aboard and settled in. F4 was on the south end of Revenant, the fourth community in zone F and the most human-active area in town. On average, the trackers in F4 brought in twice as many humans as the rest of the town did, and three times as many as my community. It was nearer to the forest and some other abandoned towns that still had supplies. Some thought the human safe zone was in that direction, too, but we weren’t sure. Nobody had been able to find it yet. Anyway, it was on the other end of town, almost opposite A1, so it was one of the last stops, and it would take us more than an hour to get there. It was going to be a long ride.
The bus stopped at zone C and everyone else that had gotten on the bus up to that point got off. We stayed put. The driver viewed us through the rearview mirror leerily, waiting for us to move. Then he closed the bus doors and went on again.
The bus rolled into F4 after 1:30 that morning. We stepped into the night and looked around. Trevor shivered. Neither of us had ever been this close to the town’s border. A rusty gate ran across the opposite side of the street. On the other side was the restricted area. Only fully licensed trackers and gatherers were permitted access outside of the town’s gate. Stiffs roamed around freely there, and humans scoured it sporadically and judiciously, looking for resources. It was unguarded and perilous.
The bus driver looked out at us through the opened bus doors. His face was wrinkled and round, and he had dark shadows under his eyes. “You two be careful out here. The next bus isn’t for another hour. F4 isn’t safe parts. Don’t do anything stupid, you hear? That’s how we lose good young Wakes.”
We nodded dumbly. The bus doors closed with a hiss and the bus rattled away, trailing fumes behind, leaving us in the dark.
“Now what?” I asked, shifting my backpack so it rested more securely over my shoulders.
“I don’t know,” Trevor answered, gazing around. “I don’t see the Advanced kids.”
“Do you know where they were gonna meet?” I asked.
Trevor shook his head. “I only heard they were meeting here in F4. I figured they would meet near the bus station.”
I turned around in place, scanning the area. “I don’t see them anywhere,” I finally said. “Maybe they already went out.”
Trevor gazed toward the gate. “Probably. What do you want to do? Bolt?”
I shook my head firmly. If my heart beat, it would be beating with excitement. My brain was on fire. It was the most alive I’d felt in a while. I wasn’t ready to throw that feeling away.
“You sure you want to do this?” he asked uncertainly.
“We came out here to track humans, Trev,” I said. “I’m tracking humans.”
“We could just go back to the Hub, spend some of your creds,” Trevor suggested.
“This was your idea!”
“Well, I was kind of fried at the time. It seemed like a good idea then. Now it seems kind of ... dumb.”
I shot him an agitated glance. He had been the one who had convinced me to come. Now he was trying to bail.
“We do the same thing every weekend,” I said. “But not tonight.”
“I don’t know anything about human tracking. It’ll be dangerous, Zell.”
“Good,” I said, dropping my backpack to the ground and unzipping it. “I’m tired of safe. Safe is boring.” I began pulling out my safety gear. “Look,” I said without looking up. “If you don’t want to go out there with me I understand. I’m just tired of doing the same thing in Revenant.” I gazed up at him. “I keep thinking, Trev. I keep thinking how I’ve only been a zombie for a few years. And I’m already bored. And I’m going to be here forever. Forever. I’d rather die again doing something interesting, than be bored back to death. If you want to stay in school, learning the same things and following the same zombie life as your mentor, be my guest. But I need to do something. I can’t keep going to school or getting fried or finding a way to fill the time. There’s got to be more to life after death than this town. Whatever it is, I’m not going to find it by following the same routine week after week. I need something more than that. I need more.”
I pulled out my safety gear and stood, turning from him. He came up behind him and put a hand on my shoulder. “Okay,” he grinned, his pale lips parting to reveal his stained teeth. “I’m with you. Let’s have some fun.”
“Thriller,” I whispered, turning to face the gate. I felt a burning in my head. I had died a long time ago and I hadn’t yet lived. Tonight it felt like I was for the first time.
