The Mound Builders: Finale
by demented20

Ethan held out a vintage Ronson, lit Larry's bent but smokable cigarette, then leaned back against his car. "How many rounds you got?", he asked the Colonel.

"Only three magazines. Not nearly enough do any real damage when those damned monsters come up this way."

Each man silently hoped that the zombies would leave them alone, but it wouldn't matter. Ethan had rigged this entire valley to blow up, so one way or the other they were going to die very shortly. It didn't mean that they had surrendered though. If anything they had won, but that victory would cost them their lives. A few minutes after they'd blown the tunnel they heard sticks breaking as feet stepped on fallen branches. The monsters were coming. Ethan grabbed the last of the ammunition from his trusty Studebaker and readied for this last fight. The men set their flashlights on the trunk in an arc to shine as much light on the battle-line as they could, but it wouldn't matter in the end. There were hundreds of monsters down there and only five men to hold them off.

"It's been a blast serving with you sir", one of the EOD men told Larry.

The warrant officer laughed and slapped the man on the back. "Well, we got our damned jobs done. Let's kill a few of these sons-a-bitches before it's all over."

The Colonel fired the first shot, aiming at a shape in the woods about fifty yards away. It could have been a man or a woman, but it took the shot and kept walking. It was hard to hit a head in the dark at that distance. He decided to save his ammo and wait until they got closer. A couple other men fired at shadows moving between the trees, but only once. They were wasting bullets, and right now bullets were more precious than gold. Seven or eight monsters broke through the tree line at the same time moving up the hill intent to exact revenge on behalf of their master Shining Sun.

"Alright grunts", Ethan yelled. "Make the shots count." He opened up with his BAR and each of his first ten shots dropped a monster. Ethan was cool and calm despite staring down eminent death. He knew the entire hillside was covered with the undead walkers and eventually he and the men with him would be overrun and killed. It was strangely liberating to realize that he truly had nothing to lose, nothing to worry about, nothing plan for, and nothing to live for. His entire life boiled down to the next several minutes and that would be it. He had a few regrets, like never finding a woman to truly love, or perhaps more truthfully for not finding a woman for a night or two before the zombies had been released. Maybe he should have taken Anna one night when they'd been alone planning this operation.

He laughed out loud at the thought although the others around him didn't notice with the gunfire in their ears. He imagined trying to force himself on that lean, athletic, incredibly sexy woman and having his back broken for his trouble. He'd been firing using only muscle memory, but his mind went back to the task at hand. The monsters were running up the hill, trying to get at their prey. Bullets flew out, but the monsters were getting closer faster. This fight wasn't going to last very long. Looking at the semi-circle of men, Ethan could tell that each of them had made their own version of peace with their no win situation.

"Watch out right!", Larry yelled and an EOD man turned to down a monster trying to flank them.

"Shit they still have tactics!", a man yelled.

"Yeah well we have guns!", Larry yelled back.

A couple of chuckles interrupted the men's fight to delay death. Monster emerged from the tree line and came at almost all angles. Bodies fell closer and closer to the men. Each reload brought their ammo totals closer to zero and allowed the monsters a chance to advance during the pauses.

The monsters were close enough to smell, and close enough for each man to see the deadly hunger resting in the zombie's eyes. Time was short, and choices had to be made. Ethan pulled out his pistol and sat it on the trunk next to his flashlight. When the end got close he wanted to make sure that his end would be quick. Until then he was going to kill as many goddamned zombies as he could.

"You know this rifle is nice", the Colonel said before pausing to take an aimed shot and drop a monster coming up on Ethan's left. "This rifle is nice, but I wish I had the helicopter that crashed."

The blood drained from Ethan's face like the monsters had sucked it out. "That helicopter didn't crash. It landed on a street in the southern part of the Glen."

"What!", several men yelled in unison. "Flyable?", the Colonel demanded.

"It's full of body parts, but mechanically it looked fine", Ethan answered woodenly.

"Can you fly us out of here?", a soldier asked the Colonel as the zombies pressed in on them.

"They don't give these wings away", the Colonel replied quickly, the stress of the situation on his voice.

Ethan's head began to pound. How in the world could he have forgotten? "Everyone in the car!", he screamed. He grabbed his flashlight and pistol before bounding over the top of his car. The monsters from his zone of fire ran towards the car, but the other men moved quickly enough to avoid them. Monsters rushed in like the tide as the doors closed. Ethan started the engine and put the car in reverse. He slammed his foot on the gas and the car plowed through monsters, gaining speed down the hill. The back end of the heavy steel car rose and dropped quickly as Ethan drover over monsters. Their bodies got lodged under the car and in the wheel wells, but it was impossible to avoid them. Ethan did try to avoid the trees. He clipped a few, but he was making it down. Men who had nothing to hope for only moments earlier, lived and died with each turn of Ethan's steering wheel. He dodged a narrow pine and barely bumped a hackberry.

The monsters still tried to get at them, but he was nearly off the hill now. They could make out the shapes of houses in the distance. Once they got to the bottom of the hill Ethan would have room to turn around and drive straight. He broke through to the clearing near the road. The car rose violently when he drove over two zombies at once. The rear went up so high that the car nearly stood on end. Men braced for the impact when the wheels hit the ground again, but they didn't. The rear end landed on the stump of a tree. The crash sent men falling into each other and caused the car to teeter to one side. Ethan hit the gas pedal and the wheels spun, neither of them touching the ground. Monsters rushed in to fill the void the car had created, and all that building hope faded away. The windows seemed like scant protection against the beating hands and hungry mouths outside. The creatures beat against the car trying to get at the life inside.

"Well damn", the Colonel summed it up for the group. The idea that they could survive out in the mob was craziness.

An EOD soldier pulled out his pistol. "Maybe we should just end it in here." No one replied, only heavy breathing and the sounds of pounding fists could be heard in the car. The EOD man put the gun to his temple, pointing away from the others and took a deep breath. His hand was shaking badly enough to make him miss, but he calmed down and touched the trigger with his index finger.

Men flinched when the rear window cracked from the constant pounding. It wasn't broken yet, but close. Ethan set his .38 on his lap and looked down at it. He lifted the gun and held it in his right hand. Strange thoughts entered a sane man's head right before he was about to take his life. Ethan thought he heard the revving of an engine in the distance. It sounded like one of those diesels that Anna knew so much about. Ethan ignored the figment of his imagination and put his finger on the trigger. He closed his eyes, and increased the pressure on the trigger. The break was coming and then it would be all over.

He didn't see the lights off to his right, but he did hear the sound of the .50 calibre machine gun when it fired. The loud report shook all the men to their senses. Fingers were removed from triggers and heads turned to see zombies actually exploding from the huge shells. The diesel roared again and the Sheridan tank crushed monsters under its treads as it pulled up to the car. They followed the headlights right to the passenger side of the car, dropping zombies all the way.

"You boys need a ride? I got room", the tank commander called down.

He didn't have to ask twice. Ethan got out of his old Studebaker for the last time. He always thought that he'd get a chance to fix it up when all this was over, but that wasn't going to happen. He grabbed as much ammo as he could and climbed on the tank. A zombie, half crushed by the tread, grabbed his pants leg. Ethan pulled free, and didn't waste a bullet on this monster. The tank driver pulled off with the new passengers seated on the hull.

"Sorry for the delay", the tank driver said to the guys sitting nearest him. "We heard the action on the radio, but it took us a while to get to this side of the Glen. We heard it when you guys blew up that fuckin' tunnel. Brave damn action boys!"

"Maybe not so brave, soldier", Larry said then turned to the tank commander. "We need to drive to a helicopter that's sitting in the middle of a street. The Colonel is a pilot. This fella here, Ethan, knows where it is."

The tank commander scanned the area, but they were out of the mob of monsters. The zombies were following, but they couldn't keep up with the tank. Only when he'd searched for more danger and made sure that no creatures were clinging to his tank did he look at the warrant officer. "I know where the chopper is. Major Bernhardt gave us the damned street address. We went to check it out once we heard the tunnel get blown. That's what took us so long to get back to your position. But I don't know if we can even use the copter. There're a shit load of monsters all around it."

The tank travelled on the roads and the men saw no stray monsters anywhere. The streets were clear and houses empty. Those who had died had already risen and were being used by the zombie king. Ethan got a chill thinking about the power that the king would wield if he and his army ever got out this valley. He shined his light down a street, and tapped the commander on the shoulder. "Could we go down this street here? I want to make sure Anna hasn't come back yet."

She hadn't. The men took up arms and looked in every direction as Ethan jumped from the tank hull and scribbled a note on a sheet of paper then stuck it under the windshield wiper of the car parked in front of a certain house. With that he climbed back on and the tank headed south towards the chopper.

The tank got to within a block of the Huey and stopped. "Fuck me", the tank driver breathed while looking at the monsters all around. From the front of the tank to the door to the chopper was about fifty yards and the space was filled with monsters, more than a hundred of them sitting inside and around the chopper. They turned their heads towards the tank as one and bared their teeth like feral beasts. Every man in the tank thought that the monsters were going to attack, but they didn't. They just stared at the tank, daring its occupants to do something.

"Anna hasn't killed the king zombie yet", Ethan said. "He's the one giving these monsters orders. They don't have minds of their own. He controls them like puppets. So long as he lives, these monsters are going to act like a real army."

"Well that guy Major Bernhardt was going on about his wife Anna. He said that she's got to topple some magic spell and save us all. Well, from what I've seen this better be some bad ass broad to stop all this shit."

"Oh, she's bad ass alright. She'll get it done."

Anna had never felt so helpless. She turned her head away when Bruce leaned close and inhaled deeply through his nose. Since Shining Sun had altered the magic, Bruce had gotten more and more sensations back. He savored them all, and he savored the time he was going to spend with his former teacher. Distantly he knew that there was a bomb rigged to explode. Since he had back his sense of smell, he sensed the natural gas in the air, but it wouldn't matter here. The stone wall was many feet thick, and the only opening was a two foot wide channel through the solid rock. The fire might burn out the oxygen, but he didn't need that anymore anyway. He looked down at Anna, trapped by a net that he'd constructed and the remnants of his lips turned up into a crude smile.

He always imagined what her body looked like under her teacher's clothes and now he was going to find out. Anna looked down her body as Bruce went to her feet and unbelievably he started to undress her, starting with her shoes. Anna felt defeated and now she was about to be defiled. He pulled her pants down and carefully removed her ankles from the cuffs. Goosebumps formed on her skin in the cool underground air. Below her waist she wore only panties now. She looked better in reality than Bruce had dared imagine in his daydreams. He could hardly wait to see the rest of her. Shining Sun stepped up to get a look at the vanquished woman. He had half a mind to push Bruce over the edge of the chasm and take Anna himself, but he didn't. He was a man of his word. Anna looked at him in the face, and her muscles jumped to attention again as she struggled against the ropes. Shining Sun laughed at her and turned his back walking towards the spell. He had some preparations to make before he left the valley. He would leave Bruce to his own business.

Bruce felt a stirring in his pants watching the muscles of Anna's legs flex and transform with her useless struggling. He reached out for her legs and touched the tender skin, feeling its smooth softness and the iron hardness of the muscles beneath. He leaned down, putting all his weight on Anna's knees, trying to keep her from kicking so much. When her movements were muted by his pressure, he extended his tongue and licked a track up her leg, stopping only where her panties began. Anna's sobs began anew. She simply wasn't strong enough to free herself, but she was plenty strong enough to keep Bruce from being able to lick her like that again. She stopped crying and waited. Bruce savored the taste of her skin and tried to lick her again, but Anna's hip flexors crumpled as they tightened. Deep ridges formed on Anna's lower abs as she pulled her legs up, and like the arm of a pinball machine she forced Bruce up and off of her.

He fell on his ass and looked at Anna who now lay there at rest. Her body shouldn't have been so strong, but it was. In one instant she'd generated more power with only her legs and hips than most women could with their entire bodies. She was a wonder to look at and even more wondrous to experience. Bruce was going to enjoy this all the more, but he would have to punish her for what she had done. He kept a distance away from her legs as he walked around her, keeping his eye on her the entire time. She stopped near her left shoulder. Anna feared what he might do now that he was away from her legs. She could barely move her arms, and there was no way she could defend herself, but he didn't even get close enough.

