Chapter 1

  I’m in a dark room with no exit. The room is a cylinder with a small opening at the top. I’m all alone with no way to contact anyone.

  You might be asking how I got in here. The thing is, I don’t even know how. All I remember is my name, how to fight, and my best friend’s name. So before I tell you what had happen in the past two days, you might want to know my name. It is Jessica Alicia Marks and I fight Zombies. So this is what I remember.

  My best friend, James Duncan, and I were headed to school. Our school was also our headquarters. We went to New Orleans Academy for Gifted Kids. Everyone who went did the same thing .

“I wonder what we’re going to do today,”I wondered out loud.

“Don’t know,”James said,”But I hope it’s riffle shooting.”

“Why? So you can show off?”I mocked.

  We laughed and kept walking. We were a mile away when someone attacked. We were both trying to fight back but when a needle was stabbed into my arm, I blacked out.

  I woke up a few minutes later in this dark room with no memory of my past except for this day. I was lying on the floor next to a picture of me and James and my knife. In a hurry I picked up both of them and put the knife to my belt. I started to scan the room trying to figure out how big it was. That’s when I heard a voice.

“So you’re the great Jessica Marks,”said a strong powerful voice,”You’re just a stupid teenager.”

“So,”I snapped,”And I’m not stupid. Now show yourself and fight me.”

“No,”said the strong manly voice,”Instead let’s watch you swim.”

  With that the room started to fill up with water. Trying to stay alive, I jumped on the wall stabbing it with my knife. It didn’t work, so I fell six feet of water. I was really glad that I was a strong swimmer. The water continued to climb, until it got to ten feet deep. After a few minutes of swimming, in ten feet of water, the water drained. So I sat there wet and tired. I looked up to the opening in the top and saw a zombie girl.

“Hey,”I called up,”Can you send me a towel?”

  The girl disappeared and came back with two towels and a basket. She lowered them both to me and waited for me to unhook it. After I dried off, I opened the basket. In it was fruit, fresh water, and a letter. I opened the letter and it read:

  Hi, I’m Lindsey. I’ll be taking care of you. So if you get out, please don’t kill me. I know what you are, but I won’t tell. I will help you escape.

From,

  Lindsey

  After finishing an apple, I looked up and saw she had disappeared. I looked at my left ankle and saw a zombie bite birthmark. Then it came back to me that I was a North American zombie person or one of the members of the zombie people tribe. They were the people who kept the the zombie population down. They never used guns, but were good with knives and hand objects. They also were good at mixed martial arts.

    My dad was the chief of the tribe. Since he was died, it was me now. I just couldn’t tell anyone who I was. I sat there still trying to figure a way out of the room.

“Where’s Jessica?”said James from somewhere above me.

“James!”I yelled,”I’m down here!”

“You’ll never find her,”the same voice said.

   I also found out the room was sound proof. So I sat there as my friend argued. I looked in the basket and found a blue and green bouncy ball. So I just sat there throwing the ball.

“Jessica,”said a zombie like female voice.

“Lindsey,”I said looking up.

“Towels and basket,”She said lowering the hook,”The room is thirty feet high.”

“Thanks,”I said putting the basket on the hook.

  Lindsey took the basket and disappeared. So I got up and tried to make a plan on how I was going to get out. In frustration I threw the ball as hard as I could at the wall and making it shot back almost knocking me out.

“You are the greatest prize I have ever caught,”The voice said,”You will become my pet.”

“I’m not a prize!”I screamed,”I’m also going to get out of here!”

“We will see,”said the voice.

  After that the room started to fill with smoke. Then I fell on the ground into a deep sleep.

 

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   I woke up the next next day to a loud siren. I had to cover my ears it was so loud. I started to curse after they turned it off. I had to say five words in the ancient language of the zombie people. So since y’all are caught up this is what’s happening right now.

“Jessica,”The voice said,”There’s no need to curse.”

“Well then don’t do that again,”I shot back,”Are you trying to make me go death?”

  He laughed and didn’t answer me. Than this human boy showed up, with Lindsey standing right beside him. He was motioning to someone and then threw a rope down to me.

“Climb up,”He said.

  Without hesitation I start the climb. When I reached the top they gave me my things and gave me a shot. In a few minutes I remembered everything.

“Layne, Where’s James?” I asked the boy I had saw a few minutes ago.

“No one knows,”He said.

“Ms. Marks,” said Mrs. Phyllis, our spanish teacher,”You need to make a plan before the alarms go off again.”

  I looked around and saw who all we had. Slade, Layne, Lindsey, Mrs. Phyllis, and me had about three hours before the alarms went off to find James. So I told them we would break up into teams of two. Layne and Slade went one way. Lindsey and Mrs. Phyllis went the other. Leaving me by myself. So I put my bouncy ball up and grabbed an axe from my bag, and head out to find my partner. I just had one thing on my mind and it was that I was going to find that man.

Chapter 2

I should have went the other way, since this way had an army of zombies. I had to fight my way through half the army before I started to hear gun shots. So I climbed up a ladder and swinged from the lights like they were vines. When I made it at the end of the hall, I was hoping to see James but instead I saw Mrs. Olivia. She went missing three years ago. She was dragged off by a zombie. She pointed her gun at me ready to shoot.

“Woe, don’t shoot,”I told her,”It’s me, Jessica Marks.”

“Duck,”She said.

   So I did and she shot two bullets into a zombie’s head. She then showed me how she been trying to get free and asked me what was my plan. So I gave her the run down on it.

“So you’re by yourself,”She said,”Isn’t that stupid.”

“We were trying to find my partner,”I said,”Do you know where he might be?”

  She did and showed me the way. When we got there we had only an hour left. We also met up with the others there. When Olivia saw Lindsey, she shot her in the head. The cool thing was Lindsey healed instead of died. Olivia didn’t try to shoot her again.

   James was in a cage and chained up to a wall. I picked the lock to the door and chains. Layne handed him his rifle and James shot Lindsey in the head.

“Don’t shot her,”I said,”She is helping us.”

“They weren’t the only ones,”She said,”Layne chopped off my head as well.”

   I gave him a dirty look and he didn’t say anything about it. We only had thirty seconds before they knew we were gone. We started to run for the door to our left. As we got to the closest door the alarms went off.

  We ran out but we were not safe yet. Zombies were everywhere and some had a club. That was when I knew where we were at. The old grounds of the zombie people or Delhi, Louisiana. It’s been eight years since I was here. I stayed here from once I was born till eight years old. I was sixteen now and I knew this town better than anyone. I also knew where the people of the zombie’s tunnels were located.

“Follow me,”I said running to a bolder five feet to my right.

   Everyone followed me without any questions. Once I reached the rock, I tapped it twice and the tunnel opened. Everyone piled in and I shut the door before they could follow us. James turned on the flashlight on his rifle 22 and I got out a lantern and lite it. Everyone looked at me and motion me to lead the way.

   We walked down a slope that was lower than the subway and sewers. When things started to straighten out, I felt like I had a lot of explaining to do, but no one just didn’t asked the questions. So we just walked in silence till we got to a huge room where tribe meetings were held. I lite the torches and we all took a seat for some needed rest.

“Jess, Where are we?”James asked,”Is there something you're not telling us?”

“We are in one of the tunnels of the people of the zombies,”I said,”I use to come down here with my dad till the accident.”

“OK,”Layne said,”So how are we going to get out of here then. There’s only one tunnel.”

“You got to know the code,”I said.

   I sang the tune to the song “Just around the Riverbed” and more doors opened up. Layne looked and started to something, but stopped when James bet him to it.

“So which one is the way to New Orleans?”He asked.

“All of these tunnels lead up to Delhi,”I told them,”So…”

   Everyone looked at each other and it seemed like it was all over, but I knew it was not. Mrs. Phyllis started to give a spanish lesson. I didn’t listen to it, because I open my ancient language book and began to read. As I read I noticed James looking over my shoulder trying to read it.

“You know to read this book you go to know the language,”I said,”I could teach you it, if you want me to.”

“How do you know it?”James asked,”It’s like three thousand years old.”

“My dad taught me,”I said,”I also could speak it when I was little. P.S. it’s only four hundred years old.”

   He rolled his eyes and called me a know it all, but said if we get out of this he he would like to. So he went back to listening to Mrs. Phyllis’s teaching. I kept reading about the ancient stories of my family name.

 

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  After a few minutes we went down a tunnel to my old home. When we got there it was roughly three pm. I unlocked the door and let everyone in. Everything was the way we left it when I was eight.

   I showed everyone around and let them make themselves at home, while I went to the training room. I found a picture of my father and me in the room. I wanted to ball up and cry my eyes out, but that’s when the helicopter landed in my backyard. So we all grabbed our things and got on the helicopter.

Chapter 3

Once we got back to New Orleans it was eight pm. My mom and the eight year old twins, Rex and Righley, were there waiting for me. James’s dad was there waiting for a story. Rex came to me first, the blacked haired one, with Righley, the brown haired one, right behind him. James ran to his dad and told him what had happen. Mrs. Phyllis took the others inside leaving me and my family.

“Jessica you are ok,”Rex said crying,”I missed you!”

“I missed you more,”I said giving him a big hug.

“Did you get to beat up the bad guy,”Righley said kicking in the air,”Or did you cut him with your knife.”

   I laughed and ruffled his hair. Then my mom came up to me in tears. I started to cry and gave her a hug trying to cheer us both up. Rex and Righley took my bag and grabbed two fake weapons and started to play fight.

“I thought I lost you,”My mom said,”Don’t do that again. You had me scared to death.”

“I’ll try not to,”I told her,”But I got this.”

   I handed her the picture I found. She took the picture and started to laugh. She told me how me and my dad would go out for a walk and come back covered in zombie blood. She seemed so happy talking about me and my dad, I didn’t want to tell her I knew that.

“Ow,”said Rex,”That hurt really badly.”

   We turned around and saw Rex on the ground and Righley pointing the end of his knife to Rex’s throat. I laughed and went to join them. I just didn’t think I would lose against two eight year old boys. Rex was on top of me and Righley was tying me down. James and Layne had to help me out. Then we left to go home.

 

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  Once we got home, I went to my room. My room was blue like the sea with fish on the ceiling. I had a bunk bed, a life size white tiger, and a dog bed. When I went in Ace, our white alpha wolf, was in there on my bed asleep. I climbed up, pushing Ace out of my way, and punched in my code to my secret room. Then my room transformed into a hightech zombie tracking and defense system.

“Hey Jessica,”The computer said,”How was your day?”

  I made sure the system was still up and running correctly and putting it up before my mom came in. She carried a tray of cut apples, cookies, and a Dr. Pepper. She sat it up on my bed and laughed when she saw the wolf up there with me.

“Big wing is outside,”She said,”Did you tell anyone about your secret?”

“No,”I said taking a chocolate chip cookie,”Did he bring the note tube?”

  Big wing was our bald eagle and he was trained to deliver messages between the people. She handed me the tube and I twisted the tube’s lid off and read the letter. I had to translate it because it was in the ancient language:

Dear the Marks,

  We are planning to have a meeting on the 16th of December. We need to discuss how to protect the children       of this generation. Also we got to make a plan on how we are going to make the zombie population go down. So     as chief y’all better be there.

     North American Zombie people

  I was scared to tell my mom I had to go, but she told me I had five months to prepare. She left and Ace woke up to the door shutting. I started to pet him and we headed outside.

   I got outside and threw the bouncy ball, so Ace could chase it. I got a scoop of bird seeds to give to Big Wing and I started to pet him. Ace came back with the ball in his mouth. He dropped the ball and began to growl at something behind me.

“What is it boy?”I asked turning around.

“I think Ace doesn’t like me,”said Luke, my boyfreind.

  He had an axe in his hands as he walked over to me. He was tall with black hair and had a scar on his right eye where he hit a bare wire fence. He was one year older than me and from the same tribe as me. Ace stopped growling and started to howl at us.

