My Zombie Hamster

by Havelock McCreely

  I couldn’t believe it! Dad!

  Of course, the effect was ruined a bit when Dad started jumping around, howling in pain and shaking his hand. The mayor, for his part, toppled over and lay unconscious in the street. Pugsley wandered over to the mayor, sniffed him a bit, then cocked his leg and peed on him.

  Charlie arrived. She stopped the golf cart outside and looked around shyly, wondering what to expect. Dallas gestured for her to come in, and she broke into a huge smile and gunned the cart through the gates. She got out and stepped over the mayor’s prone figure.

  Then the crowd broke into cheering. The sound was deafening, a rising tide of goodwill.

  I ran down the stairs, and Aren, Calvin, and I raised Charlie onto our shoulders and led her back through the town.

  We’d done it. We’d saved Charlie and gotten rid of the deadbeat pets.

  Achievement unlocked: heroes of the town.

  9:00 p.m. And that was our day. I’m now writing this on my bed, watching the news of the great zombie pet trek out of Edenvale. Quite a few people had been filming it, as it turned out. Charlie, Aren, Calvin, and Katie are playing Runespell, shouting and laughing. Mom used butter to get the mayor’s jar off Calvin’s hand, and we were all enjoying his candy. It was pretty good.

  I threw some candy into my mouth and glanced again at the news. It was the bit where Charlie was coming back to the town after leaving the pets out in the woods.

  I was about to turn away and join in Runespell when something made me pause.

  I frowned, leaning closer to the television. There was something behind the golf cart, something moving rapidly through the grass as the cart made its way back to the town gates.

  I stopped chewing. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked …

  … it looked vaguely hamster-shaped.

  I had a sudden flash of the movie The Terminator, about the nonstop killing machine from the future.

  And sure, while I admired the cyborg’s tenacity and dedication, I was a little bit worried how much Anti-Snuffles took after him.

  That he, too, might be back.