“Eh – better them than me. But how did I survive? That last thing I remember was running towards the exit with a whole horde of zombies behind me.”
Brady exited the painting. She followed him and he showed her the painting he had been working on. Before her she found a painting depicting the dark halls of the mountain. Val slept with an almost angelic glow before the feet of a man dressed in full body armor. The zombies, off to the right of the painting, screamed and clawed towards her. With a flamethrower in each hand, the metal soldier lashed out fire towards the horde beating them back. Somehow, without her speaking a word to Brady, he had captured the eerie dark feeling she felt following her. The zombies stretched out their rotting hands towards her even as they wreathed in agony from the flames. Some burned with arms upraised like woeful hell-thrown souls on a church stained glass window.
“Knowing you were coming in hot,” Brady started, “I remembered the Captain kept his suit of full body armor in his vehicle. While you ran up to the exit I put on the armor and prepared McCoy’s flame throwers. I hadn’t ever used them before so it took a little learning but I managed to get into position right as you arrived. I saw you run up and trip, knocking yourself out. I immediately moved in to protect you. Luckily McCoy kept enough fuel in those things to keep them running until the attack subsided. After that, I just loaded you up in the back of a Humvee and drove here.”
“Why didn’t you answer your radio?”
“I was too busy putting on the armor. I honestly think I left it in the Humvee.”
“Thank you for saving me,” she said softly. “That place was horrifying.”
“You’re very welcome. I felt somewhat responsible. How is your shoulder healing up?”
She looked down at it. “The shower helped clean it out. It doesn’t seem infected.”
Val turned her attention to the other paintings in the room. She now looked at the painting before the one they entered. She looked on the hideous zombie Brady struggled with and saw the remains of his wife in her face. Brady had done a stunning job of capturing the horror of her world in Sara’s eyes. With this painting observed, she turned her attention to a covered one towards the center of the dome opposite of the entrance. “What is that one?”
“As Connor can tell you, I will not speak of it. You are not to look under the curtain. The painting will reveal itself in time.”
∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙
That night they sat around the kitchen table for a proper dinner. Val couldn’t remember the last time she ate a real dinner at a table.
“Spaghetti,” Connor announced. “Sorry about the sauce. It’s kind of meat slices instead of meatballs. I don’t have the skills for making real meatballs.”
“I keep trying to get him to use the cookbook I got him,” Brady said, “but apparently he has an aversion to cookbooks.”
Val couldn’t help thinking how much they sounded like a married couple.
“This place is your home now if you want it,” Brady started. “But I won’t force you to stay.”
As Val considered her reply, she realized how much her demeanor changed even in a day. “I’d like to stay. I mean, there’s nowhere else to go.” She thought before continuing for fear of sharing too much too quickly. “What I mean is that I’m still a bad ass. I may just throttle you all in your sleep - but I guess - I’m intrigued by your efforts to save your wife. It’s fascinating and,” she searched for the word before saying, “noble.”
“Well, if it helps, I’ll think of you no less bad assly for staying with us. Secretly, I was hoping you’d want to tag along. So to bring you up to date, I discovered something, while in Kansas City, that may be used to make a cure. Looking for compounds and ideas for a possible cure is what Connor and I have been up to for the past several months. We’re hoping that we can combine all the little pieces we’ve collected into an actual working cure. I’ve been the feet collecting samples and Connor is the brains. Once Connor comes up with a cure we just need to figure out how to mass produce it.”
“Wait, are you trying to save your wife or everyone?”
Brady stopped at hearing such an odd question. “Everyone if possible. Wouldn’t you?”
Val hesitated. “I don’t know. I guess I’d try to save a lot of people. But let’s be honest, the world was a terrible up place even before the zombies came. Maybe I’d just save the ones that deserve it. I mean, what happens if you cure someone and they’re a criminal who turns around and murders people?”
“And that’s worse than what's being done out there now?” Connor chimed in.
“All I’m saying is, don’t be too hasty to just bring everyone back. We’ve got a golden opportunity here to reform society any way we want. There may never be another opportunity like this for the rest of history.”
“As much as I like the idea of just bringing back good people,” Brady started, “it’s just not practical. How would you even tell beforehand? Who’s to say that the cured version of the person is even going to be the same personality as before they were infected?”
“I’m sorry I brought it up! You shouldn’t have asked me. I’m a cynic and on some level think everybody should just die. That’s true justice.”
Brady brought the conversation back to a less philosophical discussion. “Back to the matter at hand, when we were in Cheyenne Mountain, I found an extracted form of the virus. Hopefully Connor can engineer this in a way I don’t become totally zombified. I’d like to maintain at least some of my sanity so I can carry out the mission of finding Sara and infecting her with the cure.”
“Why do you have to be infected at all?” Val asked. “Can’t you just capture her like you did before and administer the cure?”
