the doorknob, but it simply shook in my hand without budging. I cupped my hands around my eyes and pressed my face right up to the window, trying to peer through the gloom to paint a picture of what happened. No theories presented themselves on a silver platter. Maybe the munchers had shambled out an open back door after their feast. Or maybe there was a giant mob hiding in the shadows, unaware of our presence. "Do we go in?" I asked, taking a step back from the store.

"Might as well," Teemo answered, shrugging.

"Okay." I placed my hand over the lock and cast a look back at the group. "Ready?"

Everyone nodded their assent, drawing weapons from sheaths.

"Barrock!" I snapped. Something in the handle clicked, but I didn't open the door right away. Some instinct made me stop. There was a prickle tingling beneath my skin like a metallic energy.

The next instant, a grotesque muncher staggered from the shadows and slammed into the door. My heart jumped, and I leapt back reflexively, nearly knocking into Minka. She side-stepped me at the last second. The corpse leered up, its lips torn away to reveal long, bloody teeth. "Well, that was unexpected," I said lightly.

Teemo snorted.

I stepped forward again, and the muncher gnashed its teeth at me. I locked eyes with Zeus, nodding towards her gun. "Okay, I'm going to pull the door open. Zeus, can you shoot it from the other side when it comes through?"

"Sure thing." She stepped away from the group, and we moved into position. Zeus leveled the gun at head-height and set her face determinedly, tongue poking out of her mouth. I crouched down, reaching up to grasp the doorknob.

"Ready?" I asked. She nodded tensely, her knuckles white on the gun. I counted down from three and twisted the knob, yanking the door open as fast as I could. Groaning, the muncher lurched out into the open, its arms raised. Zeus's gun went off, and the muncher pitched to the side. Its black blood erupted from its skull to splash across the door I crouched behind. A spider web of cracks appeared in the glass around the hole the bullet had made. The muncher tumbled drunkenly to the ground as I stood up, grinning. "Woo hoo!"

"What do you think?" Onyx asked. "Zombie Kill of the Week?"

Close, but no cigar. Zombie Kill of the Week goes to Ryan Phillips of New York for his double-barreled flamethrower contraption.

We entered the store cautiously, fanning out as soon as we were inside. Teemo and I clicked out fingers and held bright balls of fire up to illuminate the scene. I could see a great deal of the store, but the very back still faded into darkness, the shapes of the shelves looming like beasts in the shadows. Blood pooled across the whole floor, coating the ornaments and painting the walls. Shelves were tipped over at random, and I could see a leg and foot clad in a woman's high heel poking out from under one. "What happened here?" Arin murmured, her rapier held slanted across her body

Something rattled at the back of the store before anyone could answer her. I tensed, twirling my sword around in my fist. A round, red bulb came rolling out of the shadows, stuttering over the debris littering the floor. It came to rest about two feet from me, speckled with dirt. I stared at it, puzzled, then traced its path back to its origin. Teemo tossed his fireball into the air where it expanded and hung over us, lighting up the whole store.

Behind me, someone shrieked involuntarily. Actually, it might have been me. My mouth was wide open, and my brain had fizzed out a little bit. Well, it made sense, didn't it? It just wouldn't be an apocalyptic Christmas with out a zombie Santa, would it?

The abomination limped towards us from the far side of the store on a foot that pointed the wrong direction, twisted around ninety degrees. Santa's red sweatpants were ripped and slashed, stained with dirt and black blood. There was a giant hole in the fabric from the knee down, and his calf had been gnawed all the way down to the bone, his big, black boot still on his foot. His once gold belt buckle had turned brown and looked about ready to burst from his waist.

Santa's jiggling, bouncing, obese stomach had been torn open to reveal a new kind of red and white; bloody intestines and broken ribs. One of the monster's arms was completely gone, and the shredded, red jacket sleeve fluttered in the empty space like flags of forgotten flesh. His white beard was askew and stained with blood that matched the drying liquid around his mouth. Bits of white hair were tangled in his slimy teeth. His jolly, red hat was gone, replaced by a coating of blood across a mangled face that was without a nose and an ear.

"…That's really gross," Teemo announced.

"I will never look at Santa Claus the same way again," Zeus agreed. She seemed slightly green.

I laughed. "If you think that's bad, you should've read my 'A Purple Tractors Christmas Special' story."

