Page 5 of Dark Obsession

Cody pulled into the cemetery’s gravel drive and stopped outside the cattle gate. It was padlocked, like usual, but a small car sat on the other side facing them. The round, bearded face of a security guard was illuminated by the truck’s headlights as he squinted into the glare. Cody killed the lights, and the man blinked and rubbed his eyes, visible now by the glow of his phone’s screen.

“Think he’s watching porn and jerking off?” Cody said.

“God, I hope not.”

They got out of the truck, and Cody lifted a hand in greeting as the guard stepped out.

“Evening,” Cody said.

“Yeah?” The guard’s tone was uncertain and edged with suspicion. “What do you need?”

“We have a drop off.”

“Flowers can be delivered to the office in the morning.”

“Oh, no, not that kind of drop off,” Demetrius said. “We have a body.”

“What?” The guard reached for his gun.

“No, no, no!” Demetrius and Cody shouted at the same time, holding out their hands.

“It’s a zombie!” Demetrius shouted. “Just a zombie. We stopped it over in the Stone Hill area.”

“Zombie?” The man relaxed his stance but kept his hand on the butt of his gun. “Like, a real zombie?”

“Well, it’s a dead zombie now,” Cody said. “But, yeah.”

The guard scowled. “Bullshit.”

Cody raised his left hand. “Hand to God, it’s a zombie.”

“All right, let’s say you have a zombie. What do you want me to do with it?”

“Isn’t there some kind of, I don’t know, drop box or something?” Cody said.

“Drop box? No, what the fuck would that even look like?”

“Okay, we got off on the wrong foot here, sorry,” Demetrius said. “We were attacked by this zombie and we, um, neutralized it⁠—”

“Neutralized,” Cody whispered. “Nice.”

“And we all know that any zombie found wandering around this area will have come from this cemetery.”

“I don’t know that,” the guard said, his tone flat and stubborn.

“Dude, seriously?” Cody said. “How many other cemeteries in the area have coughed up their residents?”

“I wasn’t around back then, I don’t know about any of this.”

“Okay, all right.” Demetrius put a hand on Cody’s arm as he met the guard’s gaze. “Didn’t the main office tell you about the history of this place?”

“No. The ad just said they needed an overnight guard because of teenagers causing damage.”

“Teenagers are pretty destructive,” Cody said. “But, my dude, this place was ground zero for a zombie uprising last year.”

The man looked between them, the flashlight trembling a bit in his grip. “What?”

“Look it up later,” Demetrius suggested. “Zombies and Parson’s Hollow are all over the web. But, we’ve got to leave this body here because this man didn’t ask to be brought back after he died, and he deserves to be returned to his rightful grave with a proper burial.”