“Hey!” a man says. “Hey! It’s them! It’s them!”
Tim waves. He doesn’t get his arms up very high, but he does.
Carmen waves, too, jumping up and down. “Hey!” she calls back. The thought of them mistaking us for zombies crosses my mind — we look pretty messed up.
We’ll be all right.
Darlene, whose hands have been hovering around my waist out of fear of me losing my balance and falling over with Cupcake in my arms, squeezes me, pulls me closer. We smile at each other. There’s both relief and love in her eyes.
The entrance screeches as the fence swings open. We are not greeted by soldiers, but by Eve herself. Tabby and Olive are behind her. Her face is a mask of tears. Carmen sprints the rest of the distance and jumps into her mother’s arms. It makes my body go weak; it makes me want to cry myself.
Darlene doesn’t rush.
Eve and Carmen part. Eve stares daggers at her eldest daughter. “I can’t believe you defied me,” Eve says.
Darlene doesn’t answer. They keep on staring. Everyone is staring now. I’m starting to get uncomfortable.
Eve’s face melts. She breaks into a wide smile. “But I’m so proud of you. Of all of you.”
Now they rush into each other’s arms. Crying, kissing, telling each other I love you.
Norm and Abby and Tim laugh.
Mike is there at the fence shortly after. He hugs Abby. They kiss.
“Let’s get you guys fixed up,” Eve says once the reunion is over. “You all look horrible.”
“Thank you,” I say. “For the offer, not for saying we look horrible.”
They all laugh. I crack a smile.
We head through the entrance back into the settlement. As I pass over the threshold with my fiancé at my side and Cupcake in my arms, a thought crosses my mind, an eery one that explains so much.
What started in Woodhaven ends in Haven.
I look up to the rising sun and smile. Cupcake manages to bark softly, as if to say it’s okay. Darlene smothers us in kisses, her tears dampening my face.
It’s finally okay.
Whatever watches over us, know I’m grateful.
EPILOGUE
Darlene and I married on what we believed to have been July 30th of the year 2017. As I write this, I’ve been a husband for two months, and news just came in from one of Haven’s doctors that I’ll be a father sometime next year.
Yes, Darlene’s pregnant.
I would be lying to you if I said tears aren’t dripping onto this paper. But I’m not sad. I’m a happy man, truly happy — finally.
We’re still very much in love. Legions of zombies, scores of mad men and women, and thousands of miles of travel couldn’t come between us. And nothing ever will.
Our wedding took place on a beautiful day. We married on a beach — cliché, maybe, but we could’ve gotten married at a drive-thru wedding chapel somewhere in Vegas and it wouldn’t have made any difference to me. The ceremony took place on the coast of the park, not far from where we built a nice home. Norm was my best man. Tim, Cupcake, and Mike, my groomsmen.
Yes, Cupcake is okay. The same doctor who told me of Darlene’s pregnancy fixed him up. Now, Cupcake walks with a limp, but his barking and tail-wagging is as strong as ever.
Abby and Carmen were co-maid of honors. Eve, Tabby, and Olive were bridesmaids. It seemed like the whole compound came to see us get married. So many people, in fact, we ran out of chairs. People didn’t mind sitting in the sand. It was a perfect day.
My hearing came back enough for me to listen to Darlene say, I do.
And we kissed before the priest could finish saying, “You may now kiss the bride.”
The audience erupted into applause.
Norm laughed and said, “Don’t use your tongue. For God’s sake, be civil!” Then he went, “Ow!” I’m assuming Abby leaned over and hit him because the crowd laughed.
It really was perfect.
Darlene had never looked so beautiful, and aside from our first kiss, this one on our wedding day was my favorite.
Tim and Norm live down the street from us. Abby has her own place, too — Mike is a frequent visitor. They are very much in love. I can see it. Abby says she doesn’t have nightmares anymore. Neither do I.
Norm was made head of security. He has this really sweet job where he’s in charge of the fence that protects us. You should see how happy he is now that he gets to act like a dick again and get recognition for it. It’s awesome. Yes, the zombies are still a problem. We’ll always need fences. But it’s okay.
And Eve has truly accepted me. If there was any doubt before, it was all gone after the wedding, where she called me Son.
