by D. J. Graves
Touché
Karen walked to one of the shelves and moved the shelf aside, revealing it to be a hinged door of a refrigerator. She grabbed a test tube and filled a syringe with the liquid that was a translucent orange color. She handed me the syringe and I took it like the dangerous material I assumed it was.
“Is this the disease?” I asked her.
Karen smiled to herself. “It’s plasma from an infected individual. Like I said, I’m not entirely sure what caused this drug to mutate into a virus,” she shrugged, “But in my research, I’ve found that the disease attaches onto the plasma cells and reproduces at an extraordinary rate, faster than hair cells, blood cells or even cancer cells.”
She closed the shelf-door and grabbed a thick black book off of it. On the front of the book were two strips of off-white tape and on the tape in black marker was the book’s titled, The Zombie Book.
“Everything I know about zombies is in this book. Everything I’ve learned. It doesn’t amount to much yet,” she said somberly.
“Do you think we stand a chance?” I asked her after a moment’s silence.
She looked up with a smile. “Oh yes, I do. The whole world doesn’t look like Washington, sweety. Most of the world is suffering, but there are still large areas where this disease hasn’t touched.”
I was taken aback by that. I thought the whole world as we knew it had ended. “What? Let’s go there, now. Where are these places?” I asked eagerly.
“We can’t go there, Erin. We’re quarantined. No one leaves and no one enters.”
“Enters? Where are these places? Why haven’t I heard of them?”
“You haven’t had access to the internet in a long time, have you?”
“No. Have you?!”
“Yes, that’s how I know what's going on out there.”
“What’s going on?”
“You can use my laptop if you want to find out for yourself, but basically Western Washington and several other areas where the infection has spread are walled off using highly electrified metal netting. The military keeps a strong perimeter. Their orders are to shoot to kill anyone who comes near the walls, zombie or not. Outside those walls, the world keeps turning. Inside, we’re on our own.”
I suddenly felt weak. I almost dropped the syringe, so I set it gingerly on the desk.
“The world doesn’t care about us?”
Karen set the book back down on the shelf, “Oh they do. But, right now there isn’t much anyone can do for us from the outside. You have to see it from their perspective. For you, you’re scared for yourself and your son, but the rest of the world is scared too. If you were on the other side of those walls, would you want any chance of this disease getting out?”
“No,” I said. “...But why are they doing nothing? They could drop food from planes or medical supplies, clean drinking water at the very least.”
“From what I’ve found, there are more than a thousand areas like ours, bigger than ours that are being shut off from the world; most of them are in Russia, the Middle East, and the Americas... I’m guessing resources are slim at best.”
“So, we’re alone...What do you hope to gain by your studies? Eventually, those walking corpses out there will just rot to pieces. Why waste your time and energy?”
“Because I have to have hope, or what’s the point to life? I need to understand this. I need to do something. I need the hope that one day this will all be over.”
I could relate to that feeling. A single mom and her baby stand no chance in our new world. It would make perfect sense to kill us both and save us the pain of being eaten alive or starving to death, but I never could accept that. I couldn’t shake the feeling of hope. I both hated and needed it.
“I’m not a scientist, but could I take a look at that zombie book of yours?” I asked.
“Yes, of course, but first I thought you might like to witness the transformation with me.”
“I’ve seen it before,” I said with a curled lip. I did not wish to see it again.
Karen looked at me as though she were impressed. “You’ll have to tell me about your unique experiences out there. We should compare notes.”
She picked up the syringe and opened a large metal door that led into the other half of the room where Jensen lay.
“I think I’ll pass,” I said to her. When she didn't acknowledge me I turned to leave the room but I found Will standing in the doorway.
“Is she about to infect him?” he asked me.
“Yes, I was just leaving.” But, Will didn’t move out of my way.
“I’ve never seen the first stages of infection.”
“I have and I don’t want to see it again. Can you please move so I can leave?” I asked.
Will didn’t move at all. He was frozen where he stood, looking forward as if the sight of what was about to happen to Jensen had hypnotized him with curiosity. “No.”
“No?”
“Some men are here. I need to talk to my grandma.”
“Men? What sort of men?”
“They have dogs. Like, tracking dogs.”
“SHIT! It’s Finn!”
“Finn?”
I pulled my hair back in frustration. “Jensen’s father. The bat-shit priest that rapes and eats people! You haven’t let them in, have you?”
“No, of course, not...but they're knocking.”
“Knocking?”
“On the hatch. He found it, or the dogs did. I need to tell Karen. She’ll know how to handle them.”
“Kill them!” I yelled in frustration and fear.
I ran to the glass wall and knocked hard on it to get her attention, but it was too late for that. She’d injected him with the infected plasma. Cameras rose up from the desk behind me, six cameras showing Jensen from different angles. Karen moved out of the room fast and locked the door behind her.
“We have an emergency,” I said.
“One moment,” she muttered without looking at me. “Watch.” She pointed at the cameras.
