Zombie World (Zombie Apocalypse #3)

by Hoffman, Samantha

  *****

  After Dustin has his second freak out, Dr. Richards finally agrees to sedate him, which he should have done in the first place. We know now that it was too early to force him to talk about his ordeal. It takes both Ryder and Aaron to pin Dustin down and hold him still enough to get the needle in, but the effects are almost instantaneous and Dustin is out like a light, slumped over in a pool of regurgitated bloody vomit.

  Dr. Richards has Ryder and Aaron carry him to a nearby exam room and place him on a small sofa. I’m not sure it’s a good idea for all of us to be leaving him to sleep off such a revelation, but Dr. Richards thinks it’s best to give him some space when he wakes up. He tells us that he’ll be monitoring him while he’s unconscious, and once Dustin wakes up, he’ll send for us and we can keep him company all we want to.

  With nothing else to see, we all retreat back to the living room. I half expect Todd and Reese to go straight for the video games, but instead they take seats with us on the couches. A lot has happened in the last twenty-four hours, and it seems like we all still need a little time to process it. But none of us wants to say anything. I just lean against Ryder’s chest and try to relax, but inside I’m a nervous wreck, like there’s a swarm of butterflies in my stomach, fluttering around and causing a storm.

  They remember…

  “I wonder how many of their memories they retain from that time,” Reese says, the first of us to say what everyone else is wondering. “Dustin clearly remembered eating Jonathon. You could tell just by the look in his eyes and the way he reacted. It was enough to make him physically sick. There’s no telling what else is cooped up in his mind, waiting to come to the forefront. And when that happens, it could turn violent.”

  “He’s one messed up dude,” Todd says. “There ain’t no coming back from the evil place he’s been.”

  Madison grabs his hand, intertwining their fingers. “I feel so bad for him. He went through hell, and to come back to the world of the living only to find out he has nobody left? I can’t imagine what that would feel like. That’d be like if I lost all of you and somehow survived. I don’t know if I would be able to keep going.”

  “Don’t say that,” Todd says, looking down at her, his eyes dark and serious. “Don’t ever say that. You’re a survivor. Even if the rest of us were gone that wouldn’t change. I’d want you to keep living, no matter how bad you thought things were, no matter how lonely it got.”

  “Todd, you say ‘survive’ like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do,” Aaron points out. “Surviving is hard, even when you have a group of friends to help you out. I’d say it’s nearly impossible to survive on your own, especially if you’re dealing with loss and loneliness like she would be if we were all gone.”

  “She could rise above it,” Todd says confidently. “She’s a natural survivor.”

  “A natural survivor that almost got you killed once,” Madison points out. “I’m a survivor because I have you all with me. If I was alone, I’d either be dead shortly or I’d go crazy, and then die.” Todd shakes his head but doesn’t say anything else. He just holds Madison’s hand tighter, squeezing it gently while she leans her head on his shoulders.

  “So, what are we gonna do if this cure has a lot of negative side effects? If everyone comes back the same way as Dustin, we’re gonna have a lot of potential problems on our hands,” Reese says. “I don’t wanna sound like an insensitive jerk, but we’re going to have a lot of work to do if we want the world to be like it was before, and these people are going to need a lot of help and supervision in the beginning. What if we don’t have the tools to help them? I doubt there are many psychiatrists still around.”

  “Yeah, probably not,” Todd agrees.

  “We’ll just have to do our best to help them all,” Daisy says. “They’re still people, today proved that. We just have to help them remember that, and things will be okay. Once they get over the shock of it all, I think they can begin healing, and it won’t be long before they’re better. Maybe not perfect, but better.”

  “Damn you’re naïve,” Todd says. Madison elbows him gently in the ribs, but he ignores her. “Daisy, these aren’t people that are waking up out of a coma or something. These are people coming back to life after they spent the last year eating people. Did you see what Dustin puked up all over the doc’s floor? It was what was left of his husband. You can’t ever be ‘better’ after that. You can’t.”

