Samurai Zombie Hunter

by Cristian YoungMiller

  Kofi wore a brown and pearl spotted shirt. It was Versace, an early birthday gift from his parents. He also wore Hugo Boss pants that were way too tight and a short-brimmed hat from a hip New York designer. Kofi was pimped out.

  “Hey!” Kieran exclaimed, greeting his friend with a smile. He hugged both men and showed them into Aaron’s main residence. “Looking good, Kofi,” he said in praise of his usually plainly-dressed friend.

  “What, this? I just threw it on,” Kofi replied before doing a runway twirl.

  “Lookin’ good too, Van,” Kieran added, turning his attention to his best buddy.

  “Thanks man,” Van said, ignoring the undeserved compliment. “This is a nice place.”

  “Old man’s got taste, you gotta give him that. Let me show you around.”

  Kieran walked past the stairs that led down to the main party room and the patio that led to the beach. Instead he pointed out the kitchen and dining area. At the far end of the dining room was a sliding glass door that led to a balcony. Kieran opened the door and escorted his friends through as Aaron descended the stairs onto the main floor.

  With not many guests present, Kieran and his friends were like beacons for Aaron’s attention, and he didn’t like what he saw.

  “Kieran!” Aaron yelled.

  Kieran whipped his head around and spotted his father, who had descended a lot earlier than anticipated. Keeping up appearances, Kieran turned to his friends, smiled, and let them know he would be right back.

  Kieran reentered the dining room and deliberately closed the glass door behind him.

  “Who are those people?” Aaron yelled.

  “They’re my friends, Dad. Cool it,” Kieran responded in a hushed voice.

  “Don’t you tell me to cool it. I told you that you could invite a few guests who looked like they belonged. Don’t you know anything about who belongs at these parties? How dumb are you? Do you learn anything?”

  Kieran’s humiliation was intensified by the fact that he knew Van and Kofi could hear everything. “Shut up, Dad. Please.”

  “What, you scared your friends will hear me? You care what Bozo there thinks? You really thought that I would be ok with these two being at this party? I mean the tall one is alright, but the fat one can’t be here.”

  “Don’t do this to me Dad, please.”

  “Where in your mind did you think that I would be ok with this? Tell me that.”

  Kieran lowered his head. “Why did you have to come down early?” he said wishing for the humiliation to end.

  Aaron stopped talking and examined his son who was retreating into himself. He knew his son couldn’t take anymore so he abruptly turned around and headed for the party.

  “Tell Liz to find me,” Aaron commanded over his shoulder.

  “Ok,” Kieran said, trying to pull himself together before turning around.

  Kieran turned and headed toward the sliding glass door. Just as he opened it he heard his father’s blaring voice.

  “Now!” Aaron screamed.

  Kieran flinched visibly and closed his eyes to absorb it. After he was sure that his father had descended the stairs, Kieran opened his eyes again and looked at his friends.

  “Sorry about that. I have to find someone for my father and I’ll be right back.”

  Van nodded calmly and Kieran walked away. Kofi hadn’t responded and couldn’t bring himself to look at Van. Despite unequal criticism, the two friends shared Kofi’s discomfort.

  The rest of the night continued much the same. Every time Aaron saw Kieran with his friends, he barked orders at Kieran, pulling him away. Though it seemed like Aaron didn’t want his son around the two, that was not the truth. It was Kieran’s responsibility to run his events; Aaron didn’t want his son thinking the events were a place where the event planner could have a good time. That wasn’t how Van and Coffey interpreted it though.

  As the night wore on, Kieran snuck into the party room and grabbed his friends. Without a word he led them out of the party up to his apartment above the garage. Once seated with a lit bong Kieran spoke.

  “I’m sorry guys. My dad has had me running up and down the whole night. I don’t understand why he just doesn’t relax, ya know? He can be such a fuckin’ asshole sometimes.”

  “That’s cool man,” Van volunteered before waving off the bong.

  Kofi reached around Van and took a big hit.

  “I swear, I can’t take it sometimes. And he treats everyone like that! I just wish he would let me be, ya know? I swear I can’t wait for him to die. You know I get everything when he dies, right?”

  Kieran looked up at his friends for acknowledgement. Van shook his head.

  “I’m so glad you guys came. I’m just so happy you’re here. I don’t want to ever lose you guys, ok? I don’t know what I would do without you. You’ve always been there for me. Don’t let that jerk ruin that, ok?”

  Kieran looked at his friends who seemed to waver upon his last request. “We’ll never let anything come between us. Promise me that.”

  “Yeah man, ok,” Van replied.

  “Promise,” Kofi said, passing back the bong.

  Kieran looked out toward the ocean. “I love you guys. And there isn’t anything in the world that I wouldn’t do for you.”

