Penny

By Margaret Chu

We take life for granted sometimes. What if our lives took a turn for the worse.....would you be prepared for it. Could you handle the outcome? Kathy Draper and her husband Walt wanted to make life better for their two boys by buying a house in the country but they weren't prepared for what was going to h

• Language: English
• Publisher: Margaret Chu
• Release date: Aug 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781955531870

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Margaret Chu

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Layton, UT  84041

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Word count: 82374

This book is copy-write protected

PENNY, a different kind of ZOMBIE story by Margaret Chu

Penny!

Chapter 1

                                                                                                                                  Monday 4 am

My name is Kathy Draper and I’m sitting here in the dark covered in a man’s blood, at a

house in Belchertown Massachusetts holding a little girl that is only three months old.  She’s not my child, however, here I am with her and I’m stuck raising her now. Not that it’s a problem, mind you, I’m more than happy to do it.  It feel’s as though I’m stuck with her but truthfully, I could let someone else do it but after what just happened, I feel as though I don’t want to let her out of my sight.  Protecting her would be the best thing for her.

She’s a very pretty little thing.  Small round face, light skinned, light brown hair and her eye’s are a light shade of green.  Her cheek’s are pudgy so it’s very clear she’s been eating well.

She’s the reason that me and my family are alive today. 

Her name is Penny Slatter and her blood is what saved us or rather…. protecting us and everyone else that is immunized with it from becoming a zombie.  Incredible don’t you think?  I think so.

Oh there’s a nice long story about how this came about and as I sit here in the dark, holding her

in one arm and holding a gun in my other hand, covered in the drying blood of a man I have

known for about 24 hours….well, there’s definitely a story to be told. 

My stomach feels clenched so tight from everything that’s happened, that it feels as though I’m going to be sick.  I have to ask myself now What am I to do?, What about my family?

My heart is thumping so hard in my chest that it’s not helping matters!  Breath Kathy, breath!

Oh, that’s better.  I can’t lose it now, too many people are depending on me.

Outside this house…this very minute…are dead people walking around trying to find us living

people so they can eat us.  Yes you read right, they want to eat us. These things, the undead, are

called ZOMBIES and they’re relentless. 

These zombies seem to smell you out!  It doesn’t matter where you hide either; they will find you just by sniffing you out.  Like some animal.  It’s incredible I know and normally no one would believe me if I had told them days ago that zombies would be eating people.  But now, now it’s really happening.  If you are one of those people that don’t believe it is, then you’ll be the one to get a chunk of flesh bitten out of your ass sooner, rather than later and then you’d believe me or anyone else that tells you this. 

Everyone I know believes now because they’ve either seen the zombies first hand or have seen others eaten by zombies.  Either way, everyone believes that zombies exist.  There’s no question that I believe now.  This is a nightmare come true, the things that horror stories are made of. 

Children who cry out in the night of the boogie man hiding under their bed but now the boogie

man is walking around.  Right out in the open to hurt you and this time it won’t go away. 

I know you have some questions, like, why are the dead rising?  Why am I raising Penny? Or why am I sitting in the dark with a gun in one hand and Penny in the other?  The biggest question is how can her blood save everyone?  So many questions huh?

The answers to these questions and more are within my story.  Be aware that some

parts I’ve had to guess at because I came upon these people later and pieced what happened to

them together and for others, I just saw bad…things… happen or had bad things happen to me and the people I’m with.  My heart aches when I think about them.  So much loss!

What was that noise? Something just banged against the house!  Everyone here looks as scared as I feel and there’s nothing we can do about it!  Damn, damn, damn!

As long as I keep telling myself to breath, I won’t lose it.

Where was I?  Oh yea, the sight of blood always really bothered me; just hadn’t a strong stomach for it.  However, by the end of my story you will discover that my ability to stand the sight of blood has improved quite considerably. 

I’m truly proud of this because it too helped save my life.  Your probably asking yourself now, How can standing the sight of blood help save anyone’s life?  Well, if you see a lot of blood, smell the strong copper smell of it that reminds you of a lot of raw ground meat and are caught off guard by it because your standing around in shock or fainting from it, then a zombie will

come along and bite a large chunk out of your ass.  You’ll be wondering later what happened.

If you survive it that is. However, if you can stand the sight of blood, you’ll never be caught off guard by it and therefore, never get a chunk of flesh taken out of you because your standing there with a stupid look on your face.  That’s how it can save your life.  Wisdom comes only after you experience things, boy have I experienced some things!

