When the Zombies Come -- a Cottoneye Decadynasty (COMPLETED)

[MarianT]

Chapter Six – Bunker Babies, pt. 2

   From the journal of Constance Shelley: 

   I’m pregnant again. I don’t know where I found time for that to happen, as Orion and the book have been keeping me pretty busy. I finished my first novel – Prometheus, a horror story. Now I’m working on a book of poetry – Paramilitary Love.



   I’m concerned about Hunter. When he’s not fishing, he keeps checking the fence and inspecting the pea-shooters. He won’t go into town at all now; the farthest he’ll go is down to the river to fish. I almost wish the zombies would show up – no, scratch that. The reports from Moonlight Falls are very scary. The other day, I went to see the gypsy fortuneteller, to ask about Hunter. My fortune was pretty generic. She suggested I could get something more specific if I paid a little extra, but I couldn’t afford that.



   I’m also concerned about Orion. He doesn’t like his room, and who could blame him? It looks like a prison cell.



   I tried talking to Hunter about it. “Maybe some windows would help,” I said.

   “A wall isn’t any stronger than its weakest point, and that’s usually a window,” he countered. “Besides, if you have a window, people can look in.”

   “Well, we need one for ventilation, if nothing else,” I reminded him.



   We compromised on two very small windows high above eye level.

   I will say that Hunter’s been very good about helping out with Orion. Once I finished teaching him how to walk, he took over with the talking department.



   It’s been fun eavesdropping on their conversations:

   “Now, as soon as you say bottle, I’ll give you a bottle. Okay? Bottle…C’mon, son, bottle – I know you’re hungry. Bottle. Repeat after me, ‘Bottle.’”



   “Constellation. You know, there’s a constellation with your name – Orion the Hunter. Can you say constellation?”

   “Orion!”

   “Okay, maybe constellation is too hard. How about stars? You can see the stars at night, and there are other planets that revolve around them. Aliens live on those planets, and someday – maybe when you’re a grandfather – aliens will come here. I know this is going to happen, but if I told people, they’d just laugh at me and ask about the zombies. Anyway, can you say stars?”

   “Orion!”



   And of course, Orion still enjoys being a dive bomber.



   Well, we have a little girl now. I went out to pay the bills (always a moment of suspense – we had to sell the TV set last time) and went into labor.



   Without Hunter screaming at me, it went pretty quickly. I named her Hope, partly because that’s a quality we need, and partly because Hunter and I have always admired Hope Carpenter-Rhodes.



   After Hope was born, Hunter decided to make good on his promise to get some therapy. The woman he saw told him not to aim for a complete personality change, but to decide which traits he could live without. He chose not to be mean-spirited and a loner anymore. To replace them he picked loving the outdoors and becoming a skillful gatherer. I’d kind of been hoping for “great kisser” and “proper,” but I guess he does all right in the romance department already.   


   
   I picked up my tablet the other day and found a message from the Watcher:

“Constance, it’s imperative that Orion get on the honor roll in school, so you need to be able to tutor him. Work on those logic skills! I’ll give him a checklist when he gets to be a teen. Other that, just make sure he stays healthy and happy.”

   We’re working on it.

[MarianT]

Chapter Seven – Scary Things

   Up till now Hunter Cottoneye would have said there was nothing he was scared of. He hated being laughed at, but it didn’t scare him, and he’d make darned sure the person never laughed again. He’d never been scared of any of the fish he’d caught. Piranhas? No problem. Sharks? Easy peasy. Big tuna? Nope.



   Even the zombies didn’t phase him. He found them disgusting, and it made him angry when they ate his plants, but they didn’t scare him.



   Then one day, he discovered something that terrified him.



   “Hunter, she’s not going to bite.”



   “But what if I drop her? What if she squirms, and I end up breaking her ribs when I try to keep from dropping her? I think I’d better just put her back in her swing.”

   “You tossed Orion around like a beach ball, and it never bothered you.”

   “Yeah, well, that was different.”



   Orion finished learning everything from his pegboard and xylophone, so he got to play in the toy bin. “Monster!” he crowed happily.

   “No, honey, I think that’s a dragon,” Constance corrected.

   “Monster!” he repeated.



   There was one thing Hunter had always wanted – a tattoo. For a long time Riverview had not had a tattooist, and then he hadn’t been able to afford one. But today, Constance had given him the go-ahead sign, and it didn’t cost as much as he’d feared.

