Gruesomely Grimm Zombie Tale

by Wilhelm Grimm

  Meanwhile, the hospital was in lockdown. Two people had been discovered horribly mutilated in one of the bathrooms. Within an hour, hysteria and panic were rampant. The medical staff on the maternity ward had all been called away on emergencies that were springing up throughout the hospital.

  The father sat with his family in the birthing room waiting for the nurse to return with the little girl. They’d had to rush away with her just after she was born. Finally, he asked one of his sons to go check on the condition of his new sister.

  Each of the boys had been trying to come up with an excuse to leave the room and they all hurried off. There was a strange absence of medical staff on the floor, but that wasn’t something that teenage boys noticed. However, as they rushed past a room with an open door they froze. A man in one of those horribly embarrassing hospital gowns that opens in the back was hunched over a woman. What stopped them in their tracks was the fact that the man’s head was buried in the ripped open belly of the woman. What looked like a tiny leg was jutting up from the horrific wound.

  The boys stood stock still, transfixed by the gruesome sight. They watched until the man in the gown stood up, ropey strands of an unidentifiable crimson slurry dripped from his chin. Then…the woman’s head turned toward the boys.

  ***

  The father paced the room waiting for his sons to return. Minutes ticked away, but he would not leave his wife’s bedside. The birth had been difficult on her. The last thing the doctor had done before rushing off on some mysterious emergency was to give her a mild sedative. With some sort of horrific killing having taken place, he wasn’t about to leave his wife alone to go look for seven boys who were undoubtedly up to no good.

  “I wish I’d never had seven sons,” the man mumbled in frustration. Hardly had the words left his mouth when a cacophony of screams erupted from out in the hallway.

  ***

  The eldest boy acted first. He’d been raised by a good man and knew that it was wrong to hurt a woman. He charged into the room and tackled the blood-soaked man. They went to the ground in a heap. The other six brothers rushed in to help their eldest sibling. None of them saw the two figures staggering out of the elevator—one of them missing an arm. There were sounds of a scuffle…then…screams.

  The two figures tumbled through the doorway, falling on the brothers. It seemed that no matter how hard they fought, the man—and in an unpleasant surprise, the woman—kept scratching and biting at them. When two more joined the fray, not only did the boys have no room to fight, but the injuries began to mount.

  Only the youngest boy managed to finally extricate himself. Covered in blood, some his, he escaped the room. He staggered to the nursery and, once inside, found his sister. He was feeling strange and was actually surprised when he looked down and discovered the bite marks on his arm. The bigger surprise came when his hand came away from his thoat dripping with fresh blood. He grew dizzy and knew he didn’t have long. He looked down at the cherubic face of his baby sister and smiled. Her eyes seemed to stare back at him, wide and full of a peculiar intelligence.

  Scooping up the precious bundle, he was determined to make it back to his parents and warn them of what was happening. He struggled to keep his feet as he staggered up the hallway. As he passed the room where the struggle had occurred, he saw his mutilated brothers beginning to sit up. One of them was rolling onto his side which caused his guts to spill out onto the blood-slicked tile in a pink, purple, and grey pile.

  He burst into the room and did his best to explain everything to his flabbergasted father. He kissed his sister on the forehead, whispered in her ear, and handed the bundle to his mother who was groggy, but aware enough to know there was a problem. Then the chatter of automatic weapons sounded from outside the door. The young boy knew he was doomed and turned and exited. Seconds later, a single shot was heard.

  When the door opened, men in black fatigues, face masks, and jackboots flooded in. They scanned the couple for injuries and, finding none, escorted them from the room. They were among dozens of others loaded into a military transport truck and whisked away.

  ***

  Years passed and a thousand thousand stories could be told. But this tale is about Violet. The little girl grew up in a tough world, void of luxuries. She knew hardship, hunger, and death. Despite it all, Violet grew up to be more beautiful every day. And she spent hours honing her skills as a fighter. Something she could not explain drove her from deep within.