I didn’t want to look but I did. I looked down at the cameras and watched Jensen slowly wake as the disease took hold. He was afraid and as soon as he realized he couldn’t move his fear grew into a screaming panic, but we couldn’t hear his screams. Watching him scream without the sound almost made it worse. Jensen had three open wounds on him that I knew of. Two puncture wounds from when he was sedated and the injection site of the disease. All three wounds blossomed like stinking roses of rot and pus. Dark veins moved fast up his neck, arms and hips, spreading to other locations, finding other open wounds to explode across his nakedness. He must have chafed himself something fierce during his latest sexual assault because his genitals sprang open, turning inside out to reveal dead tissue turned black and oozing. His body began to convulse. His skin became green-gray and lumpy. He was still tied down but he was fighting it and biting at the air in front of him.
“Oh man!” Will yelled at the sight of what was left of Jensen’s manhood. “I know you’re looking for a cure, Grandma, but I don’t think I’d want to come back from that.”
There was a panel of buttons on Karen's desk. She pushed one and spoke. “Can you hear me?” she asked Jensen.
His head turned. He looked directly at me and opened his mouth as if to speak. His eyes were milked over and bloodshot. For a moment I actually felt sorry for that monster. For just one drawn-out moment of pure horror, I thought maybe he was still self-aware, but then he began biting at the air again and pulling at his restraints. I let out a sigh of relief for that bit of mercy. In this situation, it's better if the mind goes with the body...
“Are you done with him now?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” Karen said. “I recorded all his vital signs and monitored as much as I can for now. This has been an invaluable experiment, I can tell you.”
“Good. Can we kill him and deal with his father?” I asked.
Karen blinked at me with a question in her eyes, a question that Will answered.
Karen looked at me. “What do you suggest? Should we invite them in for tea?”
I knew that was a joke, but I had no idea how she could joke at all after what we just saw...“No. There’s only one way to deal with Finn.”
“Right,” Karen said. “We have to make things right. Let’s give him back his son.”
“What?” I asked, but my question went unanswered, at least with words.
Karen pushed a button on her desk and the straps on the bed released. Jensen fell to the floor hard and it made me flinch to see it, as bits of him fell off his body along with a goodly bit of brownish-yellow liquid. Before he could scramble to his feet and launch himself at the glass wall, Karen pushed another button on her desk and a hatch in the ceiling popped open. A metal ladder unfolded from the ceiling and zombie Jensen stared at it.
“Do you think a zombie can climb a ladder?” Will asked Karen.
“I know they can,” I said coldly.
Sure enough, Jensen grabbed the ladder and made a real fool of himself as he desperately crawled up. As soon as he cleared the opening Karen closed the hatch with another push of her button.
“Right, let’s go see their father and son reunion on the cameras in the dining room,” Karen said before she rushed out of her lab with Will running behind her.
I stood there for a moment and just stared after them. Man, this Karen was kind of sick and twisted. She scared me.
8
When I came to the dining room I could hear the dull sound of random bangs and bongs. Finn and his men at the door? I walked to the table where Will, Karen and Gerald were staring down at Karen's laptop, watching the men outside and waiting for zombie Jensen to attack. Derek was awake too, but he wasn’t watching. He was drinking a cup of coffee and staring down at the table top, deep in thought it seemed. That looked like a great idea. The coffee, not the deep thoughts...I walked past them to the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee as well. I couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t tasted a drop of coffee in years. The smell of it was firing off all sorts of pleasure nodes in my brain, or some such shit. I wanted it in the worst way. I watched the black liquid fill my mug and I couldn’t help but think of Jensen’s black oozing genitals. The thought made me frown hard, but I wasn’t about to let it ruin my coffee. With stubborn resolve, I took my first sip. I closed my eyes and rolled the liquid around my tongue. Instant nostalgia. I brought my nose to the cup and breathed it in and for a moment I forgot what was going on. Oh yeah, When Zombie Rapists Attack, Family Addition. Couldn’t miss the show.
I sat down beside Derek and leaned toward Karen and the others. The camera was pointed at the hatch entrance from above so that we were looking at the top of their heads as they gathered around the hatch, banging on it like cavemen. I new all the faces I saw. Besides Father Finn, there was an old man named Bill. He was a sick fuck...they all were, though. The other three were in their twenties; Marko, Jason and Tanner.
“No sign of Jensen?” I asked.
“No,” said Will. “You think he just ran off?” he asked Karen.
“It is possible, but those men have to be making an awful racket up there. I’m surprised more infected haven’t attacked them already.”
“Where’s the sound?” I asked.
“I turned it down. Seemed rude this late at night,” said Gerald.
Karen looked at him with a solid 'mom' look of contempt. “You won’t wake Pane and Chris. The rooms are soundproofed. You know that.”
“Oh, yeah,” Gerald chuckled quietly.
“Thick,” Karen said under her breath as she turned the volume back on with a touch of the laptop’s screen.
Instantly the whole living area was filled with the almost unbearable sound of dogs barking, men yelling and clanging metal as they banged their guns against the hatch, as if hitting it with the butt of their shotguns would magically unlock the entrance.
“That’s loud,” Derek complained.
Karen turned the volume down to a tolerable level.
“That should attract a zombie,” Will confirmed. “So where is he or any other zombie for that matter?”
