The Sumerian Undead

By David Johanek

Prologue--Iraq--2004--Fall

***************************

Corporal Alvarez rammed another two hundred round ammunition belt into the breech of his M-249 squad automatic weapon. "Fuck it, Sarge, we should'a just kept the gold for ourselves instead of callin' it in."

"Yeah, no shit," Private Baker said. "Or maybe your fat ass shouldn't have fallin' in that hole."

"Both of you, keep your holes shut," Sergeant Axler commanded. "We can't hold here. I don't know who these guys are, but they're not insurgents. Black uniforms, black, unmarked Bradleys, Humvees, and that bushy-bearded fucker wearing the turban."

Axler surveyed the kill zone through his binoculars. The bodies of at least thirty attackers mixed with the seven dead from his squad. Only he and the two others remained, surrounded by at least fifty more enemies. They'd never be able to withstand another assault. At least the attackers hadn't fired since his men took position in the ruins atop the hill. Why? What was so important about this place?

When their patrol checked the ruins for an insurgent weapon cache, Alvarez fell through the floor, landing amidst golden artifacts, jewels, and freaky little statues of people with big blue eyes. Axler thought it was looted shit from the Baghdad Museum.

"I didn't even think this looked like a real hill," Baker said.

"Alvarez. How far back did that tunnel go?"

"Pretty far, and steep. Not so much back, but down."

"Maybe it's a tomb," Baker said. "The hill could be one of those old ziggurat things."

"Well, Baker, you're gonna find out. Get down there and check for an exit."

"Fuck that, Sarge. I'm not goin' down there."

"We should all go," Alvarez said. "They've got TOW missile launchers on those Humvees, all they've got to do is blow us off this hill. At least we'd have some cover until reinforcements get here."

Baker shook his head. "I've got a bad feeling about that hole. It's like somebody's down there, callin' my name. I'm not goin'. I'll take my chances here."

Baker said what Axler felt too. A voice beckoned to him soft, feminine, and seductive. "It's suicide for all of us to go anyway. They'd just toss in some grenades."

"Well, Sarge, if Baker's not going. I'm the best on the SAW. I'll stay too."

"You guy's are my responsibility. I hate to leave you, but I can't argue with your logic. I'll check things out and be back. Here's my M-4 and extra mags, you'll need it more than I do if they attack while I'm gone."

Axler drew his M-9 pistol and dropped into the hole. He switched on his flashlight and descended into the steep tunnel.

The steps were narrow, but sharp cornered. These stairs were either fairly new or not often used. The stairs ended in an open chamber. The unmarked walls were rough-hewn, if this was a tomb, it wasn't a very elaborate one. Why all the treasure at the entrance and nothing down here?

"Axler, over here, behind the wall, rescue me. Save me from my prison."

The voice again, only not in his head, it seemed to whisper about the chamber, drawing him to the far wall.

A hammer and chisel lay against the wall, antique, but not ancient. They looked like tools his grandpa used to collect from the 1800's. On the wall, behind the tools was a rectangular depression, an outlined doorway. He shined his flashlight upon carven words etched in several languages, Arabic, French, German, Russian, languages he didn't recognize, and English.

He read the writing. "Take the gold and treasures above, enough to live like a king. Leave this door closed. Do not enter. Only death awaits. Beware of Semiramis, who waits within, undead."

Axler pushed. He didn’t have any choice if he and his men hoped to survive. It was like trying to shove a solid wall. He punched, kicked, pounded, but it would not budge. Leaning to rest, the door spun open behind him. He dropped backward, into another room. A large metal box, wrapped with chains, lie in the room’s center.

"Hey, Sarge."

Axler spun to face Alvarez followed by Baker. "What the fuck are you doing here? Man your positions. Baker, I thought you were too scared to come down here."

Baker punched the wall. "I’m too pissed to be scared. It fuckin’ sucks Sarge. Those assholes killed our friends. Friendly fire, my ass."

"Friendly fire? What the hell are you two talking about?"

"It was all a mistake," Alvarez said. "Those guys are CIA spooks. They got a report that insurgents wearing American uniforms and using American gear were using this as a base. They thought they had chemical weapons stored here. Shoot first and ask questions later, I guess."

The bushy-bearded man approached, followed by a dozen men. "My humble apologies, Sergeant. But you can surely understand."

"Friendly fire...My squad...you spook bastards."

The bearded man lashed out, striking down Baker and Alvarez. He pounced upon Axler before he could raise his pistol, tossing him like a rag doll against the wall. "Not friendly fire, we could not allow you to live. We of the Babylonian Brethren have searched for a century and a half for where a band of do-gooders entombed Queen Semiramis. Now that you know the reason for which this war is fought, how could we let you live?"

"The whole war fought to find some dead queen?"

"Not dead, undead. But what did you think Sergeant? That this war was to find weapons of mass destruction. The human sheep of modern complacent society are so easily led and lied too. So gullible."

The bearded man broke the chains around the coffin and opened the lid.

An emaciated thing rose from the coffin. Dried flesh stretched tight over bone, dust caked black hair hung matted around her shoulders. "Ah, Kingu. You took your time in rescuing me. Should I suspect treachery on your behalf?"

"Even if you did, what would you do about it? I made you. I gave you the gift of eternal life. I am full Anunnaki and you are a human half-breed. You, alone, could never harm me anyway. So leave your unfounded suspicions unspoken and rejoice in the fact that I found you at all. Rejoice, for with the technology of this age, the gate of Abzu can be opened. Tiamat can reign supreme, with us by her side."

Semiramis stepped out of her coffin and plucked Baker from the floor. How could something so scrawny be so strong? Axler watched as her yellowed fangs sank into the unconscious man’s neck. While she drank, her flesh expanded like a soaking sponge. She moved to Alvarez, consumed him as well. Her flesh was full now.

She knelt next to Axler, gazing into his eyes. Her pupils, if she had any, disappeared into her jet-black irises, which floated in blood red eyeballs. Her breath reeked of decay, and fresh blood.

"Get away from me, bitch"

"At least you brought me food, Kingu. And a pet. I like his spirit. He shall be my pet. Consider yourself privileged, doggie."

Axler’s head swam. The last thing he remembered before passing out was Semiramis’s cackling laugh echoing in his ears.

*******************************

California--2005--Fall

The little girl beckoned to Deandra from the roadside. She pointed toward a sign, rest stop, one mile.

"Lizzie, pull over at that rest stop." Deandra said.

"You read my mind. My teeth are floating."

The hearse’s tires squealed as Lizzie pulled off the interstate, sped up the exit ramp, and screeched to a stop in the nearest parking space. Lizzie climbed out and opened her parasol to shield her albino skin from the sun’s burning rays and headed toward the restroom.

Deandra approached the little girl, who was sitting atop a picnic table.

"Hey, Deandra. Where are you going?" Lizzie asked.

"I have to meet an old friend."

"Hi, Deandra. I see you’re still wearing plaid skirts and that old leather jacket. I like what you’ve done to your hair, how you always have the two little braids framing my old face. Had I kept that body, I may have had my hair done like that."

"Hello Cindy. I did not think I would see you again. I thought you were happy and had moved on. And why do you appear so young? You were fourteen when you left this husk, yet you only appear to be half that age."

"I was happy then, before my parents sold me to Grusilov and then he sold me to Mendes. I heard you killed them."

"Yes. Those evildoers are all dead. I avenged you and made sure no other children would suffer your fate."

"I knew you could do it. But enough chitchat, I’ve come to warn you. This road you travel leads to death."

"Death. For whom?"

"Many people are already dead. If you don’t turn back, perhaps even you and your friend will join them. This is like nothing you’ve ever faced before. There are ancient beings residing on the astral plane, called the Igigi. Once they were worshipped as gods, as were the others called Anunnaki. The Igigi are frightened. The seven guardians who watch the seven underworld gates have received their bribes. These gates are now open."

Cindy’s voice was fading, the once solid spirit, now transparent. Deandra moved closer. "These beings sound familiar, these Igigi."

"They are not the problem, the Anunnaki are. The old God who lost his blood and the dead queen with the unquenchable thirst, they are the problem. From beyond the seventh gate the queen has called them forth. Souls who dwell in the darkest void, choking on dust, forced to feed upon the clay of creation to appease their eternal hunger. The bloodthirsty queen dared do what once a Goddess only threatened, ‘I will raise the dead so that they may outnumber the living. I shall raise the dead so that they may devour the living.’ Seek the ancient one. He who has knowledge of eternal life. He holds the key to their defeat." Cindy’s voice faded to an unintelligible whisper and her spirit vanished.

"So, who’s your friend? Don’t tell me it’s the picnic table."

"This is no time for humor, Lizzie. I’d prefer you return to Los Angeles, I’m near enough to the college where I should have no trouble getting a ride."

"And break up the Ghoulgirls? I think not. This investigation may require my Witchcraft, not to mention my morbid Gothic wit. Why would you even suggest such a thing?"

"This is no longer a paranormal investigation." Deandra opened the hearse’s rear door and slid out the metal tray loaded with their equipment. She filled a duffle bag with extra magazines for her .45’s and dozens of little glass vials filled with Lizzie’s special demon killing potion, called demon bombs. Slinging the duffle bag over her shoulder, she removed her green-metal ammo can and the hard-plastic case containing her Benelli semi-automatic twelve gauge shotgun.

"You’re gonna look cute carrying that down the road. California isn’t the most gun tolerant state in America. You’ll be lucky to make it a mile before the Highway Pigtrol stops you." Lizzie’s pale blue eyes glared over the top of her sunglasses. "We’re supposed to be partners in this little business. You can’t ditch me that easy."

"Lizzie you’re my best friend. I don’t want to be responsible for your death. Please go home." Deandra headed for the interstate, ignoring Lizzie’s protests.

For at least a mile, Deandra tried to ignore the soft rumble of the hearse’s engine as Lizzie followed several feet behind.

"Damn it, Deandra, there’s a minimum speed limit. I’m gonna get a ticket. I can’t afford a ticket."

"Send me the bill."

"We don’t have time for this. Talk to me."

Deandra kept walking.

"It’s my life. I know the risks. Hell, I’ll even sign a disclaimer saying it’s not your fault if I get killed."

Deandra tossed her gear in the back and climbed in. Hopefully Lizzie’s loyalty wouldn’t cause her death.

Lizzie pulled off the interstate at the Peaceful Valley exit and headed down the twenty-mile long road leading to the town. "Hmm, according to the map, this is the only road in or out."

Deandra read from a sign. "Welcome to Peaceful Valley home of the Edison College of Science, Technology, and Medicine. Population 3500."

Cars, some wrecked, sat where their drivers abandoned them along the wood-lined road.

"Not even there yet," Lizzie said. "And things are already getting weird."

Deandra concentrated, using her elevated senses to scan for life signs. "I detect no people. Nor do I detect spirits or demons, but yet something lurks here."

"But these cars needed drivers. Where did they go? And why did they abandon them?"

Lizzie slammed on the brakes. A child sat before a wall of cars, blocking the road from tree line to tree line. The child was hunched over, her back to the hearse. She was wearing pink pajamas adorned with little sheep.

Deandra’s superhuman hearing still detected no sounds from the woods, or the child, not even a breath, or a heartbeat. "Lizzie get ready to get out of here. I‘m going to investigate." She left the hearse’s door open and inched toward the girl. She felt their eyes now. Perhaps hundreds watched, concealed in the thick brush. She gripped her two .45’s.

The little girl lumbered to her feet, staggering like a drunkard, or someone learning to walk for the first time. The child’s arms stretched forward, clawing the air, clawing for Deandra. From behind the thick tree trunks dozens more emerged, stumbling and lurching for the road. The child leaped.

Deandra caught the girl. It snarled and flailed in her arms, her mouth seeking Deandra’s flesh. There was no life in the body, but something, either soul or spirit, resided within. Deandra lifted the squirming child-thing above her head and slammed it straight down against her knee. The child’s spine cracked like a dry branch and Deandra cast it aside. Still the thing moved. Legs flopped and kicked, while her hands clawed the road.

Deandra drew her guns.

"Holy shit," Lizzie yelled. "They’re like zombies, shoot ’em in the head."

Deandra fired into the nearest half-dozen as they fumbled up the steep ditch and onto the road’s shoulder. Her bullets tore through the creatures’ heads. Still, they attacked. "Any more suggestions, Lizzie?"

"It always works in the movies. I suggest we just get the hell out of here." Lizzie tossed a demon bomb. It broke harmlessly against a zombie’s chest. "Damn, my bombs don’t work either.

At least thirty creatures now clambered toward the girls. Hundreds more poured from the woods, forming a roadblock of living dead bodies a quarter mile behind them. They’d need a tank to get through the zombie army, but beyond the vehicles, nothing moved.

"Lizzie, I’ll clear a path. We have no choice but to get to town."

A dozen zombies were now within ten feet of Deandra with at least ten more approaching Lizzie’s side. Deandra fired a barrage of .45 caliber slugs into the nearest creature. They ripped through the zombie’s chest, neck, and head, but barely slowed it down. She grabbed its head, twisted, and tore it off, lifted the still moving body and hurled it at the others. Like an undead bowling ball it slammed into the attackers, throwing them like rag dolls.

Deandra ran with blurring speed toward the roadblock. Her muscles and bones strained almost beyond their human limitations as she lifted a minivan’s front end several inches and moved it forward to create an opening. Lizzie drove through the roadblock as several zombies clambered atop the roof and hood.

Deandra grabbed one creature by the ankles and crashed its head into the pavement, splattering it like a melon. Still clutching the thing’s ankles, she spun several times. Using the zombie like a club, she knocked two more off the hood, and three off the roof, before tossing the zombie aside. Deandra crawled into the hearse as Lizzie stomped the gas pedal.

Lizzie swerved around several more vehicles and entered the town. "Oh my Goddess. There’s so many. And how do we kill them?"

"I wish I knew. I have a feeling we’ll find the answer at the college. Most likely this is some experiment gone awry. Father always told me zombies were usually re-animated slaves for voodoo priests. They’re not hard to dispose of, and pose no real threat. But Cindy told me some interesting things earlier."

"So that’s who you were talking to at the rest stop. You going to fill me in now?"

As Deandra repeated Cindy’s story, movement caught her eye. An armored car’s rear door burst open. A uniformed guard jumped out waving a shotgun.

"Deandra, I thought you didn’t detect any people. Are you starting to get sloppy?"

"Hmpf, we were a couple of miles away, and the armored car would have muffled the sound of any heartbeats. I’m not perfect you know."

"I know. Just givin’ you a little shit." Lizzie stopped the hearse, rolled down the window.

"Hey, I was starting to think we were the only ones left. I’m Pete by the way. We were just debating whether to drive through all these walking dead people or just ride this out somewhere. We tried phones, even cell phones, and the radio. Can’t get a hold of anybody outside town. Don’t know what’s goin’ on in other places. Do you?"

"Everything is normal outside of town," Deandra said. "Achieve a high rate of speed and you should have no problem driving through the zombies with your vehicle. I have business in town. Do you have room for my friend? That is, if she wishes to leave."

"Na," Lizzie said. "I came all this way, it would be a shame to turn back now when things are just starting to get good."

"Are you two a couple of nuts or something? There’s plenty of room for you both. We gotta get out of town. Nothing kills those things. Believe me, I’ve tried."

"Deandra and I are professionals when it comes to dealing with supernatural phenomena. If there’s a way to kill them, we’ll find it."

