* * *
Daniel sat in his lab with the contents of the military crate spread over a stainless steel autopsy table. Dirty torn clothes with several small plastic ice chests labeled, "Human Organs" covered the surface. Each item had a numbered yellow identification tag attached with a thin wire. He lifted up a flannel shirt with a pair of tongs and examined the
bloodstains
. From the doorway, he heard, "Are you thinking about going grunge?"
He turned to see his wife, Wendy, walk into the room and set her purse down on a table. Pulling off his latex gloves, he turned to greet her with concern running through his mind. As he put his arms out to hug her, he asked, "What did Dr. Gorstein say?"
Wendy, with shoulder length straight brown hair, and medium build, wrapped her arms around him, kissed his cheek and said, "He thinks we should be able to eliminate all the cancer with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation."
Daniel let go and said, "He didn't want to do the surgery?"
"He said the chemo and pinpoint radiation will take care of it better than surgery. Even if we did the surgery, I'd still have to do the chemo." She smiled. "So I loose my hair for awhile and drop a few pounds. I'll wear wigs and buy some new clothes."
"Are you going to be okay with this?"
"Considering the alternative is to do nothing and die before I turn fifty, I think this sounds great." She put her hands on his hips. "Besides, I can get a whole variety of wigs. You can go out with a blonde one night and a redhead another. I'm sure you'll get a kick out that. Plus, I might be able to squeeze into some of those tight dresses I used to wear back when we were dating. We can try to have some fun with it."
He gave her a little peck on the lips. "I'll have fun when I know the cancer is in remission and we're going to grow old together."
Wendy walked over to the table and glanced at all the spread out clothes. "Let's start the growing old together tomorrow. Right now I'm hungry." She circled her finger over the table. "Why don't you pack up your toys and take me to dinner?"
"I can't." Daniel stepped up to the table. "I was given this new project today. I'm going to be here all night."
"Tell the nerdist who gave you this project
that
it'll be a few hours late. Ignore it and let's eat."
"I really want to take you to dinner and celebrate the start of the end of your cancer, but I can't tonight. The nerdist who gave this assignment to me happens to be a gigantic army general. When he comes back to hear the results, he'll be surrounded by men with guns. I think my heath will be best served if I get this done as soon as possible. We'll go to dinner Friday night and stay out late. Maybe we'll even go to the Gaslight."
"Wow, a karaoke bar. You scientists really know how to party. It sounds like you're planning on staying out past your bedtime."
Daniel snuggled up to her and said, "I might even wear jeans."
As he leaned in to kiss her, he heard a voice from across the lab. "Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt your hypothesis session, but I'm looking for Dr. Cronsworth."
Both Daniel and Wendy separated. He turned toward the door as she hand straightened her dress. Standing at the entrance to the room, he saw an attractive woman in her late forties holding a stack of blue file folders. Her glasses pushed up on top of her head, pulled her sandy blond hair away from her face revealing her light blue eyes. He stuttered in response, "I'm Dan Doctor, I mean, I'm Dr. Cronsworth… Dr. Dan Cronsworth… Daniel… Dr. Daniel…. Cronsworth."
Holding the stack of folders against her chest with one hand, she extended the other while walking across the room. "I'm Dr. Towers with the CDC. General Brown assigned me to work with you on this new strain of virus." The two scientists shook hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you Dr. Cronsworth."
"Please, call me Daniel…Danny… Dan… Da-"
Wendy placed her hand over his mouth to stop his rambling. "Call him Dan." She reached out her hand. "I'm Wendy, the wife of Dr. Dan Danny Daniel."
Dr. Towers shook hands with Wendy. "It's nice to meet you both.
Please,
call me
Lisa.
I am
not into all the formal protocols or the pleasantries. I prefer to focu
s
on the work." She set the stacks of folders
down
on the table and revealed a shirt straining to contain her larger than average chest.
