Zombie Love Chapter 1

A teenage girl is turned into a zombie because of an old family feud and has to make her way through not just rotting, but high school.

Prelude

 

          This is not a story about Vampires; this is a story about love.  It’s a tale of desire, betrayal, endurance, diversity, and that unimaginably huge, little word, called love.

          How do I know, you might ask? Well, it’s my story.  So, I should start by saying “Hi, my name is…”

          No! Wait! Don’t close this book yet. I know you were probably expecting something more- uh, dramatic, but you’re going to have to wait a minute. I’m not trying to bore you to death here. I just want to introduce myself.  “Hi, my name is…”

          Hold on! Don’t toss this book in the trash just yet. I mean, at least give me the chance to get to the part where I tell you about the vampires, demons, were-animals, and other spooky creatures of the night. Heck, there’s fighting, killing, suspense, swords, ninjas, lasers (OK, so I might have just made up that part about the lasers), but I’m not lying when I say you’ll love this story.

          It does have ME in it after all.

          So, “Hi, my name is Jennifer and I’m a zombie.”

          Now, if I could just get my finger to stop falling off while I’m trying to write I’ll tell you how this story begins.

 

Chapter One

 

          High school is just like any other little slice of Hell, boring and cliquey, and Valley High is no different. Well, except maybe that it’s located directly across the street from a maximum security prison. So, unlike those cool schools you see on television where the kids get to go out to the local mall for lunch or sit under a tree and read books, we get to look out our windows and see the prison. I think maybe they did on purpose to scare kids in to learning or something, but nothing really scares a kid into doing anything they don’t want.

          Including me.

          I’d never actually skipped school before, but it was senior skip day and some of my friends were going to do it. So, succumbing to peer pressure like nearly everyone, I decided to skip one day. One day, and my life was never the same again. One long crappy day.

          I picked up my girl Violet at her house and she smiled, showing her jagged teeth, as she hopped into my dad’s old station wagon. The thing had seen much better days and the floor boards in the back were literally rusted away. If you sat in the back seat you had to keep your feet up or you’d lose one on the road.  I’d forgotten about the holes once (I know, you’re wondering how on Earth I could possibly forget something like that) and threw my book bag in the back seat. I wasn’t paying attention (fiddling with the radio trying to get in a channel that wasn’t bluegrass) and I almost ran a red light.  Oops.  I slammed on the breaks and well, my book bag went sliding off the seat, through the hole, and onto the road. It took me more than fifteen minutes to explain to the cop why I’d gotten out of my car in the middle of the road and crawled under it after the light had turned green.  He’d given me a warning to fix it, but it made me late for school (again) and I got detention.  I’d say lesson learned.

          Violet tossed her book bag in the front seat and fastened her seatbelt as her mother watched from the front porch. Her mom is way over protective. When we turned the corner, Violet grinned like a mad person and started yanking stuff out of her bag.  “I got two bathing suits just in case you forgot yours,” she squeaked. “I’m so excited! What do you think everyone’s going to bring?”

          “I stole a bottle of run from my mom,” I told her with a glint in my eye. “She won’t even know it’s missing. I grabbed an empty bottle from the garbage and then poured about an inch from all the other stuff in the bar into it.  It will probably taste like crap but at least I won’t get caught.”

          Violet laughed and it made me feel better about sneaking off to the swimming hole in the middle of the afternoon when I should have been taking an algebra test. We drove right by the school, and Violet flipped off the building while taking a swig from the mystery rum bottle.  “Ug,” she grimaced. “That tastes like s**t!”

          “We should stop at the 7-11 and grab some sodas to put it in,” I suggested.

          “Good idea!” she squealed again, which she had a tendency to do when she was excited.  It wasn’t as if she was a small girl with a cute baby face who’d make the squeal seam right either. She was nearly six foot tall with dark brown hair and amber colored eyes.  Her skin was the color of a dark olive and she had a smile that could scare any predator away.

          I pulled into the 7-11 and parked on the side farthest away from the door. We only had about 20 dollars between the two of us, but we had a full tank of gas so we weren’t worried. We bought snacks, soda, and some of those nasty half frozen sandwiches they claimed they put up fresh every day.  I’ve never had anything fresh that tasted that stale before. I think they lie.

