The
Zombie Chronicles – Book 7
Trepidation
by
Chrissy Peebles
Copyright © 2013 by Chrissy Peebles
All rights reserved. No part
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system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
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both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The
author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various
products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission.
The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or
sponsored by the trademark owners.
Chapter 1
“Run, Dean!” Nick shouted.
“Hurry!” Val chimed in.
Flesh-eating zombies shambled behind
me, their creepy moans echoing through the hallway. My footsteps clicked and
clacked as I ran down the long corridor, faster than I’d ever run before. It
was dark, spooky, and downright eerie, but I could see the proverbial light at
the end of the tunnel. Nick, Val, Claire, and Lucas beckoned to me, so I pumped
my legs even harder. I was just about to step into the light when something
grabbed my legs. I fell on my stomach, reaching out for my brother.
“Dean!” Nick screamed.
“Nick!”
Something sinister was pulling me
away from them, dragging me to Hell. I kicked and flailed, to no avail. It had
too tight of a grip on my ankles and was taking me back to be devoured alive. I
could hear the others shouting for me hysterically. I reached out for them, but
as I was dragged away, they grew smaller, their cries became quieter, and everything
became darker. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a maniacal choir of snarls
and moans.
Suddenly, a dim light flickered to
life, and I frantically rolled onto my back. I stared into countless sets of
white eyes as the zombies leaned over me. They inched closer, reaching out for
me, ready to sink their teeth into my flesh. Pain exploded in my shoulder when one
bit into me. “Nooooooo!” I screamed.
Gasping and sweating profusely, I sat
straight up in bed. My shirt was stuck to my clammy skin. My heart was racing
faster than a horse hooves at the Kentucky Derby. I wiped my face with my
sleeve and took deep breaths, trying to calm down. It was just a dream, just another nightmare, I told myself. I wasn’t really back in that terrifying lab.
I jumped down from the top bunk and opened the window. The cold air felt good
on my face, cooling my skin as well as my nerves. It was cloudy outside; a
storm was fast approaching.
I got cleaned up, then dressed. We’d
survived the nightmarish lab and had triumphed, but in spite of our victory and
our survival, I was haunted by those dreadful memories. The room began to spin,
then grew smaller and smaller, and I felt a hot flash. Am I losing my mind, or is this just some kind of panic attack? I
wondered, horrified. I grabbed my gun and rushed into the living room where the
others greeted me.
“Well, well. Look who finally
decided to join the living,” Lucas teased.
“Dean,” Val said, “are you all
right? You’ve been sleeping for twelve hours.”
“It’s morning?” I asked.
“Afternoon,” she corrected.
“How are you feeling?” Nick asked.
“Like…driving down the highway and
popping a tire. I mean…like I’ve lost control of the vehicle, have crossed into
the opposite lane, and am lookin’ at an eighteen-wheeler barreling toward me at
some ridiculous speed.”
Val came over to hug me, but I gently
pushed her away.
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” I
said.
“Well, talking or not, you gotta be
starving, little buddy,” Lucas said. “You haven’t eaten since before we went to
the lab.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Don’t
mention that lab to me.”
Claire walked over with a plate of
orange slices. “Wanna share?”
“Nah, I’m not hungry.” I was still
so freaked out by the nightmare that my hands were shaking, but I tried to hide
it. “I’ll be back,” I muttered.
“Dean, what’s wrong?” Val asked. “Where
are you going? Why can’t you just—”
“I just need some air, all right? Is
there some crime against a guy needing to breathe?” I screamed back at her in a
nasty tone she didn’t deserve.
Val stood. “At least let me go with
you.”
I shot her a look. “No. I need to be
alone.”
“Please, Dean,” she pleaded.
“No, Val.”
When she tried to follow me, Lucas
pulled her back. “Look, Val, Dean’s been through a lot. He just needs to be
alone and deal with all this in his own way,” he said. “I can respect that, and
so should you.”
“Yeah, just let him go, sis,” Nick
agreed. “It’s how we Walters brothers handle things.”
