The
Zombie
Chronicles

Home
About
Blog
Buy
Contact
Donate
Timeline

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 06

Dear Kaylee,

I have a few things to explain to you and hope you will not be too angry with me by the time you are finished reading this. When my parents died I inherited all of their property and assets as well as their debts. My parents did not seem to me to live a wealthy lifestyle, but when the Lawyer from Turner and Associates showed up he informed me that they had left quite a lot of money to me in the form of investments. My grandfather's untimely passing away also added considerably to my parent's estate. Then there was the lawsuit against the estate of the man who veered into my parents lane the night they died. Overall I had quite a tidy sum of money in investments and stocks to work with before Z-day. My biggest regret was not informing you from the start that I had wealth, of a sort. You know that everyone lost all of the money they had invested in the stock market on Z-day, however I had made other, more local investments that I could still claim before Z-day happened. Most of what I retained was in the form of real estate. I bought parts of several small business, most of whom went belly up since the crash, but I know as of the time of this writing of one that is doing very well.

My lawyer has the details of my property and what I have left you. I wrote this letter to explain why we have not been living the high life since we moved in together. My parents lived simply, my whole family did and I agree with that philosophy, before you came along some things happened in my life that I am not too proud of. I ran with a crowd a little bit wilder. I made some poor friends and poorer decisions, why not? I thought, I had lost everything, so why not live a little? The only one I was hurting was myself, the coolest fashions, the best clubs, nothing was actually worth anything to me. It was not me and it is not what my parents would have wanted. Mostly I had myself pulled together before the crash and when the rationing came about I did what felt right. I made a decision to live as a K-1; as you know the rationing classification is something I disagree with on the strongest possible terms, it is a way to segregate society once again, after we had come so far I regard that as a giant step backwards for our 'free' society. We have never gone without and while I have tried to live as I told myself I would, I have dipped into the money from time to time to make our lives at least a easier. Now that I think about our past I realize I should tell you everything and get it off my chest, not in a letter. Did I find the courage to do so before you got this letter? I know you are a good person and I am afraid to mess up what we have with wealth. That is a poor excuse. I guess I will never be able to explain why I kept this secret from you and can only beg that you will forgive me for it.

Do what you want with what I have left you, I am not giving you any death bed instructions. I know you well enough now to know that you will do fine.

Kaylee, I love you, like a sister, like a roommate, like a childhood friend. Please don't be sad over my passing I firmly believe I am in a better place, a place without monsters running around, a place where I shall wait for you when you arrive. We shall meet again.

Stacey

Kaylee put the letter down and sobbed. The nurse found her later still crying and tried to console her, eventually Kaylee drifted off to a restless sleep where she dreamed of a smiling Stacey telling her everything was going to be okay. Her dreams were inter spaced with nightmares of the events of New Year's eve and she woke the next day exhausted mentally and physically.

The nurse in the morning was the same one who had been caring for her the last three weeks. She got Kaylee up in the morning for another bland breakfast and another shower, which would probably be the start of a daily routine. Kaylee was more than ready to go, she walked not only to the bathroom, but to the shower and back again. True she was not quite steady enough to wash herself, however the show of strength prompted Wendy to put in for a luncheon sandwich, something more solid than anything Kaylee had yet had so far. Detective Nelson came for a visit in the afternoon and he remarked that Kaylee was looking much better after a few days in the hospital. After a short while they started to speak about the case and what progress he was making.

“So far, we don't have much evidence on who did this. No one actually saw the attacker except you. I have questioned everyone who found you, and I have been haunting the local bars at night to chat with anyone who was there that evening, but no one saw anything, or they are not telling me if they did.”

Kaylee raised an eyebrow, “Why wouldn't they tell you?”

“Well, Kaylee, you said it was a man, right? You know how things are these days, more men at the front, a lot of women stuck back here. Marriage is practically a thing of the past and men, well things have changed for us, we have become a valuable commodity again.”, he grimaced a little, shrugged his shoulders and continued, “Well those men who haven't been crippled or made useless in some respect. What I am trying to say is that things are tending to be overlooked if a man did it. I'm not saying that is the case here, murder is murder and I don't think anyone would cover up for a murderer they barely know.” He shrugged again.

“Well, what then?”

“Well, they might not consciously do it, but they might tend to forget they saw something, giving whomever it was the benefit of the doubt. I don't know that is just a theory. I checked all the hospital records and could not find any indication that someone had been admitted with a knife wound to the arm on New Year's day. We had five shootings that night, seventeen stabbings, a bunch of fights with chairs and bottles, however as you must know, most of the wounded were women. One guy came in and said he had been raped, by another man no less. We had to follow up on that one. Of the guy who did this to you? Nothing. So far. I will keep looking, this is my assigned case and I will make progress on it. Have you remembered anything else about that night?”

“Not really, I have had a few flashback, something I don't know if I am dreaming or not or what was real, you know?”

The detective, gave her a long look, like he was staring right through her head, after a minute his brown eyes closed and ran his hand over his face and then said quietly, “Yeah, yes, I think I do know. Well, tell me anyway, it can't hurt and will give me more to work with. Sometimes the mind has a funny way of jarring things loose in half sleep or while you are day dreaming, it might be helpful.”

“Yes, it can't hurt. I keep seeing this face, long, thin, clean shaven with large white teeth. He was laughing and kind of turned towards me a bit when he lifted Stacey up. He was shaking her like a dog shakes a towel or a rope. He was laughing too, laughing while he killed her, laughing while she stabbed him.”

“She stabbed him more than once? In the arm? And he didn't drop her?”

“Yeah, I know, I know, it doesn't make any sense does it?”

“It could, if what you saw was real and not your mind taking things a bit out of context. It could have been a zombie.”

“Here? Do you think so?”, Kaylee whispered, “What was she eaten on? Did she turn? Did Stacey turn into one of them?”

“No! NO.”, Brian said firmly, “That is not what I said, Stacey was whole, when she was found, broken, but not mauled or drained of blood. She had bled a lot, yes, that is something I will check into. Plus if she stabbed him there should be some evidence of his blood at the scene too. He could have been in the guard and went back to his unit for medical treatment. I threw this out there based on what you described, I am NOT saying the attacker was a zombie and we had better never mention that outside this room, that would bring hysteria which would not help at all.”

“Okay, I got it. I won't say anything. What will you do now?”

“I plan on following up with forensics, see if they pulled any other blood out of that alley that was not yours or Stacey's, then I will check with the guard units and see if any of their men, or tall women, came back with arm injuries on or after New Year's day.”, Brian got to his feet and gathered up his jacket to go.

“You will keep me informed of what happens right? I won't be on the outside having to read the paper to find out will I?”, asked Kaylee pleadingly.

“No, I will keep you in the loop, you are my prime witness and I will keep you up to date with how things go. Please don't expect much Kaylee, even if it is a guardsman and I can track him down, the odds are he will either be dead or I won't be able to pull him off the line for a civilian criminal trial. You need to rest and get better, so you can get out of this place, okay? I have your home address and would love to come interview you there next week instead of here in the hospital. I will come by every other day or so until you leave, so lets plan on three more visits here, okay?”

“Okay Detective. Okay, I like the people here, but just the same I would not mind going home either.”

“Alright then, goodbye Kaylee.”

“Goodbye Detective Nelson.”

As he left the room he paused and said, “Kaylee, you can call me Brian. Bye now.” With that said he disappeared.

previous... ..home.. next...