Transition, Undead Chapter 4

2Weeks Ago…

“We are facing a crisis in the Midwest region of the country, the population has been infected at an alarming rate.  In a week we have set up one of the largest rescue team that was ever imaginable.  We have clinics set up clinics all over the Midwestern borders and have sealed off a strip along five states.”  A man in his early fifties finishes his sentence and takes a sip of hot coffee out of a cup emblazoned with the presidential logo.  “We have two major situations happening in this country at the moment, the incident in Miami and the incident in the Midwest.  We have dispatched a major portion of our National Guard to enforce marshal law in the Miami area and have used most of our FEMA resources out to the Midwest, we are stretching thin.  Many of our volunteers and employees have been infected with what many are calling “Drain Bramage Disease” this is a losing battle.  How many more are we willing to sacrifice?  I know this will be a tough call and one that anyone in your power would not envy, but we have to consider the alternative.”  From behind his desk there is a man with his hands holding his head up with silvering hair disheveled, the worry lines in his face and his face becoming paler by the second indicate that this may be one of the most difficult decisions that anyone will have to face, millions of lives hang in the balance on a single decision.  He looks up at the secretary quizzically, “Scorched Earth? This is your solution?  You want me to condemn millions of lives on a whim?  This situation has been going on for only a week, this is not the solution I am taking until we have exhausted all resources.”  “Sir, we have no more resources at the moment.”  “Then keep the area quarantined until we have more resources, we will need more operatives in the area.”  “I believe we have someone that may be of assistance, I brought him along as a suggestion to keep things in control.”  The sentence is barely audible yet clears enough for everyone to hear, “This is Agent Ariaso, and he is a survivor of the Armmagon incident and an indispensable asset to the CIA.”  The head of CIA opens the door from the office and calls forth someone waiting in the lobby.  A younger man with long hair and a trench coat with a CIA badge enter the room slowly with head down.  He slowly begins to raise his head toward the president.  The president has his hand outstretched, but suddenly takes a step back as he realizes that this young man has eyes that glow white.  The young man looks at the president and sneers a bit, “You know, for being the most powerful man on the planet you don’t know shit about your country.”

