by Rudolph, J.
"Yeah. It is." She waved Zach over to where we were standing. "Zach, baby, tell Miss Cali here about what you learned about those dead things."
Zach had a lot to say. He was a bright young man. He was a biology major in his college, hoping to get into the pre-med program when this all hit, and he had some great theories and observations on the dead. It appealed to my science-geek self to listen to his words.
"The most important part of the biology program to me was Anatomy and Physiology. I lived it and breathed it, no pun intended. Without knowing your body systems you couldn't begin to realize the importance of deviations from normal. It's like not realizing that shudder you feel in your car means that your engine is about to blow, or if it was just a weird nothing.
"I wanted to know how these zombies work. I wanted to know more about their functions. What is a zombie able to see and will knowing this keep me alive? We dissected cats in anatomy lab to understand how all these systems came together. It made sense to me to dissect the zombies, though all I could do is record observations when we came on them. I had no plans on playing zombie autopsy. Besides, it passed the time while on the road.
"The number one thing is the virus must eat. If it is not getting food stuff from the zombie's oral intake then the virus will take from its host."
Zach paused to open his water bottle and I thought back to that gas station guy. His clothes were hanging on him. Just like any sick guy who does not eat will lose weight, he lost weight. Had he not had Shelton's he would have just died of starvation. Nine months of not eating does that to a person. Because of the Shelton's, he kept going, and the virus fed on his body.
Zach closed the bottle, set it down, and picked up his story where he left off. "Zombies from around here are very leathery, like they had somehow traded in their skin for a suit made from cowhide. I noticed it the most when I was in Nevada, though there are a few here too. I think the low humidity of the southwest contributed to this near mummification.”
Marnie interrupted with something she observed on this. “Near the gulf, a blanket of humidity surrounded us all the time. There, the zombies tended to be squishy. Some of the zombies landed in the swamp and that was just gross. Flies landed on them and maggots played in the wounds they had, playin' peek-a-boo around the rotting meat in their guts." When she talked about them it reminded me of the zombies that got stuck in the mud in the wash behind the complex. I was, for a moment, grateful for our zombies. I didn't think I could be so strong in the face of all this if they were squishy.
Zach saw that I was in my own head and waited until I came back to earth. When I was back, he began again.
"So, this one is weird. It occurred to me one day that it didn't make sense that the zombies moaned. They don't breathe. I was still on my own, and to keep myself sane, I intellectualized everything. I was sitting there just puzzling on how they made that noise. That's when I had an idea. If you reach up, muscles like the diaphragm stretch out, and every time they see one of us they lift their arms to reach. It would automatically cause some air pocket to enter the lungs giving them just enough to make that little moan. The moans are always louder in groups. This makes sense too. When they push together they are pressing against each other squeezing the chest, like an accordion. When space opens the chest opens back up allowing more air to enter. More air makes for a louder sound.” I nodded, this made sense because a lot of the CPR classes for the average person were teaching that on an adult you didn't have to do mouth to mouth, primarily because keeping the blood moving was the most important thing in adults. Most adults who are in need of CPR are usually having a cardiac emergency. However, part was because some air was being moved in and out of the lungs by compressions, just enough to keep the brain from being starved of oxygen. When it came to zombies, they didn't need to have enough air to sustain life, just a little pocket to blow across the vocal chords.
"At a rest stop, I saw some zombies heading my way. I wanted to test to see if a zombie could moan on a collapsed lung. I shot an arrow into the chest of one that was being vocal. It went all the way though the chest on the left side. A wound like that would rupture the pleura sac, the bag that holds your lungs in place with a bit of pressurizing. Without that pressurized sack, the lungs sorta shrivel up, like a deflated balloon. It's very much a life threatening injury when it happens to a person. That zombie kept moving but didn't make any more noises. Weird."
I laughed a bit, I was so enjoying our conversation. It was fun to nerd out on biological stuff. I asked him if he had tried anything else.