  Rex and Righley ran out of the house and took Luke down. I grabbed a stick and started to play with them. Our fun didn’t last long because six zombies came out and Luke and I had to protect my brothers. Ace even got into it by taking a zombie’s leg off. Righley and Rex was yelling out where the zombies were every other second.

  After six minutes I snapped the last zombie’s neck. Luke and I were covered in blood from doing all the work. I started to chase the twins while Luke went home to clean up. I caught them and gave them both a hug and covering them in the blood as well.

  We had to hose off and then went inside to get change. The boys went to bed and I helped mom clean up outside. It was around eleven before I had went to bed and got ready for the next day.

Chapter 4

   I had the weirdest dream last night. It was so bad that I woke up and stabbed my own leg. So I had to make a bandaid for it, good thing I knew how to. The dream went like this:

  I was running for my life. Zombies were chasing me, that means both humans and animals. I was trying to stop my dad from getting bitten. I was at the door with my knife drawn. I opened the door and was about to kill it, when I was bitten at the same time my dad was.

  So I basically woke up screaming “NO” with my knife in my hand stabbing my leg. That morning, I had to explain to my family why I had a bandaid on my leg. I knew my mom would understand, since it wasn’t the first time it had happened. Then I head off to school with James, Layne, Slade, and Mrs. Olivia. Mrs. Olivia was going to be our new combat teacher for mainly bows and arrows.

“What’s that?”I asked James, pointing toward his backpack.

“It’s my family sword,”He said bringing it out,”Did you stab your leg because of that dream.”

“Yep,”I said,”I think I need to put my knife somewhere beside my hand than in it.”

   We laughed and James told us about his new toy. It could cut through anything and was never dull. Everyone wondered why Slade had said nothing to anyone. We started to ask him questions to get him to say something, but Slade just handed me a note for every question. We all tried to make him talk but all had no luck. I asked Slade if he knew who I was and he handed me two notes. The first one said, Yes, you’re Jessica Marks. One of the greatest zombie hunter. The other had my secret on it and he was one too.

“You do know,”I said,”I think you’re going to be a good hunter too.”

  Slade showed us his weapons, which were just a gun and a really big hammer. The gun made no sense to me but the hammer did. So we came up with nicknames for everyone.

“Slade, we can call you Thor,”I said.

“Jess, you can be Black widow,”James said.

“James, can be The Snipper,”Layne said.

“Layne, can be The Woodsman,”Mrs. Olivia said.

   Slade wrote that Mrs. Olivia could be Katniss, since she loved bows. We started to laugh and called each other by our nicknames. We reached the school and head to class. Lindsey was with Mrs. Phyllis and kept her eye on Mrs. Olivia. We walked to the gym for our first class, Fist Fighting and Mixed Martial Arts.

 

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  When we got there, we had a test. Coach Frank was seeing who could take him down in a fight and then graded us on how well we did. Layne was first up and his fight got him a B+. James went next and got a C- on his performance. Slade was after him and got a B, but hey he is a giant compared to us.

“Jessica Marks you’re up,”Coach said,”since I know your father, you should take me down.”

  I took my spot on the mat and waited for Coach. He then started my test by charging at me. I spined out of the way and kicked toward his head. He caught my foot, so I used that to my advantage. I propelled myself off of him, freeing myself. He charged at me again and I swept his legs, making him fall. He got up and I put his arm in a chicken wing. I push his arm taking him down while he was telling me to stop. My time was one minute while everyone else was two minutes.

“A+ Marks,”Coach said,”Also I need some ice.”

“Sorry Coach,”I said,”I think I had to prove myself.”

“You did that Marks,”Coach said heading off to the nurse.

“Show off,”James said,”What is your secret to it?”

  We laughed and headed to spanish. Mrs. Phyllis gave us a free day, after she shot a zombie, beside Lindsey, with her mechanical leg. People kept asking us what had happen two days ago, but I really didn’t listen to them. I just kept to my book while they asked away.

“Well, well, well,”said someone I knew I didn’t want to hear,”Little Jessica finally decided to come back. Were you running from zombies again?”

“Kay, you know I fight zombies as a hobby,”I said putting my book down,”At least I don’t freak when I get blood on my clothes. Also you don’t say what I do.”

   Kay was the girl who thinks she runs the everything. Her brother, Zack, was her partner, because no one else want to be it. Their team was the Slayers. There are five teams in all, The Slayers, The Hunters, Bombers, The Savers, and The Heroes. Each team had two pairs of field workers, or killers, and a tech team of about twenty people. The Slayers and my team, the Hunters, were the top two.

  Kay and I were the top female killers. Her father was the 2nd most famous after my dad of course. Since he has past, her dad is it now. So she thinks she can boss me around, even though I’m the best.

“You should be happy your still alive,”she said,”Your team was so upset when you were missing. You should teach them how to be more careful or at least act better.”

“Shut up!”I said getting out of my chair,”You don’t me. You might think you do but you don’t. So just shut that fat mouth of yours.”

“Does someone think she is so tough,”She said evilly,”How about we see if she is correct on that one.”

  Kay punched my eye, giving me a blacken one. That was the wrong move girly. So I did right on back to her little girly face. That just made the both of us begin a full on fight. Everyone started to surround us as we fought. Mrs. Phyllis had Jame, Luke, and Slade make me stop and Zack to get his sister. We both had blood running and a black eye.

  Mrs. Phyllis sent us to the principal office with Lindsey following us. The nurse was waiting at the office with the principal standing beside her. He stared at me and wasn’t happy. He took me first letting the nurse take care of Kay.

“Jess,”He said,”Why did you get into that fight?”

“She doesn’t leave me alone,”I said,”I’m sorry Uncle.”

  He married my aunt on my dad’s side and talked my mom into letting me come here. He was like a father to me, since that day I lost mine. Only my team knew he was my uncle. So thankfully Kay didn’t know about him being my uncle.

“Did you win?”He asked doctoring me up,”Who started the fight? Or did you do this to just see me?”

“She did,”I said laughing at him,”Are you going to tell my mom?”

“No kiddo,”He said patting my back,”This will be our little secret.”

  He sent me back to class and had Kay come in so he could talk with her. I went to Mrs. Phyllis’s classroom and got my things before heading to the shooting range. While the others did the guns or whatever they did during this time, I would being doing Bows and Arrows.

 

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  Once I got there, Layne and Luke were throwing axes at a wooden target. James and Slade were shooting their guns. So I walked over to my bow and arrows and began to shoot. Mrs. Olivia and I got into a competition halfway through the class. We made it a tie, when Layne came over to tell us it was time time for Recess.

   We went to our team headquarters for it to regroup and get ready for whatever we wanted to. They started to ask me questions about the fight which was kind of funny. Slade still had said nothing so I got the idea to try again on that one. We all tried to get him to talk but not a word came out.

 

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   School went by fast and my group stayed a few hours behind to talk. It was eight by the time we left to go home, I had to walk home all alone. I lived two hours away from school and today everyone got a ride home while I didn’t. My uncle offered me one but I declined it.

    I walked the same route I always go for the past eight or so years. I was halfway home when I felt like someone was following me. So I turned around with my knife in hand to see a little girl. She looked terrified with her torn clothes and holding one of her shoes with the other on her foot.

“Hi, there,”I said putting my knife away,”It’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you. Can you tell me your name?”

“I’m Kylee and I nine,”The girl said.

“Well then, Kylee,”I said,”Can you tell me what happen to you? Or do you want to come with me to my home?”

  She looked behind her and looked at me. She said she didn’t want to walk, so I made a quick call and my uncle came to get us. She then told me how she lost her parents and almost died too. When we reached my house, she stayed with my uncle till we could find a home for her. So I walked into my home to see what else was going to happen.

 

 I walked into koas. Rex and Righley had friends over and my mom was at the store for a little while. The house had become a complete mess. It was just a normal day at home for me. There was six of them and only one of me. So I found my bullhorn and put my things up.

“Let’s stop making a mess,”I said into it,”Or I will make you give me twenty pushups.”

  Rex and Righley stopped and their friends followed them. They looked around and just smiled at me. We had a half hour to clean up the house that was wreck like it has been through WWI. So I had to do my chores, which included taken care of my brothers, watching their friends, and cleaning the house before mom came back home.

“Let’s start cleaning up,”I said,”So go.”

   We put the couch back up and moved it back to the wall next to the door. Rex and two of his friends did the pillows. Righley and two of his friends fixed the plants, two flowers and a venus flytrap. I started dinner for Mom as they finished up the house. We set the table and fixed and fixed up the living room. We did it all in twenty minutes, so I let the boys watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I finished as Mom walked in the door with her step husband.

   Rex and Righley ran to their father when he step into the house. Then their friends went home and we sat down at the table to enjoy our meal. We waited for Rex bless the food and when he did we started to eat.

“So, how was school today Jess,”Mom asked.

“Good,”I said,”We learned about solving inequalities.”

“Yeah that’s amazing,”My stepfather said,”But boys, Would you like to see the new Baseball field tomorrow?”

“Matt! They were suppose to go to school with me tomorrow,”I said upset and a little ticked off,”You did it again!”

   Matt hated me and I was the same way toward him. He worked at this big designing company that builds anything. When he knows I have something big planned he would ruin it.

“I want to go with Jess,”Rex said.

“I’m going with daddy,”Righley said.

“Well it’s settled then,”Mom said.

    Rex always sided with me in everything that came up between me and Matt. Righley did sometimes unless it was something cool in play. So Rex knew about my secret of being a zombie hunter. I was ticked off to a whole new level when he brought up the new baseball park.

“Well me and Rex are going to have an awesome time,”I said high fiving Rex,”Aren’t we buddy?”

“Yes we are,”He agreed.

“We’ll bring y’all a souvenir back,”Matt said.

    After that we all went to bed to prepare for the two very long days. I had to pack Rex’s bag for him do he had everything he would need. I also had to Ace in his bed so I could get to mine. He ended up sleeping with me anyway, since he liked it up there with me. 

Chapter 5

“Jess! Get up!”said Rex,”Let’s go! I’m ready to go and see your school for the eighth time.”

“Then get off of me,”I said waking up.

   Rex got off and grabbed his bag. He then left so I could change. It was six forty-five a.m. and school started a little after seven forty-five. He woke me up an hour early and was ready to go. There was a knock at my door and my mom walked in.

“He made you breakfast,”She said carrying a tray in,”He is really excited to go.”

“I can tell,”I said,”HE woke me up an hour early. What time did he get up?”

“At five,”She said putting the tray down,”He wanted to make you breakfast this morning.”

  She left and I ate my breakfast. Rex had made me toast, bacon, and apple juice. I changed and grabbed my things to leave. Rex was holding a watch that I gave him the first time he went with me. He put it on and opened the door. So we left to meet the team.

   James, Layne, and Slade were waiting for us by the new training center. They gave Rex fist bumps and we headed to school. It was around eight forty-five by the time we got there. James said he had to go somewhere but didn’t tell us where he was going. James shook Rex’s hand but Rex decided to flip him afterwards. So we all walked in on that one.

 

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  It was during shooting when James came back. He was wearing a baseball cap as well that was sure to be new. Rex said that it was from the field that his dad was designing. I was really ticked at that and notched an arrow to fire at my next target.

“Where’d you go?”I asked.

“To the new field with your stepdad,”He answered.

“You did what!”I yelled.

   Everyone turned to us and James hid behind Slade. They could tell I was ticked and ready to explode. Kay even turned to my direction. Rex grabbed an arrow for his bow like he ready to help me out if it was needed.

“I wasn’t gone for long,”James said sticking his head out from behind Slade.

  I shot my arrow, just nipping the top of his right ear. He reached up and touched the top of his ear as if I shot it off. I had also took off some of his hair near the ear. He looked shocked at it but yet not mad that I did that to him and not Kay for once.

