by Ricky Sides
“If you want to be our friends, then why haven’t you invited us to come live at your refuge?” Raman asked bluntly.
Herb’s response to that question was equally blunt. “Because the first time we saw you guys, you were about to kill two innocent people in order to deal with one man who hadn’t even died and turned yet.”
Raman frowned, and he looked as if he was going to argue the point further, but Bernie interrupted the discussion when he returned with two of the older women.
“What’s it going to be, Raman?” Herb asked.
“Go ahead. We’ll do things your way, this time.”
At a nod from Herb, Randy elevated his chair and Jason and Ed left the bus with the supplies they had brought to help the people of Hunter. Under Randy’s watchful eyes, Ed gave Raman and one of his men instructions on how to administer the injections.
“June says this will protect us from the zombies,” one of the women said after Ed injected her with the nanobot vaccine.
“No, ma’am. I’m afraid that’s not how these work,” Ed stated. “The shots immunize you against the Akins’ parasites, but a zombie could still kill you. You just won’t have to worry about becoming one.”
“That beats getting shot because you get bitten,” the woman said, looking pointedly at Raman. “That’s good enough for me.” She looked thoughtful for a few seconds, and then she asked, “How long will the protection from the parasites last?”
“We hope for the lifetime of the recipient,” Ed stated. “That’s what the manufacturers claimed. Of course, there was no way to test that claim prior to their distribution. We have been testing our people and so far, the injections are still working for us after several months.”
Raman and his men watched as Ed administered the immunization shots. Raman remarked that the procedure seemed straightforward enough, and that he was confident he could give the rest of the people their injections.
“Children are more difficult,” Ed stated. “They’ll be frightened, and tend to squirm around a lot. That makes me nervous. I’m afraid they’ll be fidgeting so much that I hurt them more than necessary. Try getting the parents to help with them. That makes things smoother.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Raman responded.
“Go ahead and bring out some more of your people,” Herb said. “Ed can supervise you giving a few of the shots to make certain you’ve got the process down pat, and then we can be on our way.”
“Get the rest of the women,” Raman ordered Bernie.
When the women came out of the house and gathered near, Ed watched as Raman gave a middle-aged woman her injection. He seemed nervous as he administered the shot in the woman’s arm. “I don’t like doing this,” he said to no one in particular.
“It gets easier with practice,” Ed assured him.
“Did I hurt you?” Raman asked the woman, ignoring Ed’s reassurance.
“Yes, a little,” she answered, “but if what June says about these shots is true, then the pain is well worth it.”
“It’s true,” Ed assured the woman.
“This better be safe for our people, or there will be hell to pay,” Raman said, looking at Herb who was still sitting in the driver’s seat.
“The nanobots were originally developed to fight cancer. The scientists couldn’t manage to cure cancer with them, but my wife suggested they try it on the Akins’ parasites, and they work. They were developed over a period of years, and were designed to help people, so they are safe.”
“Hey, is that one of your people walking up the street?” Randy asked from his elevated guard position, interrupting the conversation. Using the low powered scope on his rifle, he was studying the man walking toward them. He had yet to determine whether the man was a zombie. If he was one of the undead, then he had recently changed because his clothing appeared worn but serviceable. There were no apparent wounds on the man either.
Raman studied the approaching man through a pair of field glasses for several seconds. Then he said, “That’s Steve Childers. He lives with his wife and son in a house a few miles north of here.”
The approaching man stopped in the road about four hundred feet from the bus and stared at the people assembled in the yard.
“We trade with them from time to time,” Raman added. “See what he wants, Bernie.”
Bernie trotted off to meet the man on the road and see what he wanted.
“Can you people spare three more injections?” Raman asked hopefully.
“I think we can manage that,” Herb replied.
“Raman!” Bernie shouted from the road. “He’s been bitten!”
“Damn!” Raman swore. “Bring him here!”
“Ed, you’d better get another kit for them,” Herb instructed the medic.
When Bernie arrived with the newcomer, the first words spoken by Steven came out in a rush as if he had rehearsed what he wanted to say and was in a hurry to get to the point. “Raman, I know what you have to do to me, but before you kill me, I want you to promise to go get Joanne and Sam. They’ll never make it alone at our place.”
“Whoa, hold up there, Steve,” Raman said to the agitated man. “No one’s going to kill you. Now just slow down and let us help you.”
Steve seemed surprised by Raman’s response. He said, “But, I’ve been bitten by a zombie. You don’t have any choice but to kill me.”
“Where were you bitten?” asked Ed who was standing near the men waiting to assist.
“My arm,” Steve replied. He removed his denim jacket, moving gingerly when he pulled his right arm out of the sleeve. “Joanne bandaged it for me,” he added as Ed examined the bloody bandage.
The wound was on the bottom of the man’s forearm, near the inside of the elbow joint. Ed shook his head and said, “I need to unwrap this to see what I can do to help you.”
“Why bother? Look, I know what you people are going to have to do to me. There’s no need to waste time looking at my wound. I just want you to promise to go get my wife and son and bring them back here. They’ll never make it alone.”