   “I’m looking for something that says ‘I love my country; I love the outdoors; I love my family; and I’ll tear to pieces anyone who even thinks about hurting any of them,’” he explained to Shana, the tattoo artist.



   Hunter considered a bright goldfish, but rejected it as too tame. The eagle looked fierce enough, however.



   “Ow! Ow! Owowowowowow! OW!” Hunter shouted. But he wasn’t scared. In pain, yes, but not scared.



        Evening came quickly when there was a full moon. Hope was playing with her teddy bear when Constance felt a sudden cold chill.



She hurried outside and picked her up. Was that an ominous rustle she heard from the front of the house?



   A patch of lawn started to glow blue, and Constance whisked Hope inside.



   Hunter was catching up on his sleep, and Constance didn’t want to wake him. She knew if he were awake, he would want to go outside and fight the zombies. Everyone said that was the worst thing you could do. “Stay put,” the guidelines said. “Lock the doors. Let the pea-shooters do their work. Avoid the zombies.” Hunter had never avoided anything dangerous in his life.



   Constance waited tensely until she heard the pea-shooter firing. The zombie had been eliminated.



   That should have been the end of an exhausting evening. Constance was certainly ready to call it a day, but it was time for Orion to have his birthday. “You and me are going to have to have a talk, son” Hunter commented.



   Constance left them to it and went to bed, but a little while later Orion came and woke her up. “I can’t sleep, Mommy,” he complained. “There’s a monster in my room!”

   “It’s only your toy dragon,” murmured Constance, but she got up and went to his room so he could sleep in her bed.

   Ten seconds after that (or so it seemed to Constance), Hunter came and got her up. “Orion won’t sleep in our bed,” he said. “He says there’s a monster underneath it.”

   “We should never have let him have birthday cake so late,” said Constance, but she got up (again) and staggered back downstairs. Luckily, Orion was sleepy enough to get in bed without examining the room for monsters this time.

   Constance woke up suddenly a third time. “Where’s Hope?” she asked, panic-stricken.

   “I read her to sleep,” said Hunter. “Relax.”



   So Constance did. Scary things, children.

[Pam]

You are doing a great job with this story, Marian.  I'm loving it.  Also, Constance needs some stockings with her sleeping outfit. 

[MarianT]

Fishnet, perhaps? This really made me laugh.

[MarianT]

Chapter Eight – Mixed Messages

   As soon as they had enough money, Hunter built a secure area for the children to play in. Constance claimed that they needed to have grass under their feet, and he guessed that made sense. It was hard to find a fishing hole surrounded by asphalt.



   Orion was interested in painting, so Hunter added an easel for him. Constance thought it should be out in the open if he was going to become a plein air painter, but Hunter didn’t think that was safe. They argued about it, but not much.



   Orion loved dressing up as a T-rex. For one thing, it was a monster, and Orion didn’t feel quite so scared of monsters if he was dressed as one. For another, the costume was lime green, and that was his favorite color.

   “Rawrr!” he shouted. “I come to eat you!”



   “You leave your little sister alone!” Constance scolded.

   “Honey, she’s giggling,” said Hunter. “She knows he’s not going to hurt her.”

   Orion liked getting up very early in the morning. After eating breakfast, he’d go outside and play in the sandbox (one day he found a shower-in-a-can) or ride on the rocket, or work on his painting. One morning, he came down the stairs and saw a zombie.



   He ran right back upstairs, but then he stopped. The zombie stood between him and everything he liked to do. He could sit and play on the computer until the sun came up, but that seemed too tame. Suddenly he had an idea. He’d dress up as a T-rex and scare the zombie away. The zombie was not very bright, so Orion was able to slip through the gate and work on his painting.



   Later that morning, they had some cake to celebrate Hope’s birthday. She was a big girl now, and would be starting school soon.



   After she blew out the candles, Constance noticed that Orion was in his T-rex costume rather than dressed for school. Excited, he told everyone about the zombie.

   “You did what?” exclaimed Constance. “Don’t ever do that again!”

   Hunter high-fived him and said, “Way to go, son!” They were still arguing when Orion left for school and Hope left for her painting lesson.

(Here’s Hope in her everyday outfit.)



   Constance worked on her book for a while, and then stopped for a minute. Hunter had gone into the bathroom some time ago, and she had heard the toilet flush, but he hadn’t come out.

