The Reawakening (The Living Dead Trilogy, Book 1) (17 page)

“True words.”

I squeezed his shoulder, walked back into the dining room, and poured myself another cup of coffee. The helplessness of our situation left me dispirited and depressed. I worried about my wife and son back home in Boston, frustrated at my inability to do anything. If there was only some way I could contact them and reassure her that we were okay. Or if she could provide me with some reassurance that she and Stephen were safe and sound, and ensconced inside our capacious Back Bay home.

As beautiful as northern Maine was, I missed the city. But Rick was right. Everything about our lives had flipped upside down on a dime. Disease, violence, and crime threatened to tear apart the delicate fabric that we called society. It truly felt like the end of times.

Despite my success as a novelist, and despite the piles of money I’d made off all the movies and books, I now realized that Rick had made the right decision by moving up here and building a self-sufficient life for himself and Susan. And now, Dar and I found ourselves’ dependent on his knowledge and supplies for our imminent survival.

The sound of Rick’s voice broke me out of my train of thought. He stood in the doorway between the living room and the dining room, holding on to the doorframe.

“Can I talk to you for a moment, Thom?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Come on downstairs, and I’ll show you. I really think you should see this.”

Chapter 11

I
FOLLOWED
R
ICK DOWN THE LONG
flight of stairs and into the basement, which felt like one of those twisted rooms straight out of some B movie about experimental Nazi doctors. Rick pulled out his set of keys and fumbled for the right one. He turned to face me.

“It’s too late for squeamishness, but brace yourself just in case.”

“Brace myself for what?” What the hell did he mean? “I’ve already seen her reawaken.”

“Yeah, but there’s more. Lots more. You’ll see.”

I said a quick prayer before entering the room.

Rick switched on the lights. I looked around, averting my eyes from the creature writhing and arcing on the cot. I felt afraid to look at it, unsure of what else I might find. But the raspy grunts and heavy breathing were difficult to ignore, and the rank odor made me want to vomit. I turned my head and gazed at the creature, and was surprised to find it exactly the way we had left it: tied to the cot and struggling furiously to free itself from the vinyl straps holding it down.

“Notice anything different?” Rick said.

“Not really, except for that terrible smell.”

“It does smell bad, I’ll give you that. Smells like a barn on a hot summer day,” he said. He slipped on a pair of latex gloves and then handed a pair to me.

“It smells far worse than that. Like that thing is decomposing. Except it’s not quite dead, or however you want to characterize it.”

“It’s decomposing all right. Reawakened may be the better way to phrase its conscious state,” he said. “Come over here. I want to show you something amazing.”

Rick reached down towards the creature’s face. It gnashed its teeth angrily and let out a high-pitched howl.

“Take it easy now, babe,” Rick whispered to it, holding his hands inches above its head.

I watched in fascination as he moved his hands past its foaming, greedy mouth and down around the neck. He gently removed the towel over its throat and placed it down on her chest. A thin red line ringed her throat. He brought both hands to either side of her head and pulled it up ever so gently away from its body. To my horror, the head was now completely severed from the trunk, and yet the body seemed to suffer no consequences from the separation. Its fingers, hands, legs and feet still continued to wriggle. What the hell was going on?

“Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve ever seen? I’m going to rewrite the laws of microbiology and physics after this is all said and done.”

“But how is that even possible?”

“I biopsied the brain. It appears that there is an electromagnetic component to the regeneration process that takes place inside the cerebral cortex, although I still don’t fully understand the physics behind it. But what seems to be happening is that the regeneration of the brain’s cells takes place on a completely different dimension. I’m guessing that this process is somehow related to string theory, which theorizes that there are twenty-six space-time dimensions.”

“String theory? Dimensions? How about translating that into English for me.” The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end.

“The subject’s brain is controlling the body by some sort of remote transmission. My theory is that this is taking place on a cellular level and that the coded sequence of DNA has to match up with the body for this synergy to take place. Two disparate pieces to the puzzle. Quantum mechanics reconciling with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.”

“Fascinating, Rick, but how does all that scientific gibberish help us deal with the situation we now find ourselves in?”

“I had a hunch that you’d try and belittle my important discovery.” Rick glared at me. “It’s just like you, too, always trying to downplay my scientific contributions. Why are you always trying to compete with me? Are you that insecure about your own work that you need to denigrate mine?”

“Why would I feel insecure, Rick? I’ve sold over five million novels and had three movies adapted from them. I’m wealthy beyond my wildest dreams.”

“You write fictional stories, Thom, and while there’s nothing wrong with a good yarn while lounging on the beach, it doesn’t compare to the important work being done in genetic research.”

“Fine, Rick. You win, okay? You’re brilliant and way smarter than I will ever be. Is that what you want to hear?”

He shook his head and stared at the hissing head clutched in his hands. “I’m sorry, Thom. I didn’t mean to demean your writing career and all of your many accomplishments.”

“Forget about it.”

“It’s just that this is an enormous development. This discovery could prolong peoples’ lifespan as well as help those suffering from paralysis. You heard what Thorn said about his brother. He got up and walked.” He had a wild gleam in his eye. “I’m running the subject’s DNA through the computer for analysis. Hopefully, it should kick out some results in the next few days.”

“Why so long?”

“You’re talking about a double helix with over 3 billion bases that need to be identified, compared and then contrasted. That’s a lot of computing even for this supercomputer to do.”

“But how are you doing this? What are you matching the strands against?”

“I’ve already downloaded the entire human genome project, which I absconded with on my way out the door, and entered it into my database. In addition, I also have the genetic compositions of thousands of plants and animals, particularly the local species.”

