by Evolution
Zombie Hunting Bites
The Evolution
Series #2
By: Nicki Jacobs
Yeah, You Heard Me:
Ian never thought it would end this way. Well, not before the Dead Plague hit anyway. Things hadn’t been “normal” in over two years. It was a standard way to die now. Even with all the strides that were made over the past couple of months many more people died of the Dead Plague than any other illness or injury on what was left of plant earth. Perhaps on a distant plant life resembled earth before the outbreak. Ian's head was spinning. He knew he had just passed out from sheer terror and the bizarre act of the lone walker. He knew he was starting to come around and placed his hands on the cement that he now lay upon. He could feel the bump on his head throbbing. Was he turning? Had she bit him? Was her blood on him? Did it matter? He had created the vaccination that seemed to be working three months ago. He should be safe. However, “SHOULD” was a worrisome word when it came to your own safety. He was a scientist, not a hunter or a rebel who had physically dealt with the new world first hand.
He opened his eyes and expected the worst. After living life in the shadows of the zombies he knew it was better to fear the worst and hope for the best. Ian opened his left eye, keeping the other shut. He looked around, his eye ball moving in a wild circular motion. He then opened his right eye, still not standing up. Then his breath caught in his throat. The woman, who obviously used to be a Hunter based on what was left of her black outfit, stared down at him. Ian spread his arms back further behind him ready to exit the scene if warranted. But this zombie, he remembered, was a bit different. It didn't take away his fear but the tiny scientist in his brain that overpowered his personality was as curious as ever. He stood up slowly, backing away from her.
Blake opened her eyes as wide as she possibly could. She was trying to speak the words without talking. Was she getting through? How could she communicate? She needed help and hoped he had heard her plea. She thought that maybe the words had actually come out this time. Something was happening to her. What, she didn’t know. The part of her soul that still remained lay on her chest like a weight but seemed to be coming from her head. She could feel it there. She listened to it. It kept her going and kept that part of her human. Blake took a step forward. She heard the words inside her own mind as she spoke them, "HELP, HELP!"
Ian didn't pass out this time, although he thought he might. He heard one syllable escape her mouth, "Hel” Yes, this was hell. But he knew she meant to say help. At that moment the world took one a new hue. Ian's mind was racing and instead of stepping further backward he actually took a step forward. This was something he had never seen before. This strange zombie woman was not completely gone. Something human in her remained, trapped inside a dead rotting body. Ian's scientific calculator that he carried inside his brain calculated that this woman held the key, or at least "A" key. He had to take her to his lab somehow and study her further. Besides, up until now every “dead” had really been dead. His human heart couldn't bear to leave this somewhat human without the help she had asked for. He considered that a monumental achievement within itself. The human in him could not waste her potential.
Good Zombie:
"Come with me." Ian gestured with his hand using exaggerated movements, as if he was training a dog. Again he ordered her. Blake tried to focus, her eyes and ears hearing but not listening. Her chest felt heavier and her head felt like a magnet, but what was the draw? She
blinked her eyelids. “WALK, WALK, WALK”, she repeated to herself silently. When she did walk it was slow. She didn't realize it though. She did know that it was painful. Her joints were on fire and her right ankle was mangled. What had happened to that ankle? She couldn't have put it into words but knew it was pain like no other. She wanted it to stop. She kept walking, following whoever-it-was. For certain she was just following her instincts. This fight wasn't over.
The guards at the gate of Zone 5 were standing their post as usual. How would he get around them? The discovery of the vaccination that Ian had named "DPV" had allowed the zones to send scouts out without fear of them bringing the virus back to the compound. They still kept their safely measures intact as most of the outside world had not been vaccinated. Zone 5 Leader Michaels had called a meeting after Ian concluded that the vaccination did indeed work. He stated his concerns about them being attacked for the vaccination. This did seem like a valid concern to everyone living in Zone 5. It was after all just a cluster of apartment buildings surrounded by fences and later brick walls.
"These zombies cannot think..." Michaels stated in front of the board, pointing to his head with his index finger.
"Men who are scared and hungry will think! They will stop at nothing to get what Ian has discovered. We MUST find an appropriate way to go about this." He continued.
So, getting her inside the doors was going to be tricky to say the least. Ian knew he wasn't that tricky. He'd spent his life in a lab since college. Before that he had his head in a book. After the "turn" he had spent his days looking under a microscope. By no means was he stupid. That's why he knew he wasn't the type to be able to get away with anything. He decided against what he knew wouldn't work anyway and called out to Johnny, the oldest guard.
"Johnny, it's me Ian." He said, holding up his right hand showing his ID Card. He was standing outside the gates. Johnny immediately noticed the dead-ish woman behind the zone scientist.
"Dr. Walter, you know you got a dead girl following you?"
"Yes sir, I do. Please get Mr. Michaels out here for me. I need to speak to him." Johnny eyed Ian and raised his Thirty Yacht Six and aligned it straight to the zombie's head. Ian raised his hands and waved them as if he was having spasms.
