Derek Goodman - The Reanimation of Edward Schuett

“Well, I’ll tell you something, Edward. There used to be a time when the fucking zeds were ankle deep around here. As I’m sure you saw on your long hike here, that’s not so much anymore. And if I want to continue offering fine quality entertainment, I need more zeds. And that’s something I hear maybe this C-R-S might just have.”

“I’m not so sure they would be so easy for me to get.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll be putting your job on the line and all. I can get why you might be hesitant. But I pay top dollar. Usually I use real money, but I just know I could get some of that plastic monies you have.”

Edward wanted to reach across the table and punch this guy in the face, but this sounded like the kind of deal he could fake easily. He just needed to play along a bit longer. “And all I would need to do is bring you… zeds? Sounds like it would definitely be worth a risk or two, if you really have the kind of money you say you do.”

“Oh, I sure do, Edward, I sure do. I have to, in order to keep all those guys I got out there patrolling the wastelands.”

“They… patrol?”

“All over. As far out as I can send them. What do you say, Edward? I give you a vehicle and maybe you get me a pipeline of zeds?”

“Sure,” he said. “Absolutely.” Anything to get that truck. Anything to get the hell out of this hellhole before it was too late.

Edward had feared for a minute as Billy Horton gave him the keys to a rusty old Ford pickup that it would be like the van, complete with controls and features he didn’t know how to operate. But it was a good old model, probably ugly-looking under the hood from all the jury-rigged parts, but it ran and that was all that mattered. He must have been slipping. He was starting to actually like the sight of Fords.

He gave Horton all the right assurances that he would be in contact soon and took the keys from the man, all the time trying not to act like he was in a hurry. He didn’t know how many men Horton had out there or even if they searched for their zombies anywhere near the van, but he felt now like he was running against a clock.

He sped down the highway as fast as the truck would take him, which unfortunately wasn’t that fast anymore. He ignored the way the truck shimmied horribly with every bump and pothole in the road and how it felt like it might shake apart if it went anything over forty-five. After what felt like too long he saw the van in the ditch, although instead of making him sigh with relief it made him wince. The dust and dirt hadn’t done much at all to keep it from being visible from the road. If anyone else had been along here recently, they had definitely seen it.

He pulled the truck right up next to the ditch and hopped out, leaving the engine running. The van looked exactly as he had left it, but he wasn’t reassured until he scrambled down into the ditch, opened the back door, and saw Liddie sitting there. The smell inside the van was horrible now, and not because of the pheromones. The zombie bowel issue had apparently finally hit her.

“It’s okay, Liddie,” he said. “When you wake back up I will completely deny that this ever happened. Now come on, we need to get out of here right now.” He held his hands out for her to grab so he could help her out, but she just stared at them. Although he didn’t like doing it, he tried giving her a little nudge with the pheromones. All respect for her aside, they didn’t have time to do this the right way. They could have minutes or they could have hours before any of Horton’s men found them, but he had no way of knowing for sure and didn’t plan on risking it.

He must have fumbled a little with his control of the pheromones, because she froze and looked around frantically. He tried again, and this time she came to him. He helped her out, taking just enough time to give her a strong, heartfelt hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Time to get the hell out of Dodge,” Edward said, then held her hand to lead her out of the ditch. He looked up, trying to find a hand hold that she could use too with the right cajoling from him, and instead saw the barrel of a rifle pointed right at him.

The man holding the gun stood in the back of the truck, and the shocked look on his face would have been priceless if not for the threatening way he held the weapon. “Don’t move, freak,” the man said. “Don’t you dare fucking move.”

He kept the rifle pointed at Edward with one hand as he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket with the other. He pressed a button and held it to his ear. “Billy, your guess paid off, but you are never in a million years going to believe the sick shit I just saw…No, he’s got a zed with him, had it hidden out in some abandoned van, but you need…Yeah, I can do that. But hurry up, though. I don’t want to hang around this perverted bastard any longer than I have to.”

He put the phone back in his pocket. “You’re going to be in some deep shit now, you twisted fuck,” he said.

Edward stared at the guy and tried to wrap his head around the situation. It was obvious by now that the man had been in the back of the truck the whole time. Edward had been in too much of a hurry to look back there. But that didn’t make a lot of sense to him.

“What exactly is going on here?” Edward asked. “What are you doing in the back of my truck?”

“Not your truck, fuckstick. This is Billy Horton’s truck.”

“Which he gave to me.”

“Oh, wake the fuck up. He only let you have the truck because he realized there was something seriously fucking wrong with your story. I was up there in the tower with Bert when you came in. What, you think we’re all just dumb fucking hicks that can’t tell which way Denver is? You didn’t come from the south, you came in from the west.”

Edward debated whether or not he should deny it and try to continue on with his cover story. They obviously knew he wasn’t what he said he was, but maybe he could sow enough doubt in this man’s mind that he would let his guard down. After all, he really didn’t want to be still standing here when Horton showed back up.

“That’s because that’s where our research equipment was set up,” Edward said. “I swear to God, I wasn’t lying about any of it. I just want to get this nightmare over with and go home.”

“Really? And what the fuck was that I saw when you let that thing out of the van, huh?”

Edward would have cussed if he didn’t still think there might be a way to get out of this. This man had seen the kiss. Edward looked over at Liddie and tried to decide if she could still pass at all for being alive. She might, he realized, if the man didn’t get too close of a look at her. She was still fresh enough, although if the man got a real close look he might see all the telltale signs that she was a zombie. Of course, no one in their right mind would get that close to zombies. They would go in for the attack if they so much as got a glimpse of a living person.

Which, Edward suddenly realized, was exactly what she had right now. She was looking directly up at the man in the back of the truck, yet she made no move to go after him. Either Edward was holding her back with the pheromones without even realizing it, or there was still enough of her in there to think about the situation and act accordingly. He prayed to God it was the second. Either way, that gave him an idea.

“What the hell do you mean, ‘that thing?’“ he said. “This is Dr. Gates.”

“Bullshit. Do you think I was born yesterday? I know a fucking zed when I see one.”

“How the hell could she be a reanimated?” Edward asked. “If she was, she would be trying to kill both of us by now.”

The man looked confused at that, and he lowered the rifle a little. It was still pointed at Edward, but that was a step in the right direction.