Generation Z (Book 1): Generation Z

by Peter Meredith

  Mike had ignored the hand and now he interrupted Neil, “What’s wrong with her?”

  Neil didn’t answer right away. He gazed at the two of them, judging them. This went on for long seconds before he said, “Okay, I usually save the Jillybean exhibit for last, but I guess it’s a little late for that. Most people would say she is schizophrenic.” When Mike and Jenn only shrugged in unison, Neil tried to explain, saying, “She has multiple personality disorder.”

  Mike’s face clouded over with doubt. “I don’t think we have that where we’re from. Is it catchy?”

  “Catchy?” Neil laughed easily. “No. The problem is all up here.” He tapped his forehead. “When this all started, she was six. Her dad got scratched and died, and her mom, well, she just gave up. She went to bed that night and never left it again. She slowly withered to nothing. She’s still in the bed. I’ve seen her body.”

  Neil’s smile had faded and for a few moments, he stared off at nothing. Presently, he shook his head and the smile came back. “Either way, Jillybean was alone for a year surrounded by the dead. Every time I think about that, I seriously get the chills. I don’t know how she survived. I don’t know how she didn’t starve to death. What I do know is that her mind fractured. It’s broken into pieces. There are personalities or ‘people’ living up there.”

  “Are they real people?” Mike asked. “Like ghosts or something?”

  “I suppose it’s best to think of them as real people. If for some reason you find yourself talking to Eve try to be very polite and agree with everything she says.”

  Mike’s eyes narrowed. “Why, what will happen? Something bad?” He didn’t wait for Neil to answer. “Of course it’s bad. Those were grown men afraid of a girl. Hell, you’re afraid of her.”

  “I am,” Neil replied honestly.

  “Is Stu in danger?” Jenn asked. She had been afraid of Jillybean from the second she walked into the clinic. It had been a gut reaction and now that same gut was churning. Neil hesitated and that was answer enough for Mike who turned around and began stalking back to the front doors.

  Neil grabbed him. “He’ll be in more danger if you go in there. I told you that surgery is stressful for her. Operating on someone isn’t like it was before. She doesn’t have a trained staff, she doesn’t have access to real drugs, and she doesn’t have the proper equipment. People die…a lot, and she blames herself and what’s worse other people blame her, too. It’s completely unfair, but they do.”

  “So, what are you saying?” Mike asked. “Stu is going to die?”

  “I’m saying that from what I saw, your friend’s only hope is Jillybean. Let her do her job and pray for the best.”

  Mike, looking exhausted, hung his head, while Jenn did the opposite. She gazed out, looking for a sign. A crow winged by, flared and landed on the gutter of a church across the road. Jenn drew in a sharp breath because, as everyone knew, a single crow meant bad luck. Before she could release the breath, however a second crow joined the first.

  In that split second her fears dissolved, leaving her with a feeling of shaky relief. She grinned at the birds before turning to Mike. “It’ll be okay. The signs are with us.” When he hesitated, she said, “The same signs that guided us here are telling me this now.”

  The lines around Mike’s eyes eased. “Really? If you say so.” His shoulders slumped as the tension which had been with them all night drained out of him. “That girl is just sort of…” He paused, glancing at Neil. “Sort of odd. How did she become a doctor? Did the old doctor teach her?”

  “I think it’s best to show you.” Neil started walking along a west-bound road. “I have to check on some things before I take you to see the governor anyway.” Unlike all the other roads Jenn had walked on in the last five years, this one was smooth. Where the asphalt had cracked, it had been filled in with tar. On either side were young fruit trees growing among the stumps of old conifers.

  Although the road was wide, they kept to one side to allow bicycles to zip by. Everyone slowed to say good morning to Neil and to stare at Jenn and Mike, making Jenn acutely aware that she still had a dirty, vagabond look about her. Neil saw her discomfort.

  “We’ll get you cleaned up in a bit. First, we have to go to the school. Well, it’s not the school. Are there a lot of children where you’re from?”