Zach's eyes lit up as he nodded. "One other test I had to do," he continued, "knowing the results really could only go one way, was severing the spinal cord. I shot one of the zombies in the low back, and I aimed dead center. The zombie fell to the ground like a puppet that had its strings cut as the bullet drove through his spine. It began to drag itself with its arms since my shot didn't affect the higher nerves. It was only logical that if a virus is hijacking a system through the brain stem, that it used the spinal cord to relay their instruction to the limbs. Without the road, the nerve impulses are stuck and can't do anything. It was nice to be able to prove that."
I was in awe. This was awesome. These were questions that I had myself ,but for Zach to have done tests like these totally rocked. We walked as a group down the street exchanging war stories. As things came available for scavenging we took turns over who got it, knowing that both groups took into account who really needed what.
It was a lovely afternoon as the sun sunk low into the afternoon sky, Trent and I needed to get back. We offered dinner and told the others that they were more than welcome to join us. We mentioned that we were staying at a motel and there were rooms still open if they wanted to crash. They accepted.
We met up with the others, we were the last group to come back, and introduced everyone to our new friends. This was nice, being able to introduce other survivors. Since we had more people for dinner I went over to help get the food ready. I smiled as Lacey kicked me out of the area we designated as kitchen when I came to help. She used to enjoy catering dinner parties before and she felt like this was a dinner party.
The kids ran up and down the sidewalks playing some racing game they invented. Every time they ran by their voices were joyous and laughter echoed off the concrete sidewalk and off the stucco building. I smiled at the sounds of kids being kids. They had to be urged to come to dinner. Lacey laughed as they groaned. She promised that they could get back to their game after they ate.
We sat outside as the last of the sun slipped away. We were all relaxed in the parking lot chatting. Matt went to grab a lantern and a couple blankets as no one wanted to go inside just yet, this evening had actually been fun. We should have gone in. We shouldn't have made so much noise. We should never have gotten comfortable. It seemed like any time we got comfortable, things went bad.
Zombies in the Night
We were laughing as Philip told a story. Merideth got up to grab a soda, and asked if anyone else wanted one. The rest of us declined the offer. We watched her head off to the semi. When she was out of sight we resumed our conversations. It had been a nice day. Snow was melting and zombies were thawing. I didn't think that the zombies would recover so fast from their immobile freeze, or that they could be up and about with just one pleasant day. None of these thoughts crossed my mind until I heard Merideth's blood curdling scream. I never even heard their footfalls. I jumped up from where I sat and raced to her, expecting that she had been startled by a wild animal or maybe there was some bad guy in our camp trying to get our supplies. When I reached her I found a zombie with his rotten, torn arms wrapped around her, restraining her. I really didn't expect to find her in the grips of a zombie. We had gotten too comfortable. I reached behind me for my machete and grabbed it while I strode those last few steps to her. As I lunged for them, the zombie revealed his rotting black teeth, broken and jagged, just before he sunk them into Merideth right where her neck met her shoul
der. Her screams became even more shrill in response to the pain and her panic over her attacker's bite. I froze in shock at the sight of the zombie as he pulled the flesh and muscles away from Merideth, like she was a slab of pulled pork. The world stopped for what felt like an eternity, a whooshing sound filled my ears, as my blood was being pushed through my veins at high pressure. My eyes filled with tears as everything slammed into focus, the weight of the machete in my hand reminded me of my intentions, of the task that needed to be done, even though it was too late for Merideth. She was already gone, the zombie already infected her. I had been the closest one to her, sitting only a couple of feet from where her attacker caught her, so it was on me to get things started. I could hear the others running to us, responding to the sudden screaming. My feet connected with the rest of me, as though my brain remembered that my feet were still there when the sound the other feet pounding the pavement echoed across the lot, and I ran those couple of feet to her. I slammed my machete into the skull of the rancid dead thing, sinking it deep into the brain. When I pulled it out, black fluid, thick as used motor oil and worse than any decaying smell I'd ever smelled before leaked out of the deep gouge. The zombie released Merideth as it crumpled to the ground, as it met death for the second and final time.
