Zombie Slayer Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Katz, Gayle

  “Let’s clear the rest of the room!” he cried.

  She tossed her backpack on the floor and pulled out another dagger. They did the perimeter of the room first, boxing the remaining zombies in. They left the stagnant zombies alone for the moment. They weren’t hurting anyone. They simply sat in their chairs, grimacing at each other.

  “Look behind you!” she cried at Stewart.

  The emcee grabbed at his arms, but Stewart struck fast. The zombie went down.

  With great pleasure, Charlie was able to kill the zombie that had been about to eat her mentor. He went down fast.

  By now, blood and gore covered both student and mentor. Usually zombie fighting didn’t get this gory. But the good news was that it wasn’t like in the movies. If you got splashed with infected blood, you didn’t turn. As soon as a zombie was dead, their remains had little effect on the living, other than grossing people out.

  The gore didn’t bother Charlie or Stewart. They were both used to it.

  Soon, the last remaining zombies were those seated in chairs around the room, and also the zombie woman, who had just given birth, was still lying on the floor.

  “You go check the rest of the floor,” said Stewart. “I’ll finish up here.”

  She nodded, and headed down the hallway on the other side. She peered into the rooms. They had some interesting displays here, things that looked like Gran’s china or silverware. But she didn’t see any more zombies. She decided to head back to the party room.

  “There, that’s done,” said Stewart.

  “Great,” she said. “Now it’s cleanup time.”

  They did their best to clear the room of bodies by putting them in the dumpsters outside the building. They also did their best to mop up the mess on the floors. They didn’t bother with the party decorations, food, or drink. They’d leave that to whatever staff was still alive and would be arriving for their shifts the next day.

  “OK, all good,” said Charlie.

  Stewart looked down at himself. “I think we should clean ourselves up a bit, just in case we run into any civilians outside.”

  She nodded.

  They headed to the men’s and women’s bathrooms.

  Charlie discarded all of her clothing, placing them in a sealed plastic bag. She washed off with soap and water as best she could. She put on clean clothes from her backbag. Then she met Stewart back in the hallway.

  “I’ve trashed the computer that had the security footage on it.” He held up a black USB drive, and then tucked it into his pocket.

  “What happened here?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “A zombie must have gotten in somehow and disturbed the wedding festivities.”

  “I don’t want to be the one who explains what happened to an entire family,” she said.

  “There are going to be an awful lot of bodies ending up in the Oregon landfill,” commented Stewart. Then they both burst out laughing.

  “So, did someone just show up at the door?”

  “Maybe. Probably a guest. They must have been attacked somewhere, or perhaps even on the property.”

  The team was done here, so they left the mansion. They spent the next hour touring the estate but didn’t see any other zombies around. It was possible that the first zombie had been bitten outside the property, even at home.

  “There’s not much more we can do here,” he said. “We should head for home and get some rest.”

  “But I don’t get it,” said Charlie. “Killing the zleaders would have killed any other zombies, right? Why are any left?”

  He frowned. “There is only one explanation for it.”

  “Which is?” she asked, walking with him to their cars.

  “That a new zleader has moved into town.”

  “What? Again?” she exclaimed. “You mean that another zleader leaves their own city and moves here so soon after we killed the previous one?”

  “Well, it’s rare, but it does happen when that city has been destroyed,” he said.

  “That’s bizarre,” she said, getting back in her own car.

  “Don’t worry too much. We’ll figure it out, OK? Be safe getting home,” he said, getting into his car.

  “Yeah, you too,” she replied.

  They each drove for a while, thinking on their own.

  Charlie called Stewart on the drive home. “There are so many rules that sometimes I can’t digest it all,” she said.

  “I know. You’ll soon get the hang of things. You’ve only been doing this for less than two years now. And it’s really unusual for this to happen.”

  “It’s bugging me. I wonder which town got destroyed?” she asked.

  He turned on the news. She could hear his radio through the phone.

  “Moodville has suffered a bad wildfire that has destroyed much of the town,” said the radio announcer.

  Stewart turned off the news. “That’s the answer right there.”

  “Wow,” said Charlie. “Perhaps we should enlist the aid of that town to help us out here.”

  He laughed. Soon they were both back at their homes. “OK, so take it easy for a bit. I’m going to listen to the news to see if I can learn more.”

  She yawned. “OK, good night then.”

  Charlie flopped down in her bed, exhausted. She couldn’t believe that they had to deal with another zombie infestation. She hadn’t known that if they lost their home that they’d just move in on another one. That was crazy, but she guessed it made sense. She quickly fell asleep.

  She dreamt that she was in Hawaii, sipping a piña colada. She wore her tiniest bikini and looked great in it. She didn’t even have scar lines or anything. The weather was hot and dry, instead of being cold and humid. The people surrounding her were friendly and young, not decayed and rotting.

  She lifted her drink to take a sip, and then noticed there was a finger floating in it. She forced herself awake.

