DOARS- Week 8 Day 6- Ending an Era

Welcome back everyone!
As a point of interest, the majority of this chapter happens at night, so most of the pictures are dark, sorry!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Diary


Today is going to be epic. Before I go to bed tonight, I'm going to have my parents back! Nothing else matters; it's my last day of school, whatever; today is the prom, I really couldn't care less; I will be a legal adult as of tomorrow night, who cares?


I have the cure, and tonight when I save my parents I'll be striking Tony with his final blow. The war will be over, the alien civilization will be saved, the universe will be right again.

It really does seem too good to be true, but I can't start having doubts now, this is going to be quite possibly the most important thing I ever do with my life. I'll need to act quickly, probably, and decisively, maybe. Ok, I really don't know what I'm going to do. I know I have to throw the potion at the ground and a cloud of the cure will encompass anything near it, so I just hope my aim will be good enough.


Not really wanting to leave the outcome of tonight to pure wishes and hoping, I decided to become as prepared and fit as possible. I spent a few hours before school working out. I'm completely sure that it will help me be prepared, but it might. Will I need physical strength? I don't know, do you know?
Didn't think so.


School and prom were the same as normal. I mean, prom isn't normal, but there wasn't anything remarkable about it. I was voted prom queen, got rejected for a dance by a guy that was marginally attractive, made some killer dance moves and pretty much just waited until dark when I could go out and find my parents in the light of the ominous full moon.

Rommich called me just after 10 to let me know that he had a pinpoint on my parent's location. They were at SimHenge. SimHenge was located in the unpopulated and most mysterious area of Sunset Valley, no one went there, except for maybe the odd gem or bug hunter... and crazy people. If something weird was going to happen (outside of the graveyard), it would be at SimHenge. I shivered at the thought. I think Rommich could tell. He offered to come with me, but I rejected him; this was something I needed to do for myself. They were my parents, and bringing my family back together and striking down Tony weren't things that I wanted to share. Tony had destroyed my family and there was no way that I would let anyone who wasn't me destroy him.



After what felt like hours of running, I arrived at my destination. In front of me my mother was rising from the ground as only the dead do.



My father followed suit.


It was horrifying. I'd seen zombies before, alien zombies, but seeing my parent's decaying corpses and the soulless look in their eyes will probably haunt me until I die. Every inch of my body wanted to flee, run away, and just forget that any of this ever took place, but I couldn't. My determination was rock solid and stronger than any instincts of fright that might try to overtake me.
There was no time to waste, every moment that I hesitated was another moment that they were in Tony's grasp.


With a hands shaking from fear and adrenaline, I dashed the potion to the ground between my dead parents and a cloud of smoke filtered up from it, small at first, and then it grew and overtook both of the deformed creatures. This was it.

Under the pale moonlight I waited for hours as the molecules in their bodies came back to life. Every second felt like a lifetime, but it didn't matter, the agonizing wait, the worry, the rapid pounding of my heart, everything would all be worth it. I would have my parents back and finally Tony would be no more.

The universe would be safe again. Finally.

To Be Continued....
~~~~~~~~~~

I stopped it there, because everything that follows is technically Week 8 Day 7, so the continuation will hopefully be posted tomorrow! :)

DOARS- Week 8 Day 5- Did Someone Ask for a Doctor?

Welcome back! I'm trying to get back to being on a roll with these, but I know there has been a lot of waiting for new chapters, so I'm sorry! I can't promise to get better with that, since I am working right now, but thanks for coming back to read these whenever I do get them published. :)
~~~~~~~

Dear Diary,

After last night's unfortunate interview with Zhiddezoe, my nightmares were even worse than they had been. I mean the main topic was the same, but Rommich and Pat and Hector and their bizarre love triangle thing was thrown into all the horribleness and they all died... of broken hearts. It wasn't pretty.

So I woke up very early today, and not at all excited about what this fine Thursday was going to have in store for me.




I stared at my left over breakfast of lobster and wasn't excited. These delicacies are not my style. I want home cooked food, I want to eat a breakfast of waffles, just like my dad used to make every morning. I'm tired of eating things that don't make me happy. So I decided right then and there that as soon as I graduated and had some time to learn to cook, I would eat homemade food every day for every meal.

