Tag: Tim

Zombie Apocalypse (pt24)

“Well, you’re probably better equipped to handling this. Good luck, Heherson.”

“Where are you going?” Irish asked as Tim went for the door.

“Uh, home. I’m tired.”

“You aren’t going to leave him to do this himself!”

“Worried about me, yeah?” Heherson asked hopefully.

Irish ignored him, fixing Tim with a glare. “You won’t leave him to do this on his own. Not with the limited time left.”

“Well, what can I do? I don’t have a lead now that my only one has proven to be wrong. A necromancer could be anywhere when not on the registry. How do you track one down?”

Heherson laughed. “Well, you-”

“And if he knows, then he certainly doesn’t need me-”

Irish interrupted him. “Neither of you are going home until this is settled.”

“Heherson’s already home.”

“All three of us will work together?” Heherson looked thrilled. “Ah, man, this will be fun!”

Irish blinked. “I didn’t say I was going to-”

“No one’s going home until this is settled, right?” Tim reiterated.

Irish scowled. “I have a case to- oh, who am I kidding. I won’t have a meeting if this goes through. All right, where do we start?”

Tim should have known she would agree like that and that it would leave him even less off the hook. Swallowing, he looked between the exes – Irish intensely focused and Heherson intensely focused on Irish.

It could have been worse. It could have been the zombie apocalypse.

Wait.

Zombie Apocalypse (pt23)

Irish rested the bat on her shoulder. “That’s not true. It could be. What if someone came from another town or something?”

“That still would have taken enough prep time that the registry would show another one being here. I didn’t get a notice about another necromancer in town. Did you?”

“Nah.” Heherson shook his head. “What I’m saying is that not everyone gets caught on by the registry, right?”

This left Tim with the realization he had nothing. Tonight would end and the apocalypse would come closer. Probably time to tell the police, if he wanted to be locked up for no reason. And it would happen anyway. Too late, and all because his father hadn’t picked up. Tim felt a headache coming on and it wasn’t all because of the night air coming in through the open door.

“I have so much work to do.”

“You have work to do!” Irish looked at him, appalled. “My meeting! There is no salvaging this!”

“I’ll figure it out, Irish, don’t you worry!”

Tim rubbed the back of his head. “Heherson… I hate to break it to you, but… you want to do what now?”

Heherson grinned. “I’ve done my research. Scoping out a necromancer that’s hiding shouldn’t be too hard. So don’t you worry, Irish. I’ll make sure nothing gets in the way of your meeting.”

Irish didn’t look all that comforted, but Tim felt the weight fall off of himself again.

Zombie Apocalypse (pt22)

Heherson brightened up considerably, despite the bat. “Irish! You’re here!”

Irish pointed the bat at him. “You stay back. Tim?”

Tim took a breath. “Nah, it’s fine, Ai. It’s not him.”

Actually, that wasn’t fine at all. Tim didn’t know what to do.

Heherson did keep his distance, but he didn’t seem phased by Irish’s temper. “You did come to see me! I thought so. Did you want a drink? I have some jade tea still, if you-”

“I’m not here for your bullshit!” Irish exclaimed. “What do you mean it’s not him?”

Tim shrugged. “It’s not him. There’s nothing else to say about it than that. He didn’t do it. I was wrong.”

“How can you be wrong?” she demanded. “You two are the only necromancers in all of Saltdale! If someone’s doing necromancy, it can only be you two!”

“Well, that’s not true, right?” Both Tim and Irish looked over at Heherson, who obliviously continued on as if he had been allowed into the conversation. “We’re the only two registered ones. Someone could always not be registered.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Being born a necromancer wasn’t something that could be hidden from the state. Which meant the moment you were born, you were always watched. If he had to think about that too, that could have been another reason he hadn’t wanted to learn anything about it. But that would have required him understanding the concept at a young age. The age when he had already decided he was uninterested.

Zombie Apocalypse (pt21)

“What?” Heherson looked surprised. “Of course not! I got a little distracted, you know? During the research stages. Never even pulled anything together. Never got back to it. When I noticed everything this morning, I thought it was you.”

That was surprising. “Thought it was me?”

“Yeah! Who else could it be, if not me? I mean, hiding the fact you knew anything about necromancy was a nice touch. Everyone would vouch for it.”

“Like everyone would vouch for the fact you’ve never done it in your life either,” Tim pointed out.

“Yeah, but at least I know the difference between a mass apparition raising and a mass body raising.”

The two stared at each other. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t Heherson. Tim didn’t see a reason for him to lie about it, not like this. Not that he’d ever been great at lying
Heherson shook his head with a light shrug. “I’m just saying-”

At that moment, a large crash interrupted them. Tim flinched and backed away as Heherson’s front door swung open, smashing into the wall. Irish stood there, baseball bat in hand and staring wildly about. “Tim! Are you all right?”

Zombie Apocalypse (pt20)

At the very least there was the possibility to change the subject. Tim knew he couldn’t ask Irish to do this now. Even if she could talk to Heherson about it, it wouldn’t be fair to her and who knew how long it would take Heherson to get beyond the whole “take me back” routine he’d likely start up the moment Irish arrived. Very quickly, Tim checked his phone to see if he had somehow missed a call. Gotten a message. Anything. But no, his father had not responded in any form.

Time to bite the bullet. “Speaking of the dead, have you noticed outside? The zombie apocalypse is starting.”