  “Stupid brain!” she said, chastising herself. “I can’t even have a nice dream to myself.” Soon, she fell back asleep again.

  zzz

  The next day it was back to school, as per usual. Everyone was getting excited about the Halloween dance coming up at the end of the month. There was a committee for decorations, one for food and drink, and one for entertainment. She steered clear of that but did purchase a dance ticket.

  “You know, we’re going to have to figure out how to smuggle booze into this event,” said Zan.

  “I’ve seen these steel bracelet flasks you can get to keep your booze in,” said Owen.

  “Nah, not enough volume,” said Zan.

  “What were you up to the other night?” asked Owen.

  “Oh, we had to go fight zombies at the Ivywood Mansion,” explained Charlie.

  “What? I thought they were done,” he said in protest.

  “That’s what I thought,” said Charlie.

  “Nah, there are always zombies. They’re all over the country,” said Zan.

  “Really?” asked Charlie.

  “Yep. Usually they keep a low profile though. But most of those murders you hear about likely have something to do with zombies.”

  “That’s crazy,” said Charlie. “How can we stop them?”

  “Just keep at it,” said Zan, patting her jacket where she kept her dagger.

  “But I thought when a zleader was killed, that it killed all of their own zombies too?” asked Owen, puzzled.

  “That does happen. Trouble is that the last person a zombie has bitten then turns into a zleader after the original zleader is killed. Sure, all the other zombies die, except for the last one.”

  “Yes, but all the Portland zombies were killed off. The ones we’ll see now are from Moodville, apparently.”

  Zan frowned. “That’s right. They had an incident there,” she recalled.

  “Yeah, a zombie from Moodville must have survived, and headed to Ivywood Mansion.” Charlie thought about it a bit, recalling the previous night’s events. “But, we didn’t kill a zlead
er, so they must have been long gone by the time we arrived.”

  “Great,” said Owen. “Another zleader out there.”

  “Well,” said Charlie. “The good news is that you can help me in finding this new one.”

  “Cool,” he said, nodding. “Things were getting boring around here anyway.”

  The team laughed.

  Chapter 18

  ________________________________________

  A week passed, giving the team a break. There weren’t too many incidents in the news that could involve zombies. The good news was that this gang was smarter and keeping a lower profile. The bad news was that this z-gang was probably a lot smarter.

  Charlie kept busy with schoolwork. She envied Owen and his part-time job to earn extra cash for his family. Not because he had extra cash, but because he had something else to occupy his mind.

  During her time off, she practiced her moves in the backyard. She also liked to up the game and think up new surprises. She could now run up a wall halfway, then flip around, and land on the ground. But the trouble with that move was that it took a few seconds, when a zombie could strike in a split second. She had a few scars on her body, but most of those were acquired from training. She had trained in martial arts and had a few katana scars on her body from the dojo in Dallas.

  She practiced climbing up into a tree and doing surveillance of the neighborhood. Everything was quiet.

  She jumped back down and headed indoors.

  “Here’s your phone, dear,” said Gran. “It’s been ringing off the hook.” She took the phone from her.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “We have a problem,” said Stewart on the other end.

  “Of course we do. You never call me for any other reason,” she responded.

  “There is a fashion show at the local community theater. Word is that there will be zombies as models.”

  She was silent for a bit. “Wow, just when I thought I’d heard everything.”

  “I know,” he said. He gave her the address, and then hung up.

  “Need your help,” she texted Zan. She decided to leave Owen alone. He wouldn’t be interested in a fashion show anyway.

  Charlie picked up Zan from her house. “How are things going?”

  “Good,” she said. “It’s nice to have a break for a change. I might actually be looking forward to Halloween monsters.”

  “Me too,” said Charlie. “There should be a happy medium between zombie fighting or quiet, but it’s either one or the other all at once.”

  Zan nodded knowingly. “So, what’s up with this fashion show?” she asked.

  “Well, it’s a local designer’s show. Apparently, he’s advertising that the models he’s using are zombies.”

  “Weird. Maybe it’s just a marketing ploy?” She was busy looking at her smartphone.

  “Not sure,” said Charlie. “Stewart was creeped out enough that he passed the details, and a pair of tickets, to us.”

  “Good,” she said. “The designer is called Larry Zombie,” she read from her smartphone. She thought a bit. “Say, is it possible that Larry is a zombie?”

  Charlie shook her head. “Nah. Zombies don’t have jobs. Remember how Tonia dropped out of school. They can’t stick to a routine.”

  “Right,” said Zan. “Well, let’s go and see what this thing is about.”

  They arrived at the local community theater and found a parking spot. Charlie used her Parking Kitty app to pay for the parking. The amount of money she spent on parking in the city was crazy. It was a good thing the app offered a frequent user discount.

  They both left the car and headed to the entrance. There was a line, so they got in the back to wait.

  Everyone in line looked fairly normal. There was the usual share of brightly colored hair, piercings, and torn clothing, but no one looked like a zombie.

  Finally, they were allowed inside the theater. Charlie had a quick look at the concession stand workers, but they looked normal too. They found their seats. There were a few people moving things around on stage, but nothing unusual was happening.

  Zan sniffed the air. “It has a weird smell to it. Like rotting flesh.”

