The Reanimation of Edward Schuett (22 page)

“So how are we actually going to do this?” Liddie asked.

“You can both go down in the elevator together without anyone getting suspicious,” Danielle said. “Or at least I hope so. But from there you’ll have to temporarily split up. It would look strange for one of the senior staff members of the CRS to be palling around with a janitor. Direct Edward toward one of the back exits. Probably by the canteen area. He shouldn’t look too strange there, just another low level employee trying to get lunch. You can then go to the motor pool and get one of the vans, but you have to remember what I showed you that one time about disabling the tracking device. Go around to the exit and pick Edward up, then get the hell out of Stanford. If you’re lucky you’ll get about an hour before anyone realizes something is wrong, and even longer before they realize he’s not anywhere in the building.”

Liddie stared at her for several seconds without speaking, then replied softly. “You’re not coming with us.”

“I can run interference for you here. Even if I can only get you a few extra minutes, that still may be enough for you to get Edward out.”

“But you’ll get arrested for this,” Liddie protested.

“Maybe,” Danielle said. “But maybe from here I can show people that Dr. Chella is a dangerous quack.”

“Why are you really helping me?” Edward asked.

“You are the proof of my life’s work,” Danielle said. “Others may think you’re dangerous. Even I’m not entirely sure you’re not, especially if there’s any truth to Dr. Chella’s theories. But I will not have everything I’ve worked for destroyed just because a clueless politician got paranoid.”

Edward nodded. He had suspected it could be something like that, but something about the way she spoke made him wonder if she wasn’t being entirely truthful. “That’s it?”

Danielle glared at him, then looked to Liddie. “I suppose there’s something else I should say, since I have no idea how long it might be before I can see you again. About the file I gave you to give to him.” She turned to Edward again. “It was a fake. I’m sorry, but I did what I needed to do to get you to cooperate, and I would do it again.”

“I already told him, Mom,” Liddie said.

“I know. I knew the very next time I talked to you after you took it to him.”

Liddie blinked. “But you never said anything.”

“That’s because I already saw the way you were looking at him. I didn’t think much of it. I figured it would pass. It didn’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Edward asked.

Danielle actually smiled at him. “You may be an anomalous super zombie, but at your core you’re still a just another clueless man. Just why the hell did you think she was spending all that time with you? It sure as hell wasn’t because she thought you were a fascinating test subject.”

Edward understood her meaning, but he wasn’t sure he believed it. When he looked over at Liddie, however, she wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“I’m taking a very big leap here, Mr. Schuett,” Danielle said. “In letting her take care of you, I’m assuming that you aren’t dangerous, either as a zombie or a person. I hope that’s not a wrong assumption.”

“No,” Edward said. “It’s not.”

“That’s good, but just in case, I feel compelled to tell you that I made sure my daughter grew up knowing jujitsu.”

“I’ll, um, be sure to keep that in mind.”

“We’ve got to go,” Liddie said. “You never know when we might run out of time.” Liddie kissed her mother on the cheek, and they both took a moment for one last hug. Then Liddie led Edward to the nearest elevator. It wouldn’t open without a key code. He noticed her hesitate before punching the numbers in.

“Last chance to turn back,” Edward said. “By doing this you’re probably giving up everything you’ve ever worked for.”

“None of this was ever anything I’ve actually worked for,” Liddie said. “It’s what Mom worked for. I just came along for the ride. It’s probably about time I took my own path.”

She punched in the numbers, but it took an agonizing amount of time for the elevator to reach their floor. Neither of them said anything, and the ding of the elevator stopping at their floor startled Edward. They got in and faced the door as it closed. It took him several seconds to realize they stood closer together than was strictly necessary. Their hands were close enough to brush against each other. After a few more moments of hesitation Liddie took his hand. Neither of them looked at each other, but they didn’t need to. That simple touch said things they may have started thinking but hadn’t brought themselves to actually say.

