Mimi's Demons

Chapter 62: Zombies

Mimi was led up to a hallway that had been covered by black tarp. It was a part of the manor she didn't frequent often, which would mean they could do whatever they wanted to this side of the house without drawing any of Mimi's attention through the day.

Juli was brought there as well. His alien jellyfish hat jiggled with his excitement.

Then they handed her and Juli plastic, sci-fi looking guns and Mimi started jiggling as well.

Omen, who'd been standing guard at the tarp, exchanged a smile with Kavya. Mimi noticed it soften when he read the sad little droop to his wife's expression. He took one big side-step with his giant legs to take up her hand.

"Rich of you to not know what I am when you're dressed like that," said Juli. "What are you suppose to be? Chuckie?"

Mimi puffed out her fake-blood soaked button-up shirt. "I'm a dying mafia lord."

Juli stared. Then did a once over of her suit slacks, her suspenders, her blood soaked shirt, then her tied back hair and the make-up done to give her a five o' clock shadow, eyebags, and pale skin.

"I don't know whether to say you have balls or a lack of taste."

"Whatever it is, it's something," said Omen, picking up two plastic panels with big lights on them that turned out to be lasertag vests. As he helped Mimi put hers on (Juli was left to figure it out on his own), he said, "The rules are simple. Survive the zombie apocalypse. Only shots to the head will stop the zombies."

Juli squealed like a girl.

Mimi would have too, except she had pride. Though her jackhammering in place made it a bit difficult for Omen to tighten the straps.

"If a zombie gets to your vest, you're declared bitten and become a zombie yourself and have to start over. At the end of the apocalypse you'll find a prize."

Mimi started jigging up and down even faster.

Omen had them try out their guns (super cool! So bright! Actual lasers!), then lifted up a panel in the tarp.

"May you survive."

Juli and Mimi went through, guns at the ready, only to be plunged into pitch blackness when Omen dropped the panel. They stood in the black quiet, vibrating with anticipation.

Then a single light gently turned on above them, lighting up an impossibly realistic city alleyway, complete with trash bins, brick building walls, and a laundry line. The ceiling of the hallway had been done up to look like a foggy sky and the rug had been replaced by a fabric, blood splattered floor. Doorways had been done up to look like turns in the alleys and the hallways windows had been covered and decorated to look like apartment windows, a small feat in itself since they were still the fancy, big windows of a mansion.

There came a low, guttural moan and the first zombie staggered out from behind the trashbins. And it was a zombie. An actual zombie, with one eye and intestines hanging out of its belly.

Mimi may have screamed in delight. If you asked her she'd blame Juli.

She'd never handled an actual gun before, but she'd played with toy guns plenty and their laser guns came with a round crosshair at the tip of the nozzle, so she picked it up rather quickly. Whenever they managed to shoot a zombie in the head it would jerk back as though it really had been shot and melt to the floor.

Juli and Mimi ran forward, Juli taking the lead ("I'm losing my minion card if you go down before me!"). They quickly found out that getting through the indoor cityscape wasn't as straight forward as they had assumed. The hallways and adjacent rooms made up a maze. There was no telling where the end actually was, and zombies ended up forcing them into overturned parlors full of zombies. At one point they even had to hide in a coat closet to avoid a small hoard of zombies which, coincidentally, all wore turbans. Artfully splattered with zombie guts and blood, of course. Mimi wondered where Omen's men had learned to be such great zombies.