by Katz, Gayle
“So, could there be other dolls out there?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. The spell only works once on one doll. It’s not like TV.”
Owen moved closer to the coffee table. “This is fascinating, but what about the person the hair was taken from? Are they in any danger?”
“This is a slightly different voodoo spell. Usually a voodoo doll is used to hurt a specific person.” Stewart paused. He had a lot to say. “But in this case, the hair was taken from a random person and the doll was used to create a lifelike zombie. So no, I don’t think the original person would be harmed.” He paused. “But, I can’t be entirely certain. Since that zombie is now gone, that person should now be safe. I assume that all of their hair would be used. However, I can’t be certain of the long-term effects if someone’s hair were taken on a regular basis.”
Charlie stood up. “So, it’s Keri who made the dolls?”
Zan stood up with her. “But what’s the whole point? Fake zombies?”
“Well, I think that because the injectables have been mostly destroyed, she is trying to find a new way to make more zombies,” said Stewart.
“So Keri is one of Dr. Arora’s cohorts then?” asked Charlie.
“Yes, I believe so,” said Stewart. “Say, Owen, any luck on talking to Keri?”
“No,” he replied. “Every time I see her in the hall she seems to zip away, like she knows who I am.”
“Oh crap!” said Charlie, just remembering something. “We have to find Sebastian and Keri!”
“What’s wrong?” asked Stewart as her friends looked up.
“Keri took some of Sebastian’s hair! He confided in me. We thought it was sexual harassment. Oh, how stupid of me not to realize she’s up to something!”
“OK, so I suggest we break up into two teams. One will go and find Sebastian. The other will find Keri. I suggest Charlie find Sebastian, as he’s more likely to believe her. You two, go and find Keri. As for me, I’m going to find out if there is a way to counteract the spell so we can keep Sebastian safe at least. But we don’t know how much hair Keri has collected up to now.”
“OK, let’s go,” said Charlie, with Zan and Owen following her.
As Owen left, he felt a bit annoyed that he hadn’t been able to mention his meeting with Julian. But, for now, that could wait. If Dr. Arora were really still alive, there was nothing they could do about it at the moment. And they could search her house anytime they wanted.
zzz
Julian decided to play it cool for now.
“How are you still here?” asked Keri. “The zlayers should have gotten you by now.”
“Same to you,” he said, puzzled.
“Did you get an injectable?” she asked him.
“Yes, I was treated in the hospital. I was going to die, so Dr. Arora saved me.”
“Hmm,” she said. “I have heard that sometimes she helps people.”
“Yes,” he answered. “And, I’ve made it my goal to help people, too.”
“I see.”
“So, how did you turn?” he asked her.
“Oh me? I did it to myself.”
“Why would you do that?”
She nodded. “Dr. Arora had no idea. I was at a party at her house and I found her stash. Ha! I thought it was drugs though. I didn’t know. Next thing I know, my brain is foggy and my eyes are glowing green.”
Julian looked at her. “And then what?”
“And then Dr. Arora was hovering over me, yelling at me for being so stupid. But she got me stabilized and said I was very lucky that I hadn’t died.” She shrugged.
“And Dr. Arora just let you go, just like that?”
“Yes. She said I was to tell no one.”
“So, is that why you’re out here? Hunting?”
“Yep.”
“OK, I have a secret to tell you,” he said.
“Yes?”
“You don’t have to eat humans.”
She breathed in deeply. “I don’t?”
He shook his head to the side. “Nope. You can subsist on raw steak. That’s what works for me.”
She turned to look at him. “Really? How clever. Why, that’s almost like eating raw human meat.”
“It is. Also, I think it keeps us from fully turning too. I don’t expect to live for many more years, but at least it makes living more tolerable.”
Keri started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” he asked her.
“You really have no clue, do you?”
zzz
“No luck. Where is she?” asked Owen, after coming out of the house.
“I don’t know. That’s the school and her home now.” Zan shrugged. Then her phone buzzed. “It’s Charlie. She said Sebastian is safe at home. She’ll keep an eye on him. She’s told him that Keri is on a rampage or something.”
“OK, so where to next?” asked Owen.
“I don’t know. Where would one of Dr. Arora’s zinions go?”
He shrugged. “But I have an idea. Let’s get in the car and drive.”
With nothing better to do, Zan followed him back to the car.
zzz
Julian had decided he wanted nothing further to do with Keri, so he had yelled at her to get out of his car. Her response had been to pull out a small dagger from her purse.
Panicking, he released his seatbelt and pushed the door open. He leapt out in one movement. Keri wasn’t far behind.
“Hey, now, just wait a minute. We zombies have to stick together,” he said, making his argument.
“That’s precisely how I feel. However, I don’t think we’re exactly friends.” She raced up to him with the knife.
He quickly backed off. “Hey! Take it easy! I don’t even know who you are really. We can just part ways and forget that any of this ever happened.” He felt relieved when he heard the sound of sirens in the distance. Someone must have witnessed the crazy lady with the dagger from their window, and called the cops.
