Odd Jobs for the Undead - A Zombie For Hire Story

Chapter 20

The first light of dawn was beginning to burn away the morning fog when I finally found myself in familiar territory. I crawled out of a back street manhole on the edge of Chinatown, soaked from head to toe by sewage and run off and starving. My hunger hadn't begun to approach the ravenousness that had made me look at Merl like a piece of meat, but my belly ached and my muscles yearned for meat.

Thanks to the miracle of Merl's potion, I was better off, physically, than I had a right to be. The magic elixir was still working on my body almost twelve hours later. The damage I'd done in my escape was nearly repaired. The strength was returning to my broken arm and even the flesh around my heal was slowly beginning to regrow. If I could get a meal in me, by noon you'd never know I'd fallen six floors to the concrete. But for now, I still looked less than human.

I hugged the walls, doing my best to appear to be another drunk or drugged up homeless looking for shelter from the sun as I made my way through alleys and less traveled streets to the back door of Lo Wang's Meat & Seafood. I huddled near a dumpster crawling with flies, hoping Lo or his daughter Sam would come out. I couldn't risk going around and waiting near the front door. If Sherwood and her men knew about Vickie, they probably knew about my delivery service. But fortune smiled on me. Morning traffic hadn't even started up yet when Lo came out with a stack of cardboard.

I waited a moment to make sure he was alone, then stepped out from behind the dumpster. "Lo," I said quietly, startling him into dropping his load.

"Oh! Gordon? What are you doing here?" he asked. "You look terrible."

"Shhh. Not so loudly," I said, and started picking up the cardboard for him. "I need something to eat. Can you help me?"

"Sure, sure, Gordon." Lo stepped away from me, waving his hand in front of his face. "Ugh, you stick. Get taken to the dump or something?"

"Yeah, something," I said, stuffing the recycling into the compost bin. "I know it's a lot to ask, but could I come inside?"

Lo's face wrinkled in a grimace as he thought about it. "Yeah, okay. But only for about thirty minutes. I'm expecting a delivery."

I moved to follow him inside, but he held up a hand to stop me. "Just a minute. I've got some gym clothes. Let me get those first, so you can change before you come in."

I changed into the sweats he brought me and followed him in to the meat locker. Full sides of beef and pork were hanging on hooks, as were some much smaller animals that I suspected might be representatives of man's best friend. Not that I cared. Meat's meat. There were also a few tubs of organs along one wall.

Lo once told me a joke about Chinese eating habits. He said the only thing with legs the Chinese won't eat is the table, and the only thing with wings was a plane. But even with his clientele's wide range of appetites, he couldn't always sell off his less in demand products before they went bad.

"I was just about to put together your delivery," he said and dragged a garbage can with "Inedible" stenciled on the side of it away from the wall. Inside were all the cast off and spoiled bits of meat that eventually made it into my Igloo cooler.

"Help yourself," he said. "I'm going to go up front and lock the door, just in case somebody shows up early."

"Thanks, Lo," I said. "You may want to give me ten or fifteen minutes. You're not going to want to watch me when I'm eating."

Lo nodded okay and left me alone with my meat. I pawed through the inedibles, looking for the most protein rich cuts. I quickly found a liver that was a little old and rubbery, but otherwise a great meal for me. I followed it up with a fatty beef heart and a kidney. By the time Lo came back, the hunger that had been gnawing at my body and mind had receded. I was starting to feel like myself again.