Necropolis

*Rated R*

For Language and (imminent) Zombie violence.

The various robed clerics were busy anointing themselves in holy water

from a shallow basin. Glancing among them, Evan didn't think he saw a

single one who were truly Christians. But then again, he couldn't really

blame them. His own Faith wasn't exactly cemented these days...



"These people, you're not like them," stated the Head Priest, gesturing around the stone-hewn room.


His name was Richard something--Caldwell, perhaps.



"Neither are you." It wasn't a question.



As the man's smile faded, he suddenly lost all semblance of youth.

Shadows played across his face, and his eyes seemed to have a wearied,

sunken look.



"Look, I'm not going to lie. I don't know by what providence we managed to

get you, but I'm certainly glad we did. I'm getting on in the years, and it's

time this community saw a sermon with both relatability and conviction. God

bless you, Evanuel."



Yes... It was Caldwell. He was sure of it.

NAME: Lionel Zhou
AGE: Nine
HEIGHT: 4'5"
WEIGHT: 80 lbs.
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Black
PHYSIQUE: Tiny, obviously. Very thin, not very strong- perhaps not an advantage when fighting zombies.
EDUCATION: Chinese preschool-fourth grade.
PROS: Very observant, and has a very good memory. Also, a knack for getting into things he shouldn't.
CONS: He can't speak English. His aunt assumes he's mute.
BACKGROUND: Lionel was sent to the United States several months before by his parents, in the hopes of living in the far more...shall we say, enriched apartment of his aunt. (His parents aren't too well off.) Despite her feeble Chinese and English classes, Lionel can't seem to grasp even a basic "Hello, my name is...". Fun ensues.

After forty five minutes of listening to the other people in the group fawn over the professor, Mev was ready to stab himself with his fork. At least if he did, he'd get a little attention.

He'd already fashioned his pancakes into the shape of California. He made the Pacific ocean out of blueberry syrup.

The only other person who looked as bored as he felt was Kevin, who was sitting low in his chair and staring at Angie. Mev tried staring at Angie too, but got tired of it very quickly when she shot him a scornful glance and then started talking to Alain.

Kevin looked at Mev's CA. "That's gross," he said.

Mev laughed. "This is boring, man."

"Let's get out of here. Anyone else want to leave? I know a cool place we can party."

No one answered. Some people looked sheepishly at Alain, then at Mev and Kevin, as if comparing their options. Mev grabbed his jacket. "Let's go, dude. "

They left. No one followed.

Jamie watched Mev and Kevin leave, and sighed. They walked out of sight, and he turned back towards Alain. The man looked excited about whatever he was talking about, and Jamie attempted to put an interested look onto his face.

"... isn't that right, Jamie?" Alain said.

"Huh?" Jamie replied, trying to recall anything of what had been said. A couple of people giggled, and Jamie averted his eyes, to his empty plate. "Oh, sorry. I'm just a little bit tired. Gonna just head back to my room. Night guys."

"Night," they all said.

Jamie looked to Alain. "Nice to meet you. Maybe I'll see you around."

Alain nodded. "Maybe."

And with that, jamie left IHOP.

Jamie walked slowly back to the school. He walked up the stairs in his building and unlocked his room.

He lay fully dressed in his bed. In the distance, he could hear people laughing, walking the streets. Drunk, probably. He closed his eyes, but couldn't sleep.

Anne sat back in her seat, watching Jamie leave. She didnt blame him - the scene between Kevin and Dr. Kojeve had been disquieting, and she almost felt like leaving herself. She didnt know these people. What was she even doing here?

Still, she had promised Stephen that she would try to make some friends and explore the town while he was away, so she resolved to stick it out for a little while longer.

Glancing back towards the others, she caught Kojeve's eye. He smiled at her.

"You had a question about my lecture?" he asked.

"I - yes," Anne smiled back hesitantly. "Yes, I did."

[sorry so short, I have to run. You can take it from there Incan, if you like XD]

“I wonder if I take you home, would you still be in love baby, in love baby.”

Espona grabbed the cable of Raya’s ipod nano and pulled the ear piece out of her ear. Raya immediately stopped dancing on the spot.