“That’s some of the bad luck we’ve gotten,” Connor replied. “We put a tracking device in her skin. We tracked her movements successfully for some time. Finally one day she stopped moving and we went to go see why. Turns out the flesh where we inserted the tracking device rotted off. Sara has gone dark. She had been a frequent member of raiding parties hunting in the outer regions of the city. But we even went through the trouble of tracking a few of these and never saw her among them.”
“What if she’s dead and this is all for not?”
“You are a cynic!” Brady replied. “I won’t lie. That’s a distinct possibility. But it’s a risk I’m willing to accept. I learned in the mountain that there are three stages of infection. It’s possible she’s evolved into a higher level and isn’t involved as much in the day to day feeding operations.”
“So what do we do next?”
“We assist Connor in whatever he needs. He’ll likely need chemical supplies and lots of Oreos.”
“Oreos?”
“They’re my favorite,” Connor said with a smile.
“But in all seriousness,” Brady continued, “we’ll wait for Connor’s go ahead. There are going to be dark days ahead so make the most out of these lighter ones. Get acclimated to life without the constant threat of death. I’m going to get back to my paintings and maybe do a little writing. You’ll probably be involved in transporting me and picking me up when I’m infected. I know it’s a silly question but you can drive can’t you?”
“And fly. I learned how awhile back. There was a mercenary group that taught a whole bunch of us to fly helicopters. You guys don’t have one of those do you?”
“No, but I’m sure we could find one. Peterson Air Force Base would have one and it didn’t seem too infected when we visited it. I wouldn’t want to leave it parked here because it would draw attention but it’s nice to know we have that option.”
“So now we wait?” Val asked.
“Now we wait.”
∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙
Days turned into weeks as Connor worked on the cure and virus. In the meantime, Val settled in and observed her two new partners. She was amazed with the routine and discipline in which Brady conducted his life. Weather permitting, every morning found him on a nearby c
lump of rocks deep in meditation. She saw the resolute purposeful side of him usually in the mornings. His actions seemed well planned and efficient, bordering on mechanical. But the afternoons found him to be in a lighthearted mood. Brady, Val, and Connor (when he could) took often fishing trips down to the lake. Although they often returned without tangible reward, the hobby helped all of them considerably.
Time brought the three into a keen friendship. They came to cherish Val’s company and became especially fond of her quick wit and clever humor. To Val’s frustration, Connor began to flirt and show affection like so many of the men she knew before him. Although the sting of Snipes' death faded away, she held no interest in starting any type of intimate relationship. So she used her avoidance skills that had become second nature by now. She navigated his leading questions and did her best to give no indication she reciprocated his feelings.
Once comfortable with Val, Connor and Brady openly shared about their pasts and dreams, but she remained mysterious. She would not speak of past experiences older than the group Brady met her in. But this did not concern either of the men. Val obviously bore the scars of a painful past and wished to leave it behind her.
They spent the bulk of the summer gathering supplies for the winter and getting Val familiar with the surroundings. They made a trip to Colorado Springs in order to check Peterson Air Force Base and found several working helicopters. They spent some time observing the zombies and found they’d gathered in the downtown area and seemed to be working together towards a common goal. But their objective remained unknown.
As winter set in, a strange thing began to take place. The colder the weather became, the warmer Val’s heart grew. By the second good snow, she opened up about the events leading up to the virus.
“I was engaged when it happened,” she said as they all sat around the fireplace on a cozy winter’s night. “His name was Albert. We’d known each other for a few years and he finally asked and I accepted. When the virus hit, I went searching for him but never found him. I was living in Seattle at the time, and the city was growing more dangerous by the day. Eventually it became so overpopulated with zombies I had to leave.”
“Do you think he may still be alive?” Connor asked.
“No. As much as I’d like to, I don’t believe it. Not long after leaving Seattle I came across a crazy group. They ushered me into their ranks almost immediately. Only a few of them actually remained sober enough to drive the vehicles and man the guns. Everybody in the group was either getting drunk or stoned. They’d go from city to city fighting the zombies between them and the liquor stores. I still don’t know where they got their drugs unless it was just a huge stash from before the infection. Anyway, they’d heard a rumor about a human city on the East Coast. They called it the Last American City. They were obsessed with it.
“Of course, as it turned out the city was a myth. The belief in the city had been so pivotal to the group’s foundation they started falling apart without it. By then the drugs were running out quickly and the whole party threatened to fall apart. Most of them hadn’t done an honest day’s work since the infection happened and weren’t about to join a mercenary group. So before things got ugly, I deserted and wandered around New York for a while. Eventually I found a mercenary group that was protecting a small human settlement. This was the same group you became a part of, Brady. But it was very different then. Most of the members I knew had died by the time you joined. The mayor of the city was obsessed with the idea of having an air force and so he taught everyone in his army how to fly helicopters.
“That’s the city where I met Snipes.” Val turned to Connor, “He was my boyfriend when Brady started tagging along. He was a member of another mercenary group the city hired on. Eventually, the relationship between our group and the city started falling apart. And in the end, we butchered every last one. We took anything of value. The men raped the women and killed them. It’s not our proudest moment. I’m not sure I truly regretted it until I came here. I just thought that’s how the world works now. Everything has gone to hell. But you guys made me remember a time before that was common place.
