by Gayle Katz
The lock clicked open. She listened but couldn’t hear voices on the other side of the door.
She flung the door wide. Inside was John, on the telephone.
“Hey,” he said to her, confused. “I’ll get to you when I’m done this call.”
“Oh, no rush,” she replied. “Whenever you have time.” She wandered around the small room. It had old furniture but was surprisingly clean for a drug dealer’s den.
She knew she was onto something when she saw a picture of Tonia in one of the picture frames above the fireplace. “Say, is this girl one of your girlfriends?” she asked, turning back to face John.
But before she could fully turn to face him, she felt a blow to her head. She struggled to remain conscious. She moved her arms forward to protect her face from hitting the floor. The pain was intense. She struggled, kicking out. Her leg connected with something, but soon she lost consciousness.
zzz
When she awoke, Steve was hanging over her. “Hey, man. Sorry to do this to you, but you got too nosy.”
“Geez, Steve. I told you that I’m not interested in the drugs,” she said, struggling against the ropes that bound her arms.
“I know. You’re interested in the zombies.”
“Where are John and Stan?” she asked, looking around.
“They scrammed. They don’t get involved in the dirty stuff,” he explained.
“So, where is Eli?” asked Charlie, working against her bonds.
“He’s scrammed. He doesn’t need us anymore. Anyway, he wasn’t good at moving product.”
“So what’s the point of this?” she asked. “Keeping me here?”
“Why did you come here?” he asked.
“To find Tonia, obviously.” She shook her head in the direction of the photo.
“Oh her, right. You don’t want to mess with her. Now me, on the other hand, she has promised me immortality.” Steve went to sit on the other side of the room.
“Really?” she replied. “Did she tell you that you’d be dead?”
“Of course,” he said. “Then we will rise together!”
“That’s not all that was rising, apparently,” she joked. “Listen up. She’ll turn you into nothing more than a zombie who feeds on the souls of the living. Eventually, you’ll drop down to the ground in a mass of dead flesh and bones and you’ll be gone.”
“Nah, that’s not what she said.” He took out his knife and started playing with it.
“It’s true. I’m a zlayer. I should know.”
He smiled. “She was right about you. She can pick out a zlayer from a mile away. You and that Zan girl.”
“Oh, Zan has nothing to do with any of this,” said Charlie, managing to loosen the ropes wrapped around her wrists. You had to loosen them against the grain. Otherwise, they’d just tighten up even more.
“Liar,” he said. “Anyway, doesn’t matter. She’s on her way to kill Zan.”
“What?!” she cried. “No!”
“Yep.”
“Wait, how does Tonia know where I live, or where Zan lives for that matter?”
“Oh, someone’s making money on the side,” he said.
“Money? Who do I know who needs money? Hmmm.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to guess,” he said. “We’ll just wait here until Tonia gets back, and then she can eat you herself.”
“I heard that zlayers are bad for the stomach,” she said, smirking.
He laughed.
“Seriously, either you’re a zombie, a zombie slayer, or the zombie leader. There is nothing else. There is no zombie boyfriend in this world.”
“Oh, she told me there is a way.”
Charlie looked at him, expecting more. By now, she could have thrown off the poorly tied knots, but she was interested in the conversation.
“A spell,” he said.
“Darn it. Someone must have given her the spell,” she said.
“Yep,” said Steve.
“Dammit, Steve!” Charlie yelled at him. “She’s playing two guys!”
Just then, there were some strange sounds coming from outside the door.
“What’s going on out there? Did you bring your friends?” he asked. He got up from his chair and headed to the door.
Chapter 13
________________________________________
While Steve was peering outside to see what was up, Charlie threw off the ropes. Steve had found the dagger in her back pocket but not the other one. As she walked past the table, she picked it up and put it back inside her pocket.
“Hello!” she said loudly to him, pushing him aside.
He tripped and fell to the ground. “Hey!” he said. “Where are you going?”
But she was already gone.
zzz
“Well, that was a big waste of my time,” she muttered to herself as she went to get her car. “But at least I know more of what’s happening.” She hoped that the romance situation would resolve itself between Steve and Tonia. She didn’t think he was really a bad guy, as he hadn’t hurt her or touched her at all, beyond tying her up. Perhaps he’d see that the zleader was conning him, and he’d leave.
Now, where would Zan be at this time? Probably at home. She wondered who had told Tonia where Zan lived.
Charlie drove as quickly as she could, without running the red lights or being a target of the speed cameras.
She quickly drove into Zan’s driveway. Good thing she’d collected everyone’s address as a precaution in her address book. She was going to walk up to her front door, but heard noises coming from the back. She picked up the pace and walked quickly around to the back of the house.
Lying on the ground was Tonia, with Owen and Zan restraining her.
“Nice job, guys,” said Charlie. “You don’t need me at all.”
“Quick!” said Owen. “Use your dagger on her.”
“Oh right,” said Charlie. “I have it right here. This is going to be easy!”
