Taking on the Dead

by Annie Walls

  We stare each other down. By the way her chin is set, I know she isn’t going to say anything else. I’m angry about more than what she just told me. I really can’t help myself for what I say next. “Looks like you have moved on nicely since the outbreak.” I gesture toward her belly, and purse my lips as this sinks into her thick skull. “Congrats on your marriage. How are you going to break the news to your other engagement?” I ask with a voice that could possibly freeze water. She steps back as her hand flies to her mouth in shock.

  “Ru–Rudy?”

  I can’t hold it back. “How could you do this to him? He’s been running around figuring out ways to get to you, and you couldn’t wait. You have no idea what he’s been through. You don’t deserve him.”

  She shakes her head, “You don’t under–” She freezes and stands up straight, giving me a new kind of scrutiny, baby blue eyes narrowing to slits. “You love him.”

  I blink as if in slow motion as my heart picks up speed. “Of course, he’s become a great friend to me.”

  She shakes her head. “That’s not what I mean. That’s why you’ve been so cold to me. You’re in love with him.” She sounds as if this is amusing. “I’ve seen it so many times before.”

  I ignore her, getting angry. My fists turn to hard balls. “No. He helped me, so now I’m helping him. He’s coming to get you, and you better be ready,” I say so close to her face I can see her pores. I release my clinched fists, not willing to hit a preggo.

  She looks panicked. “He can’t come here! How?”

  I lift a shoulder, and pick at my cuticles, “We’ve been planning it for a while with a team. They won’t stop because I’m not there.”

  “He can’t!” She all but screams at me. Her peachy-pale face turns pink high in her cheeks. I wipe her spittle from my face. I want to reply, but she turns and runs the other way. Definitely not my brightest moment.

  ***

  Julie’s information makes me sit and stew. She made it sound like they’re repopulating to make the world a better place. Bullshit. How does anyone know what goes on with the rest of the world? Something else she said niggles my brain, giving me alarming chills. She said the earth was being destroyed. No shit about that, but she also said something had to be done? What does that mean? I still can’t figure out how the zombies are controlled like puppets. I saw them pick up the living without bringing them to their mouths. Julie hasn’t seen them, so she wouldn’t know. Maybe she does, but I doubt it.

  I find my own way back to the dorm. The girls hustle about getting ready for dinner. I don’t want to talk to any of them as they sound happy and worry free. Don’t they care? Well, I do. I don’t care how safe you are, or how safe it seems to be, something is wrong with feeding living people, sick, old, criminal or not, to zombies. It makes me sick to think of the world that way.

  Even though much was wrong with how things were, and how people thought, it balanced itself out. Still, people are born to live their lives how they see fit. Someone decided to take advantage of zombies and use the situation to their selfish benefit, at least that’s what I got out of it. Why should just the healthy get to live? I need to talk to this doctor.

  At dinner, I get a bowl of tomato and basil soup, even though I’m not hungry from lunch. My spoon stirs around swirling the basil specks. Several guys make advances I quickly shut down. Dalton and Kale stay clear of me, even though I can tell Kale wants to sit and talk, but he opts to charm a handful of girls instead. I want to get out of here badly. The smell of this cafeteria will stick with me for the rest of my life.

  I can’t believe the government hasn’t taken this place down. It makes me think of other zombie camps, a scary thought. How many of these places are there? What is more important, what can I do about it? What would I do with the correct information if I get it? Someone snaps me out of my thoughts.

  “Here you go.” A blonde nurse in green scrubs hands me a little cup with a pill in it.

  “What is it?” I’m sure skepticism is written all over my face.

  She smiles, not bothered. “A prenatal vitamin.” Julie was right about good prenatal care. It won’t hurt me, so I take it. “Thank you, Kansas.” She says before going to the next person.

  Several of the guys in black canvas come in and look around. They have buzz cut hair, and are about the same height. Where did they find these guys? They spot me and make a beeline. Great. What now? I notice Dalton look this way.

  “Kansas Moore?” I nod with a raised brow. “Please come with us.”

