Dan turns his head to look at William who has joined him without him noticing. They’re standing at the opening to the living room.
“Yeah, she hasn’t moved for forty-five minutes.”
The living room has been stripped clean of furniture—except for a tiny table in the corner—and all of Holger’s stuff is now stacked in the bedroom and most of the kitchen.
Instead, on the middle of the wooden floor sits Birgit, her legs folded, her hands resting on her knees, her eyes closed and her lips moving soundlessly. Around her, a wide circle is drawn in white chalk, surrounded again in a wider circle of lit candles, their flames the only source of light in the room. In front of her is an open book, a bowl of water with leaves floating around it and four shiny black stones places in a neat square. From the ceiling hangs strings with feathers, sea shells and thin animal bones—Dan can even make out what appears to be the skull of a crow.
“This is fucking nuts, you know that, right?” William says in a low voice.
“I guess you’re right,” Dan shrugs. “But so is what’s going on outside.”
“Speaking of things that are fucking nuts,” William says. “That’s actually why I came down here. The tarp is ready. We could use your help, if you’re done here.”
Dan nods. “I don’t think she needs any more from me.”
Earlier on, before sinking into silent prayer, Birgit instructed Dan in strewing out the chalk and lighting the candles while she recited phrases from the book.
Dan follows William upstairs. As they step into the room facing the courtyard, Dan can’t help but recall this was where Holger’s body was dumped from. That’s not the only reason why he dreads this part of the plan, though.
The window is open wide, showing the beautiful sunset in the horizon—which for the first time in weeks is partly covered up by distant clouds, carrying the promise of rain.
Dennis is standing by the window, peering down into the courtyard, from where the incessant choir of moans and groans comes floating up.
On the couch is Ozzy, resting, but lifting his head as they enter the room.
Liv is working on the ropes attached to the big, dark green tarp they found down in one of Holger’s utility closets. They’ve secured the ropes all the way around the edges of the tarp, leaving still several yards of rope for them to hold onto.
“Right, are we at go?” William asks, clapping his hands.
Dennis turns to look at them, the usual look of restraint on his face as he nods.
“I think so,” Liv says. “We just need to lower it.”
“Should we just go over it one more time?” Dan asks. “So we’re all sure of our individual tasks?”
“Right,” William says. “Dennis and I lower the tarp. Liv goes down to the tunnel and lures the zombies over towards the well cover, so that hopefully, only a few of them will stay below our window. Dan, you keep ready with the rifle.” William points to the weapon leaning up against the couch. “If anything goes wrong, you use it.”
Dan nods. “And the two of you, will you be able to hoist it up?”
“Sure, we’re a couple of buff dudes, right, Dennis?” William pats Dennis on the shoulder. “You used to hit the gym regularly, didn’t you?”
Dennis looks down shyly and shakes his head. “Not really.”
“No, I can tell,” William says. “Me neither. But we can lift one guy, right?”
“I guess so.”
William looks at Liv. “We’ll try and catch one of the lighter ones. I saw a couple of kids down there. If you can … you know, lure the others away.”
Liv throws out her arms. “I don’t really think I’ll have any say in the matter.”
“No, you’re right,” William concedes. “We’ll just see who we get. If it’s a big, fat guy, we can always dump him and try again.”
“Okay,” Dan says, going to pick up the rifle. “I guess we’re all set then?”
“Yeah,” William says, looking at Liv. “You make the first move.”
She nods, takes a breath, then leaves the room. They can hear her walk downstairs.
All three of them wait by the window. Dan peers down at the crowd of zombies. There are a lot of them, probably close to a hundred. Most of them are huddled below the window, reaching up at them, but others are still clawing away at the windows.
Then, gradually, they begin to turn and walk off to the far end of the courtyard.
“It’s working,” William says. “Liv is down in the tunnel now, and they are sensing her. Okay, let’s get this thing in the water.”
He lifts up the tarp, and Dennis helps him. Dan moves to the side, getting out of their way as they maneuver the tarp out the window, then starts lowering it using the ropes.
“More to the left,” William instructs. “No, that’s too much. You need to give a little more rope on your side, Dennis. That’s it. Nice job. It’s spread out nicely. Okay, get ready now. Liv will be heading back any minute. As soon as she’s gone, they’ll come back. Once the first one steps onto the tarp, we pull it, okay? You ready?”
Dennis nods. To Dan, he looks like someone who’s about to be sick.
“You’ve got this, Dennis,” he tells him. “You’re doing excellent.”
Dennis looks at him, blushing before he can look away. “Thanks.”
“Okay, here they come,” William says. “On my mark …”
They wait, watching the zombies. Dan can’t see them from where he’s standing, so he watches the faces of Dennis and William instead. Ozzy senses something going down and begins whimpering from the couch.
“Three, two, one,” William counts. “Now!”
He yanks back the rope, and Dennis does the same on his side.
“Pull, pull, pull!” William shouts, as they both heave and tug at the ropes, pulling it in as fast as they can. “I think we got one! Keep pulling, Dennis!”
They hoist up a few more feet of rope, then William
