“Is it poison?” Chong repeated.
“No,” she said faintly. “No, I don’t think we’re going to catch that kind of a break.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? It doesn’t look that bad.”
“You ain’t seein’ it from t’other side. Skin around the wound looks funny. It’s turning black, and there are some crooked dark lines creeping out from it.”
“God,” said Chong, feeling panic leap up in his chest. “That’s blood poisoning! You’re telling me I have blood poisoning?”
After a long pause, Riot said, “I don’t think that’s what we got here. The lines are black, not red.”
“But—”
“You’re running a fever… but the skin back here’s cool to the touch.”
“Then we need to treat me for shock. Do you have anything we can use as a blanket or—”
“No,” she said. “Ain’t shock, neither. I think we got ourselves somethin’ else. Something we maybe can’t fix.”
“What’s that mean?”
“That black goo on the tips?” Riot held one of the arrows under his nose. “Tell me what it smells like to you.”
Chong studied her eyes for a long moment. There was a bleak, defeated look in them that made him hesitate before he took an arrow from her. Even then he didn’t immediately raise the arrow to his nose.
“You already know what it is,” he asked quietly, “don’t you?”
Riot nodded.
Chong closed his eyes for a moment. Instead of it being dark behind his eyelids, he saw twisted threads of bright red forking like lightning inside his personal darkness.
Then he opened his eyes and took a tentative sniff. He smelled what she had smelled.
“No,” he said, and his denial matched frequency with hers. This wasn’t something you just could refuse to accept.
Riot said nothing.
“Why… why would anyone
“Why do you think?”
The answer was obvious, but it took all his courage to say it. “So… even if he just wounded someone… they’d… they’d…”
Words failed him.
Riot sighed and sat down on the floor, placing the arrows well away from Eve.
However, the smell lingered in Chong’s nose. He knew exactly what it was, and why it smelled like cadaverine.
The archer had dipped his arrows in the infected flesh of the living dead.
And now that infection was burning its way through Chong’s flesh.
62
“Honored one!” cried Sister Amy as she dashed out of the woods.
The saint and Brother Peter turned and waited for her to catch up with them. Amy was badly winded, and she dropped to her knees before them, bending to kiss the red tassels on their legs.
When she could speak without panting, Sister Amy told them about finding the ranger named Joe, and watching as he rescued a white-haired girl, tended to her wounds, and spoke with her. She told the saint everything and saved the choicest bit for last.
Saint John listened, and when she was finished, his eyes blazed with inner light.
“Nine towns,” he murmured. “In central California?”
“No militia,” mused Brother Peter. “Living up there in the mountains, they probably think they have nothing to fear except wandering gray people.”
“From what the girl said,” added Sister Amy, “they seem to believe that everything beyond their fence lines is wasteland.”
“How naive,” said Saint John. “How arrogant.”
He turned and looked toward the northwest as if he could see across all those miles.
“Nine towns,” he said softly.
63
“We better not stay here long,” said Benny. “Let’s take a quick look through this stuff, then get the heck out of here before those reapers come back. And we have to find Lilah and Chong. They don’t know about all this crazy stuff.”
Nix gave a noncommittal grunt as she set to work searching the cabinets and closets in the cockpit.
A few seconds later Nix opened one cabinet and jumped back as papers, maps, and other items came tumbling out. A mouse squeaked and dropped to the floor before scurrying into a tiny opening in the control panel. Benny squatted down and began poking through the papers. Nix picked up the maps and began unfolding them.
Benny saw a sheaf of papers on a clipboard hanging from a hook inside the cabinet. He pulled it down and began leafing through the pages in hopes of finding something that might provide answers to the mysteries that were stacking up all around them.
What he found instead dried the spit in his mouth and made his heart begin pounding like the hooves of a galloping horse.
“Nix!” he hissed. “My God… look at this.”
“What is…?” She trailed off as she began reading.
What they read changed their world.
McREADY, MONICA A., M.D. / FIELD NOTES
Hope 1 / Maj. Sancho Ruiz commanding
Date: December 2, 14 A.R.
Observation: The specimens collected in the Pacific Northwest represent reanimates displaying both general and acute behavioral qualities. They have been categorized into the following subgroups:
R1: Reanimates consistent with all known examples prior to 7/22/13. These are the standard “slow walkers.” All field-tested subjects scored in the expected range of 2.1 to 3.6 on the Seldon Scale.
Specimens: 26 (coded yellow)
R2: Moderately mobile reanimates (“fast walkers”) matching the behavior first recorded by Colonel G. Dietrich in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in July of last year. Tissue samples are in dry ice, bin #101. Limited field-testing tentatively places these subjects in the 4.4 to 5.1 range of the Seldon Scale.
Specimens: 4 (coded blue)
R3: Acutely mobile reanimates (“runners”). This is an entirely new classification; however, it verifies reports by independent witnesses dating 9/14/14 and later. Subjects display a marked increase in walking speed and the capability of coordinated running over short distances. Sensory acuity appears to be correspondingly increased. Limited field-testing and observation places this group generally in the 6.5 to 7.5 range on the Seldon Scale. If this is verified, then we are seeing the first incidents of reanimates exceeding the 5.3 ceiling.
Specimens: 2 (coded green)
Addendum: The two collected specimens are the only survivors of at least seven observed cases. Other specimens were destroyed during attempts to capture them. From (as yet) unverified observation, it appears that there may be as many as four distinct subgroups within the R3’s.