          It was a 20 minute drive through the holler to the old swim hole up off the big hill behind the cemetery in McDermott. The road was old and bumpy a lot of kids had stopped halfway up and walked the rest of the way. It made me glad to have such an old road hog beast of a car. I could drive the whole way up without a problem and it didn’t even matter if some branches scratched up my paint job. You wouldn’t have been able to tell anyway. 

          Some kids I didn’t know waved to us as we passed them but I didn’t stop. I can’t say I’m such a nice person like that. I kind of liked seeing them trudging up the hill because the brand new car mommy and daddy had bought them couldn’t go up the dirt road. It made feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. Violet actually rolled down one the windows and laughed at them as we kicked dust up in their faces. She hates the preps even more than I do, and that’s saying a lot.

          When we got to the top there were only 4 other cars up there, a Jeep, 2 trucks, and my friend David’s old Pinto. I was surprised that the thing had made it. Heck, I was surprised it ran at all most days and I think David was too. The ugly white thing had an even worse paint job then mine did, but at least his had floorboards. I guess I couldn’t tease him too much.

          “Did you see those rich kids in their expensive sandals trying to walk up the road?” Violet yelled as Dave waved to us. “What kind of person hikes up a hill in sandals? One girl even had on wedges!”

          “Violet you are obsessed with shoes,” I teased but it was true. The girl had a collection of shoes that would make any Walmart shopper jealous. I think she even got some of the internet, which for our neighborhood was saying a lot. Most of the people in our hood didn’t even have internet, or a working television for that matter.

          She poked me in the ribs so hard it almost doubled me over but I laughed it off.  No use showing weakness in front of the boys. They’d never let you live it down if you did.  Standing up straight even though it hurt like Hell, I snatched a bathing suit from Violets outstretched hand and headed to the trees to get changed. “Of course you forgot yours,” she started in on me. “You always forget everything.”

          “I didn’t forget the booze,” I snapped and she shut up.

          “Right, let’s get dressed and get drinking then!”

          “Let’s,” I agreed.

          I kept watch while she changed and she kept watch while I changed. We were good friends like that. You never knew what rich kid was going to try and snap a photo of you with their cell phone. The snobby brats never thought of anything other than sex, or at least I was convinced that was what they thought about. I didn’t like to admit to them having too many brains. It made it harder for me to hate them, and I really wanted to hate them.

          When we came out the first bunch of walkers were almost to the swimming hole. Violet laughed at the girl carrying her shoes and walking like she had blisters the size of quarters on her feet, and I couldn’t contain a little snicker either. The girl saw us and flipped us off but she didn’t say anything. No way she would have either. We were the tough kids and no one messed with us, mostly because of Violet. I’d never been in an actual fight before but Vie had beaten a girl senseless in the hallway once and ever since then people feared us. I grabbed Vie’s arm as she lunged toward the girl like she was going to fight her, which we both knew she wasn’t. We had to keep up appearances.

          The girl and her friends disappeared over the edge of the ravine and we laughed until tears were in my eyes. “That was almost too easy,” I managed to choke out.  “What a twat.”

          “Twat,” Vie wheezed laughing twice as hard because I’d actually said the word ‘twat’ out loud. “Twat!” she yelled and Dave came stolling over to us.

          “Nice suits girls,” he said eyes us up like fresh meat. “You both looks tasty.”

          “Keep your teeth to yourself,” Vie nearly growled, her face gone completely serious. “Jenny’s with me and you know it.”

          “Whatever,” he shrugged. “I was just paying you both a compliment.”

          “What are you two talking about?” I interrupted. “Who cares what we look like? Let’s go swim!” I yelled as I took off sprinting for the top of the ravine and then jumped full out like a professional cliff diver. I plugged my nose, closed my eyes, and prayed as I fell through the air toward the water. I counted 1, 2, 3, 4 and I had enough time to hear Vie in the background yelling something that sounded like ‘you crazy b…’ before I hit the water.

