Zombie D.O.A. (10 page)

“What we gonna do with him?” Frank asked again.

“Let him go?” the Professor suggested.

“Hell no,” Frank said emphatically. “I say we feed him to these fucking things
.
”

The other three started to protest but Frank cut them off. “Listen up you lilly-livered dip shits. Man jumps out of that dumpster and near scares Zeke to death, I say he had it coming. Besides,
I
been itchin’ to see the
se
things at work close up. Old Zeke here’s seen ‘em ain’t you Zeke? ”

“Seen ‘em eat up some woman
,” Zeke confirmed, “they chewed her teets clean off.”

“Right.  I’d pay good money to see a show like that. What you say, prof. Ain’t that what they done in them gladiator stories you told us about. Throwin’ people to the lions and tigers and stuff?
”

“Yes but…”

“No buts about it,” Frank said. “He
re
’s how it
’
s going to be, you in or out?”

“I’m in,” Zeke said immediately.

When the other two remained silent Frank repeated the question. “You in or you out?”

“Well, okay. Yes, okay.”

“Shirl?”

“Frank, I…”

“You fuckin in or not?” Frank screamed.

“Jesus Frank, keep your
hair
on. I’m in, I’m in.”

“
Right,
“
Frank said here’s how it’s gonna be. We gonna wake ‘lil sleeping beauty there. You all be real nice
hear,
don’t
let on anything’s going on, or nothing. Then when the time is right, we jump him. We tie him to the fence and we skedaddle through the hol
e to the other side
.

“
We tie the fence up good so
none of those things can get through
. Then we start makin’ a ruckus so as to attract their attention. They come in the alley, see our boy and it’s chow time. We stand on the other side of the fence and watch the show. Ringside seats at Madison Square Garden.”

“I have a question,
” the professor said. “What if all thi
s noise we make attracts others? What
if the
y
come up the other side of the alley?”

“You obviously
ain’t spent much of your lif
e hanging out in
these
alleys,” Frank laughed.
“
There is no other side
. I
t runs to a dead end back there.
”

“But what if they break through the fence? We’d be trapped would
n’t
we?”

“Negatory prof. This chain link got put up ‘cause the Chink restaurant out front got tired of people breaking into their storeroom. The door is just round back. We see them
comin’ through the fence, w
e scoot round back, through the Chinks and we’re out on the street before they’re finished their des
s
ert course.

“But…
”

“Ain’t no more buts,” Frank said and the professor shut up.

I heard all of this and knew that I was in deep trouble. The ropes around my
wrist
s were tight, but by working them a little I could feel a bit of give. Not
that it would help.

Even if I c
ould somehow work my hands free it was the feet that were the problem. What was I going to do, hop down the alley like some demente
d version of the Duracell bunny?
No
,
I’d have to bide my time. Bide my time and wait for a chance.
I prayed that it would come.

Someone was shaking me by the shoulder and I could smell booze and cigar
ettes and greasy meat again.  “Hey mister
,”
Shirl whispered, not two inches from my ear.  “Hey Mister, wake up.”

I let her continue for
a while before I pretended to b
e roused from a deep slumber. “What? Where? Where am I?”

“
N
o
w,
don’t you worry honey, you’re in good hands
,
” Shirl assured me.

She helped me into a sitting position with my back resting against the wall.
I could see the
blue dumpster
opposite, a metal ladder fixed to the wall above it.

I followed the ladder upward to the bright rectangle of blue that was visible in the gap between the buildings. By the color of the sky I guessed it must be getting on to early afternoon.
Ruby had now been alone for nigh on twenty hours.

Someone coughed and I brought my eyes earthward and saw three men b
y
a
smoky
fireside.
I assumed that Zeke wa
s the guy
that I’d met earlier. The p
rofessor was easy to spot, tall
and balding an
d
wearing a filthy tweed jacket and a once-white
shirt.

That made the other guy F
rank. He and Zeke had obviously shopped at the same store, excep
t he wore navy Chinos
, and his Nike’
s
were laced
.
Shirl had been shopping too, and had on a garish flowered number and white shoes of the kind nurses usually wear.

All of them looked at me with false glee, make-believe smiles plastered to their faces.

It was Frank, a
big
guy with a pock-marked face
, who spoke first. “You took yourself a tumble, mister.”

“I think someone clubbed me from behind,” I said, looking straight back at him.

The smile slipped slightly, as he said, “Thought you was one of
them
things, we had to be sure.”

“Well I’m not, so why don’t you untie me?”

“We uh…” Zeke started, but Frank cut him off.

“Truth is we still ain’t sure, you ain’t been bit. We need to keep an eye on yo
u for a while, be sure it’s all
good, fore we cut you loose. We need to be sure,
you
see.”

“Fair enough
,” I said.

“It’s for the bes
t, old boy,” the professor said
, then held his wine bottle in my direction. “Fancy a drink, it’s a
pretty
decent vintage.”

I shook my head, no. “Wouldn’t mind something to eat though.”

“Look at our manners,” Shirl said i
n mock exasperation. “Zeke, we
got any of that
chow
left for our guest?”

“Sure do,” Zeke said, still wearing his fool’s grin. “It’s a tad greasy. Been standin’ a bit.”

“No bother,” I said.

Shirl carved a chunk of meat from the undercooked joint and carr
ied it towards me.  “What is it?
” I asked, no
t
sure I wanted the answer.

“Why it’s a leg of…” Shirl started
, and the burst out laughing. She lau
ghed so hard she was almost bent
over double trying to control it. “Why it’s…why it’s…” she tried several times before succumbing to new gales of laughter. The others watched her with bemused expressions.

When she regained a measure of composure there w
ere tears on her deeply creviced
face.

“It’s a leg of lamb silly.”
Then s
he turned to the others and said, “He thought we were eating some poor bastard
’s leg
.” Then she broke into laughter again and the others joined her, laughing long and hard.

Eventually, Shirl seemed to remember the chunk of meat in her hand and gave it to me. It was as greasy as I’d hope
d
.
I bit into the charred flesh making sure to get as much grease onto my hands as possible.

“Good?” Shirl wanted to know.

I nodded.

“We don’t even know your name,” Shirl continued and I noticed Frank give her a look.

“It’s Chris,” I said.

“Please
d
to make your acquaintance, Chris,” Shirl said and giggled.

“Hear, hear,” the professor said.

“So where you from, Chris? Around here?”

I was about to answer when Frank, cut in, “Enough with the chit chat,” he barked, his moo
d changing in an instant. Then h
e turned to me and grinned, “If you’re about done, mister. We got plans for you. Zeke get your ass over here.”

Zeke came running and Frank instructed him to get me to my feet. To the others he said. “Get behind the fence, and be ready to tie her down once we get through.”

To me he said, “Now mister, I’m gonna untie your hands, you can take a swing at me if y
ou like, but with your feet tied
you’re likely to end up face down in the dirt, and I got this blade here, so don’t make me cut you.
”

He
hacked
through the rope on
my wrists and I immediately rubbed my hands vigorously. Frank told me to ‘quit fucking around’ and to spread my arms out in what he called the
‘
crucifying position
’
.

Then he tied my right wrist to the fence and had just started working on th
e
left
when Shirl said in a low,
urgent voice
, “Frank
.”

“What now woman,” Frank said, but Shirl was looking beyond him, to the en
trance of the alley
way. There
,
a man had app
eared and stood looking directly at us
.