have to be another homeless person.”
“Let’s nab one next week!” Steve said.
“I’m for that,” Dave agreed.
“First we gotta clean up what’s left of John and do what we can to mask the smell of those zombies,” Scott said. He was addressing all of them now and Gordon leaned forward, wanting to be involved in cleanup. It was his ass too. “We can’t get plastered tonight. We need to be sober enough to check them out in a few hours. If they’ve stopped eating, then we get them tied up and — ”
“How the hell are we going to do that if they’re still hostile?” Steve asked.
“Okay, so maybe we
“Where the hell are we going to get lime?” Steve asked.
“There’s a bag of it in the gardening shed,” Scott answered. “Our gardener uses it.”
Gordon’s mind was working, thinking about all of this. “I think we can pull this off. Air fresheners to mask the smell is the next step. I say after we get whatever remains of John’s body out of there, we get some sleep, then three of us split up in opposite directions in the morning and get some air fresheners. Scott should stay here in case somebody comes around. Me, Dave, and Steve could head out to different counties to get air fresheners.”
“A whole shitload of them,” Dave said.
“Not enough to arouse suspicion,” Gordon said. He was surprising himself with how logical he was in his thinking process. “I say we make three stops each, in different parts of our assigned counties.”
Scott nodded. “Good idea. I say grab ten from every store you hit. That’ll give you thirty each.”
“That’s ninety tops,” Steve said. “That’ll be enough.”
“I’ll hit Dauphin County,” Gordon said. “Dave can hit York County and Steve can take Berks.”
The others were enthused with these plans. Scott got up and began collecting the empty beer bottles. Dave began to help clean up and Gordon joined in. As they cleaned the living room, Gordon worked everything over in his mind. This effort at covering their tracks would work. He was positive of it. They’d been careful until the last week, when they’d accidentally killed Zombie #2, and tonight, when they’d lured John away from Susan’s party. That had been an incredibly stupid thing to do, and Gordon had been against the idea from the beginning. The more he’d argued against luring somebody away from Susan’s party with the idea of feeding them to the zombies, the more Gordon realized that not only were the other three completely serious about it, but Scott was beginning to send shards of disappointment at him. He didn’t want to give Scott the impression he was going against the group. He wanted to appear that he was firmly on their side.
He didn’t want to give Scott the excuse to eventually feed
Gordon had caught a little buzz while they spent the past hour reliving the feeding, and now as he assisted in living room cleanup he sobered up instantly. He still felt afraid for what was to come and felt a sense of shame at himself for what he’d participated in, but he was going to deal with it. He had to do something. Things were already going too far. It was only going to get worse in the days and weeks to come.
He had to put a stop to this somehow. Not to save somebody the pain and horror of being eaten. Not to save another homeless person.
He had to save his own skin.
He didn’t want to get in trouble.
Couldn’t afford to get in any kind of trouble of this magnitude.
As Gordon loaded the dishwasher he thought about his future, which was something he was beginning to take seriously, thanks to long talks with his parents. He wanted to go to college. His grades were fairly decent, and he was interested in Engineering. He wanted to go to college, major in Engineering, carve a future for himself. If he were arrested for the crimes he’d participated in, that would blow his future. He couldn’t let that happen. Why Scott wasn’t thinking about that was bewildering. Scott got better grades than Gordon, had a chance at being accepted into a good university. Scott’s parents were very successful executives and he knew they were grooming Scott for a similar path. Was Scott’s uncaring attitude rebellion against his parents? That was Gordon’s impression, but no way was he going to suggest this to Scott. That would only spell trouble.
The only way he could extract himself from this was to assist in cleaning up this latest mess, offer ways to cover their tracks, and then work on providing alibis for himself for the nights they kidnapped the two homeless people and John.
As Gordon finished loading the dishwasher he felt confident he could cover all of his tracks. He could also provide an excuse for not being able to participate in further trips into the bigger cities for future zombie procurement. He could take off for the Jersey shore to spend time with his grandparents, say that his parents had made him go and he couldn’t really get out of it. He friends believe that.
But there was the lingering problem of Zuck’s woods and the spell.
He had to break it somehow.
Scott broke his silent reverie by entering the kitchen bearing an empty garbage can. “Ready to take a look in the guest house to see what kind of work we have cut out for us?”
“The sooner the better,” Gordon answered. He closed and locked the dishwasher, turned it on.
Scott set the empty garbage can down and filled it with a new plastic lining. Steve and Dave had finished their respective tasks and were huddled near the rear sliding doors that led to the back yard. Gordon walked over to join them, already thinking of what he had to do next.
Talk to Count Gaines. Find out if there was a spell that would counter the one he’d cast in the woods.
Of course, that would mean confiding to Gaines.
Could he trust Tim Gaines?
He had to. If Gordon wanted to pry himself out of this mess, he had to extend a modicum of trust to Tim. Maybe he wouldn’t have to tell Gaines everything, maybe he could —
He debated this in his mind as he walked outside and headed toward the guest house with the guys. Tim Gaines was smart. He’d figure out what had happened. He would try to use this information and take it to the police.
But would they believe him?
Gordon didn’t think they would. The new Dean of the school, Jim Simmons, didn’t trust Gaines. The physical evidence of the grave robbery pointed to Gaines. And while it was largely unspoken, local perception of Gaines wasn’t very favorable. Everything he did was against the status quo, from his reading material to his taste in music, to his attitude. That perception was deep-seated, had settled firmly in the consciousness of pretty much everybody in town. It wouldn’t take much to plant further seeds of doubt in the public perception of Gaines and his new friends. All it required was digging some dirt on Al and George. Al would be easy. The guy had skated on the edge of being an outsider ever since the eighth grade, he hung out with Matt and Chelsea, and his parents used to be hippies or something like that. He’d have to do some digging on George, but he knew he could do it. He used to live in Dauphin County. An Internet search would probably reveal info on him. He could find some of George’s former classmates on MySpace or something, find out what he was like, then twist the feedback he received to dovetail with what was happening now.
He had law enforcement on his side. He had dirt. It would be easy to blackmail Gaines into helping him.
Gordon’s confidence was solid now. He knew Gaines wanted this latest episode to go away. He’d probably do anything to get the police to drop the whole matter. He could even sweeten the deal by assuring him that it wouldn’t happen again, which was true. Gordon had no intention of messing with that black magic shit again. The guys had no inclination to try it themselves, and Gordon doubted they even remembered the title of the book in question he’d gotten the spell from. They’d be unable to duplicate his efforts for another go round.
This was going to work.
They approached the guest house and Scott stepped forward, gripping the doorknob firmly. He glanced back at the others and Gordon met his gaze with fierce determination.
