The
Zombie
Chronicles

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Finished works:
   Billions
    ---
   TZC1: Outbreak
   (Series starts here)
    ---
   Undead
     Advantage
    ---
   Found
    ---
   About a Woman
    ---
   Short Stories

Works in Progress:
   TZC2: Discovery

Works on hold:
   Zombie Nation
    ---
   Zombieboy

Outbreak

Chapter 31

Jimbo, felt the tug on his will growing as Fred fed on the mother they had found defending her three kids. No father was present and there was a mini van in the garage, along with an empty space where another car would be parked. Jimbo had taken the first kid they found without a though, a 12 or 13 year old brat with a baseball bat. He had slammed the kid down, driving his arm through the bat into the kid’s shoulder, knocking him to the ground, leaving him broken, but alive for Fred. Next had come the mother, not much more of a challenge, she too had a baseball bat, a shorter one, like for little league. Jimbo smacker her in the face, stunning or knocking her unconscious, once he was sure she was down, he turned to make sure Fred was gnawing on the ‘hero’ while he turned towards the other kids, a younger girl and her older brother, who was probably 10 or 11, who knew with kids? Not having any kids of his own Jimbo could only guess at their ages. Both brats were screaming and Jimbo knocked their heads together in a comical way he had seen on a classic episode of the three stooges at some point in his life. That is when they started screaming in earnest. ‘I thought it was supposed to knock them out?’, grimacing he backhanded the little girl, who rolled over and crawled under the bed, he took the boy and bite deep into his young, fleshy neck, enjoying the hot, spurting blood that filled his mouth.

When it was over and his appetite was sated, the girl was hiding under the bed, the mother unconscious and Fred was finishing up the first kid. Jimbo looked at the boy in his arms, undamaged except for a ripped out throat. He knew, instinctively, that he could gain more energy from consuming the flesh of his foe, but he also knew that if he stopped eating now the body would reanimated under his direct control. Sure Nancy and maybe even Fred would have some ability to boss around Jimbo’s creations, but ultimately he though, they would serve him first.

Jimbo waited until the kid started to revive, then pushed the savage zombie beast towards his former mother. The kid started in on her feet and Fred, done with the first one, started in on the other end. Disgusting. Jimbo was feeling much, much strong. ‘It is in the blood’, he thought, ‘whatever makes us come back is in the blood, it makes us stronger.’ He made sure the mother was eaten, damaged enough to not revive, same with the other kid. Then he turned towards the bed. The girl had to be younger, 6, maybe 7. Not too strong, probably less upkeep, but hey, Jimbo could not make everyone into zombies, right?

Once the mother was finished, Jimbo grabbed the boy, who was still half wild and together they flipped the bed over and grabbed his paralyzed sister. Fred tried to butt in on this treat, but Jimbo backhanded him. Then Fred concentrated and Jimbo could feel the ‘pull’ urging him to get the fuck out of Fred’s way. Jimbo squared his shoulders and spoke to Fred, “Not. Yet. We will get you up and running, but give this one to the kid and I so I can get stronger, like you mister ‘kid and half a mom eater’, and so the kid can at least get as strong as you are. As a team we are better than having one super strong member. I won’t be a Nancy on you and won’t have you pulling that shit on me either. I RESCUED you man, so back off this time.”

With apparent reluctance Jimbo felt the pressure compelling him diminish and he turned for his half of the little girl, the boy had drained most of her blood from her throat and Jimbo ended up sitting down to a larger meal than he had anticipated, eating quite a few of the girls internal organs, he had not wanted to really, just felt doing so would give him the most ‘bang’ for his eating experience. By the time he was through the boy was sobbing. ‘Fuck’, thought Jimbo, ‘Now I gotta counsel the little brat through this shit?’

