Jason Campagna: White Ash on Bone: A Zombie Novel

The door to the office opened. Rex walked in. "How's she doing?" Rex said.

"Fever," said Mazie, "And elevated blood pressure."

"How long does she have?" replied Rex.

Mazie paused for a moment, "It's anyone's guess, could be minutes, hours, or days. She might not have it at all, but I think it's highly likely."

"Where's the cat?" Rex asked Jack, "It didn’t like the doctor."

"She's already in the plane," Jack said.

"Kimberly," Rex said, "we are hauling ass out of here, but I’m going to make sure you get on a plane."

Rex walked over to Kimberly and scooped her up. Kimberly felt dizzy at the movement, but wrapped her arm around Rex's neck. "Thank you," she said.

Mazie opened the door to the office and Rex led the way out. In the hall, Kimberly caught sight of Alison and Ginger waiting. Ginger didn’t look at her but Alison held a fixed gaze with silver pistol in her hand.

Outside the building, the last ray of sunshine gave its last hint of light and faded over the horizon. One of the few remaining guardsmen walked up and addressed Rex.

"Captain Arnett asked me to escort your group to his C-130 for transport."

"Lead the way," Rex replied.

"You got this Rex?" Jack Cotta asked.

"Go on; get your plane outta here, Jack,” Rex said. “We’ll meet up for some moonshine down south.” Jack grabbed Donna by the hand and turned away with the girl and ran toward his plane on the other side of the concrete parking lot.

Kimberly could see the green olive drab plane Rex was carrying her to. The rear ramp was lowered and a light from inside the plane showed crewmen securing a Stryker to the deck of the craft.

The C-130s engine emitted a whine from its gas turbine compression system that climbed in pitch to a continuous scream in the air. The right prop closest to the plane turned and rapidly picked up speed. For a moment the prop appeared to spin in the other direction, but it was only an optical illusion. The scream picked up intensity as the second prop on the right swirled in motion.

The sky to the south of the plane flickered alive with crimson flashes in the direction of Pittsburgh.

Kimberly opened her mouth and shouted in Rex's ear, "What's happening?" The sound of the plane drowned out her question as Rex carried her up the ramp.

A crewman met Rex halfway up the ramp carrying duct tape in his hand and pointing at Kimberly. Another crewman lowered the ramp to the Stryker now secured inside the plane and nodded for her to get in. Behind them, the ramp was closing. Rex set her inside the vehicle and she tried to lift her hands but found the world going black.

###

Doctor Stephen Brandon walked up to a black steel fire door guarded by a soldier carrying an M-16.

“Identification, Sir,” the guard requested.

Doctor Brandon pulled his identification card off his scrubs and handed it to the guard. The soldier looked over the card and handed it back to the doctor.

“They are waiting inside for you, Doc,” the guard said. “If you try and leave before you are cleared, I will shoot you without thinking about it.”

The guard opened the door for Brandon and waved him through. The door clanked shut behind the doctor and heard keys locking it behind him. It was the first time Brandon had ever seen any type of security at the med school let alone the military on campus.

Brandon walked down a white blocked hallway and through another set of black fire doors. On the other side, he was greeted by five people in blue bio-hazard suits. He recognized Doctor Sally Perkins, an infectious disease specialist, behind the mask of one of the suits. She pointed at an extra bio suit hanging on a coat rack.

“This is Doctor Stephen Brandon,” Sally Perkins said. “He is the only Pathologist in Pike County, but don’t let that fool you; he is one of the best in the state.”

“Do you really have one of those things here?” Brandon asked.

“One of our fourth year med-students brought it in with those military transports that landed up at the airport. Her name is Mazie Harrison, and she will be assisting with today’s procedures. Mazie has been with the subject since it expired and monitored the patient while she was alive. The other three people are here to minimize the risk of the subject spreading the infection.”

Brandon grabbed the rubberized suit from the rack and placed her first leg into the suit. “What do I need to know?” Brandon said.

“Don’t get bit,” said one of the figures in a bio-hazard suits.

Brandon noticed that the guy had placed a square of silver duct tape over his left breast. The name “Rex” was written in green marker on the silver surface. The woman beside him had a similar name badge, but it read “Alison” in much neater hand writing.

Brandon finished climbing into the suit and sealed himself in. He followed Doctor Sally Perkins and the rest of the group through heavy steel doors marked, “Anatomy Lab.”

Eleven silver dissection tables sat empty. The twelfth table sat in the middle of the room. A young woman’s body struggled against a series of makeshift restraints holding the girl down.

He noticed that along the far wall stood a framed picture of Willie Stargell. A brown Louisville Slugger sat on a display shelf below the picture.

“Student Doctor Harrison,” Brandon said, “please fill us in on the history.”

The three medical professionals surrounded the subject while the others hung back. “The girl’s name was Kimberly,” Mazie said. “She was in her early 20’s and volunteered at the hospital in Butler County. The patient’s history was that of a healthy young girl. She did indicate that she broke her left arm in a biking accident when she was eleven. The patient complained of extreme fatigue, trouble breathing and a cold sweat before expiration. She died of an unknown cause, mostly likely heart failure. Shortly after, she reanimated."

"Time of death?" requested Brandon.

"Yesterday," Mazie said, "at 8:16 in the evening." Kimberly's body continued to struggle under its bonds as it locked eyes with Doctor Brandon.

"Let's recheck vitals," Brandon ordered. "Sally, can you check for blood pressure."

Sally Perkins slid the blood pressure cuff around the zombie’s right arm and inflated the bag. She put her stethoscope to the arm and listened. "Negative blood pressure and no pulse," Perkins said.

Brandon reached down and probed the zombie's neck. The creature strained to lower its head, but its forehead remained strapped to the table. The duct tape on Kimberly's mouth turned red and the jaw moved open and closed.

"Look at that," Perkins said, "I think she's biting through her lips."

Brandon removed his hands, "The neck is supple, no masses," he said. "The skin is also cool to the touch."

Perkins moved her stethoscope to the subject's chest and listened. She then moved the scope over each side of the zombie's chest in turn, "Negative heart or lung sound."

Brandon massaged at Kimberly's stomach, "Abdomen is stiff, and non-distended. Neurologically, she appears to be tracking our movements fairly easy."

"We ran an EEG before you got here," said Doctor Perkins. "There was diminished activity in the central parietal, temporal and occipital lobes. No frontal lobe activity present."

Behind the head of the patient, Rex pulled the Louisville Slugger off the display on the wall and turned the bat over in his hands. He was trying to avoid watching the autopsy. "I bet this autograph is a knockoff," Rex mumbled to himself.

"We took more than a dozen blood samples," Doctor Perkins said. "We had them sent off to the hospital and will be waiting for whatever work ups we decide."

"I don’t think we would gain anything by dissection, but we might as well go through with it while we are all dressed up," said Brandon. "Tissue samples from several regions might be in order as well as a sample of brain tissue."