“Shut up, just shut up shut up, shut up just shut up shut up,” Espona sang. She crossed her arms and started smiling. Raya stared at her friends, lined up in a row with their left arm on their hips, standing at her front lawn. They stood, facing Raya as they await her next command. Raya was scared. In her mind, she quickly chanted the possible songs that she could sing to win this. She continued looking at them.

“This is like one of those rap battles that sometimes show up on the music channel,” she thought. Maybe she should treat it like one. After all, her sister rebutted her singing by singing also.

One of her friends blinked as if she understood the situation also. Raya smiled back to secretly thanked her.

She turned her head to face her sister in the eye.
“Heh,” she muttered under her breathe and turned her head back, her back still facing Espona.

The sky was cloudy and blanketed with rain clouds. Mud began to build up on the sole of her sneakers as she walked on the grass, dampened by the rain two days ago. She walked up to her row of friends and blinked at them. She turned her body to face her Espona once more. This time, she was backed up by her friends.

“We try to take it slow, but we're still losing control, and we try to make it work, but it still isn't the worst.”

“I think I’m going crazy,” Espona sang back “You guys have a bus to catch to the city if you guys want to go ice skating. And I have a lecture to go to.”
____________________________________________________________________

As the traffic lights at the intersection turned yellow, Espona stepped on the breaks and the car screeched to a halt.

“Damn it!” she cursed slamming her fists on the horn. Moments later, the cars on her left started moving. She clutched the wheel, tighter as the cars kept passing by. A slight breeze washed over her as a black Cadillac slowed down next to her.

“Yo what up mama’s lady,” the driver said, facing her. He wore a black cap which he turned the brim to the side, a thick, black leather jacket hiding his thick arms. It was open revealing his white T shirt. He wore several gold rings on his finger, a golden dollar sign chain around his neck and black shades. He had a moustache and a bulldog like nose. The other two were slimmer than him, but wore pretty much the same clothing, without the fancy jewellery. They were holding a boom box, spreading vibrating beats in the area. It was playing “You don’t know- Eminem Feat 50cent, Cashis, and Lloyd Banks.” The lyrics were familiar to Espona. It was one of the many gangster rap music that her cousin listened to.

Breathing in the smell of burnt cigarettes, Espona knew they were gangsters.

“Not much,” she smiled, brushing her hair away from her eyes. She was not in the mood for gangsters. Not now. She’s in college now. She promised herself that she’ll care for her parents and her sister. She’s going to get her marine biology degree soon.

“Where you going?” he asked. He took his shades off and looked at Espona more closely.

“Has my reputation grown so much during these last five years?” she thought.

“I’m just going to Ashville High.” Desperately seeking something to avoid further communication, she grabbed a pair of sunglasses which had red lenses with a nylon- half frame.

The cars on the left had stopped to the lights and now the cars to her right are moving. Looking through the gaps in the wired fencing near the metal barriers of the road, she saw a cooling tower venting non-radioactive water vapor. To the right were some cylindrical containment buildings, housing the nuclear reactor. Thank god she dropped physics during her final year at Ashville College.

“Radioactive decay is the process in which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting radiation blah blah blah,” her professor would mumble while pacing around the lab. Espona dreaded when her professor was standing next to her and his split would splutter from his dried up lips. “Old man coodies,” the term she used when she was looked after by her grandparents during her childhood. Her parents were always working their freedom away to the government. Nuclear power had always and will be the slave of humanity. She will not be surprised if the world came to an apocalypse due to nuclear power. And yet, that foolish old man actually taught her how to destroy the world. The government told us that as technology improves, they would be able to produce non radioactive power plants. That may had came to be, but sounds too good to be true. Is it just only propaganda that we will become desensitized by its hidden side effects?

She looked at the hands of her silver watch. She felt slightly relieved when the big hand was only on the ten.

“Ten more minutes till the lecture starts.” The cars once again had stopped. It was her turn to move. She readied her foot on the accelerator and tightened her hands on the steering wheel.

