Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2) (30 page)

“Well get her up off the floor.”

I felt my body being tugged and pulled, then I was lifted off the floor. I could feel my legs and arms swinging and my head felt unusually heavy.

“Is she dead?” Ross asked.

“No, she's not dead. Her body's shutting down, sometimes they slip into a comatose state at this stage. Take her down to the containment rooms.”

“Okey dokey.” Ross said, swinging around and knocking my head on the wall.

Oww!!!

I wanted to smack him, or yell at him, but my body wasn't cooperating and I felt like a limp dishrag.

“Maybe try to get her there in one piece.” the other voice said sternly.

“Sorry!” Ross apologized before he carried me off to the
containment rooms.

Containment rooms?

I wasn't sure what the containment rooms were but they didn't sound welcoming. I was sure I should be panicking but I couldn't even open my eyes.

“Oh, Nick, which room?” Ross spun around to ask.

“Room #6, then get back here and clean up this mess. Miriam will go apeshit is she sees a stain on the carpet.”

The last thing I remember hearing was Ross, “Fuck's sake.” he grumbled.

Note from the Author

If you enjoyed Chasing Colorado please leave a review and let others know.

Stay tuned for a bonus extract.

Drew sat in front of the TV with his feet up, enjoying a beer.

“Hey, douche bag, you give any more thought to comin' out with me?” Ellie asked.

“Pass.” Drew replied.

So what do you plan on doing instead?

He shrugged. “Sittin' here and gettin' drunk.”

“
Or
you could come out with me.”

“Why don't you take Duncan with you?”

“It's Deacon... and we broke up... again.”

Drew sipped his beer and carried on watching TV, trying to ignore his sister standing in the room. Ellie got frustrated and walked in front of him and got in the way of the TV.

“Ellie!” Drew warned.

“
Drew!
” Ellie mimicked childishly. “You need to stop moping around like a love-sick puppy and get back out there.”

“I don't want to get back out there. I want to stay right here. Now move your fat ass!” Drew said, knowing the word
fat
would aggravate his sister even more and hopefully get her to leave him alone.

But Ellie was anything but fat, she used to weigh 320lbs but hit a low point when she couldn't find anything suitable for prom... including a prom date, so after a prom night spent in tears, she decided to lose the weight and managed to lose an incredible 200lbs in two years. Then she got depressed over her saggy skin and opted to have surgery and nowadays she was a skinny little thing that caught the attention of every straight guy in the room... if anything she was too thin now.

“Stupid ass!” Ellie said, kicking Drew's legs off the coffee table.

“El, you don't need me to go to the traveling fair with you,
you can
go on your own.”

“But it'll be more fun if you come. I don't wanna look like some loner riding the bumper cars on my own.”

Ellie's face softened and she walked over to her brother and pushed his beer away from his mouth and sat on his lap and put her arm around his shoulders.

“It's been almost a year... you can't spend every night in front of the TV like this. Gettin' drunk every night isn't going to change anything, except you're gonna get a beer belly at this rate.”

Drew went to take a swig of beer but Ellie snatched the bottle from him.

“El-”

“No, you're comin' out with me whether you want to or not.”

Drew ignored her and put a cigarette in his mouth but Ellie snatched that away as well.

“You know I hate you smoking in the house.”

“Well, if you go out you won't know any different.”

“I know when you light my scented candles it's 'cause you've been smoking in here.”

“Just leave me alone, El.”

“No. Get. Up. I don't want you wasting another second of your life pining over what's-her-face. She made her decision, she and that boring suit deserve each other.”

“That boring suit earns what I make in a year in less than a month.”

“I don't care how much money he makes, he still bores the pants off everyone he meets. Just forget about Lisa, she did, she soon forgot about you when Mr. Money Bags came along. She wasn't right for you, little brother. Any girl that breaks your heart like that isn't worth your time, and if she ever shows her face around here I'll break her pretty nose.”

