Zee Town Paranormal Cozy Mystery - Complete Series Omnibus: Books 1 - 6

by K E O'Connor

  I jumped into the van, clicking the locks shut behind me.

  “Did you feed that dog your rations for the evening?” Katie asked as I started the engine.

  “Only some of them,” I said. “And I know what I’m not missing out on by giving that mutt my food.” Since the uprising, food distribution was sporadic and chaotic. You never knew what you might find when you collected your food rations. Alongside the protein bars, dried packets of beans and tinned fruit were a staple of my diet. It was getting better, the worst of the uprising appeared to be over, but there was still a lot of clean-up to do and it would take years for things to return to normal. Well, not normal. Things would never be the same after this.

  “Let’s go catch ourselves some zombies,” Katie said.

  Chapter 2

  My thoughts were mixed about the placid zombies we were enroute to round up. A part of me felt sorry for them. They hadn’t asked to get infected and turned into a zombie.

  It was a step up from being a rabid zombie. At least they didn’t have the overwhelming urge to eat humans, or so the scientists didn’t think after running extensive testing at the assessment centers around the country.

  But placid zombies were still something different and unknown, and therefore, potentially dangerous. Everyone needed to be cautious around zombies.

  “If we take the long way round and go onto the M40, we can get into Manor Road and keep out of the way of the worst of the nests,” Katie said.

  I checked on the directions Katie had punched into the GPS and nodded. “It’s the best way in, though it’ll take us an extra fifteen minutes. Better that than get set upon by some rabids and risk the van getting damaged.” You didn’t want to get stuck in a broken vehicle surrounded by rabids. Glass and metal weren’t much of a deterrent when they could smell a living human inside.

  “Or like last time,” Katie said. “When those idiots tried to take the van. I still don’t get what they were trying to achieve.”

  “Desperation makes people do stupid things.” I steered the van around several discarded vehicles. “Maybe they thought a police van was safer than your average car.” And they’d be right. With reinforced frame, mesh window shields over the glass, and an array of weapons in the back, this was as safe as it got when you were on the streets.

  “We’re desperate to get our jobs done,” Katie said, “but we don’t go around throwing ourselves at moving targets.” She pulled the clip out of her gun and inspected the bullets before reassembling it.

  As I drove onto the motorway, I flicked on the headlights. Given the speed we were going, even if a rabid zombie saw us, they wouldn’t be able to keep up. Better to see properly than risk smashing into a hole in the road or hitting an abandoned bike. Or even worse, a body.

  “I wonder what happened to Mario and Steve’s team.” Katie’s voice was quiet as she looked out the window of the van, the dense black night pressing in on us. “It makes me sick to think about them being eaten.”

  “If there’s any justice in the world,” I said, “it would have been swift. And they have a fifty-fifty chance of coming back as zombies.”

  “That’s not a comforting thought,” Katie said. She was quiet for a moment. “Have you ever thought what you’d do if one of them bit you?”

  A rabid zombie carried the virus in its saliva. Even though we all carried a form of the virus, if you became infected with that specific strain, there was a high chance it was the end of the road for your sanity and hello to rabid zombie town.

  I patted my sidearm. “I know exactly what I’d do. And I’d take as many of them with me as I could.” There was no way I’d ever want to be a zombie. Either placid or rabid, it destroyed too much of your humanity.

  I still didn’t understand why we kept the placids alive. They were shells of human beings, as if they’d been stripped of everything that made them alive.

  Katie grunted in response. “That’s my plan, too.”

  We drove in silence for ten minutes, both wrapped up in our thoughts. This messed up world led to a lot of introspection about the future and how it was shaping up now it was full of zombies.

  “This is it,” Katie said, straightening in her seat.

  I turned right and took a sharp left, pulling the vehicle to the side of the road and adjusting my radio’s volume. “Control. This is Officer Morton reporting in. We’ve arrived at Manor Road and await instructions.”

  “Officer Morton, you’ll find the placids at the far end of the street in an abandoned movie theater.”

  “I wonder what they’re watching,” Katie muttered.

  I smiled at her. “Night of the Living Dead?”

  “Shaun of the Dead is more my cup of tea,” Katie said.

  “Maybe they’re Disney fans,” I said. “They could have Snow White playing.”

  “Officer Morton, respond,” Control said.

  The time for fun was over. “Understood, Control. We’ll round up the placids and take them to the assessment center.” I glanced into the back of the van. We could fit twenty zombies inside and were protected by a reinforced metal cage so they couldn’t reach us when we drove.

  “Roger that. Try not to get bitten. Over and out.”

  “He’s a charmer,” Katie said. “Who’s on dispatch tonight?”

  “Derek. He’s not known for his charm or sense of humor.” Derek Brown never smiled, smoked heavily, and lived off caffeine and sarcasm.

  Katie shoved her helmet on her head and clipped the clasp shut under her chin. “Come on. Let’s round this lot up, then we can return to base. I’m in desperate need of a vat of coffee.”

  I briefly shut my eyes and rubbed my fingers over them. The late hour and tiredness made them sting, but we were almost done. We had an hour left of our shift. Get the zombies, round them up, and get the heck out of here.