“Oh shit, they found us!” One of the gangsters at the back pointed behind him, his eyes were wide and his jaws dropped.

“Mother,” but she didn’t hear the expected swear word from the sudden roar of their engine. The driver faced Espona once again and quickly said “C’z up B’z down gal, keep pimping.” In a flash, he did the cripz sign with his hands and drove off, sending a cloud of gas with flames spewing from the exhaust pipe. Then came the sound of sirens. From behind, a police car raced up the highway with great speeding, sending a wave of gust. It blew Espona’s sunhat to the back of the car.

“Cough cough cough.” The smoke gradually cleared away and the police car disappeared into the crowd of cars, dodging anything in its way.What were they on about? She was wearing a blue bra top today, or were they referring to her Ferrari?

"Yeah...C'z up B'z down."

She made a left turn and drove for another fifteen minutes through the industrial area. During that time, she decided to turn her radio on to the news channel to entertain her. To her surprise, the news mentioned some gangsters who drove off without paying for a full tank of petrol. She drove on until she came up to a large green clearing with trees surrounding the perimeter and scattered throughout the reserve. A lake flowed around the campus of Marine Biology. Driving around several round abouts, she came to the parking lot for the campus and parked in the nearest available slot, next to an oak tree.
Holding her briefcase, she got out, slammed the door shut and locked it by pressing the remote attached to her car keys. There was a slight rustling from the bushes nearby.

“What…” But she was too late. Someone was behind her, placing the edge of a katana by her neck.

“Tarzin?”

"Man, forget those guys. Let's get some real fun."

Mev and I climbed into the Bronco.

"Headin' to the Fury. Cool?" I said.

"Anything's better than frickin' IHOP, man," he said, slumping in his seat.

I laughed and began the quick drive to the Fury, the local nightclub. It sounded like a rave, but it was actually pretty mellow. Comparatively, at least.

"What's with that Alain dude?" I asked Mev.

"Dunno. Angie and Adara dragged me to that damned lecture. I think I fell asleep a few times."

I laughed and said, "Don't doubt it. That guy's boring as shit. And puny, man, I could break his ass in two."

"Don't doubt it," Mev said. We drove past the club, looking for parking.

"When are they gonna make a structure for this thing? There's never any friggin' parking."

We drove around for a good couple minutes, then pulled into a spot that was entirely too small for my Bronco.

"Kev...you're an idiot How the hell am I supposed to get out of this car with three inches of space?"

I shrugged. "You're the twig, figure it out."

I hopped out (with about a foot of space to spare) and closed the door behind me. Eventually, Mev climbed out my side as well.

As he clambered out, I was watching a drunk, skankily dressed woman stagger about in the parking lot.

"Whatcha starin at?" Mev asked.

"Check out slutadrunk," I said.

"Attractive," Mev said.

"That's not funny, man," I said with a laugh.

With that, we headed to the entrance to the club.

"ID please," the guy at the door said. We handed them over and he let us in.

"Thanks man," I said.

I jerked my head in the direction of the club.

"Let's party!" I said with a grin.

Joanna sighed in relief as Kevin and Mev left.

Kev and Mev. They make such a cute couple, she thought caustically.

"Himyname'sAshleyI'llbeyourwaitresstonightcanIgetyouanythingtodrink?"

Jo stared up at the blonde.

"Yeah, how about you slow your speech down to your IQ level? I'll take a Pepsi. Oh, and I'm ready to order, before you ask. I'll take one of those cherry treasure things... You know, the stuffed French Toast? That'll be all."

Ashley left wordlessly, nodding in a confused manner.

Jo felt bad, so she cursed Kevin. His presence always put her in a bitter mood.

She looked over to the group he had left behind. They seemed a sort of rag-tag group, and she almost asked to join them, before realizing she'd never be accepted if they were his friends. She didn't want to be friends with them, anyway.

Still, one of them had a curious accent, and she couldn't help but listen in while she waited for her food.

Maurice's first bite into the top pancake felt as sweet as heaven. It had been four years since he had last tasted something as great as this and his teeth throbbed in complaint. But it was worth it. He took another bite, and another, until it was gone a little too quickly.

