Finding no need to be stealthy Dave stood up and began to drop all but one of the rope coils down to the road near the walker. For a few moments the walker turned its head to look at down at the fallen rope before looking back up at Dave. Josh soon joined Dave in looking at the walker.
"I've only ever run away before," said Josh talking normally, "so this feels incredibly creepy."
Dave took the rope that he hadn't dropped, uncoiled it, and used the box-cutter to cut the rope in half. Dave retracted the blade of the box-cutter before putting it back into his pocket.
"Here," said Dave while handing one of the rope pieces to Josh. "Try and make a noose."
"Are you going to do something crazy like try and drag it away?"
"No, we're going to do something even worse."
Dave finished making his noose and he opened it up enough for a head to fit in it. Josh copied Dave and watched Dave expectantly. The rope had a certain amount of stiffness to it that allowed Dave to lower the noose down and over the walker's head. Dave lowered the rope enough so that the noose hung loosely about the walker's neck.
"Okay," said Dave. "Your turn."
Though Josh didn't seem too pleased, he still quickly managed to get his noose in the same place as Dave's.
Dave pointed to the left. "I'll walk this way." And then he pointed to the right. "And you walk that way. Try not to fall off the bus."
"I'm thinking that it would be easier to just run up the road as bait if you want him to leave."
"Oh no, this is going to be way more fun than that."
Dave and Josh walked apart. When the angle of the ropes were about half way between horizontal and vertical Dave began to slowly pull on his rope. Josh noticed what Dave was doing and also started to pull on his piece of rope. The nooses closed firmly on the walker's neck.
"So now what? I doubt that we can pull hard enough to pop his head off."
"I want you to hold your rope firmly."
"And?"
"Try and stop the walker from getting me as I climb down."
"Fuck," swore Josh as he saw Dave drop his rope and climb down.
This activity hadn't been unnoticed and the walker turned and tried to walk towards Dave.
"This is weird," said Josh. "He's not pulling so hard that I can't control him."
"I'm surprised by that. I was hoping that you'd just slow him down. I can't believe that these walkers are so easy to overpower."
"Anyway. Whatever you're going to do could you do it already? This is just the time where something goes horribly wrong."
Dave picked up his previously dropped rope and started to walk towards a metal street light post that was on the opposite side of the street to the supermarket. The walker tried to follow but was held back by Josh. Dave made a single loose lope around the light post.
"Let out some slack," said Dave.
Josh slowly let out rope while Dave slowly walked away from the light pole. The net result was that the walker found itself pulled towards the light post.
"You've got enough space there," said Dave. "Drop down and we'll finish this off."
Josh dropped his rope and quickly lowered himself down the street level. The walker's attention switched from Dave to Josh, but Dave's loop around the light pole made controlling the walker easy. Josh picked up his rope again.
"So far so good," said Josh.
"Now comes the tricky part. If anything goes wrong run away. I'll do the same. The walkers seem slow so there's no point dying while trying to be a hero. We can just take however long it takes to do this safely."
Dave slowly pulled on his rope causing the walker to back up against the light pole.
"I need you to keep the walker's attention for a few minutes," said Dave.
Josh immediately started to sprout a sequence of profanity that Dave found impressive. The walker become very interested in Josh and tried to walk towards him. Dave quietly walked up to the light pole while keeping out of sight of the walker. Dave watched the walker really carefully while he reached for the loop that was around the light pole and slid it up to the same height as the walker's neck.
The walker seemed aware of Dave and started turning around. Josh started to jump up and down and wave his arms while getting closer to the walker. The walker in turn lost interest in Dave and focused on Josh. Forgotten by the walker Dave proceed to pull the rope tight to the light pole, locking the walker's head and neck firmly against the pole.
This resulted in the walker being very interested in Dave, while at the same time not being able to move its upper body. Dave proceeded to firmly tie the walker to the light pole. There was still a good amount of rope left over and Dave cut off the spare using the box-cutter that he got from his pockets.
"Now," said Dave pointing the walker's neck, "time for you to tie your piece."
"Shit," said Josh taking a wide arc to get behind the walker and tie his piece of rope to the electric light pole. Dave cut the spare part of the rope when Josh was finished. Josh walked an arc around the walker, making sure to stay out of the walker's grasping distance, and stood a safe distance in front of the walker.
"One last thing," said Dave. "Keep its attention for a bit."
"Sure," said Josh sounding unsure, yet he still yelled out: "Hey, stupid!" The