  Checking for any threats, we exited the van, guns out as we headed to the movie theater. The doors were missing as we entered the building. It was an ancient Tudor structure, with thick white walls and black beams on the ceiling.

  We did a brief sweep of the ground floor.

  “There’s only this room to check,” Katie said, pointing her gun toward the main screen in the movie theater.

  “Cover my back while I get the door open,” I said.

  “Will do,” Katie said.

  I eased the door open an inch and heard shuffling sounds inside. “We’ve got company,” I whispered.

  “How many?” Katie asked.

  “Unknown.” The fact the zombies hadn’t burst out when they’d heard us meant they were most likely placids. Rabid zombies acted on instinct and attacked quickly. The scent of living humans drove them into a frenzy.

  I risked flicking on my flashlight and shone it into the room. I spotted five zombies, their attention on the beam of light. “It looks safe enough.” I pulled the door open wider.

  For a few seconds, the zombies froze, their gazes fixed on Katie and me as we stood in the doorway.

  “Is there any chance we can get some lights on in here?” Katie mumbled. “You never know what’s lurking behind one of these seats.”

  “It looks like the power is out.” The only lights in the room were the green emergency signs over the doors. “Let’s do a sweep of the room and make sure we haven’t missed anybody. Then we can get the zombies in the van.”

  “Yes, boss.” Katie swiftly moved into action. Even though we were equal partners, she always deferred to my decisions. I sometimes wished she didn’t. I was a year out of zombie specialist training and still had a lot to learn.

  The placid zombies were no problem, though. Within the hour we’d rounded them up. We did a final sweep of the building but found no more signs of life—or death, depending on what you thought zombies were.

  I jumped into the front of the van with Katie and removed my helmet, running my hands through my sweaty hair.

  “You look terrible,” Katie said.

  “It’s my sex, drugs, and roc
k-and-roll lifestyle,” I said with a smile. “Hard living isn’t kind to my complexion.”

  “More like your zombies, shift-work, and terrible diet lifestyle.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think either of us look our best after dealing with a load of rotting bodies. One of them lost a finger when I touched him.”

  Katie shuddered. “I’m still hot. I blame the outfit. Black does nothing for me.”

  I grinned at her and pulled down the visor. As I looked in the visor mirror, I realized Katie was right. I looked about ten years older than my actual age of twenty-seven. I had dark smudges under my eyes, two days of stubble on my chin, and what looked like a permanent frown line between my eyebrows. This job aged you.

  “To the assessment center?” Katie asked, looking at me expectantly.

  “Let’s do this.” I started the engine and began the twenty-mile journey to offload our passengers. After that, I could go home.

  ***

  The zombies were dispatched, Katie was safely at the base, and I cruised home in my car, exhaustion making me see double as I parked inside the gated complex three miles from work. I sometimes wondered why I kept this place on. I was barely home, work was my whole life these days.

  Once inside, I set the alarm. It was important to be aware of what might creep toward the door, opened a beer, and made a boil in the bag meal.

  The apartment hadn’t been altered in years, not since Melanie, my fiancée, had moved in and added too much feminine charm for my liking. Her sparkly scatter cushions were everywhere, floral prints on the wall, and several pairs of her shoes were discarded under the coffee table.

  I finished my tasteless meal, took a quick shower, and headed into the bedroom. I eyed the double bed with caution. It still didn’t feel right sleeping in there, not with Mel gone. Worst of all, I’d woken up next to her after she’d turned in this very bed.

  She’d become a placid zombie in her sleep, the virus working its cruel power through her before I’d said goodbye.

  Another look at the bed and I shook my head. The couch was comfortable. If I tried to sleep here, I’d only keep thinking about Mel. It had been almost a year. It was time to move on.

  I crashed on the couch with an exhausted sigh and passed out.

  Chapter 3

  “Listen up! We’re down two men since last night,” Captain Page barked out, his dark skin already gleaming with sweat as he stood under the harsh lighting in the station’s briefing room. Air conditioning was a luxury these days, and we had to endure whatever temperatures were thrown at us.

  A murmur of concern ran through the group of a dozen officers in the room.

  I felt Katie nudge me.

  Captain Page held up a hand and the room instantly fell into silence. “As I was saying, we’re down some exceptional officers. They met resistance from a rabid nest that we hadn’t yet identified and were overwhelmed.” He paused, and I saw him swallow.

  “What about the rabids, sir?” Saul Teacher asked. He was a skinny blond officer who sat at the back of the room.

  “The details are sketchy, but I’m dispatching two teams tonight to get further intel on the nest and put the remaining rabids down,” Captain Page said.

  Another murmur ran through the group. We’d all be willing to do that job. Everybody liked that team.

  “I’ll need volunteers to do a double shift as well, to make sure we aren’t too thinly spread,” Captain Page said.

  A few people groaned, but I lifted my hand. It was better to do a double shift and keep occupied than sit at home and stare at four walls in, allowing unhappy memories to shove into me like jagged sticks.

  Captain Page nodded at me. “I knew I could rely on you, Morton. Anybody else?”

