“Can we have a dog?” she asked. “And not one of those annoying yappy dogs. Hannah Foley has a Chinese Crested dog that doesn’t have any hair, and it looks like the little guy who hangs out of Jabba the Hutt’s ceiling. I don’t want one of those. I wouldn’t be able to take it for walks without being embarrassed for it.”

Her dad frowned. “You’ve seen Star Wars? When did you see Star Wars? I’ve been trying to get you to watch it for years.”

Valkyrie hesitated. Tanith had made her sit down and watch the movies over the course of one weekend. It had been an educational experience.

“I like the lightsabres,” she said.

“We’re not getting a dog,” her mother told her, bringing the conversation back to where it started.

“We can’t get a cat,” Valkyrie argued. “They don’t do anything except plot against you and multiply like Gremlins.”

“We’re not getting a cat either.”

“Can we get a snake?”

“No.”

“Please? I can keep it in my room and I’ll feed it mice and things and I won’t kill it.”

“No snakes, no hamsters, no rats, no guinea pigs.”

Valkyrie smiled hopefully. “A horse?”

“How about something a little smaller?” her dad said. “Like, I don’t know, a brother or a sister?”

Valkyrie looked at them. “What?”

Her mother’s smile widened. “I’m pregnant, sweetheart.”

It took a moment, and when that moment was over, Valkyrie found herself leaping across the room and hugging her mother and screaming “Oh my God!” over and over. Then she thought that she might damage the baby, so she jumped back and leaped for her father and hugged him, and he laughed.

And later, in her room, tears came to her eyes when she thought of what kind of danger this child would be born into.

20 THE ZOMBIE HORDE

20
THE ZOMBIE HORDE

T here is a very particular process one goes through to become a zombie. Scapegrace didn’t go through it because he was raised from the dead by magic, but after a little bit of trial and error he finally figured out what the process entailed. The person he was recruiting needed to be bitten while still alive, so that the infection had time to spread through the system. Scapegrace was hesitant to bite at first, as he was worried how it might look. He had initially planned to just go after attractive females, but quickly realised that this wouldn’t be too time-efficient.