Zombies need to have flesh in their mouths, taste the sweet taste of blood.  I’ve even asked myself Do they get any nourishment from it? I don’t think so but that’s something to think about, maybe research it later.

They seem to be driven by it and will go to any lengths to get it.  This thought alone causes me to hug Penny even closer to my breast.  My desire to protect her is even stronger now.  Bending my head down to her small head to smell her baby smell does give me some comfort, lord knows my nerves are shot over the events of the past two days.  More so over the last hour but she does have to be protected and I seem to be the person that god or some higher being has chosen to do this. 

Oh, I’m happy to do the job because I love children.  I have two boys of my own but couldn’t the circumstances have been different somehow?!  My thoughts scream with the unfairness of it all but this is life and some time’s it’s not fair!

Penny’s blood is the key to surviving this horror and it was wonderful to have had it

discovered at all so let me begin my story and you’ll understand why this child is so important

to not just me but to all of humanity.

Chapter 2

                                                                                                  Two days prior, Saturday 9 am

My son Jonathan woke out of a dead sleep sometime after midnight screaming.  He’s afraid of

the lightening and thunderstorms.  Storms have always scared Jon but this was a bad storm, one

of the worst ones yet.  So I sat with him until he fell back to sleep in the dark and just being with him seem to have given him the comfort he needed.

Power lines were down everywhere, in fact, last night the power was out for most of the night. 

It’s surprising that we have power at all this morning but the power company was quick to

repair any damage and for that I’m grateful.  Like him, I have fears too and one of them is the dark.  Always hated the dark.  You never know what could be lurking in it.

Watching the news this morning I found out that a few crucial power lines were downed last

night due to the storm and the three cemeteries that are located between Holyoke and

Belchertown were hit the worst. 

Something about direct power being forced into the ground when the poles fell but because several lines were placed just right when they fell, it was live current going into the ground; it wasn’t being grounded.  Grounded means it’s harmless but if power poles and their metal is placed close enough to be within contact, then the current is alive. 

Five people were electrocuted just walking past all three of the cemeteries; which means the

current was definitely alive; not grounded.  It was both interesting and scary to hear this but I

was grateful the lines were repaired now and no longer a danger to any one.

This sounded so familiar to me though.  You see, my father would take me fishing and he needed bait to put on the hooks.  Well, instead of digging up earth worms, he would take a car battery and connect two rods by wire to the battery and place them into the ground about two feet a part while it was raining.

The current going into the wet ground would force the worms to the surface!  Easy!  It was so exciting for me to see this as a kid but now hearing this similar situation with the power poles near grave yards, just gives me the creeps. 

This morning I’m excited about looking at a house today in the country.  It’s located in Belchertown to be exact.  I’ve always wanted to own my own home but we could never afford it….until now. 

Walt, my husband and I are looking for a fix-er-upper home in an area that’s quiet with enough

open space for our two boys.  I’ve been living in an apartment on Main Street on the West side of Holyoke with Walt and our two sons for a few years now and we’re tired of the lack of space. 

Every apartment we’ve lived in has always grown to be too small at some point.  Even as a

child, the household grew small because my family had gotten so large.  You see, I’m the oldest

of five girls.  My parents Frances and Harold raised me as a Catholic and they didn’t believe in

using birth control; in any form. 

Of course the attitude of the church towards birth control has changed over the years but my

parents seemed to like having children back then.  Never mind the fact that the kids were all girls. 

Oh don’t get me wrong, my father loved us girls but he also wanted a son but when he didn’t get one, I became a good replacement.  I did like spending time with him in the family yard area or garage and getting dirty.  I say yard area because my dad rarely had a garage most of the time until I was older.  So he used what ever open area of the back street, the front street, alley and where ever he could to work on his cars.

When I was twelve he did buy an auto mechanic business off of High street in Holyoke and

worked on cars out of it.  I liked it because it had large auto show room windows and you could

look out unto high street and see down it for miles!  Some times he even rebuilt the cars from

the bottom up.  The times that dad and I spent together on cars are the most precious memories

I have of him….. I miss him dearly every day.  You see, he has a disease called Alzheimer’s

and he doesn’t remember much any more.  That saddens me tremendously.  Now it’s up to me

to remember our times together and I have enough memories of us to last a lifetime.  My heart

aches just saying this, it’s a pressure so great in my chest that it feels like someone is sitting on

it.  Often I go to visit him and tell him I love him but when I see his vacant eyes and when he doesn’t recognize me, it tears my heart apart. 

