Day 358 - Untitled Zombie Story Chapter 9.5 - (1,198 words)

 ©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY

By Wayne Webb

Chapter 9.5

“Look, Tom … I don’t know you and … well that stuff I just … it was a shock you know?” Robert was trying to mend fences with the man he thought was Tom, but Derek was just playing the part. It would be easy for him to be magnanimous, yet it would be just as easy to be a complete dick about it too. The question was which one would serve him better?

“Don’t worry about it man, I mean it’s not like … I mean we have met before… at that thing just the other week… or was it month.” Derek scratched his head and looked off at a wall, where he knew his brother was hiding. “... or was it a few months ago? I… you lose track of time … you know?

“I hear ya buddy, I hear ya.” Robert shrugged and accepted the conversation knowing quite well that he had no idea when or where he had met Tom before. “Was it the Cinco De Mayo? Or the… it wasn’t Valentines Day Dance was it?”

Rob made a show of being accepting but not interested, just in case or maybe as a joke, Derek could not tell.

“No, pretty sure it wasn’t Valentines, don’t worry about that ok?” Derek/Tom was making an effort to firm up the hastily resolved friendship, but he was also keen to move on and get Rob out of the room, preferably so he could come back later.

“So why don’t we just leave it at that then?” Robert was holding out a hand for a shake.

Derek hoped there was no secret society handshake he was supposed to know. He took Rob’s hand and shook it firmly.

“Did you shake my hand last time we met?” Rob asked with a odd look on his face.

“Errr…” Said Derek/Tom.

“I’m getting wicked Déjà vu is all.”

“Ah that’ll be it then, the Cinco De Mayo.” Tom/Derek stated it as a fact and from there it was now part of the official memory of the event.

Rob took a chair and a clipboard and noted the time on the large wall clock. “Time of Death was … what did Sarah say?”

Derek/Tom shrugged “I didn’t hear her say anything? Was I supposed to?”

“No, no, I think it was 9:17? Let’s see…” He was looking at the clock on the wall and making some mental calculations. “I’m too wound up to do this, for goodness sake. When was it? It’s 9:43 now… and then we…. Came down … the straps… yeah 9:17 is about right.” Rob tapped the clipboard and made a note of the time.

He was rubbing his eyes and looking exhausted and stressed as he pulled up a chair.

“What are you doing?” Derek/Tom asked.

“Waiting, she’ll convert in maybe forty more minutes, maybe more. And we always make a record of time to conversion, apparently it means something to the leadership.” Rob was getting comfortable. “Go on you, go get some rest you lucky bastard, what I would not give for a thirty minute shut eye.”

“What do you have to do?” Derek was angling to see if he could take it over.

“Not much, just wait until she turns, converts or whatever term they have for it this week. Mark the time, calculate the differential, though they’ll do that anyway and then put the machine on and close her up in the morgue, and the day shift can start the experiments. It’s been a while since we have had a new one, they just want to be sure I guess.”

“Can I do it?” Derek asked half-heartedly.

“Well you could, but man this is my job and I’m already in the dog house with Sarah for being such a prick upstairs… I couldn’t…” But Robert’s expression suggested that he really could, with very little persuasion.

“Rob, come on man bygones! You need some sleep and I’ve never done a shift in the morgue and watched one turn… you know in captivity like this.”

Rob looked at the door, instead of the man making the offer and Derek knew it was a done deal.

“I shouldn’t, should I?” Rob was putting on a show of staying but his gaze was still fixed on the door, waiting for the starter’s pistol.

“I’ll be fine man, just go already!” Derek waved his hand like it was as easy as agreeing to watch his seat at a table or feed his cat while he popped out to the shops, things far more mundane than the reality of Zombie Sitting.

“You sure?” Rob said half way to the lift.

“Go! Fuck off!” Derek/Tom said with a grin, but more than a grain of truth to the epithet.

“Thanks man, we should hang out later you know? Come by the Lab later you know where it is right?”

“Sure – it’s by the….?” Derek/Tom mimed trying to recall the details until Rob filled him in, with hands over the lift door sensors to stop it closing.

“By the Deputy’s office, across the way.”

“Ah right, I will then. See ya there.” Tom waved, but it was Derek that was staying.

The doors closed and then Derek watched the lift floor indicator change to G and then he sighed heavily. “You can come out now.”

“Sorry Tom, I don’t know who you are… you know I just don’.t… oh wait I do know you!” James had a look of recognition on his face now. “Didn’t we make out at the VD Dance?”

“The VD Dance? You freak.” Derek and his brother had been separated for a week or more but it was like no time had passed at all.

“Yeah, and I don’t mean Valentine’s Day either, I totally mean the Dance where you gave me a Venereal Disease after sucking on your ‘friend’ Rob’s …”

“Where the fuck did you come from?” Derek was keeping an eye on the lift indicator to see if it moved again, as he asked his brother the question he walked over to the lift and called it down to the basement, figuring he’d hear the lift being called if it was called from her later on.

“Where did I come from? Where did you come from brother?”

“Your mother’s pussy!” It was an old joke between the two brothers, and usually a primer for trying to gross out the other one more.

“No, I am serious D, I mean I was here and then I … there was a storm and I woke up here after seeing something weird, about these machines … and something to do with people’s eyes…” James was shaking his head trying to order his thoughts.

“Machines? What kind of machines?” Derek asked carefully. “Did they … whoever it was, did they mention the Cull?”

“What’s that?” James was none the wiser for having hooked up with his brother.

“I don’t know, I just don’t know. We should get the fuck out of here though. That I do know.”

“What about your boyfriend?” James nodded at the lift but got a scowl in response.

“Fuck him.” Derek growled.

“Isn’t that your department?”