Best New Zombie Tales Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page B

other.
    “Help me carry her into the back,” Kirk said.
    Randy nervously rubbed his hands on the front of his denim jacket as if wiping something sticky off them. He winced and said, “Look, dude, I’m not sure I wanna… y’know… touch her.”
    “But she can’t walk.”
    “I know, man, she can’t walk because she’s dead, which is why I don’t wanna touch her.”
    “She walked to the car with me, you saw her,” Kirk said. “Come on, she’s wrapped in a sheet so you don’t have to touch her––oh, nevermind.”
    Kirk slid his right arm behind her shoulders, his left beneath her legs and lifted her out of the car. She remained frozen in a sitting position.
    Randy said, “She looks like a Barcalounger.” He followed as Kirk carried her past the garage and into the back yard. They walked around the covered concrete swimming pool and Kirk carried her into the small pool-house. He fumbled for the light, switched it on.
    There was an old black vinyl-upholstered couch and an end-table in the pool-house’s concrete-floored main room, which was icy cold. But it was used primarily to store pool equipment, and as a place for people to change clothes or shower when they used the pool in the summer. No one ever went into the pool-house during the winter months.
    He went to the couch, but changed his mind––the front window provided a clear view of the couch from outside. He carried her into the bathroom and set her down on the closed lid of the toilet. The tiled, pale-green bathroom was small, with a shower to the right of the toilet, a sink to the left.
    “She smells,” Randy said, his voice unsteady. “I may be sick.”
    “Well, try not to be,” Kirk said.
    Randy stepped into the open doorway of the bathroom and faced Kirk. “Listen to me,” he whispered. “I’m thinking we did the wrong thing tonight, Kirk. She’s stiff as a board. That old woman––she was jerking us around, this is some kind of trick. She’s dead . This is a serious crime, stealing a dead body. I mean… well, isn’t it? It should be if it’s not, it’s a pretty gross thing to do, and dude, I think that’s what we’ve done.”
    Kirk pointed to Natalie and said, “Randy, I saw her sit up on that table and look around. She looked at me . You saw her walk out of that funeral home with me. And she’s still making sounds. You heard them, didn’t you?”
    “That was her? I thought it was you. Are you sure it wasn’t, like… gas?”
    “She’s alive, Randy.”
    “But she’s going to be stiff for about twenty-four hours,” Liz said. She stood just outside the bathroom, arms folded across her chest. “According to the Columbia Encyclopedia online, anyway.”
    “She’ll be safe here tonight,” Kirk said as he and Randy stepped out of the bathroom. He pulled the door closed. “I’ll keep checking on her tomorrow.”
    “You’re just gonna check on her?” Liz said. “What’re you gonna do if she starts moving around? Or if she starts to… you know… smell.”
    “She already smells,” Randy said.
    Kirk clenched his fists at his sides and closed his eyes a moment. He spoke quietly. “Please just… stop , okay? I… I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”
    “You okay, Kirk?” Randy said.
    He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “No. But I will be. Thanks for helping out.”
    Kirk walked them back to the car. As they drove away, he fumbled his keys from his pocket, but paused before unlocking the front door. He thought of Natalie sitting like a posed mannequin on the toilet in the pool-house. Leaving her there all alone made his chest ache. He put the keys back in his pocket and walked around the house.
    He went to her in the small bathroom. She looked less like a human being sitting stiffly on the toilet than she had while lying dead on the stainless-steel table back at Richmond’s.
    “Can you hear me, Nat?” he whispered.
    She made no sound this time.
    “I’ll come back out first thing tomorrow, I