Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology)

by Chrissy Peebles

  The Vampire from Hell Returns (The Vampire from Hell - Part 4)

  Virgin Moon (A Werewolf/Vampire Serial Romance, Episode #1)

  Love Begins in Hell (The Moon Journals: Part 1)

  This is the end of the adult stories. The young adult section is next…

  Book 8 – LYRA MCKEN

  ZOMBIFIED

  By

  Lyra McKen

  Copyright © Lyra McKen, 2012

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever,

  including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

  Dedication

  To all my friends online and off that believed in me.

  Prologue

  "You know, it just makes me mad that the news thinks we aren't people too," I said to Neil.

  Of course, my words were spoken in what we Zombies affectionately call “Slopar,” so he did not understand me. To him, it sounded like lots of moaning and noises, but I continued anyway, as I determined what part of the leg was the meatiest. I normally don't like the drumstick of a man, but I was feeling particularly hungry today.

  In the days before I was completely transformed, I had heard the news stories about us, saying we were monsters. They said lots of things but the ones that stood out to me now were soulless and evil.

  "We are people," I continued, as I sunk my teeth into his thigh, ripping off a piece, despite his protests. "Just because we are a little dead does not mean we are any different than you, Neil. Can I call you Neil?"

  I was talking through mouthfuls of him. When he didn't respond, I continued to snack away on what I assumed, by the build, to be an athletic thigh.

  “Are you a runner, Neil? You taste like a runner.” Happy with my choice of dinner, I continued my rant and made myself comfortable on the cement of the parking lot where we had stopped.

  "Like, how they say that we lumber about in groups with no order, and that is just not true. We actually lumber around with our friends. The lady right over there, with only half of her arm, is my favorite person to walk slowly through an abandoned town with."

  I was fairly certain that Neil was almost dead. The color had drained from his face and the blood had stopped spewing from the artery in his leg. In case he could still hear me, I continued to ramble. "There are exceptions. There is this one guy who has to walk in the back of the mob because he drags his leg behind him and it slows us down. We dated in middle school. I tolerate him, but his breath always smelled like cheese and he called me ‘tart.’ I hated both of those things."

  I nudged Neil at my joke, but instead of laughing, he fell over. I debated staying there while I waited to see if he would become zombified, as well. Since my body did not move fast anymore, I figured it could happen before I made it across the parking lot, so I began my slow march toward my friend, Rose. She seemed to be enjoying herself, as I could see her happily eating the brains of a young blond lady.

  As I passed by a car window, I caught a glimpse of my slow moving form and stared for a minute. "Zombie life does absolutely nothing for my complexion," I yelled, over my shoulder to Neil, as I took in a gray face with sunken in eyes.

  Continuing on my path to Rose, I tried to push my appearance from my decaying mind. I wondered if it was just my imagination that I could hear parts of me rotting. I remembered my mother always telling me to take care of my body.

  “Your body is your temple, Cassie.” She would correct my posture by jerking my shoulders back. “You should make sure you treat it as such.”

  “If only my mother could see me now.” I was still talking to Neil, as my progress had not taken me out of his earshot. “She would really be proud of her baby girl.”

  Of course, my mother was dead, and she would never be able to see my current state. She had been in the first round of the infected and they had disposed of her and hundreds of others before they had a chance to spread the disease. That is what they called being zombified in the beginning. They called it a disease.

  As I continued to drag myself across the parking lot, I wondered how things could have been different.

  Chapter 1

  The Longest School Day

  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, and it was the age of foolishness….” The teacher was reading the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities while I was attempting to construct a note to my best friend, Ellen, about how good Brett Nathan’s hair looked that morning. He was the love of my twelfth grade life. Having just turned seventeen, I was now a woman. It was time to make my move. I was getting up the nerve to ask him out, but right now I needed to tell Ellen how fantastic he looked when he got out of the car that morning and the sun hit his perfectly shaped coif.

  Horror filled me as I felt the paper slip from beneath the pen I was writing with. I looked up into Ms. Hamrick’s stern eyes, behind impossibly large glasses, and knew that my life was over. She was not happy with my note writing, and I knew for a fact she loved to read notes out loud. I prepared myself for the embarrassment of my innermost desires being revealed to a classroom full of Neanderthals.

  She pursed her lips, which only made the fact that she had a hairy upper lip stand out. This woman had never seen a wax strip or a pair of tweezers in her life. I found myself momentarily mesmerized by the amount of hair in between her very unkempt eyebrows. The look of bliss on her face meant I was in for a big humiliation.

  “Well, Ms. Williams,” here it came, “while I am sure that Ms. Davis desperately needs to know that Mr. Nathan is way hotter than Leo, with an ass you could just cling to; we have a book to read through. Start at the third paragraph.” She walked back to the front of the classroom, as the idiots around me erupted into laughter, and I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

  I pulled my dark brown hair around my face to hide. I was thankful I had opted to wear it down that day. Too bad it was summer and I was wearing my favorite baby blue tank top instead of a sweatshirt. I wished the worst things ever on my teacher as I began to read from the book. I was just thankful Brett was not in the classroom to hear that display of teenage puppy love. How ridiculous it sounded when she read it out loud that way. There was no doubt in my mind it would get to Brett. I felt like the bathroom would be as good a place as any to eat my lunch today.

