VAA Mafia Gang [Work in progress]

[InuKun]

Okay, so this story is a work in progress. It's something that popped into my head whilst reading the facebook status of one of the members of the VAA Mafia Group. And although I know everyone by their real name, out of respect, and the ability to help others know who is who, I am using their VAA handles (with the exception of osparrow who is going by Larsa).

Enjoy.

Prologue

Autumn. A season of beauty and cheer, as many go about preparing for the long winter ahead, whilst admiring the trees and their rich colors. Winters in Central Michigan are particularly harsh, especially whenever a blizzard takes out the highway, causing motorists to question where the edge of the road ends, and fields begin. But I digress. This story takes place in autumn, and not the middle of winter.

It’s the story of a group of people whose lives seemed somewhat ordinary, but in fact, for most of them, their lives were about to become anything but ordinary. As we begin our story, picture in your mind’s eye a small town surrounded by fields, where there isn’t that much to do for young adults, except for hanging around the corner coffee shop where one of them worked.. They often did this, unsure of what they might plan to do on any given day.

As the coffee shop opened its doors for another seemingly normal day of business, IntoRapture began reading the local paper, taking note of an article regarding a nearby cemetery which had been founded over 150 years earlier, and the rich history it held. “Weird! I didn’t know Dartmoor Cemetery housed so many graves of Natives from long ago. I always thought they were buried in Native Burial Grounds, most of which are under our houses.”

Then, just as clockwork, in came almost all of IntoRapture’s friends at once. The only one not present was DonJuan, who was busy finishing a practical for his Commercial Multi-Engine Pilot License. Her boyfriend JusticeGuy led the pack and smiled as he leaned over the counter to kiss her before taking a red rose he’d bought and slid it in her hair by her left ear. “Hi.” JusticeGuy was somewhat flustered as he said this, not because he wasn’t used to being IntoRapture’s boyfriend, but because everything about her always caused his heart to sing in gratitude over having IntoRapture in his life.

“Knock it off JusticeGuy!” Elad interrupted with a mischievous grin on his face. “We all know you’d rather be with IntoRapture than anyone else, but you don’t have to try and swoon her every time you see her, at work or elsewhere.”

IntoRapture seemed to ignore Elad’s comment, getting a cup of crushed ice and a cup of roast coffee, of which she handed Xyk the ice and Al a mode the coffee. “Would you both be so kind?” They both looked at each other before giving a nod of understanding to IntoRapture. So with Elad facing the other way, Xyk quietly crept up behind him and after a mental count to three, he proceeded to tug on the back of Elad’s shirt collar, and pour the crushed ice down, before giving Elad a hug.

Elad howled as the small fragments of frozen water slid down his back, some of which went into his boxers before starting to slowly melt. A moment later, Xyk let go as Al a mode began pouring the coffee down the back of Elad’s shirt, which resulted in more yelps from Elad as he ran for the restroom with a huge wet backside visible to everyone who laughed. IntoRapture smiled and mouthed “Thank You” to both Xyk and Al a mode.

“Okay, so now that Elad is out of the room for a little while, what do you all want to do tonight?” JusticeGuy asked. “After all, it’s Halloween and I don’t want to just sit around doing nothing.”

At that moment, IntoRapture got an idea. “Well, we could go visit Dartmoor Cemetery and spend some time up there. Since it’s over 90 acres, we could go explore the area.” Her suggestion fell upon a quiet group, who pondered the recommendation. She then handed Xyk the news article she’d been reading. “It’s even reputed to be haunted by the ghosts of those who’ve perished, which is a nice ambience for Halloween.”

“It seems like it could be a lot of fun” Xyk added, to which Al a mode looked at him in surprise.

“Are you kidding?!” Al a mode replied. “There’s no way I’m spending time in a graveyard at night. Especially on this night of the year!” It wasn’t that Al a mode was scared, just that she felt it would be disrespectful to those who rest there.

“Scared Al a mode?” Xyk grinned as he asked her this. He knew how to push her buttons, although she also knew far more about how to push his.

Al a mode shot back with an icy reply. “No! I just don’t think it’s right for us to do this!” She shook her head in disbelief. “I for one wish to respect the dead and let those who are in their final resting place, continue to be at rest! Ghosts, or no ghosts!”

“Alright, we’ll decide this by democratic vote!” Lybi suggested. “All those in favor, say Aye!”

“AYE!” came everyone save Al a mode and Larsa.

“And against?” Lybi added.

Larsa and Al a mode just shook their heads in disbelief, refusing to even vote.

“All right, fine! But if anything happens, I’m blaming you Xyk!” Al a mode said, resigning to the fate that seemingly had been thrown upon her by most of the group. Why, oh why did she get hooked into such things?

“GREAT!” IntoRapture exclaimed. “Then we’ll all meet up at the entrance to the cemetery around 9 o’clock tonight! Until then, I suggest you all get planning and get some sleep.” She paused for a moment to hand Chibi Riki her drink. “I have a feeling we’re going to have one heck of a fun time tonight!”

