Zombies! (Episode 10): State of Emergency (11 page)

As he continued his phone calls, she turned back to her research.

***

No one was in the mood to cook but there was no other option. Between the snow and the infestation of zombies around the city, it wasn't as if anyone was going to deliver a pizza. So Alicia boiled up some pasta and defrosted some ground beef in a pan. They had half a jar of spaghetti sauce which turned out to be moldy. That sort of limited their options. Alicia got a little creative and threw some seasonings into the meat and onto the pasta. In the end it all worked out okay. Even Mellie ate.

By 6:00, they were done and cleaning the table. Mellie was watching TV in the living room. Every station was broadcasting emergency information so she was relegated to the DVR. In the kitchen, Heron had the radio at a low volume, just listening for important information. He'd been telling the truth during his conversation with Satya. At least, it was the truth as he believed it. In his last few days on the job, he'd seen Homeland Security getting everything in order and preparing for a siege just like this one. They hadn't had enough information to be proactive, but they were certainly ready to react. As they cleaned up the dishes, he wasn't surprised to hear reports of the military and police recapturing infested sections of the city.

Satya and his family came a little bit early. Heron could tell that they were edgy despite his reassurances and the reassurances of the news media. Banni was a small woman, younger than Satya by at least five years. Under her coat she wore a red blouse and a pair of blue jeans. She also wore a red head scarf, which she kept on. She was quiet, barely uttering a peep as she greeted the Herons. Namdev, their son, held tightly to his mother's hand. His wide eyes kept flitting from one place to another inside the house until he caught sight of Mellie in the other room. From her vantage point, she could see them, grown-ups saying hello. The television screen cast a flickering light over her in the dark room. Namdev's hand tapped out a rhythm on his leg as the music from one of Mellie's shows drifted out of the room.

"Why don't you go in and sit with her?" Satya said to the boy. "It's all right."

Namdev looked up at his mother. Letting go of his hand, she nodded, and he was off.

"The coffee's almost ready," Alicia said to them. "Why don't you come in the kitchen and sit down?"

The four of them retired to the kitchen and found seats around the table. The conversation was awkward at first, new people getting to know each other. Both Banni and Satya had been born in India but Satya's family had moved to London when he was just a boy. The two of them had met at school several years earlier. She had been in her first year and he had been assisting a professor. Their affair and marriage had come quickly and Namdev had come shortly after that. Banni hadn't even finished school. Satya, who had majored in English literature and published several papers even at his young age, had been offered a professorship with the City University of New York, specifically Brooklyn College. Leaving England had been difficult for them. They had been in the United States barely six weeks when the first of the zombie stories had hit the news.

"That was the
Sisters of Charity
story," Heron said, remembering.

Satya nodded. "I was fascinated by the whole thing. It seemed so fantastic. You were on the telly the next day."

Heron nodded absently.

"If you don't mind my asking," Banni said. "Why did you leave the police?" Her accent was far more Indian. There was only a hint of the English to it.

Heron thought about just how to phrase his answer. The situation had become so complicated that he felt he should be telling them the whole story from the moment he and Stemmy had met with Shawn Rudd and began their search for the Koplowitz family.

"Basically, I was fired from the zombie squad."

This admission seemed to make their guests extremely uncomfortable.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," he quickly added. "Homeland Security came in and took over the operation. Technically, there's still an NYPD Undead Unit, but it's under federal jurisdiction. The city is just lending out its police officers to the government. I wasn't offered a role in the new organization. I was going to go back to being a homicide detective but then decided it would be better to retire."

"That sounds worse," Banni said.

Heron shrugged. "You know, it may not be the end of the world, but I saw a lot of people lose their lives. I came very close myself. Just living through that day after day makes you forget what the rest of the world is like."

Satya looked out of the kitchen toward where the children were. They were out of sight, but he could still see the reflection of the light in the front hallway. He waited, listening to the TV. Then, all of a sudden, both children burst out laughing and he relaxed.

"Will there always be a rest of the world?" he wondered out loud.

"For sure," Heron confirmed and there could be no doubt that he believed it. "We've all been so programmed by our entertainment. The apocalypse is very dramatic and glamorous when it's on screen, but less so in real life. People fight harder when they don't have to follow a script. We'll never lose."

Banni grinned wide. "I like you, Anthony. I like your optimism."

He smiled back.

Shortly they pulled two containers of ice cream out of the freezer and began dishing it out into bowls. In violation of her own rule, Alicia permitted the children to take theirs out into the living room and eat in front of the television. The clock ticked off the minutes and then the hours as they ate and talked and got to know each other. It was a very pleasant evening.

Neighbors
, thought Heron at one point.
I've finally gotten to know the neighbors.

At about nine o'clock the telephone rang. The sound still set both he and his wife on edge. He hadn't been retired long enough to get used to the fact that not every phone call was going to draw him out of the house on some zombie hunt. Then the caller ID voiced out loud:
Call from Lance Naughton
. It had that female voice that the old caller ID phones had. Though muffled it was, they could still make out the name clearly enough.

Alicia gave him a look.

Standing from the table, Heron excused himself.

He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Anthony, are you and the family all right?"

"We're fine, Lance. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good. Off duty."

"It's a good night for it."

"I'll say."

