Zombie Rights
an excerpt

Chapter 1

Zeek Bradson was the perfect son. He was athletic, intelligent, creative, all that a mother could ask for and more. He had been captain of his high school football team, valedictorian, and the heart-throb of every girl in school. He was all of these things. That is, until he was hit by a car the day after graduation.
Zeek Bradson is the hero of this tale of fitting in, in a strange, new place. Even though he is dead, he still has a lot of life in him today, but, why? After all, he has been “six feet under” for five years now. So, why is he so full of life right now you ask? Well, he’s about to get a second chance at life. Well, sort of.

The year is 1996. The U.S.T.U. (Underworld Science and Technology Unit) finally is able to break through and create a way to send the dead back to the realm of the living. Five guinea pigs had been found to test out this new technology. They were to return to Earth, and, once again, become functioning members of society. It was an experiment of dangerous proportions. And Zeek Bradson was the first to volunteer.

“Mom,” said Zeek, “I told you a thousand times, I’m going to do this and you can’t stop me!”
“Oh, I’m sorry honey,” said Mrs.Bradson worriedly, “I just can’t cope with the fact that my little Zeeky-poo is all grown up and is going to leave us.”
“Now, now dear,” said Mr.Bradson, “Zeek will be just fine, the scientists have assured us that nothing can go wrong. They already sent up some animals to test it out, they came back like they were never dead.”
“Oh, I’m still not convinced.”
“Mom, it’ll be fine,” Zeek reassured her, “Now, I need to be off in a minute or I’ll miss the only boat across Styx.”
“Do you have everything?” asked Mrs.Bradson.
“Yes Mom.”
“Clean underwear, socks, clothes, stain-remover, books, and Mr.Cuddles?”
Zeek sighed; he was sort of embarrassed to bring Mr.Cuddles along. Mr.Cuddles was a teddy bear that Zeek had when he was little. It was unfortunately caught outside when his father was mowing the lawn one afternoon, and Mr.Cuddles ended up in the underworld, brand new.
“I have Mr.Cuddles right here Mom.” Zeek said, holding up his little teddy bear.
“Well son,” said Mr.Bradson, “I guess this is goodbye.”
“Yeah….I guess your right.” Zeek said sullenly. It had only been a couple of years since his parents had died in a fire, but before then, every moment without them was misery. And now, he couldn’t think of not seeing them for God knows how long.
“Write to us every day!” sobbed Mrs.Bradson.
“I will Mom,” Said Zeek, as a tear rolled down his cheek, “Now don’t miss me too much now, okay?”
“We’ll never stop missing you son.” Said Mr.Bradson, “Now go, catch your boat before your Mother tries to stop you again.”
Zeek smiled, and got onto the boat. Leaving all he had known for the last five years behind.

