The Death Doll by Brian P. White

didn’t snore like he did back in that Isolation theater, either. 
    Pepe didn’t want to be a pest, but he wanted to know what went on between Isaac and Didi.  Taking a chance, he plugged his nose and tapped the big man’s shoulder.
    Isaac whipped around with a backhanded fist and sat straight up, his eyes wide with terror. 
    Pepe barely evaded and ended up in Paula’s lap.  He quickly scrambled to his feet with the Herrins, but no one else paid any attention. 
    A large bandage covered Isaac’s neck, which he rubbed as he glanced around.  Then hung his head between his knees and breathed deeply.
    Sean and Paula couldn’t take their eyes off of him. 
    Pepe sat next to Isaac, slowly reached for his shoulder, and asked what happened.
    Isaac glanced between the three of them with his mouth hanging open.  “That bitch is crazy,” he said hoarsely, though quietly.  “She almost ripped my fuckin’ throat out.”
    “What’d you do?” Paula asked.
    The big man glared at her like she had accused him of stealing.  “What’d I do?  Wait ‘til you hear what these fuckers do!”
    The more Pepe heard, the more he wished he didn’t.

CHAPTER 7
 
    DROPPING THE BOMB
     
    Pepe stared blankly at the names of the various bones in his copy of Gray’s Anatomy, but he couldn’t remember any of them right now.  He couldn’t get his mind off the rotting bones pushing that wheel under the compound.  He tried to think of other things like the lovely Dawn, who continuously occupied his thoughts before he learned about the Power. She was a small one and still technically a minor, though there wasn’t much left in the world that kept the technical in check.  Either way, there was a beautiful spark in her. She was very sweet; not like that little prick Jake, who seemed to ride her whenever he was around. The thought of her being eaten by those things in the cave if they ever got loose—
    “Something wrong?” Cody asked, snapping Pepe out of his trance.
    “No, nothing,” Pepe lied as he shook his head. “It’s all good.”
    Cody grinned but looked unconvinced.  “Come on.  What is it?”
    Pepe trembled, unsure if it was the images or the morals that bugged him the most. Never having been great at socializing, he wasn’t sure if he had the nerve to challenge one of the big bosses on their methods. Now on the spot, however, he took a deep breath and spoke up.  “I heard about the turbine, and I—” He took another deep breath. Cody waited patiently.  “I think it’s wrong to treat the dead that way.  I mean, I get having to kill them when they try to eat us, but I’ve seen the way people mess with them when they’re tied up. We should put them down and let them rest in peace.”
    Cody looked up and down Pepe as if measuring him, then nodded.  “It is pretty messed up, I’ll grant you that, but we have to face facts. Winters here are bitter.  Without heat, they can be deadly.  We improvised with what was available. We couldn’t make the turbine work with animals without being really inhumane.   People who spend too much time working underground develop a lot of health problems, and we only have so much medicine. As it is, we have each shift rotate people out so they’re never down there too long and they clean up regularly. 
    “The dead never stop or get sick, though, do they?” he asked pointedly.
    “No,” Pepe admitted, “but shouldn’t there be some respect for the dead?”
    Cody grinned comically.  “I’ll show a reanimate as much respect as it shows me.”
    Pepe nodded, unable to argue with that logic. It wasn’t like the dead remembered what respect was.  “I guess it could be worse. At least we don’t have to worry about crazies like the Death Doll, right?”
    Cody and Gilda exchanged glances again—the latter with alarm, but the former with humor. “No, we don’t.  Now, let’s go over the parts of the spine again.”
    Pepe tried to chuckle his tension away, but