by Hamrick, R M
* * *
In all the chaos, Dwyn and Gordon had buried Ziv. Audra had made trips to the river for large, smooth, speckled stones to stack and mark his grave. Their community, still in shock with the news of the reversion and never having enjoyed Ziv’s brusque personality, had paid little attention. His heroic feat to save them all had been relegated to a futile effort. Another failure on their list.
Audra became familiar with the experience. The people of Osprey Point had liked the idea of her out in the woods, bringing people in - most people owed their lives to her - but this past week had shown them she was no hero. She had possibly wakened them, just for them to fall back into madness and pain.
They gathered at his grave to pay their respects. Satomi kept her arm around Ryder, who used a crutch to hold herself steady due to her injury or Satomi’s tight connection, Audra wasn’t sure. Gordon and Dwyn stood nearby. Audra looked down to Ziv. He was where he’d want to be. Right next to Vesna.
“When I first met you all, I didn’t understand why Ziv was out here,” started Audra. “He didn’t seem to want to be out here, and he didn’t have any qualms about letting us know.”
Some giggles in the tiny audience. Then, a sniffle.
“But the thing about doing the right thing - is that you don’t have to do it enthusiastically. You just have to do it. And when forced into situations, Ziv did the right thing.
“Ziv was loyal. He held onto Vesna’s ideals and friendship long after she passed. He died making Vesna’s plan to aerosolize the antidote finally a reality.
“Though they reverted, it gave us the time we needed to save Satomi. He did that. Sometimes it might feel like all we do is for naught. That’s how this world is now. Most of what we do, try to do, see done - is futile. But it’s still important to do.
“When Ziv stood here as we watched over and spoke over Vesna’s memorial, he said that he wanted to be strong. He wanted to be here for us. And he was. And that says a lot about a person. A promise of change kept.
“He did both no harm and harm when needed. Rather than doggedly stick to old principles, he assessed and did what was correct. We can only hope to perform such a task as we go on about our days with both these two showing us the way. They’ve died to make sure that we’re OK in the end. And we will be OK in the end, because of them.”
Dwyn went to hug her and to hold her. And despite being in sight of everyone in their group, Audra let him. She let him wrap his arms around her, because they felt good. Because if it was all for nothing, then what did it matter? They could only do the good and right things.
“Thank you,” he whispered into her hair.
“For what?”
“For sharing what we all needed to hear.”
“It’s what Ziv told us with his life,” she said into his chest.
“But you gave it words.”
Audra’s tears flowed freely and did not stop for a while.
* * *
The salt dried on her neck and collarbone as Audra returned with the others. She walked past the mess hall again, diverting her eyes, not able to bring herself to enter - those men fending off Lisa with just a chair. It could happen again. When? Weeks from now? Days?
Audra looked back at the gate, which was now shut. But the forest beyond their chain-link fences called to her. Maybe she’d go back out. Lose herself in the fall leaves. Before she could decide, her escape was thwarted.
“Hi Jack.”
He and his father were allowed temporary heavily-guarded stay while Audra decided what to do with them.
“It’s Peter. Peter Bren, Jr.” He offered his hand. Audra lifted her hand to meet it. “I assume Satomi explained who my father is.”
“Yes, but why don’t you tell me?” They sat down on the limestone wall. Audra stretched out her legs, crossing them at the ankle. She propped herself up with her hands.
Jack’s - or Peter’s - eyes went shiny. “Dad’s a scientist. Worked for Lysent in D.C. He knew exactly what was going on when the outbreaks started, stockpiled the antiviral. We had it made, considering. Then, it stopped working, or never did work - I dunno. So Dad decided to modify it. He thought that if he turned the zombies into soldiers, we’d be better protected. He even tried to enhance us. He started with himself - you can see that didn’t work out well.”
Audra listened, staring at the little grasses cropping up around the cracked concrete. Her own memories were very different from the start, and yet, here they were.