Trevor opened his backpack and pulled out his gear, and we both began pulling the rubber suits on over our clothes. It didn’t matter if we wouldn’t track down any humans tonight. Just getting outside of this stale town was enough. And besides, humans were hard enough to find. It was almost impossible to track down a human with professional tracker groups like those led by my mentor. The only concern was Stiffs, but they were easy to avoid if you kept quiet and didn’t make any sudden movements. I think I was more interested in just seeing what it was like outside of Revenant. I had spent my entire zombified life within the boundaries of this little zombie community. I had never seen a Stiff close up, never interacted with a human outside of the caged and tamed ones at Trevor’s farm. I had never been in the real world. The only education I had was in school, where the grim pictures of the Stiff-infested world had been recited to me by instructors. I had never experienced anything in my entire conscious death, and I had no idea what was waiting for me outside of this stuffy little zombie town.
Tonight I was going to learn.
12. CHASING SHADOWS
The gate rattled as we climbed it and fell to the ground outside it. The grass was dry and wilted under our shoes. We stood. The bus stop was only a few yards behind us, inside the gate, but it suddenly felt like we had left all zombie civilization behind. I squirmed in my safety gear. It was so bulky it made it hard to move. It was meant to protect against humans, but it wasn’t designed to shield off zombie attacks. A ravenous Stiff would probably be able to bite right through the rubber material and tear into my skin. Even so, it was better than nothing.
I squinted through the clear shield of the hood that I had over my head. It really made it hard to see. I looked vaguely toward Trevor and he shook his head at me. He pulled off his helmet and let it fall behind him, connected at the neck.
“This won’t work,” he said. “I can’t see anything.”
I took off my helmet. “Me either.”
“This gear is too bulky, too,” Trevor complained, pulling at the rubber fabric.
I put my hand out to him. “Let’s leave it on. Just in case. It can’t hurt.”
He shrugged in response.
“Now what?” I asked.
“You’re the human tracker’s apprentice,” Trevor answered.
I rolled my head to the side, trying to think back on the Guide to Tracking Humans my mentor had made me read over and over again, and had quizzed me on so many times. “The first step is to account for all trackers.”
Trevor looked at me with an obvious expression.
“I’m just trying to remember the rules,” I told him. “Next we’re supposed to set up a perimeter.”
“How are we supposed to set up a perimeter when there’s only two of us?” he demanded.
“You aren’t supposed to go tracking with only two zombies,” I replied. “It’s dangerous.”
Trevor shook his head. “Undie a little, would you?”
“Fine,” I said. “After you set up a perimeter you’re supposed to start scouring your area with a partner. You’re never supposed to be alone when tracking. Stiffs are either avoided or disposed of, depending on how invasive they are.”
“It would help if we had some hum catching supplies,” Trevor said. “We have to do everything with our hands.”
“We probably won’t even find a human,” I said.
“Good,” Trevor replied. “I don’t know what we would do if we did.”
“If we do, we’
ll just have to bring it in together,” I added. “Our gear will protect us. But if they have a weapon, we don’t attack. Even trackers avoid armed humans.”
Trevor nodded. “Sure. Okay, let’s go. All these rules are giving me a headache.”
We went forward down the field carefully. It was quiet and the further we got from the boundary of Revenant, the quieter it got. Even the sound of buzzing flies, which I had become accustomed to my whole life, began to fade. There were no forests and few trees around us. Just a long span of dead grass stretching away from us.
We walked for a long time in silence, creeping down the field. Nothing changed. Our feet crinkled against the brittle grass. Trevor stopped. I looked back at him.
“This is boring,” he complained.
My mentor had often told me that human tracking took a lot of perseverance and patience. I was beginning to understand why Trevor was evaluated to be a breeder and not a tracker. We had barely gone ten minutes. Human trackers went hours without finding anything. I went back to him.
“It’s not gonna be easy,” I whispered. “Human tracking is 1% luck and 99% unluck. That’s what my mentor says.”
Trevor kicked at the ground. “Maybe we should just go back to the Hub.”
I sighed. “We can’t give up now. Let’s just keep going. At least for a little longer.”
“I don’t know,” Trevor said. “I mean, it’s like chasing shadows. There’s nothing here.”
“Just a little longer,” I said. “It’s a process.” We were here.