"Yooo haaz bee a bad gurl.", he spoke in a coarse, otherworldly voice. He kicked at the rope across her chest causing a few stabs of pain, then he kicked the rope as hard as he could. Anna stifled a cry. He kicked the rope again causing the weight of the rocks to shift, and Anna screamed as the rope cut into her. He kicked it again and Anna's vision went blurry with pain, but this time more happened. The rock that had gotten stuck on the ledge below her rolled loose. Anna barely had time to tense her body and ready herself as the rock free fell the final five feet of its journey, but she hadn't been prepared.

An ear splitting cry of pure agony was choked off by the crushing weight of both rocks. The ropes were compressing her body. Her ribcage shrank, making it impossible to take more than short shallow breaths. Bruce looked quite satisfied as he went back towards Anna's legs. He wanted more time to play with them.

Anna could barely think. She could dimly feel Bruce licking and rubbing her legs. She felt only the agony of slowly being crushed to death, and it felt like her head was going to explode. Her head raised up involuntarily from the pain, but her vision was clear enough to see the rope. She was in too much pain to smile, but she realized that maybe Bruce had just made a mistake. Anna rolled her shoulders, purposely pinning her arms inside the net causing pain on her limbs, but creating the smallest amount of extra space for her take a breath. It wasn't a good one, but it felt good enough. She looked down her body at Bruce worshipping the shape, cuts, and density of her calf muscles. She didn't try to stop him yet. She moved her legs apart slightly, almost like she was having a spasm. Bruce was lost in his lust and didn't even think to look to see if she was looking at him. Instead he moved between her legs and extended his tongue to lick her right calf, when her legs clamped around him like a huge trap. Bruce's hands went to her legs to pull them apart, but he might as well have been trying to pry apart the earth itself. Anna crossed her ankles and gave Bruce a good long squeezing.

A cascade of muscle appeared on her long legs, bulging and flexing and transforming the shape of her legs. Cross striated triple headed quads bulged out in vascular glory next to razor sharp adductors pressed on his head and neck from both sides creating an ever shrinking prison of female muscle. Anna's glutes flexed so hard that they forced both her body and his high off the stone floor. Bruce was helpless between her legs. She could hold him like that as long as she could continue to get breathe. She counted a few more broken strands since the last time she'd looked. The weight of the rocks had her on the verge of passing out, and she was using up precious energy crushing Bruce, but it was worth it. She exhaled slowly and quickly took another shallow breath. It was time to get herself loose.

"Hey! Hey!!!", Tom, the Army driver, yelled to the tank that passed by a couple of blocks too far for his scream to be heard. "Shit! I thought I had us a ride", he told Eli, who was barely conscious at this point.

"You saw a car?", Eli managed through a fever induced shiver.

"No, a tank. They had room for two more."

"One more you mean", Eli said then coughed a chuckle. "I'm about dead remember?"

"Yeah, I remember", Tom sighed and laid the gun in his lap. He used a lighter to illuminate Eli's face. Tom winced and put out the light. His brand new buddy looked pretty bad off. It wouldn't be long before he died. Tom hated to do it, but in a very short time he'd have to put a bullet through Eli's skull. Until then he'd keep talking to him. "So you were saying that you almost got lucky with the prom queen."

Eli coughed again, but smiled. "Yeah, Sally Davis. We were in the back of her daddy's Edsel…"

Bruce couldn't feel true pain, but he felt the pressure Anna's legs were exerting on his head and neck. His one eye spun in its socket as he searched for his master. Shining Sun was a ways off tending to his spell, too far to even notice what was happening to his prized minion. Bruce could not free himself without help although he was still trying his hardest. He pushed and pulled against Anna's legs, but it did not good. He thought that he had a chance to get out because she wasn't squeezing him any tighter. Perhaps she'd already given him her best squeeze and she was tiring out. Truth was that she wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. She had more pressing matters to deal with.

Anna worked her hands closer together hoping to allow them to meet above her breastbone. She struggled and pushed and twisted her arms, but finally she got them close enough for her fingers to touch one another. She wasn't trying to clasp her hands though. She clasped the rope instead, taking good grips with both her hands. She hunched her shoulders and rolled them forward as far as she could. When she felt that she was as prepared as she could be, she pulled her arms apart. She was rewarded by the immediate pops of breaking rope fibers. Anna didn't sustain her pull. She brought her hands close together and pulled again, this time harder. Her upper body flexed granite hard and razor sharp. The rope tore some more, Anna's soft feminine gasps of exertion were the only sounds as she tugged again. She took a slim breath and glanced to make sure Shining Sun was still far off. He was, and Bruce was still trapped between her legs.

He had no idea that by kicking the other rock loose that he'd given Anna her best chance of escape. The rope was thick and strong, but when that rock had fallen some of the fibers had ripped right across Anna's chest. Anna saw her chance. She doubled her pain, and her muscles were flexed to bursting, but she was doing it. She pulled her hands in opposite directions again, breaking more fibers, making the rope weaker with each powerful tug. Her fingers were numb and her hands hurt from gripping so tightly, but she couldn't stop now. She curled her lips under, held her breath and gave her hardest pull yet. She whimpered as the pain in her taxed muscles rose above the pain from the rope. Her triceps thickened like overstuffed sausages on the backs of her arms. Veins fanned and branched across her chest and down her arms pulsing as her muscles grew thicker and harder.

Her back was a writhing mass of rearranging and straining muscles. Her shoulders bulged and strained and separated into finger thick rows of quickly flexing strands pulling the rope apart centimeter by centimeter. The rope was breaking, surrendering to her strength. She could feel it. Her pulse quickened and her efforts doubled. She flexed harder. Muscles rearranged and throbbed, needing more. She arched her back, putting more pressure on Bruce's head and gaining more leverage on the rope. More fibers tore. The robe vibrated under the attack of Anna's sustained pull. The frayed ends were like defeated enemies in a battle.

Tears of pain and effort mixed with the river of sweat pouring off of Anna. An explosion of pain and need racked her body. Her head throbbed, but her muscles throbbed even more. Anna bit the inside of her jaw to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs, releasing some of her fury. She pushed through the imaginary limits, flexing every muscle in her body harder than she ever had.

Every muscle pulsed to its pure anatomy chart, mind bogglingly defined perfection. It was the single hardest flex of her entire life, harder than breaking a tree, or handcuffs, or tearing a zombie in half. Anna's muscles went super nova under her skin. Veins from deep down shot to the surface, pushed by her relentless flexing. She was a perfect storm of female muscle, until it came to an end.

A rope's strength is its braiding. It started to twist itself apart because Anna had weakened it so. The big rocks spun at the ends of the rope. The net that had been mean to catch Anna from her neck to the ankles was already tearing, and it finally split down the middle. It was already wrapped up and useless, but its surrender hastened the end. Finally the weight of the rocks and Anna's insane strength overcame the strength of the rope. It tore with a puff of rope dust and the two rocks crashed to the water below. Anna immediately took a deep breath. There was no ground beneath her head, so she turned it sideways so she could rest it on her outstretched arm. Deep pain filled her body from the very top of her head to the soles of her feet, even her hair hurt. It hurt to blink her eyes or to turn them in their sockets. She felt feverish like she had the flu, and her lungs burned like campfires. But despite all of that, she was alive, and she was still going to kill Shining Sun. But for a little while she was content to just lay there. She knew the problems wouldn't wait. She knew that Shining Sun got closer to his goal with each passing second. She could only hope that she had time to rest before the problems got worse. She didn't.

The driver of a Ford Ranger rushed through the yellow traffic light near the center of town five miles from Hidden Glen. It was his wife's birthday, and he was in a hurry to get home. He'd forgotten their anniversary this year and she sure as hell wasn't going to screw her birthday up too. He had a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of that wine she liked, and tickets to the George Jones show the next weekend. He wasn't sure what it was about that man, but he made his wife swoon. He wasn't jealous though. The idea of going to see George Jones would be more than enough to convince his wife to put on the little lacey panties he had in a box on the seat. After that, the night had to go right.

The driver was at the beginning of a daydream about his lovely wife and didn't see the storm water drain grate move. Fingers reached through the grate and three pairs of hands lifted the heavy cover from its place. The Ford Ranger was only thirty feet away when the first man shape came out from beneath the street. The driver never had a chance to stop.

"Oh FUCK!", he exclaimed as his truck shook violently from the impact. He knew that he'd hit something big, probably someone. "Oh fuck!", he breathed again and slammed on the brakes. The wine, the flowers, and the panties ended up on the floor. He jumped out of the truck and rushed to the front. The right quarter panel and the bumper were caved in. The hood was smeared with blood. He looked where he'd come from and saw the shape of a body in the shadows created by the street lamps.

"Hey buddy! You okay?", he called out knowing full well that his truck had made a mess of whoever he'd hit. Why the hell had some guy been in the sewer anyway? The driver jogged closer. "Hey buddy, I'm gonna get you help!", he yelled and got closer. The driver skidded to a stop when he saw another head appear in the storm drain. A man in overalls was pushing himself up and out of the underground.

"Is that your friend? I think I hit him. Can you tell if he's okay?" The man in overalls was out of the hole, but something wasn't right. He ignored the driver and turned towards the fire hall. Then another head appeared and then another one. The driver took a step closer, getting close enough to use the illumination of his tail lights to see what he'd done to the man he'd hit. The side of the body, the rib and the shoulder, were completely broken. He had to be dead, but as the driver took another step the man he'd hit moved. He sat up and turned towards the truck driver, looking at him with dead eyes.

"What the fuck!" the driver yelled and ran to his truck. He threw it in drive and stomped the pedal to the floor. White smoke followed his burning tires as he sped down the road. He looked in his rearview seeing dozens of monsters coming out of the storm drain.

They broke up into groups, each with their own destination. These monsters were all new zombies, residents of Hidden Glen who'd been killed over the last several days. Some of them were people who had been killed trying to defend the other survivors at Ethan's armored home. These were the ones who stepped into the police station first. They couldn't pass for alive, but no one would have believed them to be dead, least of all the duty sergeant who'd once been a cop in Chicago. He thought he'd seen everything until he saw a grown man in overalls walk into the police station, open his mouth and bite a chunk out of the rookie cop standing near the door. The sergeant fell over backwards in his chair as he reached for his gun. Men screamed and tables overturned and shots rang out. The sergeant got to his knees and fired a shot into the gut of the man in overalls. A neat entrance wound opened, but the man didn't even turn in his direction. The cop was on automatic. He fired again, but still the man in overalls chewed into the rookie cop. Only after a third shot hit the monster did it turn. It lumbered towards the sergeant who pulled the trigger of his wheel gun as quickly as his finger would function. He was down to his last bullet when from fear, his hand jerked, screwing up his aim. His last shot struck the zombie in the direct center of his forehead. It dropped to the ground.

The duty sergeant, nearly shit himself in relief. He looked over his desk at the eleven other monsters that had invaded the station. He opened his mouth to shout to his fellow officers to shoot these… things in the head. All that came out was a prolonged scream as a prisoner he'd booked three hours earlier bit the sergeant in the neck. The zombies had already been to the holding cells and killed the inmates. No one noticed them until it was too late, and as the sergeant's vision faded, he knew it was too late for him too.

The scene was repeated two miles away at the fire hall. The firefighters were already reeling from the loss of a fire truck and the crew with no answers, and now a group of people came in and began to slaughter them. A fireman tried to lock himself inside the truck, but they broke the glass and pulled him out kicking and screaming. They all took turns biting off pieces of him until he died.

Only one other place in town was hit in the first wave. Its employees didn't work in law enforcement or in public safety. They worked for the only private company that Shining Sun had targeted. These people were more dangerous to Shining Sun and to his plans than the police who carried guns or those trained in first aid. These people carried information, and in war information is the most deadly weapon. He who controls it usually wins, and Shining Sun was after the ultimate prize. He would take no chances. The slaughter inside this office building only lasted minutes, and shortly after the killing stopped, the first wisps of smoke rose from the smoldering insides. Soon the entire building was burning. The sign on the front of the building glowed AT&T until the fire engulfed it too.

Anna lay motionless. Bruce would have thought she was dead if not for the pressure she was still exerting on his head. He could feel her pulse through the arteries and veins of her lower body. It was slowing down. She was recovering, and very soon she'd have the strength to pay attention to him again. Bruce though was still trying to make sense of what he'd seen.

