Zombologist Book 1 Zombie Hunters (Zomboligist Series) (11 page)

A fresh breeze chilled her skin.
She reached out
slowly and placed her hand beneath his nose. Just a small puff. She knew he was
close to death. She cracked her radio to life and pressed the button, “Okay
Adam, he’s ready for you.”

She felt a twinge of sadness. Strange, it usually doesn’t
get to her like this. She has witnessed many deaths over the years. She mourned
greatly when her sister Sarah had died but since then she had learned to
distance herself and view the victims objectively. It is not always easy and at
times she has to force herself to do this. This was one of those times.  

For Ed Santos it only gets worse. For his family, it will
be a nightmare come to life. What he will become is unimaginable; a walking
non-living corpse driven to kill by the blood-thirsty virus that is now shutting
down his life support.

 
This man, who has a
family, a wife, and grandchildren, will soon become just another statistic to
her.  He will be given a number and a time stamp. He will become another
improbable possibility of hope that would lead to finding a permanent cure to
fight off the virus; to eventually stop its mutation properties and then stop it
in its tracks. 

She felt as if she had been playing in a sandbox that
continued to fill year after year with the dead. First a dozen, then two, and
how many others will follow? If it were up to her she would just decapitate
every single one of them. Most of the new owners were millionaires. They had
everyone in their pockets including many people in government. She just couldn’t
compete with that. She had to keep fighting.

She had once tried to bring awareness to certain government
officials but was met with open hostility and threats of jail time for wanting
to go public with her ‘
hyped up movie theatrics
’. If she insisted on
starting a public panic then she “would be thrown where the sun don’t shine” as
they had so elegantly put it.

If they only knew. 

But that was it! They
did
know. They had been trying
to control zombies for at least two decades now. If they could control them then
they could unleash them anywhere they wanted.

Need to create a government controlled crises? Release the
Zombies.

Want to unleash something deadly within an enemy country?
Here, have a few hundred Zombies.

Jana was slowly drawn out of her thoughts by the sobbing of
the woman beside her. She had nearly forgotten the woman was still in the room.
Putting an arm around the old woman’s shoulders Jana led her out of the room and
down the steps.

Jana hoped Dillon had talked to family into coming with
them or to turning their farm into a safe house. As years had proven, the family
will have to see the transformation from death into the abomination of what
their loved ones became, to understand. It is a horrific realization to witness
as the ones left behind comprehend what is happening. Once the shock wears off,
they, like the others before, will be sworn into secrecy and be submerged into
the society
.

With disdain and much sadness Jana realized that
the
society
was the fastest growing, underground group in the world. The US
alone had 15,000 in its fold. Around the world the numbers grew every day.

Like today, the walking death traps just pop up every once
in awhile, from nowhere it seemed, tearing families apart.

Luckily
the society
with modern technology could
quickly gather and jump into action before the virus could wipe out any towns.

Not like the past when entire towns had to be destroyed.

God forbid it hit a major city.

And God forbid it mutated into a quicker acting virus. Not
as long as 50 years ago the virus took anywhere from 1-10 hours until the dead
began walking. Now it seemed it was rapidly accelerating taking only mere
minutes in some cases. They needed to find a serum that prevented infection.
Quick.

****

Alfonzo finally picked up cell reception about half way
down the path and within half an hour of reaching the bottom the county sheriff,
Kevin Johnson arrived.

An ambulance arrived shortly after and the sheriff was
clearly annoyed when several reporters showed up. Finally the man of the hour
the Chief Medical Examiner, Dave Davis arrived.  

Marco had his wrist looked at by one of the paramedics and
had a hard time focusing on the questions the sheriff, EMT’s and reporters were
asking him. He was experiencing a pounding headache unlike any he had ever
experienced before.

He explained how the woman was frozen into the ice and how
he had touched her to make sure she was real. He explained, without looking like
a sissy how he had been startled and slipped when Joe had yelled, and how he
scratched his wrist.

The sheriff having dealt with several frozen bodies before
called in for a steamer to release the body from the ice. They had used one when
a man had fallen into Trout Lake last winter. When he was finally found he
resembled a Popsicle stick with only his torso sticking out of the water. They
had cut him out with a chain saw but successfully melted him using a steamer
without damaging tissues.

It took the sheriff, the Chief Medical Examiner and the
paramedics, who were having a tough time carrying 2 stretchers and steamer over
the rough terrain, nearly 45 minutes to find the spot. Marco stayed behind;
clearly some illness was beginning to overtake him. He stayed with one of the
paramedics and a reporter who had stayed behind a few minutes before taking off
after the others.

That reporter quickly sent his story to his news source.

Marco had eventually reached his mother who was clearly
worried about him, but otherwise annoyed that she had to leave the annual
neighborhood BBQ that she and his father was responsible for hosting this time.
She called Joe’s mother instead who agreed to pick up the 4 boys.

The EMT’s carried Joe down the trail on a stretcher while
the others stayed in the cave removing the body.

Joe’s mother arrived just after the EMT’s bandaged his
ankle and gave him a real set of crutches to use.

Marco seemed to be getting sicker by the moment. The ride
seemed to take forever and each boy took turns secretly looking at Marco and
wondering if they would catch whatever it was he had.

Joe was the only one that made mention that Marco’s sudden
illness could have been brought on by the contact with the dead woman. Marco
quickly passed that idea on a stupid and was very relieved once Kyle’s mom
stopped in front of his house.

Both Kyle and Alfonzo went in with Marco as Kyle’s and
Joe’s mother took off with Joe in the car.

Marco was starting to sweat and his fever was climbing. He
assured his mother that he was fine despite that he looked and felt like crap
and excused himself to go to his room to lie down.

