by Ashley Nemer
Luckily Natalie chuckled and smiled, "Well then I shall take it as a complement. What I had said was, do you like cobbler?"
"Cobbler?" John let his mouth form a grin, "Who doesn't like that?"
"Just checking, I also managed to find some ice cream that the space astronauts use. They had them on a sale display on one of the end caps, some NASA store. Cobbler and ice cream, for my hard-working handy man."
John set his silverware down and looked straight at Natalie, his expression was obviously very serious. "Marry me, Natalie. Right now."
She curled her lips up and let out a healthy hearty laugh, "What?"
"You made me cobbler, with ice cream I cannot let a woman like you go." He reached his hand out and gestured for her to put her hand with his. When she complied he continued, "I mean it, you're amazing. And maybe not married right this moment, but, let me court you."
"Did you just say court?" That made her laugh again.
"I did, Sunny told me I needed to work on being a southern gentleman, so I am doing as the mighty kid suggests."
"Well in that case shouldn't you ask my oldest living male relative permission first, if we are doing it all formally?" She was teasing him.
"I already got Brody's blessing, why do you think he's off with Sunny today?"
Natalie was speechless, and the smirk on John's face told her that he knew he had gotten to her. She was a goner and there was nothing anyone could do to change that, she realized.
"Well, I guess I have no other option but to say yes, John, I'll let you court me. But there are rules!"
"There are always rules when it comes to your gender." It was his turn to tease.
"There will be no funny business, I do not have any belief that we will even survive long in this new world and I don't want to be responsible for a baby as well."
John nodded, "Fair enough no sex before marriage." He winked.
Natalie rolled her eyes and then continued, "You won't sleep over here, and I don't want Brody seeing that."
"Fair enough, my bed will always be available, for sleeping." He smirked this time.
"Lastly."
"Oh, there is always a lastly, hit me babe."
She rolled her eyes, "Lastly I expect you to know up front I am always right and disagreeing with me, or calling me babe, is a deadly mistake."
"Why does it seem like you've put thought into this? I only just asked Brody this morning, and he swore he wouldn't tell you."
"Maybe I will tell you my secret, one day, for now, just assume I know everything because I am a woman, hear me roar." She laughed.
"Just give me a chance Natalie, I promise you won't regret it."
She lifted her wine glass that was filled with tea and signaled for him to mimic her. "I just hope you don't change your mind."
As they tapped their glasses together they heard the warning siren that they had installed a couple weeks ago. One blast every fifteen seconds meant that everyone needed to meet at the community center spot for an important announcement.
"What do you think is going on?" Natalie said as she stood up.
"Not sure, but it is just an announcement, so it can't be anyone trying to fight us just yet."
Natalie covered the stew and cleaned off her plate. John brought his to her and offered his assistance. When they were done cleaning, he reached his hand out, "Come on, let's get this kumbaya moment over.
She took his hand without a second thought to it, as they walked through her living room to go out her front door and down the street, until they were at the center of the neighborhood. People were straggling in from all the different houses. Sam was seated up front and John pulled Natalie in that direction. "Come on, let's get first hand what's going on."
Sam had seen John and Natalie walking up towards him and he nodded in their direction. "Hey guys, what's going on," he asked as he looked that their joined hands.
"Shut up man, you know what's going on." John shook his head and then moved Natalie to sit in the row behind Sam.
"You two aren't always going to be like this are you?" Natalie questioned.
Sam turned around smiling, "Nah, he just gives me crap all the time about Amelia, so I am enjoying this moment of revenge, don't worry Nat it has nothing to do with you." Sam winked at her.
"Don't call me that, it's Natalie."
"Oh, John you certainly got a feisty one, you best be careful." Sam bellowed a laugh at his friend. John took a swing at Sam's arm and Sam had jumped like it hurt, but he was still laughing.
"Idiots." Natalie said under her breath.
John took his seat when he saw Amelia walking up with Sunny in tow. Once everyone had taken their seats, Brody joining Natalie, Anthony walked to the center of the stage and grabbed everyone's attention.
"I always hate being the bearer of bad news, but I have bad news."
The silence in the group was stunning, John knew when people heard this they all held their breath waiting for that shoe to drop.
"As you know Sunny has been the one preparing us, well, last night she had a dream. This time the dream was more specific. She can't explain it, but she knows, the attack will happen in three weeks’ time. Three weeks from tomorrow to be exact."
Everyone started talking and looking over at Sunny. John watched Sam put a protective arm around her and Anthony did his best to silence everyone.
"With this new information also came a direction, we know where they are coming from. She saw in her dream a sign from Jacksonville. Now we know where to focus our efforts. Tomorrow there will be a new patrol schedule focusing more on the north this time since we know that's where they are descending from. I hope that each of you are taking seriously our trainings because all of us will have to be on our best game." Anthony paused talking to look around until he found Brody. When he made eye contact he smiled at the kid and then kept talking. "We have someone here who can shield. Sunny believes that Laken and Collins are magical and with that knowledge we know we will need magical assistance to win. Brody has agreed with work with us to shield as many people as he can from magical attacks."
