by Buda, Chuck
“I’m sorry, Shipley. The strain is getting to all of us.” He clenched his fists at having to fake an apology. “Sometimes doubts creep into my mind about...our chances.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one who has doubts around here. We’re busting our balls to figure out if we can fend off the virus. And I don’t have access to the kinds of resources available to the CDC. I’m doing the best I can with no rest and no help.” The doctor began cleaning up some of the items which had spilled upon the table. He sighed out loud.
Muncie grinned. He took pleasure in Dr. Shipley’s whining. Now he would have to take advantage of the doctor’s lowered guard.
“We can work together to make things run smoother. Maybe I can deploy a man or two every few hours to assist you with your work.”
Dr. Shipley laughed. “What kind of help? Can they understand blood cultures? Do they know their way around medical instruments?” He shook his head sarcastically.
Muncie bit the inside of his mouth to keep from flying across the room again. He tasted a hint of blood as his teeth tore into the flesh within his mouth.
“You said you had to experiment with the zombies. Train them to do things. My men can protect you and your...lovely assistants. Provide some much-needed muscle when you move those fucking things around.” Muncie lowered his head and raised his eyebrows to support his suggestion.
Dr. Shipley stopped in place. He seemed to consider the offer, his expression softened quickly. “That would be a help. I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
“See? We are working together already.”
Dr. Shipley stepped in Muncie’s direction. “But I know you, Muncie. You wouldn’t do anything without expecting something in return. What’s your angle?”
“No angle. We just work together to make sure we succeed. I provide you muscle. You make sure I am in the loop with the Warden’s plans so we don’t get blindsided after doing what he needs.”
Dr. Shipley nodded. “I thought you were keeping tabs on me because Warden Gorgon asked you to act as go-between. But you don’t know everything, do you?”
Muncie felt his face flush with anger. Dr. Shipley was too sharp for his liking. Muncie thought it would be easier to play with the man. He was finding out the doctor could be more of an issue than he thought.
“The Warden has been informing me of his decisions. But I have picked up some subtleties in his words which leave me questioning his true intentions.” He rubbed the stubble along his jawline. “I just want to make sure my suspicions are false. I’m sure they are. I just want to make absolutely sure.”
Dr. Shipley stared into Muncie’s eyes. He forced a gentle smile to assure the doctor of his sincerity. The doctor seemed to buy it. He nodded and agreed to work with Muncie.
After letting the doctor return to his work, Muncie paused in front of the creatures which fought against their restraints. Each zombie struggled to aim their chomping teeth in his direction. It was as if they could smell his flesh, even from across the room. Muncie moved to the left and watched as the heads followed him. He repeated the motion in the other direction with similar results. He snorted.
Muncie thought about releasing one of the zombies. He pictured it wandering the hallways in search of blood. Muncie smiled as he imagined the zombie tearing through a locked pod, ripping inmates to shreds while they scrambled away in horror.
Then he imagined releasing one upstairs. Outside Gorgon’s office.
Muncie decided to keep that option in mind. It might serve his purposes at some point in the near future.
Chapter 4
Warden Gorgon was pissed off. He felt the need to accelerate his plans based on the new developments.
He had learned about the attempted coup by the female inmates of D-Pod. It troubled him that he had two pods trying to fight back. It would only be a matter of time before the other two pods followed suit.
The Warden snickered as he thought about the attempt. A phony disagreement between two prisoners leads to one of them getting shanked. The Warden knew better. Each time the pod doors needed to be opened was another opportunity for prisoners to escape. It didn’t really matter if one prisoner broke free or all of them. The results would be the same. Chaos. Guards would scuttle around, chasing after fleeing inmates. Some guards might get injured or killed if they weren’t careful enough. The biggest fear Warden Gorgon had was prisoners discovering the truth.
As things were, the prisoners only had rumors or wild imaginations to scare them. A confirmation of facts would send those fears beyond control. All hell would break loose once the convicts knew there was nothing left to live for. No good reason to remain locked up where they were idle targets for the undead.
