“Wuwuwu, I’m freaking out...”

  The mummy was clinging to a tree branch, shaking like a leaf as it watched the zombies down below.

  Just then, a guy came strolling up.

  It was the same man from before.

  But now, he didn’t look so down-home and friendly.

  There was a wicked glint in his eye.

  The mummy saw the man mosey up to the military vehicle and press his forehead against the glass, trying to peek inside.

  When he couldn’t see squat, he lost his temper and booted the tire.

  Then he yanked on the door handle like a madman, desperate to get it open.

  The car had some serious anti-theft tech.

  No way was he getting in that easy.

  The man was sweating bullets, but the door wouldn’t budge.

  In a fit of rage, he started kicking it like it owed him money.

  “Damn it! It’ll be mine sooner or later.”

  Cursing up a storm, he stomped off.

  The mummy watched his back, and a red glow flared in its sunken sockets.

  Inside the room.

  Billy Jean was sprawled on the rocking chair, eyes shut, catching some Z’s.

  All of a sudden, a cold draft hit her.

  She cracked an eye open, and the mummy’s mug was inches from hers.

  In the dim light, it was like a scene from a horror flick.

  “Holy crap!!”

  Billy Jean reacted on instinct and let loose a flying kick.

  The mummy went sailing, smacked into the windowsill, did a somersault, and tumbled out the window.

  Next second, it was back beside Billy Jean’s chair, not a scratch on it.

  Billy Jean flinched and glared at the mummy, growling,

  “Roar... Cut it out with the spooky crap! You got any idea how freaked out I am?"

  The mummy hung its head like a kid getting chewed out, but inside it was thinking this zombie was a total scaredy-cat.

  It wasn’t fazed like that.

  Billy Jean calmed her nerves and asked,

  “Roar... Didn’t I tell you to stay put in the tree? What are you doing down here?"

  “Crackle... I came to give you a heads-up. That guy you met? He’s bad news."

  “Roar... A bad guy? No way."

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  Billy Jean couldn’t buy it.

  In her mind, the man was as good as gold, a regular salt-of-the-earth type.

  Plus, he couldn’t even bring himself to off the zombie_fied villagers.

  How could a guy like that be rotten?

  Billy Jean looked at Michael Joke, who’d just woken up beside her, and said,

  “Michael, the mummy says that old dude we met is a baddie. What do you think?”

  Billy Jean saw Michael Joke had a serious look on his face, his dark eyes like pools.

  Her heart skipped a beat, and she asked,

  “You don’t mean you’ve sniffed something fishy too?”

  “I thought he’d make his move later in the night. Didn’t expect him to be so antsy.”

  Michael Joke said.

  Billy Jean was shocked.

  “Really a bad guy? How’d you figure that?”

  “Those zombies outside, the ones with no bite.”

  “What’s wrong with them?”

  Billy Jean was confused.

  “As he said, the villagers were like family. If he couldn’t stomach killing them, would he really go all psycho and gouge out their eyes, slit their mouths, chop off their hands and feet?”

  Billy Jean thought it over and a chill ran down her spine.

  That was the kicker.

  The man said he didn’t want them hurting people.

  So why not lock them up or tie them down?

  Instead, he went all medieval on them.

  That didn’t seem like something you’d do to kin.

  More like what you’d do to enemies.

  “Crackle...I also found a secret. Come with me, pronto."

  The mummy said.

  “It says it found a secret and wants us to follow.”

  Billy Jean told Michael Joke.

  Michael Joke nodded.

  “Let’s roll.”

  He thought he’d at least get some shuteye early in the night.

  Guess that was wishful thinking.

  At the back of the village mountain.

  A cave was lit up, and pitiful screams of women were spilling out.

  Billy Jean, Michael Joke, and the mummy huddled up against the cave entrance and peeked inside.

  The nightmare inside came into view.

  There were five young women locked up.

  Three of them had baby bumps.

  Obviously, they were knocked up.

  The man was whipping one of the non-pregnant ones.

  “Can’t even pop out a kid. You’re a waste of grub.”

  “AAAAH...”

  The woman was shrieking in agony.

  The three pregnant ones didn’t dare to beg for her.

  They knew they’d be next.

  They were all single gals from Lasvgas Village.

  The man in front of them was the village pariah, a forty-something bachelor who’d been loafing around all his life.

  Nobody wanted to hitch their wagon to him.

  Later, he raped an old lady living alone in the village and got sent to the slammer for a few years.

  After he got out, he slunk back to Lasvgas Village.

  Then the apocalypse hit, and the man unlocked his earth-element power.

  He didn’t lift a finger to save anyone.

  Instead, he went nuts, tied up the villagers, and let the zombies have at them.

  As a result, aside from these five girls, the whole village was zombie_fied.

  These five women were chained up in the cave, tortured daily, and used like sex toys.

  They were living a hell on earth.

  “Your job, you wenches, is to bear me sons. I’m an psychic. You should be grateful if you can give birth to my superior bloodline. You should count your lucky stars.”

  The man was still hollering and whacking.

  “See who’ll dare to laugh at me, the old bachelor, the welfare case anymore. I’ve got powers now. I can have any woman I want. I’m gonna have a whole brood of sons to take care of me in my old age, hahaha...”

  The man looked at the two women he’d beaten to a pulp and his face contorted.

  “You barren bitches, go to hell.”

  The two women’s eyes were wide with terror.

  They thrashed around, trying to escape.

  But against an psychic, where could they run?

  With a wave of the man’s hand, the ground rumbled and split open like it was alive.

  It swallowed the two women whole.

  The crack slowly closed, and there was a sickening crunch of bones.

  A pool of blood seeped out.

  The three pregnant women huddled together, as white as ghosts, screaming their heads off.

  “AAAAH...”

  “HAHAHA...” The man cackled like a madman.

  “Relax. Soon there’ll be new chicks joining you.”

  “Crackle, crackle, crackle...”

  A bone-chilling laugh rang out, echoing in the cave, like a vengeful spirit.

  “Ah... A ghost!”

  One of the women fainted dead away, eyes rolling back.

  The other two covered their ears and cowered in the corner, trembling like leaves.

  “Crackle, crackle, crackle...”

  The eerie laugh kept bouncing off the cave walls, sending shivers down your spine.

  The man’s face went ashen.

  He spun around, looking for the source.

  “Who is it? Who’s playing games? Come out, or I’ll make you sorry.”

  No one answered.

  Just that spine-tingling laugh.

  “Crackle, crackle, crackle...”

  The man couldn’t help but shudder.

  His hair stood on end.

  He lifted his foot, ready to bolt.

  Just then, from the blood-soaked ground where the two women had just vanished, a skeletal hand like a dead branch shot out of the earth.

  The man’s face drained of color.

  His pupils were saucers of horror, and his lips quivered.