Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (43 page)

Clyde released Carson.

Carson stumbled and glared at Clyde, who
unflinchingly stared back.

“They're not too smart, your zombies,” Carson
said.

“Smart enough,” I replied.

“Nah,
they're dumb. But that one,” Brett said, motioning toward Clyde.
“That one is something.”

I had to agree with him there.

Carson was rubbing his arms with his hands like he
was cold. But I knew it was, I-was-held-against-a-zombie and have
eau
de
zombie cologne on now.

“Let's split. We'll leave the zombie-lover and
his freak friends together. They can get it on in the cave back there
in the dark.”

Carson and he laughed. They're just a couple of
comedians.

The zombies watched the two with dark intent. I
was really betting that my residual feelings were leaking some on my
zombie horde.

At the gate Carson turned and flipped us off.

“He's so consistent it's scary,” John said.

“He's always a dick, if that's what you mean,”
Jonesy said.

“Yes, that's what I meant.”

“Are we done yet?” Jade asked.

I looked down at her, her normally perfect face
pale with purple smudges under her eyes like bruises. Maybe she
wasn't up to all the zombie fun like the guys were.

“Ah, yeah. But I think, since we have a group
assembled here that we should fix some stuff.”

“Okay. But, now that they know where the
hideaway is it's not a secret,” John said.

“Secret enough. Carson's a coward and won't want
to get mixed up in a thing where adults show up and he's around,” I
responded.

“True,” John said.

“We got to hurry up because Jade needs to get
back,” I looked down at my watch, “real soon.”

“Okay,” Jonesy clapped his hands together, the
zombie-posse turning to look at him. “Whoa! Hey Caleb, call the
dogs off.”

I laughed and John smiled. “I don't think
they're gonna get ya,” I said.

“Maybe. I don't want any special attention
either,” he said, gazing nervously at the zombies. Clyde seemed
pretty sharp today.

Speaking
of which. “You have need for us this day, master?” Clyde asked,
his voice raspy.

Master?

“Ah... yes, Clyde. Maybe you and,” I gestured
vaguely at the others, “can help with our hideaway.”

“This
is what you would have of us?” Clyde asked, after I explained what
needed doing.

“Yeah.”

“This is a small thing, this that you require.”

“Yeah.”

Jade sorta stepped further behind me. There was a
tone in Clyde's voice. I wasn't sure that there could be a different
quality to a dead voice but here it was.

“This magic you have, necromancer, is not a
small power. You must think on this thing that you wield.”

He gave me that level stare, his dead eyes holding
the weight of his words. I squirmed under that gaze, feeling
uncomfortable.

“I think you need to give old Clyde here the
sales pitch,“ Jonesy said.

“The what?”

“Tell him why,” Jonesy said.

I turned to Clyde, I couldn't believe I was
discussing things with a zombie, but I pressed on. “There's these
government dudes that want to take me...”

“The
young men that we dispatched?” Clyde asked. The zombies were
reacting to Clyde too, splitting their attention between he and I.

“Ah-no. Actually, those guys just want to beat
me up and make us all generally miserable.”

A look of confusion came over Clyde's face, with
like three teeth and a partial lip. I was pretty impressed to be able
to interpret any facial emotion.

“They mean you harm without infraction on your
part?”

That wasn't exactly accurate but I needed to speed
this up.

“Kinda, I don't know. Listen, they're jerks and
they don't like me and just enjoy causing trouble. Here's the thing,
I need this place to hide in case these government guys are looking
for me and I need to escape. Can you and them,” I looked over at
the patient zombies (would they just stand there all day and into the
night?), “make the tunnel bigger.”

“What, pray tell, do the 'government guys' wish
from you?”

Persistent as hell.

John took over, “I think they want to use Caleb
to do things for them that are bad, like spy-type stuff.”

I guess that was pretty good as explanations went.

“Nefarious
things?” Clyde clarified.

“Yes, exactly those things,” John said,
relieved.

Nefarious was a recent vocab word. They had a
witch as the visual prompt from some lame old movie that had everyone
singing in it. It meant wicked intent or something.

“What?” Jonesy asked.

“Later,” I hissed.

Jonesy looked offended, he'd get over it.

“Very
well,” Clyde said, straightening the lapels of his coat, what there
was of them.

He looked over at the zombie group silently for
about a minute or two. I was just about ready to ask what he was
doing when they all shambled over to the freezer.

“Now this is what I was talking about,” Jonesy
said.

The zombies did the GI Crawl back through the
tunnel where I heard a general commotion of metal grinding.

“Are they lifting up those cars?” Jade asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“They're strong.” she said it like it was a
bad thing.

“Yeah they are.”

She should have seen Gran.

We pondered zombie strength.

A sudden thought occurred to me. “I told you
guys to piss off? How come you showed?”

John grinned.

“What?” I asked.

“You weren't answering your pulse, I knew
something was wrong.”

“We can't get pulse-signal in there,” I said.

“For an hour?” John raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I guess that would have given me pause,”
I said, noticing that a fine blush had worked its way up Jade's face
coloring her cheeks a delicate shell pink.

Jonesy, not one to let awkwardness pass unnoticed,
said, “You guys getting all c.o.z.y in there!”

Jade wanted to die. I wanted to die. Jonesy...
what an ass. But, he had saved the day. Choices, choices.

“
Anyway,
”
John said. “Let's try to make good and go by the ice cream shop so
we can make a pretense of having done what you said you were going
to.”

“
First:
this is the question we all need to ask ourselves,” he paused for
dramatic effect, we all looked at Jonesy, “am I the man, or am I
the
man
?”
He stomped his feet, bowing.