“Nice hair cut,”He said,”How about the other side.”

  He went to hide behind Slade again when an arrow went in to his knee.He looked down and said ‘Why’ to me but I didn’t do it. I looked down at Rex to see he was smiling from ear to ear. So I told James that my little protective brother did it.

“I was trying to nip his leg,”Rex said,”Like how you did his ear.”

“How about you stick to the targets,”I told him,”Please don’t tell anyone James. Do you need help with that.”

“I got it,”He said breaking the tip off and pulling it out.

   He started to limp to the first aid station to banged his leg up. Layne came over and told Rex not to copy what I do for good reason at that. Mrs. Olivia came over and gave him a high five. She also told him that it was a funny miss at that moment. Everyone then turned back to what they were doing before that little show down.

    Rex looked up at me and gave me his famous loving and goofy smile. I rolled my eyes and began to laugh at the little kid for his protectiveness over me. I guess since I don’t have an older brother, boys should watch out for my younger ones. James was cursing as he fixed up his leg and we counted forty-five words. He is not going to do something like that again, I thought to myself. Rex and I went back to shooting our targets and not James.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  After school the two top teams had to stay behind. We were going to do a contest to see who truly was the best one here. We went to our team homes and waited to be call. My group got so bored we began to play a music game. When we were call, we were on level thirty-six, so we saved it and went to the gym for the thing.

   The Slayers had everyone looking so serious, it was kind of sad. The teams were suppose to be like mini families and not whatever they were. We had pair field workers and my groups were James and me, Layne and Slade. Luke kept the tech team in check on updates for us. We also treated each other as we were family and didn’t stand down to anyone. We worked out the problem together and not like we were robots. Kay really needs to know that her team are people and not robots.

“Ok so let’s get started,”My uncle said,”Y’all will be judge on teamwork, skills, strength, and time. The judge will be a scientist that has study the people of the zombie. His name is Mathew Castles.”

   That was when a tall man walked out. He had brownish hair, a pale face, and a scar running through his left eye. He looked like a nice man, if I didn’t notice that he had a dart gun in his right pocket, needles in his left, and three good size knives under the lad coat. Who brings that much stuff to a school for a simple judging job?

“Hello,”He said in a squeaky voice,”I’ll be judging you today on this fine day.”

 He said that like he was from the north part of the states. Everyone looked okay with it but I noticed Luke’s face. He must have noticed something off about this guy as well. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew something I didn’t or something that I was hopefully not apart of.

“Are you from the north?”I asked.

“No, Jessica,”He said,”I’m not. So let’s begin the test shall we.”

   I knew something was wrong, since he knew I said that. All I could do was hope he doesn’t figure out who I truly am. 

Chaoter 6

   Everything was going good for us. In team work my team came out on top for reasons that the Slayers will never know. We had the fastest time at three minutes in the obstacle course, the pairs had to run through while the tech team directed them to safety. The Slayers won the strength match even though with Slade you would think it was going to be us. It was the start of the skills test, when everything started to go downhill and fast.

   We started off with guns, which I denied to do and Mr. Mathew took note of it. In axes throwing everyone did good. I had three bullseye, while Layne and Luke had six. Everyone except James aced archery, but he had the guns down pat. Then it was martial arts had to be the last test.

“Our last one is Miss Jessica Marks,”Mr. Mathew said.

  I took my mark against the robotic zombie on the mat. When he blew the whistle the match began and I did what my dad had taught me. I took the level ten zombie down and was shocked at my time of forty seconds. Everyone looked shocked at how easily it took me to defeat it.

“Well then Miss Jessica Marks,”Mr. Mathew said,”You are indeed a zombie person. From the birthmark to the guns and now the martial arts. I don’t need to see if you know the language, because you clearly do by the book you are reading.”

“She can’t be one of them,”James said,”I known her my whole life. I know everything about her.”

“Or do you,”Mr. Mathew said,”I studied their behavior, traditions, and appearance.”

   I never thought of it before but he was right. Appearance was a big deal in it. I had long dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. My green eyes had a story to tell in them. My tan skin meant that I was in the sun a lot. I didn’t realize how different I looked compared to everyone else here.

“There are two more as well,”He said evilly,”Slade and Luke are the other ones.”

“Run?”Luke offered to me.

“Run,”I agreed taking off for the door to my right.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

 We ran out the door and I was glad Mat came to get Rex after school. James and Layne was with us and we ran straight for my house. I slammed open the door and saw my family was all home today. That’s a weird thing since they are not always together in the house.

“Mom,”I said,”We got a problem.”

“Is there something you're not telling us,”James said still confused by it all.

“Grab your stuff and get in the car,”Mom said in a hurry.

  I ran to my room and got my things and Ace to come. I wrote a quick note to the others telling them what had happened and told Big Wing where we were going to, so he wouldn’t get caught. Everyone had loaded up into the minivan and we left for Delhi.

   James, Luke, Layne and I were in the back. Slade and the twins were in the middle playing rock, paper, and scissors. Matt and Mom was in the front with Ace in the middle of them. No one was following us, so I felt safe enough to tell my friends my secret.

“I’m one of them,”I said,”The chief to be truthful to y’all.”

“And you didn’t tell me,”James said,”I am your best friend.”

“It’s law,”I said feeling a little guilty for not telling them,”I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

   Everyone was quiet for the rest of the ride. I was listening to the music on my Ipod and reading my book. Luke was trying to teach James the language while everyone else was a sleep but my mom. I just wished there was another way to do this.

  James said something to me in the language that translated into I have a pickle snake in my eye. I started a fit of laughter at that as Luke tried to hide his. I think Luke forgot to go over that the words do sound similar than he thinks and if mispronounced it means something else. I saw Luke whisper what James had said to him and his eyes got huge.

“I was trying to ask you if you're alright,”He said nicely.

“Yeah,”I said,”But wait till you know the language before asking another question, ok.”

  He agreed and we went back to doing what we were. I had my bookmark in my hand and almost cried at the happy picture of me and my dad. I missed him that much.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  We reached Delhi and my old home at three in the morning. Everyone spilled out and we walked inside the old home. Mom gave everyone a place to sleep while Ace and I went to my old room. I open the door and saw the room eight year old me left.

   The room was black with blue and green splashes everywhere. I had a high tech computer on my desk near my door. A bunk bed with just the top bunk on it next to a wall by the far but next to a window. Under it was a place for any hand weapons but not a single gun to show there. Instead of toys on the floor, there was a si, a bo staff, some nunchucks, and a samurai sword. On the wall next to my bed, were pictures of me and my dad. This is the room I had to leave behind and strangely enough I never had a toy but a stuff wolf.

   Ace started to push the weapons on the floor to where they go. I stood in the middle of the room looking at how much I had changed. Then I heard a knock on my door as the person kept their eyes on me.

“Jess, We need to talk about how we are going to go to school,”James said,”Since I can’t go to my old school. So how are we going to do that?”

“I know a place,”I said holding a picture of my old school and friends.

Chapter 7

“Welcome to my school,”I said once we got there,”The school for talented kids. Mostly zombie people though.”

  We walked in as I told them about the school. The school was for the tribe as a place of security. All the student followed the traditions, rules except for a few, and no one knew who was one of them. There was a student chief, of the highest performance rate of couse.

“So were you the chief?”James asked.

“Yes,”I admitted,”Till I left then Amanda…”

   I never got to finish that sentence. I bumped into Amanda Rider, the new chief here. She turned to look at me as the group around her went quite. She looked at me with complete distaste as if I was someone of a lower class than her.

“Watch where you’re going Marks,”She hissed toward me,”I run this school now and what I say goes.”

“Jessica,”The group said.

   My friends were still the helpers to the chief. They all ran up to me and all made sure they gave me a hug. There were five of them and I was glad to see them all.

“You’re back,”said a black hair girl with blue eyes.

“Yes Macy,”I said.

   Macy was my adoptive sister. Her parents died from cancer, so my family took her on. She looked like me and was one of them as well. Her family was third in charge after Luke’s. Her brother, Jack, stood beside her in complete silence. He looked the same but had dirty blond hair. While Macy and me were the same age as he was two years younger than us.

  Then there were the triplets, Jasmine, Jack, and Jacob. Jasmine was older by three seconds and she had golden eyes. Jack was the second oldest by three seconds and he had brown eyes. Jacob was the youngest, he had the gray eyes. They all had blonde hair like their dad. They were also like me and was the same age as me. They were the wise crew of the tribe.

  The principle then walked up a little bit after that. He was the triplet’s father and a good friend to my dad. He looked like his children but had one gold eye and one gray eye. He wore a t-shirt and blue jeans like the students did. So he looked pretty nice, and he was till you got on his bad side.

“Good day Miss Jessica,”Mr. Rox said,”I’m making you chief again, you know.”

“What!”Amanda said in shock,”I’ve been it for eight years. She just got back from where ever she was.”

“I kept up with Jessica’s performance,”He said,”She has the highest rating in the state. Her team does as well.”

   Amanda stomped off in anger as if she was a two year old. I had to introduce everyone while Mr. Rox handed out schedules and a rule book out. Then we headed to the meeting area.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

The school was like an Indian campsite from the way it was design. There was a giant wooden fence with high tech security. I had Ace at my heels, because wolves were allowed to run around whether they were a pet or not it was fine with us. When it rained, we didn’t get wet for there was a force field around the top of it. I always thought of it like a Percy Jackson deal with it. In the middle of the school was a small fire. That’s was the meeting area.

   I stood in front of everyone as they just sat a listened. I looked around and saw what He had meant about appearance. All of the people of zombie had tan skin with dark hair except a few because of where they stood in the ranking. Mr. Rox said that today was a free day, so everyone of the zombie people went to the tents with their last names on it in the language. The regular kids stayed outside to mingle with one of another.

“What do we do?”Layne asked.

“Follow me,”I said heading to my tent.

   I walked up to the BIG tent with my last name on it. Everyone had two to three people in a medium size tent. For mine it was only me in this huge tent. My friends joined me sometimes but I really didn’t care.

   The inside was a mixture of modern and ancient put together. I had computers and a beanbag chair. I also added a drawing studio for my entertainment. There was a mat on the floor like a bed. A pile of books in a corner. I added a few rolling office chairs for when my friends were with me.

“Jess,”said a person behind me.

“Yes, Kyle Walker,”I said turning to see a light brown haired kid,”Is something wrong?”

“No,”He said holding out a small box to me,”I’m here to give you this.”

  He handed me the box and left. His family was like Hermes, so they were the messengers. Kyle’s family has helped me out a lot with keeping up with what is going on and they are the ones that sends out the messages for the right people. So I opened the small box to find…

Chapter 8

 “We’ll be safe here,”I said flipping the coin that was in the box,”We got Ace, and a security system that no one can beat.”

“I didn’t know that every country had a tribe,”Layne said scanning the rule book,”Also their birthmarks are in different locations. Also to tell who is who look at how old the zombie bit looks. Doesn’t your bit look fresh, Jessica?”

“Yes,”I said,”That’s why everyone here wears pants.”

   I realized how James had a dragon birthmark on his shoulder blade. I never knew why it was a dragon or that it never bothered me until now. He was on my computer watching videos of me when I was little and acting stupid for attention.

“Ace was a pup when you were born,”James said,”I thought he would be older than that.”

   Everyone except my old friends and Layne went to the computer. Layne was still loving the knowledge the book had. My friends were spinning in the office chairs I had here. I looked at the golden coin in my hand. On one side it had a knife on it, the other was my family name.

Marks are strong people and leaders,My dad’s voice said in my head,We protect what we care about. Even if it means losing your life.

  I blacked out to the long days me and my dad spent in that room, the training room. I was five years old and people started to take notice in me. I always wanted to be like him but could never do it.

“I’m never going to get this,”I said sitting on the floor,”I can’t even judo flip a stupid dummy.”

