Dead Hunger | Book 10 | The Remnants

by Shelman, Eric A.

  “Crack it a bit” said Hemp. “Just a half turn, let it flow for one second.”

  Charlie did.

  “Okay. Let’s watch.”

  “Don’t you want to measure it?”

  “It doesn’t matter until she dies.”

  Charlie stared at her. She had turned again and was facing the glass beaker containing the male mouse. Her soldier.

  “Her eyes are red,” said Charlie.

  “She’s no albino,” said Hemp. “So, there’s only one reason for that.”

  After another fifteen minutes, they repeated the process, inserting oxygen and purging the earth gas. When they saw no changes, they did it yet again.

  This time there were visible changes.

  “She’s more lethargic,” said Hemp. “See? She went down to all fours for the first time.”

  “Look, baby,” said Charlie, turning to the male mouse. “He’s still alive, but like a zomb –”

  “Don’t you dare,” interrupted Hemp.

  “So you’d better take a reading now. Keeping in mind this guy over here isn’t dead yet, either.”

  Hemp turned toward the glass beaker. Then he turned back to Charlie. “How is that possible?”

  “You’d better figure it out.”

  “I know of only one way.”

  “You still need her, right?”

  “We need to inspect her babies,” said Hemp.

  “Check the oxygen saturation,” said Charlie.

  He inserted his tester and read it. “We’re at 60% oxygen, 40% earth gas.”

  “Does that bother you, or … anything?”

  “It may tell us when the zombies in Kingman fell. At what level the gas was when it occurred.”

  “Something to know,” said Charlie.

  “Especially now.”

  He repeated the oxygen injection, purging more gas. They slowed the process, so they didn’t get a false final reading.

  Now the earth gas only comprised 20% of the container’s contents, with 80% oxygen accompanying it.

  The female mouse inside the container continued to move. Turning to examine the male in the beaker, he was also still alive.

  “Die already!” said Charlie.

  The pregnant female stood on her hind legs again and emitted a new screech. Simultaneously, the male in the beaker rotated toward her and stared, as though awaiting commands.

  “She’s not as tired as you thought,” said Charlie.

  “Not nearly. Here goes nothing.”

  Hemp took the box and again placed it atop the oxygen cylinder. This time he allowed it to purge all of the gas. It was now all oxygen.

  She stood inside, her whiskers twitching, her eyes still very red. The male behind them also remained at attention, almost.

  “I was always under the impression,” said Hemp, “that they died the moment the gas flow ceased. Now I’m not so sure. It may have stopped – or at least slowed to an almost undetectable amount – much earlier than we believed.”

  “You mean they were running on residual?”

  “Charlie, if you recall, we were under the impression they were so frantic during their last attack because they sensed the gas was stopping. It seemed they instinctively believed feeding on humans would restore them.”

  Charlie examined both of the mice. “Makes sense to me. They were people before they changed. After they turned into zombies, they would have no way of knowing their lives relied on the earth gas.”

  “That is true,” said Hemp. “But recall, when the females wanted to control the males, they created a bowl of their eye vapor, basically. Their eye vapor is heavier than air, so as they emitted it, it settled to the floor where their minions could steep in it.”

  “That auction place you told us about. Where they filled it and marinated their boyfriends.”

  “Yes. They have that much logic. Instinct perhaps, but they had knowledge that their eye vapor affected the males of their species.”

  “Still doesn’t mean they know what changed them in the first place. That’s a stretch.”

  “I agree. Let’s remove the babies,” said Hemp. “I want to do it before she dies.”

  “Can you kill her first?”

  “Technically, she’s already dead. But yes, I won’t handle a zombie mouse without ensuring it’s dead first. The offspring can survive a few moments inside her.”

  “Or a whole bunch of moments, if they’re zombie mice.”

  “Good point, Charlie,” said Hemp. “If they’re dead – or undead – it answers our question. There isn’t much of a hurry.”

