by Garth Ono
Still, she quickly pulled on a pair of jeans, changed into a baby blue Got Zombie? t-shirt, and put on her hunting boots. Then she grabbed a bottled water out of the fridge, her purse, and her phone. Kate was in her Land Rover within minutes and driving down the driveway.
Mr. Rose was trimming the hedges. As she passed, Kate noticed he looked up at her apartment and frowned. She realized then that she'd left the ACs running.
"Screw it," she muttered and kept driving.
It was a straight shot up the highway to Lone Oak. The Burks lived on the other side of that small town. Kate wondered if their zombies were from the escaped smugglers' shipment. It seemed a long way from Hank's Landing, and not a straight route. Tennyson was exactly in the middle between the two sites. And they didn't pass through her town.
The Burk farm was a doublewide and a hundred year old barn. Past the barn was about forty acres of crops. Kate never cared much about agriculture, so had no idea what they were growing. Instead, she studied the barn as she pulled up close.
A thirty-something couple came out of the house to meet her.
"Hi, I'm Kate," she said, offering her hand.
"Thanks for coming," Phil said. He indicated the barn. He handed her five tens. "I'm not sure how many are in there. I saw at least two before I closed and locked the door."
From the look on Emily's face, Kate had a feeling they knew there were more than two. She smiled and accepted the payment.
"That'll be fine, no matter how many are in there," she said, and they looked relieved. "I suggest you wait inside, just in case one of the rotters gets past me."
The Burks didn't have to be told twice. They hurried inside, while Kate went to the back of the Defender and armed up. The bandolier of 12-gauge shotgun shells went over her shoulder first, followed by the sheathed kukri machete. She buckled a holstered Browning 9mm around her waist, and then looped her sawed off double-barrel's strap over her shoulder. Lupara was her personal favorite weapon against zombies.
First thing, Kate walked around the barn twice. She made sure there was no way out. By knocking on the side of the barn in a few places, she was able to confirm they were still inside and there were indeed more than two.
It was a classic gambrel-roofed American barn. The red paint was mostly flaked off, but it had an open hayloft door. Both barn doors were padlocked. She found a ladder and climbed up. The loft went straight down the middle of the barn, with both sides open to the floor below. There were no horse stalls, but she saw tractors and farm equipment neatly lined up on one side.
Four zombies wandered around, mostly beating on the two barn doors with their fists. It was pretty dark, so she left the possibility open for more rotters. There was a permanent ladder to the loft inside, but none of the zombies were up there.
Her phone rang. That riled up the zombies, who now knew she was up there. Kate shook her head.
"My fault for not turning off the ringer," she whispered, and then looked at the screen. Susan Ashcroft was calling. She was the high school Principal. "Hello, Mrs. Ashcroft, how may I help you?"
"Kate, thank god," she said. "There's a zombie in the school."
Kate's heart skipped a beat. Then she remembered it was summer break. The school was empty. No students or teachers, at least.
"No problem. Evacuate any one there and lock all of the doors. I'll be there as soon as I finish the job I'm on," Kate said.
"This can't wait. I need you over here now," Principal Ashcroft demanded.
Kate wondered if everyone was in a bad mood that morning. Principal or not, friend of her parents or not, she didn't appreciate being commanded.
"I'm in Lone Oak, Principal Ashcroft. I have been paid to kill four rotters on this farm, and I am obliged to do so before leaving for another job."
"This is a public school!"
"An empty, summer break school, Principal Ashcroft," Kate said. "I promise, this job is almost over. I'll be there as fast as I can."
One of the zombies started up the ladder. Kate gave him a sharp look as the principal continued to argue she had priority.
Kate put an end to the call, "If I continue speaking with you now, I will be killed by a zombie. I told you that I am in the middle of a job. I'll be there as soon as I can. Good bye."
