Read Zombies! (Episode 6): Barriers Collapse Online

Authors: Ivan Turner

Tags: #zombies

Zombies! (Episode 6): Barriers Collapse

BOOK: Zombies! (Episode 6): Barriers Collapse
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Zombies! Episode 6 - Barriers Collapse

Smashwords Edition

 

Copyright 2010 by Ivan Turner

 

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

***

 

What has come before…

 

Investigating an alleged murder on streets of Brooklyn, Detectives Johan Stemmy and Anthony Heron encounter zombies. Detective Stemmy is bitten and dies from the resulting illness. As a last request, he charges Heron with making sure he himself doesn’t become a zombie. After his death, Heron shoots him in the head.

 

Shawn Rudd, accused of the murder, is released from jail. He goes quickly to meet with his secret boyfriend, Marcus.

 

A week later, Abby Benjamin, a clerk at a local gym, takes a sick customer to Sisters of Charity Hospital. The customer dies and becomes a zombie infecting several others. Peter Ventura, a young ER doctor, locks down the room, trapping himself, Abby, and several others in with the zombies. After a harrowing experience, they are freed and cleared of infection. The events, however, create a panic which empties every major city. Peter Ventura locks himself in his apartment for a week, dealing with the trauma.

 

Suzanna DeForest, a customer at Push Ups Gym where Abby works, also contracts the infection. She convinces her boyfriend, John Arrick, to sit with her while she is ill. She dies in the middle of the night and attacks him, biting him on the thigh. Arrick comes down with the plague but miraculously survives.

 

Dr. Denise Luco, who is in charge of trying to find a cure for the infection, receives a call several weeks after the first cases from a geneticist overseas. He claims to have created the bacterium which causes the infection.

 

At the same time, Detective Heron, now in charge of the NYPD’s Zombie Task Force deploys several squads to a church in queens where numerous zombies have been sighted. His deputy, Francis Culph, already teetering on the edge, is sent over when he shoots an infected child that has not yet died. Later that evening, Culph is picked up by a woman in a bar and ends up strangling her in an irrational rage.

 

Discovering that Marcus has been running zombie fights, Shawn goes to confront him. They argue and Shawn tries to shoot Marcus. Marcus, however, is a much better shot.

 

***

 

 

"
LIEUTENANT
Heron, Justin Mullen with the
News
. Just how many zombies were there inside
Saint Francis'
church on Saturday morning?"

 

"It's hard to say. We estimate there were close to forty zombies there before anyone showed up that morning. When you add the victims to that list, well…"

 

"And how many of them did you arrest?"

 

"I'm sorry. Arrest?"

 

"Yes, surely you didn't just go in there and slaughter them?"

 

"I take exception at the use of the word, slaughter. Zombies are already deceased people. They can't be cured or helped in any way. Attempting to arrest them would present an unnecessary danger to both the officers involved and the public."

 

"Dr. Luco, Brittany DeWitt with the
Times
. What do you have to say about this?"

 

"Lieutenant Heron is one hundred percent correct. We've been studying zombies now for almost three months and there's never been any indication of
life,
let alone intellect."

 

"How do you respond to the allegations by the
Zombie Rights Association
that you're fabricating your results?"

 

"Of course, I deny it. There's no motivation for me to lie."

 

"Dr. Luco, Colin Jones with the
Voice
. What about funding? Money is often the strongest motivation for researchers to lie."

 

"Mr. Jones, I am well funded already. Let's not forget that the goal of my research is stopping a deadly disease. In fact, if I felt there was a way to bring back the people who've turned, I'd probably receive even more money."

 

"But, still, how do you answer to rumors that a zombie, while undergoing a surgical procedure at your facility, started screaming as your surgeons cut into him."

 

"Ahem. That story is the product of sensationalist nonsense."

 

"Lieutenant Heron, Joshua Hu from the
Herald
. What's your take on the events in Africa?"

 

"That's a little out of my jurisdiction."

 

"Ha, ha. Yes, sir, but I was wondering how the police force uses an event like that to better protect the city."

 

"I see. We, of course, run many different types of scenarios both computer simulated and live. I've coordinated with law enforcement all over the country and we've exchanged viable strategies for dealing with outbreaks. Saturday's event at
St. Francis
was the largest such outbreak we've had here in the city and we're hoping it's unique. To answer your question, the outbreak in Africa happened under much the same circumstances as the outbreak in Bucksburg, West Virginia. Secrecy, attempting to hide the outbreak, is very dangerous. Since the very beginning, the authorities here in the city have been very intent on educating the public."

 

"Lieutenant Heron, Sally Maxwell with the
Daily
. Is there any hope that Saturday's incident was unique and not just the beginning of something much worse?"

 

"Three members of the church have come forward to help us with the investigation. It seems that Father Ohara, who ran the church, had collected the zombies in a room in a subbasement and was holding them until their souls could be saved. While I don't question the Father's intentions, his actions cost the lives,
and
souls, of many of his parishioners. Again, I would strongly urge the public to report any such collecting of zombies in one area. Of all of the threats posed to society since the introduction of the zombie infection, the gathering of large numbers of zombies
in secret
is by far the most dangerous."