Pete shook his bald, black head. "I’d like to get some payback too. Those things killed my partner. They tore him apart and ate him. I blew one to hamburger with my shotgun, but the pieces still moved. Isn’t there anything I can do to convince you to leave?"

"No," Deandra said."

"Do you have a first aid kit? A woman is hurt bad."

Lizzie drove to the curb and shut the engine off. "As long as we’re here we might as well help out."

Deandra climbed out and ran to the armored car

"Listen," Pete said. "I meant what I said about getting payback. If you two really know how to handle this stuff, help me get these people to safety. I’ll bring you back and help in any way I can. I was a Marine. I saw action"

"Very well, I’m sure Lizzie would agree that our first responsibility would be to saving any innocents." Deandra looked into Pete’s eyes, searched his soul. He could handle things. "Welcome to the team, Pete."

Pete led the girls to the armored car. Lizzie immediately started helping a heavy woman, and a man with graying hair, give first aid to a critically injured woman. A child wept at the injured woman's feet. In the corner, a man in his early twenties held his weeping, almost hysterical, girlfriend.

"One of those things took a bite out of her," The heavy-set woman said. "I'm Bertha and this is Professor Timothy," she nodded to the gray haired man. "Don't know who this woman is, but that's her kid. I don't know the other two either."

"I'm Mike and this is my girlfriend, Jill. We go to the college here."

"I'm Deandra and this is Lizzie."

Lizzie closed her parasol and handed Bertha a bandage. "Otherwise known as the Ghoulgirls."

Mike jumped back when he noticed Lizzie's severe albinism "Wow, I don't mean to be rude, but..."

Lizzie smiled and went back to work, ignoring him.

"Mommy's hurt bad," the little girl said, "She's not gonna die. Is she?"

"Why don't you come with me?" Deandra took the child's hand. "Let's give them space to help your mother. Mike and Jill it would help if you left too."

Jill tore away from Mike's arms, cowered in the corner. "No, I won't leave. Don't make me leave. I don't want to get ate up by those things."

Deandra led the child from the armored car. The child's spine was twisted and misshapen, causing her to walk hunched over with one shoulder higher than the other.

"Will mommy be OK?"

"She needs to get medical attention, but I'm sure they'll be able to help her."

"Mommy brought me here to see the doctors at the big school, so they could make me normal. Those bad people hurt her neck."

"I wonder why those things don't attack us already?" Pete asked.

"They show organization, but have little or no sense of their own. Creatures of instinct. Something must be controlling them. It's like they're guarding something. I'm not sure what, or exactly who, but it's ancient, and pure evil. How did you come upon these survivors?"

"We were on our scheduled bank route when we came upon the woman and kid getting attacked, Bertha was there too. We helped 'em out, but that's when my partner got killed. The two lovebirds just came walkin' out of the woods, holding hands just like nothin' was wrong. They said they hiked out a couple of miles to do some camping. Same with the professor, he just came out of his house like it was just another day."

Deandra paced along the sidewalk. "It would appear that these zombies are the townspeople and college students. They were murdered to create an army to protect the evildoer’s plans."

Jill ran from the armored car. "Oh shit. She’s dead. She’s dead. Keep her away from me, in the movies they always get back up."

Mike wrapped his arms around her. "Shh, babe, It’s gonna be OK."

The child’s agonized cries knifed through Deandra’s ears. The sobbing girl hobbled to her dead mother. Lizzie leaped from the armored car and wrapped the girl in her arms.

"Mommy, let me go to mommy."

"No there’s nothing you can do," Lizzie said. "You don’t want to see her like that. Trust me. I lost my mom when I was about your age and it’s better to remember them the way they were."

The professor approached Deandra. "If you’re who I think you are, we need to talk--"

"No, don’t. Let me go." Bertha cried from within the armored car.

The vehicle rocked as Bertha’s screams ended in a squishy tearing sound. Her body splattered in the street. Her ripped open abdomen left a trail of intestines leading to the vehicle’s rear.

Gun’s drawn, Deandra rushed to the armored car. The dead mother squatted amidst an intestinal pile. Gore squished between her fingers as it devoured a length of small intestine. Deandra’s bullets blew the creature’s head off. But still, it lunged. She dodged the leaping carcass, which landed in a crouch, hands still clawing the air in search of food. Several more shots blew the zombie’s arms off at the shoulders.

"Mommy!"

Lizzie buried the child’s head into her shoulder. "No. It’s not your mommy anymore. Her soul has moved on, and something evil moved in."

The zombie still leaped around the sidewalk, kicking blindly in the air. Pete’s buckshot ripped one leg off below the knee. He pumped his shotgun and blew off the other. The creature flopped around, like a fish out of water, slamming into the back of Mike’s legs. He lurched forward under the zombie’s weight, his nose smashing into the curb. The bouncing thing continued down the street. Pete fired again. The thing’s ass turned to Swiss cheese, but it still moved.

"Save your ammunition," Deandra said, reloading her .45’s.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Jill cried, helping Mike stand.

The thing approached from the alley, leading a unit of zombies. Clawed feet scraped along the pavement, attached to legs covered with black fur, which disappeared into a chain mail skirt. Fur covered arms extended from a golden breastplate. One claw-like hand gripped a spear while the other undid a curved horn from a leather belt. A golden helmet covered its head. Coal black eyes glared from its fur covered face, a face that vaguely resembled a rottweiler.

"Jesus Christ," Pete said. "It’s like a weirdo walking dog."

"Galla," professor Timothy said. "Dog-faced underworld demons."

A piercing shriek emanated from the horn as the Galla assembled a unit of zombies. They gathered behind the Galla in five rows. Now, some of the zombies carried weapons, clubs, broken bottles, whatever they could find.

"Pete, start your vehicle. Everyone get inside." Deandra ran to the hearse, grabbed her shotgun, ammo can, and duffle bag.

"Don’t forget my demon kit," Lizzie yelled while hurling a demon bomb toward the Galla. It exploded against the demon’s leg. The Galla howled, writhing in agony, as the flames enveloped it. It exploded in a shower of burning pulp. "At least my bombs work against the dog faced things."

Everyone piled into the armored car. Deandra slammed the doors shut as the zombie horde attacked. The van lurched forward when Pete stomped on the gas.

*****************

Sergeant Axler struggled against the chains binding him at the vampire’s feet; it was nearly Semiramis’s feeding time. She tugged the chain shackled to his ankle. The cold concrete floor scraped like sandpaper against his naked flesh as she pulled him to her. White robbed technicians ignored his plight and continued their tasks.

"Why do you resist me? You know your feeble attempts to deny me only give me more pleasure."

"You bitch, just kill me already."

She knelt above him, her black hair spilled over her shoulders as her gaze penetrated his eyes. Her blood red black irised eyes glared from her pale gray, clay colored face. Her yellowing fangs protruded as her pale blue lips twisted in a mischievous grin. Jet-black fingernails, sharp as razors, snaked over his bare chest. Her cold, dry tongue probed against his neck, seeking his pulse. Finding it, she pierced his artery, consumed his blood. When she finished Axler lay as weak as an infant.

The door burst open and the thing called Kingu led a procession of military personnel into the room. Some of the men seemed shocked by the sight of Axler; others already knew the nature of the demons they conspired with.

Kingu smiled at Axler, a hateful gleam in his eyes. His eyes and flesh were the same as Semiramis’s. His black hair curled below his shoulders and a curly beard stretched down his chest.

"Semiramis, I am disappointed you choose to display your human pet for all to see. The humans who seek to usurp the powers of the world governments support us now, but these fickle creatures grow tired of such displays. They think they can ascend to our level, but the weaker ones fear you wish to feed upon them."

Semiramis, ignoring him, flitted to General Rockford’s side. "And you, General, do you fear me as your minions do?"

"Why should I, My Queen? We all want the same things. We of the Babylonian Brethren have served you long. We all seek the resurrection of Tiamat and the unification of the world under her control. And I must say I am impressed by the Ouroboceletron Super-Collider’s progress."

"But there are certain problems arising," Kingu said. "A small group of survivors have banded together. One galla has already been destroyed."

"What? That is most troublesome." Semiramis swirled her hand in a circular motion, creating a ball of pure energy. Images of an armored car plowing through hordes of zombies formed. The vehicle, attempting to leave town, was forced back by an immobile wall of dead. It now raced through the streets, towards the college. "Why would they come here?"

"Perhaps to stop us," Kingu said. "There is one among them, an non-human soul residing in a human body. She is powerful."

Axler rose to his knees. "They will stop you. Somebody always stops you. Good always wins in the end."

Kingu slammed the back of his hand across Axler’s face. "Silence doggie."

"Why didn’t you just let them leave?" Rockford asked.

"Fool," Kingu said. "So they could seek help, or return better prepared. I don’t think you understand just what we’re dealing with."

"Let us find out," Semiramis said.

Axler lay laughing as the ball’s image changed, focusing on a beautiful girl with shoulder length brown hair, her face framed by two braids.

"Holy shit," Rockford said. "That’s Deandra Duke. She is a problem. It’s said she’s a remnant from another universe that was destroyed by the creation of this universe. I’ve heard she has awesome power."

The image changed to that of an albino girl in a long black skirt and hooded sweatshirt fumbling through an old leather doctor bag.

"And this one has the power of magick. What do you know of her, general?" Semiramis asked.

"I don’t know her name, but Deandra is said to have a friend, a Goth who’s a Witch. I would assume that would be her."

The image refocused again. This time an older man appeared wearing a blue suit.

"Him," Kingu cried. "What’s he doing here? We may have a problem, with these three against us. Perhaps it is time you call in your troops, General."

Axler lay back and smiled. Perhaps there still was hope, even if just a little.

********************

"Sorry, guys," Pete said through the intercom. "I thought we'd be able to drive out'a here, but they're just too thick."

"Why are you going to the college?" Jill asked. "There's a lot of zombies there too."

"Sometimes we get hired to drop off expensive high-tech equipment. There's a secure receiving garage at the tech building. There's only one problem, you need a code and I don't know it."

"Jill has a point though," Mike said. "There are a lot of zombies there. We couldn't drive through them on the road. Maybe they'll be too thick there too."

"Well there's only one way to find out," Pete said.

Deandra sat next to the professor. "You attempted to speak to me earlier. What did you need to tell me? I think you know more than you’re telling us. And I suggest you speak."

"You know Ruth Ficklestein, don't you?"

"Yes she's engaged to marry Father."

"So you are Mark Dukes daughter, that's what I thought. Ruth is a former student, actually my best student. When I heard she was dating a famous paranormal investigator, I thought he could help. There is an evil intelligence behind the Ouroboceletron--"

"Ouroboceletron, I heard about that," Lizzie said. "The most powerful super-collider in the world. It’s supposed to spin sub-atomic particles at the speed of light."

"Yes, exactly. You know physics?"

"No professor. I usually sleep in that class. I just saw a documentary about it."

"I don’t really care about your scientific gadgetry," Deandra said. "Father and Ruth are on vacation. That’s why Lizzie and I came instead. Why don’t you tell me about the evil at work here."

"Demons, vampires actually, are planning to use the Ouroboceletron to literally raise hell."

"Damn it professor," Mike said. "Doesn’t it look like they already have? Why didn’t you notify the authorities?"

"The authorities are working with the vampires, or at least some secret societies operating within them are. The Babylonian Brethren worship the same abominations that the vampires do."

Lizzie jumped up. "I knew the Illuminati would rear their ugly heads one day. So, the New World Order is behind this?"

The professor nodded. "They are one of many factions of the illuminated societies. They worship an ancient Sumerian Goddess called Tiamat."

"Enough of the history lesson already," Pete yelled over the intercom. "We’re only a couple blocks from the college, the zombies are getting thick, and I have no idea what the code is."

The incessant sounds of crunching bones and thud of bodies slamming into the van’s grill reverberated through the vehicle, which slowed as dozens of zombies hurled themselves under the tires, their mashed bodies clogging the wheel-wells. Deandra peeked out the gun port to see hundreds of zombies assaulting the vehicle. Hundreds more charged down the rolling hills surrounding the college parking lot, they no longer staggered, they were becoming accustomed to their bodies.

The armored car lurched forward as it broke through the zombie ranks, leaving the creatures chasing behind. Pete accelerated, gaining as much distance as possible. "Everybody, brace yourself," he yelled, before slamming on the brakes.

Deandra flung open the doors of the still moving van and ran to the heavy steel garage door, on the wall, to its right was a keyboard.

"It’s an eight digit code with both letters and numbers," Pete yelled. "It’ll take years to figure it out. Maybe I should just drive through?"

"No. I’d prefer this door to be between us and them." Deandra’s fingers moved with blurring speed as she typed different combinations of codes.

"Damn, girl," Pete said. "Nobody can move that fast. But there could be billions of combinations."

"Denied. Denied. Denied. Den. Den. De. De. D. D. D." The electronic voice became an imperceptible blur as Deandra continued typing. The sounds of thousands of attacking zombies echoed in her ears.

"I may be able to hold them for a minute or two," Lizzie said.

Still typing, Deandra turned to see Lizzie sitting cross-legged between the van and the charging zombies. "Do what you can. I think I almost have it." Deandra felt Lizzie’s protective circle grow around them.

The zombies crashed into the invisible wall. It wavered, but held. Deandra was surprised by how powerful Lizzie had become, but no one could withstand the onslaught for long. Finally, the electronic voice uttered "accepted" and the garage door opened. Deandra focused her energy on strengthening Lizzie’s circle, while Pete drove the armored car into the garage.

"Good goin’ girl," Pete said. "What the hell’s your friend doin’ just sitting out there?"

"Don’t worry about it, just shut the door."

"Sure, but you better get in here. Why are all those zombies just standing there beating at the air?"

"Shut the door. Now!"

The door started to lower. Lizzie began twitching and convulsing like she was having a seizure. Deandra poured her strength into the circle and sprinted to Lizzie. The door was half closed.

"Hurry up, you two." Pete yelled.

Deandra grabbed Lizzie, threw her over her shoulder, and ran. The protective circle disintegrated and the zombie horde attacked.

Deandra ducked under the door, with only a few feet left before closing. Some of the zombies moved with surprising speed, but the door closed as they slammed into it.

Deandra lay the semi-conscious Lizzie on the concrete floor. The rest of the group assembled around them. The little girl hobbled forward and knelt to hold Lizzie’s hand.

"What did you do?" Jill Asked. "That’s impossible."

Deandra gathered her gear from the armored car. She surveyed the garage, no windows, and only the garage door and a heavy steel door leading into the college. "This appears to be secure. You people should be safe here. Make Lizzie more comfortable."

Lizzie fought to sit up. "Just give me some time to catch my breath."

Jill stepped forward and grabbed Deandra’s arm. "You didn’t answer my question. What did you two do back there? If you can stop these things, why didn’t you do it when we were trying to leave town?"

"First, Blondie, you can remove your hand. We were only able to hold them back for a minute and we weren’t completely surrounded like we were on the road. I have no time or energy to waste explaining anything to you. Don’t you think you and your boyfriend should do something beside just tagging along?"

"Lay off, lady. We’re not commandos or weirdo occult people like you and freak show here." Mike said.

Deandra lunged at Mike, but Lizzie’s foot got to him first, in his groin.

Lizzie staggered to her feet "Who you callin’ freak show? How far do you think you’d get without Deandra and me?"

"Enough," professor Timothy yelled. "We have to work together."

