Z Strain

by SJ Morris

  “When did this happen, Tom?”

  “You were sleeping when I came in about a half an hour ago and the little one here was breathing slowly. I was going to wake you, but then he stopped breathing, so there was no need. I got the belt ready and timed it to see when he would come back and it was only about forty-five seconds before his eyes started to flutter. Then, his hands started to pull against the restraints, and then, this.”

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s about four o’clock.”

  “Oh my goodness, it only took four hours since the symptoms started for a bite wound to kill and reanimate him. That’s much quicker than with the soldiers I saw before. I would have to guess he was bit sometime early this morning, but I don’t know how long it took them to run here. That would make it seven hours or so between bite and death, to reanimation. This is bad.”

  “Well, the soldiers were also grown men, in top physical condition, right? It would take longer for it to get to them normally right?”

  “Yes, but the soldiers were under my care for seven or eight days and were traveling for, at least, most of another day after they were infected. Also, I never saw them die or turn. They took them away before that could happen. So, they could have lasted up to nine or ten days while infected. Cooper here was bitten this morning. Even if we use an altered timescale for his weight and age, he should have at least lasted about three maybe four days, not hours. This virus or whatever it is has evolved to take over its host substantially quicker over the last eighteen years or so.”

  “That’s really not good. That means the entire country could be overrun in the next few days.”

  “Yes, a week at the absolute most, I’m guessing. I really hope Troy gets here soon.”

  “What should we do with the little one?”Tom motioned towards Cooper, who was pulling against his restraints with incredible force. The metal hospital gurney was creaking in protest at his endeavors.

  “Well, let’s get out of his sight for the moment. From what I’ve seen before, the infected are pretty docile until they are met with food...Well, us. Let’s see, if we leave the room, maybe he’ll calm down. I’m worried about him pulling out of the restraints. This door does lock, right?”

  “Yes, it does. You need a code to get in the first doors and the surgical rooms here can lock if needed.”

  “Well, let’s leave Cooper alone for a while and see what he does. Maybe Troy will have some answers when he gets here. Just, be sure to lock the doors.”

  “Already on it, Doc. I’ve got the keys ready to go.”Tom pulled a ring of keys out from his back pocket. The key he selected was red. There was a blue, green, yellow, and, oddly enough, a camouflage key.

  “What are all those different colored keys for, and where’s my set?”

  “You have one. It’s in your room, on your dresser. Well, the red one here is for the surgical doors. The blue one is for the water and food bunker that is at the end of the opposite hall. The green one is for a vault in the barn that holds seeds to plant, food for the animals, and most of the other supplies for the farm. It also unlocks the door to the greenhouse. The yellow one is for the gas tank, down by the lake and the other tank that’s hidden behind the barn. That was my idea. That tank looks like an extension of the barn but it has thousands of gallons of gasoline in it, enough to fill a tanker! Last, but certainly not least, is the camo one; that’s the front door key to the main house.”

  “That’s pretty clever, color-coded so you know which goes to what but in secret. I love your idea about the extra gas tank masked as the barn. Very intuitive.”

  “Jack always used to say,‘You can never be too careful!’He did his best impression of Jack’s voice by going an octave higher than his own voice, which was funny, but it did kind of sound like Jack.

  We locked Cooper in the surgical suite room A and started down the hallway. I was lost in my thoughts as we made our way back upstairs to the kitchen and didn’t realize I still had Cooper's blood on my shirt. We came out through the pantry and I closed the false panel behind me. I was met with a gasp from Amelia who was coloring on a piece of paper at the kitchen table.

  “Is Cooper okay?”

  I had no idea what to say. I looked around the room for help and everyone just stared at me wide-eyed as they looked at the amount of blood on my shirt. Tom finally spoke up and saved me.

  “Cooper is just resting now, sweetie. He actually has a cold too so he’s not feeling so good on top of the cut he had on his arm. What are you coloring there, darling? It looks so pretty with all of that purple and pinkall over it.”

  For a man who is intimidating as hell with no kids, Mr. Thomas Buckeneye sure was great with children. I knew the deferral of all eyes on me wouldn’t last, so I slid out of the room as quickly I could, without drawing more attention to myself. I went back to my room and shut the door.

  I stood there for a good few moments with my eyes shut and my back to my bedroom door, just breathing and trying not to think of all the terrible things I had seen and done in the last twenty-four hours.

  I opened my eyes and almost screamed when I saw Lance sitting in a chair in the corner of my room. He had his head back and his eyes closed, napping in the sun that was coming through my window.

  I reached over him to close the shade and realized that there were white metal bars over the windows. I looked higher up in the frame and sure enough, there were metal hurricane shutters that you could pull down over the windows. They really had thought of everything, it seemed.

  Need reinforcement for the windows but still need the ability to shoot through them; we’ve got metal bars for that. Need to close the window entirely so that nothing or no one gets in or out, we’ve got metal shutters for that.

  Jeez, I hoped this was super overboard for what we needed in the next coming days, weeks or months... However long this thing lasted.

