nibble, my dear? I’m famished! Very proper with a British accent like that. Somehow making a zombie British made it that much funnier. He would think this was the funniest thing in the world right now. I wish he was still here.”
“I’m sorry,” I offered.
“No you aren’t. You’d have killed my brother the same as the zombies did.”
“Yes I am. I may be a zombie, but I’m not heartless.”
“You’re dead. Your skin is all blue and ugly. And you stink. You need a shower.”
“You don’t exactly smell like a bed of roses yourself, lady. Locking yourself in a room full of piss and shit for a week isn’t exactly the recipe for a fragrant perfume.”
“I was just trying to survive.”
“I thought you wanted to die.”
“No. I want to live. Just by my own rules. Not yours.”
“Why didn’t you leave? The Stockade. Why did you stay?”
“I tried once. That’s when I found the hole in that cell upstairs. I was too scared to try at night when it was too dark, and during the day they’re all awake. I bumped into one when I was trying to get out the front doors and it almost killed me. I was barely able to get back to my closet and hide. I didn’t know what to do.”
“What were you doing in the forest in the first place? Humans never let kids leave the safe zone. The youngest we’ve ever found was an older teenager.”
“My brother and I were looking for our dad. He was a scavenger for our group. He and a few others had been attacked by zombies. The ones who made it back didn’t know if he had survived or not. No one was going to go back for him. So my brother and I did.”
“That was stupid.”
“We didn’t have any other choice. He was all we had.”
“Did you find him?”
“No. We got lost, and stumbled into a bunch of zombies. I hid. But my brother tried to take them out. To protect me. I stayed quiet and hidden and watched as they surrounded him and killed him. I saw them tear him apart while he was still alive. I can still see his flesh being torn from his body, and his screams. I can still hear his screams. And I just watched. I wanted to die then. I still do when I think about it.”
“I’m sorry. Stiffs are merciless. They don’t know any better. Their instincts make them attack anything that even appears living. We aren’t like that.”
“I don’t know what you are,” she replied.
“We’re pretty much the same as you. We’re just trying to survive in this world the same as you are.”
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked.
“We’re going to keep you,” I replied.
“Why? If my brain is no good now that I’m infected, what good am I to you?”
“You know things.”
“What do you mean?”
“About humans. And the safe zone.”
“So you’re going to interrogate me?”
“We’re going to see if you can help us. Or be useful to us. Humans don’t grow on trees.”
“You’ll have to kill me before I tell you anything,” she replied, the edge returning to her face.
“Maybe we will. And then you can become one of us.”
She shook her head slowly, as if it required more energy than she had to offer to swing her head from side to side. “No. You can’t do that.”
“Maybe you should rest,” I suggested.
“What’s your name,” the human interjected.
“Why?”
“I want to know. Do you have a name?”
“Yes,” I replied. “It’s Zellner. My name is Zellner.”
“Zellner. Okay. My name is Morgan.”
“Okay,” I said uncertainly.
“I’m not an animal, Zellner. Even if you want me to be.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You said that we’re pretty much the same. Humans and zombies. Talkers, anyway. I just want you to know the name of the person you are going to do this to. I just want you to know my name.”
“Okay,” I said unevenly.
“I’m tired.”
She rolled onto her side with her front facing the wall. She pulled in her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Goodnight, Zellner.”
I spread my legs in front of me and rested my elbows on me knees, allowing my head to sink. “Goodnight, Morgan,” I mumbled.
And the van rumbled quietly on.
24. LORD OF THE FLIES
The back doors to the van opened, spreading dense moonlight over us. Morgan stirred. I raised my head slowly to gaze forward.
“We’re here,” Trevor whispered from the mouth of the van.
“Finally,” I grumbled. He had stopped a few times on the way back to ask for directions and I had been getting restless cooped up in the back with the girl.
I pulled myself up from the floor of the van, my stiff joints creaking as I did. I moved to Morgan and shook her gently, then harder, until she turned over and looked up at me.
“We’re here,” I said. “Come on.”