After my less than satisfying breakfast I finished my homework that Zhiddezoe and her stupid plans interrupted last night. Stupid aliens ruining my stupid homework for my stupid second to last day of school.




Stupid mail woman watching me mail my stupid bills that require stupid signatures and stupid money or my stupid electricity will get stupidly shut off.

Have you figured out that I'm not in a good mood, yet? I'm not. I'm very moody and upset. Why does this world have to be so stupid! I just want to live my life the way I want to live it! I want my family together! I want to marry who I want to marry; I want my brother to marry who he wants to marry and I just want the world to make sense again!
Zombies?!?! Really, my parents are zombies? WHO EVER HEARD OF SOMETHING LIKE THAT? Why is this happening to me? Why is it my life that gets all screwed up and why is it my family that has to save the universe? I just want to be normal.

I'm not coping well. Can you tell? I'm going to blame it on lack of sleep, though, and just take a deep breath. Everything is going to be fine. Hector will find the solution and then he'll come home and Pat will come with him and we'll be one big happy family again. I just have to be patient and take things one moment at a time.




In view of that, I exercised this morning. I'm sure you remember that my plan for keeping my cool involved exercise, so I thought this was a fitting way to spend my time.

While working out, though, I was reminded how long ago it was that my family was all together. Sure this was only my third day on my own, but if you remember, it only takes 3 days for a baby to be conceived and born, so 3 days is actually a very long time. I missed everyone. I just hope it won't be another three days before we're all together again.



My second to last day of high school was very non-thrilling. I got more homework that was supposed to be completed before my last day of school. I bet you couldn't have guessed that, huh? What? You guessed that? Who woulda figured...


Ok, you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry. I am a good person, really, I'm just a little stressed right now. Hopscotch was the alternative to homework this evening. Yes, I should have done my homework, but when I got home I saw the hopscotch court waiting for me and I couldn't resist. I know my mother would have approved.




Speaking of my parents coming back, Hector stopped by unexpectedly!




He had a most welcome surprise for me, the cure! I never should have doubted him. He told me to find our parents during the full moon, and not only would it cure them, but if I cured them during the full moon, while they were most strongly connected to Tony, then it would cripple the evil force, and win the war.

Wow! That sounded completely doable! For the first time since I'd heard about this war, it actually sounded like we had a shot at winning.

When I asked how he knew, and how he found the cure, he told me that they'd run experiments on captured alien zombies, and all of them had been 100% cured after using this potion. He had no sim test subjects to use, but this was our best hope for curing them. He couldn't disclose how he got his information about this crippling Tony, but he guaranteed that it would. I'm going to assume that he got the information from some un-zombified aliends.
With this cure I just had to wait for one more night, and then it would be the full moon and my parents and my brother would all be together again.



And then he told me that he wasn't going to come home. He was going to stay with the aliens and help them rebuild their world and recover their zombie hoards.

It was a noble goal, but if I'm being perfectly honest it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I burst into tears. For the past three days I'd been picturing this lovely scene with all my family and now, my brother wasn't going to be in it.  My family would never be together again, not all of them, not permanently. That was crushing.

My brother tried to assure me that he'd be back and that when he came back he'd have a surprise for me. Surprise? Wait, what? That brought me back to focusing on the real world. He gave me a big hug and kissed my cheek, telling me that it would all be all right. Had he gained weight? I really would have sworn that he did.

He wouldn't answer any more of my questions, though, and in a very ambassador like manner, he got back into his ship and disappeared. I wiped away my tears and focused on what was really important. I had the cure. Tomorrow, my parents would come back to life.


Dreaming good dreams tonight,

Raquel Sw0rd

DOARS- Week 8 Day 4- Star Crossed

Welcome Back! Last time we saw our DW she was struggling with feelings of inadequacy and loss. Understandably so. How is she doing on the second day? Read and find out!

Also, sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out, I've been working and stuff. I'm feeling better and I had this morning off of work, so here is the next part!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Diary,

Yesterday was my slacking day, my introspective day, or at least one of them, and the first day in my entire life that I spent with out even one family member.

It was a pretty crappy day.