Somewhere in the Midwest…

“Check. Check.  Ok, it’s September twenty-ninth and I am freezing my ass off at the moment.  I took this assignment for some extra cash, but I really need to reevaluate my head.  My name is Mathias Freeling and I am a professional photo journalist, ok maybe not professional but it’s what I majored in.” –click- He stops the voice recorder in his hand as he surveys his surroundings, the young man with long brown hair and brown leather coat is situated on a catwalk while kneeling. –cla-click- “I was sent out here a few days ago and have been documenting the aftermath of the event that transpired here.  I was sent here by Jonathon Mingard, author of “Pandora’s Cradle” and all around supernatural enthusiast, if you know about the situation here then you’ve probably heard that it was a virus; my boss doesn’t seem to think so.  Apparently he thinks this is all a foretelling of the upcoming Mystic Empire, whatever that means.  Hmm….I just realized that I have no idea where I am at the moment; I had managed to evade soldiers from the National Guard and other volunteer agencies to get through quarantine somewhere around Topeka, Kansas.  I have been walking for days, have even jacked a few vehicles but have not seen a single sign telling me where I am.  Then again, I suppose I wasn’t paying attention.  This has all been highly interesting; apparently a week ago some folks had begun to act a bit insane until people tried helping them.  Well, those people were surprised when chunks of their body had been ripped out by their former comrades while trying to help.  Guess it doesn’t always pay to be a Good Samaritan.  Anyhow hundreds of people seemed to be infected with whatever was causing this and went on a rampage.  Local authorities tried to stop them, but it seems that bullets don’t really do a lot of good unless you aim for their heads.  Like in video games I guess.  So suddenly the “zombies” are stopped and you have thousands upon thousands of corpses lying all over the Midwestern belt of America.  Well, as weird as that was.  Clean-up crews come around to begin picking up the bodies, but within a day the bodies began to move.  Oh neighbors, friends and family members began to proclaim that this was all a miracle and moved the victims to the local hospitals and clinics to get checked out.  Well, all the doctors and nurses tell the families and friends that these people are probably brain-damaged from the lack of oxygen that day.  Mind you, this is before they decided to do blood work and check the vitals.  Haha, the real surprise came when they ran tests.  Blood, what blood?  These were not humans that did not have an active circulatory system nor were the organs functioning properly.  You know when the chemical composition of an organism changes many times it is no longer the same species. Well here we are with a whole new species.  Of course the government comes in to conduct more tests on these individuals and some of them get carted off to labs nearby.  Towns and cities are in a panic about contagion and many people refuse to go to work without answers, others go out in surgical masks.  Another surprise greets them when they go down to their neighborhood bank or store.  Not all the corpses had been picked and now these bodies are walking again.  The strange thing besides the walking is that these reanimated corpses go about to doing the things that they are used to or in the act of what they were doing before they died.  Hell, some people came home to the walking dead, awesome.  But this is where we are basically at now.  In the last few days I have seen a butcher cutting nothing on a cutting board till he noticed me and began to chop at his finger.  I have seen an old lady watering the lawn and walking in a lake that used to be her front lawn.  I have snapped up some awesome pictures.  Now I fear things have gotten a bit more real.  It was only a matter of time before these creatures needed to eat.  Well, many people had lived with the undead for a week and had figured that their loved ones had been struck with a horrible virus that infected the mind. Well these compassionate people were the first to go.  It seems these things have a hunger for human flesh.  My theory is that if they do not have the means to keep their bodies going then they must need to absorb the nutrition of others that have it; they seem to primarily have a soft spot for…brains.  Yes, I know it sounds stupid and clichéd, but I’m just reporting what I’ve seen.  There are other people that knew that something was wrong when they looked into the eyes of these creatures and saw nothing staring back at them.  Many people had a chance to leave before the government quarantined off this massive area, but many people were not aware of the inherent danger.  Well here we are, I have been avoiding these creatures which has been easy to do thus far and have been looking for a way out now.  It looks like I may have gotten too far in.  Did I mention the quarantined area is huge?  Five states have had major portions blocked away.  I can only imagine that this has been a major inconvenience to the rest of the country, never mind the fact that this is area is the biggest supplier of food for the country.  Ok, so you’re probably wondering why a supernatural enthusiast has sent me here when most people would believe that this all a biological meltdown.  Well, when all those people “died” what do you think happened to their energy?  Their soul if you will?  At first no one really thought anything of it, but the people that made it out before the quarantine mentioned that these creatures had a blank stare. Jonathon immediately began to read old texts and other information about this epidemic and apparently this may have happened before.  But, we’ll get into that later.  The point is that he assumed that these individuals may have really died and the reanimated corpses were just that.  This bag that I am carrying is stuffed to the brim with ghost hunting technology and let me tell you, at night there is no need for infrared.  There are confused ghosts everywhere I turn. The level of supernatural occurrences is off the charts and I really have to find a way out and report.  A few days ago this may have been easier, but the creatures have been on the prowl now and I have to find high ground at night to rest, they don’t seem to be determined enough to climb.  At least not yet, the creatures seem to be displaying higher functions all the time as they begin to hunger more.  I have been following a group of them that I have aptly named The Accountant, The Supervisor, The Marine and a few others.  They seem to be travelling in a pack, so far it doesn’t seem to be a conscious thing but more of ‘I’ll keep walking and I’ll follow whatever gets my attention’ kind of thing.  Anyways back to the spirits, I have tried to record on this thing a few times but my recordings in the morning are a static garbled mess.  I am assuming the energy is disrupting electronics, at night.  Street lights flicker as do the lights from apartment buildings.  Televisions are constantly showing snow in the middle of programs.  The survivors that make it out at night and during the day are freaking out when they come face to face with the former friends and loved ones.   So now everyone stays inside and cowers in fear.  It seems as though they are just waiting to die.  Marshal Law is in effect here but not enforced heavily, troops have been stationing themselves further and further away from populated areas. There have been rumors that I have overheard of groups of people congregating and arming them to take on this threat, maybe I can join them.  I have talked to soldiers but they leveled their guns up to my face and told me to go home, I even tried explaining that I am not really from here.  Luckily, people have been kind enough to share food and water with me as I travel, but they won’t let me spend the night.  I don’t blame them; you never know who is infected with what I guess.  We have spirits and zombies all over the place here.  I dare you to show me a scarier place on earth right now.  I will be setting up some equipment shortly to catch more spirits and document what is happening here.  The spirits do not seem to be in any human shape at the moment; Jonathon tells me this is normal during the beginning.  Luckily my aircard still works in my laptop and able to communicate that way, although cell phones have been knocked out.  No doubt to keep the rest of the country from panicking when people decide to call and report what is going on here.  Maybe it’s even to stop the world from knowing.  Whatever, I wonder what kind of bullshit cover story they have been feeding the nation?  ‘It seems that everything is under control and the inoculations have been a resounding success, back to you Terry….’.  Wait….”  -click- Mathias spots individuals on the ground running towards something.  “These are not zombies,” he says to himself and propels off the catwalk.  A large group of individuals are running down the street armed, suddenly they open fire on a group of the undead.  “I wonder where my little group went?”  He says to himself referring to The Accountant and the others.  He begins to make his way to the armed group, but they mistake him for a zombie and begin to open fire again, they barely miss and Mathias runs to find cover.  They realized their target just ran and evaded the bullets, they figure this was not a zombie and begin calling out, “Sir?” comes a voice from a girl in the group calling out, “We’re sorry we did not realize there were others out here.  Sir?  We mean you no harm, we are aware that you do not pose a threat, my comrades and I apologize sincerely.”  Still no response, Mathias had continued running, ears still ringing from the gunshots.  “Fuck, I gotta be a bit more careful when dealing with psycho gun wielding zealots.”  He thought to himself as he found another catwalk to hide and possibly spend the night.