  “I’m not naïve,” she says stubbornly. “I’ve seen just as many horrible things as you have, probably even more considering where I was after Rose died. I know how screwed up the world is, and I know how hard things are going to be to fix, including fixing these poor people. But I still have hope that everything will find a way to work itself out. That doesn’t make me naïve, it makes me an optimist.”

  “Same thing,” Todd says.

  “Guys, we really don’t need an argument about this right now,” Aaron says. “What we need to do is think about the consequences of this cure. I guarantee that every zombie we turn back to normal will have done something awful, something so terrible they’ll wish they could just forget it forever. And all of those people are going to be looking for a way to get rid of all that pain.”

  “Like suicide,” Daisy says, her voice quiet but steady.

  “Possibly,” Aaron admits. “I’m sure there will be a large rash of suicides in the days following their revival. It’s only logical to think so. But there might be other problems as well. Many of these people are going to be warped by what they’ve experienced, and not in a good or sad way. In a bad way, a very bad way that might get other people hurt.”

  “You think they’ll be dangerous?” Ryder asks.

  Aaron nods. “I do. I think there will be a lot of people that can’t handle what they’ve done, and it will have a lasting effect on them. You all saw how Dustin attacked Dr. Richards when he first woke up. All he did was ask a question, and Dustin became irrationally angry. Dustin could have seriously hurt or even killed him if we hadn’t been there to stop him. There are going to be more people like that, people who are going to hurt others. And we won’t be around to stop them. Innocent people are going to get hurt, possibly killed.”

  “We’ll have to risk it,” Ryder says. “People are getting hurt and killed now. At least when they’re all revived they’ll be capable of rational thought. Better that than totally mindless creatures that spread and live solely to hunt and eat us. I think I’ll take my chances with the human that doesn’t wanna chew my face off.”

  “I agree,” I say. “Even if they do have problems when they come back, we can still at least try to talk to them. We don’t have that option with zombies. I’d feel much safer being surrounded by humans with anger issues than I would a pack of zombies. It’d be just like going home for Thanksgiving.”

  Madison giggles. “I agree. We can handle some temper tantrums just fine, can’t we?”

  “Just so you know, we’re not just talking about a handful of temper tantrums. We’re talking murder, rape, arson…the works.”

  “That stuff is still happening,” I say quietly. “I know that, and so did Naomi. There are already people out there who do that horrible stuff. In fact, Michigan is probably swarming with assholes like that, since that’s where the Warriors were the last I heard from them.”

  Todd snorts. “The Warriors? Man they picked a dumb name.”

  “Well their leader wasn’t exactly right in the head,” Ryder says tightly. “I doubt many of these people are going to be as psychotic as he was. The world is a much better place without him in it, but these people have a chance. A chance that we should all be willing to give them.”

  “Especially since we don’t know if everyone will react that way. We only have one example to go off of so far,” I point out. “Maybe anger issues ends up being a one in a million thing. The others could all be fine. We’ll just have to wait until the girl wakes up and see for ourselves.”

  The girl that we
traded Naomi for. That’s who our hopes rest on right now…

  The bitter thoughts surprise me, but I can’t help but keep thinking them. Naomi is gone forever, and in exchange, we got our hands on a young girl that might be a lost cause, that might even be a threat to us. It seems like the universe’s idea of a sick and cruel joke, one that I don’t fully understand yet. I don’t know what I’m going to do if this girl ends up being broken and Naomi’s death ends up being all for nothing.

  I don’t feel like hanging around and talking about the pros and cons of the cure, so I get up and leave, offering to go start dinner for everyone. Daisy comes with me, looking more cheerful than I’ve seen her in awhile. She doesn’t say anything to me as we walk to the kitchen, but she does hum quietly under her breath. It’s not a song I recognize, but it has a positive, cheerful effect on me.

  I get the switch by the door and the kitchen floods with light. “What sounds good for dinner?” I ask, heading for the cupboards.