Jody took this moment to raise her hand and ask a question, "You mean like in the movie Twilight?"
Anthony nodded, "Yep that's exactly what I mean. So, he is going to spend a little bit of time with everyone. He needs to get to know us all, so he can properly connect with each of us. I know this seems bizarre and out of the norm, but we have to do it." He looked around the audience, "Does anyone else have any other questions, and I know this is a lot to take in but, it's what we have to do."
When no one else answered he nodded at everyone, "Okay then meeting over. Please prepare your homes, check your guns, ammo and supplies. Food included. We have no idea how long this will last. Also, tomorrow we will start re-fortifying the walls for barrier protection. Let's hope that Sunny is wrong and this is all a big misunderstanding."
Everyone slowly left the community spot and John looked over at Natalie, "I think I need to stay and talk with them. This is kinda big and now we will have a lot more to do."
She grinned and squeezed his hand, "Come by tomorrow, I'm making pancakes. Did I mention I have a lot of mixes stored from my scavenging days?"
Her grin was enough to melt his heart, "I'll see you bright and early."
Sam, Anthony and John were all standing together at the front of the speaking area looking around at their community. Sam was the first to break the silence, "No one is taking this from us."
"Agreed" Anthony said.
"But we all know not everyone will make it out of the battle alive. It's almost a given." John hated himself for even making that statement.
"Yeah that's true, but, we have got to do our best. Give it all we have." Anthony's voice started to get shaky as he spoke.
Sam nodded, "What was that saying we learned in U.S. History, 'come and take it' wasn't that it?"
"Pretty sure that is from some rednecks in Texas." John laughed.
"But doesn't it ap
ply, come and take it. That's our battle cry." Anthony said, his voice full of pride.
All together in unison the three of them looked to the front of the gate and repeated the phrase as one.
Come and take it.
Epilogue - How It All Began - August 27, 2017
LAKEN HAD WATCHED THE news all day about the hurricane that was beating down the coast of Texas. The weather was primed for their spells. It wasn't every day that Mother Nature gave the covens the most opportune moment, a chance to tap into the most powerful sources of magic.
At a young age, the lessons of how the world actually worked were instilled on Laken. He was taught the power of three, along with, the power of planet Earth. Everything on this planet is made up of matter he was taught in elementary school. When he came home to his parents to talk about that they took it one step further. Everything with matter, had a soul.
Not a soul as in the sense the church teachers, a part of you that goes to God at death, but the part of you that lives on and transfers bodies at the next life. Each life we live, whether as a plant or animal, collects power.
It was during the lesson of learning how souls grow in power, that the topic of the ocean came up. Laken was told by his father, Rick that everything started as a sea urchin. A single cell organism that began to grow. It was from those initial growth moments at sea that caused the ocean to still be the most powerful driver of spells.
That’s the reason why so many humans can ‘find’ water pipes when dowsing for them. It isn’t because their bodies are made up of seventy-five percent water. It’s because we are called to the water.
Everyone knows what balances the water out, the Earth’s gravitational pull, that’s affected by the sun and moon.
Seven days ago the solar eclipse happened. This was the catalyst, the point it all began. His coven, led by himself, had danced around the fire chanting spells of purification. Thanks to the wonderful networking abilities of the internet, covens across the globe had joined them in hopes of the first steps to rid the world of death and destruction. They all knew that if the world was allowed to continue on this path then it would certainly be destroyed. That's why it was up to Laken and his son Collins, to lead the way of the new order.
The Earth slowly had been trying to defend herself against humans. Fires, hurricanes, tidal waves, all sorts of natural disasters continued to pound on the humans but they had stood, resilient to the attempts. It was up to the covens to save her, to maintain the source of their power and free it of the souls who continued to consume her nutrients but never refilled her supply.
Their plan had taken a year for them to put together and coordinate across the globe. Collins had first made the comment as a joke to his father, that all the humans needed to be destroyed. But Laken wasn't joking, he was as evil as they got, and he was determined to make them pay for their misuse of the world.
One thing that all of the world knew, America was good for was meddling in affairs that weren’t their own. In the nineteen nineties the United States of America’s president at that time was William Jefferson Clinton. President Clinton had taken it upon himself to start studies on more vaccines to save the world population. Once again trying to thwart Mother Nature’s attempt at saving herself. America had been up in arms over the human immunodeficiency virus, also referred to as HIV, outbreaks in Africa and that had been his legacy. Vaccinations across the globe. His administration had found a vaccine that would keep HIV away. In his final act as president he signed into law, a law that was also picked up by the World Health Organization and almost all of the civilized societies around the world. The new vaccine was now a requirement at the eighteen month checkup. No baby could opt out of it, even for religious reasons. That's how bad the crisis had become.
Even America had started taking away rights from infants.
Now every child who was born after January nineteenth two thousand and one had this vaccine immunity to the virus known as HIV.
