The
Zombie
Chronicles

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Finished works:
   Billions
    ---
   Outbreak
    ---
   Undead
     Advantage
    ---
   Found
    ---
   About a Woman
    ---
   Short Stories

Works in Progress:
   TZC2: Discovery

Works on hold:
   Zombie Nation
    ---
   Zombieboy

Found

Chapter 05

Kaylee opened her eyes to a well lit hospital room, it seemed like it was morning, she couldn't be sure until the nurse brought in a hospital tray of food and said, “Ready for some real food this morning? I had the kitchen send up some solids for you, even some almost real coffee!”

Her stomach growling loudly Kaylee answered, “I am so hungry! How long have I been here anyway?”

The nurse fussed about with getting her tray on the special table and bringing it up to Kaylee's bed, she answered tentatively, “You were injured pretty badly, you had some swelling of your brain, which then turned into an infection, antibotics are still in short supply, the ones we can make now were not so effective against your infection. Your lung caused us some concern in the beginning too, we wondered if it was lost. You were in a coma at the start and after that, with the infection, the doctor thought it was best to keep you in a medical coma for as long as possible until we could get you stable. It has been almost three weeks since you were brought here. Here is Lutheran Medical Center, by the way.”

Kaylee paused reaching for the fork, thinking 'three weeks!', she sputtered, “Three weeks? Its almost February?”

“Yes it is Saturday January 22nd. You okay?”

“Yeah it is a bit of a shock, I thought it hadn't been that long, I only remember waking up a couple of times, neither for very long. So I haven't has solid food for three weeks? I'm not going to get sick eating this, am I?”

In answer the nurse pulled the cover off the tray of food, eliciting a laugh from Kaylee, the food appeared to be corn mush, a thin, probably corn based, 'oatmeal', a hot cup of coffee substitute and a very, laughably small glass of orange juice.

The nurse laughing said, “You think we would let you eat something and get sick right away? No way dear, you are my special project and I want to see you walk out of here under your own power. Speaking of walking, once you finish this feast we are going to try and take a short walk to the toilet and bath. You think you would be up for that?”

Nodding Kaylee replied, “Yes. Yes, I could try walking.” She poked cautiously at the corn mush, then tried it. In mere moments it was gone and she was wondering where it had went. The oatmeal seemed to have actual oats in it and the coffee tasted pretty good too, so much so that she asked, “Is this really coffee? It tastes really close.”

“Ah our own special hospital blend, one of the scavenger trucks we funded actually paid off big time, in drugs, equipment and with a whole pallet of coffee. We mix it 20/80 coffee/roast dandelion root, the supply should last us until the end of the summer at this rate, everyone is raving about it though. Notice no dairy? Not until you keep more down. This afternoon, if you walk down the hall and take a bath for me, I will swipe you a piece of bread with your soup and maybe some corn margarine with a tad of cream. Dinner is yet to be determined. Lets see how we do with this and lunch, okay?”

Nodding Kaylee noticed that the oatmeal had disappeared, so had the juice. And she was still starving. Kaylee gave the nurse her best puppy dog face, to which the nurse laughed and shook her said, “No. No more for now. I will take this away, and we will get you up and to a shower.”

“Right now?”

Nodding again, the nurse said, “No time like the present. Be back in a bit luv.”

Good to her word, the nurse returned and with much effort and moving of tubes she helped Kaylee to her feet. Three steps later and Kaylee was sure she was going to fall down. The nurse steadied her and when they got out of the room Kaylee saw a wheel chair in the hallway, she paused to rest and the nurse encouraged her to head down about 3 doors to the bathing room. Kaylee almost made it, about five feet short she was standing for quite awhile, then started to sway, then the nurse was guiding her into the wheelchair, saying, “Pretty good, pretty dang good, I won the pool, the others bet anywhere from your door to door two, you made it past door two. I win. You did good.”