Julian had a peek at the weapon she was holding. It appeared to be something from last century. He briefly wondered if it was an actual zlayer’s weapon. If so, it wouldn’t take much for it to kill him. But if it had only been a knife, chances are he would survive.
He thought for a moment that he would simply flee. She would never be able to catch up to him in her four-inch high heels. But he also knew that he didn’t want to leave her behind to hunt down any of the other zombies who remained either. Or possibly have her kill humans, too.
Instead of fleeing, he stood his ground. She strode up to him as quickly as she could, slowly raising the dagger above and behind her head.
She was now right in front of him. The dagger sliced through the air, aiming right for his left eye socket.
He kicked out just in time, his knee connecting with her hips. As he did so, he allowed his body to drop. The dagger just narrowly missed his head. They both tumbled together to the ground. She dropped the dagger and it clattered to the ground.
By now, Julian knew that the police car had stopped on the street, but he still had to get the dagger. His stiff zombie fingers tried to grab it. She was trying to push him off of her. It felt like it took him an hour, but he finally was able to grab hold of the dagger.
He struggled on where to use it. He quickly sliced her shoulder.
“Ahhhh!” she screamed. “You bastard!”
“OK, drop it!” called out a male voice.
Julian quickly did as he was told. He rolled off of her, hands in the air.
“She was attacking me,” he started explaining.
“I know,” said Sergeant Bourne. “We got a call in. If you’re OK, you’re welcome to get up.”
“She should be OK. I just grazed her.”
“Are you sure?” asked Bourne.
On the ground, Keri was having a bad seizure. “Ahhh!” she screamed.
Bourne got down on the ground to hold her shoulders so she wouldn’t hurt her head.
Finally, the seizure sto
pped. She closed her green glowing eyes, and then opened them again. She looked up at Sergeant Bourne with her regular brown eyes. “Where am I? What happened?”
He released her shoulders, allowing her to sit up.
“And why am I wearing these ridiculous heels and this slip?”
Chapter 6
________________________________________
The teens were back at Stewart’s apartment, concluding their last interrupted meeting.
“I don’t believe it,” said Zan.
Owen just whistled and shook his head. “So, Dr. Arora was inhabiting Keri’s body?”
“Yes,” said Stewart. “I do believe being a mentor is a full-time job. Just when I think I have one book memorized, I have to read ten more. I’ve been learning more about this voodoo business.”
“How is that even possible?” asked Zan.
“Through the same magic that she used to animate fake zombies at the school,” he explained.
“Wow. It’s a good thing it was Julian she had run into on the street, otherwise, she’d still be running loose, creating more fake zombies.” Charlie pushed the cans of soda on the table aside trying to find the diet one.
“Yes, but we could have lost Julian,” said Owen. “She must have recognized him and that’s why she tried to kill him. He used to be in her gang before he realized that she was up to no good.”
“Because gangs only do good?” said Zan sarcastically.
“Most gangs involve drugs, not killing people,” he retorted.
“Yeah, but drugs kill people.”
“Well, they try not to make drugs that will kill their clients because then they lose out on cash, but yes, that sometimes happens. It’s not what I condone, but it’s not like they’re running around like Dr. Arora, trying to stab people with injectables that will turn them into zombies, which is an eventual death sentence.”
“So, Keri isn’t normally a zombie then?” asked Charlie, trying to get back on topic.
“No,” said Stewart. “All the teachers at school had been wondering at the changes in her personality. I thought nothing of it, not being familiar with her and her mannerisms. Technically, she wasn’t a zombie, it was more a figure of speech. But Julian had sensed something strange in her, so he called her a zombie. It was just an error, more of a possession.”
“So, Julian just recognized the Dr. Arora part of her?” asked Charlie. “Now that Keri is back to normal, she won’t be a zombie?”
Stewart nodded.
“But how did Dr. Arora do that?”
Stewart shrugged. “I can only guess that Dr. Arora’s soul is still alive. Remember that business with the ether? Perhaps she figured out a way to escape it and come back to life.”
“Is she back in the ether then?” asked Zan.
“I think so,” said Owen. “Trouble is, now that she’s figured out a way to get out, she’ll do it again.”
“Yes, that’s unfortunately true,” said Stewart.
“Dammit!” exclaimed Zan. “Why won’t the woman just stay dead?”
The others murmured in agreement.
“Well, if you don’t mind, I have a date with Philly tonight,” said Stewart.
“Oh, one more thing,” said Owen. “I was going to tell you earlier that Julian had told me that he figured out that Dr. Arora was still alive.”
“That’s OK,” said Stewart. “It’s not like anyone got hurt because you forgot to tell us.”
“Sort of,” said Zan sarcastically.
Owen turned and glared at her. She wasn’t being all that supportive lately.
“Maybe you need some cuddle time with your Colonel Meow or whatever he’s called.”
“It’s Major Fluff,” she said.
“Is there something else?” asked Charlie, trying to get back on track again.
“Oh yes. He told me that we need to search Dr. Arora’s house,” said Owen.
Stewart looked at him. “But Sergeant Bourne’s team did that already.”