  I certainly was very grateful that Jack had started this and that his brave friends seemed to have finished his work in time for this event.

  I was pulled out of my thoughts as Lance woke up.

  “Hey, Mom. I wanted to catch up with you whenever you got done with that kid and figured here was the best place to get you. How’s he doing?”

  “Well, he’s not doing very good at all. As a matter of fact, he actually died and turned... He’s infected.”

  “Oh my God, really? We were just talking to those kids a few hours ago! What about the others? What are we going to do with them? Are they infected?”Lance stood up and started to get a little hysterical.

  I grabbed him by his shoulders and set him back in the chair.

  “Lance, keep your voice down, please. No one else but you, Tom, and I know about Cooper. The other children were not bitten or infected, as far as I can tell.”

  “As far as you can tell! What the hell, Mom? They’re sitting out there with Ally, Tyler, and all of the other people that live here now, and you don’t think they’re infected? How about you get back out there and do a full work up on them or whatever you need to do before they start biting people’s faces off!”

  “Lance, you really need to calm down. None of the other kids had wounds of any kind, that I saw. I don’t have a test per say to find out if they are infected but this virus seems to work a lot quicker than when I saw it before. It now only takes a matter of hours to kill and bring you back, just from a single bite.”

  “So, what are you saying? That we just let them hang out for now since they haven’t started trying to eat us yet? Where’s your head, Mom? I killed one of those things yesterday! You killed three of them! You know what they can do. I will not just let these kids hang out while we don’t know if they are infected or not.”

  “What are you going to do, Lance? They are only four and five years old! They are kids who have no idea what’s going on. They don’t know where their parents are and they’re probably very scared. We don’t even know what happened to them today, that led to them stumbling around in the woo
ds outside our gates.”

  “So, let’s go find out. You check them out for bite wounds, check their vitals or whatever, since you said the infected have a super high fever, and we ask them. We find out right now what went on.”Lance stood to go and stopped at my door.“Are you coming, or what?”

  “I’m coming, but please put on a good face for this. We don’t want to spook anyone and I don’t want to scare the kids any more than they already are. Let me do the talking and let me change please.”

  With that, Lance stood outside my door as I changed shirts and we went to the kitchen, where everyone seemed to be congregating either in or very near, except Dan and Tom. I figured Dan was back to monitoring the security cameras and Tom was probably keeping an eye on Cooper or whatever he was now. I don’t feel comfortable not calling him Cooper anymore, even though it seems like Cooper the little boy is long gone by now.

  The kids were still at the table coloring and Kristen was milling around the kitchen, making dinner. I stood in the doorway with Lance to my left and watched them for a little. They seemed like normal kids to me, but Lance was right; we had to be sure or we could all be screwed.

  I sat in the open chair next to Amelia and asked her if she or any of the other kids had gotten scratched or bitten and they all responded no. This was starting out well. They didn't seem to mind my question about earlier today, so I ventured another. I asked where they had come from and Amelia looked up and the rest of the children looked down to the pages they were coloring.

  “We came from our school. There were bad people there and Miss. Sammy told us to run as far as we could and we did.”

  “Do you know if Miss Sammy is okay?”

  “When we left she was bitten by one of the other mommies from school. She ran us outside to where we play on the slide, opened the gate, and told us to run as fast as we could. She shut the gate and there were more mommies and daddies that seemed to be mad Miss. Sammy was telling us to leave. She started screaming, so we ran.”

  “Okay sweetie, thank you. I just want to take a look at all of you really quick to make sure you have no scratches and get you cleaned up a little. Is that okay?”

  “Sure, can I go first, please? I really need to wash my hands. They’re sticky from the cookies Chris gave us.”She said with a smile, holding up her grimy little chocolate and marker covered fingers.

  “Absolutely, we can use my bathroom and get everyone cleaned up one at a time. Maybe Kristen will have dinner ready by the time we’re all done.”

  “Definitely. Lasagna is already in the oven and the garlic bread will be toasting soon.”Kristen looked very happy to be busy cooking and that made me smile. I can cook regular meals, but feeding our growing group would be more than I could handle.

  Lance agreed to keep an eye on the other kids as I took Amelia to my bathroom and gave her a quick shower. She had no cuts or bites on her and no fever, so I was sure she was okay. I got her into one of my short sleeve t-shirts. It was big but it would have to do until I could get their clothes cleaned and dried.

  Gia was next and she had a few scratches on her upper arm but it looked like they were from branches, probably from running through the woods.

  None of them were deep enough to bleed. They were just surface cuts, so I was pretty sure she would be okay. She had no fever at all, but I made a mental note just to keep an extra close eye on her.

  I found a shirt in the back of my drawer that had horses on it and that was now her wardrobe for the night.

  Last was Christian. He was very quiet but he seemed to like the shower. He had no scratches or a fever, so he was okay. He asked me if he could take a bath halfway through and if I had any toys. I plugged the drain and let him play a little in the warm water. I gave him the washcloth and a cup, which he was very happy to play with. I closed the shower door and just sat on top of the toilet, listening to him play. He was pretending the cup was a boat and the washcloth was a sea monster attacking and sinking the boat. It brought me back to the days when my boys were young and would do the same thing. They would be in the tub for hours with their toys. They always came out wrinkly and happy.