The zombie was on the loft. Kate stuffed the phone in her back pocket and took Lupara in both hands. The zombie rushed toward her. She used to be a pretty blonde teen, probably around Kate's age. Now, she was a bloody mess with such deep injuries bones were exposed on her skull and left arm.
Moving quickly to meet the zombie, Kate ducked under the monster's arms, hooked a foot against the rotter's ankle, and tripped her to the floor. As the zombie struggled to all fours, the slayer stepped up close, pressed the shotgun to the base of her neck, and pulled the trigger.
The zombie was killed instantly, and left a bloody mess the Burks wouldn't be happy about. Kate grabbed the corpse's arms and dragged her to the loft door, and then pushed her out and to the ground.
The other three zombies were running around mindlessly, pounding on the doors, looking up and around. She figured the only reason they weren't coming up was they couldn't see the ladder in the darkness. If she had time, it might've been prudent to wait for them to come up the ladder and kill them when they reached the top, but before they moved onto the loft.
"Here goes nothing," she said, and jumped off to the ground. "Hey, zombies!"
Kate landed between two of them. They turned toward her. She pressed Lupara to the throat of one, ready to blow away his spine and kill him, but he moved and she blasted straight up into his head instead. Blood, brains, and bone was splattered everywhere, but that wasn't a mortal wound for the undead.
"Damn, I should've reloaded!"
She only had the one shot. The gun broke open to be reloaded, but she didn't have the time. Kate released it to hang on the strap, while she pulled the machete. The third zombie was rushing toward her, too.
"Hey, zombie, zombie, zombie, follow me!" she cried, taking off running. Kate weaved through the equipment, getting the rotters riled up and confused. They started running into and tripping over equipment. She was able to separate them. "Divide and conquer!"
With that cry, she swung her machete and took off the head of another rotter.
"Another one bites the dust," she sang. "Or is it bites the dust, again?"
Kate reloaded Lupara. She made sure a round was chambered in her pistol. Only then did she go after the next zombie. The first one was a teenage girl, the second an adult male of undetermined age. Yes, he was that messed up in the face. The last two were undead elderly women. In some ways, Kate found the oldest zombies the scariest. One of them was topless, revealing her ribcage through patches of missing skin. The other was missing her jaw and one hand.
"I don't charge nearly enough to do this," she muttered.
The jawless wonder suddenly charged her with a gurgling cry. That startled Kate, since they rarely made any sounds. She emptied both barrels into her, knocking the rotter flat on her back. The slayer was on her in an instant. The zombie lifted an arm, reaching for her, even as Kate swung the machete. The rotter lost her arm and head, and Kate lost the machete.
"Bloody hell!" she cried, trying to free the machete wedged deep in the zombies' shoulder. The other one was almost on her, so she released and darted away. "You're pretty fast for a granny zombie."
The zombie did kind of remind her of her paternal grandmother. That thought made it tougher to kill the little monster. She wasn't any taller than five one, five two max, and skinny as a rail. But she was fast and vicious. The zombie chased Kate from one end of the barn to the other.
Kate went up the ladder. The zombie followed fast on her heels.
"Sorry, Gran," she muttered as the zombie's head came above the loft. Kate pressed the shotgun barrel to her neck, right over the spine, and blew her away. The zombie froze on the ladder for a long second, and then slowly fell backwards to the ground.
>
The slayer sighed gustily.
She climbed down the ladder outside the loft. Then she went up to the Burks house and asked them to unlock the barn. While the clients watched, Kate dragged headless bodies down to the road. After sending a pick-up request to the County Coroner's office, she collected the four heads in two black plastic bags and stored them in the back of her truck.
Finally, she handed Phil one of her cards. "Thanks for calling. Feel free to call anytime day or night if you find more zombies."
Kate drove away before they could complain about the mess she made. No one wanted to do the clean up, and they didn't pay her enough for that task. Mayor Gilbert called before she was off the property.
"Kate, why are your refusing to help Principal Ashcroft?" Mayor Gilbert said right off.
