Blade's Edge || Deception Book II ||

Chapter 7: The Dreaded Game

I hated zombies.

I hated the jerky, uncouth, twisty, and weird way they flailed their limbs and stumbled around.

I hated their appearance.

Most of all, I detested them for the games that people made that I was forced to play with Luke.

Oh, what I did for ice cream and apple pie.

"Yeah! Die!" Luke shouted from beside me, his fingers flying over the controls. "Die, you morons!"

Fuck. I hated this.

"See, it's not so bad!" Luke said, grinning like a six-year-old as he shot another zombie through the chest. "You have more kill counts than I do."

"That's because I hate them more than you do," I grumbled, my eyes fixed on the screen. "And when you hate something, you kill it. Or," I added, aiming at a zombie a hundred metres from me. "Blow up its head. Something I would very much like to do to the douchebag standing next to me."

"Fuck." Luke blurted out, shaking the joystick viciously. "Crap, I just died."

Sure enough, the game over pop-up appeared on my screen, along with the 'play again?' option.

"Great," I said, reaching over and slamming the red button on his control panel before he could press the green one. "We're done. Now, the ice cream."

"Aww, come on Ri, one more round?" Luke said, his blue eyes wide and innocent as he turned to face me.

"No. You already said that. It's been five rounds since."

Luke sighed. "Fine."

***

"Why do you hate zombies so much anyway?" Luke asked as we walked out of the arcade in one of New York's many torture-Clarianna-pits. "It's not like they're . . . " he paused, trying to find the right word. "Wait. No way."

Luke stopped, spinning me around to face him, and peered at me. "You're scared of them, aren't you."

"No," I replied, still pissed at him. "I just hate them."

"I knew it," Luke crowed triumphantly, punching a fist into the air. "Ri, you know that hate and fear come hand-in-hand, right?"

"Shut up," I muttered, turning away and stalking towards the ice cream shop down the corner of fifty-fourth street.

"No, no," Luke grinned, catching up to me easily. "Not until I get to the bottom of this paradox. Rianna, HOW can you be scared of zombies when you're a literal demigod? Hellhounds, cyclops, empousai, hello? Like, we're living with literal nightmares made flesh. And I'm pretty sure that you're not even scared of Echidna or her spawn for gods sake. You're you. But zombies?"

"Shout that a little louder, will you," I said through clenched teeth. "And I'm not scared of them. It's just how they have no sentience. How they can't . . . think or control themselves. They're mindless. Everything that zombies do is beyond their control. I find that. . . . unsettling."

There was a heartbeat of silence, which caused me to stop my brisk pace and turn to face Luke, who had stopped walking and was now facing me with a weird look in his eyes.

"Luke?" I said, touching him lightly on the arm. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, I'm fine," Luke said, his lips curling up into his signature smirk. "I just wasn't expecting that response. It makes sense though," he added after a second thought. "After all, you value your ability to outsmart everyone on the ship a lot. It would be a shame if a zombie got you since you wouldn't be able to retort anything with that sharp tongue."