  There was a soft knock at my door so I told Christian I would be right back and opened the shower door a little, so I could still hear him playing.

  “Oh hey Chris, what’s up? Christian is still in the tub, but he’s done He’s just playing.”

  “Okay, good. Dinner is ready and we won’t start without you two.”He had such a sad defeated face.

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s with the sad face, Santa?”

  “Santa? Really, is that what you’re going to call me?”

  “Only when I feel like it. What’s the matter?”

  “Tom told me about Cooper. It’s not right, Abby. It’s just not fair what happened to that poor kid.”

  “I know, Chris. It’s awful but we have to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen to the other kids. There’s nothing anyone could have done for him...Not that we know of, anyway. We just have to take care of each other and look out for one another. We can’t try to make sense of it because none of this will ever make sense. You, more than anyone, knows that bad things happen to good people and that means children as well, unfortunately.”

  “I know, you’re right. I just wish this wasn’t happening.”

  “Me too. Hey, did anyone tell you about what Amelia said happened to them?”

  “Yeah, I heard. Sounds like their daycare was overrun when parents came to pick up their kids early because of the news or when they were dropping them off. Either one of the parents was infected, or there was someone that was infected around that attacked the parents before they got inside and all hell broke loose.”

  “Well, I think we should go to the daycare and see if we can find out exactly what happened and if there are any other children or people that might still be alive and need help.”

  “I was thinking the same thing, but it's dark and without knowing what we’re dealing with I’m not going to risk it. We’ll plan to go out at first light. This will also give me some time to hash out a plan of sorts”

  “Okay, good. I am glad we are not just going to sit pretty here with all these open rooms and space. There might be people that need our help out there.”

  “I agree, but we can’t just start taking people in that we don’t know. We have to try and contact our closest friends first and give them the opportunity to come here while cell and phone service is still up and running.”

  “I don’t really have anyone.”I offered sadly.“My parents are dead. I was an only child and Jack’s parents moved to Australia a long time ago. I guess there are a few of my neighbors and families that my kids are friends with that I can call.”

  “Six of the twenty-eightapartments are accounted for. One for Christine and myself, Dan, Kristen and Chase in another. Tom has one, one is for Troy and we have one reserved for you guys if something happened up here and it isn’t safe to be up in the house. So, that leaves us with twenty-two families that we can put up here. Do you know if Troy called anyone else to come up here?”

  “Not to my knowledge, no. I don’t think we have time to find out, though. I don’t want to talk about this stuff in front of my kids, your daughter, or the other kids, so try and pull the adults aside tonight and tell them to get on the phone with friends and family. That way, they can get here as soon as possible. Everyone can call six families and make sure they tell them to take back roads here. They’ll never make it on the main roads, even if they aren’t already a cluster-fuck.”

  “Sounds like a plan, boss lady. I’ll get right on that.”

  “Boss Lady, Doc…What the hell? If you are going to give me a nickname, pick one. I only call you Santa.”

  “If you are going to call me Santa, I can make up as many nicknames for you as I want.”He laughed as he walked away from my door.

  I walked back to the bathroom and grabbed the towel for Christian.

  “Time to get out no
w buddy, dinner’s ready.”

  There was no answer except for the quiet crying. I ran to Christian to find him softly crying into the washcloth.

  “I miss my Mommy. When is she coming to get me?”He asked with more tears in his eyes.

  “I am not sure, sweetie. We’re going to go out tomorrow morning and try to find her, okay? But for now, I need to get you dressed and get some yummy food in your belly. How about you hop out and get dried off? Then, you can go sit with your friends and we can have a sleepover in the living room. Does that sound like fun?”

  “Yeah, I never had a sleepover before.”

  I helped Christian out of the tub and dried him off. I gave him some of Tyler’s old clothes, the t-shirt looked okay but the shorts were hysterical. We used the drawstring to tighten them but they were still hanging off of him.

  I actually got a good laugh out of him, which was good.

  We went to the kitchen and all of the kids were at the kitchen table, the adults were all in the dining room.

  I laughed to myself; even though the world is coming to an end, we still have the adult and kids table rules.

  There were already seven at the kids’table and Christian and I made nine, but we squeezed in. I wanted to be at the kids’table. Their conversation was going to be a lot more fun than the one the adults would be having.

  We all settled in for dinner and it was delicious.

  Kristen made some mean lasagna and I don’t know what she put on the garlic bread, but it was perfect. The kids had all finished eating and no one choked.

  I’ve always been scared to watch children eat. I was always worried someone was going to choke. I don’t know where it came from, but watching kids eat has always been stressful for me.

  What a thing to worry about as the world is falling apart just outside our door. I thought.

  When dinner was cleared away, I got all of the kids together in the living room and put a movie on. I made sure to feel the heads of all of the children as I had them lay down on blankets and pillows on the floor, and no one had a fever.