Once Laken realized there was this similarity across the world his idea formed. This factoid made the curse easy to perform.
Taking a vile of blood from his son, a person who has both things required in his blood, the vaccine antibodies and the DNA for witches, Laken created a spell so powerful it would change the course of human history. He used the blood mixed with water and minerals his coven collected and used in spells during the solar eclipse. With the magical stirrings Mother Nature created during oceanic stores, mixing them all together during the hurricane was the perfect catalyst. With the powers of Mother Nature combined with the powerful blood from Collins veins, Laken was able to cast the death eater spell.
Within twenty-four hours of the spell being cast all of the humans who were over eighteen were dead, unless their blood contained the special genetic markers as Collins. All witches stemmed from the same blood line, they were all related in one way or another.
There were over two million people who contained the DNA markers for witch craft but only maybe half of them knew they were witches. It was truly a sad thing. They lived their lives in fear of being discovered. And Laken was tired of it. He had taken it upon himself to free the world of the judgement and oppression and the only way to achieve that was starting over.
Now was his time to shine, now it was his time for Collins to rise up. The father and son duo would lead the new world with their vision at the helm.
“Collins, prepare the coven.” Laken said to his son.
“Yes father,” Collins reached out and placed a simultaneous text notification that would trigger every member of the coven’s cell phones he placed them on alert.
“Can you feel it son?” Laken had his arms raised and his eyes closed, face tilted towards the sun, soaking in her rays.
“What father?”
“The death. Everywhere. The souls are screaming out because they can’t be reborn again. They are trapped. We’ve won.”
Laken let the power around him fill his mind, he could see the humans he had taken in one quick spell. Their ghosts haunting the streets forever. “Better they haunt the streets as ghosts than take up the spots as humans.” He told his son.
“How many are there?”
“Right now, in our presence, seventy. Across the world, billions.”
“Collins you will see, come join hands, let me share the power with you.”
While the two held hands and soaked in the power wafting in around them the rest of the world cried. Cried for the loss of the ones they loved. For the ones who they cherished, for the ones they admired.
Very few would make it out alive from this curse, and that was just what Laken wanted.
“My wife is waiting for me father.”
“How can you tell that son?”
“Because I had a premonition. Sunny is out there, waiting for me to find her. But I will have to wait some time, for she is just a child now.”
Present Day
"Father," Collins said, and he rushed into Laken's sitting room. Laken hated to be interrupted when he was thinking, and everyone knew that. Which told him Collins was willing to face potential death to deliver this message. "I have bad news Father."
Laken let his fingers tap along the table as he perused the plans of the attack scheduled for next week. They had taken out three compounds so far this year and were quickly depleting their supplies. Their coven had grown to four hundred members since August of last year and it was still growing.
"Spill it, what is your bad news Collins?"
"Sunny, she knows our names."
"How could she know that, she hasn't come into her powers completely yet." Laken's voice was loud and full of anger. He had warned Collins not to get attached to a child that they hadn't even met yet. His son's whole planned rested on the idea that this child would grow up to be his bride and they would take over.
"Father, now isn't the time to debate this."
"You're a fool!" Laken had stood from his chair and was now storming towards his son. "I told yo
u to find a partner equal to you!"
Collins straightened up more, "She is equal and when she comes of age together we will be unstoppable."
"Men, I hate to interrupt," Laken looked over his shoulder to see his wife, Romania, walking towards them. "Need I remind you, Laken, that you're a good decade older than I am and look how we worked out."
"Romania, stay out of this. Your son made a decision and now he must live with that choice."
"I don't have to stay here and take this father I will go to her myself. I will explain to her what she would be, by my side."
"You will do nothing of the sort. We have our plans, in three weeks we will march onto this little community and take what is ours and destroy the rest." Laken began pacing his room, his attention now focused on the map of Florida they have posted on the wall.
"Laken, have you thought about my suggestion?" Romania had moved across the room and now was next to her husband. "If we go down there and simply talk to them, maybe this child will want to join on her own. We don't know, and war isn't always the solution. I keep telling you that the humans, even though they aren't magical, they are resources. We can still use them."
"Father, she’s right."
"Silence!" Laken's voice bellowed throughout the room. He turned towards his son and stared him down as if his life depended on it. "Collins, you will go prepare the men and women. We are taking fifteen total that should be enough to bombard this colony of survivors. We leave for Saint Pete in two weeks. We will travel by foot. That should give us plenty of time. We don't want to exhaust our magical powers before we battle. Now go son, make me proud."
Collins bowed his head and left the room in silence. Laken knew his son, knew he was plotting his own mischievous feats. But that would have to wait for another day.
"Romania?"
"Yes Laken?" She walked to him and wrapped her arms around him.
"Let's retire for the night, I suddenly feel my energy shield weakening."
Collins was tired of his father's orders. He knew a thing or two about the world just like he did. His father constantly held it over his head that he was only seventeen and because of that he couldn't have any say in what went on. It had been his idea after all, the plans all started from his dream. It wasn't right or fair to be treated like a child.
