by Ty Drago
But they were alive.
“Where’s Tom?” I asked Nick.
He looked at me wearily, with neither surprise nor relief. Then he pointed to the Infirmary’s entrance.
We went in.
The place was crammed. All the gurneys were full, and bedrolls had been set up all over the floor with more kids on them. Blood and broken bones, cuts and bruises. My mother moved among them, with Amy and Julie close behind, tending to the wounded while, off in a corner, Emily sat sucking her thumb.
“Will!” my little sister exclaimed, jumping up and running to me, throwing her arms around my legs, as was her way.
For a moment, my mom stopped and looked at me. Our gazes locked.
She smiled wearily.
Then she went back to work.
I understood.
Tom and Jillian came over.
Sharyn saw her brother and started crying again.
The chief wrapped her up in his arms and held her, much as I had back at Mifflin, but maybe more confidently. He didn’t ask about Dave. He didn’t have to. The Burgermeister wasn’t with us, and that seemed to say everything that needed saying.
Tom told us that Chuck Binelli’s body had been found at the western entrance, buried under a half-dozen deaders, most of which he’d taken out with his poisoned knife before they’d broken his neck. Steve, who’d taken charge of the crew, had pulled him and the rest of the fallen Undertakers out.
Their bodies now lay on cots that had been set up in the Brain Factory, with blankets draped over them.
All together, fourteen kids were known to be dead.
Fourteen.
At least, so far.
Dozens more were badly injured. The worst had already been taken to local hospitals, something that was no longer a death sentence.
Tom told us to get some rest, told us that pretty soon people would start coming. “Cops are stretched thin right now, since only the human ones are left. But pretty soon they’ll find us and then the questions’ll start. Once they do, they likely won’t stop, not for a long time. So, if you can sleep, sleep. Y’all earned it.”
He didn’t thank us.
We didn’t mind.
We were Undertakers.
And we’d won.
Chapter 49
NEXT
I tried to sleep. I really did. But it just wasn’t happening.
I hadn’t slept in this cot for more than a month, having spent all that time in a tent with Dave up in Allentown. Now the tent was gone, and so was Dave, and nothing in this room felt familiar or in any way “right.”
So I finally gave up.
And went to see Sharyn.
She was in her room, alone. Sharyn didn’t have a roommate. She’d never had one, and, as co-chief, one had never been forced on her. She sat on her bunk, staring at nothing, much the same way Dave had been when he’d lost his hand.
For a long time, I just stood in the doorway and looked at her. I’d heard the term “heartsick” before, but until today I hadn’t known what it meant.
Finally, I cleared my throat and said, “It should’ve been me.”
She looked up, her eyes puffy from crying.
“I mean it,” I told her. “It was going to be me, but Cavanaugh stopped me before I could shut the door. That’s what gave him the idea. If I hadn’t decided to ‘take one for the team’ or ‘throw myself on the grenade’ or whatever, then he might still be here.”
“And Haven wouldn’t be,” she said.
I didn’t reply; she was right.
“He was a hero, little bro,” Sharyn told me, rising slowly to her feet. “And he did what heroes do. He did it for you and me … and, I guess, for the whole world. But that don’t keep it from hurtin’.”
“He told me …” I began, but the words stuck in my throat. So I swallowed and tried again. “He told me to tell you that he loves you, too.”
She nodded, fresh tears falling freely.
“I’m sorry, Sharyn,” I said.
“Me too, Red.” Then: “Would it be cool if I went to your room later and … I dunno … packed his things? I guess his grandma should have them. His folks’ve been dead for years. I’d kinda like to be the one to take ‘em to her … just to meet her, you know?” Then she added hastily, “Unless you want to, I mean. He was your best friend.”
“I think maybe we should both do it,” I suggested.
“That’d be cool.”
I left her alone.
Helene was in her room as well, lying on her back and staring at the ceiling. When she saw me, she jumped up and ran to me. We swapped a hug, and then a long, sad kiss. Might sound weird but, at the time, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. I didn’t ask her if she was okay and she didn’t ask me. That would have been stupid.
So, instead, I said, “Um … I love you.”
“Me, too.”
And that seemed like the most natural thing in the world, too.
I stayed with her for a while, until she fell asleep on her cot. Then I spent some time wandering Haven. I found Steve and Burt in the Brain Factory and hugged them both. I ran into Alex in the Monkey Barrel and shook his hand—a hug with that guy was just a bridge too far, if you know what I mean. I went by the cafeteria and spotted Katie. She was holding a pair of sunglasses and crying softly.
I let her be.
Finally, my feet led me back to my room. Walking in, I half expected to find the Burgermeister there, sprawled across his bunk like a gorilla in a hammock, snoring crazily. When I didn’t, the sadness that crashed down on me was like a ten-ton weight.
Victory.
Except it didn’t feel like victory.
I dropped onto my bunk, even though I had no intention of trying to sleep. That was just as well, since almost the moment I sat down, a Rift opened.
I blinked at it, too surprised to be scared.
Unlike the jagged hole that Steve had created in the Brain Factory, or the bigger one at Fort Mifflin, this Rift was a rectangle. A perfectly-shaped, faintly shimmering black doorway. It floated in the air beside Dave’s cot, motionless.
I could see nothing through it.
Then a figure emerged, just stepped out of the nothing between here and whatever was there.
It was a woman.
Tall. Blond hair. Soft, angelic features.
“Hello, William,” she said. For once, her voice didn’t sound like it was down a tunnel.
“Hello, Amy,” I replied.
The woman smiled. There was a lot in that smile: sadness, regret, gratitude, sympathy. She wore a white “gown” that, for the first time, I understood to be some kind of lab coat, like they wear in hospitals.
