Page 57 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

“It should be me,” Chloe said. “Nobody needs to see him like this. He’d be terrified if he knew he was a danger to the people of Cougar Creek. He spent his entire life trying to keep these people alive and well.”

She grabbed a machete.

“I’ll do it,” she said and within seconds she turned around, swung the machete in a spiral, and sliced off his head.

“He’ll rest in peace once we get to Gargoyle Park and get the spell done,” she said.

We separated and went to different parts of the town, trying to eradicate the zombies coming our way. Most of the humans were hiding behind barricaded front doors Anytime I saw one running, I told them to do exactly that as I ran through the town trying to entice more zombies to follow me.

Within thirty minutes we had all the zombies corralled in Gargoyle Park.

“It would help if you can get the gargoyles to work,” Kartika said to Frank.

“These things actually work?” I asked in surprise and delight. “By all means, spark them up.”

Frank gave a single nod, and the gargoyles flew up in the air, circling overhead.

“Send them out to look for zombies somewhere else in the vicinity,” I said.

I turned back to the mass of humanity that had turned into a swaying, keening mass of muscle and blood and bone and sinew with their eyeballs hanging out of their heads and their brains showing through their fractured skulls. The zombie dog was cute, but these things were gruesome. They were all out to eat us if we gave them have a chance.

“So, now how do we work this out?” I asked.

“It’s simple. We need to get Mae to the center of the zombies,” Chloe said.

“How we going to do that?” I asked.

“I can take her,” Frank said. “We can stand on the gargoyle pedestal there.”

“She’s going to have to work pretty quick if she wants the magic to work before they actually get to her,” I said.

“I’ll have the gargoyles protect her so she can cast a spell.” Frank said.

In seconds, the gargoyles had lifted Mae up and brought her to the pedestal. Zombies were all grappling for purchase against the pedestal itself. Fortunately, it was out of reach of their fingers, as though the original builders of the pedestals had known one day there would be a woman standing on it trying to protect the world from the zombie apocalypse.

We all took our positions at five points in the park. Mae created a binding light to encircle the entire group of zombies.

“Now we have to walk them up the hill and back into the cemetery,” she said.

“Right,” I said, as if it was a normal thing to do.

The zombies snapped and made their distinct keening noise all the way up the hill to the cemetery. Fortunately, it wasn’t far away because it took all of our energy to get them up there. By the time we finally got them through the gates of the cemetery, we were all exhausted.

“Would you look at that. It’s almost like they’re coming home,” I said.

Bianca stood up on her pedestal. As the zombies moved to the center of the cemetery, the rest of us took positions in five points of the cemetery.

I kept my machete in front, swiping at zombies as we chanted the spell to make them all stop. A cloud of light erupted over the cemetery, moving like a shockwave through all the people and the zombies. The zombies fell apart. The living humans stood in place until there was nothing but the bones of the quiet dead at our feet.

Chapter 41

Everybody tried to convince me to have the grand opening at night, but it wasn’t what I wanted at all. Pubs were originally family places with beer gardens. In Ireland the whole family would gather there on the weekend and enjoy the fresh gardens and the good beer and some good food. It wasn’t a place to be drunk and disorderly.

That’s why I’d decided to have the grand opening start in the day. There was no reason why I couldn’t carry on into the evening. I wanted to have a little fun with my people.

I wanted the community to know that O’Halloran’s was open and ready for business.

With pride I stood out front with the ribbons, preparing to cut them. Jag stood directly at my side, his arm around me making me feel warm and secure.

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