Zombie vs Vampire - Book 1

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Book 2 - The Boston Encounter
Page 3 (8/24/2009)

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...continued from page 2.

Nick had not slept well and was up early, hovering around the phone. Every few minutes he would remind himself of the foolishness of using sheer will power to force the phone to ring, and he would go and occupy his mind with something else. Or at least he would go and try. But soon enough he noticed his mind wandering and his feet bringing him back to the phone. Of course it was way too early – his uncle's practice would not open for another hour at least. But Nick felt desperate and alone. When he had gotten back home last night he had tried to call Margy and not been able to reach her, either.
Finally he decided to make himself some breakfast, and as is usually the case in situations like these the phone rang. He rushed over and answered:
“Hello?”
“Nick, this is Will.” Nick suppressed a “Thank God!” and instead listened as Will continued on.
“Nick, can you come to my practice? I'd rather not do this over the phone.”
“Er, sure. I'll be right over.” Nick hung up and became aware that he was shivering. But at least it sounded like there could be some answers. So he pulled himself together and left the apartment. On the way he barely avoided a speeding ticket and a pedestrian on a crosswalk, but in the end he arrived safely. Getting out and locking the car seemed to take forever. He ran up to the back door and hammered his fists against it. His uncle answered within seconds, but to Nick it took hours.
“Hi, Nick. Glad you could come on such short notice.” It seemed as if he was using this more professional tone out of habit and in order to calm himself. But Nick did not feel like playing along and came right to the point.
“Is Amber going to be alright?”
“I... I don't know, Nick,” Will finally answered with a sigh as he lead them into his main examination room. “It is definitely a virus, that much I know, but it is nothing I have ever seen before – it's not even in any databases I have access to. Here, have a look.”
He picked up a big envelope from a table. “I brought a blood sample to a friend who owed me a favor, and he will keep quiet about this. He runs an electron microscope at his company, and I was able to persuade him to check it out last night. These are the pictures of the virus.”
With that, he pulled out a few prints from the envelope and gave them to Nick. At first Nick did not quite know what he was looking at – it was all gray on gray – but then he recognized shapes on the paper. Will pointed at one particular shape. It looked different. All the other shapes in the picture were round and had a clearly organic look to them, but this … It looked … “manufactured” - that was the only word that could describe it. And even though Nick called himself an idiot for thinking it, it also looked evil.
“So … if it is a virus, you can kill it, right?”, he asked hopefully.
“Well, yes and no. First of all, a virus is technically not alive, so we cannot kill it. But there are things we can do. I already gave Amber every antiviral agent and immune booster I can think of. But that is all I can do at this point. Without going back to my friend with a new sample I cannot even tell if it works. Some viruses are highly resistant against any form of treatment, like the HIV virus. And with my limited equipment here I have no way of verifying any of this. All we can do now is wait and hope.”
That was not the answer Nick had wanted to hear, but deep down he had known what it was going to be, even if he did not want to believe it.
“Can... can I see her?”
“I suppose it should be safe as long as you do not touch her. I have no idea if this virus will infect people. So be careful.”
He opened a door in the back of the room and showed Nick in. Amber was laying inside a small cage. She looked even worse than she had done last night. Patches of fur had fallen off and made way to grayish flesh. It was a gut wrenching sight.
Nevertheless Nick approached slowly, and Amber looked up. There was a quiet scraping noise coming from the back of the cage, and it took Nick a few seconds to realize that it was the bony stub that was left of Amber's tail that was wagging against the cage floor.
Nick tried to stay positive, but his voice trembled slightly. “Hey, old girl. How are you doing?”
Amber answered with a hoarse whimper, and it was more than Nick could bear. He managed a “Good girl” and fled out of the room.
Will closed the door and gave Nick a few minutes before he spoke again.
“You know, I will have to report this. If this spreads, we are in serious trouble, and I know hardly anything about this virus, especially how it spreads. For all we know we could already be infected. So tell me all you can remember. How did Amber get this, and how long did it take until the first symptoms showed?”
So Nick talked about the planned picnic and how Amber had started behaving strangely, how she had run away and caught a rabbit that had already looked dead and how her body started changing almost instantly. And he talked about his futile attempts of getting someone to check it out. Will became very serious.
“Incredible, almost instantaneous effect... But at least that tells us that for the moment you and I are safe – if we had been infected, we would most likely not be in a state to have this conversation. So the virus appears to not be transmitted by air, but by transfer of body fluids – saliva or blood most likely. That helps a little. One more thing I noticed about it is its size – it is considerably smaller than any other virus I have ever seen. How it can still create this much damage is beyond me... Well, you may not know this, but I used to work for disease control many years ago, and I still have a few friends there. I'll give them a call, and we will try to get to the bottom of this and see if we can't find a cure. They will likely want to know the location where Amber found the rabbit, so I suggest you get on the phone and cancel any appointments you may have. I'll close my office for a few days if I have to.”
