Un2Dead (Book One of the Un2Series)
Chapter Five

The buzzing of the alarm was so loud Joey could barely make himself heard.

“I’m going back inside. Danny needs my help.” Joey turned to re-enter the store. He was yanked back into the alley, Reese clinging to his elbow.

“No, Joey, stay out here. Wit told me to get you out of the store. He’ll be right behind us.” Reese insisted. The pair jumped at the sound of a tremendous crash, followed by a rapid series of smaller crashes.

“Reese, you saw that guy. Do you really think Danny can handle that psycho? “Joey pulled free from Reese’s grip and stepped toward the door.

“But, Joey, you’re just a kid. What could you possibly do to help?” Reese pleaded.

“You would be surprised. Stay here.”

“But, Joey-” Reese reached for Joey but he eluded her grasp. Another crash from inside the shop had Reese running two steps behind him. Joey stopped at the doorway leading from the stock room to the shop and allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The lamps in the remaining unbroken tanks shimmered off of the pools of salt water and shards of broken glass that covered the floor. Wit lay in the midst of the mess, his eyes wide, focused on the Ribcage standing before him. Joey followed Wit’s line of sight to the viper twisting furiously at the end of a leather clad arm. Dropping the pipe, a second hand shot forward, grabbing the viper’s tail. With his arms outstretched, the Ribcage inserted the viper’s tail into its mouth. The viper instantly calmed. It unhinged its jaw enough to accept its own tail and continued to consume itself until it formed a perfect circle about the size of a dinner plate. It began to glow.

Three sets of eyes watched in amazement as the luminous serpent was slowly lifted and then placed as a necklace about the Ribcage’s neck. The viper continued to constrict until it resembled a choker collar. The glow intensified, illuminating the Ribcage’s face as if he was about to tell ghost stories around a campfire. He again reached into the viper’s tank, grabbing two eggs. Stepping backward he spread his arms, an egg in each hand.

“I surrender my mortal being unto you, Osiris, my Lord and master. I relinquish all in order to serve as your minion. Drink of my blood, of my soul. Grant me the eternal return. Let the power of the Ouroboros compel thee.”

He closed his hands around the eggs. Teal light poured from the gaps between his fingers. His eyes rolled back into his head. Now blank, they glowed as if they were small television screens. With each heartbeat the blue-green energy traveled further and further through his veins making them look like neon tubes lying just beneath his skin. The neon reached his shoulders then shot horizontally toward the heart. It too, began to glow. His heart beat frantically and looked as if it were searching for a way out of its current situation. The intensity of light grew with each beat as the heart struggled to keep its convulsing vessel intact. A brilliant burst of light, then sudden darkness. The Ribcage stood shaking and slump-shouldered in the glow from the surrounding tanks. His head hung forward, no strength to hold it upright. His arms hung limp at his sides. Both hands slowly opened to reveal nothing but bare palms. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. His breathing slowed, and then stopped. The turquin viper loosened its grip on itself and slid from his neck, spooling into a tangled pile, motionless, on the floor in front of him. The vertical corpse teetered a bit but remained standing.

Joey made his way over to Wit as Reese turned off the alarm. A few seconds later Reese had switched the lights back on. Joey extended a hand to Wit and pulled him up from the blanket of broken glass. Reese ran to him and threw her arms around him. Wit put an arm around Joey and drew him in to a group hug. The three shifted their attention to the corpse.

“Well, that was different.” Wit exhaled.

“I thought he was gonna kill you! Are you okay?” Joey asked as he picked a couple of shards of glass off of Wit’s chest.

“I threw a kitten at him. He comes at me with a pipe and I’m whippin’ kitties at him.”

“I have never been so scared. Wit, if I had lost you, I . . . . “Reese’s voice trailed off.

“Don’t worry, Baby. I’m fine. Honest.” Wit reassured her with a kiss on the forehead.