Then an image flashed in his mind of Julia, sitting next to him on the couch and cuddling as they watched a movie, their hands roaming over each other and touching in ways that were completely innocent yet thoroughly intimate. She’d been gone for fifty years. She wasn’t even like Dana, where he could try convincing himself that she still might be out there alive. She had become a zombie before he did, and even if she was still wandering around out there, which seemed highly unlikely, there did not appear to be any way that she could be like him. Yet none of this had fully hit him yet. By his own internal clock it felt like he’d only seen her a few weeks ago. To him, she might as well have still been alive.

Edward let go of Liddie’s hand and side-stepped away. He hoped it wasn’t too obvious, but he couldn’t do that just yet. He wasn’t ready, and honestly didn’t think he would be ready from quite some time yet.

Liddie still didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at her to see if his action had hurt her at all. All he could do was hope she understood.

The awkward moment faded away the instant the doors opened. This wasn’t the same elevator he’d been brought up in, and the area outside was unfamiliar. She stepped out quickly, but he hesitated and looked around to see if there was anyone watching. Based on something Liddie and Danielle had said earlier about the evening news, Edward suspected it was probably pretty late in the day and there wouldn’t be too many people around. But the majority of the building was a college, and he had no idea what kind of activities a school in this day and age might have going on. The elevator at least didn’t open onto anything that looked like a major hallway, since it was pretty featureless except for a few utilitarian-looking doors. He thought he saw someone walk by near the end of the hall, but otherwise there was no one here.

Liddie pointed down the hall in the opposite direction. “Go that way,” she said in whisper. “Take a left when you see a sign for the canteen, but go past the canteen entrance and take the next right. I’m not down here a lot, but I’m pretty sure there’s an emergency exit at the end of that hall. I’ll head to the motor pool. Wait by that exit until you hear me knocking from the other side.”

“What am I supposed to do if somebody comes by and asks me about something?”

“Just, I don’t know, pretend you really are a janitor. Do whatever you can to not look suspicious.”

“I don’t even know what suspicious is supposed to look like these days.”

“Do your best,” Liddie said. She leaned toward him for a second like she intended to do something more, but then backed away. “Try not to panic or anything, okay?” She went off in the opposite direction she had told him to go. He was on his own for the moment.

He went down the hall, but even going the fifty or sixty feet to his first turn felt like an impossible trial. There were cameras mounted near the ceiling, and he did his best not to stare at them. A janitor wasn’t supposed to even notice those things most of the time. He had to keep reminding himself that he was supposed to be top secret, that no one other than the security personnel on his one floor was supposed to know that he even existed, but he kept thinking about all the ways he might be making himself conspicuous to whoever might be watching those cameras. All it took was one over-eager security guard to send someone to check on him, and this would all be over practically before it had begun.

He saw no one else in the halls, however. When he passed the canteen he saw one bored young man in a hairnet behind the counter and a very tired looking student with his nose nearly pressed against some kind of tiny personal computer, but that was all. These people had probably been in and out of here over and over during the last several weeks, yet they’d been completely unaware that something like Edward was right over their heads. No one anywhere even knew he existed except a rare few. If he got caught now and was terminated like had been ordered, no one would care. For all intents and purposes he really didn’t exist.

So what, then, was he supposed to do with his life now? Any minute now Liddie would knock on that door and they would be on the run, with people from the government giving chase soon after. Where were they supposed to go? He supposed he could try going back to Fond du Lac in an effort to discover what had really happened to Dana, but he had to admit that even that one hope he’d clung to now seemed like something he couldn’t find out. After all, the CRS had known that was something he wanted so they would look for him there first. He could escape, but he had no purpose.

Liddie took longer to get to the door than Edward had expected, and he had started to pace by the time she finally knocked. All this worry and paranoia were becoming a bad habit for him. If he kept this up he might become the first zombie in history with neuroses. The thought nearly made him laugh, but he stifled it right away. Didn’t want to draw attention to himself, after all.