  “Well, it could just be someone’s sandwich is off,” Charlie commented.

  Finally, it was time for the fashion show to begin. It started off with the emcee announcing Larry Zombie, and then having him present a short speech on what his collection was about. Then, it was time for the show.

  The lights dimmed and the music started. It was an instrumental. The curtains slowly opened. Bright LED lights flashed spots of different prime colors, but red was the main one.

  The first model walked onto the stage. Charlie moved her head closer.

  “It’s just someone dressed up as a zombie,” whispered Zan.

  She nodded back.

  The next 20 models on stage were the same. Their face and body makeup was amazing, but would still never fool experts like Zan and Charlie.

  “Can we just go now?” asked Zan. “Or should we hang out for a bit?”

  Charlie shook her head. “No, something’s up. I can smell it.”

  The curtain closed for a bit. Then it was time for the finale. The curtains opened back up. The lights in the place went out. Then, the LED lights started flashing and rotating. The spotlight turned on center stage.

  In the front was a figure, hunched over. It was wearing a bright yellow jumpsuit with polka dots. In front of it was a human, holding a leash in its hand. The human moved forward. The zombie followed behind. The audience raised a collective “ahhhh.”

  “Good makeup,” said someone in the audience.

  “Nice clothes,” said another voice.

  As the zombie act walked down the platform, another zombie and her master appeared on the stage. The human walked confidently ahead, pulling the leash of the zombie behind her. The zombie suddenly rushed forward, arms ahead. The master had a stick in her hand and beat at the zombie to keep it back. The zombie relented and slowed down.

  The first pair had reached the end of the platform near the opposite wall. There, they waited. Several more zombies and their masters entered the stage and walked down the runway.

  Finally, the last of them were at the end of the walkway. And then the lights went completely out. Everyone waited expectantly. But then the screaming started.

  “What’s happening?” cried Zan.

  “Not sure,” said Charlie, digging out her cell phone. She flipped it open and held it up in the air. “Bad news. They let the zombies off of their leashes.”

  “Really?” said Zan, jumping into action. She had her dagger out in a second. Charlie pulled hers out too.

  “So, where are they?”

  “They’ve made it into the crowd.”

  “Why would they do that?” asked Zan “Is it some form of human mind control?”

  “Ask questions later,” said Charlie, leaping at a zombie ahead of her. The zombie was soon struck down.

  “How many do you think?” asked Zan, stabbing the nearest zombie in the head.

  “I think I counted ten. So, we’re down to eight now.”

  By now, many of the attendees had scattered in the theater. Some had managed to make their way into the lobby, and then outside.

  A few stupid ones simply stood there, thinking it was all a big joke. They watched as the zombies bit some of their fellow human beings, while other zombies came out of the darkness, knocked them over, and started chewing on their necks. Charlie just shook her head. There were still so many people who believed that zombies were a conspiracy theory, rather than real. Yet, the evidence was here right in front of them.

  “Now it’s six,” Zan said. But then, as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they watched as four humans, who had been bitten, now turned. Their skin was gray, and their eyes glowed green. “Back to ten,” she said.

  “We have to get as many as we can,” yelled Charlie. She leapt forward and immediately took down the four newer on
es. They were a lot easier to kill than the already established ones.

  “I can’t open the doors,” screamed a human in the distance. “They’re locked!”

  “Crap,” said Charlie. “Whoever did this to us has locked us in!”

  “No time for that,” said Zan. “We have to kill as many as we can. We can’t let them leave.”

  But as fast as Zan and Charlie leapt at the zombies, cutting them down, there seemed to be more created. Soon the entire room smelled of rotting blood. The event was a monumental disaster and the body count continued to rise.

  Finally, there was a reprieve. There were only so many victims left. She breathed a sigh of relief. It could have been worse. Fortunately, the smarter people had left.

  “Hey, let’s check the stage,” said Zan. “Some might have gotten out that way.”

  “OK,” said Charlie, following behind. “We’ll come back and do cleanup shortly.”

  They pulled themselves up onto the stage. It looked clear, but they had to check. It appeared that this space backstage was small. There was a tiny changing room off to the side, but no one in it. Then they heard a scrambling sound. Charlie turned around.

  “It’s OK. I’ve got him,” said Zan. She was behind Larry Zombie, holding a dagger at his neck.

  “Hey, take it easy,” he said. “I’m not one of them.”

  Charlie stormed up to him. “Why did you do it?” asked Charlie. “It’s a mess out there. Why would you release real, live zombies into the audience?”

  “I didn’t know,” cried Larry. “Some guy called John said they were actors, ready for some performance art. But he told us to be careful around their jaws, as they really liked to get into their roles.”

  “But, whose idea was it to let them loose?” asked Charlie.

  “It was John’s. He said it’d be a part of the performance art of the show. But he didn’t say anything about them being real, or them running around eating or killing people.”

  “Zan, let him go.” She released the designer.

  “So, it was a John who did this?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Did he look like a drug dealer? Because I know a guy who has been involved in zombie business before,” Charlie said.