Zombies! (Episode 6): Barriers Collapse by Ivan Turner Page A

laughed. "You believe what you've seen, don't you? Anyhow, you're the first I've told. I'm not worried that you'll be giving me up to the authorities."
     
    "So you knew that they wouldn't touch you. We could have put our entire stock in there and you would have been perfectly safe."
     
    "It seems that way."
     
    "Then why didn't you fight? You could make a lot of money."
     
    Arrick lowered his head. "I couldn't. I'd watched all of the other fighters and then Jeremiah…"
     
    "That guy was a crackpot, one of those zombie rights nuts. You're not one of those guys, are you?"
     
    Arrick shook his head. "Once you've seen one up close, been bitten by it, you know that there's no person left in there. But it becomes too easy to forget that there was a person in there once. I thought of what I would have to do to kill those ten…zombies and couldn't see myself doing it. Where's the respect for the dead?"
     
    "Hmmm," Marcus nodded.
     
    "It was my girlfriend, you see, who bit me. I had to kill her, smash her head against the bathtub."
     
    "I guess that leaves a mark on a guy," Marcus agreed.
     
    Nodding, Arrick found himself lost in thought. He was thinking of Suzanna. Had he ever seen her laugh or even smile? Hers had been neither a long nor happy life. Maybe he didn't miss her but he did pity her.
     
    "I've got a proposition for you," Marcus said. "When I look at you I see a guy who wants some action but doesn't have the heart for it. Still, I think I've got a nice compromise for you. There's good money in it, too."
     
    Arrick looked up.
     
    "I understand about respect for the dead but I've got to tell you that the money trumps all of that. Maybe you understand that and maybe you don't. If not, you can just walk out of here and forget you ever saw this place. We wouldn't want to be sharing each other's secrets now, would we?"
     
    "No," Arrick said. "We certainly would not."
     
    Marcus smiled. "Capturing and keeping zombies is dangerous work. I lose guys. Not a lot of guys because we're pretty careful about it. You've seen them with their hands tied and the rubber balls in their mouths. But I guess it's a lot safer for you."
     
    "You want me to be a keeper?"
     
    "I want you to be the keeper. You handle them when they're free. If my guys find a bunch of them, then you go in and tie them up. What do you say?"
     
    Arrick thought about it for a moment. "What's the pay?"
     
    At that, Marcus just smiled.
     
    ***
     
    WORKING out the details was surprisingly easy. Despite the inordinate amount of money Marcus was offering him, he was loath to give up his teaching job. In the end, he actually liked teaching. Some people say you only remember the bad students, but that wasn't really true. He remembered the good. It was terribly satisfying to spark an interest in a student. Not because he felt that English literature was so important for the development of a mind, but because it was a tremendous thing to be a part of a discovery. For every student that found an interest in the material Arrick presented, it was a discovery for that student. And it was Arrick, the teacher, who had led the student to that discovery.
     
    So he would work at night and on the weekends. He had nothing better to do. For a couple of weeks, he would simply do behind the scenes work. Marcus had made good on all of the bets from the debacle that had been Arrick's fight but he still might not be the most popular guy around the arena. He wasn't sure that Marcus trusted him, and even caught sight of a couple of the young men following him the next morning. If it continued, he'd have to say something about it.
     
    Still, it was only a couple of days later when Arrick found himself in the warehouse and unescorted. Late on the weeknights, there were hardly any people there and something urgent had come up. Since it didn't involve zombies, Arrick wasn't needed. Marcus seemed uncomfortable with the prospect of leaving him alone, but Arrick didn't feel like