She had to explain all over again that she was on a job, and it was first come first serve. The mayor didn’t take that well, at all.
"I don't work for you or the school district," Kate said. "I'm a freelancer. I take the calls as I get them. No priority."
"We'll see about that," Mayor Gilbert said, and then hung up.
Kate thought that argument over, until she arrived at the high school and the mayor was waiting in the parking lot with the principal. So they had to argue priorities all over again. No one seemed to win, since no one wanted to budge on their position.
"That's neither here nor there," Kate said. "You have a zombie inside the school. I'm here to kill it, so if someone will unlock a door so I can enter."
Principal Ashcroft looked Kate up and down and screwed up her face. "Will killing it cause a mess?"
Kate bristled when she indicated Kate's blood-splattered body. The slayer didn't have time to take a change of clothes.
"I'm afraid so. And things might get broken, too," she said. "Maybe a bullet hole or two."
Of course that was unacceptable. They argued about that for the next ten minutes.
"Okay, fine. I have a solution," Kate said, finally conceding the other two women were correct. She couldn't go around trashing a public school just because it was easier for her. "We open one door. I'll lure the zombie outside, and then kill it. There may be some blood and gore to clean up, but at least it'll be outside."
"You'll clean it up, right?" Principal Ashcroft asked.
"I will not," she said. "Unless you pay me another hundred dollars. By the way, it's $25 service charge. Will that be cash or check?"
So they argued that. Just to be done with it, Kate agreed to not charge them for that zombie, but there would be a $25 charge per head in the future.
The principal opened the door onto the playground for Kate. She propped it open and entered with just her pistol and machete. Neither the principal nor the mayor would allow her to take a shotgun into the school. She was only allowed the pistol when Kate threatened to leave and have them call 911.
"I'm not having a good day," Kate muttered as she entered the school. She was met with deathly silence. Quirking a brow, not liking it at all, she shouted, "Hey, zombie, zombie, zombie! Come and get me!"
That caused a commotion. Seconds later the zombie came out of a classroom. Kate waved nice and friendly. The zombie attacked, arms extended and mouth open in a silent scream of rage. She waited until he was halfway to her before slowly backing out of the building. The double doors were open wide.
Kate turned and jogged away, leading the rotter to the middle of the playground.
"Slice and dice time."
He put up a good fight. Kate ended up chopping off an arm and leg, before he was disabled enough to behead. All in all, it wasn't that tough of a job. The principal and mayor watched from a distance. After she took off the zombie's head, she turned and lifted it high in triumph.
Both women dropped to all fours and puked. Kate smiled.
Chapter 9
They drove down from the north, after taking a well-defended bridge over the Mississippi. Carl and Mike met them at the Sunrise Motel. Max moved over from the Chevy Tahoe to the Camaro, while Mike moved into the back seat. Brody, Nolan, and Dan remained in the SUV.
"Drive," Max told Carl. Once they were on the road, SUV following, "How do we find Kate Brokenshire? Do you have any idea where she is right now?"
"She moves around a lot, boss," Mike said. "But we know her usual hangouts and where she lives. We thought we'd go to her apartment first."
Max pulled his pistol, chambered a round, and put it back in his shoulder holster.
"That's acceptable."
He watched the road, looking for a dark green Land Rover. The country was mixed forest and farms, with some homes and businesses sprinkled in. Max paid little attention. His mind was occupied with every manner of inflicting pain and humiliation on a woman. He was going to make her sorry she was ever born, much less interfered with his operations. First though, he had to horrify her so much with his brutality that she would quickly and easily surrender the money.
And then afterwards he could take his time.
"What are we going to do with the body?" Mike asked. "It's probably best if she just vanished."
"I have it all figured out," Max said, a cruel smile slowly spreading. "She deprived us of our zombies, so we're going to take her back across the river after we kill the slayer. She will reanimate as a zombie, and I'll sell her ass in the next shipment."
