Waking Up Dead eodl-1

by Emma Shortt

  “It’s a sick woman is all,” Sebastian corrected. “Zombie or no. If I had my cure, she’d be back to normal in no time.”

  “But you don’t, Seb,” Nancy said. “Not yet.”

  Sebastian shrugged. “I just need the final thing.”

  Something passed between the leader and the doctor and Jackson eyed them with interest. She knew Sebastian was missing one element of the concoction that he called his cure, but he couldn’t get his hands on whatever it was. He’d told her there was only one way but Nancy refused to let him try it. So he was experimenting, trying to find a way around it. Only it wasn’t going too well, and now that their brains were changing, it was even harder.

  “Let’s not get into this now,” Nancy said. “You know the rules, and like or no it is a zombie.”

  Jackson sighed and stretched, feeling the politics and not really enjoying them. “No. She’ll be Seb’s latest experiment, which means she’s got what?” She looked over at Sebastian. “Two weeks before she’s dead?”

  “Steady on,” Sebastian said, a frown chasing his face. “Two-h-ee lasted for nearly a month!”

  “A few weeks then.”

  “The reason for calling you here,” Nancy said impatiently, fixing her gaze on Jackson, and putting a halt to their conversation. “Is that the zombie cannot stay here. I won’t have them in the camp. It’s too dangerous and besides it is one of our main rules. This here is supposed to be a safe place. I can’t have zombies running around, or burrowing for that matter.” She shook her head, and muttered. “Who the fuck am I going to get to go down that hole?”

  Luke stepped next to her, his solid warmth banishing the chills Nancy’s words created. Despite the distance between them it comforted her as always and Jackson reached back with her free hand to brush against his. She took a deep breath and gripped Mandy tightly. “You don’t mean?”

  Nancy nodded grimly. “Yep, you’re gonna have to take it to the shack.”

  Chapter Thirty-four

  The drive to the shack was completely different at night and Luke found himself wishing they could have waited until the morning. But even as he thought it, he knew Nancy was right. They could not leave a zombie in what was the equivalent of a human buffet. She’d proven herself smart enough to burrow into camp without anyone stopping her. Who knew what else she could do?

  So drive they did. He, Jackson, Sebastian, Pete, and a huge, silent guy called Jay. He’d nodded, cocked his gun, and ignored everyone. Luke had raised an eyebrow in Pete’s direction, but he’d merely shrugged. This was all Nancy could or would spare. Everyone else was on the walls or checking for burrows.

  At first Luke couldn’t help but wonder why she was so willing to let Sebastian—the fucking wonder doctor—leave the camp at such a dangerous time. It was cool, which meant the zombies would be bolder, and driving at night was always precarious. But he’d discovered that Sebastian did as he pleased, went where he wanted, and no one, least of all Nancy, was willing to stop him.

  “It’s a good job we moved Two-h-ee into one of the cages,” Sebastian said as they turned down a particularly bumpy road.

  The doctor was in the back sandwiched between Pete and Jay. Jackson rode shotgun with him and if he ignored his passengers, Luke thought it could be almost like old times, as Jackson called them. Just the two of them making their journey. Less than a week ago in reality, but much longer in terms of events. It surprised Luke how much he missed it. At least then he knew where and what Jackson was doing and could try and protect her in his own way.

  “We’ll strap her down straightaway,” Jackson replied, her eyes scanning the area. “Are you going to dose her up tonight?”

  “Thought I might try something different with this one actually,” Sebastian said. “The current treatment regime is not working seeing as how I can’t get my hands on what I need, so I’ve got to start thinking outside the box as they say. Get a bit creative.”

  “And what is it you need, exactly?” Luke asked. He couldn’t help himself. The undercurrents between Nancy and the doctor hadn’t escaped him and he wondered what precisely Sebastian needed for this cure of his.

  “Oh, well, I’m not supposed to say,” Sebastian muttered.

  Pete let out a laugh. “Everyone knows anyway, Seb. You spent weeks moaning and moping about it.”

  “I did not!”

  “Yes you did. We all locked our doors just in case.”