So they both got on the phone (although Nick did not have any appointments to cancel, but he wanted to try and reach Margy – which failed again). After only about 15 minutes two large black vans arrived, and a few men in hazard suits rushed to the back door of Will's office. Nick felt like he was caught in a nightmare and did not talk at all while Will and the men rapidly exchanged information. They took a look at Amber and picked up her cage. Amber's whimper finally pulled Nick from his thoughts, and he yelled at the men: “Wait!”
They stopped and let Nick have a few moments for good-byes. Usually, these men were used to being nothing but cold and professional, but everyone at disease control had liked Will a lot, so they considered this case more of a personal matter and were a lot friendlier than they would usually have been, especially considering the severity of the situation. One of them finally said: “We'll take good care of her. We want to find out what this virus is and how to destroy it, and Amber is our only lead so far, so we have to take her with us. But we will treat her very well and carefully, I promise.”
Nick could only nod. His throat felt dry, and he was cold. But he understood the situation and that he had to let Amber go. He could not stop the tears when one van drove off with Amber inside, and he kept staring after it long after it had gone out of sight.
Finally someone lightly touched him on the shoulder. It was Will.
“They want you to bring them to the place with the rabbit. Can you do that?”
Again, Nick just nodded. Someone ushered him into the second van where he was sprayed down with something that smelled like disinfectant. Then he was handed a hazard suit and shown how to put it on, and then they were on their way while Will went off the other way to help research the virus.
The ride to the forest passed uneventfully except for Nick occasionally giving directions. When they arrived at the entrance, other vans had already arrived and started blocking access to the area which was easier said than done considering the size of the terrain.
One of the men (he had introduced himself as Sam, and he seemed to be closest to Will) made an inviting gesture towards the path, and Nick took the lead. Walking in this plastic suit was difficult, and soon he started sweating. The front of his helmet was not perfectly clear and sometimes reflected the light which made the walk even more trying.
When they reached the animal path, he explained that he was not absolutely certain of the location, but it would be easiest for him to find it by retracing their steps to the clearing and then go from there. Sam agreed.
While he lead the way, Nick came to realize how absurd this whole situation was. Less than 24 hours ago he had fled this place in terror, and now he was going right back and even bringing more people – like lambs to the slaughter. He shook off the thought – these people knew what they were doing, or so he hoped.
They arrived at the clearing, and Nick found the tree that he had tied Amber to, and the directions started coming to him. Whenever he got lost, one of the men would look at the ground and see something where Nick only saw forest ground, and point in a direction, and after a few steps Nick would recognize the area again.
Then they found the place. The rabbit was still there, ripped apart by Amber's angry jaws. One of the men carefully picked it up with heavy plastic gloves and slowly lowered it into a thick plastic bag. They were meticulous – they scoured the area for every single hair that might have belonged to the animal and even used some strange fluorescent lights to find traces of blood. They had shovels along that they used to collect dirt around blood drops to make certain nothing was missed and nothing was left behind.
Suddenly someone shouted something, and everyone looked up. In a tree right above them a red squirrel was slowly moving towards the end of a branch – and then let itself drop right on top of one of the men and started attacking him. The thin hazard suit offered no protection against the rodent's sharp teeth and claws, and the man screamed in surprise and pain. Then he stopped screaming and just stood there. Someone else swung a shovel at the squirrel and managed to knock it off, but it was too late. It was hard to see the man's face through the plastic visor. Nick thought, though, that he recognized the dead look on his face from Amber.
Everyone took a few steps backwards (Nick was simply pulled along when he showed no intention to move), and now the group formed a circle around the man who had been attacked. He was not moving – he just stood there – but it seemed like something was moving anyway behind the clear layer of plastic in front of his face. Finally, Sam nodded at someone next to him who in turn picked up his radio and walked away.
Nick asked nervously: “What is going on?”
Sam signed to be quiet and whispered back: “Just stay still and keep out of our way. He will be taken care of in a few minutes.”
At first, Nick didn't understand. But then he heard the sound of a helicopter approaching and looked up. There was a long rope attached to it that was holding a more than man sized container. And then it dawned on Nick. That poor man was going to be locked up and carried away, just like that. For a brief moment, he hated Sam who did not seem to care one bit about his men. The coldness with which he had given the order to get the helicopter (he had only nodded, for crying out loud, and his people even knew what he meant!) disgusted Nick more than anything. But then it occurred to him that maybe this was how it needed to be – that Sam at that moment was not able to have emotions get in the way of doing what needed to be done. After all, this could easily turn into a national emergency if it spread, and Sam was only doing his job in protecting the rest of the world. He calmed down again and watched as the big box was slowly lowered down just a few yards next to the man who still had not moved a muscle. He watched as the box was opened and the man was gently laid on a stretcher, tied and chained down and then locked into the box which was carried away almost as soon as the lock had clicked.
