“Okay, wait a minute,” he says, panting. “We need to check …” He holds the rope tightly as he leans out to look down. “It’s closed. And there’s definitely someone in there. Judging from the size, I’d say there’s only one in there.” He darts a broad smile at Dan, then turns to Dennis. “We did it, man! Hole in one! Gimme some!”
He holds up his hand. Dennis hesitates for a moment, then realizes what it means and raises his own hand to high-five William. But as he does, the rope starts slipping.
“Oh, shit,” William says, grabbing it. “Let’s finish the job, then we’ll celebrate later …”
Running footsteps as Liv appears in the doorway, out of breath. “Did it … did it work?”
“It did,” Dan says. “Maybe stay back. We need to make sure the tarp is safe.”
Dennis and William pull the ropes all the way in, and the tarp comes into view. It’s bundled up and closed at the top, where the ropes have laced together just as they had planned. Inside the teardrop-shaped bag, a zombie is thrashing around, its nails audibly scratching away at the tarp. Ozzy jumps to his feet and begins growling.
“It will hold, won’t it?” Dennis asks, sounding both anxious, excited and out of breath all at once. “The tarp is too thick for him to claw his way through?”
“It’s heavy-duty material,” William pants. “I trust Holger only bought the best shit for his bunker. Come on, let’s get it inside …”
They pull with a last effort, backing up as the tarp moves over the windowsill and plunges to the floor.
“Tape it up!” William shouts, holding the ropes tight so the opening is kept closed.
Liv moves in from the side, bringing the role of duct tape. She swiftly wraps it around the opening several times, closing it off effectively.
“Perfect,” William says, still holding the ropes. “Now, everybody out! Except for you, Dan. You keep ready. If that fucker sticks as much as his dick out that bag, you shoot it off. Then you shoot him in the head. All right?”
Dan nods, holding the rifle against his shoulder and pointing it at the tarp.
Dennis and Liv have already left the room.
“I’m letting go now,” William says, easing off the ropes. “Here we go …” He drops the ropes completely and jumps back. The tarp-bag slumps down, the dead guy on the inside groaning and scrambling to get at them, but the tape holds the opening closed with little difficulty. Besides, the zombie seems to have no idea where the opening is, but is simply attempting to crawl right through the tarp, which is way too thick.
“It’s working,” Dan says, feeling his heart pound away in his throat. “It can’t get out.”
William steps back inside the room. “You’re right. We did it.” He looks up, smiling again. “We fucking did it! And on the first try! I can’t believe it. Where’s that high-five you owe me, Dennis?”
Dennis steps into the room, looking like he’d rather not, but he comes closer to William, holding up his palm with a tentative smile, and William slaps him a stinging high-five.
TWENTY-FIVE
If William is being honest with himself, he has very little faith in the project. To him, it looks and sounds like goddamn lunacy; catching a zombie and trying to force some voodoo-ritual on it … stuff like that is only for dumb movies; it’s too crazy to work in real life.
Yet William can’t help feeling excited as they bring the tarp-bag containing the thrashing dead guy into the living room.
Birgit is no longer sitting in the circle, but has gotten up and is preparing something on the table by the wall.
“Where do you want this?” William says, dragging the bag into the room.
Birgit turns to look at them. She’s painted her face white with some flour-like powder and put black feathers into her hair. By all accounts, it should make her look silly, but in the flickering light of the candles, she reminds William of a ghost from ancient times, and there’s nothing funny about it.
“In front of the circle,” she says, pointing. “It needs to stay put; it can’t be thrashing around like that.”
“Well, what do you want us to do?” William says, dragging the bag to the place Birgit pointed out. “Nail him to the goddamn floor?”
Birgit shrugs. “Whatever will keep it from moving around.”
William looks at Dan, then at Liv. “Any bright ideas?”
“We could actually nail it to the floor,” Liv offers. “I mean, nailing the tarp to the floor.”
“That would risk it tearing,” Dan says. “I think it’s better to use duct tape.”
“Great idea,” William says, turning to Dennis. “Could you get the tape? Oh, and maybe bring more than one roll.”
Dennis gives a quick nod, then runs out of the room.
They just stand there for a minute, waiting in awkward silence. The zombie moves around in the bag, trying to get at them, and William needs to constantly pull it back into place.
Birgit has turned back to the table and seems to be mixing things into a bowl. Dan walks over to her, careful not to step on anything on the floor.
“Anything else you need us to do?” he asks.
Birgit offers him half a glance. “I don’t know yet. I’ll tell you if the time comes.”
“You think it’ll work?”
She shakes her head. “I think the chances are very, very slim.”
“Well, let’s try it anyway.”
Dennis comes back, carrying a bunch of duct tape rolls. He hands them out, and Liv and William both begin to tape up the tarp bag.
It’s not easy, especially since the dead guy keeps moving and they have to be constantly on the lookout for any holes or tears in the tarp. But little by little, they start to get the bag wrapped up, making it tighter still with each new round of tape, until finally, the zombie can only wiggle feebly. It looks like a silvery cocoon. They then tape the whole thing to the floorboards.
“There,”