“Is that even legal? Ethical?”

“All legal and ethical questions go out the window now. It’s a gray area of science, no doubt, but an area where all the great discoveries are made. Besides, I’m planning to use it for my own research. If this kind of proprietary information gets in the hands of the greedy biotech corporations, they’ll exploit the hell out of it. And that’s far more dangerous in the long run.”

“So what now?”

“I’m going to be spending a lot of time down here, researching the subject’s biological system.” He unbuckled the strap that ran across her forehead. “Which means I need you to keep a close eye on things upstairs for me.”

“Sure, although I don’t think Dar’s going to be taking orders from me anymore.”

“Just call me if you get into a fix,” he said, staring at the creature’s head. “I wonder what the range of this thing’s brain is? It’s like a cordless phone.”

“Go ahead, try putting it up to your ear, and you might end up like Van Gogh.”

Gripping the creature’s head, which no longer bore any resemblance to Delia, he walked to the furthest corner of the room and held the head up towards the ceiling. The creature’s eyes rolled, and its jaws contorted and gnashed at the air. It was one of the most horrifying sights I’d ever seen, and I had to turn my head away in disgust. Poor Delia. I hoped she had no idea what was happening. I turned in the direction of the body, feeling my knees go week. I began to feel dizzy, and I felt myself falling. When I came to a few seconds later, I realized that I’d fainted on top of the corpse. One of its cold, lifeless hands clasped onto my wrist. Horrified, I struggled to win back my hand. The skin on my wrist tingled from the touch, and it felt like needles pricking my skin. Rick walked over and gently placed the twitching head down so that it aligned back with the neck. He grabbed a tube of antiviral ointment off his bench, dabbed some goop on his finger, and proceeded to rub it over my wrist.

“Can’t be too careful.”

“Am I going to catch anything?”

“I doubt it. I’m fairly certain it’s passed on only through blood transmission.”

“Damn!”

“This stuff isn’t for the faint of heart.”

“I need to get out of here before I pass out again,” I said. “Look, Rick, if Gunner learns what you did to his wife, the guy will go ballistic.”

“And he’ll leave two orphans if he tries any of that shit on me. Besides, this monster isn’t his wife. That woman stopped being his wife a long time ago, and she’s not ever returning. Come to think of it, she was a monster before she died.” He adjusted the head so that it fit snugly in place, strapped everything back in, and then secured it using the fastener. “There’s one other thing I need to tell you, Thom.”

“You mean showing me that headless horseman wasn’t enough?”

“You have to promise me you won’t say a word to the others after I tell you.”

“Sure.”

He paused and clenched his jaws. “I have a way of communicating with the outside world.”

“What? You bastard! And you’ve been keeping this from me the whole time? Christ, Rick, my wife and son are out there and in serious jeopardy.”

“I had to wait for the right time to tell you. I have a shortwave radio that I’ve been using to communicate with contacts around the world. Unfortunately, the shortwave signal seems to be getting weaker as time goes on. Besides, none of my contacts in Boston have been responding in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Jesus, what’s going on out there?”

“It’s bad. Worse than we thought.”

“How bad? And tell me the honest truth.”

“No one has dropped any bombs yet, but the usual suspects are making veiled threats. The world financial collapse has created chaos everywhere.” He turned to face me. “The stock market has collapsed and the Dow and the Nasdaq have been temporarily shut down. So has the Nikkei. Your considerable stock portfolio has been rendered worthless. Gold, silver, food, and water are now the
de facto
global currencies.”

“What about Boston? Have you heard what’s going on down there?”

“The only thing I can relay to you is that the National Guard has been called in, but they’re not able to control the mobs roving the streets. My lone contact told me that he’s witnessed people being pulled out of their cars and beaten. Returning to Boston might not be the best idea, Thom. Your best bet at the moment would be to stay here, not that you have any choice with the snow. Hopefully, Margaret and Stephen have remained secluded inside their condo. Did you purchase any weapons like I advised?”

I shook my head. I thought his advice had been ridiculous at the time.

“That’s a damn shame,” he said, shaking his head.

“Did you tell anyone about the situation up here in Maine?”

“I did, but I don’t think any of them took me seriously. They have their own problems to worry about. They probably thought I was bullshitting in order to prevent people from flocking up to these parts.”

“So there are no other reports of people reawakening in any other corner of the world?”

“None that I’ve heard. For whatever reason, we seem to be the only ones dealing with the problem.”

I stared down at the monster still twitching on the cot. “Why here of all places?”

He shrugged. “Epidemics have to start somewhere, Thom, and they’re usually in isolated agricultural areas where the host jumps from one species to the next.” He walked over to the bench and wiped it down with a sanitary wipe. “This epidemic, if it is indeed a viral infection, is an important evolutionary marker. It triggers a rare speeding-up process that many scientists believe is responsible for—for lack of a better term—the missing link responsible for the Homo Sapiens species. It’s just a hypothesis, but this event may be an example of our DNA rapidly evolving.”

“Or devolving.”

“I never viewed it that way, but you may be right, although again, evolution renders no moral judgment.”

“So this could be the apex of our species’ upward trend? Then it’s all downhill from here?”

“Those are layman’s terms and completely nonspecific to the scientific method. But for the sake of clarity, yes.”

I moved to the door. I needed to get the hell out of here. The brutish grunting in combination with the putrid odor was making me sick. If I could just put a bullet in its head, I would have gladly done so. If ever in the same condition, I hoped that someone might do the same for me.