Watchers of the Night by Matthew Keith

  * * *

  Seated back in the training room with nothing but a blank screen and a single green cursor blinking at him, Paul was very uncomfortable. Apparently, Juliet and Liz had made the rounds during lunch and told everyone that he’d beaten all the puzzle records by a long shot. Every single Walker was in the room behind him, watching. Even Dittrich.

  Looking over a shoulder, he said, “Seriously? I mean, nothing like making a guy feel under the gun.”

  “Think of it this way,” James said in his deep drawl, “no one will ever be able to say you cheated.”

  Great, Paul thought. “So I just, what? Start typing in what I remember from earlier?”

  “Yup,” said Liz. “Any order you want. Just type in as many lines as you can remember. You have until five o’clock to put in all the lines that come to mind. They have to be exactly as they were on the page, word for word, so take your time.”

  “How many is normal?”

  “The record stands at forty-four,” answered Dittrich. “By a Walker who is no longer with us.”

  The room got still for a moment and no one said anything. After a few moments, Paul cleared his throat quietly and said, “Well, I guess I’ll get to it.”