[Galaxy Of Fear] - 02(20)

“Now I get to ask a question,” Tash asked.

“It will be a waste of breath.”

Tash asked anyway. “What does Uncle Hoole want from you? Does he want you to kill someone?”

“Stay out of your uncle’s business. You don’t want to know about it.” The killer paused. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of my business as well.”

Boba Fett pressed a small control on his wrist and the jetpack he wore ignited in a burst of flame. With a roar, the bounty hunter shot up into the air and was out of sight, leaving Tash alone on the dark street.

Zak rubbed his eyes and looked again. The person walking down the street was definitely the same boy he’d met his first day in Necropolis.

“Kairn!” Zak yelled happily. “You’re alive!”

Kairn didn’t stop moving, so Zak ran to catch up with him. Only when Zak stood right in front of him did the young Necropolitan seem to notice. “Kairn, it’s me. Zak.”

Kairn blinked. His skin was pale, as though he’d been very ill, and his eyes looked glassy and lifeless. They reminded Zak of black holes.

“Zak,” Kairn said slowly. “Good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you! What happened? Was it all a mistake?”

Kairn blinked very slowly. “Mistake?”

Zak laughed. He was so happy to see his friend. “You were dead, or at least you looked dead. The other night in the cemetery, remember?”

“Oh. No. There was no mistake.”

“You mean - - ?”

Kairn smiled a lifeless smile. “That’s right. I died, Zak. I was dead.” Kairn’s body twitched.

Zak sputtered, “Then, it really is true? The dead can come back? But how? “

“I can answer your questions if you come with me. I must go to the graveyard again.”

Kairn started walking down the street.

Zak didn’t know what to do. He knew he should go back and meet Tash. He also knew Pylum had expected him to wait at the hostel. But if he left now, he might lose Kairn, and he refused to let that happen. If he was going to get anyone to believe him, he needed proof-and now his proof was walking away. Zak hurried until he was shoulder to shoulder with Kairn. “I’m right with you.”

Kairn said nothing as they walked. Whatever had happened had definitely changed him. His skin looked sallow and unhealthy. He walked slowly, like he was trudging through mud, and every now and then his body shook with a violent twitch. But he didn’t look like the zombies Zak had seen in his dreams. He looked like he’d been ill, but he did not look like the walking dead.

Kairn’s personality had changed along with his appearance. He didn’t speak unless Zak asked him a question, and even then Zak had to ask it two or three times. It seemed as if Kairn’s brain were in a fog as thick as the Necropolis night.

Still, all of those things paled in comparison to the miraculous fact that the dead young man was walking the streets of Necropolis!

When they reached the gates of the cemetery, Zak stopped. “I’m not sure I can go in there.”

“I must go,” Kairn said. “Inside here is the reason I came back.”

“It’s true then, isn’t it?” Zak guessed. “There’s something about the Crypt of the Ancients that brings back the dead.”

“Yes.”

Zak swallowed hard. “Kairn, this power, can it… Can it return anyone? From anywhere?”

Kairn smiled. “Come with me and see for yourself.”

It sounded like another dare. Zak wouldn’t have accepted it from anyone else, but Kairn was proof that some mystical power surrounded the crypt. He thought of his parents and decided it was a risk worth taking.

Kairn led him back through the graveyard until they reached the massive Crypt of the Ancients. It looked the same as it had the other night.

Zak was impressed when Kairn grabbed the handles of the heavy doors in his thin, bony hands. The doors must have weighed several hundred kilos, but Kairn pulled them open easily. Beyond, a stairway led down into the dark.

“This is the way to the secret,” Kairn said. “If you follow, you will see how the dead can come back to life.”

“Um… okay,” Zak said, suddenly feeling chilled.

He stepped inside behind Kairn, who paused only to slam the doors closed. Instantly they were plunged into utter darkness. Zak could not see Kairn, even though he was standing right next to him.

“Wait, it’s too dark to go down there,” Zak stated nervously.

“Oh, you need light. I forgot,” Kairn replied. “Do you still have the glowrod I gave you?”

Zak fumbled in his pocket until he found the small rod and ignited it. It cast a faint light on the stone walls of the crypt.