The Reanimation of Edward Schuett (23 page)

Edward gasped as Rae came on the screen. She’d cleaned herself up and wore a suit, but she was still recognizable as the gun-toting woman who had first treated him like a person when no one else would.

“Thanks for having me,” Rae said.

“Is this a national newscast?” Edward asked.

“Yes. The entire country saw this early this evening.”

The newscaster began asking her questions about what had happened in Fond du Lac, occasionally interrupting the interview to show some of the evidence that the network itself had gathered about the existence of a Z7. There were a few blurry pictures of the standoff in the back of Ringo’s truck, and a few other witnesses were mentioned. Most of them looked like yokels, or at least were portrayed as yokels by the newscast. As the interview continued it became evident to Edward that the newscaster didn’t really take Rae seriously.

“This woman is treating Rae like a joke. Why the hell would the president consider this something threatening enough to have me killed over?”

“Don’t you see?” Liddie said. “Even if most people don’t take this seriously, some people will. That’s enough. I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole thing, but my mother told me this Rae woman was arguing that you should have rights and that the government was keeping you against your will.”

“Which is all completely true,” Edward said.

“Yes, and that’s a problem. Maybe you saw a little of this when you first woke up and maybe you didn’t, but there’s a lot of political tension between the middle of the country and the coasts. Some places, like that town where you were found, have rejoined civilization pretty easily but a lot still resist. They still after all these years resent what they think of as the government leaving the center of the country to die. Any issue relating to the reanimated is liable to stir them up. Some people might think the government is holding a legitimate person against his will, and they’ll want to fight the government over it. Other people will see you as a terrible bioweapon that shouldn’t be allowed in the hands of anyone, especially not the government, and want to fight them over that. So you see, your existence, any way you look at it, is dangerous. And that’s not even including Chella’s theories.”

“You still need to tell me what exactly she…” Edward began, but a sound like a cell phone went off in Liddie’s computer bag and interrupted him.

Liddie looked at him with a hint of panic in her eyes. “That’s my cell.”

“Is there any reason anyone would be calling you right now?” Edward asked.

“No. Only people from the CRS should have that number.”

Edward pulled the cell out of the bag and looked at it. It listed a number on the display screen, but it contained far more digits than phone numbers had possessed in his own time. He recited the number, but Liddie shook her head.

“I’ve never heard of that number before. In fact, that doesn’t even sound like a Stanford number.”

The phone stopped ringing, but started up again only seconds later.

“Think you should answer it?” Edward asked.

“What if it’s someone trying to track us? We can’t have that. In fact, we need to get rid of it altogether or else the CRS can use it to find us.”

The phone stopped and started up again. “Whoever it is, they’re not stopping,” Edward said. “What if it’s your mother trying to warn us about something?”

Liddie gave him another look, then took the phone. She looked around at the few other vehicles on the road, probably to check if anyone was following or watching them, then pulled over onto a side street and answered the phone.

“Who is this?” she asked. There was a pause as she listened to the other person. “Well pardon me if I think it is important. Tell me who you are.” Pause. “That’s for me to decide. How did you even get this number?” Longer pause, which included Liddie giving Edward a confused glance. “Maybe he is.” Pause. “We’re already doing that, but I still don’t see any reason to trust you with any information beyond that.” Pause. “Yes, he’s right here.” Pause. “Yes, but I’m not…” Pause, and then finally she handed the phone to Edward. “Uh, this guy wants to speak to you. He even asked for you by name.”

Edward took the phone. “Hello? Who is this?”

An old man with a raspy voice answered. “I already told the young Miss Gates that I’m a friend. At this point I’d expect you to distrust a claim like that, but for now you have no choice but to accept it. Judging from how quickly she was able to get the phone to you, I’m going to assume that you’re both together and on the run?”

“Why would you assume that?”

“Because my contacts already alerted me about the president’s order to have you destroyed. These same contacts gave me the inkling that Miss Gates might have an interest in your well-being, so I hoped that by contacting her I could convince her to help you escape. I’m glad to find out that this at least is a step I can skip.”

“What exactly is it you want?”

“I want to help you. I’ve been trying to help you since you woke up in that old Walmart.”

Edward looked at Liddie with surprise. How many people had even been aware that that’s where he had first come to? The answer was even fewer people than had known of his existence in the first place.

“And just how have you been trying to help me?” Edward asked.

“As soon as I heard rumors through my contacts in Merton that you were awake, I tried to find you. I was there when the CRS came to pick you up in Fond du Lac, but I got there too late and had to watch them carry you off. I thought maybe you might be in capable hands with the CRS, but I was wrong I see.”

“So that’s why you’re calling now? You want to help me?”

“Maybe. But I need to see you. I can give you some answers no one else has. You need to come find me.”

“And where do I do that? Are you in California?”

“Unfortunately it won’t be that easy for you. I’m going to give you an address and you have to remember it, especially since I think it is a very bad idea for you two to be carrying around a phone they can track you with. You have to get to Illinois. Specifically, Winnebago, Illinois. Go to 210 North Elida Street. I might have to do a few tests to make sure you’re who I think you are, but after that I can give you answers not even the CRS or the government know.”

“And how would you even have these answers?” Edward asked.

“Because, Mr. Schuett, I am the man who created you.”

And then the old man hung up.

