by Grivante
Nat stopped measuring and looked at the tube Judas held. “Energy-Os? You’ve never had them before?”
“No. Never seen ‘em.”
“Then I wouldn’t eat it, or if you do, only have a little. It’s full of chemicals they feed us kids to keep us alert and attentive so that we get better grades. It’s to make sure we rank high in the educational scoreboards. Which, of course, means more money for the school.”
“Hmm,” Judas tried to read the small printed list of ingredients on the package, squinted, sighed and poured the whole container in his mouth.
An instantaneous rush of elation flooded his system as the crystalline powder melted on his tongue. The sweet flavor sent tingles across his taste buds and created a gush of saliva. He swallowed it and grinned as the warm tingling sensation flowed from his tongue, down his throat and into his stomach. “That was like drinking cotton candy whiskey!”
Nantucket shook her head and turned back to her notes.
Judas’s eyes focused on the paper, seeing the list she was working from. He scrunched up his eyebrows, thinking back to his time making stink bombs as a teenager. “My dad taught me how to make the stink bombs. Where’d you learn how to make something like this?”
Nat glanced up, saw him looking at the page she was working from and set the measuring cup on top of her notes. “I, um, read about it on the internet.”
“Hmm,” Judas nodded, sniffed loudly and fidgeted back and forth. “But why were you looking up how to make a bomb? Have you been radicalized?”
Nat pushed at the measuring cup with a finger as her cheeks flushed.
Judas studied her, then looked at the large metal tube on the table before them. “This is a pretty big bomb we’re making. It's almost like you were ready to do this.”
She chewed on the inside of her cheek and stared fixedly at the table.
Judas’s mind was in full gallop. He tingled from head to toe and his thoughts were clearer then they'd ever been in his life. “What is it, Nat?”
A lone crocodile tear ran down her cheek. “I...” she fumbled over her words. “I hate this place.” She stopped there and pushed the measuring cup around a little more.
“Why do you hate this place?” Judas knelt so that he was at eye level with her.
Nat lifted her eyes from the paper for a moment, looked in Judas’s, then darted away.
“C’mon on Nat, we’re fighting zombies together. Tell me what’s going on?”
She looked back at him. “They don’t really call me Nat the Nerd, well not anymore, they call me Nasty Natty.”
“What?” Judas’s eyes widened as he looked across at the young girl.
She tugged on one of the braided strands of dark hair and blinked through the wetness around her eyes. “They didn’t like me much to begin with, being a black girl in a state where they dislike anyone a shade darker than tan. I started my period in class one day, and it bled right through my white pants. I didn’t know what it was. There’s this boy, Nick, I call him Nick the Dick and, at the end of class we all stood up, he saw it, pointed and laughed, calling me nasty. He got a bunch of other kids to join in and they started chanting Nasty Natty.”
“That’s awful.” Judas reached out a hand and set it on top of hers. “And you were gonna blow them up?”
Nantucket sniffed, her nose running. “No, I wanted to. I wrote down the ingredients and even took notes on what I could use. It made me feel good knowing I could do it but I knew it was a bad idea. When I’m not at school, I have a good life.”
Judas nodded and smiled at the girl. “Thank you for sharing that with me Nat. Bullies suck. Is that why you didn’t go to the bathroom with the other kids?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Nick is in my computer class. He only wanted to go so he could watch ‘Q’ get flushed. I couldn’t stand to listen to him, so I stayed behind.”
Motion from outside the door caught Judas’s attention. He glanced up, seeing two more of the dead walk by in the direction Jonah had gone. “Well, after today,” he grinned at her and grabbed hold of the metal cylinder. “People will know you as Fuck-It Nantucket, the Zombie Slayer! What do we need to do next?”
Nat grinned back, lifted the measuring cup from her notes and found the next ingredient on her list. She turned around and grabbed a jug off a shelf.