And immediately, everyone went back to work.
Sam turned to face Nick. “I'm sorry you had to experience that. Ours is a dangerous field, and losses always have to be taken into account. We are used to this, but we should be more sensitive to civilians like you. Now that we know the place, my men can take care of the rest. I want you to know that we are very grateful to you. How about I get you out of here now?”
Nick nodded, and after giving a few orders to his men Sam escorted him back towards the vehicles. He opened the back of one of the vans and made an inviting gesture towards the bench there. Nick was too tired to think, so he got in and sat down and was completely unprepared when the door suddenly slammed shut behind him. And he felt even too tired to care. A few moments later, the car shook lightly as Sam got into the driver's seat and closed the door. Then Nick heard Sam's voice through some hidden speaker: “Again, let me apologize for this. We are doing this for your safety and that of the entire town. I promise we will not keep you longer than it takes us to make certain that you are not a carrier of this infection. And you will see your uncle where we are going.”
Then they drove off.
At this very moment, because of the drought and only a few miles behind them, millions of gallons of water were being pulled from the reservoirs and added to the town's tap water system.

When Jonathan arrived back at his apartment, it was getting close to morning. He unpacked his bags and fired up his computer to check his emails. Ah, here was one from his employer. The usual – congratulations on the great catch, requests (some hinted, some open) for information on how he alone managed to take these pictures when no one else had got even close, and an attached copy of the article that was written for his picture, called “Wet Dreams With Denise”. He chuckled at the obvious change in his title suggestion (“Wet Dreams For Denise”), then he turned off his computer and decided to call it a night and go to sleep.
Shortly after sundown, Jonathan stepped out of his apartment building and into the early evening air. After walking a few blocks he suddenly stopped. Something didn't feel right... Immediately his eyes wandered around searching – and found what they were looking for. On a wall full of graffiti there was something new that had not been there last night. It was a red symbol that looked like a tear drop – or a drop of blood. And he knew his instincts had been correct. The drop meant that an emergency meeting had been called that all vampires would have to attend. He sighed, turned around to face the direction of the theater, but then decided to take a small detour first. If every vampire was going to convene in that area, then hunting for food over there would surely be a waste of time.
In a dark alley he found a young man who had just parked his car and was locking it. Jonathan concentrated for a second, and the man suddenly dropped his keyring. He muttered to himself as he bent down to pick it up, but before he was able to straighten up again, Jonathan was already over him and satisfied his immediate hunger in the cover of the car. It was not what he had had in mind for tonight, but it would have to do for a quick snack. By the time the man woke up, Jonathan had already reached the theater.
It was crowded as usual, but definitely noisier. Speculations about the reason for this summon were whispered or shouted across the room, and a few especially daring vampires (mostly youngsters, still green and stupid) even questioned the local leadership and started boasting about how they would run the place if given half a chance.
Jonathan ignored them and instead focused his attention to the stage where a few of the oldest vampires of the city were discussing something quietly but with a lot of heavy gestures. He made a mental note to some day invest a short moment of his immortal life to learn lip reading for the future.
Then the oldest finally lowered his head. The vampire leader by the name of Jacques LeMont (Jonathan was well aware of the similarity to the French le monde meaning the world – he sure was power hungry and ambitious...) nodded at his right hand man, an imposing figure only known as the Executioner who then left the stage. LeMont took a step forward and raised his hands. It took longer than usual, but finally the crowd quieted down. Then he spoke with all the drama he could muster, but Jonathan also sensed a seriousness and urgency that he had never noticed before.
“Let me cut right to the chase. You have been summoned because an emergency situation has arisen. The entire blood supply of Boston and the surrounding area may be affected by this, and we may be forced to evacuate the city.”
He paused for effect and to allow the crowd to react. Then he took a step backwards and pointed his hand back stage where a long heavy bag was dragged out from behind the curtain and towards the front of the stage by the Executioner. All eyes focused on the bag. Jonathan sighed and wished that LeMont would just once give up wasting time with his need for drama. Finally, the bag was opened, and a gray and tattered body of a man rolled out in two pieces, head first, body second. Jonathan flinched – it was a zombie! The rest of the audience also reacted appropriately.
LeMont finally raised his hands again and continued.
