Zombies in the Forest

A Terrifying Tremulous Trees story

I was having a nightmare.

“Where do the dead grow, Twigly,” a nasty looking, moldy tree zombie asked me. It’s sharp teeth then extended and it hissed and ran after me and bit into my wood. I woke up screaming.

There was the smell of necrosis in the air. It was a strong scent of rotting human flesh, and someone was yelling zombie. This would explain what triggered my nightmare.

I saw a walking, rotting corpse walking towards me. It was only a tiny human corpse though. As the witches say, thank Hecate.

I went to Charlie’s cabin and knocked on his door.

“Charlie, wake up,” I said.

“Hey, Twigly. I’m up, what’s happening. Did somebody yell zombie?” Charlie asked and I pointed behind me.

“Oh crap, a zombie,” Charlie said.

“I can smash it but what if there’s More?” I asked.

“That’s a good question. And where did it come from,” Charlie said as the zombie growled and moaned while he slowly walked closer.

“Why don’t you go smash that one and I’ll help you look for more. Maybe we can ask our new friend Griswold if he could magically give us the information,” Charlie said.

“Ugh, Griswold, gross. I mean, sure let’s go make a wish for him to tell us the info. But only if we find other zombies,” I said. I lumbered over to the zombie and pummeled him, crushing him again and again with my foot until he was dust.

I picked Charlie up and placed him in the treehouse. We walked around the forest looking for other zombies before eventually running into a pack of them that were tearing apart then eating a bicyclist.

“Poor guy,” Charlie said.

I started stomping on the other zombies, but left one zombie survivor. The zombie spotted Charlie, dropped the freshly torn bicyclist limb out of his mouth, and made a run towards him.

Before the zombie could climb up my branch and devour Charlie, I grabbed it and held it tightly in my branches as it twerked, twirled and struggled to get free.

“Let’s take this thing to the dungeon in case we need to research it later,” I said. We walked to the dungeon and locked the zombie inside, where we noticed one of the prisoners escaped.

“How did Belladona Nightshade escape?” Charlie asked.

“Somebody rubbed off the runic symbols outside her cell that kept her from using her powers. She must have allies,” I said.

We walked outside started and our search for Griswold.

“Griswold,” I shouted as I started walking to the north woods, where Griswold claimed to live.

“Griswold, it’s your buddy Charlie. We need you,” Charlie shouted.

“After we find him, we should find the other witches and inform them of Belladonnas escape,” I said.

We walked for three in a half hours before we found a small green lump on the ground that was carved out of a large boulder that was sitting adjacent to it. It vaguely resembled a house.

“Griswold. You in there?” I shouted. The small lump vibrated.

A small fairy like creature walked out.

“Who the hell are you guys?” The fairy asked in an Irish accent.

“Friends of Griswold. Would you know where he lives?” Charlie asked.

“Uck, Griswold…. Griswold has friends? Well, I guess it’s time he made some friends. He’s three houses down that way,” the fairy said.

“Wow, even the other fairies don’t like him,” I said.

“I thought you guys were his friends,” the fairy said and magically made a glass of absinthe appear in his hand and started to drink it.

“Well, the term ‘friend’ is subjective. Charlie’s more his friend then I am. For me, Griswold is more of a… useful appliance,” I said.

This made the fairy laugh so hard he spit out his absinthe.

“You’re funny. I’m Florimell by the way. Retired senator, currently counsel to the president of the fairies. If you ever get sick of Griswold, you know where to find me,” Florimell said and gave me a crooked smile.

I winked at him, and we continued walking.

We knocked on Griswold’s rock door.

“Gris, you home?” Charlie asked.

“No, go away,” we heard someone say in a New York accent.

“Griswold, we know that’s you. Get your tiny fairy butt out here,” I said.

“No,” Griswold said.

“Why? We need your help!” Charlie said.

Griswold opened the door.

“I’m busy,” Griswold said.

“Doing what?” I asked.

“None of your business,” Griswold said.

“So, you’re doing nothing?” I asked.

“It’s love night with my wife, if you must know. I only get this once a month. So if you don’t mind, go away,” Griswold shouted.

“If the zombies eat you or your wife, you’ll get zero love nights. Ever. So do you mind coming with us?” I asked.

“Oh, zombies, big freaking deal. Every few months some magical creature brings zombies back to life,” Griswold said.

