Part  Four

Doctor Bailey smiled and waved everyone into the tiny conference room of the hospital. “I’ve got most of the results back from the labs. I’ve even had one of the techs throw together a set of images of the samples we put under an electron microscope. It might help to first explain that what you’ve been referring to as zombie blood is a living organism.”

“You mean like a bacteria?”

“No, this is much more complex. It is only partially organic, and most of its outer shell is silica based. The folks at the lab are probably still having an argument over whether we should call it a nanite or an engineered organism. In either case, it is highly adaptable, and while the primary function it serves is to emulate the functions of blood cells, it also works to slowly convert a host body into a synthetic life form.

“For the first slide, let me show you what your zombie’s tissue sample looked like under the microscope.” Doctor Bailey leaned over a laptop to start to the slideshow and looked up at the projection screen. “On a surface examination, these almost look like normal muscle tissue cells. Each cell still contains the same basic level of protein and water, but the protein is synthetic, and the outer surface is a silicate layer. I believe over time the organisms change themselves, converting over natural cells for these upgraded versions.

“This process probably takes a few days to properly convert the whole body, and until the cells have all been converted, I suspect a zombie would be fairly weak. This could explain why the zombie leader uses his stockpiling strategy. After the bodies are converted, the organism is able to heal wounds easily, and it can change itself to become any kind of cell which has been damaged.”

“So what are we?” Robin asked.

“I will get to you, but please bear with me.” Doctor Bailey leaned over the keyboard to change the slide. “This is a section of muscle tissue from the same zombie after exposure to radiation. As you can see, every cell displays a radically different outer shape. These artificial cells were originally organisms, and those organisms were designed to change under adverse conditions. In effect, the individual cells have all mutated randomly, but they still retain the same basic functions.”

The slide changed to an x-ray slide of a skull and neck taken from the side. “Here, you can see the placement of the two implants. The pin you saw inserted into the mouth runs back toward the base of the neck, and now has thousands of fine connection throughout the brain, with a large concentration of connections leading to the lower brain stem. The neck implant also has a series of connection running  into the lower brain, and this is how the two implants work together. The lower half of the neck implant forms an artificial nervous system, which is why breaking the neck implant is so effective. Without the artificial network to run their bodies, the zombies are animated flesh without the electrical current to move it around.”

“No, wait-” Frank began.

“Which almost brings me to the two of you,” Doctor Bailey said. “You see, the process you’ve explained requires two things to make a proper puppet. First, the victim has to die. Then their blood has to be drained. The zombie you brought in had extremely low blood pressure, but I believe that it was slowly breaking down other cells to convert them back into the original organism. Eventually, the zombie would have healed and made an attempt to escape.”

“Okay, please answer this,” Robin said. “If you say the zombie had low blood pressure, did it have a heartbeat?”

“Yes, and one functioning lung.”

“So we’re something completely different from the zombies.”

“Yes. I was just about to start explaining Frank’s condition next.” Doctor Bailey changed the slide. “This interesting creature is what we found in Frank’s samples. It resembles two red blood cells fused together, but as you can see, there is also a flagellum. The organisms swim through a stream of pure proteins, and I believe that is what these organisms use to heal you. You were still alive when the organisms were introduced into your systems, and rather than begin a direct conversion, they altered themselves to emulate your normal bodily functions. It wasn’t designed to handle the task, and so it was only a partial success for either of you.

“Robin, your organisms resembles red blood cells more closely, but the outer surface is covered in mycelia for their propulsion. Your fluids have similar protein strains, but the individual strains are different. What this tells me is that this is not a task the organisms were programmed to do. They adapted to you individually, but the organisms acted to keep you functioning after you died.”

“So… we aren’t silicate based?”

“No, and I think that there was a part of the process you missed. The conversion would have required the material being available. During the initial conversion, I think a silicate was injected into the circulatory system before the organism was introduced. There was no such material available in your system, so the organism improvised by optimizing your cells to prevent them from decaying.”

“So we won’t rot,” Frank guessed.

“If your individual cells are any indication, no. Even after having your blood samples out of your body for well over twenty-four hours, they are still active.”

“We’re immortal?” Robin asked.

“Potentially yes. You could always opt to roast yourself alive.” Doctor Bailey made a tiny grimace before he went on. “The burnt flesh samples which Janice and Gordon brought in were inactive, so this confirms what you probably could have guessed. We need to treat this organism as a biological threat of the highest order. Every single body will have to be burned to ensure that there isn’t any cross contamination with the environment.”

“Well we’ll add it to our to do list,” Gordon said. “Unless you have something else to tell us that might be helpful, we need to split up and start looking for a zombie.”

“Well, there is one minor problem that might prevent you from leaving. One of the lab technicians forwarded all of this information to the FBI this morning, and they’re waiting for you out side the conference room.”

Robin stood up quickly. “But Fred and Claire-”

“Will be taken care of.” Doctor Bailey shook his head. “I’m sorry, but there was nothing I could do.”

Frank shook his head before he frowned at Robin. “Thanks to him, you and I may find out exactly what it takes to kill us.”

***

Frank looked around the room he was being held in and considered his situation carefully. He had been captured again, but he wasn’t chained. He was sitting in a rather comfortable chair, but the room was otherwise empty. No one had shot him yet, and he considered that a good sign. But no one had spoken to him either, nor had he been allowed to see any of his friends.

When the door opened and a group of soldiers walked in, he resisted the urge to cringe. No one raised a rifle. Instead, one of the soldiers held out a cell phone to Frank. He took it and looked up at the soldier’s blank expression as he put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Frank Kemp?”

“Yes, that would be me. Who is this?”

“I’m Richard Crane. You may have heard of me.”

Frank almost stood up, but he stopped when the soldier shook his head. “Uh, yes, mister president, I believe I have heard of you. I just didn’t expect that you had heard of me.”

“Until very recently, I hadn’t. I understand that you were able to capture a van containing the equipment for converting people into zombies.”

“Yes sir, and we were trying to sort out how to kidnap a zombie without drawing a bunch of his friends down on us when the FBI picked us up from the hospital.”

“What are you thinking to accomplish?”

Frank explained their plans to use the equipment to attack the implants as a weak point in the system. “Of course, the real trick is, we have to figure out how to set up something like a mobile base. While the equipment is being tested on a live zombie, we’d have to keep moving to avoid a horde.”

“Assuming you could still attempt your plan, what do you see the end results being?”

“Um… the zombies would be killed, but the leaders would probably still need to be ferreted out. Then again, we might be able to kill them too. I’m not sure. The mutants are a big x-factor, though.”

“The mutants?” president Crane asked.

“Yes sir, which reminds me. Please don’t nuke any other cities. Any exposure to radiation can make the zombies mutate randomly, and that probably includes fallout radiation.”

“But I don’t understand. We were sure the electromagnetic pulse would have shut down their implants.”

“Maybe it did. If the mutants aren’t running under their power of the implants, then we will still need to have a mop up operation to wipe them out.” Frank waited for a moment. “Sir, we’ve got the plan, but we could use some support here.”

“What do you need?”

“We need an armored transport big enough to haul a team around the city, and we need a few guards who can help us defend the nerds if things get ugly. Mostly, I need a promise that if we can somehow pull this off, Robin and I aren’t going to be carved into little pieces. I know I don’t have much in the way of leverage here, but I-”

“Frank… can I call you Frank?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Frank, let me put your mind at ease on the matter of your future, should you manage to kill the zombie hordes. You would be arrested and tried for your crimes, and you would be found guilty. The death penalty would of course be mandatory in your case.”

“How does that put my mind at ease, sir?”

“Because legally, you’re already dead.”

Frank grinned. “Well that’s… are you sure that’s legal?”

“Son, I’m the president. If it isn’t legal, I can make it so in about three days.”

***

Frank walked into Robin’s room, his face pulling into an angry scowl when he found her bound and gagged on the floor. “Why is she tied up like that?”

“Sir, calm down. We had to-”

“Don’t hand me any crap about risks. I sat quietly for you, didn’t I?”

“Yes, sir, but she didn’t. We’ve got three men headed for an infirmary after they tried to prevent her from breaking down her door. She refused to calm down, and so we had to bind her, for our own safety.”

“Okay, so why did you gag her?” Frank asked.

“She’s been screaming for someone named Claire ever since she arrived.”

Frank nodded. “That would be the little girl you picked up at our motel. Bring both of the kids here. I’ll untie her and try to calm her down.”

“Sir, it might be a better idea for the children to-”

“The kids will be coming with us.” Frank shook his head as the soldier opened his mouth to argue. “You can either go get them, or I can untie Robin and let her go look for them.”

“Yes sir.”

Frank moved to stand over Robin, keeling down to take the handkerchief out of her mouth. Robin’s expression showed instant relief. “Thank you. I think that was a used handkerchief.”

“Ugh?” Frank looked down at the cloth and winced. “So which is worse tasting, barf or boogers?”

 “Not funny,” Robin said as she rolled over to let Frank untie her hands. “So what happened?”

“The president approves of our plan. In a few hours, a special forces team will be here to act as our escorts, and we’re all going hunting for a horde.”

“Much as I hate to ask, when is eating on the schedule?”

“Soon,” Frank said and smiled at Robin as she sat up. “I’m halfway tempted to find out who tied you up to make them handle our meals.”

***

General Louis strode through the hallway quickly, trying to reach the president before he began his press conference. “Sir!”

President Crane turned around, noting the tension in the general’s face. “Which city reported missing persons?”

“Austin, but sir, we’ve been looking at satellite photos, and something is very wrong.” General Louis held out a folder. “We’ve picked up a horde was massed on the north side of the city, but over the last two hours, they’ve been thinning out, creating a line which extends to the east side. We weren’t sure why at first, but then a smaller horde arrived. It looks like they were the remains of the group from Houston. They’ve apparently been assigned a new leader, because they’re organizing as well.”

President Crane flipped through the pictures. “They mean to take the city in a single sweep.”

“Maybe, but there’s another possibility, sir. We didn’t see these hordes on previous satellite sweeps, so Jamal wants us to see this. There’s a good chance that another horde is moving from the south, and their plan is to force an evacuation to the west, right into an ambush.”

***

Frank watched the soldier packing up the last of the equipment, dividing it between two armored transports.  His attention moved to Peter as the young engineer walked across the underground garage. “Why are you smiling?”

Peter held up a small back plastic box with had only a single switch and an LED light which was off. “Try and guess what I and my roommate made last night.”

“Um, a box with a light?” Frank asked.

Peter shook his head. “No, it’s a cell phone jammer. They’re actually consumer devices, but my roommate and I cobbled this one together for a slightly longer range. The theory is, any zombie caught within the range won’t be able to send information or receive orders.”

“Aren’t these supposed to be illegal?”

“Technically yes, but they do make eating out a much nicer experience.” Peter waved his hand. “Like I said, this one is much stronger than the smaller handheld units. If you turned this on near a horde, a good number of the zombies should become disoriented.”

“Sounds good. We’ll try it out when we go hunting.” Frank handed back the box and gestured to the armored vehicles. “We’ll be taking the point, and we’ll only have two soldiers riding with us to make room for your equipment, the machine, and a hostage on a gurney.”

“Yeah, okay, but I wasn’t quite finished.” Peter slipped his bag down off of his shoulder to pull out a cell phone. “All right, based off of what Gordon told me, I found out which of my friends had a cell phone that was down. I figured since we’re working with the government, they can lend us the equipment to track this mobile number. The zombie using it is always active, so running a trace can allow us to home in on one zombie.”

“Right, but we don’t need just any zombie.”

“Ah you might think so, but then we arrive to part two of my plan. This is the cell phone that’s down. Once we’ve captured the zombie and worked out the transmission protocol, we can hook the cell phone up to a modem card on a laptop.” Peter waited, seeing Frank’s expression was a complete blank. “If we can emulate the signal the zombie sends, we can use this phone as a distraction. The leader will still think it has a loyal zombie reporting in, and we can use the phone to send a cry for help and have the horde redirected away from us while we work.”

“Well that’s… uh, you are finished now, right?”

“Yep, I’m done.”

“Well that will be all right if you can do it. Let’s go find Gordon and Janice.”

***

The interior of the armored vehicle was cramped. Though the rear space was meant to hold many troops, the added bulk of the equipment and space for the gurney had everyone else packed in tightly. Only professor Garfield and Peter had any room, and they were both burdened with bundles of equipment on their laps.

Frank looked from Peter, who worked on a laptop to trace a phone signal, to Robin, who sat with Claire across her lap. Robin’s brow was knitted deeply while she chewed at her lower lip, and at first she looked like she was trying to cry. Frank rose from his spot on the bench and moved across the vehicle to kneel in front of her. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Frank, I’ve been going back over what doctor Bailey said, and I think I know what’s wrong with us. Both of us were wounded and losing blood when the organism moved into our bodies, but there weren’t enough of the organisms to make a complete change.” Her head turned as she looked at the machine. “If one of us went through-”

“No.”

“Listen, please. We aren’t talking about inserting the implants. But we’re both incomplete because the process required something that we didn’t get. I think maybe if we injected a small amount , it could help to complete the process. Who knows? Maybe it might kick start our hearts.”

Frank looked down, rubbing his forehead. “If anyone is doing it, I will.”

“We’re both pretty much dead either way.”

Frank nodded and looked at Peter. “Hey, can you figure out that machine interface well enough to get it producing a dose of the organisms?”

Peter frowned at him. “I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. Do you want me to track the number or-”

“I’ll track it,” Frank said. “Just show me what to do, and you can get to work on the machine.”