"The Scavenger Bride"
Chapter 4: Dark and Stormy Night

I arrived home that night in a haze. The conversation with Dan still haunted me, yet I found I couldn't stop. Not now, at least. I was too far down the rabbit hole to ever resurface unscathed. After all, I'd already helped him reanimate nearly a dozen human bodies in the time we'd known each other. It was something I was learning to accept, as much as I may have fought it at times. My life was his now…..

I pulled off my sweatshirt. "West?" I called out for my roommate, letting the front door swing shut behind me. The house lights were on, and I knew he was home.

"Hmm." West stepped out smartly from his bedroom, adjusting his shirt collar as he read over a handful of notes. He took a moment to glance up at me and look me over. "You're home." And then it was back to the notes. He headed for the basement, still engrossed.

I scoffed, yet couldn't resist a smile. "Thanks, honey, my day was great. Oh, you made dinner?" I tossed my keys onto the table next to me. "You shouldn't have." Sighing, I trudged down into the basement after him.

"What's that?" West, still lost in paper, called for clarification from the basement as I made my way down the stairs.

"Oh, nothing." He glanced up at me curiously and silently, but only for another brief moment before shrugging. "What you workin' on?" I asked, picking up a beaker full of bright green liquid. It was much darker than the re-agent I was used to. West snatched it up out of my hands within seconds and went around to the other side of the lab table, placing it back in it's rightful spot. He leaned against the table, put down the notes and looked across and into my eyes.

"We're going out."

"Oh? Are we?" I couldn't help but smile.

"I've perfected the re-agent, and I want to make sure it's good. But I refuse to waste it on such smaller creatures. We're going to the morgue."

I sighed. "Do you remember what happened the last time we went to the morgue, West?"

"Hmm. Yes. Good point." His brow furrowed as he thought it over. Then he looked back up to me, the proverbial light bulb having gone off over his head. "The cemetery."

"Aaaand…. those aren't the freshest of specimens," I frowned.

"Well, as it so happens, the university got in a bit of an overflow in donated medical bodies, and some of them had to be disposed of. The ones that weren't claimed. It will have to do for now."

"Disposed of?"

"Buried. In the back of the cemetery."

"Dude, there's a storm rolling in."

West shrugged. "I'm sorry, Phillips. It'll have to do for now."

We walked silently, albeit quickly, for at least two blocks, and that's when I finally spoke. "You found that Kevin kid yet?"

West shook his head. "But I found his address. Didn't take much. I'm going there tomorrow to take back what is rightfully mine."

"You better. I'd hate anyone else to get their hands on that shit."

My roommate looked at me, hints of surprise and bemusement fleeting over his face in a mere instant. "Well there needn't be any worry. Gregorson won't pose an issue for us again."

"Good." I found myself laughing internally, and a small smile started to creep over my face. I felt like a badass. West turned to look me in the eye as we walked, and he grinned at me. He actually grinned. And that's when I finally laughed aloud.

"Alright, Einstein, what master plan do you have concocted in that head of yours?"

"This way." My roommate wasted no time. Handing me the shovels, he wended through the rows of tombstones until he finally found the group he was looking for. The sun was so far gone, I marveled at how he managed to find them. My skin was crawling as a breeze came up to meet us, and I looked up to watch the clouds roll in.

"Phillips!"

"What!"

"We need to hurry," he took one of the shovels from me. "If we're going to be home by sunrise, we need to get started as quickly as possible."

"You mean we're gonna do it all right here?!"

"Well- yes! What, do you want to drag a corpse home?"

"Oh, for God's sake."

"Look, I'm tired of arguing with you, Phillips. Come on, help me find one. Remember, it needs to be as fresh as possible."

"You make it sound like we're on the produce aisle." I watched West pull off his coat. "How do you do this, anyhow?"

"Do what?" West was already engrossed in searching for the perfect specimen, checking the dates and times on each of the makeshift wooden headstones.

"Just…. you know. Bring them back. How does it not affect you? I mean, you saw me that first time we reanimated somebody - you remember her - and then in the beginning, when I walked in on you and Dan's cat…."

West gave a short laugh. "Mm, yes, I remember that. As I recall, you blacked out."

"I'm well aware of the events, West," I smiled teasingly.

"Well you've certainly come a long way since then, now, haven't you?"

I allowed for a giggle then. The moon was going in and out of hiding behind large storm clouds. From the bright glow of what little moonlight we had left I could see his face soften into that little smile. I found I loved making him smile, since it didn't happen too often - he was too engrossed in his work ninety-nine percent of the time. I was so lost in thought that a clap of thunder and flash of lightening made me yelp, and I toppled over one of the tombstones. I shot back up onto my feet to find West glaring at me. I frowned, his smile gone.

"Dammit, Phillips, quit screwing around. Come over here and help me dig. I found one."

I gulped and took my time. Tossing his coat over the neighboring tombstone, West rolled up his sleeves and began to shovel the dirt away. My heart began to pound. This is really happening, isn't it?

Grabbing the extra shovel, I fell in line next to him and began to dig.

