Zombies! (Episode 9): The Changing of the Guard by Ivan Turner Read Free Book Online Page B

zombie army was more dangerous than any terrorist or despot the free world had ever faced. He could put a single zombie in a subway car and spread the infection twenty fold. Heron didn't want to think about it.
     
    Rollins was staring at him as he gave the last of his orders.
     
    "I need you to stay here," Heron said. "Baches is on his way but you'll have to brief him."
     
    "What about you?"
     
    Heron shrugged. "I guess I'll go to Arthur Conroy , see what Dr. Luco can cook up."
     
    Rollins nodded dumbly. Even if there were words worth saying, he wouldn't have been able to think about them. He was still staring dumbly as Heron drove off to face his fate.
     
    ***
     
    Just after lunch, Ludlow went back down to the Zoo. He was supposed to be working. Luco had ordered another battery of tests based on a new inspiration. She did that whenever she had a mood swing. Ludlow was sure that she was bipolar. When she was on a high she was a flurry of activity and a treasure trove full of ideas. When she was mired in a lull, she was short tempered and depressing. Precious little work was accomplished during those times. Ludlow could only imagine what she must have been like before Naughton.
     
    The guard nodded her head in greeting as Ludlow came through the security doors. Then she continued on her rounds. Stepping tentatively up to Todd's cell, the geneticist peered inside. Todd sat on the ground, unmoving. He was finishing a meal. Ludlow guessed that Todd was given meals at regular meal times. He wondered if that was enough. It was his experience that a zombie would eat whenever it was given the opportunity. The bacterial parasites inside of its body were ravenous.
     
    "Todd?" he whispered. There was a button on the side that activated an intercom allowing the staff on the outside to communicate with the patient inside. But Ludlow hadn't used it last time and he didn't use it this time.
     
    Leave me alone.
     
    "I just came to say that you were right."
     
    About what?
     
    "About me and scientists in general. We don't set limits for ourselves. We blunder into nature's cupboard without any regard for the damage we might do."
     
    Todd didn't respond, continued to gnaw on a bone of the poor unidentifiable animal that had been his lunch.
     
    "Well," Ludlow said tentatively, glancing furtively down at the guard making her rounds. "I suppose that's it then. Now it's back to nature's cupboard in search of a cure."
     
    He pivoted and was going to leave when he felt a cold leash grab hold of him. Turning his head, he saw that Todd was standing at the glass again. Ludlow swallowed the ball of phlegm that had developed in his throat.
     
    Can you cure me?
     
    "I…" Ludlow stammered. "I don't think so, Todd. You're already dead."
     
    I'm pretty spry for a dead man.
     
    "Agreed," Ludlow whispered. "But that's just the body. We could never restore what was in your mind."
     
    That doesn't seem fair .
     
    "No. I suppose not."
     
    But wait, Rudy. What's wrong with my brain?
     
    Ludlow stopped talking as the guard came close. He put a hand to the glass and moved it up, down, left, and right. The zombie Todd inside ignored the motion, its dead eyes focused on nothing. Was he really having a conversation with this thing?
     
    "Do you need something, Dr. Ludlow?" the guard asked suspiciously.
     
    Ludlow smiled his handsome, charming smile. "I need a vacation. Perhaps together, love?"
     
    She blushed, then continued her rounds.
     
    Oh, isn't that just unbeatable?!
     
    Ludlow looked back at Todd, his smile fading. "What are you talking about?"
     
    That's how all of this started.
     
    Ludlow scowled. "How did you know about that?"
     
    Todd tapped his temple with one bloody finger. My unfixable brain.
     
    "I didn't know about the infection," Ludlow explained, pleaded. "It's not my fault."
     
    Don’t tell me. Tell Zoe. It was her mother you shagged.
     
    Ludlow looked to his left, all the way down the row of cells to where he knew