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

by Katz, Gayle

Zan found the photo she had taken with her phone and handed that over.

  “Yes, I’ve seen these symbols before too. I found them in my spell book.”

  “You did?” said Zan. “Did you find anything else?”

  “No, but I did find these under a black light.”

  “So, there was something in the spell book after all,” said Charlie.

  “But I don’t know what ‘_ / c’ could possibly mean,” said Stewart.

  The team sat thinking for a moment.

  “Maybe it’s in reference to a keyboard?” suggested Zan.

  Stewart flipped open his laptop. “OK, let’s check it out. Under score, then forward slash, then a small c.”

  Everyone peered over to look at his computer.

  “Well, it forms a triangle, for one,” said Stewart. “Like, three people on a team.”

  “Cool!” said Zan.

  “But, why would it be in all these places that we’ve been?” asked Charlie. “I mean, I’ve been to most of these places myself. Zan and Owen have been to the underground in Seattle but not since the spring.”

  “It could be something in reference to you, Charlie,” said Stewart, looking a bit worried.

  “To me? But, if that were true, then someone who knows me has deliberately put them in all these spots?”

  “What if it was your Gran?” said Zan. Everyone looked in disbelief at her. “If the symbols are also in the spell book, remember that Gran had access to it? She may have figured it out. Perhaps it’s a protection spell.”

  Stewart scrunched up his face. “It could be, but why wouldn’t she tell us? She told us about the z spell.”

  “No,” said Owen. “It’s not a protection spell. It’s something else. I think Charlie needs to be extremely careful. I think it might be a warning or something.”

  Everyone looked worried, as he was a truthsayer after all.

  Chapter 16

  ________________________________________

  It was good to take a break from zombies for a while. Since the bad outbreaks at the factory and the mini golf course, nothing much had been happening in Portland. Charlie felt relieved, as she had a secret, diabolical plan to end it all. But she couldn’t confide her scheme to her friends, as they’d all say she was crazy. So she kept it all under wraps.

  For now, she read her cozy mystery book and spent time with Gran.

  “How is that boy, Mark, doing?” asked Gran over breakfast.

  “He’s doing well. I just talked to him on the phone.”

  “That’s good, dear. Too bad he doesn’t live closer.”

  “I know,” she said. “But I do have friends here.”

  Gran smiled, picking up her magazine. “Any word on zombies?”

  Charlie shook her head. “Nope. I expect that we cleared out most of them last month. Now that it’s July, maybe they’ll hang low.” Charlie checked her smartphone. “Say, I wonder if that z spell would work on the zombies here?”

  Gran looked up. “But there is no zleader.”

  “I know, but what if there was? What if we could assign that to one of the zombies?”

  Gran frowned. “Perhaps you should just fight them the old-fashioned way instead of trying to think up new and weird things.”

  Charlie just smiled.

  She hadn’t even seen her friends for a couple of weeks. She briefly wondered if she would have been friends with them if they hadn’t been involved in her zombie world. She felt certain that Owen would be, as he had been super friendly to her on the first day they had met in school. As for Zan, probably not. Though Zan had certainly surprised her. She had seemed to be that snobby, rich girl type, but then Zan had ended up hanging out with her group, rather than the other snobby girls in school. And she did like Zan. So yes, perhaps she would have ended up as friends with them in real life too. Whatever that was.

  Gran went to tidy up around the house. She liked things neat, organized, and in their place. The zombie business in Seattle had thrilled her. At first, she had been quite concerned about Charlie. But then she felt she had contributed in a way that hadn’t involved fighting skills, as she was certain they were rusty. Then she had been terrified that Charlie had turned into a zombie after that strange spell. But then Charlie had been fine and wasn’t a zleader. She was relieved. Seattle was quite a rollercoaster ride.

  Gran grabbed the mail off the floor, beneath the metal mailbox slot. She flipped through them. It was a bunch of bills and flyers.

  “Hey, Charlie. There is something here for you.” Gran walked back to Charlie and handed her a letter.

  “For me? That’s odd. I don’t pen pal with anyone.” Charlie took the letter and looked where there should have been a return address, but it was blank. Her name was spelled as “Charly” instead of “Charlie.” Her last name of Warner was completely missing from the envelope, as was the postal code. The stamps looked like they were from ten years ago, put on to make up for the current postage amount.

  She tore open the envelope and pulled out a piece of lined paper. On it was written, “Meet me at midnight at Green’s Park, alone. The Zleader.”

  Charlie peeked into the envelope to see if there was anything else inside, but there wasn’t.

  “Who’s it from?” asked Gran.

  “Um, not certain,” said Charlie. “It’s a party invite.”

  “That’s good, dear. It’ll get you out of the house for a bit.”

  “I guess so,” said Charlie, getting up and heading to her room to make a phone call.

  zzz

  “I think it’s a good idea that we come with you tonight,” said Owen over the telephone.

  “Sure, but go ahead of time and hide,” suggested Charlie. “It says for me to come alone.”

  “I’ll let Zan know, so we can have extra backup. Do you really think this is the zleader?”