At that moment, Elad came back out from the restroom. “Hey Elad! Good news buddy!” JusticeGuy announced. “We’re going to be at the Dartmoor Cemetery tonight to see if we can find some ghosts of those who reside in that old place!”

Elad looked at JusticeGuy like he was nuts. “You can’t be serious! There’s no such thing as ghosts!”

“Well then, there’s no harm in going to find out, is there?”

Little did anyone in the group know, but what they would discover would make an encounter or two with ghosts seem like child’s play. And it would make them wish they had seen ghosts at the cemetery.

[InuKun]

Chapter One

DonJuan had completed his flight and was waiting on the paperwork to be completed by the FAA when his cell phone signaled that there was a new voicemail for him. Dialing into his voicemail, he was surprised to find that it was from Essie, who was another member of the group.

“Hey DonJuan, it’s Essie. Just wanted to say that I hope your flight this morning went well and that we now have a pilot amongst our ranks who can take everyone to different places.” DonJuan gave a light chuckle and shook his head with a smile on his face. “Anyway, I wanted to let you know that we have arranged to all spend the night starting at 9 o’clock this evening, over at the old Dartmoor Cemetery in order to hunt out possible ghosts which are said to possibly lurk there. I was wondering if you’d like to join us over there. If you can make it, let me know. No worries though if you can’t. Again, hope it all went well this morning and look forward to hearing how it went! Bye for now!”

DonJuan shrugged his shoulders as he hung up. “Who knows? It could be fun! And it could serve as a celebration of sorts for me for getting my training finally done.” With that, he called Essie back, and left a message on her cell to inform her that he had passed and that he’d be interested in meeting up with everyone that night at the cemetery.

At about 8:30, Essie and Lybi showed up at the entrance to the cemetery. It’s wrought iron gate standing ominously before the two of them. “Damn! I didn’t think it would be this creepy looking!” Lybi mentioned, noticing a fog was beginning to settle in over the cemetery. “Ooh! There’s a bad omen.”

Within the next few minutes IntoRapture, JusticeGuy, Elad, Larsa, Al a mode, Xyk, Kelsey, Namanda, CrossFire, Chibi Riki and DonJuan all arrived, to which DonJuan’s arrival heralded cheers and a round of applause from everyone for having passed his test that morning.

“Thanks, though that is of course a thank you back to each of you for being the outstanding and supportive friends that you are.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere DonJuan!” Elad teased before walking up to the gate. “Wow! That fog in there seems to be rolling towards us, and appears somewhat thick.”

DonJuan looked at Elad with a quizzed look on his face. “That’s strange. The conditions around here tonight aren’t right for creating any type of fog.” Something else seemed to be troubling him as well. The way the fog traveled would require a breeze be blowing at them, but the night air was completely calm.

“Well, here goes nothing!” With that JusticeGuy began to push the gate open, creating a loud creaking sound as the gate advanced inward until it was far enough for everyone to walk in. When everyone was inside, the gate was closed once more, and just as JusticeGuy brought the gate, the fog reached the fence, yet it did not go passed the fence line.

“Well, where should we go first?” Elad could see everyone else somewhat, but it was hard with the fog the way it was.

“Let’s split up into groups and cover the four compass corners.” Al a mode elected to take charge, even though she still had her reservations about this entire event. “We’ll use the walkie talkies to keep in touch. Make sure you’re all on Channel Nine.” With that said, everyone checked and made sure their individual walkie talkies were on nine.

“I also suggest given this fog that we stay with the group at all times” DonJuan added, with a vice of caution. However, it seemed rather mute since just as he finished that statement, the fog suddenly lifted entirely. “WHAT THE HELL?!” There was no way a fog could just vanish like that, especially when there was no sun to burn it off.

This should have been a strong warning of bad news to everyone in the group, however they didn’t seem to be overly concerned, save for just surprise. “Well, that helps” Elad commented.

Breaking up, it was decided that Kelsey, Namanda, IntoRapture and JusticeGuy would remain in the area everyone currently was in to the south. Lybi, Larsa, and Essie would head to the east. CrossFire, Chibi Riki and Elad would go west, and Al a mode, Xyk and DonJuan would go all the way to the north.

Since Xyk, Al a mode and DonJuan would have the farthest to travel, they headed out first, with the other groups leaving a few minutes later. As they walked, Xyk and Al a mode asked DonJuan some questions about his flight from earlier that day, and how it felt to now be a pilot who could be paid for flying others.

“It feels nice, though a relief to have the training out of the way finally.” As they got to the half way point, he asked Xyk what he and Al a mode had done to Elad, given how Elad had been glaring at them with cold eyes the entire time back at the entrance.

“Well, he was just doing his usual insanity routine to annoy IntoRapture and so she handed me a cup of crushed ice and Al a mode a cup of coffee and then hinted to us what to do with them.” Xyk explained.

