Best New Zombie Tales Trilogy
it.” Kirk turned to Natalie. She sat rigidly and stared at the back of Randy’s head. He put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Nat? Natalie?”
    Her mouth was still drawn back in a grimace. She made another gurgling sound in her throat, but did not move.
    “She’s not gonna be sick, is she?” Randy said. “My mom’ll kill me––”
    “Stop worrying about your mom,” Kirk said. “Everything’s going to be fine. She’s just… well, maybe she’s confused.” He turned to her again. “Natalie? Look at me.”
    Still no movement. She stopped making the sound.
    Kirk touched her chin to turn her head, but jerked his hand away. She felt so cold, so… wrong . There was tension in her facial muscles that he could feel when he touched her. He tried again and did not pull away the second time. But he could not turn her head. He closed his hand gently on her right arm beneath the sheet and tried to move it, but could not. She was like a block of solid ice.
    “Oh, Jesus,” Kirk said.
    Liz looked over her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
    Kirk shook his head. “I’m not sure, she’s not… I can’t… I think she’s frozen .”
    “Is she… well, did she… die again?” Randy said.
    Kirk unfastened his seatbelt and got close to Natalie, put his face in front of hers. The faint ghost of her perfume still clung to her, but there was another smell beneath that. Something… dark. “Natalie, can you hear me?”
    She grunted once, but her face was frozen, a grimacing mask. Her eyes did not move in their sockets.
    “She’s responding,” Kirk said, “but she can’t move.”
    “Oh, my God,” Liz said.
    Kirk got back in his seat, fastened the belt. “What?”
    “You know what this is?” she said. “It’s rigor mortis.”
    Kirk said, “But she’s not dead anymore.”
    Liz turned in her seat, craned her head around to look at him. “Are you sure?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Did Mrs. Kobylka say she was going to bring Natalie back to life ?” Liz said. “Or did she just say she was going to bring her back ?”
    “What the hell’s the difference?” Randy said.
    “Oh, shit,” Kirk muttered as realization set in. “You mean she might… still be dead.”
    Randy raised his voice. “ What?”
    Liz began to cry again. “Oh, God, this is so fucked up. I can’t believe this. I wanna go home.”
    “What the fuck’re you talking about?” Randy said.
    Wiping her eyes with a knuckle, Liz said, “There’s a big difference between a living person and a dead person who’s been, like, I don’t know… reanimated.” She laughed nervously. “Listen to me. I can’t believe I just said that.”
    “ Reanimated?” Randy said. Eyes wide, he glanced back and forth between the road and Liz. “Fuck, man. I saw that movie.”
    “Pay attention to the road, Randy,” Kirk said. He looked at Natalie.
    She remained motionless, and made another small grunting sound, as if she were gagging.
    “How long does rigor mortis last?” Kirk said.
    “I hope you’re not asking me,” Randy said.
    Liz said, “I don’t know.”
    “Do you have your laptop?” Kirk asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “Look it up.”
    “Are you insane? I’m sitting in a car with a walking dead person and you want me to surf the Web? We should be on the web, people would pay to see this shit.”
    “Please, Liz.”
    She brought her backpack up off the floorboard and into her lap. “Isn’t Rigor Mortis the name of a band? I’m probably gonna find a bunch of metalhead bulletin boards.”
     
     
    2.
     
    Randy killed the headlights before pulling into the circular driveway in front of the Mundy’s ranch-style house. Kirk unfastened his seatbelt and bent forward.
    “Did you find anything yet?” he said.
    Liz snapped at him. “Gimme a break, Kirk, I just started looking a few minutes ago.”
    Kirk and Randy got out of the car and met at the rear door on the driver’s side, Natalie’s door. Kirk opened it. He and Randy whispered to each
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