          The water was freezing but it felt good. I let myself sink until my feet hit the old rusted car that was at the bottom of the pond, and then I used the roof to kick off and propel myself back to the surface. When I broke through, I could see the relief on Vie’s face and the awe on everyone else’s.  I smiled, swam to the edge, walked out, and took a bow. Vie smacked on the back of the head. “What the Hell?” she yelled.

          “What, it’s fun. You try it.”

          “Hell no!” she said and managed to look offended at the thought. “You could have killed yourself.”

          “Nah,” I said and shrugged off both the unwarranted slap and the idea. “I’ve done it a million times before.”

          “Holy s**t,” some big jock said from behind me. “That was amazing, dude.”

          I ignored him. It was the right thing to do because it would have tarnished my reputation to bother responding to him and besides it hadn’t been that amazing. I’d been swimming at the hole since I was a kid. My family actually owned part of the land around the hole and I used to go fishing in it with my dad when I was a kid. My brother, four years older than me, would always jump from the top ledge and scare all the fish away. My dad would yell at him but then we’d all laugh about it later. Heck, the old car at the bottom of the pond had once belonged to my Uncle Tom. He’d got real drunk one night and drove it right off the edge into the water and died. I’d never seen his body in there, so I think they got it out somehow.

          “Hey, where’s my backpack?” I elbowed Vie. I want a drink.

          “You got booze?” David asked with a mischievous grin on his face which lit up his amber eyes like fires.

          “Yep,” I smiled, proud of myself that I’d snatched it before I left.

          David grinned again and it suddenly struck me how much he looked like Vie but I didn’t say anything. Inbreeding was pretty common in Southern Ohio and I didn’t want to offend anyone, just in case. Though, he did have the same dark brown hair, olive skin, and those unique amber eyes. He was way smaller though. I snickered to myself as a thought rumbled through my brain and was gone.

          “What’s so funny?” Vie asked.

          “Oh, nothing. Hey do you think your dad ever stepped out on your mom?”

          “That’s a weird question,” David chimed in looking all distraught.

          “Yeah,” Vie said.

          “Yeah it’s a weird question or yeah he did?” I pressed.

          “Oh, I’m sure he did,” she said nonchalantly as I opened the booze, took a big drink, and passed it to her as I made the worst face imaginable. “He was never home, always drunk, and there are too many damn kids at our school who look like him,” she said and looked pointedly at Dave.

          “She just says that so she won’t ever have to date me,” he said and swatted her on the butt faster than I could follow.

          “Whatever,” she hissed and handed him the bottle. “Let’s get drunk!”

          Which is exactly what we proceeded to do for the next three hours.

When noon rolled around we weren’t exactly in our right minds. We’d somehow managed to become the life of the party (probably because we had the booze) and everyone had come over and talked to us, even the preps. Vie was so drunk  she hadn’t even cared about it. As a matter of fact, she’s let Bo Wilson (the quarterback from the football team) snuggle up to her beside the small fire we’d built.

          “Let’s make smores,” someone suggested as the booze finally ran out, including the 2 kegs some other guys had brought with them.

          “Smores are lame,” I said under my breath but everyone heard even though I was sitting sort of apart them and up the hill a ways.

          “What are you doing up there?” Vie called as Bo nuzzled her neck and she giggled.

          “Waiting for something really fun to happen,” I snapped back. I’d been sitting up there for more than twenty minutes and I was on the verge of red-headed fury. I hated being ignored, especially by my best friend. Especially when the only person who’d even tried to talk to me had been Dave.

          “Well what do YOU think we should do then, Miss Smarty Pants?” someone yelled and was promptly slapped across the face by Vie. No one was allowed to pick on me except her. 

          The girl started sniffling like she was going to cry, but the boy next to her took off his shirt and handed it to her for a tissue and she smiled instead. How quickly they forget, I thought and then put it out of my mind. Everyone was watching me, waiting for an answer.

          “Truth or Dare.”

          It was something they hadn’t expected but a cheer rose up through the crowd of kids because everyone in their right mind knows that truth or dare means someone gets to kiss someone else and that anything could happen once the game started getting really good.

          “Shh!” Vie called. “Since it was Jenny’s idea, she gets to go first. Who do you choose?”

          I pointed to Bo and he went white in the face. For such a big guy he certainly was a baby. “Truth or dare?”