“So we did what any civil individual would do. We dumped them down the back of Elad’s shirt.” Al a mode added on with a smile on her face.

As they explained this to DonJuan, he thought he could hear something off in the distance. He stopped, and when Xyk and Al a mode looked at him and were about to ask what was wrong, he raised his arm. “Shh!” They remained quiet for a few seconds, before hearing this moaning sound off before them, seemingly a fair ways off, but somehow sounding closer every moment.

Xyk grabbed his walkie talkie and hailed everyone. “Hey, is anyone making a sound like moaning out loud right now?”

The response from Elad’s group summed it up. “No, why?”

“Cause we’re hearing a moaning sound in front, which sounds like it’s coming closer.”

“Maybe it’s a ghost coming to haunt you” Elad said, pretending to have a spooky voice.

“Elad, I’m going to kill you if you don’t shut up.” Xyk had no idea what that noise was, but it still seemed somewhat louder now.

“What is that sound?” Al a mode asked.

DonJuan looked ahead and squinted. He thought he could see something on the next hill moving. It seemed a little erratic in its movements. He motioned to Xyk and Al a mode and pointed in the general location. There was a somewhat shallow valley between the two hills, and as DonJuan took his torch and shone the high powered beam in the direction of the shadow, they saw what appeared to be one person in shabby clothes slowly heading down. But that wasn’t all they saw.

As the person continued to stumble forward, more started to appear, and some seemed to rise out of the graves themselves in the distance.

“Holy…” Xyk could feel his heart beating wildly within his chest as the three of them watched this, somewhat frozen in fear at the sight unfolding before them.

With his free hand shaking wildly in fear, DonJuan brought his walkie talkie up to his mouth. “Uh guys! We found something.”

IntoRapture took her own unit and replied in excitement. “GREAT! What did you find? A full torso apparition?”

Al a mode gulped as she grabbed the walkie talkie of hers. “Um, no. We haven’t found any ghosts.”

The three of them were still paralyzed with fear, but had found themselves starting to slowly inch backwards, not daring to take their eyes off of what was happening in the distance.

“Well, what did you find then if it wasn’t a ghost?”

Before they could even answer that, DonJuan muttered a single word to Xyk and Al a mode as he lowered his light. “Run!” He didn’t need to tell them twice.

Running back towards the entrance, DonJuan shouted his response for everyone. “RUN! GET BACK TO THE GATE NOW! WE’VE COME ACROSS ZOMBIES!!! THIS IS NO JOKE! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, RUN FOR IT!” The three of them had to be careful of tombstones in the ground as they ran, but what annoyed them was when Elad tried to call their bluff.

“Yeah! Sure! And I’m Dr. Dre!”

“LISTEN! WE AREN’T JOKING!” Xyk had plenty of fear in his voice. It would only increase as he tripped and sprained his ankle on a tombstone. DonJuan and Al a mode stopped for a second to check on him, to which he insisted they leave him behind and keep going without him.

“Just leave me here and save yourselves!” It was hard for Xyk to put any pressure on his foot, and he knew he’d only slow them down.

“Screw that!” DonJuan replied, before putting Xyk on his back and piggybacking with him. “I’m not leaving you behind! Al a mode would be forever upset if she lost you like this!”

Suddenly, Larsa came on shouting that her team believed them, and informing everyone that they have just seen a few zombies come out of the ground where they are. To which IntoRapture and JusticeGuy looked at each other in concern before seeing an arm shoot out before them from the ground. IntoRapture let out a scream before Namanda and JusticeGuy grabbed her and they all started running.

Within moments, everyone was safely back at the entrance, wherein JusticeGuy, Elad and DonJuan began fighting to open the gate quickly, hearing the moans of zombies getting closer. Getting the door open, everyone went through, with JusticeGuy pulling Xyk through the gate before they pulled it shut.

“We can’t stay here! As soon as they get past the fence, we’ll be sitting ducks if we stay here!” DonJuan explained.

“Where should we go?” Larsa asked, with tears of fright rolling down her cheeks.

“For now, let’s go to my house.” DonJuan answered. “We can come up with a game plan and figure out what to do from there.”

Rushing into their vehicles, everyone began to drive off, but not before all seeing the zombies reach the gate, and proceeding to try and wrestle it open.

Racing through the streets, all the group were terrified as they made their way across town to DonJuan’s house. The advantage they would have is that DonJuan lived on a Private island and that with the strong currents, the only way by land to the island was by a drawbridge. When they arrived at the bridge, DonJuan pulled to one side and opened the gate, before waving for everyone to go ahead of him. As they did, DonJuan re-entered at the rear of the group and after closing the gate and locking it, began to cross the bridge, eying the dark water beneath as he got halfway along. He then raised the drawbridge which is typically to allow trawlers access to the area around the bridge, before finishing the cross over to the island and parking in front of the house.

