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

by Grivante

  Pots rubbed against her legs and Pans wandered about, aloof, sniffing at the bodies of the dead.

  Jonah came up behind her. “Ok, she's loaded up and ready.”

  She stood and turned to him, pulling her phone from a pocket and glancing at the screen. “They haven’t moved.”

  “That’s good.” He nodded and smiled at her. “That’s only a ten to fifteen minute drive from here.”

  “Good. I don’t think I could stand much more waiting around.” She glanced at the piles of bodies in the converted garage’s parking lot. “Who's going to clean this up?”

  He studied the mess, wrinkling his nose. “We’ll call Biohazard Bob on the way. He owes us. We’ve sent him plenty of business over the years.” Jonah pulled a fresh cigar from his pocket and ran it between his lips, studying her. “You okay?”

  “Not really, Jonah,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m hungover, pissed off, and heartbroken.” Then she gave him a small smile. “And a little sore.” Her cheeks reddened.

  “Me too,” he said. “In all the good ways though.”

  They grinned at each other and he took her hand, turning to join Judas who was packing cartons of ammo for the hundred-caliber machine gun.

  “You get everything?” Jonah asked.

  “Damn straight,” Judas looked up. “We’re not leaving anything behind for this fight.”

  Jonah smiled at him, reached into his front pocket, and held out a set of keys. “You wanna take her on her maiden voyage?”

  Judas’s hand trembled as he took them. “You’re gonna let me drive her first?”

  “Yep.” Jonah nodded. “You’re fully licensed now, little bro. You got this.”

  “Can I use the nitrous?”

  Jonah laughed and shook his head. “No. We'll save that for an emergency.”

  “Aww,” Judas said, letting his head sag, jokingly.

  A few blocks from the blinking dot on JJ’s phone, they sat at a stoplight, quiet and contemplating what lie ahead.

  A homeless man stood on the side of the street with a sandwich board slung over his shoulders. It read, ‘The End of the World is Coming!’

  “Not on our watch, mister,” Jonah muttered.

  JJ peered down as Judas slipped his hand from the 8-ball shifter. The truck idled in neutral. The window displayed, ‘Outlook not so good.’

  “Did either of you ask a question?” She glanced between them.

  “Hmm?” Jonah asked taking his eyes off the homeless man.

  “The 8-ball.”

  They looked between her legs and saw the message in the window.

  “No,” Jonah said, shaking his head and peering over at Judas.

  “Me either,” his brother said. “I’ve been looking at this light wondering if—” He shifted into first gear as it turned green. “There we go, wondering if it would ever change. So, I guess that counts, but if so it was wrong.”

  Jonah looked back at the homeless man as they pulled away, the man’s eyes bore into his own and Jonah felt a lump form in his stomach.

  “Where did you guys get this thing?”

  “We found it in New York, down in Chinatown.”

  “New York? When did you go there?”

  “It was a long time ago. Shortly after Judas graduated. Our mom took us,” he took a puff on his cigar and blew it out the window. “It was the summer before she passed. She’d been sick a while and knew she wouldn’t be around as we got older. She wanted us to see the world and know there was more to it than the garage we’d called home all of our lives.”

  “Oh,” JJ put her hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I’ve never heard you mention your parents before.”

  Jonah smiled and nodded at her. “It’s okay. We probably should talk about them more. We lost her to cancer almost a decade ago and our dad in an accident when we were in grade school.”

  Judas sniffled from the driver’s side.

  JJ reached out, placing a hand on each brother’s thigh, gave a gentle squeeze, and rubbed them up and down. “I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks.” They both said before Jonah continued about the 8-ball.

  “Anyway, she took us to Chinatown. We were astounded by what a different world it was and so many people everywhere. Such a crazy place, nothing like here in the desert. We discovered this shop in the basement of a building, it seemed to stretch for blocks. The shelves were loaded with anything you could imagine, and she found it, sitting there on a shelf by itself.” Jonah shrugged. “Judas and I were wandering around looking for something cool to buy and we came across her standing there, crying, a small Asian woman had her hand on the 8-ball and was talking to her. When we walked up, the woman left, and mom turned to us with the biggest smile on her face.”