  Hemp retrieved the long needle and waited until the mouse was again on all fours, still. With a quick jab, he pierced its brain.

  She rolled onto her side and lay still.

  Her stomach was not still. It was roiling.

  “Quickly, open the box,” said Hemp, grabbing a scalpel. Turning back, he reached inside the box and scooped up the mouse, placing it on the tray with the now dead-still male mouse.

  Using expertise borne from years of experience with experimentation, Hemp opened the mouse’s stomach. Within a minute, he had the six pink, squirming babies on the cloth-covered tray.

  “Too difficult to sex pinkies,” said Hemp.

  “You sound like a porno.”

  Hemp shook his head. “I’ll have to pry open their eyes to see.”

  “Cruel bastard. Would they have changed if the eyes aren’t open naturally?”

  “Tweezers, please.”

  Charlie retrieved the instrument, and Hemp gingerly lifted one of the babies out. Holding it in the palm of his nitrile-gloved hand, he pried the eyelid up.

  The eye was brown. Looking at Charlie, he said, “Could be a male, could just be good news.”

  “Contestant number two,” said Charlie, indicating to the tray.

  Hemp repeated the process to the same conclusion.

  “Number three,” said Charlie, turning her eyes toward the heavens and clasping her hands together in a mock prayer.

  “Shit,” said Hemp.

  “What? Are they red?”

  “No, I’m an idiot. The Red-Eyes were pregnant women before the earth gas hit. As far as we know, it had no effect on their babies. Only the mothers.”

  “Right. And Bug’s wife and I were both exposed to the Red-Eye vapor.”

  “I’m beginning to question how qualified I am to do any more experiments, Charlie. I may have forgotten too much. Might be time to pull down the logs we wrote.”

  “Yeah, but don’t be too hard on us,” said Charlie. “We’re not as young and bright as we used to be. Plus, we already know the mother mouse became a Red-Eye, so there’s that.”

  “There is still an important experiment we can do,” said Hemp. “See if these are little zombie babies.”

  Charlie turned to look at the cage of unaffected mice. “Bait?”

  “Let’s see if we get a bite.”

  *****

  Charlie and Hemp stared at the small skeleton. It had taken the babies no more than two minutes to eat their mother’s corpse into nothing.

  They were not normal mice. Normal mice did not eat solid food until their eyes opened naturally, which took around thirteen days.

  More disturbing was the fact that the small trickle of gas appeared to be enough to sustain their lives … at least for a while.

  “I’ve got an idea,” said Hemp.

  “Let me guess. Like your first poison ivy plants, you want to put them both outside. One group in a cage up high, the others in a cage down low. See if there’s any change by tomorrow morning.”

  Hemp smiled, the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes growing. “You are just a prettier version of me these days.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  *****

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The next morning, the group was awakened by a loud pounding on the door of the sandwich shop.

  Flex’s eyes opened, and he struggled to see his wristwatch.
“Jesus, what time is it?”

  “Nelson!” called the voice outside. “C’mon, let me have a look at you. I hope you put some meat on your bones!”

  “Koko!” shouted Nelson Moore, jumping up from his cot. “Hold on!”

  Everyone now stirred and sat up, staring toward the now running Nelson.

  He pulled the door open. A man with a salt-and-pepper beard and mustache and bushy hair the same color held his arms open wide.

  Nelson threw his arms around the man and actually picked him up. “Koko!” he shouted again. “Look at you, bro! You’re almost as skinny as me!”

  “Ah, you still haven’t gained an ounce!” he said. “I wanted to see a fat Nelson!”

  “Come on in and meet my friends,” said Nelson. “Hey, everybody? This is Koko. He helped me get out of New York. Crazy times, but together, we got through it.”

  “This guy was living in a tree. Did he tell you that story?”

  “He’s told everybody that story,” said Gem, smiling as she walked toward him. “Bring it in,” she said.

  Koko hugged her. “And you are?”

  “Gem Sheridan. I noticed Nelson gave you my name as Gem Cardoza earlier. Maiden name. That’s my husband there, Flex.”