The Warden decided to use everything which was given to him. The female inmate from D-Pod was thrown into the hole. Unfortunately, the guards couldn’t determine which of the other prisoners had used the shank on the woman. His sources would ferret out the details shortly. He always had means of obtaining information.
Janie.
Each pod was assigned a stool pigeon. An informant. Only the Warden knew who the sources were. He assigned each informant, personally. He remembered meeting Janie when she came aboard Warsaw Prison. She impressed him with her size. She was very tall and had played ball for a big school in the south. But it wasn’t her size which had impressed him as much as her demeanor. Warden Gorgon was a good judge of character. And he knew which guards were ruffians, which were corruptible, and which ones could straddle nebulous lines.
Janie.
She took to the secretive assignment like a teacher’s pet, always sitting in the front row and raising their hand to answer the teacher’s questions. Janie had worked both sides of her mouth to keep him informed of the activities within D-Pod. After the fight, Janie had reported back her findings. The ladies had acted upon the intelligence she had dropped about C-Pod’s faulty riot. The Warden had leaked the same information to A-Pod and B-Pod, but as of yet, both pods remained in control. Warden Gorgon hadn’t been surprised. A-Pod was filled with prisoners of weaker infractions. B-Pod was just a notch up from A-Pod. But C and D-Pods were the worst of the worst. So he spent most of his energy focusing on maintaining their homeostasis.
He inspected the cleaning job in his office. Guyton had taken care of Sheila’s mess. Not a spot of blood remained.
Warden Gorgon would use D-Pod as an example. More specifically, Claudia Franchino. She had volunteered, unwittingly, to become the Warden’s first test case. Soon, the entire prison would learn the full extent of the ramifications of going against the flow. He was a tactician. And he knew people learned quicker when shown examples. Sometimes, words weren’t effective enough.
He had enjoyed meeting Claudia. When they opened the door to the hole, she seemed excited to walk back into prison life as she knew it. Only, she found out otherwise. The Warden had given her a quick tour of the zombies he had at his disposal. Abominable creatures, living inside the prison walls. He relished how real the news became when Claudia’s eyes revealed her understanding. Until that moment, Claudia lived with rumors and theories.
Now she would die. It would be inevitable anyway. Either the zombies will rip her apart. Or he will order the guards to execute her if she survives.
The Warden was proud of Claudia. She served a greater purpose for all of them. And in death, she would continue to serve all of them. As a zombie guard, protector of the Warsaw walls.
He sat in his desk chair and turned to face the window. The empty fields stretched to the horizon. The Warden’s eyes played tricks on his mind, imagining a line of dotted heads, bobbing along the distance as they made their rotted way to his fortress. Each blink would wipe the phantoms from his vision.
A shudder made its way along his extremities.
He planned his big reveal. It had been necessary to partition his folks and what they knew. Dr. Shipley. Muncie. Guyton. If he could maintain just enough distance between them then he might actually pull
it off. The Warden was smart enough to know they disagreed with him. He could read it in their faces and their body language. And he also knew they hated him for it, wanting to remove his dominance so they could give anarchy a try. Anarchy never works. Not for long, the Warden thought.
He scribbled some notes on his ledger. More blood would have to be drawn. He needed to get test results from Dr. Shipley. And he needed Muncie to set the stage for him. Muncie would enjoy what the Warden had dreamed up.
Warden Gorgon began to make his way downstairs. Time was short and he needed to keep things progressing in order to stay ahead of the outbreak. As he shuffled along the hall, the Warden tried to figure out how to find a way to reassign Guyton to his personal detail. It would be difficult because Muncie would ask too many questions. And someone might learn of Sheila’s demise. The Warden wanted to keep the secret of her death as long as possible. Many uncomfortable questions would arise. What happened to her? Why was it covered up? Where did he put her body? And who else knew about it?
