Fidget Vs. The Zombie Apocalypse: Part 5 (2017)

            Barb drove through the desolate streets of the city. Her mind filled with waking nightmares she could not escape. Zombies walked aimlessly, ignoring the car, caught up in whatever destination most recently gripped their attention. Joss slept in the passenger seat. The spinner lay dormant in his pocket but its scars burned within him. He dreamt of zombies but he also dreamt of the demons his father told him about before he died. In his mind’s eye, Joss watched the supernatural beings destroy earth in their epic battle for supremacy. Then the scene changed. The two spinners burned in his mind. He could not escape their gaze. He tried to wake up but he was trapped. The spinners flew toward him until the scene changed. He saw a building. A man in a suit stood in an office at the top looking out the window over the city. His eyes burned red and his veins ran black across his body. He held the other spinner in his hand. Joss awoke with a start.

“I know where the other spinner is.”

“Tell me where to drive,” Barb replied, her voice now hardened by the day’s events. She found it hard to believe that just this morning she and Joss had never spoken and now they were on a mission to stop the zombie apocalypse from overtaking the world.

“Drive to the GM building,” Joss said.

Barb did not question it. She had seen enough today to trust Joss’s instincts concerning the fidget-spinners. She slammed her foot into the floor of the car and sped through the streets. The engine roared as the Dodge Challenger sped through intersections, whipped around corners and crushed any zombie too slow to get out of the Little Monster’s path.

It did not take long for them to reach the GM building. As soon as they pulled into the parking lot Joss’s spinner pulsed with a strange energy. It felt as if it was communicating with something. Joss stared at the building as it towered over the city. Barb pulled up to the curb and stopped the car. The breeze blew as they exited the vehicle. Men and women in suits milled about in front of the building chatting and smoking cigarettes. They stared at the two kids covered in blood and their strange car.

Barb and Joss walked past the smokers without a word. They entered the lobby of the building, ready to fight off another legion of zombies to get to the other spinner. Barb readied her bat and Joss gripped the spinner in his pocket that burned more intensely with every step toward the office in his dream. As soon as they entered the building they relaxed. There were no zombies. People walked around on cell phones discussing business deals or drinking coffee. Small groups laughed and discussed the weather. Joss and Barb could not believe their eyes. Everything inside the building looked normal.

A security guard approached the kids. He said something to them about exiting the building but they ignored him. Joss felt the spinner take hold of him and he walked toward the elevator. This man was not a threat he was just doing his job. Barb followed. The security guard yelled after them and ran for the phone. Joss’s job would be done by the time the police arrived. He hit the button for the elevator and waited.

Barb and Joss stood in the lobby of the building and watched the digital numbers on the elevators blink in a countdown toward them. They stood alone. Everyone avoided them and regarded them with terrified whispers. Barb awkwardly greeted a few of them but they always ignored her and continued past her at a hurried pace.

The elevator doors finally opened. Barb and Joss stepped inside. Joss clicked the button for the top floor and the doors slid closed. The hum of the elevator felt deafening over the silence. Barb and Joss did not speak. There was no need. No one in this building had fallen prey to the fidget-spinners like everyone else. They wondered how many other businesses were safe like this one. It seemed that schools and suburbs had been hit the hardest based on their limited experience. The spinner burned like a fireball in Joss’s pocket. They were close.

The doors opened as they reached the top floor. Joss pulled the spinner from his pocket. Flames arced across its surface. The eyes of the skull burned with a white-hot intensity. Two men in suits walked toward them.

“Excuse me. Do you have an appointment?”

            Joss did not respond. These men may be working for the one responsible for the zombie outbreak but they were not monsters. They did not need to die. Barb pulled the shotgun from her back and pointed it toward the men. They immediately put their hands in the air and backed away. Barb kept the gun trained on them as they walked the length of the hallway and through the large double-doors.

            On the other side of the doors they found a quiet office. A receptionist greeted them with a smile.

“Welcome!” She said in a bright, chirpy voice, as if she could not see the blood covering the kids she was looking at. “Mr. Latham is expecting you! Just go to the end of the hall and it’s the door on the left.”

            Barb and Joss exchanged a look of disbelief and followed her instructions. As they walked down the hall they could hear people on telephones conducting business as if it were a normal workday. They even heard people laughing. It was as if here, above the city, these people were completely disconnected from the outside world. They were insulated from the dangers that plagued the people down below on the streets.

