“Protect the Queen! ” he yelled as he rushed towards the heart of the battle. Chaos surrounded him as the workers rushed to fulfill his orders. He didn’t know what these attackers wanted but he didn’t have time to think about this now. His path to the battle was almost chaotic but he knew his way around now. He had worked within these walls his entire life. What could these attackers possibly want?

He finally reached the battle and saw the enemy. 2 giant creatures with long necks were attacking his home. The necks all attached to a central body but he had never seen anything like it. It was hard for him to describe. The necks were meticulously poking and taking parts of his home. Carrying it away out of his sight. His brothers frantically attacked the creatures to no avail. He flew head on towards one of the creatures but one of the necks swatted him away...

....”Hey” said the Beekeeper. “Do you think the Bees mind that we take the honeycombs?”

“Who knows” the second Beekeeper replied.

“Come on, we have 5 more to get to”.

She awoke from her bed and for a moment didn’t know where she was. She stared at the ceiling for a moment trying to gather herself. Her mouth was unreasonably dry, her head felt like a someone was taking a jackhammer to it. She rolled over in bed to face a silver tray of food, half eaten burger, fries scattered all over the floor, and a bottle of champagne on the night table. The bottle was half-empty.

It took every ounce of strength to sit-up in bed. She slowly surveyed the room. The sun was barely creeping through the thick curtains, the Tv, turned on, with a low static humming on the screen. The mini-bar door still open, half the shelves empty, most of the bottles empty on the carpet. She swung her feet over the bed, her feet not quite touching the floor. She looked up at the sunlight peeking through and decided her eyes could not handle that. She got up from the bed, steadied herself.

“What happened last night?”She thought. She carefully tipped toed around the sun peeking through the room, and begun to make her way to the bathroom. She passed last nights jeans on the floor, the fries, the empty mini bar bottles, and the tv remote for good measure. She made her way into the bathroom and ran sink . She stuck her entire mouth under the faucet finally quenching her thirst. She splashed some water onto her face and it was rejuvenating.

She looked up at the mirror and she was struck by a sudden flash of memories. With a look of horror she stared at her t- shirt. The memories coming hard and fast now. “Hannah’s Vegas Bachelorette Party 2018” it read. She remembered the clubbing, the drinking, Hannah and her college friends, the gambling.

“Oh no” she said aloud. The gambling.

She ran across the hotel room to her jeans on the floor. Ruffling through her pockets from clues for last night. She found a tiny mixing straw from her numerous beverages, lint, and a ATM receipt. She stared at the receipt horrified out the amount of Money she withdrew.

She remembered the roulette table. The booze. The crowd cheering her name. The stack of chips in front of her. She remembered the words she said to the dealer as she pushed her chips into the center of the table...”All on Black”.

She dug through the rest of her pockets hoping this all wasn’t real. She found a single red $5 chip in her back pocket. The nausea crept up her throat from the pit of her stomach; the realization that yesterday was real.

Push me harder! We have to go higher! She said rocking her feet back and forth, trying to create more momentum. Her sister Sarah always loved the swing. Every time she always wanted her to push her harder, faster, her goal always the same. Sarah wanted to go over the top. A complete 360 degrees over the bar and back down. It was Sarah’s mission.

“Why do you want to do this so badly?” Her sister would always ask.

“Because no one knows what’s on the other side when you come back down”

Her sister always laughed at her response. That day on the playground all the kids had been picked up, gone home, except for Sarah and her sister. Her sister tried to tell her that her parents would be angry, but Sarah was determined to get one last swing session in. Her sister pushed her as per usual , Sarah yelling for her to push harder as her she tried to once again gain momentum to go swing over the top.

“Sarah, it’s time to go! Mom and Dad are gonna be mad!” Her sister pleaded. But Sarah ignored her pleas, the swing gaining more and more momentum.

“Sarah!” Her sister, now angry at being ignored stepped back as Sarah came back on her back swing looking for another push from her sister. Her sister, now frustrated, stepped back and with a running start gave her sister the hardest push she’s ever given.

“WHOAH!!”

Sarah shot forward. Her feet pointed outward, straight as an arrow. The swing had reached the top of the bar and for a it looked like Sarah was suspended in mid air. Her sister looked on in disbelief as the swing did a complete rotation and came back down to its original spot.

Empty. “Sarah?” Her sister asked. Still in disbelief at the empty swing before her. She frantically looked around the playground for answers. The kids still long gone. The playground sets still empty. Sarah’s sister now alone.

“Because no one knows what’s on the other side when you come back down” Sarah’s sister remembered.

She sat down on the very same swing and slowly began to gain some momentum on her own. She went back and forth. Pushing hard and harder with her own feet.

She knew what she had to do.

He was tired of fighting. He knew he had a mission to complete, it always seemed he had a mission to complete. But this time in this world full of people and monsters , he just wanted a well deserved rest.

He ducked into a random room of the castle he and his brother had just searched through. His shoes dirty, parts of god knows what sticking to the soles. His body sunk against the wall and he felt his eyes becoming heavier and heavier. He just needed a few moments. He gently placed his head against the wall. He just needed a few moments. He felt like he had been fighting this fight for almost 40 years, and yet his body didn’t show it.