Today probably isn't going to be much better, but I did start off the day with some pumpkin, in the form of a pie, so the start isn't nearly as bad as it could be.


I've been having nightmares, especially since my mom and dad died and went missing, isn't it odd that it should be in that order? I don't know that I'll ever get used to that... but, with any hope I won't have to. Anyways, I'm, up early today since I couldn't sleep. I don't even want to think about how many hours I have until school starts.
So I won't.
There are a lot of things to keep me busy, like this for instance. My mother used to make the beds every day, and now I can do this in her memory. It's like saying, "This is for you mom, you raised me right, and if you ever come back, I'll show you how great you are."

Something like that anyway, I might have part of the message jumbled up, or misinterpreted it, but you get the idea.

A new day brings more laundry and more things to fold. Fortunately for me neither of these things really take that long to do. Or maybe ... unfortunately, as I am looking for ways to fill my time and keep my mind occupied.... well, the laundry doesn't take that long, that's the point. I can't be bothered with speaking correctly today, so you'll just have to try and be understanding about it. You can do that. ... Right?


There's the dishes, too. I can wash all of them, that's another thing my mother was fanatical about. She'll appreciate the house being clean should she ever return. That's something I'm going to stop doing, these if's and should she, and maybes and possibilities. That's no way to live. My mom and dad are going to come back. My brother is more than smart enough to make it happen, and I really need to stop questioning this. My family will be together again. I really can't afford to doubt that.

Back to cleaning the house, my brother's bed probably should be made. He's the most notorious of the household about not making his bed.

I just got dressed, so more laundry to do. This bag is awfully big for just having my pjs in it.... Wait, did the gnome just snicker?

"Your contribution to keeping our army clean is duly noted."

Seriously? Am I doing gnome laundry? The only gnome that I've ever met doesn't even wear clothes...

"I like the breeze."

O.O

"Are you sure you don't want to put on some of these clothes? They match your... er, furr..." I suggested. I mean, if I was going to was gnome laundry, then they could at least be kind enough to wear it...Not that I had ever thought about it, but it was a little creepy that the ambassador didn't wear clothing...

"You should not mess with things you do not understand!" *POOF*



Let's just... move on...I took the opportunity to check my e-mail then and look up gnomes. I'm guessing that they're not all like the teddy bear who haunts our house.

And I discovered that they're not. They actually seem to dress like old men who wear pointy hats. Who knew?


Well, there was one thing that I was actually prepared for in my new life, driving. It's very nice to be able to drive myself around. Especially as a cryptic message in my e-mail told me to meet them at a community lot.

The lot, the "them", and the time of the meeting were left out of the e-mail. Great. But with my 'wheels' I set out on this wild goose chase and hoped it would result in something productive.


I have deduced a few things about it, though. The location was not the grocery store.


Or the book store.

The person was not Pat, who showed up at my school to tell me that Hector was doing pretty well and I shouldn't be worried about any lab accidents that I may or may not hear about.

Which is actually very unnerving, far too unnerving to think about. I'm going to assume freaking me out wasn't her intent. Now let's just stop for a moment, I have something to clarify. My mother freaks out about every little thing. I don't. Got that? So although I may occasionally freak out when my family goes through a crisis, this is not going to be an everyday thing. Okay? All right, now that we're clear, let's move on.

After school I headed to the diner. Why you may ask? Well, it couldn't hurt, right? And that actually was the right location at approximately the right time. Rommich Thobanob was waiting for me.

I know you've seen him a few times and you may now be trying to calculate the number of times we've dealt with him instead of Zhiddezoe and which of the two we've seen more often. Well, let me just say, that's is very odd of you, but if it makes you happy then continue... I guess. Though, I can't speak for the rest of my family, but personally I know Rommich much better than Zhiddezoe. So I was relieved when my secret appointment was with him.

Less relieved when I found out about the topic of conversation, how ever. He'd just learned of Zhiddezoe's plans for him and Pat. Oh did I never mention that? Hmm.... I thought I did. Well, Zhiddezoe has been planning their marriage ever since Pat was young. On the topic of their marriage, he said that aside from both being close to Hector and the rest of the Sw0rds, he and Pat didn't have anything in common, and he was pretty sure she had zero interest in him. I may or may not have confirmed that in matters of the heart her interests are deeply rooted in another.

