Southern Zombies Three Book Box Set: A Story of Survival, Southern Hospitality, and Southern Blood (17 page)

“So, to be clear. They get people infected with toxoplasmosis, inject the flu shot and see if they turn into zombies?” I ask.

He nods.

“How the hell does that help? They turn more people. Right? If it doesn’t work, more people are turned? What happens when we run out of people? Are they insane?” I scream.

“Well, there goes my nice mood I had going on.” I tell Marc.

“You weren’t being nice.” He says.

“Work with me a little here, please.” I say.

“What do y’all do with the people who are turned from the experiments?” I ask.

“We burn them in the crematorium built into the lower levels.” Chaser two says.

“Well, isn’t this some shit?” I say to Marc.

He nods.

“When do y’all go out again to get more people?” I ask.

“A few hours.” Chaser says.

“When y’all go back in that building, we are going too.” I tell them both.

“And if either of you so much as make one little peep that we are in with you, I will personally cut off every ball I see in sight and hand them to the owners.” I say.

Marc freezes at my statement. I guess he felt the pain for them. Well, they will be feeling if they get us caught.

Marc and I load up on guns. I opt for the 30 06 and my 44 right now. I attach a machete and a knife to my belt and we get in the truck with Frick and Frack.

“Remember, act natural. I will cut them off and won’t blink an eye.” I say.

“I’m going to kill you bitch.” Chaser says.

At this point, does it matter if I call them one or two? They are both idiots and are more than likely about to get killed for crossing Marc and me. I know this because two keeps eyeing me like he wants to pounce. Did they miss the ball removal memo? Maybe.

“Well, knock yourself out.” I tell him. “Just remember to guard your balls, dumb ass.”

“You know when we get someone and head back to that facility, these two ass wipes are going to try to take us out?” I ask Marc.

“Hell yeah. They are eyeing us like it’s lunch time at a Jenny Craig resort.” Marc says.

“Hey, I’m chunky, you smart ass.” I tell Marc.

He shrugs.

Smart ass nephews.

“You got your knife close?” Marc asks.

“Yeah, ready for the ball cutting.” I say.

Marc shivers.

I think it’s funny. Maybe he will stop being a smart ass to me now.

The chasers load up a man that was walking along the roadside. They hit him on the head and throw him in back with Marc and I. We get back to the facility and get to the check gates and I look over at chaser two, act like I’m grabbing my crotch and making a slicing motion with the knife. He goes green.

“Don’t make me cut yours off.” I tell him.

Marc and I duck down in the back. The van pulls through the gates and enters into an underground parking area. The chasers get the man out and Marc and I get out and look at each other.

“Are you ready?” he asks.

“Hell no. I’m not fond of being underground like this. It makes me feels like we are trapped.” I tell Marc.

He nods.

We follow the chasers down the slope leading to the elevators. When we get inside, one of them show us the floor plans on the elevator wall.

“When we get down, y’all should walk out of the elevator and go right. This will lead to some patient rooms.” Chaser says.

“Why? So y’all can go and tell we are in here? So they will shoot us? So will have to track you down and cut your balls out?” I ask him.

He ignores me.

“What are we going to find in those rooms?” I ask him.

“People who are waiting to be treated with the flu shot. They are already infected with toxoplasmosis.” He says.

“We aren’t going in there.” Both say together.

“Toxoplasmosis parasites aren’t airborne, you twit. If it was, there would be no one who doesn’t have it by now. It’s passed through tainted foods, cat feces, direct contact. As long as you don’t come in contact with someone who has it, you can be in the same room and not catch it.” I tell the two twits.

Maybe I should start calling them twits one and two now since they are apparently lacking in knowledge due to the under use of reading materials.

The elevator stops.

“This it?” I ask the twits.

They nod.

“Just remember, if y’all are lying, I swear when I find y’all, I will make each one of you watch while I cut the other’s balls off. Don’t play with me.” I tell them.

Again, they turn green and I hear Marc suck in a deep breath.

They both nod and turn to leave.

“So, where to?” Marc asks.

“Right. I want to look around. Do me a favor, don’t touch anyone. Just to be on the safe side.” I tell Marc.

He nods.

We walk to the right and soon come upon some rooms with the doors closed. Marc and I look at each other and keep walking, trying to find an open door. I’d rather not open any closed ones. You never know what’s behind them.

Finally, we see an open door and look in to see what’s in the room. It looks empty, but again, that don’t mean shit.

Marc goes in first. Then he waves me in. Empty.

“What now?” I ask Marc.

“We sit here for a few minutes to see if there is anyone moving around the hallway. If not, we start looking into the rooms.” Marc says.

I nod.

We sit and wait for about thirty minutes. Not one person anywhere in sight. Then I hear muffled talking. It sounds like it’s in one of the rooms we passed. I nudge Marc to see if he hears it. He nods that he does.

It’s amazing how a zombie apocalypse will teach you to read people’s hand signals, facial expressions, gestures and stuff. You learn to communicate without words.

If you want to live, you have to. Zombies love noise. And the less noise you make, the fewer zombies you have to deal with.

We leave the room and walk back down the hall toward the way we came in. As we walk, the talking gets a little louder. Marc looks at me and nods his head in the direction of the door to the left of us. I nod.