He knew how strong that rope was. He'd tied all the knots and attached the rocks, made the net, and set the trigger for the trap. He knew how much the rocks weighed too. He'd used long planks to force the rocks into position because they were far too heavy for him to lift, but not too heavy for the rope to hold. The weight of those two rocks was a lot, but not enough to make the rope fail in the least. They may have caused a couple of weaker strands to break, but that rope could have held another entire stone. Maybe it could have even supported two more rocks without failing, but Anna had torn it to shreds. That means that she pulled with more force than two heavy rocks. Bruce had used long levers, but Anna could have lifted both of those stones herself, with her fucking arms!

Bruce knew fear again. He thought that he'd never be scared of anything or anyone, except perhaps his master, but he redoubled his efforts to get free. He feared a permanent death, and he knew that killing him would be rather easy for Anna. In her English class he'd fantasized about her. At first he thought that no other guy would understand his attraction to his teacher. He loved everything about her, and he didn't expect the other guys to love her athletic body the way he did, or her exotic looks, or her sexy movements. He learned eventually that he wasn't alone. All the guys thought she was instant hard-on inducing sexy, but Bruce didn't feel cheated. He loved her best. He'd day dreamed about worshiping her perfect body. He wanted to feel her muscles and suck on her tits and fuck her until she moaned his name, but in reality she was too much for him. Bruce knew that he'd have to do something. She was going to be quite upset with him when she recovered, and the punishment wasn't going to be a note home to his parents… they were dead now anyway. He'd watched them become zombies. Then another shudder for fear went through Bruce when he remembered that Anna had killed both of them too.

Bruce tried to think, with his limited capacity. He wanted to warn his master, hoping that Shining Sun would hurry to his rescue. He had to get his master's attention, but even if Anna's legs were resting slightly, he still couldn't force air from his lungs to make a sound. If he put both of his hands on her legs and pried them apart maybe he could make a sound, but he wasn't sure it would be enough over the roar of the falling water. He saw a stone almost within reach of his outstretched hands. If he could get the small stone he could throw it towards his master perhaps getting his attention. Bruce put his shoes against the ground and pushed with his legs, reaching as hard as he could for the stone. He was still trapped between her legs, but her body turned slightly. Bruce didn't have the brain power to think to look to see her reaction. Instead he pushed harder, inching towards the pebbles. Bruce wasn't trying to get her attention, but he had. Anna propped her head up with her hand, while she lay roughly on her side looking down at Bruce fighting and clawing to get to the rocks.

"He can't save you. I'd have finished you before he could get here", Anna told Bruce in a voice just loud enough for him to hear it over the rushing water. The monster froze, and shook in fear. "I always knew that you were a bit different than the other boys in class, Bruce, but I had no idea to what extent. A few hours ago, I would have thought that Shining Sun was putting you up to this, but now I know that there is a piece of you left inside that dead body. You undressed me from the waist down. You licked all over my legs and rubbed them because you wanted to. Do you think you're the first guy who's wanted to muscle worship? It's too bad for you that my legs happen to be my strongest body part by far."

Her words sent a wave of panic through Bruce's soul. He'd just seen his former teacher destroy his thick rope with only her arms, but now she was saying that her legs were stronger. He knew that it was true from the first sustained squeeze from her anaconda legs. Muscles rippled from her calves to her hips, twisting bans of sinew and strength flexed all along their length. Bruce felt the pressure increase from all sides like he was being submerged in deep, deep water. His body began to spasm. He slapped her legs. He pulled them; he pushed them. It was all useless. He turned his single eye to see her. Anna's face was set in concentration, but she was barely straining. She simply increased the pressure on him, compressing his head and neck. She was looking right at him, soaking in the panic and hiding her emotions. He put both his hands on her legs and pulled on them with all his strength in a desperate attempt. Anna's face screwed up slightly, absorbing his strength and still increasing her pressure.

"I… I… sorry", Bruce grunted. Anna's squeezing let up. The pressure no longer increased and it went back to just tight enough to keep him from escaping. In Bruce's warped little mind he thought that she might let him go. Then he heard her first sob. It took tremendous effort but he turned his head enough to get a good look at her face. She wept openly and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Sparing your life a couple of days ago is the worst mistake I've ever made. So many people are dead because of you I can't even count them all", Anna sobbed. "My baby… my Alex might die because of you. I gave you a chance Bruce and I'll hold that guilt with me for the rest of my life."

After a tender cry, Anna crashed her legs together violently. Her intentions clear. Her quads jumped to full attention. The heads bulging out like an oncoming storm. Her muscles flexed with malice as their steely hardness ground Bruce's skull. She backed off, opening a gap only slam her legs back down crashing Bruce's cranium plates together. The edges cracked, and his chewed up scalp couldn't contain the bone fragments falling. Bruce's arms were flailing like rags in the wind, but her anger built. She was ready to end it.

Anna arched her body, pressing her shoulders into the ground hard enough to hurt. She poured all that extra leverage into Bruce's head. Her face turned a shade of deep red. A forked vein throbbed in her forehead and her muscles tightened like living battleship steel. Her entire bucked as pressed over and over harder each time, building to a bone destroying frenzy. Anna crushed Bruce's head like a car in a scrapyard bailer. The pressure built inside his head and like an overcooking egg, the shell of his skull was staring to fail. Things cracked and popped. The orbital bone around Bruce's empty socket cracked and broke. Anna heard and felt the skull start to fail. She saw Bruce's body shaking. It made her squeeze all the harder. Muscles changed again, rippling into new beautiful shapes, bulging and straining. Nearing their maximum, but not reaching yet.

Her knees got closer together. Bruce's single eye was fixated on his master as the pressure built behind it. Blood and fluid seeped from behind the eye like a leaking pipe. The ball filled with blood, turning a dark dead looking red and bulging in the socket as pressure grew inside the ball and behind it. Anna mashed down again. Cranial plates crumpled like unfired clay. With a slow ripping sound Bruce's single eye was forced from the socket a centimeter at a time until it hang from the engorged optic nerve and blood vessels. Bruce's last vision was a close up view of Anna's razor sharp adductors as she flexed them hard enough to crush his face. Anna threw her head back and her mouth opened in a silent scream as Bruce's head collapsed completely. Red foam bubbled from his mouth and ears. Grey matter shot three feet from his nose to the stone floor and his single eye exploded in a fountain of blood and fluid. Finally Anna's legs came together with the remnants of Bruce's head flat between.

Anna looked down at what she'd done, wishing, hoping, praying that she'd get some satisfaction from killing the one monster who had caused her more pain than others, but she didn't. Despite all that he'd done, Anna saw Bruce, the boy who had been in her class, the boy who had gone terribly wrong somewhere along the line. She didn't believe for a second that he was sorry for all the things he'd done over the last several days, but she knew one thing. She was sorry that she'd had to kill him.

There was a sick sound of releasing suction when Anna separated her legs and let the flattened remains of Bruce's head smack against the stone ground. Anna looked down at the mess she'd made then looked over at Shining Sun. He was completely lost in his work. Anna stood up, and a chill went through her from the feeling of Bruce's bodily fluids rolling down her legs. She walked past her pants and her shoes to the river. She sat down on the bank and extended her legs over the rushing waters. She dipped her toes in slowly. It was cold, but she had to get this off of her. She lowered herself into the water while holding on with her hands to keep from being swept away.

The waters were so refreshing that Anna dunked her whole body under. The waters revitalized her. They were so clean and pure. It was a real shame that Shining Sun had been using them to fuel his power for so many years. When she came back up, she felt better than if she'd taken a shower. It was peaceful in these waters and serine beyond anything Shining Sun could have created with his illusion in the bright room before. While under water, shielded from the chaos of her task or the tenderness of her emotions, she heard a song. It was the same song that she'd sung to the Mound Builders. It sounded like it was close. She came back out of the water and climbed onto the bank. She wanted to rush over to where she'd heard the song coming from, but she stopped to put her pants and shoes back on. With that done she crawled on all fours past Bruce's dead body to the ledge's edge where she'd been trapped only a few minutes earlier. She carefully looked over the edge. It should have been pitch black down there, but through the spray and mist she saw a faint red glow.

Anna looked over at Shining Sun before going to where the trap's trigger had been. The length of rope that Bruce had used to start the rocks to sliding in the first place was lying right across the path. Anna gathered it up, hoping that it was long enough. She tied one end securely around a natural outcropping. And tossed the rest over the edge. She didn't even bother to test her knots. She'd spent years rigging and tying down loads. Anna could never have become an Eagle Scout, but she could tie knots like one. She climbed down the old rope carefully, resisting the urge to hurry. The song grew louder and louder the closer she came to the bottom. It was like the Elders were calling out to her, telling her that they hadn't abandoned her.

Anna knew that she was near the river. Finally her shoe hit the water. The red glowing stones were off to her right about ten or twelve feet at the bottom of the river. She thought first to jump in, but the current was too strong even for a strong swimmer to fight against it. There was a chance that she wouldn't make it back to rope. Anna wrapped her legs around the rope and twisted her ankle to make a loop for her foot. When she felt secure enough, she took her hands off the rope leaned down and started reining it in. She pulled until the soggy end of the rope was in her hands. She then looped the very end around her waist and tied it tightly. When she felt that it wouldn't slip off, she plunged into the icy river below.

The water was deeper than she was tall, but it wasn't hard to push to the silty bottom and retrieve the necklace. Anna felt warmth and power flow through her as soon as her hand touched it. It was as if she'd found a missing piece to herself although she'd only had the necklace for a short time. She pushed off the bottom and took a deep breath as soon as her head broke the surface. The water was dragging her, but she took time to tie the stones around her neck before grasping the rope and pulling herself against the current. Before long she was out of the water completely, soaking wet and shaking in the air. Her body was cold, but her mind was focused. She imagined Shining Sun as she climbed hand over hand up the rope. She'd have to sneak up behind him while he worked on his spell and kill him quickly. She'd already stabbed him through the chest. That didn't work. Perhaps she'd have to cut off his head like the other monsters. Either way she knew that she was only moments from ending this once and for all.

She was near the top now. Her muscles were so sore after all that she'd done, but she pushed their aching. She gripped the rope and pulled herself high enough to see over the ledge. Bruce lay directly in front of her, right where she'd left him. She grimaced and looked away from his crushed and broken face. She turned to the spell, having to squint against its brightness, expecting to see Shining Sun. She gasped. He was gone. She scrambled to pull herself up, searching for Shining Sun as she did. Her head was almost to the left when the motion began from her periphery. The sound of the whistling blade was unmistakable, but she saw only a shadowy shape until the light glinted off the shiny steel of her machete. Its razor sharp edge was only inches from her face, and milliseconds from claiming its next victim.

Outside the collapsed tunnel entrance the mood was a strange mix of celebration and mourning. Families mourned for lost loved ones. Soldiers mourned and remembered lost friends and comrades, but to a person everyone was glad to be alive. There were very few substitutions for life. The General was in his command position trying to take a deep breath and order his thoughts. He had a call to make, and after a few minutes of silence he motioned for the communications corporal to make the call.

"Yes sir, the situation is contained here in Hidden Glen", the General spoke into the receiver to the governor after giving him a very edited view of what had happened. "We have no evidence that whatever caused this outbreak is airborne or even contagious without direct physical contact. That said, I recommend we quarantine the survivors for at least 90 days under strict observation as a precaution."

"Sounds reasonable", the governor allowed after a sigh. "I'll need you to brief my staff shortly. The press has already gotten the word that something is wrong. It's only a matter of time before they get down there to your location."

"At the moment, sir, there is nothing to see, but I would suggest a call to the Feds. They'll have the ability to shut this down, and trust me sir, you'll want this situation shut down."

Another sigh. "I can't believe this is happening in an election year no doubt."

The General hated politics, but he could understand the governor's pain. He decided to keep this conversation on message though. "Sir, there is another situation. It's delicate, but we've lost quite a number of men, at least 3 squads worth, and maybe an entire platoon."

"Oh my God! This is horrible. I have to…"

The General looked at the receiver. "What the hell happened", he demanded. "Why'd we get cut off?"

"I don't know sir. Everything is fine on our end", the corporal in charge of communications replied nervously while switching switches and turning dials.

