Prequel to Summit Zombie Hunter SeriesPrequel- Zombies for Christmas
First installment- New World Order
Second Installment- The World Must End
Zombies for Christmas
By Keira Kroft
The floor creaked. Raven’s eyes closed, her breath caught in her chest. This was not happening, it just couldn’t be. Her entire family gathered at her parent’s home for Christmas Eve dinner. Papi was carving the turkey, stealing a piece as usual, Momi was dishing out cranberry sauce, and then everyone turned into zombies. Freakin’, flesh eating mutants. She was asleep, she had to be. This had to be a bad dream. Her thoughts ran rampant, trying to digest what was truly happening. Thank god, Bailey was late. She’s my best friend. I couldn’t take it if anything happened to her or her little girl. Oh god, Mia…Mia has to be okay, she’s only four. The contemplating in her mind had to stop…right now. Raven was aware that her family was gone—her entire family. But she couldn’t allow her mind to go there. If it did, she would surely break.
Raven turned very slowly. Their eyes were on her, she could feel it, they snarled and moaned like hungry, wild, blood thirsty animals and they were right behind her, even the children. What could she do, let them eat her? Perhaps she should.
Why should I be the only human left in the house, maybe in the world? Raven thought, as they closed in on her. She wanted to die. It was the eve before a holiday that her catholic family took very seriously. It was all about giving and the Christmas spirit. She did her very best to keep her will to fight at bay, but couldn’t. But, her survival instincts kicked in, she found herself wanting to fight, needing to. She didn’t know how, It’s not like she was ever trapped by zombies before.
Wait. I have been trapped before, Raven remembered the junkie in the ER that had her cornered once. She had to hit him in the head to finally bring him down. Maybe ‘they’ were the same, like in the movies. Of course there was not a damn thing she could use in the storage room she holed herself in. Raven was screwed, of all the rooms in the Evanston Mansion she could go into, she picked the one with no windows and not one weapon. A faux fur coat and Dean Martin albums weren’t going to cut it.
Suddenly a loud clatter came from the living room. Maybe it’s a freakin’ Zombie Santa Claus. They dragged their rotting bodies to the living room. She followed slowly, it was the damn cat, he knocked down the tree. Glass bulbs crashed to the ground. “Catman, come here,” Raven whispered and made soft noises. He was toast, she had to do something…the large sized black and white feline was her baby.
Noise. They responded to noise, she ran in the kitchen. Fumbled around for her keys, she always threw them on the counter. Where are my goddamn keys…shit! Her heart pounded, her hands shook and stomach churned. Raven did her very best to not think about her kitty’s impending doom, but that was all she could think about in that moment.
At the sounds of Catman hissing, Raven closed her eyes. “Think!” Where are your keys? “Screw it,” she yelled aloud, grabbing a dish towel out of the kitchen drawer. She ran over to the other side of the kitchen, her heart beating a mile a minute. Then she tipped over the metal cabinet where her mother kept the pans, creating a rather loud diversion for her kin, then she bolted out the back door and around to the front. Winding the towel tightly around her hand, she drew her balled hand back and pounded her fist into the window, making it through on the first try. See I knew the Tae Bo was working. Her mind was doing everything but concentrating on the situation she was in.
The white cloth that was intended to protect her was turning bright red and blood dripped everywhere. “Oh my god. What if they smell my blood?” Raven said a little too loud.
“Their zombies not vampires. Why are you trying to get in their anyway.” A fireman, asked from behind her.
“My damn cat. Wait! Isn’t that what Fireman do? Could you get him?”
He shook his head. “No I am not going in there, no way no how. Not to mention you just broke a window. Those fuckers are way faster than you would think.” He said, carefully placing the ax on his shoulder that he’d been gripping tight.
“Okay, I understand.” Maybe it was the situation she was in or the loneliness, but she couldn’t help but notice how attractive the fireman was. But what a pendejo. He wouldn’t even help her. Isn’t that his job? She didn’t get to pick and choose whose life she saved in the ER, she had a job to do and she always did it. He seemed strange anyway; a trained firefighter knows that you don’t put a weapon on your shoulder, no matter how carefully it’s done.
