Alexander Death(96)

“That must be it,” Alexander said.

They opened the door at one end of the structure. The interior was freezing cold, and pitch black until Ashleigh found the light switch.

Shelves lined both sides of the freezer, six high, all the way to the back. The shelves were full of large objects sealed in plastic.

Ashleigh unzipped the nearest one. It contained the corpse of a teenage girl with red hair and freckles, eaten up by disease before it was frozen.

“Hey there, Cassie!” Ashleigh chirped. “Want to come out and play one more time?”

“You know her?” Alexander asked.

“She was my best friend before Jenny killed her,” Ashleigh said. “But I know everybody here. This is my town.”

Alexander touched Cassie's body. Cassie let out a groan and slowly, stiffly rolled over to the edge of the shelf. She planted her feet on the floor and stood up, slouching heavily. Her green eyes were blank, her jaw slack, her hair falling off with pieces of her scalp. Ashleigh snapped her fingers in front of Cassie's face, but the dead girl didn't react.

“Come on, Cass-Cass,” Ashleigh said. “It's time Jenny Mittens got her payback.”

Alexander was unzipping the next body, and the next. Ashleigh helped. She found Cassie's boyfriend, Everett Lawson, the obese Coach Humbee, Mayor Winder, Dick Baker (“The Attorney/Realtor You Trust”), several ladies from the steering committee at Fallen Oak Baptists, assorted kids from the football team, and all the cheerleaders. Neesha, Ashleigh's other best friend, was barely recognizable with her collapsed face.

Ashleigh unzipped a body at the back and found herself looking at the leprous dead face of her mother. Then she unzipped her father's corpse, lying next to it. Jenny had infected the Goodlings pretty badly.

“You look like shit, Mom and Dad,” Ashleigh said. “Come on, get moving.”

“Your parents?” Alexander asked. “Want to leave them here?”

“Hell, no,” Ashleigh said. “I want Jenny to see what she's done to every one of these people. If she's all mopey about it like you say, this should be a nice and horrible way for her to die.”

“Your call.” Alexander shrugged. He grabbed one of Ashleigh's dead parents with each hand and pulled them off the shelf. They fell to the floor, then slowly stood, creaking with every move.

Ashleigh looked back over her shoulder and saw scores of people, her old neighbors and classmates, shuffling out the door of the freezer.

“Are they going to move any faster?” Ashleigh asked.

“I'm still fully charged with Jenny's energy,” Alexander said. “They can move fast, but they'll have to thaw first.”

“Oh, that's going to reek.” Ashleigh crinkled her nose.

They herded the zombies out to the loading dock. Alexander had the zombies empty the truck out, leaving a towering heap of frozen pork butts and sealed buckets of pulled pork and Brunswick stew on the dock. Then the zombies shuffled up the ramp into the box truck, lying down on top of each other, packing themselves in like sardines.

Alexander closed the rear door of the truck. The latch fell into place with a heavy thunk.

“I knew my investigation would pay off,” Ashleigh said. “I can't say I expected things to work out this way, though.”

“We'd better get going,” Alexander said. “Unless you really want to stay and hook up with that guard.”

“Ew,” Ashleigh said. “I told him I'd give him the screwing of his life. He's going to get it as soon as his boss finds out what happened.”

“I think he liked you,” Alexander said.

“Shut up!” Ashleigh's eyes flicked up and down Alexander's body. “Why would I do that? I have much better options available.”

“Who said I'm available?” Alexander asked.

“Who said I was talking about you?”

Alexander found himself reaching for her, intending to draw her close. He closed his fists and resisted the urge. “Let's just get in the truck.”

“Whatever you say, baby,” Ashleigh said.

Alexander climbed into the driver's seat. Ashleigh tuned the radio to a pop-country station.

“Jenny fucking Mittens,” Ashleigh said, her eyes gleaming. “I warned her not to fuck with me, didn't I?”

“I'm sure you did,” Alexander said. “It sounds like something you would say.”

They pulled away from the warehouse, with two hundred reanimated bodies in the back of the truck.





CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX





Jenny and Seth sat on the floor of a guest room in Seth's house, the room with the curtained bed made from an old wooden sailing ship. The windows were open and their screens removed, so the breeze from outside flapped the canvas bed curtains. If you wanted to drop something onto a horde of zombies lurching up the front walk, this was one of the best vantage points from which to do it.