Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies (10 page)

Jax waited for them a few yards away surrounded by the cloud trees. “Go back down,” he whispered.

“Jax–”

He silenced her with a raised hand. “Please, go. Chop the beanstalk down when you get to the bottom.” In a heartbeat he was next to her, his lips on hers delivering passion, hunger and a hint of regret. “I’ll always love you. Now go.”

He shoved her away, toward the beanstalk poking out of the cloud then spun around, his attention focused on the castle. Tension hardened every muscle in his back and down his arms. A Bowie knife hung loose and ready in his fist. He bounced on the balls of his feet as if an attacker were about to come flying at him.

Veronica couldn’t see the danger. A breathy giggle came, from no more than fifteen feet away. Then another, this time deeper. A third giggle sounded from the other direction farther off.

Fear curdled her breakfast, but not enough to dampen her instincts. She withdrew her blade with her right hand and snagged a throwing star with her left. Scanning the perimeter for any movement, she stood in a protective stance ready to guard Antoine, who hadn’t moved away from the beanstalk.

“Oh, my dear, you don’t need to worry about my safety.” He pulled out a small object the size of a hardback book wrapped in a black cloth. In one smooth motion, Antoine drew the cloth away, revealing a small, golden harp.

Relief swept through her, easing the anxiety from her limbs. “That’s brilliant. You’re going to calm them with the music.” But where had the instrument come from? “Wait, when did you get the harp?”

The cheery face framed by a wild mane of white hair hardened. “The harp doesn’t calm them. It’s their dinner bell.”

“What?” she and Jax exclaimed at the same time.

“They’re really quite fast on dreary days like these.” Antoine plucked the strings, awakening the harp.

The song it played started out as a few random notes then quickly grew to a crescendo of chords and melodies loud enough to wake the dead. Or in this case, the undead. “I suggest you two start running. Now.”

Giggling erupted all around them and the cloud shook beneath Veronica’s feet.

Jax grabbed her hand, and they sprinted toward the beanstalk and escape. Zombies appeared from behind every white puffy tree and bush, their deranged giggles closing in on them.

A gray hand, the skin peeling away from a finger bone, curled around Veronica’s hair and yanked her back. Only Jax’s tight grip kept her on her feet.

“Let go of her.” Jax let loose with a roundhouse kick and sent the zombie flying through the air.

The zombie sprang to its feet with the skill and grace of a ninja at the top of his game and lumbered toward her, licking his chops.

Before she had a chance to deflect the attack, Jax slingshotted her the last two feet to the beanstalk. A transparent dome fell down, trapping her within its magical force field walls.

The zombie roared its disapproval, spit spraying from its toothless mouth.

By now a small pack of zombies surrounded Jax. He swung his knife, slashing off their rotting flesh. His frantic movements did little except annoy the zombies, who kept coming, surrounding him. They tore at his clothes and slashed his arms.

Veronica flung a handful of throwing stars at the dome, embedding them in its thick protective barrier. They had no effect on the magic force field. She beat against the thick walls, frantic to reach him before it was too late.

A pack of ten zombies encircled Jax, their giggles making the clear, plexiglass force field walls vibrate. The dome magnified the high-pitched cackling to a near deafening-level. Involuntarily, she clapped her hands over her ears and fell to her knees, unable to move under the weight of the insidious cacophony.

Jax pulled another knife from the sheath on his back. The wicked blade, adorned with ancient Celtic swirls, gleamed even in the gathering gloom. Swinging it like an ancient Scottish claymore, he sliced off the heads of three zombies in one fluid movement. Their bodies crumpled to the cloud ground, disappearing in the white fluff.

Taking advantage of the zombies’ momentary shock, Jax pivoted and took off in the cloud trees, bolting away from the beanstalk and safety. Just as she was sure he had planned, the zombies trotted after him, the rotting flesh on their shoulders shaking with mirth.

Panic squeezed her lungs tight and blood rushed in her ears as she searched for any sign of movement. Any hint Jax was still out there fighting. She peered frantically from one clump of white to another without ever sighting his warm brown skin or black hair. The world threatened to fall in on her. He couldn’t die. Dammit, she wouldn’t let him.

Fire burned in her belly as she turned to her former mentor, raising her sword to the perfect angle to decapitate him. “Remove the dome, Antoine. I have to help him.”

Quick as a rabbit, he skittered out of reach.

He slipped a hand inside his jacket and withdrew a long-barreled silver gun and fired.

The bullet burrowed through the arm holding her sword.

“Don’t worry, they won’t eat him, at least not right away.” Antoine skirted around the beanstalk until it stood between them. “First, they’ll tie him up in the kitchen until the moon rises. Then, they’ll gobble him up and clean between their rotting teeth with his bones. You were right on that point.”

Pain blossomed outward from her arm. The fast-flowing stream of blood soaked her shirt and turned the white cloud below her scarlet. “Oh my God, this isn’t the first time you’ve done this.”

“Of course not. How do you think I financed my expeditions? You know firsthand how financially risky owning a treasure hunting business can be. Luckily for me, I found Sir Cravish’s journal and learned of the riches hidden away among the clouds. Every time I come up here, the couple with me has to pay the toll. The zombies don’t live off air. They require brains seeped in oxytocin at levels only experienced by those who are in love. I supply them with sustenance and they return the favor with gold.”