Judas’s body took on a mind of its own. He found his feet shifting back and forth and his teeth grinding together. He could hear the blood rushing through his veins. His desire for tobacco hadn’t lessened, if anything the Energy-O’s had made it worse.
“Mr. Judas?” Nat asked.
“Yeah?” Judas asked, moving his tongue around inside his mouth. It felt strange like it was no longer attached. He kept rubbing it against his teeth to make sure he could still control it.
“Energy-O’s kicking in?”
“Yeah, I think so.” He took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair. Every follicle buzzed. “This stuff is crazy.” He stuck his tongue out, panting. “Ugh.” He bent over and clutched his stomach. “It feels like I’ve been punched in the gut.”
“Yeah, the first time’s like that, especially if you take too much.” Nat watched Judas a moment while continuing to pour liquid from the jug. “How did you and Mr. Jonah become zombie exterminators anyway?”
Judas, still bent over, answered. “We were just regular exterminators at first. We got a job with a company called Pests B’ Gone. Worked for them a few months, got fired because of a co-worker and then found ourselves looking for work on Craigslist. We came across an ad for a corporation that was hiring for security work.”
“Which one?” she asked, grabbing a beaker from a table behind her and filling it with water.
Judas blinked, eyes watering, stomach cramping and his tongue throbbing. “Huh?”
“Here, drink this. It should help.”
Judas took the water and gulped it down.
“Which corporation?”
“Nitsau.”
Nat nodded. “I’ve read about them on the internet. They’re one of the shadow corporations behind the crisis that led to the U.C.A. being formed and taking over the country. They call them the Legion of Doom. Of course, everyone knew they owned the politicians anyway, the U.C.A. just made it official.”
Judas set the empty beaker on the table and burped. “Oh.” He blinked again and shook his head. “That’s a bit better.” He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, the blood racing in his veins, but his mind seemed clear.
“We were hired to work security for one of their research and production facilities outside of Tucson.” Judas’s words came out faster and faster as the rush of the Energy-O’s hit him. “We ended up working for the CEO, Dr. Nitsau, a research physicist. She was doing experiments and, one day while we were on shift, they got out of control.” His left eye twitched, his vision blurring, they itched terribly and he blinked and rubbed at them.
Nat stopped what she was doing and looked at Judas. “Zombie experiments?”
“Yeah,” Judas shook his head and spun around in a circle. “I’ve got too much energy.” He hopped up and down, waving his arms about.
She watched him a moment before returning to her notes. “We’re almost ready. Why don’t you go check the door and see what’s happening.”
“Good idea,” Judas bounded across the room, looked out the door and sprinted back. “They’re through the chairs and spread out all over the hallway. I don’t see Jonah. He’s probably with the kids in the bathroom. There’s a cart filled with hamburger or something sitting there that they’re ignoring. How much longer? Are you done? What do you need?”
“Almost,” Nat said. “I’ve got a few more ingredients to add, then the chemical reaction will start. We’ll need to screw that lid on the end of the cylinder, and that'll leave us approximately one minute before it explodes.”
“Ok. What do I do?” Judas bounced on his toes. “This stuff is driving me bonkers. You kids eat this every day?”
&nb
sp; “Most do,” she gave a bitter smile. “It’s almost mandatory. If you’re on any kind of assistance program, it’s included in your free meals. Helps give people a leg up, they say.”
Judas frowned. “They force kids to take this stuff?”
“Yep,” Nantucket nodded. “It’s all in the name of a better education.”
“That’s crazy! This stuff is stronger than cocaine!” Judas’s head fluttered around as he spoke.
“Well, you really shouldn’t have eaten the whole packet. The way most kids get it, it’s only a little bit at a time, keeps them alert and attentive.”
Judas seemed to drift far away, his eyes losing focus until Nat’s voice brought him back to his body.
“Mr. Judas!” the girl yelled.
“Yeah, what is it, kid?” Judas shook his head and wiped sweat from his brow.
“What happened when the experiment got out of control?”