Lizzie wobbled, using her parasol like a cane. "Maybe that’s the problem. Some of us are working, others are doing nothing but cry and complain." The little girl took Lizzie’s hand and helped her balance.

Pete collected boxes of shotgun shells from the armored car. "All I know is that I’m stickin’ with the girls."

"So am I," Timothy said. "You’ll need me to guide you to the Ouroboceletron."

"Where is this celetron thing?" Pete asked. "I’ve been working this route for seven years and been all over this college."

"It’s not at the college, it’s two miles away. Reached by either an access road or a subway system. Does anybody have a sheet of paper? Perhaps I should draw a map."

"Here," Pete said. "You can draw on the back of my delivery manifest."

Timothy drew a rectangle with a circle attached to each of the short sides and one circle on the back connected to a square. "The rectangle is the main college building. The circle on the left is the tech building, that’s where we are. The circle on the right is the medical building and the science building is in back, the square behind the science building is the parking ramp. You can take an elevator or stairwell located in the parking ramp to access the subway. The overland route is behind the parking ramp. To get there we can go through the buildings or under them. There are maintenance tunnels stretching all over the grounds.

"How do we access these tunnels?" Deandra asked.

"Through the maintenance rooms in the basements of each building. But these tunnels are like a maze, I’ve not been through them all."

"As long as we’re going together, and there is no immediate danger, I propose we rest a bit," Deandra said.

Lizzie sat on the steps leading to the security door. "Deandra, did you pack any of those crappy powerbars?"

Deandra sat next to Lizzie and opened her duffle bag. "These things taste like chocolate covered dirt-sticks, but they’re not as offensive as cabbage or other leafy green things."

"I’m hungry. Can I have one too?" The girl asked.

Deandra handed her one. "They’re not very palatable."

"Hey kid, you never told us your name," Lizzie said between bites.

"I’m Susan, but everybody calls me Suzy. Yucky, this tastes poopie."

Lizzie giggled. "But they’re full of vitamins, minerals, and other poopie stuff that’ll make you grow up to be big and strong."

"There are a lot of minerals in dirt too," Deandra said.

Tears streamed down Suzy’s face. "Mommy always said that too. That I’d grow big and strong. All the kids in school make fun of me ‘cause I’m all bent up and my back bumpy."

Lizzie hugged the sobbing child. "There’s nothing wrong with being different. Look at me. You can’t get anymore different than me."

"But your so pretty, Lizzie. And you’re so cool."

"I’ll admit I’m pretty...weird. If those kids keep making fun of you, me and Deandra will come and have a little talk with them."

"Will you protect me, Lizzie?"

"Of course I will. I promise to keep you safe."

Deandra felt a lump rising in her throat; hopefully Lizzie wasn’t making a promise she couldn’t keep. "Let’s get going."

"I got my partner's shotgun here. Who wants it?" Pete asked.

"I’ll take it." Mike said. Still holding his crotch.

"No. No," Jill said. "We hate guns."

"God damn it Jill. I love you. But the others are right; we’ve got to start pulling our weight. And I do know how to use it. I used to shoot clay pigeons with my dad."

Deandra distributed the gear amongst them. Even Jill carried her fair share.

"I’ll lead, professor, follow me, then Lizzie and Suzy, Mike and Jill. Pete you take the rear.

"No problem," Pete said. "How you plan to get through the door? You gonna crack the code again?"

Deandra examined it, strong, but just a normal door. She spun, and kicked it off its hinges, sending the steel door flying down the hall.

"Lizzie smiled back at Mike. "Aren’t you glad I kicked you in the balls instead of her?"

The college was empty. Deandra led them down the stairs leading to the basement. They came to a set of double doors marked maintenance. Deandra turned the door handle.

"Go away, leave me the hell alone. I got a gun and I ain’t afraid to use it."

"Please, let us in," Jill cried, throwing herself to the floor in front of the doors. "I don’t want to die out here. We’re just trying to live."

Deandra grabbed Jill by her backpack strap, pulled her away from the door. "Get back to your position. She’s right; we just need to get through. We mean you no harm."

"Piss off."

Deandra handed her shotgun to Lizzie. "Looks like I’ll have to do this the hard way. Press yourselves to the wall and get out of his line of fire."

"You can’t kill him. He’s just trying to survive, like we are." Mike said.

Three muffled gunshots echoed in Deandra’s ears, followed by splintering wood. She dropped as the bullets passed overhead. "Hold your fire. We have a child with us. Nobody is going to hurt you."

"Fuck you. I heard what that guy said."

The doors’ hinges were on the outside; Deandra would have to pull them open. She gripped one door handle and planted her foot against the other door. In one lightning fast move, she slammed the door handle down and ripped the door outward. The lock gave way, wood cracked, and the door splintered against the wall.

Two gunshots greeted Deandra. With a ballerina’s grace, she spun as the bullets raced by. Her foot lashed out, kicking the shooter’s gun from his hand. Spinning again, her foot caught him in the stomach. The man doubled over, gasping for breath.

Deandra lunged at Mike, tore the shotgun from his hands, and smacked it across his face. Mike spun around and dropped. He crawled to Jill, rubbing the growing bruise on his cheek. "Your stupidity could have gotten someone killed. I hope you’ve learned your lesson. I don’t want to have to kill you."

Jill cradled the weeping Mike. "Oh my God. You’re insane. Completely out of control."

"That’s where you’re wrong," Lizzie said. "Nobody is more sane or in control in a situation like this. Deandra’s your best hope for survival, but you both act like a couple of self-righteous fools, judging her every step of the way. That is, when you’re not crying, complaining, or whining."

Deandra laid the shotgun next to Mike. "You said you know how to use this. It would be foolish to give it to someone unfamiliar with it. This is your last chance; fail once more and you’ll both be left behind. I don’t have time to explain my every move, or check with you about the morality of my decisions, or to baby sit."

Timothy retrieved the man’s gun and handed it to Deandra. "I’ve never shot one of these things."

Deandra handed it to the recovering man, still rubbing his belly. "You can have this back if you promise not to try to shoot one of us with it. If you give me any reason to think you will, I’ll have to kill you."

"How?" The man asked. "That was a heavy wood door. No, don’t tell me. After all I’ve seen since last night, nothing is beyond belief."

"You were in town last night?" Lizzie asked.

"Yes, I work the custodial night shift."

"Strange that you and professor Timothy are the only ones who were in town who weren’t turned into zombies." Deandra said.

"I'm sorry I shot at you. I was just so scared. I thought I was the only person still alive. Since last night all I've thought about was how many of those things there are out there. When you count the townspeople, college students and faculty, not to mention business employees from out of town, there could be twelve to thirteen thousand zombies out there. We don't have a chance. My names Jim. Maybe you should just leave me here, I'm not a violent person, never even shot a gun before today. And I never wanted to.

"If you're finished rambling, perhaps you could tell us some useful information, like how you managed to survive." Deandra said.

"It was the middle of the night and we were spraying the grounds for mosquitoes. We got a report that helicopters were spraying to prevent West Nile Virus, so we thought it would be good time to do the college. It was a pretty potent spray so we all had gasmasks on. One guy's lenses were fogging up so he took his off to clean them. The helicopters flew over and he just dropped. Our supervisor went to check on him, he took off his mask too, and when he dropped, I figured I better keep mine on. A few minutes later they got back up, or at least tried. It was like they didn’t know how to walk. I thought it was because of the spray, so I went to help them up and my supervisor tried to bite me. I locked myself in here. Lucky for me, the zombies stay outside."

"I’d be willing to bet those helicopters were black and unmarked, damn New World Order." Lizzie said.

"What about you professor? Were you conveniently wearing a gasmask too?" Deandra asked.

"Just lucky, I guess," Timothy said.

Deandra glared at Timothy. "I have no time to question you now. I’ll be keeping an eye on you. Jim, do you know your way through the tunnels to the subway station?"

"Of course, like the back of my hand. But I’m not goin’ down there. Please just leave me alone."

"Your chances of survival are much better with a group," Deandra said.

"They haven’t even came inside the building yet, maybe they won’t."

"On the contrary," Timothy said. "Those who control the zombies perceive us to be a threat. They’ll be coming. I propose we make a detour to the science building, they have some nasty chemicals in the labs."

"We could use some better weapons." Deandra said.

Jim jumped up. "Some gas might help. We always keep a few gallons in each building, saves a lot of time rather than running to the groundskeeper’s shed when we’re doing yard work."

Jim led them through the maze of tunnels, stopping only at a storeroom near the outside exit to retrieve two five-gallon gas cans.

Pete picked them up. "Cool, they’re both full, now we can make some Molotov cocktails."

Timothy flashed a wide grin. "Better than that, I know the recipe for napalm, and they have the ingredients in the chemistry lab."

The tunnels were wide enough for a small car to drive through. Electrical cables, Sewer lines, water and gas pipes stretched along the wall and ceiling.

"If you have to shoot, beware of the gas pipes," Deandra said.

Behind them, a shrill horn sounded the attack, the thundering roar of hundreds of zombies followed. To their front, another Galla’s horn blared.

They’ve got us sandwiched in, but the stairs to the science building is just up ahead." Jim said.

"Run for it," Deandra yelled.

"We’ll never make it," Jill cried.

Mike grabbed her arm, but the terrified woman looked back. She froze when she saw the advancing horde. Mike yanked, half dragging her behind him. "Come on babe, move."

Lizzie started to pick up Suzy, but Pete plucked the child from her. "Sorry Lizzie, but I can move faster carrying the child, you’re still weak from before."

The group sprinted for the exit. Mike, still dragging the hysterical Jill, fell far behind. Pete, with Suzy, made it to the stairs first, followed by Lizzie, Jim, and Timothy. Deandra lagged behind to cover Mike and Jill.

The zombies closed the gap on both sides, moving with surprising speed. Deandra stopped. "Hurry up, you two."

Pete handed Suzy to Lizzie, who disappeared up the stairs. Pete stayed behind, aiming his shotgun down the opposite side of the tunnel. "Hurry up, you guys. They’re almost here and I can’t hold ‘em."

Deandra watched the attacking armies. They were closer on Pete’s side. If he died, the zombies would overtake the rest. "Move it, Mike." She aimed her shotgun, but her buckshot would tear Mike and Jill to pieces before she would hit the zombies.

The boom of Pete’s shotgun erupted behind Deandra. They were almost on him. Jill stumbled. Mike stopped to help her up, but she screamed and a dark stain flowed down the leg of her jeans.

"Help us." Mike cried, his tear-filled eyes begging for Deandra’s help. With Jill’s panic, there was no way she could drag or carry her along. Jill was paralyzed with fear. Mike would never leave Jill, and she couldn’t fight and carry them both.

Pete’s shotgun clicked empty.

Jill fell again, curling into a fetal position.

"Deandra, they’re almost here,’ Pete yelled.

"Deandra, help us." Mike cried, trying to lift his girlfriend.

Sacrifice two and save the rest, or risk losing everyone. Deandra made her choice. She ignored Mike’s pleas. With superhuman speed, she sprinted to Pete’s side. His shotgun was empty again, and the zombies were closing in. Deandra emptied her shotgun into the advancing sea of dead flesh. Her buckshot shredded zombie bodies and blew their heads to pulp.

Deandra tossed her shotgun to Pete. "Get to the rest of the group."

"I can’t leave you."

"Do it now." She commanded, drawing her .45’s. More zombie heads exploded from her barrage. The headless dead slowed and their faster counterparts rammed into them, tumbled and fell. They twisted and squirmed, entangled in their writhing limbs.

Behind Deandra, Jill’s screams mixed with the boom of Mike’s shotgun. Soon, his screams followed. Rather then stopping to feast, the zombies tossed Jill and Mike over their heads, each ripping off a piece of flesh and passing the still screaming couple back. The screaming stopped as their corpses became no more than chunks of ripped flesh and torn limbs. Some waved lengths of intestines like bloody banners trailing behind them. One gnawed on Jill’s forearm like a human would a turkey drumstick; it never even slowed down.

Deandra rushed up the stairs and pulled the door shut behind her.

Jim locked it, "That won’t hold for long."

As if to answer him, dead hands started beating upon the doors.

Jim wrapped a chain around the door handles and padlocked it. "That’s what we use to keep drunk students from screwing around in the tunnels. I doubt it’ll keep the zombies out long."

"They know right where we are," Deandra said. "How many entrances are there to this building?"

"Lots, but the science building is secure. Complete lockdown all night, doors are pretty solid too."

"The chemistry lab is on the second floor," Timothy said.

Deandra reloaded her weapons and slung her shotgun over her shoulder. "Well, lead the way, professor."

Pete placed his hand on Deandra's shoulder. "There wasn't anything you could've done to save Jill and Mike. In the end we're all responsible for ourselves. You couldn't have stopped Jill from freakin' out. It's not your fault they got killed."

"And I know it's not my fault these bastards wiped out a whole town, but it's my responsibility to stop them. Had I came as soon as I received professor Timothy's message, maybe I could have thwarted them earlier. I can't bring back the dead or change the past, but I can stop them from winning, I have to stop them"

The professor led them to a large central staircase leading to the second floor.

"Why don’t we just take the elevator?" Jim asked.

Deandra just looked at him and shook her head. Lizzie laughed.

"What did I say?"

"There’s no escape in an elevator and you never know what’ll be on the other side when the doors open." Pete said.

Behind them, an army of zombies pounded on the outer set of three side-by-side double doors and the impact resistant glass framing them.

"Don’t worry," Jim said. "That glass is harder than hell to break. And even if they get past the outer doors, the inner ones are just as tough. The second floor skyway that connects this building to the main one only has one set of doors."

The stairway opened into the middle of large open area. A short brick wall surrounded the open stairway on three sides. About fifty feet behind the wall’s short side were the locked set of skyway doors surrounded by a wall of glass windows. Deandra ran around the short wall looking down at the exposed stairs below. With the proper weapons it could be a death trap for attackers from the first floor. She rushed to the skyway doors, they were secure, but the locks were not as strong as those on the ground level. If only there was a way to further secure the doors. At least no zombies were in the skyway.

Deandra caught up to the group as they approached the chemistry lab. Further up the hall rose the stairway leading to the third floor. A narrow hallway stretched back along the side the stairway. "Does that lead to the parking ramp?"

"Yes," Timothy said, "The tower with the stairwell leading to the subway is on the far side of the ramp. The entrances are protected with heavy steel doors. That should slow down any zombies to our rear." He opened the lab door.

Ten rows of black-topped tables loaded with beakers and Bunsen burners stretched the room’s length. A professor’s office and a door marked "chemicals" were on the far wall on either side of a long blackboard.

Pete and Jim set the gas cans atop the instructor’s table.

Timothy disappeared into the chemical room and returned with a double boiler and electric hotplate. "You don’t want to brew napalm over a Bunsen burner’s open flame. Pete, Jim, could you help me gather the chemicals?"

Pete laid his shotgun on the table and he and Jim followed Timothy.

Lizzie lifted the yawning Suzy to a countertop. "Hey, you’ve been awful quiet lately."

"I’m just tired," she lie down and curled into a ball.

Deandra found a lab stool cushion and placed it under Suzy’s head. "Here you go, try to get some rest."

Lizzie pulled Deandra away. "What are we gonna do with her? If we make it to the Ouroboceletron it’s going to be a hell of a fight. No place for a child."

"The poor child has already been through hell. Perhaps we can find a fairly safe place to hide her."

"We can’t just leave her, she’s already traumatized. To abandon her would really screw her up. We’ve really bonded. For once, I’m less concerned with defeating the bad guys as I am with saving Suzy."

