Derek Goodman - The Reanimation of Edward Schuett

Edward nodded. He had suspected it could be something like that, but something about the way she spoke made him wonder if she wasn’t being entirely truthful. “That’s it?”

Danielle glared at him, then looked to Liddie. “I suppose there’s something else I should say, since I have no idea how long it might be before I can see you again. About the file I gave you to give to him.” She turned to Edward again. “It was a fake. I’m sorry, but I did what I needed to do to get you to cooperate, and I would do it again.”

“I already told him, Mom,” Liddie said.

“I know. I knew the very next time I talked to you after you took it to him.”

Liddie blinked. “But you never said anything.”

“That’s because I already saw the way you were looking at him. I didn’t think much of it. I figured it would pass. It didn’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Edward asked.

Danielle actually smiled at him. “You may be an anomalous super zombie, but at your core you’re still a just another clueless man. Just why the hell did you think she was spending all that time with you? It sure as hell wasn’t because she thought you were a fascinating test subject.”

Edward understood her meaning, but he wasn’t sure he believed it. When he looked over at Liddie, however, she wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“I’m taking a very big leap here, Mr. Schuett,” Danielle said. “In letting her take care of you, I’m assuming that you aren’t dangerous, either as a zombie or a person. I hope that’s not a wrong assumption.”

“No,” Edward said. “It’s not.”

“That’s good, but just in case, I feel compelled to tell you that I made sure my daughter grew up knowing jujitsu.”

“I’ll, um, be sure to keep that in mind.”

“We’ve got to go,” Liddie said. “You never know when we might run out of time.” Liddie kissed her mother on the cheek, and they both took a moment for one last hug. Then Liddie led Edward to the nearest elevator. It wouldn’t open without a key code. He noticed her hesitate before punching the numbers in.

“Last chance to turn back,” Edward said. “By doing this you’re probably giving up everything you’ve ever worked for.”

“None of this was ever anything I’ve actually worked for,” Liddie said. “It’s what Mom worked for. I just came along for the ride. It’s probably about time I took my own path.”

She punched in the numbers, but it took an agonizing amount of time for the elevator to reach their floor. Neither of them said anything, and the ding of the elevator stopping at their floor startled Edward. They got in and faced the door as it closed. It took him several seconds to realize they stood closer together than was strictly necessary. Their hands were close enough to brush against each other. After a few more moments of hesitation Liddie took his hand. Neither of them looked at each other, but they didn’t need to. That simple touch said things they may have started thinking but hadn’t brought themselves to actually say.

Then an image flashed in his mind of Julia, sitting next to him on the couch and cuddling as they watched a movie, their hands roaming over each other and touching in ways that were completely innocent yet thoroughly intimate. She’d been gone for fifty years. She wasn’t even like Dana, where he could try convincing himself that she still might be out there alive. She had become a zombie before he did, and even if she was still wandering around out there, which seemed highly unlikely, there did not appear to be any way that she could be like him. Yet none of this had fully hit him yet. By his own internal clock it felt like he’d only seen her a few weeks ago. To him, she might as well have still been alive.

Edward let go of Liddie’s hand and side-stepped away. He hoped it wasn’t too obvious, but he couldn’t do that just yet. He wasn’t ready, and honestly didn’t think he would be ready from quite some time yet.

Liddie still didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at her to see if his action had hurt her at all. All he could do was hope she understood.

The awkward moment faded away the instant the doors opened. This wasn’t the same elevator he’d been brought up in, and the area outside was unfamiliar. She stepped out quickly, but he hesitated and looked around to see if there was anyone watching. Based on something Liddie and Danielle had said earlier about the evening news, Edward suspected it was probably pretty late in the day and there wouldn’t be too many people around. But the majority of the building was a college, and he had no idea what kind of activities a school in this day and age might have going on. The elevator at least didn’t open onto anything that looked like a major hallway, since it was pretty featureless except for a few utilitarian-looking doors. He thought he saw someone walk by near the end of the hall, but otherwise there was no one here.

Liddie pointed down the hall in the opposite direction. “Go that way,” she said in whisper. “Take a left when you see a sign for the canteen, but go past the canteen entrance and take the next right. I’m not down here a lot, but I’m pretty sure there’s an emergency exit at the end of that hall. I’ll head to the motor pool. Wait by that exit until you hear me knocking from the other side.”

“What am I supposed to do if somebody comes by and asks me about something?”

“Just, I don’t know, pretend you really are a janitor. Do whatever you can to not look suspicious.”

“I don’t even know what suspicious is supposed to look like these days.”

“Do your best,” Liddie said. She leaned toward him for a second like she intended to do something more, but then backed away. “Try not to panic or anything, okay?” She went off in the opposite direction she had told him to go. He was on his own for the moment.

He went down the hall, but even going the fifty or sixty feet to his first turn felt like an impossible trial. There were cameras mounted near the ceiling, and he did his best not to stare at them. A janitor wasn’t supposed to even notice those things most of the time. He had to keep reminding himself that he was supposed to be top secret, that no one other than the security personnel on his one floor was supposed to know that he even existed, but he kept thinking about all the ways he might be making himself conspicuous to whoever might be watching those cameras. All it took was one over-eager security guard to send someone to check on him, and this would all be over practically before it had begun.

He saw no one else in the halls, however. When he passed the canteen he saw one bored young man in a hairnet behind the counter and a very tired looking student with his nose nearly pressed against some kind of tiny personal computer, but that was all. These people had probably been in and out of here over and over during the last several weeks, yet they’d been completely unaware that something like Edward was right over their heads. No one anywhere even knew he existed except a rare few. If he got caught now and was terminated like had been ordered, no one would care. For all intents and purposes he really didn’t exist.

So what, then, was he supposed to do with his life now? Any minute now Liddie would knock on that door and they would be on the run, with people from the government giving chase soon after. Where were they supposed to go? He supposed he could try going back to Fond du Lac in an effort to discover what had really happened to Dana, but he had to admit that even that one hope he’d clung to now seemed like something he couldn’t find out. After all, the CRS had known that was something he wanted so they would look for him there first. He could escape, but he had no purpose.