Free Best New Zombie Tales Trilogy by James Roy Daley Page A

don’t know. We should probably go.”
    But they did not leave their seats. They liked sitting there, and they felt so good. All three of them wished Natalie could be there with them. The smelly, purple-lipped corpse in the sunglasses and watch cap was a small piece of Natalie, and they were reluctant to leave her behind. They sat there and watched her.
    Natalie scooted her chair away from the table and stood, looked around. She did not seem to notice that they were gone––if she did, it did not appear to matter to her. Her lips moved. She was talking to herself.
    “What’s she saying?” Randy whispered.
    Kirk said, “I think she’s saying, ‘I’m hungry,’ over and over.”
    “Oh, shit,” Liz said.
    Natalie struck with the speed of a snake. She threw herself on a very fat woman in her thirties carrying shopping bags in both hands on her way out of the food court. Kirk, Liz, and Randy shot from their chairs and ran through the crowd toward her as the fat woman shrieked. Fortunately, the fat woman dropped the bags and struggled while Natalie took great bites out of the air in the general area of the fat woman’s neck. When she screamed the second time, there was horror in the sound, and Kirk realized she must have gotten a good look at Natalie, or maybe a whiff of her, or both.
    Kirk and Randy each grabbed one of Natalie’s elbows from behind and pulled her off the fat woman.
    “Let’s get out of here fast,” Kirk said, and they turned and hurried out with Liz in the lead and Natalie stumbling between them, her sunglasses askew.
     
     
    2.
     
    “Are you sure nobody’s looking?” Kirk said.
    “I don’t even see anybody at this end of the parking lot,” Liz said.
    They stood at the rear of the Camry with the trunk open.
    “Okay,” Kirk said to Natalie, “get in there. Go on, get in.”
    Natalie clumsily got into the trunk.
    “Head down,” Kirk said. As soon as her head was down, he slammed the trunk.
    Before they got into the car, Liz sprayed the cab with the air freshener. Instead of masking the smell of Natalie’s decay, the potpourri aroma simply combined with it to create a new odor that was no less offensive. Inside, Kirk sat forward in the backseat with his head between the two front seats, and they looked at each other in silence for a long moment. Liz started laughing first, but Kirk and Randy caught it almost immediately, and it took a few minutes for them to stop.
    “Fuck, I love Vicodin,” Randy said.
    “Where do we go next?” Liz asked.
    Kirk frowned. “I don’t know. That was my back-up plan. I don’t have any more ideas. I can’t just… turn her loose on people. Not if she’s going to try to eat them.”
    “And what if it’s contagious, like in the movies?” Randy said. “We’d have a zombie plague on our hands.”
    “I have a plan,” Liz said. She started the car, backed out of the parking slot, and started driving.
    “What’s the plan?” Kirk said.
    “You’ll see.”
    She drove them to Baskin & Robbins. “I’ve got an ice cream craving,” she said.
    “That’s your plan?” Randy said.
    “Hey, as long as we’re high, we might as well enjoy it.”
    They went inside and ordered bowls of ice cream. They sat at a table in the back corner.
    “We need ideas,” Kirk said.
    They ate in silence for several minutes.
    “Oh, shit,” Randy whispered.
    “What?” Kirk said.
    “What if Natalie’s banging on the trunk and calling for help? If somebody hears her, they’ll call the police.”
    Kirk sighed. “I almost wish someone would call the police. I’d like to get it over with.”
    Liz said, “I say take her back to your place and let her eat the other weasel.”
    “Ferret.”
    “Whatever. Those fuckin’ things give me the willies.”
    “Maybe I can keep her in the pool-house one more night. If I can feed her. But what do I feed her?”
    “Raw meat,” Randy said. “Got any steaks at home?”
    “Yeah, probably. But will she want that? She seems to