I walk up to the right side of the door and Marc stands to the left side, gun aimed at the door. I slowly put my hand on the knob and turn. It's unlocked. I nod at Marc and continue to turn the knob. The door clicks open. Marc still has a bead on the door. I pull my body back around the door facing and use only my arm to push it open.

Marc gets a little closer to the doorway and nods behind himself for me to watch his back.

See how that silent communication is working? Pretty good I would say.

I turn my back slightly toward Marc’s back so I can see behind and to the sides of us while he watches in front. We enter the room and see two beds. It’s dimly lit, but we can see pretty well.

Marc walks over by the beds. There is no one in either of them. We hear a sniffle from the far corner of the room off to the left.

“Come out. We aren’t going to hurt you.” I say softly.

Marc and I stand there waiting. Soon, we see a head slowly rise from behind a table. It’s a young girl she looks to be around twenty but it’s hard to tell as we can clearly see she has the toxoplasmosis parasite. Her eyes are cloudy and she is having difficulty with hand coordination. And I can tell she has fever by the sweat she is producing.

“What's your name?” I ask her.

“Lori.” She says.

“Lori, I am Tracie and this is Marc. He’s my nephew. We’re trying to find out what's going on in this place.” I tell her.

“They said they are going to make us feel better again. They are going to cure everyone. But I don’t feel better since I was forced here. I feel worse.” Lori says.

Damn, they already gave her the flu shot and are waiting for her to become a walker.

“What have they done to you Lori?” I ask.

“They gave me a shot and said it would make me well again.” She answers.

I can tell she is having trouble seeing now. It’s only a matter of time before she turns.

“I’m sorry Lori. That you have to endure this.” I tell her.

“My whole family is dead now. I have no one left.” She says.

I look at Marc and shake my head. I can see the anger rush into his face.

“Lori, lie back on your bed and rest. We will leave you alone now so you can sleep.” I tell her.

She walks back to her bed and sits on the edge.

“They have a lot of people here. Some of them don’t look sick, but most of them look they are going to die any minute. They don’t come into our room, they lock the doors at night so we can’t get out and just leave food outside the door. I’m tired of being sick.” Lori says.

I am trying to keep the tears from falling now. It’s hard to see shit like this going on and not be able to help in any way. But there is nothing we can do for her now. I want to find the bastards doing this.

“Try to rest now Lori.” I tell her.

She nods and lies down.

Marc and I exit the room and I wipe my eyes.

“This is fucked up. I’m going to kill those fuckers when I find them.” Marc says.

“I’m right there with you on that.” I tell him.

We head back in the same direction. We assume our previous positions for a room check. I push the door open and Marc aims.

As soon as I push the door open, the stench from hell assaults our olfactory senses and I almost gag. Now, I have a strong stomach. So does Marc as he hunts and cleans his kills, but this, holy hell on a bicycle. This is walker smell, dead body smell, excrement and rotten gut smell all rolled into one.

Then a walker grabs my hand from around the door. I already have my ka bar in my hand so I stab it right between the eyes.

“Holy fuck.” Marc says.

“Son of a bitch this stinks like hell. We look into the room and see why. There are two bodies in beds. Dead. It looks like they have been dead for a while because the skin has darkened and there are maggots falling out of the ears. So mix that smell, a walker, the toxoplasmosis parasite, maggots and excrement, and you get the fruity floral smell of “Nasty as Hell”. Wonder if I can market that to keep pesky neighbors away that you don’t like? Just add a little to your door steps to ward off any aggravating neighbor.

Now, a new dilemma.

“Why did those two not run?” I ask Marc.

“They didn’t have toxo or they didn’t get the flu shot.” Marc says.

“Let’s look.” I tell him.

“Fuck Tracie. You want to go in there with that smell?” Marc asks.

“Shut up whining and bring your ass.” I tell him.

‘Stinking ass mess. If I puke on you don’t say shit.” Marc says.

“Whatever. I want to see if they have signs of Toxo parasites. If they don’t, then what killed them?” I ask Marc.

“Good point and all, but fucking hell, this smell is debilitating.” Marc says.

I burst out laughing.

“What?” Marc asks.

“Well, you are a big hunter, tracker, field dresser and all and this smell has you about to throw in your chips. I’m telling Trey when we get home so he can talk about your ass.” I tell him.

“Don’t tell that boy his daddy has a weak stomach. I’m supposed to be strong and indestructible to him. And I will never hear the end of it.” Marc says.

“Get your ass in here.” I say to Marc.

We walk over to the bed. There is really no way I can see if they had Toxo. The eye will be cloudy due to death. Why weren’t they taken out? They apparently died before the zombie I just killed turn or these bodies would have been eaten. So why leave them in?

“This makes no sense.” I say.

Marc nods.

He apparently has trouble speaking with the smell in the area.

Marc and I look around the room and try to come up with a valid explanation as to why the bodies were left. We have none. The room is empty except for a few food items and water bottles. Nothing belonging to either of the people is in the room. Why does it have to be so hard to find answers?

“Come on. Let’s check the other rooms.” Marc says.

We walk down the hall and enter the next room. One dead body on the bed.

Looking closer, I can see it received a shot to the head. So was this one turning?

“Shot in the head.” I tell Marc.

He nods.

“Where are all the people that supposedly work here?” I ask.

“No idea.” Marc says.

We turn to leave out of the room and run right onto a gun in our face.

Son of a bitch, I think to myself.

“Well, what have we here?” A man asks.