Tonia struggled on the ground. She was strong, but wasn’t a match for two teens who were bigger than her.
Charlie pulled open her jacket and grabbed the dagger. Then she walked over to where Tonia was being pinned down on the ground. She took the dagger and jammed it down hard into her skull.
Everyone waited for her to die. Tonia started having seizures. Her entire body started shaking. All three held her down the best they could.
Finally, she had one last seizure, and then was still.
“Is that it?” asked Owen. “That seemed almost too easy.”
Then Tonia’s eyes opened, and she sat up. “Oh, stupid!” she cried. “Why did you do that?”
“What the?” said Zan. “You’re still alive?”
“Yes, I can’t be thwarted that easily,” said Tonia.
“What? I thought the special titanium dagger was supposed to kill her?” said Charlie.
“Guess not,” said Owen.
Tonia stood up and rushed against everyone. She pushed Zan to the ground. “Shit! I’d bite you, but you’re immune.”
“What?” said Zan. “Because you bit me before and I recovered?”
Tonia nodded.
“Hey, me too!” said Owen.
Tonia smiled. “OK, so who hasn’t been bitten yet and isn’t immune? Hmmm?” She looked in the direction of Charlie.
“Oh crap,” said Charlie. She backed away. Zan and Owen had been bitten before, and Stewart had performed the spell, so now they were permanently immune. But Charlie had never been bitten, so she had not benefited from the power of the spell.
She looked at the dagger in her hand. It was fine, and hadn’t crumpled when she used it. There was blood on the hilt, but it was still good.
The hole in Tonia’s head soon healed over, just like the last time she’d been stabbed back at the campsite.
Charlie rushed forward, stabbing her again and again. This only slowed Tonia down. She stabbed her one more time, and then Zan rushed in and tossed a net over her hea
d. The net was glittery, like it was made from some type of metal threads. Tonia went down.
“Hey, cool,” said Owen. “What’s that?”
“It’s made of titanium,” said Zan. “It should hold her for now.”
“Wow, that’s great,” said Charlie, impressed.
The teens gazed down at Tonia. She flailed against the ropes of the netting but to no avail.
“Great. Now we just have to figure out how to kill her.” Charlie scratched her head.
They secured the netting to a tree in the backyard.
“Hey, how does she know where I live?” asked Zan.
“We have a traitor in our midst,” said Charlie. They looked at Owen.
“Hey! It’s not me!” he protested. “I’m on your side.”
“OK, we have her tied up. Now what?” asked Zan. “It’s not like we can just kill her.”
Charlie frowned. “I wonder why the titanium didn’t work. Stewart was so certain. OK, I’m calling him.”
She took her phone out of her jacket and gave him a call.
“Another late night?” he said, answering the telephone.
“Yep,” she said. “Say, any reason why the titanium dagger didn’t work?” she asked him.
“What?” he said. “The dagger didn’t work?”
“No. We have Tonia on the ground tied up, but the dagger has no effect on her.”
Stewart sighed. “Did you say the spell at the same time?”
“What?” she cried. “You said nothing about that!” She hung up. “We have to say the spell as we use the dagger. I swear. He did not tell me that. This is completely different than when I killed the zleader in Texas.”
“Great,” said Zan. “Even I didn’t know that. Are they changing the rules on us?”
“Well, things are definitely changing. One thing for certain is that it’s a lot harder to kill a zombie nowadays.”
“Hey, ladies,” called out Owen. “We have a problem here.”
They looked over at him. Owen held up a portion of the titanium netting. Tonia was gone. “While you were yakking, she escaped.”
“Crap!” said Charlie. “She’s outsmarted us again!”
The teens ran around the yard and checked the house, but Tonia was nowhere to be found.
“Just great,” said Zan. “Now what do we do?”
“I think we should get some sleep,” said Charlie. “It’s going to be a long week. Now we have a zleader who knows where two of us live, and we have a traitor in our midst.”
zzz
Charlie had a good night’s sleep. She knew that as the days progressed that it would become harder and harder to do that. Gran kept up the protections around the house, and even included the yard. This would keep her house invisible to the zleader and the zombies. She texted Zan to do the same and was told that she’d already done it.
On Monday, one of the teachers announced that there would be a field trip that day.
Charlie raised her hand. “Is that necessary? Look what happened on the camping trip.”
“Oh, that’s over and done with,” explained the teacher.
“It’s not,” said Charlie. “There are still zombies roaming around out there, and the zleader too.”
“Well, this is merely a trip to the local art museum. There are security guards and cameras there. What could go wrong?”
Charlie was annoyed. She was fully aware that a lot could go wrong.
zzz
In one of the art museum’s rooms, Charlie reached up and broke the glass of the surveillance camera. Once that was done, she stepped forward and took out the zombie in front of her. In the distance, she heard students and the general public as they raced down the stairs, screaming.
