Sacred Cows: An Irreverent Zombie Novel by Regn Fraher Bonnie

Author:Regn Fraher, Bonnie [Regn Fraher, Bonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Zombie Apocalypse
Published: 2020-01-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14: Jade

There was no more air left in my balloon. I sat on the boat, deflated, under the evening sky, watching the gibbous moon rise gradually up to the heavens. It gave off a pale silver light, just bright enough to reveal the outlines of old money estates along the far shore. The treelined streets there were patrolled by a handful of well-dressed zombies, their movements so spasmodic that they looked like slapstick comedians bumping into each other in the darkness. Willow branches drowsed in the shadows, housing nests of songbirds gone silent for the night. On a protruding spit of land sat a creaky Dutch windmill that used to be beautiful but was now an eyesore. Someone had defiled it, covered it with graffiti: marijuana leaves, upside-down tulips, and broken silver skates. Who would do a thing like that?

Omar furled the sails and let the current take over, steering the boat slowly past the Connecticut River Museum and its empty wooden dock. The farther south we got, the wider the river became, the greater the distance between the eastern and western shores.

All of a sudden Declan stood up, shaking the boat and wresting me from my sour mood. He pointed excitedly to the center of the river and shouted, “Over there! Land ho! It’s Stringbean Island!”

We’d come upon a long, uninhabited island without any trees, basically just a skinny strip of reedy grasses full of ticks and spiders. “There’s nothing here,” said Nina.

“Exactly,” said Omar as he dropped the anchor. “There’s nothing here―no people, no Dead. This is where we’ll spend the night.”

No one challenged that idea; we were all so spent from the day’s activities. A collective yawn passed among us like an ocean wave, making a few rounds before ebbing and fading. The five of us were tired, but not quite tired enough to sleep. We needed time to wind down, so I brought some cushions up from the cabin and arranged them on the deck. We lounged in the stern, noshing on junk food, seeing Sweetums swat at fireflies, and listening to the drone of zombies on the distant banks. I watched with interest as Dorcas picked up a spool of white cotton string and deftly started tying it into a whole slew of knots.

“What are you up to?” I asked him.

“I’m making me a fishing net.”

“What’ll you use as bait?”

“This.” He pressed a handful of greasy pork rinds into the net, dropped it, and waited. “Fish have a hankering for storebought food.”

I was skeptical, but within ten minutes there was a tug. He cinched the net closed and wrestled a fish onto the deck, causing quite a commotion. By the time he was finished that night, he’d caught one mystery fish and three fat carp. He released all but one, which he clobbered on the head, cleaned with a knife, and fed to Sweetums. Omar clapped his hands. “Bravo!”

Declan cried, “Brilliant!”

A wide smile graced Dorcas’s scraggly blonde beard at the compliments he received from everyone.

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