Zombies Ate My Neighbors Chapter 9

Chapter 9

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Julie scratched her head as she checked Lil' Sparky's radar screen.

"Hmm... this is strange." she said.

"Well, that is your conversation starter." Zeke mused, "What's strange?"

"I can hear some kids nearby, but Lil' Sparky show's nothing on radar.  I hope this thing isn't malfunc-"

Julie was cut off as a dirt clod smacked her in the cheek.

"Ack!" she cried, "Hey!"

Glaring in the direction that the dirt clod came from, the teens noticed a child laughing at them and picking up another handful of mud; which he threw in their direction.  This time, though, the teens were quick to dodge.

"You little punks just don't get it, do you?!" Zeke snapped at him, as he raised his water gun.

As she took out a handkerchief and started to wipe the mud off her face, Julie watched with surprise as Zeke sprayed the child; who shrieked in pain, fell onto the ground, and dissolved away.  She lowered her hand and blinked at the sight.

"Man, I was hoping we'd be finished with those twerps after yesterday." Zeke muttered aloud, "Uhh... you missed a little dirt right here."

Julie wiped the rest of the dirt off her face, continuing to stare at the sticky pool of liquid on the ground.

"You've... dealt with them before?" she asked.

"Oh, that's right... you weren't here.  Well, uh..."

"It's another long story, isn't it?"

"Yeah... I'll tell you about it back at the base.  For now... just blast 'em."

"Right."

Zeke and Julie continued on their way, stopping to blast an occasional pod child, as Julie scanned the neighborhood.

"Still nothing." she said, after passing the fourth house.

Zeke shrugged.

"I dunno, maybe the Military already evacuated this street."

"But then why would Uncle Harry send us-..."

Julie stopped when she and Zeke heard a strange noise nearby.

"You hear that?" she asked.

"Uh-huh." Zeke replied, "Sounded like it came from that house over there.  Let's check it out."

The teens approached the door; which Zeke cautiously checked.  Finding it unlocked, he opened it and motioned for Julie to follow.  The teens slowly moved through the foyer, their water guns at the ready, until they came to the living room.

"Let's split up and search the house," Julie said, "then meet up back here."

Zeke nodded and the two of them began searching the house.  After completing his search and finding nothing, Zeke went back to the living room.  That's when he saw Julie, through the sliding glass doors, walking around in the backyard.

"How'd she get out there?" he muttered to himself.

Curiously, he slid open the door and ran towards her.  But he suddenly stopped when he noticed that she wasn't alone.

"What the...?" he cried, pushing his glasses up and staring in shock.

Another Julie was approaching him, with a not-so-friendly look on her face.

"If you're here... then who's... oh, wait..."

After quickly dodging a rock thrown at him by "Julie," Zeke suddenly saw three more "Julies" coming his way, along with a pair of "Zekes."  None of whom looked too friendly.

"I get it." he said, raising his gun with a smirk, "Disguising yourselves as us, eh?  Very clever.  Not!"

---

"So that's where those things are coming from!" Julie muttered, as she stared out the master bedroom window, "And they're starting to make clones of us now?  I gotta find Zeke and tell him."

After taking out her phone and using its camera to take a picture of the monstrosity outside, Julie pocketed it and ran back to the living room.  There, she noticed the sliding glass door open and heard screams outside that sounded like her and Zeke.  They were then followed by Zeke's voice shouting, "That's right!  Now it's your turn to run home crying to your mommies!  Not that... I've... ever done that..."

"Hmm... I guess he knows."

She went outside and observed him blasting the last of the "Julies", before one last "Zeke" came running at him.  Zeke took a split-second to glance over at the real Julie, only to end up involuntarily dropping his gun as he was pounced on by his doppleganger.  As the two Zekes started fighting, Julie raised her gun at them and started wondering with worry which one she should shoot.  Then she suddenly slapped her forehead.

"What am I thinking?" she muttered, "It's holy water!  Even if I hit the real Zeke, it's not gonna hurt him."

So with that, Julie took her shot and hit the Zeke on top; who then cried out in pain and rolled onto the ground screaming, as he started to dissolve away.  The other Zeke got back on his feet and picked up the red water gun.  Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Julie fired another short stream of water at him.

"...what was that for?"

"Just checking." Julie replied, with a mischievous smile, "Oh, by the way, I found out where those things are coming from."

She pulled her phone out and opened the photo gallery.

"Apparently, there's this-..."

