by Frank Slagel
“Stop!” he shouted out.
Annoyed, I turned. “What?”
“Don’t you remember me?”
“Oh, yeah, the officer. What’s up?”
He sniffled like a three year old, then again, he was little so it was hard to determine if he was three or short. Anyhow, he sniffed and walked to me. “Don’t leave me. I was stuck. I thought I was gonna die.”
“You probably will,” I said. “Good luck.” Again, for like the fifth time I tried to leave.
“I wanted out. You saved me,” Dean said.
“I did.”
“You’re a hero.”
“I am.”
“Are you just gonna leave me here?” he asked.
“There’s the door, it’s unlocked. Good luck.”
I left. He followed me. Man, what the fuck.
So I decided to be nice, explain what was going on with the world, what I was doing.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m gonna rid the world of those things.”
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“Killing them.”
“What about curing them.”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“I am. Let me cure them.”
“Right.” I laughed. “Do what you want. I have a plan.”
He probably cried for like an hour on that street corner, calling out, “Frank, don’t leave me. Please.”
It was pitiful.
I ran into him once at the video store, he invited me to dinner and a movie, I declined.
I know he thought I was gay. World without women or not, I’m not turning gay. He might. He was an officer.
Anyhow, I set up this cool fortress and like Neville in Omega Man. Ate hot dogs boiled in a pot, played chess, I didn’t wear that fuckin’ ruffle shirt, I don’t know why Chuck Heston would wear that, maybe he was trying to appeal to the gay audience back then, saying, he you can dress like a chick and still be a man. Who knows? I wouldn’t do it. But my life was similar. I went out every single day and hunted those things down. I shot them while they slept. Blew them up if I found a nest. Let them think they got me, and then kill them.
It was my mission. And like a good solider, I would complete the mission.
Whoa. Was that like a brilliant line or what?
End of my chapter. You can skip Deans, I am sure he has nothing to say.
CHAPTER SEVEN – DEAN
Imagine if you will, a bleak dead world. Void of life as we know it. Deadly and dangerous at times, plague ridden. Remnants of life and that plague lacing every turn.
Imagine as well you are one of two sole survivors living in a huge city. One would think that the two survivors would join forces.
Not me and Frank. Like the odd couple in doing things, we lived on separate sides of the city. Occasionally I would see him, wave, and move on.
Uh, yep. That was what I did.
Probably more than seeing him, I heard him every day. I think if I stopped hearing him, I’d worry. But like clockwork, eight am, the shots and explosions began. Frank was determined to kill them all, I was determined to cure them all.
In a city with approximately a hundred thousand of those mutants running around, there were a lot to kill.
My theory was, if it was an airborne virus that caused it, what if I created an airborne cure.
First, I had to find a cure.
In doing so, I had to capture those things and experiment.
I had control of an old bank; I made it into my home, using the vault at night as a safe place to sleep.
I was on my nineteenth capture when I started to see a breakthrough.
There was so much I learned.
I needed another subject, and I knew exactly what to look for in the subject. Though all mutated, some started to show characteristics, like graying skin.
I knew what that meant.
The distant explosion was my alarm clock that one morning, about six months after the plague.
I got up, had my coffee, and got dressed. My plan was to look for my subject on my side of the city, where it was safer to be with those things than it was to be around Frank.
I loaded a weapon, took extra ammunition and shouldered the rifle, heading out.
I searched many stores and buildings but wasn’t having any luck.
I had a tube of blood on me (Yeah, I know, I am Legend rip off) and was just about to use it as bait when I saw.
Levi jeans.
The broken store front exposed the entire table of Levi jeans.
Being a small framed man there is very little I can wear that is comfortable and fits. Levi’s do.
I wondered if they had my size.
Entering through the window, I started going through the table of jeans, looking for what would fit me. Some of them felt hard, most were too big. Just as my hand lay upon it and I grinned, I heard the noise.
A shuffle and something fell.
Immediately I swung my weapon around, shifted the chamber and stepped forward. Not too forward, I needed to stay in the light. The ultra violet rays were deadly to the mutant skin (AKA – I am Legend rip off).
I looked to my right, to my left, where did it come from?
The mannequin looked weird, almost real, but it was shadowed so it was hard to tell. As I moved closer, I saw the eyes shift.
And I held up my weapon.
It was a female, with shoulder length hair, her head turned, she leapt forward, sailed an elbow into my gut as she raced by me out of the store.
Oh my God. A real person. Not Frank. A woman.
“Wait!” I screamed out, chasing her.
Now pausing for a second in the movie Omega Man, Neville, the doctor chased the woman after seeing her in a store, lost her, got captured, then the woman ended up saving him. In I am Legend, the movie; Neville was just rescued by her. In the book and Vincent Price version, they chased the woman out of the store and caught up to her.
I gave great debate.
Being an intelligent man, I highly doubted that I would be captured, and also giving my size and speed, chances were, I’d catch her.
So . . .
She darted down the street and I followed, gaining with each fifty feet, calling out as I followed her.
