Derek Goodman - The Reanimation of Edward Schuett

“Not yet,” Rae said. “How long do we have before they get here?”

“I don’t know. A couple minutes, maybe? They’re waiting outside the south part of town, just far enough away that the patrols wouldn’t see them. I was supposed to give them another call once you and Schuett got back, and they would ambush the place. When I don’t call in, they’ll realize something is wrong.”

“Do we still have the phone?” Rae asked Cory.

He indicated the phone where it sat next to a register. “Right there. How do you want to play this?”

Rae looked back at Larissa. “Was there any other situation where you were supposed to call them?”

“Um. Uh, yeah, there was. If it looked like you were going to stay at the library for much longer, they were going to reposition and take you there.”

“I’m hoping you mean they were going to try taking us alive,” Edward said.

“Only Rae and the others. You that woman wants dead. They’ve got instructions to aim for the head. They never said anything about the old man, but I guess they don’t care what happens to him.”

“They will once they see what’s at the library,” Rae said. “But we can use that as our distraction.”

“But my research!” Dr. Bloss said. “Letting them have any of it would be like letting a child use a precisely tuned guitar as a hammer for smashing protons.”

“Doctor, I don’t think that actually made sense,” Edward said.

“Of course it does.”

“I’m sorry, Doc,” Rae said, “but it’s either sacrifice everything you have at the library or let them catch us. Cory, hand me the phone.” He gave her the phone, and Rae held it near Larissa’s ear. “Stop crying, and don’t do anything else to tip them off. You’re going to tell them that me and Edward are planning to stick around the library for another hour or so. If you do what we say, we won’t fill that empty little head of yours with bullets before we leave. Got it?”

She nodded, but before Rae could press the call button Edward grabbed her by the wrist.

“What is it?” Rae asked.

He could smell it all around them. That distinctive scent of meat, of prey, of everything that was other than him. “It’s too late. They’re here.”

“Everyone, get low!” Rae said. The ducked down by the counter, but there they could probably still be seen outside through the broken windows. It wasn’t just the smell now. Edward could hear movement all around them, the shuffling of fabric or the rustle of walking through tall grass.

“Larissa, how many people are out there?” Rae whispered.

“I don’t know. No one told me.”

Edward closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Twenty…twenty-four…no, twenty five. I think. Some of them might be farther away than I can smell.”

“Okay, that is just creepy,” Jojo said.

“Can you tell where they are?” Rae asked.

“No, not exactly. They’re spread all around.”

“No areas where they have more people grouped up than somewhere else?”

“No.”

“Not a very good formation,” Cory said.

“Yeah, well, what do you expect? It’s Merton.”

“They’re getting closer,” Edward said. “Any moment now, they’ll be coming on in.”

“Everybody cover the exits,” Rae said. “Cory, go to that window over there and concentrate your fire on the area away from the vehicles. Maybe we can get them to think we’re going that way, and then we go the other.”

“Won’t they see through that?” Luke said.

“Fuck, how should I know? Probably, yeah, I guess they would, but I don’t have any other idea.”

“I do,” Edward said.

They all looked at him. “Well?” Rae asked.

“Give me the phone,” he said. Rae handed him the phone, but she didn’t look very certain.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said.

“I haven’t had the slightest clue what I’ve been doing since I woke up in that Walmart,” he said. “Why start now?”

He pushed the call button and concentrated as the other end rang. After only one ring an all-too familiar voice answered. “We’re already in position. Now would be the time to get out of there if you want to live long enough to get paid.”

“You’re paying me now, Dr. Chella?” Edward said. “You know, I might have been more cooperative in Stanford if you’d done that sooner.”

“ You ,” Dr. Chella said. “Did you kill the girl?”

“Why do you automatically assume that’s what we would do?”

“I’ve read Neuman’s files. She’s the sort of loose cannon that would do something exactly like that.”

Edward smiled at Rae. “The good doctor doesn’t have a very high opinion of you.”

Rae rolled her eyes and made a jerking-off gesture with her hand.

“I’m assuming that means the feeling’s mutual,” he said into the phone.

“Doesn’t matter about the girl,” Chella said. “You’re surrounded and there’s no way out. We’re only here for you. If you come out quietly your friends can go.”

“That’s not the way your girl told it.”

“I can only speak for myself. Merton’s problems with Neuman are their own to deal with.”

“And what exactly happens to me if I do go out there?” Edward asked.

“I’d take you and Miss Gates back to Stanford. You for study, and Gates for trial.”

Edward winced. She still hadn’t realized that Liddie was gone. That didn’t matter right now. He was almost ready. He just needed to keep her talking.

“Study? Really? That’s certainly not what I hear you were trying to do when we left.”

“The president has had a change of heart. He wanted me personally to bring you in, as he feels you may be useful for other things.”

“As a weapon, right? A way to control zombies?”

Dr. Bloss mouthed the words I told you so to him. Edward ignored it.

“I’m not just a weapon or a thing,” Edward said. “I deserve the same rights as everyone else. You can’t use me in this way.”

“You are a zombie,” Chella said. “Legally you’re nothing but a dead body. And your dead body is now going to be property of the U.S. government.”

“I don’t think so. I’m leaving here. My friends inside are coming with me. And all my friends surrounding you are, too. If every single person out there doesn’t put down their weapons right now, then I will not have any problem with them eating you.”

All she gave in reply was a choked sound. He had to imagine the rest of her reaction. Right about now she was probably looking around herself and realizing she was no longer the one with the upper hand. While he’d been talking to her, he’d also been talking to every zombie within a two or three mile radius. He hadn’t been able to bring them all in—they’d become too spread out for that—but he’d been able to call back most of them. Through the pheromones he could tell that a few were still shuffling toward the Culver’s, but at least thirty others were in a ring behind Chella’s men. Every one of the Merton people had been so focused on keeping their guns aimed at the windows and doors that they hadn’t even paid attention the zombies quietly coming up behind them. Some of the zombies had gotten very close, up to almost ten feet.

Chella finally got enough of a hold of herself to speak again. “This is stupid. My people can take out these things before they can attack us. You’re bluffing.”

“I don’t think they can. Rae knows the ways of Merton pretty well, and she doesn’t seem too terribly afraid of them.”

“There no way you could do it without losing some of your zombies,” Chella said. “I saw the way you treated that creature back in the lab. You really do think of yourself as one of them. You wouldn’t put any of them in danger.”