Zombie, Illinois (43 page)

“We're lucky you showed up when you did, Emily Jean” I tell her.

Emily Jean looks around the crammed carrier.

“I think every part of this was lucky,” she says. “We almost didn't come. Plenty of people thought your text messages were fake, or even a trap. A lot of people thought we should just ignore them.”

“Then the fact that you
did
come...probably means you didn't have a better lead on the mayor.”

“That's accurate,” Emily Jean says stoically.

“How did you get Maria's texts?” Ben asks from across the bumpy, loud carrier. “Isn't everything still down?”

“Civilian
communications are, yes.
Our
stuff is up and running. It may have looked like you didn't get through, but you did.”

“Fucking
apparently”
Ben says, gazing around at all the soldiers.

“What's going to happen to Marja Mogk and all those people who wanted to kill my dad?” I ask. The soldier shakes her head.

“Our priorities are to secure the chain of command. That includes the mayor of Chicago. That's why we're here. As far as what law enforcement is going to do—or what form it's going to take—that's not my place to guess”

“But the mayor of Chicago—Maria's
dad
—will be supported by the full faith of the United States military, right?” Ben asks. He sounds formal, like a lawyer. I wonder if he is still planning on writing an article about this.

“That.yes, that's my understanding,” Emily Jean manages.

“You see?” Ben says.

“See what?” I tell him. “I don't want Marja or Igor or Shawn Michael to get away with this.”

“They can't” Ben says. “At least they can't be mayor. The military has the person they think is the legitimate leader of Chicago. So it's done. Over. No amount of secret meetings between aldermen is going to change that. There're no favors left for Marja and Igor to buy.”

“Hmmm,” I say, feeling unsure. “So my dad is, like,
definitely
mayor?”

Ben nods and smiles, more to himself than to me. That's how I know it's for real.

“Well.good, I guess,” I say, relaxing. “I wish there was some way the military could have done this years ago. Just come into the city and cleaned house.”

“Speaking as a person who grew up inside of Cook County, I don't disagree with you,” allows Emily Jean.

Across the carrier, Ben chuckles. So do a few of the other soldiers.

“Do you know what happens next?” I ask Emily Jean.

She smiles wryly. “I can tell you what happens next, but not
next
next, if you follow me. Your dad is probably getting the same debriefing right now. Headquarters, for the moment, is up north on the base in Lake County. That's where the orders from Washington come from. This zombie stuff started in Illinois last night, but now it's spread around the world, to just about every country, every city.”

“Jesus,” I say, trying to imagine the entire Earth crawling with these things.

“Apart from making sure this outbreak doesn't somehow start a nuclear war, I think what the government cares about is keeping a coherent chain of command,” Emily Jean continues. “That's all anybody is using to define failure or success at this point. ‘Did we maintain the chain of command?' That's why we were willing to risk a goose chase to Oak Park if it meant we might find Chicago's mayor.”

“Wow,” I tell her. “I'm glad you did. We would have been killed by that mob in, like, seconds. Our friend Mack would have died for sure.”

“Yeah...” Emily Jean says absently. “But in terms of where we go from here—to answer your question in the bigger sense—your guess is as good as mine.”

Emily Jean looks away from me and back to her squad. She takes a deep breath. I realize that while this is the end of our story, it is probably just the beginning of theirs. Some have sad, wan faces, like this is the last place they want to be. Others look plain exhausted. Others still look alert and excited, like they have been waiting for a zombie outbreak their entire lives.

The armored personnel carrier continues north toward Lake County. I lean back against the jostling metal side. Almost before I realize what is happening, I have drifted off to sleep.

If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.

-Macbeth (III, iv)

Nelson Algren once said that loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose. But he said that back in the 20th century.back before the outbreak. These days, loving Chicago is more like loving a woman whose nose has been bitten off by a zombie.

There's a gaping hole that's impossible to miss right in the middle of her face; a couple of tunnels where you can see up into her sinuses (eww!); and a terrifying, cadaverous aspect to her profile now. It just doesn't look right, no matter what angle you see her from. But maybe she covers the nose-hole with a designer scarf. Maybe she wears a fancy, bejeweled Tycho Brahe fake nose. Maybe she just lets it all hang out and doesn't give a shit.

