by Joe McKinney
“Is that how it starts?” I asked aloud.
Gem shook her head and looked at Charlie.
“Maybe,” said Charlie. “They turn into these things, wander aimlessly for a while, and then they begin to learn from their kind. Just like us, they learn those things they gotta do to survive.”
“Shit,” I said. “The punk rocker crossbow girl is waxing philosophical.”
“I want to kill them.”
“Not this time,” I said. I want to get you back to my place.”
Gem put an arm across Charlie’s shoulder. “Babe, now I know we’re going to get along just fine.”
*****
We returned to my house, showed Charlie how to access the gate and lock it again, and drove in. Hemp sat in a glider-rocker on the front porch with Trina looking more miniature than usual in the large Adirondack chair beside him. She was drinking a juice box of lemonade, and he was drinking a beer.
When we drove up he stood and made his way to the Suburban, Trina following close behind.
“Hood’s a mess,” said Hemp. “Close call?”
“Yeah, I have to talk to you about the no-kill spot. We might need a roof mount on this one, too,” Gem said, dropping out of the cab followed by Charlie, who got out of the passenger side rear door.
“Hey,” she said, extending her right hand, but without releasing her crossbow, which was still gripped in her left.
“So you’re the girl named Charlie,” said Hemp, taking her hand. He then pulled her in for a hug and she didn’t resist.
He spoke into her ear, but loud enough for me and Gem to hear, “I’m Hemp. And I’ve gotten just a bit more touchy-feely since I met these two. I appreciate living, breathing humans all the more, so please, excuse my invasion of your personal space, but I am truly happy to meet you.”
After Hemp pulled back and let her go, Charlie said, “It’s nice to meet you too, Hemp. Gem and Flex say you’re a good guy, and from first impressions, I get that, too. Now who’s this?” she asked, smiling at Trina.
“That little one is my niece Trina,” I said.
“What’s that?” Trina asked, pointing to the muck on the hood.
“It’s paint,” said Charlie. Then she knelt down and put the crossbow down in the dirt. She dusted her hands off and put them on Trina’s shoulders. “You are such a little beauty,” she said, smiling.
“Mommy says I’m a princess,” Trina beamed. “My doggie just had puppies!”
“You’re kidding me!” Charlie said, her eyes wide. “How many?”
“Like a hundred,” Trina said. “Wanna come see? They’re inside.”
“A hundred puppies!” said Charlie, smiling up at the rest of us. She raised her eyebrows as if to ask if she could go with Trina.
We all nodded.
She stood and Trina put her hand in Charlie’s without hesitation and led her toward the house.
Hemp picked up the crossbow. “Nice one,” he said. “Can she use it?”
“Shit yes, she can use it,” answered Gem. “I’m looking forward to having her show me how to use it.”
Hemp spread his hands apart. “Well, let’s take a look at that EEG! I appreciate that you brought a pretty girl home with you, but that is, after all, why you left in the first place.”
“You’re right, pal. But one thing – she’s twenty-six, so you might want to treat her more like a woman than a girl. I think she’d appreciate it.”
I noticed a slight smile touch Hemp’s lips at that moment. It seems that came as good news.
We helped Hemp carry the equipment to the mobile lab. He put on a gas mask, checked on Jamie, and came back in the front area of the motor home.
“She’s okay, but decomposition is continuing. I don’t know if it’s different when they’re getting regular food, but it’s not pretty, Flex.”
“Should we feed her something?” I asked. “Hemp, she’s basically been without anything at all to eat since I put her in that plastic. No matter what she is, she must be starving.”
Gem took my hand in hers as we waited for an answer.
Hemp thought a long time before answering. “Flex, I don’t know what she feels or doesn’t feel. I know she is not alive in the typical sense. She has no heartbeat. With the EEG I intend to learn more about her brainwave activity, but for now, under restraint, she’s not exhibiting any signs of pain or suffering.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. But as for my question of food. Would trying to feed her something alter any of your planned tests? Would it hurt anything?”