“Let’s go, I will take you somewhere safe and get that arm looked at.”
When the very handsome stranger turned his back to walk away, Raven jumped in the window. She hesitated too long talking to the faux fireman. Indeed breaking the glass did attract her entire family to the living room. Catman was hovered in a corner, shaking, his body half up, clinging to the wall. His meows sounded like a newborn baby crying, followed by the occasional hiss.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed him and headed toward the window…too late. Her ravenous mother was standing right in front of her. She recognized her mom because she still had on her yellow apron. And her hair, even though it was filthy looking, you could still see her blonde highlights.
“Momi why!” Raven cried, holding the cat tightly.
“Because she doesn’t know you…anymore,” said the uninformed man, as he was chopping the heads off her family members. After they were all dead—again, Raven put Catman down and fell to her knees—tears, and blood still dripping from her arm hit the floor.
Her savoir gently pulled her up. “Get your cat. We have to go, there are others.”
Raven squeezed her head with her fists, like that was going to stop the pounding in her head or the tightening in her chest. “Who are you? How did you know they were Zombies before you even seen them.” Questions whirled in her mind.
“I am looking for Dr. Raven Ramón. Please tell me that you are her.” He seemed so in control a few minutes ago, but now, his hands shook and fear darkened his emerald green eyes. “I understand you are working on a cure for cancer.”
“Yes I am her and I am working on a cure.” she peeped. “But who isn’t.”
He put out his hand, “Michael Summit, but you can call me Summit.”
Was he kidding? You can call me Summit? She wasn’t going to be calling him anything, she didn’t know him and had no clue as to what was going on—apparently he did.
“Wait! Are you Doctor Summit the world famous scient—” her words were cut short by the sound of woman screaming, she sounded horrified. Bailey.
“Raven! Help me! Please help me,” Baily cried. “There are these creatures in my house and Mia is trapped. Please help me!”
Bolting straight next door and directly into Mia’s closet, she pulled the tot out of the hiding place and into her arms. “It’s okay, Momi, Raven has you,” She smoothed Mia’s hair and planted a soft kiss to her hair. Then quickly moved toward the exit, where she was stopped short by Bailey and that Summit guy, who was looking around, wildly, his head snapping back and forth. He herded them into the kitchen. That wasn’t a good idea; the kitchen was infested with those creatures, dining on Baileys, Parrots. They backed out of the kitchen. The only sound they heard was that now familiar ravenous growl. There must have been twenty of them in the house. Where the fuck did they come from? Baily and Mia lived alone.
“Oh shit, we are surrounded.” Summit snapped.
“So use your ax. You cut through my family like a steak knife to butter.” Raven rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t bring it,” he whispered.
“What”…was the only word she spoke that Bailey and Summit would be able to understand, since Bailey was from Kentucky and Summit had an English accent. When Raven was upset, Spanish would flow out of her mouth, uncontrollably. She yanked the rosary from her neck, placing it in Bailey’s hand, squeezing her fingers closed around it.
Raven held on tightly to Baily and Mia, this was it, this was how it was all going to end. It took every ounce of strength she had just to accomplish the task of standing. Fear was impeding her will to stand, sheer terror and fear churned in the form of acid in her stomach, making her nauseous.
Summit just stood there—stunned—helpless. He seemed brave, though. Raven felt a flutter in her heart, an awakening that she’d never felt before. She would have liked the chance to know him better.
Having to be strong for Mia, Raven started singing Christmas carols, prompting Bailey and Summit to join in to keep the little girl as calm as possible. The one thing worse than death itself, is knowing that it’s coming. Raven sucked back her tears and continued to sing as Mia joined in.
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas and happy new…
In the next segment of Zombies for Christmas
Twenty four hours earlier, Raven says something to her mother that she may regret for the rest of her life, her estranged sister showed up as she only did on Holiday’s causing problems as usual and Raven fears that her Papi has cancer.
If you enjoyed this story you may like Keira Kroft’s other works
Glow in the Dark
http://www.decadentpublishing.com/
Bad Moon Rising Over Oz
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66466
Coming soon, Inamorata
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