  “What was that about?”

  “I’m not sure. She never mentioned the woman or what she'd said, only that she understood why we’d been drawn to that store. Mom knew we were planning on restoring dad’s truck and that it was missing the shifter knob. When he asked her to marry him, he grabbed the toy version off a shelf nearby and had given it to her, saying, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, use this instead.’ She’d burst out laughing, said, of course, she was going to say yes, but shook it and asked, ‘Should I marry this crazy handsome man?’ The answer it gave was ‘It is decidedly so.’” Jonah grinned. “So, the magic 8-ball has always had a special place in our lives.”

  “That’s a beautiful story,” JJ said, smiling at him, eyes moist.

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “We’ve kept it with us ever since and for whatever reason, it’s always been eerily accurate.”

  Sasha came to an abrupt stop, causing Jonah and JJ to look around.

  “We’re here,” Judas said, indicating a large, plain looking three-story building to their right.

  Part X - Dissecting Xanadu

  Xanadu huddled in the rear of the small metal cage the men had placed him in, the disfigured face of Dr. Nitsau glaring in. They were on the second floor of an old building; the bottom level was empty except for large warehouse racks that used to store pallets of goods. This floor had once been offices. A few cubicles and computers remained, but now, dust covered everything, accumulated after years of non-use.

  The cage sat on a table next to one of the cubicles. Dr. Nitsau turned away from him and typed on a keyboard. She logged into the Nitsau Corporation Network and accessed a folder titled Xian-Do1/Xanadu. She browsed past scanned pages from ancient texts, pictures of statues known as Lion Dogs, or Guardian Lions in Chinese culture, until she navigated to a video file and swiveled the monitor to face him. A white and green night vision image stood on the display and she clicked the play icon.

  The drone footage of JJ throwing him into the air outside Burt’s backyard played. It showed the sparkling lights coming from high above, the sounds of disco music, and how time had slowed for the dead, but not for the zombie exterminators as they made their escape.

  “I see you can slow time,” she growled, “I know you can do even more. Reveal your secrets to me.”

  Xanadu whimpered as he saw himself drift into JJ’s arms on the screen.

  To this, Dr. Nitsau snarled. “She won't be catching you again. Her and those worthless Zee Brothers are gone. They’ve joined the undead masses that only I can control.” Her eyes narrowed to small dots as she peered in at the dog, waiting. When he did nothing more than scoot back further, she grabbed the sides of the metal cage and shook it. “You will show me what you are capable of. This time, we'll start exactly where we left off.”

  She slid open a drawer on the desk and searched around until she found a box cutter with its razor blade exposed, she pulled it out and showed it to him. “This abandoned facility may not have all the tools I need, but if I have to dissect you with this to find your secrets, I will.”

  Xanadu squeaked, his body convulsing and his digestive tract excreted a small black lump in the cage.

  Dr. Nitsau stared, waiting, then placed the blade on the des
k and opened her mouth, revealing a set of teeth that were at once perfect on one side and rotted and decayed on the other. “Or I could just experiment on you. It’s been a while since I’ve tried any animal experiments and, come to think of it, after my own change, I had never thought about what might happen if I bit an animal. Will it turn? Will I be able to control it? Hahahahahahaha!” she cackled, then her nose wrinkled catching a whiff of feces. “What did you do?”

  She lifted the wire cage as if it were lighter than a teacup and the small dark nugget fell through the grate to the table beneath, a large crystalline shape sticking out. This caused Dr. Nitsau’s brow to furrow, and she set the cage down, pulled on a pair of gloves, and picked it up.

  “Hmm, what have we here?” She studied it, nose wrinkled, but used her gloved fingers to clean off the gemstone before walking to a sink and rinsing it. The light sparkled off of it and she moved to a microscope to examine it. “Astounding,” she said, peering through the lens. Dr. Nitsau turned back to Xanadu. “It seems there is much more to you than I suspected. And…” She opened the gate on the kennel, reached in and pulled him out by the diamond-studded collar. “It explains where this came from.”