All the chess pieces were in play. He knew it was too late to call any of the pieces back. The game must continue on. Until somebody lost. And somebody else won.
Warden Gorgon had no intentions of losing.
Chapter 5
Mabel-creature lunged forward. Dr. Shipley jumped backwards.
Warden Gorgon relaxed on the table. His shirt sleeve rolled up, acting like another band around his arm to force his veins to the surface. He glanced at the needle buried in his flesh, his eyes tracing the line from his arm to the bag collecting his blood.
Dr. Shipley had given Mabel-creature a transfusion of the Warden’s blood an hour ago. The time to test the hypothesis had arrived. Dr. Shipley displayed multiple signs of nervousness, his brow sweating profusely and his hands shaking. Gorgon smiled to himself as he watched the doctor work toward establishing another line to the creature.
“Stop.” Warden Gorgon couldn’t resist the temptation to startle Dr. Shipley. “Let’s see if she’s had enough already.”
Dr. Shipley pushed his glasses up his nose and nodded. He ordered Mabel-creature to take a step forward. Mabel-creature growled and strained to lunge forward at the doctor. Warden Gorgon had been curious whether the blood would provide control to anyone in range, or only to the person who supplied the blood. He felt relieved it hadn’t seemed to work with Dr. Shipley’s orders.
He sat up on the gurney and faced Mabel-creature. It titled its head to the left as if acknowledging the Warden’s presence. Or maybe his power. Dr. Shipley urged the Warden to lie down so he wouldn’t get light-headed. Gorgon waved the doctor off.
“Come to me, darling.” The Warden made sure his voice remained soft and welcoming. He stared at the creature as it appeared to focus its attention on him. Their eyes connected and held together by a common bond of blood.
Mabel-creature took two steps forward and paused. It looked down at its own feet in confusion. The gnashing and growling had quieted a bit as the creature obeyed its master.
“Step back. Please.”
Mabel-creature leaned forward and grimaced at the Warden. Its gray pallor revealed a non-living entity. Yet it was animate. Mabel-creature awkwardly stepped back once, and then a second time. It hunched down and growled, drool spilled from the purpled lips.
Warden Gorgon held his excitement inside. He didn’t wish to show too much enthusiasm in case it let on other secrets behind this new revelation. He glanced at Dr. Shipley who stood frozen in place, jaw dropped wide.
“Holy shit.” Dr. Shipley’s words leaked out in a soft whisper.
Warden Gorgon asked the doctor to remove the hose from his arm so he could get a better look at Mabel-creature. As the doctor bandaged up the Warden’s arm, Gorgon spoke silently to the zombie. He asked it to lick its lips. It did so after a brief pause. Gorgon asked it to show its hands to him. The zombie glanced down at its gray palms and then stretched them out toward the Warden. He ordered Mabel-creature to lower her hands before the doctor noticed any interaction.
Tears welled up in the Warden’s eyes. So much thought and worry had gone into his plan. And to have it come to fruition was almost unbearable. He wanted to break down and thank the Creator for allowing his hopes to stay alive. The irony of his hopes staying alive in a creature which was clearly no longer living was not lost on him. He swallowed the lump in his throat and dabbed the tears from the corners of his eyes.
Dr. Shipley returned from the other room. He had taken the bag of blood to the storage room. As he re-entered the room, the doctor jotted some notes down on his clipboard.
“What do you think of our new soldier, Dr. Shipley?” He stood and began fixing his shirt sleeve.
“I can’t believe it worked. I mean, it’s like some kind of supernatural fantasy from a movie or something.” Dr. Shipley hustled around the room, gathering more supplies for blood transfusions. “I have so much work to do now. Who’s blood do you want me to take now so we can keep this going?”
“Nobody’s.”
“Nobody’s?” Dr. Shipley wore the confusion on his face like a cheap mask.
“Exactly. I want to be the sole donor for this...army.”
Dr. Shipley laughed. “That’s crazy. You can’t do it by yourself. You know how much blood you would have to give in order to supply an entire army? It would take months, probably years.”
