by Aline Riva
“It looks very docile,” John remarked, turning from the door as Christian slid the spyhole closed.
“It is,” he replied, “I've found it's possible to sedate the creature if the sedative is carried with a strong salt solution. I think that's also why it looks so fresh – of course, regular feeding helps too.”
“I noticed a scar on its neck... it's healed?”
“Yes, again I think the treatment is helping to regenerate cells. How much I can reverse is yet to be proven but I'm working on that now. A total reversal of the virus effect is my ultimate aim.”
“I'm impressed,” John replied, “And of course, no one will know about this important work. People around here have been through too much, they wouldn't be able to cope with knowing there's a zombie in your basement, Doctor Wells!”
He laughed and so did Christian, but uneasily.
“Yes, I have pictured angry townsfolk with flaming torches pounding on my door!” he remarked.
“You're doing good work here. Keep it up,” John replied, “And I'll see you later on. I've got some community stuff to discuss with Parsons.” Then he left.
Now Christian was alone in the basement, he cast his mind back to recent months and the building work that had gone on to create the lab and the secure chamber:
“What's going on down there?” Greg had asked one morning before he opened up the entrance to let patients in, “What is so interesting about the basement, Christian? You keep disappearing down there!”
“Burst sewer pipe,” Christian had lied, “Do you want to come and see it?”
“Sewerage? No thanks, I think I'll give it a miss!” Greg had told him in disgust, and then no more had been said about the extensive work that had been carried out on the basement level of the medical centre...
Christian still worried, even though Greg had no interest in ever going down to the basement. Although he kept the only set of keys, he still felt concerned that one day his good friend would somehow find out what he kept down there. To know he was running another zombie experiment, and below a public place too, would be something Greg would never be able to forgive. He just hoped he would be understanding once a cure was found for the virus. He hoped everyone would understand in the end, because the public really were at no risk – although some might think they were if it ever became public knowledge, and he didn't want to be run out of town for trying to save humanity.
Just before he left the basement he stepped closer to the reinforced door, slid back the spy hole and looked through, coldly watching the creature on the floor as it gnawed on the bloody bone. Again he wondered what the others would think – especially if the identity of the zombie test subject ever came to light... He was still recognisable. His eyes were dead white and his skin pale and dry, but he still looked freshly turned...
Christian smiled as he watched him, deciding this had to be the ultimate punishment, and it was no less than he deserved...
“How do you like it, being a zombie?” he said coldly, “It's your turn to suffer now!”
The zombie heard him and looked up sharply from his meal, staring at him with hunger in his dead eyes.
“No human meat for you,” Christian told him, “Just animal carcass. I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of tasting real flesh. I want you to suffer, Mr Flint!”
And the undead corpse of Flint stared back at him, then snarled fiercely as blood dripped from the bone he held in both hands and the name Flint seemed to register in whatever was left of his virus ravaged brain.
Christian slid the spyhole shut and left the room, he locked the door and then went back up the staircase to the ground floor. Once he was there he closed the final door, locked it and then hit a switch, killing all light below ground, leaving the basement and the undead Harvey Flint plunged in darkness.
As he walked away he concluded it was a heavy secret to carry, but soon he hoped to make a breakthrough, and if he did find a cure, it would make all the secrecy and deception worth it:
The world outside the town was still ruled by the undead. Perhaps one day it would not be this way, if he made the breakthrough he hoped for, humanity would win. It was that hope that kept him going, the same hope everyone shared – to win back the world from the undead. Maybe they would do it. Perhaps one day, the living dead would no longer outnumber the living...
End
