An ongoing series of non-sequential fictional shorts
Vampire Zombies from Venus
The well-worn book had been dog-eared on nearly every page. That’s not to say that every page had something significant on it. It had simply been passed from hand to hand so many times and the grit and grime of so many readings had been deposited on it that readers felt comfortable abusing the tome’s pages as they saw fit.
A space ship that looked disturbingly like a toiled plunger landed in Central Park in New York City (because it’s either there or Tokyo), a door opened at the bottom of the object and out came vampire zombies, that ended up consuming most of the people in Manhattan until a scientist came up with a unique countermeasure. That’s the plot of Vampire Zombies from Venus in a nutshell.
The science fiction novel had a number of homes over two years. It rested on the shelf in the privy, on a table in the plywood mess hall, buttressed by green sand bags and it ended up on my desk. My desk sits in a windowless bunker astride a ridge on the Afghan side of the Hindu Kush. The nearest city is Chitral, Pakistan and that’s about thirty-five miles as the bird flies, and at least one hundred miles on foot. I am a squatter in what is presently the home of the 4th Brigade Combat Team. To break it down for your further, this outpost is currently manned by B Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment. But I’m not with them. I’m currently a first lieutenant, detached to 4th BCT from the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command.
People have asked how I ended up with a brigade combat team literally in the middle of nowhere, taking mortar fire inside the perimeter almost every single night. I tell them that I’m a lean, green, fighting machine ROTC graduate and that I volunteered for the toughest that the US Army could throw at me.
Yes, I lie. While a second lieutenant on leave from my cushy Pentagon job where all I did was fetch doughnuts and brew coffee, I met a lady who I became romantically involved with. No, I didn’t know at the time that she was a major general’s young trophy wife. When she tearfully announced her intentions to leave him, his response was not directed at her in any way. He didn’t want the public scandal and I took it like a man. So I’m reading Vampire Zombies from Venus, looking forward to the next MRE meal. The great thing about the Meal-Ready-to-Eat is that the pre-packaged rations are designed to last at least as long as a Twinkie – which is to say that I will die of old age before they do.
Yes, I lie. While a second lieutenant on leave from my cushy Pentagon job where all I did was fetch doughnuts and brew coffee, I met a lady who I became romantically involved with. No, I didn’t know at the time that she was a major general’s young trophy wife. When she tearfully announced her intentions to leave him, his response was not directed at her in any way. He didn’t want the public scandal and I took it like a man. So I’m reading Vampire Zombies from Venus, looking forward to the next MRE meal. The great thing about the Meal-Ready-to-Eat is that the pre-packaged rations are designed to last at least as long as a Twinkie – which is to say that I will die of old age before they do.
Frankly, I’m trying to make the best of it. The next book has an unusual title, Imperivm Neptvni Regis, (The Empire of King Neptune). I’ve been trying to get The Grey Man, but the grunts keep taking it on patrol and passing it around. It’s like trying to pry a bone away from a pit bull. I can’t get too nasty about it and pull rank because they cover my sorry ass when I go out beyond the wire to win the hearts and minds of people who really hate us.
I thought that I was tough. Not hardly, at least not then, when I graduated from the University of Virginia’s ROTC program. Maybe now, after two years in this hell hole? I’m not the one to judge. Introspection doesn’t work when you’re trying to evaluate toughness. Toughness is earned. It has to be earned. You can be naturally smart and naturally athletic. You can be born with every advantage. But when you’re getting shot at, none of that matters. All that matters is the work you’ve put in, the skill you’ve acquired, and your willingness to fight though it all and never quit, no matter what. When I’m taking my turn on the wire and shoot the people whose love I’ve been trying to garner (who are in turn shooting at me), I feel more vulnerable than tough. While I hunker in the bunker, I have Vampire Zombies from Venus to keep me company.
And I wax philosophical these days. I realize that back home, the nation is working hard to raise a generation of weaklings. Kids aren’t allowed to lose so there is a trophy for everyone. Hurtful words are now being equated to physical violence, which is comical. We go to war and half of one percent of the population answers the call over eleven years. Taxes are not increased to cover the two wars we were engaged in so the average citizen doesn’t suffer at all. Politicians connive to borrow money instead of allowing the people to feel the economic pain of war. To be honest with you, I didn’t get it until the Chinook dumped me and some crates of ammo and food off the ramp here on this ridge. Being here has a way of clarifying things far better than being a coffee and doughnut officer, living in the Pentagon’s bachelor officer’s quarters and banging a general’s hot wife.
There is no alcohol allowed in Afghanistan because it’s a Muslim country and its mere presence offends our gracious hosts. As an officer and the outsider with B Company, I am tasked with enforcing the regulation. Before it was B Company, there was E Company. My tenure transcends their rotations. Therefore I maintain the still. My family is from Richmond and even though Southerners are all supposed to know how to make bootleg hooch, it took a young private from Kentucky to construct the machine and show me how to turn canned corn into something truly amazing.
There is something transcendent about being drunk on white lightning in a windowless bunker in the Hindu Kush, taking mortar rounds and reading Vampire Zombies from Venus for the fifty-third time – knowing that if I’m caught running a still, any place they put me including the military prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas will be a step up.
Night is coming, the patrol is coming in carefully. There has been no sniper fire today, which is why we expect a heavy shellacking from 120mm mortars tonight.
“Hey LT!”
“Yeah?”
“You got Vampire Zombies from Venus?”
“Yeah.”
“Swap me for The Grey Man and a jar of pop skull?”
“Fucking urah.”
The Grey Man Vignettes by Jim Curtis (Old NFO) is available on Amazon.com
Continued with “FEEDING HAJI“
Thank you sir, one helluva story to get there too… 🙂
Vastly looking forward to more Vampire Zombies from Venus and like the way they consume "The Island." Nice work.
Earned homage.
You never weep when Vampire Zombies eat New York or when Godzilla smashes Tokyo. We as humans create art where that happens over – and over – and over.
I, 'er, 'uh . . . .
I suspect that you expected brain sucking aliens or some sort of 'unholy' probing going on, which seems to happen with disturbing regularity in reported encounters.
I took the story in a different direction.
The world can always use more stories about vampire zombies from Venus. Yours will, of course, be the standard by which all others are judged.
Covered all the bases with this one…. outstanding!
Who doesn't love Vampires and Zombies? If I could call a Mulligan and a do-over I would have made them Amazon Vampire Zombies from Venus. But that ship has sailed. Tall, blonde Wagnerian female Valkyrie zombies with brass braziers, horns on their helmets holding spears and billhooks…my gosh it would have been magnificent…if only.
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.” ― John Greenleaf Whittier,
I didn't include a Jack Russell Terrier that needed to go out and piddle while hot steel was raining in… And we know how Jack Russells get when they want something and you deny it. The dog would have torn Vampire Zombies to pieces as soon as our hero had his back turned.
In a most lady like voice she said…. "Damn Straight"
"Who doesn't love Vampires and Zombies?"
I know! Right? I can do without the namby-pamby vampires from Twilight, but good, solid, Amazon vampire zombies from Venus, that is unbeatable.
The Twilight Vampires are there mating with humans when they should be draining them of their blood…most unseemly.
;^)
I am in awe.
Read Part 2 – feeding Haji…
A book I really enjoyed and look forward to the sequel. The vampire book would have been used as t/p in the latrine as far as I am concerned. BZ Jim.
Will you remember me when you're famous?
Excellent.
Thank you for your review and thank you for reading.
Yes, in the old days. Today the US Military has Charmin…softer and more pleasing on the tush – – likely the product of a sexually integrated fighting force.
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