Julie was suddenly interrupted as a small stream of water hit her in the face.  She glared up at Zeke; who was holding his gun behind his back and whistling innocently.  After a short moment, Julie simply wiped the water off her face with her jacket sleeve, and selected the photo she had snapped.

"As I was saying..." she continued, "there's this giant plant... thing... outside the master bedroom, that's creating them."

Lifting his 3D glasses to his forehead, Zeke looked at the photo; which showed the biggest- and ugliest- plant he'd ever seen.

"Ick!" he responded, "I'd sure be embarrassed for Mom, to see one of those things in her flowerbed.  Where is it again?"

"This way."

Turning off and pocketing her phone, Julie lead Zeke through the backyard until they finally got to the plant monstrosity.  Zeke grimaced at the sight.

"Man!" he cried, "It's even more hideous in person!  So to speak."

Zeke and Julie glanced at each other and shared a nod, before opening fire on the plant.  However, their holy water didn't seem to have much effect on it.  Julie stopped firing and shook her head at Zeke; who ceased fire as well.  Then, before either of them could utter a word, the plant suddenly shot out three green spheres; which flew over their heads and splattered onto the ground behind them.  From out of each puddle, a humanoid figure slowly formed.  Zeke quickly blasted one of them with holy water, before his gun suddenly shot out a small burst of air.

"Crap, I'm out."

Julie dispatched the other two clones, before putting her gun under her arm and fishing out two holy water vials from her jacket pockets.  After handing one of them to Zeke, she used the other one to refill her own water gun; which wasn't much more full than his.  

"Okay, we've gotta find some other way to stop that thing." she said, "Any suggestions?"

Zeke racked his brain, as he discarded the empty holy water vial and screwed the cap back onto his gun.  He didn't have time to speak, before a few more spheres landed nearby.  Fortunately though, he did have an idea.

"Here." he said, handing his water gun to her, "Hold them off as long as you can.  I'll be right back."

Julie watched in puzzlement as Zeke ran off, then turned back to face the pod clones advancing on her and quickly proceeded to blast them with both guns.  Zeke, meanwhile, ran into the tool shed and began rummaging through the tools.

"Let's see... rake, shovel, weed whacker... weed whacker!  Perfect!"

After watching the last of the clones dissolve away, Julie stared in disgust at all the sticky green puddles on the ground and then pointed the water guns at the plant monster.

'Whatever he's up to, it sure better work!' she thought, as she reluctantly waited for more clones to spawn.

She didn't have to wait long, however, before she heard a loud buzzing noise nearby.

"Stand back, Julie!"

Julie turned to face Zeke's voice and quickly obeyed, as she observed him charging towards the plant monster with the weed whacker in his hands.  The massive plant seemed to screech in pain as the blades began tearing through it.  Eventually, the screeching stopped and Zeke switched off the tool and placed it against the wall of the house.  He glanced over at Julie; who just stood there and stared at the carnage.

"Wow." she finally said, tossing his water gun to him, "I take it, this is why your dad only ever asked you to mow the lawn once?"

Zeke deftly caught his gun and let out a nervous chuckle.  

"Yeah, umm... well..."

Those thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of Police sirens in the distance.  The teens looked at each other, then Julie took out Lil' Sparky and turned it on.  Sure enough, its radar screen showed three blips that were not too far from their position.

"Living people!" they both excitedly shouted together.

With that, they bounded through the house and out the door.  Then Julie stopped.

"Wait!" she cried.

"What's wrong?"

"We'd better approach them with caution." Julie warned Zeke, tucking her water gun under her arm.

"Oh." Zeke replied, with a nervous chuckle, "Right."

Zeke "holstered" his gun under his arm and the teens continued on their way.

---

"And remember," Sergeant Mary Summers told her fellow officers, "don't stop until they drop!"

"Yes, Sir!"

With that, the Police officers got into position and opened fire on the horde of approaching zombies.  Not long after they started, however, the Sergeant heard one of her partners say, "Hey, you kids shouldn't be here!"  Sergeant Summers looked and then stared in surprise as Zeke and Julie approached her.

"Mom!"

"Julie!" her mother cried, "Zeke!  What are you two..." she paused only to shoot an approaching zombie in the head, dispatching him.  "Nevermind, just get down!"

Zeke and Julie obeyed, crouching behind Mary's squad car.  That's when a thought suddenly hit Zeke.

"Wait a minute..." he muttered to himself.

He glanced at Julie; who was peeking out at a familiar-looking zombie.

"Oh no!" she cried, "Not Mr. Brown!  He was my favorite teacher!"

"Julie, please," her mother told her, "stay down!"