"I know, but we have yet to find out exactly who our enemies are or what their motives might be. The scientific implications of their plot are meaningless to me. If this Ouroboceletron is as powerful a contraption as it sounds, perhaps getting Suzy away from here wouldn’t save her. This plot has global implications; it must be stopped now. We may never get a second chance if our enemies succeed."

"The time has come to answer all of your questions," Timothy said. "Today, we are pawns in an ancient war fought since before humans walked this world. What do you know about Mesopotamian mythology?"

"Father taught me many of the ancient legends."

"You’re talking about the Anunnaki?" Lizzie asked.

"Cindy mentioned them earlier," Deandra said.

"Yes, the Anunnaki and those who are older, Tiamat and Abzu. In legend, Abzu was God of the primeval ocean. Tiamat was Abzu’s wife. When the God Enki killed Abzu, she became enraged. She conspired with another God, Kingu, and together they created an army of demons. Enki sent his son, Marduk, to defeat them, which he did. He cut Tiamat in half. He used one part to create the heavens, with the other half, the Earth. He created humans by draining Kingu’s blood and mixing it with the clay of creation.

"But what does this have to do with vampires?" Deandra asked.

"Legend is based on fact, but fact is often lost as the legend is passed down. It is assumed that Kingu died, but he is Anunnaki, thus, he has the power of a god. He lived on without his blood and developed a hatred for the humans created from it. He has thirsted for it ever since. He is one of the vampires we face. The first vampire, and a god."

"Boy, this gets better and better," Lizzie said.

Timothy smiled and continued to mix the chemicals. "Have either of you ever heard of Semiramis?"

"Wasn’t she the wife of Nimrod?" Deandra asked.

Lizzie giggled. "Nimrod."

"That’s one of many legends, but we’re not concerned with any of her many husbands or sexual conquests. Semiramis is the Greek version of Sammu-Ramat, an Assyrian queen. For eight years she ruled with her husband until her beauty faded with age. That’s when she met Kingu, who promised eternal youth. She accepted, and became a vampire. But she also had Anunnaki blood. A female with Anunnaki blood, that’s important. Only an Anunnaki female can raise the dead."

"Of course," Deandra said. "Cindy mentioned that this vampire has done what a goddess once threatened. I remember a story about Inanna’s descent into the underworld. She threatened to raise the dead if her lover wasn’t returned to life."

"Exactly, your father taught you well. Who is this Cindy?"

"I guess you could call her my spirit guide. She said the guardians received their bribes and the seven gates were opened."

"The Inanna legend is partially false, at least the parts where she bribes the guardians with her clothing and jewelry. There is a sexual nature to the truth behind the legend."

"Did she screw her way through?" Lizzie asked.

"No, I said sexual, but not sex. She gave them a taste of her starfire. A taste of her menstrual flow."

"Disgusting," Deandra said.

"Damn, if I would’ve known you would be talking about menstrual flow...Jim let’s go check the skyway." Pete said.

"I don’t know, I think I’ll stay here. I’ve just got to try to relax."

Timothy combined the different chemicals into a bowl, stirring it into a thick jelly-like mixture. "Now here’s what they want with the Ouroboceletron. But first you need to know the true story of Abzu and Tiamat. In the myth I told you earlier the primeval sea of Abzu and Tiamat was said to combine the sweet, or fresh water, of Abzu, and the bitter, or salt water, of Tiamat. The primordial sea had nothing to do with water; it was another dimension. Abzu and Tiamat each had one of the keys necessary to open a gateway into this world from another, Tiamat’s starfire and the semen of Abzu. Substances within combine the natural properties and elements thereof into the basic building blocks and power of the natural universe."

"You’re losing me," Deandra said.

"A little to deep for me too," Lizzie added.

"Very well, basically they need the Ouroboceletron to open the gate to Tiamat’s universe. Obviously, they can’t get Abzu’s semen; they need a property his semen contained. The closest thing on Earth to this property is monoatomic gold. That, mixed with Anunnaki starfire will give a power boost to the Ouroboceletron. The Ouroboceletron will become a dynamo of perpetual energy, combined with Tesla technology it will have enough power to open a wormhole between the worlds."

"Tesla, I heard of him," Lizzie said. "The government stole his research. The New World Order is suppressing his work."

"More than suppressing it, they’re using it. The secret societies behind global conspiracy are very real. That’s what the Babylonian Brethren are doing here. They, with the help of Kingu and Semiramis have plotted the return of Tiamat for millennia."

"Thank you for filling us in," Deandra said. "I have one question. How do we kill the vampires and zombies?"

"You can’t kill the vampires, there is no way. Many have tried. Don’t even mention the legendary ways, like stakes through the heart, that’s all bullshit, at least with Sumerian vampires. The zombies, on the other hand, can be killed, but I’d be wasting your time to tell you how."

"You need to tell us everything you know." Deandra said.

"Very well, but it won’t do us any good. The venom of the Scorpion-people is the only thing that can kill them. They sided with Tiamat during the war, but the Anunnaki forgave them. They use them as a countermeasure should any fickle goddess decide to raise the dead. As part of the penance for revolt, they sore only to obey the Anunnaki. Unfortunately, the Anunnaki have moved on, leaving only Kingu And Semiramis. They must have ordered the Scorpion-people to stand down."

"You’re right, professor. That doesn’t do us any good. Unless you know a Scorpion-person or two who could help us out," Lizzie said.

Deandra twirled one of her braids. "Let me guess, these Scorpion-people do not live in this world."

"No they live just beyond the veil to the underworld, just outside the first gate. Sometimes they cross over through mystical areas, such as the gates at thr Mountains of Mashu, but that’s in the Middle East. I do know an ancient spell to open a portal, but it’s suicide to enter. It’s only been done once, by Gilgamesh, but--"

"He had Anunnaki blood," Deandra finished. "Why did he seek to enter?"

"He only wanted to talk to Utnapishtim, the Sumerian equivalent of Noah, to find the secret of eternal life. And he had to defeat the Scorpion-people king in combat."

"Lizzie, Do you think you could help Timothy with a spell to open a portal?"

"Sure. A portal to an underworld where human spirits can pass shouldn’t be too bad."

"You’re not planning too...no, that’s insane. You’ll never make it. If you died there your soul, even though I know it’s not human, would be trapped there. Trapped in an afterlife created by cruel Sumerian Gods. Forced to grope blindly through pitch darkness, choking on dust, forced to eat the clay of creation. That’s the final bit of lore I have to tell you. Why do these zombies have such a hunger for flesh? Remember that humans were created from Kingu’s blood and clay. The clay of creation is none other than human flesh."

Pete burst in. "It's getting thick out there. They broke through and are in the skyway. That door won't hold long."

"How long will it take to open the portal?" Deandra asked.

Timothy set the water filled bottom of the double boiler on the hotplate, and filled the top half with a combination of gas and gelatin. "I'll need some special herbs that I doubt we'll be able to get."

Lizzie opened her doctor bag. "I'll bet my demon kit has everything you'll need."

While the napalm slow-cooked in batches, Lizzie mixed the herbs required for the spell. Timothy, with Jim's help, mixed gunpowder and packed it into pop cans; around the pop cans they taped rows of nails. Deandra and Pete left to survey the situation.

At least one hundred zombies crowded the skyway, with more on the way. "Those doors are already starting to give way. If only we could blow that skyway." Pete said.

"That's the plan, if the professor's gunpowder is potent enough. More importantly, we need to break these windows to allow smoke and heat to escape."

"You're really gonna napalm this whole area?"

Deandra inspected the thick glass windows. "I plan to incinerate them."

"That's impact resistant glass, not bulletproof, but we can't waste ammo shooting it out."

Deandra picked up a round wooden table. "Stand back, Pete." She spun three times, gathered speed, and hurled the table. Spinning like a giant frisbee, it crashed through the window. "Only three more to go. Pete, drag a few of the long tables in front of the skyway."

The skyway doors started cracking under the force of zombie weight as Pete drug two long tables before them and flipped them on their sides to create a makeshift wall. Deandra tossed three more tables. They shattered the remaining windows. Next, she helped Pete pile more tables in front of the doors and to the sides of the brick wall.

"Times almost up," Deandra said. "Get the napalm, I'll hold here."

The sounds of hundreds of zombies crashing through the first floor maintenance door echoed below and mixed with those of splintering skyway door wood. A Dead arm broke through. Deandra made her stand atop the stairway. She shouldered her shotgun and waited.

A zombie charged up the stairs. In life, the obese woman would have lumbered like an oaf, but in death, she sprinted with surprising agility. More zombies assembled in rows behind her and a Galla's horn sounded the attack.

Deandra's first two shots shredded the obese zombie's legs. The creature toppled backward, crashing like a giant bowling ball into the advancing horde. Dozens rolled down with the fat zombie, collecting others along the way. They landed in a squirming pile of dead flesh. A flaming bottle sailed past Deandra's head and exploded into the writhing mass. The stairway's bottom erupted in a super-heated flaming ball. A heat wave surged up the stairs, singing Deandra's eyebrows and bringing the stench of burning flesh. A coal-black mushroom cloud billowed toward the ceiling.

Lizzie stood next to Deandra, holding a lit candle and a bottle of napalm. "Wow, napalm kicks ass."

"Toss the other bottle in front of the skyway," Deandra said.

"Sure thing." Lizzie lobbed the napalm over the short brick wall. It erupted against the table-wall and doors.

In the zombie pile below them, dead flesh burned like candle wax, dripping and melting from still moving corpses, fusing them together.

"Did you and Timothy prepare the ritual?"

"Yup, we're good to go."

"Take him, Jim, and Suzy to the subway station and prepare it. Pete and I will turn this floor into a killing zone, and try to melt as many as we can."

"Sounds like a plan. It should only take few minutes to prepare." Lizzie left the candle atop the wall and left with her group.

Dozens of zombies poured around the burning pile, wading through a fiery sea, igniting their living-dead flesh. Deandra rolled a rectangular table down the stairs, hindering their attack. "Pete, pull more tables toward the windows." She hurled another bomb behind the table, igniting most of the stairs in an all-consuming fireball.

Pete flipped over two more long tables on one side of the wall, while Deandra did the other side. When they ran out of tables they tossed chairs into their defensive wall.

The skyway doors burst open. A mass of zombies toppled into the burning area, and climbed over the burning debris. Deandra lobbed a bomb into the skyway, and a super-heated wave of jellified gasoline erupted down its length. Four more bombs exploded on either side of the stairway, igniting the table-wall. The burning dead continued pouring out the skyway and up the stairs, their flesh and muscle melting, baking, and fusing together. Many of the zombies, unable to move, stood immobilized in the flames like human candles. Others continued the attack, crawling over flaming tables and fellow zombies, and pushing the immobilized zombies out the windows or over the brick wall into the blazing stairway.

Deandra and Pete tossed pop can grenades into the living-dead army. They exploded in their midst, nailed ripping through zombie bodies. Limbs and burning chunks splattered the walls and dozens more were blown out the windows.

Pete rolled over a wheeled table covered by a sheet. "The professor made this special. He said throw it into the skyway. But it's fuckin' heavy."

Deandra lifted the sheet revealing a long oxygen tank wrapped with small green propane tanks and pop can grenades.

"There must be a few hundred pounds of explosives there." Pete said.

A long fuse snaked around the bomb, attached to each grenade. Deandra hefted the bomb to her shoulder. "Let's hope this is strong enough to blow it. Light the fuse, Pete." He did, and Deandra hurled the bomb over the wall, and into the skyway. It thudded into several zombies and dropped to the floor. When it exploded, a thunderous shockwave rocked the building. The skyway's roof and walls disintegrated in the gaseous blast. Zombie chunks and whole bodies tossed skyward like rag dolls, fell and splattered in burning heaps. The floor buckled and dropped between the steel beams supporting it. In the rear, the dead continued the assault, pushing their fellows out the skyway's open end.

Deandra and Pete opened fire. Their buckshot tore through several more zombies, blowing them out the windows.

Outside, the wind direction changed, blowing the impenetrable black smoke into the building.

"Pete, grab the rest of the bombs, let's get to the others." Deandra checked the stairway. The flames bellowed like a furnace. Perhaps hundreds of zombies blocked the stairs, a solid wall of fused, melting corpses.

They sprinted down the narrow hallway leading to the parking ramp. Pete locked the doors behind them. "Double sets of steel security doors. It'll take forever for those fuckers to get through that. It's like that on every level, and the doors leading down to the subway are even stronger."

Sounds of something whipping the air throbbed against Deandra's eardrums, something familiar, but muffled. She concentrated.

"Come on, Deandra, we gotta get to the others."

"Do you hear that?"

"What?"

In the distance, a tiny black speck swooped through the sky. "That," Deandra said.

"What the hell is it? I can barely see it."

"It's a Black Hawk helicopter with muffled rotors."

"You'd need some pretty damn good binoculars to make that out, but when it comes to you, nothing surprises me anymore."

"Get to the others, leave me a napalm bomb."

"Why? Let's just go. Hell with the helicopter."

Deandra took a bomb from Pete's duffle bag. "The zombies may have problems getting through these doors, but whomever is on that helicopter will have no problem."

"I can help," Pete said.

Deandra just glared at him. Pete shook his head, waved goodbye, and ran for the door. Deandra smiled, her adversaries must be getting alarmed, finally sending some real troops to try to thwart her. Deandra was getting sick of zombies anyway.

She scurried behind the parking ramp's low concrete wall, dropped to her knees, and waited. To her hypersensitive hearing, even the muffled rotors pounded in her ears like hammers. The sounds of one helicopter quickly turned to two. She looked at her one bomb; to late to get another from Pete, she would have to improvise. Deandra peeked out a rain drainage pipe jutting out the wall's bottom. The second helicopter was small and, like the Black Hawk, painted a dull black, both helicopters were unmarked. What looked like an old west Gatling gun was attached to the helicopter's side. She was unfamiliar with the weapon, but knew it was capable of awesome firepower. The Black Hawk hovered behind the other; a door gunner manned an M-60 machine gun while soldiers prepared to rappel from the helicopter.

Deandra lit the napalm bomb’s rag, held it in her left had. With her right, she drew a pistol. The pilot of the small helicopter and the Black Hawk door gunner scanned the parking ramp. Deandra scampered behind a concrete support beam.

Deandra popped up to the right of the beam, still concealed from the Black Hawk, but exposed to the small helicopter. The pilot jumped from Deandra’s lightning fast appearance. She saw his arm tense as his grip tightened and his finger fumbled to squeeze the trigger. She fired, emptying her whole magazine. Bullet holes erupted along the cockpit glass. Flesh, blood, and skull exploded from the pilot’s face and splattered over the helicopter’s interior. The helicopter spun in several circles as it fell straight down, crashing into the parking lot. Tumbling on its side, the rotor blade cleaved into the pavement and disintegrated, throwing rotor pieces and blacktop chunks.

The Black Hawk gunner opened fire. Bullets slammed into the concrete beam, walls, and floor. The gunner was firing blindly; he must not have seen her. When the bullet impacts erupted to Deandra’s far left, she hurled the bomb into the helicopter’s open door. The bomb glanced off the gunner’s helmet and bounced back amidst the troops, crashing and exploding against the Black Hawk’s floor. The super heated flames erupted out the door and engulfed the interior. The helicopter spun out of control. The screams of incinerating men echoed above the flames, as it lumbered through the air. It crashed into the science building’s third floor and exploded. Helicopter and building debris rained down mixed with flaming body parts.

