[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.I put my pair on as well, and she looked around to figure out how best to contain Mr.Enders.“All right, Zoey.Stand back and be ready with the muzzle and cuffs.This isn’t going to be pretty, so just be ready for that.”She let go of the pressure on the table.Mr.Enders started to push it back, but he was slow and he was only working with his right arm.Ms.Wright stepped around quickly and shoved the table out of the way with her left foot, tipping it over.Then with a snarl she smashed him in the side of the face with her fist.It wasn’t a jab, but a powerful roundhouse, her whole body uncoiling deliberately since there was little chance of a zombie blocking a punch.It took me by surprise—how fast, strong, and savage a blow she could deliver.As dangerous as Mr.Enders now was, it was pathetic and brutalizing to see him beaten to the ground.Worse still, in a way, was how gracefully and beautifully Ms.Wright attacked, little different in form, if not intent, from the dances we had been practicing.I suppose that’s one of the things I learned that afternoon—that life is not just heavy inertia, but equally the mesmerizing, beautiful dance of violence.The first blow knocked Mr.Enders off balance, and Ms.Wright followed up with another roundhouse as she stepped forward and tripped him up with her leg.He landed facedown on the floor, and she straddled his back, looking to me for the restraints.She grabbed his writhing right arm and pushed her knee against his right leg, so he couldn’t get the leverage to roll over.I quickly stepped over to them.As I knelt in front of Mr.Enders, his clouded eyes seemed pleading, but the snarl that he now gave was only bestial rage.The muzzle was simple—a sack made of heavy cloth.I forced it over his head and tied the bag’s drawstring tightly.Ms.Wright handcuffed him, binding his hands behind his back.I was glad the whole thing was over quickly.We stood Mr.Enders up and dragged him into the hall.I tossed the couple of mops and brooms out of a janitor’s closet, and we were shoving him in there when more people finally showed up.They barricaded the closet door and set a guard on it till final arrangements could be made.Two days later, much of the community gathered at the cemetery where I had taken my vows.Mr.Enders and Ms.Dresden’s baby were taken in a special truck for safety reasons, and we drove Ms.Dresden.I saw many people in the crowd I had not seen in a while, including Will.It was nice of them to show their respect, though I suspected most of them were there because of the kindly, harmless Mr.Enders, and not for the scandalous Rachel and her illegitimate child.I tried to tamp down my anger as useless, misspent energy.The ceremony was not nearly as involved as my vows ceremony had been.Most of the preparations or ways that we eased the transition from life to death seemed futile and ineffective, especially for those still alive; they had to work through the grief on their own, and in their own way, for a long time after the actual funeral.And we had to admit, I think, that our situation took a lot of the mystery out of death.It was hard to imagine the elaborate rituals or speeches at funerals that I had read about in books, when our funerals include the dead person, thrashing against his bonds and trying to kill us.In our world, the dead demand some respect and attention on their own; we’ve tried to find a way to give them that, without causing more pain and killing.Whatever we did seemed far preferable to killing them outright once they were restrained, which sounded utterly monstrous and inhuman to me.Milton ushered the dead away from the cemetery gate.Dad and another armed guard led the restrained Mr.Enders into the graveyard, removed the muzzle and handcuffs, and let him take his place with the others, as he fled into the crowd to get away from Milton.The interment of dead children was trickier.It had to be done quickly and carefully, but the parents were allowed to set the child down among the dead themselves.My dad handed Ms.Dresden her baby, wrapped just with a towel and not taped up like a mummy.With my dad and the other guard flanking her, Ms.Dresden quickly moved into the enclosure behind Milton.They led her to a small mausoleum near the entrance, where she could lay her baby at the door, under the stone overhang [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]