Biff doubled over. “He smel s like nerd boy. Get him!” They moved forward, licking their lips. Oh crap! They were zombies, too.
Nick jumped the counter and ran for the back room where Bubba kept an ax … just in case. Bubba had never said what that case was, but this seemed like a real y good time to grab it. Not to mention it was the only weapon in the store that Nick could use with one hand.
He angled it at the first jock to reach him—this one named Jimmy according to his jacket. “Dude … back off ’cause I wil chop you. Hard.”
Jimmy hesitated.
Feeling cocky about holding him off so easily, Nick strutted.
“Yeah. That’s right. You don’t want no piece of me. I’m bad ah—”
His bravado ended when they attacked en masse.
Crappola . . .
Hefting the ax, he swung at the first jock to reach him. The ax landed in a case, shattering it. Glass fragments flew al over them as Nick pul ed it free for another strike.
But before he could angle it at them, Biff bit him in his good arm.
He cried out in agony, then head-butted the jock. He used the top of the ax to shove Biff back into his friends. Then he turned in one graceful arc and cocked his arm for another ax swing.
“What in tarnation is going on here?” Bubba snatched the ax from Nick’s hand. He angled it at Nick like he was about to use it on him. “Boy, have you lost your ever-loving mind?
Tearing up my store. Smashing my things … You’re lucky I’m not beating you with the ax handle.”
Nick gestured to the jocks. “Bubba, they’re zombies!” He held his arm up for Bubba to see the blood. “And they’re trying to eat me!”
Bubba cursed. “Wel , why didn’t you say so?” Biff sank his teeth into Bubba’s hand—something that was the equivalent of stepping into a den of rattlesnakes.
Bubba punched the jock so hard, Nick swore he could feel it.
Biff stumbled back as the other two opened their mouths to hiss at them.
“Freakin’ zombies!” Bubba returned the ax to Nick’s hand, then grabbed a shotgun off the wal . He pumped a bul et into the chamber and took aim for the head of the jock closest to him.
The jock’s eyes widened as he realized Bubba was about to blow him into his next lifetime. Shrieking, al of them turned and ran out of the store with an inhuman speed and a freaked-out gait.
It was like something out of Resident Evil mixed with zombie chimpanzees.
Bubba ran toward the door to get a better shot at them.
Before he could think better of it, Nick grabbed the shotgun right as Bubba fired. The barrel swung wide and instead of hitting the jocks, the shot blasted a huge hole right through the eyes of the picture of Bubba’s mama that hung on the wal near the register.
Nick stared at the hole in absolute terror. Ah God. I’m so dead.
Bubba real y loved his mama.
And he’d shot her right between the eyes. …
The look of Satan’s wrath on Bubba’s face nauseated him.
“Bubba … I’m so sorry.”
He stalked Nick like a hunting lion out for dinner. “Not half as sorry as you’re gonna be. Make me shoot my mama. Boy, what are you thinking? What the hel ’s wrong with you?” Nick had to stop retreating as he backed into the wal and had nowhere else to go. He held his hand up to stop Bubba from slaughtering him. “I couldn’t let you kil them.”
“Why ever not?”
“For one thing it’s il egal … hel o? You think the police are going to buy it was a zombie attack? I don’t think so. And for another they’re my classmates. Crappy classmates, but stil . I have enough trouble coping at school. I’m pretty sure kil ing three members of the footbal team when we’re coming up for a championship would ruin my rep forever.” Bubba snorted. “So what? In case you didn’t notice, boy, your classmates are zombified. Had I not come down here when I did, they’d be ripping out your entrails and chowing down. So you ought to be thanking me, not shooting my mama in the head.”
Nick swal owed his panic as he realized Bubba wasn’t choking him. Yet …
“I know. But … they weren’t dead. How can they be zombies if they’re not dead first? Ain’t that the first step?” Bubba hesitated. “Wel , that does pose a dilemma to us technical y. … But only in the traditional sense of the word.”
“How do you mean?”
Bubba scratched the whiskers on his cheek. “We’re assuming their bokor raised—”
“Their what?” Nick hated whenever Bubba used one of his freaked-out words.
“Damn, boy, don’t that school of yours teach you anything useful? Bokor. The person who creates and controls a zombie. What rock you been living under not to know that?” Some people would probably cal that rock “reality,” but Nick valued his life enough to keep that sarcasm inside. It was hard
… but after shooting Bubba’s mama, he needed every advantage.
Bubba rol ed his eyes before he continued his explanation.
“Most times bokors use corpses, but they don’t have to.