  “Twenty-four,” Mike answered before his breath hitched slightly. Jenn understood: if the populations of both Alcatraz and the hilltop were counted there were twenty-four children but that was only if Aaron was still alive. She found herself trying to count how many days they had been gone, but their time on the Calypso felt like one great blur and the best she could manage was between five and seven.

  The number seemed to surprise Neil. “Only twenty-four? We have over two hundred children. About a third go to a school about two miles north of here. The rest go to a school down by the harbor, but…okay here we are.”

  In front of them was a small complex of brick buildings; the sign out front read: Woodward Middle School. It wasn’t a normal school. The windows had heavy bars set across them, while most of the doors were welded shut. “Who goes here?” Jenn asked.

  “This is where Jillybean goes to school,” Neil said, going to the front doors and unlocking a heavy chain. He had to key two more locks to open the door. He didn’t hurry inside; he paused, listening to low moans echoing throughout the building.

  “Why do you have zombies in there?” Mike demanded, his green eyes flashing. “Is this some sort of trick?”

  Neil shook his head. “If we wanted you dead, we could have killed you before you docked. No, this is no trick. You asked how Jillybean became a doctor and I’m showing you.” He went inside and flipped on a switch, filling the halls with light. He paused again. “Hello?” he called out. “Yoo-hoo!”

  “We’re good,” he said, and began limping down the hall. As he went, he checked the doors to the classrooms to see if they were locked. At the fifth door, he glanced first at a chart hanging on the wall, then into a small peephole drilled through the door. Only then did he unlock it.

  The rich rotting smell of the dead struck Jenn, causing her nose to wrinkle. Nervously, she poked her head into the doorway and saw an eight-footer chained to a steel table. The zombie strained against the heavy chains.

  “She had one that tore its own hand off once,” Neil said, mildly. He walked into the room unconcerned about the creature. “This is how she became a surgeon. When she was eight-years old she taught herself using the living dead. Since then she practices on them at least once a week to keep her skills sharp.” Now that Neil had pointed this out, Jenn saw that the hundreds of scars covering the zombie were almost all perfectly straight.

  Jenn was floored by the very idea that a child would or could learn to be a surgeon on their own. Mike was less impressed. “You say her skills are sharp but you also said a lot of people die when she operates on them. Which is it?”

  “It’s both,” Neil said, turning off the light and locking the door behind him. “I also said things aren’t like they were before. She doesn’t have access to MRI machines or CAT scanners or any of that. The best she has is a portable X-ray machine that’s always in need of one part or another. It’s been almost twelve years since the apocalypse began. Things break down. Still, for the simple surgeries like removing a gall bladder or repairing a gunshot wound to the leg, she’s excellent.”

  “What about a gunshot wound to the chest?” Mike asked quietly, as if afraid of the answer.

  Neil grimaced. “Oh, boy. I’ve seen her operate on two people with gunshot wounds to the chest and both were successful, however, both those surgeries occurred very quickly after the incident. I’m no expert, but it’s pretty safe to say that the longer the delay, the less chance of success.”

  “What about antibiotics?” Jenn asked. “Do yours still work?”

  “They do, only I can’t just give you any without talking to the governor. Let’s go get you cleaned up so I can tak
e you down to city hall.” Before they left, he went to the gym locker room where three of the dead were chained to the wall. Two of them were normal-sized, about seven and a half feet each, however the third was the biggest zombie Jenn had ever seen.

  It was even larger than Frankenstein. It stood almost ten feet tall with shoulders as broad as a kitchen table. It was also whole. No one had torn chunks from it or bitten off its fingers or parts of its face. It had huge rolling muscles and an expansive gut. The chains on its wrists and neck could have held back a Humvee.

  “Is she going to practice on these ones?” Jenn asked, in a whisper. She had never been this close to the dead before and not been in mortal peril. Her breath fluttered in her chest and she couldn’t feel her feet.

  Neil picked up a push broom and gestured at the smaller two. “Those ones, yeah, but not Igor. She’s had him since we came to Bainbridge. It was her theory even back then, back when the dead were normal-sized, that under optimum conditions the dead would continue to grow. She doesn’t see an upper limit.”

  “They’ll get even bigger than that?” Mike asked.