“Because you’re not trying,”My father said so calmly,”You know it takes time to become strong. Just find what moves you to act and achieve it.”

I took a deep breath and said,”Losing you, mommy, and my friends. I can’t stand that.”

“Just remember though,”He said kneeling beside me,”What makes you act can hurt you. We protect what we care about the most. Even if it means losing our life.”

“What’s your daddy?”I asked.

“You, my princess,”He said hugging me.

 I started to come back at that moment and honestly I wanted to stay there. Ace laying by my head and everyone was around me. I started to sit up with Ace helping me. Everyone looked at me like it was bad or something terrible had happened.

“How long was I out?”I asked knowing it had to be about thirty minutes,”What time is it?”

“You were out for two minutes,”Macy said.

“Two minutes!”I said surprise,”It had to be at least thirty.”

  No one said anything to me at that statement. I got up and walked over to my computer. They were watching my flip fails and I was embarrassed to have them on this device. I rubbed my head remembering them all to well for my taste. I exited out of it and pulled up the video of my dad before I was born. He was carry Ace and the video explained everything I would ever needed to know about the world I lived in.

  The video was roughly an hour long and I sat there as they watched it not taking their eyes of it. I listened to him explain all the rules and our traditions but I knew it all already. I was watching in the background to see my crazy uncle, who was in New Orleans still hopefully. He was mocking my dad which made me smile.

   After showing my friends the video, I had worked up the nerve to ask James about his birthmark. Everyone looked at him for the answer to it. He stood there for the count of twenty before talking.

“I’m from a different tribe,”He said,”The american dragon tribe. You know that is right, Jess?”

“Kind of,”I said trying to recall on what my dad said,”It’s kind of...I didn’t really understand it once my dad told me.”

“Of course you didn’t,”James said,”The two tribes are way different. The rules and techniques are not even on the same world base. One uses magic while the other uses weapons.”

“I know that, Dragon boy,”I almost snapped,”Isn’t it like you can control fire or something. I remember Dad saying something like that.”

  James engulfed his right hand in fire. It was cool, but it was only one hand. I was curious on why I needed to know this. I really didn’t get that part of it plus some of the other details.

“Can you do that with your other hand?”I asked after a few seconds.

  He looked at his other hand and did it. It was cool, except for the fact that he got a third degree burn on it. He looked at me than his hand and shook his head in a ‘heck no’ way. I wanted to laugh at him but I already did that on him trying to ask me a question thing.

“Do you have anything for burns?”He asked.

Chapter 9

 “Run to the tunnels,”I yelled.

“I thought you said it was safe here,”Layne yelled throwing his axe at a zombie,”You owe me two axes, Jess.”

“Where is James?”Macy yelled.

    The school was being attacked by Mr. Mathew and a huge group of zombies. James was on top of a building snipping everything that came close to us. Our group made it to the tunnels at last but James was still out there. He had his earpiece in, so I put a camera on Ace and sent him to James’s side to give me a view on how things were going. I pulled it up on my laptop to see what he was doing still out there.

“James.”I said into my earpiece,”What are you doing? We made it to the tunnels. You need to get out of there, Now!”

“Hey, I see that Mathew guy,”He said as Ace looked at him then to Mr. Mathes.

“I know,”I said looking at my laptop.

“How do you know that,”He said looking at Ace,”Is there a camera on Ace?”

  Ace barked and turned to see what was going on. The groups of people that I known my whole life was being taken away. Amanda was standing on the middle platform while everyone else was being attached. I saw two zombies carry a small girl from the Ach tent up to her. The Ach were strong warriors and a proud swordsmen. Amanda looked at the child and told the zombies to put her with the rest.

“That low life trader!” I yelled.

“That was my ear Jess,”James said.

  Ace took off and I lost track of what was going on out there. I tried to tell James that I had lost track of him, but I got no answer. When Ace came in, the poor wolf had a bullet wound in its leg.

“First my friends and now MY dog,”I said running to Ace,”This has gone too far. I’m calling an attack on this Idiot.”

“Jessica, Don’t you think you’re taking it too far,”Layne said.

  At that moment the tribe adults without their kids came in. They all looked just as mad as I was. My grandmother came in with my aunt and uncle, that I haven’t seen in years. He was my dad’s brother and he didn’t have a wife yet.

“Hey mini Randy,”He said,”Where’s everyone? Your mother, siblings, and stepfather. Or did they get taken as well?”

“I’m not in the mood to jock with you, Uncle Jack,”I snapped at him,”My friends and our tribe are being taken right now. So just shut that big mouth of yours.”

  Mr. Rox walked up and said he barely escaped. Then turned to me as his eyes changed its color to brown as if he was in deep thought. Everyone else left except for Mr. Rox, my grandma, my friends, and Aunt stayed here with me. Mr. Rox opened his mouth to say something but stopped once James’s voice came through my computer’s speakers.

“Jess, I’m at 103 in Dunn,”James said,”Do you know where that’s at? Everyone is here and we are all alright.”

“Yes, I do,”I answered,”That is the old workshop. Why?”

  I heard talking in the background then heard a preppy voice of my old foe. I was going to scream if she lied to me. She better not have done anything to them are I promise that I will cause her so much pain it will kill her.

“Oh Miss Marks,”She said,”It is good to talk to you. I just hope you join us. Your friend is so rude like you. So hurry if you want to save them. My father has a bone to pick with you. I also hope your daddy will be ok here all alone. Bye.”

“Amanda, don’t you break this,”I said,”What about my dad?”

  She broke it after that and I was enraged. I looked at my friends and family. They looked at me like they were waiting for me to give them the order. I hope Amanda is ready for this because she has hit my last nerve with this one. I face them with a evil grin in my eye.

“Let’s go save the others,”I said with my knife in hand.

Chapter 10

 “The triplets and I will go left,”I said,”Macy, Layne, Slade, and Luke go right. If anything happens report to the tunnels.”

  It was six p.m. and the zombies seem to gain some smarts while we were gone. Amanda was outside organizing them as we sneaked past them. I wanted to throw my knife at her, but the triplets told me I could do that later if we survived this night.

   I unlocked the door and we walked into the building. I flashed back and forth from the days I had spent with my dad wondering around the town. I was going to murder the person who would do that to a little girl and make sure he knew what it felt like. Then Kylee appeared and hugged my leg as she was shaken with fear.

“Help me,”She said into my left leg.

“Stay quiet,”I whispered to everyone,”What’s wrong this time, Kylee?”

“Weird man chasing me,”She said pointing behind her.

   As if it was his sign to enter, a familiar guy appear from where Kylee had ran from a few minutes ago. It was my dad, but he wasn’t a zombie. I started to cry and we ran to each other, both shock to see the other here. He wrapped me into a hug as I let my tears run down my face. He smelt like brownie’s and apples, the way he had always did. It was nice to be in his arms again and not fighting this battle alone.

“Jessica Alicia Marks,”He said holding me at arm's length and looking at me,” You’ve grown up so much. I thought I would never see you again.”

“Is it really you?”I asked looking into his green eyes to see the pain of that day was still there.

“It is,”He said simply,”Someone found a way to do it. The same cure that can be injected in…”

“Can be applied again to take away the cure,”I finished,”The unbalanced chemicals used would be enough to delet it out a second time around.”

   The triplets and Kylee looked at me, like they never show me like this. I turned to them and said that I pay attention in science and had cure samples in my bag. I just had to find a way to inject it into the next victim. My Dad joined us along with Kylee, since she didn’t want to be left alone in here. So we started to look for the prisoners.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  We got all the trieb kids out but we couldn’t find James anywhere. It was now ten p.m. and I sadly only had five things of the cure left that I didn’t mess with. I had five containers of the ones I had experimented with and used them as grenades. I had the whole group here minus Macy, since she had gotten injured and decided to stay with everyone else. My dad had explained how we were going to be quick and make as soundless as we could.

“James,”I heard down the hall, two doors to my left to be correct,”It looks like your friend doesn’t care about you,”Amanda said.

“You don’t know her like I do,”I heard James defend me,”She is twice as good as you. Also she will never give up until she has achieved her mission. You will never beat…”

  He got cut off and that was when we all found a hiding spot. I was hanging from the ceiling when the two she-demons, or Amanda and Kay, walked out talking about something. I noticed that Amanda was wearing shorts that revealed a zombie bite mark on her right ankle. She was also speaking spanish and right then I wished I payed more attention to Mrs. Phyllis’s lessons in class. They had stopped under me as they continued on with their conversation as my grip failed me.

  I had fell onto the Amanda and kicked Kay in the head. I stood up and said “Oops” as I really didn’t mean to do it. I was glad I did though because they did deserve it. They were knocked out and my friends gave me thumbs ups along with some applause. We took them into the room the room they had came out of and tied them up to two chairs.

“She’s spanish,”I said,”I should have known that since she was always in my face.”

“What do you mean by that?”Jasmine asked.

   I pointed to her ankle and they saw what I meant by it. I looked around the room and saw poor James was locked up in the same spot and across from him was Mrs. Phyllis, Lindsay, trying to eat Mrs. Olivia all chained up in this cage thing.

“Sweeties,”Dad started.

“I’m picking the locks,”I said getting started with James’s outer one.

  I was almost done when I was taken by someone. I tried to fight them off but nothing had worked. I looked up next to my face and saw a needle with the ZO3 cure in it. The stranger had his arm around my throat and moved the needle to my neck. I struggled to get away but nothing worked and his grip just got tighter as I tried.

“Weapons,”He ordered as I realized it was the same voice from before,”Down and free those two as well.”

“Why…”Dad started to say and come after him to get me.

“Don’t,”I croaked,”Finish the mission. I’ll be okay. Daddy, get them out of here. I’ll be fine by myself.”

   That was when an army of zombies came in the room and surround me and their master. I felt the needle go into my neck and I tried not to scream but I did anyways. He injected me then let me go to his ‘pets’. His army then took turns biting me. When they parted I was bitten twenty-five times on my right shoulder and it was bleeding badly and in pain. I layed there crying my eyes out as I thought it was all over for me.

   Then out of nowhere I watched James transformed into a dragon and free everyone that was still locked up. Lindsey had bitten Mrs. Olivia but nothing had happen to her but she did give her a dirty look. My dad was holding me, when the darkness finally took a hold of me.

Chapter 11

   I felt cold laying there and I saw episodes of my life pass by. The one that stung the most was when my grandmother told me a story of my great grandfather, Randel Marks. She always told me his tales the same way.

“My father was the strongest of all the Marks,”She said.

  This was the story of when he was bitten, she had told me it a few days after my father’s death. I was sitting next to the pound drawing the ducks. When she said those words I knew it was going to be an awesome story. The story went like this:

  My grandfather and great grandfather was out doing a trapping job. Yes, they were the pest control at the time. They just finished packing their things up, when they heard a scream. They ran all the way to my house, since they knew it was my mother who had scream. I was just a baby at the time and my dad was out with Ace at the vet. My mom and me were cornered by three zombie mutts. My mother didn’t have her knife and I was still the defenseless child. My grandfather took one out with a mouse trap and a can of plant killer. So that left one for both of them. My great grandfather was fighting his when my grandfather’s took advantage of him being distracted and bit him. My grandfather got it off and destroyed both of them. The thing was he didn’t turn into one but died a few years later to a heart disease he had gotten from smokers.

  My grandmother always said that I had the gift but I never really believed her. Right now though I really hope she was right or it is bye bye Jessica.

“Jess, baby,”I heard my dad say,”Wake up. You’re safe now. Please wake up.”

“Daddy,”I said waking up,”I guess Grandma was right on it.”

“She’s alright,”He said hugging me,”It looks like she was. I’m glad you do as well as that, Princess. Just don’t do anything like that again, Promise me that much.”

“Yeah, I promise,”I said noticing we were underground,”Did James turned into a dragon or was that just me?”

