Morning Walk

I drove down the lonely road, alert to any possible movement. The wind shook leaves off the trees, blowing them into my path. I bit my lips and ran through the phone call in my head one more time.

"Hello, this is Officer Everrett. We have a case we'd like you to consult on, if you agree to the same conditions as the Beverly incident. You do? Meet us at the Bramblewood Park Gazebo as soon as possible."

I had rolled my eyes once he hung up. I understood that the kind of cases they were willing to call me for had to be kept quiet, but refusing to tell me anything but a location over the phone seemed like overkill.

When I got to the park, the entrance was closed. I had to show my ID to the officers at the gate before they would let me in. One of them followed me to the parking lot, and stayed with me until I met Officer Everrett at the gazebo.

"Ms. Harker," he said, extending his hand. "Off the record, I'm glad you decided to come. This case certainly seems to match your... specialty."

"Am I allowed to know what the case is yet?" I asked. So far I mostly saw a lot of officers and yellow tape, but no one else. They must have either evacuated the park or closed it before it opened.

Officer Everrett nodded and motioned for me to follow him. "A park ranger called in a dead body this morning, just after sunrise. It was found just over here."

He pointed to a spot on the ground and I raised my eyebrows. There was an impressive amount of blood splattered over the dirt and pavement.

"Our Jane Doe had multiple stab wounds, including to her throat. We found a knife on the scene; it was already taken for evidence. Fortunately it was early enough that we were able to cordon off the crime scene and close the park gates before anyone else came in. The ranger in question is currently giving a statement at the station."

I swatted a mosquito that tried to land on my arm. "Seems like an ordinary enough homicide. May I ask why you called me?"

"I haven't gotten to the strange part yet." Officer Everrett crossed his arms. "Despite the fact that the ranger and the first responders all reported the body, what do you notice is not here?"

I sighed. "I don't suppose you took it to the morgue already?"

"No such luck." Officer Everrett shook his head. "We didn't move it, and no one else could have gotten in to move it. It's almost as if..." he hesitated.

"It got up and walked away?" I interjected.

"Of course, that would be absurd if we were talking about a corpse. We're operating under the assumption that Jane Doe was only critically wounded, and wandered off when no one was watching."

"With the kind of wounds you described?" I snorted. "That's bloody unlikely. I wish you could have told me this earlier, I would have come better prepared."

Officer Everrett frowned. "You agreed to the protocal we established during the Beverly incident, which means..."

I interrupted. "Yes, yes, you can't take any chances of this being public. Unfortunately, we don't have time to waste."

I stooped down and examined the scene. Unfortunately, too many people had gone by for any one set of footprints to stand out. I stood up and scrutinized the nearby scenery. On a nearby tree trunk, just high enough that it could be mistaken for a leaf, was a spot of red. I walked up and looked closer. It was a trace of dried blood.

"This way," I called, and started walking. Officer Everrett jogged to keep up with me.

Soon we were out of earshot of the rest of the group. Officer Everrett cleared his throat uncomfortably. "How do we know this is the right way?"

I shrugged. "It might not be, but that blood on the tree back there looked like someone brushed against it after the blood was already dry. Once you get the starting direction, you usually just have to go in a straight line."

He licked his lips nervously. "Do these sorts of cases happen... frequently?"

"Not particularly," I responded. "But my family has been in the business for long enough that we have a much better idea of how to handle them than most."

I stopped and held up my hand. Something loud was moving in the brush ahead of us. As the rustling stopped, a squirrel ran up a tree. We kept walking.

"About how long ago did your Jane Doe wander off?" I asked.

"The body had been missing at least half an hour before I called you."

I nodded and silently made some calculations. "With any luck, we'll catch up in the next ten minutes. They don't move too quickly, so it'll be further than the search parties would have gone, but it could be close. Keep a lookout."

"It?" asked Officer Everrett, a nervous smile flashing across his face. "Don't you mean she?"

I stopped and rolled my eyes. "No. Odds are good this is a revenant, walker, zombie, or whatever it is you prefer to call them. Zombies are not the people they were, or even intelligent. Forget that and you will get yourself killed." I turned and kept walking.

"And if it isn't a zombie?"Officer Everrett scrambled after me, crunching through the fallen leaves.

My eyes narrowed. "Well, if she is some miracle survivor we'll be able to tell the difference pretty easily. But if she came back as something other than a zombie, well... we're dead if it's something other than a zombie that can come back during the day."

Officer Everrett paled.

"Like I said, it's probably a zombie." I could just barely hear something crunching in the leaves ahead of us. "In any case, we'll need to get its attention. Usually it's best to call out to it on the off chance they didn't die after all, but... well... you'll see."

Now I could clearly hear something moving through the leaves ahead of us. I heard a pattern of short, crisp crunches followed by a longer dragging, shuffling sound. Next we could finally see it. In my mind, there was no question of whether or not it was a zombie. It walked like a human, but its skin was colored like death, there was blood caked all over it, and it was methodically moving forward despite a broken leg.

Officer Everrett, however, clung to hope. "Hey!" he shouted, and began sprinting forward. "Police! I'm here to help, there's an ambulance waiting in the parking lot and..."

I bolted past, skidded, and circled around behind the zombie even as I dug out my knife. I got a remarkably clear view of Officer Everrett's face turning from concern to terror as the zombie stopped, turned, hissed, and lunged at him. He stopped it by holding grabbing its shoulders. I finished it off before it realized that meant his hands were in range of its mouth.

Officer Everrett dropped the corpse, stepped away, and barfed behind a tree. I cleaned my knife.

He stared, took a deep breath, then pulled out his radio. "This is Officer Everrett, I have located Jane Doe. We are in sector..."

I stopped paying attention, and instead poked the corpse with a stick. No movement. Satisfied, I stepped back and put away my knife.

Officer Everrett cleared his throat. "Thank you for your assistance in this matter. I'll see to it that you get paid. Just so you know, the corpse was dragged off and abandoned by coyotes, and you were never here."

I shrugged. "The usual, then. I'm just glad I got here before anyone else found it."

"So..." Officer Everrett looked away, then looked back, rubbing the back of his neck. "If it had bitten me, would I have... what would have happened?"

"You probably wouldn't have turned into a zombie if that's what you wanted to know."

Relief flowed over his face.

"I've only heard of one case where that happened, and that was what, fifty years ago? Usually people just die horribly of sepsis. Of course, rumor has it that the people who survive turn into ghouls, or that they turn into zombies once they die, but you know how rumors are."

Officer Everrett turned as white as a sheet.

I leaned against a tree. "Anyway, I hope the other officers get here soon so we can leave. I do have other cases to work on." I glanced at the still silent Officer Everrett. "Enough about work. Seen any good movies lately?"

He didn't say another word for the rest of the morning. Hopefully he learned his lesson, at least.