Heherson was still smiling, though his cheeks flushed slightly. “Yeah, I’d noticed. I was actually going to ask you about that, since you showed up and all.”

Tim wasn’t going to take that. “Why do you look embarrassed.”

“Well…” Heherson shifted uncomfortably, his smile still there despite it clearly resonating his discomfort rather than any other emotion. “Because it had been on my mind for the last couple weeks, you know? Something that would impress Irish.”

“You know she’s had some big meetings coming up, right? It wouldn’t matter whether it impressed her or not, she would still be too upset over how it messed up her work to think well of it.”

“I know! And I certainly thought of that after, but…”

Tim put up a hand. “After what? Start at the beginning, Heherson. Did you or did you not actually take the idea on your mind and put it in reality?”

Zombie Apocalypse (pt19)

Irish had been completely right. Already Heherson had started in on it. There was no way that bringing her here would let Heherson focus on anything else. On the other hand, would he then stop raising the dead if Irish asked him to? Tim was here, so it wasn’t like he could do anything else. It wasn’t as if Heherson had tried doing anything to Irish anyway, since they had broken up. He might seem a bit obsessed, but other than being a bit of a creep while talking about it Heherson hadn’t done anything.

“I haven’t. You know why? Not because there’s anything wrong with Irish. Not because there is anything wrong with me. I’ve never been interested in that at all. Being a necromancer seems to make you want to have a lot more interaction with the living, Heherson. But the things even we untrained necromancers can tell about the body creeps me out more than anything. I’ve never been interested in touching anyone ever.”

Heherson scratched at his short cropped beard. “If you aren’t interested in the living, did you think that you might be more interested in the dead maybe?”

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t heard that before. “No, I don’t think that would do it for me either. Just because we’re born necromancers doesn’t automatically make us necrophiliacs.”

“Sure doesn’t make me one. The cold doesn’t do it for me, you know?”

“Cold sure bites.”

Zombie Apocalypse (pt18)

Tim followed him in, if just to make sure that the other man wouldn’t look out at the car the moment Irish moved in it and made him realize that she had indeed showed up. At least, not until Tim had prepared him for it. “You ran your last car off a bridge.”

“That wasn’t my fault!”

“And the one before that ended up a tree somehow. I’m more surprised that you still have a license. And a new car.”

Heherson was studying him now, something Tim wasn’t sure what to make of. Heherson never looked all that intently at anything, he was usually too all over the place. Except for Irish, of course.

“Did she break up with me for you?”

He didn’t sound angry, simply curious and a bit sad. Nevertheless, Tim was a bit annoyed. “Uh, no? She broke up with you because no matter how much you have in common, Irish can’t stand a messy house and you seem unable to stand an immaculate one. Which I think she told you when she broke up with you.”

Heherson frowned. “But you both have been friends forever.”

“And that means what?”

“You can’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.”

Zombie Apocalypse (pt17)

Tim couldn’t help but smile at Heherson’s enthusiastic notice of the situation. Nonetheless, he really had to turn things around. “Well, sometimes you have to do things during times you would rather not. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No, no! Interrupting nothing!”

Tim doubted this. Even if the zombie apocalypse wasn’t being prepared for. Who else would be that ready to answer the door at this hour if they weren’t actually awake doing something?

However, before Tim could think about how to broach the subject, Heherson spoke up again. “Is that Irish’s car?”

Tim followed Heherson’s gaze, quickly determining if Irish could be seen still sitting in there. “Uh, yeah. I mean, I borrowed it for what all I had to do tonight. I’d prefer not to have to walk about as much as possible, thanks.”

At the very least, Heherson seemed to buy that. “She never let me drive her car.” He stepped back in the house, rubbing at his arms.

Zombie Apocalypse (pt16)

Getting out of the car and back into the air, Tim held his hands tightly in his coat pockets as he crossed the street, trying to ignore the feeling of death that was trying to permeate all of his senses. As if he didn’t see the picture already. Staring at Heherson’s door, he brought his hand up and gave the wooden structure a few hard knocks.

It didn’t take Heherson as long to answer as it had Irish and it was obvious to Tim that Heherson hadn’t been to sleep yet. He was more of a night owl, if Tim remembered correctly. “Hey there, Heherson.”

“Timothy?” Heherson grinned, giving Tim a light punch in the shoulder. It didn’t hurt at all, but Tim couldn’t stop himself from wincing at the contact. “Hey there, man, how’s it going? I haven’t seen you in a bit.”

“Oh, well, you know. I tend to get to my parties a little earlier and leave them like that too.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Too early and you burn yourself out, you know?”

“It’s not the burning out, I just don’t like being out at night.”

“Eh, could’ve fooled me!”

Zombie Apocalypse (pt15)

“It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. You don’t even have to go inside.”

Irish stared out the front windscreen, chewing mercilessly at her bottom lip. “Can you go first?”

“Can I go first?”

“Make sure that he won’t be weird when I come in?”

“Wait a moment. You want me to talk to him about you?”

She nodded, finally looking back at him. Tim was keenly aware that something about the set up was a little flipped. Who should be talking to him about a failed relationship and who should be talking to him about necromancy? Nevertheless, if Tim had to talk about anything with Heherson, he certainly would rather talk about Irish than about the dead. Much like how Irish would much rather talk about the dead than what all went wrong between her and Heherson.

He sighed. “All right. I’ll loosen him up for you.”

“Don’t phrase it like that.”

“Oh, sorry.”