Deandra raced down the tower stairwell to the subway station.

Pete greeted her at the doorway. "Holy shit, you made it."

"I suspect we’re being watched through psychic means," Deandra said. "Lizzie, can you do a spell to conceal our movements?"

"Shouldn’t be too hard, if my little assistant lends a hand."

"Lizzie is teaching me to be a Witch," Suzy said. "Maybe when I’m older you’ll let me join your team? Lizzie said she’d take care of me and train me real good."

Deandra pulled Lizzie aside. "You’re getting far too attached to the child. She must have some family."

"She told me she has nobody. Her dad died in a car accident. All her grandparents are dead. And you saw what happened to her mother. She does have an uncle, but he’s supposed to be a drunk. That’s the kind of environment I’m stuck in with my dad. She’ll never get the medical treatments she needs with him. Her back will only get worse. Maybe your father could help me adopt her?"

"Lizzie, you’ve just turned eighteen--"

"You can’t talk me out of it. We’ll discuss it later. Right now, I’ve got a spell to perform."

Timothy gathered his supplies, and using chalk from Lizzie’s bag, started drawing strange symbols and sigils around the circumference of a protective circle. "This is cuneiform in its most ancient pictographic form. These are symbols of the God and Goddess of the underworld."

Lizzie lit a candle and dropped a pinch of incense into the flame. The flame grew two feet high; She passed her hands through the fire in rhythmic fashion while mumbling a conjuration. The flame morphed into a small human form. The being left the candle and flitted about the subway station, leaving a trail of thin smoke which created a barrier to conceal their actions.

Deandra noted the awe in Suzy’s face as she watched the fire elemental do its task, and how she and Lizzie smiled at each other when it finished and landed before them. Lizzie nodded to Suzy and the child placed an offering of bread and herbs at its feet and Lizzie poured a libation from a small silver flask. The offerings disappeared. The elemental bowed in thanks, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Suzy dug several items from a duffle bag and brought them to Deandra. "Lizzie told me you’d need to eat something to make you strong. Here’s some poopie bars and an energy drink."

"Thank you, Suzy."

"Will you help me stay with Lizzie? She says your daddy can help us. My uncle’s mean, he scares me."

"I promise we’ll all go see my father when we get back to Los Angeles. I know he’ll fix things for you."

Suzy smiled. "Thanks, Deandra." She scurried back to Lizzie and hugged her. Lizzie smiled over Suzy’s shoulder.

Deandra bit into the bar. Before she could help them, she would need to save them.

Timothy drew a strange sigil upon the wall. "This is the symbol of the Scorpion-people. Lizzie, I‘ll need you to concentrate on the protective circle in case something slips out. Deandra, if you earn their help, an army will follow you back, but if you fail...you already know what will happen." Timothy returned to his circle and Lizzie sat beside him.

Lizzie shut her eyes. The air tingled with electricity as she harnessed the power and focused her will.

Timothy dropped a pinch of putrid incense atop a hot coal. He raised his arms.

"Gods of The Great Above, hear me.

Gods of The Great Below, hear me.

Gatekeeper Neti, open thy gate.

Ereshkigal, Queen of The Underworld, hear my plea.

Nergal, King of The Underworld, hear my plea.

ZI-DINGIR-KIA-KANPA

ZI-DINGIR-ANNA-KANPA

Gods of above, Gods of below, open the gate."

The concrete wall softened. A circular area, large enough to drive a truck through, turned dark blue, and began to spin. Shimmering golden streaks swirled inward.

"Enter it now," Timothy said. "And good luck."

****************************

Deandra descended into the underworld.

What she thought would be a long walk was only like going through a door. With one step she left her world behind. When she looked back she could not see into her world, only the swirling golden streaks amidst a blue background.

She climbed down a steep natural stone stairway carved through a narrow steep-walled canyon. Impenetrable darkness stretched above, that even Deandra’s eyes could not penetrate. A dull glow shining in the depths gave her enough light to see.

Reaching the bottom, she entered a huge circular area. In the middle roared a large fire that illuminated what appeared to be a domed stadium. Rows of terraces, dotted with dark holes, stretched around the circumference and ascended the full height to the dome. On the far wall a huge rectangular gateway framed an inky blackness.

"Interloper, what do you seek here? Only your death can come from you trespass," a voice said, concealed behind the fire.

"I have come to seek the aid of the Scorpion-people."

"There is no Anunnaki blood within you. Yet, I sense you are not human. An intriguing creature you are, to dwell so comfortably within a human frame. What a pity to have to kill you. I am Rah-Kitar, king of the Scorpion-people. How are you called?"

"I’m Deandra."

"Well, Deandra, the Scorpion-people are pledged to obey the Anunnaki. You have no right to seek our aid."

"I claim the right of battle, like Gilgamesh."

Gilgamesh, at least, had Anunnaki blood. Although tainted with human, it was enough to grant his request."

"Neither is Semiramis a full-blood. Why should you serve her?"

"But Kingu is full-blood."

Deandra reached for her pistols. "From what I’ve heard, Kingu has no blood at all. Now fight me, or I’ll kill you where you stand."

A clicking noises scratched along the floor as Rah-Kitar’s scorpion feet carried him into view. His lower body was that of a giant scorpion, only his tail much longer. Where a normal scorpion’s head would be, emerged a human body, only his skin was shiny black and hard as his lower half. Instead of hands, his human arms ended in enormous scorpion claws. Two bright red eyes glared from his baldhead.

"I shall honor your boldness by hearing your request."

"The dead must be returned to the underworld. Your people are the only ones who can defeat them. It was your duty to keep them from escaping."

"It is also our duty to follow Anunnaki orders. Kingu commanded us to let them go."

"I have no time to argue. Fight me. If I win, you will help me. If you win, you can do with me what you will. Or is the great king to scared to face me?"

"Thousands of Scorpion-people emerged from their holes, clicking their claws. "Fight her. Fight her. Fight her." The horde chanted.

"A king’s honor should not be besmirched." Another voice cried.

"Very well," Rah-Kitar said. "Are the same rules that applied to Gilgamesh acceptable?"

"Yes."

"So be it, the rules are simple. No weapons, you shall not use your toys, and I shall not use my stinger. And we shall fight to the death."

Deandra smiled. "I guess it will be your funeral."

********************

Suzy grimaced as she drank the nutrition drink. "This is icky. Why does Deandra eat such nasty food?"

"Deandra’s tongue is very sensitive and her other senses are too." Lizzie explained.

Sweat poured down Jim’s face and he wrung his hands as he paced along the wall. "How long is it gonna take?"

"Have patience," Timothy said. ‘It will take time for her to get there, and the Scorpion-people king will be a strong opponent."

"But that girl kicks ass," Pete said. "If anybody can do it, she can."

Something scratched against the door leading to the maintenance level. Lizzie listened at the door. She heard movement. She jumped when a powerful thud struck the door. "Everybody grab the gear. We've got to get out of here." Lizzie grabbed her demon kit.

"What can I do to help, Lizzie," Suzy asked.

"You can carry my parasol, it's very special to me. It belonged to my grandma, and then my mom. There's a secret surprise inside."

"There's pounding on the tower door too," Pete yelled.

I thought these doors would be strong enough to keep the zombies out," Jim said.

"The dog-faced demons are more intelligent." Lizzie examined their surroundings. Both doorways were under attack, only the heavy steel garage door leading to the tunnel was clear. Three subway cars sat upon the track. "Into the subway cars, it's our only chance."

"But those zombies will be able to get in." Jim said.

"We only have to hold out until Deandra gets back," Pete said.

"No," Lizzie said. "Zombies will overrun the cars in minutes. We can't hold them off, and we can't use the napalm here, unless we want to get burned up too."

"We've got the grenades though," Pete said.

"Lizzie's right," Timothy said. "We can't hold out here, our only chance is the tunnel."

"We can't leave Deandra," Pete said.

Lizzie and Timothy started to pry open the subway doors. "We're not leaving her, we're just going ahead," Lizzie said. "Besides, she'll have an army with her when she gets back. All we have to do is pull the train into the tunnel and shut the door behind us."

"Oh shit, I'm just a janitor, I can't take much more of this crap," Jim said. "How do we know there aren't zombies in the tunnel?"

"We don't," Timothy said. "Do you have a better idea?"

Pete and Lizzie finished loading the gear.

"One more thing," Jim said. "Who's gonna stay and shut the door? The only switch to open or close it is in the control room. And it ain't gonna be me."

Timothy ran to the control room. "I got it. When I open the door, get the train through. I'll shut the door and run like hell, hopefully I'll get through."

"But professor--" Lizzie started.

"Damn it, just trust me. Even if I don't make it, I'll be OK."

Jim ran to the train control room, in the first car. "I'll start this thing up."

"I just hope you know what the hell you're doing." Pete Yelled.

The doors burst open. A dog-faced head poked through. The Galla tripped as the weight of onrushing zombies shoved through. Lizzie lobbed a demon bomb. It burst against the Galla's back, engulfing the creature in flames. The beast exploded, and with it, several zombies were blown to pieces. Still, the pieces twitched, even as the onrushing horde pushed forth.

Lizzie jumped aboard the subway. Luckily, Jim had started the electric motor, and the doors closed behind her.

The tower door flung wide, and zombies led by a Galla poured through, blocking the control room from the tunnel. Lizzie saw Timothy wave goodbye as the subway lumbered forward.

"Is this the fastest this thing can move? Pete yelled. "My ninety-five year old grandmother can walk faster than this. Get The lead out, Jim."

Zombies converged upon the rear subway car. A Galla shoved a curved sword between the doors, and dead hands helped pry them open.

Lizzie opened the between car door. "Get to the first car."

Pete grabbed Suzy and sprinted to the first car. Lizzie followed and slammed the door shut between the first and second cars.

The tunnel door began to lower as the subway crawled through. At least fifty zombies were already in the last car, several were advancing on the second, and dozens more ran along the sides, pounding on the windows.

"God damn it, Jim. Get this fucker moving," Pete yelled.

"I'm still trying to figure out the brake."

Lizzie stood in the area between cars, studying the floors access panel. "Pete try to hold this door shut. It says you can disconnect the cars." Lizzie lifted the hatch, revealing the locking mechanism. "Let's see, pull up lever, and turn counter-clockwise, doesn’t sound too hard."

Pete braced the door as the first zombies reached it. "Luckily, not more than a couple can get at it. I might be able to hold it."

Lizzie pulled with all her strength. The handle slowly gave way. Her face reddened, then turned dark purple as she exerted herself.

"Lizzie, can I help?" Suzy asked.

Sweat poured down Lizzie’s face. "Just go up to where Jim is, me and Pete can handle this." The handle lifted, but would not turn. "Pete you'll have to try, I'm just not strong enough."

"You can't hold the door either. I'll have to secure it." Pete removed his holstered pistol and magazine pouch and tossed them into the car. He tore off his belt and tied the door handle to another handle on the car's wall. "OK, take over here, just be ready to jump when the cars disconnect."

"No shit, Sherlock, Let's just do this." Lizzie took the door handle and braced herself.

The train still lumbered down the track, moving at the speed a fast person could run. Zombies would never tire they could keep the pace up forever, and this track was only two miles long, Lizzie had no idea what waited at the end. Chasing zombies still pounded on the windows and walls. Through the open doorway, Lizzie spotted a sword wielding Galla chopping at the windows. She glanced behind her; a zombie with a broken subway seat approached the window. "Hurry up, Pete."

Pete grunted as the handle turned, disengaging the hitch, but the subway's slow speed barley caused any distance. Almost simultaneously, the window crashed to Lizzie's rear, while another shattered in the first car. Cold, dead hands clawed Lizzie's neck.

"Yes," Jim yelled. "I finally figured out the brake."

Suzy screamed.

"Help her, Pete." Lizzie yelled as she fought against the vice-like grip.

"I gotta help you."

"Help her, I can take care of myself."

Pete shook his head and dove into the first car.

Lizzie saw a Galla and several zombies climbing through the broken window. The distance between cars grew as the lead car's speed increased and the others slowed. Lizzie smashed her elbow into her attacker's face. Still, he held tight. She felt his putrefying breath on her cheek as his mouth drew closer. She worked her fingers around the zombie's. Starting with his index finger, she yanked back, snapping each one like a dry branch until she broke free. Lizzie leaped for the first car, catching the door handle and outer wall handle. She bent her knees and tried to swing into the doorway without dragging her feet, but her knees banged the floor. Pain raced through Lizzie's knees and she almost lost hold, her feet bouncing behind the car.

Several zombies spilled into the growing gap between cars, lunging for Lizzzie's bouncing feet. She watched them stumble, only to be crushed under the advancing rear cars. Lizzie's strength started failing, she felt herself slipping.

Suzy screamed again.

Lizzie felt her rage building. Pete tried to retrieve his pistol. The Galla attacked, swinging his sword in swift arcs. Three zombies cornered Suzy under a subway seat, while she tried to repel them with Lizzie's parasol. Lizzie regained her hold. She couldn't die like this; Suzy needed her.

Her muscles straining to the breaking point, she managed to pull herself into the car. She tried to stand, but a searing pain in her right knee brought her down. Lizzie saw her demon kit only a few feet away. Crawling to it, she drew a demon bomb. Pete grappled with the Galla's wrists, trying to hold steady the beast's sword.

Lizzie's bomb struck the creature's back, engulfing it in flames. Pete swung around and kicked the burning demon out the window; it exploded into a group of charging zombies.

"Lizzie," Suzy cried, as one zombie lifted her by the ankles while another beat and clawed at the squirming child like she was a human punching bag.

The third zombie dove for Pete, smashing his head into Pete's stomach.

Lizzie tried to form a protective circle around Suzy, but her strength was almost gone. Pete's pistol bounced along the floor. Lizzie lunged for it. She aimed it at Suzy's attackers and opened fire. One zombie's head splattered against the wall, but the creature continued to throw punches, many still striking Suzy.

"Help her, Jim." Lizzie begged as she ignored the throbbing pain knifing through her knees, rose, and stumbled past Pete's wrestling match with a dead opponent.

Tears streaked down Jim's face. "I'm sorry," his lips silently mouthed as he shut the door.

Lizzie hobbled forward, emptying Pete's gun into the zombie holding Suzy. The creature lost his head, but instead of dropping Suzy, it swung her like a club, pounding her against the subway wall.

Suzy's cries were now muffled little sobs. "Lizzie...help."

Lizzie plucked her parasol from the floor, drew its two-foot-long sword from the shaft, and hurled herself towards the zombie holding Suzy. With animalistic fury, she lost all sense of reason and stabbed the zombie repeatedly, until it dropped the child. The two headless dead flailed their arms in search of their attacker, but Lizzie jabbed at them like a swarm of bees were upon them, and drew them away from Suzy. Her right knee finally cracked under the strain, but she hopped away on her other leg, even though her left knee ached almost as bad.

Pete, with half his shirt torn away and blood flowing down his black skin from dozens of scratches, managed to lift the zombie and hurl it through the subway window. With a battle cry screaming past his lips, he leaped past Lizzie with a flying karate kick. His foot slammed into one zombie with enough force to smash it into a window. The window cracked from the zombie’s impact and another kick sent it crashing through. The other zombie soon followed.

