Under a Graveyard Sky

out.”

“Soon?” Durante asked. This was more than he’d been getting.

“Not soon enough,” Sophia said with a sigh. “Look it’s… The virus, the influenza one, is really complicated. It’s a dualistic expression. That right there is waaay out there. And two centers, UCLA and College of Rome, have both come back with pretty good models showing that dualistic is impossible to support over long term. Probably why it never evolved in microorganisms. There’s some fundamental problems with it chemically. And flues mutate. But the way that they mutate…. they just mutate. They can get more lethal, more infective, or less lethal, less infective, stop being infective or lethal at all or any combination. This one, the real killer is the beta expressor, the zombie virus embedded in the flu. CDC and Pasteur both ran models of it over multiple replications and it just…breaks pretty quick. It doesn’t mutate to be more lethal or more infective it stops working at all except as a mild flu bug. It stops being able to express the zombie part.”

“So the plague’s just going to…stop?” the driver asked.

“Yes,” Sophia said. “But it’s not going to be soon enough. Look, you buy a new computer. And you don’t know it, but there’s something wrong with it. Every time you turn it on, one little random bit of software goes wrong. Now a computer can go a long time like that. Or it can break the first time you turn it on. It’s random. That’s what’s happening with all the flu viruses. As they replicate, sometimes they break. Or get closer to breaking. As more and more break, the flu will burn out. The question is, if it will burn out before it kills the world.”

“And the zombie part?” Durante asked. “We’re getting a lot of transmission from bites now.”

“Yeah,” Sophia said, grimly. “They’ve broken out the transmission graphs by bite or flu and bite, or at least blood transmission, is starting to pull ahead of flu. There was one case in South Carolina where a husband apparently gave it to his wife through, well, fooling around. Then he zombied but didn’t bite her. She hid in the bathroom. And she had no flu antibodies. So they think it was sexually transmitted. And then she zombied.”

“Ouch,” Faith said, shuddering.

“The beta expressor isn’t really robust, either,” Sophia said. “There are four different models that people are arguing over but it looks as if it’s going to slowly degrade back to basically rabies or just fall apart. Like I said, spit and baling wire.”

“And with that we’re at the condo…” Durante said as the driver pulled up to the entrance. “Don’t wait for me. I’ll find my own way back.”

“Yes, sir,” the driver said.

“Dibs on the shower,” Faith said.

“Age before incompetence,” Sophia replied.

“This is going to be sooo much fun,” Durante said.

CHAPTER 10

“So I see you made the news,” Dr. Curry said, moving his cursor to highlight particular points of the virus. His voice was muffled by the moon suit.

“I didn’t really have a way to avoid them,” Sophia said, carefully squirting prepared attenuated virus into vaccine bottles. “Well, if I’d know they were going to be out there we could have taken a back way I suppose.”

“This isn’t something we want to end up on the nightly news,” Dr. Curry pointed out.

“Tell me about it,” Sophia said.

“Although, it already has,” Curry said, gesturing to one of the plasma screens. The YouTube video was of a reporter outside a warehouse. The caption said “vaccine chop shop found by NYPD.”

“I hope like hell that’s not us,” Sophia said. The sound was turned down.

“Drug dealers,” Curry said with a snort.

“So we’re in competition with drug dealers?” Sophia said. “How’s drug dealers get involved, anyway?”

“People want the vaccine,” Curry said, gesturing at the laboratory he’d been provided. “Drug dealers fulfill economic needs that others can’t or won’t.”

“I don’t know that I’d want to get vaccine from drug dealers,” Sophia said. “Not knowing what I know about how it’s produced. And that’s here.”

“In which you are wise,” Curry said with a snort. “Over two hundred people have become infected due to bad vaccine. If it’s not properly attenuated: Instant zombie.”

“You’re sure this is attenuated?” Sophia said, holding up one of the vials.

“That’s what I’m checking,” Curry said, gesturing at the screen he was using. “The binding sites are still there but the RNA is well and thoroughly trashed. I’d say that this RNA has less coherence than rabies but the binding sites are about as robust. That’s good for vaccine. Not sure what it says about the organism long-term. What is worse, most of the ‘vaccine’ that’s being bandied around in the City is nothing but colored water.”

“Why colored?” Sophia said. She held up one of her completed vaccine bottles to the light. “This is clear.”

“Because they’re drug dealers?” Curry said, shrugging. “People want to see something for their money. Who’s going to believe a drug dealer who gives them a shot of clear liquid.”

“Who’s going to believe a drug dealer, period?” Sophia said.

“I take it you’ve never gotten into illegal drugs,” Dr. Curry said.

“I’m not an idiot,” Sophia said. “Drugs can seriously screw up your life. Of course, so can the zombie apocalypse but I didn’t have any control over that. So, no, I don’t do drugs. I drink a little but my parents are okay with it in moderation. Faith doesn’t even do that. She only drinks water and fruit juice.”

“I suppose I should be impressed,” Curry said. “I’ve dabbled in drugs from time to time. Heck, I dealt when I was in grad school. If you have a biochemistry lab at your disposal, cranking out a little LSD is no problem and it’s one way to pay for grad school.”

“Seriously?” Sophia said.

“You might notice what we’re making here, miss,” Curry said, mirthlessly.

“Point.”

“One shot of zombie vaccine is going for fifty dollars on the street,” Curry said. “Which is a good price. The question being whether you’re getting vaccine or not. Or ‘good’ vaccine. Some of them even have mild drugs in them to give a feeling that something is happening. Which, even if the dealers get the right attenuation, can cause the vaccine to be nonfunctional.”

“Seriously,” Sophia said. “People who get their vaccine from a source like a drug dealer are getting what the deserve. Speaking of which, I’m done.”

“Let me do a cross check and then we’ll get it over to Dr. Simmons,” Curry said. “Quality control is the best control…”

* * *

It had been filing.

By afternoon of the next day, Faith had had enough. She’d had enough of the questions about her experiences in the tunnels. She’d had enough of the gossip. She’d found out, quickly, that her uncle’s big “secret” was anything but. The rumors were all over the place that The Bank, capital letters, was producing vaccine. And just as many rumors about how, most of them more or less dead on. She’d gotten tired of the side-long glances and the vaguely worded questions about where her uncle was gone to all day. People even referred to the “BERT” van in the sort of hushed tones reserved for nuclear secrets. And then there were the subtle questions about “how do I get the vaccine?”

And she’d had it with filing. It was boring and pointless since most of this was going to be relics of a bygone age in no time.

She’d paid attention when she’d had to turn in her stuff the first day. All of her stuff was back in the apartment. That didn’t mean there wasn’t “stuff.” The locker room had everything she’d need to go zombie hunting.