Zombie King

by J. C. Diem

  Bored with sitting inside my room, I nodded. I wasn’t looking forward to being trapped in the SUV with the father of my hypothetical children, but it would only be for a short time. “I’ll be right there,” I said and she gave me a quick smile before darting off towards her own room.

  I quickly packed a bag then raced down the hallway to the stairs. The SUV was already running and we took off as soon as we were all inside.

  Mark turned to speak to us. “The Zombie King may be more powerful than we first anticipated. I don’t know how he tracked us to the compound, but he knows who we are and what we do. He’ll be expecting us to try to stop him.”

  “What’s he likely to do next?” Kala asked. “Will he come after us again or target civilians?”

  Mark shrugged. “It’s difficult to predict the mind of a madman.”

  “Is he really insane?” Flynn asked.

  “Power mad, maybe,” Reece answered. “He’s young, full of pride and smarting that we’ve either roasted or torn apart his pets. He’ll want revenge.”

  Mark nodded in agreement. “He’s probably going to make a grand statement. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

  We closed in on the cemetery where the bokor had chosen to harvest his minions from this time. I sensed the awakening dead from two blocks away. “He’s still there,” I said. “I think he’s raised a lot more than thirty or forty zombies this time.”

  “How many more?” Flynn asked.

  “Lots more,” I replied dourly. I didn’t have an exact number. I just knew that there were dozens of walking dead ready to do the sorcerer’s bidding.

  We parked close to the cemetery and Mark worked his electronic magic to kill the cameras. He always reset them before we left and before the cops turned up to investigate. We might not be so lucky this time. The bokor and his puppets were still here and I had a feeling they were waiting for us.

  Mark motioned for us to gather around after we retrieved our flamethrowers from the back of the SUV. “I want you to hang back,” he told me. “They can sense you once you get close and I don’t want to tip them off that we’re here until we’re all in position.”

  It made sense and I nodded. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the thought of facing dozens of the creatures. Any reprieve would be welcome.

  Once inside the gate, we split up to come at the mob from different angles. The usual eerie green fog held sway, limiting our visibility. Without the orderly rows of crypts and mausoleums to guide me, I’d have become lost.

  A man was chanting in the midst of the graveyard. The language was unfamiliar and might have been Jamaican, but I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was that the bokor was calling more minions forth and he seemed to be nearing the end of his ritual.

  On that thought, a wash of power swept outwards. It blasted past me, making my ponytail stream out behind me. I sensed the undead forming in their graves and heard them trying to escape from their confinement. Only a few rows away from the center of the cemetery, I was frozen in fear as the zombies began to break free.

  Kala screeched in fury and bright flames flared. That was the catalyst I needed to set me in motion. I flicked the safety off the flamethrower and pointed it at the closest corpse that was slowly shambling towards me. There was little sign of intelligence in its cloudy eyes. It was hungry and I was food. It sensed that I was a threat and hissed a warning to its brethren as more of them converged on me.

  I set the reanimated corpse on fire and it squealed in agony, flailing its limbs uselessly. Once they caught, they burned quickly. Turning in a circle, I held the approaching creatures at bay with blasts of fire that shot out for ten feet around me. Elsewhere in the cemetery, the rest of the squad battled their share of minions.

  I’d whittled the numbers down to a mere handful when a familiar face appeared. I only saw the bokor for a second before he raced off into the darkness. He was moving so fast that he didn’t even notice me.

  He wasn’t alone. One of his minions was right on his heels. Unlike his master, the zombie sensed me and turned to stare as he ran past. Instead of the usual dull, milky gaze, this creature’s eyes were clear. They were also filled with an evil cunning. His mind brushed mine and I sensed he was very different from the other shambling undead.

  Completely naked, his flesh was still putrid, but he was held together better than most of his brethren. His face wasn’t in such great shape. His nose was missing and half of his left cheek was gone, exposing his teeth and tongue. A few strands of long black hair clung to his scalp.

  They were gone before I could react and someone called my name. Busy with torching zombies, I hadn’t realized that the unknown watcher had returned. It was standing only a short distance away.

  “Alexis,” the figure said. The voice was female and her accent was foreign. How did she know my name? “Come to me, child,” she urged. A shadowy shape appeared in the green fog and my feet started moving of their own volition. Whoever she was, she was using mind control, but it was different from the telepaths that we’d hunted down and destroyed. Instead of being overwhelming, it was almost seductive and impossible to resist.

  Before I could move close enough to see the woman’s face, a clammy hand fell on my shoulder. It spun me around until I was face to face with a reanimated corpse, breaking me from the spell. Another hand closed around my throat and I let out a pained shout as it tried to crush my windpipe.

  I felt Reece approaching then the zombie was torn away and was sent flying through the air. Kala and Flynn arrived as well and all three unleashed their fire. Staggering out of the way, I leaned against Mark when he put his arm around my shoulder. Sirens wailed and I looked in the direction they were coming from. “The cops are coming,” I rasped to Mark, knowing my hearing was far better than his.