"What do you mean on our end?"

"We're patched into the civilian lines, sir. The governor didn't have a military comm at his residence. The only answer is that the civilian lines are down."

"Down? Well patch into another circuit and get me the governor!"

"I'm trying sir, but they're down… They're all down."

The General frowned and looked up as if an answer was out in front of him. It wasn't, and then he looked at the ground. The General didn't know what to say, but then off to his left far off, he heard a shot ring out. More shots quickly fired, and a man in a jeep road up to him, it was the same messenger who had given him bad news for the last several hours. "Sir, the outer patrols say that monsters are coming at them from down the road."

"But the town is down that road", the General said and his own words made his face blanche. He let the receiver fall to the ground. "Oh my God", he whispered, knowing that somehow the monsters had escaped into the town. All of the efforts and sacrifices had been in vain. He tapped the corporal on the shoulder then gave the young man a reassuring squeeze. "Send the distress call to division headquarters. Be vague. Let them send everything they have. They're going to need it", the general told the corporal. The General listened as the call went out over military frequencies. He hung his head knowing full well what the responding soldiers would be facing. The only solace the General could find was that he'd probably be dead before they arrived.

Anna wished her life had flashed before her eyes. She wished that she'd been able to retrieve a memory of happiness or of family or of love or all of the above, but instead she was flooded with shame and an overwhelming sense of failure as the blade sped towards her head. It would cleave her head in two she was sure. Shining Sun was more than capable of doing that. Her eyes saw past the blade in the last instant, to his face. It was twisted from effort, annoyance, and hatred. At that moment he wanted her dead more than anything, more than power, he wanted Anna to die. He infused this slash with all that bubbling fervor. His mind reveled in anticipation of cutting off this worrisome bitch's head. It was just she and him, and he'd won. The blade was almost there, traveling the last inches of its deadly arc. Anna saw death waiting. Then a shot rang out.

Blood splattered Anna's face. The blade's arc stopped cold. Shining Sun staggered back, his right arm hanging useless at his side. He made a move for Anna again. 'Klack-klack', echoed in the underground chamber just before another shoot boomed. A slug slammed into his chest opening a gaping wound. Anna turned to look to her right so quickly that it made her vision spin. A man holding a shotgun racked the slide again, loading another shell and blasting Shining Sun with it. The disgraced Elder staggered until another shot hit him in the side of the head, tearing off a third of his face.

The man with the shotgun stepped into the light. Anna's heart fluttered and her mind spun with disbelief. Mike rushed to his wife and took her under the shoulders. She threw her arms around him as he pulled her to safety. She was so tired her arms trembled around his neck. "How…how did you find me?", she asked weakly.

Mike flashed her a smile and pulled her to safety. "I followed the trail of dead zombies. You killed them in bunches you know."

"Where's Alex?"

"Safe", he evaded then eased Anna down to the damp ground feeling goose bumps rise along her skin. "You just rest", Mike tried to say calmly, but anger seeped into his voice, anger at the bastard who had caused all of this.

Mike stood up and turned to Shining Sun. "You're the monster that's been trying to kill us", Mike said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a shell, the anger growing in him by the second. "And you tried to kill my wife, you mother fucker!", Mike yelled, aimed the shotgun at the center of Shining Sun's face and fired.

Anna looked away from the gory scene. Blood ran in the channels filling the tiny holes in the rock surrounding Shining Sun's body. Anna's mind could hardly keep track. It was over. He was dead. She took her eyes off the blood and saw her husband walking away.

"And this must be the magic fucking spell that made the dead walk?", he said with contempt. "You said you had to destroy it." Mike turned the shotgun backwards and pulled it over his shoulder like Hank Greenberg. He zeroed in on the upside down pyramid shaped construction of Shining Sun's magic spell and prepared to knock it to pieces.

Anna couldn't believe how this was ending. For the last several days she'd prepared herself to do this alone, but in the end she'd only been able to make it close to the end. She'd failed. Her strength had given out, maybe her resolve too. Anna wasn't used to failing, but perhaps this was for the best. At least her husband was here to do what had to be done. She should have remembered Shining Sun's words.

Mike took a step with his left foot, preparing to bring the shotgun through the zone. Mike had been quite the ballplayer in his younger days and those magic stones were about to feel a home run swing. Anna thought she saw the glowing spell pulsed, but it might have been fatigue. A tiny separate light showed above the inverted pyramid. More lights appeared at the corners, sending ribbons of sparkling light towards the center of the construction. An electric buzzing came from far away near the underground river in the instant before blinding white light struck Mike in the center of his chest. He screamed, and Anna's soul went cold. She'd never heard a sound like that, as if the power was ripping the life from him.

The jolt lasted just long enough for the image to burn into Anna's mind for all time. Then Mike's body was thrown high and far. Before Anna even formed a thought she was pushing her legs under her, and lunging to her feet. Her muscles protested, but she made herself move by sheer force of will. Her teeth ground together and her eyes pleaded with time to slow down. She had to get there. She watched her husband flying through the air knowing that if she didn't get to him that he would travel over the edge of the chasm. Anna was fast. She'd always been fast, and this time she was just fast enough. She reached her arms up and gripped her husband's shirt. She started pulling him down, but the momentum was such that she couldn't slow him enough. He flew over the edge with Anna still holding on. His body headed towards the icy river below. Anna held on with his weight threatening to pull her over with him. She refused to let him go, even if it meant her death too. She tightened her grip and pulled him closer to her. Air rushed from her lungs when her chest hit the stone floor. Mike continued down sliding towards oblivion. Anna splayed her legs and pressed the toes of shoes into the ground at the same time she locked her arms to absorb her husband's momentum. She worked her hands under his shoulders, but she had no leverage to pull him up. She did all she could to hold him up. Her biceps ached with effort as she curled his dead weight.

Tears of frustration ran down her cheeks. "Mike!", she yelled at his slack face. Anna set her teeth on edge and tried again to pull him up. Her biceps filled the sleeve of her shirt as she strained them to bursting, but she could only manage to pull him a few inches. She needed help, but no help was coming.

"Mike please wake up", she pleaded and shifted his dead weight to maintain her grip. "Please I can't hold you much longer", she cried to her motionless husband. Anna felt a cramp coming into her left forearm. Her fingers were already numb and now her muscles began to spasm. Her face showed all the pain and effort. Her normally soft lips were pulled back into a desperate snarl while veins reached up her neck, throbbing and pulsing as she held her husband. She gave another tug, but she could barely move him up at all. "Mike!", she yelled directly at him, hoping beyond hope that he wasn't dead. She couldn't tell if he was breathing or if his heart was beating. She may be risking her life to hold up a corpse. Anna had felt the power of the jolt of energy from across the room, but as long as there was a chance that Mike was alive she'd hold on. Then her problems compounded.

She heard a scraping sound behind her, and the rattle of metal hitting the stone ground. Then there was an exhale and thuds like something heavy and soft falling to the ground. Anna knew that those were slugs. "I will tell you, One Who Wanders, that is a powerful weapon. I can see why my army has made such slow progress. It is one thing to understand the weapon through the dead mind of a minion, but it is quite another to feel its sting first hand."

"You can't be alive! He shot you in the head!", Anna yelled in the old dialect. She could barely see him out of the corner of her eye. She saw enough to know that the wounds from the shotgun blasts, just like the stab wound from her machete were gone.

Shining Sun laughed so hard he nearly became giddy. "You still don't understand! This toy can not harm me. I am not some undead creature! I am their master! I am more than you can ever fathom. I do not even fear time itself! But you were correct earlier. I did fear you. The vision said that my demise would come from one family, and I tricked your ancestors into telling me the last of their line… you. So from the beginning, centuries ago I prepared for your coming. I knew that we would have this fight, and I knew that either we would kill each other, or that I would win. There was never a scenario where you lived to foster and continue your line. I knew the ending of this from the very beginning, and it is too sad for you. I will rule this world because you are the last person on the earth who can stop me, and you are about to die."

Shining Sun used his foot to push Anna towards the edge. He enjoyed watching her struggle and squirm to maintain a hold on her husband while she was heading over the edge. "Mike!", she screamed at the top of her lungs. She knew that if her hands were free that she could push off and spin away from Shining Sun's push. She could save her own life, at least for the moment, but she had to have her hands free. Instinct told her to let the dead weight go, but love wouldn't let her. "Mike!", she screamed over and over.

"Mike!", Shining Sun mocked, trying to mimic her. "You should have warned your lover, One Who Wanders. I created this spell to stop the Outlanders. You of all people should have known that an Outlander couldn't simply walk up to it and destroy it. No Outlander can touch it or get within two paces of it. I am no fool, One Who Wanders. So with you dead, my victory is assured. Of course I will kill the rest of the tribe just to be sure!" He continued his push, knowing all along that he should have just given her a single hard shove that sent her over the edge. He could have enjoyed the sounds of her screams as she fell, but he was enjoying her agony too much.

Anna screamed for Mike again, and she saw his eyelids twitch. The stones around her neck glowed a pinkish white as the Mound Builder's magic mixed with Shining Sun's for an instant. His head rolled to the side.

"Oh Mike please, please I need you to come to. Please I need you to help me, we're going to fall!", she screamed. She felt Mike tense a little as he gained consciousness. He gripped Anna's upper arms tightly. The feeling of her iron hard muscles under his fingers actually sent a surge through him enough to cut through some of the fog in his mind. "Anna", he mouthed and tried to keep his eyes open. His eyelids closed again, but then he forced them open and looked directly at his wife's beautiful face.

"To think that fate put trust in you, and this is how it ends. With you struggling to save a man who would surely die anyway. My magic is working inside him just as if he were bitten by one of my soldiers. It is working even more quickly. Perhaps after he turns, your husband can feast on your remains at the bottom of this cliff."

Shining Sun slowly pushed them off, inching his leg forward watching her squirm and struggle to save her husband's life.

Shining Sun was so rapt and so confident that he gave time, precious time to a boy near death but clear of mind. The boy approached from the far wall. He saw the struggle, but knew he couldn't affect that. He could hardly move at all. His body hurt all over and he his fever was so high that his own breath felt like it would burn his skin. His lips were dry beyond the ability of his tongue to moisten and his vision was hazy, but he knew what to do. He would do what Anna had not been trying to do. Once he took the last step, he reached out a pale shaking hand and grabbed a glowing stone from the northern corner of Shining Sun's inverted pyramid. He had to wrap all ten of his little fingers around the translucent rock and pull hard, but with a sound like the shattering of a thousand mirrors, Alex pulled loose the stone and held it in his hands.

Shining Sun whirled, his eyes wide open wide in horror. He forgot all about Anna and Mike. He focused instead on the little boy. "This cannot be!", Shining Sun shouted and stood up squaring his shoulders. A look of discomfort and confusion ran across his face.

Anna gripped her husband tightly and turned towards the spell. Her face beamed with pride as she looked to see her son holding that stone.

"Pull another one, baby!", Anna shouted to Alex who nodded and quickly started tugging on another stone. It came free in his hands. Shining Sun doubled over in obvious pain. Anna turned towards Mike and with his help, started pull him up. She did most of the lifting, but he was able to hold onto her to maintain her gains so she didn't have to pull him up at once. Mike was about halfway up when Shining Sun stood up and started towards Alex. But by now the Alex had gotten the idea. This time he pulled two stones free at the same time. They were coming off with less effort now. Shining Sun fell to his knees.

"You're destroying everything!", he yelled in a language that Alex couldn't understand, but the boy could understand anger and danger. Shining Sun represented both of those things. He looked past the big man in the native cloths to his mother and step-father, but Alex knew that this was even more important than the three of them. He pulled another stone and this time he raised the stone high above his head. Shining Sun watched his little arm hold up the glowing translucent stone, and he followed it down as the boy smashed it against the ground. The perfectly round stone broke into a dozen pieces.

"No!", Shining Sun wailed. "How can this be? How can you touch my spell, and how can you destroy my stones? Who are you!?!", he yelled then looked over his shoulder to Anna, who had pulled her husband mostly onto the ledge now. There was effort on her face, but it was overshadowed boundless pride.

"This is Defender of Men", she introduced formally. "Son of White Hawk of the tribe of Sauk, and of me."