“Well, I don’t think he’s coming back,” said Eric as he turns to Janice.  “We have to be a bit more careful in the future, you never know if we just spooked what could have been a valuable asset to this group.”  Eric signals with his gun that the rest of the group is secure enough to travel in this direction.  A lookout two hundred-and-fifty feet away sees the signal and instructs the herd to keep moving. 

Three blocks down the road….

A girl sits kneeling on the ground with the body of her father in her arms.  She is crying and nuzzling her face in his chest.  He was attacked a few hours ago and she knows that this may be dangerous, but is her father and she wants to hang on to whatever is left of him for as long as she can.  She is overcome with grief that she has no regrets if she dies tonight.  Her father was the final family member in the area that had not been infected or died.  Every night since her mother “died” this girl has been visited be the spirit.  She can tell during the visits that her mother is not alone as the others begin to throw things around or make quite a bit of noise.  Three nights ago she had seen her older brother outside of the living room window, she could only see the silhouette at first but as she got closer she could make out his face, she cracked the door open and suddenly he charged for the door, he was no longer human.  During the incident with the door she had been knocked to the floor, but before her brother could feed off of her the father came in with a pipe and knocked him out the door.  As her brother kept scraping at the door he seemed to be drawing more attention from the surrounding zombies as they began to approach the house.  The father instructed her to grab whatever she could carry as they had to flee the house.  They went out the back door and ran all night. 

A few hours ago the father had defended his final offspring from three zombies but was bitten in the process.  He managed to take down the three but not before being injured himself.  The injuries were fatal and he died only twenty minutes later.  Colleen did not want to go on, seeing loved ones as zombies and ghosts was just too much to bear for anyone.   And now she would be alone.  Still clinging on to her father she began to finally survey her surroundings, they were inside of a building, it seemed that the room that they were in was an apartment, it was difficult to tell in absolute darkness.  The only light was coming from a boarded up window behind her where beams of moonlight shone through.  In the shuffle she and her father had ducked into this apartment, there was no back door.  It was something she began to notice, something inside of her was telling her that she did not want to die after all, although she would be alone and haunted her survival instinct had began to kick in. 

