Apocalyptic Pathogen (Full Version)

Chapter 15: Long Road

"Now for the surprise I promised you," Wayne said as he powered down the radio transmitter. He led Anna back to the second floor where they'd left the bags they'd carried in from the parking garage.

Opening one of the zippers, Wayne showed Anna what he'd put inside. Numerous tall and thin metal jars packed the bag like shards of silver. Wedged in amongst them were a pair of children's toys from before the outbreak. Brightly colored, the bulbous guns looked strange and pitifully ineffective for any purpose other than diversion.

"You can't be serious," Anna objected.

"Do you know of a better method of spraying down the undead we need to turn?" Wayne asked. "They may be toys, but the water guns have range, their own pressurized tanks and are fairly accurate. All we have to do is load them with the nutrient solution and hose down the zombies we want to revive. I would've brought a standard power sprayer, but these were easier to transport, leaving more room for samples of nutrients."

"Why so many containers?" Anna questioned. "Wouldn't a few, larger ones have sufficed?"

"Yes," Wayne agreed. "However, I couldn't use them without being noticed on the security cameras of the lab. I had to gather everything here without anyone observing suspecting the plan to escape. Smaller containers were easier to smuggle out to the transport."

Opening one of the silver containers, Wayne poured the black liquid, properly thinned to allow it to be easily sprayed without clogging up the gun, into the storage tank. He pumped the toy several times to build up the internal pressure.

"Care to pick one?" he asked.

Anna glanced about the cubicle filled office floor and spotted a zombie wandering by the elevators. Dressed in the tattered remains of a dark suit, the male corpse had the look of a businessman who'd been caught in wood chipper. The zombie's flesh was in equally poor shape as he'd no doubt been swarmed by the undead in order to bring about his current condition.

Wayne nodded his acceptance of her choice and walked over to the zombie. He fired a stream of the nutrients at the walking corpse's back, and it turned around to discover what had hit it and if it could be eaten. The zombie's jaw hung limp, barely still attached to the body, and Wayne adjusted his aim to hit the undead creature in the face.

"This should be a carnival game," Anna teased. "Who can get the most nutrients in the zombie's mouth before they recover?"

Wayne released the trigger and watched the response. The zombie's jaw pulled back up and into its proper place as the muscles and ligaments regenerated and strengthened. The bite marks in his skin, some of which went to the bone, faded away as new tissue was created at an astonishingly fast rate.

"Now all we have to do is find enough food for him, without attracting other zombies, in order to restore his mind," Anna mentioned.

"I don't think it will be needed," Wayne countered. "If my theory is right, he should be coming back any second now."

"Of course," Anna realized. "He doesn't need to eat to get the nutrients to his brain, simply absorb them from anywhere and they'll get there eventually."

Rich brown color returned to the man's formerly lifeless pale eyes, and he blinked as if temporarily blinded by a bright light and trying to regain his focus. He suddenly looked around, his hands clutching at his torn clothes on his legs.

"It's alright," Wayne soothed. "You've been healed. I assume you were swarmed by the undead. You don't need to worry anymore. The restoration process makes you invisible to them."

The man's fearful eyes glanced warily at the other zombies still moving about the office floor before he focused on Wayne and Anna.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"My name is Wayne," he explained. "This is my wife, Anna. We discovered a way to restore the undead. My wife and I were exposed and were the first test subjects. You were the first test on what we hope will be a large scale restoration of humanity."

"This is probably a lot to take in," Anna suggested. "Why don't you sit down?"

The man nodded wordlessly and used the padded computer chair Anna wheeled out for him. He looked at the two of them, glanced back toward the wandering undead, and examined his surroundings.

"Where am I?" he asked. "Where's my family?"

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer to either of those questions," Wayne admitted. "You're currently in a building we appropriated only today. There is a large contingent of undead surrounding and throughout this building, so it's possible your family is here somewhere, but it's impossible to know for certain as zombies don't coordinate their migrations, following whatever food sources they find. They might be downstairs or across the country. I really couldn't say; I'm sorry."

"We're not going to give up looking, and neither should you," Anna offered, laying a reassuring hand upon the man's shoulder. "We want to restore all of humanity, so we'll eventually need to find every zombie still creeping around the world."

"Right," Wayne agreed. He hesitated before adding, "I hate to say this, but you need to be prepared. Remember, not everyone turned is still a zombie today; some were killed and others cremated. Your family may be out there, but they may also be gone. I don't want you to get your hopes up too high, but I also don't want you to give up. This will be a long and difficult process. Finding every location where a zombie may have crawled or been imprisoned during their search for food and humanity's fight for survival might take years. Gathering the necessary resources to provide for those we bring back will also be a mammoth undertaking occupying a good portion of our time and efforts, diverting us from finding and reviving more."

"I understand," the man answered. The muscles of his jaw tightened as his hands curled into fists. He locked eyes with Wayne. "No matter how long it takes, I will never stop searching for them until I know for certain what has become of them."

"That's the kind of determination we're going to need," Anna commended, giving his shoulder a slight squeeze.

"Let's find you something better to wear," Wayne said with a nod toward the man's tattered clothes. "Then, you can help us inspect the zombies in the building and see if you know any of them. Afterwards, you can help us start rebuilding."

"Rebuilding what?" the man questioned.

Wayne smiled. "Everything."