by Bianca D'Arc
“It looks clear. Clouds could pose a problem later, but it’s still a little too bright for them to be very active. Come on out and let’s check on the old lady.”
She popped the locks and Simon opened her door for her, his head swiveling to check all directions before he stepped back to let her out. She was careful to chirp the doors locked behind her as she walked at Simon’s side up to the front porch. The place looked welcoming, with bright pink petunias in the flower boxes and a profusion of red and white impatiens lining the walk.
There was no sound from within though, which was troubling. Mrs. McGillicuddy couldn’t get around much, but she loved her television. From sunrise to sunset that old TV was usually blaring some game show or soap opera. Now it was eerily silent.
She looked up at Simon with apprehension. “Something’s wrong. She usually has the TV turned up loud all day long.”
Simon immediately took point. “Stay behind me. I’ll knock, you get ready to run if this goes bad.”
She nodded, knowing he was the only one who could really face these monsters. He had already been bitten and lived to tell the tale. Nobody else had been so lucky. It was likely she would face the same fate as Becky Sue if she got stupid and got bitten.
Simon walked up to the door and knocked loudly. “Call out to her,” he instructed.
“Mrs. McGillicuddy. It’s Mariana, from next door. I came to see if you were all right.” She spoke as loudly as she could, given the lump in her throat. “Mrs. McGillicuddy, are you there, ma’am?”
A shuffling sound came from within the house and then she heard that distinctive, inhuman moaning sound. The sun was swallowed for the moment by a thick cloud, casting a pall over the landscape. Mariana cringed, shuddering as she realized her worst fears had come true. Becky Sue’s grandmother—that sweet, crippled old lady—had been turned into a zombie.
“Get back to the car. I’ll handle it.” Simon’s words were clipped as he braced himself to kick in the old wooden door. “Stay alert. There could be more. Run. Now!”
She pulled out the pistol and held it ready as she flew back down the porch steps, looking wildly all around as she made a beeline for her SUV. Behind her she heard an ominous crack as Simon broke through the door with one solid kick. Then she heard the faint report of the rifle as he shot twice in quick succession. His boots hit the wooden boards of the porch steps with loud, hurried steps as she unlocked her car door. She pushed inside, barely remembering to check the backseat before she got in and locked the doors tight.
Turning, she watched in horror as poor old Mrs. McGillicuddy made her way down her porch steps. The plump old lady was walking stiffly and her head looked misshapen. Mariana realized why as she drew closer. Her skull had been bashed in and it looked like something—or someone—had been gnawing on her brain.
Mariana had to stifle the urge to vomit. She had seen a lot of things as a doctor but never anything as truly horrific as this.
Simon reached the car and she unlocked the passenger side door for him. He hopped inside with little fanfare and slammed the door shut.
“Back up to the end of the lane. She should go any second now.”
Mariana didn’t have to be told twice. The gruesome specter of Mrs. McGillicuddy advanced steadily, the flailing ends of Simon’s darts sticking out of her neck and hip. He’d hit cleanly and if their luck held, she would disintegrate any minute now.
Mariana backed the SUV to the end of the gravel drive and waited. The old woman advanced a few more steps, reaching out as if for help, making that high pitched moaning sound. But there was nothing more they could do for the poor old thing.
Mrs. McGillicuddy took one more step and then began to dissolve, melting from the sites of the darts, inward. It was all over in a matter of seconds. Mariana gripped her steering wheel, shaken to the core. It was one thing to see it happen in the dark of night. It was quite another to watch a sweet old lady turned monster melt before her eyes in the harsh light of day.
“Sweet Lord,” she whispered.
Simon’s hand on her thigh snapped her attention to him. “It’s better this way, Mari.”
“I know you’re right, but… Damn, Si. This isn’t something they prepared me for in medical school, or even in boot camp. This is a nightmare come to life.”
“Welcome to my world. I’ve been living with this for months now. I’m only sorry you got dragged into it.” He removed his hand and turned to scan the trees. “The only good thing is that it will all be over soon.”
“But it’s spread to civilians.”
“Yeah, that is a problem. Luckily, there are only the two houses in this area—this one, and yours. You’re safe, and the two occupants of this place are now accounted for. With any luck, it hasn’t spread any further. Now if I can just get that last Marine, we can call this done. Frankly, it’ll be a relief.”
“I can understand that.” Yes, she understood it, but feared the end of his mission would spell the end of their renewed affair. It was an agonizing thought. She wasn’t ready to give him up yet.
“Drive back up to the old lady’s house. I have to check inside, to make sure she was alone.”
She hated the thought of him going back in there, but knew he had to be certain. This contagion was too dangerous to allow to spread any further. She pulled up next to the house again and left the car running. If they had to make a quick escape, she would be ready.
“Remember the signal?”
“Tap my horn once for something suspicious. Twice if I see one of them far away. Lean on it if I’ve got a serious problem.”
“Good girl.” He smiled as he leaned close to give her a peck on the cheek.
Simon was out of the car and in the house before she could tell him to be careful again. She watched the surroundings, her eyes straying to the destroyed front door of the house every few seconds, willing Simon to reappear, safe and sound.