‘Wait, please, I won’t hurt you.”
She kept running. Finally, she turned toward a small park, raced up the hill, started losing speed.
As she disappeared over the grade, I worried, but just for a moment.
I hit the top of the hill; saw her ten feet ahead, charged forth with everything I had and jumped out, tackling her.
She grunted, and then screamed.
Feisty.
But small.
She flipped over her body and kicked me from her. I flew back, hitting my head.
Someone had trained her well.
She could have run, but instead, decided to ensure I didn’t follow her anymore. Racing to me, she revved back to sail her foot into my face, when I grabbed it, pulling her to the ground.
“Knock it off!” I shouted, holding on to her. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“Get off of me you asshole.”
“I’m not gonna hurt you. Please talk to me.”
She struggled. “Yeah, not hurt me. The way you blow everything up in the city, how can I take a chance you’re normal.”
“That’s not me.”
“You gonna tell me there’s another survivor out there.”
“Um, yeah, there’s you and me, right?”
She stopped struggling.
“I want to cure them. He wants to kill them.” I slowly got up. “I stay away from him, too.” I held out my hand. “Dean. Dean Hayes.”
“Ellen Callaway. Are you . . . the Doctor Hayes?”
“Depends.”
She titled her head in question.
“If it’s a bad thing, no. if it’s a good thing, yeah, I am.”
She laughed. Her smile immediately lit up everythin
g around me. I couldn’t stop staring. “God, you’re beautiful.” Spewed from my mouth.
She blushed. “I’m the first woman you’ve seen in six months.”
“True, but you’re still beautiful. I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m safe. Can we… Can we go somewhere and talk. I don’t live far from here.”
She looked at her watch. “Yes. Before it gets too late.”
<><><>
“Yes, I’m fine. He’s not the madman.” Ellen spoke into the radio. “Check in soon.”
There were others.
One of which was her father.
“Everything, Okay?” I asked.
“Yes, as you heard, he doesn’t want me out after dark.”
“We both know why.”
“Of course, that’s why we live where we live.” Ellen walked around my place, taking it all in. “why do you live here?”
“In the bank.”
“No, in the city. Why not go to the suburbs, those things can’t cross the river. And we’ve pretty much cleaned our area.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “That’s why.”
She looked at me with question in her eyes.
I explained. “I can’t cure them if there are none to experiment on.”
“Are you really gonna cure them.”
“I think I can.” I waved my hand for her to follow me. “I’ll show you.”
We went down into my basement, my lab (AKA, I am Legend rip off number four). I kind of guessed what her reaction would be when she entered.
I undid the secure locked steel door and let her go in first.
She gasped.
My four subjects lay on tables, strapped down. “They won’t hurt you,” I said.
“Are they sedated?”
“Somewhat.” I walked over to the table. “Each have been given a different serum, one of them I believe will work.”
“Will it make them normal?”
“I don’t know. It will make them not contagious. Although we can’t catch it. Dogs can. Like in I am Legend.”
“What?”
“Never mind. It may cure them, but they are so far in the stages of malnutrition, it’s a matter of months, maybe a year before they all die anyhow.”
“So what’s the point?”
“It was a variant of my virus that started this, I have to end this.”
“I understand.”
“Maybe if I cure them, they won’t die, they’ll be able to feed themselves again and think of survival instead of killing.”
“How do you know they aren’t thinking of survival now?”
Ah, that was a question I never pondered. Maybe killing was their survival. Perhaps that was what their demented minds thought.
Maybe, maybe we were their threat.
Actually we were. Frank was. I wasn’t a threat. I just wanted to help them.
<><><><>
Ellen was a nurse working at Mercy Hospital when the GPP occurred. She went from being an OBGYN nurse to an ER doctor in a matter of days.
I learned a lot about Ellen that first night, secured behind the vault door, a candle burning, sharing wine.
Maybe too much wine.
“My first exposure, wow.” Ellen wiped the corners of her mouth as she smiled. “A woman was ill with the virus. At that point, I hadn’t been exposed to the mutations. Her fetal heart monitor was strong, but we knew she wouldn’t last, so we induced.”
“You did realize the baby probably had the virus.”
“Yes, but could we condemn the infant to death without even knowing?” she said compassionately.
I knew right there and then what a warm hearted human being Ellen really . . . Okay, I have to stop. I’m laughing way too hard. This is definitely fiction, if I’m writing that Ellen was warm hearted. Good God, I’m sounding like Frank.
Back to my story.
Back to Ellen telling it.
“She gave birth seconds after she passed away. We had to C section the baby. What we saw was no less a nightmare. The baby . . . the baby was deformed and mutated. Never did I think it was the virus, until we started having woman, pregnant woman, change. Pregnant women bear down themselves till their guts came out with the baby, whip the baby forward and eat it. We had woman walking around with umbilical cords, chewed, and dangling out of their vaginas while they attacked nurses. They . . .”
“Stop.”
“I’m sorry. Too painful.”