“Yes, it is a zombie, and not the only one. Within the last 6 hours there have been hundreds of sightings scattered all through town. We do not know yet how they are spreading so quickly and how they manage to infect humans from afar. None of these zombies show any signs of ever being bitten. So we must assume that they found another way to reproduce. Our intelligence suggests that whatever they are doing may take only a few hours or less for the full effect, and we cannot risk having one of us affected by this. So we have decided to evacuate the city until we have more information.”
Now the crowd became truly restless. Various youngsters jumped on their feet and shouted angrily things like “Let's fight!” or “We can kill them all!”, and LeMont let them continue for a while before he called for order again.
“I understand your concern – we should indeed wipe them out and remove them from our city. And we will, you have my word. But the risk is too great – what if one of you fed on a human who just recently was infected? We do not know what will happen, and I cannot accept the possible consequences. A few chosen will stay behind and find out what causes this rapid spread of the virus. The less stay, the less blood will be needed, and these few can live on blood packs for a while. Once we found the source, we will call you back, and you shall have your fight. But until then you are all ordered to leave town. The infection so far seems to only affect Boston and its suburbs, so go beyond the reach of the city. Anyone found in this city after midnight today (except for the few we have chosen) will be severely punished and possibly executed. Again: We cannot risk one of us to be infected. That is all. Go!”
And with that last word, spoken softly but with the pressure of an irrefusable command, LeMont and his closest guards turned around and left the stage while other elders did their best to force the unrestful crowd out of the building.
Jonathan had lagged behind for a bit to gather his thoughts and was finally approaching the wide double doors of the auditorium when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Jonathan Smythe?” It was one of LeMont's guards.
“Yes?”
“Please come with me.”
“Sure.”
A little nervous but not showing it, Jonathan followed the other vampire through the side and back of the theater until they arrived backstage where a few others were gathered. LeMont sat on a throne – a theater prop, but nonetheless a throne. That old show-off...
Suddenly he waved his hand which caused the guards to withdraw, and then he spoke.
“Ah”, he said, “I see we are complete.”
He slowly got up and walked towards the group of maybe a dozen vampires like a general examining if his soldiers had put on their uniforms properly.
“You have been chosen to stay behind and help us elders in finding the source for this outbreak and possibly a cure or at least a way to remove the threat. Even though some of you are but mere whelps...” He actually sniffed disapprovingly! That arrogant bastard! “... each of you is known to possess great skills that will no doubt provide useful. You will do this for the survival of our kind in this town. Please go into the next room and wait, and we will call you one by one to give you your assignments. You will not talk to anyone else about what we will tell you, not even to others within this group. That is all.”
Then he turned around and sat back down on the throne.
Jonathan caught himself just in time to stop his hands from forming fists. He knew better so he mustered every bit of self control he had and forced himself to calm down.
They all left and waited patiently to be called, and one by one the room slowly emptied. One youngster who looked like a rebel from the 60's was called, and after a while a sudden loud scream came from backstage and ended abruptly. The remaining vampires looked at each other nervously but waited obediently. It was not as if they had had a choice.
Finally it was Jonathan's turn, and he dreaded it.
LeMont was not even looking at him when he entered, but still sensed him approaching.
“Ah, Jonathan. It is your skill as a photographer that has drawn our attention, specifically your ability to make it past watchful eyes and through locked doors undetected.”
He finally turned his head to face him. His snobbish smile was nearly more than Jonathan could bear, but he kept patient and decided to just listen. For now.
“It has come to our attention that a center for disease control has come across animals and one human that were infected. As you hopefully know, zombies tend to be fairly brainless unless controlled by some higher force which we believe to be involved in our case. Imagine our surprise when we learned that this one dog has been partially successful in fighting this control bond and has managed to retain most of its original character and memories. We need you to infiltrate their facility and find out as much as possible. Record everything, no matter how insignificant it may seem. What we need to learn the most is why this dog is not affected like all other infectees that we have ever encountered, and whatever else you can find out about the source and cause of the infection and any possible cures. We will of course perform our own tests in the meantime. Thankfully, a … willing subject was found. It will be quite interesting to see what the infected blood will do to him. I should also let you know that should you fail in your mission, there will be two test subjects. Please take the envelope with your name from that table over there. Study it and then destroy it. Also be sure to pickup some blood packs on your way out. Do not feed on humans until we declare it safe again. That is all.”
So that was the scream he had heard earlier. Willing subject – yea, right... He wondered briefly why this poor guy had been “volunteered”, but he knew perfectly well that it didn't take a reason for LeMont to give a power demonstration.
LeMont had already lost interest in him, so Jonathan did as he was told and left with a large envelope and some blood reserves. Canned blood never tasted the same as the fresh stuff, but it would keep him alive long enough.
Huh, great – a zombie infestation, and they were not even allowed to fight. It was enough to just about ruin your night...

...continued on page 4.

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