The Zombie Whisperer (Living With the Dead)

by Jesse Petersen

  “But they still salute and call you Colonel and-”

  “Makes them feel better to have that normalcy,” Fenton said with a shrug as he went back to the drawers. “Hey, look under the fitted sheet on the mattress you flipped.”

  Dave looked at him a second more before he followed the order… actually it was more of a suggestion… and tugged the mattress back down to the bed.

  “So why do you hang out here? Why keep up the charade of military unity besides the normalcy?” Dave asked, struggling with the tight sheet. It was a size too small and really on there.

  “There’s a chance we can save the world with this serum,” Fenton said. “That is awe-inspiring. I have to give my men that chance to be a part of something bigger. I have to give myself that chance.”

  Dave chuckled. “Plus there’s the girl.”

  Fenton glanced up at him. For a minute, it looked like he was going to deny it, but finally he just shrugged. “Yeah. There’s the girl.”

  “I get it, man,” Dave said and grunted as he finally managed to get the fitted sheet loose. “I’ve got one of the most frustrating and amazing girls around.”

  He pulled the sheet down and his eyes went wide. There, tucked into the fold of the sheet was a slim volume, a journal.

  “That looks promising,” Fenton murmured as he stepped closer.

  Dave sat down on the cock-eyed mattress and opened it. The journal had been sporadically written in during the outbreak, hardly more than ten entries…

  Until the past few weeks. Then the entries had increased to daily, and sometimes multiple times each day.

  “What does it say?” Fenton asked, perching next to Dave to read over his shoulder.

  Dave skimmed. “Nadia encountered someone when she was gathering supplies outside the wall.”

  Fenton’s lips pursed. “She was briefly separated from a salvage team around the date of that entry. On her own for several hours. She said she just got turned around, but clearly it was more than that.”

  “It’s pretty detailed,” Dave said as he read further. “Said they were part of something called Team Twelve. There’s stuff here about special forces. Shit, she’s got to be making that up, it sounds like something out of a bad movie.”

  He glanced up, but instead of a smile, he found Fenton’s face pale and his eyes wide.

  “What?” Dave asked.

  “Team Twelve. I’ll be fucked,” he murmured.

  “What is Team Twelve?”

  “It’s this sort of legendary task force in the Army, meant to gather enemy combatants. They were really active when our biggest national security threat was terrorists, not zombies. Their tactics were… questionable. I heard they were disbanded after a raid went bad and some innocents were slaughtered. That explains the black uniforms Lisa saw.”

  He was more mumbling to himself the last thing, but Dave didn’t care. “Were they deployed when the zombie outbreak started?”

  “Not that I knew of. But it’s been nine months, David. A lot could change and it’s not exactly like I’m in the chain of command anymore.” Fenton rubbed his chin slowly. “Honestly, I could see it, them sending Team Twelve out in a do-or-die situation like this.”

  “Look here,” Dave said as he scanned further. “She says the name. Keel.”

  “Major Keel.” Fenton leaned away. “Shit, that confirms it.”

  Dave flipped through the pages. “There’s a lot of whining and prevaricating over what they want her to do, lots of talk about her Mom and wanting to go home and all she’s lost… And she seems really concerned about leaving the dog behind, Duncan. Nice that she worries about the dog, but not betraying her friends.”

  Fenton shrugged. “Priorities, I guess. I remember her saying the dog’s been with her from the beginning.”

  Dave tossed the book aside with a scowl. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered. “There’s nothing in there that can help us find out where this Team Twelve is or what they want from Sarah.”

  He pushed to his feet to pace the room, but Fenton grabbed his arm before he could.

  “Hey, what’s that?” He motioned toward the discarded book.

  “What?” Dave snapped, but all that anger faded. Sticking from the later pages of the journal, where Nadia hadn’t yet written, was the corner of an envelope.

  Fenton reached out and grabbed the book, pulling the envelope free. He held it up. “It’s addressed to me.”

  “Read it out loud,” Dave whispered.

