CHAPTER 61: A New Strategy/Danger

The day after Christmas, the snow mysteriously disappeared, like it had only popped up to enhance Christmas, before disappearing without a trace of it ever being there. Meanwhile, I strolled around, with a pocketknife in one leaf . . . just in case. It was a peaceful day, which I thought was simply perfect.

"Well, merry belated Christmas, and a happy new year, you filthy, uncouth, freak of nature! This year's gift is death, to commemorate your 12 years of misery and suffering!" a voice snarled from behind me.

I turned around, and saw two zombies there. They looked like soldiers, which made me back away slightly.

"Okay, look! I got a knife over here, so I recommend ―"

I was cut short by the tallest of the soldiers.

"Put the weapon down. NOW!"

I simply waved the knife back and forth, causing the soldiers to start shooting at me.

"Have you . . . *gasp* . . . heard the story about the zombie who cried "Put the weapon down?"" I taunted, despite all of the injuries that I was sustaining.

"No, and we don't care!" the shortest soldier muttered as he opened fire onto me.

Adrenaline surged through my body, causing me to raise the knife and do some pretty . . . feisty things, to put it in the least. Considering that there weren't any anti-ice forcefields on mainland Toronto, I confidently raised my right leaf, and conjured a blast of wind that knocked the zombies down. This bought me a little time to grab the soldiers' guns via telekinesis, and smash them on the ground.

"Well . . . now that your weapons are gone . . . oh, dearie me, what the hell are you gonna do?" I simpered.

"Oh shut the hell up!" the tall one yelled as he gave me a good scratch on the face.

As a form of retaliation, I struck the tall zombie just below their diaphragm with one nimble swoop of my knife. For good measure, I decided to fire an icy arrow at his chest, causing him to yell out in pain and collapse, dead at last.

"The hell? Damn . . . you're gonna pay for this!" the remaining soldier screamed as he threw a knife at my forehead.

I couldn't dodge it in time, resulting in a river of blood streaming into my eye. Pulling out the knife, I tossed it at the zombie's hand, disconnecting it from his body. With my remaining knife, I gouged the short zombie in the crotch, causing him to yell in pain. To add to his torture, I scurried up his arm and onto his shoulders. From there, I bit into his head, making him scream a myriad of curses at the TD building as I jumped off. Laughing, I literally kicked his ass, which knocked him to the ground.

"Parting is always such a sweet sorrow . . . NOT!" I honked as I walked away from the undead freak, leaving him there to die.

With a huge, bleeding stab wound on my forehead, I set off, stumbling towards the TEC.

"Elyssia! Elyssia! Good Lord, what happened to you?" Peater came running out of the Hudson's Bay building after he saw me from a window.

"A little scuffle with a couple of soldier-like zombies, that's all. I just happened to have a knife thrown at my forehead, but I won." I explained coolly, pausing every so often to wipe the blood out of my eye.

"Elyssia . . . sometimes, I can't help but wonder if the only reason why you like me is because I'm willing to get you medical assistance." Peater muttered as he sprayed an antiseptic substance into the puncture.

"Wrong answer! I like you because . . . you're willing and able to be a good friend." I whispered.

"And hey . . . aren't you supposed to be in the infirmary? How'd you avoid that?" Peater sputtered.

"Simple: Avoid Eric, and Savannah." I replied.

As the liquid began to sting my forehead, I wiped it away furiously, not wanting any more pain.

" You stubborn girl . . ." Peater sighed, but with the hints of a smirk starting to appear on his face.

I blushed as I looked down at the ground.

"What else is new?" I giggled.

Just then, I heard footsteps coming from one of the upper levels of the Hudson's Bay building. Out of curiosity, I looked up . . . and saw a black tin descend from a window above me. After ricocheting off an eaves trough and bouncing along several garbage cans, the black tin finally landed in front of me with a thunk. Out of sheer curiosity and impulse, I decided to open the tin. As soon as I had sliced it open with my teeth, my eyes began to water as my body felt as if it was on fire.

"Good God! What the hell is in this thing?!" I cursed as I dropped the tin.

"A note, Elyssia." Peater replied.

When the weird, painful feeling had receded, I unfolded the piece of paper in the tin, and read the note.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue;

Most humans are dead,

Soon you will be too.

Even though you've bounced back,

One day, it'll all be black

So watch what you do,

For we'll be watching you!

One of these days, your love will run.

He won't look back, then you'll really be done.

I see the future, so don't deny,

And think what I'm saying is a big fat lie!

No; this'll bite you in the ass, my dear

One more time, I shall make myself clear!

You'll be dead soon, for there is no doubt,

For me and my army are strong, out and out!

You'll never win, that is for sure,

For the whole country is what we'll procure!

We are already winning, never mind the defeats!

Why, we've whooped your assholes on the city streets!