  For a long time she did not know that she had brothers. Her parents rarely spoke, and not once did they ever speak of their lost boys in her presence. Still, there were others from that day who knew. And in particular, one woman who saw it all from her room across the hall.

  One day, as Violet walked past, she heard the woman say, “That girl is certainly beautiful, but her being cost her seven brothers their lives.”

  This stopped the girl in her tracks. She spun on her heel and returned home and went to her mother and father. She asked if it was true that she had once had seven brothers, and worse, if she were responsible for their deaths.

  The parents now dared keep the secret no longer. The father did his best to explain what had happened on that day. A good man, he tried to say that all the events of that day were the will of God and that her brothers were waiting for them in Heaven.

  The explanation sat poorly with Violet. She hunted down the soldiers of the compound one by one to find any that had been there that day. At last, she found one. She grilled him on everything he could remember. What she wanted to know more than anything was that all of her brothers had been put down. Everybody knew that you could do whatever you wanted to the body of a zombie, but to kill it for good it had to be shot, stabbed, or cleaved in the head. He knew for certain that one had, but he couldn’t be certain of the other six.

  Violet felt that tug from within. She now knew what she must do. She would have no peace until she set out secretly and made certain that her brothers were indeed at peace. She would return to the hospital and ensure that the bodies of each of her brothers was accounted for; let it cost her what it might.

  She took nothing with her but a picture that she discovered in her father’s wallet, a canteen, a few basic foodstuffs, a torch, a sleeping bag, and a razor-sharp sword. After making certain from the soldier where the hospital was located, she set off on her quest.

  The first day wasn’t too bad. Their compound was far out in the middle of nothing, so there were very few zombies to contend with. The second and third day were much the same. Then, she reached the outskirts of town. Even after all these years, the undead still lurked in the shadows and wandered about their necropolis. The undead seemed to sense her, and came tumbling out of buildings and alleys.

  Whirling, spinning, and sometimes just running, Violet dealt with the oncoming zombies. Then, she saw it. The glass structure rose like a shining sun as she rounded a corner and spied the hospital sitting on a wooded hill. Having lived her life in a tent city, this building looked like a glass mountain to the girl. Even though some of the windows on the lower floors were broken, most of the upper levels remained intact.

  She charged up the hill, caring little for her own safety. And while the exterior of the building reflected the sun in dazzling fashion, the interior was dark and gloomy. By luck she happened on an emergency stairwell. She lit her torch and climbed to the eighth floor. According to the soldier, that was where she and her parents had been rescued.

  The door wouldn’t open and was made of a sturdy metal. Using the pommel of her sword, she broke the knob off. With more effort than she’d initially figured on, she eventually defeated the lock. However, she could hear hands pounding and clawing at the other side, drawn by all her noise.

  Whe she pulled open the door, a short, naked, odd-shaped woman was waiting. Her face had been torn away and one shoulder sagged strangely, but it was the bulge of the woman’s belly that was most disturbing. It hung at an odd angle and something was moving under the ta
ut, grey, black-veined skin.

  Violet plunged her blade through the pregnant zombie’s eye and pushed the body back into the legless ghoul trying to get ahold of the living girl’s ankle. She drove the sword down into the skull and stepped over the carnage. Three more of the creatures were close at hand and Violet made short work of them.

  Then she saw him. Still sitting against the wall, a single hole in his forehead, the brother who had rescued her from the nursery was dead and accounted for. Using the faded picture, she walked from room to room. In one, she checked off five of her brothers. That left the oldest unaccounted for. She searched, becoming frantic. Perhaps he had wandered off this floor.

  She heard a noise from a strange set of doors at the end of the hallway. Having grown up in a tent city, Violet had no knowledge of elevators.

  She pried the doors apart, and staring up at her was the last of her brothers. The car had settled between floors so his head was at her knees. With one thrust, she put the pathetic creature down once and for all. At last, she thought, you are all at peace.

  Our Dead series

  Dead: The Ugly Beginning and Dead: Revelations

  DEAD:

  Fortunes and Failures –

  The third book in the Dead series will be

  available December 15th 2011

  In Zomblog you find Samuel Todd

  ...a regular guy...