Everyone for the most part was freaking out and letting their fear show. But then again, most people would if they were faced with the situation these people found themselves in.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED BACK THERE?!” Xyk asked in a loud and frightened voice whilst Al a mode began tending to his ankle. DonJuan grabbed some bandage wrap from the bathroom first aid cabinet and helped Al a mode out, to which once it was determined Xyk simply had a sprain, DonJuan waved his arms to get everyone’s attention.

“All right! It seems we have a situation on our hands which no one foresaw. As far as we know, it seems zombies have risen from the cemetery, hard to believe though it may be.” He wiped his face with his hand and looked down at the beads of sweat covering it. “The question though, is what do we do going forward?” He glanced at Elad and IntoRapture, both of whom had their heads down seemingly in thought.

“What can we do?” Kelsey asked, wondering if anyone else was running into the zombies as they spoke.

“Well, it’s said that killing a zombie is virtually impossible as they are just mindless corpses seeking to eat the brains of the living in order to relieve the pain they feel.” DonJuan’s statement hit a chord with several of them.

“Excuse me?! Pain?! What pain could they be possibly feeling since they’re already dead?!” Essie had remained quiet for the most part, but that got her vocal.

“The pain of being dead! Think about it. You’re a rotting corpse of bones and decaying flesh. Surely being animated as such would be painful as you feel your body rotting away.”

Al a mode raised her hand, not wanting to have such a picture in her mind. “But what can we do to stop them?”

“What if we cremate them?” Lybi asked. “If we burn their flesh, we could stop them moving as the bones seem to still require muscle tissue to move.”

Larsa, being a skilled pyromaniac, smiled at that thought and began thinking about how she could construct a fire large, and hot enough to consume such a large number of corpses. “Great idea! I think I could come up with a potent fire to swallow them whole.”

DonJuan thought to himself for a moment. “That could work, provided they aren’t spreading out as they look for hosts to feast upon the brains of. Otherwise, we’d have a huge radius to cover and no way of controlling the fire.”

Larsa looked at the regional map on the wall of DonJuan’s living room. “Do you have a ruler, a compass and a calculator I could borrow DonJuan?”

“Yeah. They’re in the study. One sec.” He headed over to the door to his dad’s study, but just as he got there, he paused. “I just had a thought.” With that, he turned the TV on and switched to remote camera view. The screen began to switch between 7 cameras which monitored the island, along with the bridge. The screens around the island showed nothing out of the ordinary. The same could not be said at the bridge.

Though the zombies had not reached the gate, everyone could see a flurry of activity on the streets beyond as zombies seemingly went house to house, to which everyone sighed and felt sadness for those within the houses. DonJuan however simply turned and rushed to his dad’s study, getting the instruments Larsa had asked for. Though he was equally as upset as everyone else, he knew they had to hurry, as that fence and the raised drawbridge would not buy them too much time.

Handing Larsa the instruments she’d asked for, DonJuan saw his parents finally come downstairs. “What is going on? What was all that noise earlier?” DonJuan’s father asked as he saw everyone and noticed the look of dread and fear which shone in each of their eyes.

“Trust me dad. You two would not believe us even if you saw it with your own eyes.”

Elad walked over and ushered the two of them into the living room, before pointing at the screen. “See for yourselves the zombies out front.” Everyone except Larsa watched closely as the screen showed the carnage, in addition to the seemingly increasing numbers of zombies. “As one is attacked by a zombie, they become a zombie themselves. Wanting to ease their own pain in death.”

“Seriously Elad! Shut up!” JusticeGuy said, not wanting to have to think about such things.

“OOO! It looks like they’re at the fence!” Chibi Riki called out. Indeed, they were at the fence, and had begun trying to shake it, only to be sent staggering backwards with a flash of light.

“What just happened?!” Lybi asked, in partial disbelief.

“The fence has an electric trigger on it. If you don’t open it the right way, as per the sign on the fence, you’ll get a nasty shock.” DonJuan’s father replied, with a smirk on his face. He then turned to his wife. “See? I told you that would come in handy!” DonJuan simply rolled his eyes, wondering if by any chance, he were adopted, and not the biological son of these two oddballs.

As Larsa continued to plot away, Al a mode walked over to DonJuan and thanked him for saving Xyk. “You’re welcome, although it would have been a loss to us all to have him go.” With that, he whispered softly “Don’t forget to smile. We’ll all get through this alright, and Xyk I know enjoys seeing that smile on your face of pride and joy.” Having said that, DonJuan walked over and looked over Larsa’s shoulder as she plotted away measurements for this cremation fire she was planning.

The Zombies were of course continuing to try and get past the fence, but so far, the fence was seemingly holding its own against the would be attackers. Though it was only a matter of time before DonJuan’s father knew they would succeed at breaking through the fence, as the electric system is only running off a regular 6 volt battery, which at this rate would weaken soon. “We’ll have to hurry it up somewhat!” DonJuan’s father pointed out in a somewhat hurried voice. “It seems the battery which is powering the electrical side of the fence is starting to loose power from all this activity on it!”

