Zombie Games (Uncut) Boxed Set

by Kristen Middleton

  “Yep. He has a little bit of a lisp,” said Kylie. “But don’t mention it. Ever. He’s a little sensitive.”

  Justice’s lip twitched. “I wouldn’t.”

  “So, you coming with?” asked Allie.

  “What you’re really asking is if I’ll drive,” said Justice.

  Allie giggled. “Yeah, okay. Well?”

  He paused for a few seconds and then nodded. “Okay, fine, I’ll drive but it means that I’m in charge. When I say ‘run’, you run like the wind. When I say ‘get down’, you get down as quick as possible – no questions asked.”

  “No problem,” said Kylie. “We’ll do whatever you say.”

  “Yeah, dude,” said Luke. “Just as long as you don’t start foaming at the mouth or drooling when you look at us.”

  “Same goes to you,” said Justice, walking toward the kitchen door. “Any drooling and I’m kicking your asses out of my truck.”

  “Too late,” whispered Allie, staring at him with moon-eyes. “That guy is hot, Kylie. Don’t know about you, but I’m already drooling.”

  Kylie just smiled. Even she had to admit, Justice was pretty cute.

  3

  Bryce

  “Well, it doesn’t look like anyone’s been back here,” said Bryce, stepping over two zombies lying on Cassie’s bloodstained driveway. It was hot and the stench from the fly-infested bodies lying around was enough to make him gag. It was nothing, however, compared to the restless angst knotted in the pit of his stomach. He’d driven like a madman trying to catch up to her, hoping that they’d somehow cross paths before reaching Minnesota. But the road back home had been pretty uneventful and there’d been no sign of anyone else still breathing.

  Where was Cassie?

  “What in the hell do we do now?” he thought out loud.

  “I think we should go back inside and look for an address book or something,” said Paige. “Maybe even a phone book, to see if we can find their grandparents’ address.”

  “Yeah, but, do you even know their names?” asked Billie.

  Paige shrugged. “The name Wild would be a good start. They live somewhere in Willow Springs.”

  Kristie looked toward the road and shook her head. “Dammit, where are those kids?”

  The five of them, Bryce, Billie, Kristie, Tiny, and Paige had made it back to Minnesota in record time –

  two days. Twice they’d had to switch vehicles, and a few times they’d had some harrowing encounters with zombies, but their determination to reach their friends and family had made them vigilant.

  “What about your house?” asked Tiny. “Do you think they might have stopped there?”

  Kristie shrugged. “I guess it’s possible.”

  “Mom, they’re probably not even in town yet,” said Paige. “I’m actually surprised we made it back here so quickly.”

  Kristie’s eyes filled with tears. “What if something happened to them? They’re just children, and to be out there, somewhere, in this godforsaken zombie shit!” She turned to Tiny. “I don’t know if I could handle it if Kylie was hurt. Or any of them for that matter.”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms. “We’ll find them, babe,” he murmured, holding her against his chest. “All of them.”

  “Shit, looks like we’ve been found. Heads up, everyone – zombies approaching,” said Bryce, raising his rifle.

  More than a dozen of them were staggering in their direction from throughout the neighborhood.

  Paige tightened her hold on the metal bat. “How do they do that?”

  “They must smell us or something,” said Bryce. “Let’s get back inside and search the house before we attract more trouble than we can handle.”

  They quickly moved the SUV into the garage and then pulled the door down, but not before one of the zombies made it inside. The creature stared at the group as if he’d won the lottery and began to advance.

  “Wow, did you see that?” asked Tiny as he shoved a large knife into the zombie’s skull and twisted. “He actually had enough sense to duck underneath the garage door.”

  Paige scowled. “Just what we need – zombies with common sense. What is the world coming to?”

  “As long as they don’t start talking to us,” said Kristie.

  “Yeah, could you imagine? ‘Give me your brains’,” chuckled Tiny as he kicked the zombie’s torso to the side.

  “You’ll never hear that from a zombie,” smirked Paige.

  Kristie scowled. “Paige…”

  Paige’s eyes widened innocently. “What?”

