by Ivan Turner
They stood there for long moments in the cold, the light snow of an entirely different system blowing around them. Zoe had her face pressed up against the window. Naughton held Luco close to him, both to keep her warm and to prevent her from doing anything rash. He could feel the tension in her muscles.
"Let me go," she said finally. She sounded composed but she wasn't. When he didn't let go, she repeated her request more forcefully.
"What are you going to do?"
"I need to talk to her."
Naughton looked at the face in the window. It wasn't the face of the little girl they had taken from the hospital. It wasn't even the face of the zombie Luco and Yuan had revived. The expression was dead, the eyes vacant. Whatever intelligence there had been in the undead Zoe was gone. Still, he released Luco.
"Don't open the door," he said and pulled out his pistol. "Do you understand?"
"Don't threaten me, Lance."
But he didn't put away the gun. He just stood there with the gun in his hand and his hand at his side.
Luco leaned up against the car and put her face up against the window. "Zoe?" she said through the glass. There was no response, verbally or otherwise. The zombie child didn't even change the direction in which she was looking. She seemed to sniff the air briefly, but that was all.
"We need to get moving, Denise," Naughton said. "We need to get to Canada before Kraemer finds out what happened."
She looked back at him. "What should we do? Should we put handcuffs on her?"
He looked at her in confusion.
"You don't expect me to kill her, do you?"
"We can't bring her with us. Even if I was in favor of it, we'd never get her across the border."
"But she's different from the others, Lance."
"Not anymore."
"How can you say that? After all we've been through. We gave up everything to save her and now you want to throw it away?"
He softened. "Denise, I don't regret what I did and I hope you don't regret what you did. But Zoe's gone. Even if she can be saved, we don't have the means."
"She's just a little girl."
He shook his head. "She's not. Not anymore."
Luco started to cry. She didn't say anything, just started crying. To her Zoe was more than just one person. She had represented hope. In her desperate effort to absolve herself of everything she had done in combating this disease, Luco had tried to save just one person. Just one. And she had failed. And with that failure, hope had disappeared.
Naughton stood and did nothing. He waited until Luco had stopped sobbing and then gently moved her away from the car. Going around to the passenger side, he opened the back door and waited. Like a zombie, Zoe turned herself around and began pulling herself from the car. Naughton put several paces between himself and the door. He kept an eye on Luco in case she decided to do something irrational. But she just stood and watched. When Zoe finally extricated herself from the Hummer, Naughton took aim. All he would need was one shot. He gave her two paces, enough distance so that he wouldn't get any blood on the car. Then he fired. The bullet hit her squarely in the head and she crumpled to the ground.
"We should burn the body," Luco said after a moment, sounding more like herself.
Naughton nodded. He didn't want to take the time, but it was dangerous to leave a zombie, even a dead one, just lying on the side of the road. So they put on some latex gloves, also found in the medical bag, and dragged Zoe into the woods. There, Naughton built a pit of stone and surrounded it with snow. Then he took some wood, as wet as it was, and managed to get a blaze going. Zoe's clothing caught quickly and soon her body was burning. The smoke drifted high into the air and Naughton told Luco that they needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. She didn't argue. Together, they walked quickly back to the Hummer, got into the front seat, and headed off for Canada and their new lives.
***
A police cruiser picked up Shawn Rudd at about seven o'clock. He was just sitting in a chair at the curb, letting the snow fall upon him. Around him the street was littered with bodies. There were no less than twelve. In his left hand, he held a cylindrical piece of wood, broken off at one end. It was pitted and bloody. His clothing was covered in gore and a hazmat team was brought in to strip him and clean him off. After he was taken to the hospital and his parents called, they ran a blood test on him to test for the infection. He was clean. But not undamaged. He wouldn't speak and wouldn't eat. He didn't even acknowledge his mother and father when they arrived at the hospital, soaking and exhausted.
After several hours, he was pronounced physically sound but the doctor on duty called in for a psychiatric consultation. By this time, Shawn’s father was livid. He tried to take Shawn out of the hospital but was restrained by the guards. Shawn himself showed no reaction to any of the excitement until one of the guards came too close to him. At that point, he grabbed the guard around the neck and pulled him off of his feet. As they struggled, Shawn grabbed at the man’s belt and pulled free his nightstick. He raised his arm and brought it down once against the man’s head. The man slumped to the ground and Shawn moved in to finish the job. It was his mother who got in the way. Even in his hysterical state, Shawn couldn’t bring the stick down on his mother.
Other guards stepped in and he was restrained. His father, the wind taken from his sails, stood and watched as his son fought and fought, all the while shouting, “Let me kill him! He’s one of them! Can’t you smell it?”
***
It was a long time before the Benjamins were taken to their apartment and released from custody. By the time they rendezvoused with Olden and his squad, the lieutenant was beside himself. First he shouted at the two plow drivers, dropping more f-bombs than most people had ever heard in a lifetime. When Martin stepped in to take responsibility and explain their actions, Olden ordered him arrested. At that point, Henry got involved in the debate, taking Olden aside and working to calm him down. Henry had a way of talking that was soothing, almost compelling. He was also always very rational.
