Holt Prendergast

"'I’ll dig that son of a bitch up… then we’ll call it even…'""- Holt Prendergast, to himself in After: The Cemetery Plot'"Holt Prendergast is the protagonist of Life After: The Cemetery Plot.

A construction foreman, Holt is in the process of burying his brother-in-law William Pelletreau when he begins to suspect that the cemetery has some unscrupulous business practices, kicking off a chain of events in Life After: The Arising.

Appearance and Character
Holt receives little to no physical description. He's a smoker, extremely impatient, single-minded, petty, and miserly, all attributes that are on full display as he deals with his brother-in-law's funeral. It would seem Holt is generally disliked among the rest of the family, as his niece spends most of the funeral complaining about his past exploits.

Holt's relationship with his wife bears this out even further, as he seems singularly uninterested in her grief, focusing instead on a possible inheritance and being overcharged for the services. He becomes so hopelessly fixated on these perceived slights that he personally digs up his brother-in-law's casket over the course of several hours in order to feel vindicated.

History
Though Holt would seem to be inconsiderate to a fault, he ultimately reveals that he and his wife took her brother William in when he was having money trouble in college, describing him as a good house guest. Once he graduated, William got a job and began doing quite well for himself. When his and Judy's mother Martha passed away, everyone in the family chipped in for the funeral, except for William, who showed up to the proceedings in an expensive car he laughed off as a necessity in the "corporate world", apparently instigating Holt's deeply held resentments.

Life After: The Cemetery Plot
Holt and Judy prepare for William's funeral; though Judy mourns the death of her brother, Holt is more concerned with the cost of the proceedings and his leftover inheritance. On the day of the funeral, Holt's niece and her boyfriend discuss the discord among her family, specifically mentioning that Holt's miserly tendencies have been a point of contention in the past.

Holt spends the trip back from the funeral complaining about the cost of William's burial vault to Judy, and, once home, immediately gets in touch with the sexton of Brookwood Cemetery in an attempt to question the vault's necessity and mitigate the cost. Once redirected to the company that supplies the vaults, Holt discovers he was duped; even though the sexton suggested that cemeteries are legally obliged to use them, the supplier insists that vaults fall under the purview of cemetery regulations rather than federal, state, or municipal law, and that Brookwood has not been their client for years.

While hosting the wake, Holt gathers William's brothers and sisters to insist they take legal action on the grounds that Brookwood is charging them for a burial vault they won't be using. Frustrated by his tone and still in mourning, the family spurns Holt's posturing. Left alone with one of his in-laws, Holt bitterly muses on how William relied on the family's help while he was in college and ultimately abandoned them once he got a job at a major multinational finance and insurance company. A passing remark from his in-law sees Holt ditch the wake under the vague pretext of preparations for construction project at Thomas Massey High School.

Holt returns to Brookwood on the night of the marching band festival at TMHS, determined to dig up William's grave and prove his coffin was not placed in a vault. After several hours of digging in the sinkhole-laden cemetery, Holt discovers that his suspicions were correct: William's coffin is naked in the dirt. After taking pictures for proof, Holt is stunned to hear a sound from within the coffin; believing that William might be alive, he slices through it with an electric saw and reaches in, being bitten on the first attempt and losing two fingers on the second. Panicked, Holt makes a run for it, but his feet subside into several sinkholes, one of which sees him suffering a severe bite wound to his leg before he makes it back to his truck, where he finally comes face-to-face with a zombie.

Holt races out of the cemetery, barely avoiding scores of pedestrians and other vehicles as he speeds to the hospital. It doesn't take long until he's being pursued by the police, but that ceases to matter when Holt causes a devastating collision, jamming up an intersection following the realization that a zombie had stowed in the bed of his truck. Holt's impudence sets off a series of catastrophic accidents, culminating in his loss of consciousness due to severe blood loss.

Holt barely regains consciousness in a hospital, overhearing two nurses discuss his dire circumstances, both in health and with the law. The ward struggles with an influx of patients from the local high school, and as Holt's health fails, he entertains a notion that he will survive moments before he passes away.

Life After: The Arising
As Holt lapses into consciousness following his car accident, he briefly makes eye contact with Jeff Grey, who is just arriving in town to see his girlfriend Julia Marino participate in a marching band competition.

Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis
The Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis report confirms Holt's death in Mercy Community Hospital at 10:07pm on October 9th, 2004. He reanimated in the hospital morgue at approximately 12:34am on October 10th, whereupon he attacked the morgue attendant. In the ensuing chaos at the hospital, it is unknown whether his reanimated body survived.