John Ringo - Under a Graveyard Sky

“I…think I’ll let Faith explain,” Steve said. “Apparently Tom’s been trying to keep her from zombie hunting and failing. When she did finally give it up, some secretary went zombie in an elevator. Faith wasn’t bitten but she got blood all over herself and she already had some wounds from the previous bouts. So they’re afraid she’s infected. Good news is that she’s had the vaccine so they’re hoping between the small amount of infection and the vaccine she’ll pull through. Hoping.”

“I’m already packed,” Stacey said, then paused. “That means you’ll have to man the boat by yourself…”

“I’ve got it,” Steve said. “I can handle a few sleepless nights. Thank God for coffee as long as it holds out.”

* * *

“There’s good news and bad news,” Dr. Curry said.

A set of tacticals had been found in her size. Ditto tactical boots. Faith was planning on dressing that way from now on. Screw “street clothes.”

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Tom said.

“Her blood test is positive for antibodies, but…” he said, holding up his hand to forestall the responses, “that would be the case anyway. She had the primer vaccine. That probably means that those were present from her immunization shot. However, she may have gotten a solid shot of D4T6…”

“What?” Faith asked.

“That’s the new designation for the beta expressor virus,” Sophia said. “Zombie virus in other words.”

“Oh.”

“So we’ll take the full Pasteur route,” Dr. Curry said, holding up a syringe. “This is the primer. Again. In two days you would have had the booster. We’ll give you a shot a day of primer or booster for two weeks. That should adequately prime your system even if you did get some viral load from your scuffle. And by pumping your body full of the attenuated virus, it will force your immune system to respond. Hopefully faster than the virus can take you over. We’ll also increase your potassium supplements, pump you full of antivirals even though their effect is limited and give you a B-12 shot to bump your immune resistance.”

“And you’re going to have to go into quarantine, here,” Tom said. “The room’s fairly comfortable but it’s, face it, a cell. If you haven’t turned by tomorrow…”

“Okay,” Faith said, miserably. She looked around. It was only the four of them in Tom’s office. “Is it cool to talk about ‘you know’?”

“Yes,” Tom said.

“Then if I do turn, I want to get turned into vaccine,” Faith said, looking at the floor. “That way maybe somebody else won’t.”

“That’s not going to happen…” Tom said.

“Uncle Tom…” Faith responded.

“I don’t mean what you think,” Tom said, holding up his hand. “You are not going to turn. You’re not. We’re not going to let that happen.”

“But if it does,” Faith said, tearing up.

Sophia leaned over and pulled her into her arms, hugging her.

“I’ll make it myself,” Sophia said, choking up. “And we’ll save it for special people.”

“Thank you,” Faith sobbed.

“Okay,” Dr. Curry said. “If we’ve gotten that out of our system, we need to start the procedures.”

Faith stood up and rolled up her sleeve.

“Go ahead and shoot me up, doc…”

* * *

“How you doing?”

Despite all their “additional duties,” Durante and Kaplan had volunteered to maintain watch on Faith.

“Sort of like a rat in a trap,” Faith said.

The cell wasn’t particularly small or uncomfortable as such things go. But it was still a cell.

“And when I have to go, you’d better not be watching the pick-up,” she added. “Do I really have to be on camera all the time?”

“It’s for science,” Durante said. “Seriously. If you turn, they can watch the progress of the disease.”

“Who can?” Faith said. “In case you forgot, it would be kiddy porn. Cause zombies, like, strip.”

“You haven’t been keeping up with YouTube,” Durante said. “The FBI has about given up trying to police ‘naked zombie girl’ videos. They’re everywhere. And this would really be for science.”

“Which is pointless,” Faith said. “I can tell you about the progress of the disease. They get real angry and snappish, freak out and start pulling off their clothes. That’s when you know they’re a zombie.”

“Or one of my ex girlfriends,” Durante said. “Sorry. Tasteless.”

“No big surprise,” Faith said. “I need something to read. A book. An iPad. Something.”

“I’ve got some technical manuals,” Durante said. “You might want to read the one on injector operation, just as an example.”

“Very freaking funny, Durante…”

* * *

“Oooh,” Faith said, tossing off her covers. She had put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt while Tom made sure nobody was watching. Now they were soaked in sweat. “Durante? Who’s out there?”

“Kaplan.”

“I’m sick,” Faith said. “Burning up. Can I get some aspirin or something? And some more bottled water?”

“I’m calling the medics,” Kaplan said. “Any formication?”

“I’m a little young, Kaplan.”

“For- mi -cation,” Kaplan said. “Itchy skin? Feeling like bugs are crawling on you?”

“Yeah,” Faith said. “I knew what you were talking about. Little bit. Mostly I just feel sick as hell.”

“Nurse is on the way…”

* * *

“Please don’t bite me,” the nurse said. He was in a full moon suit just in case.

He checked her BP and pulse as well as her temperature and shook his head.

“I’ll do my best,” Faith said. “But the difference between normal zombie irrational and how I get when I’m sick isn’t much. Don’t do anything I don’t like and I’ll try not to rip off chunks of flesh and chew them.”

“I’m calling Dr. Curry and Dr. Simmons,” the nurse said. “Your temperature is a hundred and five. Which isn’t good. Any feeling of itchiness or feeling like bugs crawling on your skin?”

“Formication,” Faith said. “Itchiness but I’ve got dry skin. I get itchy pretty often. Maybe worse than normal. I dunno. I feel sucky.”

“If I was still working the EDC ward we’d have you in a lukewarm shower,” the nurse said. “I’ll see what the doctors say…”

* * *

“I thought you said this shower would be lukewarm !” Faith yelled. She’d gone from fever to chills and the cold shower wasn’t helping. “I’m f-f-free-zing…”

* * *

Faith barely remembered getting back to the cell. The bastards wouldn’t even give her extra blankets because “they didn’t want her temperature skyrocketing.”

“I don’t want to be a zombie…” she muttered. “But I would like to die… Now , please… Now would be good…”

* * *

“Faith, honey…?”

“Mom?” Faith said. She’d been dreaming a really vivid dream. More like being there. She was a knight on a horse fighting in a big battle. She wasn’t sure what was reality and what was hallucination anymore.

“Oh, wait,” she said, shifting up. Her mom was in a moonsuit. “You’re real.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Stacey said, sitting down on the bed.

“I think I was hallucinating,” Faith said. “You shouldn’t be here. What if I zomb?”

“It’s pretty hard to bite through a moonsuit,” Stacey said. “And you’re going to be okay. Focus on that.”

“Yeah, well you don’t want to get this,” Faith said. “Zombie or not. I’ve never felt this bad.”

“It’ll be okay, sweetie,” Faith said, cradling her in her arms. “It’ll be okay.”

“Mom,” Faith said, “when you cry like that it ruins the whole ‘it’ll be okay’ thing.” She paused and looked around wildly. “I think I’m going to throw up…”