          His fellow football player began chanting “dare, dare, dare, dare,” and there was no way he could have picked truth and still saved any face at all.  “I dare you to leap from that rock up there,” I pointed to the one I’d jumped off of, “and into the hole. Then, let it take you all the way to the bottom before you come up again.”

          “Whatever,” she shrugged. “I’m on the swim team too.”

          “Oh,” I grinned like a maniac, “and you have to tell us all what you find at the bottom of the hole. I’ll know if you didn’t go all the way down and you’re lying. I’ve been down there.”

          His face went suddenly white and I could almost picture the things he thought he might find down there.  “Oh and if you see my Uncle Tom down there, be sure and tell him hi for me,” I grinned and he went extra white.

          “She’s just pulling your leg,” Dave told the guy. “There isn’t really anything down there.”

          “Have you been all the way to the bottom?” I snapped at him and then clamped my teeth shut.

          “Nope,” he admitted. “I’m not a good swimmer.”

          Bo finally stood up, having worked up the courage to do the jump while Dave and I had been arguing, and headed up the hillside.

          “Think he’ll do it,” Dave said as he put one hand over his eyes to block out the sun and bit his lower lip. “That sure is a big jump, and the boy is only human.”

          Vie slapped him, hard. “Don’t be an a*****e.”

          “Did I miss something?” I said as Bo took a running leap and jumped into the swimming hole.  Neither one of them answered me, and I was betting if I asked again I’d just get shut down, besides everyone was watching the water for signs of Bo.

          Just as everyone was getting nervous and his friends were about to jump in after him, his head popped up above the water and he looked astonished. “There’s an old car down there,” he yelled over to us. “Holy cow!”  And then everyone looked at me, astonished, and I basked in the glow of their ‘holy cow’.

          I shrugged and sat down on my rock, feeling a bit light headed from all the sun and booze. “It’s Bo’s turn.”

          The rest of the day went just like that, with kid after kid daring each other to do whatever they could think of just this side of torture or death. One boy, some blonde guy who I’d seen in the library reading a few times while I was working, accidentally broke his finger but he was so drunk he’d laughed it off. By 3:30 we’d all pretty much sobered up, or rather, sobered up to the point where people who grew up on dirt roads and grew their own vegetables, felt sober.  I was all kinds of ready to take off and I’d ditched the empty rum bottle and put on my regular school clothes again when Vie and Bo reminded everyone that I hadn't had a dare.

          “It’s only fair,” she said. “You’re the one who started the game.”

          In that moment I actually hated her more than I've ever hated anyone in my entire life. “Whatever, I said,” jingling my keys. “We have to go.”

          “Well, let’s all meet at the graveyard at the bottom of the Hill after we go home and check in,” Vie said with a twisted smile on her face.

          “Tonight’s the full moon,” Dave said suddenly looking like Vie’s idea wasn't going to be such a good one after all.

          “Yep, it will make it even spookier,” she said. “Who’s in? Who wants to come see Jenny take her dare?”

          The crowd of half buzzed teenagers suddenly thought meeting in a graveyard right before dusk was a great idea.  I, on the other hand, wanted to be sick. My stomach started turning somersaults and I could feel my temperature rising. I really wanted to get out of there.  “Whatever,” I said. “It will give you time to think up a good dare for me Vie. It is your turn after all.”

          “So you choose dare then?”

          “Duh.”

          Everyone laughed and I hopped into my car without saying goodbye to anyone. Vie hugged Bo and piled in next to me with a huge smile on her face. “We’re going out next Friday,” she finally spilled. “He actually likes me.”

          “I thought you hated preps,” I said with a lot more attitude then I’d planned.

          “Yeah well, he’s hot and I bet he’s a good lay.”

          “I’m sure if you ask all the rich girls they can tell you just how good too,” I snapped and slammed the gas so hard that the car jumped in the gravel and sped down the hill. I saw us pass Bo as he was walking down to his Corvette and I considered hitting him but changed my mind at the last second because I didn’t want to do jail time for an a*****e.

          “What is your problem?” Vie shrieked. “You’re going to kill us.”

          “I’m just trying to get home in time to get back out here before dusk.”