Peter continued, “Dad was the scientist, but I was the builder. I built the moving convoy when Dad got sick. We figured we’d seek out other Lysent scientists. Maybe they could continue Dad’s work. I guess we got out of hand. The names. Our stupid plastic thrones. The fighting. We just assumed everyone out here was bad, deserved it, I guess. Jill’s idea to burn that zom. Figured they’re incurable anyway and it’d scare Satomi.” His voice honeyed as he talked about his sister.
“If you knew your army wouldn’t really be cured, why’d you surrender?” asked Audra. It was something that had been bothering her.
“We were... unprepared for you. Greenly came too fast. It was over before I knew it. Evelyn was dead. I realized I just wanted my dad - as flawed as he is - as flawed as Evelyn was.”
Evelyn was flawed. So was Audra. They’d both tried to rely on destruction, and look where it had gotten them. She thought of Satomi’s mission statement, those Latin words that directed her path, and she thought of Ziv’s reluctant but correct choices. She knew what to do.
“You can stay if you want. We don’t have a lot of free space. Our enemy has a virtually unstoppable army. And we’re an outbreak waiting to happen... but we can live together. Help each other.”
“Thank you. I don’t mind tight quarters. I can bunk with my dad.”
Audra understood. If she had family left, she wouldn’t let them out of her sight either.
“We’ll ask Satomi if she’d like to help with your father,” she said, standing up and stretching.
They both knew she would.
Audra brushed through the gate. She started with a slow jog to prevent any protesting muscles, and so that Osprey Point didn’t think she was fleeing, even if that’s how she felt. As soon as she was out of eyesight, she light-stepped into the woods. She preferred it over the road. You had to dodge and juke. You had to be clever with your steps, else get caught up or slip. Her cadence increased and her speed picked up. The lighter wisps of loose hair moved this way and that against her neck with her rhythm. It was a rhythm that made Audra feel in sync with both nature and herself. She felt more her, the farther she ran.
She would not get to run long. The sun danced around the trees at eye level, threatening to go under as Audra flirted with dusk. She looked up to see orange and red cresting the sky. What should have been a pleasant sunset seemed to be an omen of blood to come. It pushed her forward, faster and faster. She careened through the woods, jumping over logs, skidding in leaves, light branches scraping her face and chest. She’d continue. She’d keep going. Just as she was doing now.
Audra would have loved to run as far as she could in one direction, set up camp for the night, and be alone. She would have loved to gaze at the stars and watch the satellites fly by. She’d pretend she could be as distant as those satellites, so far away that she could only see peace. No warring factions, no wandering sick, no desolate cities serving as harsh growing grounds for the weeds. Instead, she’d see green, and blue, so much blue. Audra wondered what the ocean looked like now. She hadn’t seen it since she was oh so very young. How blue was it? Had it changed now that man was basically gone? Would man eventually be gone?
Running until night overtook her was not a viable plan at the moment. They needed her to be present in Osprey Point. Audra reluctantly turned back around. She started toward her community, with all its flaws and with all the trouble they were in. She ran towards her home, whether she considered it that or not.
Home would have Belinda. It woul
d have family.
Belinda, it had not. Family, possibly.
Chapter Twenty:
Lysent’s Announcement
It turned out Audra didn’t need to reach out to Lysent. As she and her small core group approached Lysent headquarters, an announcement was already in progress. They hung outside the fences, just within earshot, a place Audra was familiar with. Audra recalled Greenly’s previous announcements - the cure, the tagging program, their stance on rebellion as they executed Vesna. Greenly’s announcements always changed her life.
And this one wouldn’t be any different.
Larange Greenly stood in front of the Lysent plaza. Her mahogany podium shined with polish. Audra tried to decipher what was different. Greenly was sandwiched between two guards, different from ones Audra had seen previously. And the protesters. They used to be a permanent fixture for these announcements and were nowhere to be found. Vesna’s execution must have put an end to that.
