Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2)

by D. K Lake

  Ellie was waiting by the front door with her car keys.

  “Might even see Melanie there.” Ellie said on the way out the door.

  “Who?”

  “You know, Melanie, the brunette that works at the bar in town.”

  “What, that yappy one?

  “Yeah, the friendly one.”

  “There's friendly then there's just plain annoying. If you're setting me up with that mouthy thing, then I'm gonna wear board shorts and a wife beater to your friend's wedding you want me to go to next month.”

  “You wouldn't dare.” she said, opening the driver's side door.

  “Err.. El, if you want me to go to the fair with you, you'll let me drive the car.”

  Ellie rolled her eyes playfully and chucked the keys over the roof to her brother.

  Drew parked the car in the designated parking lot (which was actually a field).

  “Come on, stop dragging your feet.” Ellie said, pulling him along by the arm.

  After ten minutes of refusing to have fun, Drew started to enjoy himself, and he let Ellie drag him from one ride to the next. Two hours later, Drew had worked up an appetite and Ellie had gone off to find a toilet.

  Good luck. Drew thought, knowing the only toilet around here was the hedge at the end of the field.

  Drew stood in line at the burger van minding his own business when a rat dragging a burger ran between his feet and shot off under a stall.

  Drew looked up at the man serving the burgers.

  “What the...? Where'd the burger go?” the man said, holding his spatula in the air.

  He glared at the woman in front that was waiting her turn to be served and gave her the suspicious once over.

  She let out an impatient sigh and put her hand on her hip.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Nothing... it will just be a few more minutes.” the man said, placing a fresh burger on the grill.

  The woman let out a frustrated grunt.

  “You said that five minutes ago, ugh, forget it!” she said before stomping off.

  Drew stepped up to order.

  “Uh.. there was… this rat, I think it stole that woman's burger.”

  “Rat?” the man spat, as if Drew had insulted him in some way.

  “Never mind. Must have been a dog.” Drew lied.

  “No rats around my burger van.” the man grumbled, flipping the burger.

  Once Drew had paid he turned around and started walking away, inspecting his own burger for anything suspiciously rodent-like, and he nearly walked into someone.

  He stopped mid-stride and looked up at the girl.

  “Sorry, didn't see you there.” he apologized.

  She smiled at him, revealing a mouth of black teeth.

  Drew tried to smile but was so distracted with her teeth. Were they real? Had she put something black on them, on purpose?

  He quickly tried to sidestep around her but she got in front of him and did the same when he tried to duck around her.

  He stopped and took a moment to look at her. She looked no older than seventeen, was as tall as him, wearing a black turban with long, wispy, almost white hair hanging down to her hips in soft waves.

  She wore red lipstick and black eyeshadow, and purple contacts. Must be contact lenses. Drew thought.

  Drew couldn't help letting his eyes wander down her torso, she was skinnier and bonier than Ellie, and wore a strange, black dress that hung off her shoulders and trailed along the ground, it was like a wedding dress but it was all black.

  Drew tried once more to step around her but she jumped in front of him again and giggled like it was a game.

  He pulled a tight-lipped smile, not sure what she was doing.

  “I need to go and find my girlfriend.” Drew lied, hoping it would get rid of her.

  “Don't you mean sister?” the girl said but she never moved her lips.

  Drew laughed.

  “That's good. Is that part of the act? Are you paid to follow people around and pretend you're...you're... I dunno, what are you? You do kind of look like a witch. Wait, did Ellie put you up to this? Where is she?” he grinned, looking around but he couldn't see Ellie anywhere.

  He turned back to the girl but she wasn't smiling anymore. She stepped closer to Drew and he had to force himself not to step back. She was pretty (sort of) in a freakish way.

  She reached out to him, placed one hand on his chest, leaned closer, and whispered in his ear. Her voice tickled his ear and sounded as though it was being carried in the wind. She stepped back and then walked off in the other direction. Drew stared at the back of her for a minute before she disappeared inside some tent. Then he went to find Ellie.

  He didn't have to look far, he would know his sister's laugh a mile off. He found her giggling like a teenager and blushing at a heavily tattooed guy in his twenties that was attending to one of the stalls that had goldfish swimming around in bags.

  “Ellie, you ready to go?”