"No Johnny, I need this zombie woman for further testing. That is why I must speak to Mr. Michaels. This woman may be the key to something bigger."
Johnny then pointed his weapon to the ground. He shook his head showing his disapproval.
"You think that's a good idea Doctor?" Ian actually wasn't sure but he wasn't going to let it go either. Discovery often had associated risks.
"Just get Mr. Michaels." "PLEASE!" He added for good measure.
"Whatever Doc, but I don't expect the zoners will like this one little bit."
"Yes, I know. Just trust me on this." Ian knew he could pull some of his weight around. Everyone in Zone 5 knew he was responsible for the vaccination. They had to at least hear him out. For the sake of mankind he was tooting his own horn.
Mr. Michaels appeared on the second floor balcony overlooking where Ian stood with the dead woman. He didn't look happy. Johnny must have explained the little bit he knew to Mr. Michaels. Ian looked back and saw that like a good dog; she was just standing there “staying” nicely. What held her there transfixed? This zombie was special. He had to get to the bottom of this mystery.
"Doctor Walter." Mr. Michaels tipped his head, indicating a respectful greeting. His face however gave away his annoyance for the entire situation. Ian explained in detail the little he knew about the zombie. It wasn't falling on deaf ears either. Mr. Michaels was at least entertaining the idea so far. Mid-conversation, the mostly dead zombie rose to the occasion."Help!" She said. Mr. Michaels almost fell over the balcony railing. His eyes got as big as pumpkins in October. "Did she just speak?"
"That's what I’ve been telling you. I need to run some tests and figure this out. This is the HUMAN thing to do Mr. Michaels."
"I suppose your right Dr. Walter. She will have to be secure though. One slip up and we will have to put her out of her misery. Got it?"
"Got it."
A Reference Point…Maybe.
&nb
sp; Back in the lab, Ian calmed Mr. Michaels fears by showing him the containment plan for the specimen. She sat on the floor in the isolation room. Johnny was taken from his post outside and placed along with a younger fellow named Nick, and placed in front of the containment door. Two other guards would be in the lab at all times in case of escape and two more placed outside the lab doors. This way if a situation spilled out of the lab it could be dealt with before entering the rest of the building and compound. Ian explained that he would be the ONLY person in the zone who would ever come into contact with her. He didn't want his assistant Pamela, the only other scientist, put into harm’s way. If he was to perish he wanted another scientist in zone 5 to continue working. Ian was a man of honor and didn't intend to let the Dead Plague rot his morals.
"Sounds like you have it under control Doctor Walter. We do owe you for the vaccination and I suppose I must trust you in this even though I would rather not." The bald old man chuckled. Ian then explained the next step which would be taken. The first step was to test her blood. It must be different from the others. The goal was to find out what was different.
Ian scratched his head. He needed to think and devise a theory. Then test that theory. If it didn't work, devise a new theory and repeat the step until he something to write home about. The internet would be a great help Ian thought. It wasn't the first time he had missed the internet. Now he sat flipping through books looking for something, anything that might give him a reference point.
He looked through the books on the shelf in his make-shift office. He let his fingers linger on the spine of each book. All the science books were on the shelf to the right. He looked over to his left. On that shelf sat history, art and literature books.
"Maybe I should try something different." Ian whispered to himself.
He scanned many titles which included: The Raven, Treasure Island, Lord of the Flies, The Aztecs, Area 51, Practical English and one that caught his eye. The title was “Unexplained Mysteries in History”. It was a thick book. Ian pulled it off the shelf and started reading. The stories were amazing and scary all at the same time. He read about the mystery of the “The Vela Incident” in New Mexico and an unexplained deep sea recording called “The Bloop”. Oddly enough he found many references to zombies in this book. One lingered in his mind, “The Zombie Colony of Roanoke”. He read the entire length of the text while taking notes on one of
his last legal pads. Had this really happened before in isolated areas of the world? Ian knew that sleeping sickness that was often found in Africa had inspired his vaccination. Could “The Unexplained History of Roanoke Island in North Carolina and other zombie type mysteries lead him where he needed to go now?
Ian discussed this for at least an hour with Pamela. He explained to her that a group of settlers disappeared from Roanoke without a trace. They seemed to have plenty of stock but history showed that they took part in cannibalism. Why? Did his "special" zombie have some sort of immunity to the Dead Plague that caused her to retain some of herself? Had this immunity been passed down to her from inside her mother’s womb in the form of genes? Sure, she may not be carrying the genes of those particular Roanoke settlers but the more Ian read through the large book the more he realized he could be on to something. He knew he carried the genes that benefited him when he took his first IQ test. His father had been considered a genius. He too had been blessed with the same genes. His specimen couldn't help him in regards to her ancestry, as her vocabulary was small but blood testing might talk for her.
Breaking News, Barcodes are Badnews:
The next morning Ian collected his notes. He suited up and made entry into the containment room. But not before Johnny wished him good luck and shook his head left to right. He offered the zombie a snack, a dead rat from one of the many traps set throughout the zone. He remembered the first time he had seen her eating in the parking lot. That day she hadn't been eating flesh, which stuck out to him as odd. Today she gobbled the dead rodent like it was Strawberry cheesecake. He watched her. The bizarre thing was she watched him back.
