by Ivan Turner
"Are you S.W.A.T.?" she asked him as she went to the kitchenette to fetch glasses and wine.
"What?"
"You seem like a man of danger so I figured you were on the S.W.A.T. team or the bomb squad or something."
Culph shook the dark thoughts from his head. "No," he said. "Not those."
She came out of the kitchenette with the two glasses of wine, expertly kicking off her shoes. Handing him a glass, she nudged him onto the couch and laid herself out next to him, head in his lap. "What then? You didn't tell me."
"Does it matter? I don't really want to talk about it."
She looked up at him but he wasn't looking at her. In those moments, she really tried to figure him out, really tried to see what those troubled eyes were hiding. When he finally looked down, she smiled. "It doesn't matter. I like you whatever you do and it's tough luck for that other bitch."
Dark thoughts. "What did you say?"
Wilma sat up, sensing that she had said the wrong thing. She tried to keep reign on her tone of voice, aware that she was messing things up. "I just meant that it's my good luck to have you here with me."
"You said she was a bitch."
"I didn't mean anything by it," she answered dismissively. "It's just something we girls call each other."
"I never heard Rose call anyone a bitch. At least not anyone who didn't deserve it."
Now Wilma backed up a bit. "Whoa, cowboy. Don't let your lasso get all tangled. I didn’t mean anything by it."
"I should go." Culph put his wine glass down on the table a little too hard. It wasn't hard enough to break the glass, but wine splashed out over the sides.
"Go? Because I said something a little stupid?"
Dark thoughts.
He stood and moved past her, but she got up and intercepted him, grabbing him by the bicep as she did so. Without even thinking about it, he whirled around and slapped her across the face. Wilma had seen her share of hard times but she wasn't nearly as tough as Rose. She half fell, half recoiled from the blow. There was no anger in her eyes when she looked up at Culph, but there was fear. It was enough to soften him for just a moment. He thought of all of those dead people he had shot and killed again that very morning. He thought of the little boy who had been bitten, chewed upon really. He thought about how he hadn't thought when he'd fired. It was just another corpse. Just another zombie. Just not yet.
Culph pulled his hand back and started to apologize. Then he saw the hand, felt the tingle in his fingers. Then he liked it. Bitches needed to know their places. There was that word again. Bitch.
She turned to bolt, but he caught her by the neck of her blouse and yanked her back.
Don't do this, something inside of him shouted.
He threw her on the couch and punched her once in the cheek.
You don't want to do this!
He tried to get on top of her but the back of the couch was interfering with his right leg. So he shoved the coffee table away and dragged her to the floor. The table slid off and collided with one of the IKEA shelves. Dozens of porcelain kitties tumbled to their shattering demises.
No!
Straddling her stomach, Culph hit her again and once again. Beneath him, she whimpered, engulfed in pain and fear. And then his hands were around her throat and he was squeezing. And he didn't see Wilma. He saw dead, desiccated flesh. He saw the faces of zombies. Black faces. White faces. Men and women. He saw the old and the young.
He saw Rose.
Oh, God! his mind shouted at him. Don't become this. Not this!
But he couldn't stop himself. He squeezed and he squeezed. And when Wilma's jerking movements stopped and she issued her final breath, he squeezed some more.
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Half way there!
When I first started writing these, I was very wary about the kind of reception these stories were going to get. After all, there are so many zombie stories out there that I was sure that my little series was going to blend into the crowd. Well that has not been the case and I have my readers to thank for it. So thank you for finding Zombies! and thank you for reading Zombies! Thank you for putting up with the misspellings and the typos and botched edits (no matter how many I find, there are always more the next time). Thank you for seeing the story and only the story. I hope the second half lives up to the first half.
The escalation continues next month as the definition of the word normal is skewed just a bit. While the police are running from zombie event to zombie event, others are simply conducting business as usual according to that new definition. As the only person to ever recover from a bout with the plague, John Arrick must wonder where life will take him. And Peter Ventura, dissatisfied with society’s sudden casual acceptance of zombies, finds that he must take action. And his actions must include a very strong woman who stood side by side with him during his first encounter. Next month, I welcome you to the second half of Zombies! with Episode 6, Barriers Collapse.
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Be sure to check out what happens when the Jury starts punishing people for their crimes in past lives and sets their sites on a rabbi who is believed to have been Adolf Hitler in The Book of Revelations, available for all your reading devices from all of your ebook stores.
For an epic (and involuntary) journey through time at a breakneck pace, join Mathew Cristian as he narrates his adventures as a Forty Leaper. Forty Leap is available for all your reading devices from all of your ebook stores. Read the first half for free.