  Xanadu pulled away, trying to escape her grasp, this made her snarl and yank him from the cage. “You belong to me now,” she hissed, pulling his head low, causing him to whimper. “Come here. There’s another of your tricks I want to see for myself.”

  She held him tight by the collar and looked around for an open space, then picked him up in both hands. Her heels clicked across the tiled floor as she walked to an area where the desks were cleared away. Two of her armed guards stood at attention in the corner near a stairwell access, a third sat at a computer monitoring different video screens.

  “Let’s see how this works, shall we,” she turned to one of her men. “Marcus, take out your phone. I want to record this.”

  The man jumped, pulling a cell phone from his pocket and turning it in her direction. She grasped Xanadu by his sides and tossed him above her. “Xanadu!” she growled.

  A bright light appeared, followed by the thump of a disco beat. Dr. Nitsau looked up with her hideous smile as Xanadu floated to her. Around the room, things slowed, movements having a drifting quality to them. Her grin grew as he landed in her arms. He struggled, so she grabbed him by the back of the collar, suspending him in the air, choking off his windpipe. She raised him until they were eye to eye. “Don’t make me angry, pup—”

  “Ma’am,” the man at the computer screen stood and rushed over to her. “They’re here!”

  “Who?” she growled.

  “The brothers and that woman, they’re in the building.”

  “What?” her face tightened and her head snapped around to glare at the two men standing in the corner. “I thought you killed them?”

  In her arms, Xanadu squirmed, using his bulk to try to break free.

  “We grabbed the target and left the dead to finish them, ma’am,” one man answered, glancing at his partner in concern.

  Dr. Nitsau snarled. “Fools! They’re zombie exterminators. Dealing with them is exactly what I had them trained to do. I'm too close to launching my plan to let them interfere. They won’t matter for long, but for now, we need to leave immediately.” She hefted him by his collar again, looking him in the eyes. “It appears we’re not done with them yet. But how did they find us? Hmmm.” She slammed him on the table and he yelped as she yanked him around, inspecting his form until something along his collar caught her eye. “Ahh, what is this?” She gestured to one of her henchmen. “Hand me that knife!”

  From the main street, the brothers and JJ could see through the window that the warehouse stood empty, filled with bare racks and lots of dust. The doors were locked.

  “How are we gonna get in there, Jonah?” Judas asked adjusting a strap on his body armor.

  Jonah studied the entrance, running a thumb and index finger across his whiskered chin. He glanced at JJ, who stared at her phone, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand.

  “We’re going straight in,” he said, raising a booted foot and slamming it against the door near the handle and lock. It shook, making a cracking sound. He kicked it again, this time it splintered. A third kick broke the lock, and the door swung open.

  JJ, still staring at her screen, rushed to enter the building, but Jonah grabbed her upper arm and stopped her. She flipped her hair out of her face and looked up at him. “What?”

  “Hold on there, momma bear.” He gave her bicep a gentle squeeze. “They were shooting at us when they took him, remember? We have to take this slow.”

  Her eyes held fire and she pointed to the northwest corner. “It says he’s just over there.”

  “Good.” Jonah nodded. “Get your weapons ready.” He slid Brutus from its holster. “And proceed with caution. They probably heard me kicking that door in.”

  “Okay,” she huffed and yanked her own gun out. “Let’s go get my boy.”

  Judas pulled the shotgun from the shoulder sheath strapped to his back, checked the rounds and nodded at Jonah. “I’m green.”

  Jonah gave his brother a short nod, adjusted the assault rifle slung across his shoulder, and knelt low as they entered the building, scanning for movement.

  They made their way across the dusty concrete, stopping at the end of every shelf rack to look and listen. Hearing nothing, they proceeded with caution to the next.

  JJ held her phone in one hand watching as they grew closer to the blinking dot, but not seeing Xanadu anywhere up ahead. Her heart pounded in her chest. “Where is he?” she whispered under her breath.