“I’ve never seen a zombie before, and I’ve been here a long time,” I said.

“You’ve never been to the north woods before, buddy,” Griswold said and chuckled.

“Oh good. So you know how to get rid of them,” I said.

“No,” Griswold said and slammed the door.

“I will crush your house if you don’t help us,” I shouted. I got no response. I started stomping on his stone house. Griswold opened the door again.

“Ok, ok, fine. Don’t have a cow. I’ll help. Just let me finish up with my wife, ok. Twenty minutes,” Griswold said.

“Twenty minutes. Seriously?” I asked and laughed.

“Ok, ten. Five. Three minutes. Give me two damn minutes alone with my wife,” Griswold said.

“Fine,” I said and Griswold closed the door.

We heard a wild racket, grunting, moaning and screaming noises coming from inside Griswold’s rock house.

“I bet he’s alone in there. He’s probably making all those noises himself just to impress us. I can’t imagine anybody marrying that annoying green thing,” I said and Charlie laughed.

Thirty seconds later, Griswold was done and came outside.

“Can we go now,” I asked.

Griswold turned to face his open door.

“Bye, honey. Going to go zombie hunting now,” Griswold said.

“Bye, dear,” a feminine sounding voice came from inside. Griswold then closed his door.

“He must know ventriloquism,” I whispered to Charlie. Charlie laughed.

“What was that? What’s so funny?” Griswold asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Yah, that’s what I thought. It better be nothing,” Griswold said and spat on the ground.

Griswold flew to my branch and sat next to Charlie.

“Hey, kiddo,” he said.

We walked to Ravenna Darkwood’s cabin. I knocked on the door. The door opened slowly and with a creek and an old lady cackled.

“How can I help you? Would you like to come in for some tea? Or perhaps… an apple,” the old lady said.

“No thanks. Is Ravenna here. We need her help with a zombie problem. And Belladonna escaped,” I said.

“Oh, it’s you guys,” the old lady said. She waved her wand and transformed herself into the much younger Ravenna.

“Did you say Belladonna escaped? And there’s zombies?” Ravenna asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“I think I know what happened. Belladona must have agreed to learn necromancy. There’s only one necromancer I know of that lives in these woods, and he’s been dead for thirty years. At least I thought he was after I killed him. Again. He cast a spell on himself so if he’s been dead for more then a decade, he comes back to life. After ten years, he didn’t come after me for revenge like he usually does, so I thought he stayed dead this time. I guess not. He must have been looking for a protege to help defeat me. Seraphine, Luna, come with me. We have enemies to capture,” Ravenna said.

“How do we find this necromancer,” I asked.

“We can summon him. He shouldn’t be that hard to find, though. His name is Death Master Necreus Mortis the Flesh Crafter. He’s a master of the Stygian arts. He was dangerous before he had a protege. With the help of Belladonna, he’s learned her magic. Magic I taught her. So my spells and traps won’t work on him anymore,” Ravenna said.

“Maybe I can help with that. He doesn’t know freakin’ fairy magic, does he?” Griswold said and spat on the ground.

“Probably not. Unless he’s captured a fairy,” Ravenna said.

“If he did, I’d know. I hear all the fairy gossip, I’d definitely hear about a missing fairy,” Griswold said.

“Good. Then you can help. Would you grant us a wish?” Ravenna asked.

“Sure,” Griswold said.

“We wish for the whole fairy army to show up and help us fight Death Master Necreus Mortis the Flesh Crafter,” Ravenna said.

“Oh, man. They’re not going to be happy about this. I was hoping you’d wish for enhanced powers or something,” Griswold said.

“We also wish for enhanced powers,” Ravenna said.

“Ugh. Fine, here’s your enhanced powers,” Griswold said and waved his wand.

“Now for the hard part,” Griswold said and waved his wand again. Thousands of fairies surrounded us.

“Griswold, you summoned all of us? Why?” One of the fairies asked.

“Ok, I can explain. It was a wish, and it was her fault. Let the witch explain,” Griswold said and pointed to Ravenna.

“What is it you want, witch?” The fairy shouted angrily.