As they kept talking amongst
themselves, whispering about me, I walked out and shut the door behind me. I
hurried down the corridor and climbed down the rope ladder, then headed
outside. The sky was gray and cloudy, and droplets began to sprinkle down on
me. Still, there were kids outside, bouncing a ball and laughing in delight. So naïve, I thought. So clueless to all the dangers that surround
them. I’d give anything to be that carefree again, to smile and laugh and not
be plagued by all the horrible memories I can’t seem to get out of my head.
A woman named Jan ran over and
straightened out a large tarp, then placed it at an angle to catch the rain. “Dean,”
she said. “Grab the buckets.”
I obediently walked over and grabbed
the buckets, the perfect water filtration system: holes in the bottom, with
layers of sand, charcoal, then sand again. We also boiled the water to kill any
bacteria. It was a lot of work living off the land, improvising ways to survive
in a world devoid of modern conveniences and technology, and everyone was much
too busy to be too disturbed about the losses I’d suffered and all I’d gone
through. It felt as if, while my life had taken a turn for the worst, everyone
else just wanted to ignore it and continue living theirs.
I’d seen the atrocities firsthand,
up close and personal. Horror had a very distinctive, unforgettable face, and
I’d met it. We don’t live in a perfect world anymore,” I muttered, trying to
accept it. The apocalypse had swept in like a hurricane, given birth to hordes
of flesh-eating monsters, and left a path of destruction in its wake. We could
never relax; we were always running from the all-consuming, big, black hole
that seemed to gobble up everything we’d ever loved, including my Jackie. We
tried to stay one step ahead of it, fighting, but it just pounced on us, kicked
butt, and left us to pick up the pieces of everything we’d once cherished. Like
everyone else, I had to rebuild my life after all the losses, all the tragedy, because
I didn’t want to sink into hopelessness. That small sliver of hope, which
seemed to be shrinking all the time, was all that kept me going. Life goes on, whether we want it to or not,
I finally concluded, watching as Jan rigged up the rain buckets.
Jan looked up at me and smiled. “We’ll
have fresh water soon.”
I nodded.
“Don’t look so sad,” she said, her
brown hair whipping around in the wind. “You got your happy ending. You
survived that horrible place, that Frankenstein’s lab.”
I met her gaze. “There’re no such
thing as happy endings—only survival and pain.”
“Dean, you can’t let the zombies
take away what we have left. You still have friends and family to love, to
laugh with, to talk to. Dance! Enjoy every moment with them. Enjoy life.”
“I want to, but I have so many
regrets, so many things I wish I could change.”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Look, hon’, I’m not here to judge.
I’m here to listen.”
“Okay. Well, I have so many regrets
I don’t even know where to start—just a lot of what-ifs or what-coulda-beens.”
“We’ve got no time for regrets. It
might sound cliché, but life really is too short for that.”
“That sounds good on a bumper
sticker or coffee cup, but it’s hard to live by when the burden is so heavy. I
killed a man in self-defense, Jan. How can I not regret that? It will always
haunt me. I guess…well, this whole thing has changed me into someone I don’t
recognize, made me do things I never thought I’d do. Maybe everything’s just
catching up to me.”
“You need to let go of all the blame,
anger, and pain. Don’t worry about past mistakes or failures, sweetie. Nobody
can judge us for acts we’ve done while trying to survive in this new world.
Heck, I had to shoot my mother, father, and sister the first day. I mourn their
loss every day, but I also know they’d want me to go on, and I’ll tell you
what. That zombie virus might’ve taken my family, but I refuse to live like a
prisoner. I’m gonna enjoy my kids every chance I get.”
“Mommy! Mommy,” a little girl said. “Are
you gonna dance in the rain with us?”
“Yes, baby,” she said. “I most
certainly am!”
The rain began to pour down in
sheets, and I watched Jan and her children laugh and dance. In all that
darkness and gloom that surrounded us, I finally saw a shining light. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I shouldn’t regret
the past or fear the future. Then, for just a quick moment, I felt my lips
curl into a tiny smile.
***
I wanted to go back to the lab, but
Nick insisted that I wait until things settled down. I waited for a week, and
even though the snow had come, I was still determined to go.
