The Zee Brothers: Zombie Apocalypse Now?: Zombie Exterminators Vol.4

by Grivante

  A grueling hour later, the group had dispatched the last of the delivered dead, allowing them to collapse in front of the closed garage doors to catch their breath and discuss what happened. A quick inspection of the semi showed that it appeared to be a rental.

  “Do you think it was those people from Burt’s?” Judas asked.

  “Yeah. It couldn’t be anyone else. Gods help us if there’s more than one group out there that have learned to control the dead,” Jonah said as he lit a cigar.

  “It’s that woman,” JJ said. “Dr. Nitsau.”

  Jonah puffed on the cigar. “I don’t know how that could be but I’m not ruling it out either. She should be dead.”

  JJ reached over and picked up Jonah’s left arm, raising it up and inspecting the bite mark. “We should get this cleaned up and dressed. Immune or not, you could still get an infection.” Her hands traced down his forearm, ending at the nubs of his lost fingers. He turned his hand over and gripped hers in his disfigured hand.

  “So, about that…”

  “We had been working for her for a little over a year and gotten good at the job. We had found a comfortable rhythm with Dr. Nitsau. She was happy with our work and had grown used to our presence. Our relationship was…,” he trailed off a moment before continuing. “It was unhealthy, but we’d both fallen under her spell, doing things we weren’t comfortable with.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A few weeks before this,” he held up his left hand, “we had kidnapped that scientist she was angry with, the one we told you about on the way to Judas’s driver’s test. He had turned on her and published an expose’ on her corporation, claiming her research was for evil. She denied it publicly, of course, but we had come to know who she really was.”

  JJ lit a cigarette, studying Jonah.

  “She told us she only wanted to try to change Professor West’s mind and that if we could bring him to her, she’d have a conversation with him and let him go. Only she didn’t. She locked him in a room and then dosed him with her zombie gas. She had us…” Jonah drew on the cigar again as Judas shifted uncomfortably.

  “Dr. Nitsau had a bunch of bodies in cold storage. Donated bodies she said, though I have my doubts that was true. We delivered the bodies to him at her instruction and... he ate them. One after the other, until his body literally exploded.”1

  “Oh my god, that’s horrible!”

  “Yeah, it was,” Jonah nodded, glancing over at his brother. “After that, we were both sick to our stomachs over what we had become for her.”

  “What’s that exactly?” JJ asked. “Henchman? Minions? Submissives?”

  Jonah sighed. “Yeah, something like that. We…”

  “Sorry,” JJ said, “My blood just boils when I think of what she put you through.”

  Jonah nodded. “Judas and I were fighting with each other and not on speaking terms, so we kept going along with what she demanded even though we were both scared to hell. After that night, Judas came to me and we talked. We knew we couldn’t continue doing the things she was asking of us. It wasn’t who we were and, as much as we were both twisted around by her, it had to stop.”

  He paused there a moment, looking around at the chaotic remains littering the parking lot of their home.

  “We weren’t big on politics, but we learned later how her company was part of the ‘Legion of Doom’, the group of companies that brought on the fall of the United States government and replaced it with the UCA. That wasn’t all they had planned, they also had a secret competition between them. The CEO’s each had their own master plan for world domination, to enslave the world. Evidently, hers was zombies.”

  JJ nodded slowly. “So, what happened?”

  “It was the next day after Judas and I had talked. We overheard her on the phone in her office while we waited to tell her we were quitting. She spoke to someone, telling them she was very close, that she’d perfected the infection method and now just needed to gain control of them, before she could distribute her toxic gas.”

  “We didn’t know what she meant at the time but while we were waiting, Hank, the engineer who trained us for her and provided us with our weapons, rushed up and said a call had come in regarding a large outbreak not too far away. While we didn’t want to work for her anymore, we didn’t want to let innocents die either…”

  1 Learn more in The Zee Brothers: Zombie Buffet Mini Comic at viewBook.at/zombieyeti

  Part V - Sunnyside Mall

  Jonah pulled the Nitsau corporation van to a stop at the address Hank had given them. The Sunnyside Mall.