  “It’s okay,” said Tiny. “Paige is just doing it to blow off steam. If harassing me makes life easier for her to handle right now, so be it. I’m not going to take it personally.”

  “It’s not okay,” said Kristie. “Paige, you need to treat Tiny with more respect. He’s saved our lives at least a dozen times, and all I’ve heard from your mouth are smart-assed comments.”

  “Oh, lighten up, mom,” mumbled Paige. “It’s your fault, if anything. You raised me.”

  Kristie sighed. “I guess it is my fault. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” said Tiny. “I’d rather be surrounded with brave smart-asses than feel like I’m too intimidating to tease.”

  A loud banging on the outside of the garage door startled the group. As it grew louder and more intense, Paige covered her ears. “Now, who the hell is doing that?!” she hollered.

  “Zombies,” said Bryce. “They know we’re in here.”

  “They’re aggressiveness is obviously growing,” said Billie, slamming the door of the Expedition.

  “I didn’t think they were that alert,” said Kristie. “Usually they forget about us the moment we’re out of sight.”

  “Maybe they’re getting some of their human qualities back,” said Tiny.

  “Or just plain adapting,” said Bryce. “I doubt they’re actually becoming more human.”

  “Let’s get inside,” said Paige. “Those nosy bastards are really pissing me off.”

  They stepped into the house through the garage and then split up, searching for something that would give them a clue as to where the girls might have gone.

  “Here,” said Kristie, after looking through a box of old birthday cards in Cassie’s bedroom. “This has to be them.”

  “Steve and Diana Wild?” asked Paige, her eyebrows furrowing. “I thought their grandmothers’ names were Judy and Irene.”

  “They are. I think that Steve is Dave’s brother. Steve Junior. Steve Senior is who we’re looking for,” said Kristie, shuffling through the cards. “Oh, here’s one. It says ‘Happy Birthday, Cassie, from Grandma Judy’, but the address on the envelope is somewhere in Florida.”

  Paige nodded. “That’s got to be her. Cassie mentioned she travels a lot. In fact, she was supposed to have been on some kind of European cruise when all of this stuff started going down. She didn’t like talking about it, though. I guess her grandmother got the zombie vaccine before she left for the cruise.”

  Kristie cringed. “Oh. Well, maybe that was actually a blessing. Could you imagine being trapped on a cruise ship with thousands of zombies? There’d be nowhere to run.”

  “All those poor old people,” said Paige. “How horrible.”

  “I don’t know,” said Kristie. “Henry certainly knows how to take care of himself.”

  “Yeah, but he’s not your typical old man.”

  “True. Oh, here we go,” said Kristie, pulling out a pink envelope. She stood up. “This has got to be the other grandparents. Steve and Irene – Willow Lake. That’s only about twenty minutes from here. Let’s go tell the boys.”

  As they turned to leave, there was a chorus of snarls and groans moving toward them from down the hallway.

  “What the hell?” whispered Kristie. “How did they make it into the house? I thought all the doors were locked?”

  Two zombies shuffled to the doorway as they snif
fed at the air.

  “Hhhhhaaaa…..” gurgled one of the zombies, its foul lips turned up in pleasure as it found the source of the smell.

  “Did that thing just say something?” said Paige, grabbing a metal lamp from the nightstand. She quickly unscrewed the finial, removed the shade, and then held the lamp in front of her. “Because I could have sworn it just said ‘ha’!”

  “I don’t know. Dammit, where in the hell are those men? Tiny!!!”

  “Hhhaa….” rasped one of the zombies, a bald guy about Paige’s age with a goatee and black shiny plates in his earlobes.

  “Ha yourself!” Paige growled at the zombie as it stumbled into the bedroom and reached for her. She raised the end of the lamp and slammed it down onto the zombie’s skull, but it only stunned him for a few seconds.

  “Hhhaa…”

  “Oh, for the love of God,” mumbled Paige.

  “Hhhaa.”

  This time she rammed it into the zombie’s left eye and grimaced as it fell backwards with the lamp still deeply imbedded.

