“You do know I’m standing right here, right?”
“Sure physically you are, but mentally you’re gone, man,” BT said. “I’ll miss you. I count you among one of my best friends.”
“BT, I’m not insane,” I said. He merely tapped the top of my head like I was six years old and I had said something cute.
“Come here, BT,” I told him, approaching closer to Re-Pete.
“Don’t you get too close to him. There are some medications that you can take that, aside from some excessive drooling, will almost make you normal. There’s no cure for zombie. Tracy will skin me alive if I bring back an insane zombie.”
“All this time, I thought zombies were already insane.”
“Come on, Mike, let’s get the rest and we’ll just head back to Maine. Maybe there’s still a part of you that can be salvaged. A small part, sure, but some is better than none.”
“BT, shut up and watch.”
I said aloud, “On your knees,” at the same time as I thought it. Pretty talented right?!
Re-Pete didn’t disappoint. He instantly once again fell to his knees. This time his already cracked patella completely shattered with a loud snapping noise.
BT had finally shut up and was looking back and forth from me to Re-Pete. “That’s not some sort of trick is it?”
“Yeah, I was using finger snacks as a training aid,” I said sarcastically.
“Coincidence then?” he asked, still not quite believing what he was witnessing.
“Get up,” I told and thought. Re-Pete stood with some difficulty and was favoring his left leg, but stood he did. “Turn around.” Re-Pete did; he was now facing away from us.
BT’s nose was almost pressed up against the fence. “You know, this is fucking amazing,” BT said, not turning back towards me. Now he turned. “How many do you think you could do this to?”
“No clue, I didn’t know I could do this until a few minutes ago.”
“Is it hard?”
“I have to concentrate but it’s no more difficult than listening to you talk.”
“Funny,” BT said turning back to Re-Pete. “Can you make him hurt himself?”
“I don’t think directly. I tried to make Re-Pete kill himself.”
“Repeat?”
“Re-Pete, P…E…T…E.” I said spelling the name. BT was looking at me funny. “He was following me around, I thought the name seemed fitting.”
BT looked at me like he wasn’t completely convinced I hadn’t stepped over the edge. “Then what about indirectly?”
“Well, I think he shattered his knee the way he’s been dropping to them, but I don’t know if he’s incapacitated.”
“Is there a certain distance you have to be from them?”
I shrugged, I had no clue. “He stopped listening to me when you pulled me away, but I don’t really know from what point he stopped or if it was because I lost concentration while you were jiggling me around like Jell-o.”
“Well, walk away; let’s see what happens.”
“I’d rather just put a bullet in its head; he’s really starting to reek.”
“We’ll get to that, but we have got to test the limitation of this. We might never get another opportunity like this.
“Yeah, that’d be a shame,” I told him, turning to walk away.
“You’re still concentrating, right?” BT asked to my retreating back.
“Yes I’m still concentrating, Mrs. Weinstedder.”
“What?”
“Nothing, just my old algebra teacher.”
“So somehow this whole scene reminded you of an old math teacher? Who did the wiring in your head? Because you should get your deposit back.”
“BT what…”
“Stop!” he yelled. “Re-Pete here looks like he’s about to break free.”
I turned to watch. Re-Pete was slightly swaying from side to side. I took one step backwards, the swaying increased.
“Go one more,” BT said, swinging his visage back to Re-Pete.
I did and Ree turned around to face us. I won’t say he had a look of confusion on his face, wondering what had happened, first because the light wasn’t good enough to see that minute of a facial detail from this distance; and secondly, I don’t think zombies have any facial expression beyond perpetual snarl.