First message
1:37 A.M. — Somewhere outside Blackwater, Colorado
The motel sign buzzed like it was being electrocuted. One letter was dead, another flickered, and the vacancy light had apparently given up on life entirely.
Inside Room 13, Mackenzie Walker stared at a corpse sprawled over the bathroom tiles.
Explain to me,
Mack said flatly, aiming her flashlight at the body on the bathroom floor
Why the dead guy has a pulse.
Her younger brother, Nate, leaned around the doorframe with a half-eaten packet of beef jerky.
Maybe he’s getting better.
Nate.
What?
The corpse’s eyes snapped open. It sat upright with a long inhale and a smile full of unsettlingly blackened teeth.
Nate slowly lowered the jerky.
Mack takes two steps away from the bathroom door.
Salt!
Nate still talks with his mouth full, jerkey bag crinkling as he digs in the backpack pockets. Which pocket?
The one with the— just give me the damned salt!
Three knocks sounded at the motel door.
They froze.
At nearly two in the morning, unexpected visitors ranked somewhere between inconvenient and suspiciously suicidal.
Mack raised her pistol. Nate retrieved an iron blade.
Please be normal— Nate whispered.
There’s an undead corpse in the bathroom, Nate. Mack checked the peephole, then opened the door with the chain fastened. Her expression is guarded, tired. Thoroughly unimpressed.
Evening. Or morning. Whatever. How can I help you?