And then it came back to me.
Peter.
The talking zombie.
He was bitten.
Burning the two of them.
Zombie hunting.
I was bitten.
Oh shit.
I was bitten by a zombie.
Oh shit.
Shit. Peter was right. I’m trapped in the head of a zombie.
No.
No, it can’t be.
What did I do?
I tried to burn myself.
Why didn’t I?
Or did I?
Shit. I’m stuck in a zombie.
I’m a shuffler.
“Nooooo!!!” I roared, praying that someone would hear me and end this. “Help!! Help!! HELP!!”
Between my screams I heard a woman call a single word: “Kyle!”
“Kill me!” I cried, hoping that whatever I said could be understood.
“Easy, Kyle. You’re still fighting the virus.”
What?
Light flooded my vision as the blindfold was pulled away. I found myself in a lab of some sort. The walls were bleached, clean, and everything was glass, chrome, or white plastic. Standing above me and just beyond my vision was the source of the voice. “You are alive, and very much human, Mr. Moore.”
I tried to move my head and found that it was strapped down, as were my wrists and ankles. I could feel a band across my chest as I breathed and I knew that I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“I just have a few more tests, but I would appear that you are not capable of carrying the Z Gene. It’s remarkable really, that in the whole world we should be so lucky as to find someone like yourself.”
“Wait,” I complained, still waiting for my head to clear and my eyes to adjust to the bright lights. “Z Gene? What the hell is that? And why would I carry it? Damn, lady, you are not making any sense at all.” I desperately wanted to rub my head but no matter how I struggled my hand would not budge.
“The Z Gene is what we call the virus which has apparently infected the world.”
“We?” My head was slowly clearing and I was starting to feel more normal.
“There is a group of us here at EWU that have been working to understand the outbreak ever since it hit our area. We have fortified ourselves in the lab and have taken samples when possible.”
“Samples?”
“Infected persons, pieces, product. Basically anything that may be carrying the Z Gene.”
“So I’m…”
“In a university lab. Yes.”
“Because I’m a carrier? I’m a sample?” The whole time we had been talking, the doctor had been beyond my view. It was starting to feel like I was having a conversation with a voice in my head. “Doc, can you come around to where I can see you?”
“Not yet.”
I struggled against the bonds again, and again my condition left me feeling completely helpless. My life was at the mercy of the mystery doctor.
“The longest recorded transformation was just under nine hours, with obvious symptoms by the three hour mark.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Twenty-two hours,” she said, as though she were reciting the temperature outside and not discussing the fact that I just lost an entire day of my life without my knowing it.
“Twenty-two hours?” I repeated in a tone that spoke of my disbelief. I studied the ceiling tiles, the light shining in my eyes, the glass walls to my left and the brick wall to my right. This room had been my home for the past day?
“Almost twenty-three,” she clarified. “You must understand, Mr. Moore, that we have never seen someone injured like you were, by direct contact with an infected person, and not become infected. Some thought that the possibilities existed for an unaffected host but we had no idea that any of us would actually find one. In Cheney! You really are a quite remarkable occurrence.”
“And this is how you treat remarkable occurrences? Tying them up and hiding yourself from them?” I strained to catch a glimpse of the doctor but no matter how I struggled I just couldn’t find her.
“You really do need to try and be still, Mr. Moore. You will corrupt the numbers.”
“Fuck your numbers!” I screamed.
That was it. I couldn’t take it anymore. I began to just blurt out every feeling I was experiencing.
“Everyone in my life has died, and most of them did so right before my eyes. In the lowest point of my life, when I thought all hope was gone and I would never see another human again, you come along and prove that life is still on Earth. That I wasn’t alone after all. And you refuse to let me see you. You tie me up and monitor me, and fine, I get that. I was bit, and you want to stay safe. But for fuck’s sake why can’t I just see that you are a real live human being for one minute? Just give me that, one breathing human to another. Let me see your face. Please.”
I heard the soft press of her shoes on the tile before I saw her. She kept her distance, and I couldn’t blame her for that. “Can you see me now?”
“No,” I answered truthfully.
Then her head rose into my field of vision. “Hello, Mr. Moore,” she said looking into my eyes.
The doctor was a plain looking, dark-haired forty-something with a messy ponytail and a wrinkled lab coat. She wore no make-up, but that made sense. Molly didn’t wear make-up and Sissy had only occasionally done so.
I was the apocalypse after all.
“Hello, doctor.”
“I am expecting your test results back any minute. When they get here, and they say what I think they will say, then we can let you free. Until then…”
“No worries,” I interrupt. If I’m a dead-head, then you have every right to keep me tied up. Just don’t let me be a zombie for long. Do me fast, doc.”
“Do me fast?” asked a voice coming from the glass wall. “What the hell am I walking in on, Stephanie?”
“Michael,” the doctor said in an irritated tone, “you do realize the world is burning all around you, right?”
“All the more reason to do it fast, right? Holy shit! Look at you, you sexy man! You don’t look anything like
