by John Russo
“Give us a few days to stabilize her,” Major Thurston said. “Right now she’s too tough to handle. Frankly, we had to restrain her. You won’t like to hear this, but she’s in a straitjacket. We hate to have to do that, but it’s absolutely necessary.”
“You realize by now that she has a strange disease?” said Colonel Spence.
“Yes, it’s called porphyria. I read up on it after news of it was leaked from Dr. Traeger’s e-mails and lab notes. I know what the symptoms are.”
“At the institute they’re trying to find dietary substitutes for the blood craving,” Major Thurston said. “We want you to have a conference with her doctors before you’re allowed to see her. Being near her is too dangerous. Seeing her the way she is now is going to be hard on your wife, and she may not be able to easily assimilate it. She may want to believe that your daughter is normal, because she looks that way, but she is not.”
“Why should I trust the doctors at the institute?” Bill asked. “That’s where you admit that things went terribly wrong in the first place.”
“Dr. Traeger is no longer there. She’s dead. You killed her. She’s been replaced by a new director. He’s been thoroughly vetted, and we’re keeping extremely close tabs on him.”
“Listen, Bill,” Colonel Spence said. “We’d like you to remain on the Chapel Grove police force and take Danko’s place as captain. You’re honest, and you have excellent leadership qualities. Frankly, we’d like you to become a Homeland Security agent. We need people like you who have proven themselves to be patriotic Americans.”
“Maybe we can eventually talk about that,” Bill said. “I’m too badly shaken right now. There’s entirely too much to digest. I’m tired of my life being turned upside down.”
“Once we can be sure you’re one of us,” Major Thurston said, “you’ll have special input when it comes to the way your daughter is handled. Also enhanced visitation privileges. If she recovers quickly enough, you may be able to have her released from custody sooner rather than later.”
“What if she doesn’t recover at all?” Bill said. “I hate to ask that, but I have to.”
“I admit it’s a possibility,” said the major. “But we must be hopeful, mustn’t we, Bill?”
“We don’t even know what causes the plague or anything related to it,” Bill said. “It’s hard to have faith in the future.”
“But you love your daughter and you have to stick with her,” said Major Thurston.
“How soon might I be able to visit her?” Bill asked.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” said Colonel Spence.
About the Author
John Russo wants everyone to know he’s a really nice guy even though he loves to scare people. He started it by co-scripting the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead, one of the greatest fright flicks of all time, ranked #18 on the Internet Movie Database’s top 100 Scariest Movies. (In a fine example of showmanship and multitasking, he also played a zombie in the film.) He also wrote the screenplays and/or stories for Midnight, Santa Claws, The Majorettes, Return of the Living Dead, Bloodsisters, and Inhuman.
Mr. Russo has authored fifteen terror-suspense novels, including Living Things, The Awakening, Voodoo Dawn, and Inhuman. His nonfiction books Scare Tactics and Making Movies are considered bibles of independent filmmaking by film students and horror fans.
Those who are not faint of heart will enjoy digging into this presentation of Epidemic of the Living Dead.
Mr. Russo resides in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. To his knowledge, none of his neighbors are zombies, though “there is that one guy around the corner who is rumored to have devoured the mailman a few years ago.”