Bits of dried mud clung to the man’s face and hair. His busted eye lolled from the socket, the pupil a tiny orb amid the dirty white of the sclera. The crack in his skull was clotted with dirt and bits of grass. While the man looked like shit, his overall appearance was worse now due to being buried. His head darted around like a frightened animal, his one remaining eye taking everything in. To Scott, he looked like one of those zombies you saw in a movie — Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later. He thought the man would have a more vacant stare. It wasn’t like that at all.
“Holy shit, look at him,” Scott said. His heart pounded in his chest. He felt light-headed. Even David was affected by the sight of the bum. It was like watching a science project come to life before their eyes after months of research and preparation.
Count Gaines’ spell had worked!
“He’s still dead, right?” Scott whispered, unable to take his eyes off the dead man.
“Yeah,” David said. “We were all there when Gordon took his pulse after we killed him. You saw it.”
Scott could only watch the bum, knowing in his heart that David was right. After they’d killed him last night they’d watch Gordon take his pulse. “He’s definitely dead,” Gordon had said, his voice shaking slightly. Hell, they’d all been nervous last night after killing him. It was the first time they’d ever killed anybody. That nervousness, however, had quickly dissipated. After all, the guy had just been a worthless homeless nigger.
The bum’s remaining eye darted around. His features looked fearful, scared, and nervous. His face was streaked with blood and dirt.
“So what do we do with him?” Scott asked. What a stupid question! he thought. The correct question should’ve been, how do we get him back to the guesthouse?
“Something we didn’t take into account which we should right now,” David said. He turned to Scott. “You have any special emotional attachment to that windbreaker you’re wearing?”
Scott was wearing a light tan windbreaker. It had been chilly this morning. “Not really. Why?”
“We need something to cover his head with,” David said. He gestured to Scott. “Take it off. We can tie it around his head with the sleeves.”
Scott understood where David was going with this. He shrugged out of the windbreaker and handed it to David.
David spread the windbreaker out and stood in front of the bum, who looked up at him. The bum made a strangled hiss. Scott felt a chill run down his spine at the sound of it.
With a sudden lunge, David looped the jacket over the zombie’s head and wrapped the sleeves around, tying the jacket up as the zombie screamed and began flailing its body around. Scott felt his heart stop at the sound of it; the scream was muffled and raspy, but the intensity of it was chilling. He didn’t realize he’d taken an involuntary step back as David took control of the zombie, tying the jacket around its head, effectively blinding and gagging him. David glanced back at Scott, his features slightly ashen. It looked like the zombie’s reaction had spooked him as well. “C’mon, we gotta get him out of here.”
Scott forced himself to step forward. Standing near the zombie now brought an involuntary shudder through him.
David was clutching the zombie’s shoulders. “Help me get him up. You take one end, I’ll take the other, and we’ll walk him back to the car.”
Somehow they did it. Scott fought his revulsion down during the first dozen yards, but as they quickly headed back to the car he felt better about the situation. They ushered the zombie along as if they were herding a man of simple means. The zombie had stopped its ululations of escape and moved along compliantly, like a dog on a leash.
Once at the SUV they herded the zombie in the back. David secured the zombie to the floor of the vehicle with some tie-down straps, holding him firmly in place. The zombie was completely docile now. Scott felt his fascination with everything growing by leaps and bounds. While the situation was still creepy, it was slowly awakening something inside him. Something that told him that this was the start of something big.
Scott and David got in the front seat and David started the vehicle. Scott glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “If we get him to the house and tie him up quickly, we can make first period,” he said.
David put the vehicle in gear and began backing out of the space he’d parked in. “That’s just what I was thinking.”
During the drive home, Scott had to resist the urge to peek in the rear of the vehicle. While he still felt nervous, he was also excited. He hadn’t entertained the thought of this actually working — he was only going along with Gordon’s idea to placate the bastard. You want to turn a homeless bum into a zombie? Sure? Why the fuck not? What good are homeless people for anyway? He hadn’t expected Gordon’s spell to work, and the fact that it did had thrown a wrench of surprise into the equation. Now that he was getting over that surprise, his mind was working in overdrive.
“We’ll come straight to the house after school,” Scott said, mostly to himself. “We won’t tell Gordon and Steve anything until after school.”
“They’re gonna ask,” David said.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Damn!
“It’ll be cool, though. They haven’t said anything yet.”
“Okay, so we tell them at lunch. And we go straight to the house after school so Gordon can verify he’s really dead.”
“Okay, then what?”
Scott grinned at David. “Then we do what we set out to do. We have some fun with him.”
David grinned back.
They made the trip back to Scott’s house in twenty minutes.
Scott jumped out of the SUV. “Let me make sure my folks are gone,” he said before sprinting up the long driveway to the side door. He got in, checked the garage. Both cars were gone. He headed back outside. “Okay, let’s do it!”
Getting the zombie out of the SUV was a little trickier. Scott played lookout and took a quick surveillance of the neighborhood to see if anybody was out and about. He turned to David. “Back the SUV up to the end of the driveway. We’ll get him out there.” David nodded and backed the SUV out onto the street. Scott guided him back in. If they could get the zombie out at the edge of the yard, they’d be out of sight from the eyes of prying neighbors. Good thing Scott lived in a pretty ritzy area; the closest house was a good one hundred yards away to the south.
David parked the SUV and raced to the back of the vehicle. A moment later they were walking the zombie to the guest house. The zombie’s gait was still staggering, as if he were drunk. At least he wasn’t making those creepy ass sounds anymore. Scott unlocked the door to the guest house and they herded the zombie inside.
“Let’s get his ass tied down,” David said, reaching for the restraints on the bloody floor.
They quickly got the zombie tied down. Once the job was done, they stepped back and surveyed their work. The zombie still had the jacket wrapped and tied around its head. Its arms were tied to its sides, its legs tied together. It lay on its back, restrained by the chains he’d been bound to when he was alive. It moved its head around in a curious motion, as if it were trying to see its surroundings through the windbreaker.
“What time is it?” David asked.
Scott checked his watch. “Seven thirty-eight.”
“Think he’ll be okay here?”
“Yeah. And we can cut fifth period. We already missed morning weight room, we may as well skip Clark’s athletic class as well.”
David nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’d like to get back here as quick as possible. Make sure he’s still tied down.”
“I hear ya.”
They glanced at each other. Grinned.