"But you are the last of your line! You ancestors knew of no names after yours, and I was to live forever. I would have known, this is some trick!"

"My ancestors did not know my son's name because he does not know them. I've never taught our tribe's history to him. Something that I was ashamed of until about half a minute ago", she told Shining Sun then looked to Alex. "Pull another one, Baby!" Alex did as his mother wanted.

Shining Sun roared and charged at Alex. The young boy's face turned even paler and he gasped in fright. He tried pulling more stones off. It caused Shining Sun physical pain, but he charged unwaveringly anyway. Alex was too weak to run, and there was no doubt that Shining Sun would rip him to pieces as soon as he touched him, but Shining Sun didn't touch Alex. The shaman lurched forward, falling face first towards the ground. Anna had come from behind, launching herself like a human missile. Shining Sun put his hands out to brake his fall, but Anna never let his palms touch the damp stone. She curled her arms around his neck and locked in a choke.

Shining Sun strained against her, but her muscles strained even harder. Anna's biceps burst under her skin into a thousand flexing fibers. Her deltoids were just as shredded. Her shoulders looked like hundreds of snakes fighting under her skin as the striations rippled from front to back and top to bottom over the three prominent heads. Anna's body froze in a state of flexed perfection as she absorbed Shining Sun's struggles. His eyes locked on Alex's. The terror and fear in Alex's eyes was matched only by Anna's desperation and effort.

Her quads flexed so hard that stitches popped, revealing the smooth copper skin and the squirming straining muscles beneath. Her quads split and flexed and grew, but her biceps were front and center of her efforts. Thick pulsing veins shot up her arms like bolts of lighting in the sky. Her heart pounded in her chest, forcing more blood and more strength into her overburdened muscles, fueling her strength. Anna's biceps compressed Shining Sun's neck, but still he reached his arms out for her son. He inched closer, and Anna bore down even more. Muscles surged. Sweat fell from Anna's head and blood trickled from her nose. Her vision dimmed, and her muscles thickened. A sick gurgle escaped Shining Sun's lips, as Anna's biceps crushes his neck. His mouth opened to scream, but no air could pass from his lungs to his mouth. His face turned red, then, purple, then darker as Anna pulled him backwards with her choke while he tried to move forward.

The rage in Shining Sun's eyes only grew as he realized that he couldn't out power this woman. He pulled forward with all he had and it wasn't enough. She was so damned strong! He tore his eyes away from Alex and looked at his spell. He joined with his magic and lights began to jump just like it had when Mike had gotten close. Alex felt the buzzing of the gathering magic just before it coalesced and struck Anna in the center of her chest, just like Mike. For an instant Anna's body withstood the jolt of pure magic. The magic tried to shove her back like it had Mike, but Anna's grip on Shining Sun was nearly unbreakable. She refused to be forced away, but the bright light grew even brighter and the air crackled with magic. Then with an earsplitting shriek another bolt hit Anna in the chest and she was thrown back into the darkness. A loud crack accompanied her scream. She broke Shining Sun's neck as she was thrown back. Her grip was so tight that she'd practically spun his neck around backwards.

Shining Sun fell on his chest, but the back of his head hit the ground. He reached up slowly, fighting the pain with anger and spun his head back on right. Alex heard the grinding of bones and the small exhales of pain as Shining Sun's spell started to mend him yet again. The remaining stones of the spell pulsed like strobes as the shaman pushed himself upright. From one knee he looked to Alex, standing only a scant number of feet away and smiled a terrible grin. He sucked in a few breaths and his face turned its proper shade.

Alex searched for his mother, tears stinging his eyes, but Shining Sun filled his view as he stood up and stepped forward. His ancient mind teemed with painful ways to kill this troublesome child. Neither one of them heard the sound of the slicing blade over the rushing water. It shined in the light for an instant. Shining Sun saw its reflection on the wall in the instant before the blade sliced through his neck. The lopped off head spun in the air thumping to the ground on the right, while Shining Sun's body fell forward, splashing blood inches from Alex's feet. Anna stood over the body with twin trails of smoke wafting from her scorched shirt and a grim look on her face. She reached down and lifted the severed head and held it by Shining Sun's hair.

"Your protection magic doesn't work well on me, not as well as on an outlander I suppose", Anna told him and saw the comprehension on his face. "It hurt me, but there was no way I was going to let you hurt my son… no matter what."

Shining Sun's mouth moved and his eyes stared at Anna, full of hate. Anna's face was unreadable as it often was. "This is over now", Anna said softly as the blood drained from Shining Sun's head. The magic wanted to knit its master back together, but Anna stood in the way blocking it like a wall. She looked him in the eyes as he died, wondering, hoping that this time his death was for real. When he looked to have died, she tossed the head to the side and immediately wrapped her arms around her son. She held him tightly like she'd done so many times in the past, but this time it felt different. Her son had always been the scared child who was picked on and somewhat weaker than all other kids, but not now. Anna understood just how brave and strong her son was on the inside. This was the first time in her life she was grateful to be wrong.

"Is he dead, Mommy?", the little boy asked in a small trembling voice. She pulled back and looked into his sick little face then turned to Shining Sun's body lying on the ground, hoping that it was still. Through the misty haze seven shapes appeared around the body. The bright colors of their cloths showed clearly and their grim faces showed their determination to finish this. They circled the body until another hazy figure coalesced and joined the seven. "It has been a long time since I have seen you, Elder Shining Sun", Still Waters said to the newly dead shaman.

Shining Sun looked at the seven Elders around him and then towards Anna. "Well played, One Who Wanders, but I fear that you think this is finished. It is not. My legacy will live long past yours. My work will endure!"

"You have done enough evil!", Elder Little Deer uncharacteristically shouted. "The net falls for you, Shining Sun. Now you learn your fate, and punishment will be quick! Nothing in life could prepare you!" She waved her ethereal hand and the spirit of Shining Sun was pulled away. A sound like a powerful wind drowned out his screams.

Alex shuddered when the sprits turned to face him and his mother. "You must finish it now, One Who Wanders", Elder Still Waters said urgently. "You must put an end to our enduring nightmare. Destroy the spell and our power will stand with you. It will bring a clean death to all infected with Shining Sun's evil magic."

Anna looked at the misshapen pyramid then back to the elders. "Death? What about my son, and my husband and all the others. They are infected by the magic, but they aren't dead. I want to spare them just like you spared the Outlander twenty years ago."

"You ask too much, daughter. Our power has bent to your will and you have taxed our magic greatly in your pursuit of Shining Sun. I do not believe that there is enough power left to do as you wish and to still be able to destroy the spell."

"There has to be a way. I refuse to get this far and be told that there is no way. I have killed Shining Sun, and now my brave son and all the others who have fought these monsters do not deserve to drop dead. I refuse to do it", she declared to the amazement and befuddlement of the Elders.

"But One Who Wanders the world is…"

"In serious trouble if I don't receive an answer that I can live with. I have earned the right to have a say in this outcome. My son and I have succeeded beyond anyone sent in the past. There must be a way."

"There is no other way!", several Elders exclaimed at the same time, but Anna looked unmoved.

"There is a way", a deep voice chimed in. Anna smiled when she heard it. Her father walked up and stood next to her and Alex, facing the other Elders. "You feel the need to deceive my child, and I will not have it."

"But Elder Standing Bear, you do not understand what you are asking. You are asking for a small victory for Shining Sun."

"Wrong!", he bellowed. "This victory belongs to my daughter… and to her son. She will dictate its terms and not you. Tell her how to do what she wants."

The Elders shared looks at each other then turned back to Anna, Alex, and Standing Bear, but there were more there now. Anna's ancestors stood behind her, and not just hers. Standing behind, where she couldn't see him was Anna's first husband and all of his ancestors too, bringing in an entirely different tribe, all standing with Anna and her son.

"Tell her", Standing Bear urged again.

The Elders relented and looked at Anna. "We are sorry, One Who Wanders. Our zeal for victory clouded the fact that this win belongs to you, to your son, and to those who have fought with so much bravery. You must join with Shining Sun's magic. Reach out to it. Our magic will be with you, and you'll feel the choice in your heart. You must make it, but remember the consequences of your actions, One Who Wanders. They will certainly follow you."

Anna heard the warning, but dismissed it. She was being rash, being emotion, and being herself. She'd gotten this far by not betraying who she was and she'd do the same this time. She felt the surge of the now familiar power from the Elders that she'd just argued with. It enveloped her as she reached her hands towards Shining Sun's construction. When her hands touched the magic of the evil shaman, she felt a blissful rush of power surge through her. It was like a jolt of pure satisfaction and strength. Her eyes opened wide. Her mouth snapped shut, and her lips pursed. This energy felt so damned good that Anna wanted to bask in it, but she wouldn't allow herself. She searched for the core of the power and found it. There she found her choices. She could control the power and become like Shining Sun. She could destroy it outright, as the Elders had suggested. The logical part of her brain told her that the Elders were right. This would be the safest route, but Anna turned to her son, and made her choice. The moment she did, light brighter than the sun shined all around her, and a sound like the cracking of the world boomed through the chamber.

"Are you about to shoot me, Tom?", Eli asked in a raspy voice.

Tom, the Army driver with the busted leg, frowned. "I do have a gun to your forehead, and you do look like death on a soda cracker. Long story short, you probably have about two seconds to live. You sound better now though."

"I feel better all of the sudden. Holy shit Anna must have done it!", Eli screamed from his back. "Hey, Tom, I'm not turning into a zombie. Anna must have done her fucking job because I'm starting to feel normal. I'd like to jump for joy, if you'd remove the firearm from my forehead that is."

"Oh, sorry." Tom moved the gun, and Eli jumped up and yelled to the heavens happy to be alive. Then out of the blue he leaned down and kissed Tom.

"I have to be the happiest sonofabitch in the world right now! WHOO HOOO!", he screamed and ran around in a circle. He looked down at Tom, who was smiling but confused.

"Well now I guess we can wait for that rescue."

"I don't think so, Tom. This entire valley is going to explode pretty darn soon."

"What?"

"Yeah, Ethan has it rigged to blow up. We have to get the hell out of here."

"But they blew up the tunnel! There's no other way out of here."

Eli grinned and slapped Tom on the shoulders. "That tank you saw, which way was it heading?"

"That way", Tom said pointing south.

"Great! I know where they're going. There's a helicopter there. I can't fly it but one of those guys must be able to!"

Tom watched helplessly as Eli ran off into the darkness heading southward. "Oh is that how you're going to do!", Tom yelled, feeling the searing pain in his leg anew. "You're just going to leave me here like this, you fucking asshole!" Just then he heard the breaking of glass followed quickly by an engine starting. Headlights appeared from down the block as Eli drove up.

"I had to get us some wheels. I sure as hell can't carry you. Oh, I thought I heard you shout something. What were you trying to tell me?"

"Umm nothing", Tom stammered and hobbled into the passenger seat. "Don't even worry about it." Eli grinned and stomped on the gas.

Larry and the Colonel were sitting watching the monsters sit and watch them. It would have been quite boring if not for the ticking clock on the explosives beneath the Glen. Ethan said that they had plenty of time to get free, but none of them were quite sure if he was lying or not. There was nothing they could do anyway. They couldn't defeat a coordinated attack by that many zombies, but they were making plans for an attempt should the time start to run short. Larry was about to lay back and look at the stars when he noticed several monsters turn and look away from the tank. Other monsters started to move too, whereas before they'd been stock still. They heard groans and moans and then the shuffling of feet. "Guys we have movement!", the driver said unnecessarily.

"Holy Shit, she's done it!", Ethan yelled and sat forward on the tank hull.

"What?"

"Look at 'em! They're acting like fucking mindless beasts again! Anna's killed the king zombie!" Ethan grabbed his BAR and leveled it at a monster, taking care to aim away from the helicopter before he fired. It didn't take long for the others to open fire. The tank commander got into the act with a weapon that none of them could match. He aimed the M2 .50 calibre machine gun and let loose a three second barrage that reduced half a dozen zombies to pieces.

