Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  He didn’t bother throwing him back over his shoulder. He just grabbed an ankle and dragged him around the corner into the hallway, where the rest were waiting.

  Teeny looked down at Raines and then up at him. “What’s going on?”

  “I think he’s dead.” He looked down at Raines.

  “Dead dead?”

  Teeny moved over and rolled him over so she could check his pulse. Even the animates had weak pulses. Their metabolism was slowed down but still functioning. Part of what the axola virus accomplished was not letting their bodies shut down completely. How Raines had shut down was a first. Prior to this point, you had to destroy the brain, thus shutting down the body’s ability to sustain any control of metabolic functions.

  After holding his wrist for several minutes, she let it go. “Yep, he’s gone. But how?”

  Laudner stepped up to join the conversation. “Maybe he hasn’t fed for a while.”

  Teeny looked down and rolled his face toward hers. “He has blood around his mouth.”

  Tin turned around and pulled up his shirt. “Maybe too little too late?”

  Teeny gasped and jumped up to inspect the large chunk of flesh missing from Tin’s lower back. “Jesus, Tin! We need to get this cleaned up and disinfected. These bites go bad really fast.”

  She looked up at Laudner, then over at O’Reilly, who was sitting down leaning against the wall rubbing his temples.

  She grabbed Tin by his shirt and started to drag him toward the exam room that was closest to the pharmacy where she had had her encounter.

  Pointing, she ordered, “Laudner, you and O’Reilly get Raines to the pathology lab in the basement and wait for me there. Rocky, can you please get them another shot of RabAvert? There should be more down here in the pharmacy.”

  She nodded and fell into step with them.

  Tin looked at the reverend and his team. They had all been silent since moving into the hallway but now were exchanging whispers. He grabbed Teeny and stopped her as he turned toward the man standing with his hands clasped behind his back and staring back at him.

  “You and your men can find some food down on the cafeteria on the first floor. You need to be careful, but we cleared the hospital the last time we were here.”

  As he finished the last word, an especially strong gust of wind sounded down the hallway and the lights went off. The emergency lights came on as everyone except the reverend and Tin started looking around as though their haven had just become unlivable.

  Tin and the man dressed in black just stared at each other.

  The faint roar of the generators sounded from the elevator shaft, and the lights came back on.

  After several more seconds of staring, the reverend smiled. “Thank you for your hospitality, brother. The Lord smiled down upon us by sending you our way.”

  He hesitated as he glanced around at the rest of Tin’s group. “Thank you all for taking us in. He has blessed us all by bringing us together to endure.”

  He returned to looking just at Tin. “After eating, I think we will find a floor above to bug in and ride out the storm.”

  Tin nodded and let himself be pulled once again toward the exam room.

  _______

  Tin gritted his teeth as Teeny poked the needle with the local anesthetic around the wound.

  “Wow. He took a pretty big chunk, Camel Toe.”

  He smiled at her.

  “All right, big guy. Time to wash it out. This isn’t going to be fun for you or me.”

  His smile turned to a smirk. “Sure. Like you aren’t going to enjoy this.”

  She got the supplies to clean the wound as she continued to talk. “So, that Reverend guy is pretty creepy, right?”

  “Creepy isn’t what I would call it, but yeah, there is definitely something different about him. I’m definitely getting a Jim Jones kind of vibe from him.”

  While she cleaned the wound, he was cringing too much to talk. She was busy cleaning the pus and blood from the wound as she also cringed at the sight.

  “This got infected a lot faster than it should have. I think you’re going to need an IV with antibiotics to knock it out of your system.”

  “Great. You just love poking me, don’t you?”

  She chuckled at that. “About as much as you love poking me, Camel Toe.”

  He laughed and cringed as she started closing the wound with stitches.

  “So what do you think happened to Raines?”

  She hesitated for a couple of seconds as she thought about that. “I have an inkling of a theory. I think he ingested your blood and it cured him of the axola virus.”

  He twisted around and looked at her. “So my blood can cure the virus?”

  “That’s my theory. But theories have to be proven.”

  She tied the last stitch and cleaned the area one more time before placing a bandage. “All right, turn around and lie down. I’m going to go grab an IV.”

  He shook his head and started to hop down from the table. “I can’t do this right now, sweetie. I need to make sure the reverend and his group aren’t up to something.”

  She put her hand in the middle of his chest. “I’m speaking as your physician now, mister.”

  She showed him her fist. “Lie down, or I’ll give you something to knock you down.”

  He looked at her with a defiant look, but she returned it and pushed harder to get him to lie back on the table. He gave in and lay back, gingerly holding the wound on his back.

  _______

  Teeny entered the pharmacy to find Jax and Rocky lining up drugs on the countertop.

  “I need an intravenous bactericidal for Tin.”

  Jax smiled. “You mean Camel Toe, don’t you?”

  Teeny turned to him. “Shut up, Moose Knuckle. I need a couple of pints of blood from you.”

  The smile left his face for a couple of seconds, and then he laughed. “Bwa ha ha. I prefer Moose over Camels. Much rather be in the woods than the desert.”

