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 24

Brian snapped awake in the darkness. He went from complete unconsciousness to complete awareness instantly, he normally awoke quickly, but was aware enough to know that this was unusual. Did I turn? Is this what happens when you turn? he flailed about for a moment then felt the IV in his arm and heard the quiet humming of machinery around him. His right arm, which had the IV in it, was bound down to the solid bed which he lay upon. He ceased struggling and lay still for a moment, letting his senses adjust. The darkness was dimly broken by a small rectangle about twelve feet beyond his feet, it looked like there was a night light or something beyond the window and it was casting a small amount of illumination into the room. He waited longer until he could pick out more details, as he did so he felt the manacles on his feet and the chest restraint clapped around his upper torso. His left arm was free, but he didn't think he was going anywhere soon.

Nervously he glanced around the room, the IV tube in his arm hung unusually high and off the table from his body, he could reach the needle with his left arm, but not the plastic IV bottle that the tube came from. What machinery he could make out lacked the power indicating lights of normal hospital equipment. Setting his left hand down he felt around the bed, trying to locate a nurse calling button, after a few seconds he found a cord and pulling on it he felt the small round switch, which had a button on the top of it. He pressed the button firmly. Above the small glass window a white light went on, it was dim, perhaps twenty watts, but Brian's eyes could make out his surroundings much better with it on. Not that there was much more to see, a clip board hung on the wall near the door, a bio-hazard, covered trash can was sitting to the right side of the doorway.

The window in the door darked as a figure peered in. Brian waved with his left hand, indicating he was awake. The figured held up one large yellow finger, indicating Brian needed to wait a minute. About four minutes later two figured entered the room, one held back near the doorway and held a shotgun, which was pointed in Brian's general direction. The other approached him, Brian could see a smile on the older gentleman's face.

“Brian, I am doctor Steven Hodge.”, he held his hand out to shake Brian's left hand. Glancing over his shoulder he said, “He is a requirement by law, please don't take offense, anyone exposed to the virus has to be cleared, until then we take extreme security measures for the protection of our staff, other patients and humanity in general.”

“That's okay, I have been through this sort of thing before.”

The doctor's eyebrow raised questionably, “Really? I knew you were discharged from the Army, but there was nothing there about a run in with a super zombie? Leg injuries right?”

“Yeah, but that one got away, I still had to go through decontamination. Is it still five days?”

“Well...usually yes, but you were pretty beat up, you might be here awhile longer.”

Suddenly Brian remembered, remembered his injuries, his cut and bruised face, the pains in his rib, his torn up leg. And he remembered without a doubt that his left wrist was broken. With wonder he looked at his left arm, no cast, no pain, he flexed his fingers, nothing. Looking at the doctor he asked, “What happened?”

“Yes, well, as I said, you WERE pretty beat up when you arrived. You've been here about thirty six hours and unconscious almost the entire time. I was privileged enough to be here and awake to watch you almost the entire time. Do you want a list of what was wrong with you or what is still wrong with you?”

“Both, I guess.”, Brian replied.

Smiling doctor Hodge said, “Good, good. First thing is first, you don't appear to be infected in any way we can tell. Your blood is clean, we even injected the serum into swine and live blood cultures and nothing happened, the sample subjects and cultures are not contaminated. You came in covered in what laymen call 'super zombie' blood with open wounds of your own, making an infection likely, we when proved to ourselves you were not infected or a carrier we thought that was one hurdle overcome. X-rays showed two broken ribs, your left arm was broken halfway below your elbow, your left leg was fractured beneath the knee and your knee looked like it would need surgery again as well, but that was for a later date to determine, we had to keep you alive in the short term. You had a concussion on your forehead, in addition to a long scar and one of your ribs had punctured your lung, giving you a tension pneumothorax, a collapsed lung. This was bad, this was life threatening. You had surgery, thankfully we didn't have to open your chest cavity, this facility may not look like much, but we did manage to get the latest surgical equipment from Kansas City, so a thorocascopy was available. After your most serious injury was taken care of we set your broken bones and bound your chest and waited. But you didn't wake up.”

“At first we thought your head injury might be more serious than the tests indicated. We checked, but nothing was noticeable. By nothing I mean NOTHING. Your concussion, which is, by definition a minute skull fracture, was gone. Pulling off your bandages your skin was unblemished, not even a scar. This was after twelve hours. We took x-rays of your other injuries, then took more, until we decided to snap one shot an hour to monitor your progress. Your body temperature went up, your metabolism seemed to be on overdrive, you sweated out more liquid than we could replace, but you seemed to recover completely about six hours ago when you lapsed into what we consider a 'normal' sleep. I used that opportunity to catch a few hours of sleep myself, keeping a staff member assigned to you to wake me when you awoke. Now here we are. As far as I can tell you are going to be fine, I think you will probably be very hungry the next few days, that's it.”

“That's it? Am I back to normal?”

“We don't know, I half wanted to do some tests on you when you were out, but refrained from it, now that you are awake I can ask and perhaps we can figure out what has happened to you and if any of it is permanent. Right now, I may be the foremost expert on zombie human infection. I have experience dealing with others who have killed super zombies before, I cannot claim to know everything, but I know more than most.”

“Where are the other people you dealt with? What happened to them?”

“Brian some things have survived 'Z-day', patient privilege is one of them, so I can only speak in generalities. Most of my patients have been from the military, most have gone on to serve our country well after displaying a core set of abilities I have every reason to think the people who kill any super zombie will have. Some have become long range scavengers, remember that convoy that made it to and back from Denver in September?”, Brian nodded 'yes', “They had more than one of what I am calling 'super human's with them. In a couple of weeks the government is going to want to speak with you about your options. I do not think anyone would mind terribly if you kept your current position. A detective good at tracking down and taking down the undead would be welcome anywhere, that is not for me to decide.”

“What about Kaylee?”

Absentmindedly, the doctor nodded, “Oh yes she'll have some decisions to make too. Oh, you mean what happened to her? Perfectly fine, not a mark on her, now, she came through the fight okay and is in isolation with the other people from the club up a couple of floors now.”

“Can I see her?”

Shaking his head the doctor said, “You know better that anyone Detective, five days of isolation is required for everyone exposed to the infection, no mingling in any regard until after that. I can tell if anyone is infected and going to die within six hours of exposure, but have you ever tried getting the legislature to change a law? I can make you more comfortable though. I would like to keep your IV in for another twenty four hours, if you don't mind, and I think we need to start getting some food into you. I'll bring in a remote for your television and the last few days worth of newspapers, you are lucky though, you know why?”

Brian shook his head.

“You have already slept through the first day and a half of quarantine.”

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