  Charlie shrugged, but he couldn’t see it. “Not officially. But I do think this is that zleader wannabe that has been causing us grief since the spring. I think it might be that person who escaped through the roof of that trailer that time.”

  “Right, so someone human then. OK, so we’ll get in place, then meet you there.”

  “Right,” she said, hanging up.

  “Hey, Gran. I’m going to go and get some sleep. I’m tired.” She headed for the stairs, figuring she could get an hour or two of sleep before she had to head to the park.

  “Sounds good. See you tomorrow.” Gran settled down in the living room to watch some TV.

  zzz

  Zan was down in her workshop conducting more zombie experiments. She’d made some progress. She had samples of zombie strain 1 and 2 and was examining them side by side in her microscope. She placed a small sample from the centrifuge onto a glass slide. This sample had been acquired from a zombie at the miniature golf garden.

  For some reason, Dad kept on coming down and bothering her. She’d declined having brunch with her mom, who was now back to working the clinic and had more time to see them.

  Finally, she had some peace, so she completed her experiments. She examined each sample under the microscope. They were almost the same. However, even though the second and more recent zombie sample seemed to have the same sort of virus in it, it was moving.

  “Interesting,” she said. “They’re nearly identical, but the second one is active, not dead like the first. I can only conclude that some sort of agent has been used to activate the second zombie virus.”

  Zan carefully preserved both slides and put them into storage, along with the zombie hand she had. She cleaned up. It was now time to meet up with Charlie and Owen.

  zzz

  Owen and Zan ducked behind some bushes.

  “Do you think we’ll be safe here?” she whispered.

  He nodded. “Unless this woman does a search, we should be fine. Charlie is obviously alone on the park bench.”

  Zan brushed an ant off her face. “At least it’s not raining. These leaves are itchy.”

  “You�
�re lucky I didn’t choose a poison ivy spot,” said Owen in a joking tone.

  “Do you have your weapons ready?” asked Zan.

  “Yeah, but we can’t use them if she’s human,” he said. “That would be murder and we’d get into trouble.”

  Zan sighed in disappointment. “It would certainly solve the problem.”

  Owen shifted in his spot. “I know, but then we wouldn’t find out who else she’s working with, or where this zombie creation lab is. That’s all important information we need, which we failed to get a few weeks ago when I worked at the clothing factory.”

  “Right, that was a bit of a letdown,” said Zan. “Though it was good to fight zombies again.”

  “Shh,” said Owen. “I see someone walking up to Charlie.”

  zzz

  Sergeant Bourne sat in his unmarked police vehicle outside of Mayor Jane Cote’s house. In the olden days, you needed an unmarked van to listen in on people’s conversations. Today, you just needed a few discreetly placed bugs and a computer and headset.

  It had taken a while, but he’d obtained the necessary permissions to place the bugs at her home and in her office at City Hall. It turned out that a lot of people were unhappy with how budget funds had been allocated.

  He didn’t really care about the funds. She could have used them to buy marijuana for all he cared. What he was really after was her role in this zombie business. He wasn’t a hundred percent certain that she was innocent and had no role to play in the latest zombie outbreak. But her ex, Ray Orzola, was not implicating her. Though, despite it all, he had a weird feeling.

  He’d listened in on dozens of her conversations but had yet to learn anything. He was about to rip off the headset, but then he heard something interesting.

  “You’re what?” asked the mayor. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to meet with the enemy.”

  Sadly, Bourne couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end.

  “I don’t like killing people, but do what you must,” she said.

  Bourne perked up.

  The conversation ended. He watched as the lights in her house turned out, and then she exited and walked to her car.

  zzz

  Stewart had received the call from Charlie that she was meeting someone in the park. This person called themselves a zleader. He was relieved that Zan and Owen would be meeting up with her. How curious that someone would make an active claim. He wondered what purpose that would serve.

  Once again he was going through the spell book, trying to learn more. At this point, he was ready to pitch the whole thing into the fireplace and be done with it. He had it memorized forwards and backwards. There just wasn’t anything else to it, unless it planned on revealing something to him at the right time, much like it had for Gran when they were in Seattle.

  He slapped the book closed and put it in his briefcase. By now the bank must be wondering why he was in and out of there so often.

  He picked up a piece of paper with the strange “_ / c” symbols on it. They had showed up in various locations around Seattle and Portland, including in the book. He picked up his pen and drew similar but larger symbols onto the side of the paper. Then he frowned. He took a red pen and drew around the symbols. Then he had a really good laugh. He wanted to call Charlie immediately, but it would have to wait for morning, as he didn’t want to disturb her while she was in the park.

  zzz

  Charlie sat on the park bench. When she saw a shadow flicker over the path, she immediately stood up. Someone was walking her way, and it wasn’t Zan or Owen, as she knew they were parked in the bushes to her left.

  The figure grew closer. It was definitely female, wearing old, torn clothes. As she approached, Charlie had a closer look at her. She had a dirty face with a gouged out cheek that displayed her teeth.

  “Hello,” Charlie said, greeting her.