He took few glances around the diner, but what he saw he disliked. Smarmy white college kids with flashy i-pods and stupid hair. Maurice shook his head. They never knew what the real world was like, and when they left their little school it would hit them like a freight train. Maurice had seen it day in, day out. Death, desperation, starvation. He'd seen people do anything to stay alive. These kids had never even been challenged by anything. They just grew up with money falling out of their pockets.

Me, he thought, me, I had to fight my way to something, and look where it got me.

Still, he wondered, silently, his trusty pistol tucked at the back of his jeans, there was also space for more fighting. He needed money quick, his last bucks spent on this food. Maybe when it was a little quieter, a little more empty ...

He shrugged off the idea and tucked into another pancake.

NAME: Allison "Allie" Parker
AGE: 18
HEIGHT: 5'3''
WEIGHT: Slender, 120
EYES: brown
HAIR: auburn
PHYSIQUE: a little bit of muscle from school Phys. Ed. classes and running.
EDUCATION: Senior at Ashville High
PROS: book smart, very dry sense of humor.
CONS: afraid of the dark, and quiet spaces. Not fast
BACKGROUND: Average family -- mom, dad, younger brother and two cats. Goes to Ashville High. Can play trumpet (doubt that'll come in handy with zombies XD). Knows little to nothing about fighting. She prefers the running away method. She is currently working towards graduation while tutoring chemistry and holding down two jobs. She had an older brother who was in the marines, but died in combat almost a year ago. He played on the school baseball team, and she used to watch games religiously. Before he enlisted, he would take her to games. Between them, they knew the entire team -- he knew the seniors, since he played with some of them, and she knew the younger kids. She hated having him away at school; he went across country for school. His death hit her the hardest, and blames it as the catalyst to her mother walking out on the family. her father was laid off a month ago, and the stress of providing for the family fell to her. Running is her release, though she doesn't have time to run for the track or cross country teams at school.

"What kind of pancake do you want, Lionel?"

Lionel was coloring the jolly pancake portrayed in his IHOP coloring book, slowly drawing in swirls of color round its diameter.

He looked up at his aunt, and briefly at the server girl, who stood there tapping her pen against her teeth.

"Ashley wants to know what kind of pancake you want."

Grand. It was nouns she was stressing today- last week, it had been verbs. Not just verbs- verbs.

The clicking went faster and faster as Lionel stared at Ashley, intensifying. Her smile began to wane. "Ohhhhkay, take your time," she assured.

"Ohhhhkay," he repeated. His aunt beamed and high-fived him across the table.

"Good English, Lionel."

He asked the server girl for the blueberry, in Chinese. The words were fluid- he didn't have to think about them, and so they came out much harsher than he had expected. He was practically yelling.

Ashley shrieked and the pen flew out of her grip, landing in the brown hair of a very disgruntled girl sitting at another table, alone.

Lionel watching she was watching two people go out of the parking lot, and getting into a car together. Did she know them?

In any case, it took the girl a moment to react.

"Tarzin?"

Tazin rolled his eyes at the nickname and grinned, then aped, yes, he thought, thinking himself very clever, aped an accent, "Me no Tarzin, me Jane!"

Espona giggled and turned around as he took away his polished katana, the joke over. "I thought you liked the nickname. Anyway, Jane, huh? Explains the dress you're wearing."

"It's a gi," moaned Tazin, "a gi. First of all, the joke about my name is horrible. Just awful. I could sue you for emotional her-ass-meant," he said, slowing down stupidly on the last word. He couldn't help but grin. He loved that word. "I think you should leave the sarcastic, blithering, clever humor to my department. You and your lovely sister both. I do believe she's the one who started the whole thing, yes?"

Espona thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Your parents started it, when they named you after your grandfather. I think they wanted you to be made fun of. I'm just carrying out their wishes."

Tazin grinned and snorted. "You've spent waaay too much time around me."

She laughed and replied, "I know," then gave him one of her beautiful smiles. He was just friends with Espona (as far as he knew . . . and when it came to girls, that amount of knowledge probably equated how much he cared about global warming . . . he wondered if the two had a connection), but everytime he saw that smile, it made his brain stop. When he looked at that smile, for a moment, he didn't even feel like being a jackass.

