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"Zombie Fight Club"
May. 30th, 2022 01:08 pm"Zombie Fight Club"
4/12/2022
I.
It was not just because she was naked that Jocelyn Garimara pulled the curtain aside the barest inch to peer down at Graham Street in Flushing. Almost a decade of Tel Shai training and her experiences in the Midnight War had made her constantly cautious. She was always aware of her surroundings, always knew exits from any room she entered, always positioned herself as expecting an attack at any moment. She wasn't even aware of this. Arthur had once said that she lived like a spy working undercover and he had a point.
At thirty-six, Jocelyn looked much younger because of her fitness and her enhanced healing. She glanced down at herself in the apartment's subdued lighting, Only an inch over five feet tall and not much over one hundred pounds, she had the taut unobtrusive muscles of a gymnast. The rich dark brown skin and straight black hair almost shone with health. The healing factor from the Tagra tea regimen meant she had no scars even after all the grievous wounds she had suffered in her career.
Well, no visible scars, she thought glumly.
The sounds of the shower had stopped. She knew Arthur would be toweling dry and getting dressed in the bathroom. It was an odd touch of modesty she found endearing, that despite all the times they had made love, he was still reluctant to be nude around her otherwise.
Jocelyn hastily scooped up her own clothing from the chair next to the double bed and tugged it on. First, the full body suit of flexible Trom armor that looked like dark silk, then her jeans and yellow T-shirt with a loose red flannel shirt over it that she left untucked. She had pulled on her socks and only her boots remained on the floor as Arthur came out of the bathroom and said "Hey there!" with infinite cheerfulness.
A few years older than Jocelyn, Arthur Tran was several inches taller and forty pounds heavier but still a relatively small man. He had the narrow shoulders and fine-boned hands common to people from his family's area of Vietnam, but he kept trim and athletic. The glossy black hair was a little long, going down over his collar and covering his ears, but the alert good-natured face was appealing. As usual, he was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt as if ready for the office.
"It's a beautiful day out there," she said, coming around to embrace him.
"Hmmm," he said, after they kissed, "It's a beautiful day in here as well. I'm so glad you've been able to spend more time with me lately."
Jocelyn squeezed him tighter, then disengaged to go get her boots. "I swear to God it's not easy. In theory, I have one free day from the KDF each week but we're always on call.
Once a week, I'm off during the day but then I'm on watch duty from eleven at night to seven in the morning and I better not doze off then either. When we're not chasing monsters or serial killers, we're training like we're either getting ready for the Olympics or a Navy SEALs raid. It's a hectic life."
Arthur's apartment was incredibly cluttered with shelves full of books, DVDs, science fiction toys and anime figures. The walls had several movie posters, there were three hanging plants and a terrarium which at the moment was unoccupied. He dropped down into a
swivel chair in front of his huge TV and watched her putting her boots on with immense satisfaction. "Well, I appreciate you juggling your schedule so we can get together, Joss."
"I don't want to risk our drifting apart," she said. "It's a bleeding miracle we met at all. More than ten thousand miles from home and we bump into each other in Manhattan one day. I was so tickled to hear you order coffee at Starbucks with the genuine blue Aussie accent! I had to say hello. An Abo like me and a nice Hmong boy with a good office job."
Arthur Tran grinned and got up to pull on his suit jacket. "You don't have to report back at KDF headquarters until five. Plenty of time to enjoy a good meal at that Hoffbrau restaurant and do a little shopping. You promised to help me actually buy some new shirts with a little life to them."
"Oh, I'm gonna enjoy that," she chuckled. "You could use a colorful sweater or two as well, Arthur. I just hope and pray I'm not called for a mission..." Her words were cut off as a low persistent beeping sounded from her coat draped over a chair. Jocelyn loosed a stream of extremely vulgar language as she fetched her Link from a coat pocket.
"And you look like such a demure little lady," Arthur laughed.
"Oh, close your facehole," she replied as she thumbed a contact patch on the Trom device. "Hello, Sable? What's up? No, I can take a call. A what? Really...." She listened for a bit, asked for an address and then ended the call with, "Sure, no worries. I'll go see him and then report to you by my regular starting time. Okay. Bye."
She broke contact and gave Arthur a rueful glare. "See what I mean? Bloody hell! Any time day or night, Sable might call and send me out into the secret warzone. I swear to God I'm tempted to chuck it all and get a job cleaning bathrooms or washing dishes if I have to."
"What does she want you to do?"
"Go talk to some bugger named Dionysios Spiridakis. Can you tell he's Greek? He's on the outskirts of the damn Midnight War, he's not a sorcerer himself but he deals with them. The fool isn't supposed to be in the States but he's been spotted at a house in Queens not far from here and Sable wants me to go see what he's up to. My day off is a joke, Arthur."
He came over and placed his hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently. "Joss, it's not even nine yet. We've got the whole day, you can meet this Spiridakis guy and then we can still have fun running around town. Right?"
"Oh, I don't know about that. Hon, I love you to pieces but you ARE a civilian and I would never place you in danger. But wait, I'm just supposed to talk to this riff-raff and let him know we're aware he's here. No gunplay, no explosions, should be safe as eating dessert. And I can always let my Red Spectre out, she's wild lightning ready to strike. Okay, tell you what. Just this once, I want you to come with me."