I know, I know. I’m getting teary-eyed again thinking about all of this.
Now, Cupcake comes to me, limping. He sticks his head on my thigh. I’m at my writing desk. Yes — I’ve started writing again. People around here don’t care much for the Johnny Deadslayer stories, but they like my haunted house books, and Eve and a group of her middle-aged friends feign over my romances. One of my wedding gifts to Darlene besides this huge diamond ring I found in a jewelry store not too far from Haven was to read those dreaded romance novels she was so crazy about. I kind of liked them and then tried to write my own. They’re not too bad.
“You wanna go outside?” I ask Cupcake.
He whines again.
I get up, my knees and back cracking. Cupcake follows me to the door. The sun is going down over the water, painting the waves with gold. Our house is near the shore.
Cupcake, still limping, tears out onto the sand.
Darlene stands near the ocean, her hands protectively over her stomach. Cupcake reaches her and she bends at the knees — slowly — and scratches him behind his ears. Cupcake’s tail bats sand in every direction. I walk up to them, my heart swelling with love and adoration.
“You finished writing?” Darlene smiles up at me.
“For tonight,” I say.
We both look out over the water and to the endless blue in the distance — this quiet, quiet world.
“I love you, Darlene Jupiter,” I say.
“I love you, too, Jack,” she says.
Cupcake barks.
“And we both love you, too, Cups,” I say. He sits in front of us, watching the waves. I put my arm around Darlene’s shoulders.
“I think it’s a boy,” she says.
“You do?” I say. “How do you know?”
“I don’t. I just have this…this feeling.” She smiles again.
God, she’s beautiful.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she answers. “I’ve already picked out a name.”
“You did?”
“Herb,” she says. “Herb Jupiter.”
I turn to her, my stomach fluttering. “I love it,” I say.
“Me, too.”
Cupcake barks in agreement.
We watch the sunset as a family.
I know the zombies are still out there and the world may have ended, but my world is right here, all around me in this place called Haven.
And as long as I’m with them, everything is perfect.
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*Read on for a brief afterword about the series’ creation and where it might head next.
AFTERWORD
Well, there you have it. Jack Zombie has come to an end…for now. I hope you liked it; I hope it was a rollercoaster of emotions. While writing this series, I definitely did. Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, for reaching out to me through email and F
acebook, for everything!
I decided to wrap up Jack’s story for the time being because I didn’t want his tale to get monotonous or stale or boring. That’s very easy, I feel, in zombie novels, especially when we’re limited to one point of view. My head and my heart were telling me Jack and Darlene and Abby needed a break. They needed to settle down, have a life, even if that was a life where they’re always looking over their shoulders.
They deserve it.
But because I’m wrapping up this part of Jack’s tale, that doesn’t mean I will stop writing. I have a couple of projects in the works, stuff I really think (and hope) you’ll enjoy. The closest of these projects to being done is a ghost story, an old fashioned, hair-raising, horror tale. If you’ve signed up for my newsletter or you’ve liked the Facebook page, you’ll be hearing more about it as it gets closer and closer to completion. I will say this, however, if you’ve read The Rot House (available in my short story collection, Something Dark), you will recognize some of the characters mentioned in the new book. But that’s all I’ll say for now.
As for Jack and the gang, my intention is to write at least one more novel from Jack’s point of view, but I won’t write it for awhile. I’ll let Jack and Darlene enjoy their lives before I do. It will take place much later in Jack’s life, where he shows his children the ropes of zombie slaying. A passing of the torch story, if you will. Beyond that, I would like to tell the story of how Herb got to Eden, of how Tim got to Haven, of Abby kicking ass (per usual), and perhaps more.
We shall see.
It was a hell of a ride, wasn’t it? And I’m glad you were there with me every step of the way.
Best,
F.M.
July 28, 2017
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Flint Maxwell lives in Ohio, where the skies are always gray and the sports teams are consistently disappointing. He loves Star Wars, basketball, Stephen King novels, and almost anything falling under the genre umbrella of horror. You can probably find him hanging out with one (or all) of his six dogs when he’s not writing, reading, or watching Netflix.
Get in touch with Flint on Facebook
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Free Story
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Epilogue
Read On
Afterword
About the Author
Jack Zombie (Book 5): Dead End Page 21