Ellie jumped up, grabbed Drew's hand and tugged his arm until he stood up as well.

“Get your shoes.” she said, stepping around Drew and walking into the hallway. Drew found his hi-tops near the TV and pushed his feet into them and at the same time he heard Ellie stumbling around in the hallway and cursing him. She reappeared wearing a light cardigan, holding Drew's crossbow in her hand.

“Put this somewhere where I won't trip over it, and stop leaving arrows everywhere, I nearly got one up the ass yesterday when I sat on the couch.”

Drew laughed and put his crossbow in the closet under the stairs.

Ellie was waiting by the front door with her car keys.

“Might even see Melanie there.” Ellie said on the way out the door.

“Who?”

“You know, Melanie, the brunette that works at the bar in town.”

“What, that yappy one?

“Yeah, the
friendly
one.”

“There's friendly then there's just plain annoying. If you're setting me up with that mouthy thing, then I'm gonna wear board shorts and a wife beater to your friend's wedding you want me to go to next month.”

“You wouldn't
dare
.” she said, opening the driver's side door.

“Err.. El, if you want me to go to the fair with you, you'll let me drive the car.”

Ellie rolled her eyes playfully and chucked the keys over the roof to her brother.

Drew parked the car in the designated parking lot (which was actually a field).

“Come on, stop dragging your feet.” Ellie said, pulling him along by the arm.

After ten minutes of refusing to have fun, Drew started to enjoy himself, and he let Ellie drag him from one ride to the next. Two hours later, Drew had worked up an appetite and Ellie had gone off to find a toilet.

Good luck.
Drew thought, knowing the only toilet around here was the hedge at the end of the field.

Drew stood in line at the burger van minding his own business when a rat dragging a burger ran between his feet and shot off under a stall.

Drew looked up at the man serving the burgers.

“What the...? Where'd the burger go?” the man said, holding his spatula in the air.

He glared at the woman in front that was waiting her turn to be served and gave her the suspicious once over.

She let out an impatient sigh and put her hand on her hip.

“What?” she snapped.

“Nothing... it will just be a few more minutes.” the man said, placing a fresh burger on the grill.

The woman let out a frustrated grunt.

“You said that five minutes ago, ugh, forget it!” she said before stomping off.

Drew stepped up to order.

“Uh.. there was… this rat, I think it stole that woman's burger.”

“Rat?” the man spat, as if Drew had insulted him in some way.

“Never mind. Must have been a dog.” Drew lied.

“No rats around my burger van.” the man grumbled, flipping the burger.

Once Drew had paid he turned around and started walking away, inspecting his own burger for anything suspiciously rodent-like, and he nearly walked into someone.

He stopped mid-stride and looked up at the girl.

“Sorry, didn't see you there.” he apologized.

She smiled at him, revealing a mouth of black teeth.

Drew tried to smile but was so distracted with her teeth. Were they real? Had she put something black on them, on purpose?

He quickly tried to sidestep around her but she got in front of him and did the same when he tried to duck around her.

He stopped and took a moment to look at her. She looked no older than seventeen, was as tall as him, wearing a black turban with long, wispy, almost white hair hanging down to her hips in soft waves.

She wore red lipstick and black eyeshadow, and purple contacts.
Must be contact lenses.
Drew thought.

Drew couldn't help letting his eyes wander down her torso, she was skinnier and bonier than Ellie, and wore a strange, black dress that hung off her shoulders and trailed along the ground, it was like a wedding dress but it was all black.

Drew tried once more to step around her but she jumped in front of him again and giggled like it was a game.

He pulled a tight-lipped smile, not sure what she was doing.

“I need to go and find my girlfriend.” Drew lied, hoping it would get rid of her.

“Don't you mean sister?” the girl said but she never moved her lips.

Drew laughed.

