All we know for certain was that once you died, you came back as one of those things. But they did not seem happy or sad any more than the ants in an anthill. We saw them as evil or monstrous because they were a threat to our lives. Yet not one of those things had actively sought me in some way that would lead me to believe it was after me alone. We’d already seen them go after a noise and continue on when whatever had cause that sound had long since moved in another direction. They didn’t hunt us so much as stumble upon our location.
A low moan broke the stillness. I looked down just as Emily’s eyes opened. In them, I tried my hardest to see anything of the little girl that I had come to know and love.
I moved away and watched as she struggled free of the sheet that she had been wrapped in. The snow offered her little help as she broke through the crust and sank in it, momentarily disappearing from view.
Slowly, she rose to her feet. Her head moved in that jerky bird-like fashion and her limbs were like a wind-up toy that was in its last fits before becoming still until wound once more.
“Oh, Emily,” I breathed.
Her head snapped my direction and she seemed to freeze in place. She tilted one way and then the other as if considering me. This was very similar to the behavior of that other child-zombie from outside that compound. Any other zombie would already be stumbling towards me, wanting nothing more than to take a bite out of me. Yet, this zombie that had once been my Emily simply stood and seemed to study me as much as I studied her.
I was careful to keep my hands away from any of the hilts sticking up from my belt. I don’t know what I hoped for. Did I think that she would mouth the words, “Good bye” or something? Yet there I stood, unwilling to draw a weapon and kill the child that I had taken as my own all those months ago.
I remembered all those times of reading to her and Thalia. I remembered that day beside the trench when we discovered the zombie of her dad, Randall Smith. I can still hear every single word she said to him that day as she said farewell to him before we torched the whole bunch.
Yes, I was very aware that this was still a zombie standing just a few feet away. But, so far, she had made no move to attack.
I don’t know how long we stood there, but eventually, she turned her back on me and walked away. I stood there until she had vanished through some trees. Then I stood there some more. I kept waiting for Emily to come back.
It was almost dark by the time I returned home. When I walked through the door, questions came from every side. I ignored them and went to bed. The dreams began almost as soon as my eyes closed.
I dreamt of Emily. Not the zombie, but the little girl. In the dream, she laughed.
The Dead Return May 30, 2013:
Book 6 of the DEAD series
Titles From May December Publications
The Dead Series
Dead:The Ugly Beginning
Dead: Revelations
Dead: Fortunes and Failures
Dead: Winter
Dead: Seige and Survival
The Fervor Series
Fervor
Elevation
Transcendence
The Master’s & Renegades Series
Magic University
Casualties of War
The Zomblog Series
Zomblog
Zomblog II
Zomblog The Final Entry
Zomblog: Snoe
Special Editions
DEAD: The Geeks
DEAD: Vignettes
DEAD:Steve’s Story
DEAD: Special Edition Compendium
Stand Alone Titles
Agape by Bennie Newsome
Cryptic by DA Chaney
Dakota by Todd Brown
Eat Wild, Eat Healthy, Eat Green by Donna Johnson
Gruesomely Grimm Zombie Tales -1 by TW Brown
In The Arms of Nightmares by Robert Dean
Stories Around the Campfire with Uncle Eric by Eric Pollarine
The BoogeyMann by Bennie Newsome
The Book of Joseph by Erik Rise
The Exoterrestrials by TW Brown
The Post-Apacolyptic Cookbook by Donna Johnson
Anthologies
Chivalry is Dead – all male authors
Eye Witness: Zombie
First Time Dead
First Time Dead 2
First Time Dead 3
Four in the Hole
Fresh Blood
Hell Hath No Fury…all female authors
Midnight Movie: Creature Features
Realms of the Undead
Say goodnight to the Bad Guy
Spiders
Vampires Aren’t Pretty
Wake the Witch - our charity anthology –
100% goes to Red Cross
Zero
The growing voice in horror
and speculative fiction.
Find us at www.maydecemberpublications.com
Or
Email us at contact@maydecemberpublications.com
TW Brown is the author of the Zomblog series and the Dead series. He is deeply immersed in pursuing his dream of being a “full-time” writer while trying to balance the duties of husband, father, friend, and Border Collie owner. He keeps busy reading and editing the numerous submissions for a variety of upcoming anthologies and full-length titles for May December Publications. He has had short stories published by Pill Hill Press, Living Dead Press, and others. You can contact him at:
twbrown@maydecemberpublications.com or visit his website at www.maydecemberpublications.com. You can follow him on twitter @maydecpub and on Facebook under Todd Brown, Author TW Brown, and also under May December Publications.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
A moment with the author…
1 Geek and a Guest
2 Vignettes XXV
3 Hunker Down
4 Geek Insurgent
5 Vignettes XXVI
6 Staring into the Void
7 Geek Attack
8 Vignettes XXVII
9 Surviving Ain’t Livin’
10 A Geek Reunion
11 Vignettes XXVIII
12 Emily
13 Geeksicles
14 Vignettes XXIX
15 Tough Choices
16 Geek on the run…again!
17 Vignettes XXX
18 A Trip to the Woods
Other Titles