She looked up at the painting in front of her and squinted her eyes. She smiled. “It looks so much better now.” The painting now had random blood splatters covering its surface. She wondered how long it would be before anyone noticed. She made it a point to check back next week. Wouldn’t it be cool if no one noticed and the painting spent an eternity being covered in zombie splatter, until some future archaeologist decided to do testing on it? She hoped by then that zombies wouldn’t be a thing.
She followed the last of the students down the stairs. The upper floors had been cleared out. She exited the building and walked over to where the teacher was standing. She could never remember his name.
“Hey, Mr. Smooch, this was a fantastic field trip! I always enjoy a good zombie hunt.”
Mr. Smetch was so flustered by the afternoon that he didn’t correct her pronunciation of his name. “Please board the bus and we’ll get going.”
She didn’t board the bus with the rest of the students. Instead, she headed to where her car was parked. Owen and Zan followed suit.
“Wow, that was crazy,” said Zan.
“What were the teachers thinking?” asked Owen.
“I’m surprised that Principal Allan allowed this,” said Charlie.
“Yeah, unless he’s the traitor in our midst,” Zan said.
“What?” said Charlie.
“Well, it makes sense,” said Zan. “He would have had access to where I live, and where you live.”
“Darn it,” she said, acknowledging that this could be the case.
zzz
The school staff managed to get everyone safely back to the school, alive. The students were instructed not to tell their parents, otherwise, it would affect their grades.
“Wow,” said Owen. “What happened to the olden days when there were actually morals?”
Charlie shrugged. “I think it makes school more fun.”
Zan smiled. “I’ll say. I took down four zombies at the school!”
“Impressive,” said Charlie.
“OK, so school has been dismissed for the rest of the day,” said Owen. “Now what?”
“We go back and visit Steve,” said Charlie. “Now that we know how to kill Tonia properly, we can hunt her down.”
They got in her car and headed to the drug dealers’ place. Charlie banged on the door. Steve opened up.
“What?” he said. “I was sleeping.”
The trio barged in.
“What the?” he said.
“Where’s Tonia?” asked Charlie.
“She ain’t here,” he said.
“See, I told you that she’d dump you after using you up,” said Charlie.
“Nah,” he said, using his hands to tidy his hair and pull his shirt down. “She was here last night. Then she left, saying she had errands to do.”
“So we’ll just hang out here until she returns,” said Charlie. “Owen, close the door.” He did.
The trio settled down to wait.
zzz
Steve went to have a shower. “Whatever,” he thought to himself. Tonia seemed to be able to look after herself. As he was showering, he wondered when she’d turn him into a zombie so that he could be a zombie leader too. He would love to be immortal and have glowing green eyes like hers. He sang as he washed.
zzz
Back in the living room, the team made their plans.
“I really think we should skip school until this is done,” said Charlie. “We can’t keep on driving back and forth.”
Zan tried to get comfortable on the sagging couch. “Terrible, isn’t it?” she commented.
“I’m with that,” said Owen. “Besides, the kids aren’t going to keep quiet about what happened at the art gallery today. Once they blab, their parents will keep them at home, especially after that zombie outbreak last week.”
“OK, so here’s what we’ll do,” Charlie said. “There will be two of us here at all times. If I’m not here, I’ll give the dagger to Zan, as she knows what to do. That means that one of us must always be here. Owen, you’re the backup.” He nodded at her.
“We’ve got to kill Tonia and get this done. This is ridiculous. I don’t think I’ve had a zombie target for so long in my life. Perhaps I’m getting soft.”
&nbs
p; Steve came out, drying his hair. “Well, here’s your chance,” he said. He nodded in the direction of the door. The doorknob was turning.
Everyone jumped out of their chairs. The door opened. It was Tonia.
Charlie extracted the enchanted dagger concealed under her jacket. She rushed at Tonia. She raised the dagger and plunged it into her eye socket. Tonia dropped to the ground.
“Yawn,” said Steve. “That does nothing.”
Chapter 14
________________________________________
Zan covered Tonia with the titanium netting, just in case. All four people stared down at her on the floor. Last time around, she had seizures before resurrecting herself.
Charlie smiled and nodded as the first seizure started. She was almost ready to plunge the dagger into her skull and chant the spell, when the seizures stopped.
“What the?” cried Steve. “Hello?”
“Sorry, Steve,” mumbled Tonia. “It’s done.”
“Done? What’s done?” he cried. She wasn’t rejuvenating. In fact, the skin all over her body was turning gray. Her contact lens slipped out of her one remaining eye. The once glowing green now burned dully. Her flesh started peeling away from her bones.
“I don’t understand,” cried Steve. “What’s happening?”
The two zlayers and Owen looked at each other. What on earth was going on?
“He made me do it,” said Tonia, her words garbled.
“Who made you do it?” asked Steve.
“It was him,” she muttered. “He threatened to kill everyone in my family if I didn’t do it. I may be a zleader, but I still care about people.”
“What the hell?” said Charlie.