“I have grave news today,” Greenly’s voice carried to them. They continued to hide in the brush. “You may be familiar with the group to the southeast of us. They are a small group who stole the antiviral from our trains, antiviral meant to go to one of you. You may have heard that they are curing people without regard to financial status, which I’m sure will hurt them come winter time when they find themselves stretched too thin.
I have done my best to protect you from them. One of their leaders had to be executed on this very stage.”
Audra felt the heat rise to her face. Her blood was boiling. How dare Greenly talk about Vesna up there as if any of that was a favor to anyone.
“Unfortunately, their experiments have not ended there. They have stolen other things from us, performed genetic therapies that typically would have been vetted by a review board in times before the infection. Without that oversight, without our oversight, they have done reckless things.”
She hesitated, then continued, “At times, I wonder if they weren’t doing these irresponsible experiments before the outbreak which led to our troubles today.”
“Wow,” said Gordon, and he lightly punched Audra in the arm to get her attention. “Did she really just blame us for the zombie plague?”
“I think she did,” replied Dwyn, picking some berries from the bush he was behind. “It’s smart. If we come out with our proof that Lysent started it, we’re pulling papers from OUR laboratory. She’ll say, it wasn’t Lysent, it was us.”
Gordon swore. “Is this what it’s all about?”
“I don’t think so,” said Audra, wishing they would all hush. Greenly didn’t assemble her people just to poke holes in an old story.
“Our scientists have discovered the group out there has experimented too carelessly. They pushed forward with a supposedly ‘temperature-stable’ antiviral. My scientists avoided this unnecessary upgrade because the proteins show subtle deterioration. Their nonperfect replica seems to be malfunctioning, leaving trace, dormant amounts of the virus in the host. We haven’t been able to measure it in any blood test; however, for reasons unknown for now, the viral load can increase and take the host back over.”
Greenly knew.
Murmurs and cries filled the plaza.
“I want to be clear!” shouted Greenly over the din. The trained crowd quieted.
“I want to be clear. Anyone cured through Lysent proper is not in danger. The antiviral works, just not the bastardizations found via the black market. The group to our southeast is an outbreak waiting to happen. Their entire community is a ticking time bomb. If you live with anyone cured by one of these underground means, know that you are living alongside a zombie in sleeping.
That’s the danger of doing this on your own. That’s the danger of no oversight. That’s the danger of awakening people without due process!”
“She’s blaming us for the whole damn thing,” said Dwyn. His berries fell from his hand, forgotten.
“That she is,” Audra muttered. She backed even farther from the fence. Suddenly, she didn’t want to be seen.
“Holy crap. Do you think she’s right?” Gordon asked.
Audra wasn’t sure how to answer that.
“She could be lying,” she said thoughtfully. “Ja- Peter said they had the same problem.”
“Isn’t that a dangerous lie to tell your community?”
“Do you think she cares?” countered Audra. “She just has to keep up the charade until she sows enough discord.”
“Enough discord to do what?” asked Dwyn.
“Prime her people for war. To look the other way or cheer when she wipes us out,” Audra explained.
“So we’re the villains,” concluded Gordon. “If I’m the villain... I can’t go greet my daughter. I can’t approach my family.”
It seemed to be sinking in for Gordon. Audra had wondered when it would.
“What do you mean?” asked Dwyn.
“I’m a zombie, in waiting. There’s no reason to tell my family I’m here and safe... because I’m not.”
Audra’s heart crumbled to pieces and her stomach felt pitted. She had been trying to help everyone. Was Lysent right? Was their antiviral flawed? Had they rushed something that shouldn’t have been rushed?
“But maybe you can tell them?” asked Dwyn. “Maybe they’d want to know even if... you know, you’re still sick.”
“I can’t! Don’t you see! I could turn and destroy everything and everyone near me. I’m a - what did she call me? - a ticking time bomb. I can’t be anywhere near my daughter. Ever. For the rest of whatever life I have left.”