  “‘Dear Colonel Fenton’,” he began. “‘If you are reading this, I can only assume that I have finally come to a gut-wrenching decision about my future. I’m sorry for betraying you and your men, especially after all the kindness you showed me. Please understand that I only did so because I had no choice. But I don’t feel good about what I’ve done, so I’m going to provide you with some more information so that you may perhaps be able to stop the plans that Major Keel has laid out.’”

  Dave backed up a step. “Holy shit.”

  “Yeah. Let me continue,” Fenton said, waving him off. “‘Major Keel first approached me to trade when my diary indicates. Please read it if you have no already done so. At first he wanted David. He said he had taken him before but that Sarah and her friends had orchestrated his escape. He saw this as a bit of an affront to his personal pride, and he wanted to get his escapee back.’”

  “If that’s the guy responsible for me being taken in Illinois…” Dave breathed.

  Those short hours had been horrifying. They had taken his blood, tested his ability to heal with torture, and he had known they would kill him in order to run tests on his corpse.

  They had Sarah now. And his son.

  “‘But when I told him that Sarah was pregnant, his interest shifted to the child,’” Fenton kept reading.

  Dave saw red. He’d heard that expression before, of course, but never experienced it. And yet there it was, totally red veil over his vision, desperate desire to strangle one lying nurse, maybe eat her brains a little just to complete the image.

  “Hey, um, David.” Fenton was staring at him. “You’re looking very freaky. I kind of want to get my sidearm out, can you take a breath and stop looking so… zombie?”

  Dave gasped, taking in air for the first time in what he realized was a very long time.

  “You okay?” Fenton ventured softly.

  “No,” Dave ground out past clenched teeth. “Not even a little.”

  “‘I don’t want to hand her over,’” Fenton continued. “‘I really don’t. But I want to go home and they’ve offered me a way past the Midwest Wall in trade. I don’t know for sure their plans, but they have had headquarters in the warehouses near Ballard right on the Sound. He’s also talked some about a location in Snoqualmie Pass. I’m sorry.’” Fenton sighed. “That’s where it ends.”

  Dave stared at his hand. His wedding ring seemed to be screaming at him. In Sarah’s voice nonetheless.

  “I need to get to my wife and my kid.”

  Fenton hesitated, but then he nodded. “Yes. Of course. Come on, let’s go downstairs and talk to the others. We’ll need their input.”

  Dave snatched up the journal to supplement Nadia’s note and followed. Even if no one else was going to help him, he had to get to Sarah. Now.

  #

  “I want to help,” Nicole said, stepping forward. “I’m going with you.”

  “Not without me, you aren’t,” McCray added, grabbing for her hand.

  Dave smiled as he looked around the room at the others assembled there. After a quick explanation about what was going on, he was happy that his old friends would once again be on the case with him.

  “I’m coming too,” The Kid said, folding his arms.

  Dave saw the way Drea’s lips parted. She might have had Robbie thrust upon her, but she took being his mother very seriously.

  “Look, Robbie,” Dave said. “I don’t think so.” When The Kid started to argue, he rushed to continue. “I know you’d be a g
reat help, but the cure is the most important thing now. You need to stay here with Josh and the others, to finish the work you’ve started.”

  “Then let me go,” Fenton said, stepping into the center of the room.

  Dave stared at him. He and Sarah had really underestimated the dude. He was good people, uniformed or not.

  “I appreciate it,” Dave said, “But no and for the same reason. This lot needs you as their leader. You and your guys should stay here and protect the lab. If Keel wants Sarah, he might also want a whack at what you’re developing here. We can’t let him get to it.”

  Fenton seemed to consider that for a moment, then he nodded once. “Okay.”

  “But you still need a military liaison,” Lisa said, pushing her way from the back. “And I’m the closest thing left.”