  Rocky smiled and went to the refrigerator to grab an IV bag of antibiotics for her friend. “What do you need the blood for? It didn’t seem like he lost much.”

  “Not for him. I want to test a theory I have. Raines died like no other wanderer that I have seen so far. And it was after he took a pretty big chunk out of Tin.”

  “So you think the blood had something to do with it?”

  Rocky watched her leave with the IV bags and turned to Jax. “All right Moo—”

  He held up his hand right away. “Yeah, we’re not going to play that game for long.”

  She chuckled as she grabbed the supplies to draw blood and a vial of RabAvert.

  “Let’s go, Jaxxy. We need to get this down to O’Reilly and Laudner. We’ll draw your blood down in the pathology lab.”

  _______

  Isaiah grabbed the bowl of oatmeal that Hector offered and moved toward the elevator. Several of the seven remaining men under the Lord’s and his protection tried to follow him.

  Turning toward them, he held up his hand. “I need to commune with the Lord in private. Feed yourselves and get some rest. He has some trials that we must pass to be accepted into his kingdom. I must find out what these new sinners are in his divine plan. The Rapture is upon us, and he obviously placed them in our path. I’ll be back soon to spread his word.”

  Isaiah stepped into the elevator and pressed 4 to go to the top floor of the hospital. He knew that was where the chapel was due to having helped several of his parishioners pass to God’s kingdom in this place.

  After saying a prayer over his meal, he ate the cold, tasteless gruel, eating only to sustain himself. The fact that it was tasteless didn’t bother him. The elevator arrived at the fourth floor as he took the last bite. Moving out of the elevator, he set the empty bowl on a trashcan that was right outside th
e door. The heels of his boots clacked on the hard floor as he moved down the hallway to the chapel.

  Crossing himself before entering, he said a prayer. “Forgive me for my sins, Lord. I accept you into my heart and only live to carry out your will.”

  Moving through the doors and into the chapel, he saw the back of the head of a woman sitting in the front pew with her head bowed in prayer. He didn’t want to disturb her, so he walked quietly to the front and knelt beneath the altar and the prominent depiction of Christ’s crucifixion. He crossed himself again and prayed to himself for several minutes with his hands clasped before spreading his arms wide and praying aloud. It was a natural reaction to the spirit entering his soul.

  “Lord God, creator of all life, enter my pitiful soul and absolve my sins.”

  He gave a sharp intake of breath and began speaking in tongues. Anyone who was listening would not have understood anything he said. He knew, or believed, that it was an ancient language that God had bestowed upon him so that they could secretly communicate. After speaking and gasping for air for several minutes, he saw stars and fell backward to lie convulsing in the isle between the pews. He continued to breathe heavily on the floor, and the stars turned to blackness.

  When he awoke, there was the blurry image of the woman standing over him. “You truly have the spirit in you, my son.”

  The voice was familiar.

  His vision slowly cleared, and when the image became clear, he recognized the woman. It was his mother. Not as she had looked in her later years, but as she had when he was a young man and they attended church together.

  “Mother?”

  Tears streamed down his temples as he lay there on the floor.

  She closed her eyes and with a slight and pleasant smile nodded.

  He scrambled to his feet, avoiding touching her, and sat in the pew that was closest to him. “But you are in the Lord’s arms, Mother. I gave you mercy months ago.”

  “But I am in the Lord’s kingdom, my sweet Isaiah. And he has rejected your father and brother, leaving their tainted spirits to be claimed by the Dark One.”

  He ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair.

  “He has sent me here to give you a message, sweet Isaiah.”

  He slid out of the pew and back to his knees. “Give me his message, Mother. I live to serve him.”

  “The twins are the product of the devil himself. They must not be allowed to continue on their quest. They bring the desolation of the Dark One to our world. The Rapture must be allowed to continue its course. It is the cleansing of mankind!”

  There was a figure behind him looking through the window in the door of the chapel. His head was wrapped in gauze, and when he moved away, it was with a rolling gait that was obviously painful. When reaching the end of the hallway, he turned and used the stairs even though it was a chore to do so.

  The reverend banged out of the chapel and clomped down the hallway to the elevator. Pressing the button, he wondered why it had not stayed on this floor. He stepped into the elevator and turned back to look down the hallway. He saw his mother glide rather than walk out of the chapel doors and turn to him. After smiling her sweet smile, her image turned to dust and was blown away by a breeze that couldn’t have been there.

  _______

  Jax was sitting on a table in the pathology lab getting the second pint of blood drained when Teeny entered through the swinging double doors.

  “How’s it going, Rocky?”

  “Just about there, boss.”

  Teeny put her hands on her hips and gave her friend a “cut the shit” look before grabbing the first pint of blood and tipping it back and forth, rubbing it so that the anticoagulant in the bag mixed well with the blood.

  She turned to O’Reilly. “I’m going to need something from you if there is to be a chance of curing you.”

  He shrugged as Laudner moved to his side. “Whatever needs to be done, Doc.”

  She looked back and forth between the two. “I need some chompers to experiment on.”

  He smiled real big and chuckled. “Just how the hell are we supposed to do that?”

