She knew four or five profoundly nerdy kids who spoke of Lovecraft with the quiet reverence less-nerdy kids reserved for Kurt Cobain, Catcher in the Rye, or the Bible. (Depending on the kid, obviously.) Annie knew exactly nothing of Lovecraft, but his was the only name she recognized on any of the books in the library, so she grabbed it, and spent the afternoon trying to figure out what the big deal was.
She came out of the book a few hours later with a greater appreciation for Poe and a diminished opinion of her nerdy friends. Then she called Carol one more time, went to bed early, and had at least one nightmare involving ancient gods with unpronounceable names.
When she got downstairs the next morning Ed was already there, in the kitchen, chatting with Susan.
She could have kissed him.
“Morning, Annie, how are you?” he greeted.
“Great! Let’s go!”
“I was just… okay,” he said, as she was already past him by then and on the porch. She sat in the passenger’s seat of the car—she was possibly even happier to see the car again—while he finished up having whatever boring conversation he was having in the boring house with boring Susan.
“Everything okay?” he asked, starting the car.
“Super. I’m losing my mind here; let’s go do exciting things. Did you have a fun few days? Tell me every last detail.”
“Um, okay. I saw your library yesterday.”
“Did you? Did you see the mural? What did you think?”
“I’ve seen it before, in pictures, but—”
“Actually, forget that. What happened at the army base? I’ve heard stories.”
“SO ZOMBIES, that’s what you’re telling me.”
“I’m telling you what the information we’ve been collecting has led me to think,” Ed said. “I appreciate how crazy it is.”
“No kidding.”
“But you live in a town with an interstellar vehicle parked in it. Why not zombies too?”
“Sure. And I mean, I’ve been hearing the same stuff, but not from anyone I took seriously.”
Annie told him about Rick Horton and his late-night undead encounter in a cow pasture. Meanwhile, on the other side of the diner, Beth kept shooting glances her way.
They were in a booth in the back of Joanne’s. It was the same one Ed was in the first time they met. They drove to the diner directly from Violet’s, after Ed figured out Annie hadn’t eaten yet (all Vi knew how to do in the kitchen was burn bacon) and before they realized they didn’t have as busy a day as anticipated. The meeting they were supposed to have with Desmond Hollis was pushed to the end of the day, and the plan to head to city hall to speak to a couple of councilmen got blown up when the council canceled the day’s session. No official reason was given for this, and if there was an unofficial reason, Annie had been away from town for too long to hear what it was.
Beth, hopefully, had something on it.
“How long ago was that?” Ed asked.
“I heard the story the day you and I met.”
“I mean, when did your friend see this?”
“Not sure. And he isn’t my friend. I could ask him if I run into him, or we can call Rodney and see if he knows. Might come off as kind of weird though, dialing him up to ask that.”
“You can’t look up Rick?”
“Like I said, he isn’t my friend. And he’s not easy to track down.”
Ed smiled. “Annie Collins, I thought you were friends with everyone in this town.”
“I said I know everyone in this town. I don’t happen to like all of them. He is one such person. But, I can find him if you really want to talk.”
“It’s okay. Probably not important enough to go through the trouble. It’s only that he might have the earliest reported sighting. I thought we might want to establish a timeline.”
“Yeah, well I’m about 50% not sold on the zombie theory right now. And I’m not even supposed to be the adult in this partnership. I’m gonna go say hey to Beth. Maybe come up with a vampire angle instead, while I’m gone.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Beth stepped around the counter when she approached, put down a coffee urn, and gave Annie a big hug.
“You snuck in here without even a hello first!” Beth said, releasing Annie only to smack her on the arm. “I was so worried! When I heard about Carol…”
“She’s fine. She’ll be fine, I mean. I talked to her three times yesterday; she’s in good spirits. Everything positive all the time, you know how she is.”
“Where are you staying? Not home alone, right? I know it’s not with your reporter friend, I would have heard about that.”
“Stop it.”
“Look, any time you want to stay with us, I mean you know my parents already want to adopt you… I mean…”
Beth blushed furiously.
“Not that you need adopting,” Beth said quickly. “I mean Carol…!”
“It’s fine, oh my God calm down. I’m staying with Violet, but I’ll let you know if I need any help, don’t worry.”
“Oh, okay. Have I met Violet?”
“I think probably. She’s a neighbor. Hey, so we were supposed to talk to a few folks down at city hall this morning, but it sounds like they’re closed. Is something up?”
“I don’t think so, I think people are just sick.”
“Like, collectively?”
“No, but there’s something going around. It’s not like they have a lot of hugely important votes going on anyway.”
This was true. Local government’s central function was to make sure the trash was collected and the streets were plowed in the winter. Aside from that, they planned the occasional festival and put up commemorative plaques. The first year after the ship, the council was extremely important and extremely busy, because every day there were five new businesses looking for real estate, and there were liquor licenses and building permits needed everywhere. Not a lot had changed since that year, though.
“Okay, thanks. Hey, we have some folks to talk up down at the mill, can we leave the car around back?”
“Sure, nobody’ll care.”
“No towing, today?”
“No need, it’s Tuesday. Nobody’s around.”
“Thank you, girl. We’ll talk later.”
Annie returned to the table.
“I guess city hall called in sick today,” she said.
“What, all of them?”
Annie shrugged. “It’s a part time job, they probably didn’t have anything cool to vote on, and Beth said there’s something going around.”
“What kind of something?”
“I dunno. Want me to ask? Maybe it’s a zombie plague.”
“You’re not going to drop that any time soon, are you?”
“Looks like no.”
14
BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY
A drum sat in the corner of Desmond Hollis’s office, on a small stage, in a glass case. The drum was—depending on who was asked—either a smaller replica of the original, or the original itself, miraculously preserved for over three hundred years.
The latter claim was within the realm of the possible, only because the Hollis family could trace its bloodline back to the original Sorrowers, which was a statement pretty much nobody else in town could make. It gave the claim some legitimacy.
However, much like the spaceship up the road, most people thought the drum would be bigger.
The story was, when Josiah Sorrow’s followers picked this spot in which to settle (or Josiah did, when he decided to die nearby) they inadvertently wandered onto ground that was considered either sacred or cursed by five different regional Native American tribes.