He was not pleased. Apparently he's tried to talk Zhiddezoe out of this wild scheme, but all of her reasons make sense. They're the last breed-able alien man and women. When she puts it like that, I think we can all see her point. Rommich is resolved, though, to never marry Pat. He says that even though she's the last alien he can marry, he'll never marry her. I wonder if there's bad blood there, it's unlike the desperate Rommich that I used to know to refuse any woman. Well, maybe it's because she's in love with his best friend, I suppose that is something that would deter him.



Anyways, after my dinner with Rommich I went home to my empty house and did more laundry. Well, I suppose it wasn't really empty, since the ambassador has been hanging around recently. He had nothing to say to me this evening, which is maybe a good thing.... or maybe not, it's hard to say.

Then there was the ever present homework to complete. I'm determined to graduate with full honors and make my brother and my parents proud. I'm graduating in a few days, though, so I just hope that they'll all be there to see it.



After the homework was completed, my evening took an unusual turn. Zhiddezoe abducted me for a private chat. She's always been friendly with me before, but today she was very menacing.
Her visit was to remind me that Rommich and Pat were going to get married and propagate the alien species, and that no matter how fond she was of the Sw0rds, she would not tolerate any interference on that score. I kindly informed her that I had absolutely no idea how that affected me, since I was not interfering at all and really didn't have that much of an opinion on it. She grumbled or something, and dropped me off at home. Well, we may have gotten into an argument about it, and words may have been exchanged, I might not have been as polite as I was hoping to be, and my brother my or may not have come up as an alternative husband to Pat, which may or may not have made the conversation much more heated. Anyways, by the time I got home it was late, and although I don't dislike the alien leader, she was not my favorite person. I'm tired, I have school in the morning and I really didn't need her eating up my evening and the early hours of the night.


Exhausted and frustrated,

Raquel Sw0rd

Where Did Isa Go?

Good question!
I got a job. :)
Also, my life got turned topsy turvy, so things have been hectic and stressful a lot of them have been miserable. So sparing all of you the details, stuff has been going on that has killed my romantic side for the time being, and that's the delay on the next parts of DOARS, because there's some romance planned, but I'm just not going to write about that stuff right now. I'd just change the story, but I've already played the days so... yeah, sorry about that!
As soon as I can, I'll get back to the story. :)

DOARS- So I've been thinking....

Hello all!

So I've been thinking about the last name of this legacy. I'm leaning towards changing the last name to each generation's husband. That being said it's not going to be a matriarchacy... or, lol, however you say that. So the family name would only change when there is a girl heir. What do you guys think?

The Family name has already changed from Winslow to Sw0rd, should I keep doing that or should I stick with one name and take it through the rest of the generations?

DOARS- Raquel's Roll

Hey guys,

Raquel hasn't quite officially taken over yet, but she's just a few days away, so I thought I'd let you guys know what her roll was:

Couple
5 Kids
Criminal Thief- Primary Income
Freelance Scientist- Secondary Income
Social Bunny-  go out on a 'group outing' or a 'date' every week.
Homemade- must make all the food from homegrown ingredients, no store bought anything being ingested.

So there we are. I toyed with re-rolling the family structure so that I could keep both Hector and Raquel, but I decided against it. So... Raquel is going to become a criminal...
Should be fun, right?

DOARS- Week 8 Day 3- Just Another Day

Welcome back! Things have been getting very serious in the DOARS, haven't they? I hope you enjoy the next chapter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Diary,

Today it's just me. I have no idea how long it's going to be just me.
My brother may never return. My parent's might be permanently gone.

I'd love to ignore those two things, but I can't. If I ignored them then I wouldn't be prepared to face what I might have to face, and that could destroy me. That is something I can't allow. I have to think through all the possibilities and set my self up for my best chance of success. Why? Because I'm the last of the living Sw0rd's. At least on this planet.

It's all part of "prepare for the worst and hope for the best."  That's my motto until I see light at the end of the tunnel.



That means paying the bills and not losing my family's house or possessions in their absence. Fortunately I still have access to my family's bank account and my mother's job is, was, pretty lucrative so I shouldn't have to work for a while, or at least until I graduate high school.