   “Hunter, are you all right?” she called.

   “I’m fine,” he called back. “Just thinking, that’s all.”


 
         Durn zombies – he’d thought there wouldn’t be any despite the full moon because they hadn’t shown up by midnight when he’d gone to bed. Everybody said that children were safe from zombies, but what if everybody had been wrong? It was enough to make his blood run cold. “Watcher, I’ve got the pea-shooters, I’ve put up the fence, what else can I do?”

        The Watcher whispered a word, “Alchemy.”

        That didn’t sound like Hunter’s thing at all, but if it was what the Watcher recommended, he’d try it. Thinking of the potions he made as hand grenades seemed to help.



   “Hello, I’m Orion Cottoneye. This is a picture of my mom and dad.



We went on a field trip to the police station today, and it was really cool, so I’m going to become a policeman when I grow up. That'll make my dad happy. And I'm going to paint, so my mom will be happy, too.



Oh, I made the honor roll, too. O.C., over and out.”

[saltpastillen]

Only Hunter would be safer thinking of somethings as hand grenades.

I so love your chapter Scary Things. It's just brilliant!

[SimBlip]

Wow! First Zombies I've seen and I'm impressed.
It's a little scary to think that one breached the perimeters and met Orion.
Great updates!

[MarianT]

Chapter Nine – Growing Older

From the diary of Constance Cottoneye:

   I didn’t expect to have a mid-life crisis. I didn’t believe in mid-life crises, but then I got older, and all of a sudden I feel restless and melancholy. One day I woke up wanting an expensive car (which we can’t afford); the next day I wanted a divorce. I didn’t act on that wish, either. I did decide to change my hairstyle, however.



   If I finish this book, I may also have enough money to re-decorate the house. It’s frustrating, however. This will be my fourth book, and my third book of poetry. The previous ones were Paramilitary Love and Dreams on a Summer Breeze. This one is Iambic Platitudes. My publisher comes up with the titles; I don’t, except for Paramilitary Love.



   Hunter has achieve his lifetime wish of having 13 perfect fish. He was invited to speak about fishing to a group of businessmen who were headed off to the ocean. I wish he’d worn his suit – Hunter almost always wears his suit when he goes fishing. Instead he wore his exercise clothes.



   Orion is developing quite a distinctive style as a painter. This is his picture of the monster that he finished shortly before his birthday.



   He’s a teenager now, and starting to think about girls. I hope he can find someone other than a newspaper deliverer. We had a family party for him the other day.



   I think he’s turned out to be quite good-looking, except for a somewhat worried look on his face. I guess that’s the result of being neurotic but brave, and a neat workaholic. This is his everyday outfit:



These are his athletic clothes:



   I’ll show off his formal clothes when he goes to the prom. I can’t believe I’m old enough to be the mother of a teenager. Whenever I feel too old, I look at Hope, who is still a little girl.



   She’ll become a teenager soon, too – but that’s a depressing topic. What else can I talk about? Wrinkles. No, zombies.

   Hunter has discovered another way to fight the zombies. He mixes up some red valerian and mandrake root, puts it in a jar and then throws the jar at a zombie. This cures the zombie, who then runs away.



   This is a slow process, but it works. Hunter has also figured out where the zombies appear most frequently, and he installed pea-shooters to cover the areas. One distressing thing is that the zombies occasionally show up during the day (I thought the sun turned them back into humans?), so it’s good that the pea-shooters are so effective.



   There’s not much else to say, and I’m beginning to feel an irresistible urge to go check for wrinkles again. Oh – Orion’s working on an unusual painting of palm trees on a beach. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe he’ll show it next time.

[ratchie]

I am really enjoying this,the idea behind the story is just brilliant.

Rachel

[SimBlip]

Constance looks good with her new hairstyle.
Clever of Hunter to find a cure for zombies. 

[DeLouche]

Ha, awesome

I love this concept, and I really like your writing! Will definitely be reading, to watch the post-zombie-apocalyptic fall-out!

[MarianT]

Chapter Ten – Prom Night!

   Hope is a teenager now. Here she is in her everyday outfit. She’s excited because she gets to go to the prom along with her big brother.



This is the dress she’s planning to wear.



   Hunter’s been practicing the Smustle in preparation for the big night.

   “Honey? I hate to tell you this, but the prom is only for teens. Why don’t you go and teach Orion how to drive?”



