Chapter 2

X X X

The kids laughed hysterically at the now-egg-splattered car that passed by their house, little noticing Zeke approaching them with his hands behind his back.

"Hello, kiddies." he said, "Remember me?"

The kids stopped laughing and stared back at him.

"Well, I remember you. And I've got a little something for you. Something I like to call... PAYBACK!"

With that, Zeke whipped out the water guns from behind his back and began spraying the kids like crazy. But to his surprise, the kids reacted very differently than how he expected. Instead of just holding up their hands in a futile effort to block the water, or trying to get away from it, they shrieked with pain and fell to the ground in agony. They began to cry things like, "It burns!" or "The pain!"

Zeke stared at them for a while, then laughed and continued his assault.

"Oh, don't be such big babies!" he said, "It's only-..."

Then one by one, the kids dissolved away into green pools of slime.

"...water?"

Zeke stared back in shock, unable to believe what had just happened. He ran back to the bush; where he had hidden the shopping bag with the two water bottles inside.

'What the heck kind of water was that?' he thought, as he picked up one of the bottles and looked it over carefully.

Then he was awestruck to find the words 'Holy Water' imprinted on the bottle.

"Holy water? How did that... oh my God..."

After spending a few seconds taking in everything that had just happened, Zeke quickly put his water guns in the bag and ran home with it as fast as he could. Soon after he'd disappeared, a car pulled into the driveway.

"That was a wonderful vacation, dear." the woman in the car told her husband.

"Can we do it again, Daddy?" a little girl in the back asked.

"We'll see, honey." her father replied.

As they got out of the car and started to unpack, the woman screamed and pointed at their lawn. Her husband looked.

"Eww!" he cried, grimacing, "Who poured all this green... goo all over our lawn?"

X X X

"...I should be there in half an hour, after I... take care of something real quick." Zeke's voice on Julie's phone said, "Okay, bye."

Julie sighed.

"Burgerland again. Why am I not surprised?"

Shrugging, Julie began typing a text response.

'Hey Zeke,' she typed, 'got your message. I'll be there soon.'

After sending the message, Julie pocketed her phone and picked up her shoes; which she put on. Then she put on her red cap and purple jacket, and started to walk out her door. But she stopped after putting her hands in her jacket pockets, and feeling a piece of paper in one of them. It was a letter she had written for Zeke, after her friends had started telling her that she should break up with him. She was reluctant to do so, given that they had been friends for so long, but eventually started to think that maybe her friends were right.

Julie pulled out the letter and looked it over, doing her best to memorize the words she had written. Then she sighed again, as she stuffed the letter back into her pocket..

"I'm sorry, Zeke. I hope you'll understand."

X X X

Zeke paced back and forth in his room, still unable to believe what he had just done.

"Holy water... killed those kids... but how? And... just what exactly were those... things... anyway?"

The more Zeke thought about it, the more it disturbed him.

"I gotta take my mind off this, somehow, before I go stir crazy!"

He looked around his room, until he noticed a stack of 3D comics that he had purchased yesterday.

"Yeah. That'll work."

Zeke opened his top drawer and pulled out his 3D glasses; which he put on, and then took out one of the comic books. He lay down on his bed and started reading. But he hadn't gotten far, when the sounds of screaming came down the street. Zeke sighed. Noisy neighbors were just what he needed right now. He walked over to the front door, still wearing his glasses, and opened the door to see what was going on. He was soon shocked to see people running down the street in terror. What was even more shocking, however, was what they were running from: a crowd of pale-skinned people with torn old clothing on and messy hair, shambling down the street after them.

"What... in the...?" Zeke cried out.

One of them suddenly turned his way, then pointed at him and moaned out loud. In that person's eyes, there was a big T-bone steak standing in the doorway. A few other monstrosities in the crowd turned to face the "steak" and started moving his way. Zeke quickly slammed the door shut and propped himself against it, panting heavily.

"Oh, man!" he cried, "Those punks down the street... whatever they were... were bad enough, but now there are... ZOMBIES in the neighborhood? NOT cool!"

Suddenly, Zeke thought about the stranger he had met earlier that day, and what the stranger had said to him.

"Take these. Use the water inside them to load your water guns. Only then will you be able to deal with those troublesome whelps, and face the horrors that will come later."

"...the guns!"

Zeke ran to his bedroom and grabbed his water guns, shaking them to make sure they still had some of the water in them. Then he ran to the front door, tucking one water gun under his arm and grasping the door handle with his free hand. Peering through the small scope on the door, he could see one zombie approaching the doorstep with five others not too far behind.

'Well, here goes nothing.' he thought, as he pulled the door open.

Zeke pointed one of his weapons at the closest zombie and fired a stream of holy water at it. Sure enough, upon the water's impact, the zombie collapsed into a pile of body parts and grew silent. Zeke stared at its remains for a brief moment, then smiled and began firing both guns at the mob of zombies until they all succumbed to his onslaught.

"Cool!" he shouted, "Look out, zombies! There's a new Sheriff in town!"

Zeke closed the door behind him and started making his way down the street, blasting zombie after zombie with his squirt guns. As he came near a car parked by the sidewalk, he realized he was still wearing his 3D glasses.

"Hmm... I suppose I can take these off now." he muttered, as he started to remove them.

But after noticing his reflection in the car window, he stopped and lowered them back into place. Then he smiled.

"Actually... I look pretty cool like this. Maybe I should keep 'em on."

That's when Zeke heard a scream nearby. He looked over to see a woman being chased by a zombie; who was slowly gaining on her.

"Don't come!" she cried, "Don't come!"

'...Don't come!' Zeke thought, 'Really, lady?'

Zeke quickly dispatched the zombie and the woman stopped to catch her breath, staring back amazement. Then she suddenly pointed in another direction and said, "Please help him!" When Zeke turned in that direction, he saw a man pinned against a car with two zombies coming his way.

"Don't kill me!" the man cried, "No! Nooo!"

But two streams of holy water later, and the zombies were reduced to piles of body parts.

"I... I don't know how you did that... but thanks!"

"Sure thing." Zeke replied.

"Oh, and thanks for saving my girlfriend too." the man added, as he ran up to the woman and the two of them shared a hug.

"Girlfriend... oh my God, Julie!"

Zeke whipped out his phone to check for a new message from her. Sure enough, there was her text message.

"Crap!" Zeke cried, "I totally forgot! Again! No wonder she was supposedly thinking of breaking up with me. I better get to Burgerland and see if she's okay. And while I'm at it, maybe see if I can still grab a burger. I forgot I was hungry too. ...Gonna stop talking to myself now."

X X X

To be Continued