  I stand as everyone stares, making me feel like I’m back in high school. I would flip them off if I was six years younger, but I’ve grown up a bit, and stuff the urge back down.

  “What’s this about?” I ask in a bored tone as we walk at a rapid pace down the hall.

  “Dr. Finnegan has requested to speak with you.”

  I perk up a bit. “Oh yeah? I feel special having to be escorted by four guards,” I quip. The guy that spoke peers at me with interest. Great. Going across the grounds, we head to a building resembling all the other buildings. Go figure, but one Julie avoided telling me about. It perks me up a little bit more.

  We walk through a front waiting room with dark green Berber carpet and wood paneled walls lined with metal folding chairs. I’m starting to think the decor isn’t their choice, but it was original when this place was built, or maybe redecorated.

  A wooden door leads us into a white painted, brick hallway. All the doors are closed, and I can’t make out anything more.

  I’m taken to an interrogation room. It doesn’t have a two-way mirror though. Bummer. I’ve always wanted to do the two-way mirror test. Of course I did in dressing rooms, though I never caught any perverts. The mirrors are always legit if they show a space between your finger and your mirror image finger. A two-way glass wouldn’t have that space. Supposedly, anyway.

  The door being the only way out, I sit facing it. Stone boy positions himself next to the door, standing as still as Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. He’s no Greek god, with buzzed hair, and eyes like black orbs staring at me. I lean back, putting my feet on the table as a man enters the room.

  Average height with a decent haircut, he wears khaki pants and a long sleeved white dress shirt. He’s younger than I pictured him, putting him in his forties. Very plain. A person that doesn’t stick out, and is easily forgotten. His point, maybe?

  “Kansas.” I put out my hand to shake his, but he doesn’t take it. I mentally added rude to my mental list of Things I Do Not Like About Dr. Finnegan.

  “Dr. Finnegan,” he introduces, seeing my look. “Ah, southerners. I’m not trying to be rude. I don’t shake anyone’s hand. I’ll get right to it. We have an informant telling us you know plans of an onslaught?”

  His choice of words alarms me, and I inwardly curse. “Why would I know anything about that?”

  His eyes narrow. “You understand, it’s not safe for the walls to be destroyed?”

  “What I don’t understand is how the zombies are being controlled,” I get right to my point. His face shows nothing. “Yeah, I’ve seen them. They picked up humans, carried them around like flour sacks. In fact, I was probably carried by them.”

  “You have it wrong,” he shakes his head. “They aren’t being controlled, just satisfied.” My bullshit meter starts going off. “Just tell us what you know.”

  I’ll get more information if I give him a bone. “I don’t really think they are coming. They would have been here days ago. I was kidnapped before plans were fully to a point.”

  “How did they plan to get in?”

  “Guns, trucks.” Explosives I helped make. Omitting this information becomes top priority.

  Finnegan leans back. “Gray, put out an alert just in case.” He looks back at me. “If you didn’t think they were coming, why did you tell Julie that?”

  “I never said anything about a full out attack, but she’s engaged to someone else. He wants her back. I suppose I
was mad at her for marrying some other guy. Simple as that.” I shrug.

  “Rudolph Hawthorne?”

  I cough to hold back a giggle. Rudolph? Poor Rudy. No wonder he accepted my name without a blink of an eye. He’s named after a reindeer with a glowing red nose.

  “If you’re talking about Rudy, then yeah.” I say, still trying to hold back laughter, glad he’s not here to see my effort. Maybe he’s just named after a great uncle. My humor dies at the thought of never being able to tease him, or make him blush again. Oh no. I’m in trouble.

  Gray comes back in and stands in the same place. “Why would you care who she married and didn’t? Her choice,” Finnegan asks, never taking his eyes off me.

  “I don’t. Rudy saved me from a pickle, and I told him I’d help him get Julie back. In the meantime, we became good friends. So, it’s only natural when I find out Julie moved on, while Rudy risks his life everyday for her, for me to get angry,” I say matter-of-factly.

  “You do know he is the one who left?”

  Yeah I did, I shrug at him, picking at my sore cuticles.