Chapter 2

“Welcome to the River Styx boat service, your source for all the Underworld transportation for over 1800 years.” An announcement made at the docks.
The announcements were always the same, they were either welcoming you, or they were bragging about how long they had been in business. (The truth of the matter was that the only reason they had been in business was because there were no other transports to the Underworld, or, in Zeek’s case, Earth.)
Zeek was sitting on a bench at the docks, waiting for his boat, when he was approached by a tall, slender, beautiful, young woman.
“Um, excuse me,” she said nervously,”May I sit here?”
“Um, sure, go right ahead.” Zeek said, half-wittedly. He was in total awe by her beauty.
Now, I don’t know what you think you look like when you’re a spirit in the Underworld, but let me tell you, you don’t look bad. In fact, you come back looking better than you did when you were alive, like having a photo of you airbrushed by a computer, and then you looking like the airbrushed photo.
“Hi,” she said, “I’m Kathy Shingle.”
“I’m Zeek Bradson, nice to meet you.” Zeek said, his thought slowly returning, “So, did you just arrive here?”
“No, actually I’m part of an experiment where some of us can return to Earth to get back a normal life style.”
“Really? I’m also in that experiment! How cool is this?”
“Oh really? This experiment just sounded like a good thing to do, I’d see my friends again, get a new job, just start over.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean! Except, I want to get my old life back. I had it pretty good when I was alive.”
“Oh, I was poor, I lived in an orphanage with insane children, I had to home, and they threw me out onto the street when I was eleven when they ran out of room in the orphanage. I was forced to get a low paying factory job. It wasn’t so good from there. So, how did you die?”
“I was hit by a car. Hurt for a minute, but I was dead soon after. What about you?”
“It was pneumonia for me; I suffered for about a week and died. They didn’t even bother burying a proper grave; they just dug a small hole and chucked me in. Not exactly the best funeral.”
Zeek laughed, it wasn’t really because it was funny, but it was more of a nervous laugh.
“I’m sorry. I’m just nervous. I can’t wait to get onto the boat and get back to the living world.”
“I know how you feel. I’m nervous too.”
“Excuse me,” someone else said coming up to them, “Are you two waiting to go to Earth too?”
“Yes, I take it you are too?” said Zeek.
“Yeah, I’m Héctor Candelario. And you two are?”
“I’m Zeek.”
“I’m single!” said Kathy.
“She’s Kathy.” Said Zeek.
“Well Kathy, I hope you see more of you some time later.” Héctor said winking.
Suddenly, two more people came up, a man, and a woman.
“Is there room for two more on that bench?” said the man.
“Certainly,” said Zeek, “I’m Zeek, this is Kathy, and this is Héctor.”
“I’m Gomer, and this is my wife, Nilda.” said Gomer.
The woman nodded clutching the arm of Gomer.
“Nilda here is mute. I hope you understand that she’s very clingy with me and doesn’t like other people near her. So, please keep your distance with her.” said Gomer.
“Well, I guess this is everyone.” said Zeek.
“I hope I can start over again.” said Kathy.
“I hope the ladies don’t mind that I’ve been dead for a few years.” said Héctor.
“I hope we can find a nice home.” said Gomer.
“I just hope our friends aren’t afraid of us because we’ve come back from the dead.” Said Zeek
“Attention, attention! The boat across Styx to Earth is now arriving, will those selected passengers please board.” said the loudspeaker.
“This is it.” said Gomer, as he and Nilda stepped onto the boat.
“See you all on the other side.” said Kathy weeping with joy, she too stepping onto the boat.
“See you in a minute.” said Héctor, leaping onto the boat.
“Goodbye Underworld, I’ll miss you.” smiled Zeek as he gripped Mr.Cuddles and stepped onto the boat to his new life.

When they got off the boat, they all took a good stretch, before breaking open their coffins, and digging their way out of their graves.

Chapter 3

Mr.Smith was tired from a long day at work. He had filed all the papers needed, sucked up to the boss, yelled at some underlings, and received his paycheck. He was a plain and boring man. And he would have never guessed that he would be the one to spot Zeek and the others rising from the grave.
He was walking past the cemetery, tired and hungry, think about all the people he would yell at, and all the files he would file the next day, when he noticed something very odd. There was an arm poking out of the ground of Zeek Bradson grave.
Well, being a man of high intelligence-or so he thought-he knew that arms shouldn’t be sticking out of graves. So, he decided to see if he could put the arm back in. So, he walked over casually and grabbed the hand of the arm and tried to push it back into the dirt. When it did something much unexpected, it grabbed his wrist and started to pull.
Needless to say that Mr.Smith was very frightened and tried to pull his arm out of the grasp. In his pulling, a head came out of the grave, then a torso and another arm. Before Mr.Smith knew it, a rotting corpse just came out of the ground with his help.
The corpse stood upright and stretched. Then he picked up the suitcase that was in the coffin with him and put a teddy bear he was holding back into it.
“Wow, five years in a coffin can really hurt. Thank you for pulling me out, I probably would have been stuck for a while if it weren’t for you.” said the corpse.
Mr.Smith was too frightened to speak.
“Oh, how rude of me, I’m Zeek Bradson, I didn’t catch your name though.” The corpse continued, extending a hand.
“M-m-m-MINISTER LOWE!!” Mr.Smith screamed, dropping everything he was holding, he ran for the church.
Kathy soon followed Zeek in rising from the grave.
“What was that all about?” asked Kathy.
Héctor had managed to pull himself up now.
“I believe he was frightened because we have just risen from the dead.” Héctor said smoothly.
“Well, whatever it is,” Gomer said as he was trying to pull Nilda out of her grave, “I hope everyone isn’t like that.”
“I really wouldn’t count on that Gomer.” Kathy mumbled.
“Well, whatever it is, we had better get ourselves cleaned up. Everyone brought new clothes to change into right?” Zeek said, taking charge.
They all mumbled in agreement.
“Good,” Zeek continued, “So, we need to get changed and-“
“Excuse me,” Héctor interrupted, “But did anyone else, by any chance, notice that we’re rotted?”
All of them looked themselves over.
“Uh-oh,” said Zeek, “This could be bad.”