Part Three:

Cross-Country

Liddie looked in the rearview as the van approached the Stanford outer gates. On the outside, at least, she looked calm and perfectly put together. She had fixed her hair while they had been pulled over, so at least she didn’t look like she’d just attacked a government scientist. This was something she’d learned from her mother, that ability to look like she had everything under control even when things were not at all right. She’d need that once they got to the gate, since on the inside she was scared completely out of her mind.

She’d worked out a cover story with Edward on the way here, and although it had some risky parts, she was still reasonably certain it would hold up. She’d ripped off the patch on his coveralls that said “janitor,” but she’d kept her ID that identified her as a higher official with the CRS. Assuming that they’d made it here in time before CRS security could alert the gate guards, she would be able to just tell them that she was on a research excursion for the CRS to collect data on wild reanimated migratory patterns. It was a legitimate study that CRS scientists had been working on for some time, and hopefully it wouldn’t draw that much attention. She could just say Edward was a maintenance assistant going with her to fix some equipment, although there was a possibility someone would question why they were going out so late. The reanimated population was low enough these days that going outside the city limits in the daylight was relatively safe, but night was another story. Hopefully she could convince the guard that some field equipment needed immediate service or else it would compromise some experiment. She just had to hope the guard wasn’t smart enough to ask why they weren’t bringing armed guards with them.

They stopped at the gate booth and waited for a guard to come to the window and ask what they were doing, but even though there was a light on inside nobody came to them. Liddie peeked her head out the van’s window into the booth only to find the guard fast asleep on a chair.

“That’s just ridiculous,” Liddie whispered to Edward. “A reanimated could just walk right up the gate to find a way in and this guy would never even know.”

“Or a reanimated could walk up and find a way out,” Edward said.

“Maybe,” she said. She opened the door and, leaving the engine running, approached the open window of the gate booth. She supposed she was lucky the night was warm enough that the guard hadn’t closed the window. This meant she could probably just reach in and hit the switch to open the gate, then jump back in the van and hope to get out before the guard could wake up and realize what was going on. It would be risky, though. If the guard heard the noise and woke up before the gate was all the way open, he could still shut it again before the van had a chance to get through. She had to wonder what her mother might do in this situation.

My mother wouldn’t take any shit from someone like this
, Liddie thought, then smiled.

“Hey!” Liddie yelled through the window. The guard startled awake and almost fell out of his chair. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The guard tried to blink the sleep from his eyes. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I was just…can I help you?”

“You can help by giving me the name of your supervisor.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m on an urgent errand to fix a reanimated tracking monitor so that thousands of people in this city can sleep at night knowing they’re safe from the undead, and just what the hell do I find? Our first line of defense sleeping at his post.”

“Excuse me, but just who the fuck…” Liddie flashed her CRS ID before he could finish that thought, although she did it quickly enough that he couldn’t see the name. “Oh. Oh shit. Please, it was just a really quick nap.”

“A really quick nap? Well it would have been a really long nap if a reanimated had gotten past that gate and bitten you. I’m going to see you fired for this.”

“No, please, I swear it won’t happen again!”

A sudden flash of inspiration came to Liddie. “Your superiors, if they want to communicate with you they use a walkie-talkie?”

The guard showed her the thumb-sized device hanging from his belt. “Right here, ma’am.”

“Give it to me. I want to speak with them myself.”

“Uh, I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I’m not supposed to let anyone else use it.”

“Do you want me to also report that you were trying to prevent me from letting your superiors know about your mistake? Because I’m sure that will make you look so much better in their eyes.”

The guard cringed, then handed her the walkie-talkie. Liddie took it and turned back to the van.

“Hey!” the guard said. “You can’t leave here with that.”

“I’ll be reporting you from out in the field. I’m already running dangerously far behind because I had to wake your lazy ass up. I’ll return shortly and you’ll be getting it back. In the meantime, if I were you I would start trying to come up with an excuse that won’t get you fired.”

The gate was already opening as she got back into the van. Edward stared at her wide-eyed, but with a smile. “Okay, I didn’t catch all of that from here, but what I did catch was pretty impressive.”

“My mother’s training strikes again,” Liddie said.

“What is that you took from him?”

“His walkie-talkie.” She handed it to him, then drove through the open gate.

“
This
is a walkie-talkie? That’s even more impressive.”

“What, didn’t they have walkie-talkies in your time?”

“Yeah, but they weren’t anything like… wait, what do we need a walkie-talkie for, anyway? Can they maybe track us with this like they could the phone?”

Liddie shook her head. They’d tossed the phone out the window soon after the mysterious call. As much as they would have liked to try getting a hold of the strange old man again, she knew it would be too risky. “These models are cheap throwaway types. Not even worth putting trackers in them. And I took it because I think we can use it to fake out our pursuers for a while. When the CRS security realizes we’re gone, they’ll likely contact all the gate stations to be on the look out for us. You can just pretend to be the guard and say you haven’t seen anything. By the time we’re out of range they will still be thinking we’re somewhere in the city.”

“Good idea,” Edward said. Liddie nodded, trying to keep a confident outward attitude. On the inside, even now that they appeared to be home free, she was petrified. The obvious problem now seemed out of the way, but that meant she now had to face exactly what she had done tonight. She had thrown away everything she’d ever known in her life. Her career, her family. Admittedly, she hadn’t had much beyond that. Her friends were more like acquaintances that she occasionally met for drinks without sharing anything more than inane conversation. Her apartment had been sparsely furnished and contained few possessions. Yet it hadn’t felt like her life had been empty. Her career with the CRS had felt meaningful, like she was making an important contribution to the continued existence of the human race.