  “Burritos,” Daisy says wistfully. “My mom used to make the best burritos every Thursday.” Her eyes are half closed and I can practically see the drool hanging from her chin. “Too bad we don’t have any beef, or lettuce and tomato, or cheese.” She frowns. “Sometimes it seems like we don’t have much of anything, even when we have entire cupboards full of food. Does that make me sound ungrateful?”

  “Not really. At least, I don’t think so.” I open the first cupboard, searching. “I know what you mean. Before, we had so many options and choices and it was all so easily available, we never really stopped to consider just how little we could do on our own. Now that we don’t have processing plants making our food, we have a lot fewer choices, and a lot of the things we loved before are gone now, and we might not ever get them back.”

  I find what I’m looking for, and smile at her over my shoulder. “Here, catch.” She sticks her hands out and catches the can I toss at her, and she looks at it curiously. “Sometimes all we need is a little luck. I know it’s not your mom’s burritos, but it’ll still be pretty good, I think.”

  She smiles at the can of tamales in her hands. “Thank you.”

  “Open that for me, will ya? There’s a recipe on the back for a tamale casserole, and we have all the stuff for it except for the shredded cheese, but I think it’ll still be pretty good without it.” I duck back into the counter and grab a can of chili beans, a jar of tomato sauce, along with the unopened bag of white rice that I sneered at earlier.

  Daisy boils water on the stove for the rice, and I dig around in the cupboards for a glass pan large enough for the tamales. While the rice cooks, I wash my hands and start to spread them out along the bottom of the pan, trying to pack them in as tightly as possible. Daisy hums gently while we work, and I keep trying to place the song. It sounds familiar, but I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to listen to music since everything went to hell.

  When the rice is cooked, Daisy drains it in the nearby sink, and she stirs in the tomato sauce and the can of chili beans. When the mixture is heated all the way, she takes the pan off the stove and I back up, letting her in front of the pan. Slowly, she pours the mixture over the bed of tamales, using a rubber spatula to scrape out the very last drops and to even out the sauce in the glass dish. I wish we had the cheese to really make the dish, but it can’t be helped. There’s no substitute for cheese.

  When the casserole is done, I take it out of the oven with some mitts I find in a nearby drawer. Daisy finds plates and silverware, and I grab a spatula and start dishing it out onto the plates. She watches me work wide eyed and impatient, and I make sure to slide the first plate over to her. “Let me know what you think?”

  She cuts into her portion, blowing on it to try and cool it down. Steam still rises from it, and I almost tell her to wait, but I can tell how badly she wants to try this. She shoves the first bite in her mouth, dancing around a little and making weird noises at how hot it is. But she gets it down, and I wait nervously for the verdict.

  Daisy leans over and hugs me, taking me by surprise. “Thank you,” she says quietly. “It’s not my mom’s burritos, but I still love it.”

  I rub her back. “You’re welcome, Daisy.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  A few hours later, after everyone has eaten our delicious tamale casserole, we all settle in to relax for the night. Our plates are stacked on a nearby table, and everyone is just trying to relax. Madison and Aaron are playing pool in the corner, and Reese is waiting to play the winner while Daisy watches. Todd’s parked in front of the TV, playing some kind of first person shooter game, which I find kind of ironic, but I don’t say it. Ryder’s cuddled up with me on the couch while I read a book, just trying to relax and not worry about his normal leadership responsibilities.

  Someone clears their throat very loudly and very annoyingly from the open doorway, and we turn to find Dr. Richards standing there, just watching us. When he’s sure that he has our undivided attention, he speaks. “I have some regrettable news.”

  If he thinks it’s regrettable, then it must be really bad. “Did something happen? Is Dustin okay? Is it the girl?” Madison asks.

  “The girl regained consciousness about an hour ago, much sooner than I thought she would, which tells me that the revival time varies, just as the reanimation times do. She’s done nothing but scream since waking, and I’m afraid it may go on all through the night. Unfortunately, the first subject is no longer with us.”

  Ryder sits forward. “What?”

