Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters

SPONSORED BY THE UNDEAD STATES OF AMERICA ARMY.
    Tak thought the flyer was genius. In addition to plastering the cemetery with the flyers, Tayshawn and other trulydeads-- zombies who had no interest in rejoining beating heart society--were putting up still more of the copies at local funeral homes and at Oakvale High.
    When they were done, Popeye and Tak met beneath a stone angel, waiting for George to catch up.
    "Does he ...have any copies ...left?" Tak asked.
    Popeye nodded. "We've got a quarter box, maybe. You know, there is ... a real... recruiting station a couple miles up."
    "Let's do ...it," Tak said. Popeye had fewer gaps in his speech when he was in the act of making one of his art pieces a reality. "We have a few hours ...until the breathers awake."
    Popeye called for George, who was rooting around in a pile of leaves that had collected in the doorway of a mausoleum. George lifted his head at the sound of his name and shuffled toward them.
    "What has he ... got there?" Tak asked. George had the box of flyers under one arm and was holding something in his other hand.
    George tripped over a low headstone and went face-first into the frost covered earth. The box of flyers tumbled open, some of them blowing across the cemetery. Popeye shook his head.
    62
    "We haven't got... all night," he said. He and Tak went to salvage what flyers they could as George slowly got to his feet. When he rose they saw that he was clutching a dead squirrel by the tail.
    "Nice," Popeye said, smiling. "Did you just ...catch him, George? Or was he already dead?"
    They watched as George brought the squirrel to the ragged slash of his mouth and bit into it.
    "Why does he ... do that?" Popeye asked. George was munching on the creature, bones, fur, and all, with a suspicious, greedy expression on his face, as though he were afraid that Tak and Popeye might want to take it from him.
    "He thinks he's ...supposed to," Tak said.
    "Dying must have ...fried his brain," Popeye said as George looked up at him, the squirrel clenched firmly in his teeth. "Now there's the picture ... we should have used on the flyers."
    "Who's to ...say?" Tak said. "Maybe ...George ... is doing what he's supposed ... to be doing."
    George stared back at him, and Tak thought there may have been the briefest flicker of emotion on his gray, puttylike face as he chewed, but probably not. George was the least expressive zombie that Tak had ever seen. It was almost as if George had no interest in trying to become more like the traditionally biotic boy he'd been prior to death. Tak didn't know if he walked with his arms outstretched because he had to, or because he wanted to. Nobody knew where George came from or how he'd found the Haunted House. He just showed up on
    63
    the front porch one day, beating on the door with his arms. Tayshawn had called him George, and the name stuck.
    The sounds George made as he gnawed on the rodent were not pleasant. Tak watched him eat, and wondered if George would be able to talk if he tried.
    "Nice table ...manners," Popeye said, speaking in front of George as though he were too stupid to understand. Tak held his comments and waited for George to complete his meal. He suspected that George wasn't as stupid as Popeye thought. George could obey instructions for the most part, and seemed perfectly willing to allow any zombie who was around to order him about like a servant. Especially Tak.
    George took another bite and flung the broken body over the tombstones. It went surprisingly far. He dragged the muddy sleeve of his jacket across his face and slouched toward them.
    "Had enough, George?" Popeye said. He leaned over to Tak. "Can you smell him? I think I can ...smell him. I think he has actually renewed my sense of smell."
    "I can smell him."
    "He smells ...dead."
    "It isn't Z, anyhow," Tak said, which Popeye thought pretty funny.
    "George," Tak said, "Go back to ...the house. The sun will be up ...soon. Go back to the house and ...wait ...for