  “Paige!” screamed Kristie, holding up her lighter in defense as a second zombie moved toward it, staring in awe.

  She stared at her incredulously. “Seriously, mom?”

  The flame went out and Kristie flicked it again. “I’ll bet this sucker used to smoke in his previous life,” she said with a smirk. “Look at his face. Now he’s having flashbacks, aren’t you boy?”

  “Enough, he’s not a dog, mom.”

  The zombie, who was a tall, older guy with a pocked face and oozing sores, growled and reached for Kristie as she waved the lighter in front of his face a few more times. Unfortunately, he stumbled over the box of greeting cards they’d left on the carpet and fell forward, knocking both of them to the ground.

  “Mom!” screamed Paige as Kristie pushed the zombie’s chomping teeth away from her face.

  “Oh man,” shuddered Kristie, “you could really use a Tic-Tac.”

  Just then, Tiny charged into the room, reached down, picked up the zombie, and slammed the creature over his knee. The sound of bones cracking made them all wince.

  “Oh, my God,” said Kristie, as she stood up on shaky knees, her voice quivering. “I almost thought I was a goner there. Five more seconds in that guy’s arms and he would have put a whole new meaning to ‘sucking face’.”

  Tiny slammed his heel into the back of the zombie’s head, sending what was left of his brains across the light beige shag carpet. “Sorry, babe,” he said, wiping his boot. “There were more of them downstairs. They kept us pretty busy.”

  “Hello!” hollered Paige. “Can someone help me with this thing?”

  A third zombie had slipped inside of the bedroom and had her trapped in a corner without anything to defend herself with.

  “Hold on,” said Tiny, grabbing a dark blue comforter from the bed. He threw it over the zombie’s head, wrapped him inside, then picked him up and walked out of the bedroom.

  “What are you going to do with him?” asked Kristie, following close behind.

  “Babe, can you find something to kill it with?” he said, as the zombie struggled to get out of the comforter. “I think I may have twisted my ankle a little when I killed that last one.”

  As they reached the kitchen, Kristie reached inside one of the drawers and pulled out a large rolling pin. “Here.”

  Paige burst out laughing.

  “No, that will work,” said Tiny, setting the struggling zombie onto the floor.

  “Don’t ever underestimate your mother,” said Kristie, handing the rolling pin to Tiny. “I’ve got me some mad skills when it comes to killing zombies.”

  “Amen, sister,” said Tiny as he raised the rolling pin and smashed it down onto the zombie’s skull.

  “Everyone okay up here?” asked Bryce, holding a long metal crowbar covered in blood.

  “We’re fine,” said Kristie, “What about you? You don’t look so good.”

  He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I’m fine. Damn zombies broke the glass patio door downstairs. Caught us all by surprise.”

  “Where’s Billie?” asked Paige.

  “Right here,” he replied, stepping into the kitchen, looking just as frazzled.

  “Did you guys block that patio door?” asked Kristie.

  “Yeah, we moved the computer armoire in front of the entrance,” said Billie, rubbing his bicep. “Sucker weighs a ton.”

  “Well, I found what we needed,” said Kristie, holding up the envelope. “We should get moving.”

  “I’m going to leave a note,” said Bryce as he started searching through drawers. “In case one of them shows up here, so they know where we’re heading.”

  “Well, just tell them to stay put if they make it here,” said Kristie. “We’ll come back this way after checking Cassie’s grandparents’ and then my house.”

  Bryce nodded and began writing on a notepad when the loud banging began.

  “Great, what’s going on now?” asked Paige.

  Billie walked to the window and looked outside. “Shit.”

  “What?” asked Kristie, joining him at the window. “Oh…”

  Dozens of zombies surrounded the house, slapping at the wood and glass with their hands.

  “They’re going to eventually break through those windows,” said Tiny, looking over Kristie’s head. “We’d better get out before that happens.”

  The sound of shattering glass from somewhere down below confirmed their fears.

  “Let’s move,” said Bryce, picking up the crowbar.

  “Don’t forget your bat this time,” said Kristie, handing it to Paige. “It should be your new best friend.”