  Van didn’t reply, but hearing his friend’s vulnerable declaration made him feel the same.

  Van turned again at the frozen image on the TV. The silence between him and Kofi dragged on until Van’s phone rang. He looked down at the caller ID, keeping his surprise inside. The name on the phone was the last one Van had expected to see. Van hit the button, lifted the phone to his ear and spoke.

  “Hello?”

  *****

  Chapter 11

  Sins Revisited

  “Van, how are you?”

  “I’m, umm, good,” Van replied, disoriented.

  “Is Kofi with you?” the voice asked.

  “Yeah…”

  “Don’t say anymore,” the voice shot back, cutting Van off. “Listen, I would like to meet you for lunch alone. Is that possible?”

  “Sure.”

  “How about dinner tomorrow at Earth Café? Our usual time,” the voice suggested.

  “Ok.”

  “I’ll see you then. And Van, it’s good to hear your voice. It’s been a long time.”

  “Yeah. Bye.”

  Van hung up the phone and stared at it.

  “Who was that?” Kofi was intrigued by the perplexed look on Van’s face.

  “That was, umm, my dad,” Van said, still staring at the phone.

  “Is he in town?” Kofi inquired, trying to piece everything together.

  “Ah, no. He’s in Dallas.”

  “Just calling to say hi?”

  “Umm, yeah, I guess.”

  “I, ah… This Kieran thing came out of left field. Can we pick this up tomorrow?” Van made a move toward his bedroom.

  “Actually there was something important that I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Can it wait until tomorrow?”

  “I would prefer to talk about it now. It’s pretty big.”

  “We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” Van concluded definitively.

  “Ok. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Kofi headed towards the door. “How’s your dad doing?”

  “What?” Van asked still a little dazed.

  “Your dad, how is he doing?”

  “He’s good. Everything’s the same.”

  “Ok. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  Kofi took a final look back at his partner before showing himself out. Van was lying and he knew it.

  Van arrived at Earth Café at nine. Van was the first one to arrive and, following tradition, chose the table at the very end of the patio closest to the sidewalk.

  “Can I get you anything to start?” the 20 year-old waitress with the baby face asked.

  “I’ll take the beer on tap and then I’ll wait for my friend.”

  The waitress m
ade a note and walked away.

  Van looked around. The clientele hadn’t changed much since the last time he was there. Everyone one was hip and beautiful, and now that he was a celebrity, Van felt like he fit right in.

  He stood when he saw his friend enter the patio. He looked the same. Van wasn’t sure why he had expected something else but he had. He extended his hand but the man pushed past it and gave Van a hug.

  “I’ve missed you man,” the man said.

  “I’ve missed you too, Kieran,” Van replied.

  Van took a better look at his old friend. Kieran was still as tanned as ever. He still sported sun-bleached blond hair and he still looked thin and fit. The only difference Van noticed was that Kieran didn’t look baked.

  Both men sat without speaking. Kieran had thought that reconnecting with his old friend would be easier, but now in his presence he was having a hard time looking Van in the eyes.

  “I don’t know what to ask,” Kieran began. “Usually most people would ask what you’ve been up to, but who doesn’t know what you’ve been up to, right?” Kieran smiled.

  “Yeah, right,” Van demurred, turning his gaze down toward the salt and pepper shakers. “It’s strange going places and having everyone know who you are.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” Kieran joked, drawing Van’s focus.

  Both men chuckled under their breath.

  “I was sorry to hear about… you know,” Van offered meekly. Kieran thanked him.

  “Do you know how it happened?” Van asked, unable to ask himself the same question.

  Kieran looked at Van again, trying to figure out where Van was going with this line of questioning. “I do.”

  “How’d it happen?”

  Kieran lifted an eyebrow and twisted his head to examine his friend. “How have you been?”

  “Me?” Van considered whether he could, or should, confide his deep secret in his old friend. Van wasn’t sure that he could. “I’ve been the same. You know.”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary?”

  “You know, some things change, but not everything.”

  “There nothing that’s new about you that stands out that you could mention to me?” Kieran pressed.

  “What, you mean that I hunt zombies? Yeah, Kofi got me to start a business with him and we hunt down zombies that feed. But I thought you knew that about me. I thought that’s why you were here.”

  “I’m not talking about that, Van. I’m talking about the fact that you are a zombie.”

  Van dropped his mouth open in shock. “How did you know that?”

  Kieran looked at his friend curiously. “Because you were the one who turned me.”

  Kieran’s statement hit Van like a brick. The blood immediately rushed from his face and tingling developed in his fingers to go along with the ringing that started in his ears. He wanted to deny that it could be true, but deep down something told Van that it was.

  “Don’t you remember this?” Kieran asked.

  Van, doing his best to hold onto what little was in his stomach, shook his head no.