Now, I don't want you to worry that I'm going to become a hoarder. I'm much too practical for that. I'm not collecting any new things, I'm just preserving and taking care of the old ones while there is yet hope. And I do have hope. As for my brother's return, well... I'd like to think that's more probable than not, and my parents... have less of a chance. Much less. But it's still a chance and I'm going to hang onto it.



Just because my brother is there looking for a cure to zombification, doesn't mean that the aliens won't necessarily need to relocate, so I keep up with my work on locating a planet for them if theirs is permanently lost. Because, if you think about it, even if they find the cure or some means to fight against the zombies, their planet will still be over run. It is very possibly too late to save their home. Remember, I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen the zombie apocalypse that Tony has heaped upon them and it's going to haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. What are 5 aliens against thousand or even millions of zombies? Cure or no, relocation seems inevitable.

We, the gnomes, and the aliens, all of us have to face the fact that the aliens have already lost this war. Now it's all about the retreat.

They still want to save their planet, of course, how could they not? But I hope that doesn't blind them to saving themselves first and foremost. Their zombified loved ones are dead. Their war torn world will never recover. They need to move on.

To where, though? Recently I've been thinking more and more about an alternate type of celestial body. Right now I'm trying to figure out how I might be able to make that work. I won't go into details until I'm sure. After all, you might be Tony's next minion, and then he would know all our plans, wouldn't he? But, I think my idea is quite likely the best chance that the alien's have, if only I can work out logistics.


Moving on to less "heavy" topics, you'll probably notice that the sun is quite high in the sky on this picture and I'm not at school. And it's Tuesday.
I'm taking the day off today.
I'd explain, but if that is really necessary, then I am sorry to inform you that your IQ is not high enough to be reading this diary, and you really ought to put it down now.
And walk away.
Slowly.


It wasn't until about mid-afternoon that my emotions struggled with my mind to get the better of me. A wave of sadness flooded over me as if I was the beach during high tide.

I think I just stared at the shower for half an hour trying to decide what the point was. After all, how silly would it look if a sandy beach actively tried to fight against the tide. I mean really, it'd lose, hands down.

You may have noticed that I am not a beach, though. If you didn't, then you obviously can't follow direction. Seriously, put the book down and walk away. Heck I don't even care if you walk away slowly anymore, run for all I care, just stop reading now.

I'm never like this. Emotional I mean, not abusive. I mean I'm never that either, well apparently not never.. any more. I'm straying from the point, but I'm actually a very kind person almost all the time. The same goes for being emotional. I'm not an emotional woman, I take after my mother in that regard, but as you are acutely aware of my recent history and what stresses I may be going through right now, then I hope you can understand with out judging me too harshly. I will admit to being emotional right now. If I ever have children I'm sure I will be emotional again. I can only rely on your good graces to not hold that against me.

It's just that I'm just not sure how to go on. How do I handle everything? My parents always took care of everything, how am I supposed to fill their shoes? What day of the week do I pay rent? Is it the Tuesday bills or the Thursday bills? Do I pay rent, or do we own the house outright? You can probably see now how ill prepared I was to be on my own... as a teenager.



Baby steps. That's what they always say, right? You have to walk before you can run? I'll do that. I'll take things slow, prioritize. Mom did laundry like there was no tomorrow, so that's what I'll do. I can do laundry. I think she may have mentioned the gnomes' connection with laundry, I'm not really sure how that works, but if this has anything to do with the gnomes, then it gets priority.

Next to my brother, they're the best bet on saving the alien race. They might have some teleportation technology that could force the relocation even if the aliens decide to 'go down with the sinking ship' as it were.

I mean, let's be honest, my family and I, and even the gnomes, have fallen in love with the alien culture and we're not going to let them give up. I love them far too much. Rommich, Zhiddezoe, Pat, all of them are far too precious to lose.

Back to normal life, I can learn to cook... later. We have a lot of leftovers in the fridge, and if I don't think about how they're from the party when I last saw my parents, then I can eat them just fine. That means cooking is very low on the priority list.