  On the screen, a message flashed 'Pet Found' and showed a digital woman hugging a dog, yet there was nothing but dust before them.

  “What’s going on?” JJ spat, fury edging her voice.

  “The tracker,” Jonah said, “What does it look like?”

  “It’s just a small white square that clips on to his collar. Maybe about an inch long.”

  “Ok.” Jonah scanned the dusty floor. “Do you see it anywhere? Maybe they found it and removed it.”

  She spun around, searching the space, but saw nothing. “No. It’s not here. In fact, the only thing here is our footprints.” She pointed the way they had come. “There’s no sign of anyone else even being here.”

  Then they heard it, the blast of disco, the thump of the music. They looked up.

  “The second floor!” Jonah shouted. “There was an elevator near the entrance we came in. Let’s go!”

  1 Pronounced Zee-on-dough

  Part XI - Too Little Too Late

  The trio burst onto the second floor, finding nothing but abandoned cubicles in the same state of dusty decline as things on the warehouse level. They were near the front of the building, the dot showed he was in the rear corner.

  “Xanadu?” JJ called out.

  “JJ!” Jonah snapped, but too late, she charged off in the direction indicated by the blinking icon on her phone.

  Jonah and Judas tore after her, Jonah catching up with her before she'd gotten very far. He grabbed her by the shoulders of her body armor and yanked her to the ground, landing in a heap on the dust-covered floor.

  She elbowed him in the gut, but his armor absorbed the impact. “Let me go! I have to get to him!”

  “JJ, honey, calm down,” Jonah said as he struggled to restrain her. “If we charge over there without a plan, they’ll shoot us, then Xanadu won’t have anyone to look out for him. We have to be cautious.”

  She stopped her struggling and sobbed, wiping a dirty fist across her face that left a dark smear of dust and tears. “Sorry, sorry.” She turned and peered at Jonah through her mess of strawberry-blonde tangles. “I just… god, I feel so bad, so guilty for the way I treated him.”

  “I know, honey, I know,” Jonah said, running a hand through her hair to remove it from her eyes. “We’re gonna go get him, right now, but we need to do it slowly. They know we’re coming.”


  She let out a huff. “Dammit. Crap. Ok.” She chewed on her lip. “I’m a wreck.”

  Jonah’s lips tightened as he gave her a hug. “But you’re our wreck.” He looked up at Judas who stood above them, scanning ahead, shotgun at the ready. “See anything?”

  “No. Nothing.” Judas shook his head. “Those cubicle partitions are everywhere. They could be hiding out of sight.”

  “Here, help us up.” Jonah held out his three-fingered left hand as he wrapped his other arm around JJ. His brother took it and helped them to their feet.

  Once he had his footing underneath him again and was sure that JJ wasn’t going to take off running for a date with a bullet, he scanned the space. Hearing and seeing nothing other than the dirty office equipment, he turned to the others.

  “Let’s split, one to each side and one up the middle. Walk a five count, then check in with each other visually. If you can’t see one of us, back up to your last position. We’ll do the same. If you find anyone, don't engage. Retreat until you can make eye contact and indicate how many targets by holding up the corresponding number of fingers. We’ll convene on that location or engage before they spot us.”

  “Ok, bro, you got it,” Jonah said with a sharp nod.

  JJ sniffed her runny nostrils and held up The Pink Lady. “Ok.”

  They separated, making their way across the room in the format Jonah had outlined. Stopping, checking in, scanning ahead.

  Jonah’s heart raced as they neared the far corner, feeling more and more like they were walking into a trap. They hadn’t seen anyone or any sign of anyone except for a few prints in the dust. He stopped and looked at JJ. She had her phone in her hand and pointed at the screen repeatedly, then to the gray fabric cubicle wall in front of her, indicating Xanadu was on the other side.

  Jonah nodded and waved her to come to him. He glanced at Judas, signaling to count to ten before moving around the cubicles. “Here we go,” he whispered as JJ joined him.