“This guy, on the other hand . . . . “Wit stepped forward a few feet and poked the corpse in the sternum. It rocked back and then righted itself. Wit poked him again. The corpse rocked back a bit farther but righted itself once more, its arms swinging like pendulums at its sides. Wit pushed the corpse hard with an open hand. This time it continued to fall backward, shoulders first followed by flailing arms. As it fell, its hands reached back behind its head. Just before hitting the floor the corpse jerked its knees into its chest. The momentum carried it through a picture perfect backwards somersault. It sprung back to its feet poised in a crouched wrestler’s stance. It slowly raised its head and glared at the threesome through his blank TV screen eyes. He grinned and slowly twisted his head, first to the right, then the left and back to center.

“Ta-Da!” slid from his mouth on sulfur-tainted breath.

Joey stepped in front of Wit and Reese, putting himself between them and the now apparently reanimated Ribcage.

“Danny, take Reese and get her out of here,” he said in a tone Wit had never heard from him before.

“Joey, what the hell do you think you’re doing? We won’t leave you here with…that!”

“Get her out of here now!”

Joey spun his head around, staring directly into Wit’s eyes. Joey’s pupils widened then expanded until his eyes were entirely black. The tips of fangs appeared just below the bottom of his upper lip.

“I can handle this. Trust me.”

Joey turned and was in mid-leap before Wit could even respond. The Ribcage jolted forward.

The undead combatants collided while they were still airborne. Joey planted his shoulder into the Ribcage’s abdomen and drove him backward into a display of carpet covered kitty condos. The impact toppled the towers of shag-laden tubes with a most unsatisfying lack of noise. The momentum carried them headlong across the floor, slamming them into the wall. Spools of bulk aircraft cable and tie-out chains rained down upon them. The Ribcage grabbed a length of cable and wrapped it around Joey’s neck, pulling it tighter and tighter in an attempt to cut off Joey’s air supply. Being new to this, he hadn’t realized that oxygen isn’t all that important to the undead. Joey stood, lifting the Ribcage along with him.

“You’re such a stupid moron! You use stakes to kill vampires,” Joey growled.

Joey took a corkscrewed tie-out stake from the wall and displayed it to the Ribcage.

“Like this one, for example.”

And with that, Joey thrust the stake through the zombie’s chest, pinning him to the wall. He took hold of the novice zombie by each side of his head and pushed his thumbs into his vacant glowing eyes. Quickly pivoting his hands, he split open the Ribcage’s head as easily as segmenting an orange. Luminous liquid resembling antifreeze bubbled up from the void and cascaded off of what was once a jaw. One final “fuck” gurgled from its throat.

“Danny! Reese! Are you okay?” Joey called out as he hurried to the back of the shop.

“Over here.”

Wit’s voice crackled from someplace close to the ground. Joey scanned the aisles as he picked up his pace. He turned towards the smashed aquariums to see Wit sitting amidst the debris, knees up and hands bracing behind him. Reese was kneeling beside him, wide-eyed and trembling.

“Ya know, Joe,” Wit started “I learned a couple of things tonight. First, I’m a lover, not a fighter. Second, there really are things like zombies and vampires, but you, of all people, already know that. And last, but not least, I’ve got to stop assuming that things that appear dead are actually dead.”

Wit brought his left arm forward revealing the turquin viper coiled around his forearm, its fangs imbedded near the elbow.

“We were headed for the door. It went for Reese. I just reacted. I grabbed at it. I didn’t have time to think.”

Wit was speaking rapidly and sweating profusely. The veins in his neck and forehead were pulsing wildly. He gasped for air and collapsed.

“Joey! The anti-venom! Where’s the anti-venom?” Reese was now screaming, tears pouring down her face.

“We don’t have one. The viper is black market.”

Joey dropped to the floor and tore the viper from Wit’s arm.

“Then call an ambulance!” Reese pleaded.

“There’s not enough time.”

Joey looked up at Reese, then at the baby bump.

“I can save him, but it will change everything. Nothing will ever be what it used to be.”

“I don’t care. Just don’t let him die!” Reese was near hysterics.

Joey bent over Wit, put his face alongside his head, and whispered, “Forgive me.” Tears welled up in Joey’s eyes as he sank his fangs into Wit’s neck.