As they all watched, Xyk suddenly shook his head. “It’s got to be the Reese’s!”

As if all were following the cue from and unseen director, everyone, including Larsa, paused, and then glanced at Xyk in confusion. A chorus of “HUH?!” followed.

“It’s got to be the Reese’s!” Xyk was making no sense, to which everyone wondered if he was still sane. “I’m telling you. See, Al a mode and I were over at her house this afternoon and she told me that I could have ‘Some’ of the Reese’s which were left out for trick-or-treaters!”

Al a mode wondered what brought all this up all of a sudden as she looked at her beloved boyfriend in disbelief. “Xyk, what are you trying to say?”

“Don’t you get it?!” Xyk started using hand gestures to emphasize what he was talking about. “Look, my point is that you can’t just have ‘Some’ of the Reese’s! You’ve got to have ‘All’ of the Reese’s! It’s because I didn’t have all of the Reese’s at your house this evening that we got attacked by those zombies!”

“Well, we weren’t actually attacked so much as threatened and chased by them.” DonJuan was quick to point out. “So what do you think would help solve that issue Xyk?”

“That’s easy! I eat all the Reese’s that are here, and that will cause the zombies to disappear! It’s completely logical!”

“GREAT! Now Xyk’s becoming like Elad and loosing his mind!” JusticeGuy threw his arms in the air, as if questioning why he was stuck with the weirdoes on tonight of all nights.

“I resent that!” Elad responded with great seriousness in his tone of voice. He walked up to Xyk before grabbing Xyk’s shirt and shaking him. “You can’t be insane Xyk! Only I am allowed to be insane in this group! If you don’t stop being insane this moment, I’ll have no choice but to sue you for trademark infringement as well as boot you out as there isn’t enough room in this town for another Elad!”

Al a mode quickly bopped Elad on the head. “Do you mind?! That’s MY boyfriend you’re trying to rough up Elad, and I won’t put up with it!” She then turned to Xyk as he tried to gain comfort in knowing that she truly cared for him. However, as he looked to her, Al a mode suddenly got and evil glint in her eye and a troublemaker’s grin on her face, before she proceeded to shake Xyk madly. “WAKE UP XYK! STOP THIS MADNESS AND JUST COME AWAY FROM THE INSANE WORLD OF ELAD! COME JOIN US HERE IN THE SANE WORLD!”

[InuKun]

Chapter Two

After the whole Xyk incident calmed down again, everyone resumed watching the TV as Larsa went back to plotting her ultimate crematorium fire for all those zombies out there in town. Essie walked over to check on Larsa and noticed something rather odd as she looked at the map. “Hey DonJuan? What direction does the river flow?” she asked.

“Hmm. It flows north of here to the old mill, and then it forks to head north and east. Why?”

“Well, according to the map Larsa has here, there seems to be an underground line from the mill which runs directly under Dartmoor Cemetery, and goes off somewhere.” She traced her finger as Larsa watched, having paused again when she heard Essie’s comment.

DonJuan’s father looked to Essie in surprise. “It’s not an underground line. It’s a cavern which the town back in the 30’s decided to build the mill upon. It served until the early 80’s as a dumping ground for not only the industrial waste for the mill, but also as the town’s dump. The practice was stopped however when the EPA tightened its regulations against such dumping.”

DonJuan thought about what his father had just said whilst everyone else seemed frustrated with the town for having been so lazy and cheap with disposal of such things.

“I guess we should just leave the town to its own demise then. They pretty much had this coming.” Elad said with disappointment in his voice. “After all, they are reaping what they seemed to have sowed.”

“Elad, shut up right now, or so help me… I’ll throw you to the zombies as an offering!” JusticeGuy was at his limit.

Something his dad had said however was bothering DonJuan. After all, with that fog they’d seen in the cemetery coupled with the zombies and now the revelation about toxic and regular waste having been dumped under the cemetery for so long, something seemed to nag at him constantly.

“EUREKA!” Larsa exclaimed as she put her pencil back down. “I think I have it all planned out!” She held out the map for everyone to follow along. “If we can get all the zombies into this field, we can start with a ring of fire that will have to be only partly sealed before we lure the zombies in. Gasoline should work if we soak enough around in a circle with a gap at the southern end where we’ll lead them in. Using a captain’s wheel like design, as the flames hit certain points around the rim, they will flow inward to a second ring which will be made up of slower burning hay doused in lighter fluid. Again, once the fire reaches key points, it will go to the center where we’ll have a partly dug pit filled with accelerants to create a giant fireball. At the same time, we’ll use fireworks strategically placed along the outside to keep them at bay in the ring. To finish off, I’ll make some homemade flame throwers for responsible individuals to operate.”