Blake ate. When her mouth was empty, she had a faint feeling that she might be done. Peering through blood soaked eyes; she reached out to the man with her hand. Over the last months she had learned to call upon her thoughts faster. Her synapses fired more rapidly. She remembered certain things that she had no idea of before. Blake still had to will herself to do certain things but her thought process was working without the haze. Every day she felt a little lighter and stronger, like a piece of her soul returned to her and entered her chest each night. Sometime the voices caught her off guard, as if it wasn’t her own voice.
Ian jumped back from his chair that sat in the middle of the containment room. He was dumbfounded by her gesture. He breathed in deeply from behind his mask and mustered up strength from his belief that human-kind needed him to be brave. With his gloved hand he took the zombie’s out stretched hand and examined her palm, then her fingers. He noticed that he woman retained a number of scars that were pre-zombie. Taking her other hand for further inspection he noticed a bar code tattoo on her palm. Ian shot up out of his chair and backed into the wall, missing what he was aiming for, the door. He stared at the zombie while trying to control his need to vomit. He called her a specimen while talking to Mr. Michaels. Now he knew she really was a specimen.
He had only heard about it once before the outbreak and only in muted whispers in the Lab he worked for. The person who had done the whispering was never seen again. Then the outbreak occurred and life went to hell in a hand bag. Ian had thought about it from time to time, but figured conspiracy theories were just that, conspiracy theories. Even if it was true and she was indeed a specimen, why was she still in her current state? And if it were true, when would the evolution take place? How many were there? Now he knew he really was living in hell.
Breathing Though Blood:
The blood in Blake’s eyes continued to drip as she continued to sit. Ian was frozen against the wall as he felt for the door handle. Blake looked directly into his eyes as if she knew he had found the barcode. The foreign voice told her he had found it. She knew for some reason that her left palm was important. The blood began to pool onto the floor as the flow from her lids increased, as if an artery had been sliced. Not that her heart was beating. However, she was breathing. With each drop she felt her chest rise and fall. It seemed so familiar.
Ian finally got the containment room door open. He quickly locked it behind him.
"Where are you going in such a hurry? It's like you've seen a zombie or something." Johnny said not trying to hide his sarcasm. Ian ignored him.
"Johnny, don't let anything in or out of that room! Do you understand me?" He was now commanding and not accepting questions. Johnny knew that this was out of character for the Doctor and began to take his post seriously.
"What's wrong? What has happened?"
"What we have gone through since the outbreak has been mere child's play up until this point. I need to go speak with Mr. Michaels. Like I said, not a soul in and not a soul out."
"Yes Doctor I understand."
Ian then headed to find Mr. Michaels.
Just When You Think You Have It Figured Out:
Ian ran though the dark hallway that was now lighted by small solar stakes. They didn't provide much light but kept Ian and others from walking into the walls at night. Knowing that Mr. Michaels would be in his small, top floor apartment Ian took the steps two at a time. Without knocking he barged in.
"What is the matter with you?" Mr. Michaels said. He had company, a younger woman that Ian realized was the wife of Mr. Nickolas but that was not important now. Ian waved his hand trying to imply that Mr. Michaels and he had bigger fish to fry that the apparent affair.
"I think we are in trouble!"
"Why? Did your specimen escape or hurt someone?"
"No." Ian was trying to catch his breath from racing up the stairs.
"Then explain yourself." Mr. Michaels s
aid as the woman excused herself to another room, folding a blanket around her body.
Ian's mind raced. How could he explain this? He had to just give the facts. So he started talking.
"Okay, before the Dead Plague outbreak there were talks about some military experiments. Not many people believed the whispers and figured many theories were fueled by the economic collapse. You know everyone had their own opinions. People were afraid and hungry." Ian nervously tapped his foot as he talked. He couldn't get it out fast enough. He explained what he could to Mr. Michaels as he himself had only limited information. . He continued.
"Anyway, the specimen has the barcode on her palm and I think she's one of those experiments. That means there are more. It also means that it's starting to work and the others will turn as well."
"Turn into what? They are already zombies. What could they possibility turn into?" Mr. Michaels took a seat on the black and gold couch that was positioned up against a wall. He ran his fingers through what was left of his hair. Mr. Nickolas wife entered the room with a look of panic in her eyes and a flushed face. She must have overheard the conversation.
"What the hell does that mean?" she asked, half yelling.
"It means that the control parasite that was injected into their heads is staring to work and they will soon become different versions of what they are. I will be honest when I tell you that I don’t know why they haven’t turned yet. I didn’t pay all that much attention to the whispers long ago in the lab. I do remember that supposedly the specimen would “Die” twice. I don’t know who “The Who” is, but I do know what they might become..."
"Spit it out man!"
"The engineered dead! A Super Dead Army! One that can eat their enemies and don’t need to sleep. An army that doesn’t fear death because they are already dead." Ian was talking faster than he ever had.