  She shot a glance at Fenton. He seemed stoic, but Dave could see the bright fear in his stare. Still, he said nothing, just respected her decision. Hmmm, he might be able to learn from that, himself…

  “Lisa, you got hit by two darts and cracked pretty hard in the head,” he said, for Fenton’s sake as much as for hers. “Are you sure-”

  “If I’d been more on top of it, Sarah wouldn’t have gotten taken in the first place.” Lisa lifted her chin. “I owe her, bitch or not. So I’m coming and we’re done discussing it. Plus I can fly the chopper, which I assume will make your life a lot easier.”

  Dave blinked. He’d been planning on a long, miserable drive to both locations. “Yeah, that would help.”

  “Good.” Lisa turned to look at Fenton again. “I’ll come back.”

  He arched a brow. “You better. Or I’ll have to come after you.”

  She smiled, but then it was gone, replaced by her usual ‘kick ass girl’ scowl.

  “All right, enough bullshit. Let’s load up and go. We’ve got something to do.”

  Dave began to follow as the lab rats went back to their stations. He had reached the door that would take them to the hallway, the weapons closet and eventually the copter, when he felt the tug of someone’s hand on his jacket. He turned.

  The Kid was standing there, looking shifty.

  “I have something that could help,” he murmured.

  Dave wrinkled his brow as The Kid pressed two grenades into his hand. “What are these?”

  “The original purpose of the virus was a weapon of mass destruction. Biological in nature.” He glanced at the grenades. “The soldiers on this Team Twelve haven’t been vaccinated. If this detonates near them it will turn them into zombies, but not you guys.”

  Dave stared at the grenades. “But Sarah wasn’t vaccinated.”

  “Josh and I have been looking at the blood work, running more tests. We think… we think… that the baby’s DNA has altered her. We think she’ll be immune.”

  “What if she’s not?” Dave asked in horror.

  Robbie was pale, he hesitated way too long. “We know for sure that the baby will be. We can extract him in the lab and probably save him if his growth rate has been calculated correctly. Use them as a last resort.”

  Dave briefly considered handing them back, refusing this thing. But he didn’t. He shoved them in the pack he’d slung on his back and patted The Kid’s head before he headed after his team and tried not to think about a last resort scenario that would leave him considering turning Sarah into a zombie in order to save his child.

  It wasn’t going to come to that. It couldn’t.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Don’t mess with Mama.

  The light came on again, this time brighter because there were more people coming into the warehouse carrying their stupid lanterns. I sat up straight from my position dozing in the chair I was tied to and watched as they all strolled toward me. Major Keel, a couple of his guys and Nadia, who was stone-faced and pale. Good, I hoped she felt like shit.

  “All right, Sarah,” Keel said as he motioned to his cronies to loosen my ties. “Here’s how it’s going to work. We’re going to hook you up to some machines and let Nadia get a look at you, see how that thing you call a baby is coming along and if we’re safe to move you. If you don’t follow directions, I will shoot you in the eye with this tranq gun.”

  He held it up and leveled it at my eyeball as if to accentuate what he was saying.

  I’m a tough girl, okay, but anything entering the eyeball totally squigs me out. And my eyeball? Forget it.

  “Okay,” I said, flexing my hands as I was freed. “I’m not going to try anything. I promise.”

  “Good,” he said, but he looked a little disappointed as he motioned his guys to take my arms.

  They pulled me to my feet and turned me toward the back of the warehouse, an area I hadn’t been able to see due to being restrained and in the total dark. There were pieces of medical equipment there, including an ultrasound and a table with stirrups. A delivery table.

  I shivered as they moved me closer.

  “I thought you were going to take me out of here to deliver the baby,” I said. “What do you need that for?”

  “In case of unforeseen circumstances,” Major Keel said and motioned for the soldiers to get me onto the table.

  “You know, I can do this,” I said, pulling away gently and pushing myself up on the table. “No need to shove or shoot my eyeballs, okay?”

  I laid back, watching as Nadia motioned to the door. Someone had hooked up a generator apparently, because the lights suddenly came on, nearly blinding me after hours of pitch dark to dim lighting conditions. I squinted, but I could still see well-enough to see she was hooking up the ultrasound. My second in a handful of days.