"Oh dear gods, that was disturbing," Arin groaned as if diving away from the very memory. "She made Santa a clichéd pedophile freak. I was mentally scarred for life."

I grinned. That had been the point.

The Santa muncher shambled towards us between the shelves, and as it did so, I heard something move to my right. I spun around, on alert, and almost dropped my sword. "Ah, hell no."

The Santa Zombie had a little zombie minion. It was a short, ridiculous looking human in a red hat, red and green striped vest, and curly-toed, jingle bell shoes. One of its fake, pointy ears was spun all the way around so that it's tip brushed the muncher's shoulder. Blood dripped down its face and caked the tiny bells that hung from its vest. I groaned in despair.

"Gah! Stereotype!" Teemo shrieked, brandishing his broadsword overhead and flinging himself at the muncher with a savage cry. The heavy blade sheared through the plastic ear and then the skull beneath. The muncher collapsed like a dead puppet, and Teemo kicked it viciously, setting the offensive corpse on fire. My father really didn't like Santa Elves.

"It's okay, Teemo," Arin said. She moved forward and placed her hand on his arm as he panted and snarled, gently leading him back to the group.

Santa Zombie was only ten feet away. It growled at us, black goo dripping from its mouth to join the dried blood trapped by his beard. "How shall we kill it?" I asked, regarding the monster with my head cocked to the side.

"It should be dramatic," Onyx said thoughtfully, tapping at her chin with one finger.

"And appropriate for the season," Samik added.

I glanced around the store, then stooped to pick up a solid, gold star that was lying near my feet. I started humming as I drifted, breeze-like, towards the muncher. It gurgled at me, belching more foul liquid. I twirled around it as it swiped for me and burst into song. My friends instantly joined in.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas…"

Santa Zombie lunged at me, but I spun in the other direction, my feet moving easily.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

On the final word, I dodged around Santa's desperately reaching arms and jumped slightly to bury the golden star in his rotting head. Santa Zombie fell like a sack of forgotten toys.

Everyone cheered, pumping their fists in the air and hollering. "Now that was definitely Zombie Kill of the Week," Onyx declared. No one disagreed.

"What do you think happened here?" Zeus prodded at a fallen Nativity scene with the tip of her gun.

I surveyed the devastated store, the stilled corpses, the broken goods, trying to fit the pieces together. "My guess is they let a bitten person in, not knowing that a bite means death. The victim died, returned, and bit whoever else was here. Somehow, the survivors managed to kill the muncher or else drove it out. Then they either didn't figure out they were already dead or they didn't have the guts to kill themselves, so they came back and were trapped in here with no way out. It's probably the way most people died this week: trying to help someone but not know the consequences of doing so."

"It's so sad," Zeus sighed, her face falling.

"Yeah," I agreed arbitrarily, not one hundred percent sure if that was how I actually felt. "But we can't do anything about it now. All we can do is try to save those still alive."

"Which is why we're doing this Christmas concert."

"Exactly." I clapped my hands together decisively. "Let's get a move on; we're burning daylight."

The seven of us scattered throughout the store with shopping carts. Someone found the largest artificial tree they could, and the rest of us loaded up the ornaments that weren't covered in blood. We left the building a few minutes later, our carts jingling merrily over the rubble. The sun was starting to fall into a deep sleep, and stunning splashes of dark red and orange ran rampant across the dimming sky.

When we made it back to the library, Teemo stomped his foot and opened a hole in the wall, closing it up after us once everyone was through, pushing our burdens before us. We wheeled the carts into the building and stopped before the stairs. The dreaded, cursed stairs. "I hate those smug motherfuckers," I grumbled, standing before my old enemy.

I spun my hands in circles, and the cart levitated off the ground, supported by a spinning wheel of air. I walked up the stairs with it behind me, coasting just high enough to clear each step. Arin did the same behind me, and Teemo and Samik lifted their loads up onto discs of earth. We deposited the goods at the top of the stairs and then hurried back down to help the other three with their carts.

"How are we going to get all this stuff up to the roof?" Teemo asked, eyeing the overladen carts.

"Same way, I figure," I answered, shrugging. "Arin or I will be on the roof, using air to make sure nothing falls, and the rest of you can send the stuff up to us.

I ended up being delegated to make the trip to the roof. I leapt from the window and kicked out with my feet, launching myself high into the air. I somersaulted once as I hit the cement roof, feeling cool. David and William were already there, putting the finishing touches on a complex-looking sound system. "Hey," I said, giving them a nod.