Lizzie crawled to Suzy. She still breathed, her pulse was weak, but she was conscious. Pete fell to a seat, exhausted. The train slowed. Dozens of little red dots traced along the subway's walls. Through the broken windows, Lizzie saw snipers with laser sites on their rifles. Black uniformed soldiers forced the subway doors open.

A woman in a flowing black gown entered. She smiled, showing two yellowed fangs protruding from her lips. "Welcome to the Ouroboceletron. You have arrived in time to witness the birth of a new age. The age of Tiamat."

**************************

The Scorpion-people watched from their terraces, clicking their claws like a human would clap. Rah-Kitar lunged, his right claw open, striking at Deandra's face. She ducked as the claw snapped shut inches above her head, and rolled to the creature's side. She kicked the back of the scorpion's first leg, trying to break it; it was like kicking a solid steel bar. Rah-Kitar's claw lashed back, slamming into Deandra's shoulder, and knocking her down.

She sprang to her feet as he lunged with both claws raised. She stepped back, avoided his attack, and leaped over his head, attempting to jump on his back. Rah-Kitar swung both claws up and over his head, catching Deandra in mid-air. His blow tossed her skyward. She slammed into the rock wall, just below the first terrace, and dropped to the floor.

"Had enough, Deandra?"

I'll give you one last chance to leave."

"I don't have a choice." She rose, dusted herself off, and charged. Leaping through the air, she brought both feet forward, smashing them into the scorpion-mans chest. Her feet connected, but it was like kicking a concrete wall. He swatted her away, like a fly.

Pain flared through her leg and elbow when she smashed into the floor. This was ridiculous, like fighting a boulder, but everything has a weakness, if the creature's top was impenetrable, perhaps the bottom was not.

"You are brave," Rah-Kitar said. "Arise, so I may kill you on your feet. I will let you die like a warrior."

Deandra rose and smiled. "You don't think I'm going to quit that easily, do you?"

Rah-Kitar attacked, arms moving in a criss-cross pattern before him, claws snapping with blurring speed. Deandra just stood, smiling, waiting. The Scorpion-man closed on her. At the last moment she rolled under Rah-Kitar, punching and kicking at his softer abdomen. She wrapped her legs and one arm around his torso. With her free hand, she pummeled his stomach with superhuman speed. He jumped around, trying to squish Deandra beneath him, but whenever he tried to put his full weight on her, she dug her fingers into the soft spot between the areas where his legs connected to his body.

Rah-Kitar bent his legs and thrust himself skyward. Deandra dropped flat, and raised her knees to her chest. As he dropped, She snapped her legs upward, smashing her feet into his soft underside. The force of Deandra’s kick tossed Rah-Kitar upward, hurtling him against the wall. The weight of his scorpion half crushed his human looking body against the floor. His insect legs flailed the air, and his claws slipped against the smooth stone floor. Using his tail to push, he started to right himself.

Deandra sprinted with superhuman speed, moving like a blur. She leaped forward, feet first, and smashed into his stomach. Rah-Kitar's scorpion half crushed further against his human-like one, bending his spine almost to the breaking point. Deandra bent his stinger over her shoulder and repeatedly smashed her foot into his belly.

The Scorpion-people stopped clicking their claws.

Deandra felt the strength leave Rah-Kitar, but still she pummeled him. She felt his lightly armored abdomen start to crack, another few hits and she would break through. She stopped. "I now give you one last chance, Rah-Kitar. And I give your people a chance; a chance the Anunnaki never gave you. A chance to be free. I can kill your king and win your help. Or we can help each other. You no longer have to live under the yoke of oppression; you can be free. And you can help me save my world from the same forces that have enslaved you. Well, what is it, freedom, or slavery?"

"Mercy, he is a good king. I will follow."

"Yes, I too shall follow."

Dozens, then hundreds of voices shouted "mercy." Soon others chanted "freedom", clicking their claws and swearing to help Deandra.

"Well, Rah-Kitar, what is your decision?"

"Long have I dreamed of being free of the Anunnaki. My people hold to traditions and laws passed down by Gods who have long ago fled this world. No more. I shall join you. My people shall join you."

Deandra released him and helped him to his feet.

Rah-Kitar stood before the fire. "Today, we have the chance to regain our honor and freedom. Once our people made a mistake, and sided with Tiamat. Now we must stop her. We no longer support her, and we no longer live under Anunnaki rule, whose original oppression caused us to side with Tiamat. Today, we are free. We shall follow Deandra of our free will, because her cause is one of justice and honor." Rah-Kitar clicked his claws; soon thousands of Scorpion-people joined him as they climbed down their terraces. "Climb upon my back, Deandra. Together we shall ascend to the upperworld."

Deandra knelt on Rah-Kitar’s back as he led his people up the stairs. Hundreds followed behind him, with hundreds more climbing up the rocky walls.

Rah-Kitar and Deandra were the first to break through the portal. Deandra’s heart sank. Instead of finding her friends, only a sea of zombies mingled around the subway station, it was like walking into an ambush.

Rah-Kitar started beating the zombies aside with his claws. Soon dozens more arrived, and started herding the zombies into a central area. Using their stingers like hoses, they sprayed venom over the zombies. The venom struck like sulpheric acid, melting flesh and bone alike. The dead writhed, as if in pain, until all that remained were oil-like puddles of sticky goo. Two Galla charged, swinging their swords. Deandra cut them down with several pistol shots.

"See how efficient my people are," Rah-Kitar said.

"Yes, it’s too bad it doesn’t work against the dog-faced things and vampires as well."

"I fear nothing can kill Kingu or Semiramis, but hopefully we can thwart their plans and weaken them enough to somehow capture them."

By now, hundreds of Scorpion-people had crossed over. Rah-Kitar chose three hundred to follow he and Deandra while the rest were to round up and destroy the zombies.

Deandra stood by the subway tracks. At least her friends may still be alive, but she feared what she would find beyond the tunnel door. She noticed movement through the control room window and recognized Timothy peeking out. Hope that her friends had hidden with him faded when Timothy emerged alone.

"Deandra, they went on the subway. We were just going to hide on the other side, but the zombies broke through. Everybody else made it out, but about fifty zombies got through before the door closed."

"How long ago did this happen?"

"Maybe fifteen minutes. They probably had to go all the way to the Ouroboceletron."

Deandra checked her watch; she had been gone for less than half an hour. There was no time to worry, she trusted Lizzie and believed her friend could keep the others alive.

Timothy looked away as Rah-Kitar approached.

"You need not fear them, I have earned their trust."

"You," Rah-Kitar said. "I feel your immortality. The human who survived the great deluge, Utnapishtim."

"What?" Deandra grabbed him by the neck. "Why didn’t you tell me? Legend may say nothing can kill you, but if I find treachery behind your deception, I swear you’ll pray for death."

"Please, there’s not a day that passes where I don’t wish to die. Humans weren’t meant to live forever. It’s so lonely."

"It would have been so much easier knowing you were immortal. It finally explains why you were the only one to survive within the town without a gas mask."

"I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I’m only immortal. I have no other special powers. There wasn’t anything I could do to help that I didn’t do without telling you. I didn’t want my secret to be an issue. I’ve seen even the best people become obsessed with learning my secret."

"I may not agree, or understand your motives, but I have no time to argue. Open the door."

"His is a sad tale, Deandra. Once he and his wife lived in the land of the Gods, but they grew tired and lonely. They asked to return to the human world. When the Gods give you a gift, they expect you to accept it unconditionally. They viewed their request as an act of ungratefulness. They took away his wife’s immortality. She turned to dust before his eyes. They sent him back to the human world, his immortality intact, but alone."

The door opened. Deandra saw no train, only lingering zombies. She climbed upon Rah-Kitar’s back and they headed into the tunnel.

**********************

Suzy’s breath was fast and shallow. Lizzie cradled her in her arms. Pete paced around the barren storeroom punching the palm of his hand. Jim cowered, holding his crotch, which still ached from Lizzie’s punch.

Lizzie looked at Suzy through tear stained eyes, rocking the whimpering child. "Deandra will be here soon. She’ll kill the bad people and I’ll get you to a doctor."

"L...Lizzie, it hurts when I breathe. I feel so cold."

Lizzie held her tighter, even as pain surged through every muscle in her body. Searing agony throbbed in her knees and radiated throughout her body. A small pool of blood collected under her shattered right kneecap.

"My feet are so cold."

"Pete, rub Suzy’s feet," Lizzie said.

He knelt and removed Suzy’s shoes. He lifted her right foot and gently rubbed. "Jesus Christ, they’re cold as ice."

Lizzie glared at him. "Then rub harder."

"But Lizzie, she’s not gonna--"

"Don’t you fuckin’ say it. She’s gonna make it.’

Suzy squeezed Lizzie’s arm. "Lizzie said a naughty word. Are you mad at me for getting hurt?"

"No. It’s not your fault. It’s my fault. I promised to protect you, and I failed."

"It’s not your fault. It’s the dead men who hurt me. When I die, I don’t wanna hurt people. I might hurt you, Lizzie."

Tears streamed down Lizzie’s face. "You’re not gonna die for a long, long, time."

Suzy’s legs started twitching.

"Pete, hold her."

"I...I’m scared. I’m cold. My chest hurts."

Suzy convulsed in Lizzie’s arms. A frothy drool dribbled from the corner of her mouth. She convulsed again. The drool turned crimson. A pile of bloody bubbles rose from Suzy’s mouth while a blood stream trickled down her cheek. Her eyes glazed over. When Suzy died the air in her lungs escaped with a plopping noise as one final crimson bubble burst.

The door thrust open and Semiramis entered. Lizzie burned with rage, her tears boiling in her eyes. "I’m going to kill you, you fucking bitch."

Semiramis laughed. "Strong words, but you can barely move." She snapped her fingers. "Dispose of the child’s carcass. Don’t worry your little friend won’t be back. I’ve already closed the gate. I have plenty of dead...for now."

A Galla brushed past Semiramis and grabbed Suzy’s body. Lizzie held tight. Semiramis lunged, slapped Lizzie away, and tore Suzy from her arms. "Do you want to keep the corpse for a souvenir? Or perhaps have it stuffed and mounted?" She tossed the body to the Galla. "Devour it. Devour it here, so the pale Witch can see."

The Galla tore huge chunks out of Suzy’s flesh with its yellowed fangs, chewing with a sickening chomping sound, like a cow chewing its cud.

Lizzie grabbed for Semiramis, but Pete caught her arm. "Don’t do it. Don’t throw your life away."

Semiramis smiled. "You should listen to the ebony man, he’s strong. A hero. I think I’ve found my new doggie." She lifted Jim by the neck. "You struck this one in the genitals. You think his cowardice caused the child’s death. Do you wish him dead?"

Lizzie stared into Jim’s pleading eyes. "No, I was pissed at him, but he just got scared. He’s only human. I want you dead."

"Galla, bring my guests to the control room. They shall witness the birth of Tiamat’s New World Order."

The Galla dropped Suzy’s mutilated corpse and plucked Lizzie from the floor. Two others drug Pete and Jim. The Galla carried them up several flights of stairs to a large windowed room looking out over a giant circular structure resembling a stadium’s interior.

Three gold colored arms rose from a base on the ground. The arms curved and pointed to a small ball being dangled by a crane. Groups of technicians aligned the points of each arm toward the ball. At the bottom of each arm, jutting out the base’s back stretched a tube which followed a path along the ground and up the sloping stadium walls until they branched into three smaller tubes, each leading to a tower. The nine towers were evenly spaced around the Ouroboceletron’s circumference. The towers rose at least one hundred feet tall and were completely wrapped in golden wire. Each tower terminated in a golden ball topped with a long lightning rod.

On the wall Lizzie noticed a picture of a snake eating its own tail. "An Ouroboros."

"Yes," Semiramis said. "Welcome to the Ouroboceletron. You can see our versions of Tesla coils on the surface." she pointed to the towers. "Although these are far more powerful than anything even Tesla imagined. The real wonder is underground, a circular tunnel, a super-collider which shall spin particles at light-speed. The energies shall focus through the points of the arms, and converge where the ball now dangles. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Lizzie said. "How do I kill you?"

"Throw them in the corner with Doggie. Strip the ebony man."

"Like hell, bitch," Pete yelled. "I’m a married man, with a family. No way in hell am I gonna strip for you."

The Galla ripped his clothes off and tossed him atop another naked man chained to the wall. The Galla dropped Lizzie and Jim in the corner.

Semiramis licked her lips. "Say hello to Sergeant Axler. A pet I brought from Iraq. Unfortunately, he’s almost used up."

"Semiramis, quit playing games. The time is near, the super-collider technicians are already prepared, but the points are not yet centered. I knew we should have killed these humans."

"You’re no fun, Kingu. You never were."

"The stakes are far too high to be having fun. General Rockford is most distressed. Two of his helicopters destroyed. And this Deandra is unaccounted for."

Semiramis knelt next to Lizzie. "Where is the remnant?"

"Deandra’s coming to kick your ass."

Semiramis squeezed Lizzie’s broken knee. Lizzie gritted her teeth and glared into Semiramis’s red eyes. The vampire’s pupils dilated to black pinholes and quivered with rage. Lizzie smiled.

Kingu plucked Jim from the floor, slammed him against the wall, and squeezed his throat. "The weak are easier to break. Talk, where is Deandra?"

"Don’t say nothin’, Jim," Pete said.

Semiramis slashed Pete’s cheek with her razor-like fingernails. "Silence, dog."

Kingu gripped Jim’s groin and twisted. Jim’s agonized shriek echoed throughout the room.

"I’m sorry," Jim said. "I’m just not strong enough. She went to get--"

"Jim, shut up," Lizzie said.

"To get the Scorpion-people."

Kingu laughed. "In that case, we’ll never see her again." He sank his razor-sharp fangs into Jim’s neck. Jim’s arms and legs flailed and kicked, before falling limply. Kingu dropped the corpse. "I detest the taste of cowards. Their blood tastes like piss."

"I prefer the blood of heroes," Semiramis said. "Poor Axler is all used up. Perhaps you, ebony man, should be my new toy." She licked the flowing blood from Pete’s cheek. "Perhaps you should share my bed."

"Piss off. Why would I want your scrawny ass?"

"But you could have this." She lifted her gown and smashed her crotch into his face. "In ancient times men battled for one night with me. Millions have died for the nectar of my crotch." She rubbed her had between her legs. She held her blood dripping fingers in Pete's face. "The properties of Anunnaki starfire contain the power of the universe. If you please me, I can grant you eternal life."

"Fuck you," Pete said.

"I was hoping you'd want to." Semiramis rubbed her blood stained digits across Pete's face, forced them into his mouth.

Pete spat, vomited, and passed out.

"What about you, Lizzie?"

"Ah, no thanks. I don't go that way."

"That's good," Kingu said. "Perhaps you would share my bed?"

"You're both sick fucks."

Semiramis stroked Lizzie's snow-white hair. "You misunderstand. I don't go that way either. You could have any man you wish. I would give as a reward for your allegiance."

"Yes," Kingu said. "You would make a powerful Ally, and eternal life would be yours. And wealth, power, anything your heart desires."

"Your little deformed friend," Semiramis said. "I would restore her to life."

All consuming rage flashed in Lizzie's eyes. "Suzy's dead. How dare you think I'd be your little sheep."

"All people are sheep. They need their shepherds." Kingu said. "Perhaps when you witness Tiamat's glory you will change your mind."

A dozen white robed technicians burst through the door and took their seats behind a row of computers and control panels. Another technician, in a blue robe, approached the vampires.

