Zombie Day Care (9 page)

“
So how come they are still dying?” he asked with avid curiosity.

“
There is only so much XT and it was a small dose at that. It lasted a day. The girls … began walking again.”

He pulled on his dad’s shoulder and said, “Does anyone else know?”

“
Nah, I kept them down here.” Stanley’s smile widened. “Think about it son, with this breakthrough we can get back our funding. Maybe get a huge promotion.”

“
What about Louie? Is he on it?”

“
One dose, every other day. Look at his brain pattern.”

Stanley toggled between the screens and opened another file. One fourth of the subject’s brain above the lower stem was a rainbow of color.

“
Wow!” he exclaimed.

They clasped each other’s shoulders. Things were getting better.

But someone else did know. The cameras above had caught it all. He had been watching all along. Jimmy knew everything and the gold mine of knowledge would soon be his.

CHAPTER 15

Her tummy grumbled as she entered the break room. All of the excitement from Henry’s return flustered her. Bathed in the white refrigerator light, Tori rummaged through the shelves. Pulling out a box of pizza, she grabbed a roll of paper towels from the break room counter top. Opening the box she let out a disappointing moan.
Hawaiian? Oh … there’s a piece of sausage.
She stuffed it in her mouth, chewing with a shrug.
What the heck.

“
Girls got to eat,” she muttered, placing three slices on a plate inside the microwave and hitting the PIZZA button. As happy as she was Henry was back, she felt blue. So much had happened since he was gone and she didn’t tell him. Rudy and Stanley told her it would ruin his trip, but not telling him seemed to have ruined it all anyway. She wished she could have just been with him. On a cruise, something she had never taken before. Oh, what she would do for him on the open sea. His kind eyes and handsome face soothed her soul like no other man; even his serious demeanor didn’t dissuade her efforts.

“
Henry needs us girls,” she said, hoisting her bra straps as she produced a tube of nail polish tucked inside a cabinet door.

She checked her teeth on the rectangular mirror she had taped inside of a cabinet door and shot herself a wink. She pulled out a chair, took a seat and began recoating her long black nails. She had just finished applying the last coat when the microwave chimed. She got up, took out the steaming pizza and tossed it onto the table. The strong smell of the pizza caused her stomach to groan again.

The room was quiet as she turned her back to the doorway and reached back inside the fridge. She felt eyes were burning on her lower back. Someone was there. She looked back over her shoulder hoping to see Henry, but only a black television monitor greeted her concerned glare. Back inside the fridge, the two liters of leftover birthday soda was all she had to choose from. The one that read ‘diet’ got the honor. She froze before she pulled the bottle free. Her nerves were on edge, and all she could hear was the refrigerator’s hum.

“
Who’s there!” she yelled, turning with the bottle held before her like a club.

The room was empty. Her painted eyes darted back and forth. She stepped into the doorway and peeked outside into the main office. The cubicles and office were dark, where the overhead fluorescent lights were only on in part. She liked the dark, but not today. Along the outside of the break room, she began flipping on more switches, and the office became as bright as could be.

Sighing she sat back down and said, “That’s better.”

Eating her pizza she checked out a copy of USA Magazine. Nate McDaniel was on the cover, and she wondered if she would get to meet him. Henry had told her a few interesting things about him. She found that man fascinating, but not as good looking as she hoped. Coughing on a big bite of pizza, she took several big drinks from the two liter jug.

“
Damn!” she said, still coughing as she went to the sink, she began drinking from the spigot. Something was stuck in her windpipe and she was hacking hard. It flustered her, but she got it washed down.

“
Whew, that was scary.”

She felt a pair of hands on her hips.

“
Ah Henry, my hero, you came to save the day.”

Turning to face him, she recoiled in horror, shoving Jimmy’s leering face away.

“
Son of a bitch!”

She rounded the other side of the table. She had men paw at her since she was thirteen, she learned to handle them, but this man gave her the willies.

“
Ah come on Tori, it ain’t like you don’t want me,” he said, followed by a heavy sniff. “Remember that time we went to the movies?”

The ball cap was twisted on his head, half covering his long grubby hair. She could see the dandruff flakes on the shoulders of his sports jersey. He looked her up and down, brown eyes wild with lust. The strong odor of alcohol mixed with sweat replaced her hunger with nausea. Jimmy’s face had turned from good-looking, like his brother; to an unkempt miscreant no one wanted to know. Long ago, she had gone to the movies with him in school and she had been naughty. Now, she felt like all of those sins had caught up with her. Her knees were locked as he made his way between her and the door.

“
Go away Jimmy,” she managed to let it out. “That was a long time ago. I don’t even remember it.” She did remember it however, now it came back to haunt her.

“
Well I sure do,” he said on his approach.

He reached out and grabbed her cheeks in one big hand and squeezed them. She couldn’t believe she wasn’t moving. Some strange power kept her still. Something kept her near, something dangerous. His breath was on her neck and she felt him inhale her. He was like a snake when he whispered in her ear.

“
Henry ain’t got nothing on me girlie, and you know it.”

Something inside her snapped. Her weakened will turned to iron as anger replaced her weakness. She launched her knee into his crotch. He groaned aloud as he sank to the floor, cursing.

“
You bitch! You bitch! You bitch!”

She didn’t hear a word as she ran away as fast as her legs would go. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she entered the elevator. She felt exposed and worthless. She couldn’t tell Henry, he wouldn’t understand. She just had to keep it inside and pray Jimmy left soon or died.