"Hey," they responded simultaneously.

Suddenly awkward, I turned away and leaned over the roof. Teemo had his head stuck out of the window, looking up at me. "Ready?" he called.

I flashed him a thumbs up.

The first cart was manhandled out of the large window, floating on Arin's ball of air. I helped her control and guide it in a straight line up the building, holding the precariously balanced ornaments in place as best I could. All seven carts made the trip without mishap – amazingly – and then my friends hurried up after them.

We set about putting the tree up. We decorated it together, all nine of us, laughing and joking and showering each other with tinsel just like they did in all cheesy Christmas movies. Even with how big the tree was, we were done quickly. The final product was ramshackle and disorganized, even a little sloppy, but I felt like it summed up our group in a nutshell. I smiled as I looked at it and reached for Samik's hand. "Ready?"

They were covered in pine needles and tinsel, grinning and red-cheeked, but they were ready.

We took our places at the microphones, and Minka sat behind the drum set. I tapped the ball on the end of mine, and the clunking sound reverberated through the speakers, echoing around town. With sharp, vicious butterflies dancing in my stomach, I opened my mouth and began to speak, hoping I wouldn't choke up or make a huge fool of myself.

"Goooood morning, Iowa City!" I called. "Even though its evening. But whatever. I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I hope you can. My name is Enia Silverson, and my friends and I are coming to you live from the roof of the public library. Say hello, guys."

One by one, my friends stepped forward and murmured a greeting along with their names into their microphones.

"I know how you're feeling. You're terrified. You're confused. Maybe hurt and even angry. And that's all okay. That's perfectly natural. But do you want to know something weird?" My voice cracked slightly, and I could hear hungry growls rising up from the streets. "Do you want to know something weird, Iowa City? Today is Christmas Eve. I myself didn't even know until Samik told me this morning. So I got this idea. Now, I'm atheist, but I understand that Christmas is supposed to be all about love and hope, right? So, I thought we'd bring you guys just a little bit of hope. Lights!" I called the last word out dramatically.

Onyx flipped a switch. The bulbs on the Christmas tree flickered to life, then all along the wires connecting the speakers to the other rooftops, more lights came on, all different colors, shapes, and sizes. It looked like the entire downtown of Iowa City had been lit up. I smiled and glanced briefly at the others.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas," I began slowly.

Everyone else joined in, and I dropped out to play my violin, because I was a really terrible singer. The low tones of Zeus's cello joined me, accompanied by the sounds of Onyx's trumpet and a slow drumbeat. Arin, Minka, William, and David were all surprisingly good singers, but Teemo…well, apparently, I got my singing skill from him. He was also the loudest.

"And a Happy New Year!" The first song finished, and Arin led the way into Jingle Bells.

The noise and the lights started to attract a crowd. A dead crowd. They reached up at us and moaned, the lights reflecting off their marred faces, the sound of their groans almost overpowering our singing. Bastards. I glowered down at them and stopped playing for a moment to turn up the volume.

Jingle Bells seamlessly became Deck the Halls.

I could see flashes of movement on some of the surrounding rooftops. Small pinpricks of fire burst into life and began to sway in time with the music, and other, very faint, voices joined with ours. I grinned excitedly around the semi-circle of performers. So people were alive!

We sang for about two hours, until our throats were dry and the sound system began to give out. We went through Feliz Navidad, Santa Claus is Coming to Town (even though that song scared me), Silent Night, and a few other, more obscure carols.

"Thank you all for listening," I finished, my voice coming through the speakers in crackling bursts. "I hope that this brought a little light into the darkness. I'm sorry, but our sound system is breaking, so we need to sign off. If you ever need help, you can count on us. Come live with us, if you like, you know where to find us. If you're stuck or in need of help, just find a way to signal us, and we'll be there in a jiffy. Good night all. We really must go. We have to deal with the giant horde of munchers surrounding us before they break through our defense. Good night!"

Samik turned the power off, and everything was instantly plunged into darkness. On the drifting wind, I thought I could hear the sound of clapping.

Enia: Wow, this was a cheesy chapter. Even rewritten, it still didn't turn out very good. Probably because of all the cheese. You should all leave reviews, please and thank you! I would love to know what's working or what isn't work in the story so that I can keep improving as I move forward!