“Yes, I’m so sorry, Claire, for what happened to Marc. I considered him one of my few friends.” Henry seemed genuine in his sorrow.
He took a deep breath and started talking again. “I’m an agent for the government. My job is to keep tabs on special diseases. One, in particular.” Henry started to rub his chin. I desperately wanted to rub his five o’clock shadow. He was shaved so perfectly and to my liking. “I was relocated here, to the States, a few years ago to keep track of it, and to provide necessary action against this disease.”
“What kind of disease are you talking about?” I hoped curiosity wouldn’t kill this cat.
“In layman’s terms, it’s a zombie virus. Or, as we call them, ‘undeads’.”
“Shut the fuck up.” I sat back and rolled my eyes. I was a pro at that. “That’s not real. What a joke! It’s movies and TV shows. It’s just something that was made up. Something all those doomsday preppers prepare for. No fucking way.” My vocal chords no longer worked, but I kept mouthing No fucking way. I looked over at Claire. She looked to be in shock.
“Yes, fucking way. My job is to keep track of it. Our governments created this bloody virus in the lab, and my government wants to keep tabs on it. It’s extraordinarily dangerous…as you have already experienced.” I flashed back to Henry taking out our pastor and limo driver. I started to feel sick to my stomach again.
He continued. “Your government doesn’t know about me. They have no idea that England has planted people like me here. That is one reason why I haven’t told you the truth. If they knew about me, I would be in danger. You would be in danger. Anyone affiliated with me would be in danger. I was just trying to protect you.”
It was a difficult pill for me to swallow. It was uncoated, and the size of a boulder. I felt like my stomach was trying to escape out of my mouth.
“Elaina, if this virus gets out of control, we, as a population, would be annihilated.”
“Out of control?” I laughed, knowing what I saw today was the purest example of out of control. “So how did it get out then, if you are supposed to be keeping track of it? Sounds like someone’s going to get fired. And why the hell would they create something like this?” I admit there was a little attitude behind my words.
He ignored my “getting fired” statement. “Well, it was created because they can. I don’t know why they did it. It’s a super virus. The only cure is true death.”
“True death?”
“Yes. True death.”
“Like on that vampire show…when they say true death?”
“Yes...well, no. Sort of, but not vampires. There’s no such thing as vampires!”
“But there is such a thing as zombies?!” He was flustered at my reference, like he took offense to it.
“Once the virus enters the body while the brain is still intact, the body ‘dies’.” He used air quotes. “And then it reanimates. The virus lives in the brain. It’s attracted to the electrical signals and feeds off of clean blood. The person could be missing all four limbs, have bled nearly every last drop, and they would reanimate. It drives the body to hunt down more blood.”
“Wait. Are you saying that Marc is out there right now eating people?” Claire started shaking all over. I could tell she was going to start sobbing again.
“Yes, my dear, I’m sorry to say.” Henry reached for Claire, but she shoved his hands away. “If he hasn’t had a true death, he will be doing the same to others as Pastor Jones did to him. I only gave the pastor and the limo driver true death because they were the immediate threat. I needed to get you two out of there before something happened to you.”
She fell over onto my shoulder and cried. “I can’t believe it. My Marc…”
Henry cut her off. “Once he is exposed to the virus, he’s no longer the person you knew. It controls the brain.” Claire curled up into a ball on the couch with her head in my lap.
I didn’t even know how to console my best friend. There were no words that would have made it better for her. Or for me, really. My family, my friends, his fake family... they all were in danger, or had become the danger.
While sitting there in silence, trying to process all the new information, we heard a high-pitched scream from outside. Henry jumped up and looked out the front window.
“Shit!” He jammed his hands in his pockets…looking for keys maybe? “Shit,” he said again as he dashed off to his bedroom, coming back just as quick as he left, all the while pulling on his boots. He unlocked the trunk with a key. There was another, more modern trunk inside with a keypad. He plugged in a code and the lid opened on its own. I couldn’t believe what I saw.