Zombologist Book 1 Zombie Hunters (Zomboligist Series) (12 page)

Jana wondered why Ed didn’t show the same type of results.
Was it because he was older, male, was it the blood type? Did she arrive too
late? She had so many questions.

She just wanted to wind up her research on the serum she
gave Ed. No effect. She needed a live specimen. But who?

True,
the society
had several old timers who have
signed up as volunteers. Most of them are battling terminal cancer. They are
suffering the lingering effects of the cancer eating away at their livers, lungs
and brains. They are happy to indulge a little scientific research of trial and
error and escape the lingering slow death that hovers before them. They have
signed waivers and are anxiously waiting to test the vaccine.

It only…  

Jana was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts as her cell
phone rang. It was Dillon.

“Jana, shit, I just got another call. Some kids found a
body at one of the ice caves, a
well preserved
body. Jana, it’s
all over the news.”

“What ice cave? Where?” Jana asked, practically yelling
over the noise of the helicopter.

“Trout Creek State Park in central Pennsylvania. I just
found out; do you remember Isaiah? Round up in ’88? He heard it on the police
scanner and called me. One of the kids suffered a bite. Well supposedly it
wasn’t a bite; the woman was a frozen mess. Apparently the boy scrapped his arm
on her teeth. It was a dare from one boy to the next to touch the body. I just
emailed you the link.”

Jana dug through her bag until she found her laptop and
clicked it on.  Impatiently she waited until she was able to find a connection
then quickly logged into her email account. She clicked the link Dillon had
emailed to her.

-----------------------------------

The Daily News

Sunday Breaking News!
 

Strange Mystery Surrounds Frozen Body
 

The body of an unidentified female was discovered late this
morning at Trout Creek State Park by a group of teenagers. The night before, 4
boys had been hiking in the forest when a sprained ankle caused them to stop and
find a place to camp for the night where they discovered an ice mine, indigenous
to the region.

The boys entered the cave only to find a body of a female
almost entirely encased in ice.

“Removal of the body”, said Medical Examiner Dave Davis,
who was called to the scene, “was tricky”. “What is odd about this,” said the
coroner, “is that she appears to be dressed in clothes commonly seen from the
60’s.  If her clothes are any indication of how long she had been in the ice
mine, she has been frozen for over 50 years.” Mr. Davis even went as far as to
state this as ‘peculiar’.

Dave Davis also stated, “The majority of the body is buried
under the ice. We had to dig into the ice surrounding the body to remove the
body intact and the body has been partially thawed using steamers. If you
remember the man we found last winter frozen in the lake, he was thawed in this
manner and without significant tissue damage, so we will continue to thaw the
body en route to the morgue.”

Police Chief Kevin Johnson was on scene and was quoted as
saying, “Once the Medical Examiner has a chance to perform the autopsy and
determine cause of death, we will see if an investigation will be forthcoming.
Due to the probable time frame, if any foul play is indicated, this may never be
solved.

“It is possible that she became lost and stumbled into the
cave seeking shelter, but searching in the archives for missing persons may take
some time.

“We are asking anyone who may have any information on the
identity of the woman or any clues to missing women dating back 50 years or more
to call the police department. We will be issuing a composite sketch within the
next few days to help identify the body.

“All we have right now is that the body appears to be of a
deceased female approximately 30-40 years of age, apx 5’6” with light brown
hair.”

Medical Examiner Dave Davis was also quoted saying, “Due to
the upcoming holiday; an autopsy won’t be preformed until later in the week to
determine cause of death.”

 If anyone has any information on the identity of this
woman they are asked to call 555-398-1890. More details will be forthcoming as
details are released.

---------------------------------
 

Frozen woman found in an ice cave? If the papers were any
indication to the truth, Jana may know who the woman was. But, she would not be
calling the state police today or any day soon. 

She was only a child when the dead rose and changed her
life forever. It was her responsibility that required her to check out every
possibility. Even if…

What are the chances that… Trout Creek. That horrible night
so long ago…

No, impossible.

Jana read the story again, a feeling a dread rising in the
pit of her stomach.

****

 “Jana, there’s more.” Dillon told her. “We have another
incident connected to that body found in the cave. The boy that called 911 was
the one that scraped his arm on the frozen woman’s teeth. The deputies were
finished questioning him by the time one of the parents arrived and took the
boys home.

 “Apparently he went to his room to lie down; he wasn’t
feeling well, fever, chills, the usual. The parents were upset that he was even
there. It was their turn to host a neighborhood BBQ, ah, Marco Perengio….
Apparently they refused to take the boy to the hospital because of the BBQ
opting instead to give him antibiotics and flu medicine.

“When his friends found out about the dead body they
started arriving by the car loads. From Isaiah’s reports it sounds as though he
died and changed right in his room. That means he changed quickly. Too quick; it
doesn’t fit the pattern. It wasn’t hours until he changed, it was only minutes.

“There were dozens of people that were bit, teenagers and
guest at the party. The police were called and many of them were bit as well.
There are as many as 30 in the ER and hospital now, not to mention those that
just went home to treat themselves.

Okay so, what is the containment probability?”

“Bad. The BBQ quickly broke up and the guest took off to
who knows where. Paula is trying to get the list of guest together now.

When they called police and they eventually rounded him up,
they finally subdued him with restraints and placed a Spit Net on him, you know,
the netting that we normally use for the zombs, but not as durable….”