Heart ache is a very strong emotion!  I am one of those people who not only feel strong

emotions but I have a tendency to express them verbally and I tend to do this often.  Walt is my

balancing system….when I start to get expressive he tends to reel me in and I count on that. 

What would I do without my Walt….I don’t want to think about that.

Let’s talk about my mom for a moment.  My mom was always the good house wife.  She cleaned the apartment, fed the kids, taught us right from wrong and gave all of us her love. Not an easy job at all and I’m sure most of you will agree with this. 

The one most important lesson my mom taught us kids was to never lie.  As it started out, I was

the biggest liar of all of my sisters and a teller of fibs there ever was.  You know what cured

me of that? Our babysitter Brenda, a teenager from across the yard.  One day as she stood in the back yard, I got mad at Brenda and called her a witch from a third story balcony. 

She turned around and told my mom that I had called her a bitch.  Of course I hadn’t but because I lied so much up to then, mom believed Brenda instead of me. 

No surprise there right.  Yes, mom punished me by putting soap in my mouth and made me hold it there for five minutes to cure my dirty swearing mouth and stop the lying.  That did cure my habit of the lying but for different reasons than she thought.  For many years mom really thought I had called Brenda a bitch.  It wasn’t until I was about thirty-six that I reminded mom of this story and told her that I hadn’t been lying to her that time. 

It came up while I was visiting with her one day and it came up in a conversation we had about always telling the truth to people.  I told her this story and how for once in my young life I had told the truth.

Well, you should have seen her face and her reaction to this news…..she was mortified because

now as an adult, I have turned out to be one of the most truth-full people she now knows today.

Mom thought I hated her for not believing me back then but instead, I let her know that because

of that experience, it is why I’m an honest person today.  It was her not believing me when I needed her to the most that cured me of lying.

Something good did come out of it.  She feels better about the whole incident but realized that

you do have to listen to your kids….no matter what.  This is also why I listen to my kids now. 

Lying never pays and I learned that lesson the hard way.

Some of our kids stories might seem outrageous but I do listen to mine; no matter what.  It’s

part of being a good parent.   

Mom takes care of dad now instead of him taking care of her, but that’s life.  Mom was always

the housewife and dad always brought home the bacon.  We take sometimes but sooner or later

we’re going to have to give back.  I’m just waiting for the day that I’ll have to give back to my

parents; after all, they did give me life and took care of me.  My parents still live in southern

Holyoke on Park Street and probably always will.

Now let’s talk about my immediate family.  Walt has been working for Mt. Tom Power Plant, located here in Holyoke for the past twenty-five years as a parts district manager.

He does have to travel quite a bit around Massachusetts to follow through with large corporate orders, but I don’t mind.  The power plant is owned by Holyoke Water Power Company and they keep tight tabs on him.  He’s the company’s best sales representative and he knows his job very well, so it’s understandable why they don’t want to lose him. 

Many small businesses that are tied to the power plant count on him to provide goods and

services, namely the power and with it they get a price discount.  So you see, he’s indispensable

to a lot of people.

The biggest deal that Walt worked was getting larger freight orders for Coal; the plant uses this

fuel to operate the steam boilers, the boilers create the steam that is used to run the power turbines.  That is what generates the power that supplies five counties.  Unfortunately

the coal is very dirty and we see the results in the air on cloudy days but it’s tolerable.  On real bad days it can make a person cough badly but that’s not too often thank goodness.  These are

the reasons we have decided to move to Belchertown; the cleaner air will do all of us some good. 

Walt and I tried to talk my mom into moving too but with dad’s illness, she didn’t think it was a

good idea.  Their apartment is familiar to him and a new place would only confuse him.  Oh

well, if they want to live with the smog from the coal power plant, then so be it.

We have two son’s, Duncan, whose seventeen now, is a senior at the local high school and our youngest son Jonathan, well he’s four and is starting kindergarten next fall.  Both boys are very smart but Jon started reading when he was two and opens a book every chance he gets.  It’s almost as if he can’t get enough knowledge to fill his brain with.  With him reading so much, we’ve collected a lot of books and no longer have room in the apartment for any more. 

You’d think a little boy of four couldn’t collect so many books after just two years but he has. 

We’re not sure where Jon gets all his smarts from but we are very proud of him.  Walt, Duncan and I have average IQ’s but Jon’s is much higher.  Walt and I are very proud of Duncan but we see Jon doing more with his life; rocket scientist type of work. 