“Sorry Elad! That excludes you!” Lybi mentioned to a round of chuckles. Elad simply scoffed and stuck his tongue out at her.

“The flamethrowers will act as a secondary back up to help burn the zombies down to just mere bone fragments. The catch is, I’m going to need to get supplies from in town to build each of them, as well as fireworks and a very large supply of gasoline.”

Glancing at the TV again, Xyk said rather calmly “Will a gas delivery truck do?” Everyone watched as the truck pulled up at the station about a quarter mile from the fence camera, and sighed as the driver was attacked as he exited his cab. “May he rest in peace and not turn into one of them!”

“Alright! One team will go with Larsa to collect the supplies, and Elad, you get to be the driver of that gasoline truck.” DonJuan patted Elad’s shoulder as he said this. “Another team will make their way to the field to ensure the coast there is clear, and begin preparing for the inferno. Decide amongst yourselves as to what each of you will be doing. I have something else to deal with.”

“What about you DonJuan?” IntoRapture asked.

“I’m going to the old mill to head down into that cavern and see just what is going on down there. If I’m right, we may need to do something with the dumping grounds as well, or else this might end up being just an appetizer of what is to come.”

“YOU CAN’T DONJUAN! YOU’D BE KILLED!” Chibi Riki didn’t like the idea of a good friend dying a senseless death.

“Perhaps, but if I die, then it was meant to be. However if any of you were to die, it would be a great injustice to this world.”

“Why would you place your life as having no value compared with the lives of your friends DonJuan?” Al a mode was hurt, and willing to punch him if he said anything which would sound like him not wanting to live anymore.

“The reason being that you all are young and have your whole lives ahead of you. Besides, I can’t stop feeling that there’s something only I can do in that cavern. As if something is there which is calling for me.”

Al a mode, Larsa and Kelsey all walked up to DonJuan, and each slapped him one at a time. “IDIOT!” Kelsey shouted. “You still have your life ahead of you as well! So what if we’re all a little younger than you?! That doesn’t change the fact that you’re a great friend and an invaluable person in all our lives! Why can’t you just admit the truth for once and ask us to help you, instead of burying yor head in the sand and tring to avoid problems when they happen? We all know you are not the best at some things, but that doesn’t mean you’re terrible at everything!”

“Kelsey’s right, DonJuan!” Larsa added. “You always stand by us and support us, so there is no way we are going to sit back and watch you commit suicide like this. If you are going in there, we’re ALL going in there!”

“Yeah, that’s right” JusticeGuy said, before pausing. “Wait! What?! I don’t want to go down there! Who knows what is in that cavern!”

“One way to find out” Xyk replied, agreeing with the others.

DonJuan simply stood there dumbfounded for a moment as to why his friends would want to do this for him. Chibi Riki however settled the issue by going into the kitchen and grabbing a frying pan, to which she then walked over to DonJuan and whacked him upside the head with it. “Wake up!” she said.

“Alright. I suppose we have no choice” Essie added. Lybi nodded and looked over at the map again.

“I suggest we all head over to the cavern first and then once we’ve seen what is there, split up into two teams to initiate the plan. So let’s decide who is going to with Larsa and Elad afterwards to get supplies, and who will be going to the field.” Lybi paused. “It’s all risky no matter which path is taken at this point. One the one hand, you can be attacked by zombies which getting supplies, but you could also be attacked by zombies whilst setting up in the field. It won’t be easy, but everyone is going to have a part to play.”

Taking a sideways glace at the screen once more, Elad’s eyes widened in fear. “OH SHIT!” When everyone looked, they realized that it was now, or never. For there on the screen, they watched as a group of zombies had managed to drain the battery down enough to start climbing up the fence and try and get the fence open.

“We’ve got to hurry and not dawdle! We’ll decide the teams when we’re at the cavern! For now, let’s take only 5 SUVs and make sure your windows are all shut tight and doors locked! Leave the other vehicles behind! I’ll lead the pack as we reach the drawbridge. I’m going to cut the cord, get back in, and then we all start peeling rubber. Remember that they are all dead, so though you may see family or friends in the pack, don’t let your heart be swayed for now. There will be time for mourning later on. For now, our focus is getting to the cavern and then afterwards initiating the plan!” DonJuan’s father explained the initial plan before taking a deep breath. “And thank you everyone for being such good friends to our son!”

With a nod of understanding in unison, everyone rushed out with Larsa bringing the map and such, before heading outside. DonJuan however paused and flagged everyone down. “Wait! I have an idea!” Grabbing one of the large garden stones, he put it in the passenger seat of his truck. “I’ll lead in the truck, and let my truck act as the initial battering ram to break through the fence. Then we rush out behind it when the zombies are scrambling. And I’ll use this rag as a little bonus to ensure they don’t try to drive the truck to follow us.”