  “Uh.. yeah,” she replied, then she turned back to the guy. “Give me a minute.”

  She walked over to Drew and pulled him away from the stall.

  “His name's Billy, he has tattoos everywhere.” she said, looking back at the guy and giving him a little wave.

  She looked back at her brother and noticed his distant expression.

  “What's wrong with you?”

  “Nothing's wrong. Can we please go now.” Drew said, looking down at his burger but he'd suddenly lost his appetite.

  “Drew? What is it?”

  Drew chucked his burger in a nearby trash can and looked back at his sister.

  “There was this girl-”

  “Oh, really? Did you get her digits?” Ellie asked cutting him off.

  “What? No, I didn't get her digits. She was talking bat-shit-crazy.”

  “What?”

  “And she was wearing a turban?”

  “A turban? Drew, what are you talking about? What girl?”

  “She went into that tent over there.” Drew pointed.

  “Oooh,” Ellie said, looking at the tent.

  “What does 'Oooh' mean?”

  “I overheard some girls talking about her.”

  “Yes, and... who is she?”

  “She's a fortune teller, I think they said her name was Meat.”

  “Meat? What kind of a name is Meat?”

  “No, hang on, maybe it was mate...? Oh, no, now I remember, it was Maite. But don't worry, little brother, you've never believed in fairytales. Remember when you told me the tooth fairy wasn't real? That was a lovely memory, I cried for days when you burst that little bubble.”

  “You were twelve, Ellie.”

  “Still, it was a sad day.”

  Drew glanced at the tent. “It was... weird.”

  “Well, what did she say that has you all freaked out?”

  Drew shook his head. “It was nothing.”

  “Hmm, it must have been something.”

  “Are you ready to go?” Drew asked impatiently.

  Ellie looked over her shoulder at Billy.

  “He was going to show me the inside of his trailer home.”

  “Ellie, he probably shows hundreds of girls inside his trailer home, anyway he'll be gone by the end of the week. No!”

  “No?”

  “Yes, no, now c'mon let's go.”

  “Ah ah ah.” Ellie said, lifting the car keys from her bag and dangling them in the air.

  Drew didn't want to carry the keys as Ellie had about fifty different key chains attached to her car key and it made it impossible to fit into a pocket.

  “Tell me what this girl said and I'll come home with you, otherwise, you can walk... and it is a long walk.”

  “Ugh, Ellie, can we just go?”

  “No, first you tell me what it is she said to you to get you in such a tizzy.”

  “It was nothing... it didn't even make any sense.”

  “Drew,”

  “She said... When the dead w
alk, you shall find the girl that holds your heart, and she will wear the moon.”

  “She will wear the moon?”

  “Yup, that's what she said.”

  “That's a bit weird. You sure she said moon? She will wear the moon? The moon?”

  “Yep, the moon. You ready to go now?” Drew asked, wanting to leave.

  “If we must, who knows, maybe we'll meet this moon girl on the way home.” Ellie joked

  “That's not funny, Ellie.”

  “All right, calm down, I was just joking. So what did she look like?”

  “Weird looking. Black dress, black teeth, purple eyes.”

  “What if she's the real thing.”

  “The real thing? She looked like she was still in school. She probably gets paid to dress up like that.”

  “Magic comes in all shapes and sizes.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing... nothing at all.” Ellie said as they passed a couple holding hands.

  “Hmm... that was a nice moon pendant around her neck.” Ellie said.

  “What?” Drew said, turning around to look at the back of the couple.

  “I was joking, she had a chain with the word, BITCH.” Ellie laughed.

  Ellie shrugged and chucked the keys to Drew and he unlocked the car.

  “You think the girl was talking about a moon pendant?”

  “What else would it mean? She will wear the moon, it actually makes sense it would be a pendant. At least, that's what I make of it.” Ellie said as she opened the car door. “Oh, here we go, you don't believe in that sort of stuff but you're going to be staring at every girl's neck from now on.... they'll think you're Edward Cullen.”

  “Who?” Drew asked, starting the car.

  “You don't know who Edward Cullen is? Well, I know what movie I'm renting for Friday night movie night.” Ellie said, smiling and fiddling with the radio buttons.

  “When the dead walk.” Drew muttered, but he was soon drowned out by the radio.

  The End.