“Mr. Childers, we have no intention of killing you,” Herb promised. “We have a cure, but first our medic needs to see to your arm. Stop wasting time. Let him do his job. While he’s doing that, I want you to tell me exactly what happened. How did you come to be bitten by a zombie?”
Herb’s take charge demeanor had a calming effect on Steve. Here was a man who was accustomed to giving orders to others and being obeyed, so Steve thought he must be on a mission for the government. He let the medic begin working on his arm as he responded, “I was out working in our garden when I heard it moan. It only moaned once and I couldn’t tell where it came from. We haven’t seen any of those things since Raman and his people cleared our area a couple of months back. I heard it, but couldn’t see it, so I headed for the house, hoping to get out of sight before it spotted me.” At that point, Steve’s face took on a haunted look. “It was in the corn. It came crashing out of it right in front of me as I was running for the house. I threw my hand up to fend it off as I collided with it, hard. We went down in a heap on the ground.”
Steve shuddered visibly as Ed worked on his arm. The bandage had stuck to the wound, and pulling it free had to be a very painful process. He continued, “I was trying to push myself off the ground when I felt it bite my arm. I don’t remember picking up the rock. I don’t even remember deciding to hit the zombie in the head. I felt it bite me, and the next thing I knew, I was hitting it over and over with a big rock I must have pulled out of the dirt. It was awful. I broke its head open, but it wouldn’t stay down, so I had to do it,” Steve said.
Steve looked at Ed who paused to regard the man he was treating. “I didn’t want to do it. He made me. God help me. I pulled a rebar rod out of the ground. It was five feet long, and pretty heavy. I’d used it for a tomato plant stake. I... I stabbed it in the head as hard as I could. It stopped moving then.”
“You did what you had to do,” Ed assur
ed the man, and then he resumed work on the wounded arm. “Raman, hand me a syringe, please,” he requested. When Raman handed him the requested injection device, and started to step back, he added, “Stay here. You need to learn this. When you’re working with a zombie bite and injecting the victim, get close to the site with the vaccination. Not in the wound mind you, but close.” Having finished his explanation, Ed administered the vaccination. “This permits the nanobots to locate the parasites quicker as they try to spread.”
“What if they are already past that area? Won’t they miss them?” asked Raman.
“No, they’ll track them down,” Ed explained.
“Finish telling us what happened,” Herb prompted Steve. “Are you sure it was dead?”
“Yes. I was worried about that, so I stabbed it in the brain several times. Then I went to the house and Joanne bandaged my arm. I left her and Sam locked in the house and came to ask Raman to go get them and shelter my family here.”
“You didn’t see any other zombies?” Herb queried.
“No. It was just the one.”
“It’s been my experience that where there’s one, others are nearby. They tend to follow one another,” Herb said.
“And I left my wife and son alone. I’ve got to get back to them,” Steve said. His eyes betrayed a deep seated fear at what he might find when he reached his family.
“We’re heading north,” Herb pointed out. “We’ll take you home, if you like.”
“Yeah, I’d appreciate that, mister,” Steve said.
“Okay. Let Ed finish wrapping your arm, and then we’ll get on the road,” Herb replied. Turning his attention to Raman, he said, “If his family needs to relocate, will you people welcome them to this community?”
“We’ll do what we can for them. I don’t know offhand where we’d put them, but we wouldn’t turn them away,” Raman pledged.
Herb nodded his understanding. He took Raman’s response to mean that the Childers family would be welcomed to the community, and that the details of their relocation would be ironed out if and when it became necessary. “Finish up as quickly as you can, Ed. Jason, come back aboard and get the rest of the injections earmarked for Hunter,” Herb instructed. “Randy will watch Ed’s back.”
“Don’t forget we used one of the injections on Steve,” Raman was quick to remind Jason as he headed for the bus.
“I won’t,” Jason promised.
“Hey, it’s not burning anymore,” Steve remarked.
“What’s not burning?” asked Raman who was confused by what Steve had said.
“The parasites cause a burning sensation you can feel moving from the bite throughout your body. The nanobots kill the parasites, so the burning stops,” Herb explained.
“You mean they’ve already done their job? That was fast,” Steve said.
“Sometimes it takes longer. It depends upon how far the parasites have advanced in taking over the body of the host,” Herb explained.
“There now, we’re good to go,” Ed said as he finished bandaging the wound.
“Is he going to need more in-depth medical assistance?” Herb asked.
“I’m worried about infection,” Ed admitted. “That’s always a possibility. Other than that, I’d say just use the arm as little as possible and give it time to heal.”
Jason gave Raman the small bag containing the immunization kits. “The three extra injections you requested are in there as well,” he informed Raman.
“Don’t wait too long to administer them,” Herb advised Raman. “It’d be a shame to delay that, and then lose some to accidental breakage and that sort of thing.”
“I wish you’d brought us more. What if our community grows?” Raman asked.
“You just admitted you didn’t know where the Childers family would stay if they needed to relocate here,” Randy interjected.
“You’re pretty mouthy for a subordinate, aren’t you?” Raman replied, bristling at Randy’s criticism.
“He’s my second-in-command,” Herb stated. “I imagine he has killed more zombies than you have even seen, including one very large and pissed off bear.”