  She nodded. “Especially since my old best friend abandoned me.”

  Kristie sighed. “She didn’t abandon you, honey. I’m sure she just wanted to keep you safe.”

  “Still,” said Paige as they stepped back out to the garage. “She took Nora, why not me?”

  “No,” said Billie. “Nora took Cassie. It was her idea in the first place. She’s looking for her father.”

  “I don’t care whose idea it was,” said Bryce as he opened the door to the Expedition. “They’re both getting their asses chewed out when I find them.”

  “All of them are getting their asses chewed, starting with Luke,” said Kristie, getting into the back of the vehicle. “Taking those girls across country when neither of them can drive, let alone shoot a damn gun.”

  “Mom, Kylie and Allie are definitely not victims. If anyone, you should feel bad for Luke. He’s already learned his lesson being stuck in a vehicle with those two, believe me.”

  Kristie smiled. “Yeah, when those two start talking, it can certainly make your head spin.”

  “Especially about boys,” said Paige. “Both of them are so boy-crazy, it’s ridiculous.”

  Kristie’s face darkened. “Don’t remind me, Paige. I don’t need anything else added on to my current list of worries – two girls alone with a fifteen-year-old boy, hormones running wild.”

  Bryce put the key into the ignition as Billie and Tiny lifted the garage door.

  “Get in!” shouted Paige as a group of zombies moved toward the men.

  Billie raised his gun and began shooting while Tiny used his crowbar to defend himself.

  “What the hell is that?” shouted Kristie, holding onto the dashboard as the truck began to shake.

  “I… I don’t know,” said Bryce, staring down at the dashboard.

  “Earthquake!” yelled Billie, jumping inside. “Pull out of the garage so we don’t get trapped inside of here.”

  Paige’s face turned white. “I didn’t know Minnesota had earthquakes!”

  Tiny jumped into the front seat next to Bryce. “Back out now, brother, quickly!”

  Bryce threw it in reverse and the tires rolled over two zombies who’d lost their footing.

  Paige threw her arms around her mother as the tremors grew more intense. “Oh, my God, are we going to die?�
�

  “Honey, calm down. I won’t let anything happen to you,” she answered, closing her eyes.

  Seconds later, the vibrations stopped.

  “Well, that was odd,” said Billie, staring out the window. Besides the zombies gathering around their vehicle, everything seemed so normal. As if the quake had never happened. “First zombies and now tremors in Minnesota?” he frowned. “These are some crazy days.”

  “Very,” said Kristie, releasing Paige. “Hasn’t been any of those in this state since the seventies.”

  “Is it going to happen again?” asked Paige, staring out the window at the row of grey clouds that were moving in.

  “I don’t know,” sighed Kristie. “Let’s just pray that Kylie and everyone else are safe.”

  “Dammit,” said Bryce, rubbing a hand over his face. “This is getting more dangerous by the minute. What in the hell was she thinking of when she left Atlanta? When I get my hands on her…”

  “Chill out, Bryce,” said Paige. “It wasn’t just Cassie who left, and besides, she was only trying to save the rest of her family. Don’t try telling us that you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

  His face darkened. “I wouldn’t have taken off in the middle of the night, and I certainly would have planned it out a lot better.”

  “You’re the reason she took off in the middle of the night,” said Paige. “She knew you’d try and stop her.”

  His eyes widened. “Oh, now it’s my fault?”

  “Well, you’re kind of bossy,” she said.

  “Bossy? I’m sensible. Look, it’s obvious that she needs guidance,” said Bryce. “And the fact that she took off like that just proves it.”

  “Listen,” interrupted Kristie. “Pointing fingers isn’t going to solve anything. We’ve all done some crazy shit in the last few weeks and it was done out of desperation and the will to survive. Now we have to work together and find these kids before they end up dead or, God forbid, undead. So quit with the dramatics and let’s get rolling before you find out how frightening a woman out of cigarettes and on the verge of menopause can get. You all feelin’ me?”

  “Yes, mother, I feel you,” said Paige.