  Katie sighed and also lifted a hand. “I can’t have you going out there on your own. You’ll only get bitten,” she muttered to me.

  “You don’t have to,” I said. Although, I was secretly pleased she’d have my back.

  “Yes, I do, loser,” Katie said.

  “Good work, people,” Captain Page said. “Now, I have another volunteering opportunity. Something out of the ordinary. As some of you may have heard on our wonderful rumor mill, a new initiative is being set up in the south west of the country. It seems we’ve got ourselves an occasion to implement the trial of a large-scale placid zombie refuge.”

  “You make them sound like hippies, Captain, not monsters that would rip your throat out as soon as look at you,” Officer Scott Temple said, slapping a large hand on the desk in front of him.

  “It could be a good place to round the zombies up and take them out in one go,” shouted another officer. “Get a team together with some semi-automatics and have a shoot off.”

  “Quiet down,” Captain Page said. “The refuge is just that, a haven for placid zombies.”

  The room filled with murmurs again, which were silenced by the Captain’s fierce glare. “Remember, it could have been any of you. We’re the fortunate ones. We were all infected by the virus but didn’t change into zombies. Some of those placid zombies are still loved and have friends and family helping them. And for all their wisdom, rightly or wrongly, the Government has determined that placid zombies are safe.”

  “The Government knows nothing,” Scott said. “They’ve been hiding underground for so long they don’t have a clue about what’s happening in the real world.”

  Captain Page continued as if Scott hadn’t spoken. “Providing the zombies receive regular and suitable nourishment, they’ve been deemed to be an asset to the community. We need to integrate better with them.”

  “There’s no way you’ll find me living next door to a placid zombie,” Scott said. “What’s to say they won’t turn rabid next week, or next month, or ten years down the line? If we let these freaks into our communities, we’re asking for trouble.”

  “Which is why these refuges are being set up in discreet parts of the country,” Captain Page said. “This place, provisionally called Zee Town, has been running small-scale trials for months. The trials are being monitored closely by a Council and medical experts. There’s also a team of professionals working with residents to train them in how to care for placid zombies.”

  “They should have called it Freak Town,” Scott said.

  “Can you imagine living in a place where you’re surrounded by zombies?” Katie muttered to me. “That must take some getting used to.”

  I shot her a glance and nodded. It didn’t sound like the kind of place I wanted to be anywhere near.

  Captain Page continued, flicking through the notes in front of him. “Each zombie is given a mentor or guide if they don’t already have one. I believe family members have stepped up to take on this role. In addition, a border and security patrol have been established at any exposed points of this refuge. The area was chosen because it has several natural features in the geography that make it easy to defend.”

  “What do they want volunteers for?” Scott asked. “Live bait?”

  Several other officers laughed at that comment.

  “The town is offering volunteers a chance to get to know the zombies better.”

  No one spoke.

  “If that doesn’t appeal, they’re also recruiting three roles,” Captain Page said. “One is a full-time, paid position. They’re looking for an experienced, capable sergeant to run the police department in Zee Town.”

  “What happened to their previous sergeant?” Katie asked.

  “That information isn’t known,” Captain Page said. “The sergeant will recruit two additional members to the team.”

  “You’ll need a bigger force than that,” Scott said. “If they fill the place with zombies and expect a few officers to take them down, they’re out of their minds.”

  “That’s not the plan.” Captain Page sighed loudly. “This is a test, to see if a human community and the placid zombie community can live peacefully side-by-side. I must admit, much like a number of you, I had doubts about the likelihoo
d of success of this new way of living. But the trials have been excellent, with both humans and zombies thriving in this unique situation.”

  “I’ll stick to the zombie infested streets I know and love,” Katie said. “What about you?” she whispered to me.

  “I’ll pass,” I said. “I tried living with a placid zombie once. It didn’t go so well.” My thoughts flashed to Melanie and the way she’d shambled around the apartment after she’d turned, looking for something to eat, and confused and unsteady on her feet.

  I’d been too shocked to do anything at first and had even drawn my gun on her. I’d wondered about putting her out of her misery. At the time, I didn’t know enough about placid zombies to know how they felt and if they experienced pain.

  Had Melanie remembered her former life and was stuck inside a horrible placid shell? The experts in the white coats still weren’t sure.

  Katie gave my arm a brief squeeze. She knew my background, and she’d seen enough of her friends turn into zombies. She was lucky, though, she still had her fiancé, Brad, who also worked for the police in another town.

  I was glad they had each other. There was nothing worse than going home every night and sitting in an empty apartment.

  “I’ll leave more details about Zee Town on the bulletin board.” Captain Page’s gaze landed on me for a second. “I believe there are several of you in the division who would be a great asset to this trial. You would be early adopters of a system that may get rolled out across the entire country, and potentially the world.”

  “Not if I’ve got anything to do with it,” Scott muttered.

  The Captain continued. “There are a few other placid refuges being tried in other countries. It seems we’re the first to take it seriously and attempt a full integration of zombies and humans. It could be an interesting experiment to be a part of.”

  Nobody made any comment. It would seem as if everyone in the room was in agreement. This trial was a ridiculous idea.