But Olden was a pro at listening to no one.
Finally, after Henry had presented all of his arguments and Olden had beat them all down, Henry resorted to his final tactic. He illustrated the situation before them and asked Olden how much work it would be to explain that a civilian had stolen two snow plows and created the necessary window for he and his men to beat back the hoard of zombies that had threatened to overrun them. Olden was not someone who could be intimidated so the underlying threat went unnoticed. However, he did realize that he would have a lot of work ahead of him if he continued with these arrest proceedings and all he would have accomplished was taking an average, if not slightly above average, citizen off of the street.
He dropped it.
Sam was passed out as Abby and Martin entered their apartment. They brought him to his room and stripped him of his clothing. Normally they wouldn't have cared, but the day and night had put them all into places where who-knew-what could have gotten on them. They struggled him into his pajamas and he didn't bat and eye lash.
When they finally went to bed, they moved in close to each other, holding each other, kissing each other, basking in the presence of the other. Before five minutes had passed, they were both asleep.
***
The late dawn brought clear skies and bright sunlight. According to the news reports, the police had been successful in rounding up and destroying the bulk of the zombies but people were advised to remain in their homes for the weekend while the city was secured. The Mayor came on the air to praise Agent Kraemer and his efforts. The plows were working double time to clean up the roads so that things could return to normal for the work week.
Heron watched for an hour, sitting on the living room couch and sipping coffee. Alicia and Mellie were still asleep. Satya and his family hadn’t left until close to midnight. They’d had a nice time and Heron hoped they could do it again soon. In fact, he couldn’t think of any reason why not.
When his coffee was done, he put the cup into the dishwasher and went to get his coat, hat, and gloves. It was time to clear the walk. Outside, the temperature had risen into the mid thirties. A number of people on the block were already out with their shovels and snow blowers. Heron waved to Satya.
For a while he worked alone, building huge mounds of snow on the side of the house. Early risers on the block finished up and went inside while late risers came out with gloomy faces. Heron didn’t mind. When Alicia came out with Mellie, they built a snowman. Snow angels were out of the question because there wasn’t a flat place left on the block. A plow came down the street and pushed snow into Satya’s clear drive. It was the first time Heron ever saw anything that resembled a dark emotion cross the man’s face. He went across and helped clean up the mess.
When they were done, they went inside and had some hot chocolate. He watched the news. Intermingled with the sports report and the weather report and the business report, there were stories about the goings on in the city the night before. There was also talk of zombies on the national and international news. But it was all part of the regular show now. Zombies were there to stay. The infection was just another disease that hadn’t yet been cured. Each case was tragic but not earth shattering. When all was said and done, the flow of grant money would keep hundreds or thousands of researchers working for the rest of their careers.
In the early afternoon, Heron went for a run. As he ran, he thought back upon the months that he had spent hunting and fighting zombies. He couldn’t believe he had approached it with such intensity. But that had been his job. And his intensity had allowed others to live their normal lives. Now it was someone else’s job. Hopefully, that person would approach it with the same intensity so that others could live their normal lives. So that he could live a normal life.
When he arrived back at his house, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and his lighter and looked around. Everyone had long since finished their shoveling jobs and the block looked like a powdery underground with corridors dug throughout. With the cigarette in his mouth, he struck the flame and then hesitated. He just wasn't in the mood.
Putting the cigarette back into the pack, he crushed the whole thing in his fist. Then he went back to the garbage and threw it in. He was not a religious man but he thought, Maybe if I do just this one thing right, God will give me a second chance. And that was the thought he adopted as he went back into his house and back to his family and forward to a life with an ending unforeseen.
***
It's over!
Where's the apocalypse? Sorry. No apocalypse. But that's really the point, isn't it? No matter how dire the situation, bringing about the apocalypse is difficult business. It doesn't just happen overnight and the longer it takes, the more likely we are to stop it.
What's next?
Why, Zombies Series 2, of course! Because of all of the terrific support I've gotten these past ten months, I've decided to start on Series 2. Like this first series, it will be released as a 10 episode set starting with Episode 2.0 the last Monday in September. Series 2 will feature a whole new set of characters as well as come back to the old ones from time to time as well. I hope to see you back at that time.
In the meantime, you can keep up with me on facebook and, sometimes, twitter. There's a cool Zombies! group on facebook that doesn't have nearly enough members. The ones we have though, are great. Their energy and dedication to the series motivated me to keep on going when I was tired or just out of ideas. Every time I came close to missing a deadline, it was the infectious enthusiasm of those people that drove me to work late and finish up on time. I owe all of my readers tremendous thanks.
Of course, there's a whole summer between now and Zombies! Episode 2.0 so try out my full length novel, Forty Leap. There aren't any zombies in it but I like it all the same. I think you will, too.
See you in September!
Ivan