“So having nothing to tie us to New York, we picked up and started heading west looking for anything interesting. The Captain took good care of us and obviously took it hard when any of us died. It was a good gig compared to everything else I’d known since the infection.
“Snipes and I started hanging out during our night watches and eventually became good friends. We visited the city to resupply and check things out there when we picked up Brady by the side of the road. We were always on the lookout for new recruits and often found them wandering. The rest you know. So there you have it. The great secrets of Val! A little gory but otherwise not really that exciting.”
“What made you not want to take the cure for cancer?” Brady asked.
“It just didn’t seem right to me. All my friends were taking it without even thinking. Why do I need a cure for cancer? I don’t have cancer. I’m not planning on getting it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t take it,” Connor said somewhat awkwardly. His flirting usually came out more awkward than romantic.
A silence fell over the three as they looked out onto the blanket of snow outside. Brady rose announcing he would be going to bed. Val quickly followed suit much to Connor’s displeasure. He hoped they would be able to stay up to talk. Ironically, that same reason shooed Val off to bed.
∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙
One bright February morning long after Brady had given up his hobby of ice fishing due to the cold temperatures, Connor finally announced his results on his research. Connor maintained the habit of never speaking of his current project until completed. So now that he concluded his findings, he gathered everyone in the living room and stood proudly before them.
In a booming voice as if he addressed a conference of people, Connor bellowed, “Before the breaking of the world, there was a guy named Adam Murphy.”
“Oh, I love stories,” Val said grabbing a blanket and getting cozy. “I wish I had some hot chocolate!”
“When you’re good and ready!”
Val thought for a moment and then jumped over to the nearby table to grab something she didn’t even want just to be annoying. “Sorry, Adam Murphy is where you left off.”
Connor smiled mockingly at her. Secretly he loved her childish bratty side. Anything seemed better than her cold shoulder. “The man was a genius. He had been hired by the people running the humanitarian efforts to push out the cure for cancer to everyone. He started working on several projects that I thought would be handy to us. They were designed to be able to distribute medicine to groups of people at one time. He reconfigured some of the original characteristics of the virus and actually did some of the groundwork for finding a cure. A lot of what he did was trying to change how easily the virus spread. He made it a lot more contagious. This gives us great furtherance.”
“Who says ‘furtherance?’” Val mocked.
“I do. It’s very sophisticated. You wouldn’t understand.” Val rolled her eyes at the insult. “If there are no more distractions,” he said throwing a glance at Val, “I have a great announcement: I have developed a cure!” The two audience members clapped passionately. “Thank you,” Connor said doing a small bow. “But we’re far from being out of the woods just yet. I have two remaining issues.
“First off, I haven’t been able to discover a way to duplicate the cure. I have to admit that its discovery was more of a fluke than anything. I had developed about 90% of the cure but the last 10% eluded me.”
“He sounds all like Sherlock Holmes doesn’t he?” Val whispered to Brady. “’But the last 10% eluded me,’” she said in a much deeper distinguished voice. “About the time I took the carriage to the Mansfield Estate, I realized my egregious oversight concerning the case.”
“Val!” Brady said getting a little annoyed with her interruptions.
“I’ve performed the same process I document
ed half a dozen times and can’t create more of it. There must have been something in the temperature of the room or the atmospheric pressure or some unknown factor that aided its creation. I’ve tried half a dozen different experiments in various environments and still can’t reproduce exactly what I did. It’s more embarrassing than anything. I’m convinced if I have enough time, I could produce more. So as of now, I have one working dose.”
“If you had a few more weeks, do you think you’d be able to create more?” Brady began.
“At this point, I’m not sure. My efforts have been reduced to mere guesswork. I’ve documented everything I can about the finished cure. Some chemical change has taken place I can’t seem to recreate and I won’t learn any more by keeping the cure on hand. I think we’ve reached the point at which I give you the cure and let you save your wife.
“That brings me to the next part of my efforts. I’ve successfully tweaked the virus samples you gave me as best as I know how. But the possibilities are endless. I really don’t know if my modifications will do any good. There’s no way to tell without actually infecting a human being. Brady, infecting you is a horrible risk that I can’t truly control. I can make minor adjustments but, by its very nature, the virus overpowers a lot of mental abilities.”
“I will entrust myself to your best efforts.”
“I knew you’d say something like that.”
Brady rose and put his hand on his friend. “I do not hold you responsible in any way. This is my own horrible choice and I make it freely. I know you’ve done your best and it will do. So tell me what you expect the virus to do to me.”
“Well, the modifications I’ve made should bring you into zombification in the first stage. You’ll have limited mobility and communication. I’d love to simply start you in the second phase, but judging by the documents you found in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, you’d have to feed to evolve further. You’ll probably be interested in feeding. That brings up another very interesting topic.”
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