“We might have finally emptied the forest tonight,” Gerald said with a smile. “Between saving Erin and saving the douche bag, we had to have killed at least twenty zombies.”
“No,” Karen said. “Look” She was pointing at the lower left corner of the screen, but I couldn’t see what she could. Neither could the men outside, but the dogs could. The dogs were barking madly in the direction of Karen's finger. Two of the men, Tanner and Marko stopped banging on the hatch and turned their guns toward the direction of the dog’s barking, but they were scanning the area with the guns, so it was obvious that they still couldn’t see anything to aim at. The banging stopped altogether as the other men became wise to the danger the dogs were more than hinting at with their focused eyes and serious barks.
When I saw him, Jensen was already on top of the men. The dogs knew better than to bite the infected man. They gave him plenty of room to charge the men at our door, knocking Tanner to the ground and biting into his face before the other four had a chance to react. Screams of pain and terror ripped through the speakers to send chills down my back.
“Fuck!” Derek said, setting his coffee down and putting his hands over his ears.
Multiple gunshots went off and both Jensen and Tanner were put out of their misery.
Marko lifted Jensen off Tanner and threw him aside. “Satan took Tanner from us tonight,” he said as he leaned over the body. “But I know his soul is with our father, the lord almighty.”
“Amen,” Bill said.
Finn approached Jensen’s body and after a moment fell to his knees. “NO, MY BOY!” he screamed out. I cringed. “Jensen!” He pulled the naked rotting body into his lap as the other men gathered around.”
“He’s with God now,” said Bill.
“Who did this?” Finn cried.
‘Me,’ I thought, I did this. I cursed at myself for feeling guilty for what happened to Jensen. He was an evil man. I personally witnessed him and his father raping, killing and eating men, women and children...What the fuck was wrong with me for feeling bad for them? If anything this was justice. But, I couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt.
“Satan’s army must have chased him into the woods. He must have died while trying to get this old hatch open. He died seeking shelter,” concluded Marko.
“Bull shit!” shouted Finn. “We found the dead with bullets in their brains far from here. If he died here there would be signs of a struggle. He would have fought back. There would be at least one fucking corpse on the ground, at least one that he killed while fighting. And when was the last time you saw zombies strip a man naked before they eat him?”
“Then what happened-” started Marco.
“Somebody did this to him!" Finn screamed.
"Who?”
“Thoughts?” Bill asked.
“He was outside waiting for that Erin girl to try and escape-" started Jason.
"That whore of Satan! She did this. I know she did!” Finn shouted. "ERIN!" he screamed out at the woods. "WHORE!"
I felt heat crawl up my neck at the sound of my name.
Finn stood up and walked to the hatch. “YOU HEAR ME! I will have justice upon you, whore! I will have retribution! I will taste revenge!” He moved back to his son and grabbed his arms. “Help me,” he called to his men. “Take Jensen’s legs. We will carry him home.”
But, his men didn’t move.
“I said, grab his legs. We’re taking my son home!”
“Father, we cannot bring corruption into the house of God,” Bill spoke.
Finn gingerly set his son’s arms on the ground and walked over to the man whom spoke and slapped his face hard.
“You will not speak of my son in that manner. He is not fucking corrupted. He is my son and he is alive in the kingdom o
f Heaven and I will NOT let his body be further disgraced. He will be buried in a godly Christian manner in our gardens.”
Risking another slap Bill spoke again, “His body is diseased by Satan.” Finn moved to slap him again, but Bill moved away and spoke quickly. “His living soul is in Heaven, father, but his body is of Earth and back to Earth it must return. You cannot risk the lives of everyone by bringing the disease within our gates. The church is pure and clean. Let us purify Jensen before we bring him to his final resting place.”
“How?” Finn asked.
“Fire,” Marko suggested.
There was silence for a moment before Finn agreed. “We will burn him here and take his ashes home. His holy remains will make our garden grow strong. One last righteous deed of a holy man. Then we will come back and force our way into that Devil’s pit and cleanse it from Earth in the name of my son and God.”
The men seemed to agree and started moving forward with the plan, piling wood around Jensen’s body.
I looked up from the laptop. “We can’t let them leave and come back with tools that could open that hatch.”
“Nothing could open that hatch, except maybe a blowtorch,” said Will.
“Do they have a blowtorch?” Karen asked me. I shrugged because I had no idea for sure. “Either way, you’re right Erin. We can’t let them leave. Which means we have precious little time to deal with them.”
“I've got no problem taking out human-garbage,” said Gerald, “But, I don’t like the idea of killing those dogs. They didn’t pick their owners.”
Karen nodded but looked at Derek. “Do you have a problem killing those men?”
“We kill people all the time,” said Gerald.
“Zombies,” said Will. “We kill men who are already dead all the time. It’s not technically murder if they’re dead. What she’s asking us is if we’re cool with murder.”
“Are you?” Karen asked Will.
He bit his lips. “I don’t think I am.”
“I am,” I said.
“Are you?” Karen asked.
“Sure, she almost killed me,” said Gerald.
“I’m not cool with it, but I’ve killed before. I will do it again if I have to.”