“Damn my arrogance! I should’ve paid more attention to the signs!” Jaruka did not speak in English, he turned off his translator for a second. He felt to not look betrayed and stupid in front of the kid.

His finger squeezed the trigger in hopes to kill one before the other ripped his body apart. Beth appeared to do so, ready to pounce off the couch.

Then his arm was pushed away, followed by Andrea screaming, “No!” The plasma pistol went off. The green plasma bolt was a foot away from blowing Beth’s head off. It shattered the metal nightstand and antique lamp instead.

“Idiot!” He yelled.

“Are you insane? You can’t kill my parents!” She kept on pushing his arm.

Jaruka pushed her and she did not fall. “Are you? They are not your parents anymore, they’re zombies, minions to a demon like the ones after the Wave. We need to run.”

“No, I can’t.”

“See that blood? See the broken backs and necks? See it?”

Andrea refused to look. The blood kept gushing from the zombie’s eyes, and still smiling like predators.

“Oh, she’s a strong little mutant girl. Not,” Morgan said. “Without that shit in her DNA she could easily slit your throat with just her fingers in my control.”

“Or good eating for me. Not,” Beth said with a laugh, licking her lips. “We reapers love an innocent, pure soul to feast on.”

“Stop it! Just stop it!” Andrea yelled.

“Like the mercenary said: your parents are dead. And they are gone, forever, and in my grasp.” Beth and Morgan laughed in sync like puppets.

The little girl turned her back and covered her years. Once a Reaper turns a human into an enthralled zombie, not sure how really, there is nothing to bring him or her back. Crippling or killing a reaper would be the same during control as what Scott did at Area 51; a quarter of a million American men, women, and children dead by massive brain hemorrhage, the rupture-through-skull kind.

But to Jaruka, the Malcar’Ji as they are known do not do such thing. The Reaper he met was far different from the original. A far greater danger than the United States suffering a mid-life crisis.

“Stop with the play, Reaper,” Jaruka said. “If you got something to say, say it.”

“I do. I want to talk,” both said.

“Wait. Is that you, Griffon? Are you healed? Because this is some dick move you pulled you manipulative bastard.”

“The ploy is well loved.”

“Oh just can it will ya?”

“But I am not Griffon.” Both zombies laughed

Jaruka felt chills run through his spine.

“You believe I’m him,” Morgan said, “but our great general is incapable of controlling the country.”

Somehow, that felt half from the truth to the mercenary.

“The attack Dunne made on him, he’s barely hanging on to life as we speak. Strange that terran magic can maim us, maybe kill us entirely.”

Jaruka adjusted his grip. “So there is more than one reaper on Terra Firma. Katie and others assumed it to be true.”

“That tramp is a smart one,” Beth said

“Hey, come on, we have a kid here.” He twirled his plasma pistol but still ready to fire. “So why are you exac—”

The zombies stood up fast before he finished. They leaned on each other due to their broken spines. Jaruka was close to shooting through Morgan’s bloated stomach. “Hey now, watch it.”

“I have no name, yet,” they said, “I’m one of Griffon’s stand-ins, one of his lieutenants.”

“That man and woman working with him? You Roland?”

“Hardley.”

Jaruka shook his head and said, “I’m out of ideas. But again, what are you exactly here to do? Make sure this kid destroys herself?”

They both laughed. “No, just a chance.”

“What chance?”

“To grow my influence, and destroy the mutants.”

The confusion was enough to catch Jaruka off as the zombies attacked him, jumping over the coffee table. Both of them ripped the zip ties mid air. Morgan raised his right hand and squeezed Jaruka’s wrist to almost breaking a few bones, but safe by his personal shield. He yelled and tried to get it free, but Beth tackled him to the floor. The plasma pistol fell out of his hand and slid to the bottom stairs.

Andrea screamed and backed away.

“Kid, run! Get out of here!” Jaruka yelled.

Beth screamed with an open mouth toward his throat. He managed to get his left arm free and grab Beth’s neck, keeping her from continuing.

Jaruka heard the door open as the little girl ran out screaming.

The zombies had strength close to a certain woman Jaruka killed back at Area 51, except Morgan had the upper advantage. Both were trying to get to his neck, but how they would break through his shield was questionable. Had to be running on instinct, the Reaper was. But during his time at the dropship, alone, he devised countermeasures if he came across wild humans, or zombies for that matter.

He placed his other hand on Morgan’s face, tightened his grip on both, and said in his language, “Shock top.” Code for turning on the embedded 450-volt tasers in his gloves.

Pure electricity raced through the zombie’s bodies, convulsing and rolling their blood shot eyes. Some of their blood ended up on his shirt. He managed to kick them off and crawl away to his pistol. Deep down, he felt sorry for killing them, but it had to be done and Andrea had to learn to accept it. He grabbed his weapon, stood, and took a breath.

