rest of the country won’t see anyone inside city limits as human. The way the rest of the world soon won’t regard anyone in this country as human. The paranoia rippling outward until the whole planet is engulfed. This infection, this parasite that dehumanizes the host but is utterly undetectable, it is perfectly designed to play on this fundamental flaw, this limitation in our hardware.
Marconi emptied his pipe into a bedpan, and pulled out a bag of tobacco.
“Which brings us back to the Tower of Babel. Humans were always destined to be derailed by this limitation in our ability to cooperate. At some specific point, determined by the overall size of the population on the planet and a host of other factors, we
“And you think this whole thing, starting with me finding a giant alien spider in my bed, was Their plan to trigger that event.”
He nodded. “The parasite’s ability to stay undercover indefinitely, the infected showing absolutely no symptoms… it’s perfection. Anyone can be infected, at any moment, anywhere in the world. If you want to see what the future of life on planet Earth looks like, simply take a glance out that window.”
I found a chair and collapsed into it. There was a harsh knock on the door behind me.
From behind the door, Owen said, “It’s been long enough, doc.”
“Five more minutes won’t change anything, Mr. Barber.”
Lowering my voice, I said, “Wait, you wrote a book about this happening before it happened? Damn, why didn’t you send me a copy?”
“You shouldn’t have needed a book to see this coming. No one should have. This is what They’ve been building toward since civilization began, accelerating as it got closer, like the last sand running from an hourglass. Look at the games children play now. The average child has killed ten thousand men on a video game screen by the time he enters high school. Reinforcing that lesson one button press at a time—the shapes at the other end of your gun
“Zombies.”
“Exactly. Our culture’s most perfect creation—an enemy you are absolutely, morally correct in killing, because they are already dead. Why, you are doing them a favor by smashing in their skulls. We as a species were so primed for this that to get combustion, They only needed the tiniest spark. It actually happened sooner than I expected, but…”
He shrugged as he lit his pipe, as if to say, “Eh, can’t be right every time.”
I said, “Well, you took a long time to say what I pretty much already knew. We’re screwed. I mean, to be clear, we’re rooting for the bombs, right? That’s the only way to satisfy the paranoia, let them blow all this to shit on live TV while the mob out there cheers.”
Marconi puffed on his pipe and stared out the window.
I said, “I mean, we absolutely cannot let that part get out, right? The fact that the zombies are undetectable until they’re biting your brain? That fact needs to die with the quarantine, otherwise it’s going to be a global lynch mob out there. Which means making sure none of them get out, even if innocents die in the process. I mean, it’s shitty, but that’s all we can do, err on the side of overkill. Right?”
Marconi said, “The sedative is running out. One of my infected patients woke up.”
I said, “Jesus. Really? Did you—”
“I’ve been talking to him all morning. He’s still strapped to his bed. I calmly explained to him the situation, and he asked me to leave the restraints on. He said it was the only responsible thing. What do you make of that?”
“I… I don’t know. But you can’t just leave him like—”
“You’re right. I can’t.”
“I mean it’s just a matter of time, right? Until he monsters out and kills who knows how many people?”
Marconi studied me.
Owen banged on the door again. Marconi said, “We’re coming.”
2 Hours, 30 Minutes Until the Aerial Bombing of Undisclosed
To Tightpants, aka Jimmy Dupree, John said, “So we know for sure now? They’re going to bomb it?”
Jimmy nodded. “You’re the one who was askin’ earlier about the innocent people inside quarantine.”
“Got a friend in there.”
“No, you don’t. What this is, with the bombs, is a mercy killing. Nothin’ more. You need to get that straight.”
Staring through the windshield at the fence down the street, John nodded.
Dupree said, “Don’t know if you heard the shots last night, but there was an outbreak, from the quarantine. Bunch of ’em found an old utility tunnel that the government, in its infinite wisdom, failed to spot on the blueprints. Few dozen tried to get out. Looked like some militia tried to stand their ground and got themselves torn to pieces in the process. Don’t got any idea how many zombies got out into the wild but I spent my night disposin’ of thirty bodies. There’ll be more, a lot more, if they don’t do somethin’ about that quarantine. It’s a bag of live snakes in a nursery. Well, word finally filtered in, from the feds at the perimeter. The bomb drops at noon. We just got to keep it secure until then, then this whole flippin’ nightmare will be over. And if noon comes and nothin’ happens, we’re gonna surround this place and pour bullets into that fence until nothin’ on the other side draws air.”
2 Hours, 25 Minutes Until the Aerial Bombing of Undisclosed
I couldn’t help but notice that Owen had the reds build up the fire. Looked like they had found some more wooden pallets somewhere. That shit really burned.
To Owen, I said, “You know what? I never got to sit down and write that note to my girlfriend. Marconi used up all my time. And all he did was give me a chili recipe. Do you want it?”
He didn’t answer. It was a beautiful morning, though some clouds were moving in. I could actually hear birds chirping somewhere. Birds don’t give a shit about the apocalypse any more than we’d care about some species of bird going extinct in the Amazon. Which had probably happened twice already this morning.
All of the reds were awake and standing around me. I looked back at the hospital entrance and saw a smattering of greens standing there. I glanced up at the roof, and there were the rest of them, lined up along the ledge and looking down.
From behind me, Marconi said, “Mr. Barber, I don’t know if you can hear the commotion on the other side of the fencing, but we do appear to have larger problems here.”
Owen said, “With all due respect, doc, I’m not a fuckin’ idiot. Those people are about to riot out there because they figured out this quarantine isn’t secure, thanks to last night’s breakout. And guess who we have to thank for that?”
“Killing David here will not assuage their panic. It will, in fact, accomplish nothing except to confirm their worst fears about us.”
“ATTENTION.”
Everybody turned toward the booming sound of a voice coming from a public address system.
“PLEASE MOVE A THOUSAND FEET AWAY FROM THE QUARANTINE FENCE. FOR YOUR SAFETY, PLEASE WITHDRAW FROM THE QUARANTINE PERIMETER TO A DISTANCE OF AT LEAST ONE THOUSAND FEET.”
2 Hours, 20 Minutes Until the Aerial Bombing of Undisclosed