 

"Dr. Luco, Wayne Britton of the
City Life
. How close are you to finding an effective treatment for the infection?"

 

"As many of you have heard, we've brought in some help from overseas. Most of our antibiotic treatments have been ineffective but we've had some success with radiation and even chemotherapy."

 

"Chemotherapy? Is it a cancer?"

 

"Not as such, no. But chemotherapy does seem to slow it down."

 

"And when will there be a cure?"

 

"I wish I knew, Mr. Britton. I wish I knew."

 

***

 

THE
press conference was held in the lobby of
Arthur Conroy Memorial Hospital
the Monday morning after raiding the infested church in Queens. Dr. Luco had insisted on it so that she could get quickly back to work after what she deemed an exercise in frivolity. Heron didn't care where the press conference was. He was just happy to have been able to stall it two days. Since the episode at
St. Francis
, everyone with a pen or camera had been on his back.

 

As they left the podium, Luco tried to avoid him, making a bee line for the back of the room. She was heading toward her lab, but he caught up to her and followed her into the stairwell. She looked up at him, worried by the look on his face. She wasn't sure what she'd said during the conference that had upset him.

 

"I saw you hesitate when they asked you about the scream."

 

"I didn't hesitate," she said.

 

"Yes, you did. I saw it and I bet they saw it as well."

 

She turned away and went down two steps, saying, "You're mistaken," as she did so. But he grabbed her arm and pulled her back, almost tripping her up.

 

Snatching her arm away from him, she yelled, "Keep your hands to yourself,
Lieutenant
. I don't answer to you."

 

"Is it true?" he asked. "Did one of them scream?"

 

"No."

 

"You're lying. Oh, my God. You're lying to me!"

 

Luco breathed in and breathed out. She was trying to calm herself. "I wasn't there."

 

"But it happened?"

 

"Yes. The surgeon said he cut into the zombie's belly and it let out a scream."

 

"Don't you knock them out, first?"

 

She threw her arms in the air. "Why would we think to anesthetize a
corpse
?"

 

"So what does it mean?" Heron pressed. "If a zombie can feel pain, what does that mean?"

 

"It doesn't mean anything. The bacteria reactivate certain portions of the brain. In this particular case, they reactivated the pain centers."

 

"And what about the one from Saturday? The one who opened fire on my men?"

 

Luco shrugged. "He was probably holding the gun when he died. Maybe he held some sort of biological memory or had a muscle spasm. The tests on his body showed no difference between him and the other victims. Lieutenant, you're going to see all sorts of zombie anomalies as this thing spreads. Each and every one will seem like they're more than what they are, which is just dead flesh."

 

"You're sure?" he said, a bit more calmly.

 

"Of course I'm sure," she answered him. "What are you so worried about?"

 

He shook his head back and forth, turned, and took two steps back up the stairs. He hesitated, not turning back but just standing still.

 

She looked at his back. "What is it?"

 

"It's Stemmy," he answered. "I shot him and now I wonder if I could have saved him."

 

She began to answer, but he took several quick steps and went through the outer door. Naughton was coming in as he was going out. Heron barely noticed him. When he was gone, Naughton looked reprovingly at Luco.

 

"Don't blame me," she said.

 

He came down to her level and kissed her quickly on the lips. "So what happened?"

 

She started back down the stairs and Naughton followed. "He's worried that the zombies can be saved."

 

"Can they?"

 

"Don't you start with me, too."

 

They went straight to the lab, saying hello to a few people on the way. Naughton's face was becoming a familiar one down there. Nobody even questioned the officer's presence.

 

Waiting for them inside the lab was Rudolph Ludlow.

 

Ludlow was fiendishly handsome. He was a middle aged man, perhaps in his upper forties, with brown hair that showed just a hint of grey. The lines on his face were few and distinguished. He was tall. He was not thin but he was in fantastic shape, as if the best thing he could ever find to do was take care of his body. He would have put the best of the best at
Push Ups
gym to shame. Over the phone he had sounded pompous, though not arrogant. He was too enthusiastic to seem arrogant. After his bold confession, Denise Luco decided that she had to have him where she could pick his brain. And he wanted nothing more himself. So he and she had managed to get him on a restricted flight from London to the New York where she had met him in an official vehicle. It had taken two weeks. Ten minutes after his arrival, he had confirmed that the bacterium that caused the zombie infection was, in fact, his invention.

 

But even after that revelation, there were many unanswered questions. Ludlow had received a grant from the British government two years before so that he could conduct his research. The focus of the project was on developing a bacterium that would work in concert with the human immune system, giving people the natural ability to fight off viruses and infections that were otherwise incurable. It would have made the common cold a thing of the past.

 

Of course, the tests on animals produced the zombie result. For six months, Ludlow had worked hard to counteract the effect but to no avail. Every month, he reported to his government, but hid the fact that he had produced undead. Though his superiors had never given him a reason to believe that they would take his creation and use it as a weapon, he was naturally paranoid. After the half year was up, he worked up a detailed report, excluding large pieces of information, and declared the project a failure. He destroyed all of the samples personally, accounting for each one, and closed up shop with no one any the wiser.

BOOK: Zombies! (Episode 6): Barriers Collapse
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