Moving slowly across the land. Through the grass and sycamore trees. Something stirs. There is a rumbling the night. In the distance, the people of Town hear a grinding of bones. Bone upon bone. Creaking, snapping. The whip of sinews, muscles tearing, flesh rotting, cracking, scraping along. The sounds are getting closer. Oh so closer.
The people of Town are barricaded in the their homes. In the resturants. Movie theaters. Churches. The windows barred. The doors reinforced. Shot guns ready. The people of Town know what is coming. They know what the sounds are in the distance. The eerie moans. Groans. Moos. If one listens closely, you could even hear ghastly whispers calling in the dead of night, GRRAASSSS. GRAAAASSSS.
The wind is calm. The night is still. Everyone waits for the attack. For the onslaught is coming. The phalanx of bovine monsters approach. Wanting only one thing. To kill, to devour, to consume, every blade of glass that they can get.
Yes, the zombie cows are here. No one knows why cows, dead, have become reanimated. But, by some mysterious force unknown to man, the dead cows are once again, alive.
Through the dirt, the raw earth, skeletons of cows long dead break through. Carcasses recently dead, suddenly are awake with movement. And just a bolt of lightning splits the night sky, the horrific sounds of mooing echoes across the farmlands of Town. And all around the corn fields, the vegetable patches, buried deep within the soil, the feet, the heads, the tails, arise, take life once again.
Some finding this sight too disturbing often flee. While others investigate, only to find the stench, the wretched stench to be overpowering. Overwhelming. Darn right stinky.
Covering her mouth with her apron, one brave Townsian, Lucy Pepper, witnesses a scene she never imagined possible. Her beloved Beulah moving towards her. Petrified by the sight of her beloved cow moving toward her at a slow, unnatural pace, brave Lucy froze. Not sure of what to do. What to say.... other than"Beulah? Oh my heavens. Beulah. You, you've been dead nearly five years now. How in the heavens have you come back?"
But before the heavens could answer, this poor Townsian is attacked. Mauled by once loving and tender Beulah. Beulah's jaw, still strong after all this time, sinks deep into Lucy's thigh. A scream. A yelp. Lucy struggles and is able to break away. Lucy falls to the ground. Stumbles, and climbs back up to her feet. Wobbling, she turns to see Beulah, gnawing at the grass where she once stood. Lucy ponders, stares, silently asking herself why her beloved Beulah would attack. And just as Lucy once again starts to remember the tenderness that this loving cow once gave her, Beulah looks up at her. Then down at her feet. And with a red glow in her eyes, Beulah starts lumbering towards Lucy, making a rasping sound that Lucy is convinced said "grass."
The mysterious disease spread quickly. Farmers began to notice that live cows became infected, and slowly turned into zombies themselves. While people who were bitten by the zombie cows seemed prone to repeat attacks.
One scientist explained that once a human is bit by a zombie cow, the cow mistakenly sees this person for a large pile of grass. Confused, bewildered, the zombie cows will continue to gnaw, bite, and graze on a victim until there is nothing left.
Poor Lucy found this out the hard way. Poor Lucy Pepper is sadly, no more. No more than chewed up bone, muscle....
News of the zombie cows from the farmlands outside of Town began to spread. Wild stories ranging from zombie humans to alien acrobatics came flooding into Town. But it wasn't until old Zeek Jeeter, whose old shack sat right on the outskirts of Town, was attacked and killed by the zombie cows did the Mayor, Jebediah Smith, declare a Townsian National Emergency.
"I am sorry to declare that Town is once again under attack. It seems like our cow population has gotten stick. Been transformed into something, well, I don't like to say. The cows are dangerous. And folks need to lock themselves inside. Until we can find a way to stop them, stay away from any cow you see. "
And so, the scourge of the zombie cows began. Townsians scrambling here and there. For food. For shelter. For understanding and insight into this bizarre and strange phenomenon. In the boarded houses. In the city streets. One could hear the wicked, yet familiar moos, as the zombie cows continued their search for more grass.
Lawns were stripped to bare earth. Houses and buildings turned over as large hordes of zombie cows searched for their precious grass. Hand Park was left in utter ruin. And Green Thumb gardens would have been lost forever if it weren't for a courageous alien gardener, Xxthiac the Zan, who was able to fend off scores of cows from eating the mysterious and rare alien plants, by using banned alien weaponry. Xxthiac was later acquitted for his use of the banned alien weaponry, used to enslave the people of Town in 1929. But his armory was confiscated and he was unceremoniously stripped of his Master Gardener position. He can be found occasionally mowing lawns for people. But despite his bravery, he is rarely seen in the public eye.
Through the weeks that the zombie cows infested Town, we lost many good Townsians. In the end, the people of Town prevailed. The zombie cows, as mysteriously as they had appeared, suddenly began to whither. Die again. Their bones collapsing. Falling back to the earth that had miraculously, reanimated these dead creatures. Cautiously, new cows were brought into Town one at a time, to see if the zombie plague was still here. Years passed, and the cow population eventually returned to normal. The dairy farmers returned to their livelihood. The people of Town once again had milk for their cereal and butter for their toast that could be eaten and enjoyed as if it had never been under threat.
Sadly, the story of the zombie cows is often forgotten in the annals of Town's history. While many of the older residents of Town urge the younger generations to never forget this harrowing tale, the younger generations just go about eating and drinking dairy products as if nothing had ever happened.
Still, some Townsians will never truly look at a cow the same way. For even now, when one drives into the vast grazing fields, now replenished and abundant with grass and cows, you might just see a cow look up at you. Glance down at your feet. And in this moment you might see a flicker of red in the cow's eye. And just for a moment, hear a slight murmur, a rasp in the air around you, calling, crying, screaming,.... GRASSSS.