A neon blue laser light blinked on Antoine’s watch. It hadn’t done that before. He must be controlling the force field with the watch. If she could just get him to get within reach of her good arm, she could swipe the band off his wrist, disable the dome and go after Jax.

Antoine couldn’t resist telling a story, she just had to get him talking and then she’d have him. “How could you?”

“I have to admit, with the others it was easy. The hard part was finding two people who truly loved each other. But when I found out the bank was foreclosing on my shop because the Ponzi scheme left me unable to pay the mortgage, I knew I had nothing left to lose. I’ve spent sixty-eight years on this earth and I deserve to spend my golden years reclining on a beautiful, sunny beach. So, I didn’t have time to search for a couple in love. I had no choice, really, but to convince you and Jax to come.”

He strolled nearer, preening as he closed the distance between them.

Keep coming, old man. She just needed him a little closer. “And the story of one last adventure for a dying man?”

“Oh it’s definitely my last grand exploration in the cloud country, but I have many years–if not decades–ahead of me to enjoy the fruits. I’ve spent my life groveling for the mystical scraps, ignored by the academic journals and the large treasure hunting companies. I deserve this.”

“You bastard.”

Just outside her reach, he stopped and narrowed those icy blue eyes at her. “Come back to me when the world has taken away your love and your livelihood and then see if you can label me as the bastard.”

Veronica gathered the last bits of her strength and leaped at him.

Antoine sidestepped her attack and fired the gun at point blank range.

The impact sent her flying backward, and oblivion blackened her vision.

Chapter 11

A wet splash hit Veronica right between the eyes. Gasping for breath, she whipped up into a sitting position, agony exploding in her chest. Her hand went to the pain’s epicenter in front of her heart. She pulled her scarab beetle from the pocket. It clasped a small lead ball that hadn’t been there before in its golden arms.

Another huge drop of rain hit her shoulder, and she realized the force field dome had disappeared and so had Antoine. The beanstalk’s tip shook. Crawling closer to investigate, she spotted him making his way slowly down the vines. The temptation to grab the stalk with both hands and shake until he went flying into oblivion hit her like a Mack truck, but she had more important things to do.

After giving the lucky bug a quick peck, she slid it back home. Her breastbone throbbed, but she was breathing. Now to find Jax and make sure he stayed alive too.

She grabbed a pinch of pixie dust from a pocket on her tool belt and sprinkled it on the hole in her upper arm. It burned like a bitch and smelled like she’d just fallen into a vat of sulphur, but it did the job. By the time she’d risen to her feet and plucked her sword off the ground, the wound had vanished. Only the dime-sized hole in her jumpsuit remained as a reminder of Antoine’s betrayal.

A zombie giggle blasted through the silence, and she charged toward the sound. If there were zombies, she’d bet her last Pegasus feather there’d be Jax. Bounding through the cloud trees, she dodged mammoth raindrops and ducked below low-lying branches.

She found him on the other side of a particularly massive cloud tree. Relief rushed through her like a tornado in Kansas, sweeping away the fear and panic.

Then she noticed the blood. Not a lot, but a steady flow from his left arm, which dangled at an awkward angle at his side.

His back was to her as he faced off against the hungry mob getting ready to rush him.

The zombies lifted their faces to the dripping sky, noses twitching in response to the metallic scent of fresh blood. There had to be fifty of them, all starving for their long-denied meal, judging by the way their fat tongues rolled from their open mouths.

A short one in front giggled, the sound transforming into a low, ugly cackle.

Terror jabbed her heart, spreading in waves across her skin and immobilizing her.

The skies really opened up then. As the rain pelted the zombies, their limbs expanded. Their torsos elongated and widened with breathtaking speed. The short one now stood sixteen feet tall. His glassy eyes locked on Jax, and the zombie smiled, revealing pointed teeth as sharp as talons–perfect to sheer flesh from bone and crack skulls open with one bite.

The horror snapped Veronica out of her daze, and she dashed the last ten yards to Jax. She’d die beside him before she’d leave him to face down a hungry mob of giant-sized zombies.

They stood back to back, knives and swords drawn. Her breath came in short bursts as her heaving lungs tried to replenish the oxygen she’d lost on the sprint here.

“What are you doing?” He hissed over his shoulder.

“Saving your ass.”

“Get down that beanstalk, I don’t need your help.”

She scoped out the gathering horde encircling them. “Sure you don’t.”

“You’re a real pain in my butt.”

“Yeah, I love you too.” She swiped one of the three throwing stars she had left out of her tool belt. “Now, let’s do this.”

She flung one of the razor-sharp weapon at a zombie leading the charge on her side. It whizzed through the air, connecting near his jugular. The metal ripped through the sinew and bone in his neck. His head bobbled for a second then rolled down his body, landing with a thump on the cloud ground.

The carnage transfixed the zombies as they stared down at their fallen brother. Then, a roar went up in the back and the entire legion barreled toward them.

Everything from that point on became a blur of metal clanging against bone and the pin-point teeth gnashing together.

Veronica sank her sword through the eye of one zombie as it bent to take a bite from her shoulder. As she exhaled, she pulled the blade free, swung it around and connected with the midsection of another. Putrid organs and intestines spilled out of the gash. She was holding her own against the massive beasts, but for every one she dispatched, another two joined the throng.

“We have to start moving toward the beanstalk!” she hollered.

“You lead, I’ll follow.”

“On my count.” She fired off another throwing star, and three of the five blades embedded themselves in a zombie’s forehead.