by Chesla, Gary
Chervy pulled up the first picture that showed the infected man.
“You’re right, this guy was wearing a suit and tie,” Chervy said. “There isn’t much left of his pants, but from what we’ve seen over the last few months, that isn’t very unusual.”
Chervy brought up the next picture.
“This woman looks like she was on her way to church,” Chervy said. “My grandmother always would dress like that for church on Sundays.”
“All the old ladies dressed like that for church,” Rogers added. “The only thing missing is the dead fox that some of them had draped over their shoulders. When I was a kid, the first time I saw an old lady wearing a dead fox, it scared the hell out of me. I was in church and this old lady came in and sat in the seat in front of me. When I looked up, I was face to face with this dead fox skin. Those things were as creepy as hell, but that was definitely how all the old ladies dressed.”
The next picture was of the two infected bodies reaching out their arms, trying to grab onto the visitor.
“Again, these two are dressed in what looks to be their Sunday best,” Chervy pointed out. “The clothing appears to be soiled and torn, but you can clearly see that they were dressed up for something when they became infected.”
Chervy scrolled through the remaining pictures.
“Rogers was right,” Chervy said looking at Doc, “All these old people were dressed in suits or nice dresses.”
“Could they have all been in church when they became infected?” Davis asked. “You know that people have a tendency to go to church and pray when times get bad. Could that be what happened to these people? They all went to church to pray for help and ended up getting infected? But if that was what happened, it had to have happened over a month ago. Why aren’t they decomposed and coming apart like all of the other infected?”
“What do you think Doc?” Chervy asked. “What do you think happened to these people? Based on how they were dressed, where do you think they came from? How could their bodies still be functioning and in the condition we just saw?”
Doc paced back and forth across the room.
“What’s wrong Doc?” Chervy asked. “I’ve seen that look on your face before when you were thinking through a problem.”
“I hope I’m wrong,” Doc replied softly, “because if I’m right, the implications are significant.”
“What do you hope you are wrong about?” Davis asked.
“Chervy, could you adjust the satellite’s camera to send us a live image?” Doc asked.
“OK,” Chervy replied a moment later and said, “the image on the monitor is now live, with a few seconds of delay of course.”
“Now guide the camera and begin to move north towards the main part of the town of Stone,” Doc continued.
Chervy typed in instructions to realign the camera and slowly the image on the screen centered on the edge of the little town of Stone.
“I see movement,” Chervy said. “It seems to be around that clearing at the edge of town.”
“Zoom in on that movement,” Doc said.
When the image on the monitor was focused on the clearing, Doc said hold it there.
The men stared at the screen for a few minutes until Davis finally said, “Doc, Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”
“Unfortunately, I’m afraid you are,” Doc replied as he studied the scene on the monitor.
“But this can’t be possible,” Rogers said.
“How did you know to look there?” Chervy asked Doc. “Is this what you were expecting to see?”
“I was hoping I was wrong, but think about it,” Doc replied. “The final piece that made it all fall together for me was when you asked why all these old people would be dressed up like that. Where would you find old people dressed in their Sunday best other than when they went to church. The infection had overrun the entire country, so you could also rule out parties and weddings because everyone was already dead.”
Chervy looked at Doc and replied, “A funeral home?”
Doc nodded, “A funeral home or buried in a cemetery.”
“But how could this be happening?” Davis asked.
“The virus that came down in the orange rain and infected everyone,” Doc replied, “has been being absorbed into the soil now for close to two months. The mutation of the original Z virus caused the virus to kill the living and then reanimate the dead body. The infected that overran the base has decayed and the bodies have broken apart, however, the virus itself is apparently still active.
The virus may have found a new environment where it is able to thrive and in the process may be able to reanimate certain already dead bodies under the right conditions.”
“But why haven’t these bodies decayed and turned to dust like the people that we saw become infected?” Rogers asked. “Some of these people would have been dead and buried for months or more. This is impossible!”
As the men all stood quietly watching the monitor, Doc continued, “Embalmed bodies don’t decay as quickly and could remain intact for years. Everything that has happened and everything we have seen the last few months were also considered to be impossible when we first observed them. I can’t explain how this is happening, we never had a chance to analyze the virus and how it managed to control the brain in a dead human body, but as we can see, it is happening.”
Does this mean every dead body in all the cemeteries are going to come back to life?” Rogers asked.
“I find that highly unlikely,” Doc replied. “The virus has always acted in a logical manner, even though at the time we didn’t recognize its actions as being such. I say this based on a number of logical assumptions. I believe the concrete vaults that many bodies are buried in will prevent either the virus from getting to the body or the body from being able to get out.
Since the virus controls the body by taking control of a section of the brain, I believe that most of the previously dead bodies are too far gone for the brain or the body’s tissue to respond to the virus.”