          “Fine,” Vie snapped. “I’ll just sit over here and quietly think up your dare.”

          “Whatever.”

          We rode in silence the rest of the way to the bottoms of Lucasville. I dropped her off in front of her ramshackle trailer whose lawn hadn’t seen a lawnmower in forever, and I pulled into the tidy trailer next door where I lived.

          As far as being trailer trash went, I did live in a pretty nice place. My house was the one on the block that all the other poor kids wanted to live in. It wasn’t that my parents had more money than theirs, but they did care about their home. We had a nicely manicured lawn with flowers that my mom planted fresh every year, a privacy fence around our backyard, an above ground pool, and a built on deck instead of cinder blocks for stairs. As far as our neighbors were concerned, we were living the high life but as far as the rest of the world was concerned we were bottom trash just like the rest of them.

          Just like Violet, I thought nastily. I was mad at her, and not our normal fight for a few hours mad either. I was raging mad. I slammed my car door and headed into the house with a scowl on my face that even made my mother think twice about asking me how my day was. Instead she just pointed to the stove where dinner was waiting for me to dish it out. It smelled so good I almost forgot that I was mad.

          “Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas,” my mom said through a mouthful of potatoes. “Leave some for your brother. He’s coming by tonight.”

          Tonight, I thought, crap.  “Oh yeah, mom, I told Vie I’d take her skating later if that’s ok.”

          My mom eyed me suspiciously but nodded. She had better things to worry about then whether I actually went skating or not, like Montel Williams and Home Improvement.

          I made a plate full of food and headed back to my room to scarf it down as fast as I could. On the way down the short wood paneled hallway I stuffed a spoon of mashed potatoes in my mouth and nearly choked trying to swallow, balance my plate, and open my bedroom door at the same time.  I am not and have never been very agile. I walk into doors, stub my toes on everything, hit my head on every open cabinet in a ten foot radius, and occasionally fall down the stairs at the library.  I guess it would help if I didn’t try to read and walk simultaneously.

          After managing to turn the little brass handle down enough to get the door to pop open, I scooted it the rest of the way with my hip while fumbling for the light switch, fork in hand, on the wall to my left.  Normally I’d have just waded through the junk in my room until I ran into my bed knees first and then turned on the lap by the bed but I didn’t want to chance stumbling over something in the floor and spilling my yummy goodness everywhere.

          The light flicked on with a low buzz and my room sucked it up like a vacuum. Black walls, black carpet, black furniture, and a black ceiling with random movie monsters painted on it by your truly sprang to dim life and the 40 watt bulb tried and failed to make things bright.  I pushed some clothes toward the wall so I wouldn’t trip over them and shuffled to the bed with my spoils.  I put the plate on the bed, whose mattress I had also painted black (not a good idea) and took the five steps back to the door to shut it.

          My room wasn’t very big, but it definitely had character. I’d fought with my parents for months over painting it but in the end it had been worth it.  Sometimes in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be in bed I could hear my step-dad going on about how he wanted to rip out the walls and put up drywall- that I was expressly forbidden to paint anything other than white or off white.  The thought made me shudder.  There was no way I could live in a sterile white room without my collectible rock-n-roll cards pinned to the walls and my monsters on the ceiling.  I’d go crazy. Heck, the first time I’d heard him mention it I think I had actually prayed: a thing I never do as I’m not really a believer.

          I shook of the thought and stuffed more of my mom’s home cooking into my mouth.  Chewing on a huge chuck of fried chicken I scavenged around the back side of my bed until I found my journal, which I’d pressed between the mattress and the wall, and yanked it from it’s hidey-hole.  I knew I didn't have a lot of time to get ready for the big dare at the cemetery, but I had to write about the day.  There wasn't a day in my life I didn't have to write about.  It was just what I did- in the beginning.

          I scribbled while I ate, using an alphabet I’d made up and memorized so no one else could read my journal even if they had found it. On good days, even though I’m a complete klutz, I’m damned near ambidextrous. Anything I can do with my right hand I can do with my left at least half as well.  Ok, almost anything. There are a few unmentionable feats I haven’t managed to perfect yet but I still work on it frequently.

 

Author's Note

Should I continue working on this?