As usual, after Jonathan walked out of sight, she sniffed the air gently. Pulling on her bindings was useless, but she didn’t know that, and she continued to do it anyway. Just over an hour after Jonathan entered his home, the girl calmed.
Having successfully extracted a sample of the thick blood Jonathan concluded that there was no cellular activity. He believed that the white blood cells were destroyed by the chemical as it took over the body. The blood stream carried the contamination to the rest of the body, spreading the infection quickly.
From a sample of the flesh he had taken from the toe, he discovered that there was almost no decay in the fresh wound. The external layers of skin rotted, and the blood was thick and clumpy, but Jonathan’s findings led him to believe that if he was to dissect the girl, most of her vital organs and muscle would be in decent condition.
The chemical was supposed to react with the cells in the skin to regenerate the damaged tissue. What it appeared to actually do, however, was form a bond with the cells and completely take over the body, using the cells as an initial energy source. From this point on the chemical contaminant becomes self-sustaining. Even though the flesh rots, the cells are being kept alive.
This left him with more questions. With most of the tissue being dead and dry, what was keeping them going? he asked himself. He would need to take a closer look at the muscle tissue. Not needing precision cuts, he grabbed a knife from the counter and went back outside. The commotion on the streets instantly grabbed his attention.
He ran around to the front yard hoping to be able to see what was going on through the gate, but he was too far away. Running up to the wall next to the gate he propped the ladder back up and climbed to the top. In the distance he could see a man running from a horde of the undead. The man looked tired.
“Over here!” Jonathan shouted, waving his arms. “Over here!” This second yell was enough for the man to notice him.
Jonathan jumped from the ladder and ran to the garage for the rope. He made it back and flung one end over the wall as he climbed back up the ladder. As the man approached, Jonathan pointed to the rope. The man grabbed hold and began hoisting himself up, but he was too heavy for Jonathan to hold onto.
“Hold on one sec!” he yelled over the wall. Jonathan tied the rope around his waist and braced himself against the wall with his feet. “Try it now,” he hollered. The weight of the man wasn’t incredible, but it was enough to cause his back and knees to hurt. He walked up the wall two steps to increase his leverage.
The brown skin of the man’s hand appeared over the wall, followed shortly by the other hand. As the man pulled his body up to the top of the wall Jonathan’s weight took over. The man fell, his wet body landing on top of Jonathan, who had the air pushed violently from his lungs.
Before he had time to catch his breath, however, he was lifted off ground. The undead on the other side of the wall were pulling on the rope to catch their prey. The man stood up next to Jonathan, who was trying to scream but still couldn’t find his breath, and pulled out a pocketknife from his pack. The force of Jonathan falling back to the ground after the rope separated knocked the wind out of him again.
The man waited a moment, trying to catch his own breath before saying, “I’m Guillermo. I’m with others. Are you ok?”
Jonathan lifted his head up off the ground, painfully nodded, and allowed his head to fall back to the soft grass. He was in pain but comfortable. Still catching his breath, Jonathan stared off into the cool blue sky.
Chapter 13
Arms came through the large gate, causing Guillermo to jump to his feet. Most of these arms were missing flesh. Skin, muscle, and veins hung from the bones. Some were missing fingers while others had no hands, just bone and flesh.
The bone in one arm had deep scratches in it from being chewed on. The arm’s dead owner pressed his face into the opening so hard that the skin around his right eye tore away and stuck to the iron gate.
“They cannot get in,” Jonathan said calmly. “My father made sure of that.” He watched them with interest.
“Now that I think of it, I remember when they put this gate in. I was working on a lawn two houses away from here. The Henderson’s lawn,” Guillermo said, pointing slightly west. Jonathan shook his head to confirm he knew the Henderson’s. “People thought it was a bit excessive. Guess they were wrong.”
