Z is for Zombie: Nocturnal Screams: Volume 6: Nocturnal Screams, #6

By Mark Leslie

Are you ready to be infected?

The walking dead take center stage in these three decidedly different takes on the reanimated corpses of the recently deceased. These original tales are about mindless, flesh-seeking shells of former humans, about the still sentient undead, and about a unique and daring bet made on a boys' night out.

THE ZOMBIE WHISPERER: Taking a dare and winning is everything to Robert LaChance. He lives up to his name by doing almost anything to win a bet; but what happens when his friends dare him to French-kiss a zombie?

VENGEANCE IS A DELICACY BEST SERVED COLD: Martin Hecht no longer possessed a human consciousness; but all he knew is he could hear a woman screaming and it hurt his brain

HIDE AND ZEKE: He was engaged in a high-stakes game of "Hide & Seek" when the zombie apocalypse began, but are his skills at hiding and evasion enough to keep Zeke alive against an army of the undead?

If you enjoy weird and strange Twilight Zone, Outer Limits or Black Mirror styled dark and eerie tales, then you're sure to enjoy this collection of short tales from the dark mind of Mark Leslie.

You can read the Nocturnal Screams story collection series in any order. Each volume is a stand-alone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stark Publishing
• Release date: Oct 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393311881

Mark Leslie

Mark Leslie is a writer, editor and bookseller living in southern Ontario. Mark's writing falls most closely into the "Twilight Zone" camp of fiction - he calls himself a horror writer but his tales include horror, elements of science fiction and fantasy. Mark's first published horror story "Phantom Mitch" appeared in Wicked Mystic magazine in October of 1993 and received honourable mention in The Year's Best Fantasty & Horror #7 (Datlow & Windling). Mark's books included One Hand Screaming (a collection of short fiction), the horror novel I, Death and the thrillers Evasion and A Canadian Werewolf in New York. He has also edited North of Infinity II, Campus Chills, Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound, Fiction River: Editor's Choice and Fiction River: Feel the Fear. Mark's non-fiction explorations of the paranormal include Haunted Hamilton, Spooky Sudbury (co-authored), Tomes of Terror, Creepy Capital, Haunted Hospitals (co-authored) and Macabre Montreal (co-authored).

Book preview

Z IS FOR ZOMBIE

Nocturnal Screams: Volume 6

By

Mark Leslie

Stark Publishing

Oct 2020

Nocturnal Screams: Vol 6: Z is for Zombie Copyright © 2018 Mark Leslie Lefebvre

The Zombie Whisperer Copyright © 2020 Mark Leslie Lefebvre

Vengeance is a Delicacy Best Served Cold Copyright © 2020 Mark Leslie Lefebvre

Hide and Zeke Copyright © 2020 Mark Leslie Lefebvre

The characters and events portrayed in this short story collection are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Visit Mark Leslie on the web at www.markleslie.ca

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkLeslie

Sign up for Mark Leslie’s newsletter to receive a free eBook.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Z is for Zombie: Nocturnal Screams: Volume 6

Introduction

The Zombie Whisperer

Vengeance is a Delicacy Best Served Cold

Hide and Zeke

Behind the Screams

Conclusion: Z is for Zis Is Zee End

Sign up for Mark Leslie's Mailing List

Further Reading: Active Reader: And Other Cautionary Tales from the Book World

Also By Mark Leslie

About the Author

To those who understand that it’s not the end of the world as we know it, but that it’s the beginning of the world as we fear it

Introduction

IN THIS SIXTH COLLECTION in the Nocturnal Screams series of short eerie tales, I thought it would be fun to collect a number of stories about zombies.

None of the three tales here have ever appeared in any format anywhere, so they are 100% original and unpublished.

I hope you enjoy them.

The tales you are about to read are perhaps along the lines of a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits or Amazing Stories episode. If you’re not of a certain age, you’ll likely only know these old television shows via repeats and YouTube clips. You might liken the tales to something you may see on an episode of Black Mirror – only, my stories tend to involve less of the science-fiction elements of that program and a lot more of the eerie and supernatural.

I go into a bit more detail, and I provide full stories-behind-the-stories for each of the tales, in a short section at the end of this book. That’s where I’ll reveal to you some insights behind the inspiration of the writing of each tale, as well as other insights that I think you might enjoy. That is, only if you’re one who enjoys those behind-the-scene tales.

If you’re not into that, then you’re likely better off just skipping that part and enjoying the stories on their own.

And so, speaking of which. If you’re a stranger to my fiction, then welcome, and thanks for checking this out. But even if you’re familiar with my writing, perhaps you are still a stranger to the tales that I am about to share with you.

Please, take my hand and join me as we dare ourselves to walk willingly into the midst of the walking undead.

The Zombie Whisperer

HEY CHANCIE! STUART called out. Bet you don’t have the balls to French kiss that zombie.

Yeah, LaChance. I double-dare you! Bruce said. Lay one on her!

I’ll lay one on her once I see you lay your money down, boys, Robert LaChance said, getting up from the bar stool where the three of them had been gulping down McMenamins Rubinator beers.

You see, Robert LaChance would do almost anything to win a bet or prove his buddies wrong. Completion of either one came with the same smug satisfaction that fueled their competitive relationship.

It wasn’t the money; it was the winning.

Winning a bet was everything.

Following through on an outrageous dare was what life was about.

And, lately, the bets, and the adrenaline rush had been happening between intervals that seemed far too long.

Over the years, Robert and two of his best pals backed each other into the must cocked-up precarious situations imaginable. It involved elements of posturing, name-calling and tens of thousands of dollars exchanged between the three of them.  From jumping out of planes, off tall bridges and cliff faces to death-defying stunt driving on a mountainous costal highway to deep-sea diving in shark-infested waters, there was barely a stunt one could conceive of that the three of them hadn’t added an extra layer of dangerous stupidity to and bet the other ones they wouldn’t be able to pull it off.

The surprising thing about this ridiculous lifestyle, however, was how this immature thrill-seeking behaviour become a key that just might save humanity from this confusing and horrifying worldwide plague.

And to think it all