Getting Kaylee into the bath was another exercise in fatigue, another nurse had to come in and help, which made Kaylee all the more uncomfortable, being nude in front of one person she didn't know was bad enough, now with two she was very embarrassed and blushed heavily. Seeing her body so weak and scrawny just made things worse, until one of the nurses said, “Hon, you have just been through what could arguable be called the worst thing that ever happened to you, we've done this a thousand times and we are here to take care of you.” Then she just helped out as much as she could and let them do their jobs. Finally after a long time she was safely back in her bed, watching the local news and drifting off to sleep.

Around noon she was woken from a light sleep by a lunch tray, chicken soup with a slice of bread, a cup of tea and another small glass of juice. That afternoon she was visited by a man who introduced himself as Jay Smith from Turner and Associates, he said he had to speak with Kaylee about Stacey's estate.

Kaylee laughed at that, “Estate? We didn't have anything, I will be lucky to keep the apartment we were both K-3s”

K-3, a designation of unemployed worker, the last to receive medical benefits, the lowest on the food/electricity ration chain. The New Authority had been pressed to come up with rationing cards to divvy up the available food and other resources as fairly as possible. The government used a letter system to get ration cards to people based on what they did and how important it was for the overall survival of...well everything. Each letter had three grades rated 1 through 3, with 1 being the best number and A being the best letter, anything down the scale from there received less in the way of resources. The governors were all rated “A-1”, military leaders were in the “A”s as well, troops varied from B's to C's depending on their roles in the military. Refugees, on the other hand were almost always rated “K-3”, there was an “L” level, who rated that low Kaylee didn't know. She and Stacey had been “K-3” for a year since the rating system had come out. K-3 meant finding work was hard, nothing made you feel more worthless than the damnable rating system telling you exactly how worthless you were.

The lawyer, Mister Smith, cleared his throat, “Mmm? Look, Miss Simmers, I don't know what Stacey told you, but she was not K-3, I think the rating system is worthless, in my opinion it should be scrapped, nonetheless Miss Olson was a property owner and...”

“Property? Her parents house? She never mentioned anything about that.”

“Yes, well, I see, but no, not her parents house, I handled their estate as well and all the assets from that were liquidated and went to to Stacey. I have been acting as Stacey's attorney since that time, she drew up her will and, you, well you are her sole beneficiary, she changed her will recently and you are included in it. I will have a formal list of assets to discuss with you, I will schedule this for another time, however, I felt compelled to come down here and speak with you. I have looked after Stacey for a number of years and she is, was, a very good person. I wanted to know, well, first I wanted you to know you are going to inherit some of her wealth and that portion is not insubstantial, it will include the property and a stipend. She also left a letter that I was to give to you as soon as possible, which I regard as now.”, the lawyer handed over a sealed letter, which Kaylee accepted and sat on her food tray for later reading.

“Miss Simmers, I..”, his voice faltered, “I need to ask you, the police won't tell me anything, I need to, is there anything you feel comfortable with telling me about what happened?”

Kaylee thought about it, she saw the pained look on Jay's face and that he was concerned as more than just her lawyer, he was sad and nothing she could tell him would ease his mind, telling him nothing would only leave him more upset. Kaylee decided to tell him everything, it would hurt, however he felt he needed to know. By the time she was finished she was crying again and he was apologizing over and over for making her relive what she had gone through. She pulled herself together again and said, “No, you needed to know and I don't know what your relationship was with Stacey, but I think I did the right thing by telling you what I know. The police know everything and they didn't tell me not to tell anyone, for some reason I don't think you are going to be blabbing it to anyone.”

“Were you, were you close to her?”

Kaylee blushed a bit, shook her head 'no' and said, “Nothing like that, we were just friends, she joked around about...things, we were more like sisters.”

Jay Smith was soon ushered out and Kaylee was left with the letter from her dead friend, she pondered it a moment, then tucked it into the drawer beneath the tray and lay back on her bed thinking. With a start she awoke when a new nurse brought in her food on a tray. Tomato soup with corn crackers, a pickle and some sort of green jello for dessert. Coffee and juice rounded out the meal. She wolfed the food down and then remembered the letter. After the nurse took her tray away she pulled the letter out and opened it.

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