“My name is Jonathan by the way. Come inside. I will see if there are some clean clothes for you. I mean no offense, sir, but you smell rancid. I may need a change of clothes myself.” He looked down at the slimy water on his own shirt that came from Guillermo falling on top of him. “How long have you been out there?”
“Only an hour or so maybe,” Guillermo said while laughing at the boy’s friendly jab. “I jumped a wall to escape some of the devils that were chasing me. Splash! Fell in a swimming pool that was home to one or two of them for a long time.”
“That is gross. What about the others? You said there are more of you?” Jonathan led the way through the garage and into the house.
“Yeah. There are two other men, a young lady, and three little kids. Also, a man and his wife are living in a house not far from here, but I don’t know if they’re going to be with us or not.”
“Well you can clean up, eat, and rest. Are you supposed to signal them or go back for them?” He showed Guillermo to his father’s dresser and closet. “Take whatever will fit.”
“Gracias. I will go back for them and bring them here if that won’t be a problem with your father.” He looked through the nice suits in the closet and tried to find something a little more comfortable. “Will he be ok with me taking one of these outfits?”
“I am not sure where my father is. I doubt he made it, and please, bring your friends. I may need help,” Jonathan said on his way out of the room.
Guillermo showered for the first time in a year. He could never bring himself to waste much of the water he could find, so he only washed the important areas. The clothes he put on were just a little too long and a little too tight. He made modifications to the outfit, and after he dressed, he went to find Jonathan. He called for him, but there was no answer. Stepping out of the front of the garage he noticed the horde was settling down at the gate, but he didn’t see Jonathan anywhere.
He turned back to the garage and noticed the door leading out the back. As he walked through this back door he saw the dead woman standing in the yard. Before turning back to look for a weapon, he heard Jonathan.
“It is alright. She is tied up.” Jonathan stood just feet away, holding what appeared to be a large slice of meat in one hand and a knife in the other. “It is muscle from the dead girl,” he said as he noticed Guillermo’s disgusted, yet confused look.
“Why do you have a dead girl in your backyard? Why do you have her muscle in your hand, if I may ask?” Guillermo seemed slightly disturbed, and he began to worry that his hospitable host may be the cannibal they believed Deacon to be. Feeling he sounded rude, Guillermo said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ask such questions. It is your home.”
“It is not a problem, Guillermo. I am doing research. I must understand them in order to beat them. When do you plan on leaving?”
“Soon, very soon,” Guillermo said hurriedly. “I should go before it gets dark, actually. Then we will make our way back in the morning if the conditions are good.”
“That works. I will keep an eye out for you. Maybe I can slide a ladder down the other side of the wall when I see you coming back. I placed a fresh pack with supplies in the garage. There should be enough food to feed you all for a few days in case you cannot make the trip right away.”
“Gracias again.” Guillermo’s worries began to slip away. “Be careful with that thing.” He nodded to the dead girl. “I’ll have little ones with me, so please be watching.”
The two shook hands before Guillermo walked down the driveway with his new pack. A handgun was sticking out of the side pocket, and he had taken a machete from the
garage. He climbed the ladder and looked back to the house, waved at Jonathan once more, took a deep breath, and dropped down over the wall.
Jonathan couldn’t help but smile. He was ecstatic to finally meet someone new. The signs were always there that others survived. The gunshots from the other day came to mind, but now he knew for sure. He pulled another ladder from the shed. This one was much longer, but it would work for when they came back. He laid it down against the wall by the other one. Now back to work. He had muscle to examine.
Back inside, he concluded that the muscle was not only fresh, but it was also very warm. This muscle could have come from a normal living person. He was baffled by how the flesh and blood was as dried up and thick as they were, but the muscle was in such great condition.
The flesh was cold to the touch. He noticed this each time he had to touch the dead girl. All these findings went into his notes, and the increase in curiosity told him he needed to take a look at the brain.
The gentle breeze blew the smell of the dead girl away from Jonathan as he stood in the backyard staring at her. Her cold skin looked even paler in the sun. Why didn’t they sunburn? Jonathan decided to worry about that later. With her movement restricted to the best of his ability, he knew that the only way to study her brain was to remove the top of her skull.