  “No shit?” Judas asked. “A mall?”

  “Looks that way.”

  In front of the main entrance, two police vehicles were parked, lights flashing. An officer with blood running from his temple and dragging a stiff left leg hopped in a loose circle around a car full of screaming people. A handful of other dead meandered about the parking lot as well. Red smears covered the entry doors and smoke drifted up from the far side of the mall. The brothers got out of the van and hurried to the back.

  “What do we want?” Judas asked, opening the rear door.

  “Big guns, body armor, the mesh gloves, and riot helmets. No messing around. This looks serious and intentional. We’re not going to bother gathering any samples for her. We’re quitting as soon as we get done here.” Jonah glanced at the mall, noticing the small plume of smoke, and added, “stuff our gas masks in a backpack in case the smoke is heavy in there.”

  “You got it.” Judas stepped into the van and piled gear near the door. He set an assault rifle and shotgun out for each of them, along with accompanying belts which held shells and loaded magazines.

  They had suited up in less than two minutes and were now making their way through the handful of cars. Along the way, they were scoping and dropping those they could see roaming between them.

  When they arrived at the vehicle where the police officer had a small family trapped, Jonah gave a shout. “Hey piggly wiggly! There’s fresh meat over here!”

  The zombie cop turned, stumbling because of his leg. He still managed to lumber forward with a lunge straight at Jonah. The elder Zee brother dodged, stepping behind and kicking out the cop’s good leg. He landed on top of him, jamming a knife into his ear hole.

  “Clear!” he shouted to Judas, who checked around the underside of the vehicle to make sure nothing was hiding.

  “Ok. I’ll…” Judas stood near the driver’s door where he found a set of car keys laying in a pool of blood. In the car, two children lay in the back, huddled on the floorboards, faces down. Judas spied blood on them, bite marks evident on their small frames. The driver, a young mother in her mid-twenties, had gone listless, slumping forward. A large wound showed on her thigh. They’d escaped the mall but not before getting infected. He raised his helmet and looked at Jonah with wide wet eyes and shook his head.

  Jonah cleaned the knife off on his pant leg and stopped short. There was a streak of red blood but also something different, a greenish liquid mixed with it. He pondered this as he walked over to Judas, peered in, and studied the dead and dying family. The mom hadn’t turned yet, but one of the kids, only a toddler, had, and its monstrous face mashed against the window, jaw gnawing against the glass. Jonah stared into the little creature’s eyes. They were black pits, all innocence lost.

  He looked to where the child’s torn flesh seeped the same red-green ooze near the elbow.

  “Something’s very wrong here, Judas.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “See that?” He pointed at the wound. “The cop had the same green-ness to his blood. We’ve only seen that one other place.”

  “Dr. Nitsau? But, why?”

  “Now that she's confirmed her poisonous gas works, she must’ve wanted to try a bigger test.”

  “Yeah… but,” Judas struggled with his words. “If that’s the case, why didn’t she try to get us to do it, she’s already had us…” he trailed off, “well, you
know.”

  “Yeah.” Jonah shrugged. “Who knows? She’s been getting crazier and madder for weeks now. Her new 'security team’ must’ve done it for her. We can ask her about it when we quit.”

  A thump sounded from behind them and they spun to find a few dead pawing at the doors of the mall, trying to get out. Jonah yanked Brutus from his leg holster and turned back to the car. “I’ll deal with these, then let’s go inside and clean up this mess. Just remember not to get any of that green crap on you.”

  Judas looked at the small family in the vehicle before turning away with a heavy lump in his chest, quietly thanking his brother for doing what needed to be done.

  Three blasts from Brutus later, the brothers stood at the entrance to the mall.

  “You ready?” Jonah asked, slipping fresh rounds into his revolver.

  “Yeah. I’m green,” Judas said with little conviction.