She thought she saw something flicker through the woods, but wasn’t certain enough to sound the horn. A few minutes later, Simon appeared at the door. His expression was closed as usual. There was no real urgency in his movements, which she took as a very good sign. Likely, the rest of the house was clear.
He made a few hand signals that she interpreted to mean he was going to scout the grounds again. He disappeared around the side of the house and she went back to waiting. If this is what his life was like in the special forces, he could keep it. Moments of blind panic interspersed with what felt like hours of tense waiting. All in all, her medical job was easier on the nerves. Even her stint in the Emergency Room a few years back had been less nerve wracking than this.
Simon appeared again a few minutes later. He stopped by the pile of debris that had been Mrs. McGillicuddy and dropped a small object onto the ground. He gave the area another searching look, then ambled up to the passenger side door. She unlocked it for him and he climbed in. She could see the weariness of the long night in every move of his muscular body. The man needed sleep and a few hours away from the tension of his mission.
“As your doctor, I’m prescribing bed rest for the next six hours, at least.” She always enjoyed the challenge of making him smile and was rewarded when one side of his lips quirked upward.
“I’ll be glad to follow your orders, ma’am, as soon as I report in. Commander Sykes has to get the cleanup team to sanitize this area as well as your backyard ASAP. It’s standard operating procedure for this mission sent down from the CDC. I mark all the kill sites and the hazmat guys come in and do their thing. You didn’t see them, but they were out behind your house yesterday.”
“When?” She was shocked by the idea that a group of soldiers had been on her property and she’d never even known about it.
“When I was keeping you otherwise occupied.” His eyes heated with remembered desire and her stomach clenched.
“Damn, Simon. Is that what had you so eager to keep me in bed all day?” She put the SUV in gear and backed out of the driveway again, turning
onto the gravel road.
“No, sweetheart, that was just a fringe benefit. I didn’t want you worrying.”
“So what changed?” She began the short drive back to her place.
“The girl was bad enough, but now her grandmother. You’re involved now, Mari, more than you should be. I didn’t want you in this at all, but you’re in it now, up to your neck. You have a right to know the full parameters of the op and what happens next. You’re a doctor, after all. I bet you were already speculating about what happened to the remains after I did my part of the job. Weren’t you?”
She shook her head. “You know me too well. I just didn’t think you’d tell me so much about the operation, Simon. I know it’s probably all top secret, right?”
“It is. And you’ll be held to that top secret classification. Which means you don’t talk about any of this to anyone except me. You’ve already seen and done too much to be kept out of the loop. I talked to Matt Sykes last night, while you were in the shower, and he agreed.”
“You already talked to Commander Sykes about me?” That was a surprise.
“He needed to know where I’ve been. He’s keeping close tabs on me since I’m the only thing standing between the base, the surrounding populace, and…well…what you saw happen to your neighbors.”
She thought about that. “A lot of responsibility is riding on your shoulders, Simon.”
“It’s what I do.” He shrugged. The casual attitude didn’t fool her. She knew he was feeling every bit of that responsibility. Simon always took important things, like his duty, very seriously indeed.
She would have said more but a flash of white at the side of the road caught her eye. She slammed on the brakes.
“What?” he asked, instantly alert.
“I thought I saw something.” She backed up the SUV carefully. “Look over there.” She pointed to a dense patch of greenery. It was ripped up and torn now that she looked closely, with obvious tire tracks leading away from the gravel road bed and onto the dirt and grass at the side of the road.
Simon hefted his weapon and slid out of the vehicle. “Stay here and keep the engine running.” She didn’t have to be told to lock the doors behind him as her heart crept into her throat yet again.
Simon approached the vehicle. It was small, boxy and white, with the distinctive stripes and logo of the Postal Service. Even from several yards out he could see the smashed windows and deep red streaks of blood all over the interior of the crashed Jeep. Mail was strewn all around, but the postman was nowhere to be seen.
No doubt he’d been attacked and was likely already dead.
Another fatality in a string of deaths that had gone on far too long. And another target to add to his list. Simon dropped a transmitter tag in the vehicle, did a quick sweep of the area, and headed back to Mariana’s SUV.
She waited for him with the world in her smile. The relief on her face as he broke from the cover of trees warmed him from the inside out. God, she was good to come home to. These past days had teased him with a glimpse of how good life could be.
But not for him.
He was weakening, though. His resolve to stay detached was on the wane. Would he be strong enough to resist the allure of her? Would he be able to do the right thing when this was all over? Would he have the strength to leave her again? He wasn’t so sure. And that thought was even scarier than the zombies.
He didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want to ruin her life. Right now, he was still firmly convinced that his continued presence in her life could only accomplish both of those things. He just didn’t see how being with him could spell anything but disaster for her.
For one thing, there was his…affliction, for lack of a better word. He had been changed by the attack on a cellular level. Nobody could tell him for certain what that would mean for him in the long term. For another, there was his job. Although he was no longer at Uncle Sam’s beck and call, he was still employed in the same line of work. He had to pick up and go when he got the call. Nowadays he could either accept or pass on jobs, at his discretion. That was different, but if he wanted to get paid, he had to work. It was that simple.
