“The following is an excerpt of the recording that was recently released by Dead World Records and has been heavily sampled in recent Zed Head tracts. Please be warned that the sounds are disturbing—including apparent zombie attacks and human screams.
“There is only one section that has distinguishable words near the end of the thirty-eight-minute, twenty-second recording. The voice has not been definitively identified to be Tiny Jones. The two most common interpretations of the section you are about to hear is either ‘The horror of it. They obey the mud music. Death is beautiful.’ Or ‘The whores they obey. The mud music death is beautiful.’ ”
The man stared at the words he had just read for a long moment. When he looked up, there was a black-and-white photo of the side of a trailer. There were painted words on the side that read, “Don’t come looking for us again or we’ll come back for you.” There was an arrow superimposed over the photo pointing at something under the words.
The voice came back on and said, “Section sixty-six.”
The man turned the page and read on, “The following vandalism was found on the trailer on the D. W. Farms property about a week after Kidd Banjo delivered the cassette he claimed was from Tiny Jones. Hollister Z claims the medicine bag hanging from the nail at the bottom of the photograph contained a pair of human testicles among other items such as teeth and fingernails. This was never confirmed and there was no indication of whether or not Tiny died as a result of foul play or from any other cause.
“Other collectors did go into the Appalachian region in search of the secret of the ‘last recording’ of Tiny Jones and the legendary Mud Music despite the sinister warning. Those who claimed to know of the Mud Music told the collectors stories of mystical powers including the power to tame or command zombies with it, of deals with the devil-god of the walking corpses, and of the fact that the source was always to be found somewhere deeper in the hills. No other collectors were able to bring back any recordings of this legendary music either.”
The man stopped and saw a shot of a newspaper with a file picture of Tobias Baker under the headline: Dead World Records Exec Found Butchered in Gray Zone.
The voice said, “Section sixty-seven.”
The man actually said, “When did this happen?”
The voice came back on, “Stop there. I think you’re in the wrong section. Sixty-seven starts with ‘recently.’ See if you can find the spot again.”
The man turned the page, “I have it.”
The voice said, “Begin when ready.”
The man reached for his glass, but realized it was empty. He went ahead and started. “Recently, Tobias Baker, cofounder of Dead World Records Incorporated, was granted an unprecedented clearance for a manned expedition into Gray Zone Four, one of two uncleared areas deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Contact with radio and GPS were lost on the second day of the expedition. Aerial searches did not reveal the location of the expedition nor evidence to their whereabouts. Three days after the expedition was scheduled to end, Border Patrol claims seven men began approaching the gates from inside Zone Four. It wasn’t until they were within ten feet and had not identified themselves that they were identified as zombies. The guards opened fire. The Border Patrol claims the zombies placed one severed head each on the ground by the gate. The seven zombies then returned to the woods despite taking heavy fire. Cameras at the gate malfunctioned before this alleged event and sources asked to remain unnamed.
“Upon inspection, the seven heads proved to be zombified and active. Officials were called in. The heads were deactivated using surgical lasers. They were then placed in secure cases using robots.
“It has been confirmed that six of the heads belonged to the members of the ill-fated D. W. R. expedition including Tobias Baker. The seventh head, which was considerably more decayed and missing all its teeth, has not.
“An unconfirmed rumor on Internet America claims the head is that of Tiny Jones. DNA samples are unavailable and the R. U. S. agency involved has not commented.
“Hollister Z, cofounder of Dead World Records Incorporated, has been unavailable for comment.
“The following is an unconfirmed voice-mail recording that surfaced on Internet America two days before the heads were found. Be warned that this recording contains graphic details of decapitation and dismemberment. It is quite disturbing.”
The man stopped and looked up at a picture of a decayed, severed head in a thick plastic case.
The voice said, “Begin with section sixty-eight when you are ready.”
“I think I need a break. I’m out of water,” the man said as he stared at the screen.
There was a long pause. He was about to repeat his request when there was a click in his headphones and a drawn out hiss of an open mic. He waited a little longer and then thought he heard distant whispers in the background. He listened as he looked at the severed head on the screen in front of him. Then a voice came on and said, “When it is time, we will get you.”
The screen went blank and the room was completely dark.
“What?” the man asked with a rush of fear.
The voice repeated, “We will break for about ten minutes. When it is time, we will come get you.”
After another couple seconds, his eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room.
The man removed his headphones and walked toward the door in the dark.
Iphigenia in Aulis
Mike Carey
Her name is Melanie. It means “the black girl,” from an ancient Greek word, but her skin is mostly very fair so she thinks maybe it’s not such a good name for her. Miss Justineau assigns names from a big list: new children get the top name on the boys’ list or the top name on the girls’ list, and that, Miss Justineau says, is that.
Melanie is ten years old, and she has skin like a princess in a fairy tale: skin as white as snow. So she knows that when she grows up she’ll be beautiful, with princes falling over themselves to climb her tower and rescue her.
Assuming, of course, that she has a tower.
In the meantime, she has the cell, the corridor, the classroom and the shower room.
The cell is small and square. It has a bed, a chair and a table in it.
On the walls there are pictures: in Melanie’s cell, a picture of a field of flowers and a picture of a woman dancing. Sometimes they move the children around, so Melanie knows that there are different pictures in each cell. She used to have a horse in a meadow and a big mountain with snow on the top, which she liked better.
The corridor has twenty doors on the left-hand side and eighteen doors on the right-hand side (because the cupboards don’t really count); also it has a door at either end. The door at the classroom end is red. It leads to the classroom (duh!). The door at the other end is bare gray steel on this side but once when Melanie was being taken back to her cell she peeped through the door, which had accidentally been left open, and saw that on the other side it’s got lots of bolts and locks and a box with numbers on it. She wasn’t supposed to see, and Sergeant said, “Little bitch has got way too many eyes on her,” but she saw, and she remembers.
She listens, too, and from overheard conversations she has a sense of this place in relation to other places she hasn’t ever seen. This place is the block. Outside the block is the base. Outside the base is the Eastern Stretch, or the Dispute Stretch. It’s all good as far as Kansas, and then it gets real bad, real quick. East of Kansas, there’s monsters everywhere and they’ll follow you for a hundred miles if they smell you, and then they’ll eat you. Melanie is glad that she lives in the block, where she’s safe.