"Move forward!",the tank commander ordered the driver once he saw that these monsters weren't trying to flank them as a group or to lure them into a trap. There were no tactics, just the mouths of hungry monsters. The tank inched forward, crushing zombies as it went while the men swept the sides with their guns. Soon they were actually killing the monsters sitting in the seats of the chopper. When the tank was only a few feet away, the Colonel and one of the EOD men jumped off the tank and ran to the Huey. It was a gory mess inside, just like Ethan had promised, but it was certainly flyable. The men started jumping off the tank in twos and running to the chopper. Ethan got in the co-pilot's seat and quickly shut the door. They hadn't killed all the monsters. Finally the tank commander and the driver jumped into the Huey.

"Fuck YEAH!", a soldier yelled after the doors were all closed. The monsters milled around, but didn't attack the chopper directly. There was so much death here it would take a moment for them to get their bearings and find the living. The Colonel flipped switches and turned knobs until the twin turbine engines started humming. Before long the main rotor and the tail rotor were spinning. "Let's get this bird in the air!", the tank driver yelled.

"Yeah!", an EOD soldier seconded.

"No", Ethan said quickly. "We have to wait on Anna and her family. We aren't leaving without them."

"We can come back and get them!", a soldier yelled from the back. "Let's get out of this fucking place!"

Ethan looked at the Colonel, hoping that the older more experienced fellow combat vet would understand, but he watched the Colonel put his hand on the cyclic and the collective. "He's right. We can come back for more survivors, but if we don't make it nobody else is coming back. We've gotten this far. Let's not throw our lives away now." The Colonel thought he'd won over Ethan when he sighed, but instead Ethan brandished his .38 and pointed it at the Colonel's head.

"We aren't leaving until Anna and her family gets here. Got it?"

The Colonel's face turned white, and three guns aimed in Ethan's direction from the back of the chopper. "I don't want to do this, so I'll warn you", Larry told Ethan as he pointed an m16 at him.

Ethan swallowed a lump in his throat, but didn't move his gun. No one saw Ethan's left hand move to the inside pocket of his jacket, but they saw him pulling it out slowly. From behind they couldn't see his hand until he held it up. The men leaned back when they saw the World War II issue fragmentation grenade. Before they could even make a move, Ethan hooked the pin around the thumb on his gun hand and pulled the pin free. He looked every man in the eye before he lowered his pistol and reached across his body to open the door. Several monsters smelled the life inside the chopper when the door opened, but it was only open for half a second, just long enough for him to toss the pin outside. The only thing keeping the grenade from exploding was his grip on the safety.

"Planning is the hallmark of any good operation boys", Ethan said to the men who now seethed with anger. "I thought somebody might need some convicting about something or other. You're never quite sure about what might happen, but it's always better to have a grenade and not need it, than need a grenade and not have it."

"This is bullshit, Ethan!", a soldier yelled.

Ethan was unfazed. "No this is real fucking life. We wait for Anna and her family, or we all die together right here, right now. Which do you want?" Any brotherly feelings from before were all gone. The men sat back in their seats and stopped aiming at Ethan. Nobody wanted a stray bullet to kill the asshole and blow up the chopper. So instead they waited for a woman who might never show.

"Wow", Alex uttered in amazement when the light and sound faded. Anna had stood in the center of the light show, but now she stood in near darkness, the only illumination coming from the upturned flashlight that Alex had dropped when he'd gone after the spell. Anna turned quickly to face her son, and dropped to her knees. She nearly fell over completely, but Alex reached out to her. "Mommy, are you okay?", he asked, his little voice dripping with concern.

Anna smiled at him weakly before hugging him tightly. "I'm fine now", Anna cried as she held her son, understanding what she had sacrificed to save him.

"I feel a lot better now", he told her unnecessarily. One look at him had told Anna all she needed. He'd been cleansed of the magic, made whole. As she held her son and tried to wipe tears at the same time, she wondered if she'd ever feel guilty about the choice she'd made. Was the lingering danger worth it, she asked herself. She laid her hand on Alex's chest and felt his little heart pounding. She pulled him back to arm's length and looked at him in the face. He smiled the little boy smile that only she got to see and she realized that no, she'd never feel guilty, not for a millisecond.

"So is it over now, Mommy?", Alex asked.

Anna opened her mouth, while trying to figure out what to say when they heard a moan come from the ledge. Alex ran to get the flashlight before the two of them went to Mike who was coming around. Anna knelt down next to him, and gently helped him sit up. "That was a rush", Mike said and shook his head. "I saw you chop that bastard's head off. Do you think he'll stay dead this time?"

Anna shined the light on the rapidly rotting corpse of Shining Sun and nodded. "He's dead this time."

"So that's it then? No more monsters!", Mike yelled and quickly got to his feet. "That's great! Honey, you did it! It's over!!!"

"Well, Sweety", Anna began with a frown on her face. "Not exactly."

Mike's face dropped and his glee diminished. "What do you mean not exactly? It's either over or its not."

"I wish it was that cut and dry, but there wasn't enough magic left to save the living and destroy the monsters. I could kill everybody affected with the evil magic, including the living… ie you and Alex, or I could cleanse the living but the monsters remain."

"So there are still flesh eating monsters walking the Earth?"

"Yes."

"And they can still make more zombies?"

"Yes. A little bit of Shining Sun's magic exists inside each individual monster and they can spread undeath just like they've been doing."

"Just great", Mike said as he wrapped his mind around what his wife had done. "I'd like to give you a speech about the greater good, shared sacrifice and whatnot, but it would all be BS. I'm happy to be alive!"

Anna planted a kiss on her husband's lips. "I thought you might agree with me after some thought."

Mike put his hand to the back of her head, and kissed her passionately before pulling away. "It didn't take much thought. This just means we have more zombies to kill."

Alex was always grossed out when his mom and stepdad kissed, so he looked away. He turned back to them though, wrinkling up his nose. "Do you guys smell something?", he asked.

Anna and Mike's eyes shot wide open. "It's methane", Mike yelled, suddenly reminded of Hidden Glen's impending doom. "We need to get the hell out of here before this place blows! We only have about twenty minutes", Mike yelled after looking at his watch.

Anna took Alex's hand and the three of them traveled across the narrow bridge over the underground river and into the room that had been so beautiful. The smooth surface was there and the big circular rock in the center of the space, but all of Shining Sun's illusion was gone. Anna didn't dwell on the memories. She ran.

The detonation timers clicked down on schedule, but there was another problem, a problem that none of them could have foreseen. A technician monitoring at the natural gas utility regional pumping station saw the blinking light first. He called his supervisor who called in his supervisor. "We've got a backflow problem in trunk number three, sir", the tech said and wondered what in the world they were going to do.

"That's the line that the Army pukes told us to shut down isn't?", the boss asked and watched the other men nod. "Well put a call in to them and tell them that we're getting a serious pull on that line and a it's creating a serious vacuum. If they don't shut off whatever is pulling on that pipe its going to cause us to have a cascading failure in our entire system."

"I can't get them on the phone sir. There's no service to that entire area, not even a busy signal."

The boss huffed at the news and at the dozen other blinking warning lights. He didn't even bother to look at the gauges. They just made his stomach turn flips. After a minute of contemplation he said, "Open the valve. We can't have that kind of negative pressure. We have to equalize it, but turn it off as soon as the gauges get back in the safe zone."

With the turn of several dials and the push of a button, natural gas began to flow. The fresh gas was meant to refill the tanks under Hidden Glen, but instead the overburdened pumps were sending it out to the houses. Gas filled the houses from the basement to the attic. It escaped through open windows and doors.

Its rotten egg smell wafted through the open air even to the point of entering the closed doors of the helicopter idling in the street. The men tried to ignore it, and Ethan looked at his watch confirming the time. They were still safe here, or so he thought. There was no electricity in any of the houses, but there were hundreds of thermostats. One of them clicked just as the level of gas inside the house increased. The single spark was all it took to send the house up in a single whooshing explosion.

The men in the chopper jumped from the unexpected blast, and seconds after the first house exploded, the one next to it did the same, showering the chopper with bits of wood and debris. The men looked to Ethan, but his expression didn't change. He wasn't ready to leave… not yet anyway. They would wait a little while longer before making any kind of move.

"The smell's getting worse", Alex yelled as he ran. He was holding his mother's hand as they hurried through the chambers, past the Elder's skeletons.

"I know", Anna began, having to suck in deep breaths as she ran. "Mr. Chase is going to blow up the Glen, Honey."

"Is our house going to blow up too?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Don't worry about it kiddo", Mike said from the front. "We'll get another house. Matter of fact, I'm thinking of requesting a transfer at work. Who knows I might even try a new line of work."

"That might be a good idea since you've probably been fired for missing so many days."

"Oh sarcasm? You said that you're bone tired and exhausted. You can still think of snide comments?"

"And I can walk and chew bubble gum too. I'm multi talented."

Mike reached the end of the trail and instantly turned to Anna. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her to the top of the hole. She leaned to the side to avoid the steel plate, and kept her arms in to avoid the jackhammer bit holding up the heavy steel cover. Next he lifted Alex into his mother's waiting arms. Anna was so happy to be out of the caverns that she could barely express it. She set Alex down very near her, and held out a hand for Mike. Anna's slightly relaxed muscles protested when she helped her husband up. He got a nice eyeful of stressing, flexing muscles when he looked down his wife's shirt. She leaned back and pulled him all the way up until he was lying across her chest and she was lying with her back on the cool concrete.

"I think this is a vaguely familiar position. Except this time I'm not joking", Mike said and rolled to be able to see his wife's face in the dim darkness. He felt Anna's abdominals tighten as she laughed.

"Yeah, last time my butt was hurting. This time my whole body is hurting."

"You are so amazing", Mike whispered and pressed his lips to Anna's. She wanted to pull away from his kiss. They had to hurry, and the smell of natural gas was nauseating. But she kissed her husband passionately for several seconds before they heard footsteps above them.

Anna instantly reached for her son. She took Alex's hand and scrambled to her feet. Mike used the flashlight to check to see if his .45 was chambered. He barely looked into the chamber when Anna put her hand in his and shook her head. 'Too much gas', she mouthed.

Mike knew that she was right and took his finger off the trigger. They stuck close together as the three of them slowly walked up the steps. Anna had one hand on her son, and the other on the handle of her trusty machete. The smell of gas remained strong even on the main level. Mike slowly pulled the door open, keeping the light steady to see any threats. The doorway was clear and the family emerged from the basement. Mike looked left. Anna looked right, and Alex decided that he should look backwards. They moved as a group towards the front door.

They saw the first shadow off to the right. It was a boy of about twelve or thirteen, hunting for life. He'd been at the tunnel entrance, but in the back. He was the first to make it back towards the center of the Glen, but he wasn't the only one. He spun around like a top when the family came out of the basement. His once handsome young face twisted into a snarl as he hissed. He lumbered towards them, wanting to eat them all and gnaw on their bones.

"Keep looking left", Anna told her husband. "I'll get that one if he gets too close."

Mike turned his head to the left, and steadily moved the family towards the exit. "I have two on this side." Anna drew her blade and Mike did the same.

"I've got more movement", Anna said, the emotion rising in her voice now. She pulled her son so that he was between his mother and step-father. It freed her right side for business. Two monsters were closing in, the young boy and another one. More monsters came down from the upstairs.

"We're getting a full house", Mike exclaimed and quickened their pace towards the open front door. "I think I can ignite this house once we get on the front lawn."

"How?", Anna asked, looking warily at the monsters getting closer by the step.

"I've got a plan", was all Mike would say. He reached behind him and took Alex's hand as they ran through the front door with the monsters hurrying to keep pace. Anna jumped out the front door, over the stoop and landed in the grass. The family ran away from the house stopping on the sidewalk.

Mike looked down his sights and fired twice. The first shot went just high of the doorknob, but the second was a direct hit. The spark of the bullet hitting and ricocheting off the steel knob was all it took. There was a flash of blue and orange flame. The flame spread around the inside of the house. Its eerie glow and ghostly trail could be seen through the windows until there was a single whooshing explosion that shattered everything in the house, windows, doors, and walls. Anna ran to the sidewalk and watched as a second explosion rocked the house. Monsters burned and some even exploded as the gasses inside their rotting bodies overheated. Alex buried his head in his mother's middle while Mike and Anna wore grim expressions.

Mike looked around and shook his head. "There's supposed to be a tank waiting here for us, but I guess those guys found something better to do."

"They're probably trying to find a way out since the tunnel's been exploded", Anna said. The news hit Mike pretty hard. They'd fought so hard only to have no way to escape this doomed valley.