Still, he knew he couldn’t do mercenary work forever. At some point he would be too slow to be good in the field and that day grew nearer with every passing moment. Younger, faster guys would take his place in the field, and he would either have to find a new line of work, or find a way to utilize his hard won skills as a training officer or operations manager of some kind. He’d been thinking a lot about it since the attack that had left him in the hospital for weeks. He still hadn’t arrived at any conclusive decisions.
Crossing paths with Mariana had started those thoughts of retirement up again in his mind. If he found a less dangerous way to earn a living, could he somehow convince her to share his future? However long that lasted? Would it be fair to her? He still didn’t have an answer.
He approached her vehicle, careful to look everywhere before signaling her to pop the locks. He slid into the passenger seat and dreaded giving her the news. She was strong and had been a real trooper up to this point. He hated to lay even more on her, but she needed to know what they were up against, so she would be wary.
“It was a postal vehicle. The driver is gone, probably dead. The claw marks on the sides of the Jeep look like they were made by our target. Probably in the last few hours. It’s dark under the trees and the clouds have been hiding the sun off and on.”
“Jeff Humbolt is the postman on this route. He lives alone out on Webster Road. You think he’s turned into one of them?”
He nodded, thinking through the possibilities. He knew where Webster Road was. It wasn’t too far from here, in fact, out near the edge of the woods and very isolated. Up to this point, the zombies hadn’t strayed far from this patch of woods, bordering the base. But if the postman retained some affinity for his home area, he might try to make it back home tonight, after the contagion ran its course and he rose from the dead.
“Let’s go back to your place. I need to report in and get some sleep. Tonight is soon enough to go after the wayward mailman. The contagion takes awhile to take over its host.”
“Poor Jeff. He was a sweet old coot. A widower. He used to flirt with me for fun, not in a serious way.” He saw Mariana try to hide a tear as she surreptitiously wiped her cheek.
Simon was touched by the sadness on her face and in her voice as she put the SUV in gear and started off toward her house once more. She had lost people she knew to this horrific contagion and had been attacked and threatened herself. Most women would be a blubbering mess right about now, but not his Mari. No, she was soldiering on, even though he knew she was having a hard time dealing with all of this.
Hell, he had a hard time dealing with it, too. Of course, he’d had a lot longer to get used to the idea of the walking dead. Of zombies running around trying to eat their victims’ faces.
“I’m sorry, Mariana.”
“It’s not your fault, Simon. If anyone’s to blame, it’s the scientists and doctors who unleashed this thing on an unsuspecting world. My profession has a lot to answer for this time. I hope they came down hard on the person or persons responsible for this tragedy.”
“I heard the entire science team was being held incommunicado pending the resolution of my mission. They were allowed to develop the toxin to stop the zombies, but they’ve been effectively put into custody awaiting judgment. Someone else is gathering the data on where and when I tracked and killed the creatures. Hopefully a new, more ethical group of doctors will be appointed to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it from ever happening again.”
“I suppose the fact that the original team came up with an effective way to stop their creations will count in their favor.” Mari’s tone was grudging and he knew she was angry, thinking about her defenseless neighbors and the postman who had been murdered in such a heinous way.
“You could probably testify as to what you saw. It might make a diffe
rence when their fates are decided. The proceedings will be top secret, of course. Sykes could get you an interview with counsel, I suppose, if you want to go that far.”
“I’ll have to think about it. It’s not a bad idea. At the very least, I could submit an affidavit of some kind so the judge will know the true extent of the civilian consequences. Someone should speak up for Becky Sue, her grandmother, and Mr. Humbolt, the postman. They didn’t deserve to die that way. The people responsible should be made aware of the human consequences of their actions, as should those who will decide their punishment and whether or not they get to practice medicine or conduct experiments in the future.”
“It couldn’t hurt.” Simon admired her desire to see justice done on behalf of her neighbors.
“Can I ask you a question about the zombies’ condition? You may not know the answer, but I’ve been wondering why they have claws. They didn’t die that way. Most human beings keep their nails trimmed and they’re not that thick.”
“Yeah, that surprised me at first too. The geeks tell me it has to do with the contagion’s effect on dead tissue. It reanimates it, and with older tissue, it seems to have slight regenerative properties. It makes the nails on both hands and feet thicker and longer. They seem to keep getting longer up to the point where the dead body rises. Once that happens, the contagion has run its course in the host and it doesn’t reactivate until it finds a new body to kill, then bring back.”
“That’s really sinister, when you stop to think about it.” She looked appalled, as well she should.
“You can say that again.” They pulled into the driveway leading to her cabin. “Those claws threw us all for a loop the first time we saw them. It took the scientists about a week to figure out why that happened to their original test subjects. I’ve been reporting my observations through Sykes. Even though this experiment is a total bust, at least someone is learning something from it. For one thing, the toxin to destroy the creatures is a brand-new and useful discovery.”