We laughed. Today he had definitely been The Man.

The zombies trudged back out, and we peered in,
John had his LED with him again, God love him! The tunnel tightness
was appreciably widened. Even stocky Jonesy could get through.

We
stood up, brushing off our clothes. In the midst of our
self-congratulating, Clyde turned his serious rotting eyes toward us
and said,
“
Master,”(geez)
,
“put
us to rest now that we have completed this task.”

I looked up at Clyde, who was a good shot taller
than me, realizing that the rotting flesh smell wasn't affecting me
much but my friends were at a respectful distance. I couldn't help
but notice that Jade's hand was covering her nose and she was
breathing out of her mouth.

I leaned in a little to Clyde, who met me in the
middle, his neck making a disturbing sound as his face peered into
mine from a hand's breadth away. “I may need you again, because
things come up.”

“What
'things' are you referencing?” Clyde asked through what sounded
like mud. Maybe I could put him together better next time.

“Things like bad people showing up.”

“Nefarious
people?” Clyde reiterated.

“Yeah... them.”

“Indeed,”
Clyde said, straightening.

Clyde looked solemnly at me. We needed to get
outta here.

Jade, the Js and I walked toward the cemetery. Me,
the pied piper, trooping ahead and the zombies following; skirting
behind the tree line so the observant adult wouldn't get in an
accident.

We entered Scenic Cemetery (felt like home now),
traveling over to Clyde's grave. I turned around and had an unnerving
moment in which Clyde was on a full sprint and the others were behind
him, the one that had the unfortunate feet episode a little slower.
They came directly for us. Jade didn't even pretend that she wasn't
scared by the fleet of fluid zombies approaching at top speed, she
moved behind me.

The Js backed up out of the way of the graves.

Clyde
landed on his grave in a graceful, acrobatic move. The others laid
down on top of theirs. I released the thread that held them
to
me, reaching out for Jade's hand as I did. Realizing I probably
didn't
need
help, everything felt so much more real, organized...easier. I
thought,
rest.

And they did.

They appeared luminescent for just a moment,
sunlight swirling around them, shimmering. Then, they leaked back
into their graves as if they had never been.

Jonesy sighed, like he'd been holding his breath.

He
clapped me on the back. “I'm
so
glad that you're my friend, dude.”

“I hear that,” John said.

“Me three,” Jade said.

“Hey. How come you didn't whammy me?” I asked
John.

John was pleased with himself.

“Yeah, John, what gives?” Jonesy asked.

“I read up on being a Null. I guess you can
shield your abilities.”

News to me.

“I have been practicing and this was my big
trial run. Of course, it helped that they were all raised before I
came. And,” he paused, “I was standing away from you when you put
them away.”

We all looked at the undisturbed graves. Wild.

“How do you do it. The blocking?” Jade asked.

“Shielding,” John clarified.

“Whatever, how?” Jonesy asked.

“I think about something completely different.”

“Visualizing?” Jonesy asked.

John looked at him, surprised. “Yeah, that's
it.”

Jonesy broke out into a huge grin. I knew that
John had stepped into some kind of trap.

John studied him.

“Whatcha thinkin' about John?”

“Ah-nothing, just something different.”

“
Riiiiggghhht.
I am sure it's
really
different.”

A bright blush rushed up John's face, playing off
his orange hair. Jade stared. I stared. We waited.

“It's nothing,” he mumbled, glaring at Jonesy.

“
It's
not nothing it's a some
one
,”
Jonesy said.

John's face looked on fire.

“It's okay John, I'm feelin' ya, bro,” Jonesy
said sympathetically. Jonesy was never sympathetic, something was up
for sure.

“Come on, let's go get ice cream,” John said,
shooting Jonesy the evil eye.

Jonesy turned, winking at Jade and me. I was sure
wondering what John was using to shut down the Null in him. It'd be
interesting to find out. Jade looked at me, her eyebrows raised. I
shrugged, I didn't know either. But I was gonna find out.

We hopped on our bikes and rode off toward the ice
cream shop, the only tame thing we'd done tonight.

CHAPTER 27

We
sat around a tall, round table surrounded by stools; more like
perching than actual sitting. Jade had picked out what I thought of
as “black-tongue” ice cream (licorice). Possibly the grossest
flavor on the planet. I had the best flavor and so did the Js. Well,
Jonesy insisted on half-ruining his scoop of bubblegum with another
scoop of upside-down pineapple (disgusting), but insisted it was
the
tightest
flavor. How could fruit elevate ice cream in any way?

“I'm going to pulse Andrea and let her know we
ran into you guys and we're still at the ice cream shop.”

“She gonna buy that?” Jonesy asked.

We all turned to Jade.

She
nodded. “Yeah, she figures I'll sit here, staring at Caleb, then
with you two showing up, we'd stay longer. And, the bonus is I don't
have to lie. We did have ice cream, we did see you guys here.”

“ 'Stare', at me?”

“Yeah, it's like a joke. She thinks that I stare
at you when you're around.”

I felt a goofy grin on my face.

Jade staring at me. I could get used to that.

The Js ignored us, shoveling ice cream. Jade and I
smiled at each other. Another weird girl thing: Jade got her ice
cream in a cup. That was like against a religion. I didn't know
whose, but somebody’s.

We finished up, separating the trash and slipping
out the door into the early summer heat.

“Wow, it's hot,” Jonesy complained.

“
No,
it's just that they had the air conditioning in there set on
frigid
,”
Jade corrected.

The Js and I looked at each other.

“It was perfect in there,” John said.

I nodded, that's what I thought.

“
Well,
I get cold easy and they had the air on and I was eating ice cream,”
Jade said,
see
my logic?