“I don’t really know,” Hemp answered. “The eye vapor or mist we discovered seems to be minimal. Her eyes are not very obscured, which means this vapor, whatever it is, is quite low. If feeding her increases this, that actually might be a good thing; I need to gather some sort of sample to analyze.”
It all made good sense to me. His professional way of explaining the scientific side to me did help me set aside my emotions somewhat.
“So I hate to keep going back to this, but if we do feed her, what do we feed her?”
Hemp put up a finger and nodded. “I set a few small snares in the woods today after I worked on the antenna, so I might be able to come up with the brains or flesh of a rabbit or squirrel by morning. I can do an analysis of her condition before and after. You know, see if there’s any change at all.”
“Wear protection around her,” Gem said. “We don’t need you passing out again.”
“I have been, and I will,” Hemp said. “Been there, done that, as they say. Gem, about the physical touch aspect of it. You had to actually touch me before I awakened, correct?”
Gem nodded quickly. “Yes, but as I told you earlier, even that didn’t work right away. But yes, it was the same as with the other people we found. Once we touched them, they awoke fairly easily; but it’s as though they were content to sleep indefinitely until awakened. I’m only glad it was us who woke them instead of them.”
I paced away from him and stared at the first aid supplies I’d dropped on the counter as I awaited Hemp’s thoughts.
“So perhaps it’s more of a light coma rather than a sleep,” he said. “I might have to purposely expose myself to it with the EEG connected to me to see exactly what it does to my brain.”
“Bullshit,” Gem and I said in unison.
“I’m afraid it is very important, especially if this is one of the methods they use to subdue their victims.”
“You’ve already been exposed once,” I said. “We know it doesn’t kill you, but we don’t know if the effect is the same the second time. So it’ll be my turn if we try it.”
“Flex,” Gem said, grabbing my arm. “Let’s just assume this is how it works and figure out how to deal with it. I don’t want you to do that!”
“Sorry, babe. I don’t have a choice. I’ll be fine. Hemp was, and he is.”
Gem shook her head. “I don’t know how it’ll help anything.”
“Kind of like sulking,” I said. “I don’t know how it’ll help anything either, especially when I’ve made my decision.”
Gem said nothing, but went to the door and left the motor home. I waited for her to look back, but she didn’t.
And I knew it was only because she loved and cared for me, but I still felt empty standing there without her and her worried face.
“It’s a plan. See if you catch anything tomorrow. If you do, we’ll feed her and see if the vapor returns. If it does, I’m your man.”
Hemp nodded. “Speaking of food, I’m hungry. Why don’t we have an early dinner today.”
I agreed. I was famished.
And I needed some Gem time. I couldn’t stand it when that woman was upset with me. Just like old times. I loved the shit out of her, and I think I’d do almost anything to make her happy. Almost. But this was so important that she’d have to just come around.
We went in the house and brainstormed over the menu for those of us who had broader tastes than flesh and brains.
*****
Over the next day we set up the larger snares using Hemps uncanny knowledge of physics and counterweight. It was ingenious. We’d gone out to a local gym to gather the necessities that we’d been unable to get the previous trip out, and now had twenty of the plastic-coated, 20 lb barbell weights, and we’d also been able to secure some 50 lb braided fishing line. We had enough materials to construct around 10 large snares capable of capturing a man or woman. Using a small weight initially, we tossed the line over a heavy tree branch near the most likely courses of access to my property.
It sounds easier than it was. Many of the tree branches weren’t heavy enough to support the weight, but eventually, we located enough strategically located trees to get the job done.
Once the line was over the branches, we tied two of the 20 lb weights to each one, and pulled the weights up about 10 feet. Once in the air, the natural friction created between the cord and the branch itself made it easier than I would have thought to hold it up there. Hemp suggested a 20 lb monofilament fishing line as our tripwire, and that was secured between two moderately heavy sticks stuck into the ground. A large slip-loop was placed on the ground around the tripwire, and when completed, we tested it by using a log that weighed around 80 lbs and about the thickness of a man’s leg.