“Oh, um,” Judas squinted at her, moving his eyes around, trying to get focused. “We, uh, we were gate security at the time. Checking vehicles in and out of the facility, that kind of thing. One day, there were screams coming from inside, so we went in, these creatures, zombies, were everywhere, feasting on lab techs and civilians. We were right next to the emergency fire kit. Jonah grabbed the axe and I grabbed the extinguisher. I’d blast them in the face to distract them and he’d put the axe in their head. We didn’t know what they were at first, or how to stop them, we just started hacking.”
“Wow,” Nat stared at him, holding her hand to her throat as she listened.
“When it was over, Dr. Nitsau came out of a safe room in the back of the lab and offered us jobs as her personal security. From there, we were given equipment and training and did whatever was asked of us.” Judas trailed off, either spacing out again or uncertain how to continue.
“So, you still work for them?”
Judas shook his head. “No, no.” He stopped to groan and clutch at his stomach again. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. “We, uh, left the doctor’s employment after an incident that didn’t end well, and went out on our own. Turns out there’s plenty of random outbreaks happening all the time. All we had to do was apply for a permit from the U.C.A. and keep up our paperwork.”
“I always thought they were made up to scare people.”
“Nope. We learned all sorts of different ways the dead can come back to life. Viruses, curses, neurotoxic gas, parasites, genetic modification, the list goes on and on. The doctor had a team of scientists studying them.”
“Wow, what for?”
Judas looked away, his head twitching as he bounced on the balls of his feet. He looked back and forth from the door to the bomb. One hand clutched at his stomach, the other at his chest. “Kid, I don’t feel too good. Is that bomb ready yet?”
Part XI - Queue in the Loo
Inside the bathroom, eight kids, three girls and five boys of various ages, most crying, huddled in a corner by the stalls. All except one, a tall and lanky boy wearing brown khaki pants and a tan hoodie, who stood apart from them, head down, arms crossed.
Jonah came in first and all eyes looked up at him. Two of the girls burst into fresh tears. The boy standing alone looked him over, examining his worn and dirty clothes, eyes widening at the sight of the cleaver. “Who are you? Where’s Mr. Simmons?”
“I’m a professional,” Jonah said, looking over his shoulder for Janet. “We’re here to help.”
The lunch lady came in next, her rolling pin in one hand, a knife in the other.
The boy took her in, then spun back to Jonah. “A professional what? The school’s on lockdown and they send in the gardener and the lunch lady to save us?”
Jonah stopped short; What the hell was up with this kid? “No, I’m a zombie exterminator.”
“A what? Those aren’t real.”
“Look kid, what’s your name?”
“Nick.”
“My name’s Jonah, and right now, we need to get you and your classmates out of here. They’re coming.”
Jonah scanned the small room. A series of small rectangular windows ran above the stalls in the back. They looked like they opened, but they weren’t very big.
“I don’t believe you,” Nick said.
Jonah shook his head. “I don’t care. Shut up and do what you’re told.”
“You can’t talk to me like that. I’ll call my parents and they’ll call Mr. Hotchkins.”
Jonah threw his hands in the air. “Go ahead, kid. Mr. Hotchkins is one of them.”
This brought cries from the younger kids.
“Shit, sorry. Look, we need to—”
A moan from the doorway behind them grabbed their attention. Jonah and Janet spun. A bloody-faced middle-aged man lumbered in and moved to attack Janet.
“Kids,” Jonah shouted, “get in the stalls. Close the doors and stand on the toilets.”
Janet clunked the body over the head with her rolling pin, knocking it back, but not stopping it.
“You’re either going to need to pound it like your name is Neegan or use the knife,” Jonah said from behind her. “You have to destroy the brain. That’s how ninety-nine percent of zombies work. But with these, they’re poisonous too, so make sure not to get any blood or green goo on you if you can help it.”
Janet looked at the rolling pin which now had red muck all over it from the zombie’s massacred face. “This isn’t easy, is it?”
“No ma’am, it really isn’t.”
