Zak’s pulse raced as they made their way down the steep, slippery stairs that curved into the ground. The stairs were so small that Zak kept one hand touching the stone wall beside him to keep his balance. Kairn didn’t even have any problems getting down the stairs, though he was twitching violently.
Zak had seen that twitch in the graveyard zombies. He also had the feeling that he’d seen it somewhere else. Where had it been?
They reached the bottom of the spiral stairway and entered a small tomb. A great stone coffin lay in the center of the room. There were cobwebs all across its top, and a thick layer of dust lay on the floor around it. But next to the great coffin a pathway had been cleared of dust. This pathway led to another door at the far end of the tomb. Someone had used it often.
Kairn, still twitching, walked over and grabbed that door by a large metal handle. As he pulled the door open, Zak said, “It’s the legend of the witch’s curse, isn’t it? All the stories about people coming here to call their loved ones back to life-they’re true. It can be done.”
“Of course it can be done,” replied the voice of Dr. Evazan.
CHAPTER 13
Zak didn’t think about it. He turned to run. But before he could take a step, Kairn grabbed his arm. Kairn’s skin was ice-cold, and his grip was unbreakable.
“No, no, no,” Dr. Evazan said in a sickly sweet voice. “You can’t leave just as the fun is about to begin. Bring him here!”
Obediently Kairn dragged Zak further into the room. Zak struggled every step of the way, but Kairn had supernatural strength.
Evazan waited patiently until Zak stood before him. Kairn stood behind Zak, holding him by both shoulders. Zak continued to struggle, but he might as well have been fighting a stone.
“Welcome to my medical facility,” Dr. Evazan began.
The crypt looked more like a chamber of horrors. The walls were lined with specimen jars full of squishy objects Zak didn’t want to think about. Nearby stood a table covered with dull, rusty medical tools. There were several small doors along the back wall. Each door had a small barred window set in it, and through the window Zak could see pale zombies in the cells. He looked at Evazan again and shuddered. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
Evazan chuckled. “True. But I’m the doctor, so I get to announce the time of death. And my time hasn’t come yet. Or I should say, it’s come and gone, and I’m still here.”
Evazan twitched and Zak remembered-he had seen Evazan twitch onboard the starship!
“What do you mean?” Zak asked.
Evazan pretended to be surprised. “You mean you haven’t figured it out yet? Doesn’t your friend Kairn here give you any hints at all?” Evazan threw his arm back in a sweeping gesture that covered the entire room. “I’ve had a breakthrough in my experiments. I have figured out a way to reanimate dead tissue.”
“What does that mean?” Zak asked.
“It means,” Evazan said triumphantly, “I have learned to bring back the dead. Like I did with your friend Kairn here. And myself, of course.”
Zak felt fear and relief churn in his stomach. Dr. Evazan was a mad scientist, but at least now Zak knew he wasn’t insane. “How could you bring yourself back if you were dead in the first place?”
Evazan laughed, and the unscarred side of his face wrinkled into a horrific grin. “In my line of work, it’s good to think ahead. I heard that Boba Fett was in the area, and I knew he’d find me eventually. I injected myself with the reanimation serum. Once I died, there was only one step left in the process before I came back.”
“And those zombies in the cages back there. They’re like the ones I saw earlier. They’re more of your experiments?”
“My, my, you ask a lot of questions. But I suppose it’s good for me to practice my bedside manner. People say it’s my weak point.” Evazan began to fill a syringe with a pale red liquid. “Your timing at the cemetery was extraordinary. You got to see some of my undead creatures come alive, so to speak. Of course, those are the cruder models. They look more dead than alive. “
“But you and Kairn look…”
“Alive?” Evazan gloated. “That is due to my genius.
I’ve
made improvements since my first experiments. My new zombies look a bit healthier, and they can talk. My tests indicate they even keep their old memories. Kairn is a good example of the next stage and well, frankly, so am I.”
Dr. Death actually looked sad for a moment. “The unfortunate thing is that I couldn’t use the improved serum on the rest of the corpses in the graveyard. I’m afraid I need fresh bodies for it to work properly. Old bodies come out clumsy and awkward. For the results to be perfect, I have to be the one to kill my patients. That’s why I force-fed your friend here the cryptberries. They killed him without doing too much damage.”