Zombies! (Episode 5): Sinners and Saints Read Free Page B

had the unpopular task of checking the stock this afternoon. They had to pick out six or seven of the best and worst specimens and pull them from the pen so they could be prepared for the night's show. Of all of the things that Leron had to do as part of this enterprise, this was the worst. But someone had to do it.
     
     
    The two of them were dressed from head to toe in thick dark clothing. They wore at least three layers. It helped to hide their scent which seemed to keep the zombies fairly docile while they were being moved. Ski masks made breathing a bit harder but cut down on the smell; oddly enough, Leron didn't mind the smell so much. They wore goggles and gloves and high laced up boots. In addition, the zombies themselves had their hands bound behind their backs and rubber balls tied into their mouths. No one took any chances.
     
     
    The pen seemed crowded but they knew that they had barely enough zombies for the night. They had twenty two, a mixture of races and genders and ages. Some of the really sick bastards liked to get into the ring with children. From what Leron had heard, fighting the children was harder because they were kind of wiry. And that's what this was all about. Fighting zombies. The Ultimate Zombie Fighting Championship . When Marcus had first come up with the plan, Leron had thought it was stupid. Of course, he thought most of Marcus' ideas were stupid. Then again, Marcus was wildly successful in just about everything he did while Leron had pretty much been living in his shadow ever since they'd met.
     
     
    So Marcus had told him to go out and find a zombie, see if it was all true. That was weeks ago and Leron had laughed at him. What the hell are we gonna do with a zombie? But he'd done as Marcus asked because all of Marcus' stupid plans made money. Then Marcus had asked him to find a warehouse. So he'd done that. Leron could find almost anything but never had the money or the knowledge to acquire it. Actually, now that he thought about it, he and Marcus made a decent team. Yeah, that's what they were! A team!
     
     
    Marcus told Leron that he thought morons would want to show off their bravado and get into the ring with zombies. It would be kind of like Fight Club , everyday blue and white collar nobodies grabbing for a few minutes of glory in vanquishing the undead. And for every guy that wanted to get into the ring, there would be a hundred other guys who would pay just to watch. Ticket sales alone would hold up their enterprise, but the intake from the betting would be more than they'd ever seen before.
     
     
    Marcus was their chief investor, which spared him from this kind of work. Leron didn't really care. He was more than happy to do the dirty jobs and collect on the profits. Well, he was more than happy to collect on the profits. These dirty jobs was dirtier than most and he was finding that he didn't really have the stomach for it. Literally. Every time he had to go into the pen, he wound up puking afterwards.
     
     
    This was going to be their third weekend. The first had seemed like a bust. They'd managed to drum up some interest with the gang sect. It was made into an initiation, which didn't make Marcus happy. But the fights were real and as the word spread, more and more guys showed up with money in their hands. That first Friday night had been dead (ha ha). They'd taken a huge loss. But by Saturday night they were getting people who wouldn't normally even watch stories of that neighborhood on the news. Leron took great pleasure in the guilty expressions on the faces of all of the Wall Street white guys. He imagined they had the same looks on their faces while huddled in the corners of their apartments scrolling through page after page of internet porn.
     
     
    Toby stood by the door to the cage with a prod while Leron went inside. The zombies all looked up as the door squeaked open. That awful low moan came from some of them. It was muffled by the rubber balls but the