  I stumbled through the third paragraph, my face burning with embarrassment. The smug look on the teacher’s face made me angry, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  Ellen gave me a sympathetic look when Ms. Hamrick finally called on someone else to read. I shrunk down in my seat and willed time to go faster.

  I looked at my oversized, white Fossil watch and saw the time was five until two. One more class for the day and I could go home and relax with my favorite book.

  When the bell finally rang, I rushed out of the classroom, to my locker, as fast as I could. Ellen was there shortly after and I rolled my eyes at her as I slammed the locker shut. I jammed my hands in my distressed dark jeans and looked dejected. I was glad I had worn my favorite pair of tennis shoes, with the pink laces, so I could make a quick get-away if I saw Brett coming.

  “Ms. Hamrick is a mean old witch.” I was angry and taking it out on the teacher was the best thing I knew to do.

  “She is, and that was beyond embarrassing.” Ellen lowered her voice to a whisper. “You wrote me about his butt.” She tilted her head and we both giggled at her statement.

  I sighed loudly and hoped like hell people would just forget about it, and then something amazing happened. An announcement, from the principal, came over the speakers telling everyone to get into a
classroom and lock the doors. The school would be on lockdown until further notice. Ellen and I locked eyes, standing still for a minute, not sure what we should do.

  Panic ensued, and there was talk of a shooter in the building, or some type of wild animal; no one knew what was going on. Of course, Ms. Hamrick’s classroom was the one we were closest to, so we all got ushered inside.

  I was horrified to see that not only were most of the kids I had just experienced the single most humiliating moment of my life with were there, but so was Brett. He must have been caught in the group of students Ms. Hamrick pushed into her classroom. He caught me staring at him and flashed an adorable smile. His teeth could be the stars of a tooth paste commercial. Getting out of my head, I pulled my gaze away from him, knowing I had stared too long. I thought the day could not possibly get any worse, but I could never predict how wrong I was about that.

  I checked my watch and it was almost three o’clock. An hour had gone by and we still hadn’t heard anything from the principal. We were all supposed to be quiet and Ellen and I were writing notes back and forth to pass the time.

  I squinted at her chicken scratch across the page. Brett is in here.

  I wrote her back. Duh, I am not blind; I see that.

  Just then, a guy caught my eye outside the classroom window. The blinds had been pulled shut, but I could see him through the cracks on the side. He looked bloody and his movements seemed slow. He reminded me of an ant that had just been stepped on, the way he jerked almost as if it were painful to move.

  I stared for a minute before I drew attention to him, trying to figure out what he was doing. I raised my hand and watched Ms. Hamrick look at me and look back down. Why was she acting like that?

  I nudged Ellen. “Look, something is wrong with that man.”

  The clothes he wore looked torn and his shirt was hanging open. I wondered if he had come from the street and been in some kind of accident. His skin was a little gray-looking and his cheeks were sunken in like he had been hungry for a while.

  Putting my hand back down, I watched him walking slowly towards the classroom. The look on his face was scary and his eyes stared straight ahead. I couldn’t be sure, but I didn’t think I saw him blink. He kept coming at the same steady pace like it was difficult for him to walk.

  He didn’t stop when he got to the window; he pressed his face up against it and opened his mouth wide, revealing blood inside. There was definitely something wrong with this guy, and I was scared. He started to bang on the window of the classroom, and I began to scream.

  Chapter 2

  Mayhem

  "What in the devil?" Ms. Hamrick was looking at the man now, and so was the rest of the classroom. The other girls in the class were now screaming and everyone was scrambling to get to the back of the classroom.

  The man continued to beat on the glass and press his face to it. Finally, he pulled his arm back far enough that he punched straight through it. This caused even more screams, and one of the loudest came from Ms. Hamrick. The glass ripped through his skin and the blood was pouring onto the floor. He didn’t seem to notice.

  She reached over to the blackboard and came back with the yardstick she sometimes tapped loudly on her desk when she thought we were not paying attention. She made a half-hearted attempt to push the man's arm back out the window, but he pulled it and her toward the broken glass.

  I watched in horror as her arm was sliced open and the man pulled it towards his mouth. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to bite her, but that is what it looked like. Suddenly, his head exploded and pieces of it flew all over Ms. Hamrick, who stood frozen, still holding onto the yardstick which was covered in blood, and caused me to clamp a hand over my mouth.

  "What the hell?" I murmured the words everyone was thinking, as the students all started talking at once.

  Men were walking towards the classroom with their guns held up. They looked like a makeshift SWAT team. The classroom was silent; everyone was trying to figure out what they had just witnessed. A guy in dark glasses held a radio to his lips.