He was not able to find a precision cutting tool, instead he held the cold stainless-steel handle of a shiny new hacksaw. Used for cutting through metal, it would easily do the job. Why his father bought most of the things he had was beyond Jonathan. With the smaller ladder brought to where the girl was bound, he prepared to work.
So far, he was not enjoying any of the things he had to do. After all, this girl was once a person just as he is. However, he knew he needed to do this for the sake of his future, and the futures of Guillermo and the other survivors. He had with him a glass plate, and he put on some rubber gloves that made that squeaky stretching sound when he curled his fingers into a fist. The plastic model of the brain from his room sat next to him on top of the ladder.
Jonathan looked down at the girl from his spot on the ladder. He wasn’t sure what would happen to her as he began removing her brain, but he was sure she would forgive him. After all, the girl she once was probably would have done what she could to find an end to this.
He pressed the sharp, serrated, high-speed steel blade against the girl’s hair on the back of her head. At first, he lightly drew the hacksaw back and forth. immediately, hair fell to the ground, followed by small chunks of skin and thick black clots of blood. The skin surrounding her skull was easy to work through.
It only took a few good passes before he hit the skull. Applying more force now, Jonathan had to grit his teeth as he listened to the grinding of the steel blade on bone. Slowly, he worked his way around the girl as the blade worked its way through her tough skull. Tilting and holding her head as he went about this gruesome act.
After a couple minutes of slow, tedious work he was ready to remove the top of her head. He could hear the bone scrape against itself as he turned the top of the skull to free it up. He gave a gentle pull and the top of her head came free. The yellow tank top girl seemed to have not noticed any of what he was doing, and she didn’t care that the top of her head was now missing from its place.
Her brain was mostly gray and pretty solid looking. Jonathan expected it to look much more like mush by now. It was, however, covered in what appeared to be dark maroon veins. Only they were more like plant roots, or a creeping vine. They subtly pulsated as they pumped whatever bloody liquid they contained.
Deciding to look past the veins, he was uncertain of what part of the brain to examine. Carefully taking the small vegetable knife, he carved out a piece of the frontal lobe. The dark, viscous liquid pumped out of the veins as he cut through them. This seemed to have no effect on the girl. The piece of brain was damp to the touch and appeared to be healthy. He placed this on the plate.
Opening an anatomy book, he had brought out with him, he looked at the different functions of the brain. Some of the blackened blood from his gloved fingers spread across the pages as he flipped through.
The cerebellum seemed to interest him the most. He was curious if the girl would continue if he was to remove this part of her brain. Jonathan carefully lifted the back part of her brain up to find the cerebellum. She seemed to shake and twitch as he moved this fascinating organ around. Once he was confident he found what he was looking for, he brought the knife in and cut into it to remove a good piece.
This caused the girl to twist and jerk violently. Her spasms brought about choked moans. Then in the matter of seconds, she stopped moving completely. Jonathan was not surprised but found himself disappointed as he didn’t want her dead just yet. He was sure the brain was the key to their continued existence. As he stepped back onto the ground, he did a quick examination of the girl’s limp body.
Quickly grabbing a knife from inside, Jonathan ran back out, lowered the girl to the ground, and cut her chest open. Inside, her lungs were black, yet they were wet and soft. A terribly putrid smell escaped as he cut one of them open. A quick glance in her lungs gave him reason to believe that they didn’t absorb any oxygen.
He spent a moment feeling around in the lungs, not really sure of what to look for. There was nothing that stood out to him. After all, he had no real experience with any of this. Deciding that this would be something for another time, Jonathan ran back inside to tend to the brain.
A small lab was set up in his bedroom, but he didn’t have enough equipment to run any serious tests. It was there that he examined the brain fragments and a sample of the thick blood from the large veins under his microscope. The cellular activity was much higher in the cerebellum than it was in the piece from the frontal lobe.
