for a moment. I picked up my backpack and turned away from them, stomping down the hall. Big Jake had been on about that story all week, and each time he rehashed it, the Stiff got bigger, his involvement became more prominent, and the kill became more monumental. It was sickening. I kept replaying the events of that night in my head, counting and recounting the number of Stiffs I had disposed of. One in the forest. The one in the creek bed. One on the way back to Revenant. Not to mention the countless number that I had escaped from. And I had done it on my own. Big Jake had taken down one Stiff, with five Advanced kids holding it down. For all his bluster, anybody could have done what Big Jake had done. I had seen real action, fighting for my life against hordes of Stiffs. And Big Jake was acting like what he had done was the most amazing thing in the world. And I couldn’t even brag about my exploits without risking expulsion.
School days were becoming almost as unbearable as my home confinement.
“Hey, why so terminal?” Trevor met me as I tramped down the hallway.
“Big Jake and his big mouth,” I muttered, shifting the strap of my backpack up on my shoulder.
“I know, man, he’s been on about that Stiff he snuffed all week. I wanted to say something so many times. All he did was stick its brain. Any corpse with brain activity could have done that.”
“Tell me about it,” I answered as we stepped out of the school’s main doors. “I took out three Stiffs that night, and I didn’t have anyone helping me either.”
“Hey, you never did tell me all the gory details. I didn’t want to ask since you seemed so bummed.”
“Yeah.”
“Come on, man. Spill. I’ve been undying to hear about it. What happened with this human?”
“She was hiding out from the Stiffs like me,” I replied. “I tried to bring her into Revenant.”
“Thriller. Man, I would have just left her for Stiff-bait. I guess you are more cut out for human tracking than I am.”
I shook my head. “Not really.”
“What do you mean?”
“I let her escape,” I replied. “Into town.”
Trevor’s eyes went wide. “But you got her. Right?”
I shook my head again and looked away. “She’s still out there. If my mentor finds out that I let her escape. If something happens, I’m Stiff bait. They’ll make me a Stiff. Lock me in the Stockade. What kind of human tracker does that?”
“Hey, come on. Your first night out you took out how many Stiffs? And you even found a human. That’s more than Big Jake and the Advanced kids can say. That’s gotta mean something.”
“I don’t know about that. Finding that human almost got me killed. She brought some Stiff roamers on me. That’s how I ended up with my Frankenstein arm.”
“Listen, just forget it,” Trevor said. “She’s gone. If she’s in town, they’ll catch her.”
“Except then she’ll go to another zone, another community,” I replied. “That was my catch, Trev. I let her escape. And what if she tells them. About how she got there.”
“Got where?”
“The Stockade!” I snapped. “That’s where she hid. That’s how she got away. I couldn’t go after her. My wound was drawing every Stiff inside to me like I was ringing a dinner bell.”
“Wow. That’s insane. That human’s Stiff bait,” Trevor said.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I’ve been thinking about it all week.”
“What do you mean? There’s no way she could survive in the Stockade, Zell. It’s Stiff city! They probably ate her alive.”
“Not if she didn’t draw attention to herself. She could still survive.”
“Zell, this isn’t a human scavenger we’re talking about. It’s a little girl, with nothing to defend herself with. Get real, man. A pack of Stiffs nearly killed you. Think what that horde in the Stockade will do to her.”
“She’s resourceful,” I answered. “It wasn’t the Stiffs that almost killed me, Trev, it was her. She’s smart.”
“Oh, jeez. Don’t tell my your turning into a hum sympathizer now.”
I lashed out at him, pushing him against the side of the school building with a thud and pressing my hands into his shoulders. “Don’t say that,” I hissed.
“Hey, lighten up,” Trevor said, pushing my arms away from him. “Maybe she was smart, but that doesn’t mean much. I don’t care how smart she is. Even if she managed to avoid every Stiff in there, it’s been more than a week. No food or water for a week. Face it, Zell, she’s dead.”
“She had a backpack. Maybe she had supplies. Food and water. She could still be alive.”
“You’re crazy, man. Just let it go.”
