Chapter 21
ROSES ARE RED
VIOLETS ARE BLUE
BE VERY AFRAID
WE’RE COMING FOR YOU.
Are you ready for this?
The romance and sizzle...the betrayal...loss...pain...
The end?
I thought I was. I had begun comparing myself to a coin, with life on one side and death on the other. I’d felt as though I’d been tossed in the air, only to tumble down fast and hard. Which side I landed on would be totally up to fate. But I’ve learned not everything that happens is meant to be.
Think about it. The fact that I ate a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast—not fate but hunger.
The fact that I lost my mother, father and beloved little sister in a car crash—not fate but panic.
The fact that four of my friends were gunned down in one night and two others were killed soon after—NOT FATE! Evil.
Fate and meant to be come down to one thing. The tool we’ve been given to shape our destinies. Choice. Mine...yours...theirs. Good, bad. Ugly.
Here’s mine: Months ago, I decided to join a crew of slayers and spend my nights fighting zombies.
Yes. Zombies.
These vile creatures live among us, invisible to the ungifted eye. They emerge at nightfall, hungry for human spirits, the essence of life. They feast, and they poison, and if ever you’re bitten, your spirit will rise, starved and ready to devour.
I considered zombies the worst enemy ever to walk the earth.
I was wrong.
Humans can be more dangerous than monsters.
There’s a company out there. Anima Industries. They control zombies, and they’ve decided slayers are a problem with only one solution: extermination.
Now, slayers have a choice. Go underground...or go to war. In other words, hide our coins or toss them ourselves.
We’ve lost so much already, and there are so few of us left. The smart thing to do is pack up and hide. Live to fight another day.
Screw smart.
We’re tossing. One way or another, we will destroy Anima for good—or they will destroy us. But this time, only one group is walking away.
Our choice is made.
Ready or not, here we come.
See you on the other side,
Ali Bell
UP IS DOWN AND
DOWN IS UP
“Dude. How about that one?” My best friend, Kat Parker, pointed toward the far corner, to a table occupied by three boys about our age.
One guy was hot enough to melt a polar vortex. One wasn’t handsome in the traditional sense, but with his unusual chartreuse eyes, it hardly mattered. The third was amazingly rugged, with a fresh scrape on his cheek and scars on his knuckles.
Well, well. We had finally found a smorgasbord of different flavored man-meat.
“Perfect,” I said with a nod.
“I don’t know.” Reeve Ankh, my other friend, surveyed the boys and chewed on her bottom lip. “I’m getting danger vibes from the one on the right.”
The one on the right—Knuckle Scars. Excellent. Her dandar—danger radar—was working at optimal levels.
In our little trio, she’d always been the voice of reason. Or, as Kat would say, “the voice of shut up and live a little.”
My darling Kat meant it in the nicest way possible, of course. She simply had no filter. She always spoke her mind, always stood up for what she believed—that her way was the best way—and lived by the motto I’m On Board the Awesome Train and You Can Hop On or Get Run Over.
Was it any wonder I loved her so much?
“This is stupid, you guys.”
The grumble came from Mackenzie Love. Once my archenemy, now one of my favorite pet projects.
Most people were surprised by our sudden friendship, but I’d learned life could change in the blink of an eye.
Everything