  There was no time to call the Cleanup Crew. We had no choice but to leave the charred remains of long dead corpses where they’d fallen. Mark reactivated the cameras once we were out of range and we piled into the SUV. One of the benefits of being a werewolf was rapid healing. My throat was already feeling much better and the bruises would fade within minutes.

  We left the area as cop cars were converging on the now empty cemetery. The bloody circle where the bokor had performed his ritual was still there. I doubted that Mark would call in the Mind Sweepers to wipe anyone’s memory since none of the corpses were actually moving. The police would probably think it was a horrible prank.

  “I saw the Zombie King up close for a second,” I said to the others when we were well on our way back to our base.

  “What did he look like?” Flynn asked.

  “He looked a lot like you,” I said. “Except his eyes were brown rather than green. He couldn’t be much older than us.”

  “Just as we thought. He’s young and inexperienced,” Mark said. He was watching me with concern. “How are you feeling?”

  I wasn’t sure if he was talking about me being strangled by a zombie or the fact that I might be pregnant. “Numb,” I replied. “Did any of you see the zombie that was with the bokor?”

  “I thought we fried them all,” Reece said, looking into the rearview mirror briefly.

  “We missed one,” I told him. “It was different from the others.”

  Mark’s brow wrinkled. “Different how?”

  “I think it was one of his early zombies and that it might have fed a few times. It seemed to be smarter than the others.” It had been smart enough to run and avoid being burned to death.

  Kala sighed unhappily. “That’s just what we need, an intelligent zombie.”

  “I do not like the sounds of this,” Flynn said. I couldn’t help but share his concern. No one mentioned the woman that had been trying to lure me to her. I wasn’t sure if she was real or if I’d just imagined her. Fearing I was losing my mind, I stayed quiet. How could I explain the insidious power that she had over me to them when I didn’t understand it myself?

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Four

/>   It was difficult to fall asleep once I was tucked away in bed. My mind kept repeating the battle and I saw the exhilarated young bokor as he raced past me over and over. I also saw his undead shadow and the crafty evil in his eyes. When I did sleep, I dreamed of being watched.

  Mark wanted to search the cemeteries again the next day, but he ordered me to remain behind when he saw how tired I was. I was grateful for a chance to be alone for a few hours. The team knew the signs to look for in the graveyards and we all had the bokor’s scent now. Any of us could follow his trail if we came across it again.

  I didn’t want to be cooped up in my room, so chose to sit on the couch to study the archives. It was strangely lonely being by myself, which was unusual. I was used to being on my own and had never had a problem with solitude before. While I was eating lunch, I realized the real reason for my uneasiness. Reece was too far away for me to be able to pick up his thoughts clearly. Sometime during the past few weeks, I’d become used to having him in my mind. I could still sense him, but it was distant.

  After my short lunch break, I continued to dig through the PIA files. I read through all of the records on zombies and none of them shed much light on our current situation. There were thousands of other records and I wanted to read them all. It would take me a very long time to do so, but I was now a permanent member of the squad and I had plenty of time to kill.

  Niggling curiosity had me sorting the files into their various categories. Mark knew a lot about shifters and it made sense that he’d learned what he knew from the files. It was time for me to learn more about my species. I started reading through the earliest records of werewolves and other shifters.

  There was a lot of speculation about how shifters had come to be. Some thought it was a curse. Others thought it had something to do with the old Norse gods. One theory was that a deal had been made with the devil. No one knew for sure how we and other monsters had been created. We’d always been around and there had always been brave or foolhardy humans to fight us.

  Scrolling through the files, I came across a record that was much more modern. It had been recorded only a couple of years before my birth. Opening it, I saw a picture of Mark with a woman and a small child. He was young, in his early twenties and he looked happy. In the next photo, his wife and daughter were in pieces. They’d been torn apart by something that had big teeth and long claws.

  A chill seeped into my bones as I read about Mark’s introduction into the dark underworld that few humans knew about. He’d hunted down the rogue shifter that had murdered his family. He’d gotten his justice and in doing so, he’d come to the attention of the PIA. Instead of wiping his memory, they’d approached him and had offered him a job. He’d become a federal agent and had been fighting creatures like me ever since.

  Setting my laptop aside, I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. What kind of man would save and then raise three shifters? We were the same type of monsters that had killed and eaten his wife and daughter. He should hate and fear us, but he felt genuine affection for the whole squad, including me.

  Most agents would have set me on fire when I’d burst into the base in werewolf form. I didn’t remember it, but he must have been petrified. He hadn’t allowed me to watch the footage because he didn’t want me to see myself when I was an animal. I only had my imagination to go on. He was a very brave man and we were lucky to have him as our boss.

  Needing a break, I shut down my laptop then picked up the remote control with the intention of turning on the TV. My cell phone rang before I could activate the television. It was Mark. “What’s wrong?” I asked as soon as I answered the phone. I had a feeling he wasn’t calling just to check up on me.

  “Agent Garrett is on his way to pick you up,” Mark replied. “The voodoo priestess that we questioned on our first day in New Orleans just tracked us down. She had some interesting information.” His tone led me to believe it was more frightening than interesting. “Reece should be there in a few minutes and he can fill you in. Bring your rifle,” he ordered before hanging up.

  Slipping my phone back into my pocket, I leaped off the couch and dashed upstairs. My sniper rifle was in the backpack inside my closet. I snagged the pack and dumped it on the bed then rapidly changed my clothes. Dressed in a black t-shirt and khaki cargo pants, I strapped my holster on then covered it with my lightweight military style jacket. Black boots finished off my outfit. Snatching up the tablet from my bedside table, I tucked it beneath my arm then raced downstairs.

  I left via the door in the kitchen that led to the front of the compound just as the SUV arrived. I climbed into the passenger seat even before the car had come to a complete stop. Reece’s scent surrounded me when I pulled the door shut. He used a pine scented soap that I found very appealing. “What’s the situation?” I asked crisply as he set the vehicle in motion.

  He smiled wryly at my formal tone, knowing I wanted to keep the conversation focused on work rather than on our personal problems. “The priestess tracked us down when we were a few blocks away from her store. She said that the bokor reanimated the wrong corpse and that New Orleans is now in far more peril than before.”

  “I knew there was something off about that zombie,” I said almost beneath my breath. He heard me, of course.

  “Apparently, the zombie you saw with the bokor was a powerful necromancer when he was alive. He terrorized the city when he was at the height of his power over a hundred and fifty years ago.”

  “This is bad.” I gave myself mental points for being a master of the understatement.

  “It won’t be long before the Zombie King loses control of the necromancer,” he said. “He’s not going to be any match for him when he regains his intelligence.”

  “What’s going to happen when the necromancer takes over?”

  “He’ll most likely start raising other zombies and set them on the civilians. They’ll need to feed to increase their strength.”

  “What’s our plan?”

  “Mark wants to stay close to the action. We’re going to patrol the cemeteries until we see signs of activity. When we do, we’ll move in and try to stop them before they can raise more corpses.”

  “Does Mark still have access to the CCTV cameras?”

  “He does and we’ll all have to monitor our tablets.” It would be a fairly boring job watching the monitor nonstop. It would be easy to allow my eyes to glaze over and to miss something important. Picking up on that thought, Reece addressed my concern. “He’s hoping your inbuilt radar will aid us.”

  We hadn’t really talked about why I could sense the walking dead, and I wasn’t comfortable bringing it up now so I simply nodded in agreement.

  It was only late afternoon now and nightfall was still hours away. We drove into the heart of the city and parked out front of a quaint café. The team was huddled inside around two small, round tables. Kala smiled and motioned for me to take the seat beside hers. “I ordered you a coffee,” she said and pointed to a large mug when I sat down.

  Picking up the mug, I took a swallow. It was hot, strong and perfect. “Thanks,” I said and nudged her arm with mine. I’d never had a sister or a best friend before and she was shaping up to be a cross between the two. It would be nice to have a female to talk to and to confide in. That had been lacking in my life pretty well forever. Losing my mother when I’d been a baby meant I had trouble connecting to other females. I wasn’t sure why Kala and I got along so well when we were technically species that tended to dislike each other.

  Flynn held his tablet in his hands, watching the screen intently. It would take time for the bokor to set up his ritual. He’d have to wait until the cemetery of his choice emptied out before he could begin. Mark had tweaked the tablets so we each had three areas to monitor rather than just two this time. The café had been a strategic choice. It was in the heart of New Orleans and it would take us mere minutes to reach even the most distant cemetery.

  I’d almost finished my c
offee when two plain clothes cops entered the café. They hesitated for a moment before heading straight to our table. I recognized them as being the same two officers who’d been investigating the zombie break-ins. The older man was about Mark’s age and had weary, jaded brown eyes that assessed us quickly but thoroughly.

  The other officer was in his early twenties and seemed new to the job. He was average in height, stocky in build and had short blond hair. His eyes were light blue and inquisitive. He studied our faces intently. His gaze lingered on me for longer than could be considered polite by most standards. I wasn’t used to being stared at with such blatant hunger. Reece tensed and his jealousy flared. Mark sent him a warning look, as if he could hear the low growl that had started up in Reece’s throat. It was so quiet that even I could barely hear it.

  “Calm down, Rex,” Kala breathed. The hated nickname broke through his instinct to defend what he thought of as his. I felt his possessiveness and was fuming by the time the two cops came to a stop beside our tables.

  “Can I see some ID?” the older cop asked.

  Mark fished inside his jacket and produced his PIA identification. “Is there a problem, officers?”

  The older cop examined the ID, wrinkling his brow at the acronym that he hadn’t heard of before. He didn’t want to broadcast his lack of knowledge and handed back the wallet. “What do you folks know about the graveyard desecrations that have occurred in our city lately? Particularly, the one that occurred last night?”

  “Very little, I’m afraid,” Mark replied as he tucked his ID away. “I’m sure you know more than we do.”

  “Do you know anything about the CCTV cameras being tampered with?” the younger cop asked. His tone was mild, but his body language was aggressive. His jaw was thrust forward and he leaned over the table threateningly.

  Reece slouched back in his chair and eyed the cop lazily. “We’re federal agents, not computer hackers,” he lied with a touch of contempt.