Large traces of a chemical that Jonathan believed to be the one used to reanimate the dead was found in the blood sample, and it was in full control of the body. It kept the brain working in overdrive, sending signals to the muscles. Why it caused them to violently attack people was still unclear to him.
Over the next hour the activity in the brain, along with the reactions from the chemical, ceased. He sat and stared at his samples for an hour after that. Jonathan knew he was smart, yet he wasn’t smart enough to know what to do next. At this time, none of the data he had gathered really helped in any way. Besides, the lack of a sophisticated lab was holding him back.
After cleaning up the lab, he showered. Walking into the kitchen in his pajama bottoms and slippers, Jonathan opened and closed all the cupboards looking for something to eat. Although he kept everything stocked in the kitchen, he just wasn’t sure what he was in the mood for. Finally, he settled on a steak from the freezer and a baked potato to celebrate the occasion of finding other people after all this time.
After his supper he went to sleep, hoping to meet the rest of Guillermo’s group in the next couple of days. He was pretty sure the man had mentioned a young woman. He wondered about her. Hoping she would be his age. There was also the thought that with his luck, she would be hideous.
Chapter 14
Bradley made it safely to Deacon’s house with Emalynn and the children before Guillermo made it back. Roger had climbed onto the roof and kept watch from there to await his return. The group was becoming increasingly nervous as time went on.
“He should have been back by now, right?” Emalynn asked with worry in her voice. Her wet eyes were wide with fear and dismay.
“I’m sure he’s fine, Ema,” Bradley replied. With his arm around her shoulder, he held her tightly, yet he too was worried about his new friend.
“Look what we found,” the twins said together with eerie timing. The group turned in unison to see that each child held a fluffy cat. Andy’s was orange and white while Amie’s was black, brown, and white.
“There are millions of them in a room back there,” Amie said. The smile on her dirty face almost touched her ears.
“Actually, there’re about twent
y, and we really do need to put them back,” Deacon said, trying to remain pleasant.
“Ah, can’t we keep them out for now?” Andy and Amie both gave the group their best puppy dog faces.
“You sure can.” Sophia said. “Just don’t let anymore out, ok?”
“Ok. Thanks.” The twins said together again as they ran off down the hall with their new friends.
“I’m naming mine Herbert,” said Andy.
“What a dumb name for a cat. I’m naming mine Princess Shirley.”
The group sat down to eat another small portion of rabbit and vegetables for supper. With the extra security, they sat in the living room and ate. The kitchen table was busted into pieces, probably to extract a weapon from it.
Bradley took a plate of the stringy rabbit meat, cat jerky, and veggies up to Roger, who didn’t seem to care either way if Guillermo made it back. He sat on the roof mostly to stay away from the rest of the group, none of which he liked much. Roger ate with his fingers despite having silverware. The creak of the boards caused Roger to roll to his back and face out into the yard behind him.
Guillermo crept slowly through the yard, noticed Roger on the roof, and waved happily. Roger nodded his acknowledgment and turned back to his food without much care. Guillermo shrugged and walked toward the sliding glass door.
Bradley noticed him from inside, stood up, and walked out into the backyard. Noticing Guillermo’s new outfit, Bradley said, “You stop by Nordstrom before coming back?” he laughed as he hugged his friend.
“Better than that. I’ll explain when we’re with the rest of the group. Everyone made it ok, yes?”
“Yeah, we’re all here. It’s a little more comfortable now that we spread out in the main level of the house. We’ll probably still sleep in the attic at night though.”
The rest of the group was happy he made it back. They were far happier after he handed out the supplies that Jonathan had given him. There were even a few of Jonathan’s action figures for the children, which they enjoyed very much. Guillermo explained all about outrunning the devils, meeting Jonathan, and what he referred to as his “safe house”.
Decay | Book 1 | Civilization Page 13