“We need your help, fairies of this fair forest. We have a zombie problem, and the necromancer responsible will make it all our problem if he isn’t stopped. Normally we three witches can stop him, but Death Master Necreus Mortis the Flesh Crafter has teamed up with a powerful witch, Belladonna Nightshade, who in all likelyhood has taught him protection spells in exchange for necromancy spells. Please, please, help us,” Ravenna said.

“I’ve seen a couple fairy zombies already. I say we help them,” Florimell said.

The other fairies chanted, “war, war, war!”

“Ugh, fine. Call it a war, let’s just help these guys,” Florimell said.

The fairies spread out, searching high and low for Death Master Necreus Mortis the Flesh Crafter and his new evil hench-woman, Belladonna.

Florimell landed on my shoulder.

“I haven’t seen any fairy zombies,” Griswold said.

“Sorry, had to motivate the other fairies somehow,” Florimell said.

Another fairy landed next to Florimell and whispered something to him.

“We’ve spotted the enemy,” Florimell whispered to me.

“Good, signal the other fairies,” I said. Florimell and Griswold shot rainbow colored sparkles into the sky, and the fairy army gathered around.

“Follow us,” I shouted.

“Yah, follow me, you punks,” Griswold said and spat!

“And you guys follow me,” Florimell said.

We followed Florimell to the spot of the siting.

“That’s Death Master Necreus Mortis the Flesh Crafter,” Ravenna said and pointed.

“Trap him,” I said to the fairies. They chanted all sorts of spells and shot all sorts of magic out of there wands. Ravenna and her coven even used her potions and spells to try and capture the Necromancer. Nothing worked.

In a cloud of green smoke, Belladonna appeared.

“Sorry, boys and girls, The Death Master is under my protection. And this forest is ours, now,” Belladonna said and cackled. She and Death Master Necreus Mortis the Flesh Crafter started zapping all the fairies and trees with their wands and they started turning into zombies.

“No, stop your treachery,” I shouted.

“Retreat. We need backup,” Florimell said. I started to run and was hit by a spell.

“Crap. Sorry Charlie,” I said.

“Griswold, I wish for you to reverse Twiglys curse,” I said.

“I’ll try,” Griswold said and zapped me.

“I think you just slowed it down. My leg is still numb,” I said.

“They have some strong damn magic,” Griswold said.

“I wish for backup,” Charlie said and Griswold twisted his wand.

Master Chen and Master Lin pulled up in a bus filled with their students. They parked and got out.

“How are you guys going to help us? You don’t have powers,” I said.

“Don’t worry. We found this bus full of demons, and asked them to help us fight the zombies. They told us about the necromancer and his assistant and said they’d help us if they could use us as vessels,” Master Chen said.

“We agreed. Now, we have demon powers enhancing our Kung Fu,” Master Lin said.

“Let me fix your leg for you, kind Twigly,” Master Chen said. He zapped my leg and it started to turn brown again and felt better.

“Thank you,” I said.

The Masters and their students started to float in the air and zap all the zombies that had been created, curing them of their Zombieitus.

“I will turn you kung fools into zombies too,” Death Master Necreus Mortis shouted.

“I don’t think so,” Mr. Murder Tree shouted and jumped into the air and landed right on top of the necromancer.

“It’s murdering time,” Mr. Murder tree shouted as he jumped on the necromancer again and again until Death Master Necreus Mortis was completely flattened.

“Quick, use a freezing spell on Belladonna. They probably work again,” Ravenna said and Luna threw a potion at Belladonna.

“Nnnooo, not again, you bit…” Belladonna started to say before she froze.

Mr. Murder tree moved aside and the fairies wrapped Death Master Necreus Mortis in magical vines to prevent him from moving.

“We’ll make new runes in your dungeon. On two cells, this time, to make sure neither one of these petulant idiots escapes,” Ravenna said.

“And we’ll enchant your dungeon with fairy magic too, just to be safe,” Florimell said.

“Sounds good,” I said and shrugged.

I grabbed Belladonna, then Mr. Murder Tree grabbed Death Master Necreus Mortis and we dragged them both to the dungeon. The witches and fairies drew their runes on the cells, and that’s where Death Master Necreus Mortis and Belladona will rot for a long time. I even hired two fairies to guard the dungeon full time in case anymore of the witches allies showed up.

“What a day. I’m going home to my wife now. Tonight is snuggle night,” Griswold said and smiled.

“Sure it is, Griswold,” I said and laughed.