"What is it?" Kingu asked.

"The Ouroboceletron is ready. Everything is in proper alignment, and the Tesla coils are good to go."

"Excellent," Semiramis said. "Begin immediately."

"Maybe not so excellent."

"Ah, General Rockford, I was wondering when you'd show up." Semiramis said. "What do you mean?"

"Our security cameras, in the tunnel, caught images of...well it's hard to explain."

Kingu punched the wall. "Just come out with it."

"Bugs, they look like scorpions with human bodies on top, hundreds of them charging down the tunnel. They're melting the dead, and they've got Deandra Duke with them. Thousands more are crawling around campus. We've already lost thousands of zombies. I've ordered the M-1 tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and Humvees to take a defensive position inside the Ouroboceletron. I've ordered a platoon of snipers and machine gunners to hold the station. I've also rigged it with C-4."

"Very good. We only need a few minutes before we have enough power. Scorpion-people are good against the dead, but your modern firepower should stop them." Kingu said.

"Along with the tanks and armored vehicles equipped with .50 caliber machine guns and auto grenade launchers, I also have five hundred infantry deployed. We shouldn't have a problem. But if we do, I've got an AH-64 Apache gunship. I'd like to see these fucking bug-people try to get through that."

Lizzie's laugh echoed around the control room. "Never underestimate Deandra. I hope you've brought enough body bags. All your men are gonna die."

"Once Tiamat emerges, nothing in this pitiful world can stop us." Semiramis said. "Commence the procedure."

Lizzie felt a vibration growing through the floor when a technician flipped a switch.

"Super-collider on, generating twenty-five percent.' The lead technician said. "Start Tesla coils."

Another technician flipped a switch. A solid streak of lightning struck the rod-tipped golden ball atop each tower. Sparks erupted down their wire-wrapped lengths amid bolts of pure energy pulsated down the towers.

"Super-collider generating forty percent. Tesla coils at twenty percent. Commence target drop."

The crane maneuvered a golden ball directly above the three prongs. Target in place, sir."

"Behold," Semiramis said. "The ball contains a mixture of starfire and monoatomic gold. The real power that shall open the gate."

"Super-collider at fifty percent. Tesla coils at thirty percent. Estimated time until energy totality...ten minutes."

Lizzie closed her eyes and prayed to her Gods. Only ten minutes left, hurry up, Deandra.

************************

Deandra and her Scorpion-person army converged on the subway tunnels exit. "Something is wrong," Rah-Kitar said. "You said we had human enemies, but yet there is no opposition."

"At least that we can see." Deandra scanned the subway station, searching for anything out of place. Her hypersensitive hearing detected something her eyes had missed, at least twenty human heartbeats, and beeping noises. "Everyone stop."

"What do you sense?" Rah-Kitar asked.

"An Ambush, and rigged explosives. Keep your people here, I'll handle this."

Deandra crouched in the tunnel shadows, listening for her enemies' positions, making note of every heartbeat, every breath. A stomach growl muffled from within the control room. The walls and floor vibrated around her. The Ouroboceletron had been activated. No time to plan an attack, Deandra drew her pistols.

She calmly walked into the station, arms crossed in front of her chest, guns held to either side of her face, head held low. Her wide unblinking eyes surveyed every inch of station. Along the station's ceiling were positioned five bombs consisting of four C-4 bricks each. She waited. Nothing happened. "What the hell are you waiting for? I don't have all day. Or are you scared of a teenage girl?"

Simultaneously, the control room and a stairwell door opened. Two .50 caliber machine gun barrels thrust through the openings. Ten snipers armed with Barnett .50 caliber sniper rifles popped up behind a low concrete wall overlooking the station. Ten more emerged scattered around the area.

Deandra's first two shots caved in the machine gunners faces. They never had time to fire a shot. She ran along the track, partially concealed by the elevated floor, firing into the neat line of shooters behind the wall. Snipers were trained to calmly aim and take there shot. With Deandra moving down the track like a little blur, their shots were wild. For Deandra, it was like a shooting gallery. One after the other her enemies fell, many missing their heads. She reloaded as she jumped out of the recessed track onto the station floor. Concrete chunks erupted around her as bullets impacted the floor. More bullets whizzed past her head; she ducked and dodged them. Her bullets tore through four more men. The last four were positioned along an open stairwell. Her .45 slugs sent one rolling down the stairs. Two more dropped from their perches, slamming into the floor with a splattering thud. The last sniper's helmet bounced near Deandra's feet with what was left of his pulverized head splashing Deandra's legs.

Through the control room window, a figure fumbled with a detonator switch. Deandra holstered her pistols. With both feet forward, she crashed through the glass. Her feet caved in the man's chest and hurled his corpse against the wall. Deandra took his weapon. She recognized the M-4, similar to Father's M-16, only shorter. His bags were full of detonators. She took what she needed and filled her pockets with magazines for the rifle.

Deandra sprinted back to the tunnel, pausing to leap to each bomb and flip off the detonator switch. "It's alright now." She pointed to a few Scorpion-people. "Could a couple of you climb up there and cut down those bombs?" She pointed them out, and four scurried up the walls and retrieved them. She cut the C-4 apart and inserted a timed detonator into each brick. She dropped the twenty high explosive bombs into her bag and slung it over her shoulder."

"Is Deandra prepared now? I ache for battle." Rah Kitar asked.

Deandra smiled, the corner of her mouth curled into a mischievous grin. "I'm always ready."

"Deandra, wait." Utnapishtim said. "The best way to disable the Ouroboceletron is to destroy the main power pedestal. That will cut off power from the super-collider. You also need to destroy each of the Towers with the Tesla coils. That C-4 you picked up should do it."

"Do you have any idea how long it will take to power up?" Deandra asked.

"We probably have less than ten minutes."

Deandra climbed on Rah-Kitar’s back. "Let’s go, my friend."

Utnapishtim hit the switch. The heavy steel door rose.

The Scorpion-people charged into the open, stadium like, Ouroboceletron. Many soldiers hesitated from the speed of their attack, and the shocking appearance of the Scorpion-people. Deandra shouldered the M-4 and started picking off the soldiers manning the Humvee’s machine guns.

Their luck didn’t hold out for long. Muzzle flashes erupted along the line of vehicles. There was no cover, or darkness to conceal them. Huge stadium lights illuminated the entire area. Lightning bolts surged from the heavens into the golden ball topped Tesla towers. Even more brilliant was the glowing blue-white pure energy ball floating between the pedestal’s three arms.

Bullets tore into the ground. Lines of small explosions raked through the Scorpion-people. Scorpion limbs and pulp erupted with the blasts. The tank guns belched with a thunderous roar, blowing huge holes in the scorpion ranks. Bullets from the soldier’s rifles harmlessly bounced and ricocheted off the thick scorpion carapaces. But the armor piercing machine gun slugs punctured their shells. Almost one hundred Scorpion-people were already dead.

The Scorpion-people were fast, but Deandra was faster. She jumped off Rah-Kitar’s back and dashed ahead of her army. Her eyes focused on the thousands of incoming bullets, watching them in slow motion as they streaked toward her. Ducking, dodging and rolling through the incessant barrage, she assaulted the enemy line as bullet impacts and explosions churned the ground around her. She armed two bombs and crawled under the first tank, stuck one underneath it, moved to the other, and did the same. She vaulted over a Bradley armored vehicle, using it for cover as the tanks exploded. She stuck another bomb on the Bradley’s turret as sparks from striking bullets impacted around her. She fought her way to another Bradley, mowing down dozens of soldiers along the way. Attaching another bomb, she dove for cover behind a Humvee. The Bradleys erupted in a shower of shrapnel and debris that tore through several soldiers, turning them to hamburger.

Picking off three more Humvee gunners, she climbed atop another, snuck behind the vehicles gunner and snapped his neck. She tossed out the soldier’s corpse and examined the unfamiliar weapon. Fat, belt-fed grenades jutted out the side. She fired it into the line of men and vehicles, raining grenades upon two more Humvees and the last Bradley.

The grenades were useless against the heavy armor, so she swiveled the weapon to her other side, continually dodging and ducking bullets and tracers as they whizzed by her head. Two more Humvees and dozens of men erupted under her deadly barrage.

The Scorpion-people reached the line and swarmed over the remaining vehicles. Their claws sliced men in half; stingers sprayed blinding jets of venom before tearing through soldier’s bodies. Others used their claws to bat several soldiers at a time, hurling them into the burning vehicle wreckage

Deandra swiveled her grenade launcher back toward the Bradley, supporting the swarm of scorpions trying to breach its armor. Rah-Kitar crushed the barrel of the vehicle’s weapon with his claw. The gunner continued firing. The barrel exploded, backfiring into the turret. The gunner rose from the hatch with half his face blown off, an eye dangled down his exposed cheekbone. A six-inch piece of steel poked through his jaw. Rah-Kitar cut the soldier’s screams short with a pinch of his claw.

Deandra’s weapon clicked empty. She jumped from the Humvee, plucked two M-4’s from two dead hands, and reloaded them. Firing one in each hand, she dropped two dozen retreating soldiers.

The Scorpion-people cut down the fleeing troops, slaughtering them all. Claws dripping with gore, they returned to receive orders from Deandra.

"We have vanquished the human foes. What must we do now?" Rah-Kitar asked.

"Our first priority is to destroy these towers. Rah-Kitar, will you carry me to them?"

"Of course, it will be my pleasure."

Deandra handed Utnapishtim several bombs. "I will need you to help with the towers. Do you know how to set the timers?"

Utnapishtim took the bombs and climbed upon a Scorpion-persons back. "Just set the timer and push the button."

"Rah-Kitar, get your people to cover. I hear a helicopter coming." Deandra said.

Before they could act, an Apache gunship swooped over the wall, its rockets raining death upon the Scorpion-people. Several explosions obliterated dozens, splattering limbs, claws, and pulp. The helicopter’s machine gun tore through several more with armor piercing bullets. Deandra emptied her rifles, but the swift moving gunship darted over the wall.

The glowing blue-white energy ball started spinning, colors changing to dark swirls of blue and purple. The ball’s center drew back, into itself, while the outer edge spun faster, like watching water drain from a sink. The energy ball’s circumference remained the same size, but the center tunneled back, stretching into infinity. Swirling clouds now appeared, drawing closer to the opening. With the clouds came something else, some great beast, still to far away for even Deandra’s eyes to clearly see, something with a ferocious howl.

"Tiamat," Utnapishtim said. "If she gets out, there will be no stopping her."

"We’ll have to take out that helicopter first." Deandra said.

"No," Rah-Kitar said. "There is no time. If Tiamat emerges, all shall be lost. My people shall shield us with their bodies while we destroy these towers.

Deandra climbed upon Rah-Kitars back. Fifty of his people surrounded him. Another fifty swarmed around Utnapishtim. As the Scorpion-people advanced up the sloping walls, Deandra could now clearly see Tiamat’s approach. Brown-green reptilian scales covered an iguana-like body. Her powerfully built, cat-like hind legs pushed her toward the opening with paws tipped with long claws. The longer, almost human arms and clawed hands pulled. Tiamat’s head was rounded, like a short-snouted dog, with a plume of porcupine-like quills running from her head, down her back, and stretched down her long tail. Two green bat-like wings, folded against her sides, started to spread. The beast was huge; if she were standing on her hind legs she would easily be over one hundred feet tall.

The Apache made its second pass, firing rockets and its machine gun into the scorpion people guarding Utnapishtim. Many sacrificed themselves, hurling their bodies into the path of the helicopter’s fire. Deandra emptied her M-4’s, reloaded and continued firing at the approaching helicopter. The gunship’s rockets exploded into Deandra’s group with deadly effect. Almost there, but their numbers dwindled, and Tiamat was almost to the tunnel’s end.

***********************

Lizzie watched in horror as Tiamat advanced through the tunnel. There was little she could do but hope that Deandra had a plan. Pete was awake, but only semi-conscious. Semiramis pushed a button and a walkway emerged from under the control room and stretched toward the opened abyss. The vampires, General Rockford, and technicians stared in awe at the onrushing beast. Kingu, almost drooling, pressed himself to the window. If she was going to make a move, Lizzie would have to do it now.

Axler motioned for her attention, and he nudged Pete with his foot. Lizzie noticed the blinking master switch on the central control panel, only a few feet away. If Axler and Pete could make a diversion, she could get to it and buy Deandra some time.

"Behold," Semiramis said. "Tiamat, mother of the new age."

Kingu and Rockford descended a short stairway leading to the walkway door. He opened and crossed the bridge to great his Goddess, while Rockford watched the progress of his gunship’s assault.

Lizzie nodded to Axler and Pete.

Axler lunged at the distracted Semiramis, wrapping the chains that bound his wrists around her neck. Pete attacked the technicians. The naked men vented their rage, hate, and shame against their foes. Lizzie crawled to the panel, her muscles straining as she pulled herself atop the console and flipped off the switch. Technicians charged her, but she covered the switch with her body. They clawed, punched, and pulled at her, but Lizzie held tight. Pete smashed his fist into one of her attackers, the other fled.

"I’m not your dog anymore, bitch," Axler said.

Semiramis broke the chain around her neck like it was paper, spun around, lifted Axler above her head, and smashed the screaming man into her knee, snapping his spine. She cast his corpse aside. Semiramis’s fist smashed into Pete’s face, sending him spinning into the wall.

Semiramis smiled as she descended upon Lizzie. "Fool, Do you really think your dramatics can stop Tiamat now? There is a surplus of energy and shutting off one switch won’t stop it. You’d have to destroy the Tesla towers, and the pedestal’s base. Your friend had the right idea, but Rockford’s flying machine is wiping her and her scorpion friends out. They don’t have a chance."

"It’s not over yet, so don’t be such a cocky bitch."

Semiramis tore Lizzie from the control panel and hurled her to the floor. She turned the switch back on, and slammed her foot between Lizzie’s shoulder blades. Lizzie felt something in her shoulder crack. An intense wave of pain convulsed through her body. With each breath, searing pain stabbed through her chest. The last thing she saw before passing out was Semiramis descending upon her.

"Don’t worry, I’ll see that you live long enough to feel Tiamat’s bite. She’ll be hungry and a tasty morsel like you will be just what she needs."

***********************

Utnapishtim reached his target first. The three towers exploded and their debris tumbled down the wall. Utnapishtim and his scorpions then raced for the next towers. The gunship rose again. No time to properly set the bombs, Deandra would just have to throw them. She set the timers for ten seconds and turned on the detonators.

Explosions rocked around Deandra and tracers whizzed by her head as the Apache made another pass. Scorpion-people fell around her as she threw her bombs. "Quick, get me down to the pedestal." The blasts buckled the towers, two fell over the wall’s outer edge, and the other crashed down the interior.

Deandra armed the bomb and watched the gunship’s path. This pilot was better than the others; he flew evasively, in no discernable pattern. Even for Deandra it would be difficult to bring the Apache down with a thrown bomb.

The gunship swooped down upon Utnapishtim, rockets blowing through the Scorpion-people. A machine gun burst cut down Utnapishtim’s mount. He fell off, rolled, and jumped onto another scorpion’s back. The gunship didn’t return towards Deandra; it hovered, firing into Utnapishtim’s group. The pilot was trying to save the last three towers. There was no way even Deandra could throw the bomb across the Ouroboceletron and hope to hit the helicopter.

Halfway down the wall, Rah-Kitar pointed his claw at a metal bridge extending from the control room toward the portal. "There, Kingu and Semiramis."