            With each step down the hall Joss felt the pulse of the spinner in his hand grow stronger. The skull’s eyes glowed with a dark light. At the end of the hall they found the door to Mr. Latham’s office. Joss nodded to Barb and she kicked in the door. She lowered her shotgun as Joss ran inside. He raised his spinner and the blades extended. Then they stopped. Inside the room was a large, conference table with leather chairs neatly tucked into it. It looked as if someone had just finished prepping it for a meeting. Barb and Joss lowered their weapons and looked around the room. On the other side of the table was a man. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing a tailored suit. His back was to them as he looked out the window that composed the far wall. The haze in the air filtered the sunlight as it streamed into the room with a drab grey tint.

“Welcome, Fidget. I’ve been expecting you,” the man said as he turned. His skin radiated and appeared to take on a cracked and sickly green hue. His veins ran in black jagged lines up his neck and over his face just like in Joss’s dream but most noticeable were his eyes. They glowed with a red intensity just like the eyes of the skull on the spinner.

            Despite his altered appearance, Joss recognized the man in front of him as Brett’s father. He met with him on multiple occasions in the principal’s office after his son had taken it “too far” with his bullying. He always offered excuses for his son. Joss had no way of proving his theory but he was certain Brett was never suspended because of his father’s power and influence over the city.

            The spinner burned in Joss’s hand. Flames arced from it. Every muscle in his body tensed. He felt the same hatred he felt for Brett pulse through his veins. The spinner fed off of the energy his emotions created and pulsed with greater intensity.

            Barb watched Joss. She could see him losing himself to the power of the spinner as it radiated a dark energy. Mr. Latham had not moved and he was already in Joss’s head. She needed to do something before her friend lost control. In one swift motion she moved past Joss, raised her shotgun and pulled the trigger. The blast echoed throughout the conference room. The buckshot loaded inside the gun flew toward Mr. Latham and riddled his body with holes.

            Mr. Latham looked down at the shrapnel lodged in his chest. Black ooze dripped from the holes created by the shotgun blast. He laughed and flicked the spinner he held in his hand. It shone like obsidian and looked almost identical to the one in Joss’s hand.

“Cute,” Mr. Latham commented with a smirk. He still did not move.

            In a panic, Barb dropped the shotgun and ran at Mr. Latham with her bat raised above her head. Joss tried to stop her but she brushed him off. She needed to end this quickly before Joss did something stupid. She felt responsible for him and she would not allow the spinner to take his soul. Barb swung the bat at Mr. Latham’s head. He laughed and with superhuman speed he dodged the attack and swung his fist into the side of Barb’s chest. She flew across the room and hit the wall. Her ribs cracked, her breath shot from her lungs and she lay on the floor, unable to move. She could not see past the conference table so she listened, her body burning with pain.

“I was hoping we could settle this like civilized adults,” Mr. Latham said as he adjusted the lapel on his suit. “But I see you insist on acting like children.”

“If being civilized means sitting up here while the world goes to hell then I’d rather be uncivilized,” Joss said as he spun the blades on his spinner.

“There’s so much I could have taught you,” Mr. Latham said in a cool, even tone as he engaged his spinner. Blades shot from it and a flurry of snow and ice whirled around it. The temperature of the room dropped.

“I saw what your teaching did,” Joss shouted over the roar of his spinner. “Your son was a victim of your deranged thirst for power.”

“I never had a son,” Mr. Latham said, “Mr. Latham is dead. He gave his soul to serve me.”

            Joss watched as the demon floated off the ground. Fire shot from his eyes and he flew at Joss.

“It’s time you did the same!” The demon roared as his spinner clashed with Joss’s.

            Sparks flew as the combatants locked blades and were caught up in a flurry of fire and ice. Joss blocked every attack the demon launched but he could feel himself growing weary. The day of battling zombies to get to this point had taken its toll and now he was up against an immortal force of darkness. He could see in the eyes of Mr. Latham’s body that he was gone. There was only the demon. It did not care who lived or died, it just wanted power and would do anything to attain it.

            Barb watched from the ground as Joss battled the demon. It flew around the room and swung with an inhuman brutality, trying to get at Joss. There were many opportunities in which he could have killed Joss but he did not. Barb could not determine his endgame but it was not to kill his opponent. The demon kicked Joss and he flew into the wall. Only when the demon in the body of Mr. Latham stood over Joss with a wicked grin did she realize what was happening.