“I know, but he said that there might be something hidden.”
“Oh, I want to do a search!” said Zan eagerly.
Charlie sat up. “I’m signing up too.”
“Good,” said Owen. “I have no interest in breaking and entering.”
“OK, well, I’ll leave that to you folks.” Stewart stood up and headed to the mirror on the wall. He patted his hair down.
“Bye!” everyone said, as they let themselves out.
“Oh, and I forgot to tell you about my dream,” Owen said to the girls, as they headed down the stairs.
“Another dream?” asked Charlie.
“Yes, you were dating a musician and lived in Hawaii.” He laughed.
“Cool, except, I’m not into musicians. Hawaii sounds nice though,” she said.
“And me?” asked Zan, looking to him in anticipation.
“You were a doctor, divorced, and had two kids.”
“No way!”
Charlie laughed at that.
“That’s just silly,” said Zan. “I don’t like kids. I’m a cat person.”
Owen laughed. “It was just a silly little dream I had. These ones mean nothing.”
Owen felt a bit silly at telling them his dreams, but he had thought they were cute predictions. Besides, it lightened things up a bit. Things could have gone totally awry if Dr. Arora had managed to maintain control of Keri’s body. And killing poor Julian would have just been wrong.
When Owen got home, he barely said hello to his parents. They were lawyers and were always busy with some legal case or another. Things were extra difficult now, as more people had been dying as the result of zombie attacks over the past year or so. People were suing each other’s families and other businesses as a result. Still, it felt good that he now had a brand new bed to sleep in.
Owen wrapped his arms around his soft pillows and sunk into his soft sheets. There had been a time when his family had slept on the damp ground in Uganda.
Chapter 7
________________________________________
UGANDA, TWO AND A HALF YEARS AGO
Fifteen-year-old Owen tossed and turned, trying to keep the blanket on his body. Finally, he gave up. “When can we go home?” he asked his dad.
Richard replied, “Never, Owen. I already explained that to you. The insurgents have taken over the city.”
“Yeah, right. You mean zombies.”
“Shhh!” said Maisa, his mother. “We must never speak of such things.”
“They’re zombies, Mom.”
“And if the world ever found out, the United Nations would investigate and probably authorize the use of force to bomb the entire city. Just look at what happened to Syria.”
“That was because of terrorists, not zombies, Mom.”
His dad laughed. “Yep, that’s what they keep telling the world.”
“If zombies are everywhere, why are we going to the United States then? Why not stay put?” asked Owen, making a valid argument with his two lawyer parents.
“Because, we’ve planned to move to America for four years now. There, we can be comfortably rich.”
“So we’re just giving up our house? And what happens to all the assets in our bank accounts?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Owen. I already made a bank transfer to a Swiss bank account before we left the city.”
“And we sold the house,” said his mom. “We can’t go back, even if we wanted to.”
“You sold the house?” yelled Owen.
“Shhh! You’ll wake the family in the next tent.”
“Go back to sleep, Owen. Tomorrow, a big U.S. Air Force plane is coming to fly us to Egypt. From there, we’ll fly to the UK, and then to Oregon. It’s going to be a long journey. You need your rest.”
Owen angrily patted his reed mat back into place. Lately, he seemed angry all the time. His parents had appeared to accept their fate. All he could do was be angry for the entire family, and the corrupt government that had allowed this t
o happen. Now the Americans had poked their noses into the nation’s business.
He would stay with his parents until he graduated from high school, and then he would come back here, to Uganda, his home.
zzz
Owen slept through some troubled dreams. In his dreams, he fought zombies. He killed them with guns and daggers. And after he’d done so, he was confused because normally he was a peaceful person and wouldn’t ever have thought of owning a gun.
His dreams continued. In them, he met a variety of people, like he was mingling at a big party or something. Often the terms “truthsayer” and “zombie slayer” were mentioned, but he had no idea what they meant or who they were.
Then he woke up.
“Owen! Get up! We’re leaving in ten minutes. Go and use the facilities if you need to.”
“Crap!” he said, tossing his blanket off and grabbing his bag. He headed out of the tent and to the side of the compound where several small trailer-sized buildings were set up. Inside were real working showers, sinks, and flushing toilets.
As he scrubbed the dirt off of his body, he felt grateful for these luxuries, as he knew many refugees didn’t even have access to water. They had to be brought in by truck or plane.
He quickly dried off and put his clothes on. As he passed the mirror, he smiled. Then he headed back to his family’s tent.
“I’m ready for you, America!”
Maisa came over and gave him a hug. “You look nice today. You put on your best shirt, I see.”
“Thanks, Mom. You look great too.”
“Hi, Owen. You seem to be in a good mood today,” said Dad.
Owen smiled. “Yes, I think I am. Not certain what happened.”
“Perhaps it’s the trip ahead,” said his mother. “Often it’s the journey that matters the most, not where you end up.”
“OK,” he said, tossing his few belongings into his bag.
A large bus arrived at the camp. About eighty people crammed onboard, while some waited for the second one to arrive. They were on the way to the airport.