Head Full of Ghosts

Chapter 8 - Land of the Dead

"What the hell is this?"

"It's okay," Mills said, waving his hand in a circular motion to beckon the outsider into the room. "You can come in."

"Like hell!" Kevin spat. "I'm not going in there!"

He knew what the sheriff meant. Though there were probably about five or six zombies in the room, there was no way for them to reach the door, or the side of the room that the sheriff was on. They had chains attached to collars around their necks, their arms, and their waists. The far end of those chains were all bolted to different hooks set deep into the stone wall at the other end of the room. Multiple failsafe points, Kevin realized. The zombies were pretty securely locked down.

Behind Mills there was a mirror, and Kevin realized that most likely it was a two-way mirror, and that this room had likely been chosen very strategically as a room deep inside a building, with the concrete wall and the two-way mirror. This wasn't a room that happened to contain an outbreak that they never put down. This room was set up intentionally.

"It's okay," Mills said again. "They can't get to you."

"You're insane," said Kevin, ignoring the sheriff's prompting. "Do you know what those things are?"

"I'd say I have a pretty good idea, yeah."

"You clearly don't, or else they wouldn't be here."

"Well, you see," the sheriff began, but Kevin cut him off.

"You're studying them."

The sheriff paused for a moment while a look of surprise flashed across his features, and then it was gone and he shrugged and nodded. "Well, yes."

"You're studying them because you think you're going to learn something from them. But you're not. You're not going to learn anything from them except that they're zombies. And by the time you realize that's all you're getting from them it'll be too late and they'll be coming for you."

Mills narrowed his eyes half in anger and half in confusion. "Who? The zombies? They're not coming for anyone, they're..."

"No, not the zombies!" Kevin slapped the open door with enough force to rattle it, sending a booming echo through the room. This had the unintended consequence of turning all the zombies' attentions on him, and their moans became a little more eager and they all began moving toward him, but the young man barely seemed to notice. "Godammit don't you get it? If you had any sense you'd put these things down, burn this whole place down and find a new place to live!"

Mills shifted his weight, like he was bracing himself for a fight. "I think it's time we took you back to the cell."

In a blur of motion Kevin whirled around and dove for Jensen's gun. He had the strap over the holstered weapon off and was fighting with it to get it free from the holster before the other man even realized what was happening.

But Kevin didn't know about the extra safety precautions implemented on police holsters to prevent this exact situation, so he was never going to get the gun free. Instead his wrestling with the apparatus turned into wrestling with the other man, and within moments his hands were freed from the weapon and he was tossed onto his back on the floor.

He lay there for only a moment to recover, and then flipped over and scrambled back up to his feet to put his back up against the far hallway wall outside the room.

Mills pushed past a still confused Jensen who was busy re-locking the straps on his holster and out into the hallway as well. "What the hell is wrong with you?" the sheriff demanded.

"Do you seriously not know?" Kevin replied quickly.

"Know what?"

"It's not just the zombies anymore. There's something out there, something worse than the zombies. Something that can control them."