Now that she was looking for a way out if she had to, her father in her arms began to move slightly.  It was only a matter of time before he joined the ranks of the undead.  She put her father on the ground and stood up.  She kept staring at his body and began to wonder to herself what her next move should be.  The corpse began to rise up slowly, it could have been the lack of substantial light, but it seemed as though he was being raised by strings.  The way he moved seemed impossible, completely unnatural.  She backed away at the sight slowly not realizing that her next move could spell the end.  As she backed up into a pile of boards and nails that were used to block off the windows in the building. Apparently the building had been condemned some time ago.  The floor began to give way under her heel and as she fell backwards into the old planks of wood, old nails dug into her Achilles heel and behind her thigh.  It was painful, but at the same time the placement of her injuries made it virtually impossible to use her left leg. 

Fortunately her “father” had made no gesture of attacking.  It seemed that this corpse was still in the first phases of the transition.  As the walking corpse walked towards the left wall an afterimage of her father was left behind.  This was in fact, not in after-image but a very confused spirit.  It was her father and apparently he does not realize that he is dead until he stares at his body walking away from him.  The spirit cannot maintain his energy composition much longer and the image that Colleen is staring at begins to distort into a torrent of disturbing emotion.  From the side of the head of the apparition is another screaming face, eyes rolled up.  Obviously scared, what seemed to be a body at the beginning begins to dissipate into something inhuman.  The sounds are disturbing and horrible.  The zombie corpse finally turns to see the spirit that is writhing in emotional torment.  The corpse lets out a guttural growl; the walking body does not feel the restraints of it and unhinges its jaw during the growl. 

The moaning and growling coupled with the high pitched sounds of the apparition begin to attract other zombies in the area.  As the zombies begin to walk towards the commotion, Mathias trails them from the rooftops.  Taking pictures he realizes with his zoom that there is a girl on the ground and she is bleeding, obviously not a zombie.  He wants to do something, but he is unarmed.  He remembers at that moment that there is still a militia of kids with guns.  Thinking to him of how he can get their attention and not be shot in the process.  Mathias produces a flare from his bag that he had been saving for escape.  “Well, there are stores all over this valley that I can ransack; besides if they save her maybe I can talk to those people.”  He thinks to himself and promptly lights the flare and tosses it in the street where it is sure to capture the eyes of The Herd.

“What the fuck is that?”  Carlos points to the light in the distance.  “I think someone is trying to signal for help.”  “Can we really just throw away more ammo?”  Eric replies, “then again, you did just haphazardly shoot at some black random stranger.”  “Jesus, let that shit go.”  Carlos answers.  “Eric, everything reloaded?”  Janice asks.  Eric nods.  They pick up weapons of choice and go to work.  Running down the street they pass another group of zombies who have obviously found victims, these people cannot be saved now.  They keep running towards the flare.  A zombie marine peeks out from behind an alley almost looking longingly at the action.  When they get to their destination they can see the zombies starting to flood in from the doorway.  Eric spots Colleen’s leg, “Ok, I think we should approach this from the back of the building, I can see where the girl is.  She seems to be pinned by something, but it doesn’t look like the zombies have begun to attack her yet.”  The rest of the group nod in agreement and make their way to the back of the building.

Meanwhile inside Colleen’s father’s corpse is still writhing in remorse.  As soon as the others begin making their way in, they spot the spirit and react just as the first corpse did.  It is a cacophony of horror.  Colleen can hardly see anything and her vision is fading faster.  She has tried to get up a few times now, but the nail attached to her tendon is hooked in and as she tries to move she feels the muscle tearing a bit more, thus making the appendage even more unusable. Suddenly one of the zombies stops and looks down at Colleen when she tried moving, half of the zombie’s face is missing and she can see the inner workings of his jaw as he moans towards her.  Without warning, the body of her father grabs the half-faced zombie and shoves him to the floor.  Apparently the instinct to protect has not entirely left this vessel yet.  As more and more zombies begin to struggle with the corpse of the father, the spirit cannot maintain form much longer as there is too much commotion disrupting his energy and he dissipates screaming with arms outstretched to his daughter.

Colleen, Eric, Carlos, and a few others situate themselves behind the apartment.  It is on the first story so they are able to look in through the boarded up window.  “Hey, hey girl in there.  Hang on we’re gonna get you out, but you gotta do what we say!”  Carlos yells over the moaning of the creatures.  “And….” The creatures quiet down as they hear his voice behind the window.  Several of the zombies begin to make their way to the window.  “Ok then, fuck it!”  Carlos lets his semi-automatic do all the talking from this point on and lets the bullets rip through the boards of the windows.  The others take their cue and follow suit. 

