Zombie Day Care (5 page)

“
Miss me?” she said as she straddled him, pinning his arms back behind his head. Her perfume was vitalizing. He was conquered.

“
Words could never describe my longing for you?”

She slammed his hands back again.

“
Is that a
yes
or
no
?”

“
Yes Tori! Yes! Now get off me before someone comes.”

She wiggled her hips on his.

“
I’m pretty sure you don’t want that … Oh Henry.” Her voice was like honey. She was right, but he was chicken.

She looked around.

“
No one’s coming. It’s just me and you.”

She winked at him.

He tried to squirm, but she squeezed his wrists and her voice was like poison.

“
Did you cheat on me?”

Oh no! Not this again.
“No never!” He hadn’t either. “Of course I want you, but my creepy brother is here,” he whined, “and—”

She sealed his mouth shut with a powerful kiss and began sucking on his tongue. She nibbled and licked his ear. “They’re in the basement, so just relax and let me take care of you,” she whispered. He did. Tossing off her lab coat she unbuckled his belt along with his pants. As she jerked his pants down below his knees the elevator chimed.

“
Crap!” he said, wiggling away.

“
What are you doing?” she exclaimed.

He tried to whisper as he said, “Didn’t you hear that — it’s the elevator!”

“
You’re being paranoid.”

She leaned onto his shoulders, her fragrant hair covering his face. Grabbing her shoulders, he pushed her off and fixed his clothes. Tori sat back, biting her lip and blowing the hair from her face. More lights came on above them and her face lit up. They looked at each other and scrambled.

He stood up, peeking over the cubicles low wall as she looked for her lab coat. They heard someone very close by, sucking the bottom fluid from a cup with a straw. He couldn’t see anyone though. He needed his glasses. Several silent seconds passed as he motioned for her to stay put as he headed into the office looking around.
Who in the—

Tori shrieked as he jerked around just in time to see her crouched behind a chair. Chill bumps were all over her half-naked figure. A lanky man with a crooked ball cap and watery eyes hung over the partition wall. The man was laughing, shrill and creepy.

“
Nice outfit Tori. How’d you know that’s what I like,” Jimmy said in a disturbing voice, while dangling her lab coat.

Tori darted behind Henry, clutching his waist.

“
Go away you pervert!” she yelled.

Tori hated Jimmy. He hated Jimmy. Everyone hated Jimmy.

His brother climbed over the wall and sauntered over, pulling up his baggy pants and straightening his grungy lab coat.

“
So, my prodigal brother returns.”

“
That would be you Jimmy,” Henry said, snatching Tori’s labcoat from his brother.

Jimmy was a twenty-something, two-time college dropout, who failed to socially connect beyond middle school. He was smart, cunning and weasel-eyed. Henry couldn’t stand the sight of him.
Why are you here?

“
What are you doing here Jimmy? I thought you were gone for good.”

Tori began moving away toward the elevator, heels clopping on the floor.

“
Bye Tori,” Jimmy said, chuckling as she flipped him the finger. Jimmy wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“
Pop’s said he needed some help, so here I am. I’ve taken over since you were gone.”

CHAPTER 9

A large gold and blue ceramic coffee mug sat steaming on the break table. A black LCD TV hung from the wall, showing an aerial view of zombies being herded into a road sized tunnel. The view panned backward, exposing hundreds, growing to thousands, of morbid men and women inside miles long chain link fence. Security forces guarded the perimeter, as well as forcing the hapless people inside the tunnel.

Another video clip cut in, showing a billow of black smoke from a burning dump truck that had crashed along a highway. The gray and white ash remains of the zombies were spilled onto the blacktop. More security forces cleared the area, but they weren’t quick enough to get all of the renegade footage. It was a scene from what happened in the years after Nate McDaniel saved the world.

Someone was tapping a spoon on their coffee mug in the room.

Tink. Tink. Tink.Tink.

Henry blocked it out, focusing on the scene above. Nate McDaniel’s charming face appeared on the screen, again. Nate was busy recalling the events of his heroic situation to the television hosts that treated him like the president.

“
Bugs ya don’t it,” said a voice that crawled under his skin.

“
You know me don’t you,” he said.

Jimmy took a sip from his mug and jerked back. “Ow! Damn coffee’s hot!”

Really, idiot!
“Why do you even bother, you never drink it?” Henry was shaking his head as he pointed the remote, turning up the television.

His brother made another annoying sniff from his nose. It must have been the hundredth time in ten minutes. His mere presence made the walls close in, and the sound of his condescending voice made it worse. “Just trying to be like my big bro.”

“
Great. You are doing such a fine job too.” Sitting back on the break table, he studied the picture on the screen.

Jimmy started again, “Well—”

“
Sssh!” He pointed his finger at the television.

Nate McDaniel was on the screen, tall and stylish, between two leggy reporters.
Nice Nate.
Nate looked as sharp as he’d ever been. A gold cross was displayed around his neck.
He’s got make up on.
Henry listened to the conversation on the television ...

“
So Mr. McDaniel, or should I say ‘the man who saved the world’, how does that scene make you feel.” The short-haired blonde reporter asked.

“
Please, call me Nate.”

“
Okay Nate. Take us back. Six years ago you sent a message that saved the world. Three years ago you began another quest — saving zombies. Tell us about that.”

“
Well Julie, it’s like this. What I discovered wasn’t a cure, as people say. Rather, the caffeine and sugar combinations only suppressed zombie people’s appetites for flesh and brains”.

Nate spoke back and forth between the hungry-eyed women that hung on his every word.