  Locked their doors? Luke frowned, took a left, and accelerated forward. The headlights were on highbeam so they gave him a good view of the surrounding area, but still he wanted to get a move on. There and back in two hours at least, before morning proper began. “Okay, spill then,” Luke said. “You’ve dragged my woman into this after all.”

  “Luke.” Jackson swatted him on the thigh. “Less of the caveman, please.”

  “It’s true,” he defended himself, shooting Jackson a quick glance. “The least the good doctor can do is tell us what we’re up against here. ’Cause look, I’ll be honest, I’m not even sure this cure idea of yours has got any kind of legs. For all we know you could be tinkering around with no idea what the hell you’re doing.”

  “I’ve been working on this from the moment it hit,” Sebastian said. “It was my job before any of you even knew what was happening, so say what you will about me, but do not cast aspersions on my qualifications.”

  “The moment it hit?”

  The doctor shifted, and out of the corner of his eye Luke noticed Pete elbow him. “I worked with all sorts of diseases,” Sebastian said. “You know, before the end. That’s what I did as my line of work. They call me the doctor here but truth be told, I’ve never practiced proper medicine. I was always much more comfortable in research.” He shrugged. “Viruses were my thing.”

  “And you worked on this virus?” Luke asked, intrigued despite himself. “Where? The CDC?”

  Sebastian shifted on his seat. “No, I worked for a pharmaceutical company here in Texas. I got the job offer right after I finished my PhD. It was fascinating work, adapting viruses for other purposes, specifically drug delivery. When we heard about this one…” He shifted some more. “I couldn’t believe it. It was a virus unlike any I’d ever seen, and it fascinated me. There had to be a way to beat it. I knew there was, but there was so little time. Just a handful of months before nearly everyone was gone. Before they overran us all. If I’d just had more time…”

  “You’ve had two years now,” Luke said. “Granted, alone in the wilderness but how much more do you need?”

  Sebastian shrugged. “It’s not a time issue anymore. It’s about the missing ingredient.”

  “Which is what?”

  Jackson swiveled in her seat and nodded slowly. “Luke’s got a point, Seb, and I’ve been dying to know myself. We won’t tell Nancy you told us.”

  “This is so school yard,” Pete growled. “For fuck’s sake, I’ll tell you myself. Seb needs a live one.”

  “A what?”

  “He needs someone recently infected. Like within a few hours. Right, Doc?”

  Sebastian muttered something unintelligible before shuffling forward so that his face was between the two front seats. “It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he said. “We discovered in the beginning, before everyone got eaten or bitten or died, that the body makes antibodies in the very early hours of infection.”

  “Right.”

  “I need to harvest those,” Sebastian continued, his enthusiasm clearly overtaking his previous desire to keep quiet. “They’re not enough on their own. We tried that back then. The virus depresses the immune system at first, but then sends it into overload. By the time antibodies are made, the virus has taken hold and they make no difference because of the immune response. It actually uses our own immune system against us.” He scowled, as if personally offended that the virus could do that. “The antibodies need to be combined with other things,” he added. “And I think I’ve isolated what—that’s what I spent two years doing, playin
g around with immune suppressants. But it’s all theoretical because I don’t have any antibodies now.”

  “So you need a fresh zombie,” Luke said slowly.

  “Yes, only there aren’t any of those anymore.”

  “Because the zombies eat you as soon as they get you. No one has a chance to be infected anymore.”

  “Exactly. It’s a real quandary.”

  Luke scowled out at the landscape around them, wondering how many hungry zombies were close by and whether Sebastian would put up a fight if one tried to eat him, Jackson, Jay, or Pete. Maybe not. It would fit his plans perfectly. “So you’re trying something else?”

  “It probably won’t work.” Sebastian sighed. “Because I really need those antibodies.”

  A nasty thought hit him then and before he could even consider the wisdom of his actions Luke braked, hard. The truck came to a juddering halt and exclamations filled the air. Luke turned in his seat to see Sebastian half sprawled across Pete.

  “What did you see, Luke?” Jackson whispered. “Zombies? Burrows?”