Duncan on the other hand would be good at owning a business and running it himself.  Who knows, maybe he will one day. 

For some reason I feel strongly with giving our boys more in life than a small apartment could

give for their growing minds and bodies.  I know what you’re thinking; an apartment has

nothing to do with what they do in life but think about it for a minute.  If the boys are unhappy

in their environment because it’s cramped, wouldn’t it hamper their thinking and prevent their

thoughts from expanding and growing?  Well, my thoughts are that a home, a real home could

allow their minds to expand and explore the possibilities that life can give. 

Even though we live in a two story apartment building in a good part of Holyoke,

Massachusetts, and yes we’ve been happy but we could be happier having our own home; and more open space.  Space that would never get too small or cramped and have fresh, crisp clean air to fill our lungs with. 

Some people may not agree with me but these are my thoughts and Walt seems to agree with it

too and that’s what important.

I’m 43 years old, five foot nine and of medium build.  I’m your typical American woman and

very successful working at Mt. Tom power plant.  Its hard work but I love the physical exercise

it gives me from running back and forth between two departments. 

They are located at opposite ends of the building.  Sneakers are my best friends these days but I don’t mind that either.  I’m the Supervisor for parts receiving and coal receiving departments.  I’m expected to be in two places at once, even though that is unrealistic but I do manage to keep both departments running smoothly.  Of course it helps that I have great people working for me.

It was hard at first but I finally won the respect of the men there. 

I love that Walt and I both work there.  It definitely makes life easier having one car.

It has always been tough for women in a predominately male oriented job like this one but once

we women prove ourselves, then it’s usually easier after that.  It did get easier for me and now I

love my job a lot.  I don’t mind being surrounded by men at work and at home; it’s made me a

stronger person. 

Walt doesn’t mind that I work with all men, he has always trusted me to be professional at all

times; plus he can’t help but love me. 

No I don’t get emotional at work; professionalism is something that comes easy for me. 

Emotions don’t belong in the work place anyways.  A strong mind and tough nerves is what

will get the job done, the men that work for me know this and have accepted me because of

it. 

Being strong emotionally is a must at work.  If an emergency order comes in or a coal shipment

that wasn’t expected for some reason, I’m quick to react and know exactly what is happening in my departments at all times to be able to get these orders out on time or received in a

professional manner. 

I have thirty employees under me that work very hard at keeping things straight but it doesn’t

always work that way.  I have discovered something new about myself and that’s that I am able

to make decisions fast for the company and this quick wit has saved many shipments of coal

and receiving parts.  Especially when other people are involved, like my employees and our

customers. 

Walt is good at keeping the customers happy and I’m good at running the departments.  Yes it’s with the same company but we’ve never let our marriage interfere with work or vice versa.

This job has a tendency to be stressful for some people but I never seem lose control

emotionally or have a break down like some of the other supervisors or managers have because

I am a strong person; I’m very proud of that. 

The corporate office seems happy with my efforts so far and felt I deserved a hefty raise.  Large

enough of one that Walt and I felt getting a home was in order; now that we can afford one. 

Being overly emotional at home is where I fail sometimes but with Walt by my side, I’m a stronger person plus I never bring my personal problems to work….never!

I went to college in 1998 at Mt. Holyoke and took business management and graduated with a

Bachelor of Administration in 2002; a year after Jon was born. 

It was tough going to school while I was pregnant with him but it was worth it because now I

can help in providing a better home for our family with getting a better job.

Fortunately I was lucky to get this great job at Mt. Tom power plant so quickly after graduating.

Before that I worked doing odd jobs to help pay the bills; nothing spectacular, mostly I took

waitressing jobs. 

I married Walter after high school and we had Duncan seven years later and then Jon four years

ago.  Walt and I wanted more children but they just never came.  During the first few years of

our marriage we tried many times to have kids and we thought we never could.  That’s when I

got pregnant with Duncan. 

Of course that made us very happy.  The doctors had told us I couldn’t have children because of a  condition called Endometriosis but we always held hope that a miracle would come our way

and it did.  After several surgeries on my uterus to remove scaring from the disease and many

prayers, Duncan was our miracle child and Jon, well, Jon is just our bonus child. 

Jon was a surprise because I just never got pregnant again after Duncan, we were satisfied with just having him because we had our precious son and we felt fortunate to have him too.  Then to have Jon just added to our joy.

Now a better life is waiting for us in having our own home.  A home the boys can truly call