Then the zombies laughed.

“Oh, crog me.”

They stood up in seconds and shook off the strain, despite their broken backs. “Really? Electricity? Even that much power can’t kill these fat minions.”

“Crap,” Jaruka said. “But are you forgetting something? I can’t die. If I do, those spires will destroy a quarter of the planet. They might be hovering over me now because of this.”

“Oh we are well aware of the spires,” Beth said. “In fact, we want to make sure it does not happen. We want to keep our harvest flowing, which means you must leave with your life.”

“Harvest? What cogging harvest?”

“Oops. Said too much.”

Beth threw an ornate dresser with one hand at the alien. Jaruka ducked, but his leg caught it and pulled his foot out. The pistol flew from his hands again and behind a chair. Without noticing, Beth was behind Jaruka. She grabbed his shirt and vest. “Hey, hey, hey!”

Beth’s supernatural enhanced strength lifted the Halcunac over her. He was unable to fight her, even shifting his weight failed.

“But I can’t leave. Denverbay has me bound to this planet. I will die! The spires would fire.”

“Oh. Too bad. Who cares!?” Morgan said without care.

If he did care, those spires would be on his mind the whole time. Did he already forget?

Beth started laughing Jaruka was thrown through the window.

“Oh my god, there she is!” Katie pointed at Andrea running out the front door. Scott stopped the Jeep on the street. He got out holding a baseball bat and Keeji running beside him. Katie had both her arms blazing with blue/white tattoos with Arana on her left shoulder.

“Help me!” Andrea feared for her life, and Katie wished she did not see that horrified face on her again.

“I’m right here, don’t you worry.” They came together and hugged tight. Some of Katie’s charged mana was smeared on Andrea’s shirt but was disappearing already. “Please tell me they didn’t hurt you. I promise I will lay a ton of protection spells on you once this is over.”

“No, I think, but…they are not my parents anymore,” Andrea explained. Arana was confused.

“You think? Where’s that idiot? Did he go nutzo?” Scott asked.

“His name is Jaruka. He protected me.”

Arana said, “I call bull…”

The living room was smashed outwards, cutting the hawk off.

Jaruka flew out of the house screaming, glass shards slicing through exposed flesh. In the air for a second, then crashed and rolled on the grass. He stopped on his back in front of the terrans. He blinked up at the terrans.

“I hurt…all over,” he said.

“Hi,” Katie said. Arana shook her head.

“And I dropped my pistol.”

“I can see that,” Scott said.

“And those assholes are Reaper cronies.” Jaruka pointed.

“What?” The couple said.

The zombies pulled back the white curtain and stared at the group with vicious intent. The blood covered most of their faces and stained their sweatshirts. The broken backs made them lean as the pain was but a footnote. The couple and totems yelped from the gruesome sight.

Morgan and Beth produced the well-known zombie howl that could have been heard for miles.

“Awe, hell,” Scott said, raising his bat. Keeji started barking.

Katie’s tattoos flickered. She wished it did not have to be Andrea’s parents. They were gone; she knew much of that.“Stick behind me honey,” she said to Andrea. The little girl ran behind her.

Jaruka stood up quick and shook the glass off, but without a weapon, he was willing to go all two-fist with the two.

Then another howl from a distance. And another.

And another.

Until the neighborhood was singing in zombies.

“Ah great, just our luck,” Jaruka said.

“Slaughter all witnesses!” The zombie parents hollered.

Smashed wood and broken glass sounds came from the neighboring houses. Over twenty zombies flooded the street toward the Livingston’s: young, old, and child. More zombie howls and growls of hunger from afar. Even neighbor Joe was amongst them, eyes dripping with deluded blood and holding a pitchfork.

“Well this brings back memories,” Jaruka said. “Katie, you’ve done force shields. Make one!”

“Got it. Sciath chosanta!” Katie brought her hands together, tattoos blazing brighter, took one step forward, and the similar shield appeared, dome shaped, and flowed out over the group. It started a five feet high, but grew to accommodate Jaruka. It phased through the Jeep but violently pushed a couple of zombies including the parents ten feet back. Neighbor Joe’s pitchfork went flying over the hedge.

“Wow,” Andrea said.

“Terrans can do more than that,” Arana said. “Get to the car, we’re getting out of here.”

“No, I want Mom and Dad to get better.”

“The bird’s right, kid,” Jaruka said, “once enthralled they’re—”

“Tubby in the air!” Keeji barked.

Jaruka looked to where Keeji barked. A zombie jumped over the growing barrier. This one was several pounds too overweight, bald, and wore a white t-shirt and pajama bottoms. He screamed with mucus behind his throat. Instead of over, he belly flopped onto Katie’s shield.

Katie screamed, but held strong.