Are you sure, Doc?” Davis asked. “The idea of all the dead coming back to life is scarier than the living being infected.”
“We can’t be sure of anything at this point, not anymore, when we see what has been thought impossible before taking place in front of us on a daily basis,” Doc replied. “I have to assume based on what I have learned to this point that what we are seeing can only occur under the right conditions.
However, it could also be possible that the virus has again mutated during its time in the soil and our atmosphere.
I can only be certain of one thing at this time and that is the virus is still alive and capable of infecting the human body.”
“But what aren’t you telling us?” Chervy asked, “By that look on your face Doc, there is more to this than a few reanimated bodies. We’ve seen a hell of a lot more infected bodies than these few. Why does the sight of another dozen infected bodies have you so concerned?”
“It could be why we haven’t managed to find any survivors other than the poor unfortunate girl that we saw trying to get food last night,” Doc replied quietly. “It could mean there are no other survivors because the virus has made the land uninhabitable. I was concerned about how long the virus would be able to live after the infected bodies stopped functioning. I still don’t know the answer to that question except to say it now seems to be irrelevant.
The virus appears to have the ability to last longer than we hoped it could last. I’m afraid that the life cycle of this virus could make it impossible for anyone to survive outside of Granite Mountain.”
“Maybe what we are seeing is just taking place around Stone,” Chervy said. “Maybe it is limited to the areas where the satellites came down?”
“But the virus was spread by the infected across the country and probably throughout the entire world,” Doc replied. “I have to assume it is now everywhere. We can expand our search areas, but I no longer feel as optimistic as I once did that we will b
e able to find others that had also managed to survive.”
They stood and watched on the monitor as a body seemed to crawl up out of the ground in the Saint Mary’s Church Cemetery at the edge of the town of Stone Idaho.
Two more bodies staggered around the mausoleum located in the southern section of the cemetery.
Even though once again some of the citizens of Stone, Idaho were starting to move around in their town, the town was deader than it had ever been.
To the men at Granite Mountain, their goal of finding and helping survivors now seemed to have been an unrealistic dream from the very beginning.
Chapter 17
July 1st, Twin Falls, Idaho
Fran woke up with the sun this morning.
She was excited about beginning her journey and had slept lightly last night as she thought about what she should take with her when she left.
She didn’t have much, so that helped her narrow down what to take, but she knew she needed to eliminate even more from her list.
Between wrangling Snoop with one hand and pulling a bookbag with a heavy truck battery and her CB radio inside with her other hand, she didn’t know how much more she could handle.
One thing she didn’t have to worry about carrying was food because she didn’t have any food to take.
She hoped that she would be able to find something to eat along the way, but if not, it was only supposed to be a two-day walk.
“A two-day walk with at least one of the two days in the desert,” Fran thought. “With my luck this little two-day walk will take me four days and I will end up getting lost in the desert!”
Thinking about the desert, Fran decided the most important thing she needed to take was water.
“I can fill up those six empty plastic water bottles that are in the garbage can out back,” Fran thought. “I should be able to fit them in the bookbag with the battery and radio.”
Remembering her encounter with the snakes, Fran decided to try to include her old pair of jeans and a jacket.
“Anything else and I’m going to need a truck,” Fran smiled to herself then remembered her dad’s truck. “That’s one truck I hope I never see again. Well, the truck would be OK but definitely not the two creeps that stole it.”
Fran finally stretched out her arms and legs to loosen her muscles before she tried to crawl out of the bathtub.
Sleeping in a bathtub made her feel like her dad always sounded when he got up in the morning.
However unlike her dad, she didn’t groan and complain like he always did in the morning.
At least she didn’t until she made sure that no one would hear her except for Snoop.
Snoop really didn’t mind her complaining because he thought that she was talking to him and he always seemed to enjoy whatever attention Fran gave him.
Zombies were another story.
Fran was sure zombies wouldn’t mind hearing her groan and complain either, to them her groaning would be like her ringing the dinner bell and yelling “Come and get me!”
Fran’s roaming thoughts were distracted by Snoop rolling off Fran’s stomach and into the space between her and the side of the bathtub.
She felt the chill of the air on her stomach replacing the warm furry feeling of the pup.
Fran looked down and couldn’t help but smile.
Snoop was lying on his back, wedged between her and the bathtub with all four feet sticking up in the air.
His head was tilted back and his neck twisted so he was able to look up at Fran.
When her eyes meet Snoop’s, his tail started wagging.
Snoop was always happy to see Fran, but this was the first time he had greeted her from this comical position.
“Well Snoop, I think it’s time for us to get up and get started,” Fran said quietly to which Snoop wagged his tail faster, thumping it against her leg and the side of the tub.