“
We still need to find a cure, so that the zombie people can live normal lives in the world, just like the rest of us. That is why I helped found the World Humanitarian Society.”

A tan, long-haired brunette asked the next question. “First Nate, I want to thank you. You saved millions, possibly billions of lives, and you seem to be on a noble quest to save even more.” She was shaking her head. “You are amazing.”

He was grinning.

“
Thanks Christy. But I don’t deserve all the credit.”

“
Sure you don’t,” she added, squeezing his knee, drawing a look of disdain from her co-reporter.

“
Tell us about the World Humanitarian Society, Nate,” the blonde interjected, casting a quick glare at her counterpart.

“
Oh, sure.”

He began rubbing his hands on his thighs when the camera zoomed in for a close up.

“
Well, like many of you, I also lost a lot of people I loved to zombieism. When I, I mean we, discovered a way to subdue their aggressiveness, we also learned there were other issues that needed dealt with as well.”

The reporters sat engrossed at his side.

Fiddling his cross he continued, “Because the zombie people were so despised we quickly began their incineration. And that clip” he motioned in the air,” was one of our methods paying them back for what they did to us. But after time, when the threat subsided, people like you and me started to wonder if our families were truly lost. People began trying to find their loved ones, wanting to bring them home, find a cure, and have resolution … even reconciliation.”

“
It certainly was an unforeseen blessing don’t you think?” Julie the blonde asked.

Nate shifted in his seat as he replied, “Absolutely. So many questions worldwide arose. Taxes, assets, debt, family, custody? Who was in charge of all of these decisions? Families? Governments? The zombies … er … zombie peoples?”

Christy the brunette added, “I remember going through all of this. It was horrifying. We had no idea where my brother and his wife were, and we got stuck with their children. I didn’t know anything about parenting,” she said with a shrug. There was a pause before Nate continued.

“
So … the World Humanitarian Society stepped up, and with the blessing of the United States and the United Nations, they were able to facilitate the process of bringing order to the lives of the families and the zombie people. But—their main mission is to find a cure.”

Julie reached over, patting his knee.

“
And we know you’ll find one, Nate.”

“
Nate, do you think the remaining z-people will get to vote?” Christy asked.

“
Only if their Democrats,” he said with a subtle smile, causing a burst of unnatural laughter from both women.

“
Tell us about your fiancé’” the brunette asked. Nate kissed his cross….

Henry shut the television off, tossing the remote on the table.
Ludicrous!
All the signs were there that Nate was lying, the sweaty palms and flickering eyes. He knew the story coming next. How he tried to save Jeanine from the zombies, and how they were trying to find a cure for her … somewhere.

“
What do you think about all of that Jimmy?”

His brother was stooped over, head inside the fridge saying, “I love Nate, man. He saved the world. Woo Hoo!” Jimmy added, arms raised high in the air. “I wish I was him. I’d be banging those two reporters right now.”

Jimmy began humping the table, spilling Henry’s coffee as he did so.

“
Imbecile!” he said, snatching his cup from the table as the hot liquid stung his hand. Henry cocked his arm back, the cup of brew almost spilling on the floor.

Jimmy stopped in motion, eyes frozen, then shouted, “I’m Nate McDaniel baby, I saved the world!” His brother started banging the table, using his fists like tom-tom mallets.

“
What is wrong with you? Every day you have to jerk off! You create havoc! You leave a mess! You leave—you come back. Over and over again, like the rabid flea.”

Henry set his coffee down, rolled his sleeves up as he rounded the table.

Jimmy hoisted his fists up. “Let’s go bro!”

Henry caught his brother by the wrist and bent it downward, forcing Jimmy to his knees.

“
Ow! That’s cheatin’! Let go!” Jimmy cried.

He wouldn’t. He wanted to break it. The look in Jimmy’s distraught face gave Henry satisfaction. He fought the urge to kick in his ribs.

“
You stay away from me and everyone—especially Tori! If I catch you leering at her again, I’ll break your hands—got it!” He cranked the pressure up one more time.

“
Yes,” his brother said, writhing to the floor.

He let him go. How many times had they fought like this? He bailed his brother out time after time. Everyone did. That was part of the problem. Violence wasn’t his style, but he was more than just a run of the mill scientist. He’d been a formidable ball player and runner in his days too. Jimmy was nothing of the sort, a pathetic life on legs.

Henry headed out of the room, down the hall and scanned the elevator pad with his card. His stepped inside, and he could hear his brother laughing and sniffing. His brother was a risk, a dangerous one and he was back. There was only one way his brother could have got back in. It was time to check in with his dad.
Don’t forget your glasses.

CHAPTER 10

The elevator chimed as the third floor button lit up and the steel doors slid open. Thirty feet down a hospital white corridor was another open room and entryway. The elevators doors began to close behind him as he started ahead. He noticed he was shaking as he moved forward, stopping inside the entryway.

He stood inside the small square room and rubbed his shoulders. The facility was always cold. A set of lab coats lay on a shelf along the wall, which he slipped on over his navy oxford shirt and beige dress pants. Another set of stainless steel doors awaited him. Above the door a red beacon loomed. He always wondered if it was more than just a color, rather a warning.

On the white wall beside him he saw a plaque that read:
W.H.S., Guthrie WV Unit, Certification 111
. He pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and wondered if there was anything else he should have grabbed from the van. Beside the plaque was another rack filled with shotguns with synthetic black stocks. The sight of them gave him little reassurance compared to the days they kept armed guards at every door. Now there was less than a skeleton crew, one inside and John on the outside.
I wish they finished that other elevator
.
Here we go.