“I did,”James said proudly.

   He then went ahead and explained how he could but I didn’t listen to a word he was saying. I was jus tin wonder on how I was still here but hey I’m not complaining about it at all. It was around four in the morning and my arm felt like an Arcanine bit it with some type of fire comp thing. When my dad noticed I was staring in the distance, he came over to where I was. He sat with me and looked at the wall I was staring at.

“Do you remember when I first brought you done here,”He said,”You were so energetic and sang the cutest little song. How did it go. I’m Jessica, the bravest of the brave. The strongest of the strong. The…”

“Best leader of leaders,”I said remembering it,”No one can touch me. I’m the baddest of the bad. So watch out here I come. Zombies aren’t going to know what hit them.”

  We laughed and I laid on him like I did when I was younger. He started to pet my head and sang a song that I remembered he used to sing to me at night. I started to sing along with him a little bit after he had started. Around five, everyone was doing school work like math, art, and battle P.E. The Jacksons came over to see how I was doing, since they were the medical team for us. James was trying to learn knife throwing,but he almost took a kid’s head off with his first try and not hitting the target. My dad grabbed me and took me to an open corner to spar a little.

    We started out easy, because of my arm, but within five minutes into it we looked like we were trying to kill each other. I looked over to see James holding a ‘Go, Jessica, Go’ flag and went on with trying to win the match. Everyone started to put bets in with who was going to win and I could tell the both of us were getting tired. We grabbed each other's hands and judo flip each other at the same time. The match ended with two crunches as our backs hit the ground at the same time. It was a tie and I was so happy on how that I finally had tied with him.

“You got stronger and faster,”He said giving me a high five.

“Yeah,”I said getting on my feet,”My back hurts now from that.”

“That’s the longest you’ve ever lasted with him,”Grandma said.

  We laughed and started to talk with one another. I was surprise on how easy it was to talk to him and I was glad that it was. Being with him him was like I was a whole peace again. I told him about the last eight years of my life and he seemed to be surprised by it.

“So your mom didn’t want you to be a zombie hunter,”He said,”But you are one aren’t you, Alicia.”

  He said my middle name like I was in trouble. I only could simply just nodded at him for the answer. He looked at the other kids playing keep away with the dogs. I looked that way and run after to join them with my dad following after me.

Chapter 12

“She is doing WHAT behind my back,”My mom said,”I told her to NOT be a zombie hunter. She could die and I can’t lose my little baby girl.”

  My father had told my mom after she came down into the tunnels. He was talking her down and amazingly she calmed down enough for me to talk with her. I told her about my adventures with my team and she finally said it was alright. She was glad to see me fulfilling my dream of being like my dad like I always dreamed of. I’m so happy that I forgot that my shoulder was hurting and went ahead to hug her.

  Matt walked in with Rex and Righley running to me with big grins. Rex gave me a hug and went to practice fighting with Macy. Righley kicked me, so I had to chase after him. I ended up tackling the little punk and tickled him till he gave up. I looked over to see my dad talking with my step dad while my mom talked to James. It was just another day in my weird life.

“Well, Jessica, I’ve seem to have underestimated you,”said Mr. Mathew,”But then again you led me to the big prize.”

   I turned around and saw Amanda, Kay, Zack, Mr. Mathew, and my uncle standing before me. I noticed he was holding my uncle like a prize he had won while having a good time at the fair. My aunt scream for them to let her husband go as they stared at me. Zack walked up to me and said that I should come with them to protect the ones that I love. He took my hand like we had been dating for years.

“I would rather die,”I said snatching my hand away from his.

“Jessica,”Zack said,”You are out numbered here. One word and a flood of zombies will come down and destroy everything you know of. You just got to come with us.”

“Zack don’t even try to reason with her,”Kay said pointing a pistol at me,”If she wants to die, let her.”

   She shot at me and I grabbed a katana slicing the bullet in half. I then went to her and put the blade to her throat. Now I’m not usually like this but with her, I am always like this. I glared at her ready to finish her if she tried to do anything to stop me.

“Now Miss Jessica Marks,”said a voice behind me,”You don’t want to kill me daughter now. So move the sword away from her neck and let’s talk this out.”

“Mister,”I said not moving an inch,”I know that this seems wrong but why are you working for that Idiot.”

  He laughed and Kay and I stared at each other as she started her evil grin. I let her go and her father came over to me. He oddly looked a lot like Kay and Amanda. He had their brown almost black eyes and their black style hair. He although looked more built to do anything the world throws at him and the girls did a little bit. I didn’t know why I did this but I stared him in the eyes as if I was challenging to try something. He didn’t make a move, as that moment my hands were getting bond together.

“You stupid girl,”He said in the voice I heard that day,”I am him and my children are Amanda, Kay, and Zack. They are the last of their kind and I lost my wife, their mother. I made the cure to bring her back but it was unstable. Now, I have the one person who can make it perfect.”

  I was knocked out and heard my friends scream as I was toughted out. I’m put on a bed and I started to see my family and friends being put through Tartarus. Then I woke up in a room chained up to a wall. Kay and Amanda walked in with whips and started to beat the living Tartarus out of me.

“Awe, No more comebacks Jess,”Amanda says.

“Are you losing this fight,”Kay says as her whip hit my rib cage.

“Stop that’s enough,”Zack said letting me down,”She had enough for today. Go talk to Father about the plan.”

  They left Zack and me there as I laid down on the cold floor while Zack tried to ease the pain. I sat there and cried for everyone I had let down with this action. I wanted to fight but I was in so much pain and the images of my family and friends being abuse was stopping me from doing it.

“They’re not real,”Zack said still helping me,”We don’t have them you know.”

“Why are...you...trying...to...help me...,”I said in between my tears.

“Because, you weren’t afraid to stand up to Kay,”He said now petting my hair,”When something got hard you faced it. Your team follows you out of respect and not fear.”

  Zack told me how Kay is always yelling at them and how he would sneak over to our home to watch us having the time of our lives. He never talked to me till now and that is a long time to not have got to know him for me. I felt so bad that his sister ruled over his life and that he never had someone to be a true friend to him. Wow, I can be a big head person, if I hadn’t pay to much attention to Zack.

“Zack, I never knew you had that kind of problem,”I said now a little bit better,”I have a similar problem with my step father. He is always trying to mess with my plans. My mom said I had a twin brother but he went missing when I was a baby.”

“Well, I’m not even a real sibling to Kay,”He said which shocked me,”I was adopted when I was small and I’m not even spanish. In fact I hate speaking spanish.”

  We talked for hours that day and the same for a month. I would be knocked out and have images put into my head. Then wake up and get the heck beat out of me. It has been the same everyday.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  Today I got beaten then got taken to another room. I was strapped to a chair and had a needle stabbed into my right arm. I saw Zack sat across from me with the same confuse and scare look on his face like me. He was also strapped up like me for some odd reason.Then Mr. Kelp came in with a picture in his hand.

“After sixteen years, I finally have both of the Marks kids to finish my plan,”He said showing us the picture,”Now let’s the fun begin.”

  Then I felt my blood leave my body. I looked over and noticed that he was my missing brother. He looked just like me and we acted the same. How did I not see this coming? He looked at me and apparently noticed the same thing as well. Before I noticed it, I was speaking a language the two of us had made up together.

“Kal ta ma,”I said, which meant to us I’m sorry.

“Me coo to la doo,”He said, which was I love you sis, OW.

“What are y’all talking about,”Amanda said as a dragon bursted into the room through the left wall.

Chapter 13

  Layne and James were staring at the machine we were hooked up to as the others fought. James pushed a button and the blood started to flow out faster than before. Zack and I both winced in pain from it. Then Layne pushed another one and we both started to scream from the pain we were feeling. Those two Idiots better stop that right now and go get Luke to look at it!

“You Idiots,”Luke said unplugging the machine,”This is why you leave this to the tech team.”

   They walked in front of me and wave their hands in front of my face. Zack and I were both as pale as a ghost and we didn’t move to there actions. Luke said the obvious fact that we were strapped down into the seats. They took out the needles and undid us both trying to help out us. I feel forward and blacked out in Luke’s arms thankfully.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  When I woke up, I was in the Hospital. I could barely move because I had lost so much blood. James looked at me and raised the bed, so that I could sit up. Across the room from me, Zack sat on his bed reading one of my notebooks. Layne sat in the window talking about demons. My parents, including Matt, was sitting beside me. Rex and Righley were sleeping in the corner to the door oddly enough. Luke was now on my bed after he had noticed I was wake.

“I feel like Edward drank the blood out of me,”I said making everyone laugh,”How ya feeling, Zack?”

“Good,”He said looking better now that the color was back in his face,”You were out a day longer than me.”

   I looked at my hand trying move it but it hurt too much to. I hate being useless like this. I was a little less pale than when I had passed out the other day. I just left so weak and I hated how it felt to not be able to do anything about it.

“Take it easy sweetie,”Momma said as the two boys woke up and looked at me.

“Jess is awake,”Rex said climbing up and giving me a hug.

“We beat those meanies up,”Righley said punching at the air.

   I laughed a little as they had to leave to go home with Matt. I couldn’t believe how close to death I was just three days ago. Yes, I was out for about four days and I hate it with all the passion I have in my hurting and useless body. Zack was reading one of my many notebooks that had some fun adventures in it. Sce decide at that moment to jump on my bed and start to lick me to death. Then he went to do the same to Zack as if he was always with us. I was happy that I made it out with my long lost twin brother by my side.

“Hey,”I said to him,”Which one are ya reading over there?”

“The one where you went to a magical waterfall,”He said looking at me weirdly,”Is this suppose to be dream? Or were you a kid at the time you wrote this?”

“I wrote it for the twins,”I said moving my hand up a little finally,”They love to read what I write. So they asked me to write that one.”

“Well I got a question,”James said almost in my ear,”Are they really twins?”

  My parents looked at each other and then back to me and Zack. They took out a baby picture of us and gave it to James. My dad gave two files to me and Zack, that held our birth certificates and mine and Zack’s pictures. There was also a report on our strengths as long the stupidest picture of me in a princess outfit looking ticked off. I saw one of Zack in a frog custom with Kay acting like the princess. I feel sorry for that picture being in there. Layne took the one I had and was looking through it like it was life or death for him to know the answer.

“My two little ones are finally together,”My mom said about to cry,”I thought I would never see the day.”

“Oh My Gosh, Mom, don’t cry,”I told her,”If you cry, then I’ll cry. Then we all would be crying and will not be able to stop.”

   We all started to laugh and I wasn’t so bored anymore but glad to be in a safe zone for once. I really just hope that I wouldn’t have to worry about getting attack anytime soon. That would be a miracle to me, since everything seems to hate me at some point I guess.

Chapter 14

“I’m glad to be back home,”I said walking through the front door after five months stuck in the hospital room.

   It was December 15 and the meeting was tomorrow. Also my birthday was in five-ish days, December 20, and it will be the first one I get to celebrate with Zack. We were in Delhi and for once I was happy to be in this old place that seems to be where I always get taken to. I think it missed me a little bit, don’t you. Zack had moved in with us after I had kicked Amanda’s and Kay’s butt when they came to take him away, he helped with that one. I was running to the training room with Rex, Righley, my dad, and Matt all on my tale. They were trying to make sure I didn’t pass out again.

“Calm down before you black out,”Matt called after me.

“Jess, you are leaving us behind,”Rex said.

“Whoa, you can move fast when you want to,”Righley said.

“I got to see something,”I called back to them,”I just have to.”

   My father caught me and picked me up as I was almost there. I started to kick as he carried me back to the living room. He sat me down on the couch and the twins got on top of me and wouldn’t let me up. My mom took my friends and Zack to the mall to get present for everyone and that left my dad, step dad, and little brothers here at the house. I tried everything and they refused to get off and let me do something that could hurt me or make me black out. I wonder if this is what’s it like to have an older brother?

