Looking at each other Hank and Juan left Krystal and Kevin to themselves. As soon as they were in the hallway Nanci magically appeared and told Hank he was supposed to be in the room next door to Kevin's. The doctors wanted him to rest up, after all broken ribs were no laughing matter. Hank grunted in assent and trudged to his assigned room while Nanci led Juan away with a quick goodbye.
Back in Kevin's room Krystal approached him warily, "I just wanted to say thanks for this morning." she gestured at the flowers.
Kevin nodded, "Aw, yeah, it was nothing, you'da done the same for me, I know it."
Krystal raised her eyebrow and responded, "Maybe…I like to think I would have anyway."
"You would have, I know you would, you're, I don't know, different, you're good, I can tell."
"Thanks Kevin, I appreciate that and I like that you see that in me." Krystal shrugged, unsure of how to proceed, haltingly she said, "So, uh, tell me your story, how you ended up at the club and all. You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine? Okay?"
Kevin nodded his agreement and the two spent the afternoon listening, talking and eventually crying together.
Hank shut the door to his room behind him and looked longingly at the bed. He had not slept well in ages and a real bed and getting some real sleep appealed to him. He was unbuckling his pants when the bathroom door behind him opened up, he was startled and turned to face Evaine, pants half undone.
"Oh Hank!" she stepped forward and embraced him, "Finally! Some action!"
Turning red Hank stammered, "Uh, Evaine. I uh, didn't know you were in here! Nanci didn't say, she just said this was my room." Hank started doing up his pants and belt, when Evaine put her hand on his, stopping him.
She looked him in the eye and said in a low whisper, "Hank, I wasn't kidding." Evaine didn't move her hand as she continued, "I am ready for that."
Epilogue
The stream tumbled over the rocks behind the Mike's club, babbling like a first grader playing the part. It takes a long time to die when no major arteries are nicked. A trail of blood wept from Jeff's body down past various insects thrilled with the sudden, unexpected red bounty, and ultimately it ran into the stream. The sun set. The persistent noise from the Mike's Club died to almost utter silence, slowly the birds stopped chirping, leaving only the babbling stream. At last the blood stopped flowing, with a great heave and an exhalation like air leaving an untied balloon, Jeff's body grew still. Nothing broke the noise of the stream. Then, slowly, very slowly Jeff's head lifted off of the broken piece of concrete it was resting upon. He rose quietly and shoved David's body off of him. The body held no interest to Jeff, it was dead and black, no color at all. Above him, near the top of the ravine, beyond a short stairway leading to the loading dock door stood a lone guard watching the night with a pair of binoculars. Jeff couldn't smile, not yet, but he recognized instinctively what prey looked like when he saw it.
Author's Note
First I have to say, I am rather fond of author's notes. It is a chance to break out of telling a story to say whatever I want. I feel pretty confident doing so because, hey, who reads "Author's Notes" anyway? I look at some of the writer's I admire and they always seemed to have these notes at the end that I rarely read, until one day I started reading them. Usually the information was of only trivial interest to me. Who cares how you came up with your character "Ted"? Or that the book was written on a bus ride from L.A. to New York? Just give me more "Ted"! Now! Now! Now! These days I do tend to read the author's notes, I see it as a sign of my growing maturity. Oh and I find most of them interesting too.
"Undead Advantage" started life as "The Ballad of Hank and Juan" which was shortened to "Hank and Juan" then the title search got left to stew for awhile until I did the editing. The book does not really end; it just comes to a stopping point where I know it can be left to the imagination on how things go from here. I could write more on the group, but I don't think there will be an "Undead Advantage II". Hank and Juan will be looked in on from time to time, especially a decade and a half after z-day, but for now their story is finished.
This book was the second one I started and the third one I finished. Between starting it and finishing it I wrote "Found" and I cannot imagine why I did things that way. I have always been one who jumps around with different writing projects, then looks in surprise at those I have finished, wondering "Now just how did that happen?" Please don't misunderstand me; I usually do a great deal of plotting out what is going to happen and how each book will end, I just don't write them all at once. I am settling into a pattern where I am getting closer to that goal, to focus on a single item at a time, but I am not there yet.
I write zombie books because I like writing about zombies, not because I have any illusions that my works are great world literature. The point of fiction is just to give the reader a bit of a break from a 'normal' life and if I did that, then I did my job.
Thank you for reading!
Mark Clodi
June 16th, 2009
Revised July 3rd, 2010