While I waited for the ghouls to set up the perimeter I went to the trunk of the Catalina and went into the “Lock and Load” routine. I took two double-barreled 12-gauge shotguns. One was sawed off, the other wasn’t: for long- and short-range blasts. I also loaded up my .45 and a .44 Magnum. I finished by weighing down with ammo attached to two ammo belts. I looked like a complete asshole.

After a bit longer than I would have liked I got calls from ghouls all around the outskirts of Mendez. The containment perimeter was in place. They were meeting resistance in the form of lumbering flesh-eaters. I told them to take them out, remove the heads if possible, and just make sure they didn’t get past them.

Now it was my turn. I had to get in there and figure out how this thing had happened. There are a number of ways zombies are created, ranging from the intentional creation like voodoo and all that crap, to accidental like what went down with radiation, in Pittsburgh, back in the late sixties. Once I found the reason, I could figure out the cure, if there was one. If there wasn’t a cure, then we had a lot of heads to blow off.

I drove down the main road into town, passing one partially devoured body and a “Welcome to Mendez” sign. I stopped the car and got out right after the sign. If there’s one place you don’t want to be in a zombie outbreak, it’s in a confined space. I stood a much better chance on the streets.

At first I didn’t see much, just a bunch of small-town, redneck bullshit like a bingo/square-dancing hall, a seed store, and a diner that looked like it hadn’t been painted in . . . well, ever.

I came across a few more bodies scattered around the streets. One looked like the local law. He wore a tan sheriff’s uniform. His head had been completely pulled off. It was lying in the street, most of the flesh ripped right off the skull. There was another corpse outside the diner, a woman and a small headless shape next to her. Her kid, I assumed.

On the streets I saw drag marks of blood, as well as drag marks made from shoes. That accounted for the lack of bodies. The zombies, wherever the fuck they were, had probably dragged the bodies off to a nice shady spot to eat.

“Hello!” I yelled. “Helloooooo!”