Zak was horrified. “You mean you killed him just so you could bring him back to life?”
“Of course.” Evazan held up the syringe and looked at Kairn. “Kairn, put your friend on the table.”
“Kairn, don’t do it! Help me!” Zak said.
For the slightest moment, Kairn paused.
“Oh, I’d save what little breath I had left, if I were you,” Evazan warned. “These zombies listen only to my commands. Put him on the table.”
This time Kairn obeyed immediately. He lifted Zak easily and dropped him on the examining table. The undead Necropolitan pinned him down with a viselike grip. “But why are you doing this-why are you creating zombies?” Zak managed to ask.
Evazan held up the syringe and squeezed it until one drop of the pale red liquid bubbled out and ran down along the edge of the needle. “Haven’t you noticed how strong they are? Also, they don’t feel any pain at all, and they are easily conditioned to take orders. In other words, they’ll make perfect soldiers. And since people are always dying, there will be a limitless supply. ” Evazan seemed horribly pleased with himself. “Whoever uses my process will have an inexhaustible, invincible army. And I, of course, will become very rich.”
“You’re insane! Who would buy this serum?”
“Oh, I already have a buyer. A very, very powerful buyer. He’s close to the Emperor himself, I believe.” Evazan twitched violently. He saw Zak staring at him and shrugged through another twitch. “The twitching is a defect in the serum. But I think I’ve fixed it. I’ll know as soon as my next subject reanimates.”
“Your next subject?”
Evazan looked surprised. “Why, yes. You, of course.”
He brought the needle close to Zak.
“No!” Zak struggled against Kairn’s impossible grip. “Kairn! We were friends!”
Kairn spoke slowly. “I’m sorry, Zak.” He twitched, and Zak thought he felt Kairn’s grip loosen.
“Silence!” Evazan snarled. “I didn’t give you permission to speak. Now hold him still!”
Instantly Kairn’s grip grew tight again. Evazan mumbled, “Interesting. This new version of zombie is less obedient than the earlier ones. I’ll have to take care of that.”
Evazan poked the needle into Zak’s arm.
Zak kicked and thrashed, trying to free himself, but Kairn was far too strong.
“Seeing as how you should be my greatest success, it’s only fair to tell you about the process itself. It’s quite brilliant. The serum contains most of the active ingredients. The only thing missing is the final chemical-oddly enough, it’s a chemical found in the slime trails of the boneworms that live on Necropolis.”
“So that’s why you’re working here.”
“Exactly. All I have to do is dig up the body, or get to it before it’s buried, and inject the serum. Once the body is back in the ground, I simply let the boneworms do their work.”
“But the boneworms eat the bodies,” Zak said with a shudder.
“No, no, no,” Dr. Evazan corrected. “The boneworms dig their way into the skin and suck the marrow from your bones. Once they’ve had their fill, my serum kicks in, filling the bones with reanimation fluid. It’s absolutely brilliant.” Evazan checked his chronometer. “And it’s just a matter of time before my latest batch of undead scratch and claw their way to the surface.”
Zak’s arm throbbed where Evazan had given him the shot. He was surprised when Dr. Death picked up another needle, this one full of clear liquid.
“Another shot?” Zak moaned. He was already feeling ill.
“Oh, that first shot wasn’t the serum. That was a diluted version of cryptberry juice. Instead of killing you like normal cryptberry juice does, that shot will put you into a coma. Of course, everyone will think you’re dead. This is the reanimation serum.”
Evazan jabbed the second needle into Zak’s arm.
The doctor nodded matter-of-factly. “You see, I think the twitching is a side effect of the original death, like the blaster shot that killed me or the poison that killed Kairn here. So instead of killing you in a conventional way, I’m giving you the serum first. Then I’m going to, shall we say, extinguish your flame in the way that will do the least damage.”
Zak felt himself growing drowsy. “Wh-what are you going to do.”
“Oh, I’m not going to do anything,” Evazan said with the cruelest of smiles. “I’m going to let your friends do it for me.”
Zak woke from the first restful sleep he’d had in several nights. He had not had a single nightmare, not even a dream. His first waking thought was that he felt refreshed.