  “Flex,” said Koko. “As unusual a name as mine.”

  “Greek?” asked Flex. “I recognize the accent.”

  “I’ve kept it somehow,” said Koko, a big smile revealing perfect, white teeth. “Thank you for taking care of my friend all these years.”

  Flex laughed. “That man right there has saved my ass as many times as anyone’s saved his,” he said. “I take it you know all about his Subdudo?”

  “Yes, yes. It is amazing. He is amazing. I cannot believe we both made it.”

  A car clattered up and pulled over to the curb in front of Sarah’s Sandwich Shop.

  “That sounds like mom’s ride!” said Max, jumping up and running to the door.

  Now that daylight had emerged in Athens, the town was coming alive. Several people came by to investigate the strangers that had come.

  “Gem, I have no idea why we didn’t come here before. There have to be a lot of little burgs like this. Survivors, makin’ do. Could do some trading with them, I suppose.”

  “Hemp’s always looking for something,” said Gem.

  “Pardon me?” said Hemp, walking into the sandwich shop. “This place open for breakfast?”

  “Gemmy!” called Charlie, rushing in and throwing her arms around Gem’s waist. “Where the zombies at?”

  “In the woods, or so I hear. Why didn’t you guys come last night?”

  “Had some experimentation to do first.”

  Hemp put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Some important findings – some good, some not-so-good.”

  “Can you get more specific?” asked Flex, hoisting his Daewoo K-7 from the table. He slung it on his back.

  “Is there coffee or tea?” asked Hemp.

  “You’re still in Georgia. You’ll need to go somewhere else for that tea bullshit,” said Gem. “But yeah, don’t you smell it? Coffee in the pot on the counter.”

  “I hear a generator. Diesel,” said Hemp.

  “Indeed,” said Flex.

  After Hemp poured coffee for himself and Charlie, they all sat around a table. Dave, Max, Isis, Trina, and Taylor all gathered at the next table to listen.

  “Where’s Nel? Doesn’t he want to be here for this?” asked Charlie.

  “I think he went to meet Koko’s wife,” said Max. “Long lost friend,” he told her.

  Hemp shared the entire evening of experiments. The worry creased all of their faces as they considered the implications.

  “But there’s some good news. Not perfect, but good.”

  “What?” asked Trina. “We could definitely use some after that.”

  “The mice – the pinkies – placed down near the ground were still alive. Not animated, though. It was as though the gas coming from the ground is life-sustaining for them, but they require more to thrive. Alive they were, but no wasted movement.”

  “And the others?”

  “Dead. Permanently,” said Charlie. “We even put them on the ground again under a glass bowl to capture more of the gas, and they didn’t revive.”

  “So, most of the same things apply as before, but on a lesser scale,” said Isis.

  “It appears so, at least for now,” said Hemp. “Should anything within the earth change, all bets are off.”

  “So, are we going hunting or what?” asked Charlie.

  The door burst open and Nelson came bouncing in. “I heard that!” he proclaimed. “They’re Red-eyes, Charlie. You gotta be careful. Remember how those chicks could jump and stuff? How fast they were?”

  “They could rip your head off before you knew it was gone,” said Dave. “Nothing to joke about that I can see.”

  Hemp shook his head. “Unless they’ve … evolved somehow, I don’t believe they will be able to move like before, when the earth gas was at full flow. If you recall, the original bubbles were substantial. Some were larger than marbles. We are literally at a fraction of that.”

  “It’s enough to keep something alive out there,” said Nelson, pointing toward the forest to their south. “I’ve got my stars and my weed. Let’s go investigate.”

  “Eradicate, more like,” said Charlie.

  “Mom, you’re impossible,” said Isis.

  Charlie got up and leapt into Isis’ lap, wrapping her arms around her neck. Isis held her without effort. “I love you, daughter-in-law.”

  Flex stood up. “Everybody, hold up a second and listen to me.”