She wanted out of this place, but didn’t know where to go. The elevator opened into the parking garage and she ran for her car, shutting herself inside, hoping no one would miss her. It was a long time before she settled down. She was crying so loud that she almost didn’t hear the elevator open. She crouched deeper into the backseat of her car and buried her head. She heard footsteps shuffling over the gravel close by, and she couldn’t remember if she had locked the door.

CHAPTER 16

He saw colors and heard sounds that were familiar. There were shapes and people, some moving and others not. Everything was new whenever he opened his eyes. A hunger and curiosity burned inside, but he didn’t know what that was. Confusion and fear overwhelmed his senses, but it was all normal as far as he could comprehend.

A soft wall barricaded his path somewhere else. He moved along its side, tripping over plastic objects he didn’t know were there. He fell, got up, and fell again. He didn’t remember how many times he had done this. He didn’t remember how many times he did anything. Things would go black and turn to color again. Every place he awoke was in different shades. Yellow, blue and gray surfaces coated his eyes.

Something sharp jabbed into him, but he felt no pain. More of those familiar looking things stared down on him. There were balls of many colors, filled with lines, triangles, circles and other shapes. Deep inside he felt he knew them, but most times they scared him.

Abandonment, loneliness and despair were emotions he did not remember. Flashes of other figures intermingled with his thoughts. He smelled things that made him hunger and his mouth watered. His bleak existence had no meaning, not to him. He traveled up something and slipped down it. A thrilling sensation overcame him. He wanted that again, but didn’t know how. Something smacked him in the head. He saw it, round and red. He picked it up and said, “Numma-numma.”

CHAPTER 17

She was still there, lying like a baby sheep in a meadow. The plush mattress cushioned her curled up figure, snuggled in Nate McDaniel’s silken sheets. No sound, no matter how abrupt he made it, stirred her excellent figure. She was exhausted, but not from him, as he would like to think, rather her demanding job with the media. He sat at her side admiring the woman he had just scored. Being the most famous man in the world had its advantages, all of which he knew he was not worthy of. Sighing, he covered up her naked figure, got up and walked stiff legged out of the bedroom.

Shaking his head he said, “I hate it when this happens.”

She’s still here.
He couldn’t stand that. She was one of
those
kinds that wanted to hang around, pick his brain or have a nice dinner in town. More press, more pictures, maybe a wedding … he understood the road she was on. He’d been trying to get off the celebrity highway for years, but it wasn’t possible.

The seclusion of his high-rise condominium kept most wanton predators at bay. It was his three thousand square foot man cave. The starlets of his world came and went as he saw to that. This was his anti-matrimony lair. No girls allowed … for long.

He followed a short set of stairs into a den that overlooked the city of Washington, D.C.. Nate’s study was plenty big, displaying custom mahogany cabinets, marble countertops and an oversized mini bar. Closing the door behind him, he grabbed a Gobster energy drink from the fridge. Pulling back the tab, he glanced over the can.
Caffeine and sugar… the nectar of the zombies.
He let out a quick laugh; afterall, it was his dumb luck that made the discovery. It seemed that two of his favorite ingredients were the zombie’s as well. He felt an unsettling in his stomach and set the can down.

He watched the busy city streets below. The streams of people, as small as ants, seemed to be on the move as the rain began to splatter his window. He could never crush the thought that all of those people might have been zombies, should have been zombies, if not for him. Now, he wanted to be ready if it happened again.

The only good that came from the zombies was the dismemberment of global terrorism. The Middle East was inflicted at the outset and their losses were reported heavier than most. Leaders of the tight knit networks all but disappeared, either from death or zombieism, as most speculated. Many differences were settled, as people all over the world seemed to understand that there were bigger problems that needed to be addressed … like extinction.

Sitting down in a comfortable leather desk chair he checked some accounts, read messages and texted a few that had dangled in his thoughts for days. He felt like there were a thousand things he needed to do, but that wasn’t the case. A thirty-six inch LCD was suspended before him. He spent about ten more minutes hammering at the keys, chugging down the rest of his energy drink.
Crap.
It was past noon and he had a needy woman to contend with.

Snatching another drink he looked down into the rain. Washington, D.C. was a foreign place to him. A large city that left him trapped. He never felt lost however, because someone would find him. Something always plagued him though. Why was there was no zombie outbreak in D.C.? One in fifty people abroad had turned, yet a much smaller fraction in the nation’s capital was afflicted. No senators, congressman, joint chiefs, or Supreme Court members crossed the undead path. The conspiracy theories should have abounded, but they did not. It was a theory that only a few others he knew still talked about.

He was tapping his finger on the side of the black and blue can. He had been digging and thought he found something worthwhile, but there was no one to tell.
I wonder what Henry will think.
Most all of his friends and family were gone, and he never seemed to have time to make new ones. Henry Bawkula was about the only one he ever contacted over the years. Henry he could trust, but he knew his college friend wouldn’t feel the same of him.
Not after Jeanine.

He moved forward on his search, as everyday he felt like something was about to happen, something big was going on. He was a liar, and he knew a liar when he heard one, and those who proclaimed him a hero were the worse by far. He used to lie to stay out of trouble, but they lied for power and he felt caught in the middle. He wanted to disappear.

He dragged himself over, slumped down in his cloth sectional and began playing the latest Darkslayer RPG game on his television screen.
Ah yes, my favorite escape from reality, smash-mouth fantasy.
He spent over an hour chopping down monsters with a massive battle axe when the power went off. The overcast sky provided grey light in an otherwise black room. It was dead quiet, other than the beating rain. He stepped out of his study and looked down at the black furniture silhouettes of his living room. His knee began to ache again as he looked outside at the other buildings whose lights were still on.