He slowly took off his white gloves placing them in his overall pockets. His took off his hat and for a moment felt powerless, but at this point he didn’t care. He just needed a few minutes of rest. In the distance he heard his brother calling his name. He no doubt needed saving now too. Everyone always needed saving.

But this time his blue eyes closed and felt the weight of the world move off his shoulders. He just needed a rest. In an instance he was fast asleep. His mouth muttering a few words from his subconscious as he was deep into his own dreams.

“It’s -a-me, Mario....”

The moon was full and bright tonight as he rode on the path towards town. He had been away for nearly 3 months tracking the criminal draped across the back of his horse. Some referred to him as a cowboy, a gunslinger, bounty hunter. He didn’t care about any of that. All he knew was the sheriff would pay him a nice bit of coin for the dead man behind him.

The sherif had originally offered him more money to bring the man back alive to stand trial. The gunslinger was silent as he mounted his horse, about to set off on his bounty. Before he rode off, the gunslinger looked the sheriff square in the eye and replied, “Just so I don’t leave you wondering....it’ll be dead.” And he was gone leaving the kicked up dust and last word with the sherif.

He was thankful for this so called profession. He was good at it. Damn good.

The night brought a bit of a chill to the air as he brought his duster closer to himself for some warmth. As he drew closer and closer to town he felt a sense of uneasiness. He was thankful for the peaceful night during the last legs of this journey but now as he rode closer to town the silence was deafening. The town was never the busiest type Of place. One jail. One saloon. Maybe a population of maybe 150 men, women, and children. A “One Horse” type of town if he ever saw one. But as he rode his stead into the outskirts of town, not a single man or women was In sight. Not even a random drunk stumbling out the saloon after too much whiskey.

The gunslinger, his bounty, and horse now were square in the center of town. Silence. He demounted from his horse and walked towards saloon. If anyone would be around he figured it would be there. Even at the current hour, there was always a man still at the bar not knowing when to cut himself off. A game of poker that stunk of smoke and stale beer that had been going on all night. As he stepped to closer to the batwing doors he saw it. The entire entrance of the saloon had been boarded up. Windows covered with 2 x 4’s. Dried blood covering the steps of the entrance. His horse began to shuffle his feet, almost sensing the incoming danger. There was a smell in the air, and just then he knew. The gunslinger had known this smell very well. Hell, he had been smelling it behind him the last month of his journey. The smell of the rotting dead.

Just then the saloon doors began to shake, the insides sounding of low growls and noises the gunslinger could not identify even in his numerous journeys. He instinctively put his hand to his holster as the saloon doors began to shake with more and more force. He slowly took a few steps back, his horse now nearly uncontrollable behind him. He heard the clawing of wood and that same growling again but growing as if his presence had awoken more and more of what the folks of this town wanted to keep inside of this saloon.

BOOM

The clawing and sheer force of the presence inside was too much. The batwing doors flew off and that’s when the gunslinger saw it....The undead. The walking dead began to stumble out after the gunslinger, smelling the fresh meat of himself and his horse. The maggots eating away some the faces of the dead as they made their way towards the gunslinger. The gunslinger ran towards his horse trying to grapple the reins of the spooked horse. Now on his horse, He fired shots from his revolvers, all hitting their marks but useless to targets that were already dead. He turned his horse around and attempted to ride out the way he came in.

As he made some distance from the undead he could see two of the creatures standing in his way between him and his escape. As he rode closer the moonlight reflected off the badges and he knew who these men were. Shocked at the sight of the very same Sherif who gave him his bounty and a deputy beside him. He squeezed the revolver in his hand a little tighter. He lined up his shot as both of the undead inched their way closer in his path.

“Need to make this count” he thought. He lined up his revolver as he pushed his horse to go faster.

BANG

The deputy was down. A shot right between the eyes.

BANG

Down went the sheriff. A shot clear center in the temple of his skull.

He rode pass both bodies, now dead twice over.. He had shot the sherif and he did shoot the deputy. He rode into the night once again, the bright full moon above him, never to return.

John was about as prepared as he was going to be. He dreaded his performance evaluation more than anything, and this year was no different.

“He’s ready to see you now” said the Office Manager.

John had been an accountant here for 7 years but never seemed to be able to progress in his office. The job wasn’t difficult, numbers came naturally to him, even as a little kid. He walked into the office.

“Have a seat John” said his boss. Not even looking up from the report in his hands. John sat down, his hands folded nicely in his lap. John’s Boss was nice enough, never yelled or was rarely cross with his employees, including John. But as John’s boss began his usual review of John’s work, his reporting, his attendance, his demeanor with his fellow employees, John’s mind couldn’t help but wander.

Was this work challenging? What was he getting out of this job? The paycheck was nice, but was he truly happy? He once dreamt of traveling the world, but sometime life dictates itself. The expectations after he graduated college was always “I need to find a job” How else would he make a living? As John’s boss continued to ramble, suddenly none of that really seemed to matter much anymore....

“I Quit” John said abruptly, before his boss could even finish his sentence.