When this new life gets overwhelming I can go jogging. That'll keep me active and healthy, it'll help take my mind off things and lower my stress. Just breathe in and out and keep running. I can do that. Keeping my sanity, and thus jogging, is right up there with laundry, but perhaps lower than the bills. If my family can ever be united, it'd be awfully nice if we still had a home to be united in.

As I went through the day I kept a narration with myself. "Ok, do this, now..." and things like that. The laundry needed to get to the dryer so it wouldn't mildew. Easy. I can do that. "Put the clothes in the dryer, Raquel, and don't think about anything sad."  I think it was helping me, though I wasn't oblivious to the fact that I could crack and any moment and give up. I just kept telling myself that I could get through the next five minutes, and if I could do that, then I'd be fine.

I know that might be hard to believe, given my lack of emotion in this entry. But, when there is so much emotion in my life currently, why would I want to continue the theme here? This is my break from it all. This is how I collect my thoughts and 'get it together' as it were. I hope you understand.

Back to my day, again. We really do keep getting side tracked, I wonder if there's a better way to stay on topic....?

"You will be fine, Raquel," a voice from behind me rang out. I jumped a foot in the air and turned to see the ambassador. "Why don't you call your brother and see how he's doing. He's not out of your life completely, and he's not dead. It'll be good for you." With that the little brown gnome disappeared.

He was right, though, I can still rely on my brother... if he can get cell phone reception out there.


Which apparently he can.

The only thing of importance that we talked about was his progress on the cure. It was going slowly, but it was going. After that we just talked about random things and reminisced. The gnome was right, it did make me feel a lot better.

I went to bed with a much calmer heart and a renewed confidence that someday my family would be back together, but for now, I just have to make it through the night. If I can do that, then I'll be fine.


Holding down the fort,

Raquel Sw0rd



~~~~~~~~~

My game LOVES me and sent Lynn and Cycl0n3 on vacation so the teens could have the house to themselves, or well, the teen singular. Anyways, that was perfect for my story! YAY. Also since Hector is not the DW, per random legacy rules he moved out. I let him take Pat with him because Pat SHOULD have been the same age as him, since she was his IF. I'll probably force her to age up the next time I see her to fix the glitch. Maybe when they get back from doing their research with the aliens, I'll do that. ;)

DOARS- Week 8, Day 2- The Only

Dum Dum Dum! The last entry was creepy and cliffie and really interesting all rolled up in one! Or at least that's how I saw it. How are our favorite Sw0rds going to fix this one, huh? Read On!
~~~~~~~~~~~
-Cycl0n3's Diary-

Dear Diary,

Last night Lynn disappeared after the party. I searched everywhere for her, but it was as if she had disappeared into the very ground. So I came home, exhausted, worried sick, and praying that she would come home safe, that it would all be a prank that she was playing on me.

Thank goodness the kids had gone to bed before the party ended yesterday, I don't know how I'm going to face them. If Lynn doesn't come back, what will I tell them? How do you tell your kids that their mother vanished without a trace? How does a superstar sports legend even disappear like that? She's going to turn up. She has to!

I can't live without her.


She did show up early in the morning, but she wasn't herself. Her body was decaying and falling apart. How did she go from a vibrant woman to this walking corpse over night? I was horrified. What was going on with her? I pleaded for her to tel me what happened, but she merely grunted. Was my Lynn even in there still? Who was this monster standing before me?

Before I could react she lunged at me and caught me in a vice-like grip. When I tried to struggle her arms starting coming out of their sockets, and I stopped immediately. I couldn't hurt her. She was my wife. Was. But  maybe my Lynn was somewhere deep down in her, maybe we could get her back.

In between my fear and panic and trying to figure out a way to extricate myself from the rotting flesh that surrounded me, I felt a sickening tear in my arm. This creature had sunk her teeth into me. Pain flooded my body as her teeth sank deeper into my muscle tissue.

Throwing caution to the wind, I pushed her off of me, finally having a use for these muscles that she had encouraged me to develop. Her body went limp, but thankfully seemed to stay in one piece.

My momentary relief was destroyed when I realized that I couldn't breathe. Not only could I not breath, but the icy cold feel of death permeated my entire body. I was dying.