Unsure of what he was going to use the rag for, everyone nodded and got into the vehicles and followed DonJuan onto the bridge. After starting his truck, DonJuan pushed in the cigarette lighter in the truck, and slowly drove with the high beams on, until he reached the drawbridge. The zombies at this point had decided to just climb over the fence and were now slowly making their way towards the raised drawbridge from the other side. When the lighter coil popped out from the dash, DonJuan opened the gas cap and stuffed the rag in, before taking the lighter and pressing it against the rag to set it alight. “Goodbye my friend.” After giving one final honk of his horn, DonJuan tossed the lighter into the truck and cut the cord on the drawbridge.

The drawbridge cable, now cut, caused the bridge to come crashing down with a huge bang, to where he could see the zombies now headed straight for them. Taking the stone, he tossed it onto the accelerator pedal and watched his truck begin to accelerate forward, slowly picking up speed whilst he ran to his parents SUV which was next in line and got in quickly. The pack then all moved forward, trying to ensure the zombies would not be able to regain their footing after being run over by the truck.

Moments later, the burning rag met the fumes from the gas tank and the truck became a huge exploding fireball as it crashed through the gate, and kept with momentum until it crashed into the pharmacy down the street. The 5 SUVs all sped out and turned sharply, making their way off into the darkness with the zombies attempting to regroup, before heading over and overthrowing DonJuan’s house, albeit an empty house at that.

The five vehicles sped along, each using the walkie talkies from earlier to communicate, to which Larsa could be heard complaining about how DonJuan had had fun already with that fire which she hadn’t been able to do. Within an hour, they had reached the entrance to the old mill, its outside façade somewhat ominous and foreboding in the dark.

DonJuan took his walkie talkie and summed it up for everyone present. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached our final destination! HELL!” He wasn’t far off with that description either. It looked like something a demon would use as its lair when attacking humans.

[InuKun]

A.N. It's been a while, but here is the next chapter.

Chapter Three

Meanwhile in Detroit, another band of DonJuan’s friends were busy clearing out a path to escape from zombies which were attacking them at Michigan State University. One of them grabbed a shovel from a now dead landscaper and lobbed off the heads of 2 of the zombies that had broken through the line of defense.

“Dammit EvenButt! If you aren’t going to help fight, than do me a favor and don’t get in my way Creeper!” Karma was at this point trying to remain semi-calm given the sheer horde of zombies which had been multiplying each time one went down. For it seemed like for each zombie they took out, 20 new ones showed up.

“I am NOT a creeper!” Evenkurugan replied. He took out his Playmate Sasha, a state-of-the-art Gattling gun*, and donned a pair of shades. “I am so cool” he muttered before pulling Sasha’s trigger. As a spray of bullets rained out on the zombies, Sage and eture rushed up behind him and bopped Even on the head.

“QUIET! They react to sounds!” Sage hissed at Even through clenched teeth.

All seemed quiet for now. The zombies they had been dealing with, were now simply a gooey mess on the ground. But no signs yet of additional zombies.

“It looks like the coast is clear” Cherub mentioned after looking around the corner.

“So what do we do now?” eture was unsure of what they should do at this point, as seemingly everyone else was to.

“What about seeing DonJuan? I’m sure he’ll be able to sort this out.” TAY3LOR threw the suggestion out since she had no other ideas. “He seems to know about zombies and such from all his books. Besides, it’s only about an hour’s drive to him from here.”

With no other ideas coming forward, everyone agreed that it would probably be for the best, although they might want to make sure he’s alright first. Even grabbed his cell and sent DonJuan a text. “Well, at least texts can still for the time being be sent. Let’s hope he receives it and can reply.”

*****

As the team slowly made their way into the old mill, it felt like they weren’t alone. It was dark and dust covered everything, and the mill gave the appearance of being haunted, not just shut down and abandoned.

“Anyone know an interior decorator that would be interested in remodeling this place?” Larsa asked jokingly, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“This place is creepy” elad commented, unsure of where to step for fear of stepping on a rotten floorboard and thus falling to his potential death beneath.

DonJuan and JusticeGuy however hit the jackpot for creepiness. Their flashlights had come across the skull of a bull which was dangling on a rope above what looked like strips of shiny business cards. “What the hell?” JusticeGuy asked as DonJuan knelt to take a closer look.

He reached out to touch the material and found it had a leathery feel to it, smooth yet somewhat coarse in texture. And then he figured out what it was. “HOLY SHIT!” He stumbled backwards as adrenaline rushed through his body.

“What is it?” Larsa asked as she headed over with al a mode and Xyk.

As they caught sight of the pile, DonJuan cleared his throat. “It’s strips of human skin and flesh. Like someone shaved it off.”

DonJuan was interrupted however as he tried to regain some composure by his phone buzzing on vibrate. “That’s odd.” Taking out the phone, he noticed a text message from Evenkurugan asking if he was alright and that they were heading his way.

“What is it?” Al a mode asked.

“It’s from my old Gaia friend Evenkurugan. He wants to know if he and the Detroit gang can head up here to help out.”