Once tripped, the left-side stick gave way, releasing the weights which dropped fast, drawing the slip-loop closed. One end of the log was snagged, and by virtue of the 40 lbs of counterweight, lifted easily into the air. The snag was tight as shit.
This would catch a zombie.
“Not a protective measure,” Hemp said, reiterating his reasons for building them. “Not in the literal sense. If we catch one, chalk it up to a stray who got lucky. If we have a forest full, we’d better get the hell out of there.”
“So no checking traps alone,” I agreed. “Buddy system, fully armed and on alert.”
The whole process took us over four hours, because all the branches were at different heights, and one design wouldn’t work. Different lengths of cord, obstacles on the ground such as stumps and other things that might prevent the loop from closing as intended.
Hemp’s smaller traps had yielded two small squirrels and a rabbit. We decided to save any rabbits for the humans, and use the squirrels to feed Jamie. We realized it might not be enough to create the vapor, but it was all we had. And we agreed not to let Trina see the rabbits ever. They’d remind her of her sister, and she’d cry because they were dead besides.
Hemp agreed to feed the squirrel to Jamie, and I was glad. I didn’t want to do it, and I didn’t want to watch it, though I didn’t come out and say it. I was still mourning her loss, and while it didn’t feel right in my soul to want to avoid seeing her, much less watch her eat forest rodents, I knew it was the best thing for my sanity.
I’d skinned and cleaned small game before, so I did the honors.
“You’re pretty good at this stuff,” Hemp said, watching as I stripped the hide off each squirrel.
“Practice, that’s all,” I said. “I’ve never messed with the heads, though. Shouldn’t be more than a spoonful of gray matter in either one.”
“I don’t know what it is about the brain that these creatures need, but a squirrel brain should work as well as the next specie as far as makeup of the organ itself.”
“Think you’ll be able to eventually figure it out?” I asked.
Hemp shrugged. “Time will tell. I’m going to work on the EEG machine tomorrow morning, so I should have some sort of update for you after I’m able to hook it up and get some preliminary testing completed.”
I finished dressing the squirrels and had each tiny skull split and the brains exposed. As I’d assumed, the brain was minuscule. Together, it might be a couple of mouthfuls.
Hemp took the metal platter I’d put the meat on and put his hand on the lab door.
“Ready, Flex?”
“No,” I said. “Not really.”
He looked at me. “Flex, I’ll film the experiment. I have two small video cameras that came stocked in the lab. Let me set one up, run the feeding test, and if you feel you can handle it, we’ll watch it together later. But if it does work, I’m going to want to test the eye vapor on you right away, just in case it dissipates over time.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Perfect. Thanks, Hemp.”
I went back to the house. As I walked the short distance, I saw Charlie coming along the path toward me. On her way to the lab. I stopped as she reached me.
“Hey,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay,” I said. “You going inside the lab?”
“I thought I would.”
“Good,” I said. “I really don’t want him doing this by himself. He’s got a few gas masks. Wear one.”
“Absolutely.”
She held her crossbow in her left hand and a Coca Cola in her right, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a set of scrubs, one of many we pilfered from the hospital. I realized, since she’d showered and gotten cleaned up, that she was quite an attractive young woman – even in the baggy outfit.
I knew that Hemp had noticed, too. He’d been showing her around the lab, and she’d taken a clear interest in his work, and I wasn’t so sure she hadn’t taken an interest in him, too. I hoped she had. In the short time we’d known her – just over a day – both Gem and I had grown to like her a lot.
I watched her continue toward the mobile lab, then waited until she’d rapped gently on the door and gone inside.
Chapter 14
I was wiring up a perimeter camera to the entry fence with Gem standing guard with Suzi. Well, not so much standing guard. Really she was sitting in a folding lawn chair, slowly scanning the area outside our little compound for intruders.