  Jonah glanced at him and they locked gazes for a moment. “She’ll answer for this.”

  Tears sprung from Judas’s eyes and he reached up, grabbed the top of his visor, and slid it back down, obscuring his face. “Let’s do this.”

  Inside the mall, people screamed, zombies groaned, and the brothers sought targets. They took out the rotting meat bags one at a time, while giving mercy to those unfortunate enough to have been bitten but not yet turned. Their anger grew with each new victim of the green toxin. The gunshots drew the dead to them and they took up station near a water fountain, keeping it at their backs where they could both cover a side and the front.

  Within a few minutes, they’d dealt with the majority of them and started calling out for survivors.

  “If you’re alive, we’re here to get you out!” Jonah shouted. Even though the mellow mall music continued playing, an eerie silence accompanied it. They finally found a few people huddled together in the back of a greeting card store.

  “We’ve got you,” Jonah said to the scared group who were hiding behind a knocked over display. “There’s still more out there but we’re ready for them.” He hefted his rifle.

  A tall woman wearing a store uniform stood. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Jonah, ma’am.” He raised his visor. “And this is my brother, Judas.”

  Judas nodded at them.

  “Yeah, but…” she screamed and pointed to the front entry.

  Jonah spun to see a straggler lumbering in toward them. He slung the rifle over his back and pulled Brutus out, then walked to meet the dead teenager in a Cinnabon uniform. He let him get close enough for a clear shot, raised Brutus, and fired. The fast-food worker slumped to the floor.

  “Who? H-how?” the woman stuttered as Jonah came back. “Where did you come from?”

  “We’re the Zee Brothers, ma’am. We’re zombie exterminators, and we’re here to help.”

  “Zombie exterminators?”

  “Yes. Now let's get you out of here before any more find us. Have any of you been bitten?”

  “No.” She shook her head, looked at the others and wrapped her arms around her chest, shivering.

  “Do you know what happened here?”

  “N-no,” the woman pushed at the display and tried to move it, but it was too heavy for her to budge.

  Jonah holstered Brutus. “C’mon, Judas. Let’s get that display out of their way.”

  A man in their group spoke. “I was out there when it happened. They came from the big department store at the end. There was an explosion followed by this green smoke. A bunch of people rushed in to help while the rest of us waited outside. The police and fire crews showed up a few minutes later, then chaos erupted. Those… creatures came out and started attacking everyone. We ran and hid from them. It was like a terrorist attack, only they were eating people."

  Jonah tugged on the heavy display, the mesh fingers of his gloves slipping free. He took them off and tucked them into a pouch on his side. “Can’t get a grip.” With his bare hands, he was able to grab hold and, together, he and Judas moved the display case, freeing the trapped employees and customers.

  “We’ll go check the department store after we get you outside,” Jonah said. “I didn’t notice any ambulances or fire trucks when we came in.”

  “Which side did you enter from?” the man asked.

  “The front, right off of Sunnyside Blvd.”

  “They’re around back, near the tire center. That’s where the explosion happened.”

  They escorted the group to a side door, clearing a few more dead along the way. It exited into an alleyway which ran out to the parking lot. “Get to a hospital and have them check you out. You should be okay if you didn’t get bit or breathe in the gas but tell them what took place here. If you are infected, you don’t want to take this home to your families.”

  The group gave them somber looks but nodded their agreement and headed out, breaking into a run as soon as they were outside. The brothers turned away, preparing to venture back into the mall, when tires screeched from the parking lot. Jonah twisted around, seeing a beat-up brown truck with a bed full of teenagers carrying hunting rifles peering down the alley.

  “There!” one of the young men shouted. “There’s some of them!”

  The group stood and aimed their rifles at the escaping survivors as they ran to freedom.

  “Get those zombies!” Another of them yelled, followed by, “It’s the apocalypse!” from another. They opened fire, mowing down the small group.

  Jonah grabbed Judas and yanked him back as stray bullets tinked through the glass.

