EXTRACT FOR
Mutation
(Kelly Addams)

Even in the half-light Jennifer could see that the girl was stunning.

Slumped behind the smashed sales counter the zombie clutched a small perfume spray to her breast and rocked slowly back and forth. Her thumb shifted and scent surrounded her as she moaned softly. On her finger was a band of gold featuring a ring of tiny diamonds that sparkled in the moonlight, somehow Jennifer found it very odd, she'd never known a zombie to have retained any jewellery... but maybe it's because I never really looked before she admitted, then pushed the ring from her mind as she concentrated more on the girl.

Jennifer didn't recognise her but still knew exactly what she was, or had been.

One of those arrogant and ignorant beauties she chuckled inside as she pictured the shop girls that used to stand behind the counters, so beautiful, so aloof.

Now I have to plan she thought stepping back as quietly as she could and glancing around to ensure that she really was all alone.

Satisfied she hunted quickly through the post looting carnage, grinning to find a length of flexible electrical cable. Now to catch myself a hot zombie girl she giggled silently as she formed a loose noose on one end of the cable.

Turning she grinned again, she had been either spotted or sensed because the still pretty girl had stood, abandoning her perfume, now more intent on biting. Arms stretched out she shuffled awkwardly. Jennifer laughed softly as she stepped forward and deftly slipped the noose over grasping fingers, pulling the knot up tight around a slim cold wrist before ducking aside. Quickly she skipped behind the girl dragging the captured arm to her side.

So easy she gasped as she reached around and grasped the free wrist tugging the arm back sharply before binding both wrists together behind the zombie girl's back. 

"And now you are mine." she declared triumphantly, stepping back in front of her captive, taking her in from head to toe.

"Oh you are hot." she giggled, "Or at least you were hot, years ago. But you are still perfect in my eyes."

How long has she been in here? Jennifer asked herself. Her clothes were almost clean, her hair too. And because of the perfume she hadn't the usual aroma of decay and corruption surrounding her.

Has she ever been outside? Jennifer stared in amazement, the girl was still wearing high heels, black patent leather heels.

Had Jennifer known the girl's past she would have understood more. After the looting she had returned to her old station, still dressed for work, hoping beyond hope that sense would return to the world. It was then that she felt the hall beginning to spin, she heard the front doors slamming, the managements small attempt to save what little remained of their valuable stock. The sales girl had been unable to prevent the fall, and crumpling to the ground behind her counter the virus had stopped her heart and squeezed her lungs.

Those had been her last memories, lost the moment that her cold heart had been forced back into a state of flux, not really alive, but certainly not dead. And there she had remained, unaware of passing time or the other zombies that occasionally shuffled past her counter.

Now she had sensed something different, a warmth and an aroma that triggered desires deeply buried and primal. Suddenly she felt a hunger upon her, the need to feed. And so she had stepped from her small world behind the counter for the first time, and on unsteady legs she had launched a shuffling and clumsy attack.