She said, “So … you figured it out.”
I shrugged, lowering my gaze to my shoes. “Some of it. You’ve always looked familiar, but I could never place you, until this last time … when you saved Julie and me from drowning. You always call me William, and the only people who ever did that were Ian, as a joke, and Amy, because Ian did it.
“I know you’re Amy Filewicz … grown up. And I know that you’ve somehow been reaching back in time, pulling me out when I got hurt or when you had something to tell me. I know that you haven’t healed me, exactly, so much as cleaned my wounds and kept me with you, asleep, until my body healed itself. I know that at least a full year of my life has been spent in that ‘white room’ of yours.
“I know you’ve been trying to help me … to help us. But that there were some things you couldn’t tell me.”
I looked up at her. “How’m I doin’?”
She replied, “Very well.” Then she went to Dave’s cot and sat down. It occurred to me, weirdly, that I’d never seen her sit before. “I’m so sorry about the Burgermeister. I wish …” her words trailed off.
“And Chuck,” I said.
She nodded. “Yes. And Chuck. And the others. Especially Ian.” At the mention of his name,
the woman’s face fell. “I still think about him almost every day, even after all these years.”
“We won, Amy,” I said.
“Yes, you did.”
“So why doesn’t it feel that way?”
She said, “That’s … a complicated question.”
“And you’re done answering my questions?”
Her smile was back, knowing but also slightly sad. “Actually, I came to see if you wanted me to answer all your questions.”
That caught my attention. I sat up a little straighter. “Yeah,” I told her. “I’d like that.”
“But there’s a catch,” she said.
“Always is,” I said.
She stood up and held out her hand. “Come with me.”
I stared at her. “What?”
She motioned back at the Rift.
“I’ve seen the white room,” I said dryly.
“There’s a lot more than that. A whole lot more.”
“I don’t know if I’ve got the energy for a tour of the future.”
Her smile vanished. “This isn’t a tour. This is the reason.”
“The reason? The reason for what? I don’t get it.”
“I know you don’t, and it’s too complicated to explain. But there are things you need to understand, things we need you to understand. Everything we’ve done for you up until this point has been part of a plan … a part that’s now over. It ended the moment the Burgermeister pulled out that battery cable. But now there’s the next part, one that’s just as important, maybe even more so. And we need your help.”
Great, I thought. The future needs my help.
Who doesn’t?
“To do what?”
She seemed to consider her words before answering. “To make sure that the Burgermeister didn’t die in vain.”
I looked at her. “You’ll show me everything?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll bring me back?”
Did I see hesitation in her eyes? Apprehension? I wasn’t sure. “Yes.”
“Is it dangerous?”
A pause. “Yes. Very.”
“Is it important?”
“It’s the most important thing in the world.”
Great, I thought again.
I almost said no. In fact, I almost suggested she smooch my butt. Future Amy. The Queen of Secrets. She might have given me the knowledge I’d have needed to save so many people. But she hadn’t. She’d been sick about it, that much I believed. But she still hadn’t.
What kind of future is this?
So, I almost said no. Except for one thing.
She’d called him “Burgermeister.” Not Dave. Not Burger. “Burgermeister.”
And that told me something that made all the difference.
I was looking at an Undertaker.
So I got up and put my hand in hers.
She sighed and smiled again, almost laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded.
“Nothing,” she replied. “I … just lost a bet.”
Then she turned and, still holding my hand, led me into the Rift. As that weird shimmering darkness enveloped me, I remember thinking: So … it’s not over after all.
And it wasn’t.
Not by a long shot …
TY DRAGO
Ty Drago does his writing just across the river from Philadelphia, where the Undertakers novels take place. In addition to The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses, The Undertakers: Queen of the Dead, and The Undertakers: Secret of the Corpse Eater, he is the author of The Franklin Affair and Phobos, as well as short stories and articles that have appeared in numerous publications, including Writer’s Digest. He currently lives in southern New Jersey with his wife and best friend, the real Helene Drago née Boettcher.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Back in School
Chapter 2: After the Bell
Chapter 3: Parking Lot Wars
Chapter 4: The Zombie Prince
Chapter 5: Event Horizon
Chapter 6: Parker and Cole
Chapter 7: On the Road with a Dead Guy
Chapter 8: The Sure Kill
Chapter 9: A River Runs Through It
Chapter 10: Troubled Crown
Chapter 11: Falls Bridge
Chapter 12: Malite
Chapter 13: The Boathouse
Chapter 14: Blind Man’s Bluff
Chapter 15: Resource in Action
Chapter 16: Scull
Chapter 17: On the River
Chapter 18: Confession
Chapter 19: White
Chapter 20: Extension Cord
Chapter 21: Water Works
Chapter 22: Job Interview
Chapter 23: Their First Fight
Chapter 24: Kitchen Capers
Chapter 25: Fine Dining
Chapter 26: Clash of the Titans
Chapter 27: Control
Chapter 28: On the Steps
Chapter 29: Aftermath
Chapter 30: Giving Him a Hand
Chapter 31: Visitor from Beyond
Chapter 32: Communion
Chapter 33: Haunted Places
Chapter 34: Final Prep
Chapter 35: Deep Breath Before the Plunge
Chapter 36: The Yuck Factor
Chapter 37: The Pep Talk
Chapter 38: Enemy at the Gates
Chapter 39: Mifflin Revisited
Chapter 40: Cole’s Deal
Chapter 41: The Idea Machine
Chapter 42: Party Favors
Chapter 43: Derby
Chapter 44: Breach
Chapter 45: The Magazine
Chapter 46: Killing Floor
Chapter 47: The End
Chapter 48: Awakenings
Chapter 49: Next
About the Author
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