“Joss! He’s trying to get you to release his brother! Don’t do it!” Barb’s chest burned but she yelled anyway. The demon turned and flew at her in a blur of inhuman speed. He kicked her and sent her flying. She flew back, her head hit the wall and she fell unconscious.

            Joss watched the demon kick his friend again. He could feel the power of the spinner burning inside him. He felt everything again. Every moment of helplessness, every moment of being told he was a freak and a weirdo. He remembered Mr. Latham telling his son after every meeting that he should never apologize for being stronger than other kids because he was better than them. Joss felt every moment that allowed this demon to gain control of this man’s soul. He ignored his friend’s warning and gave in to his anger and his pain. He weakened his defenses and everything went black. He had visions of fire and darkness. Everything spun in a vortex of brimstone and he saw the past, present and future. The immortal was unleashed.

            The demons cast off the mortal bodies they enslaved and burst from the spinners. A dark cloud descended over the building as fire and ice clashed. Thunder roared and lightning ripped the sky. Joss watched from the ground, half-conscious, as the apocalyptic battle raged overhead. Down on the ground the zombies stopped and watched their masters battle into the heavens over their fate. They could not stop it. They could only wait.

            As Joss watched the battle rage overhead he felt weak and powerless. He felt fear. He did not realize how much he relied on the demon’s power until it was gone. He looked to Barb and saw her lying unconscious. His fear paralyzed him. His chest ached from his heart pounding inside him. The demons were no longer concerned with him. He was just a small, insignificant child with an anxiety disorder and trichotillomania.

            Under the darkness that filled the sky Joss’s mind raced with every anxiety-fueled fear imaginable. He could see the demons silhouetted against the lightning within the vortex they created. Then he had another thought. He remembered his father and Barb. They believed in him. They did not think he was a freak. They knew he had issues but that did not stop them from putting their faith in him. Joss embraced this thought and felt new life pulse through his veins. He looked up from the floor and saw the spinners lying lifeless on the ground. He crawled to them and grabbed one. It felt cold in his hand. He flicked it and watched it spin. He watched the demons fight their endless battle and suddenly a spark jumped from the spinner. The demon may have been released from it but his soul was still bonded with the artifact. He tried channeling the power from the spinner as he had done before. A cold sensation coursed through his veins. It felt different than before but he knew it was working. The demon had chosen him because it saw him as weak but after everything he had done and the darkness he experienced, he knew he could handle a demon whose only strength lay in an unstoppable thirst for power because in that search he made himself blind to everything around him.

Barb awoke and saw Joss sitting on the floor. The spinner in his hand glowed with a white light. She looked above him to the demons. The one that had flown from Joss’s spinner looked weak. Whatever Joss was doing was having an effect on the demon. Barb ignored the pain in her chest and dragged herself next to Joss and grabbed the other spinner. She spun it and immediately felt a rush of energy pulse through her. It overwhelmed her senses but she looked to Joss and knew she could handle it.

If anyone had asked Joss or Barb that morning on their way to school if they were capable of saving the world from a zombie apocalypse they would have crumbled under the thought of such a responsibility. Now they sat together and channeled the strength of their spirits into the ancient artifacts in their hands. The demons weakened. They cursed the children they ignored as they were sucked back into their prisons. There was a clap of thunder and an energy pulse that rocked the foundation of the building.

Once everything settled Joss and Barb sat on the floor of the conference room. The demons had torn the roof of the building but the sun shone overhead and warmed them. Barb and Joss held the spinners in their hands. They felt the weight of the ancient power they held in their hands. Countless generations of darkness due to the demonic powers trapped within such small artifacts.

“What now?” Joss asked.

“I say we do something with our new fidget-spinners,” Barb smiled.

“I think we should find somewhere safe and bury them.”

“Good idea. I never really wanted one anyway,” Barb laughed.

“I’ll drive,” Joss said as they got to their feet and walked from the conference room back to the elevator.

            The building was completely empty as they walked through it. Everyone had evacuated during the fight and as they drove through the streets in the Little Monster they could see the bodies of zombies lying lifeless on the ground. A tear rolled down Barb’s cheek as she realized all those affected by the demons’ power were gone but at least they were now able to rest in peace. She looked to Joss who smiled back at her. For the first time they both felt like they could handle anything and they knew they could stand up to whatever else came their way.