Huge snowflakes fell as I stared at
the monstrous pile of rubble before me. The smell of concrete and metal filled
the air when the wind blew in our direction. I was dressed in a brown coat, a
white shirt, ripped jeans, and scruffy black boots. My feet crunched in the
snow as I slowly walked over to the ashes of had once been the lab, all of it
destroyed in the explosion Jonathon had singlehandedly caused in the fear that
if any of us lived, we’d expose the entire world to the virus. He’d gladly
triggered the self-destruct mechanism and was happy to die a martyr. Luckily, he
didn’t take most of us with him. Still, Steven was mourning his death and had
even insisted on holding a funeral for him. I’d attended, but only because I
didn’t believe he was involved with the tortuous experiments in the basement of
the lab.
“This place brings back so many
painful memories, Dean,” Claire said. “We were drowning in lies. I was locked
up in that jail cell, used as a human pincushion, Jackie was killed here, and
mad scientists did horrible experiments in their evil laboratory hidden deep
underground.”
Really, Claire and I just wanted to
go back to the site where Jackie was buried, so we could grieve properly, maybe
get some sort of much-needed closure. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words
would come out. I was pretty numb inside and didn’t even know the right words
to say. I glanced over my shoulder at some of the guys who were standing guard,
with their Glocks and rifles ready to go, since Max had insisted they come with
us; we had plenty of firepower in case any zombies decided to show up at the
party uninvited. The zombie herd had left, though, so for the time being, it
seemed the city was safe. No zombie would cross the perimeter of the greater
part of the city due to an explosion a few months back. I was packing some
serious firepower of my own, with my trusty rifle slung over my chest. In that
new world of ours, strapping on a gun every single day was the new reality.
“Just pretend like we’re not here,”
one of the guys called. “I know Claire said she’d rather be by herself, but you
shouldn’t go anywhere without somebody havin’ your back.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we know. Thanks,
guys.”
“Take all the time you need. We got
you covered!” he shouted back.
Claire said a few words for all
those who had lost her lives. During the following moment of silence, she let
out a sob, knelt, and placed a bouquet of artificial flowers on the
debris-scattered remains of the floor. “This nightmare will never be behind me,”
she said, “but I’ll never forget you either. You were more than just my cousin.
You were my best friend, and you’ll live in my heart forever.”
I then set down some artificial red
roses, and they showed up brilliantly in the snow. “Jackie,” I said, “not a day
goes by when I don’t wish I could have one more kiss or hug from you. I know
you want us to go on, and I’m sure you’d hate all this mushy stuff and all this
fuss. We’ll move on, Jackie, for you. We’ll never stop trying to make this
world the place you would have wished for, and one day, it will be. Ultimately,
zombies are just dead humans, and they’ll continue to rot. If we can survive
four or five more years, we’ll get our world back. They’ll die out, but we’ll
still be here, making the world you loved as beautiful as you were.”
“We will get our world back,” Claire
promised. “It’s just gonna take some time.”
I took a step closer and laid down a
second bouquet of flowers that Val had made. “This is for all who were lost on
that tragic day. May you rest in peace.”
We stood there, holding each other.
Claire cried in my arms, and I held her close for a long time. We didn’t even
care about the cold or the snow. I could think of no more words to say. I tried
to hide my hurt, but deep down, my heart ached. Jackie had touched me in a way
I was sure no other girl could ever could, and she’d always be in my heart.
“I didn’t want this to be Jackie’s
final resting place,” Claire said. “I tried everything to find her body, but I
guess my best just wasn’t good enough.”
I touched her back. “You have every
right to be upset, but we can’t change the past, Claire.”
“No, we can’t,” she whispered.
“Jackie is at peace,” I said. “She’d
want us to go on.”
She stood. “I know. She always used
to say, ‘Tomorrow’s a new day.’”
I gripped her hand and gave her a
reassuring squeeze.
She stood and met my gaze directly,
her blue eyes shining in the bright sunlight. “But I’m gonna make sure that Charlie
pays for betraying us.”
“Another name for your hit list?”
Her lips pressed into grim lines as
the wind swirled her hair around. “Yep. I’m gonna destroy him, trash his face,
then feed him to the zombies.”
“Geesh. I hope you never get pissed
at me.”
She walked over and hugged me, long
and tight. “You’ll never be on my list, Dean, but I can’t say the same for your
brother. Why isn’t he here anyway?”