  “Yep,” Neil said, using the broom to shovel piles of grass, beans, and leftovers at the dead. The beasts were so intent on getting to the three humans and tearing them to pieces that they ignored the food. “The rate of growth on that one has slowed but he’s grown every year since she carted him over from the city.”

  Jenn wondered if she had heard Neil correctly. “She brought them over? And people let her? There would’ve been a riot back on the hilltop if I tried anything like that.”

  Neil strained to keep his grin in place as he pushed the last of the food over. “It’s really not the best subject to talk about. Why don’t you tell me where you’re from?”

  Mike immediately stiffened, and Jenn’s lips pressed together. Neither of them knew Neil well enough to divulge that sort of information. “Originally?” Jenn asked, playing stupid. “I was born in Ogden. I don’t know where that is or if it’s still a place. Probably not. Mike was born…where? Oma-who?”

  “Omaha,” he corrected. Quickly changing the subject, he asked, “Weren’t we going to get cleaned up before we saw your governor?”

  Neil didn’t pester them with any more questions. He locked up the school and the three of them walked back towards the harbor, stopping twice. The first time, was at a little bungalow of a house. It was painted lime green with clashing red shutters.

  An older man of about thirty with flaming red hair and a spattering of freckles, answered Neil’s knock. He was very close to Mike’s size and build and much to Mike’s embarrassment, Neil asked the man for a set of clothes. “Something nice, if you don’t mind, Eddie. They just got in this morning after what must have been a harrowing journey, and I’m going to take them to see the governor.”

  “Of course,” Eddie said. “Come in, come in. Gina! We have guests!”

  “I’m not really in a proper state to receive guests,” a woman called down from an upstairs room.

  Eddie turned a slightly deeper shade of his natural pink color. “It’s Neil Martin and he has two newcomers to the island. I think they’d be fine if you came down wearing nothing but a pillowcase.”

  “We really don’t want to be any trouble,” Mike said. This fell on deaf ears as Eddie pulled them into his living room and pushed them down onto a sofa. He said something about tea and dashed out of the room. A moment later Gina hurried down the stairs. She was as dark as Eddie was light. She was skinny as a rail but had a wide set of hips made seemingly wider by the toddler she held. The baby, with his curly hair, his freckles and his soft brown color looked as though he had gotten an exact genetic split from mother and father.

  “Hi, hi. I’m Gina and this is Bobby. Have you eaten? Did Eddie offer you anything to eat? Wait, of course he didn’t. Eddie!” she cried as she rushed out of the room, Bobby bouncing on her hip. Somewhat out of breath, she was back in blink. She held out her hand to them.

  Jenn, who was reeling from the commotion, was suddenly shy and it was up to Mike to introduce them.

  Gina was about to shake Jenn’s hand when she noticed the dried blood. “Neil, what’s wrong with you?” she demanded. “They can’t see the governor in this condition.” She thrust Bobby at Neil before pulling Jenn and Mike to the stairs. “We’ll get you fixed right up with showers straight away. By then I’ll have some decent clothes for you both.”

  Jenn felt as though she was being held hostage by the woman’s enthusiasm and energy. She was shown to a hall bathroom where the tub was filled with brightly colored plastic toys. As Gina began picking them out, Jenn said, “I don’t want to be a burden. I can draw water if you show me where the well is.”

  Gina looked lost for a moment before a wide smile lit up her face. “Oh no, dear. We don’t have well water. We get ours from the tap.” She pointed at the faucet jutting from the wall above the bathtub. “Use the shampoo and conditioner. Whatever you need.”

  She handed Jenn a towel and breezed out of the room. The towel wasn’t just soft, it smelled…well, Jenn couldn’t describe the scent, except for perhaps perfumed. Putting it to her nose, she breathed it in. It was a wonderful, clean smell and she set it aside with great reluctance.

  She faced the tub as if she had never seen one before. She had been told that in the old days people got their water from the faucets, but where that water came from no one seemed to know. She assumed the water would be cold and as Gina and Eddie were already going to so much trouble, Jenn figured she would grit her teeth and bear it.