“No, not at all. Too gross.”
We laughed; perhaps it was the wine making us giggle.
God, she looked beautiful in the candle light. A slight hint of perspiration glistened across her chest.
“So, Ellen, tell me. Are you married?” I played nervously with my wine glass.
“My husband died.”
“So it’s just you and your father.”
“And Henry. Henry was the environmental service guy at the hospital.”
“Janitor.”
Ellen laughed. “Yes.”
“So an old guy.”
“No actually Henry is thirty.”
“Ah.” I sipped my beverage. “Are you and this Henry a couple now?”
‘Henry is gay.”
“I see.”
“He’s offered to touch my breast if that would help, but I had to decline.”
“So it’s been a while.” I hinted.
“A long while. Dean?” She scooted closer. “It’s been a long time. Make love to me.”
Before I knew it, her face was close to mine. I wanted there to be hesitation. Debate. But the truth was, there wasn’t. We kissed and made love on the floor of my makeshift vault bedroom.
<><><><>
We awoke the next morning intertwined in each other’s arms, it felt so good. I didn’t want to leave that comfort zone. I wanted to make love again, but didn’t push the issue.
It was time to go with her to her home, and allow her father to see that she was fine.
A huge wall with a gate fence surrounded the property located in the north hills of Pittsburgh. A scouted property, Ellen’s father had found and deemed safe.
It looked it.
She unlocked the gate and we drove to the large home. Just as we reached for the door, it opened.
A tall, thin, wiry, Asian man with long hair flew open the door with a heavy breath. “El, where have you been?”
“Sorry, Henry.” She stepped inside. “I told my dad.”
Henry? I looked at him.
“Henry this is Dean.”
“Dean.” Henry shook my hand.
“Henry? Wow, you don’t look like I imagined and you don’t sound gay.”
“Gay? Gay? Who said I was gay.”
Ellen raised her hand.
“I told you Ellen I am not gay.” Then I learned something about Henry. He rambled. “I’m sensitive and just because I’m not able to . . . to well, you know due to emotional stress over losing my wife, doesn’t mean I’m gay. I’m not gay. Quit telling people I’m gay, and what do you mean I don’t look like you imagined?”
My head spun. I caught up. “Um, I Just didn’t picture you to be Asian.”
Henry gasped. “What did you picture me to be?”
“To be honest, after she said your name and that you were a janitor, I thought you were black.”
“Oh my God. You’re a racist.” Henry looked at Ellen. “The sole survivor that you found is a racist.”
“Christ Henry.” The new male and crass voice entered. “Knock it the hell off.”
I turned to the voice. A taller man, stout and strong, older walked toward me.
“My father,” Ellen said. “Joe this is Dean.”
Joe held out his hand. “Dean, nice to see a new face. Don’t let Henry scare you off.”
“Dean’s a scientist. The Doctor Hayes on the news.”
“Really?” Joe asked.
Ellen answered. “He’s gonna end this all.”
“Is that true?” Joe asked.
I opened my mouth.
/>
Ellen spoke. “Not by blowing them up. He’s not the one.”
“Christ Ellen, let the goddamn man speak for himself.”
I laughed. “It’s okay, and it’s true, I’m gonna try to end this whole ordeal.”
“How is that?”
“By curing the plague and bringing people back to normal.”
“You can do that?” Joe asked.
“I believe I can. Actually, I’m on the cusp.”
Joe put his hands in the pockets of his pants and nodded once at me. “The cusp, huh? Can I see?”
Without saying it, I gave him a look that stated, ‘absolutely’
<><><><>
“Why are you living in a bank, Dean?” Henry asked as he walked down to the basement where I had my lab.
“Henry shut up.” Joe ordered.
“I live here because it’s easier to get subjects,” I replied. “Anyhow, as I was saying. The virus caused a DNA mutation, hence the disfiguration, swelling on one portion of the brain is causing the violent behavior. If I can cure the plague, reverse the DNA process and reduce the swelling, I’m positive we can get them back to normal.”
“Hence bringing the population again.”
“Exactly.”
“Do you think the swelling may have caused permanent brain damage?”
“Only one way to find out.” I opened the thick lab door. “In here I have six subjects trying . . .” My speech slowed down. I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Bart!”
I had named all six of my subjects. Bart, mutated at once, lay strapped to the cart looking absolutely normal. We all rushed forward to the cart.
“Dean?” Ellen asked with some excitement. “Did it work?”
“I believe so.”
I walked to the next cart, and waved my hand close to the subject’s face, that subject, still mutated, snarled and tried to bite me. I went back to Bart. His eyes opened. He looked around, scared.
I motioned my hand by his mouth. He did nothing.
“Dear god,” Joe gasped out. “This is nothing short of a miracle.”
“And this is an inhaled serum too, Joe. Meaning, I can make an aerosol and spray it over the city to cure them all.” After I unstrapped Bart, I helped him sit up. He was gentle and moved slow. No signs of violence. “Can you stand Bart?”