Deandra also saw a man in military uniform watching them through binoculars. To Deandra’s surprise, when he noticed her watching him, he flipped her off. Deandra returned the gesture. Semiramis dragged something behind her. At that angle it was hard for Deandra to see what it was, but her heart sank when the realization set in. The vampire was dragging an unconscious, or dead, Lizzie by her long white hair.

The helicopter, out of rockets, continued its attack on Utnapishtim’s group with the machine gun. They couldn’t hold out much longer. Tiamat was near the opening, probably less than a minute before she would emerge. Deandra scanned the line of destroyed vehicles and soldiers. She saw what she needed. "How long will it take you to get to the base?"

"Less than a minute," Rah-Kitar said.

"Here, you’ll have to throw this at the base." Deandra set the timer for thirty seconds and put it in Rah-Kitar‘s claw. "Is that all right?" Deandra asked.

"It’s fine, if we even have that long."

Deandra vaulted from Rah-Kitar’s back and sprinted with lightning fast speed to her target. The Scorpion-people were deliberately standing to shield Utnapishtim’s mount from the rain of bullets. He was so close. She reached the rocket launcher, still strapped to a dead soldier’s back. She had never fired one before, hopefully the movies were accurate.

She shouldered the weapon, just as Rah-Kitar tossed the bomb in the base’s center. She sighted in the gunship and fired. The missile soared from the launcher, toward its target, leaving a trail of white smoke. The rocket struck the Apache under the cockpit, blowing off the helicopter’s front. The rest of the gunship spun several times before crashing atop the wall. The base exploded, but the portal remained. Tiamat’s head emerged. Her mouth opened and a high-pitched shriek issued from her throat. Kingu and Semiramis knelt; the General just stared in awe. Utnapishtim reached the towers and dropped his bombs at their bases. Semiramis lifted Lizzie over her head as Tiamat’s arms emerged from the gate.

Deandra ran towards the control room.

The first tower exploded.

Lizzie screamed a throaty, gurgling shriek as she awoke.

The second tower exploded.

Tiamat reached for her sacrifice. Lizzie struggled, but was unable to break free of Semiramis’s clutches.

The third tower exploded.

In the blink of an eye, the gate closed around Tiamat’s partially emerged body, severing it behind her shoulders. Tiamat’s triumphant cry ended as her severed body dropped, smashed into the ground, and lie twitching.

Only the glowing blue-white ball remained, still hovering above the destroyed pedestal. Rah-Kitar rallied what was left of his people; only fifteen of the original three hundred still remained.

Deandra fought her way up the control room stairs, gunning down two Galla. She leaped over their tumbling corpses and continued up the stairs. When she reached the door several escaping technicians burst through. Deandra’s bullets turned their heads to splattering pulp.

Deandra followed the barren concrete hall to a storeroom. Heaped in a corner were the partially consumed remains of Suzy; both legs were gone. The Galla squatted next to the stairwell door, its back turned to Deandra. It was gnawing flesh from one of Suzy’s legs. Deandra holstered her pistols; she would kill the beast with her bare hands.

"Hey, muttface, I’m going to enjoy killing you."

The Galla lunged for his spear, propped in the corner. Deandra just stood, waiting. The beast hurled the spear. She caught it, spun, and threw it back. The spear crashed through the dog-faced head and penetrated the concrete wall. The creature hung there, pinned to the wall. Deandra would have liked to take her time, make the thing suffer, but she didn’t have time to play games.

When she reached the control room she met the uniformed man sitting atop the control panel, weeping like a child.

"Now what do I do? My men, dead. My goddess, dead. The Brethren sent me to protect and secure the area. High-ranking Brethren will arrive in the morning to make their obeisance to Tiamat. What will I do then?"

"You won’t have to worry for long. You’ll be dead long before they arrive." Deandra snapped his neck.

She checked Pete’s pulse. He was still alive. She shook him awake. "Conceal your nakedness and make your escape. The dead man’s clothes may fit."

"Wait, I can help,"

Deandra didn’t respond. Drawing her .45’s she descended the stairs and stepped onto the walkway. Semiramis dangled the semi-conscious Lizzie over the railing. Kingu, quivering with rage, and on the brink of tears, drew a sword. Rah-Kitar led the Scorpion-people survivors up the wall. Thousands more poured over the outer wall, having finished with destroying the zombies.

Deandra drew her guns. "There is no escape, release my friend."

Semiramis giggled while she shook Lizzie by the ankle. "Release her. Why? So you’ll let us live? You can’t kill us. The Scorpion-people can’t kill us. It is you who will die."

Several Scorpion-people crawled along the underside of the walkway toward Lizzie. Kingu swung over the railing with speed rivaling Deandra’s. Hanging by his fingertips he cut the advancing scorpions to pieces. Using only one finger, he thrust himself back atop the walkway.

Deandra fired, emptying her guns. Kingu’s sword flashed, each bullet sparking as he deflected them.

Kingu reared his head and laughed with maniacal glee. "Why should I tire myself with dramatics? Your bullets cannot harm me. Go ahead and shoot me."

Deandra reloaded and fired. Her bullets tore into his chest, neck, and head. Kingu just stood there, laughing.

"You little bitch. You didn’t have to shoot me in the head. That’ll give me a headache." Kingu closed his eyes, arched his back, and grunted, as his body grew rigid.

"They have laxatives that can help you with that." Deandra said.

One by one, the bullets popped out of their holes, and almost instantly, the bullet holes healed.

"Kingu, look out," Semiramis cried.

"Never close your eyes in a fight, dumbass." Deandra said before smashing her fist into his face. Her fists pummeled him with superhuman speed, forcing him down. She pounced upon him and continued pounding.

Kingu struck his knees into Deandra’s back, hurling her forward. Semiramis’s foot caught Deandra in mid-air, kicking her through the control room window.

"Goal," yelled Kingu.

Deandra lay amidst the broken glass, blood flowing from minor cuts, her body aching. She tried to stand, only to fall.

Kingu leaped to her side and raised his sword. "Was it worth it? You won. You temporarily thwarted our plans and killed our Goddess. You knew you couldn’t kill us, but you tried, failed, and now you’re gonna die." He swung his sword.

Deandra dodged the blade, and rammed her foot into Kingu’s groin. The blow tossed him out the window and dropped him at Semiramis’s feet.

Utnapishtim staggered through the door, out of breath. "Deandra...the energy...created from them...the monoatomic gold and starfire...the energy ball will consume these properties within them. In doing so, it should destroy all other matter. The energy they created may destroy them."

"And if it doesn’t?"

"I suppose it’s possible they could draw energy from it. It could make them even stronger."

"Great," Deandra said.

Several more Scorpion-people attacked Kingu, led by Rah-Kitar. Kingu hacked them down. Rah-Kitar blocked Kingu’s blade, but the blow tossed him over the railing. An almost endless stream of Scorpion-people swarmed up the wall and skittered along the walkway. Kingu’s sword and Semiramis’s razor sharp fingernails, flashed with lightning fast speed, sending droves of attackers falling in pieces.

Deandra noticed Lizzie starting to slip from Semiramis’s grasp.

Deandra rushed to the walkway. "Stop the attack. Leave it to me. You have already lost too many lives. I thank the Scorpion-people for all you have done, but I must finish this."

The Scorpion-people retreated down the wall.

"Lay Lizzie down. Let Utnapishtim carry her away, and you can have me."

"Instead of your sacrifice, what if I’d prefer you alive?" Semiramis laid Lizzie onto the walkway. "I offer you the same deal I gave your friend. Join us. We need not Tiamat. Look at the strength we possess."

"You speak blasphemy," Kingu said. "I will not join forces with those who murdered Tiamat."

Semiramis glared at Kingu. "Then perhaps I no longer need you?"

"I made you, Semiramis, never forget that."

"Hmmm, and my first husband made me queen. After that I disposed of him. After my own son sought to overthrow me, I disposed of him as well. I am a creature of pure ambition, never forget that, Kingu. Little do you care for me anyway, leaving me entombed for over one hundred and fifty years. With Tiamat now dead, I bow to nothing. I shall be supreme deity of this world and you can join your precious Tiamat."

"It’s a deal," Deandra said.

Pete approached from behind while Utnapishtim ran out and carried Lizzie back.

"I didn’t think you’d sell out," Pete said.

"Trust me one last time. You and Utnapishtim get Lizzie to safety. I’ll finish this."

"OK, I’ll trust you, but who the hell is Utnapishtim?"

"That would be my real name." He handed Lizzie to Pete. "I’ve got to help end this, get her out of here."

"Very well, Semiramis. Let us finish Kingu. Then we can discuss our plans." Deandra said.

Semiramis smiled and lunged at Kingu while Deandra charged from behind. Kingu’s blade flashed in wide arcs, but he could not keep up with two attackers. Semiramis knocked Kingu’s sword from his hand, while Deandra pounced from behind, twisting Kingu’s head around. Semiramis grabbed his long hair and hurled him into the brilliant blue-white light.

Kingu hovered outside the ball, screaming as it dissolved him. His arms flailed, hands clawing for something to hold, clawing for Deandra and Semiramis. Before he melted into oblivion, he shouted a curse in a language Deandra did not understand.

"Now, where were we?" Semiramis asked.

Deandra said nothing. Her kick caught Semiramis in the stomach, throwing her toward the energy ball. Catching the railing, she pulled herself back to the walkway. Before she could regain her footing, Utnapishtim charged, smashing his shoulder into her chest. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to force her into the energy ball.

"What are you doing, Utnapishtim? The energy would consume you as well." Semiramis said.

"I’ve lived long enough."

"Very well," Semiramis said. She spun Utnapishtim over her head and tossed him toward the ball. He hovered there, as Kingu had, slowly being torn apart atom by atom.

Deandra and Semiramis met at the walkway’s end. Semiramis’s razor sharp nails flashing while Deandra dodged or deflected the blows. Semiramis was only half Anunnaki; nowhere near as fast as Kingu. Deandra’s blows pummeled her and smashed her face. Semiramis’s nails sliced through Deandra's skirt and jacket, cutting her legs, hands, and arms. Deandra countered with fierce body blows and kicks. Deandra spun; her kick slammed into Semiramis’s face and spun her around. Deandra kicked again, striking between her shoulder blades, and sending Semiramis flying.

The energy ball’s pull drew Semiramis’s ankles toward it like a magnet, but she grasped the railing, trying to pull herself back. Deandra went for the kill. What was left of Utnapishtim clutched Semiramis’s ankle and pulled her to him. Deandra tore Semiramis’s hands from the railing.

"No, don’t kill me I can grant you any wish."

Deandra pushed her into the energy ball. Utnapishtim wrapped his dissolving arms around her, pulling her deeper within. Semiramis’s screams lingered long after her body dissolved.

Deandra found Pete and Lizzie on the ground near Tiamat’s body. Pete cradled the injured girl in his arms. Lizzie wasn’t moving. Hundreds of Scorpion-people surrounded Deandra, clicking their claws to salute her. Soon, they were joined by Rah-Kitar, injured from his fall, one claw cracked by Kingu’s blow.

Deandra knelt next to Lizzie, oblivious to the Scorpion-people hailing praises and congratulations.

"I think she’s hurt bad inside." Pete said. "Her shoulder feels funny. Her body made crunching noises when I carried her. The last thing I remember from before I passed out was that bitch kicking her."

"There are a couple of Humvees not destroyed get her to her hearse. The front seat is comfortable, then get her to a hospital."

"What are you gonna do? You’re comin’ too, aren’t you? Lizzie may not make it."

"She better. I’ve got to do this for Lizzie. There are more Brethren to kill. If I don’t finish this now, we may have to face them again."

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Near the Ouroboceletron, Deandra waited near the helicopter landing pad wrapping her wounds with gauze. Rah-Kitar waited with her.

"I hope your friend does not succumb. So many innocent people have already died, and so many of my people."

"Lizzie’s strong. I owe it to her and to everyone who died to see that these bastards are stopped."

A lone Black Hawk flew low, along the treetops. It approached from the east, silhouetted against the sunrise. Deandra wondered who was on board as she shouldered the rocket launcher. She fired, not really caring. Burning helicopter and human debris rained upon the landing pad.

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The press reported that terrorists attacking a California college released deadly bacteria from the microbiology department. The bacteria killed the entire local population; they stated the number of dead to be ten to twelve thousand. General Rockford and his entire Rapid Deployment Homeland Defense Counter Terrorism Unit were posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for sacrificing their lives by going directly into the contaminated zone to battle the terrorists.

It only took a few days, and a lot of explosives to completely level the entire town, college, and Ouroboceletron. The road leading to the town was also destroyed. But just off the interstate a strange pyramidal marker topped with a large eye was erected, commemorating those who had died for freedom.

Press reported another tragedy that day. A helicopter carrying several national and international politicians and global business leaders crashed en-route to a global trade summit. It was reported that a gross mechanical failure caused the crash.

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One month later, Deandra stood atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean holding an ash filled urn. The sound of screeching wheels approaching, knifed through her ears.

"Thanks Deandra, for carrying her up here."

"It was the least I could do for my best friend."

Deandra turned to see Pete pushing Lizzie up the path in a wheelchair. Her left arm was propped up and wrapped in a cast stretching from above her wrist to the back of her shoulder. Another cast wrapped around her right leg, with a brace around her less damaged left knee.

"Besides, I had to. I feel responsible for what happened to her, and you."

"She was my responsibility. I’m just glad you found her."

Deandra handed Lizzie the urn. "Would you like to?"

"No. You do it, throw her far over the ocean."

Deandra unscrewed the top, leaving it just barely attached. She drew back her arm and hurled the urn with full force. The urn flew high and far before the top flew off and Suzy’s ashes scattered over the water.

A single tear ran down Lizzie’s cheek. "You know, I’ll be out of commission for awhile."

"It’s all right, you’ve earned a rest."

"Don’t worry, Lizzie. If Deandra needs somebody to watch her back, I’d be happy to help."

"Thank you Pete," Deandra said. "But I suggest you keep a low profile. You’ve got a family to worry about. The Babylonian Brethren are just one of many secret societies seeking to take over the world. And I’m certain I’m on their hit list."

"Me too," Lizzie said.

"So what’s your plan?" Pete asked.

Deandra smiled. "Same plan I’ve always had. I’m going to kill them all."

"Pete, I’m getting tired. Could you take me home?"

"Sure thing, Lizzie. It’ll be awhile before you can drive that big ol’ hearse of yours again. You need a ride too, Deandra?"

"No, thank you. I just need to think awhile."

Deandra watched Pete wheel Lizzie down the trail, and then turned to watch the ocean. She felt a tug on her skirt. "Hello, Cindy. I had a feeling you’d be by."

"I helped Lizzie’s friend cross over. She’s happy there. She’s with her mommy and daddy. She’ll be dropping by to say goodbye to Lizzie. That should make Lizzie feel better."

"I hope so, she’s been through hell."

"You know this is only the beginning, don’t you? This ancient evil has been destroyed, but other evils take its place. All the evil in this, and other worlds, now want you dead."

Deandra trudged down the trail. "That’s all right. The feeling is mutual."

"Only you can stop them. I have faith in you, Deandra. I know you can do it."

A mischievous grin curled in the corner of Deandra's mouth. It was a month since she last shot her guns, it was time to go out and have some fun.

ã Copyright 2005 by David Johanek, All rights reserverd.

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(c) copyright 2005, by David Johanek, all rights reserved.