Derek Goodman - The Reanimation of Edward Schuett

“Jesus Christ in heaven,” Edward said. “This is insane.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Rae said. “So, you want to tell me everything you know about all this?”

“Lady…Rae, I don’t know jack.”

“Then why don’t you start by telling me anything you remember. Anything at all.”

Edward sighed and gave her the abbreviated version of everything he had remembered while in the shed and everything from the moment between waking up in the store and getting taken by Ringo. Rae said nothing while he talked, nodding occasionally as she rubbed the stock of her rifle. She held onto the thing like a child might a teddy bear, but Edward didn’t say anything about that. She didn’t strike him as the kind of person who would take it favorably being compared to a little kid.

“And that’s it?” she asked, peeking her head up to look over the side of the truck as it slowed to a stop. He was about to ask if they were at her place yet, but from his position he could see a stop-and-go light in front of them. It felt strangely comforting that, even with the apocalypse come and gone, things like traffic lights could still exist.

“It’s at least everything I remember,” Edward said.

“Well, none of that really tells me shit, except that whatever is causing you to regenerate apparently started some time last night or early this morning.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t give us a reason why,” Edward said. “Can I ask some questions now? Please? I think I’ve been in the dark long enough.”

“I’ll answer whatever questions I can, I guess, but I don’t know how much help I’ll be.”

“Then I guess you should start with…um, what the hell actually happened?”

“What which happened when?”

“Well, the end of the world. The zombie armageddon.”

Rae raised an eyebrow. “Zombie armageddon? That’s a new one. Why the hell would you call it that?”

“Well, that had to be what it was, right? The end of the world? Everything now is the post-apocalypse?”

“Jesus, that’s an exaggeration if I ever heard one,” Rae said. “I mean, yeah, things got bad back in those days. They say three-quarters of the world’s population was wiped out…”

“Holy fucking shit! Three-quarters? How the hell am I exaggerating, then?”

“Because, look around you.” She gestured around the truck, then remembered that he couldn’t actually sit up and look. “Or, at least think of everything you’ve seen so far. I know this is probably different than you remember, but you’re from fifty years ago. Of course things are going to be different. Different doesn’t exactly mean bad.”

“But…all the ruins outside that weird open perimeter circle thing…”

“Have been that way for as long as I can remember,” Rae said. “No change, not really. You’ve got some people living way out in the boonies trying to farm now, but otherwise there’s nothing new or different. Last I checked the world was continuing on just fine, no end in sight. And it sure as hell looks like it will continue that way for a long time.”

Edward shook his head, not understanding how anyone could miss the severity of what had happened. The world had changed drastically and into something he couldn’t recognize. An untold number of people throughout the world had died. He had no idea how someone could look at an event in history like that and not think it was the apocalypse. But he didn’t think he was going to convince this woman, and whether she was talking to him civilly or not right now he still didn’t think it would be a good idea to get into an argument with her while she was still holding a rifle in hand.

“Okay, so it wasn’t the end of the world. What do you call it, then?”

“We call it the Uprising, but I’ve never thought that was a very good term for it. Uprising implies they were downtrodden or something like that, like they were slaves that fought back. They weren’t. They were just people. They died, they got back up, they ate people. Those that they didn’t finish eating got back up, too.”

Edward felt a shiver at the matter-of-fact way she described it. “How is that even possible? Dead people getting up and walking. Was it magic or something?”

“Don’t be a moron. I don’t know, I guess there were probably some people that thought that at the time. Some people still do. Lot’s of people thought God was punishing everybody. Couple of religions sprung up because of it. It was a virus though. The Animator Virus.”

“So, it was like a plague? How did it start?”

“Don’t know. Occasionally you’ll hear new studies or news reports about it. Government keeps saying new things every so often. Most people don’t even bother with official explanations. Some nutjobs have got all kinds of conspiracy theories. But, I don’t know, I guess most people just don’t care.”

“Don’t care? Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong people in this time? How could anyone not care?”

“Easy. It was over fifty years ago. It’s history. Most people are too busy trying to pay their bills or get married and have kids or things like that. They can’t be bothered with wondering about some mysteries that are half a century old. It’s like…um, I don’t know, I’m not so good with history. It’s like people in your time would have acted about things that happened during World War I, maybe. The thing with the Nazis.”

“I think you may be thinking of World War II.”

“Maybe. But it’s something in the past that happened, it affected things, but it’s the past. Where the zeds come from is less important to daily life than the simple fact that they exist.”

Edward sighed. “Alright. So you don’t know where this Animator Virus came from, but it made the dead come back to life and try to eat people. The first I remember of this thing, it was starting somewhere around Chicago. Is that right?”

Rae squinted her eyes and looked up at the sky in thought. “Yeah, I guess that sounds familiar. Somewhere around there. Spread quickly, because people die and then rise so quickly after a bite.”

“Right, that much I was able to figure out from my memories. So what happened after that?”

“Spread across the whole country, then the world. I don’t know a whole lot about the ways different places fought against it. Most of that is military history, and while I guess I’ve always enjoyed that I never had much time for it. There are a few things everybody knows about: the Korean Nuclear Pact, the Battle of Atlanta, the Greater and Lesser Texas Purges. Mostly what I know is the things my parents told me. They lived through it, told me about all the local stuff that happened, taught me how to fight against it if it ever happened again. The zeds are still out there, as I guess you of course know, and they still bite. It could always happen again. My parents were sure it would.”

“And me? Are you expecting me to try biting you?” Edward asked.

“I’ve still got my rifle pointed at you, don’t I?” They both looked at the rifle at the same time. Her hands were relaxed on it, and it pointed off to the side. Rae readjusted it so it pointed at him again, and Edward had to fight not to smile at the way she blushed.

A thought suddenly occurred to Edward. “So your parents lived through it?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Are there records somewhere of everyone that survived? Somewhere I could look to see if people I knew came through it okay?”

Rae shook her head. “Not really. Not very good records, at least. People weren’t too concerned at keeping accurate records while they were fighting to survive. Lots of journals have survived. The history sections of bookstores have been filling up with them in recent years. Personally, I think a lot of them are fake, but the ones that have been proven real are the biggest source of info on that sort of thing. Other things that I guess were probably around in your time, social security numbers and birth certificates and death certificates and all that, those all have only come back within the last twenty years or so. If you’re looking for information on anyone in particular it will be a nightmare finding anything.”