  He waited, and all eyes were on him. Gem’s were full of pride. He hoped it wasn’t misplaced.

  “It hasn’t been that long since this ended. Or we thought it had, anyway. We really need to take stock of what we’re about to do here. Make sure we’re not fixin’ to poke a hornet’s nest. So. For today, promise me you won’t kill anything that isn’t an immediate threat, and that you’ll consult with all of us before making what might be a life-changing decision.”

  “How will we know what’s life-changing until our lives change?”

  Everyone looked at Nelson.

  “I’m just asking!”

  “Potentially life-changing, Nel. Like firing blind or forgetting how we stayed alive all those years in all those places. Work as a team and stay sharp. Hemp and Charlie have already confirmed the gas is back and that it still has the capacity to change people.”

  “Well, mice, anyway,” said Hemp.

  “Okay, mice so far, but those aren’t mice out there keeping the people of Athens, Georgia inside at night. We need to figure out how bad this is. There’s still a chance we don’t need to do a goddamned thing.”

  “What do you mean?” said Gem. “No zombie left alive. It’s always been our motto.”

  “Not just a motto,” said Dave. “It’s been our practice.”

  “I know, I know,” said Flex. “But with –”

  “Oh, my God,” breathed Gem. “Flex.”

  “What?” He stared into her frightened eyes.

  “Do you think they’ve been amassing in other locations? Near us? Remember –”

  Nelson snapped his fingers, interrupting Gem. “The couple who came by and said they’d be back! James and Sarah Dean. They lived through the whole damned thing and said they were just going out to get some personal supplies. They never came back.”

  “That’s not all,” said Isis. “Remember the redheaded guy with the beard who came by about a month ago? Max and I saw him by the drug store. Aidan was his name. He said he was going to try and find a diesel pickup. Said he’d be back in a day or two. He never came back either.”

  Nelson shook his head. “Those guys knew they were welcome, and they knew what kind of community we were building. They were into it. In a world like this, people don’t just change their minds. There aren’t that many good options.”

  “Guys, all those cou
ld’ve just been people who ran into something better. Without the zombies, there’s a whole wide world out there to explore.”

  “This thing has brought back the wandering spirit for a lot of people,” said Gammon.

  “Does any of this change our plan?” asked Taylor. “Or are we going out Red-Eye hunting tonight?”

  “Okay,” said Flex. “Call it what you want, but please, hold off on killing anything if you’re at a distance and you don’t feel like you’re in danger.”

  “Manuel,” said Gem, turning to him. “Will you come with us and show us where?”

  “Sure. In the daytime, I’ll go anywhere. Best if I lead, too. Keep you from falling into the pit.”

  *****

  “This is a pretty big group. Just keep your eyes open for … anything. Mr. Hemp?”

  “Just Hemp,” he said.

  “You’re a scientist, right?”

  “Today, I’m about all we have in that department. I know a few things.”

  “Dude has an epidemiology degree,” said Flex. “And he’s a mechanical engineer.”

  “Cool. Anyway, you might see some things we didn’t notice. It just feels strange in there, the closer you get.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out,” said Hemp. “Thank you.”

  They drove vehicles until they reached an intersection of two streets, Bob Godfrey Road and Barnett Shoals Road.

  When they reached it, the lead truck with Manuel and Nelson inside pulled onto a dirt road with a badly faded sign that read, Old Barnett Shoals Road.

  They continued down the ill-used road, which was pocked with huge potholes that had developed over many years with nobody to fix them. Some were large enough to swallow a VW Bug.

  “Keep behind him, Gem,” said Flex, who gripped his Daewoo in his hands like the old days.

  The road grew worse and worse until Flex spotted a horizontal beam gate with a sign so faded it was no longer readable.

  “We’re home!” said Manuel over the radio. “Get on your hiking boots.”

  “This is a long distance from Athens,” said Hemp. “I had a thought, but now I’m not so sure.”

  “What is it, bud? You’re not wrong a lot.”