  At that moment the cute waitress returned. She put a beer in front of Van and turned to Kieran. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  Calmly, Kieran asked for a tea. When the waitress left, Kieran turned his attention back to Van, who did not look like he was handling the news well.

  “Did you forget this?” Kieran asked, trying to assess the situation.

  Van pulled himself together enough to speak. “Yeah. When?”

  “It was the night of the last party.”

  Van knew which party he was referring to. It was the last time Van had seen either of his two friends before Kofi showed up in his bedroom holding a sword.

  Kieran, understanding that Van couldn’t bring himself to ask what he needed to know, volunteered more. “Remember that I had introduced you and Kofi to those two girls? You were already so drunk that I don’t know if you even remember that.”

  “No, I remember it.”

  “When I left you, you and she were chatting it up so I thought everything was good. At about four A.M. I came looking for you because I was about to leave. I found you in one of Grant’s bedrooms. But when I walked in you were naked on top of her. I thought you two were fucking, but when you looked at me you had blood running down your chin. You were feeding on her.

  I was stunned. I couldn’t even get myself to back up. I just stood there. And the speed that you crossed the room to grab me was amazing. That’s all I remember. After that I woke up in a bedroom by myself with a massive headache. Then the cravings started.”

  “Are you ready or do you need more time?” the waitress asked, setting the tea down.

  “I know what I want,” Kieran said casually. “What about you, Van?”

  Van didn’t move.

  “How about if I just order you the usual?” Kieran offered, to speed things along.

  Instead of answering Kieran, Van responded to the vibration in his pocket. He pulled out his phone. It was a text message from Kofi. There were now four, all of which were unanswered.

  “Yeah, I’ll take the mixed vegetables and steamed rice as my entrée. And he’ll have the steak, medium rare with fries. He’s very predictable,” Kieran said, joking with the waitress.

  “Ok, it will be coming right up,” she said before walking away.

  “I’m a vegetarian now. I think it cuts down on the cravings. I also meditate and take a ton of supplements. I even gave up on the good stuff. It keeps my head clearer. That way I don’t end up doing anything that I might regret in the morning. What about you? Are you still having the cravings?”

  Van nodded.

  “You gotta fight that man. It’s tough, but you do. If you don’t, one day someone’s going to show up at your house dressed like a samurai and he’ll remove your head,” Kieran joked.

  Van looked up at his friend not finding the joke funny.

  “How do you do it? How do you kill people knowing that you are no different from them? I couldn’t do it.”

  “I didn’t know,” Van dribbled out.

  “At all?”

  “Not when Kofi asked me to do it. I just found out recently.”

  “But you’ve continued to hunt?”

  Van nodded again.

  “If the call came, would you hunt me, knowing what you know now?”

  “No,” Van said gently.

  “And what makes me different from any other zombie out there? It’s that you know me. You know who turned me. You know that you didn’t mean for it to happen. Don’t you think that the same thing is true for them?”

  “It’s a lot uglier out there than you think,” Van retorted after finding his voice.

  “Yeah I saw your news story.”

  “It’s not even that. There are zombies that snatch children and babies. Some of those things are animals.”

  “And I’m sure you’re right. But maybe it’s education that we need. Because I have talked to other zombies; they know who you are. They know what you do, and they know how people cheer you for doing it. And Van, if something doesn’t change, there’s gonna be a war. And I can guarantee you this: the humans aren’t gonna win.

  It’s not much, but I ask you to stop. Let me do what I can. Or better yet, join me. I’m not gonna out you or anything. You could just say that you’ve seen the light and now you’re fighting for zombie rights. No one has to know anything.”

  Kieran stopped talking when the waitress brought over the food.

  Kieran looked down at his plate. “I gotta say though, I do miss meat,” he said with a smile before shoveling a fork full of rice in his mouth.

  Van looked at, but didn’t touch, his food. He was lost on other things. “I’m sorry about what I did to you.”

  “Thanks Van. And I’m sorry about what someone else did to you. But the question is where do we go from here?”

  “I’ll do what you ask. I’ll stop. I’m just so sorry, Kieran. I’m just so sorry.” Va
n put his head in his hands and began to cry. Kieran looked on kindly.

  Having allowed his emotions to flow, Van wiped his eyes and dug into his steak. He barely tasted the meat because his mind was elsewhere. Eating was simply the best distraction at hand.

  As Van was about to cut his last scrap of meat, he looked up at yet another familiar face. “Kofi!” Van blurted.

  Kieran turned around and was ignored by Kofi.

  “You’re ignoring my texts again? I told you last night that I had something important to talk to you about.”

  “How did you know I was here?” Van wondered aloud.

  “Where else would you and Kieran meet up?”

  “If you two need to talk about something you should go,” Kieran suggested, pushing his empty plate forward.