Life After the Undead (Completed)

PART 2: A.K.A The House of Death .1

Melissa's P.O.V.

The Shady House, was a mansion. Three floored, not including the basement, it had originally been made of white stone, but had been metal plated at some point from the walls to the roof to all the doors. There were reinforced steel shutters on the windows that clamped down when there was an external threat, a ten foot wall with a topping of barbed wire around the perimeter and just beyond that wall, a freaking moat.

And as if that wasn't enough, the moat had spikes waiting just under the surface and there were trigger plates under the turf that shot up and electrocuted you upon Evelyn's command.

The backyard had been turned into a zombie haven. There was a small wooden shed to the back of the lot where Evelyn kept her victims and the slop she fed her captive zombies. Not ten feet from that was a compound, a large metal shed that held the zombies. From in there they could get to the cages. An L-shaped, underground labyrinth that Evelyn had them run through at least once or twice a week, where Evelyn would watch from the surface through the bars that made the ceiling.

Luckily, I had been watching Evelyn long enough to have comprised a safe way to get in. After Evelyn had gone over her draw bridge, being sure to lift it up so no one else could get through she went straight inside. I could see her limping and saw what looked like a blood leaking from her shoulder. That meant she would have to do first aid on herself. That would take time

Luckily, someone had been stupid enough to get impaled on Evelyn's spikes as they were jumping down from the wall and I regretfully knew what was going to happen to that person. But that was my advantage.

I had to wait an hour, but sure enough the water began to bubble as the spikes lowered and the body became free. Evelyn came out of her house in a yellow raincoat with matching yellow boots. She hummed to herself, carrying a massive shepherd crook and went immediately to fishing the body to the side. The limp she had previously vanished from her though she was favouring her shoulder. Pretty much definitive proof that Evelyn had pain killer on site.

Then came the difficult part, Evelyn dragged the body all the way over to the cage opening and then rolled it in. She shut the opening and skipped off to her shed and I leapt into action. I started by throwing my jacket over the barbed wires and then scaling the wall. The spikes under the water were lower but that didn't mean I could jump down. So I lowered myself into the murky grey water and swam carefully to the other side, holding my shotgun out of the water.

When I got to the other side I hoisted myself out and ran straight to the small shed. Shotgun loaded and cocked I waited for the door to open and when it did I pointed the gun right into Evelyn's face.

Evelyn blinked her big eyes at the gun and then to me and then back to the gun. She sighed deeply before saying: "Wow, you're persistent."

I shook my head. "There's no way you knew I was following you," she snapped.

"Why not?" she asked. "You're pretty loud. Not to mention you haven't been blending in well. Zombies don't hide in shadows, but you do. Not to mention that cologne you're wearing. Men's wear, I'm guessing it reminds you of a lost loved one, or maybe it's the only thing that could mask your smell."

"Shut up," I growl with my cheeks flamed crimson. She was lying she had to be.

Evelyn was not silent though. "So you've been following me for three months and now you're here. What do you want?"

"Everything," I barked. "I want to know how your house works, and why zombies are scared of you. I want your job, your client list and then when I'm done I'm going to kill you."

Evelyn took all of this in. She nodded to me careful and then her lips twitched back and forth. "Is that all?" she asked after a moment.

I pushed the barrel of the shotgun into her stomach. "This isn't a joke."

If Evelyn was afraid, she showed no sign of it. "I'm aware of that. Anyways, the way to get the house is to know the password, but since I won't tell you the password you can just use the reset button. Well it's not exactly a reset button it's more of a toggle, but reset toggle just doesn't sound right. Reset toggle, reset toggle, reset toggle, see, doesn't sound right."

"Oh my god! You talk so much!" I whined.

"Do I? I've never really noticed. Then again I only have myself to talk to, and sometimes Steve, but he's more the strong and silent type, and he's never complained. Doesn't really answer me back either," she said continuing on her tirade.

"Steve?" I asked, it wasn't the first time I had heard that name. I had heard that early that day.

"One of my friends," she said quickly. "He'll be the first to come looking after you dispatch me, and you won't want him angry. Steve isn't nice when he's angry."

"I'll take my chances. Now where is that reset button?"

"Hmm? Oh, the toggle. Right, yeah that's just on the back wall in the shed, you can go right on in and see it if you'd like," she said moving back so I could go past her.

"Yeah right, you first," I snapped pushing at her with the barrel of the shotgun. She shrugged but went in first.

"You know, most people don't get this far," she said, leading me into the dark shed. It took a while to get my eyes adjusted to the light.

The small 8 foot by 8 foot shed was lined with gruesome tools and blood spatters. Shackles hung on the wall to my left and on the back wall there wasn't a toggle, but instead stood a marble, brown stained tub. I didn't have to look over the edge to know that the brown stains were blood and that the bloody slop she fed her zombies was held in that tub to putrefy into a soggy melted flesh smoothie.

I was trying not to vomit, the stench of rotting was nothing like I had ever smelled before. It burned my nose, it brought bile to my mouth, it made my hands shake terribly to the point where the gun was drooping in my hands.

"But, you know out of every single person who made it this far, they all made the same mistake," Evelyn continued.

I couldn't hold it back anymore. I put a hand to my nose to block out the smell. "And what was that?" I snarled, wondering why I was indulging her.

"No one ever checks to make sure I'm not armed."

Then, in a whirlwind of yellow, with a quickness I should have expected, Evelyn had turned around, pressing the tazer she had concealed god knows where to my side. I had no chance to block, no chance to stop her, I had a million volts running through me before I could.

I collapsed to the ground twitching and spasming waiting for the electricity to leave me. Evelyn knelt down beside me, a mocking smirk on that childish face of hers. I would have smacked it off of her if I was twitching so hard.

"And here I was thinking you were going to be more fun," she said with a pout on her pink lips. "Never mind. Let's get you checked into Hotel Dismemberment. I'll let that pretty little head of yours clear for a bit and when you're ready I'll cut your insides out and feed you to my zombies. There's always a live prize for them at the end of the maze, you know. Motivates them."

I had always prided myself on being strong, but even in this moment, when I needed that adrenaline fueled strength, it betrayed me. I found myself falling into the darkness and the stench and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it.