THE ZOMBIE PLAYGROUND

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Holy shit,” Brin said.

“Holy crap!” Ash shouted.

They both jumped up and held onto each other as the panic began and screams started escaping from hundreds of mouths. Lavender chewed the grandmother’s nose clean off her face and then started ravaging the dangling cartilage underneath the old woman’s chin.

“Oh my God,” Ash said. “It’s happened. She’s turned into a vampire!”

Brin shook her head. “I’m not sure if that’s what she’s turning into—”

A large male figure bumped hard into Brin, knocking her down to the grass. Another person stepped on her back and started running for the parking lot.

“Oww!”

“Brin!” Ash shouted, grabbing for her hands, but another person stepped toward her. Ash turned around and slugged the guy in the face. “Step around, you asshole! Step around!”

The guy did, and Ash was able to pull Brin up to her feet.

“Are you OK?”         

“I’m fine,” Brin said. “We need to get out of here.”

They turned to their left to see the funeral goers charging toward their cars in the parking lot and on the street. It was going to be chaos trying to get past all these people.

“Let’s go this way,” Ash said, pulling Brin the opposite direction of everyone else.

Brin turned back to the stage. The grandmother had fallen to her side, while four others were pulling the homicidal Lavender off the stage. Her eyes wide with fury and her mouth dripping blood, Lavender was chewing through a fatty chunk of the old lady’s dry skin.

“That’s disgusting,” Brin said.

“It’s nothing we haven’t seen before,” Ash said with a nonchalant shrug.

“Where’s Anaya?” Brin looked back toward the parking lot. She couldn’t see the big girl anywhere in sight.

“Who cares? Is she like your friend now or something?”

“I don’t know. But I think—”

Before Brin could finish her sentence, Anaya appeared to the left of the stage, and started running toward the two of them. “Oh my God! Are you guys all right?”

“Yeah,” Brin said. “I got stomped on, but I’ll survive.”

“Can you believe what just happened? Lavender… turning into one of them?”

“I know.”

“Does that mean she’s gonna die?”

Brin sighed, loudly. “I think she’s already dead.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Come on,” Ash said, the only one of the trio who seemed concerned with stepping as far away from the funeral premises as possible.

As they marched toward the other side of the cemetery, Anaya was noticeably fighting away tears. “I just wanted to make a good movie, that’s all I wanted to do. Now everyone around us is dying.”

“Shhh,” Brin said. “It wasn’t your fault. What’s done is done.”

“I just feel so horrible. We started with six. There’s only three of us left. And Dylan could be going to jail for all we know. Brin, you and I could be the last ones—”

“Hey!” Ash said. “I was there, too!”

“Oh God,” Brin said, ignoring Ash’s outburst. “Look.”

She pointed toward the parking lot, where fifty cars, at least, were bottled up together, all with frantic passengers trying to escape the area. Approaching the scene were six cop cars, three ambulances, and even a fire truck.

“This is madness,” Brin said.

“When will it ever end?” Ash said.

“I don’t know.”

“And you have one of those things living at your house!” Anaya shouted. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Hey!” Brin said, stepping away from Anaya as they continued marching across the empty cemetery. “Paul is not just one of those things! He’s different!”

“He’s gonna kill you, Brin. When you least expect it. You have to get rid of him.”

“I would never. He’s kind. He’s… gentle.”

“How do you know he won’t snap? Just like Lavender?”

“He won’t.”

“He’s not human,” Anaya said. “You can’t trust him. You can’t let him live with you, and you can’t let him exist anywhere in this town!”

“That’s not your decision to make, Anaya.”

“His being here in Grisly… it could bring others back. He could bring that clan leader back, that scary dude with the top hat.”

“Droz,” Brin said.

“Whatever. I don’t know about you, Brin, but I’m not ready to die.”

Another scream could be heard from the parking lot, as if Lavender had taken one last bite of human flesh before being whisked away to the nearest insane asylum.

“Let’s keep moving,” Ash said. “You guys are slow pokes.”

“I’m fat,” Anaya said. “And I’m under a lot of stress. Give me a break!”

“Where exactly are you taking us, Ash?” Brin said. “Do you have a plan? What about my car?”

Ash pulled out in front of them and started walking faster, borderline jogging. “I don’t have a plan.”

“Then what are we doing?”

They walked to the top of a large hill, and looked to the bottom. A small group of people stood in the distance.

“Oh my God,” Brin said. “Is that what I think it is?”

“I thought it was happening at the same time,” Ash said. “That’s why I wanted to bring you guys over here. I wanted to see.”

“What is it?” Anaya said, out of breath, her forehead sweating profusely.

Brin sighed and planted her hands against her hips. “It’s another funeral. It’s the funeral for Sawyer.”