Mark Tufo - Alive in a Dead World

“Mike! I’m about to slap the shit out of you, if you don’t start talking to me!” BT roared in my face.

I wasn’t quite ready to come back to this semblance of reality, but when BT says he’s going to slap the shit out of you, you tend to listen. “Don’t you dare!” I said, finally taking my eyes from Re-Pete. “I’m fine,” I was able to grunt out.

“I don’t know if it’s the moonlight or what, but you don’t look fine.”

I waved dismissively at his words. “Follow me,” I told him as I walked past him and back to an eager looking Re-Pete who now only had eyes for the bigger, beefier BT. “I knew you’d leave me at the first opportunity,” I told Re-Pete as I approached.

“Huh?” BT asked. “I’m right here, man. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I was talking to Re-Pete,” I told BT.

“That’s hilarious,” BT said without a hint of humor.

“I’m serious, first he wanted to eat me and now he’d rather eat you, but to be fair, I’m sure once he was done with you, he’d want to eat me again. He’s non-discriminatory that way.”

“I knew it had to happen sooner or later,” BT stated flatly. “I mean it really was just a matter of time. The problem now is how do I tell Tracy?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked him.

“You going crazy, that’s what I’m talking about. I mean everyone knew you were already precariously perched on the ledge even before the zombies came. That you held out this long has amazed most of us.”

“You do know I’m standing right here, right?”

“Sure physically you are, but mentally you’re gone, man,” BT said. “I’ll miss you. I count you among one of my best friends.”

“BT, I’m not insane,” I said. He merely tapped the top of my head like I was six years old and I had said something cute.

“Come here, BT,” I told him, approaching closer to Re-Pete.

“Don’t you get too close to him. There are some medications that you can take that, aside from some excessive drooling, will almost make you normal. There’s no cure for zombie. Tracy will skin me alive if I bring back an insane zombie.”

“All this time, I thought zombies were already insane.”

“Come on, Mike, let’s get the rest and we’ll just head back to Maine. Maybe there’s still a part of you that can be salvaged. A small part, sure, but some is better than none.”

“BT, shut up and watch.”

I said aloud, “On your knees,” at the same time as I thought it. Pretty talented right?!

Re-Pete didn’t disappoint. He instantly once again fell to his knees. This time his already cracked patella completely shattered with a loud snapping noise.

BT had finally shut up and was looking back and forth from me to Re-Pete. “That’s not some sort of trick is it?”

“Yeah, I was using finger snacks as a training aid,” I said sarcastically.

“Coincidence then?” he asked, still not quite believing what he was witnessing.

“Get up,” I told and thought. Re-Pete stood with some difficulty and was favoring his left leg, but stood he did. “Turn around.” Re-Pete did; he was now facing away from us.

BT’s nose was almost pressed up against the fence. “You know, this is fucking amazing,” BT said, not turning back towards me. Now he turned. “How many do you think you could do this to?”

“No clue, I didn’t know I could do this until a few minutes ago.”

“Is it hard?”

“I have to concentrate but it’s no more difficult than listening to you talk.”

“Funny,” BT said turning back to Re-Pete. “Can you make him hurt himself?”

“I don’t think directly. I tried to make Re-Pete kill himself.”

“Repeat?”

“Re-Pete, P…E…T…E.” I said spelling the name. BT was looking at me funny. “He was following me around, I thought the name seemed fitting.”

BT looked at me like he wasn’t completely convinced I hadn’t stepped over the edge. “Then what about indirectly?”

“Well, I think he shattered his knee the way he’s been dropping to them, but I don’t know if he’s incapacitated.”

“Is there a certain distance you have to be from them?”

I shrugged, I had no clue. “He stopped listening to me when you pulled me away, but I don’t really know from what point he stopped or if it was because I lost concentration while you were jiggling me around like Jell-o.”

“Well, walk away; let’s see what happens.”

“I’d rather just put a bullet in its head; he’s really starting to reek.”

“We’ll get to that, but we have got to test the limitation of this. We might never get another opportunity like this.

“Yeah, that’d be a shame,” I told him, turning to walk away.

“You’re still concentrating, right?” BT asked to my retreating back.

“Yes I’m still concentrating, Mrs. Weinstedder.”

“What?”

“Nothing, just my old algebra teacher.”

“So somehow this whole scene reminded you of an old math teacher? Who did the wiring in your head? Because you should get your deposit back.”

“BT what…”

“Stop!” he yelled. “Re-Pete here looks like he’s about to break free.”

I turned to watch. Re-Pete was slightly swaying from side to side. I took one step backwards, the swaying increased.

“Go one more,” BT said, swinging his visage back to Re-Pete.

I did and Ree turned around to face us. I won’t say he had a look of confusion on his face, wondering what had happened, first because the light wasn’t good enough to see that minute of a facial detail from this distance; and secondly, I don’t think zombies have any facial expression beyond perpetual snarl.

“He looks angry,” BT said.

“Angrier than normal?” I asked BT as I came closer.

He shrugged his shoulders in answer. We were both up by the fence. Ree was trying unsuccessfully to get his hands through the chain link.

“He really does have a funk about him, doesn’t he?” BT asked. “Do you want to try and kill him?”

“I’m having some issues here, BT.”

“I’d like to say ‘So what else is new’ but that almost seems cliché now. That’s no human,” BT said pointing to Ree. “And it’s debatable if that thing is even technically alive, but for the sake of argument, let’s say it is. It is still trying to kill us.”

“I know all this. I really do, I just feel like a cat playing with a mouse. It seems much more humane to put a bullet in its head than mess with it for our amusement.”

“I don’t see anything funny here, Talbot, do you?” BT asked hotly.

Step back and then get on your knees , I commanded my puppet. He complied immediately.

BT turned to watch and see what Ree would end up doing.

Smash your head against the ground! I yelled in my head, showing the motion I wanted him to take.

Ree was mannequin-still; he did not move.

“What’s going on?” BT asked, switching his view back between Ree and me. I was almost swaying as much as Ree had been earlier.

“He won’t do it,” I said, blowing out a large exhalation of air.

“Are you trying hard enough?”

“BT, I just about gave myself an aneurysm. I don’t think I could concentrate any harder.”

“I bet you got a D in that algebra class,” BT said, placing a bullet in Re-Pete’s head as he struggled to get up, his damaged knee finally locking the joint in place. Ree fell over with a solid thud.

“I failed it.”

BT snorted. “How far you think you were, fifty, sixty feet?”

“Not much more than that.”

“Could you do that with multiple zombies?”

I could hear Gary yelling if everything was alright in the distance.

“We’re fine!” BT yelled, moving away from the spreading pool of blood by his feet.