“The doctor told you to rest, Alicia,”My dad said,”So stop trying.”

“Can we at least go and get a christmas tree,”I said,”I can’t just sit here and do nothing for hours. I have to move around and do something. I need to keep busy or I might die.”

“Yes,”Dad said almost laughing at me,”We can take the truck to the christmas tree farm in Monroe. I guess that would be alright.”

“Can I drive?”I asked with a spark in my eye like a two year old I was at heart.

  I didn’t get to drive, but Matt did give me the front seat at least. The twins were in the back seat playing I Spy while I was up front talking with my two dads. I was surprise that I was willing talking with my MAtt openly and not chewing his head off.

“Matt,”I said feeling sorry that I was a jerk to him for all those years,”Why do you plan things on the same day I do?”

  He stared at me like it was right in front of me. I looked into his eyes as they seemed to have soften up. He really looked at me like I was his child asking why the world went around the sun. It was nice to see that in his eyes for once and not the other one I got a whole bunch of times.

“I never knew how much you cared for them,”He said,”It was always the day that was open for me. I wanted to share a connection with you, but I never knew how to. Once your mom told me your dad and how much you loved him, I thought that I could never fill that spot. I never even got you to call me dad. So I stopped trying.”

“That’s when you keep at it,”My dad said.

“You’ve should have said that you wanted me to say that,”I said facing him and feeling a like sad at that,”I’m sorry for not giving you a chance, dad. I just never thought I could move on like my mom did. It was the one thing I never got over and didn’t want it to be my life. I still don’t want that to happen to anyone of you.”

   After eight years I finally bonded with him and I’m really glad I did. He seemed to be a nice guy and maybe we will be good friends hopefully. After the little heart to heart, both of them started to telling stories about me and the bad one that make you want to hide your face for life. So I started to listen to my music on my Ipod to block them out as they shared different times of my life.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  We got home around five with a beautiful seven foot tree. We got it up and the twins and I fell asleep on the couch. I was woken up when I heard James yell my name out for some reason. I shot up looking around the living room for the reason why. The boys were playing Halo on the X-box and I guess my person was on auto drive or someone was playing for me.

“Can you four keep it down,”I said still a little sleepy,”You might wake the dead and then we would have to kill them.”

  Slade, Layne, Zack, and James were in the living room all being the little weirdoes they sadly were. I noticed a small box by my feet and oddly wanted to open it, but knew to ask questions before I do. It was really quiet since it was blue and had little black dots.

“Who’s the box…”I started.

“You,”Zack answer looking at me,”Mom wanted to give it to you when we got home , but you were asleep. She took a picture of you half on the couch and half way falling off of it. She’ll be back in a little bit.”

“Alright,”I said moving the blanket off of me.

“I was wondering where this…”Zack began to say looking at the tree.

“We bought it,”I said looking at the little box still,”We were waiting for y’all before we decorated it. I think it’s perfect.”

  The peaceful and quiet air was broken, when Rex and Righley ran in screaming their heads off. Ace was chasing them once again around the house. I laughed as my side started to hurt from it. That wolf was always so playful around christmas time.

  Ace jumped on the couch and started to play with me. I was use to making sure my hand didn’t get caught in his mouth. He was so happy that I was back home and feeling much better. I picked up my cell phone and called my friends as Ace started to bark at the the twins again. I knew that I had to get them help me with something I had to do.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

  We got the training room into good shape and made it look like a first time thing, which in this house is hard to do. I was going to surprise my parents with a picnic for them, so that they would have some time together without us bothering them.

“This was what you were trying to do?”Righley asked putting it together.

“Yes, it was,”I said ruffling his hair,” I want to give them a moment without worry.”

  Macy and her brother, Jack, went back to their home to finish up some work for the meeting tomorrow and would be back shortly after. The triplets had went to sit at the table and write out different plans for the way we were going to get people from and to the tunnels. The rest of us took seat in the living room and I took out a notebook to write out one of my fanfictions. I looked at the time and at nine o’clock, my parents walked into the house.

chapter 15

“Mommy, Daddy,”The twins yelled from the doorway of the hallway,”Zombie in the training room.”

  They ran with knives and gun in hand toward the said area. We all followed behind them as I happily thought that our plan was working. They entered to the little surprise we had set up for them. A checkered blanket with room for all three of them. In the middle sat their favorite finger food with candle light. They stared at it in shock but had smiles on their faces. My mom hugged me with teary eyes.

“You little troublemaker,”She said as she held me close.

“Why am I a troublemaker,”I said as she let go of me,”I think I was a good girl this year. Also I think you might want to let Santa know.”

  We all laughed as they dat down to enjoy their present from us. I wanted to give them this kind of thanks for putting up with me and the hunt for me. We left them and I quickly fixed everyone else a quick snack. I looked around as we had decided to watch the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie till the clock read 10:00 pm. We went ahead to get the tree ready for the holiday.

“Open up the box,”Mom said with a smile.

  I looked at the box sitting in my lap and saw that it read Secrets of the Past. I opened it and found the coolest things hidden inside. There was a picture of me and Zack sitting in the hospital throwing cotton balls at everyone. We were dying of boredom that day. A shark tooth necklace that had my name engraved in it. The last thing was a silver pocket knife that had my last name on it in the ancient language. I looked up and saw that Zack was holding up the same tooth but with his name on it and the same pocket knife.

“We got the matching ones,”James said as I stared at the knife.

“Cool,”I said popping the knife open,”Now I can be like Reyna from Heroes of Olympus and kill werewolves.”

  Mom rolled her eyes as everyone else laughed at the comment.I put it up and went to stand up to go put my things up. When the twins decided they would tackle both me and Zack. So the two of us picked them up and carried them to the closet. I locked it as they started to bang on the door but after five seconds it just stopped. We soon after started to hear snoring coming from behind the door. I slowly opened the door up and saw the two were asleep.

“How did you do that?”Jasmine asked,”Can I do that to my brothers?”

“Hey,”They said as I gave a small laugh.

“Magic,”I said doing spirit fingers,”And I doubt you can do that with them. You are going to have to get them really tired.”

  Matt and I picked one of them up each and took them into their room. We talked about planning our activities with them do that it wouldn’t clash like before. I went to my room and he followed me into it. He was about how much I didn’t change. I looked at the dog bed and knew that I had to do something for him.

“Matt,”I said turning around to face him,”Do you want to come to the meeting? It would mean a lot to me if you do.”

“I would be honored to,”He said hugging me,”Jess.”

“Thanks Dad,”I said as I hugged him back.

  He left and I climbed on to my bed. Ace was on my pillow asleep like always, so I used him as my pillow for tonight. I fell asleep with a good and happy feeling that my family would never be ordinary. Even if our life depended on it which right now it kind of does.

Chapter 16

“Get up!”Layne yelled into my ear,”You’re going to be late!”

  I grabbed my knife and had it at his throat and said,“I know that Idiot. The wolf woke me up at 7 am. Give me a minute to get ready.”

 It was December 16 and the meeting was in an hour. I got up and took my medicine the doctor gave me to help with the moodswings. Ace raced past my mom when she came in with my hunger games tribute clothes she had bought me. It was modified to be zombie proof but yet I loved it any way. My dad came in next with Rex on his shoulders like he did to me a while back. I saw Zack run past my door being chase by Righley who had a toy shovel. Rex was let down and he joined his brother and leaving me with my parents. Poor, poor Zack, He doesn’t stand a chance against them.

“How ya feeling today, Baby girl?”Mom said asked me with a sweet look.

“I almost killed Layne,”I said knowing I better go with that route,”But otherwise good. I feel like I can do anything as long as my blood stays inside my body.”

“Well you and Zack are helping me today,”Dad said ruffling my knotty hair,”So I hope you two are up to the challenge.”

“I’m Jessica Marks,”I sassed,”I can do anything.”

“That’s what you think now,”Dad said laughing at me.

  They left so I could change and finish getting ready. I was putting my hair up as I walked into the busy kitchen. My group from New Orleans was here and scattered everywhere. Mom and Matt were passing out breakfast for the lot. I grabbed a piece of toast and a Dr. Pepper and took my seat at the table. Zack, James, and Mrs. Phyllis had joined me. Everyone else was doing there own little thing. I grabbed a book and my Ipod and began preparing for this meeting.

  My aunt and uncle came up to see how we were doing as they took a seat at the table with us. I looked at them and remembered that Zack wanted to be a Hunter with us. I closed my book and faced my dear uncle as they all stared at me.

“Can Zack trade teams?”I simply asked.

“Yes,”He answered,”To which one?”

“Mine,”I answered,”The kick butt one of course.”

“He can,”He said facing Zack,”You’re a hunter now.”

  As if on cue Rew came up and punched James in the arm. James looked at him as he left us and Mom yelled at everyone that it was time for us to go. So we ALL got into the eight minivans somehow. The one I was in there was my mom and dad in the front. Zack and I took the middle with Ace in between us. The twins, James, and Luke were in the back. Matt and the others were in one of the other cars.

    We were going over the routine in the car with dad while Luke was trying to teach James how to say rose in the ancient language. I was excited but at the same time I was nervous because I was going to be the leader of them for the first time since Dad had left us. I didn’t know if I was even right to do this job. I must have looked nervous because Zack had notice it.

“You’ll do fine, Jess,”He said,”You’re a lovable person.”

“Thanks,”I said,”It’s just the adults in the tribe make me nervous. They are all going to be staring at me. I think I might die.”

“Jess, it’s not that bad,”Dad said looking in the rearview mirror,”Just be you and you’ll do great.”

  Everything went silent till James yell ‘Yes, I did it’. We all bust out laughing and continued to the park. That was where the entrance my friends were going to hide in. I calmed down a lot once we got there and all walked inside.

 

 We got there and about five people were there and one of them was my grandmother. I walked to her dragging Zack behind me as I did so. She was talking to Luke’s family and he was right behind us. Once I got over to her, I gave her her hug and she gave me one back.

“Hey Jessica,”She said,”Who is this with you?”

“I’m Zack,”He said putting his hand out,”I’m Jessica’s long lost twin brother.”

  She smiled and pulled him into a hug. It was around 9:00 am and everyone was staring to come in. Zack and I both walked up to the front of the room and took our spots with our dad. Dad put his hand on the small of my back that helped to calm my nerves down a good bit. I looked around and started to remember the good things about coming to these meeting. That everyone here is Family.

Chapter 17

 The meeting was going good and surprisingly I was looked at like a leader like my dad was. Zack even got into it when things started to get out of hands. That was like every five minutes or was it like fifteen. I stood there and were putting out my ideas on the problem at hand.

“What about the kids, Randy?”Someone said,”Your’s have been taken about three times. What will stop them from taken the others? We need a plan.”

“I know you all have the same worry,”Dad said calmly,”We should just go on with this how we have always have done.”

“Don’t give that Marks,”Someone else said.

I looked around and saw that everyone was getting nervous. My grandmother motioned me to speak and get everyone to calm down. I took a step forward and took a deep breath to calm myself down. I looked at all of them as their eyes landed on me.

“I know y’all are worried,”I said,”My parents were worried sick when I went missing but arguing is not going to solve anything. My friends helped me when I was stuck and they didn’t know the truth about me. They still fought for me and I couldn’t ask for any better friends.”

“So,”that same person asked,”You still got kidnapped.”

“Yes and they came to my aid,”I popped off at him.

That’s when someone walked in clapping slowly. Everyone turned to see Kay and Amanda. Mr. Mathew was with them and to my surprise the Slayers followed Kay into the tunnels. I was so enraged it wasn’t even funny. They really need to stop bugging me and go and find another person to go and try to mentally hurt or kill.

“Good speech Jess,”Amanda said,”Too bad you can’t take all of us down. You are just a weak little girl.”

“Even your little brothers know that,”Kay said as two big guys walked in carrying my little brothers.