As Merideth fell to her knees, her hand wrapped over her wound in an instinctual movement. Blood seeped out from between her fingers, and trickled down her arm in rivulets. My hands covered her hands, holding pressure to the wound. I knew it was too late, this wound was hideous but I held tight anyway. She looked into my eyes imploringly, wordlessly begging for help, begging that this was not how her story would end.
Matt screamed from behind me with anguish. "Mer? Oh God. Mer! No!" He kept saying this repeatedly, the mantra that turned into a prayer that this was just a nightmare, a prayer that was answered with a resounding no. All the pressure holding was doing was keeping her conscious for just a bit longer, but even now that was failing. I let go of her and scooted back. Matt held his wife close, sobbing heavily as she slipped into unconsciousness. Doors swung open from the motel rooms, frightened faces peering from the cracks. Jackson and Justin stepped out of their room with baseball bats thinking there was a fight that they could help in. When they saw their father sitting on the ground with their mother in his arms and an ever growing pool of blood under them, Jackson dropped the bat.
"Momma? Mom?" Jackson began to cry. He shook from head to foot. Lacey came out behind him and saw her nephews standing horrified before she saw her sister-in-law on the ground. Jackson cried as he started to stumble over his mother. Lacey put her arms around him as he sobbed, helping him to the ground. They sat on the sidewalk outside the motel door. Lacey rocked Jackson as he sobbed over the death of his mother cutting him to the core.
Justin stood straight, shoulders squared, back rigid. His jaw was clenched and his hand was holding tightly to his bat, his knuckles turning white with the pressure. A dark cloud formed in his eyes, rage on the brink of explosion. He stepped forward to where everyone was, lifted his bat and swung, slamming the aluminum barrel into the head of the fallen zombie. Over and over he hit the zombie screaming with anger and pain, pouring his hurt into the zombie he was decimating. Spent, he fell to the asphalt next to his mom. "Mom?" He whispered in her ear, "I got him. He's just a stain now. Mom. Please don't go. I got him. Please. Please come back. Mom?" His eyes filled with tears as did the rest of us standing near by.
Merideth died right there in the parking lot in her husband's arms. She let out the rest of the air in her lungs and was gone. I squatted down on the ground and put my fingers to the other side of her neck feeling for a pulse that wasn't there. I shook my head no and stood back up. She was gone and now the next part was going to happen, in moments she was going to reanimate.
It didn't take very long anymore with the latest mutation of the virus, mere minutes from death to reanimation. Matt stayed on the ground, holding his wife's body with her head lolled back. We knew she was going to turn at any moment. When her hand started to twitch then move, I knew it was starting. I looked at Trent to see if he had seen it too. Before any of us could say anything, Matt pulled his gun out from his waistband, and in one fluid motion he pulled the hammer back, pressed the barrel against her chin and fired the gun. The bullet passed through the brain and exited quickly and all the twitches that the hand had started doing fell still. When the gun went off, Matt screamed in anguish, though anguish is too simple a word for the sound coming through his vocal chords. He made the sound that only one who has been in hell could possibly relate to, anyone else was just not getting the whole picture. Jackson got up from where he sat and stumbled over to where his dad was sitting. His mom's body was still being held closely in Matt's arms. He wrapped his arms around his dad and they sobbed together. Justin was still sitting next to his mom's other side facing his dad and brother. His eyes were still dark and his defensive wall stood strong. His face was hard, and years older than just moments ago. He didn't seek out comfort nor did he offer it in that moment like his brother did. He was isolating from everything, going to his safe place deep inside of himself where nothing could get to him.
They sat together like this until Lucas finally convinced them to get up. He wrapped blankets around each of them and came over to me.
