Zombies in Oz

A Wheeler, from Return to Oz

The ill-fated kickstarter campaign for Ozombie (sponsored by the creators of American McGee’s Alice) notwithstanding, have you ever wondered if there could be zombies in Oz?

I assure you, dear reader, that such a thing can be, but not in the way that you might expect. It requires dark magic, a witch’s blood, and a mechanical construct powered by the magic of the brick roads. Intrigued?

Wheelers and Zombie Bloodsand Warriors

In The Hidden History of Oz, Book One: The Witch Queens, Ondri-baba takes a part of her sandy army south to destroy Glinda and her friends. She creates blood-sand warriors from the magic hourglasses. These bloodsand warriors march on the South Castle, and the small volunteer army led by Omby-Amby, the Soldier with Green Whiskers, and Wickrie-Kells, who leads the Wheeler cavalry.

Wickrie-Kells strapped on her own skates and took the reins of her stand-in Wheeler in her left hand and the trowel-lance in her right. Unfortunately, IgNob had not yet returned from his mission. She would have liked to have him here with her. IgNob had become a trusted friend in these past two weeks. When she saw the sandy warriors charging into the brickwork she shouted and all of her girl warriors shouted with her. The wheelers screeched their eagerness to enter the fray. At the head of her contingent of fighting girls, Wickrie-Kells charged into battle.

A small army of sandy warriors charged at the South Castle. Their continued life had given them some memories of battle. They were not the ignorant clods that their first generation had been. These recognized combat and they had developed some fighting skills.

As soon as the warriors stepped within the grid of brick pathways, the battle began in earnest. They were attacked on all sides by screeching wheelers and flashing trowel-lances. The Wheeler cavalry leaped and bounded across adjoining pathways. Unlike the Winkies, there was not a pattern to the cavalry attack. The Winkies may not have been an overwhelming adversary, but they were consistent and regimented in their attacks. Here, the sandy warriors were at a great disadvantage, for the randomness of the Wheeler cavalry attacks made it impossible for the sandy warriors to implement any sort of strategy against them. These new running attacks crippled half of the warriors before the first five minutes had passed.

From the castle walls, rocks and other projectiles kept the sandy warriors from getting too close. An arm was knocked off or a head was fractured among the sandy ranks. These injuries were from Omby-Amby’s warriors. Though they itched to get into the battle, Omby-Amby held them back as a second wave of infantry. He wanted to see how well the cavalry would do against this unliving foe.

Within another five minutes, all of the sandy warriors had been cut down. Not only had they been cut down, but they had been sufficiently stomped to prevent any more rising.

Wickrie-Kells’ fighting girls stopped and raised a cheer. Their hoorays were met and echoed from the walls of the castle. Then the cheers died immediately in their throats, leaving a gaping void in the air.

“Look lively, lassies!”

On the hill, marching at double-time, dark red sandy warriors came, rank upon rank—far more than had been in the first wave.

Wickrie-Kells felt cold sweat break out on the back of her neck. Nevertheless, she screamed her battle cry and charged her fighting girls forward into battle.

The battle raged. From the nearby Twisted Lighthouse, Glinda raised a mighty storm that lashed rain down upon both friend and foe. The fallen wheelers did not stay fallen long…

The vicious winds whipped the fallen sand around, nearly blinding the wheelers and completely blinding the fighting girls. It blasted their skin raw. Still they kept fighting. Several of the fighting girls had fallen along with their wheelers.

The blood of the fallen mixed with the half-destroyed blood-sand warriors. The wind whipped the bloody sand around, pummeling the fallen wheelers. The bloodsand mixed with the leaking fluids from the fallen wheelers and gave them new life. This blood was a mixture of wicked witch, magic sand, and good soldier. The fresh blood gave life, but it was not able to overcome the wicked purpose of the blood-sand warriors. The broken blood-sand warriors still able to move used this new blood to pack their limbs back on them. They were awkward and lurching, but they had new life.

Two new types of creatures arose—the zombie bloodsand warriors and the bloodsand Wheelers. Neither type of creature maintained a clear vision of what it was supposed to do. The wheelers knew that they were supposed to fight, but so did the bloodsand. The confusion wrought among both the reanimated Wheelers and the blood-sand warriors drove them into madness and they became berserkers, attacking everything.

— The Hidden History of Oz, Book One: The Witch Queens, chapter 26, “The Twisted Lighthouse”

The battle doesn’t go well. But it is not the last battle that the heroes will fight. They rise again to face the combined armies of the Wicked Witches.

A new vision of Oz

All is not as it once was in Oz. With the arrival of a dreamer (the Wizard), everything changes. Nothing stays the same. It is a new future, and a new history, unlike any you have seen before. The Hidden History of Oz crafts a world of action, intrigue, magic, and whimsy to give life to the magical Land of Oz.

Ready for more zombies?

Let me point you to a blog that I follow: Jack Flacco. He is a zombie guru. He keeps a regular schedule of entertaining posts. Most posts tie in to zombies, but there are some recipe posts that don’t fit this standard. A regular feature spotlights strong female characters that would be well-suited to survive a zombie apocalypse. He calls this feature, Women Who Wow Wednesdays. This is the post that got me started. – We’re off to see the Wizard.

The Hidden History of Oz has something for everybody. If you love zombies, there’s a great battle scene for you. If you love adventure, creative heroes, and characters that live on in your imagination, give the Hidden History of Oz series a try. Already love the series? Give it as a gift to a friend.  Share the magic of Oz with those you want to inspire. After all, you never know when the next dreamer may need to save the world from zombies.

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