Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [37]
Anyway, by the time we actually got back to the warehouse it was almost dark.
Dark was bad. Always. We had to hurry.
Dave killed the engine and we sat there for a minute, looking up at the ramshackle building that hid so much.
With a heavy breath that told me how little he was looking forward to this, he reached back and tugged The Kid’s blindfold down around his neck.
“We’re here,” he said.
The Kid blinked a few times and then leaned forward from his place crouched on the back floor next to our writhing captive. He looked out the front windshield and wrinkled his nose in contempt.
“You should have gotten paid up front. This is a dump.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” Dave said as he got out and started around to the back of the van to pull our quarry out for delivery.
I grinned as I opened my own door. “Yeah. I mean, you look like a nice little boy at first glance. But we all know that’s bullshit.”
The Kid stuck his tongue out as I got out. When I reached the back of the van he had gotten himself behind our zombie and was helping push as Dave hauled him out.
I jumped into the fray. With a lot of grunting and swearing, we managed to finally lift the writhing body from the back. I had its shoulders and Dave the kicking, flailing feet. The thing was dead weight, but dead weight that kept fighting and growling. I would not be sorry to see it go.
I looked up at the building as I shifted my part of the load. “Think he’s watching?”
Dave nodded. “Hell yeah. He’s probably on his way up to—”
Before he could finish, the broken door opened and Barnes rushed out much like he had the day before. Only this time there were no readied weapons or threats. This time he had a grin on his surprisingly handsome geeky face and he clapped his hands together as he approached us.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” he gushed as he looked at the moving bundle of rope and burlap in our arms. “It’s perfect. Just beautiful.”
I sniffed as I looked at our bundle. It was oozing. Apparently Kevin had some fucked-up ideals when it came to beauty.
“Come, come inside,” he encouraged us as he backed toward the warehouse. “Bring it here.”
We followed him into the building, our arms heavy with our squirming bundle and with The Kid a few steps behind us. Kevin was so wrapped up in our gift for him that he didn’t even seem to notice we had an extra crew member. That is, until we reached the hidden elevator shaft. After Kevin had hit the button opening the floor, only then did he look back and his broad smile fell.
“What is that?” he asked, his nostrils flaring as he pointed across the empty expanse toward The Kid.
I chuckled. “He claims to be a child.”
Dave shot me a dirty look as we shifted the load. The zombie started to moan and groan louder and louder and he had to almost shout as he explained, “This is Robbie. He… um… helped us while we were working on capturing the zombie.”
“You needed assistance from a child?” Kevin asked with an arched brow. He kept his gaze firmly on David, almost as if he put the majority of the blame on him.
“I’m not a child, I’m almost twelve,” The Kid snapped. Both Dave and I shot him a “shut-the-hell-up” glare like my mom used to give me in church about a hundred years ago.
I wished I could step closer to Kevin, but with the zombie in our arms, it wasn’t possible. Instead, I shifted the load (my shoulders were starting to fucking kill me).
“The Kid sort of inserted himself into the issue. We didn’t invite him,” I explained. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, does it? We got the zombie.”
“You did, indeed,” Kevin said with a broad smile for me.
I heard Dave’s soft but highly irritated sigh beside me. “Look, asshat, this thing is really getting heavy. If you don’t mind…”
He nudged his head toward the elevator.
Kevin jerked, almost as if no one had ever called him a name before. But I guess if you were a highly educated doctor who spent his time doing research under an abandoned warehouse… maybe no one had. At least not since high school.
“O-of