  “No.” He took just a moment to cup her face and look into her very green eyes. They showed no fear. Just resolve. “Nothing like that.”

  “What gives, man?” Pete pushed Sebastian off and the doctor mumbled something before squeezing back into position.

  Luke ignored him and the querying glance of the silent Jay, locking eyes on Sebastian only. “You dare touch her,” he said, and he knew his voice was deadly.

  Sebastian gaped “What?”

  “You even think of infecting her, and I will find you and slice you up bit by bit. Don’t even consider allowing your thoughts to drift in that direction.”

  “Luke.” Jackson gasped. “He wouldn’t.”

  “We have no idea what he’d do,” Luke said. “We barely know him.”

  Sebastian spluttered and leaned forward. “That’s an outrageous thing to suggest. Jackson helps me. I need her, but not like that. I’d never knowingly infect anyone.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Of course!

  Jackson laid a hand on his arm and tugged him around. “I do know him, Luke. He’s a good guy and he wouldn’t dare. Besides I’d slice him up myself before he even got the chance.” She swirled Mandy in the air to make her point, and Luke saw the doctor swallow.

  “Let’s all calm down,” Pete said slowly. “Luke, get moving. We’ve got a zombie in the trunk and who knows if there are more prowling about, or waiting underground, for that matter.”

  Luke scowled but did as Pete asked. They shot down the road, and he tried to grab at some calm. The thought had come out of nowhere really and was probably stupid. But who knew what went through the mind of these science types? The doctor was odd and Luke didn’t trust him not to block out everything in his attempt to find his cure. After all, Luke knew a thing or two about single-mindedness, didn’t he? He saw it every day with Jackson.

  “I’d never infect anyone, Luke,” Sebastian insisted after a few minutes. “There are so few of us, I’d never do anything to harm anyone. I’m trying to save people. I want to make them well again. It’s been over two years and every day I wake up and it’s all I think about.”

  His tone was earnest and Luke shifted again, feeling a slight twinge of guilt.

  “There is no one else,” Sebastian continued. “No one who can do this. It’s just us now. We’re the last hope.”

  “We are,” Pete said.

  “I need Jackson’s help,” he added. “And yours, and Pete’s, everyone’s really. But if we do this. If we find a way to pull it off…”

  He trailed off and silence filled the car. Luke knew what they were all thinking. They were imagining a world without zombies. A world where Sebastian’s cure could bring everyone back… And then out of nowhere Luke thought of Lily. The zombie whose husband sat just a few feet away. He thought about what it would mean for her, for the redheaded zombie in the back, for the tens of thousands everywhere. And lastly what it would mean for him and Jackson. No need to be on guard, no need to worry. Normality. A normal world. And he sighed as he said the next words, because part of him didn’t want to, part of him still didn’t believe it, and was unable to imagine it actually happening. But he said the damn words anyway.

  “Then we’ll help. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

  Jackson found his hand with hers and squeezed. “Whatever it takes.

  …

  Strapping the zombie onto the table was going to take some effort, and Jackson tried to work it all out in her mind. They could carry her in of course, she was superlight, but it took time to arrange all the restraints and she was starting to rouse now, low snarls leaving her lips, muffled groans sounding.

  “Can we drug her again?” she asked, but Sebastian shook his head.

  “No. That stuff I shot her with was ketamine. It used to be used on horses. I gave her enough for five. But any more and it’ll do weird things to her. I need her normal for work tomorrow.”

  “We need to be quick then,” she said. “In and strapped up ASAP.” She turned to the others, who were waiting patiently for instructions. “Jay, do a security sweep of the outer perimeter, check for holes in the ground especially. Luke, Pete you take her. I’ll lead the way in and take care of any issues. Seb, you’re with me.”

  The men raised their eyebrows but complied. The thought crossed Jackson’s mind that if the zombies had done anything worthwhile, it was to finally remove the last vestiges of sexism. In the world of the dead, or rather the thought-they-were-dead-but-really-they’re-alive—and especially in this camp—everyone was valued for what they could bring to the table. Gender, color, sexual preference didn’t come into the equation

  Jay turned to them and pointed to the back of the building. “If there’s an issue, I’ll holler out, okay?”