"Cal? What do we know about this virus? Matt is absolutely covered in Merideth's blood and she turned. There are cuts on all of us from roughing it so I imagine there are cuts on him as well. Do we know if he could convert?"
I didn't. I looked at my own hands covered in her blood from where I held pressure. I fought the urge to panic, berating myself for getting myself in this situation as well. I called Zach over to get his opinion on the situation.
"We need to put him in quarantine, I think." Zach offered. "You know, just to be safe."
"I don't want him to be alone tonight." I held up my own blood covered hands. "I'll stay with him tonight. If he needs it so do I." Even though I was holding a brave facade I felt like I was dying inside. I didn't want to be in quarantine, I wanted to be with my son and my husband. I heard Trent choke back a sob when I said I had to be isolated as well. He knew I was right.
Lucas nodded in agreement. "I'll let him know what's going on and get the boys into my room for the night." Lucas looked like his head was spinning with how crazy things were.
We were hit in our camp. No one felt secure and everyone wanted to stay close to their family. The slumber party room was abandoned, the kids wanted to stay with their parents, and the parents wanted to have their kids close to them. The feeling of security was decimated. I had cleaned up while the kids got their stuff gathered so when Drew was done I could give him a big hug. Drew was not happy that I was going to be somewhere else for the night. I wasn't either, but it was the safest move on the off chance that by morning I was going to prefer the taste of people. That fear was making my head spin as I looked into Drew's eyes.
Drew was trying to be strong but when my arms were holding him close, he started crying. "Please momma, please don't turn into one of those zombies. I would be broken without you with me. I need you mom." My earth rocked. Drew hadn't heard Justin beg his mom to not die earlier, and to hear my own son say very similar words cut me deep. I was terrified that Matt and I were infected as well. I was terrified that I was going to leave my son without a mom, just as Merideth had, but I wasn't going to put him at risk of being bit by me.
"Baby, don't worry. This is a just to be safe. Really, I'm more worried that leaving Matt alone for the night would be a bad idea. He had a lot more blood on him than I did. I have to make sure he doesn't turn. The chance of either one of us getting sick is so slim that I am almost sure that everything will be fine."
He looked at me with tear filled shining eyes and said nothing, like he was trying to decide if I was lying to him to spare his feelings or if I meant it. "Hon, I will see you in the morning. Know what I found while we were scavenging?" He looked at me like I had lost my
mind, like he could not possibly care less what I found when he wasn't sure if he was going to have a mom in the morning. I smiled at that, he looked like his dad with that “who cares about the silly stuff” look. "I found coco flakes. You and I have breakfast plans in the morning. I will be there. I will wake you up in the morning and we are going to eat some of that."
"Mom, promise you will?" I nodded. "'Kay. Well, I better go to bed so morning can come faster."
I held him again and sent him off to our room. Trent came up to me after Drew scurried off. I broke down and sobbed on his shoulder. Tonight was not a good night. I sobbed for Merideth, for Matt, Justin and Jackson. I sobbed for Drew who didn't know if his mom would be there. I sobbed for the fear that I knew Trent was having as well.
"I love you, Cali."
"I love you too, Trent."
"I will see you in the morning, okay?" I nodded. "Do you have your gun just in case the worst case scenario happens?"
"Yeah, I do, but I'm not going to need it." I said this with absolute resolution. I said it with a tone that said I was braver than I felt. Trent saw right through this but didn't fight me on it. "Baby, if I'm not out here in the morning will you eat coco flakes with Drew? I promised him that for breakfast." Another wave of tears washed over me. I didn't want to be in this situation. I beat myself over the head a thousand times for being so reckless with blood borne pathogens. I was a nurse, I should have known better!
"Alright. Now enough of this, we need to put on our 'grr' faces as Drew would say." Trent said, shaking himself off of the emotional wave we were both drowning in. "See you in a couple hours."