Derek Goodman - The Reanimation of Edward Schuett

Liddie took longer to get to the door than Edward had expected, and he had started to pace by the time she finally knocked. All this worry and paranoia were becoming a bad habit for him. If he kept this up he might become the first zombie in history with neuroses. The thought nearly made him laugh, but he stifled it right away. Didn’t want to draw attention to himself, after all.

The sound of knocking made him jump, and he looked up at the nearest security camera in the corner as though checking to see if it was watching him. He knew that made no sense, but it felt like the thing to do anyway. It wasn’t like he really knew what security devices around here were capable of, anyway. For all he knew the stupid camera could shoot a net to hold him until the guards came to collect him.

Liddie knocked again, more urgently this time, and Edward finally opened the door and went out.

“You had me worried for a second,” Liddie said. “I thought maybe someone had found you.”

“Just letting my imagination get the best of me,” Edward said. “To be completely honest, I’m scared out of my mind right now.”

Liddie gave him a nervous smile. “Good to know I’m not alone. Come on, the van’s right over here.”

They were in an alley that looked similar to where they’d originally dropped him off, with a van parked and running right nearby. Edward looked around and noticed there were cameras here on the outside of the building, too. If they had avoided looking conspicuous before, they were probably failing miserably now. But that hopefully wouldn’t matter. All they needed was a few more minutes.

Liddie ran around to the driver’s side. “Get in. The quicker we get moving, the more likely we can get out of the city before anyone gets sent after us.”

“Are there cameras around the city they can use to find us?” Edward asked.

“Yeah, but that won’t be any problem once we get beyond the city walls. They don’t really have a reason anymore to keep watching the wastelands, and I’ve already disabled the van’s tracker.”

Edward got in, and Liddie was already pulling away before he could close the door. She sped out of the alley and almost hit another car as she turned onto the street.

“Don’t speed,” Edward said. “That will just attract the attention of some cop.”

“Can’t afford not to. We have no idea how much time we have left before someone notices you’re gone. Or else maybe discovers Dr. Chella locked in a closet.”

“But if we get pulled over that will just take even longer. Assuming there are still cops and they do still pull people over.”

Liddie sighed and eased her foot off the accelerator. “Sorry. First time I’ve ever been on the run. My mom may have taught me a lot of things, but this was never one of them.”

“You said there’s a wall around the city?”

“Of course. There’s a wall around every city.”

“Are we going to have any trouble getting out?”

“We shouldn’t. The only time anyone ever really scrutinizes anyone is when they’re coming back in. You know, to make sure there’s no illegal reanimated with them or that they’re not infected or anything.”

“So how long before we get there?”

“At this time of night? Not long. Ten minutes at the most.” Liddie hesitated, then pointed at the computer bag she’d left in the footwell of his seat. “Just enough time for you to take a look at that.”

“What is it, anyway?”

“Proof that not the whole world is against you.”

He opened up the bag and pulled out an extremely thin computer. “How do I turn it on?”

“Just touch the screen. I already loaded it with the recording of tonight’s news.”

“One of you mentioned that before,” Edward said. “What was on the news that I would need to know about?”

“For starters, it’s one of the reasons the president gave to have you terminated. He mentioned it during the conference, but I hadn’t seen it yet by that point. I got a quick look at it though when Mom gave it to me. We both thought it would be important for you to see.”

Edward touched the screen. “Do I need…” He was going to ask if he needed to do anything else, but the news report immediately started by itself. A woman who looked to be in her mid-forties sat behind a news desk. Although her hair was in a completely unrecognizable style, nothing else about the scene looked much different than a news cast from his own time. “Welcome back,” the woman said. “Our top story this evening is something that cannot possibly be believed, but several witnesses from the Wisconsin borderlands claim it to be absolutely true. The reanimated have been with us for far longer than anyone wants to remember, but we have always thought we knew what they were capable of. Since Atlanta, no further variations of them have been reported, but some have always claimed that there could be one more, known as a Z7. Up until now, these claims have been treated as nothing more than wild conspiracy theories. But now there may just be evidence. Is there really a Z7? One Wisconsin woman insists there is. Please welcome on tonight’s program Miss Rae Neuman.”

Edward gasped as Rae came on the screen. She’d cleaned herself up and wore a suit, but she was still recognizable as the gun-toting woman who had first treated him like a person when no one else would.

“Thanks for having me,” Rae said.

“Is this a national newscast?” Edward asked.

“Yes. The entire country saw this early this evening.”

The newscaster began asking her questions about what had happened in Fond du Lac, occasionally interrupting the interview to show some of the evidence that the network itself had gathered about the existence of a Z7. There were a few blurry pictures of the standoff in the back of Ringo’s truck, and a few other witnesses were mentioned. Most of them looked like yokels, or at least were portrayed as yokels by the newscast. As the interview continued it became evident to Edward that the newscaster didn’t really take Rae seriously.

“This woman is treating Rae like a joke. Why the hell would the president consider this something threatening enough to have me killed over?”

“Don’t you see?” Liddie said. “Even if most people don’t take this seriously, some people will. That’s enough. I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole thing, but my mother told me this Rae woman was arguing that you should have rights and that the government was keeping you against your will.”

“Which is all completely true,” Edward said.

“Yes, and that’s a problem. Maybe you saw a little of this when you first woke up and maybe you didn’t, but there’s a lot of political tension between the middle of the country and the coasts. Some places, like that town where you were found, have rejoined civilization pretty easily but a lot still resist. They still after all these years resent what they think of as the government leaving the center of the country to die. Any issue relating to the reanimated is liable to stir them up. Some people might think the government is holding a legitimate person against his will, and they’ll want to fight the government over it. Other people will see you as a terrible bioweapon that shouldn’t be allowed in the hands of anyone, especially not the government, and want to fight them over that. So you see, your existence, any way you look at it, is dangerous. And that’s not even including Chella’s theories.”

“You still need to tell me what exactly she…” Edward began, but a sound like a cell phone went off in Liddie’s computer bag and interrupted him.

Liddie looked at him with a hint of panic in her eyes. “That’s my cell.”

“Is there any reason anyone would be calling you right now?” Edward asked.