"Are you and Luco cozied up at your place?"

Naughton said something but it was clear that he was talking to someone else. When he gave his attention back to Heron, he said, "I'm sorry, Anthony. What was that?"

"Nevermind."

"Anthony," he hesitated. "You know about Mayfield, right?"

Heron nodded, then realized he was on the phone. "Yeah. Any word?"

"No. We've got pictures of him everywhere. "

"Did you release the fact that he's a zombie?"

"God, no," Naughton said. "An intelligent zombie that eats people in spite of its intelligence would start a war. Let everyone think he's just an ordinary mass murderer."

"Yeah, that'll calm the public," Heron said. "So what about him?"

"He's not the only intelligent one."

Heron held his breath for a minute. Once he'd learned about Todd it had borne out all of his suspicions about the others. Those suspicions had developed over time. Heron's initial thoughts were that every zombie was mindless dead flesh. He'd shot his infected partner in the head to prevent him from turning. But his experiences had indicated that there was something left inside the brain. Of course, with the
Zombie Rights Association
trying to protect them, those indications were buried and all talk of possible intelligence stifled. Still, Todd Mayfield had performed a calculated escape and premeditated murder. No other zombie to date had shown that sort of initiative. There had been the zombie that had fired a gun at the police, the zombie that had screamed during an operation, and of course the zombie that was afraid.

"Who is it? Is it Linda?" She was the one that had almost sent Heron over the edge.

Naughton hesitated. "Linda's gone, Anthony. They're all gone."

He breathed and found that it was a breath of relief. Linda was gone. Despite his pity for her and her written plea for mercy, it felt good to have that albatross exorcised from his life. But Naughton had misspoke. They couldn't
all
be gone.

"It's Zoe, then," Heron said. "If it wasn't Zoe, you wouldn't be beating around the bush."

Zoe had bitten Stemmy. Zoe had started it all for Anthony Heron.

"It's Zoe," Naughton confirmed. "She spoke."

"
She what?!
" Three heads in the kitchen turned. Two small heads poked out of the living room. "It's fine," Heron told all of the heads. And when they persisted, he emphasized, "
It’s fine."

The heads went away.

"It was just a couple of times. The first time was the night Mayfield escaped."

"What did she say?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It matters."

"She didn't say anything about you, if that's what you mean. She didn't say anything about Stemmy. Her memory's in question. She thinks Denise is her mother."

Heron started to laugh. It almost became this shrill, maniacal thing, but he managed to put it down before it went out of control. "What are you going to do?"

"Denise thinks Kraemer is going to have Zoe destroyed."

Good,
was Heron's first thought.
Good riddance
, was his second. But rationale prevailed. He could think of a number of reasons to keep her "alive" as it were. But his only reason for wanting her destroyed was revenge. Even now, Heron wasn't the revenge type. He had better things on which to concentrate his energy.

"Look, Anthony, I really called to say goodbye and wish you good luck. I know you're sick. I know…"

"Lance, get to the point."

Naughton breathed. He was unaccustomed to this kind of sentiment. "Denise thinks she can bring Zoe back to life. Real life. She says that if the brain's intact, there's no reason we can't revive the body."

"That's insane."

"Says you and me, but she's the doctor."

"What does Kraemer think?"

"Well, that's the point isn't it? With everyone distracted by snow and zombies, Denise is in there trying to do it right now. Succeed or fail, Kraemer's going to blow a gasket. It's not even prison that scares me so much as what he'll do to Zoe."

"You talk about her as if she's a person."

"And that's the other point," Naughton responded without missing a beat. "I don't expect you to understand. You have your own reasons for feeling the way you do and you're entitled to them. But Denise has to do this. I think she's trying to save herself as much as she's trying to save Zoe. And I have to stand by her. I've made a commitment to her and now I've made a commitment to that little girl as well."

"So you're going to run?"

"Yeah. We're gonna run. We've got some time before anyone finds their way back here."

Heron didn't know what to say. Earlier that day, he'd been thinking that his relationship with Naughton had come to an end because of his retirement. But this was so much more final. Naughton was actually saying goodbye. That meant that there wouldn't be the possibility of an occasional phone call. When Heron was in hospice, dying of the cancer, Naughton wouldn't come to see him. He would be in another state or another country.

"I hope you can do it," Heron said finally. "I hope you can bring back that little girl."

"I know you do, Anthony. You're a good man and you don't deserve any of the shit that happened to you."

"Yeah, I appreciate that."

"It's been a pleasure."

"Same here. Good luck."

Naughton started to say something but there was some noise in the background and he was cut off. Heron listened for a moment and then hung up the phone. They were done anyway. He stood by the phone for a moment, listening to the silence. It took him a while to process the entire conversation. There was meaning there and he had to dig through all of his own bitterness to find it. When he went back into the kitchen, they all looked away.

"Are you all right?" Alicia asked.

He nodded, taking his seat. "Were you listening?"

"It was hard not to."

"Should we go?" Satya asked suddenly, half rising from his chair.

Heron put his hand out. "No, I don't think so. I'd like it if you would stay."

Satya and Banni didn't really know what to make of the half of the conversation that they'd heard, but Alicia could guess some of the details. She knew who Zoe was. She'd heard Heron say something about bringing a little girl back. He would fill in the details for her later.