Carl and Mike laughed. It was the most satisfying way to end that whole ordeal. Max rather enjoyed killing his enemies and turning them into zombies. Then selling them into undead slavery.
"How do the boys in Chicago control them?" Mike asked.
"They have some dracs," Max said. "Rumor is the top bosses are all vampires."
"Why aren't they called the Vampire Mafia instead of the Zombie Mafia?" Carl asked.
"Beats the hell out of me," Max said. "I don't care as long as they pay for my zombies."
Max didn't really know how the boys in Chicago operated. He did know a little about the Zombie Mafias in both Memphis and New Orleans. They had roughly one vamp for every fifty zombies. They didn't advertise there were any dracs, and the face of the organizations on the street were mostly controlled zombies. In those two cities the local's tagged them with the Zombie Mafia name. But in Boston, New York, and Philidelphia, they were called the Goth Mafia.
That wasn't his first time in Tennyson. He'd actually visited quite a few times while in college, since his roommate was the grandson of the town's richest family. Jason's family owned most of the town, if not the county. The elderly couple had recently passed away, and Max had heard his old friend inherited the bulk of their estate.
The car slowed down. Carl turned into an older neighborhood of old Victorian and Georgian homes. In their day, that was the street the city's doctors, lawyers, and other elite lived. The trees that lined the street and shaded the immaculately kept lawns were old and thick. Some of the older homes were gone, replaced with modern ranches and cottages, but it still retained its bygone age vibe.
"She lives behind the big white Victorian on the right," Carl said. "In the apartment above the detached garage."
Max regarded Kate's home coolly as they slowly turned into the driveway. The big black Tahoe followed them up to the carriage house. There was no sign she was home. The garage doors were closed, as were the curtains above.
Max got out. He walked up to the garage door and looked through a window. The bay was empty. There were no vehicles of any kind inside the garage. He scowled. It was unlikely she'd be upstairs.
"Hello? Can I help you?" an elderly man called as he hurried toward them from his back door. Max studied him a moment, and quickly dismissed him as no threat. "Who are you?"
"We're friends of Kate's," Max said. "She's expecting us, but it doesn't look like she's home. Would you know where we could find her?"
He snorted. "That girl is everywhere it seems. Always on the go."
"That sounds like our Kate," Max said, trying to look and act friendly and unthreatening. "It's important that
we find her quickly, so do you know where she might be?"
"She didn't say anything about expecting company," he said. "I told her I want to be informed of any guests."
The old man was starting to irritate Max. The problem was, he could see at least three neighbors watching from their front yards or windows. Otherwise, him and the boys would take the crazy old fool inside and teach him the importance of cooperation. Though, Max was sure he didn't have a clue as to the slayer's whereabouts.
"Thanks for the help, old man," Max said. He signaled his men to leave. "Let's go."
The elderly homeowner threw his hands up in frustration. He glared at them as the smugglers backed out of the driveway and left.
"Do you boys have any idea where we can find her?" Max asked. "What about her hangouts?"
"The main place she likes to go is the diner on Main Street," Carl said. "It's not far."
After turning onto Main Street, they passed one of many temporary sheriff's offices in the state. In some ways it looked like a Zombie Territorial Sheriff's office, setup mostly to manage the zombie problem. Many of the border states operated in the same manner.
Tennyson's main street looked like a thousand others in America. It was two blocks of brick facades. Most of the businesses were Mom and Pop shops. He saw a barber shop next to a beauty parlor, across from a hardware store. There was a donut shop and a diner, as well, but in different blocks. There was no sign of Kate's dark green Land Rover.
Carl was able to find an open parking spot three stores down from the diner.
"Bingo," Mike said, pointing out the windshield. "See the chick approaching with the purple hair?"
Max studied the young woman. She was clueless to the world around her, with her nose stuck in her phone. She wore a purple and black schoolgirl outfit, with fishnet hose held up with exposed garters, and ending in shiny black ankle boots. Not something Max expected to see in small town America.
"The Goth chick?"