“The others had to go with Max. It
was an emergency, and—”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. A zombie threat
to check out.”
“You know how Nick is. He lives and
breathes zombie-bashing. Plus, he feels this intense need to protect us and
keep us safe.”
“He cares so much about us,” she
said.
“Yep, and he fights fiercely for
those he cares about,” I said, glancing over at Claire. She was so beautiful,
so loyal, so sweet. I watched her red hair blow in the wind as her blue eyes
shimmered. She was so tough and refused to be that timid girl we’d met in the
woods. She was brave, determined to make her own path in life. She was broken, but
hope brought her strength and courage. Or
maybe she’s just fueled by revenge. I figured it was really a little of
both. Claire had vowed to move forward and to keep Jackie’s memory alive, and
she’d done just that by facing so many obstacles. She never lost her balance,
even when the tide turned against her. She just fought harder, and I had to
admire that. In the dog-eat-dog world, survival of the fittest was becoming the
new norm, and Claire was proving herself quite fit. My brother’s an idiot, I thought. How can he not see the beauty of what’s standing right in front of him,
right within his reach?
“I don’t know if we’ll last a week,
a month, years, or forever, but I do know one thing, Dean.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll never figure Nick out.”
“Heh. Well, don’t beat yourself up
about it. He’s my brother, and even I
can’t figure him out,” I said.
“But it’s just not Nick I’m
frustrated about. It’s just…I wish I had more answers. At least we figured out
the animal thing, and it’s good to know we don’t have another epidemic on our
hands, but I wanna know who was in charge. Who made Asia,
Kate, Sam, Larry, and the others go through those horrible experiments? Who’s
the lunatic behind all that?”
“We’ve got nothin’ but time,” I
said, wrapping my arm around her as we started walking back to my car.
Max had given cars to both of us for
our undercover work, though they were nothing fancy. Claire’s was a Honda Civic,
and mine was some kind of black Mazda. Nick and the others had secured their
own transportation. There were plenty of vehicles to choose from, as long as
someone could figure out how to make them run and provide enough gasoline. Luckily,
there were a couple of fantastic mechanics in the complex who were more than
happy to help anyone with any car repairs. We walked for the most part, but we go
for a spin every once in a while, especially in cold weather or when we had to
go too far to travel on foot.
“Dean!” one of the men called.
“Yeah?” I said, spinning around.
He peered through his scope. “Get in
your car! We’ve got unidentified company.”
Chapter 2
My first thought was zombies, but
then I saw a black truck cruising down the street toward us. I had no idea who it was; it could
have been anyone, from one of the locals to a new person in town, or maybe even
a gang member out house-shopping, ready to stake their claim on the city.
I grabbed Claire’s hand and pulled
her toward my Mazda. If there was a problem, I was sure the guys could handle
it, and I knew Claire didn’t need the headache with the emotional torment she
was already going through. My goal was to get Claire home and make her lunch—nothing
fancy, but some kind of canned food and a few fresh vegetables from what Rachel
had brought from the greenhouse. Only in a post-apocalyptic world could I ever have
been considered a chef, because I couldn’t cook to save my life. Opening a can
came naturally to me though.
We hopped in, and I started the car.
When I saw one of the guys approaching, I rolled down the window. “You got
this?” I asked, fearing the answer.
“Yeah. Just get back to the
apartment,” he said. “We’ll talk to these guys and see what they want. I’m sure
they’re just passing through.”
I nodded, then sped off.
Claire leaned back and buckled
herself in.
I turned left down the next street
and started cruising back to the apartment.
“Thanks for coming, Dean,” Claire
said. “It means the world to me.”
“Of course I’d come. I loved Jackie
too.”
“I know you did. If you didn’t, you
wouldn’t have gone into zombie-infested territory at three a.m. to dig up Jackie’s body.”
“Yeah. Only we’re nuts enough to do that,” I said, “because we loved her that
much.”
“Yeah, we did, and I know we’ll
always cherish every memory we had with her.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Hey,
Dean, that truck we saw back by the lab is following us.”