  They were the first words he’d spoken and Jackson nodded. “Make sure you do.”

  She gestured Sebastian forward, pulling the multiuse key from her pocket as they moved. It didn’t take long to open up the door, check the main room of the shack, and open up the smaller room. Once inside, her gaze went straight to Two-h-ee. He was lying on his side in the cage they’d placed him in and from the lack of snarls, growls, or moans he’d finally passed on. She tilted her head to get a good look at him and was almost glad to see his features relaxed slightly now. He wouldn’t be screaming anymore at least.

  “Jackson?” Sebastian laid a hand across her arm, halting her.

  She turned to look at the doctor, who had, despite what Luke said, become a friend to her over the last few days. Yeah, he was weird, and yeah, a little bit maniacal, but she got him—just as he got her.

  “Yeah?”

  “You know I’d never hurt you, don’t you?” he asked, and his gaze was intense.

  “Of course I do. I’d kick your ass.”

  Sebastian grinned. “I don’t just mean because of the fact that you can lay me out. I mean because we’re friends and I count on your help here.”

  “I know, Seb.” She patted his hand. “We’re all good, and I do believe in what we’re doing here. I’m proud to be part of it, to have something useful to do.” She paused for a minute, looking over Two-h-ee again. He was leaking pus now from its mouth and nose and she resolved to flip Sebastian the finger if he dared suggest that cleaning that shit up was part of her job. “You know it’s weird. I used to hate them, still do, if truth be told. It’s hard to get over the things we’ve done and seen in the last two years, you know?”

  “I know,” Sebastian replied. “Believe me, seeing my colleagues eaten was nothing I ever want to live through again. There was this one girl, we were making our way here…” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “Point is,” Jackson said after a moment. “That knowing they’re not dead, that they’re still people, changes things a little. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still kill any fuckers that come my way, but it makes you think a little different.”

&n
bsp; “Yeah, it changes things.”

  Their conversation was halted as Luke and Pete came through the door. They held the redheaded zombie by her arms and legs and Sebastian hurried forward to help them move her onto the table. Jackson joined them and together they began to strap her down.

  “Quick, quick,” Sebastian said, as he pulled one of the ropes. “She’s starting to wake up, and we do not want those teeth anywhere near us.”

  Luke looked up. “It is the bite that does it, then.”

  The doctor nodded. “The virus lives in the saliva, not the pus or blood. I don’t quite know why that is the case, because feasibly speaking, it should travel in the other fluids.”

  “I’ve been bit,” Luke said slowly.

  “Doesn’t infect everyone either,” Sebastian said. “Again, I don’t know why. But then no virus does. Even Ebola, back in the day, didn’t.”

  “I used to coat the wounds with whiskey,” Luke added and Sebastian laughed.

  “Wouldn’t have made any difference, and sometimes one bite will do it while another won’t. It just depends.”

  Jackson cuffed the redheaded zombie’s hands in place with a click. She, like Two-h-ee, was now spread on the table, and Jackson frowned as she imagined what they’d be doing to the zombie this time tomorrow. Smothering her perhaps? Luke finished tightening the ropes and took a step back before casting her a smile.

  “That wasn’t as bad as I imagined.”

  It awoke then, and not slowly or muggily, but in an instant and shot forward. The various restraints held the zombie back but it howled and snapped its teeth. Pus dripped from its lips and pooled on its grimy chest. The smell was suddenly overpowering and Jackson took a step back.

  “Just in time by the looks of it,” Pete said. “Bitch is hungry.”

  And she was at that, the look in its eyes was very familiar to Jackson. Hunger combined with calculating. It wanted to eat them all, and Jackson wondered what was going through the zombie’s mind. How much could it actually think? Did it even know they were people, or did nothing like that remain? More to the point, what was with the fucking smell? She turned to Two-h-ee and noticed that his pus pool was now leaking onto the surrounding flooring of the cage. She was so not cleaning that up.