“We don’t have months or years, Dr. Shipley. I’m sure you are aware of our situation, are you not?” He stepped toward the doctor.
“I’m...I’m aware, Warden. But, how do you expect to supply that much in a short amount of time? It’s unreasonable...”
Warden Gorgon moved forward, forcing Dr. Shipley to back up. His motion forced the doctor to stop talking. “What’s unreasonable is your lack of faith in the plan, Dr. Shipley. You just witnessed a miracle, and yet you question my ability to lead us to salvation?”
“With all due respect, Warden, faith had nothing to do with this. It was science...”
“And what...science...do you know of which can reanimate dead tissue and have it obey your commands, Doctor?” Warden Gorgon smirked as he waited for an answer which wouldn’t come. Dr. Shipley’s lips trembled as he tried to figure out how to answer the question.
Warden Gorgon spoke to Mabel-creature silently. He told her to grab the doctor’s shoulders without hurting him. The zombie obeyed the order and Dr. Shipley screamed out in horror. He wrestled himself free and backed to the wall, trying to get away from Mabel-creature.
“It moved. It fucking moved and we didn’t ask it to.” Dr. Shipley slid down the wall. The fear drained the color from his cheeks.
“Get up. I told it to grab you, you fool.”
Dr. Shipley screwed up his face, confused at how the zombie had taken orders when none were given. Then his expression changed as he figured out the truth.
“You did that?” His finger pointed at the Warden. Then his finger went to his own temple. “You did it with your mind?”
Warden Gorgon smiled. He felt proud his plan was working so far. And he felt even prouder he could still keep people on their toes, without knowing all he was capable of.
“This is why I want to only use MY blood, Doctor. If we use somebody else’s then I lose control. And without control, this plan falls apart. Do I make myself clear?”
Dr. Shipley nodded and swallowed a lump. “But, what if something were to happen to you? Then these...things...would fall out of control?”
Gorgon sighed. “Exactly why we need to make sure nothing happens to me, Dr. Shipley.”
The Warden walked through his plan for transfusing blood to the other creatures. He was explicit the doctor continue to provide the steroids to the creatures as well. He didn’t want his blood to go to waste if the creatures rotted and fell apart.
His plans were in motion now and he needed to put it to the test. The Warden had an idea to kill two metaphorical birds with one stone.
Chapter 6
Claudia was thrown into
the cage. She landed on her knees, skinning herself through the orange jumpsuit. The noise surrounding her was deafening. Claudia looked around, staring at the shouting faces outside the bars.
A small army of prison guards clanked their batons against the bars and screamed for Claudia to get up. The rage on their faces frightened her.
Until she saw what waited for her on the other side of the cage.
Claudia’s eyes went wide as she recognized the Hollywood version of a zombie. The thing standing opposite her used to be a fat, black woman. The woman was gone and a hulking, grayish zombie wore the woman’s body. It growled and gnashed its teeth at Claudia, saliva running down its chin.
Claudia looked around for any means of escape. But nothing existed. The guards had tossed her in an enclosed cage of steel bars, which stood in the center of a basement-looking room. The dingy lighting added to her terror as she struggled to make out the faces beyond the bars. Claudia hoped to find someone she had built a rapport with. Someone who might help save her from the death trap she found herself in. All the guards were male. Not one of them had been a female guard assigned to her pod. Claudia’s stomach sank. She felt death tighten its grip on her throat.
The zombie charged across the cage at Claudia. The second it moved in her direction, the prison guards escalated their fervor and bloodlust. The batons struck the bars louder and more frequently.
Claudia ducked under the zombie and ran to the other side of the cage. While the creature had moved faster than any movie zombie she was aware of, it still moved slowly enough for Claudia to avoid its attack. She worried how long she could outlast the rotten beast inside the finite enclosure.
The zombie screeched like a dog that had been hit with a stick. Its gray hands grasped at air as it lumbered at her again.