 My body crumpled to the floor and my heat beat its last beat. My last thought was for my children- please don't kill our children.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End of Entry

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 -Raquel's Diary-

Dear Diary,

When we woke up this morning my parents were gone. The last time we saw them was at the party last night, they were dancing and having a good time. Was their absence now part of Dad's surprise for mom?

I'd love to believe that, I would, but this was out of character for them. They always let us know where they were and if they were going to be gone. And something felt... wrong. Hector and I turned to the only person we know that never sleeps and deserves a degree in observation, Pat.

"Do you know where mom and dad are?" I asked her and Hector watched her reaction. The forced smile was enough to confirm my suspicions that something was amiss. Pat stayed silent for several moments and focused on something intangible.

"Yes," she finally responded. She was always that concise, never offering up more information that exactly what was asked. Was that an alien thing or just a Pat thing?

"Where are they?" Hector asked in a tone that meant he didn't just want the short accurate answer. Pat's smile faltered and her shoulders fell.
"Tony captured them." She said softly.
The room fell silent.

I couldn't speak, I could barely keep standing. Tony's attacks on us had been shallow, always the dishwasher, the sink, the shower, etc, but this? He took our parents? How did he even do that? Were they ok? Were they alive?
My knees started wobbling and my head started spinning, leaving me no other option than to drag my shaky body to the nearest chair. My parents had been captured. Had he formed a minion army of zombies here as he had on the alien home world?
I was familiar with them, how indestructible they were. How do you kill something that is already dead? He had turned all the alien women into these walking dead and slaughtered the majority of the civilization. Rommich and I had been working on stronger weapons and retreat strategies and possible relocation of the remaining 5 aliens, well 6 aliens, now. We had always thought that it was impossible to do on simWorld, that he could only control beings on other planets. I see that we were wrong.

That's not the worst of it, though. Once he captured a person's soul and bend their corpse to his will, he integrated their minds into himself. He knew everything my parent's knew. It was fortunate that they didn't know about Pat. Was that why they didn't know about her? Did Pat know this was going to happen?

That question hit me like a slap in the face, and I couldn't restrain myself from asking it.
"Did you know they were going to be turned into zombies?" I know that my tone sounded more accusatory than question-like, but the flit of guilt that flashed over her face answered my question sufficiently.

"Wait, Zombies? What? What happened to our parents?" Hector demanded. Pat looked at me and then to the floor. It looked like she was trying to muster up courage to answer. The boiling anger in me had done that already. How could she have known and not told us? How could she keep that from us? If we had known we might have been able to prevent this!

"Tony turns people into zombie slaves and uses them to fight. That's how he's fought this war with the aliens and destroyed most of them. He steals their souls and when their bodies die he takes control over their decaying flesh. When he captures them, he learns everything they knew. That's why Pat didn't want our parents finding out about her. Because she knew that Tony was going to kill them." My voice was filled with poison and bitterness. I would have cried if there had been any room for emotions other than hate and anger. How could she do that to us?



Horrified, Hector looked at Pat, "Is that true?"
"No! I didn't know! I promise, I didn't know he was going to take them. I thought it was possible, that's all. I still don't know very much about our enemy. I didn't know he could take people from your planet, I thought it was only other planets like my people's planet. That's the honest truth. That's why the fewer people know that I'm the helper the better, because it was always a possibility that he'd find a way to build an army here. I should have told you, but it was my biggest fear, and I just couldn't. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Pat burst into tears, displaying more emotion than I had ever seen from her. I believed her. She didn't know, but she did know it was possible, and she should have told us. That didn't help us now, though. Our parents were gone.


"Is there a way to get them back?" Hector asked, his voice scarily devoid of emotion. Pat looked up at him through her tears and softly shook her head.
"I don't know, there might be a potion that can free them of his hold, but we haven't been able to find it. You don't have the resources here to discover it. My people have been trying for over a ten simWeeks to come up with a solution, but we haven't been able to. We may never find the combination that we need."

The room fell into a mournful silence for a moment. Then as if a light bulb went off above my brother's head he piped up.