Alex pulled away from his mother a little and looked around. The plume of fire from this former house lit up the area quite well. He pulled away completely when he saw a sheet of paper barely hanging on under a windshield wiper. Anna turned to see where her son was going, but he had the paper quickly. "Mommy, it has your name on it."

Anna read Ethan's note quickly and her beautiful face broke out in a wide smile. "We have to get to that downed helicopter. There's a pilot who can fly us out."

Mike didn't say a word. He jumped into the car and checked around for a key. It was right where a cop would say not to leave it, in the ignition. "Get in!", Mike yelled as he started the engine. Anna and Alex jumped in and off they went. They all knew where the helicopter was. They just hoped it would be there when they arrived. Houses were starting to explode on their own the natural gas was so concentrated now. If those guys were spooked, Anna and her family might be stranded again.

Mike sped through the Glen, dodging the odd zombie and avoiding debris from exploding shrapnel. Strange sounds came from below the street. Mike ignored them. He was making good time towards the helicopter since he could drive over sidewalks and through yards without worrying about consequences. Then he ran into trouble just as they passed an empty Army truck. In the near distance two headlights shined at a funny angle. Thick smoke blew directly across their path obscuring their view. If not for the smoke and the fiery plume Mike might have seen the oak tree that had fallen across the road. A couple of days earlier, Anna had used her legs to split a huge limb from that tree, and as Mike continued down the smoke obscured street, the tree got its revenge. The Ford Fairlane that Mike had procured slammed directly into the trunk of the fallen tree. The hood crumpled; the radiator ruptured and the engine stalled.

"Shit!"

"Mike, language!", Anna scolded her husband and turned to check on her son. Alex had slammed into the rear of the front seat, but he seemed fine.

"You're getting on me for cursing? We're running out of time!"

Anna rubbed her husband's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "We'll just get another ride."

Mike started to relax a little until Alex whined, "Umm, there're some monsters coming."

Anna and Mike looked where the boy pointed, and they hurried out of the car. A large group of monsters were clustered near the front porch of a smoldering house. A few zombies in the rear of the group broke off and headed towards the family. Mike leveled his shotgun, and Anna had her machete drawn ready for anything except perhaps for hearing her name.

"Anna!", Eli yelled from the porch roof. "We were trying to warn you about the tree! Were you two blasting the radio or something?"

"Eli?", Anna called back.

"This is Anna?", Tom began and nudged Eli in the ribs. "From what you've been telling me I thought she'd be ten feet tall and made of plate steel." Anna narrowed her eyes and looked up at the stranger sitting on the roof next to Eli.

"What are you doing on the roof?"

"Well that's our ride next to yours wrapped around that tree. We were heading towards that chopper when something burst underground. It knocked the tree over and we ran into it. I managed to get us up here. We're out of bullets and this house is about to explode!"

Mike pressed his lips together and headed towards Eli. Anna held onto Alex and watched her husband go. Mike fired and exploded a zombie's head. He racked the slide and fired again. More monsters moved towards Mike, starting to swarm him. Mike fired as quickly as he could, but one man could only fire in one direction at a time. "Behind you!", Eli yelled and Mike turned to drop a monster.

"You have to help them, Mommy", Alex urged and looked up at his heroine. "There's too many of them." A long rush of flames shot out of a shattered window as soon as the words left Alex's mouth.

Anna looked at the monsters getting closer to her husband and at the deteriorating house and started running towards the still steaming car. She opened the rear door and put her son inside. "Stay here, Baby until I come back to get you. Blow the horn if any monsters get near you." As soon as Anna closed the door she ran towards Mike, screaming his name to let him know she was coming. He turned in time to see his wife swing and slice a zombie's head clean off its body. That head was still tumbling in the air when another head was lopped off. Anna was like a machine. Tom looked on from the roof as this slim woman dropped zombie after zombie. Mike cleaned up whatever she missed, marveling at his wife as she worked. He got close enough to the roof to toss a full magazine of ammo up to Eli. Eli caught it and slammed the mag into his pistol. He felt more like a man as he took aim at a monster and blew a hole the size of a fist in its head.

Anna paused and looked at the thinning numbers of monsters and felt some hope that they'd get through this with just the loss of a few minutes time. Then the house exploded into a ball of angry blue flames. Eli was thrown from the roof landing on his side next to several monsters. Both Anna and Mike ran over to protect him. They killed the three monsters closest to him before Eli got to his feet.

Anna looked back to the roof where Tom was ducking down to avoid the flames burning over his head. "Jump!", Anna yelled up to him.

"I… I don't think my leg can take it!"

"I'll catch you!", Anna yelled up and Tom looked down skeptically. "Come on hurry!", Anna screamed, hoping he made up his mind soon. Monsters swarmed around her while Mike and Eli tried to keep them at bay. Tom thought that this chick was crazy, but the heat of flames left him no room to argue. It was either burn to death on the roof or smash into the ground below, but he didn't hit the ground. He leaned off the edge and let himself tumble down backwards thinking that he'd break something when he hit the cement, but Anna held out her arms and stepped under him. Her tired muscles flexed as they absorbed Tom's weight. He felt the full hardness of her muscles for an instant as she held him like a child in her arms. He looked up at her, staring into her dark brown eyes feeling a stirring in his loins despite his pain and recent fear. "I can't believe you just did that", Tom uttered in amazement.

"You're not even that heavy", she said quickly and leaned to put his feet on the ground. He hopped on one leg, and Anna allowed him to wrap his arm around her shoulder to stay upright.

"We have to find a way out of here!", Mike yelled and shot another monster.

"I have an idea!", Anna yelled back and hurried off still holding Tom up. He had to hop quickly to keep up with her, putting a lot of weight on her shoulders, but she didn't seem to the least bit affected. They headed for the Army m39 sitting at an angle against the curb. It had belonged to the other advanced team. Tom knew that all those other guys must have died. He was the last surviving member of his squad, but now wasn't the time to mourn. Anna helped Mike into the seat and was running around the front of the cab to the driver's seat when a hand came out of the shadows to grab her shoulder. Anna reached over her shoulder and grabbed the hand, wrenching it with her left, while her right hand reached for her machete. The blade cleared the scabbard and she started her swing, aiming to take off the arm near the elbow before going in for the final kill stroke. Instead the owner of the wrenched hand screamed. Anna let go.

"No don't swing!", a soldier yelled at Anna and backed away a little. He was younger than she and scared out of his wits.

"What are you doing!?! I almost killed you. You should have screamed or something before running up on me!"

"I… I'm sorry, ma'am, I just saw a living human being and I didn't think. We got ambushed by a bunch of those things and every man was eaten."

"Except you?", Anna finished for him.

"No, they got me too", he said and held up his sleeve. "They bit the hell out of me, I felt like crap until a few minutes ago. Now the bite and everything is healed. It's a miracle or something."

"Or something", Anna said under her breath. "Well get in the truck!", she yelled and climbed behind the wheel. Tom leaned towards her.

"I drive one of these. Just listen to me and I might be able to show you how to drive it."

"Uh huh", Anna muttered absently while she reached to the dash and started the engine.

"Good job! Now all you have to do is put your right foot on the brake and use your left foot to…"

Anna barely heard him as she double clutched and slammed the transmission in first. She pushed the pedal to the floor and drove over monsters getting to her husband and Eli. The diesel engine roared as she drove up over the curb and right next to the car. She jumped down from the driver's seat to get Alex out. Eli and Mike were on the back of the truck by the time Anna slid back behind the wheel with Alex next to her. An explosion blasted underground and the street buckled. Anna ignored the rumbling beneath her wheels and headed towards the helicopter. She silently prayed that it would still be there.

Three more houses had exploded and the street itself was cracking now. The heat from the flames caused the men inside the idling helicopter to sweat. An underground explosion actually rocked the entire machine and threw men against each other. The area around the chopper looked like a level of hell. The fires roared and the zombies loitered around the chopper, waiting for a chance to feed. Their dead hungry mouths taunted and steeled the men inside the Huey.

"We're running out of time!", the colonel yelled.

"No, the explosives haven't detonated yet!", Ethan yelled back.

"Well the fucking natural gas is already starting to cook", an EOD soldier put in from the back.

"Let's take off and at least hover!"

Ethan turned around to face the back. "You boys scared? I'm not scared. Those fucking zombies out there aren't scared! They're just waiting for Anna to get here so they can eat her. We wait!"

"You're going to risk all of our lives for this fucking broad?"

Ethan grinned. "No, I'm risking my life. The rest of you ass wipes can get out if you want, all except you Colonel." Ethan looked outside the helicopter. "Go ahead and get the hell out!" Nobody made a move. "No volunteers? Well then shut the fuck up!" He gripped the grenade tighter and looked around again, making eye contact with all the men. "Nobody gets left behind in this fucking place! You guys got it? Nobody." They stared at him, wordlessly wishing him harm. The men in the back of the chopper all looked at one another, wondering which of them could grab the grenade before Ethan could drop it. It was a long shot, but as time ticked away and more explosions happened around them, it looked like their only shot.

The men leaned in close to each other, whispering beneath the steady chop of the blades, planning to assault Ethan. They looked at the front of the chopper and saw the Colonel's tense face. Ethan held the grenade in a practiced hand. He had obviously used his share of the hand held explosives. The men knew that he was lying and telling the truth. He was scared. Sweat ran down his head like a river and its wasn't just from the heat. He was just as terrified as the other men in the chopper, but he was indeed ready to die to save this woman Anna.

Larry glanced up idly in the middle of their plotting. "Well, I'll be damned… headlights." He pointed and every eye turned to see twin yellowish lights heading their way. Somebody was coming. But the men in the chopper weren't the only ones to take notice. Despite the fire, the zombies moved towards the approaching truck.

"Clear a fucking path for them!", Ethan yelled to the men in the back who grabbed their guns and quickly slid the doors open.

Anna cringed and pushed the truck to its top speed, redlining the engine. Flames shot up from cracks in the street now. She jerked the wheel to the left to avoid a column of flame, but corrected, keeping her eye on the whirling blades of the helicopter. Mike and Eli fired at monsters, trying to keep their path clear, but there were so many of them. Then like another answered prayer, the doors to the chopper opened and several barrels aimed at monsters and started cutting them down.

For Anna thought the monsters were just a nuisance now. She had to drive the cumbersome truck like she was on a really big slalom course. Explosions and flames pressed in closer, heating her skin and bathing everything in an angry red glow. The chopper was getting closer, but they weren't moving fast enough.

"Oh my God", Ethan whispered after looking down at his watch. The men in the back didn't hear him over the sounds of their guns, but they saw the first twinkling of light in the distance, like a growing star the light expanded quickly until its sphere burst into a debris covered cloud of fire and fury reaching towards the heavens. The fireball's light showed the devastation of the explosion's blast wave. Houses turned to kindling in its path. The natural gas ignited along the way, causing a conflagration of epic proportions. By the time the blast wave reached the truck it was still strong enough to lift the back end and toss it to one side. Anna corrected her steering just enough to keep the truck from falling over, but that was just explosion number one. The next, bigger, explosion was seconds away. The chest thumping BOOM, made teeth clatter involuntarily and shattered the truck's windshield.

Anna was too focused to be scared. They were within a football field of the chopper when the ground in front of her rose up like a rollercoaster hill and settled down into a pile of rubble from an underground collapse. Anna never took her foot off the pedal. The engine kept running, but the front axle had broken. The truck ground to a halt, about fifty yards from the helicopter. The monsters were already making their way towards the dazed occupants in the truck.

"Go get them!", Ethan ordered the Colonel, who was more than happy to get that Huey off the ground. Through blurred vision Anna watched the helicopter take off, having an instant moment of despair before realizing that they were heading right towards the truck.

"Alex goes first!", Anna yelled and nobody had the nerve to object. She grabbed her son and kicked out the remaining glass before climbing out onto the hood. The chopper hovered just above their heads. Flames licked at the back of the truck. Another explosion, even bigger than the first two, was seconds away, and the monsters were climbing up the bumper as Anna lifted her son over her head into the waiting hands of a man she'd never seen before. He grabbed the boy by his shirt and pulled him inside the chopper. Tom was next. He could barely stand, but with help he reached up and the men pulled him inside. The soldier with the frayed nerves went in after Tom. He wanted to help with the rescue, but he curled into a fetal position as soon as he got inside the helicopter.

