by Ricky Sides
“Stop saying that!” the irate father insisted. “You’ve got to cure my baby!”
“He told you that he can’t, but I may have a shot at curing her. I’m not going to lie to you,” Herb said. “I wouldn’t put my child through it. It will be painful, and as I said, the odds are terrible. I doubt the baby will survive the procedure.”
The man with the bomb looked troubled by what Herb had said. He turned toward his wife and asked, “What do you think? Should we take the risk, knowing it will bring Bethany pain?”
“What choice do we have? If we don’t try it, we will lose her,” the woman replied.
Herb felt compassion for the couple, and he hated having to lie to them and giving them false hope. He knew that there was nothing they could do for the baby that would help her. They had already lost the child. Yet, if the plan he had concocted was to have a chance of working, he needed to convince them that there was at least a little hope that it might work. He said, “Send all these other people out and I’ll talk to you more about the procedure. I don’t want anyone else to know how to do this because it’s so risky. You may not even want to attempt it once you learn all the details.”
“I don’t think so. Once I free all these people, what’s to keep you from just killing our daughter?”
“You’ll still have your bomb. Look, you’re not listening to me. The odds are so bad that the most likely outcome is that your daughter will die. I’m not going to permit you to keep my friends in this room while I make such a desperate attempt. As I see it, if I fail, then you’ll detonate the bomb and kill my friends,” Herb explained.
“So your real concern is getting your friends out of danger. Isn’t that true?”
“Yes, I want to get my friends away from a bomb. Wouldn’t you?” Herb asked in a quiet tone of voice. “We should also send your wife with them. Anything can happen, and she doesn’t have to die, you know. So why risk her life unnecessarily?”
For the first time, Herb saw doubt in the man’s eyes, and he was quick to exploit that doubt. “Let them all go. You’ll still have me, and I give you my word that no one else will attempt to interfere.”
The man’s doubt lingered for another moment, but then his expression shifted to one of determination. He looked at his wife with a loving expression, and then he said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go with them. If I do, they could use you as a hostage to force me to deactivate the bomb, and then they’d kill Bethany.”
“I know,” his wife responded softly. “But we should let them go. We only need the one who knows what to do. I see no reason to risk all these people getting injured or killed.”
The husband frowned. He didn’t like giving up most of the hostages, but he also didn’t want to upset his wife any further. “Okay, you other people can go.”
“Herb, I don’t like this,” Randy said, frowning at the man with the bomb.
“Just go, buddy,” Herb insisted. “Get everyone outside the clinic and well away from it. One way or another, this will be over in a few minutes.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” the woman said as Doctor Fielding moved past her on the way out the door.
“You’re welcome, but if you really want to show your appreciation, then get your husband to listen to reason. I would have saved your baby if it were possible to do so.”
“You’re certain it has turned, and it’s not just in the final stages before turning?” asked Herb.
“I don’t have any experience with a victim this young,” the doctor admitted. “Babies don’t talk, which makes it harder to verify this early after a turning before the body begins to change more drastically, but you see the symptoms and you know what they mean as well as I do.” The doctor paused a moment, and then he said, “I’m assuming you intend to attempt to cure the child by treating her as you would a patient in the last stages before turning.”
“That’s what I have in mind, yes,” Herb admitted, but added, “Unless you have a better idea.”
“Actually, I think I may, provided the parents are willing.”
By now, all of the others had left the room. Randy was waiting for the doctor at the door. He stood there silently, waiting to see what was going to happen.
“What are you thinking we should try?” the father asked.
“If the mother is willing, she might try nursing the baby. She has the cure in her system now. The child would receive it in smaller doses. That might be enough to prevent the parasites from being terminated too swiftly, which might permit the baby to recover. Otherwise, the rapid extermination of the parasites will send the child into shock and she might die. That would only apply if the child hasn’t already turned, you understand. I believe that she has, but I could be wrong.”
“And if you’re right and she has already become one of the monsters?” asked the father.
“Then she will attack your wife again, but shouldn’t be able to do much harm. The mother is now protected by the nanobots, and the baby only has a couple of teeth.”
“I can’t ask her to do that,” the father said with a shake of his head.
“I want to hold my baby,” the mother said. “I’ll try to feed her.”
“Try to understand what I’m about to say, ma’am,” Herb interjected. “If she has turned already, then she is no longer your baby. She’s a reanimated corpse with no personality or will of her own.”
“But it’s possible that she hasn’t become a zombie yet, isn’t it?” the woman asked, challenging Herb’s opinion.
“Her behavior indicates that she has, or at the very least, she is being driven to the behavior by the parasites in some way,” Herb explained his opinion on the matter.
The doctor surprised Herb when he said, “There is another possibility. The parasites might only progress to a certain point in an infant because it’s not yet strong enough to make a good host. We do know they kill adolescents in the same manner that they kill adult human hosts, but we know next to nothing about infant mortality rates due to exposure to the parasites.”
“Why would the Akins’ parasites kill adolescents, but spare infants?” Herb asked. “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
The doctor shrugged and said, “Adolescents have their teeth. They are also walking, so they are mobile enough to make better hosts.”