I took her arm and hauled her up. She followed me wearily as I led her to the back of the van. Trevor stayed close as I climbed gingerly out of the van and then helped Morgan step down onto the grass outside his mentor’s driveway.
“How is she?” he asked, looking Morgan up and down.
“She’s okay.”
“Was she bitten?”
I nodded.
Trevor sighed. “Then she’s bad stock. What’s my mentor gonna do with her?”
“She’s taken in bad stock before,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, and the last time caused her such a headache that she vowed never to do it again. Man, I don’t know.”
“Let’s let her decide then. Come on, let’s bring her to the barn.”
Trevor consented. He took her other arm and we led Morgan to the barn. We put her in the nearest stall to the front door. Mrs. Kushner had cleaned out the other humans’ stall, but it didn’t seem right to put Morgan in there after what had happened last week.
“It stinks in here,” she complained as we closed the door to the stall and locked it. “And it’s freezing.”
“We’ll get you some blankets,” I said. I turned to Trevor. “Go wake up your mentor and tell her to come here.”
“Why do I have to be the one to tell her? I don’t even know what to say!” Trevor groused.
“Then just tell her to come here and it’s important. I’ll explain everything. And bring some blankets with you,” I instructed him.
“This whole thing is bad news all around. If I get expelled because of this ...”
“You won’t. It was my idea. I’ll take the fall,” I answered.
Trevor, looking unconvinced, turned and left the barn. I exhaled, keeping my back to the stall and gazing out through the doorway at the black sky. I began counting the stars.
“This is disgusting,” Morgan moaned behind me.
“Well, it ain’t the Ritz,” I returned.
“The Ritz?” Morgan asked quizzically.
“I heard it in an old hum movie once,” I replied.
“A hum movie?”
“Human movie.”
“I’ve never seen a movie before in my life. My father used to tell me about them. He used to act them out for us, like he was putting on a one man show.”
“Boy, you really are deprived.”
“My father said that after the Outbreak, the zombies infested all the towns. Most people who got out didn’t manage to bring much with them. Most people didn’t get out.”
I shrugged nonchalantly, my shoulders silently asking: “What can you do?”
“You don’t seem to care much about humans,” Morgan said with chagrin.
“I’m a zombie, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“You used to be human. Don’t you ever wonder about your past life?”
“No.”
“Who you were?”
“No.”
“I guess that makes it ea
sier.”
“What?”
“Is that your name? Your real name? Zellner? Or did you make it up? You don’t even remember your real name, do you?”
“It was my last name as a human. I had an ID card on me when I was zombified.”
“So there is still something human left of you.”
“I’m not human,” I said forcefully.
“You were.”
“Not anymore.” I turned away from her and looked back out toward the field. Trevor was walking toward the barn, Mrs. Kushner behind him in a ratty white bathrobe. He led her into the barn, handing me a worn blanket as he passed me. She stopped as she stepped through the doorway and gazed at me analytically.
“What are you doing here, Zellner?” she asked.
I swallowed. “Mrs. Kushner, I found a human.”
“What are you talking about, young zombie?” she demanded.
I pointed toward the stall. She looked leerily past my hand toward the pen. Morgan sat against the far wall, knees curled up to her chest and arms wrapped around them. Her head was lowered and resting against her forearms.
“Sweet zombie Jesus!” Mrs. Kushner croaked. “Where on earth did this human come from?”
“I tracked her,” I replied. “Last week when I went human tracking, she had escaped and hid in the Stockade. I went back tonight and found her and brought her back.”
She looked at me with frantic eyes. “Don’t you lie to me, zombie child! Tell me the truth. Where did this human come from?”
“That is the truth, Mrs. Kushner,” I said flatly. “I’m sorry, but she got bit by a Stiff at the Stockade. She’s infected. She needs to be cleaned and patched.”
Trevor’s mentor shook her head with slow, steady pulses, then faster, until she he was whipping it back and forth. “Zombie child, you are in very deep trouble. Trevor, get me some water and bring some antibiotics from the house.” She turned to look at me. “Just wait until your mentor hears about this.”
I didn’t have to wait long. After Trevor’s mentor finished