“Leave them out of this,”I snapped,”They are only eight! They don’t need to be put into of any of this!”

“Jess,”Righley said,”Can you beat them up for us.”

“What do you want?”I asked looking at the twins.

“You and your brother,”Mr. Mathew said,”Come with us and we’ll leave the rest of them alone.”

I looked at my dad and saw his hand on his knife ready to attack. I looked at Zack and notice that he had the same idea as me. I took the knife out of my dad’s hand and put it to my throat as Zack did the same with his pocket knife. Everyone gasped as they looked at the two of us.

“The tins,”I growled/order,”Or I’ll kill myself.”

The let them go and the two boys ran up to us. I slowly lowered the knife a little bit as I told them to got get the others. They ran off as Zack and I lowered the blades and placed them on the ground. In a few seconds Amanda and Kay were putting me and Zack into handcuffs.

“You’re not going to win,”I whispered into Amanda’s ear.

“We’ll see who wins,”She said,”I will watch you suffer everyday and this time there’s no escaping.”

“Watch me,”I said as my group walked in.

They walked up to the front where I was and got ready for the fight. Amanda laughed as the room started to fill up with gas. Everyone around me started to pass out and the other side had gas masks on. I watched as Zack passed out with me blacking out and hitting the floor.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

I woke up chained up to a wall. I looked around and noticed that I was alone. I cursed in the language and tried to get my hand’s loose. Mr. Mathew had chosen to walk in at that minute on me. He had two nurses with him and they were carrying in medical instruments. He came up to me and stroke my cheek with a smile.

“You’re lucky my feet are chained to the floor,”I said still struggling.

“Girl stop with all of that,”He said looking at me,”I’m the reason you and your brother are not connected to that machine right now. I need more research on your people. So stop struggling and be still before I make you! SO stop right now young lady!”

He said that like he was my grandfather. i looked at him and he eyed me. I stopped and felt somewhat safer around him. It was weird to me. But at the same time I had a safe feeling for once.

They let me down and started to begin their ‘research’ starting with my vision. They did the routine check up and the two nurses left me as Mr. Mathew was let out of the chains that held me. It felt like he truly trusted me. I just had a feeling that he was my grandpa that I had never met.

“You look like your mother,”He said,”You have her smile.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?”I began to question,”How did you know that I said that that day? Why do you even care about me? How do you know my mother? Who are you really? Where is my brother?”

“Because I know my daughter’s child,”He said standing up,”I saw you when you were only a baby. You were so small then but I didn’t know that you would be this important.”

I looked at him and noticed he kind of looked like the guy my mom said was her stepfather. He stood in front of me for a little bit before walking to the door. He motioned me to follow him. I stood up and didn’t argue back with him. Hey, I was raised to respect my grandparents, for if I didn’t let’s just say that my grandmother can hit. He led me to a giant room with all of these training machines. We walked in and I saw that they were hooking Zack up to a treadmill. We walked over to them and the hooked me up to the one beside him. They then went over that they were going to monitor how close our heart beats will be during and after. Mr. Mathew told us that he was going to see how twins interact with each other in different situation.

“I could tell you how they act,”I said,”I hang out with triplet and have a set of brothers. By the way what happened to them and everyone else?”

“We left everyone there,”Amanda said over an entercom,”Just like we had promise. So stop talking and get to it.”

I was glad that they were safe and felt a lot better at that. I got ready to start as it felt like I was about to go to the Hunger Games. Heck for all I know I could BE going into the Hunger Games. I just kept to myself hoping everyone will be alright.

Chapter 18

For the past few days we went through a routine. We start out in the room and get a check up. Then go to the big room and stretch for a few minutes and run the perimeter of the room three times. We would get a different challenge to complete and after go eat. Then for the rest of the day have a schooling for about two hours. After all of that Amanda and Kay got to decide what happens to us.

Today everything was going normal until it got to their time. I was chained up to the middle of my room hanging there waiting to see what would happen. Then Kay came in with a whip and three nurses. I started to try to loose my hands in the chains as she approached. I notice the my feet weren’t chained up . Wow how careless can you get. I jumped up and locked my feet around the chains while I tried to get my hands free.

Cracked!

The whip went to went to my back leaving a stinging pain across it. I fell to the ground and landed on my feet. The pain hurt so much I stopped trying to free my hands and struggling all together. Amanda came in with Zack looking like he came from a fight against a bear. She let him go and he fell to the ground motionless. They left and the nurses let me down. I crawled over to Zack and started to cry over him. How could someone do this? Don’t they care about people? He moved a little bit as I noticed there was a first aid kit in the corner. I ran over to them and started to stop the bleeding as much as I could.

That’s when someone knocked on the door. I shot my head up frightened by it. Then my friends came in with my two uncles and dads. They got Zack and took him away from the scene. I retrieved my things and stood there as my friends stared at me.

“What?”I asked still crying.

“You look like you’re in pain,”James said.

“Like you got the same beaten as him,”Luke said.

Slade touched my shoulder and I winced in pain. I don’t understand this. I was just hit on my back. Layne kept quiet as they saw how I was acting. Luke was right, I could feel the same pain Zack was feeling right now.

“It hurts,”I said falling to the ground,”Make it stop!”

They had to cover my mouth to make sure that we weren’t going to get caught. They picked me up and took me to the van. They had Zack in the middle seat and sat me in front of him with my dads on either side of me. The four boys took the very back as my uncles drove us.

We raced to the hospital and every time we hit a bump Zack would moan and I would scream out of the pain we felt. The boys tried to help Zack but every time they tried to move him, I would wince in pain. My dad was holding me close to him to try and ease the pain while Matt called everyone to meet us at the hospital. I was crying and in serious pain the whole trip as it only got worst when something happened.

Once we got there, the medics were outside with two beds for us. They put me on one and Zack on the other. I watched them race him into the E.R. as they put me into a room. They did some simple test and found amazing results. The doctor went outside while the nurse stayed behind to watch me.

“You must love coming here,”She said with a kind smile,”I’m Crystal by the way.”

“Jessica,”I said,”Where’s my brother at? Will he be alright?”

“He’ll be fine Jessica,”Crystal said,”There’s nothing you need to worry about. He’s next door and doing well.”

“That’s…”I never got to finish my sentence.

I was on the ground screaming and crying as the pain came back. The doctor and my parents came rushing in as I did so. They were surprised to see me doing this. Then the nurse next door came in saying that Zack was moaning and crying in pain. No one had a clue what was going on. What is going on with me? That’s when the two she-demons came in and started to help me.

“Their minds are linked together,”Kay said.

“They can feel each other’s pain,”Amanda finished.

“Get out!”I screamed getting up and trying to hurt them or at least make them leave,”Leave us alone.”

They caught me and I slumped back down to the ground crying and mumbling for them to get out. My parents made them leave the scene as I put myself into a little ball. Why must this always happen to me? Why not someone else? Why must out of the two billion or more people in the world me?

My friends came in and they tried to move me to the bed but every time they did I would scream. So they made me a pallet on the floor and my dad stayed with me as Matt and mom went to stay with Zack. Dad slept on the bed while the nurse checked on me.

“You’re physically alright,”My dad told me,”You’re mentality is just the opposite.”

I laid there as sleep was fighting for control. I soon drifted into the worst dream in the history of bad dreams. Or well for me it was.

I was strapped to that machine in an empty room. I was watching the world turn into an Empire for the Kelp/Ridder family. They came in with the last person I cared for and loved and brought him in front of me. I looked at Rex as he looked scared. I tried to help but they shot him before I could. The one thing I fought for gone forever. I looked at him as the blood poured out of me as they turned on the machine. All hope I had left went with my DNA as I sat there looking at my brother. I felt helpless that I let it get this far and they knew that. They turned to me and laughed at me as I stared at the unmoving twin. They soon left me to my prison as I looked up and cried.

“Why them?”I screamed into the air,”Why couldn’t I have died? I give up everything. Just let me die. Why keep me here when there is no more hope.”

I woked up when I felt the nurse shaking me and saying my name. Dad was over me trying to help as much as he could. I sat up as Dad hugged me tightly. Mom ran in like I was going to die on her soon. I closed my eyes as I buried my face into my father’s chest.

“Is she alright?”Mom asked,”Do I need to get the doctor?”

“She’s good,”Dad said still holding me,”She just had a bad dream. She’ll be ok, if she just calms down some.”

She walked over and petted my head as I stayed there and cried my eyes out. My mom ended up getting the doctor to come and see me. It turned out I had an anxiety attack. So they put me in the bed and had another nurse come in, so I had two helping me out. My mom stayed to talk with me as dad was in the bed beside me.

I kept shaking like crazy and Crystal went to go get something. The new nurse, Lacey, stayed and listened to my story. I told them the dream as dad fell asleep. Crystal walked in with notebooks, mechanical pencils, and color pencils. She sat them on the table in front of me and told me that they were mine.

“All of this?”I asked as she nodded,”I can’t take these.”

“This will help you with the anxiety,”Crystal said,”This is from me to you. Your dad told me how you draw and write, so I thought you could do it here.”

“Jess that would be wonderful,”Mom said smiling at me.

“Thanks,”I said,”I will be sure to do that.”

Out of nowhere my dad started to snore oddly loudly. I laughed and elbowed him, waking him up. He looked around and stared at me like I lost my head. Since getting there I felt like a normal kid stuck in the hospital. That lasted five seconds, when pain shot into my arm. The nurses stood beside me incase I needed them. Again Why is it always me?

Chapter 19

For a month straight I was in and out of my hospital room. They would let me out and help my nurses with other and be useful. The greatest idea I have heard in awhile. The days I was in there my friends planned games and fun activities for us to do. No boredom here. I could go and see anyone in the hospital except my brother. Which was the down side to it.

Today I was dancing around my room with the nurses straightening the room up. The doctor walked into the room with a smile on his face. He came over to me making me stop and face him. Crystal and Lacey walked up and made me sit on the bed and got him a chair.

“What up doc?”I asked as he took a seat.

“Nothing Bugs Bunny,”He replied,”But today you’re going into room 143. So you better be on your best behavior.”

I looked up with excitement as he just gave me the best news in my whole life. Well beside me getting told that Zack was my brother of course or my dad is still alive. That was my brother’s room. I got up and started to jump around saying yes like the little kid I am. They laughed and got me to calm down from it. He told me that Zack is still in pretty bad shape but well enough that I could go in without freaking out.

We left to the room next to mine and walked on in. My parents were in there and Matt was with the twins outside. I walked over to him and notice that he looked a lot better since a month ago. I walked up and sat on the end of the bed as I looked at him. Zack kicked me and met my eyes.

“Ow,”I said mockingly,”How are you? You had me scared for me life.”

“I know. I could feel your pain,”He said with a sadden smile,”I saw that dream to. I wanted to tell you that it’s not real but couldn’t. I wanted to get out of this bed and comfort you. So many times. I…”

“Wanted to help me,”I finished,”I felt the same way. I couldn’t stand roaming around and not being able to…”

“See me,”He finished.

Our parents stared at us in shock. It was weird how we knew what the other was going to say before actually it coming out. Is this the weird twin thing they all talk about. When you say something the other was going to say or knowing about it. I thought it was more of you know them really well you know what they are going to say. That is when Dr. Mathew walked in on us.

He looked at us for a few seconds than to our mother. He seemed happy to see her sitting there. I looked at him as he seemed ready to cry at the sight when Zack touched my shoulder. I was glad he knew how I felt  and was there for at the moment. I took a deep breath in to calm my nerves. I looked at Dr. Mathew as he was back on us again.

“Dr. Mathew,”Zack said,”I thought you said…”

“We would be fine,”I finished.

He gave us the same look as our parents did but I think his was funnier. It was kind of funny how surprised he was but I was still ticked he turned on me at the last second. I watched as he pulled up a chair and sat in front of us.