“Are you saying these parasites are intelligent?” Herb asked.
“No, I don’t believe that to be the case. If they are holding off a full scale assault on the infant’s nervous system, I’d say it’s because of simple biology. There are numerous differences between an infant’s body and that of a juvenile. Any of those deviations could trigger a different response on the part of the parasites in relation to their hosts.”
“Why not just give my baby the shot like you gave my wife?” the father asked.
“We don’t know what the parasites have done to the child. The injection will terminate them almost immediately in a host the size and weight of your daughter. I believe the mother’s milk will kill the parasites at a much slower rate. Say hours as opposed to minutes. That would give us more time to try to stabilize Bethany and save her life. It would also give her body more time to adjust to the changes and reduce the risk of shock setting in and killing her.”
The doctor grew silent for a moment, but then he continued, “I’ll try to explain my concerns. We know the parasites attack the respiratory system. At this point, if the child is still alive, then they will have established control of her breathing. Killing them too quickly could cause the girl to stop breathing. If she can be saved at all, we need to kill the parasites slowly, so that we can intercede to keep her breathing until her body can resume control of that involuntary function. There are other issues as well, but at this point that’s my primary concern.”
“What other issues?” the mother asked.
“There’s her heartbeat for one. Then there’s the chance that she has suffered brain damage as a result of the infestation. If the child is still living and hasn�
�t already turned, then using the injection on her would terminate the parasites, but the cure would also kill her.”
“So breastfeeding would be the safest way to try to save her? Is that what you’re saying?” asked the mother.
“Yes. If she hasn’t completed the turning process, then the parasites have taken control of her body enough that they induced the development of teeth in a baby only a few weeks old. God only knows what other systems in her body they are manipulating. Shutting them down in a matter of minutes could kill the girl. Even the mother’s milk could contain enough nanobots to kill her if she feeds too much too soon. I’d recommend a small feeding, and then observe the child for a while to see how she reacts.”
“Okay, I’ll stay with them while they do that,” Herb said. He added, “Randy, escort the doctor out please.” He was anxious to get Doctor Fielding out of the room before the father realized his daughter’s chances would be improved with the physician present. He was all for saving the child, if possible, but Herb didn’t believe it was.
“Hold it, Doctor,” the father said. “I think we need you to stay.”
“I’ll stay in his place,” Herb volunteered.
“Are you a doctor?” the father asked.
Herb considered pretending to be a physician, but he didn’t know what Randy had told the man about him, so he didn’t risk telling a lie. Instead, he said, “No, but I have extensive experience treating people who have been infested by the parasites.”
“How many were babies?” asked the mother.
“None,” Herb admitted.
“Then we need the doctor to stay,” the father insisted.
“All right, I’ll agree to permitting the doctor to try to save the baby, but only if you agree to deactivate the bomb. Otherwise, we won’t even make the attempt, and that’s not negotiable.”
“How can I be sure you’ll keep your word?” the man asked as he pondered Herb’s ultimatum.
“We would have tried to save the child even without the bomb,” Herb said.
The man shook his head and replied, “I’m not so sure about that. Your first reaction was to recoil in horror. I saw your hand reach for your pistol earlier as you backed away from my baby.”
“That’s a natural reaction. When you’ve fought zombies as much as I have, reacting in that manner becomes instinctive. You didn’t see me draw the weapon, did you?” Herb countered.
“That’s true, but then you thought I had a bomb strapped to me at the time.”
“You mean it’s not real?” asked Herb.
The man released the device he had been holding in his hand and let it drop to his side where it dangled by the wires. “I had to be certain I could get you people to listen to reason and not kill Bethany on sight. No, it’s not a bomb. It’s just a harmless fake. I’d never risk my wife and child by wearing a bomb around them.”
“We’re sorry for scaring you people,” the man’s wife said, “but we didn’t know what else to do to try to save our daughter.”
“You brought her to the right place. If anyone can save her, Doctor Fielding can,” Herb said. He was relieved that the man hadn’t been wearing a bomb.
“You’re not mad about the bomb thing?” the father asked.
“I’m not happy about it,” Herb admitted, “but I can understand why you did what you did.”
“Herb, I think I could use Erma’s help with this patient,” Doctor Fielding said. “Her expertise on the progression of the parasites surpasses mine.”
“I’ll get her, but first, I want to search this man again. I’m not bringing anyone else in here until I know without a doubt that he isn’t wearing a bomb.”
“That’s fair enough,” the man said, and then he began to disrobe. As he did so, he said, “My name is Willard Reagers, and my wife’s name is Janet.”
Chapter 4
The camp.
After her exile from the refuge, Dana found the bike she had ridden after separating from Bill. It was lying on the side of the road where she had left it. She had then mounted it and continued on her way to Hunter, the small community that Raman Chandler and the other refugees had fled ahead of a large group of roaming zombies.