She eyed the approaching gore-covered corpse, holding the rolling pin in her right hand and the knife in her left. She switched implements from one hand to the other. The zombie reached for her. She hefted the rolling pin and swung her meaty arm in an outward arc, connecting with the zombie’s head and sending it sprawling to the ground. “Fuckwit.”
Before it could recover, she was on it and rammed the knife under its chin, through the throat and into the brain. The zombie grunted and went still. Blood oozed from the wound as Janet slid it back out.
“Ugh, that smells like hell.” The knife dripped a stream of red blood tinged green.
“Don’t let that get on you!” Jonah shouted. “Rinse that knife off in the sink. You're going to need it again.”
“What is it?” she asked, glancing at him as she turned the faucet on. “What’s causing this?”
Jonah felt around in his pockets as he replied. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, but it’s a poisonous gas, some sort of nerve toxin. Leftovers from a government experiment more than likely. It turns people into radioactive zombies. Their bites and bodily fluids can infect others.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah, it’s nasty stuff. It seems like it might've started with the principal, but I've no idea how he could've gotten infected. The longer they’re undead, the more toxic they get.” He smiled as his fingers found the cylindrical package he was hoping to find in an internal jacket pocket. He pulled out a half-smoked cigar and stuck it in his mouth. It was dry and brittle, but when you might die in the next few minutes, any cigar was a good cigar.
Janet shook water from the blade and wiped it on her apron. “No. It started with a boy. His name’s Tommy Tucker. He came to school sick.”
“That means it started somewhere else.” Jonah shook his head. “This could get a whole lot worse.” Moans from out in the hall stopped him short. He whispered, “We need to get these kids out of here.”
Janet nodded and stepped away from the entry.
“I’ll get one of those windows open and we can lift the kids up and through it, then I’ll help you out.” Jonah set the cleaver on top of a sink.
Janet looked at the small windows then back at Jonah. “I’m not the kind of woman who climbs out of windows. I’m a woman of a certain stature.” She stood straighter, tugging the chef’s apron she wore over her belly. “Just get the kids to safety.”
Jonah glanced at the windows. “Ok, I’m not sure I’d fit through either.”
The kids h
ad crowded into the three stalls. The girls in the far left, the four younger boys in the middle and Nick in the last by himself. Jonah went to the girls. Opening the door elicited a small scream from one and a series of questions from another.
A thin girl with pale skin and short dark hair cut into a bob looked up at him from atop the toilet. “Are we going to get eaten?”
“No,” Jonah said. “We’re gonna get you out that window to safety.”
“But those things want to eat us.” This caused the other girl to start crying.
From two stalls over, Nick commented, “You little cry-babies.”
Jonah bit his tongue, looking at the two crying children. He reached out to touch one of them, then stopped as the eyes of the talkative one saw his missing fingers and he pulled it away before the others noticed it.
The little dark-haired girl stared at him. “Did they do that?”
Jonah shook his head. “No, not them. That happened a while ago.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes. Now—”
A loud groan came from right outside the bathroom. The girls cried out and Jonah turned to see shadowy shapes moving around the entrance. Nurse Janet stood a few feet away, facing the door, rolling pin and knife at the ready.
“Ok girls,” Jonah said, reaching out. “I need you to move so I can get up there and open that window.” He pointed at it. “We’re gonna get you out of here.”
The inquisitive girl stepped down and offered her hand to help a blond girl that was the same height as her. The last girl trembled, tears streaming.
“Mr. Jonah. I’m too scared.”
“I know you are,” Jonah said. Looking around, he tried to figure out some way to calm her. Spying a hair pin in her hair with a little poodle on it, he found inspiration. “Do you like dogs?”
“Wh-what?” The girl asked him through her tears.
“Do you like dogs? I see you have one in your hair.”
She sniffed her runny nose and looked at him with a wrinkled forehead. “Why?”
“There’s a really cute dog coming. He’ll be outside in just a little bit. You’ll get to meet him.”