  ...Failed husband...

  ...Loving father...

  ...Dutiful worker...

  ...Aspiring rock star.

  He had no idea if anyone would care, or take the time, to read his daily blog entries about his late night observations. But what started as an open monologue of his day-to-day life became a running journal of the first-hand account detailing the rising of the dead and the downfall and degradation of mankind...

  Zomblog II continues with Meredith Gainey

  She is a survivor…and determined to retain that status as the zombie apocalypse wipes out most of humanity. Unable to accept an existence behind walls and fences, she finds herself in constant danger…and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Look for Zomblog: The Final Chapter

  coming August 2011

  THE DEAD WALK!

  Slip into the skin of common men and women and experience the horror through their eyes. Follow the Zombie Apocalypse from its initial stages to the brink of the abyss, and over…into the pits of an unthinkable Hell on Earth. Tune into your local radio stations for the latest updates or stay here and follow the story as it unfolds on…

  Eye Witness: Zombie

  The legions of the undead continue to grow. First Time Dead proudly presents a host of brand new names to the genre pantheon.

  Our matched set anthologies

  Available Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 2011

  It has been said that women are the “gentle” sex. Apparently, not all of them got the message. Within the pages of this anthology are a dozen zombie tales by women who will help you discover why they say something else about the ladies: Hell Hath No Fury…

  “Ladies first” So say the gentlemen.

  This is the companion anthology to Hell Hath No Fury…Inside, you will find an undead bakers dozen that will remind you of how dark and desolate the minds of men can truly be. Vowing not to be upstaged by the dark musings of their female cohorts, the men offer up a usceral, gore-drenched collection that strives to prove… Chivalry is Dead

  A Man of Letters by Eric Pollarine

  A Soldiers Lament by Patrick D’Orazio

  Blackout by Amber Whitley

  Childish Things by William Wood

  Escape from Hope by Dane Grannon

  Feral by Rebecca Lloyd

  One Nation Undead by Mike Harrison

  Shear Terror by Chantal Boudreau

  That Ghoul Eva by Marianna Mann

  and more

  And something from the May side of

  May December Publications

  Abandoned and scared, but less alone than he could have ever imagined, Sam awakens to the screams of the other children on the island of Fervor, and the absence of all adults. To make matters worse, despite hearing this chaos in his head, he finds himself deaf to the normal sou-nds around him. His only answers are now being provided by a strangely charismatic boy na-med Francis who is about to lead Sam to a gathering that will alter his life. Why have things chang-ed so drastically on the island, who is responsible for these changes, and what does this mean to the remaining inhabitants of Fervor?

  Dakota Riley is a member of the Seattle Drug Task Force. During an investigation into an international drug smuggling ring, he loses his best friend and partner. To add insult to injury, he is assigned an African-American rook-ie, Marc Bradley. Seeking revenge rather than justice, Dakota ditches the rookie...and almost gets himself killed. After leaving the hospital for a 'forced' vacation, Dakota and Marc head to Marc's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. A day out on a fishing boat goes wrong when a mysterious storm arrives. The boat is destroyed, and the two men wash ashore...in 1861, just prior to the start of the American Civil War.

  The growing voice in horror and speculative fiction.

  Find us at www.maydecemberpublications.com

  Or

  Email us at contact@maydecemberpublications.com

  About the Author:

  TW Brown is the author of the Zomblog series and the Dead series. He is deeply immersed in the multiple sequels of each franchise while trying to balance the duties of husband, father, friend, and band member as well as keeping busy reading and editing the numerous submissions for a variety of upcoming anthologies and full-length titles for May December Publications. He is a member of Horror Writers Association and has had short stories published by Pill Hill Press and Living Dead Press.

  You can contact him at twbrown@maydecemberpublications.com or visit his website at www.maydecemberpublications.com. You can follow him on twitter @maydecpub and on facebook under Todd Brown and also under May December Publications.