I swallowed hard and glanced into
the rearview mirror, wondering why the guys hadn’t handled it. It was then that
I realized that the men in that truck weren’t just random survivors. My gut told
me it was a gang of troublemakers, and I wondered if they’d made quick work of
killing those we’d left behind to fend them off.
“Whoever it is, they’re speeding to
catch up with us,” she said.
Continuing to look in the rearview
mirror, I pressed the gas. The menacing black truck continued to pursue us, but
no matter what, I wasn’t going to let them hurt Claire. She’s been through hell already, I thought. She doesn’t need this crap…and neither do I.
“Dean!” she screamed. “Floor it! We
gotta go faster!”
“Are they gang members?” I asked,
gripping the steering wheel till my knuckles were white, wishing Max had hooked
me up with a Ferrari instead of a Mazda.
“I-I think so,” she breathed out. “I
don’t wanna have a run-in with them out here, Dean,” she said. “It’d be nice to
surprise them on their own turf, with a good plan and lots of backup, but not
here. We’re outnumbered, probably six to two.”
“I know,” I said. I hit the gas, but I didn’t know how long I could keep up
that reckless pace in all the ice and snow. The tires spun, and we fishtailed
every once in a while, and I was worried about flying off the road. When I hit
a rut, the car rattled. I gritted my teeth, fighting to keep control of the
automobile as we swerved left, then right. The tires squealed, but I accelerated
and drove like a madman through the slush and snow. The speedometer shot up to
sixty, but I continued to floor it. A cold chill ran through me when I felt the
car skidding around the turns.
Speeding rapidly in pursuit, the truck continued to gain on us, likely
having a lot less trouble since it was probably a four-by-four with rear-wheel
drive.
I took a deep breath to calm myself and wiped the beads of sweat from my
brow. The car suddenly jolted when the truck slammed into our back bumper. I
gasped and jerked my head back around.
“They’re trying to run us off the
road!” Claire shouted, horrified.
The tires spun, and the wet brakes
squealed. My stomach lurched, and white-knuckled panic flooded through me when we
hit a patch of ice too fast and completely spun out like some crazed amusement
park ride gone wrong. With no traction in the snow, we swerved violently to the
right, then veered off the side of the road and flipped over into the ditch. I
shuddered as the car filled with smoke from the radiator. My vision was blurry,
and I was a bit confused, but I saw Claire’s airbag deploy; mine, on the other
hand, didn’t. Pain exploded in my head from slamming my skull into the steering
wheel. Stars spun in my vision, and I wiped blood off my forehead, but my only
concern was my passenger. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked, releasing my seatbelt
and leaning down to look at her.
“Yeah. How about you?”
“I’m fine.”
I helped Claire unbuckle her
seatbelt so we could make a quick escape, but we had no such luck.
“Get ready! They’re coming,” Claire
said, letting out a long breath and reaching for her gun.
“Hold on now, Dirty Clairey,” I said.
“Like you said, we’re outnumbered, and if you go on a shooting spree, telling
everyone to make your day, it will only make things worse.” The whole brutal
scene brought back horrible memories of when I’d killed a man in self-defense.
I was a survivor, not a murderer, and his death would always haunt me, even if
he had tried to cause mine. I knew I’d have to shoot to kill again if the
gangsters left me no other choice, and that was a reality that was difficult to
face. Killing the undead was a far cry different than killing a living,
breathing person, no matter how vile.
“Okay, I’ll hold off, but I’m not
gonna surrender!” Claire said. “If we do, we’ll be eating bullets.”
“Let’s just calm down and see how it
all plays out,” I advised. “We may not have to go out in a blaze of glory after
all.”
“You honestly think we can talk our
way out of this, Dean?” she retorted. “I’m sure they killed our comrades back
there, and we’re gonna be next if we don’t take ‘em out first. I say we shoot
first and let God sort ‘em out.”
“Geesh, Claire. You sound like every
eighties action movie I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah? Well, Rambo lived through all
those sequels, and I plan to do the same.”
I shook my head and held my gun
steady. I really didn’t want to fire at them, but dying wasn’t on my itinerary
any more than it was on Claire’s, and I would fire if I had to. “If they start
shooting, I say it’s game on, but let’s wait and see what happens first.”