Of course, those moments never lasted long.

As Tazin poked at Espona's briefcase with his katana, his face mocking that of a confused investigator, he asked, "So, what's up today, She Who Wields Dark Rectangle Box?"

"I believe this belongs to you," Jo said slowly, taking the pen out of her hair and holding it out to Ashley. The waitress looked uncertainly between the two tables.

"What service! Oh yes, Ashley, tonight is your night." Jo rolled her eyes and snatched the pad from the girl. Turning to the other table, she took matters into her own hands.

"So, what did you want?"

Lionel stared at her, blinking, then repeated the request.

Joanna nodded, thought for a moment, then said, a bit slower, "Sorry, I'm afraid I don't speak Chinese. How about we do it this way, point to what you want."

Lionel immediately pointed to the large picture of blueberry pancakes. Jo smiled and wrote down the order.

"Anything else?" she asked, motioning toward the drinks.

Lionel shook his head and smiled at her.

"I think you can take it from here," she said, handing the pen and pad back to Ashley. She felt a bit better, actually, and she was reminded of why she loved community service.

As she was about to sit down, her back pocket buzzed. She grabbed her cell phone, then slumped into the seat. It was her house number.

"Hello?" she answered tentatively. "Hi Mom... Yeah, we had a fight... What? No, I -- Mom, listen, that's not fair..." Jo rested her head in her free hand. "No, he -- I -- You don't understand, do you? You're just like him, and you can't see it -- I'm hanging up now, Mom. No, I'm not coming back. I can't --"

Jo let the phone fall from her hands and onto the table as she heard the distinct click of her mother hanging up on her. Covering her face with her palms, she sobbed quietly, shoulders shaking, legs curled under the table.

"Miss, is... Is everything all right?" Ashley asked quietly, coming back with her order.

Embarrassed at being seen crying in public, Jo quickly wiped away her tears, not meeting anyone's gaze. "Yeah, I'm... No, no, I'm not all right. I... have to go. I'm sorry."

With that, she grabbed her cell phone and walked out, bursting into the increasingly-cooler night air. Once again, she simply started walking, hoping to outpace her troubles and leave them at the door.

*Larry Doolittle*

It was dark, but that was better. Then nobody could see me.

Or at least I couldn't see them well. Mind you, this would make anybody a little paranoid, but I wasn't. I already knew the truth, that aliens had taken over the world, starting with Bush and Cheney, and I knew that total take-over was soon. That's why I carried a backpack with me, just in case, full of survival equipment and weapons, including a stun gun I had made via an internet kit. I was prepared.

The stores in this section were mostly closed, but I could see a faint light in one of the stores. The bookstore. Somebody was in it. I took a look around -- one can't be too careful -- and then snuck over.

I had to purchase It.

The sign said closed, but that made no difference to me. In my backpack, I had a key that was magical. Not in the literal sense -- in the figurative sense. Actually, it was just a paperclip, though honestly if you think about it, paperclips are magical in themselves because they hold stuff that would normally fall apart together.

Before I could do it though, someone beat me to it.

Grif.

He swung open the door and greeted me with a nod. I felt slightly stupid.

"How did you know it was me?"

"The smell of fudge." He looked around. "Do you want the usual stuff?"

"Shh!" I glanced furtively at the door and then stepped closer to Grif. "Do you have it?"

"Yep." With a wave of his hand, he revealed a paper bag with something obviously important inside. "It was hard to find."

I inched towards it. "How much?"

"I don't know." He thought about it more. "It was hard to find."

"Is it of good quality?"

"The best."

I glanced at the bag again. "It's not very big."

"But it sure to be good."

He was winning, and he knew it. "How much?"

He paused. "Fifty dollars."

"Fifty!"

"It was hard to find."

A real rip-off, but I knew nobody else would do this for me. I sighed and reached into my pockets, producing ten five dollar bills. "Here." With that, he gave me the package.

I picked it up and breathed it in... the latest novel of Kilgore Trout.