Rot & Romance (Rewriting)

Chapter 43

Charles had been driving for about a half hour when he began to grow haggard. Evelyn must have noticed as she began to look worried.

"You okay?" she said.

"I-I'm fine," Charles whispered. "I'm just . . . look, Evelyn, this could take all night. We have no leads, we have no idea where we're going--"

"Aren't you a cop?"

"Sheriff."

"And you have been dealing with the undead in this town for how long? You should have places in mind where they're likely to show up."

"The undead doesn't exactly leave us with infallible patterns, Evelyn," Charles said. "But . . ." He thought about the comfort station in Sancova Hills Park. The comfort station he was warned never to return to by an undead Keaton. "I know a place we could try."

Charles stepped on the gas and raced toward Sancova Hills Park.

* * *

The doors to his hideout opened before he reached the front doors. Benjamin climbed the steps and entered the house. Ursula was sitting on the sofa, facing the lit fireplace.

"You have yet to do what I asked," Ursula said, watching the flames. "Why are you here?"

"I . . . tried, Ursula," Benjamin said.

"Apparently not hard enough," she said, facing him. "Or you'd be here with the girl's blood in hand."

"I can't force her blood out of her."

"You can if you have to. And you will if you'd rather I not do the deed myself." She faced the fireplace again. "You needn't go back out tonight. But I want the girl's blood tomorrow. And if you fail to bring it to me again, I'll use sorcery to have you do my bidding. You understand?"

Benjamin nodded. "I understand." He turned to his friends, who were all still in stasis. "You sure they'll be alright?"

Ursula grinned.

"We'll find out tomorrow, won't we?"

* * *

"Here we are," Charles said, parking across the street from Sancova Hills Park.

"Why here?" Evelyn said.

"It was here that I met my first dead walker," Charles quietly said. "A kid I used to know--good kid. But . . . he was hardly the kid I once knew . . ."

There was a short pause.

"Do you know how dead walkers are born, Charles?" Evelyn whispered.

He shook his head.

"One has to die to be reborn undead," Evelyn said.

Charles narrowed his eyes.

"Die?"

Evelyn nodded.

"All dead walkers were once human. To turn, one must be bitten by a dead walker. The bite of a dead walker infects humans with a plague known as the 'undead virus'. It is that virus that causes resurrection after death."