We had a nice long run of cable on this camera, the farthest from the house – but we had plenty of wire, and when I pushed the shiny new connectors onto the terminals, the red light blinked on. This was not a panning camera, so I directed its wide-angle view down the gravel road so as not to miss anything or anyone taking the path of least resistance. It allowed a view of the drive itself, and an area of about 25 feet on either side, though it was virtually impassable beyond the drive.
The eye shine would show up a glowing white on the black and white monitors, but that would be like nickel-sized fireflies flitting around. It would be hard to miss on any camera.
I’d considered electrifying the fence, but the generator was under enough load, and I wasn’t even sure how electricity would affect these creatures. Chalk it up to watching too much TV, but I’d have liked to do it anyway.
As I was packing up my small toolbox, the Crown Vic came barreling down the gravel drive, the idle gun locked into forward position and Hemp and Charlie’s faces staring excitedly through the windshield. We didn’t see Trina at first, but she was there, sitting between Charlie’s legs, smiling at the bumpy ride.
The car stopped and they got out.
“It worked!” Hemp shouted as he approached us.
“Yes, it did,” Charlie said. “Like immediately.”
“What did?” Trina said. “What worked?”
Hemp tousled her hair. “Just an experiment Uncle Hemp’s working on, that’s all.”
“The food, meager as it was, seemed to allow the stuff to regenerate,” said Charlie. “We had masks on, and we’re lucky we did.”
“So it’s time?” I asked. I could feel Gem’s eyes on me as she stood, the Uzi slung over her shoulder. She’d begun to accept what I was going to do, but clearly didn’t want to discuss it. She folded the lawn chair and went to the Suburban, opened the rear door and put it inside.
“It’s time, my friend,” he said. “I was able to capture a sample of the vapor, too. It’s somewhat viscous, slightly thicker than the air, but I’ve determined where it originates.”
Gem looked interested now. “Where, Hemp?” she asked.
Charlie was actually smiling. “From the tear duc
ts,” she said. “It sprays from the tear ducts, almost like one of those water misters.”
Hemp added, “When it’s not in use, it still leaks out, coating the eye, which is what gives them the glow we see. It’s kind of phosphorescent. Glow-in-the-dark.”
I considered it for a moment. “Any tests you can do to determine the makeup of it?”
“There are some chemical analysis devices in the lab that should be able to break it down, but as for how long it’ll take, I have no clue. While it’s obviously organic, it’s not something we have in our bodies, unless of course it’s created in part by the decomposition of the body itself.”
“This shit gets curiouser and curiouser,” I said. “I’m done here. We might as well get this over with.”
Hemp and Charlie got back in the Crown Vic, Trina in tow. I got in the Suburban, but Gem stood outside and stared at me through the open side window.
“I think I’ll walk back.”
“This is important,” I said. I stared at her for a long time, saw the sadness in her eyes, and nodded.
“I’ll be okay, baby. You know that in your heart.”
“If you knew my heart, you wouldn’t do this.”
Anger overtook me unexpectedly.
“You know what? Get the fuck in the truck, babe. You’re worried I might die or something, right? If that’s the case, then I’m not going to let you walk back, lose the minute or so of time with me, and live to regret it the rest of your life. I fucking love you and whether you’re mad at me or not does nothing to change that fact. So get in.”
“You’re so sexy when you tell me how it is,” she said, a smile forming on her mouth.
She got in, put her hand on my leg, and I put the Chevy in gear.
I drove like I was 90 years old. Time with my Gem was more important than ever.
When I pulled up and parked, the other three were already standing outside the Ford. Charlie, with Trina’s hand in hers, walked directly up to Gem.
“You want to go in while he does this?”
Gem shook her head. “I fucking love that man, Charlie. I’d try to kill her or rip her head off or something if I saw her doing anything to him, so no. I’ll stay with Trina, you video this, and I’ll see if I can bring myself to watch it later.