“That’s amazing,”He said,”You two’s minds linked together. It’s like of one heart and mind. I’m sorry that those two girls beat y’all as well.”

“It’s was just Zack,”I said pointing to my brother,”But after I saw him, I felt the pain of just scars, cuts, and bruises resuffering again.”

“Mandy,”Dr. Mathew said looking at our mother,”Your children are just mind blowing.”

“I know they are,”Mom said happily,”They are MY children after all.”

I just realized that I did inherit something from my mom. We both are very much smart alecs when we want to be. I watched them have a conversation while Zack and I tried to play rock, paper, scissors. The key word being tried for the whole your mind is linked thing. It was hard but funny for we kept choosing the same thing. They sat there watching us play our sad little game till my friends came in with cards and goldfish. What are they up to today?

“Who wanted to play poker?”James asked,”We had to ask where you were today. So I hope you do.”

“I don’t think…”I started.

“We can,”Zack finished.

They stared with surprised faces and dropped their cards gasping at it. I started to laugh my head off at their faces. It was like they saw something so mind blowing their brains weren’t there any more. Zack smiled and told them how funny they looked. I watched as they hurriedly picked up their stuff and got on the floor to play as we sat there thinking about who would have won it.

Chapter 20

We had to stay there for another long month to make sure everything was going good for the two of us. We would race down the hall ways and go outside to play with the twins when we got a sugar high. Yes the nurses snuck us sugar filled snacks. So they let us outside to get rid of the energy we had stored in us. We were getting ready to go home when the doctor came in looking upset for some odd reason.

“What up doc?”I asked noticing he was staring at me.

“There’s a little girl here,”he said meeting my eyes,”She has lost a lot of blood from a zombie attack. You are the only one here that has the same blood type as her. She could use your help bugs bunny.”

I froze in place once he said that. Crystal had started to wave her hand in front of my face I stayed there so long. Me give blood to a little girl. How do I know if it’s not Kay or Amanda? Zack told them about the whole thing with me and losing my blood as I unfroze. I ran out the door with Lacey and Crystal on my heels.Once they caught up with me, I was in tears and standing in front of the door that was locked with the picture of the girl.

“Are you alright?”Lacey asked.

“I know her,”I said looking at the brown haired grey eyed kid,”She was the little girl that Amanda and I use to baby sit. I guess I’ll do it for her.”

“Are you sure?”Crystal asked,”You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

I nodded my head and we went to the lab. I was so nervous that I was starting to back out, but I remembered the girl needed me to do this. I closed my eyes and looked at her smiling face. I took a deep breath as they got started.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

At the end of the whole thing, I passed out about eight times. They started to help the girl as we left for home with me sadly a little light headed and loopy. My dad was filming me in that state and Ace was trying to play with me. Lucky for me it was just my parents, Zack, Ace and me in the car.

“Daddy,”I whined a little mad I couldn’t talk right,”turn the cam off.”

“Randy leave her alone,”Mom said as I smiled,”She can’t help it.”

“Fine,”He said giving up,”I’ll stop. Even though it’s funny.”

“At least you saved that girl Jess,”Zack said,”That was sweet.”

I smiled and got to ride the rest of the way home in peace. Thankfully I wasn’t in that horrible state when we got home. The twins both tackled me and I went to the ground with them on top of me. I moaned in pain as they hurriedly got off of me. I layed there for a few minutes till Matt came and helped me up. I really need to put a pillow or something there for when they do that. We all headed in and I took a seat on the couch with Rex on my lap.

“We’re going down to the tunnels tomorrow,”Dad said as Rex played with my fingers.

“Who all is going?”I asked resting my head on Rex’s shoulder.

“Zack, you, your father, James, Layne, Luke, and Slade,”Mom said as Rex turned around and licked my cheek,”The rest of us will stay here ready for anything that can happen.”

“Yes,”James said as I began tickling the little monster,”I get to back the tunnels.”

“So you can see me get caught again,”I said rolling my eyes as Rex went behind me to play in my hair,”I guess that would be OK.”

Mom slapped me and told me to stop with that mess. Hey it has already happen how many times. We laughed as we went over about the plan for tomorrow. We were going to make this trip as safe and kidnap free as possible. Heck it’s me in the tunnels with everyone else. We might as well say come and get me and leave me there with them. Now I see why she told me to stop with all of this. I was feeling better about this except for the fact that people want to use me for a science experiment.

The more I thought about it all, the more tired and scared I got. We were discussing a way to get us out of there if/when something goes wrong, when I blacked out. I was mentally placed on top of a mountain with other tribal chief’s daughters from around the world. I noticed that even the spanish ones were her.

We were chained to a platform with cameras rolling on us as they were revealing us as the tribal people we really were. After they told the whole planet who we were they shot a single loved one then us. I watched terrified as it slowly got to me. Once it got to me they had Righley by the throat choking him. I tried everything to help him but I couldn’t talk or hardly move. I watched as they pulled out a sword and instead of doing it like they were before they cut his head off as my heart shunk. I cried as they drove it through me and I fell beside him.

I woke up in a cold sweat and out of breath. I looked around and broke down on my bed.

Chapter 21

I stayed awake till my parents came to get me that morning. I was in the corner of my rooming rocking myself with Ace beside me. They ran over to me and saw the fear laced in my eyes. I had my knife in my hand as I rocked eyeing everything around me.

“Mom, dad, Jess had another one,”Zack said running into my room seeing them,”Ooh, I guess you know.”

“Righley,”I choked out,”Getting choked. Then I got stabbed.”

Mom went to go get the boys as dad took the knife away from me. Zack went over it with dad as they looked at me. Soon Righley raced in and hugged me as I cried. I held him close to me saying ‘you’re alright’ over and over. He held me tight as I kept that up for a while.

“Jess,”Righley said moving to where he was looking me in the eye,”Of course I’m ok. I’m your annoying brother after all. No one is going to get me. For I know you won’t let them and I know how to defend myself. So don’t worry about it.”

Rex ran in after that and came to me. I hugged them both till they told me they couldn’t breath. I let them go and they left so that I could change. I looked at them all as I quickly did so. After I finished changing Zack walked back into the room. He looked like he had seen the dream play on repeat the whole night. Could that have happened to him since I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night long? I looked at him as he gave me a sadden smile.

“That was a really bad one,”He said with a small laugh,”You really let your…”

“Imagination take over,”I said with a smile,”Yeah. It’s been hard to keep it from doing this to me. I guess I’m scared that they are going to take over or something. That I will lose what I tried to keep safe for so long. It just got to me now.”

“I know how you feel,”Zack said trying to help me,”All my life I wanted a family worth dying for. You gave me that and I understand being scared to losing it.”

He gave me a hug and we went to join dad and the others. We walked over to the closest one and went to see what everyone has to say about this junk that always seems to happen to me oddly. I wanted to punch everyone when we got there, for they all stopped talking to look at me. Thanks for not paying attention to the girl that has been through hell and back guys. I feel so loved to have every eye in the room looking at me. Note the sarcasm in my words.

We went up the the front with my friends behind me. That was when they all began to trough their ideas at us all at once. Dad tried to get them to shut up but failed. I took in deep breathed to try and keep calm and not bursting into a five year old not getting what they wanted for christmas. Zack nudge me and we both took a step forward.

“Shut up,”We both yelled together.

Everyone stopped at once like they were told to and we finally got some nice peace and quiet that was oh so rare when you're me. They stared at the two of us and I felt the anger and nervousness leave my body as I faced them. I was in my home court and no one could take me down from my throne.

“We know that you are all…,”I started.

“Scared to death but arguing…”Zack continued for me.

“Will get us nowhere,”I finished.

Everyone stared at us dumbfounded. The triplets looked at us and laughed at the fact that we just finished one sentence in three parts. I guess they found out how weird it is for all of us to hear it like that. No one tried to argue with us about what was said. I looked over at dad as he motioned me to continue.

“They might have taken me about five times,”I said looking at everyone again.

“Three times actually,”Zack said as I glared at him.

“But I keep coming back with a better hope,”I continued,”My friends helped me every time and I’m grateful they do. So just because they are after us, but more likely me, doesn’t mean we have to take a big answer to take them out.”

“We could try,”The Jacksons said.

“Don’t get Jess mad,”James said,”Or she’ll let Rex you in the knee. Trust me you don’t want that.”

I rolled my eyes at that comment and tried to think about a way to show them what I mean. That’s when prefect timing came into play. Someone ran in saying that they were coming for us. Looks like I can trust them on proving me right every time. Everyone ran out and I hid in the shadows to see if I could get them to stop with all of this.

The fire went out at once as two zombie k9s, Amanda, Kay, and their father all walked in. I had Ace beside me as I crept in the dark without making a sound. The two of us took out the dogs and went to back to my shadow near one of the exits. The lights came on as it was just the three of them in the middle of the room alone. I walked out of my hiding spot with knife drawn and Ace by my side. They looked surprised that I was alone.

I looked at their faces and saw the surprise of a little kid. The anger I had for them left as I looked into Amanda’s eyes. She was hiding a memory back, one that only I gave her. I didn’t take my eyes off of hers. I just watched as they started to back up slowly till they hit a wall with me a few feet in front of them. I looked at Amanda as that memory was still there and she looked like she was trying to fight it off.

“Why are y’all here?”I asked twirling my knife in my hand,”Do you really want to face me? Or are you going to cheat me out again?”

“How about I show you why I’m better than you,”Kay said jumping forward but Amanda stopped her.

“You don’t want to do that Kay,”She said looking at me again,”She wants something. Something that we alone can give her. So what’s the price Jessica? What do you want from us?”

I laughed as she said that. It is right in front of them and she asks me that. All I want is for all this to stop. I looked Amanda dead in the eye and took out some sodium and a bottle of water. I set the sodium on the floor and took the top off of the bottle.

“I want this to end,”I said looking at them all now,”So leave or I’ll give you a science lesson. You got five seconds to make your choice.”

The entrances opened all around us, but they didn’t make a move to any. This was your free pass. I poured the water on the softball sized sodium chunk I had and backed away from it. It went off and through the rack it, I hear two girls screams and a bunch of cussing. I ran to the entrance my dad had taken and reached the outside to see everyone was alright. Dad ran to me and hugged me so tight I felt like I wasn’t going to breath ever again. I think he cracked some ribs during it.

“Dad I can’t breath,”I barely got out.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,”He said letting me go,”What happen down there? We heard an explosion than you ran out.”

I was about to say something when I heard a gunshot. I looked down at my leg and notice that I was bleeding. I fell to the ground as it felt like fire and saw that Mr. Kelup shot me. I tried to move but couldn’t. Dad was over me trying to make sure I didn’t black out. I slowly took out my cell and hit 911 and had it on speaker.

“I’ll kill every last one of Y’all,”He said getting closer to me,”I’m tired of trying to take you. I’, just going to finish you off right here and now.”

He cocked the gun back and got ready to shot me but stop when an arrow whistled by his ear. I looked up and behind me a little to see Rex with my bow. I was surprised when the police showed up with the medics. They rushed over and took him away as the medics started to work on my leg. I was soon fine and ready to go.

“Miss Jessica,”The main officer said,”You did the right thing in calling us.”

We watched him leave before laughing and we began our way home. I just kept thinking about how the two girls were still out there. I stare out the window  as a knife came flying toward it. I knew then that I would never be safe as long as I was alive.

“They won’t stop,”I admitted,”As long as I’m here no one will be safe again.”

“We’ll be there for you,”James said with a smile,”No one will hurt you as long as we are here.”

I smiled at him as Righley punched my arm. I looked at James as everyone laughed. I soon joined in as we drove on to New Orleans. It got quiet as I sat there waiting for the next life ending most likely dying thing to happen to me. But at least I know someone has my back and will come to help me.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 26.04.2016

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Widmung:
I would like to dedicate this to my friends who are some of the people in it.