  And to think, before the outbreak, I would have had to pay an arm and a leg for such personal medical attention. Zombie Outbreaks were a revolution for health care, honestly.

  I tensed as she started pushing up my shirt.

  “Does everyone have to be part of this?” I asked, looking at the soldiers who were staring at me.

  Keel pursed his lips. “Men stand back. But don’t leave.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I muttered. “Cause I’m so scary.”

  “Don’t forget how many of my men were killed in the past, Sarah,” Keel growled, but he turned away as Nadia rubbed the gel over my stomach and started her procedure.

  I glared at her. “Aren’t you supposed to be in West Virginia?”

  Her gaze slipped to Keel and held there, then she shrugged. “They need my help first.”

  I stifled a laugh. “Sounds like they’re altering the deal. Pray they do not alter it further.”

  “I don’t think Empire Strikes Back is appropriate at this moment, Sarah,” Nadia snapped.

  Yeah, she said that, but I’d gotten to her and with nothing more than the truth that she’d compromised herself and for what? What was possibly a very empty promise. Sucked to be her.

  “Cut the chatter,” Keel said. “What can you tell me?”

  Nadia stared at the screen. “The growth rate is pretty amazing and seems to be increasing,” she admitted with a whistle. “The last time I looked, the child’s size indicated about a four and a half month fetus. Now it’s closer to six to seven… in less than a week.”

  “How soon until we could pull it?” Keel asked.

  I gasped, my hand coming to protectively cover my stomach, which really was quite a bit more swollen. “Hey, he’s not a damn weed!”

  “Isn’t he?” Keel sneered. He looked at Nadia. “We can take him now, can’t we? Research says twenty-four weeks is the base for survival.”

  She shook her head. “Not without respirators and a neo-natal care unit, Major.”

  “You could-”

  “No.” She folded her arms. “I can’t. You aren’t taking this baby until it is the equivalent of at least thirty weeks. I would be far more comfortable at over thirty-four weeks since we don’t have anything approaching medical intervention out here.”

  I could have interrupted, but kept my mouth shut. I might not like the girl, but she was standi
ng up for my baby. At least for now.

  “And how long will that take?” he snapped.

  She glanced at the screen again. “If one week for Sarah equals about two months? Another week to ten days would make me most comfortable and then only if we do another ultrasound to see the growth of the baby at that point.”

  “Then we move her,” he snapped. “On the plane today, we could be over the wall by tomorrow.”

  I caught my breath. If I was taken away, taken to the stomping grounds of this crazy ass, the chances of me ever seeing Dave again were minimal. The chances of me saving Little Zombie were even less. I reached out and caught Nadia’s hand without even thinking, squeezing hard as I willed tears not to fall in front of this asshole.

  She glanced down at me, held my stare for a moment and then, to my shock, she shook her head.

  “Major, when Sarah came in from Montana, she had a highly adverse reaction to the flight. In fact, that was how we determined she was pregnant, she almost lost the child then.”

  My eyes went wide. Lies, all of it! But lies with a very important design.

  “It’s true,” I said, sniffling because now it seemed like it could help me. “We barely were able to stabilize me or the child. Just the thought of another flight-”

  “She seemed fine on the chopper,” Keel interrupted me. The dude was a sociopath, he had no empathy for me and my fake ailments. So rude.

  Nadia shrugged. “The chopper flies lower, there’s no cabin pressure issue. Plus, she’s looking pale.”

  “And not feeling so good,” I lied, again touching my belly. Was I laying it on too thick? Or not quite thick enough? Hard to get that balance right.

  “Fuck,” Keel muttered, staring at me like he was trying to read me.

  I’m sure he had a feeling we could be bullshitting him… but with even a small chance he would lose his bounty, he had to hesitate. I was counting on it.

  “Put her on the plane, you risk losing any information you want out of a live birth for the mother or the child,” Nadia said in a firm, don’t-fuck-with-me medical tone. “But I guess if you just want a cadaver, you can fly her out tonight.”