“Snoop, you have to be the most laidback, agreeable guy I’ve ever seen,” Fran smiled. “I think you would wag your tail and smile no matter what I said.”
Fran smiled as she looked down at the puppy, “Snoop, I think I’m going to make a dog sled and you can pull me the entire way to Stone.”
Of course, Snoop started wagging his tail faster.
“You would probably enjoy that, you little jerk,” Fran grinned. “However with those little short legs of yours it would take us a month just to get out of the yard.”
Fran reached down and scratched Snoop behind the ears then she picked him up and held him against her chest.
She slowly sat up in the tub, reached over the side and dropped Snoop down on the floor.
“Get those little legs loosened up Buddy,” Fran said. “You have a lot of walking to do today.”
As Fran stood, she heard the familiar sound of water splashing against the bottom of the bathroom door.
She shook her head, it had only been a few days since she rescued Snoop, but house training him was something she had thought about since that first morning when she woke up startled at the sound of Snoop going to the bathroom.
“Why can’t you wait and go outside like me. I guess it really doesn’t make much difference today, since we are leaving, but if I ever get to live in another house again,” Fran smiled to herself, “I’m going to put a pillow next to the door to dampen the sound until I can figure out how to house train you.”
Fran got up and after checking to be sure there wasn’t any visitors outside the house, she got busy packing for the trip.
She dragged the bookbag to the center of the living room floor and opened the bag.
Fran put the truck battery in the bookbag after wrapping it in a shirt so the battery terminals wouldn’t touch anything.
Then she set her CB radio on top of the battery.
After filling the six plastic water bottles from the spring out back in the woods, she put the bottles inside the bag next to the battery and radio.
Finally, she put her jeans and an extra shirt on top of the radio.
After pushing the clothes down as flat as she could get them, Fran struggled to zip the bag shut.
“Well Snoop, I think this is everything,” Fran said. “At least it’s everything we can take.”
But when Fran went to look at Snoop, he wasn’t next to her where he had been curiously watching her pack the bookbag a moment ago.
It was then that Fran heard a strange sound coming from somewhere in the kitchen.
Fran sat still and listened.
Any unexpected noise usually meant trouble.
Fran remembered that she had left the tarp that covered the back doorway on the ground outside the house when she had gone out to fill the water bottles.
“Anything could have wandered in through the open door,” she thought nervously.
When the noise continued, but didn’t seem to be getting any closer or be moving around through the kitchen, Fran worked up the nerve to look around the corner of the doorway to take a quick look.
As her head moved around the doorway, Fran was relieved when she saw what was making the noise.
She walked into the kitchen and stood watching Snoop sticking his paw behind the china cupboard, trying to get at something.
Every time he stuck his paw in between the wall and the china cupboard, then pulled it back, a loud scratching sound resulted.
It almost sounded like a zombie dragging its leg behind it as it shuffled along.
“Snoop what are you doing?” Fran asked as she walked over behind the puppy to see what had his attention. “You scared the crap out of me.”
Fran looked into the small space behind the china cupboard and the wall, then smiled at what she saw.
“It looks like we will have breakfast after all,” Fran said as she eyed the two Slim Jim’s that must had fallen on the floor in the tight space last week sometime.
Fran picked up Snoop and put him down on the floor in the middle of the kitchen.
“Stay,” Fran said.
Snoop
immediately ran back over to the corner of the cupboard.
Fran picked him up and put him back in the middle of the floor and again he ran straight back to the cupboard.
After repeating the action two more times and saying “stay” each time, Snoop finally sat and looked up at Fran and whined.
“Good Boy,” Fran smiled. “Now Stay!”
Fran moved over to the china cupboard and slowly pulled the cupboard away from the wall.
She knelt down and reached into the space and pulled out the two jerky treats in their red and yellow wrappers.
Fran smiled as she held the treats up for Snoop to see.
“Even though I know you would have eaten both of these treats by yourself and would have never shared any with me, I’m still going to share them with you,” Fran said as she pulled off the wrappers.
Snoop frantically sniffed the air as he danced around Fran’s feet.
Fran sat down on the floor and broke the first Slim Jim in half.
She started to slowly chew on her half and handed the other half to Snoop.
Snoop practically swallowed his half whole, then looked back at Fran.
Fran shook her head as she swallowed the last of her half of Slim Jim.
She broke off a small chunk of the next Slim Jim.
“I’m going to hold this piece so you can’t gulp it down without tasting it,” Fran smiled as Snoop licked at and chewed the small piece that she held tightly between her fingers.
“There, didn’t that taste better?” Fran said as she broke off another chunk and ate it herself much to Snoop’s dismay.
But when Fran held out the next chunk for Snoop, he excitedly began licking at her hand and forgot all about not getting any of the chunk that Fran had eaten without giving him any.