She had learned during her confinement at the refuge that Herb Bennett and his team had killed the zombies in and around Hunter, so she headed there after her banishment. She knew that they had left ample supplies behind in their rush to flee. She also knew that Raman and some of his people were planning to return to Hunter to recover those supplies as soon as they found the time. Therefore, she made her way there where she looted many of the homes. Her greatest find was a set of keys to a pickup truck parked outside one of the homes because it gave her greater mobility, as well as the ability to transport supplies.
Unaccustomed to physical labor, she had only loaded half a load of food and water before tiring and deciding to stop and leave Hunter. She knew the people would be angry about her theft, so she didn’t want to be found there. She drove over ten miles to the north before selecting a secluded farmhouse where she stored the supplies. Dana ate well that night and left the next morning for another trip to Hunter. She planned to strip all the homes of the choicest foods that day. Unfortunately for her, people from the refuge beat her to the community. Smoke from the burning bodies of the zombies alerted her to their presence in the town long before she was within sight of it. Cursing in frustration, she turned her truck around and headed back to the farm where she had spent a few weeks. Eventually, she was driven from that shelter by the need to replenish her supplies.
***
She was about three miles down the road from the church where she had encountered the zombies when Dana stopped her bicycle beside a pair of abandoned autos. She looked through the windows to see if the keys were in the ignitions, as she had done countless times in the months since she had left the refuge. She was looking for a vehicle to replace the bike she’d been riding for months. Her last vehicle, the pickup truck she’d stolen in Hunter, had run out of fuel before she could locate more. Since then, she’d had no luck locating a serviceable automobile. The batteries had been dead on the few that she had found with keys and she didn’t know what to do about that.
As she stared through the passenger side front window, Dana saw a set of keys in the ignition and smiled at her good fortune. Her smile was short-lived because it was replaced by a frown of consternation when she discovered that the doors were all locked. “What kind of idiot locks their keys in a car?” she remarked in frustration. She looked around on the ground for a rock or a stick that she could use to break the window, but she saw nothing that looked promising.
She walked down the road a bit, looking in the ditch for anything she could use to gain entry into the vehicle, pausing frequently to stare at her surroundings to ensure that nothing was approaching her. She’d had an encounter with what she assumed was an anizombie cat a few weeks back, and that incident had made her more wary when she was walking on the road. The ground in the ditch was littered with small stones, but she saw nothing that looked usable so she continued her search. Finally, she spotted a large jagged rock that she thought would do the job.
Dana climbed back out of the ditch clutching the large fist-sized stone in her hand. She made her way back to the old-model, white, Chevrolet Impala sedan and threw the rock at the window. The stone rebounded off the glass without breaking it. Unfortunately, it flew back toward her body. To her credit, Dana avoided the danger by stepping aside. “This is harder than I thought,” she muttered to herself.
Thinking better of her plan, Dana picked up the stone and began to batter at the window with increasing power as she sought to crack it, and then she could throw the rock with enough force to break through the damaged window. It took her a dozen attempts, but she finally cracked the window. She took a few steps back and then she threw her projectile with all her might, sending it crashing through the damaged glass with ease.
Dana unlocked the door and opened it. The inside of the
car was a mess. Broken glass littered the seats, but she ignored it and leaned inside to attempt to start the vehicle. Unfortunately, the battery, as had so often been the case with other vehicles, was dead. She voiced a string of curses as she yanked the key out of the ignition and moved to extract her body from the car. In her anger, she grew careless and received a small cut on her right palm. “Son of a bitch!” she said in anger. She smeared blood on the car door as she slammed it shut. She checked the trunk hoping to find something useful such as supplies, or maybe even articles of clothing. It was getting colder at night now and she really needed to find a better coat. Yet, this trunk was as devoid of useful items as most of the others she had checked the past few months.
She looked at the sky to try to determine the time of day, and then she mounted her bicycle and left to continue her journey. She needed to find a shelter soon, so she traveled with that in mind. She didn’t notice the occasional droplets of blood from her bleeding hand that dribbled down to the surface of the road.
***
Less than half an hour after Dana left the abandoned vehicle she had broken into, Shaunna the zombie and the others that accompanied her arrived at the scene. All three zombies became excited and moaned in anticipation when they smelled the blood on the vehicle. Shaunna held Lily’s head near the blood smear and moaned encouragement. The blood of her enemy excited her. She turned away from the car and continued walking down the road. This time, she set a faster pace. The two males accompanying her were as eager to reach their prey as she was, so they matched her pace. The three walked tirelessly, feeling neither discomfort nor doubts as to their actions.
They soon came upon the first of the blood droplets left by the one they pursued. The zombie, Shaunna, sniffed the air and a strange expression came upon her face. It wasn’t quite a smile, but it was close. She held the decomposing dog’s head down near the blood spatter, and then she crooned another moan as she resumed tracking her enemy. This time, she broke into a slow trot. The two males with her followed suit. They had run for half an hour when they came upon a pair of zombies. One was male and the other was a juvenile female. They were also following Dana. Shaunna’s group ran past them, but they followed in her wake. The young female was fast enough to catch up to Shaunna. Then she matched her stride for stride.