“That's good. Is that part of the act? Are you paid to follow people around and pretend you're...you're... I dunno, what are you? You do kind of look like a witch. Wait, did Ellie put you up to this? Where is she?” he grinned, looking around but he couldn't see Ellie anywhere.

He turned back to the girl but she wasn't smiling anymore. She stepped closer to Drew and he had to force himself not to step back. She was pretty (sort of) in a freakish way.

She reached out to him, placed one hand on his chest, leaned closer, and whispered in his ear. Her voice tickled his ear and sounded as though it was being carried in the wind. She stepped back and then walked off in the other direction. Drew stared at the back of her for a minute before she disappeared inside some tent. Then he went to find Ellie. 

He didn't have to look far, he would know his sister's laugh a mile off. He found her giggling like a teenager and blushing at a heavily tattooed guy in his twenties that was attending to one of the stalls that had goldfish swimming around in bags.

“Ellie, you ready to go?”

“Uh.. yeah,” she replied, then she turned back to the guy. “Give me a minute.”

She walked over to Drew and pulled him away from the stall.

“His name's Billy, he has tattoos
everywhere
.” she said, looking back at the guy and giving him a little wave.

She looked back at her brother and noticed his distant expression.

“What's wrong with you?”

“Nothing's wrong. Can we please go now.” Drew said, looking down at his burger but he'd suddenly lost his appetite.

“Drew? What is it?”

Drew chucked his burger in a nearby trash can and looked back at his sister.

“There was this girl-”

“Oh, really? Did you get her digits?” Ellie asked cutting him off.

“What? No, I didn't get her digits. She was talking bat-shit-crazy.”

“What?”

“And she was wearing a turban?”

“A turban? Drew, what are you talking about? What girl?”

“She went into that tent over there.” Drew pointed.

“Oooh,” Ellie said, looking at the tent.

“What does
'Oooh'
mean?”

“I overheard some girls talking about her.”

“Yes, and... who is she?”

“She's a fortune teller, I think they said her name was Meat.”

“Meat? What kind of a name is Meat?”

“No, hang on, maybe it was mate...? Oh, no, now I remember, it was
Maite
. But don't worry, little brother, you've never believed in fairytales. Remember when you told me the tooth fairy wasn't real? That was a lovely memory, I cried for days when you burst that little bubble.”

“You were twelve, Ellie.”

“Still, it was a sad day.”

Drew glanced at the tent. “It was... weird.”

“Well, what did she say that has you all freaked out?”

Drew shook his head. “It was nothing.”

“Hmm, it must have been something.”

“Are you ready to go?” Drew asked impatiently.

Ellie looked over her shoulder at Billy.

“He was going to show me the inside of his trailer home.”

“Ellie, he probably shows hundreds of girls inside his trailer home, anyway he'll be gone by the end of the week. No!”

“No?”

“Yes,
no
, now c'mon let's go.”

“Ah ah ah.” Ellie said, lifting the car keys from her bag and dangling them in the air.

Drew didn't want to carry the keys as Ellie had about fifty different key chains attached to her car key and it made it impossible to fit into a pocket.

“Tell me what this girl said and I'll come home with you, otherwise, you can walk... and it is a long walk.”

“Ugh, Ellie, can we just go?”

“No, first you tell me what it is she said to you to get you in such a tizzy.”

“It was nothing... it didn't even make any sense.”

“
Drew
,”

“She said...
When the dead walk, you shall find the girl that holds your heart, and she will wear the moon
.”

“She will wear the moon?”

“Yup, that's what she said.”

“That's a bit weird. You sure she said
moon?
She will wear the moon? The
moon
?”

“Yep, the moon. You ready to go now?” Drew asked, wanting to leave.

“If we must, who knows, maybe we'll meet this moon girl on the way home.” Ellie joked

“That's not funny, Ellie.”

“All right, calm down, I was just joking. So what did she look like?”

“Weird looking. Black dress, black
teeth
, purple eyes.”

“What if she's the real thing.”