Zeke pinched his arm.

'Oh my God!' he thought, 'That dream last night!  It's happening!  It's actually happening!'

Suddenly, he remembered the severed zombie arm.

"Arm incoming!  Shoot that-..."

But to the officers' surprise, Zeke was already squirting holy water at the crawling arm; which suddenly began flinching and writhing until it suddenly stopped and lay motionless on the ground.  All three officers stood up and stared in shock.  Then Mary looked back up at the approaching zombies.

"How did you do that?" one of the officers asked.

Before Zeke could answer, Mary shouted, "Look out!"  Zeke then ducked back down as she fired a shot in the air.  The bullet struck a flying zombie organ; which exploded harmlessly in midair.  Zeke looked up with a smile, both relieved and impressed at Mary's great accuracy.

"Come on!" he told Julie.

He and Julie got on their feet and started to spray the approaching zombies.  Mary stared back in shock as the zombies began to explode.  Then Zeke suddenly stopped as he remembered what happened next in his dream.

"How... how are you doing that?"

Zeke frantically began scanning the area for the zombie of his nightmare, until he suddenly found him; just as said zombie was starting to unscrew his head.

"Hey, what's that one-..." Julie started to say.

She stopped when she noticed Zeke climbing over the hood of her mother's patrol car.

"Hey!  Zeke, what are you doing?!" she cried.

Zeke ran towards the zombie's self-severed rolling head, stopping only when it got close enough.  Focusing all of his energy into one foot, Zeke waited for the right moment and then kicked the zombie head as hard as he could.  The head flew through the air until it struck and bounced off another zombie, knocking him to the ground.  Then it struck another zombie, and another, until all of the other zombies had been knocked down.   Finally, the head exploded and grew back onto the ugly-tied zombie's neck.  Zeke pushed his 3D glasses down, for the zombie to get a look at his narrowed glaring eyes, as he raised his gun.  He squeezed the trigger... but only a few small drops came out, followed by a small burst of air.  Zeke's eyes went wide as he suddenly realized that he'd once again run out.  And this time, he and Julie had used up the only refills they'd brought.

"...Uh-oh."

The zombie began to advance on Zeke; who slowly backed away and started to chuckle.  Until he heard Mary's gun cocking behind him and her voice say, "Move."  Wasting no time, Zeke dove to the side and let Mary fire her last bullet; which went right between the zombie's eyes and dropped him to the ground, like a falling statue.  Mary triumphantly blew the smoke from the barrel of her gun and returned it to the holster, as Zeke picked himself up off the ground.

"That was some nice shooting, Mrs. Summers." he complimented her, as he dusted himself off.

"Thanks." she replied, "You're not so bad yourself, although- whatever kind of water you used there- you might want to use a little less of it next time.  What are you two doing out here anyway?  And... what's with the glasses, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh... well, uh..."

Before he could go on, Mary suddenly noticed her partners and Julie approaching.

"Actually, hold that thought."

Julie ran up to Mary; who knelt down and hugged her.

"Julie!" she cried, kissing her forehead, "Thank goodness you're alright!  I've been worried sick about you, since this whole thing started."

Zeke removed his glasses and smiled.  He wanted to tell Julie how glad he was, that she was alive, but quickly decided that she didn't need to know about the terrible dream that he'd just averted.

"I was worried about you too, Mom." Julie replied, "But Zeke reassured me, reminding me how good you are."

Mary's partners began to survey the carnage, kicking the downed zombies; who didn't respond.

"Damn, Son, that was one hell of a trick you pulled there!" one of the officers told Zeke.

"Yeah, Kid!  You killed five birds with one stone!" his partner added.

"Heh... yeah, well... I uh... just got a little overexcited, I guess." Zeke replied.

"At any rate," Mary said to her partners, "it looks like this area is pretty much secure now.  Why don't you boys head back to the station and I'll be along in a minute."

"Yes, Sir!" they replied, all too eager to leave the area, and headed back to their car.

Mary watched them drive off, then turned to the teens.

"As for you two..." she started to say.

She was interrupted, however, by her brother's voice on Zeke's radio.

"This is Houston, calling Dallas.  Do you copy?"

Zeke motioned for her to wait, as he picked up the radio.

"Dallas here." he responded.

"What's your situation, Dallas?"

"Situation is... well, I believe there's someone else here you should talk to."

Zeke handed the radio to Mary; who took it with a smile.

"Harry!" she said, "Long time, no hear.  How are you, bro?"

"...Mary?  Is that you?"

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To be Continued