  “Goddammit!” Jonah exclaimed. “Stupid little shits!”

  After the firing stopped, Jonah peered around the corner, saw the truckload of young men high-fiving each other and kicked the glass out of the shattered door. He raised Brutus and aimed it at them as they turned to the sound.

  “They were human, you stupid fu—”

  The truck took off with a lurch, tires screeching and slamming the men in the back hard against its sides. This brought a satisfied smile to Jonah’s lips for a moment before his eyes fell back to the mangled corpses lying in the alley. He fired off a shot as they disappeared, hoping it was enough to send them scurrying home before they killed anyone else.

  A scraping sound to his left made Jonah jump. He turned to discover a dead mall security guard only inches behind Judas, who stood with tears in his eyes looking out at the bodies in the alley. The guard looked like a senior citizen, but his teeth glistened with fresh blood.

  “Judas, look out!” Jonah dropped Brutus, grabbed his brother by the shoulders of his armor and heaved him to the side as the old guard lunged forward. Judas fell out of the way and the man smacked into Jonah, knocking them both to the ground with a crash as they landed atop the pile of broken glass shards. Pieces of glass cut through Jonah’s pants, drawing blood and making him cry out. He threw his padded arm out to block the man’s attack as he bit, forgetting he’d taken his gloves off. The fingers of his left fist smashed against the zombie’s cheek as he pushed the head away. His fingers slipped in the blood on the guard’s face.

  Jonah saw it happening but couldn’t prevent it. His hand slid across the gore-covered face as the dead man turned toward him. Jonah peeled his fingers back, but the slippery momentum carried his pinky and ring finger into the zombie’s mouth.

  Judas smacked against the tile floor and turned over, groaning from the impact. He sat up and blinked in Jonah’s direction. He hadn’t seen the zombie coming and couldn’t believe his eyes when he found it atop Jonah, watching as part of his brother’s hand disappeared into the zombie’s open maw. “Oh, shit!” Judas rolled on to all fours and scrambled across the ground, scooping up Brutus.

  The zombie's jaw clamped shut, severing Jonah’s fingers. He shrieked in pain, adrenaline surging, and he pushed the zombie up but it held tight with its teeth. Jonah saw Judas come up beside him, Brutus in hand. He used his right arm to shove the dead guard as high as possible and yelled at Judas.

  “Shoot it!”

>   The gun wobbled in Judas’s hand. “But… but… your fingers!”

  “Blow his fucking head off!” Jonah screamed, straining to keep the zombie off him.

  Judas's hands trembled as he aimed Brutus straight at the zombie's skull and pulled the trigger, blasting it, and part of Jonah’s hand, to pieces.

  Part VI - Breaking the Chain

  The ringing in their ears blocked out all other sounds for a moment as Jonah used his right arm to shove the corpse off him. Its head was half gone and a green ooze dripped from part of the exposed brain. He pulled his bloody, mangled left hand away and shrieked. Judas stumbled backward, crying and uncertain, then hit his knees next to his brother.

  “Jonah, Jonah! Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

  Jonah threw his arms around him and held him as he howled, until he came to a stop a few moments later. Clutching the hand to his chest and sitting up, he pushed Judas back and worked to get on his feet.

  Through gritted teeth, Jonah growled. “Let’s go. Back to Nitsau, quickly.”

  “Wh-what for?” Judas reached out, supporting his brother and moving with him toward the mall entrance.

  “The vaccine.” Jonah took a deep breath. “She said there was one for certain varieties of the zombie virus, she has to have one for this. She wouldn’t use it if she couldn’t keep herself safe from being infected.”

  Judas’s eyes widened. “You’re right, bro.”

  The Nitsau corporation van careened into the parking lot, busting straight through the gates and leaving a bewildered pair of security guards staring after it as it screeched to a halt in front of the research building. The driver’s door opened and the thin form of Judas jumped out. He spun back to help Jonah down, but the vehicle continued forward as he had failed to put it in ‘park’.