  “That’s not my problem, soldier.” She took in Jax in her gaze. “Between the three of you ground pounders, I’m sure you can figure out something. There are plenty to choose from right outside the front door.”

  O’Reilly looked at Laudner and Jax, shaking his head and chuckling.

  Jax laughed. “Bwa ha ha! Guess my brother is rubbing off on her. Ha, he loves giving orders to people.”

  He looked at the bag and saw that it was pretty full, so grabbed the tube and yanked the needle out of his arm. Jumping down of the table, he stopped for a second and wavered as stars filled his vision.

  Teeny and Rocky grabbed his arms and pushed him back to the table.

  “Not so fast, Moose Knuckle. You need a couple of cookies, some juice, and about an hour’s rest before you can execute this plan.”

  As Jax scooted his butt back onto the table, the doors to the lab banged open and Marty came shuffling through. “Te whewhe ith flanning thu pill thin an Thax.”

  Teeny ran to him. “I’m sorry, Marty. I haven’t had time to let you know how sorry I am that Leonard did this to you. We’ll do everything we can to help to fix what we can. Let me see why you are having problems talking.”

  He stopped, and tears ran down his mangled face. He stuck out his tongue to show her. Leonard had cut his tongue in strips.

  Rocky cringed from behind Teeny. “Holy crap. This guy was a psycho.”

  Teeny looked back at her with an angry expression. Rocky gave her an I’m sorry look.

  Teeny looked back at Marty. “We can fix this, honey, but I’m going to need to give you a local and a mild sedative.”

  He nodded.

  She pulled the bottle of pills that she had in her pocket for Tin and dumped two out onto her hand. Offering them to him, she turned and poked her chin toward the table, where there were several cartons of juice she had brought for Jax. She grabbed one and handed it to Marty as he threw the pills to the back of his throat and sucked the juice from the container.

  He waved his hand at Teeny. “Et’s go.”

  Teeny shook her head as she moved over to the cabinets. She grabbed a long-bladed scalpel and a Bunsen burner and returned to the table where Marty was seated.

  “Can you go get us some antibiotic salve and gauze, dear?”

  She gave no argument this time. She just hurried out because they wouldn’t have any of that type of thing in the pathology lab.

  When she came back, Teeny was heating the scalpel with the Bunsen burner. Marty was getting droopy eyed but was still coherent enough to take directions.

  “All right, Marty, this isn’t going to be pleasant. I need you to stick your tongue out far enough for Rocky to grab it with the hemostats. I’m going to sear and cut between each strip of tongue so that there is a fresh wound to grow it back together.”

  He blinked his eyes again, and tears flowed down his cheeks in earnest as he stuck his tongue out. Both Teeny and Rocky had tears of their own rolling down their cheeks. Teeny poked the needle with the local anesthetic into several places. She knew that no matter how much local they used, he would still feel pain. Rocky grabbed his tongue and used leverage to pull it out far enough. He groaned in pain at that and screamed as Teeny continued with the operation. After making fresh wounds between each piece, she rubbed salve on it, and after all were done, she wrapped it with gauze.

  “We should be able to unwrap it in about an hour, sweetie.”

  Teeny grabbed a pen and pad and brought it back to Marty. “Now, what were you trying to tell us?”

  He took them from her but just stared past her toward the doors to the lab.

  Everyone in the room turned to look, and there was the reverend standing inside the room with his hand
s behind his back. He clopped over to the table where Marty was and looked down at him.

  “This young man needs the blessing of the Lord.”

  He didn’t wait for permission from Marty. He just put one hand on his forehead and one in the air as he closed his eyes and turned his face to heaven. “Lord, bring this man peace and healing for his wounded body and soul. Give him the strength to endure and forgive those who have sinned against him as he asks for forgiveness for his own sins. We all bear witness to his willingness to repent. Son, do you wish to repent your sins?”

  Marty’s eyes darted to Teeny, and she gave him a slight nod. The reverend didn’t see this because his eyes were still to heaven. When he didn’t receive an immediate answer, he looked down with fire and brimstone in his eyes.

  Marty quickly nodded emphatically.

  The reverend accepted this and turned his face back to heaven. “Lord, grant this man entrance unto your bosom when his time on this earth has come to an end. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I absolve you of your sins. Go forth with the assurance that God will accept you into his kingdom if you lead a holy life.”

  Marty looked between each of his friends before returning to the man in black standing over him. “Uh, thak wu?”

  The reverend stepped back and looked at the others in the room. When he got to Jax, his stare became intense and he gave a frightening smile—frightening to everyone except Jax.

  Jax leaned toward him until Rocky broke the tension by speaking up. “OK, isn’t it time to go fishing for chompers?”

  The reverend gave her a questioning look and turned to walk out of the lab.

  _______

  The three men stood on the ledge looking out at the storm. The wind was whistling over the roof. They had been at the hospital four hours, and it had not let up. Jax looked at the other two, shrugged, and jumped down to the roof of the ambulance. As if on cue, the winds died and the rain stopped.

  He looked up at the sky to see the stars shining through a huge hole in the clouds. “Huh, look at that. I scared it.”

  O’Reilly jumped down next to him. “It’s the eye, bonehead.”