“I can’t. It’s my fault. I lost the human. I let her get away. And I lost the other humans at the farm. If she’s still alive, and I could bring her in, maybe that would somehow make up for it. And it would prove that I have a contribution to make.”
“A contribution? What are you talking about?”
“A contribution to the town! To show that I belong here. This is what I was brought here for, what I was awakened for. If I want to stay, I have to prove to my mentor that I belong here, that I’m not dead weight. If I bring her back to zone A alive, my mentor would see that.”
“Don’t be Stiff-brained.” Trevor turned to walk away from me.
I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back toward me. “Hey, I’m serious. I really screwed up. I need to make up for it. If I don’t, I’m as good as dead.”
“How? Even if the human is still alive, even if she’s been hiding out in the Stockade for the last week – what are you gonna do? Break into the Stockade, search the entire prison until you find her, and bring her back to my farm?”
I smirked. “Exactly.”
Trevor tilted his head to the side like it had fallen off the hinges of his neck. “You’re starting to scare me, Zell.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a little scared myself. This isn’t gonna be easy.”
“Knock it off, man. You’re being ridiculous. You can’t go into the Stockade. That’s where Stiffs go to rot. Nobody comes out. Not humans. Not Wakes. Nobody. You can’t. It’s not worth it.”
“It is if she’s still alive.”
“Even if she’s alive it’s not worth it. Man, you’re gonna get yourself killed!”
“No, I’m not. Not if I’m careful. And if you help me.”
Trevor pulled away from me. He pointed his finger at my face. “Now you’re being ridiculous. There’s no way I’m going into the Stockade. I like being undead, thanks.”
“You don’t have to go into the Stockade. I have a plan. If I get the human out, I won’t be able to bring her back to your farm alone on foot. It’s too risky and it’s too long of a walk. She might get away again.”
“Then how? You can’t just bring her on the bus.”
“Your mentor has a cargo van, right? They’ve used it transport humans to other farms or the shambles after they’ve been dressed.”
“I’m not allowed to use it.”
“You’ve driven it before.”
“My mentor taught me how to operate it, but I’ve never actually driven. It’s supposed to be used sparingly. Gas costs too much creds.”
“I’ll pay you back for whatever gas you use.”
“With what?”
“Never mind. My mentor will pay you. Anyway, a human is worth more than the creds it costs for gas anyway.”
“That’s assuming the human isn’t already dead. This is ridiculous, Zell. It won’t work.”
“Yes, it will. If you’ll help me. Come on, man. You owe me for getting me into this mess in the first place. It was your idea to go human tracking.”
“I think you paid me back with what happened on the farm.”
“That’s what I’m trying to make up for. Come on, man, help me out. You wanted to go human tracking. Now we might actually have a chance to bring in a human for our community.”
Trevor ran his hand through his hair, rubbing the top of h
is head, his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and gazed up at me. “If my mentor finds out I’ll be grounded for the rest of my death.”
I grinned. “You’re the best, Trev.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “What do you want me to do?”
“Tonight,” I said. “After curfew. I’ll meet you at the farm.”
“If your mentor finds out that you’re breaking curfew you’ll be dead.”
“He won’t find out. At least not until we get the human.”
“If we get the human.”
“Don’t worry. Anyway, I’ll meet you at the farm. Then we’ll get the van and drive it to the Stockade. I’ll sneak in and find the human and you wait outside for me.”
“Man, I don’t like it,” Trevor said. “If you don’t make it out, what do I do?”
“I’ll make it out. Just have the van waiting for me so we can bring the human back to the farm.”
“This is insane. No zombie in his right mind would break into the Stockade.”
“I guess that says something about us.” I lifted my arm up toward him.
He shook his head. Then he connected his arm with mine. “Just don’t go getting yourself killed.”
That night I prepared for my undertaking. I was nervous. I knew it was a dumb idea. If I told my mentor about the human, he would probably inform the head of zone A’s human tracking commission what had happened. My mentor didn’t have jurisdiction over the Stockade, so zone F’s trackers would have to take care of it. They would probably infiltrate the Stockade and find her with relative ease and safety if she was still alive. But that would mean that the tracking commission would have to be told what had happened. They’d know what I had done, and they would tell the