<strong>Sunset, one week previous</strong><br/><br/>Bill nodded idly at her words, but his eyes were quickly glazing over.  His position on the chair was leaning more and more heavily, until he was using his arm to keep himself reasonably upright.  It wouldn't last for long, eventually the morphine would force him down and make him rest.  Red was already asleep, and Carrie was out as well, not even dreaming which seemed to be her only respite.<br/><br/>"I only really know what I can get from her," Theo said, gesturing over towards Carrie, "and she makes as much sense as a Richard Kelly movie on the first viewing.  A lot of the things I'm figuring out, but basically, there's some sort of evil thing that can bring the dead back to life.  What I'm guessing is that there's some sort of balance between good and evil, where whenever evil steps up, good is allowed to choose champions as well, but that's just a guess."  Although Theo was getting tired, his lack of serious wounds meant that he hadn't been given as much of a dose of morphine, so he was more enjoying a high than getting exhausted.<br/><br/>He considered for a while.  "The thing you saw...I'm guessing it was covered in clay and dirt, bound together around the bones of whatever it used to be, and more shambled like an unnatural beast than moved like a knowledgeable human being?"  He seemed to have some sort of recollection of a similar thing, although he had no idea if the two were even related.  "I saw one of those once; we're still trying to figure that out.  Most of them seem at least mostly human: sentient, able to talk and all."<br/><br/>He thought for a while, looking around.  "Well, Carrie said something about something big in a week.  If you're willing, and if we're still around then, maybe you can pop back and patch us up.  I'm not sure how my new gimmick just worked, but I doubt it'll work every time, and I know I can't do much of anything for Carrie the way you can."  It was more a request than a command, and by his glance to Bill when he said it, it was clear how much he knew it would mean to everyone.  "If not, I understand.  We're about out of funds and Bill only has the one family heirloom for you to pawn."