  “When he woke up, he found a needle in the examination room, and injected himself with air. Air directly into a vein like that causes a brain embolism, which killed him fairly quickly. He didn’t suffer too much, which I assume will ease your minds some. However, it puts us in a bit of a tight spot, as we now only have one subject to study. We won’t know how different the revival process can vary, and we’ll be going into the cure half blind, so to speak.”

  “How did he manage to kill himself?” I ask, my hands clenching at my sides. “Weren’t you supposed to be watching him?”

  His eyes flick over to me, and his lips tilt down in a sneer. “When the girl woke up, I had to tend to her for a short while. I made sure she had water and was comfortable while I tried to explain things to her. A very thankless task, I’m sure you’ll find. She doesn’t seem to understand a word I was saying. I’m not sure she even knows who she is yet.”

  “But why would Dustin kill himself?” Daisy asks, her lip quivering. Dr. Richards’ hand lashes out, and he tosses something at her. She catches it, nearly fumbling it in the process. “Jonathon’s wedding band,” she says quietly, stroking the cool metal band with a gentle finger.

  “He was clutching that very tightly to his chest when he died. I would say he likely could not bear the thought of living with the atrocities he’d committed.”

  “And yet you have no problem sleeping at night,” Aaron mutters darkly.

  If Dr. Richards hears him, he doesn’t show it. “I had hoped to learn more about the revival process from him, but I guess the girl will have to do. I hope that once she calms down, she’ll be of more help to me than he was. If things go well with her, I believe we should consider spreading the cure and taking our chances. The sooner we do it, the better our odds of fixing things will be.”

  Madison nods. “What happens when it’s time to spread the cure?”

  “I will brief you all when it’s time for that step. For now, I have work to do. You’re welcome to go and examine the girl if you wish. She’s not quite to the point the man was, but she is starting to look better. I’m not sure how entertaining it will be to watch her, but perhaps one of you can get through to her. It would be nice if I could focus on my notes without having to listen to her mindless shrieking. I’ve always hated the crying of women.”

  He leaves the room, completely oblivious to our glaring disapproval. I still find it hard to believe that such a truly awful human being can be the last hope for the human race. It just seems so c
razy to me, that this man has done anything productive with his life, especially end up the head of a top secret government research and development team. It’s insane, because he seems like the kind of guy that nobody would put up with, who is incapable of hiding his disdain for anybody around him.

  “What do you guys say we go see her?” Daisy asks, looking at all of us. “I’ll bet she could use a friendly face or two. If all I had to look at was Dr. Richards, I’d be screaming, too.”

  I almost laugh, and Madison chuckles. “Alright, let’s go. It’s not like we’re doing anything here.”

  “Speak for yourself, I’m almost done with this level,” Todd says, pointing to the TV screen.

  Madison plants her hands on her hips. “It will still be here when we get back. Now come on. Make history with us.”

  He sighs, but pauses his game. “Yes, Dear.”

  We all head for the lab, but our pace is slow and not too excited. I’m sure all of our thoughts are with Dustin right now. There’s nothing we could have done to prevent it. He wanted to die, and he would have found a way sooner or later. Maybe its better that he’s gone. I don’t know how I would live with myself if I killed Ryder…

  The girl is still strapped to a metal examination table, which is probably a good idea after Dustin’s attempt on Dr. Richards’ life. I haven’t seen her since we handed her off after our disastrous collection, and the change I see in her now is incredible. It hasn’t been too long, but she already looks so much better, so much healthier and complete.

  She’s still screaming, but her throat is so hoarse that it’s barely above a whisper. Her skin hasn’t yet fully regained the pinkish coloring it’ll have in a little bit, but it no longer looks gray and lifeless. Her hair is cropped almost as short as Ryder’s, and it’s so dirty and greasy it’s impossible to be sure what color it is, but it looks like a dishwater blonde. Her eyes are darker in color, and the whites of them are bloodshot and still yellowish, like she’s been sick for a very long time.