He limped toward Maureen's house; he was curious to see if she still wanted him. After all, she'd gotten what she needed.

When he arrived at Maureen's he thought it a good idea to sneak in through the backyard. Best to surprise her; he had a lot of questions to ask the bitch, all of them to be asked in quick detective-like fashion.

Someone had wheeled one of those car engine lift cranes out and set it up next to the roaring leaf incinerator. Someone was inside the incinerator-- still alive, their fingers grasped weakly at the edge of the incinerator. Mark watched Lloyd trying to feebly make his way out of the incinerator and then crashing downward, sending embers everywhere. A lot of crackling.

A few more yards toward the house, he saw Deputy Wyandt hanging by the neck from a tree.

A couple crows sat on his shoulders, pecking out his eyes. The crows created an imbalance that kept Wyandt's body revolving and swinging a bit among the setting sun. He stayed hidden; Maureen came out of the house, wearing a robe. She carried a pair of hooks which she dug into Lloyd's chest as soon as she stood above him. Then she connected the hooks to the chain on the engine winch.

She cranked the engine lift's winch, bringing the near death Lloyd out of the incinerator. His eyes were wide, filling up with terror. He groaned but could not scream like he wanted to. She cranked the squeaky lift some more, causing more pain.

Smoke rose upward.

She ran her nails across his scorched chest. Lloyd tried screaming again. Raspy nothings. Maureen pulled a very curved and very sacrificial looking knife from under her robe. As she carved his heart from his chest, Lloyd flailed weakly at the air. The heart was still beating as he licked a little blood from it. She placed the still beating heart onto the firepit's grill and started to cook it.

She walked over to the box that sat on the picnic table and removed some more medical supplies. Rubber tubes and lancelets. She stuck the lancelets into Lloyd and and began draining his blood. She smeared the blood on her now naked body and began to dance. After about two minutes, she let Mark know he was there.

"Come out lover."

His tired body carried him to her, they embraced and collapsed in her arms. He basically recovered and they danced a waltz amongst the trees and the bodies and the early evening twilight. Bats flew above them. All went black after she sedated him with a magic kiss.

He awoke a half hour later. "Maureen?" Nope, she was gone and now it was just him and the crows and the dead bodies of the sheriff and his deputy. He started walking back toward The Improper, it was difficult because his regenerating bones weren't healed yet. He listened; a car was coming his way; it was a car with a big engine. When the car pulled up, Mark saw that it contained the kid from the gas station-- only now he had a gaping bullet wound in his forehead.

"Hey, man, you want a lift?"

"Yeah," Mark said as he got into the car. Once he was in the kid floored it down the road. "Yeah this county's great for speed, eh?"

"So, what happened to you?"

"I was talking to you the other night and it all became clear; if you want to drive in Kurtzville, you got to learn to walk amongst the dead. Gotta learn to be the dead, man."

The drive to The Improper took about two minutes at the insanely high speed the kid drove. He hit the brakes and they screeched to a halt at the bottom of the Improper's hill.

Mark got out of the car and started to thank the kid, already beginning to decompose a bit-- as his cheek had fallen off when hit the brakes and big flies were drinking the thick blood that was splattered all over the kid's flannel.

"No problem," the dead kid said, "just how about doing me a favor? Consider making me one of the drivers in your army? Eh, eh?"

"I'll consider it, kid."

"Well I'll be driving around these wonderful roads until I fall apart. Take it easy!"

The kid floored it and sped off around the curve, tires squealing all the way.