From Colleen’s perspective bullets are flying through the room and corpses are falling to the ground.  She makes sure not to move no matter what as she does not want to get the attention of the zombies again.  Bullets continue to pierce the wall in an upward angle.  The group being aware of Colleen’s position makes sure not to shoot low.  The bullet holes appear to be little beams of light as the moonlight shines through each new one.  Like stars coming into position to create a new universe.  It is beautiful and terrifying all at once.  Colleen knows it is only a matter of time before her father falls like the rest.  He seems to be disoriented and making noises, for Colleen these noises are beautiful, it may not be her father anymore, but even without speech she recognizes his voice and a single tear rolls down her face. 

One of the corpses lands next to her, at least a top half does.  It was shot down the middle and while the legs kept moving, the body was too structure unsound to support the upper weight.  The half zombie landed next to her and she could not help but yelp when half-face looked straight up at her.  It was hard to tell because of his face, but he almost seemed to be smiling as he started to drag his carcass along the ground.  He grabbed her leg and yanked it away from the nails that had hooked into her.  He had used such strength that her leg was now completely ripped open and bleeding fast.  The other zombies that had been shot, but not fatally wounded awoke from their stupor and fixated their gaze on this victim.  The father zombie with the unhinged jaw was not going to allow this to happen and started to stamp his feet on the other zombies.  He made his way in front of Colleen and began to fight off the oncoming onslaught.  She could not understand what he was saying, but even though this walking corpse was saving her now, eventually the hunger would take over. 

The others outside noticed that the zombies were no longer in their line of sight.  They stopped shooting when Carlos raised his hand and Eric procured a high-wattage flashlight.  They shone the light through the window and the bullet holes and realized that they were looking at the backs of the zombies approaching the victim.  Carlos kicked in the wall that had become weakened by all the bullets that had pierced it.  Stucco, plaster, and wood went flying through the room as several zombies turned back at the blinding source of light.  All of a sudden almost instinctively the group put away their heavier weapons and all secured their handguns.  As zombies began to stumble their way, they all squeezed their triggers almost as this exact situation had been orchestrated.  Colleen’s “father” kept fighting the half-faced zombie as the zombie climbed up him like a serpent with two arms and grabbed his unhinged jaw to rip away from his face. Half-face once again reached for the “father’s” face and went from under his jaw where pools of blood were spilling out and outstretched to the “father’s” brain.  He yanked it out and tasted it.  He spit it out, and her father’s body began to topple towards her, so too would this demon zombie.  She clenched her eyelids as tight as she could while still flailing her arms.  Then nothing, Carlos had grabbed the half-faced, half-bodied zombie and tossed him up in the air with one arm, while firing his handgun at the same at it. 

Carlos stomped on the corpse and shot it in the head a few more times.  When that was over it seemed the rest of the group had all been doing the same thing in unison as they all had their handguns pointed toward the ground and stepping Captain Morgan-like over all the remaining zombies, this all became clear as the smoke began to clear as the guns cooled off.  Colleen’s father’s corpse had fallen in a position where his dead eyes were staring up at her, the corpse had begun to exhaust gas and at that final moment where she locked eyes with it she could hear her name being whispered.  She looked away in terror and sadness and could see the white light of an apparition leaving the room once more.

“Hey girl, you alright?”Carlos outstretched his hand towards her.  She looked down at her leg, “Oh yeah, right.”  He took off his over shirt and ripped in half to try and stop the bleeding.  “We’re gonna have to cauterize that.  By the way, you weren’t bitten were you?”  He was trying to have a little fun with her to lighten the shock, but it was to no avail.  He gently picked her up from behind her knees and the back of her neck to create a cradle.  “It’s all gonna be alright, I promise.”  As they walk out from under the rubble of what used to be a wall, the rest of the group made their way back to The Herd, there a doctor would tend to her, although they would have to camp out for the rest of the night.

From atop the rooftops, Mathias had been surveying everything, -click- “There is hope after all.” –cla-click-