“Hey, cut it out.” Jimbo concentrated and tried to get the kid to stop crying mentally, it worked. The boys mind was almost a pathway inside his head and if Jimbo concentrated he could see where the rows of faint light went and slowly divert them accordingly. He was lost in thought over this and become so involved with the process of sorting through the kid’s mind that he lost track of time. By the time he came back to reality he had made the kid forget that his first victims were his former family members, and set it up so that when they left the house, he would think they had eaten the creepy neighbor man the boy had feared for years instead. The boy was almost happy by the time Jimbo left his mind. Fred watched everything from the edge of the room while he gnawed on one of the mother’s legs. He looked much better and Jimbo, focused his attention on Fred’s mind briefly. There was resistance there, but he could get through enough to see that Fred was doing some serious thinking about trying to control Jimbo or trying to work with him. Jimbo tried to subtlety nudge Fred into the ‘work with Jimbo’ and ‘Jimbo is my savior’ mode of thinking. He thought he was successful but it was so much harder than he imaged it would be.

As a brief afterthought he tried to turn his minds eye to examine his own brain. There it was, exposed for the world to see. ‘Fuck’, he thought, ‘what to do about this? I can’t be running around all open to everyone.’ He though about it for a minute then came up with an analogy, clear cloudless day was what he was seeing in his own head, what he needed was a cloudy downpour or better a heavy fog, so others could not see his thoughts at all. He thought about the weather a bit more and slowly saw his mind fog up until he was looking at what literally was a storm cloud, in his mind’s eye, surrounding his head, obscuring all his ‘running lights’ from view. Better still he was pretty sure I anyone tried to play Moses and part the water protecting his mind, he would know about it. Would it hold against Nancy? He did not know, he suspected it would hold against Fred though. One thing for certain his manipulations had left him hungry again, unusually so, he wanted more food.

“Well Fred, what have you decided? Are we a team or are you going to try and be my master? We are once removed, one of the zombies you created, a real bitch by the name of Nancy, wanted you dead, I saved you and brought you up to strength. You can probably figure out why, I didn’t like following Nancy’s orders. I am pretty sure she can find us if she concentrates hard enough and I would like to have you there to protect me from her when she shows up, waddya say?”

Jimbo knew his manipulations had worked before Fred even answered, almost without thinking he could see how Fred was thinking. He had done it.

“I think I would rather work with you than have to watch my back all the time. Besides I remember Nancy, she was a fake bitch in real life, a hollow core, a true salesma-woman. I never liked her, but she did her job. What did you do to your head and the boy’s and to me?”, asked Fred.

“Well, Bobby, he was getting all sobbed up about eating his mom and all, I can’t stand whiny crybabies, so I have fixed him to think this ain’t his mom, right Bobby?”

“What?”, came Bobby’s reply, “This is Mr Thompson’s house. His kid had a 360 and they would never let us play it. Thompson was mean, he yelled at us and I am glad he is dead.” Bobby’s eyes were glazed and unfocused.

“See?”, said Jimbo

“And me?”

“Well you were trying to make a decision and snapping to judgments, I just, kinda told you to weigh your options. Nothing else. I honestly can’t do anything to you, that took all my efforts and left me starving, I think it is because you are like, my creator’s creator or something.”, replied Jimbo.

“Ah. I see. What about you. One minute I though I could almost see or hear your thoughts now I can’t see anything. How did you do that?”, asked Fred.

“Well, er, I kinda thought, you know, if maybe Nancy showed up, I would try and make it harder for her to get inside my head. I think I can teach you how to do it too.” In his mind Jimbo was thinking furiously, then a thought came to him. Backdoors. Like in all those computer hacker movies, maybe he could set up a backdoor in Fred’s defenses to give him a chance if Fred and his relationship went south.

“Right now though, I am hungry. What I did take s a lot of energy, and I will teach you how as soon as we get more meat, you guys game?”

“Yes, I could use it, I think Bobby is okay.”, Fred drawled.

“I ain’t hungry no more. But I will stay with you, okay?”, said Bobby

“Bobby my boy I would not have it any other way.”, as the three left the house Jimbo was thinking of rainbows.

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