She nodded. “Fine, but don’t say I
didn’t warn ya.”
“We just wanna talk,” yelled a man
with a deep voice. “Drop your weapons and get outta your car.”
“No! Giving up our weapons is
suicide. We’ll be unarmed, and they’ll slaughter us,” Claire said.
“We blew up the lab!” I yelled. “We
even saved some of your friends and family.”
My heart thundered as sudden gunfire
erupted like we were in some kind of warzone. We both instinctively ducked down
as glass shattered and we were sprayed with a cascade of glittering shards.
Once all the windows were shot out, I was sure they were going to exterminate
us once and for all. Claire and I had escaped the warehouse after they’d set it
on fire, and they didn’t seem too keen on gratitude for saving their friends and relatives from that
crazy lab.
Claire took careful aim and
positioned her gun out the window, then started firing. If I wanted to live
another day, I knew I also needed to fight with everything I had. It really was
all about survival. As much as I hated firing on humans, I refused to die like
that, trapped in a Mazda in a ditch. If I had to go, I was going to take some
of those jerks out with me. I exhaled as I squeezed my trigger, letting off
several shots. Another spray of bullets came at us, bursting our tires, so loud
that it sounded like someone was beating the car with a Louisville slugger. Almost in slow motion, I
saw a bullet fly beside my head, and I ducked and gasped.
“I’m not in the mood to die today, Dean!” Claire
said. “If we stay here, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen. We gotta distract ‘em
somehow so we can make a run for it. I’m sure we can lose them in those weeds
and that brush over there, but we gotta move fast. Got your steel-toed sneakers
on?”
“I’ll cover you,” I said as more
bullets rang all around me, dinging the car. I returned fire and let out one
shot after another. My ears were ringing, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before
one of those bullets pelted my head.
“No, Dean! We’re both going. I’m
sick of being a damsel in distress.” Claire slammed another magazine in. “I’ve
got the better weapon, so don’t argue with my plan. I’m gonna go full force.
Open the door, get to those weeds, get low, and start crawling. I’ll be right
behind you.”
“Fine,” I conceded. “On the count of
three. One—”
Before I even got the chance to put
the plan into action, a man’s voice echoed from my right. “Cease fire, John!”
he said. “Tell ‘im, Marla.”
Marla was the name Claire had used
when we spied on them at the warehouse.
When I turned, I gasped at the
sight: One of the thugs was holding the barrel of a gun up to Claire’s temple.
“My name is not Marla,” she snapped.
“I know, Claire,” he said with a
smirk. “Just havin’ a li’l bit of fun.” He looked at me harshly, and the smile
from his sick joke left his eyes. “Now drop the gun, boy, or she’s dead.”
I pondered my options for a second,
wondering if I could take the guy out. Before I could contemplate any further,
I felt the cold barrel of a gun against the side of my own head.
“Hand over your weapons,” the thug
said.
Glaring at him, I handed my gun
over.
“Get out!” he shouted in my ear.
Due to the tumble we’d taken, the
door was dented and wouldn’t open. The next thing I knew, several men were
brutally jerking and tugging me through the shattered window, then pulling me
through the snow by my hair and jacket.
“Get up!” a bearded man commanded
like some kind of angry drill sergeant. “On your feet now!”
Claire screamed when they pulled her
by her hair, dragging her next to me.
The presumed leader approached, his
footsteps crunching in the deep snow.
Pain exploded in every nerve of my
face when he pistol-whipped me, and the last thing I heard as I slipped into
darkness was Claire’s long, shrill, helpless scream.
***
As I slowly came to, I could hear
snapping and a thudding sound. My ankles hurt, and my feet felt numb. My eyes
fluttered open, and I glanced around as they slowly focused. It was dark, and
the stench of death made me want to vomit. I noticed I was tied up by the
ankles, bound and gagged and suspended upside down in the air. When I glanced
at the floor, I gasped. Dozens upon dozens of decapitated zombie heads lined
the ground below me. What kind of butchers
are we dealing with here? This takes a special kind of sick.
Gruesome, cut-off heads thrashed and
chomped, lunging for me, desperate for a bite of fresh meat.
Great, I thought. Just freaking great.
