Wake the Dead by Gary F. Vanucci Page A

as though they had lost his trail.
    He had to go back and tell Olivia so that they could investigate it further. He made his way along the trail back home with the fresh trout in the bag and all of his other gear except for what he had to leave behind, and which he desired to go back later to retrieve if at all possible. He encountered nothing and no one on the way back to the cabin. The sun began to dip in the skyline just as he made his way up the hill to arrive back at the cabin.
    He was fatigued from biking that many miles that quickly. He brought his gear back inside and tossed it all down, leaning the bike against the side of the cabin.
    “Liv! Shadow!” he called. No one answered or called back. He started a fire in the pit, tossed in the trout, and began cooking it in a pan. He heard something approaching in the distance through the brush and grabbed his shotgun, aiming it in that direction.
    Shadow emerged through the brush with another squirrel in his mouth and dropped it by his tree where he often lay down, and he stopped and stared at Alex.
    “Gonna eat well tonight, boy,” he called to the wolf. “Though I guess you already have your dinner. I prefer the fish.”
    After a quick searing of the trout, he grabbed the newspaper from the cabin and went over the ad for the Ren Faire, stuffing pieces of trout into his mouth and savoring the taste. What he couldn’t finish he replaced and put the lid back on the pan. He left it near the fire for Olivia when she came back. The ad for the Renaissance Faire boasted a representation of a castle that was going up, ‘brick by brick’, it stated. It went on to say that construction had started the year previous, and was slated to be this year’s main attraction with a grand opening scheduled for this coming spring. It even boasted an operational drawbridge and a moat he went on to read.
    If this had been built, it would be a proper defense against the undead, and anything else that might come along, Alex considered, excited at the prospect of investigating it.
    He went about gathering his gear again and decided that a car would be beneficial to them. He decided that he did not want to leave any of his essentials behind in case something happened and he could not come back. There were a good amount of items he wanted to take when they did leave.
    And if he wanted to take Shadow with him, along with all of the gear, it would be easier with a vehicle, he considered.
    He spent the next few hours tinkering in the firelight with another outlet and the wiring inside the wall but could not find anything visibly wrong with it. That was when he heard something outside, Shadow was snarling.
    He ran to the scene, shotgun in hand, to see that Shadow was growling at Olivia, unmoving, and she had the gun out leveled at Shadow.
    “Easy…,” Alex said, waving his hands out before him.
    “Sorry, he startled me,” she said, still not moving.
    “Shadow, relax,” he said moving between them, Olivia finally lowering the weapon. The wolf trotted off again and lay down beside his tree once more, sniffing the air.
    “No luck?” Alex asked, leaning low and staring at her, forcing her to meet his gaze. Olivia looked away and frowned, then shook her head. She was clearly holding back tears and so Alex quickly made his way to the pan with the fish and opened the lid, trying his best to distract her. “You like fish I hope.”
    “Yes,” she admitted frankly. “And I haven’t eaten all day. It smells good.”
    “It was pretty damn good,” he admitted. “And it should still be warm.” She sat down and started eating the fish right there out of the pan.
    “So, you found the river? Or is this from somewhere else?”
    “Like where? he asked, shrugging as if the notion were absurd.
    “I don’t know—an abandoned grocery store or something?” she said, as if that were an obvious answer.
    “It is certainly not from a grocery store,” he said with a chuckle. “That boy is fresh! I