  "The walker has been eliminated, checking the damage now," one of the officers said. He walked up to the window and looked in at a scared Ms. Hamrick. "Were you bitten, Ma'am?"

  Ms. Hamrick looked at the cut on her arm and she looked back at us, huddled in the back corner of the classroom. "No, the window just cut me."

  I looked at her then, because I had been sure I saw her arm go into the crazy man's mouth. I had heard on the news about people going crazy on a drug called “bath salts” and biting people's face off. I wondered if the situation here was similar. Maybe I hadn't seen him bite her.

  "Ellen, did that man bite her?”

  I leaned close to my friend, who had a tight grip on my arm, her brown eyes terrified as she turned them to me. "I thought so, but it happened so fast."

  Finally, Ellen let go of the death grip she had on my arm.

  The men moved around the front of the school and entered the building. I could hear their footsteps as they ran through the school. They came into our classroom to check out Ms. Hamrick's injury. They looked at all of us, stopping at each one of us and staring into our eyes. One of the boys that sat in the back of the class spoke up first. "What was wrong with that man?"

  The guy with the gun rubbed his hand over his face and opened his mouth to answer. He was interrupted by someone screaming and all the men ran quickly from the room.

  A few brave souls, including me, went to the door to see what was going on. As I looked around the corner, I saw the school's guidance counselor, Ms. Peters, running down the hall. Her dress was torn and she looked really scared. Behind her, our principal was running, but he looked different. His graying skin reminded me of the man whose head was now in pieces in our classroom.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he lumbered after Ms. Peters; I thought he looked hungry. The next few seconds were kind of a blur. Ms. Peters ran up to the man who had been talking to our class, and he shoved her behind him quickly. He raised his gun at the principal and told him to stop. Mr. Chandler ignored him and kept coming toward the gun with his eyes on Ms. Peters. The man with the gun fired, into our principal, three times. Each shot sent his body jerking back, but he kept coming.

  I felt like I was watching some kind of horror movie, and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Pieces of flesh were flying off of him, and I felt the remnants of my meal rising in my throat. The blood splattering on the floor was enough to make me faint. I couldn’t look anymore and moved back into the classroom trying to keep my lunch down.

  Chapter 3

  What Happens Now?

  A lot of us were wondering where our parents were, and no one was giving us any answers.

  The men who had come to our rescue were now patrolling outside the school. I thought about my mother; if only they would have allowed us to have cell phones in school. I could check to see if she was all right.

  One of the men outside yelled something I couldn't hear, and I noticed that Ms. Hamrick was gone. We moved over to the window as Ellen spoke softly, "Now what?"

  The answer was a hoard of people advancing on the school. At first glance, you wouldn't notice anything wrong with them. You really had to look at how they were moving. They were slowly lumbering towards the men outside the school. It didn't seem like they were in any big hurry. I felt a sense of dread and backed away from the window and right into Brett Nathan.

  "So...so...sorry about that, Brett." I stuttered like a fool and almost tripped over my feet as I recoiled from him.

  "No worries." He was so cool, I almost forgot about the crazy people coming to get us. Then a gunshot brought me back to reality. Panic went through the classroom and students started running everywhere.

  The teacher had long left the room, and she would have been the only one to gain any order in the classroom. I really didn't have time to wonder where she had gone, even though I found it strange for her to be missing.

  A qui
ck look out the window told me that the men were being outnumbered. I stared in horror as a lady in a housecoat bit savagely into one of the men’s faces and ripped the skin away. I could see the muscle across his cheek through the blood, and once again felt ill.

  It was time to hide. I grabbed Ellen's hand and we took off running with the crowd. I lost her somewhere around the gym as the students running in every direction pulled her from me.

  "Ellen!" I screamed, but I had to keep moving to avoid getting trampled.

  I looked down the hall and saw the first of the gray-skinned people walking toward me. I assumed they had broken through the men outside and it was now everyone for them self. I tried to figure out where I should hide to make sure that I wouldn't be seen.

  I stood frozen for a minute as I watched the man walk down the hall. People were running, in his path, from both directions. He stayed at the same pace and when a girl tripped and fell in front of him, he launched for her.

  Before she could move away from him, he had bitten into her leg. No amount of kicking and screaming would make him let go.

  "Get off me, you freak!"

  I thought about going to help her, but I heard something groaning a little ways behind me. I peeked around the corner and saw the same lady in the housecoat from earlier. I didn't want my face to end up her meal like that poor officer.

  She was on the other side of the lockers from where I was and she couldn't see me. I ducked into the classroom to my left and eased the door shut. She walked right up to the door and stopped to take a look around the hall.

  Her skin was grayer than I remembered, and her pink polka dot housecoat was covered in blood. I shuddered and pressed myself as close to the wall as I could. After what felt like an eternity, she finally moved on. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. Out the window, I could see more of them coming towards the school.