One of these days, you all will be gone,

From Stratford to Kingston, Markham to Vaughan!

So give up the fight, and throw the towel in,

After all, what we do isn't a sin.

Conquering the world is what we do,

And we could share our victory with you!

But no; you say that our work is evil,

Well guess what? You got the mind of a weevil!

You won't survive, you'll definitely die!

Good Lord! Already?! A threat?!

I turned my attention back to the last couple of lines, which were written in a blood-red ink of some sort.

So watch out . . .

OR ELSE!

The harrowing poem wasn't signed, which didn't make things better at all. I then thought of slapping myself ― since when did I let a few words on a piece of rotting paper get the better of me?

Regaining my composure, I tore the note up into halves, then quarters, then eighths, and then twelfths. With a final cry, I tossed the pieces into the air so that the wind could carry them off into hell.

"Elyssia, what was that all about?" Peater asked.

"Nothing. Now . . . let's ― OW!"

My answer was interrupted by another tin falling from the window and landing on my leaf. This tin was bigger ― around the size of a milk crate ― which probably meant that we had another mission from the CPR. I opened the tin, and luckily, I saw it had the emblem of the CPR smacked onto it.

"A mission!" Peater exclaimed, happy that there wasn't anything harmful in the tin.

Without hesitation, I took the box and ran into the Eaton Center, ready to tell Eric the good news.

"Well, Elyssia, what news do we have?" Eric asked as he swivelled around in his chair to face me.

"A mission." I said simply, before I went to work on opening the tin.

I found a box filled with many little spheres that glowed and glimmered in all colours of the rainbow. With several giggles, I grabbed one, and tossed it out the window. It blew up in a cloud of blue and white snowflake-like speckles.

"Cool!" I exclaimed.

Eric was tapping his root, with a look of disapproval on his face.

"Listen, Elyssia. Don't do that ever again! I mean, that's dangerous!" he scolded me.

I nodded, and looked at the piece of paper that was in the tin. I unfolded it, and saw a map of Pickle Lake, Ontario, with rail routes, major highways, and danger zones highlighted, courtesy of a legend on the bottom of the map, as well as the target: a graveyard and its church of St. Agatha. Below that, there was a note.

Your mission is to get rid of the graveyard of St. Agatha.

Not bad . . .

And before you ask, yes: you can use magic, for there are no forcefields that forbid ice, fire, and whatnot.

Hallelujah!

We are making sure that we work inwards towards Toronto from the outer cities of Ontario, so that Zomboss doesn't suspect anything.

Hey! That's interesting . . .

The graveyard is rather large, so we provided those combustible balls to turn it into rubble. Make sure that those zombies don't get their damn hands on the spheres.

Easy . . .

And a word of the wise: LIMIT THE CASUALTIES!

"Well, that's . . . pretty wise."

I turned around, and saw Peater waving a leaf back and forth.

"You'll be working with the ACC base, my dears. Now ―" Eric's instructions were interrupted by Savannah bursting through the door, with an issue of La Libre Plante securely in her leaf.

"L-look! Twelve CPR rebels have been murdered! One in Peterborough, two in Stratford, three in Brampton, four in Hamilton . . ."

Savannah was talking a mile a minute, so it became impossible to make out what she was saying. Eric, however, was nodding as if his ears could slow down Savannah's rat-a-tat-tat speech. Finally, Eric had yelped, "Six in Markham?! All twelve of the girls look like twelve-year-old ambiguous fighter Elyssia Antonia Maccabaeus?! Holy crud!"

Peater gasped at this news, and hugged me so tight that I almost stopped breathing.

"Oh my God! Elyssia . . . your life may be in grave danger!" he exclaimed.

I clapped a leaf to my mouth in horror as Eric reiterated more of Savannah's news, while the extrovertly Blover was nodding, her green eyes wide with pure fear.

" . . . CPR investigators are deeming this a warning that Elyssia is to die, by hook or by crook, as the connection between how many fighters were murdered was linked to the young civilian's age. As well, the way that the plants were killed (stab wounds as well as poison), is probably a sign that Elyssia would die that kind of death."

I began to sob into Peater's shoulder, although he was whispering, "Calm down, it'll be all right." into my ear repeatedly.

" . . . The evidence is too transparent. . . ."

My sobs only increased.

" . . . And it is official that Elyssia Antonia's life is in mortal peril."

I let out a cry of anguish at this news.

"Oh Elyssia! Your life really is in grave danger!" Peater whispered.

"No! No! No!" I screamed, which scared Eric and Savannah.

"Well, isn't that just dandy!" Eric muttered, with what I could have sworn were hints of a smile appearing on the corners of his mouth.

I shut out all of the hustle and bustle going on in that office, until I felt a needle being jabbed into my stem. But before I was out, I heard Peater's voice echoing in my brain.

"Your life really IS in grave danger!"

Then, I was out for the count.