  Turning one of the knobs confirmed this. A rush of cold water came from the faucet. Jenn collected some in the palm of her hand and tasted it. “Oh, wow.” It was the cleanest water she had ever tasted. The water back on the hilltop always had a slight earthen tang to it. This was so clean that she stuck to her mouth to the faucet and drank until her belly gurgled.

  All that running water reminded her that she had to pee. She lifted the lid on the toilet tank and saw there was water there as well. Grinning like a child, she used the bathroom and when she flushed, she marveled as the water filled back up. It was sort of like magic.

  In fact, it was so close to magic that she had to test one more thing before she got in the tub. The light switch on the wall drew her. The rumor was that a weak form of lightning made the lights work. Using just the tip of one finger, she flicked the switch up. Just like that, the room was bathed in a stark white light. She turned the light on and off a few times before reaching up to touch the bulb. It was hot enough to burn.

  Stripping out of her dirt and blood-stained clothes she eased into the cold water of the tub. Although there were only a few inches of water she began shivering in seconds. She washed up quickly and was about to get out when she saw the word “Cold” on one of the handles.

  Her eyes went to the other which read “Hot.” Turning the handle brought out a rush of hot water. “Definitely magic,” she said, swishing the water about to even the temperature. It was good magic, at least. She lulled in the sudden warmth and would have fallen asleep in the tub if Gina hadn’t knocked on the door.

  “I have clothes for you out here.”

  This got Jenn moving. Gina was nearly a foot taller than Jenn and the only thing she had that came close to fitting her were a black cocktail dress and a pair of pink flipflops. As ridiculous as the outfit was, it was still better than the filthy “boy” clothes she’d been wearing.

  Eddie made omelets for breakfast with real chicken eggs, strips of fried pork meat and real cheese. Jenn was as famished as a wolf and had to force herself to stop after two servings. Mike, dressed in jeans and green woolen sweater, his clean blonde hair pulled back in a simple braid, couldn’t say no to a third helping.

  They ate and ate, which helped to deflect questions. Eddie and Gina were filled with curiosity. They wanted to hear all about Mike and Jenn’s journey, from the ocean to the Corsairs, and they wanted to know where the two were from, how old they were, if they
had brothers and sisters or if their parents were still alive.

  Mike did a good job of deflecting the questions and near the end of the meal brought it around to Jillybean at which point Gina and Eddie plastered fake smiles across their lips and Neil abruptly said, “I’m afraid we have to go.”

  Very quickly they were back on the road heading south towards the harbor. Neil remarked, “We could go into any house on the island and receive the same welcome. Is that how it is where you’re from?”

  “Sort of,” Mike said. “We don’t have all the stuff that you have. Like the eggs and cheese and the hot wall water. But the people are generous to strangers…proper strangers that is. Not everyone where we’re from is nice. There are slavers nearby. Do you have slavers here?”

  “Not on Bainbridge. The Corsairs are the worst, but they don’t give us any trouble. This is probably the safest place in the world.”

  And yet everyone’s afraid of a girl named Jillybean, Jenn thought. The place was perfection except for that one little problem. As if the thought of the girl had summoned her, Jillybean came out of the woods to their left. At first, the girl in black didn’t see the three of them as her lion’s mane of hair hid everything in her periphery. She was deep in conversation—with herself. When she did notice them, her eyes went right to Jenn and her smile was almost angelic; a far cry from the frightening madness she had displayed earlier.

  “I take it the surgery went well?” Neil asked as the girl came up and began walking beside Jenn.

  Jillybean shrugged. “Yes, he’s sedated and sleeping. He’s lucky, the wound track was remarkably small. If the bullet hadn’t nicked the femoral, I would have been done an hour ago. Laparoscopic suturing is a such a pain in the ass.” This last she said to Jenn.

  “Right, I guess it probably is,” Jenn said. She had no idea.

  “She guesses, my ass,” Jillybean replied, speaking out of the side of her mouth. She then started as if the words had been a surprise to her. “Um, I mean that would be a good guess if we had to guess, ha-ha. But we didn’t, so that’s good, right?”