  “Hello. I am Fay,” said the female.

  “So, what’s up? Do you control the zombies?”

  “Let’s sit down.” Fay sat on the bench, so Charlie joined her.

  The park lamp shined on her face. Charlie leaned closer.

  “Easy there!” said Fay.

  “Oh my god! Why?” Charlie asked in horror.

  “Because it’s fun,” said Fay.

  “OK, you’re ridiculous,” said Charlie. “I knew I was wasting my time, but this is silly! You want to be a wannabe zombie? Do you know what they’re really like? They’re real! That’s what they’re like! They will eat you. You can’t make friends with them.”

  Charlie reached out her hand and wiped some of the zombie makeup off of Fay’s face.

  “Hey! Watch it! I could wipe your lip gloss off your face too.” She batted Charlie’s hand away.

  “Seriously? If one of my team gets sight of you, you could be killed! Wearing fake, zombie makeup is no joke!” Charlie was getting angry.

  “Relax. I don’t wear it all the time.”

  “Was it you who developed the second zombie strain?” asked Charlie, calming down and trying to focus on the important issues at hand.

  Fay nodded. “I was an assistant. Someone else guided me. But I had no idea that it would be used in such a horrible way. Seriously. I didn’t know. I got wrapped up in that stupid gang, and then that Ray Orzola guy promised me a bunch of cash.”

  “Geez,” said Charlie. “You have no idea the mess you’ve put yourself in.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “You’ll go to prison for this. Many people have died.”

  “I know, but I didn’t contact you because of some guilt trip.”

  “No?” asked Charlie.

  “I contacted you because I heard from the zleader in Seattle.”

  “She’s dead,” said Charlie.

  “Really?” said Fay, impressed. “This was last week.”

  “OK then,” said Charlie, letting her go on.

  “So the zleader in Seattle has been around for nearly a century and a half. She was quite powerful and largely unnoticed for a long time. She actually knew how to use a telephone, and she must have had some sort of zombie gang network, as she got my phone number.”

  Charlie looked at her, fascinated by what she was saying. This was so interesting. It was too bad that the Seattle zleader was dead now, as she likely would have been a great source of information. “Yes? What did she want?”

  “She told me to stop playing around with zombie viruses. I had just done it as part of a college science project. I began with an actual zombie part from the last uprising we had a couple years ago, near the California border.”

  Charlie shrugged. “Why would she care about that?”

  “She was angry and said zombies weren’t for profit. Zombies were all about eating humanity and conquering the world. She was adamant that was the truth.”

  Charlie said, “Hmm. I suppose that makes sense. She might have been concerned that your second strain zombies could leave Portland, as they may not be confined to that magic spell that keeps zombies in their own city.”

  “Yes, you got it. She was worried they’d leave Oregon and take over Seattle.”

  Charlie thought that was funny and laughed.

  “OK, but why wouldn’t you want to take over the world with your new zombies?”

  Fay laughed. “I don’t. I’m not really a zleader. There is a zleader wannabe out there though. I’ve seen her, but she always covers her face when we are in the lab. I just wanted to make some cash to buy a car. Now that I have it and a nice condo, I can graduate and retire.”

  Charlie smiled at her, encouraging her to go on.

  “Why don’t you just do that then? Why contact me?”

  “It’s because someone stole all of the zombie virus I had in my lab. It’s gone missing and I don’t know where it is. I think the zleader wannabe is going to use it to create a bunch of zombies, and that there is going to be another zombie outbreak. She’s severed all contact with me, so I don’t even know how to find her.”

 
; “Relax,” said Charlie. “There are four on my team, plus a few on the police force. We’ve got it covered.”

  Fay seemed hesitant, so she blurted it out. “I had enough viral injectables in my lab to infect a thousand people.”

  Chapter 17

  ________________________________________

  Sergeant Bourne followed the mayor in his car. He was getting fed up with all this surveillance and nothing happening. He needed a break. Perhaps it was time for a vacation. Nothing was going to happen tonight, and nothing was going to happen tomorrow. If this were another dead end, he’d leave her alone to do her embezzling of funds or whatever else she was doing.

  It appeared she was heading to Ray’s clothing factory. That was odd, as it had been shut down by the city. She parked, and then got out. Tonight, there were no protestors around. There was no point, as the factory wouldn’t ever be back in operation again. The city had claimed the building and the property, and when everyone forgot that there had ever been zombies on site, it would be sold.

  Bourne parked his car behind a truck, but it didn’t appear she had noticed she was being followed. In his experience, most people were oblivious to being followed, as that only happened in TV shows.

  He got out of the vehicle and followed her to the building. She still had keys to get inside. Of course.

  He waited for her to close and lock the door, and then he walked up to the door. He too had keys for the building that he’d taken from the police captain’s office earlier. He waited until she had turned all the lights on. When he couldn’t see her through the window, he unlocked the door and stepped inside.

  He let the door slowly close behind him. He left it unlocked, in case he had to make a speedy exit. Then he carefully peeked into the first office. No one was there. He then walked over to the staircase and peered down to the ground floor below.