The others fell silent. It didn’t really matter what else Greenly had to say. They had come to warn her, but now there was nothing to do here. Greenly had beat them to the punch. And she had punched hard. It was time to go and mop things up at Osprey Point. And prepare. Prepare for war.
* * *
Her legs couldn’t carry her back from Lysent fast enough. Audra was ready to get back. Running was now just for transportation - nothing could be achieved by it. No longer would she be out searching for zombies to cure. That was on hold indefinitely. They could be on the verge of a massive outbreak, a wave across the country where survivors and zombies were pitted against each other once more. Were they ready this time? With no cure in sight, how should they treat the sick?
More leaves softened her path than shaded her from the sun. Lysent was correct on another point. Winter was coming. And they needed to be ready. With the crunch of leaves, Dwyn finally asked the question Audra dreaded.
“Do you think it’s true?”
“Do I think what is true?” she asked to buy time. Was it true that she had lost or would lose everyone she cared about? Was it true that all of what Audra had lived for was worthless, dying, or dead?
“Do you think that those cured by Lysent are OK?”
That wasn’t what he was asking. He was asking if he was OK. Was he on borrowed time? Would he turn on his family?
Audra had no answer for him.
End of Book Two
Book Three: Chasing Extinction
CHAPTER ONE
COURIER
The oak leaf litter, muddled browns and rich blacks, muffled Audra’s footsteps. But the bare trees did little to shield her approach as her short, lithe frame climbed through the Georgian brush. Pearl skin and speckled green eyes flashed underneath a thin hood which she adjusted over her hair. Although summer’s coppery highlights were fading back to their chocolaty auburn, it remained in sharp contrast to the colors of a bleak winter.
Audra felt the outline of the scrawled letter through her threadbare jacket. She’d have to remember to put it in her pack if it rained. She hadn’t delivered mail in a long while. Not since a simpler time. But, it allowed her to do the one thing she could do.
Run.
Darting through the forest was Audra’s specialty and priceless in this world where escaping a zombie’s bite meant you lived another day. Audra’s life had centered around running. First, running for Lysent
Corporation as she tried to secure a cure for her bitten sister. Then, she ran for Osprey Point to secure a cure for everyone.
Both failures on her account.
No one in her group could make sense of the formerly cured people turning back into shambling shells. Their treatment for the z-virus did not seem permanent. While Larange Greenly of Lysent blamed it on Osprey Point’s ‘reckless incompetence’, Jack from Washington DC reported Lysent’s antiviral was just as temporary.
Gordon had just located his family, but now with the risk of reversion hanging heavy, he refused to reunite with them. Instead, Audra carried his letter — a notification he was currently alive and thought of them often, and also a goodbye.
Audra wasn’t sure why she should be running anymore. It was all for naught, just lies she had believed. Just lies she had told herself.
Audra’s stomach grumbled.
Winter wasn’t a lie.
She surveyed the ground for something to settle the churning in her gut. Tracks of a nearby animal to hunt was asking for too much. She’d dig up some acorns buried by squirrels or dandelion roots sleeping through the winter — anything to make her salivate and lie to her stomach that food was on the way.
She should have packed rations for her journey, but splitting their stores between Osprey Point and their new quarantine location had made it startlingly clear there was not enough food for either group’s winter. As they divvied up their fall harvest of hickory nuts, chicory roots, and the like, it was clear winter foraging would be a daily task.
She couldn’t take from their supplies.
But, she had also forgotten the difficulties of blazing a trail. This wasn’t walking through her well-worn paths around Osprey Point or Lysent rail lines. This was navigating to a town far from the Lysent network with no clear route. Audra had forgotten how much energy it took to keep in the right direction and hike through the brush. Maybe she’d risk taking the roads back. But unfamiliar roads meant unfamiliar people and possible traps. Easy moving might turn into easy dying.