“Okay, so he’s qualified. I get that. Sorry, I guess I’m just a bit put out that you people won’t take us in at your refuge.”
“I never said we wouldn’t. We might, but first I need to get to know you a bit better. We’ll swing back by another day and talk about that some more. Right now, we need to see to Mr. Childers’ problem, and then get on the road to rescue the people up north,” Herb explained as Ed and Steve boarded the bus.
“If you decide against it, would you at least bring us some more of the immunization shots, and maybe some weapons and ammo?” Raman asked.
“That’s something we’ll have to discuss another day,” Herb said. “We’d provide the immunizations, within reason. After all, you may need more for newcomers who join your community. Unfortunately, our weapons are another matter. We don’t have enough for our own people and have to share as it is.” Herb’s last statement wasn’t true, but he had no intentions of informing Raman of the status of their weapons and ammunition supplies.
***
Dana Rainey frowned as she sat in her small isolation room. It contained a little cot and a curtained off corner where a five gallon bucket, equipped with a toilet seat, served as a portable toilet. She was angry, due to her confinement, and determined that she would make Herb pay for the perceived insults he had inflicted upon her. She was also furious with Bill Wiley, who she felt should have come to visit her during her confinement. “You two just wait. I won’t always be locked up in here,” she muttered ominously to herself.
She heard laughter in the room next to hers. She knew that room was also an isolation room. Nancy had said as much when she was about to be locked in her room the previous night. They wouldn’t let her have visitors because she was in isolation, but there were multiple people in the next room. This apparent injustice had her furious with Doctor Fielding and his wife Nancy. She vowed to find a way to repay the doctor and nurse for what they were doing to her.
In the room next door, the Gunn family remained together despite the fact that only Tommy had tested positive for the parasites. Doctor Fielding had been authorized to make an exception in the case because the family was new to the refuge and would be less traumatized if they were permitted to remain together. Since Tommy’s blood tested for a small amount of the parasites, the doctor felt confident that a test the next morning would show him free from infestation. If that proved to be the case, then he would be released, and the doctor had so informed the family. This led to a general feeling of happiness and elation on their part. Earlier that day, Tommy had faced the prospect of being killed and leaving his wife and daughter alone to face the zombie-infested world without him. Now, they were in the refuge, which was much more secure and safe than their former home had been.
Meanwhile, the woman in the adjacent room felt a growing resentment toward the people who in her opinion had treated her as little more than a prisoner. Her eyes narrowed in anger as once again laughter rang out in the room next to hers. “They’ll pay. Oh, yes, they are all going to pay,” Dana said vindictively.
Chapter 7
The rescue.
“That’s my place, up ahead,” Steve Childers said from his seat behind Randy.
About a thousand feet away, Herb saw the house and the large garden behind it. “Get topside, buddy,” he said to Randy as he braked the vehicle to a smooth stop. “I want a visual recon of the house before we approach it,” he added.
“I’m on it,” Randy responded.
Turning to face Steve as Randy elevated his chair so that he could have an unobstructed view of the home, Herb said, “If anything is wrong, then I want you to stay in the bus when we get to the house. We are trained to work as a team. Leave rescuing them to us, should that prove necessary.”
“I’m not afraid,” Steve said defensively.
“I never thought you were,” Her
b said with an air of sincerity that put the worried family man at ease. “It’s more like you’ll probably step into the line of fire because you don’t know how we work. That could cause us to accidently shoot you, or get one of my men killed because he couldn’t fire when he needed to do so. It’s just safer for everyone if only the team handles it.”
“Okay. I guess I see your point,” Steve conceded.
“Herb, we have a breach in the front porch window,” Randy stated quietly.
“Was it broken before?” Herb asked Steve.
“No!” the man responded and tried to get to his feet, but he felt a hand on his shoulder press him back down.
“Leave this to us, like Herb said,” Jason ordered.
“That’s my family in there, man!” Steve said insistently.
“Right now, you can best help them by staying put in the bus so we can do our jobs,” Jason replied in a kind but firm tone of voice.
“Do you see any other sign of activity?” Herb asked.
“No, just the one window,” Randy said from his elevated seat.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Herb said, and then he outlined his plan.
Herb put the bus in gear and drove up the street. He stopped in front of the house and opened the door of the bus. Jason was the first man out, followed by Herb, and then Ed. Steve moved to the front of the minibus and closed the door so that nothing could get inside with him and Randy, who was going to be giving fire support from his elevated position.
Jason moved to the window with his rifle at the ready. He pointed it inside the living room of the dwelling as his eyes scanned the room. “As far as I can tell, it’s clear, but there are blind spots that I can’t see,” he whispered in warning to the other two men.
“I’ve got this one,” Herb said, and Jason stepped back out of the way. Herb moved forward, leaning his upper body in through the window opening to look first right and then left in rapid succession. Satisfied that the room was clear, he wasted no time in scrambling through the window. “Watch for glass on the bottom,” he warned his men in a whisper. He heard them enter behind him. He knew without having to look that Jason would enter and step to the right, and then Ed would move to the left.