Free Dead Men (and Women) Walking by Anthology

better than
that. He knew that his body would rise again and feast on the
living with or without him, to be destroyed or captured for
experimentation and try as he might, Hicks couldn't stand not
caressing the supple skin of another for the rest of
eternity.
    Slowly, Hicks' will began to
grow again. His senses came even slower, only allowing his mind to
clear after several hours of patience within the very shell he
willingly left only the day before. Eventually, rigor mortis lost
its hold over his corpse and finger after finger, his undying
life-force began to assert dominance once again. Eric was vaguely
aware of his immediate surroundings and he knew that he was in an
open room upon a table. The bright lights above Eric completely
blinded him and once he reached up to turn them off, he fell back
onto the morgue table. Eric's strength had left him. His mind was
hazy and sluggish, but he was alive again, or rather, undead.
Crossing the threshold of decay played havoc on the mind, but it
also left the body of the person vulnerable to attack. Luckily,
most people didn't go around beheading the bodies of suspicious
corpses anymore.
    The room was set up for an
autopsy, and as he was on the table, he could only assume the
worst. A discouraging array of instruments that was lined neatly on
a metal tray to Eric's left tried in vein to gleam in the dimmed
light of the room. These were the instruments that were made
specifically for the utter violation of the human form, the very
sight of such barbaric tools disgusted the cannibal. There were
much better uses for corpses than butchery and burial, if only
someone would have the balls to put Man's short-sighted moral
ambiguity aside. In fact, a morgue was nothing different than a
crude processing plant that didn't function properly. As Eric
looked around, freezers filled with the bodies of the dead were
tucked neatly away behind metal doors like hidden pieces of
secretive gossip that no one wanted to speak of anymore. The dead
were no longer celebrated, at least not in this day and age. In
Hicks' mind, that was a shame.
    Eric's body, having lost its
pulse and heartbeat long ago, would be no different than any other
corpse, except for the rigor mortis that had been lifted already.
As weak as Eric was though, the Urge was growing in intensity all
the time. A dull ache at the best of times, the Urge could become a
murderous rage if left unchecked or denied for too long and Hicks
simply didn't have the strength to 'go under' a second time so
quickly after doing so only a day before.
    Eric arched his back in
order to straighten his body out on the table. He absolutely
loathed not knowing who he was going to feed on, but this time, he
didn't have much of a choice. He lashed out with his right foot,
sending the tray of instruments clamoring on the floor. Once he
could hear footsteps coming down the hallway, he feigned rigor
mortis and mustered all the self-control he could to be patient for
the prey to come to its devourer.
    A young man of no more than
20 years old came around to survey the commotion in the room. He
wore a cacophony of different colors, ranging from the outer blue
garments to having some manner of gothic attire beneath it. There
were scars on the boy's face where he'd taken out his piercings in
preparation for assistance with Mr. Hicks' autopsy. The morgue
assistant cursed the corpse on the table for still having the
shakes and proceeded to pick up the instruments from the
floor.
    Eric lifted an eyelid to see
just where the boy was and fortunately, the boy's back was turned.
Hicks rolled off the table with a grace that totally betrayed his
deathly appearance. As Eric approached the boy, he could hear music
coming from the boy’s mp3 player. The charade was dropped and the
cannibal straightened up completely and walked calmly toward the
hapless victim. As Hicks' eyes began to change to their natural
coloration of bloodshot yellow, the young man turned and stared.
Hicks grabbed