  “Gray? Take her back now,” Finnegan goes to stand.

  “Wait! What about the zombies?”

  “Kansas, the zombies won’t last forever. They will die out. Even if they turn the rest of the people on earth, they will still die out. It could be twenty-five years down the road, longer or shorter than that. The,” he hesitates, “the virus was made that way. Until then, the vaccine keeps everyone safe. You will get it when you prove your loyalty.” Virus sounds like a foreign concept coming from his mouth. He omits something, something important. Did I seriously think I would get anything more than he’s already told me?

  I let my mouth hang open and snap it closed as it dawns on me this man has something to do with the outbreak. “What the hell kind of doctor are you? And what’s this about a vaccine?” I try to sound curious instead of over-eager, or worse, angry.

  “Gray.” Finnegan gestures to me.

  “Wait!” I scream as Gray grabs my arm. “The virus was made?” An electric outrage flows through my body like a lit fuse. If he’s going to give me answers, I’ll fight for them.

  Dr. Finnegan shoots me a mock smile. “Of course.”

  My dad, my mom, and Malachi flicker across my mind. The fuse ends, and I explode, throwing myself at him, and driving my palm up toward his nose. Bone crunches, but the table slides keeping my arm momentum to a minimum. He jumps away quickly, still alive. Damn! Blood sprays before Gray tackles me to the ground.

  I try not to show my disappointment when I look up. Finnegan wipes his nose with his sleeve. “I’m going to ignore that. Killing me won’t make anything different, Miss Moore. Gray, if she causes anymore problems, give her an injection.”

  Injection? Dr. Cuckoo leaves the room holding his nose up. “Hold on girl!” Gray whispers harshly as I elbow him in the gut. “Listen!” he grunts, holding me down as I struggle to get him off. “You have to calm down. There is already a red flag on you.” I will myself to calm down. He’s helping me? “There, I know it seems crazy and it is, but…”

  “He’s at least partly responsible for a planet of people dying you asshole!” I elbow him in the jaw as my dad’s face flashes through my mind opening the wound fresh. Malachi’s did nothing but put salt on it. Calming down, I say, “Please, let me go.”

  “Listen,” he whispers. “Don’t panic. We don’t need that. If people are really coming here, then you need to tell me the truth. Dalton also said something along those lines. And you told him.”

  He’s making out like he’s with the Coalition. Possibly the whole good cop, bad cop mumbo-jumbo. Either way, I don’t believe him. “You know Jack?” My voice is quiet with the closest thing I can think of to Mac.

  “Yes,” he says too quickly. “Are they coming?”

  “I don’t think so. They would have been here by now. Please tell Jack I miss him.”

  Gray nods, “Come on. I’m sure they are going to be holding you in a cell.”

  ***

  I spend a whole day and night in an isolated cell before they let me out. What about this injection? They must want to keep me sedated if I get out of hand. From here on, I need to keep my wits about me, no more outbursts. Needing more information, I have to be patient. Patience isn’t really in my top list of quality characteristics. I know Rudy won’t leave Julie. He will come, I hope. If they aren’t here by the end of the week, I’m making a new plan. Now, they won’t hesitate to feed me to the famished. This new revelation has my head spinning. The doctor created this virus to better the planet of the old, sick, and criminals? All the while, knocking out terrorists, and the big hole in the ozone at the same time? Give me a break, I might be scattered brained, but I’m not stupid. Thinking of Donna’s “Battle of wills” comment, I know this is all some big power play. I just don’t know the details.

  I’m pacing my dorm room. Creamy coffee, Shia, sits on her bed wearing a light blue sweater. I take the plunge.

  “Hey Shia, you have the vaccination yet?”

  She smiles. “No, you don’t get one until your pregnant, or get someone pregnant. I’m surprised you know about them. It takes them a while to feel someone out. You must be deserving.”

  “They told me yesterday. Dr. Finnegan is amazing,” I gush. Apparently no one knows about my little homicidal fluke.

  “Wait until you meet the priest. I wish he was single.”

  “Priest?”