Between telling several BBQ visitors the story of how they
found the body, Kyle and Alf were making calls to the rest of the football team
to tell them the story. They finally escaped the nosey neighbors and found Marco
sound asleep in his room. Before long the rest of the football team began to
show up, along with their. Word quickly spread and by the time Marco’s mother
came into to his room, half the senior class was there.

 
His mom quietly woke
him and gave him some medicine. Not having the strength to argue Marco relented.
Marco’s mother shook her head as she read his temperature, 102.6

****

“Still no sign of the other one?” Jana stood outside a cage
in their new phantom-black Semi taking in the scrounger. He was roughly 25-30,
tall and wore a multicolored checkered work shirt and old faded jeans. He had
cowboy style boots that were well worn. No wedding band, just an old faded
tattoo on his right bicep. His body and clothes were covered in dirt, muck and
dried blood. Strings of flesh and muscle hung from his blackened teeth, one
yellow eye hung down his check and wobbled with every movement. She noticed that
his eyes had been blue at one time. In another time he would have been a
handsome man. There was no ID in the pants pocket, just a lighter and green
bandana.

“Nothing yet boss.” said Jimmy.

She noticed that he had bite marks around the wrist area
and on his lower back. She also noted that his skin was leathery. Perhaps he
worked in the sun in construction or some other sort of outdoor work. Or maybe,
he had been in the sun for a while after death. “Run his stats and tattoo
through the local missing persons. If nothing comes up then try the NSA and FBI
data base. Has to be local, someone somewhere may be looking for this one; he’s
too handsome to let walk away.”

“He’s also slower than most. I’d say a weaker strain, Type
S, maybe twelve strains under. I’d bet it was the other one he was traveling
with that was the attacker, this one is too slow.”  Jana turned to Adam who had
just placed Ed inside an empty cage, “Let’s wait awhile and see if we can catch
the other one. If not, take them both to the Maryland safe house. My daughter is
coming home in a few days and I don’t want to be so wrapped up in my work that I
can’t spend time with her.”

The scrounger was trying to reach through the thin webbing
of steel that covered the cage. He was snarling at them as they watched.

He is what the millionaires are collecting and taking great
interest in. Unbelievable.

Jana moved down to where Ed was being kept. She took a few
minutes to watch him. He was lying on his back, appearing very peaceful. He was
still in a coma and Jana knew he would never wake up again. She also knew from
her research that his brain and body were shutting down. The major parts of his
brain that decoded him a human would be forever snuffed out.

 In a few more hours his heart will stop beating and his
lungs will quit working. He will die. Within several minutes or as long as a few
hours, he will stand on his feet and become a walking corpse. Zimbaween. He will
be controlled by a virus that is insatiable. He will thirst and hunger for
living flesh. He will hunt beating hearts and hot blood and will be unstoppable.

Well, he would be except for the fact that
the society
will be slicing and dicing him into little zombie balls and studying the virus
that lives inside him. He will be used for finding an antivirus and perhaps a
serum that can be used to protect the innocent. Once you’re dead, there is no
coming back from that. Maybe they can prevent the dead part from happening, but
once you’re oatmeal...

Jana turned and headed outside sucking in the fresh air.
Usually Zombies don’t stink so bad, the virus keeps the smell at a tolerable
level but the weaker the strain, the more pungent the odor. The Type S they
caught in the field stunk enough to get Jana outside into the fresh air and into
the radiant rays of the day.

Dillon walked up to her and stood silent, also enjoying the
warmth of the sun on his skin. He enjoyed being close to her, feeling her
presence, watching the gentle wind blow through her hair, seeing the shadows
play across her face. He knew it got to her, it got to him too. The years of
watching death claim the innocent; the years of the endless pain and suffering,
knowing that they were no closer to finding an effective anti-serum; no closer
to ending a potential nightmare perhaps in the making, at this very moment.  

Finally he spoke, “The family has agreed to come with us
after the chores are done for the day. They’re still in shock; the chores seem
to make things normal. Jamal and I will brief them after they witness the
transformation following Ed’s death. Shouldn’t be too long now, a few of the
guys will come in from the search and help with the chores. They can be here if
the other one would happen to show up and will also stay until morning to search
the woods further. Chances are we have a digger. He’ll be much easier to find in
the light of day.”

Dillon the ex-military man tried his best to distance
himself from the families of the victims. Children were always the hardest on
him, as victims and survivors both.

Except for the one still on the loose, this operation had
been a simple detain and capture situation. Jana felt sure that her team would
capture the other one before too long. At least she knew that they would hang
around the area until it was found. It may have bunkered down a hole somewhere
as Type N loners were so often known to do. That made capture much more
difficult, but not impossible.

“I hope they spot him soon, daylight will soon be fading.”
Oscar said coming up behind them. “Choppers ready Jana.”

Jana nodded and walked off. She was exhausted. She couldn’t
wait to hand over the reins to Dillon. She was ready. She had dedicated her life
to study the virus. She traveled the world, went to the finest colleges and
studied with top scientists. She was tired, worn out. She would study the virus
and travel. No more roundups for her.

You can’t bring the dead back to life.

Jana took one more look at the farm before she climbed into
the chopper. As the chopper lifted into the air, Jana’s thoughts went to the
serum. The serum she had used on Ed was from the marrow of an old zombie she
kept in her underground lab. It had worked several years earlier on a young
woman who was bit in Allentown, Pa. The woman was still alive and functioning
semi-normally, though she did hunger for raw meat. Her speech was greatly
affected and she communicated with grunts and gestures. Still, it was miracle.
Her blood was still being tested for the newest batch of serum.