“Yes, I know what they are.” Jana replied impatiently.
“They cover the nose, mouth and chin of prisoners that spit on officers. They
are made of a light weight metal and hamper the transmission of harmful bacteria
or viral fluids by a highly durable protective coating. I use them from time to
time in the lab when I’m running low on my ultra strength type.”

“Okay, sorry Jana, I wasn’t thinking. Well he bit a nurse
on the wrist at the hospital, ripped right through the mask. They tried to
sedate him, but we know that didn’t work. He’s on the run Jana. Took off and as
far as they know he is still in the hospital. I have a real bad feeling about
this.”

“I’m having Oscar turn the chopper around to pick you up,
we need to get to the hospital and see what the containment possibility is. Call
Paula; tell her to get the announcements ready, just in case. Let’s try to get
this contained without raising a public panic. But, before
we
go to the
hospital we need to view the body of the woman they found in the ice cave.”

“I’ll have Adam see who would be available to drive one of
the semi’s to the hospital, I’m not even sure if we have one in the area.”

Jana heard Adam in the background, “That would be Allan
Jana, he’s in Ohio. I’ll call him now.”

“Ohio? They will never make it in time, but, okay, get them
on their way.”

Shit! MaX!

“Dillon, I have to go, I need to call Max and tell her to
stay out west. I don’t want to jump to conclusions but, I will feel better,
knowing she won’t be in the area in case things get out of control.” with that
she was gone.

Dillon quickly briefed Adam and then called Paula. He heard
the chopper before he saw it cress the tops of the trees. Dillon estimated the
flight back to be about one hour.

****

Jana couldn’t get Maxine on her cell but she left her an
urgent voice message to call her. Max was no doubt hiking in Yellowstone
somewhere. Even if there were a full-scale breakout on the east coast, it
wouldn’t hit the Wyoming area for several days.

Clicking off, Jana quickly briefed Oscar then began to
scour the web.

Jana found what she was looking for. There was nothing more
on the Daily News but she did find an online newspaper article out of Pittsburgh
dated several months ago that gave her more information on Dave Davis. Besides
being the chief medical examiner for the state, Davis was also a forensic
pathologist. Jana put her finger to her lips, eyes furrowed in thought. In order
to have the equipment he would need to do a thorough examination, the body would
be in either in the Altoona morgue or the Pittsburgh morgue.

Simple deduction. Might be incorrect, but at least she had
two good places to start.

The chopper was just setting down and Jana was out the
door. Dillon ran up to meet her.

“I’ve got Paula contacting all divisions of
the society
on the breakout. She’s also ready to hijack all the TV and radio stations in the
area and play our announcement should it become uncontainable. Just say when.
Did you get in touch with Maxine?”

“No, but being in Yellowstone she won’t have any reception.
I don’t want her here. She can hole up in the safe house in Cody until we have
the situation contained.” Then as an afterthought she said, “IF we can get the
situation contained. Who else do we have in the area?”

***

Late Sunday Afternoon.

Jana double checked the perimeter alarm and reset the
interior house alarm before she slid the door beside the fireplace open and
headed for the underground chambers.

There were several small and large towns nearby and Medical
Examiner Dave Davis worked out of several locations. She needed to find out
where they were taking that body.

Jana sat at her desk called their tech girl, Paula, and
waited until she pulled Dave Davis’s phone number and address out of the NSA
data base. She then called Dave Davis getting him out of bed.

“Mr. Davis, I am so sorry to have awakened you but the
situation may be urgent. This is Jana Jones, biochemist and researcher. I have
something very urgent to speak to you about.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of you Ms. Jones, barely.” There was some
movement on other side of phone. Jana thought she heard a lighter and an exhale.
“Ah, wait a minute. Ms. Jana Jones. Aren’t you some kind of world renounced
folklore, ghoul researcher or some other sort of hobblegoblinlygook stuff?”

Dave Davis laughed gruffly, voice hoarse from too many
cigarettes. “What can I do for you?”

“You have a body in the morgue I’d like to take a look at.
The one found, uh, er, today at Trout Creek.”

“Well, Dr. Jones,” he said recognizing and calling her by
her doctrine, “I don’t think this lady is a ghoul.” Rough laughter. “In fact she
has already been thawed and she looks, well, awfully, ah, dead.. to me. I mean
you are more than welcome to see that for yourself. I mean, I am no expert,”
more rough laughter, “but, she may have been in that cave say, 50, perhaps 60
years. Can’t get any deader than that” More laughter coming from the other end
of the phone.

Jana was used to it. No problem, she had lots of ‘dead’
folk in her laboratory too. But, his snide attitude put her at her breaking
point.

“Listen to me you pompous ass, this is very important. That
woman may have been infected with something that would be very ‘unfortunate to
the population’ if it gets out. I’m talking pandemic proportions that could
literally kill every person on the planet. I can call in a few markers at the
state department if I have to. I JUST NEED TO SEE THAT BODY.”

“You’re saying that you may know who this woman is?”

“No, I’m not saying that, but, apparently this woman has
some sort of, uh, virus. The boy that scraped his wrist on her teeth is very ill
and he is infecting others. I may recognize the virus inside of her. I need
blood samples. She may have once belonged to a town that was wiped off the face
of the planet by this virus. I don’t want to ’cause you alarm. It may not even
be related. I would just like to take a look at her and take a blood sample just
the same. I can be there in under an hour.”