  “Yeah, he knows his stuff. I think I live to hear him talk.”

  “Religious, huh?” I’m not interested in their religion. I’ve had enough religion talk to last me a lifetime, plus some.

  She looks at me with brows drawn. “Mago, the Voodoo Priest.”

  A cold chill sweeps down my back, stopping me dead. Voodoo? “M–Mago? The guy who controls the zombies?” I throw out with a sudden, dry mouth. It’s not a bust.

  She beams, “Yeah.” She figures if I know that, then it’s okay to talk to me about it. “He is amazing.”

  “How many priests are there?”

  “Several, even priestesses. They’re better because they’re female. They travel to other places, to speak to people in our situation. We’re safe as long as we have them.”

  That’s how they control the famished, with voodoo. The mechanics of it frightens me. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it for myself. I remember Mago’s dark eyes scrutinizing me after I shot Lucy. Yeah, I was in a drunken haze, but you don’t forget something like that. Was he there when I was taken from the cult? Shia watches me, so I nod and smile.

  She can tell something’s wrong. “I’ll introduce you this week. He holds a biweekly service for our convenience.”

  I smile again and slide into my covers. Grabbing Mac’s shirt under the pillow, I hold it tight, feeling a great sense of hopelessness thinking about him. I think about the team. I think about Rudy and his now complicated situation.

  I have my answer. Do I believe it?

  ***

  I’m a serious wreck the next day, not knowing what to think about anything. The hopelessness still invades me. Donna tells me I’m to start working in a greenhouse immediately. They apparently think I need something to keep me busy.

  At breakfast, I stare at the oatmeal in front of me with no appetite. I glance around for Dalton. When I can’t find him, alarms bells ring through my head. They obviously questioned him, and probably anyone I’ve talked to since being here. Kale talks to a group of girls, and I leave my oatmeal.

  I tap him on the shoulder, “Hey Kale.”

  He turns, sees it’s me and smiles wide. “What’s up, Kan?”

  “I need to talk to you.” I glance at the glaring ladies. “Alone.”

  Kale gestures for me to lead, and I go back to my empty, lonely table.

  “Not making a very good impression on everyone,” he comments, but he’s smiling like he expects no less.

  I shrug and look around. “Um, yeah. There are some wei
rd things going on.”

  “I should say so.” He gets serious. “The guards were asking questions about you. They wanted to know if I was involved in some terrorist plot to the compound.”

  My eyes go wide and I laugh. “Terrorist plot? Kale, do you believe what they tell you?”

  His face turns to stone, “We shouldn’t be having this conversation, but no. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

  He looks ten years older right then. I don’t know if I can trust him. He’s not exactly on my top-ten trustworthy list. “Oh, I guess you like it here. Living normal and all that. Furthermore, girls are falling all over themselves for you.”

  His eyes narrow. “No, I hate it here,” he snaps. “And none of these people deserve this. Like I said, what can I do? Nada damn thing.”

  “If you had an opportunity to leave, would you?”

  Looking sad, he nods, probably thinking there’s no chance of that.

  “You know anything about the priest?” I ask him.

  “The guy that does the services? Hmm, just that he comes to preach and leaves.”

  I want to tell him everything I’ve learned, but chicken out, not knowing what the crazies will do if they know I’m plotting, or how much longer I can wait for the team. What I truly need is knowledge about voodoo. Usually, I know a little bit about everything, but this is beyond me. The only things I know about voodoo are the little doll’s you could buy in New Orleans in the old life. I’m guessing Disney’s version of voodoo is a little low on the totem pole.

  Feeling eyes on me, I bring up my hand, and sweep Kale’s hair out of his eyes in a flirtatious manner. He usually does this on his own, but it’s the only thing I can think of to do. His eyes widen in surprise. I forgot how innocently cute he can be, so I grin.

  He laughs nervously, making me think he does feel something for me, in turn causing me to feel guilty for using him. I can’t help his naiveté. The person turned, and I peer to see Donna leaving the cafeteria. Kale notices, and his face crumples. I’d apologize for my fallacious behavior, but he did it to me once upon a time.