"Hurry the fuck up!", a soldier screamed down as Eli climbed into the chopper. Mike and Anna looked back towards the center of the Glen and saw the ground itself rising higher, like the old Mound was being reborn. The air thickened with the coming of a massive concussion wave. Anna reached out for Mike and he for her, but she was slightly quicker. She took her husband by the waistband and with a quick, insanely powerful burst of strength she threw him up towards the hands waiting to grab him. Only the bottom of Mike's legs hung from the cabin as Anna jumped, wrapping her arms and legs around the skids. "Go! GO!! GO!!!", Mike yelled at the top of his lungs and spun to reach out for his wife.

The Colonel only had to hear it once. He jerked up on the collective like there would be no tomorrow and tilted the nose to get as much speed as he could as he rose higher and higher in the air. The blast wave hit them anyway. The chopper shook violently and nearly did a barrel roll, but the Colonel righted his craft. The men in the back were thrown around like toys. Some believed that no one could have hung onto the skids, but when they looked down Anna was still there. Her cloths had been ripped a little, but it was fitting. Her muscles were beyond shredded as she clung to the bottom most part of the helicopter. Hands reached down for her, including Mike's and pulled her completely into the cabin. They shut the door as another massive explosion rocked Hidden Glen. The helicopter was high enough for this explosion to only be an annoyance.

"Welcome aboard", Ethan said with a big grin on his face.

She smiled back before frowning. "What's the grenade for?"

Ethan had been holding the grenade for so long that he'd forgotten he had it. "It's for nothing now." He opened the door and threw the grenade straight down. The men in the back watched it falling, silently thinking that he might have been bluffing, but no. The grenade exploded after falling for a few seconds. Its explosion was nothing compared to the Glen, which looked like the caldera of a volcano. The big explosions were over, but the massive burning continued. Fire lit the night sky a spooky orange, and a smoke plume a mile wide rose into the heavens. The hills surrounding the valley acted like a pressure cooker, heating the fire to steel melting levels. The fire was so hot that firestorms broke out inside the valley, destroying whatever hadn't been destroyed before.

Anna's face was stoic as the helicopter started to descend near the command post set up by the General. But the scene below was of recovering chaos. The remaining soldiers had been in the fight of their lives, needing assistance from the armed civilian survivors of Hidden Glen as wave after wave of zombies from town ran at them. Only at a certain point it was like the monsters lost their brain, their tactics, and their cohesion. After that it was a matter of killing them instead of defending against them. There were still some mopping up going on when the Colonel gently touched down.

Heads had already turned at the approach of the helicopter, then the doors opened and everyone saw some soldiers get out. It was a relief to know that no every soldier who'd gone into that hell hole had lost their lives. A murmuring clatter broke out among the Glen survivors when Ethan jumped out of the second seat. There was loud clapping and some cheers when Mike got out of the chopper holding a cured Alex's hand, but the survivors went completely mad when Anna jumped out of the chopper a few ticks after her husband. The soldiers and other government officials would have thought the Beatles had just landed. People ran over and mobbed her. They shouted her name, and a few even fired their guns into the air in celebration.

Anna pressed near her husband in the crush of people and had to wipe tears. "I don't deserve all this", she cried.

Mike hugged her tightly. "Yes. You do."

It took a full hour for a soldier to get to Anna to give a message. She met the General near his sedan. He scoped her from head to toe as she approached. She looked like she'd crawled through a coal chute with piranha nipping at her clothes. She also looked like she'd taken the worst that could be thrown her way, and she'd thrown it right back, harder. Her sleek athletic body was as pumped and primed as ever. The only sign of her extreme fatigue were her eyes. The lids hung heavy, but she was alert. Anna saw the General's eyes take in her body before extending his hand. "The survivors were all talking about you. Nice to finally meet."

"It's a pleasure, sir", Anna said and shook his hand back.

"Would you like some water, Ma'am?", the General asked Anna. She took a cup of cool water, not realizing how thirsty she was until the water rolled down her throat. "I'd offer you something else if I had it."

"Water's fine, sir. Thank you."

"So, Mrs. Bernhardt, what happened inside Hidden Glen?", the General asked and poured himself more water from an iced pitcher.

Anna looked over her shoulder at the busses approaching the area then turned back to the General. "Sir, if I had an entire day I couldn't explain what happened inside Hidden Glen. I'll simply say that this is magic, very old and very evil magic that has created these undead monsters. If someone tries to keep and study some of these creatures, don't do it. Kill them when you see them. Evil can't easily be contained… my ancestors learned that the hard way."

"I will take that under advisement, Mrs. Bernhardt. Now on to other matters. The survivors from Hidden Glen are to be quarantined for observation. It shouldn't last for very long, but given the nature of this outbreak I think it's justifiable." He looked at Anna, and she didn't seem to dispute his idea. In truth she felt like so many other people whose homes had been destroyed. She just wanted a place to lay her head.

"You're the leader of those people", the General continued. "Can I count on you to settle them should they chafe at being put on busses and quarantined?"

Anna finished her cup of water and set it down on the trunk of the sedan. "Families can't be separated, and contact with outside family and friends can't be blocked. Treat it like we're on a short vacation and, yes I'll go along with the quarantine."

The General seemed like the one who chafed. He stood up straight and looked down at Anna thinking to sow intimidation. "You have demands? What makes you think I need your approval?"

Anna shrugged and looked around. "You don't need my approval to try and get us on that bus, but those people over there have lost loved ones and everything they own. They aren't in the mood to be bullied by a man in a uniform. We don't owe you anything. We saved ourselves. You were more or less in the way to be honest. If I scream at them to run into the hills, what do you think will happen? We're armed enough to survive days without help inside that valley. Lots of your men didn't even survive a night. Do you really want to send your weary soldiers after us? You'll get us, but at what cost to you and to your career?"

The General bit down hard, his jaw muscles flexing as he contemplated. His eyes didn't leave Anna's face, and her dark eyes didn't leave his. "It'll be as you say. Hell, we're on the same side. The last thing I need is more conflict today."

"Thank you, sir", Anna said, being gracious in victory, even this small one. She turned to rejoin her family. She walked into Mike's embrace and Alex was standing there with him. "I am so tired", Anna said into her husband's ear.

"You'll be able to rest soon. We all will." Anna smiled at him and started towards the bus loading up the survivors. "What are you doing?", Mike asked.

"Getting on the bus."

"But we have to get our stuff first. It's over there." He pointed towards the school bus.

Anna frowned. "But, Honey our stuff was in Ethan's house when the zombies rushed in. It's probably ashes by now."

"Oh no Mommy", Alex jumped up and exclaimed with a smile. "Daddy went in and got all the stuff you'd packed from our house." Mike looked down at Alex and then back up to Anna.

"You got all our pictures and records?!? But that house was packed with monsters."

Mike grinned. "Baby, you aren't the only action hero in this family, even if you do get most of the praise." Anna felt like jumping into his arms, if she'd had the strength left to jump. "I know how much you wanted those things. Like the only photo you have of your father. I wasn't going to let that stuff go up in smoke just because some zombies were in my way."

"Oh, I love you."

Anna stood idle while several guys volunteered to load the Bernhardt's stuff for them. She was so grateful that she had to fight back more tears. Alex observed while Mike supervised. Anna stood off and Ethan came up behind her. "I can't get on that bus", he whispered.

"What?"

"Yeah, I've had some… brushes with the law that I'd like to avoid if possible. You should understand that." Anna turned to look at him. He was holding something back.

"It's more than that. Tell me what it is, and I might help you."

"There're more monsters."

"Why didn't you just say that? I can tell the General, or we can…"

"No, Anna. You've done enough. I've made this my life and I'll see it through. You have a family to take care of and a life to live. Trust me, I'll find you if I need you, and right now I need you to help me get away."

Anna leaned up and hugged Ethan. "Take off for the woods. I'll distract that soldier."

Distracting was another of Anna's hard earned skills. Usually it involved looking sexy, which came naturally to her anyway. In this case she wondered if her hours of battle and near death experiences would throw a wrench in her efforts. Instead she looked like a complete femme fatale. The soldier swallowed a lump in his threat while Anna stood very close and made small talk. Ethan slipped off into the woods, and Anna expertly broke off the conversation and walked over to her husband.

They settled on the bus finding seats near the back. Anna was falling asleep against her husband's shoulder. Mike lay his head down atop her head and allowed his eyelids to close as well, glad that everything was over.

Alex, though, was wide awake. He was looking through his mother's picture album, the ones that she usually kept locked away. There were pictures in there that she didn't want to be seen for various reasons and Alex pulled out one of them. "I saw this man in the cave, Mommy."

He held the picture up and Anna struggled to open her eyes and look. "Yes, dear, that's your grandfather. We were allowed to glimpse the spirit's realm for a short time. That's where your grandfather is."

"Who were those other people, the ones in front of us, and all those people behind us when we were standing there?"

Anna started to tell her son to wait that she'd explain it later, but no. She sat up straighter. She'd explain this now. "The people in front of us were some of the revered elders of our tribe, the Shawnee. And the people behind us were our ancestors. They stood with us."

"Wow, that's so cool! I couldn't understand them though. They were speaking some other language. How'd you learn to speak it, Mommy?"

"Your grandfather taught me."

"Will you teach me?"

Anna's grin broadened into a wide smile and she pulled her son close to her. "I sure will…"

Several weeks later…

"May I help you sir", the nurse asked the middle aged gentleman standing in front of her. She did a double take as he looked down at her with serious looking hazel eyes. He was handsome with his salt and pepper hair and ruggedly good looks.

"Yes, ma'am I was looking for the morgue. I'm with Roche Undertakers. I'm new and don't know my way. I have the paper work here." He held up the papers that the nurse didn't even look at.

She smiled up at him and stood up from behind her small desk. "I'll show you." Ethan smiled and followed the nurse down some long halls, taking care to remember ever turn and every door. "This is it, sir."

The morgue looked just like it was supposed to. The lights were low. The dead sat on tables awaiting their place in a chilled steel bed. Ethan ignored the bodies on the gurneys and headed for the chilled ones in the pull out beds. He worked quickly, his ruse wouldn't last forever and he had to finish. He searched the small named tags on the freezer doors until he found the one that read Wooten. The nurse gasped, but was too afraid to run away when Ethan pulled out a .38 revolver. He then grabbed the drawer handle and yanked it open. The burdened table slid out and Ethan raised his gun.

"What do you think you're doing?", the appalled nurse asked when she figured that she wasn't in danger. The man was focused on the body lying on the slab.

"You might want to step back", Ethan warned.

"Why?", the nurse asked as the drawer banged open.

Even Ethan flinched when Vic Wooten hissed and sat up on the table. The nurse screamed and the monster turned its head towards her, the sheet slid off as the monster turned and moved its frozen legs, cracking and popping like matchsticks as it forced chilled tendons to operate. The nurse backed away, but fell when she bumped into an autopsy table. The monster didn't get its feet to the floor. Ethan stepped in front of the undead former teacher, taking its focus from the nurse. Wooten turned his dead eyes on Ethan and opened his mouth to feed, but instead Ethan filled it with the barrel of his pistol. He angled the gun upward and fired, blowing the back of the zombie's head off and painting the wall with its blood and brains.

Ethan glanced down at the hysterical nurse as he walked out, but he didn't say anything to her. The zombie was dead and she hadn't been touched. She was scared, but unharmed. He had to make his escape before the cops came. There was always more work to be done, and more zombies to kill.

…present day…

"Breaking news: adventurer, female bodybuilding pioneer, former Tribal head, and three term Senator Anna Bernhardt has announced that she will not seek reelection. Saying at a press conference with her husband and three children at her side, that she'd done all in Washington that she could do. Her last act was to assure that Hidden Glen, the former community destroyed by a massive natural gas explosion that killed hundreds, remains Federally sealed for all time. There are forces in Congress and in the business community who want to see the area reopened for development. The push is strong, but Senator Bernhardt's oldest son Alex is the early favorite to replace his mother in the Senate, and as the old saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Those dissenting voices are in for one heck of a fight with Alex if they try to undo his mother's work.

This is Cindy McAffee reporting for World News."

The End

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