“Shoot me dead, Bernice,” Rocky laughed in surprise. ”You snuck up on me.”

“I’m quieter now, because I’m dead.”

“That makes sense.”

“Even told me to help you and give your support if you needed it.”

“Evan is an interesting guy.”

“He likes you. You give him a lot of work.”

Like old friends they walked down a lane between piles of bones. Some lay in their path, fallen from the higher mounds. They were careful not to step on these wayward fragments.

Occasionally they would see a walking skeleton. It’s clothes hanging in scraps. “You see that?” asked Rocky.

“Even told mess we would seess such things,” Bernice hissed a little. Her change was near completion. “They don’t want to be dead and they don’t want to be alive. Even said sometimes it takes centuries to decide.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Yesss, because they’re angriesss.”

“Then they were never happy,” Rocky commented.

“Who’s Julius Caesar?”

“A great general and emperor of Rome, very long ago.”

“Evan told messs he still walksss in the streets of Bone.”

“I think you mean Rome.”

“Whatever,” Bernice shrugged her shoulders and rattled.

“You seem happy.”

“I’m okay. I just wish I were alive.”

“Where do you think Arango is?”

“Where he can hide and if possible put up a fight.”

They turned into a corridor that headed north. His eyes darted back and forth looking for possibilities. Arango might be dug inside one of these bone piles.

Something touched his shoulder. He had bumped into a pile and a bony hand had his shoulder. He spun and pulled out a complete skeleton.

“I’m free, I’m free at last I’m free,” it screamed.

Rocky thought he had even seen a possible smile.

Pulling out his gun he was about to fire.

“Hey pal, you can’t kill me, I’m already dead. Ha, ha, ha.”

“Just keep back,” Rocky said.

“No problem, I owe you.”