I stood on the porch and looked at what I was dealing with.

The horde of zombies filled the driveway, the yard, the street beyond the fence. Bodies pressed against each other in layers, some standing, some crawling, some dragging themselves forward with broken limbs.

The birds circled overhead in tight spirals, their wings beating in uneven rhythms. It didn’t matter what species they were anymore, if they hated each other while they lived, the dead belonged to the dead. And that was that.

I turned my head as cats moved low through the gaps between the legs of the zombies, their bodies sleek and fast. Snakes slithered across the pavement in dark coils, weaving between feet and over bodies without hesitation. I counted maybe six hundred zombies total, give or take.

The entire thing looked like it came out of a Stephen King book or a horror movie. The only thing that was missing was the thunder and lightning to set the mood.

But I felt nothing looking at them. No fear, no adrenaline, no spike of panic. Just... boredom... and a hint of annoyance, like I was looking at a mess someone else had made and now I was the one who had to clean it up.

Opened my hand and let the vine that was wrapped around my wrist go.

It shot out like an arrow in a thick green blur that split into dozens of smaller tendrils. It weaved around the human zombies like they weren’t even there.

My poor baby didn’t want to eat the zombies, not when there was something else to eat.

It splintered off even more, looking like a demented octopus as it wrapped itself around multiple zombie snakes at the same time. The leaf that it used as its head split in two, showing rows upon rows of green dripping teeth.

The common name for it was the Devil’s Ivy, but most people knew it as a pothos plant. A common every day house plant that was more poisonous than most people thought.

Case in point, the fact that my vine had venom dripping from its teeth as it shoved ten snakes into the gaping hole.

It moaned in enjoyment as even more, thinner vines shot out, grabbing a once black cat before shoving it into its mouth.

The more it ate, the bigger and more content it got.

And the bigger it was, the more food it needed.

"Eat up my dear," I purred in my best evil voice. "There is plenty of food for you tonight."

A hum of excitement reached me through our bond and I smiled. I could hear Zhenlan and them banging on the door behind me, but I waved my hand and the wooden door expanded until it merged with the wooden door jam.

They weren’t going anywhere.

The cats tried to scatter but the vine was faster. I watched it sweep low across the driveway, catching three cats in one pass and slamming them into the pavement hard enough that I heard bones break before it brought the bodies to its mouth.

My vine didn’t stop moving, didn’t slow down, just kept hunting.

Satisfied that my baby was going to do just fine, I turned my attention to the zombies in front of me.

They paused to watch the vine as it zipped around them. They didn’t approach it, but they did cock their heads to the side as they watched it eating.

I let out a sharp, piercing whistle and every last creature, zombie, bird, cat, or snake turned to look at me. "Did you forget about me?" I purred wiggling my fingers in a sarcastic wave.

As if being reminded, the lead zombies lurched toward me, its movements smooth.

But I wasn’t like the guys. I already had a lifetime to learn about my powers and what they could do.

Before the zombies could move more than three feet, I snapped my fingers.

The pavement right in front of them cracked in a straight line down the center of the driveway, then split wider, the pavement breaking apart in chunks.

The earth beneath the pavement collapsed on itself, dropping a full section of zombies into the hole before they could react.

Bodies fell in a pile, their limbs tangled together, and their heads cracking against each other on the way down. I watched them drop and felt the ground respond to what I wanted without resistance.

The hole widened even more, swallowing more zombies, and I realized that this was easier than before.

Smoother.

I had more control, the earth bent to my will with just a simple idea. I was stronger than last time.

Another wave of my hand and the ground smoothed out, covering the zombies like they had never been there in the first place and settling into a smooth surface.

I was about to open another hole in the ground to take care of even more zombies, but a flock of birds started to divebomb for me.

A sneer pulled on my lips. I hate the fucking birds I really did. You couldn’t build a fence high enough to keep the birds out, you couldn’t block them from entering your house and taking chunks out of your body when you were sleeping.

Me and those birds had irreconcilable differences.

I flung my hand out, my fingers outstretched and a thick vine, the size of my two fists put together split out of my palms like I was one of the bad guys from Mortal Kombat.

It split into a hundred thinner vines, reaching toward the flock of birds and surrounding them. It twisted on itself, creating a cage for the hundred plus fuckers.

It let it fall to the ground gently enough to not break.

I would keep them ’alive’ and well until my baby was hungry again.

Another group of zombies tried to take me from the right, using the trees as almost a type of shield.

I threw out my right hand, and instead of the monster vine creating a net to trap them, it punctured through their head, pulling out any crystals it found.

There was a trick to killing second level zombies and above, you needed to go through the eyes. Or the sockets if the eyes weren’t in them anymore.

Well, you could also go through the ears, but who had time to try and find those in the middle of a fight?

The vine was still moving, still hunting and I watched it tear through another cluster of birds. Then it swung low to catch a snake that had been trying to slip past toward the porch.

I wanted to try something that I had been thinking of in my past life but was never strong enough to do. Instead of making a hole in the ground and hoping that something fell into it, I simply opened the ground under their feet and let them fall in before sealing the earth shut again.

It demanded a lot more energy to do, and a more delectate hand, but it worked.

And it worked well.

I sent out my intention, it pictured it exactly how I wanted it to be in my head, and the hundreds of zombies completely disappeared within seconds like they had never been there.

It felt familiar, like riding a bike, and I was absolutely loving it.

I looked around my front lawn and it looked like it had survived a zombie apocalypse. My vine was still chasing after cats, more enjoying the hunt than actually looking for food.

The birds trapped in the cage were desperately trying to get out, but not matter how hard they tried, it was useless.

Taking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes. I pictured exactly what I wanted. The lush green grass that never had a single military truck touch it. Lush trees that made up a mini forest closer to the gate and street. I couldn’t make pavement, but I could make a play on a cobblestone driveway.

By the time I opened my eyes, my blood was singing, my vines was wrapped around my neck, purring in happiness, and my front yard could belong in any garden magazine.

I pat the triangular leaf that it was using as a head and it sighed before slipping under my shirt and into my sports bra.

"Not quite the boss battle I was expecting," I said, looking around to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything, "but it was still nice to stretch my muscles a bit."

I turned around and walked back to the door.

"I wonder if they updated that drama while I wasn’t paying attention."