Today we feature a story from an unlikely author of zombie fiction: Catherynne M. Valente.

We at The Zombie Feed are not implying that Mr. Valente would typically not dive into the lifeless flesh of the undead story, just that it’s a nice and unusual direction for her fiction. With “The Days of Flaming Motorcycles” she has once again exhibited that she could well be one of the most versatile writers in speculative fiction. Her work has covered all the genre bases, though it typically lands on dark magic realism. We say check her out at http://www.catherynnevalente.com.

“The Days of Flaming Motorcycles” is a story from the 2010 Apex Publications anthology Dark Faith edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon.

To tell you the truth, my father wasn’t really that much different after he became a zombie.

My mother just wandered off. I think she always wanted to do that, anyway. Just set off walking down the road and never look back. Just like my father always wanted to stop washing his hair and hunker down in the basement and snarling at everyone he met. He chased me and hollered and hit me before. Once, when I stayed out with some boy whose name I can’t even remember, he even bit me. He slapped me and for once I slapped him back, and we did this standing-wrestling thing, trying to hold each other back. Finally, in frustration, he bit me, hard, on the side of my hand. I didn’t know what to do-we just stared at each other, breathing heavily, knowing something really absurd or horrible had just happened, and if we laughed it could be absurd and if we didn’t we’d never get over it. I laughed. But I knew the look in his eye that meant he was coming for me, that glowering, black look, and now it’s the only look he’s got.

Click here to read the rest of “The Days of Flaming Motorcycles.”