"That's because you don't have me. I found out how to make you real, how to make old ones young, I can do this, too. Pat, is there a way to get me to the alien's research labs?"
"I don't know... I could ask, though..." She bit her lip. I laughed inside, I keep forgetting that she was raised here. I know more about her people than she does.
"I've been there." I announced. Now I wasn't in the habit of telling people that I had been to the alien home world or fought a zombie face to face. I never mentioned that I knew the secrets and goals of the rest of the aliens that were living, but now seemed the time to speak up, because I believed him. Hector was a genius at potions and mixtures, if anyone could cure a zombie, it'd be him.
"What?" The other two asked in unison. I rolled my eyes, I wasn't going to tell them anything else about that, and they were getting distracted.
"Sims can go to the alien's base on their planet. If you contact Rommich and tell him that Tony's forming an army here and that you want to help them find the cure, he'll take you there, I'm sure of it." I said.


Pat clapped and smiled. "If Hector is going to my planet, and you've already been, then I'm going, too. It's about time for me to see where I came from and start fighting in this war with my people."


So preparations were made, Rommich was contacted, and Hector began gathering what he would need.
Rommich would be picking them up that night, and before then Hector had make all the necessary arrangements and step into his new role as a scientist and full-fledged adult.

During the agonizingly long hours of the day Pat and I tried to keep ourselves busy. It seemed like Tony was trying to do that, too. Almost all of our appliances broke, there had never been so much water on the floor of our house before.

 Pat and I tackled each appliance with diligence and in her case, skill.


But soon the hours and preparations came to an end. It was time for them to go. Hector took one last look around. He didn't have to tell me that he might not be back for a while, I already knew. He wasn't coming back until he found a way to save our parents, and if he never did... then... I don't even want to think about that, but I think we all know what that means.





 "Are you read, Pat?" He asked, after taking the final look at our parent's room. She nodded.

 Before the two were able to leave the house, Pat enfolded Hector into a tight embrace.
"We're going to save them. Together," She whispered. I saw a tear form in my brothers eye and he let her go. It was then that I realized that Pat was in love with Hector. You'd think with everything going on, that my mind would be bogged down with worry and fear and a host of other emotions, but that side of me had shut down, the only part of my brain that was still working was the logical part. And it just informed me that an alien was in love with my brother, and he loved her as much as he can love anyone. Zhiddezoe wasn't going to like that. She had plans for Pat, and those plans certainly did not involve Hector.
He cleared his throat and looked at me, as soon as his eyes locked with mine, the wall that had been keeping out emotion crumbled into a million pieces. My brother was going to the front lines of another planet to save my dead parents. The air was suddenly much too thick to breath and a lump formed in my throat.
"Bye, Kid. Stay out of trouble, you hear? Keep up with your school work and make sure you graduate with flying colors, ok? And-" He stopped his speech because of the sound of Rommich's arrival. "I love you, sis," He said to me and he forced himself to leave, obviously not ready to leave me, but knowing that the time had come.

I stayed silent. There were so many things I wanted to say, but the lump had choked out anything I might have said. My heart broke as my last living family member left my world.

"Come back," I whispered to the air, when I finally managed to say anything at all.

After locking all the doors, I collapsed onto my bed. Why didn't I go with them? I know that I decided to stay here because if by some miracle my parents returned healthy, I wanted to be the first to know about it. I couldn't abandon my world or my house. I was the only person on this planet that had fought zombies and lived to tell the tale, how could I have just left? If I keep reminding myself of that, will it hurt less to be completely alone?
Besides, I had to stay for my school, and to take care of the house. I would have been useless to them, just another person taking up space and another person that they had to protect from their own mass of zombies. But here... I have to protect me. I'm staying because it's the right thing to do, but I'm not sure I'm going to survive this. Surely I'm Tony's next target.

The last of the Sw0rd's,
Raquel Sw0rd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So what did you guys think? Huh? Any ideas about where the story is going from here? Will we ever see Hector again? Will Lynn and Cycl0n3 ever be normal sims again?

This is the official announcement, in case you didn't pick up on it, Raquel is our next DW! She still has a few days until she's a YA, so she hasn't taken over officially, yet, but pretty soon now she will!

Also, adult Hector is on my page and able to be dowloaded! Yay! I also have the entire family up there if you want to check them out. :)