He was sailed up by the force, but came down. Katie was knocked down to one knee, and the shield quivered. Another hit and the shield broke, just before Scott pulled Katie away.

The overweight zombie stood up fast and drove a fist in Jaruka’s chest. His shield protected him, but the force sent him flying at the Jeep’s driver side door.

Jaruka slumped onto the driveway. Pain burned from his back and left arm. Shaking his head, the fat zombie charged again then jumped ten feet in the air above him. “Not tonight, fatty!” Jaruka he rolled away before the zombie touched him. The man landed head first on the concrete driveway, snapping his head back, killing him.

Jaruka stood up holding his banged up arm. Katie recreated the shield without Jaruka, now twenty feet high, kept up by thick screams of charged mana. Two more zombies belly flopped on the shield again, straining Katie’s resolve. They must have got on the house roof and jumped down, and the third one confirmed Jaruka’s thought.

Katie had talent, but endless barrage of attacks was not for her to handle.

Both parents spoke. “First we make you leave, mercenary. Or even better.” They turned to Katie, smiling again. “I take over your parents, thereby make them slaughter their children and immortal killer. Even better. We slaughter them all right in front of you, mercenary, see if we can eat terran souls now.”

“Shut up!” Katie produced a kinetic blast that passed through the shield. In her emotional fit, she missed. They jumped then landed feet first.

But Scott was ready.

He swung his bat at Morgan. The blow to the chest meant nothing to the zombie, like swatting at dense gelatin. Morgan bashed the bat away and punched Scott in the left shoulder, casing him to fall back a few feet yelling.

Beth went after Katie, screaming with sheer horror. Katie’s shield quivered that Beth got through. Andrea got away as Katie kept dodging a few punches, but despite being cooped up at the winery, her terran agility went so far. Beth kicked Katie’s legs away, then a punch to her stomach.

Katie’s tattoos disappeared, as did the shield.

Zombies stopped their barrage, then surrounded Jaruka and the terrans. Jaruka was pushed into the middle by two zombie women. He had no chance to stop the zombies, he’d be kept out and held down. Keeji whimpered and told Scott to quickly get up, but he was held down by a zombie. Arana too, by her feet and head, wings flapping and slapping her captor.

Jaruka was sure they knew about totem death. If that happened, their advantage was gone.

The Reaper said it could not kill Jaruka, but it was willing to rip the terrans to pieces right in front of his eyes. If only he did not drop his pistol and blow the fat man’s head before instead of relying on Katie. If only he brought his plasma rifle and sword. Why not? He wished he had magic, but he was looking out for Andrea and his past dragged him into this. Damn his past. He stood there watching his friends about to die.

Then he saw Andrea. He disappointed her. His help failed. She was furious, and blazing with ta…

“What the crog?”

The whole time since he met her, Andrea was a weakling with no magical control, fearing she could do more harm than good. But on the lawn, acted the opposite. Betrayal and sadness was on her face, but her body was covered in Celtic tattoos.

“Leave them alone!” She yelled.

The zombie parents turned to look. “Too late, youngling,” they said as they were ready to bite into Scott and Katie’s arms and legs, some ready to rip their limbs off.

Then Andrea placed her left hand on the purple Wave crystal still embedded in the lawn.

She spoke in Celtic. Jaruka could not for the life of him track what she said. Mana seeped through the crystal, and it started to glow purple. The light from it seeped back into Andrea, pulsing through her tattoos in blue and purple light.

She aimed her right hand at her parents. One Celtic word sent two separate blue and purple light toward Beth and Morgan’s foreheads.

Their backs went rigid.

Their heads looked up.

Their eyes stopped bleeding and their pupils dilated.

Both their bodies lifted into the air as they convulsed. The same light radiated through their bodies, head to toe.

The parents screamed their last zombie scream.

“What spell is this?” Jaruka muttered.

It lasted for a few seconds until Andrea’s beam disappeared. The crystals glow went away as did Andrea’s tattoos. Beth and Morgan dropped to the lawn, unconscious but breathing. The blood dried instantly.

Looking up from the strange event, the zombies stood still, staring at the parents. All at once, they howled to make Jaruka and the terrans cover their ears.

“What have you done?” The zombies yelled, then they slumped to the ground like lifeless dolls. Over fifty neighbors crowded the neighborhood’s lawns and street. Jaruka peered at one as the woman breathed normally.

Did the Reaper pull his control away?

“What the heck just happened?” Scott said, nearly pinned by unconscious people. “Andrea, what did you do?”

Andrea stood with her arms to her side, sobbing. “I-I…I saved…them,” she said, then she fell to her knees and cried.

Katie went to her, and Andrea hugged her. Jaruka came up to Scott and pulled him up. Once they looked at the parents, Jaruka’s knowledge of terran magic got stranger.

Beth had a glowing tattoo on her left calf, and Morgan had one on his neck.