( the rest of the story )
4/12/2022
I.
It was not just because she was naked that Jocelyn Garimara pulled the curtain aside the barest inch to peer down at Graham Street in Flushing. Almost a decade of Tel Shai training and her experiences in the Midnight War had made her constantly cautious. She was always aware of her surroundings, always knew exits from any room she entered, always positioned herself as expecting an attack at any moment. She wasn't even aware of this. Arthur had once said that she lived like a spy working undercover and he had a point.
At thirty-six, Jocelyn looked much younger because of her fitness and her enhanced healing. She glanced down at herself in the apartment's subdued lighting, Only an inch over five feet tall and not much over one hundred pounds, she had the taut unobtrusive muscles of a gymnast. The rich dark brown skin and straight black hair almost shone with health. The healing factor from the Tagra tea regimen meant she had no scars even after all the grievous wounds she had suffered in her career.
Well, no visible scars, she thought glumly.
The sounds of the shower had stopped. She knew Arthur would be toweling dry and getting dressed in the bathroom. It was an odd touch of modesty she found endearing, that despite all the times they had made love, he was still reluctant to be nude around her otherwise.
Jocelyn hastily scooped up her own clothing from the chair next to the double bed and tugged it on. First, the full body suit of flexible Trom armor that looked like dark silk, then her jeans and yellow T-shirt with a loose red flannel shirt over it that she left untucked. She had pulled on her socks and only her boots remained on the floor as Arthur came out of the bathroom and said "Hey there!" with infinite cheerfulness.
A few years older than Jocelyn, Arthur Tran was several inches taller and forty pounds heavier but still a relatively small man. He had the narrow shoulders and fine-boned hands common to people from his family's area of Vietnam, but he kept trim and athletic. The glossy black hair was a little long, going down over his collar and covering his ears, but the alert good-natured face was appealing. As usual, he was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt as if ready for the office.
"It's a beautiful day out there," she said, coming around to embrace him.
"Hmmm," he said, after they kissed, "It's a beautiful day in here as well. I'm so glad you've been able to spend more time with me lately."
Jocelyn squeezed him tighter, then disengaged to go get her boots. "I swear to God it's not easy. In theory, I have one free day from the KDF each week but we're always on call.
Once a week, I'm off during the day but then I'm on watch duty from eleven at night to seven in the morning and I better not doze off then either. When we're not chasing monsters or serial killers, we're training like we're either getting ready for the Olympics or a Navy SEALs raid. It's a hectic life."
Arthur's apartment was incredibly cluttered with shelves full of books, DVDs, science fiction toys and anime figures. The walls had several movie posters, there were three hanging plants and a terrarium which at the moment was unoccupied. He dropped down into a
swivel chair in front of his huge TV and watched her putting her boots on with immense satisfaction. "Well, I appreciate you juggling your schedule so we can get together, Joss."
"I don't want to risk our drifting apart," she said. "It's a bleeding miracle we met at all. More than ten thousand miles from home and we bump into each other in Manhattan one day. I was so tickled to hear you order coffee at Starbucks with the genuine blue Aussie accent! I had to say hello. An Abo like me and a nice Hmong boy with a good office job."
Arthur Tran grinned and got up to pull on his suit jacket. "You don't have to report back at KDF headquarters until five. Plenty of time to enjoy a good meal at that Hoffbrau restaurant and do a little shopping. You promised to help me actually buy some new shirts with a little life to them."
"Oh, I'm gonna enjoy that," she chuckled. "You could use a colorful sweater or two as well, Arthur. I just hope and pray I'm not called for a mission..." Her words were cut off as a low persistent beeping sounded from her coat draped over a chair. Jocelyn loosed a stream of extremely vulgar language as she fetched her Link from a coat pocket.
"And you look like such a demure little lady," Arthur laughed.
"Oh, close your facehole," she replied as she thumbed a contact patch on the Trom device. "Hello, Sable? What's up? No, I can take a call. A what? Really...." She listened for a bit, asked for an address and then ended the call with, "Sure, no worries. I'll go see him and then report to you by my regular starting time. Okay. Bye."
She broke contact and gave Arthur a rueful glare. "See what I mean? Bloody hell! Any time day or night, Sable might call and send me out into the secret warzone. I swear to God I'm tempted to chuck it all and get a job cleaning bathrooms or washing dishes if I have to."
"What does she want you to do?"
"Go talk to some bugger named Dionysios Spiridakis. Can you tell he's Greek? He's on the outskirts of the damn Midnight War, he's not a sorcerer himself but he deals with them. The fool isn't supposed to be in the States but he's been spotted at a house in Queens not far from here and Sable wants me to go see what he's up to. My day off is a joke, Arthur."
He came over and placed his hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently. "Joss, it's not even nine yet. We've got the whole day, you can meet this Spiridakis guy and then we can still have fun running around town. Right?"
"Oh, I don't know about that. Hon, I love you to pieces but you ARE a civilian and I would never place you in danger. But wait, I'm just supposed to talk to this riff-raff and let him know we're aware he's here. No gunplay, no explosions, should be safe as eating dessert. And I can always let my Red Spectre out, she's wild lightning ready to strike. Okay, tell you what. Just this once, I want you to come with me."
( the rest of the story )