   “Okay, son, so there’s your accelerator, there’s your brake, and the steering wheel’s in front of you. Let’s crank up this baby and let her rip!

   “Now, I’m supposed to talk to you about dating. You have to understand that dating is a lot like fishing. You never know what’s going to come up in your net. You might get a piranha, you might get a minnow. You never know. There’s jellyfish, goldfish, and even sharks. You could find a fairy damsel, or a--”

Scritch!



   “Why’d you brake?”

   “I just wanted to make sure they’re working. Dad, what kind of fish is Mom?”

   “Oh, an angelfish, for sure.”

Scritch!

   “The brakes are still working, son.”

   “I know, but I saw a squirrel, and I thought it might run in front of us.”

   Finally, it was late Saturday afternoon. The limousine arrived, and Orion dashed out the door. He started listening to a tabcast on charisma to prepare for the dance.



Hope followed soon after.



   They both had a pretty good time. Hope was named Prom Queen. Orion didn’t get to dance with his crush, but they played his favorite song.

   Hunter and Constance had a good time, too.



   Most of the boys whom Hope knows are still in elementary school, so she didn’t get involved with anyone.



   “Honey? You did remember to tell Orion not to get involved with any baby-sitters, didn’t you? Because he can only marry someone who’s actually living in town.”

   “I think I covered the subject pretty well, if I do say so myself.”



   Orion now has a romantic interest – Veronica Crowder, a babysitter.

[SimBlip]

No worries. Three spouses in the Centauri dynasty were NPC spouses.
Go, Orion, follow your heart!

[MarianT]

Chapter Eleven – The Bravest Man in Riverview

   One night, when Hunter was going out to fish, he was accosted by a zombie in the front yard. It took him by surprise, because there wasn’t a full moon, just a crescent.



   What made things worse was that the zombie was someone he knew – Shana Natcher, the woman who had given him his tattoo. He fumbled for his cure elixir, but for some reason it didn’t work. He ordered the pea-shooter to attack the zombie, but that didn’t work either. Finally Hunter did what he did best – he started yelling at the zombie.



   The zombie didn’t turn tail and run, but it didn’t come any closer. It just stood there, waving its arms around.

   “And don’t come botherin’ me again, y’hear?” Hunter concluded his tirade.

   Word soon spread through Riverview about how Hunter had stood up to the zombie. “Wow, your dad’s really brave,” one of the girls at school said to Orion.

   “Yeah,” he agreed, but by the end of the day, he was tired of hearing from everyone how brave his dad was.

   That evening Constance noticed that Orion was a little subdued. “Are you upset about not being able to paint?” she asked. The Watcher had sent her a message saying that Orion should quit painting for a while – something about getting more black ops if he waited until he grew up. To make things worse, Hope had recently won first prize in an art competition at school.



   “Oh, that –“ he said. “It’s no big deal. I know I’ll get my chance later, and I’m happy for Hope, really. It’s Dad – I mean, people say I’m brave, but I’d never get in a zombie’s face like he did.”

   “Well, thank goodness for that,” said Constance. “Look, your dad isn’t necessarily brave, he’s just plain crazy. Look at what he wears to harvest the beehive.”



   “It’s much braver to know that you’re scared of something and do the right thing than it is to just dive into a situation without considering the consequences,” she added.

   Orion nodded, but he wasn’t really convinced. He knew he wasn’t about to approach the beehive without putting on protective clothing. As for cleaning it in his swimsuit – that wasn’t brave, that was stupid. However, he couldn’t explain that to the kids (okay, girls) at school.

   The next day Orion took his last painting over to the consignment shop. Don Lothario was there in werewolf form, scratching at the furniture.



   “Hey!” shouted Orion. “Stop that!”

   “You got a problem?” Don Lothario confronted him. Without waiting for an answer, he took his paw and hit Orion.
 
   “Yes,” said Orion. “That’s not your furniture, and you shouldn’t damage it. Go home until you learn how to behave in public.”



   At school the next day, a bunch of kids were waiting when Orion got off the bus. “Hey man, did you really stand up to a werewolf?” one of them called.

   Orion shrugged modestly. “It was no big deal,” he said. "Anyone else would have done the same." But he couldn’t help grinning all day.

[SimBlip]

Aw! Orion wants to be as brave as his dad.
I like how the rumours get round. It gives a sense of a small, closely-knit community.
Great update!