Best New Zombie Tales Trilogy by James Roy Daley Page B

porch on the back of the house. Mrs. Kobylka came out with a hammer in one hand and a cloth bag in the other. She went to Kirk and handed them to him.
    “In the bag,” she said, “are stakes that are attached to manacles. You are to undress the girl, put her on the ground, drive in the stakes, and put the manacles on her wrists and ankles.”
    “I will not,” Kirk said.
    “Kirk, you’ll do as you’re told,” Dad said.
    “Dad, I won’t do anything to hurt her.”
    Mrs. Kobylka said, “You will do it, or I will make you do it, it is your choice.”
    Kirk said, “There’s no way I’m going to stake Natalie to the––”
    Mrs. Kobylka raised her hand, palm out, and passed it in front of Kirk’s face as she muttered something under her breath.
    Kirk stopped talking and put the hammer and cloth bag on the ground. He turned to Natalie and said, “Let’s get you out of these things.” He took the blanket off first and handed it to Dad, then the sheet.
    “I’m hungry,” Natalie said.
    “Just wait a little while longer,” Kirk said as he tugged on her elbow. “Get down here on the ground for now, just lie down.”
    Once she was flat on her back, he began to position her properly, although inside, all he wanted to do was scream at the top of his lungs, “Stop!” Arms raised, legs spread. He hammered the barbed stakes into the hard, rocky ground and fastened the manacles to Natalie’s wrists and ankles. Then he stood over her and surveyed his work.
    “Hungry, Kirk,” Natalie said. “I’m hungry.”
    Suddenly, Kirk was in control of himself once again and he turned to Mrs. Kobylka. “Why… did I just do that?”
    She smiled. “Because I made you do it. You will wait here.” She turned and went back into the house.
    Kirk got down on his knees and tried to pull one of the stakes out, but he could not. Each time he tried, his hands became limp.
    The back door opened and Mrs. Kobylka returned with Baltazar, her enormous black-and-red bird, on her right arm. The bird immediately took flight and Kirk watched it soar into the air. Gooseflesh crawled across the back of his neck. The bird’s wings were like a bat’s, just as he’d suspected when he’d seen Baltazar in his cage the first time. They were like a bat’s wings, but enormous in span. The bird circled a few times high above them, a black crescent against the gray clouds, then dove. The sound Baltazar made was a mixture of a hawk’s piercing cry and the squealing of a piglet. It landed in a flutter of its vast wings on the ground beside Natalie.
    Mrs. Kobylka stepped in front of Kirk. “You will watch.”
    “Watch what?” Kirk said, although he had a sickening feeling he knew what was about to happen. “Don’t tell me you’re going to let that bird––”
    Mrs. Kobylka passed her hand in front of his face again and mumbled something, then stepped aside, saying again, “You will watch.”
     
     
    3.
     
    Baltazar hopped onto Natalie’s abdomen and began eating her genitals first. Her scream was shrill and child-like and she struggled against her manacles.
    Kirk could not move or speak. He could not even move his eyes in their sockets. He was frozen in place, able to do no more than breathe, and watch as Baltazar ate Natalie.
    Kirk’s eyes, out of his control, followed every move Baltazar’s head made. The bird consumed Natalie’s flesh with surprising speed, although each second seemed an eternity to Kirk. Baltazar had a mouth that opened beyond the beak. Small razor-like teeth rimmed the beak and mouth. The bird also used its tongue to pull meat into its mouth––the tongue was long and narrow and black, forked at the end, prehensile, with three rows of curved red barbs. Baltazar made guttural cooing sounds as he ate.
    Kirk could not close his eyes or look away as the bird ate the flesh off Natalie’s bones, and he could not cover his ears to block out her horrible screams. Sometimes she called his name pleadingly, and a couple