A silent half hour later it began to rain lightly. We had to hurry to get the coffin uncovered or else the mud would be too much to get through. We finally made it in just shy of forty-five minutes, and it was a good thing, too, because we were both getting tired, and that was when the rain really began to pour down.

"Alright, help me with the top," West had to practically shout over the sound of the storm. We hunkered down and, using our shovels, we managed to pry open the lid of the coffin with enough effort. A wave of ripe rot hit me and I gagged, scrambling out onto high ground. Falling to my knees, I covered my mouth and shut my eyes, steadying myself internally. Some days the smell got to me; some days, it didn't.

"Don't chicken out on me now, Phillips! C'mon. I need you." I turned to glance over at my roommate. His voice was different….. calmer. He was standing on the coffin, which, from my angle, since said coffin was still in its grave, allowed me to only see him from the chest up. He was covered in dirt and mud, and he wiped some from his face. There was honesty in his eyes, and the frustration was gone. West held out a hand to me. "C'mon."

I sighed, squeezing my eyes shut for a split second. Badass, remember? Turning back to him, I went back to work. According to what was etched on the wooden tombstone in front of us, the man buried beneath us had been underground for a mere six hours, and dead for almost nine. I was amazed there had been no one to claim him; he looked young. Didn't he have a wife or a sibling or a parent or a friend out there, worried about him? It was something I didn't have time to mull over long; West called out for me to help lift him out. I scrambled up top, hovering over the grave. As my roommate lifted him up I grabbed the man's arms, pulling him up and over the edge and onto the muddy grass outside. I was on my feet and West was beside me in an instant, the both of us panting. "Get the bag, Phillips. And don't let the notes get wet."

West lifted the corpse up into a sitting position, and I pulled out a syringe and a vial of re-agent from his bag. "Okay. I really hate working on the fly like this, but….." He fell silent for a moment, muttering under his breath. "Fifteen cc's. That should do it. Phillips, get it ready."

Doing as I was told, I handed him the full syringe. I put the vial of re-agent back in the bag and lifted it up over my shoulder, backing away a little. West stopped. He looked up at me suddenly, and he offered up the syringe.

"You do it."

"What?!"

"Yes!"

"Are you crazy? I can't- I've never-"

"Yes, you can!" Another crack of lightening flashed across the night sky. "I've taught you as much as I can thus far, it's the next logical step!" When I stood there and did nothing but gawk at him, he continued. "Phillips! C'mon!"

I gingerly made my way over and took the needle from him. Looking into his eyes, he nodded. "You can do this. Right there; you know the drill," he pointed at the base of the man's neck. Taking a deep breath I plunged the needle into the back of the man's neck and injected the vibrant yellowish-green liquid into his spine. Laying him back down, West stood up and looked at his watch as I scrambled backwards. I had enough wherewithal to cap the needle and toss it back into the bag before I really started shaking.

"Fifteen seconds….." West announced, coming to stand next to me. I held my breath. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed, and the man didn't move.

Eight seconds later - the longest eight seconds of my life - the man gave a lurch, and I screamed.

"Twenty-three seconds! Did you see that, Phillips? Look!" West was grinning maniacally as he made his way around to the corpse's other side. Growling, the man got to his feet. He was twitching like crazy and had trouble walking, but he looked at me and looked at West and howled.

"What's your name?" West shouted to him.

"What the hell, West, now you wanna have a philosophical conversation with him?!" I shrieked. "What's your plan for this, genius?"

"It's strictly for studying purposes, Phillips!"

The man lunged at me. Shrieking again, I dodged out of the way. "Don't worry," West called out for me. "They're generally pretty slow. Remember?"

He had just enough time to give me an encouraging smile. It was almost as if the man had understood him - he turned and glowered at West, baring his teeth. He roared again, lunging for my roommate, who was completely taken by surprise. West was knocked backwards, hitting his head on one of the wooden tombstones. He cried out, and then the thing was on top of him. "Gaah! Phillips-" The creature's hands were around West's neck then. It all happened so fast, I didn't know what to do at first. West looked to me and mustered a "Help!"

What happened next happened so very fast, as well. Snatching up the shovel, I took a running start and swung the heavy thing around, knocking the man clean off his feet and sending him sprawling next to West. He lay there on his back, stunned, trying to get back up, and I put myself over him, ramming my heel into his chest and taking his head off with the shovel.

If I'd felt like a badass before, I felt like a freaking goddess then, and it was at that moment, standing over my roommate, who looked up at me with wide eyes and a look of wonder and amazement on his face I'd never seen before, that I finally and fully understood the madness in his head. I felt it coarse through my veins like fire, making my heart and mind come alive with the idea of all the possibilities. And damn, did it feel good.

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MUSIC:
There are two songs that, I feel, perfectly capture the creepy intensity of the work that Herbert and Imogen do, two songs that inspired me in any of those scenes. The first is "Session," an instrumental piece by Linkin Park, and the second is "Excess" by Tricky. Both have awesome, solid beats to them and it's hard to describe how great they are without you actually hearing them, so hit up YouTube! :)