And you look at her, and, I mean, the noselessness is glaring.
Glaring.
You can't miss it. The fact that it's not the first thing both of you talk about when you first get introduced is utterly absurd.

But still.

Despite it all, she looks
damn good.
You look her over—head to toe and lack of nose—and you're still onboard. You love her just the same.

Maybe, in some weird way, you love her even more.

I don't know how this next part happens. I mean, from what I've heard, if civilization is going to come back, it's going to start in cities and spread outward. People are saying we've reverted back to Medieval times. What they mean is that in cities there's still law and order. Courts. Police. An army. A government. Out in the countryside though—where the army can't reach—it's just lawless. Every man for himself. It's also where all the libertarian survivalists fled, and they didn't like government to
begin
with.

There's going to be a lot of resistance to bringing the countryside back under federal or state control. The “countryside”— by which I mean any Illinois county with a population of less than 100,000—is going to have to be resettled inch by inch. People will have to become pioneers all over again. Instead of taking over the country from American Indians, they're going to have to reclaim it from people who want to shoot their own food and not pay taxes. So be it. Civilization has faced worse. It has won before, and it will win again.eventually. (But for the time being, I'm staying in Chicago.)

I'm pleased that Washington, D.C. understands this as well. You must, after all, if you rolled in to save the mayor like that. By not just letting bandits and criminals take over the city, you insisted that laws matter even if zombies have broken out. Maybe
especially
when zombies have broken out.

Anyway, nobody will tell you this, but you did something good. We appreciate it. Whether or not people know it, you just saved Chicago from itself.

Mogk and Szuter? Are you kidding? What you're doing warms my heart. Seriously.

Providing this deposition has been a real pleasure. I hope you understand that. And like I told the prosecutors before, I'll testify in court if you need me to. I love the fact that there are still zombies in the streets some places, and we're going to have a trial. That's how we bring civilization back! As long as we still have court systems, Mogk and Szuter should get a trial. That will be justice. They “disappeared” so many people. We should show them that we don't do that. That's not how you play the game. We should lead by example.

I don't even know if I can write about all this, you know? At least, not in an article. I mean, newspaper reporters aren't supposed to make the news. They aren't supposed to put themselves
in
their stories. But I was personally present for so much of what happened that it'd be strange if I did an article about how the mayor escaped being murdered and got to safety, and I omitted myself. Not that the papers will be publishing for a while. Maybe a book deal won't be out of the question though, when the publishers in New York come back.

So, has this helped? I
hope
it has.

Mack and Maria's stories should line up with mine and fill in any holes. I still have Jessy Knowlton's notes if you need them.

You just get Mogk and Szuter and their cronies like Shawn Michael—and hell, make sure Burge Wheeler gets some extra years tacked on—and you'll have done something good. That's what I'm convinced of.

Even in a zombie apocalypse, you can find a way to do the right thing.

Did this fix Illinois? What a question! Yes. No. I don't know. It's a pretty corrupt state.

I feel like what this did was hit the reset button. Now we get to start over. Now people have seen why it's not cool to have i ncompetent, corrupt politicians who can't handle a crisis and only promote their friends. Now we will want people in charge who actually know what they're doing.

At least I hope we will.

No promises.

I mean, after all, this is Illinois.

This has not been easy. Dictating my story from a cot in your infirmary has certainly been a challenge, but so are most things worth doing. I've managed it, haven't I?

I apologize if my testimony has, at times, strayed to the i nformal. I communicate much more clearly when I can write something down. I've said things to you I wouldn't normally say. What do they call it? “Free-associating?” Yes. For some of this, I've merely been free-associating.

Your doctor says I'm lucky to be alive. Said he's never seen somebody lose so much blood and not die, and that counts what he saw in Iraq.

And I think he's right. I think I am very lucky.

But not just because I didn't pass away.

So that should just about cover what I wanted to tell you. I don't know if I think it will do much good—your prosecution of the aldermen—but maybe it can serve as an example. Show people that Chicago might have been one way before zombies, but now it has changed. The old ways are gone. Now there are new and better ways. New and better people.