The Book of More Flesh by James Lowder

Author:James Lowder [Lowder, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-08-09T01:40:58+00:00

Brainburgers and Bile Shakes

163

We had walked about a hundred yards when gunfire and screams from the theater cut through the afternoon air. I jumped, and Bissa glanced back.

“They must have added another act to the show. An encore, you know?” She touched my arm. “Hey, you look pretty shaken up. You’re not one of those ZRA people, are you? If so, don’t worry about the one who got knifed. They fix it up after every show. Staples, superglue, and a week in the dirt, and it’s good as new. More or less.”

“I’m not a Zombie Rights nut,” I said, slipping an arm around her shoulder. “It’s just . . .”

“You can tell me.” Her voice was warm, and she looked up at me so openly that I kissed her before I realized what I was doing. It was only a quick peck, but she didn’t pull away.

We kept walking in silence, our bodies pressed into one another like those couples I had watched and envied over the years. Now it was finally my turn. My turn to slip a hand around a beautiful girl’s waist. My turn to pull her close and feel her do the same.

I was in heaven.

✢ ✢ ✢

“It’s because of my brother, Sam,” I said. “He joined the National Guard in college. When the first uprising hit, back before mandatory cremation, he was one of the guys they called in to protect Vegas.”

Richard Nixon waved victory Vs at us from behind a wall of plexiglass. Tricky Dick was the healthiest zombie in the building, being the most recently deceased. The tip of his nose was a bit rotted, but overall, he was remarkably intact.

I wasn’t impressed. Bissa had already explained how they had to implant steel rods to keep his fingers bent like that.

When I looked closely, I could see the tip of one rod protrud-ing through his index finger.

“What happened?” she asked gently as she pulled me along.

“They thought it would be easy. The zombies didn’t put up much resistance, so the Guard herded them into the Luxor.”

“That’s the pyramid, right? The casino with the big spotlight on top?”

“Used to be,” I said, then lost myself in the memories.

They sent a Guardsman to our house with the news. He arrived right before dinnertime. I still recalled the smell of my mother’s chili simmering on the stove, and the overpowering scent of sage from the recent storms wafting through the house as my father opened the door.

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