Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [35]
I took the other side of the rope from The Kid and started to work on knotting the ends together, but I didn’t make much progress before he let out a sigh and snatched them away from me.
“Jeez, lady,” he said as he gave me a ‘You-Are-A-Stupid-Adult’ look. “Learn to tie a knot, why don’t you?”
I watched as he crossed and recrossed the rope a few times and finally came out with the tightest, most complicated knot I’d ever seen.
“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked, sort of stunned into grudging respect as I tugged at the knot and it didn’t give even a fraction.
He shrugged. “I was in Boy Scouts before—”
He cut himself off and turned away. It was one of the few times I saw The Kid really look like he felt anything bad about the apocalypse. Like all of us, he had a coping mechanism for forgetting life Before Zombies. The little reminder of a Boy Scout knot made him more like a kid again to me. I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
“Hey,” I said softly. “I’m going to put the sack over his head. Do you think you could use one of those super knots to tie it off around his neck, too?”
He nodded and when he looked at me again any regret or childlike heartbreak I’d seen in his face was gone. Jaded Kid was back.
“Whatever.”
I stifled a smile as I returned to the back of the van and grabbed a burlap sack. It would hold a zombie head like it had so many times before… only this time it would be one attached to a body.
When I returned to the netted infected I looked at him. There wasn’t an obvious way to get the sack over his face now that I considered it. The net drew shut above him, which meant you couldn’t really pull something over top of his rotting skull. There was no choice to it, I was going to have to free his head.
I withdrew my knife from the sheath at my thigh and carefully cut one or two of the net’s ropes. I didn’t want to do too much in case we wanted to use this netting method again, but just enough to give the zombie space to push his head out. It didn’t take long before he realized he could do just that. Straining against the binds, he shoved his head through the spot and resumed biting in my general direction. His teeth, grey from rot and stained from sludge, snapped as they gnashed together, grinding with the anticipation of devouring human flesh and blood.
“Sarah!” Dave called from above. “What the hell, you’re cutting up the net?”
I shrugged. “I need to get to him. I’ll repair it later. Now can you lower him a bit more?”
Dave muttered something from above but the zombie dropped a little lower just as I’d asked. Now his shaking, twisting head was even with my chest and he stared at my tits. Before the outbreak, I’d had guys do this too, but for this guy they were more of a meal than a toy, no matter how cute I knew I looked in my black tank top with the little hint of lace from the bra peeking out beneath it. I ignored his snarls as I lined up the sack and then yanked it over his head.
And now I knew what riding a bull felt like. The zombie started to jerk, turning toward me, straining against the burlap until I could see his angry face outlined against the tight fabric.
“Robbie?” I said with effort as I rolled and rocked along with the creature’s jerking motions. Eight seconds, right? Well, I’m sure I beat that and then some, but will they make a movie starring me? Hmph.
The Kid rushed forward and wrapped the rope around the zombie’s neck.
“Pull tight,” I suggested as he started to tie off the rope that now caused the skin around the infected’s neck to bulge. “It’s not like you can kill him.”
The Kid chuckled and finished his knot. As soon as he was done and I’d let go, Dave released his hold on the rope and the zombie slid down to the ground with a loud, cracking thud. We all winced even though you couldn’t exactly feel sorry for the thing. Even if you broke all his bones, he’d still drag himself along to eat you.
Plenty of people had gotten turned by broken and busted-up infected friends and family members. After a while you sort of got immune to their injuries, mainly because they never