The sound of knocking made him jump, and he looked up at the nearest security camera in the corner as though checking to see if it was watching him. He knew that made no sense, but it felt like the thing to do anyway. It wasn’t like he really knew what security devices around here were capable of, anyway. For all he knew the stupid camera could shoot a net to hold him until the guards came to collect him.

Liddie knocked again, more urgently this time, and Edward finally opened the door and went out.

“You had me worried for a second,” Liddie said. “I thought maybe someone had found you.”

“Just letting my imagination get the best of me,” Edward said. “To be completely honest, I’m scared out of my mind right now.”

Liddie gave him a nervous smile. “Good to know I’m not alone. Come on, the van’s right over here.”

They were in an alley that looked similar to where they’d originally dropped him off, with a van parked and running right nearby. Edward looked around and noticed there were cameras here on the outside of the building, too. If they had avoided looking conspicuous before, they were probably failing miserably now. But that hopefully wouldn’t matter. All they needed was a few more minutes.

Liddie ran around to the driver’s side. “Get in. The quicker we get moving, the more likely we can get out of the city before anyone gets sent after us.”

“Are there cameras around the city they can use to find us?” Edward asked.

“Yeah, but that won’t be any problem once we get beyond the city walls. They don’t really have a reason anymore to keep watching the wastelands, and I’ve already disabled the van’s tracker.”

Edward got in, and Liddie was already pulling away before he could close the door. She sped out of the alley and almost hit another car as she turned onto the street.

“Don’t speed,” Edward said. “That will just attract the attention of some cop.”

“Can’t afford not to. We have no idea how much time we have left before someone notices you’re gone. Or else maybe discovers Dr. Chella locked in a closet.”

“But if we get pulled over that will just take even longer. Assuming there are still cops and they do still pull people over.”

Liddie sighed and eased her foot off the accelerator. “Sorry. First time I’ve ever been on the run. My mom may have taught me a lot of things, but this was never one of them.”

“You said there’s a wall around the city?”

“Of course. There’s a wall around every city.”

“Are we going to have any trouble getting out?”

“We shouldn’t. The only time anyone ever really scrutinizes anyone is when they’re coming back in. You know, to make sure there’s no illegal reanimated with them or that they’re not infected or anything.”

“So how long before we get there?”

“At this time of night? Not long. Ten minutes at the most.” Liddie hesitated, then pointed at the computer bag she’d left in the footwell of his seat. “Just enough time for you to take a look at that.”

“What is it, anyway?”

“Proof that not the whole world is against you.”

He opened up the bag and pulled out an extremely thin computer. “How do I turn it on?”

“Just touch the screen. I already loaded it with the recording of tonight’s news.”

“One of you mentioned that before,” Edward said. “What was on the news that I would need to know about?”

“For starters, it’s one of the reasons the president gave to have you terminated. He mentioned it during the conference, but I hadn’t seen it yet by that point. I got a quick look at it though when Mom gave it to me. We both thought it would be important for you to see.”

Edward touched the screen. “Do I need…” He was going to ask if he needed to do anything else, but the news report immediately started by itself. A woman who looked to be in her mid-forties sat behind a news desk. Although her hair was in a completely unrecognizable style, nothing else about the scene looked much different than a news cast from his own time. “Welcome back,” the woman said. “Our top story this evening is something that cannot possibly be believed, but several witnesses from the Wisconsin borderlands claim it to be absolutely true. The reanimated have been with us for far longer than anyone wants to remember, but we have always thought we knew what they were capable of. Since Atlanta, no further variations of them have been reported, but some have always claimed that there could be one more, known as a Z7. Up until now, these claims have been treated as nothing more than wild conspiracy theories. But now there may just be evidence. Is there really a Z7? One Wisconsin woman insists there is. Please welcome on tonight’s program Miss Rae Neuman.”