“The more help we can get, the better I think” Al a mode replied.

Typing back his reply of being alright and to try and “borrow” a boat for the group to escape on if need be, he told Even to meet up with him at the old mill. “Hopefully they can find a boat to use.” DonJuan muttered.

*****

As eture drove the team out towards DonJuan at nearly twice the posted speed limit, Even got the text back from DonJuan. After reading it, he scratched his head. “Why does he want us to borrow a boat? And where are we going to even find one?!”

Karma glared at Even. “You’re so silly Even. We go to the boat show in the neighboring town to where DonJuan is and get it from there. That’s so obvious!”

“Oh yeah?!” Even was getting annoyed with Karma at this point. “And just how do you propose we get to it without attracting attention?”

“We use Sasha” Karma replied with an evil smirk on her face.

“I’m not using my girlfriend for that!” Even took Shasha and nuzzled his cheek against the gun’s multiple barrels.

“Even, do we need to get you a psychiatric exam for having an erotic relationship with an inanimate object?” Sage looked back at Karma and Even as Karma asked that question.

“Even, I want you to be happy.” Sage said, gaining a dejected look of shock and dismay from Evenkurugan as his head dropped in shame. Karma burst out laughing before looking towards eture who had continued to drive throughout this debate.

“Hey eture, a slight change of plans. Take us over to Highpoint and the Expo Center there. We’re going to take their finest boat from the boat show and use it to help DonJuan and his other friends out.”

Eture nodded in understanding. “A driver’s job description is driving. Leave it to me!” She took the exit for Highpoint and made her way through the empty streets towards their destination, all the while towing an unknown stowaway on the rear bumper of the van.

*****

Back inside the mill, Lybi had gone off alone and was sitting in the Manager’s office when she thought she heard a soft tinkering noise from by the vicinity of the door. Shining her flashlight in the general direction, she didn’t see anything, and so she sat back down in the musty chair and looked through some of the papers on the desk. It seemed the mill had a darker history during its tenure in the community. For included in the pile were reports of workers who had suddenly disappeared from their stations and of strange sounds which bellowed from beneath the basement. It seemed workers had even at one time staged a protest to working in the basement because of the noises they would hear rising from the concrete floor, as if the building went even deeper than just the basement the workers and managers knew of.

Lybi at this point was so engrossed in what she was dong, that she didn’t notice the door slowly closing ever so quietly. She wondered if some secrets could be found under the floor in the basement to help solve the mystery of at least what had happened with the workers and those apparent eerie sounds which had been heard so long ago during the mill’s operational years.

“What happened back then?” she wondered.

Continuing to be lost in thought, a shadow appeared to crest the moonlight which shone through the office window, though no physical object could be visibly seen to be making it.

“Lybi…” A soft whisper echoed throughout the room, seemingly coming from everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. It had no defining characteristics of being male or female.

Lybi shot her head up from the desk and looked around, shining her flashlight as she did so. “Who’s there?” she asked sternly. There was no response. Shrugging it off as her imagination, she resumed looking at the documents on the desk.

The shadow which was seen in the soft moonlight but wasn’t visible under the light from her flashlight, soon took a towering form over her as it bent over, It appeared the head of this shadow was now by the side of her face as once again, it called out.

“Lybi…”

Lybi looked up once more as the door opened, and there was Kelsey. Lybi looked somewhat shocked as Kelsey walked in. “Oh! It’s you. I thought for a moment my mind was playing tricks on me.” Lybi caught her breath. The shadow figure had vanished as soon as Kelsey opened the office door.

“Are you alright?” Kelsey was confused as to what Lybi meant by that, since she’d only just arrived.

“Fine! Anyway, you need to take a look at all this!” She pointed at the pile of papers and smiled. “It seems there’s more to this mill than meets the eye.”

“What is it?” Kelsey walked over and glanced at a couple of the reports.

“Well, for starters, they seemed to have had problems with missing workers and strange noises in the basement throughout the life of the mill.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Oh great! So we go from zombies out there to ghosts in here! That’s just perfect! My life is now complete! I can die by zombies wanting to eat my brains, or be frightened to death by the supernatural! What a great selection of choices on how I want to die! It’s perfect, don’t you think?” Her tone of sarcasm was rather obvious.

“Ha, ha. Very funny Kelsey.” Lybi waved her hands and gave a “Whooo” before turning her attention back to the documents before them. “It may not be ghosts though. There might be something else such as zombies trapped beneath here.”

Kelsey’s face went pale. “You know something Lybi. Sometimes you can say things which freak me out.”

Lybi smiled. “Thanks Kelsey. I’m glad I can help. But in all seriousness, let’s get the others in here to take a look at this.” She then headed out of the office and called out to everyone to come over to the office on the upper level, as she had something to show them. As she called out, the shadow appeared once again on the wall behind her, seemingly reaching a pair of arms out towards her neck, but vanished as she turned around.

Gattling gun: