by Grivante
She turned to Jonah, grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips, “Thank you!”
Then she turned to Judas and planted the same kiss. Xanadu barked. JJ leaned forward, grabbing her dog from the floorboard. “Oh, I love you too! No need to get jealous.”
The brothers squinted at each other over her back, Judas pointed at his lips and mouthed, “I can taste chocolate.” Then he grinned.
JJ sat up, holding Xanadu on her shoulder, nuzzling him with her chin. He looked out the remains of the back window and started barking.
They all turned and saw a mass of dark forms stumbling and falling down the slope they had just crashed down.
“We’ve got a bit of a lead, but not much. Let’s go.” Jonah pushed on the bent passenger side door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Mine’s stuck.”
Judas lifted the handle on his own side; it made a clunking sound and the whole door fell free and onto the ground.
“That works.” He paused for a moment, “sorry Sasha.”
“You boys really love this truck, don’t you?”
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Jonah answered. “Been a lot of wild rides.”
“Oh, I get it.” She nodded, reaching down and caressing the 8-ball as she scooted out of the seat. “I love her too!”
Outside the truck the trio looked up the hill at the approaching dead, which were making their way slowly but surely toward them. They turned in the opposite direction, towards the shadowy outline of Winter Oaks which was on the other side of a small treed ravine.
“That’s gonna be a long walk,” Judas said.
JJ bent down and set Xanadu on the hillside, then she reached up and grabbed Judas’s hand. She gripped it tightly and turned her free hand to Jonah.
His mouth hung open and his hand drifted of its own accord toward hers.
“Don’t worry boys. I only bite if you ask me to.” She squeezed both their hands and smiled and then started walking tugging them along behind her. “Nothing to it, but to do it. C’mon boys.”
Part XV - Xanadu's Story
Deep in the ravine, it was pitch black. Finding their way had become difficult at best, maybe impossible, but it was too dark for them to tell which, so they kept going.
“Ouch.”
“Crap.”
“Shit. What was that?”
“Fuck.”
“Gross!”
“Ruff.”
“This isn’t working,” Jonah said. “I can’t find my flashlight and if we don’t make our way out of here soon, those dead bastards are going to trap us and finish the job.”
“Anybody got a cellphone?” Judas asked.
“I’ve got mine somewhere,” JJ said, “but I can do one better.”
There was a moment of silence, then a whoosh. “XANADU!!”
Bright sparkling light filled the air as the dog launched from JJ’s arms, floating up into the air. They could see everything around them. A few feet away stood two trees, between them a path that headed directly up the other side of the ravine.
“There!” Jonah pointed.
Xanadu drifted back down to his mama.
As the light faded, Jonah asked, “Where did you get that dog?”
She sighed and lowered her head. “I’ll tell you when we get to the top.”
They rounded the crest of the ravine and JJ set Xanadu down, put her hands on her knees and panted. When she stood up, she looked at the brothers beside her. “You ever seen that TV show, ‘Storage Hunters’?”
“Yeah,” Judas answered. “I love them shows. Where they bid sight unseen on the contents of abandoned storage units?”
“Yes, exactly,” she said. “That’s what I do. I go to auctions and I buy and sell stuff. A few months back I was down in Tucson at Lucky Penny Storage. There were three units being auctioned off, all large ones. The first two went too high, but each time they opened the door it was like the mother-load of memorabilia. I couldn’t let that last one go, so I bid everything I had and some I didn’t and when the door rolled open, there was Xanadu.”
She nodded toward the housing development and walking toward their destination, continued. “He sat on a wood crate, underneath a solitary light bulb. All he had was that little silver collar with his name on it. He sat there looking at me expectantly. There had been a gasp from the crowd when the door opened, then some people started to laugh. Someone patted me on the back and I lost it. I’d just spent everything I had... on a dog.”
She looked at them shaking her head.
“I fell to my knees and bawled. I heard the shuffling of feet as everyone distanced themselves from the crazy lady. Then I heard paws padding toward me. I looked up and...,” she faltered, her voice breaking, “there he was, just a few feet away. I could read his name tag and when I said his name, he jumped straight onto my lap, up into my arms and licked my cheeks. It tickled. I started laughing and...,” she smiled, “I found joy again in that moment. Joy, like I’d never known.”
They continued in silence for a bit, passing through an opening in the brick wall that surrounded Winter Oaks.
“Um,” Judas started, “don’t those units have to be abandoned and sealed for quite awhile before the auctions?”
“Yes.” JJ nodded. “These had been sealed for over 3 months.”
“And how did you learn he could do that whole disco ball thing?” Jonah asked.
JJ giggled, “He jumped off the second story deck of my apartment to chase a cat, I yelled his name in panic and that happened. Everything lit up and slowed down and he just drifted to the ground unharmed.”
“What else can he do?” Judas asked.
“He poops diamonds.”
Part XVI - Lost & Found
They entered the Hembrooks’ yard, stepping over and through the piles of groaning remains from their earlier visit. The fire they had started was nothing more than smoldering embers now and only a few moving zombies were present in the yard. A couple of blocks away, a stream of them flowed through the broken gate at the entrance to Winter Oaks and all of them were headed straight toward the trio.
“What do we do now?” JJ asked.
“We figure out where your uncle dug this up from and put it back.” Jonah held up the amulet.
“That’s it?”
“Should be. These ancient tribes were very particular about the placement of artifacts. Thus, the priests and their zombie curse to return it.”
They entered the back yard and bashed in the heads of two zombies that were lumbering around.
JJ sat Xanadu on the ground and pointed to an island cactus garden in the middle of the yard. “There, under one of those big cactuses. He spent two hours telling me about every plant in that damn thing earlier. He even mentioned finding the old canvas sack while he was digging it up.”
“Did he happen to mention which cactus he planted over where he found it?”
“No, he didn’t. Does it need to be that exact?”
“Let’s hope not,” Jonah said and walked to the middle cactus. He grabbed it by the base and with a heave, pulled it free from the ground, its root ball popping out with ease. He tossed the amulet into the hole.
“Judas, keep an eye on the front yard, let me know what happens.”
Judas ran over and looked out the gate. “They’re at the driveway!”
Jonah plopped the cactus on top of the amulet. “Anything?”
“No,” Judas backed away from the broken fence. “Here they come!”
“Shit,” Jonah yanked the cactus and grabbed the amulet. “Which one?” he asked no one in particular.
Xanadu barked beside him.
He looked down and the little dog lunged forward with his front paws and dragged them back towards himself.
“What’s he saying?” Jonah asked JJ.
“I don’t know.”
Thud! Crunch! The sounds of Judas fighting off the approaching horde filled the air.
JJ bent down next to Xanadu, touching the top of his head. �
��What is it boy? What are you trying to say?”
He repeated the same motions as before, dragging his paws across the ground.
Blam! Judas’s shotgun blasted behind them. “I don’t have much ammo here!”
“Show us baby, show us!” JJ shouted at Xanadu.
He yelped and leapt forward, diving into the hole that the cactus had left. His paws dug deeper and deeper sending dirt flying out of the hole like he was a mini excavator.
“Deeper!” JJ shouted. “It needs to be deeper!”
Blam! Another shot rang out directly behind them and they both turned to see Judas only a few feet away, surrounded by zombies. Both fresh-turned Winter Oaks residents and the remaining ancient Pakatini horde were moving in.
“We need to buy him some time,” Jonah said, stepping beside his brother and raising his pistol. JJ pulled her own gun and stood between them.
Shots tore through the backyard as they took down those nearest to them. They didn’t have long; they would be overrun in moments.
“Yelp! Yelp!” Peeking out of a much larger hole, evident by the mound of dirt to the side of it, Xanadu peered over the top.
“He’s done!” JJ shouted.
Jonah turned, fell to his knees, grabbed the little pup by the scruff of his neck and yanked him from the hole. He tossed the amulet in and covered it with dirt from the pile.
A blanket of quiet spread through the air. For a moment, all was still, then the zombie horde moved in.
“C’mon.” Jonah scooped up Xanadu and stepped to the back of the island garden. “Get out of their way!”
JJ and Judas ran to join them and the three backed against the fence.
At the hole, one of the Pakatini zombies fell to its knees, its hand reaching inside. It grasped around, then its head snapped up, its red glowing eyes glaring like searing coals, looking directly at Jonah. His heart skipped a beat, then the light in the zombie’s eyes dimmed, went out and its body slumped forward.
The sound of bodies falling all around them filled the air. The Pakatini tribe’s people returned to their slumber, their tribal heart restored to its resting place.
Not all of the zombies had fallen, however, the newly infected continued to stumble forward.
“Why are they still coming?” JJ asked, lifting her gun and pulling the trigger on an empty chamber.
“The Pakatini curse has ended,” Jonah said, “but those they infected are still zombies. We’ve got some clean-up to do.”
Part XVII - Leftover Larry
“You boys need a lift?” JJ asked, standing next to her slate grey Charger in the driveway of her uncle’s house.
“Yeah,” Jonah said, “We’ll have to get a tow truck to get Sasha home later.”
“You think she’s repairable?” JJ asked.
The brothers both smiled, then Judas replied. “She’s come back from the dead more than once.”
JJ smiled and opened the driver’s door. “Ok, well you boys can—“
“Shotgun!” Judas shouted, followed only a millisecond later by Jonah. The brothers started pushing each other.
“I said it first!”
“Did not.”
“It’s almost my birthday!”
“She likes me more.”
“Well, I saw her first!”
“Hey!” JJ shouted at the two of them.
They froze, Jonah’s arm wrapped around Judas’s neck, trying to reach over him for the door.
“As I was saying, you boys can get in the back. Xanadu rides shotgun.”
“Ruff!” The little dog hopped into the car, jumped from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat and curled into a ball.
Judas opened his mouth to protest, but Jonah slapped his hand across his brother’s face.
“Mmmmm, mmmm.” Judas struggled.
Jonah started, “Now wait a—“
JJ smiled, cutting him short. “Sorry boys, but do either of you poop diamonds?”
The brothers’ mouths fell open.
“Didn’t think so. Get in the back.”
A few minutes later the Charger rolled through the ruined gates of Winter Oaks.
“Wait!” Judas shouted, causing JJ to slam on the brakes.
“What is it, Judas?” Jonah asked.
“We forgot Larry...”
- Fin
Keep turning the pages for book 2!
Book 2 - Zombie School Lockdown
Part I - Tombie
The door to the office swung open as Bobbie sat a sign on the counter that read ‘PTA Meeting’, with an arrow pointing down the hall to the conference room.
Little Tommy Tucker walked in, his face pale, holding his hands across his stomach.
“Uhh,” Tommy groaned. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Tommy. You do look a little green. Did you have too many Energy-Os this morning?”
“Uh uh.” He shook his head.
She swung open the half door next to her desk that separated the office from the waiting area. “Come, lay down in the nurse’s office. I’ll call her to come check on you in a bit.” She escorted him to the tiny room they called the nurse’s office at Savini Charter School. It was a small room with a cot, a toilet, a sink and, thankfully, a tile floor, because as soon as little Tommy crossed the threshold from the carpeted office, he vomited.
Splash!
A gush of green chunky liquid poured out of the small boy. The spew splattered into a puddle that spread across the tile before them. Floating in the green ooze were red and black chunks. A stench of decay drifted up on little tendrils of steam and clung in Bobbie’s nostrils.
She grabbed her nose as she looked at the floor and discovered that her white tennis shoes were firmly in the puddle.
“Ugg,” she groaned, stepping back. At least it didn’t get on my new nylons.
Tommy looked up with wide, tear swollen eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Oh,” Bobbie’s heart broke. She patted his shoulder with her free hand. “We’ll get this cleaned up and get you better. Go lie on the cot and I’ll call the cafeteria to see if Nurse Janet can come check on you.”
At her desk, Bobbie picked up the phone and buzzed the cafeteria. As she waited, Principal Hotchkins, a tall thin man with balding blond hair walked in. They smiled at each other.
“How long until the meeting with the PTA members?”
“About twenty minutes, a few of them are back in the conference room already.” She scribbled Tommy’s name in the sick log on her desk.
“Ok, I’d like to see you in my office beforehand. I need to relieve this stress.” He smirked at her and adjusted his ‘naughty stick’ in his pants.
Of course you do. Just like every Monday.
“I’m trying to get Janet on the phone, Tommy Tucker is sick and I’ve got to clean—” an answer on the other end of the phone drew her attention away.
Principal Hotchkins broke his gaze from her chest when he caught wind of the odor, glanced toward the nurse’s office and crinkled his nose. He made an ick face at Bobbie, pointed at his watch and then his crotch, then turned and disappeared into his office, closing the door.
Exactly what I was thinking. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the phone where Janet was speaking.
“I’m up to my arms in hamburger here, I’ve already got enough to do. Can’t this wait?”
Bobbie took a deep breath and held the phone away from her ear a second. “Janet, we have a sick boy down here. Little Tommy Tucker, just threw up in the nurse’s office. He’s very green and doesn’t look well.”
After a moment of silence, Janet’s voice returned, softer this time. “Alright, alright. Let me get this hamburger mixed and then I’ll wash and head down. Give him something to put him to sleep, and I ain’t got time to clean up his puke. I’ve got to get this hamburger cooking or none of the kids are getting lunch today.”
“I know, Janet. I’ll go check on him and get the floor scrubbed.”
&
nbsp; She slipped her soiled shoes off her stockinged feet and walked to the supply closet for cleaning supplies.
This is so gross.
Bobbie twisted the dark stained rag out into the bucket she’d filled with soapy water. She’d cleaned some nasty messes before, but this one was the worst. There were fleshy-feeling black chunks and red spots that were almost surely blood floating in the water. She refused to look too close at them. She’d been holding her breath the entire time; the stench made her stomach roll.
Tommy moaned on the cot and, after washing her hands, she opened the medicine cabinet and found ‘the pills’ they sometimes gave to sick kids that helped them sleep it off. She filled a small glass with water and sat on the edge of the cot.
“Tommy. Sit up, Tommy. I’ve got some medicine for you.”
His eyes fluttered open, then closed again. His hands lay on his stomach, clutching open and closed. “It hurts,” he whimpered. His cheeks sunken and his skin even more ashen and green now.
Bobbie reached behind him and lifted him up, her heart aching for the boy. “Here Tommy, take this.” She scooted forward, the side of her skirt pulling up, exposing her thigh as she did so, and pushed the clear capsule through his pale lips. “Take a drink, swallow it down.” She offered the water. “Later, you’ll wake up and be all better.”
She smiled at him as he sipped the water.
“Miss Jackson?” Principal Hotchkins’ voice sounded behind her.
She jumped and turned.
The principal looked at the exposed tops of her stockings, then tilted his head to examine the boy. His face grimaced with concern and then he waved her over.
“How is he?”
“Not good.”
“Nurse Janet on her way?”
“Yes, as soon as she gets cleaned up.”
“Ok. Tuck him in and then come to my office. We’ll call his parents.”
“Yes, sir.” She turned back to Tommy, but stopped when Principal Hotchkins grabbed her arm. She looked up into his eyes, which leered down at her chest.