Wendy picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder. Glancing at her husband and turning toward the door, she said, "I'll leave you and the pretty doctor to have fun with Petri dishes all night. I'm going to get some Chinese take-out and plant myself in front of an old movie on cable."
Daniel stepped away from the table and said, "I promise you, we are only here to work on isolating this virus, nothing is going to happen."
His wife turned back to him with a smile on her face. "Oh sweetie, I'm not the least bit concerned. I know nothing will happen."
"You're not going to tell me to behave? You're not even going to pretend to be the slightest bit worried or jealous?"
As she turned away from him she replied, "No, it's you we're talking about."
"What's that supposed to mean."
Walking out the door, Wendy let out a laugh and said, "She's way out of your league."
As the sun set behind the
Rocky Mountains
, Prometheus walked along with a group of twenty other undead across the park toward the mall where the Zombie Crawl celebration was in full swing. Hundreds of humans dressed as zombies, drinking beer, and listening to the loud music, which bounced off of the tall buildings. He stared at the
streetlights
and neon beer signs in the bar windows, as he could not imagine such a light or how it could be produced. Never had he seen the darkness lit up so well without the use of many large fires and torches. He thought,
how
could
they contain this light in all these glass tubes?
A young Goth woman ran up to him and spoke with a British accent. "Excuse me kind sir, I am in need of assistance as I do not belong in this strange land. Can you please offer me some guidance? I have nothing to offer in exchange but I promise my father will see you are greatly rewarded upon my return to Billington Manor."
Prometheus continued walking with the group as the Goth woman matched their pace. He explained to her, "I am also new to this world, apologies as I may not have the answers your ears desire. If you join us in our quest, you will gain some of the knowledge you seek. Others, who have experience in this strange land longer than I, can assist in many of your questions."
"Finally, I meet a person who speaks the King's proper English. I do not understand this gibberish spoken by these strange people who have the most peculiar ways." She glanced at her arms with the needle marks and long brown streaks, and tried to brush them away. "I do not mean to appear daft but my soul seems to have been placed inside the body of another woman. A body which is difficult to move yet it feels strong. It is as if I am the subject of an extreme bag of nails."
Prometheus explained, "As we have all been placed inside bodies which we do not own, I can only offer obscurities as I cannot answer all of your questions. As for speaking the King's English, I feel I am speaking my native tongue of
Attica
. However, I also seek many answers just as you desire and have learned to be patient and observe what happens around me. When we return to our building of solitude, you will gather with others to learn more about this world and our purpose here." He turned to look at the young woman. "My name is Prometheus and I hail from
Athens
."
"T'is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Prometheus. I am Candice Billington of the
Cardiff
Billingtons."
As they approached a street corner, the loud screech of tires followed by a thud startled them. Turning toward the sound, he saw one of his fellow living dead
lying
underneath the bumper of a car. As the accident victim crawled out from under the vehicle and brushed off the dirt, the driver exited and screamed at him in his un-discernible language making very animated and large hand gestures to accent his speech. While this
one-way
argument continued, more tire shrieks and a bang. Several members of the zombie horde had walked in front of oncoming traffic forcing a car to veer into a street light pole knocking it down. The exposed power lines sent colored sparks bouncing across the concrete sidewalk, onto the grass. With interest in the bright sparks, one of the ancient souls picked up a live wire. The powerful current sent the dead man into convulsions. His hand clenched tight around the line as his body lurched on the ground. Another zombie grabbed his hand in an attempt to assist. The connection sent electricity into the second man causing him shake uncontrollably.
More
of the
ancient
souls
walked
toward the men
with the intention of
helping the burn victims
.
The
college student in the elderly
body
raised his hands and said, "Dudes, stop! You're going to get electrocuted."
With curious
expressions,
the other zombies halted. An undead man with a beer gut and an ill-fitting dirty t-shirt asked. "What kind of witchcraft has taken control of these men? They have fallen under the spell of a powerful
sorcerer
."
The crowd of humans, dressed as zombies, gathered around the two men still connected to the live wire and let out screams as the two living dead burst into flames. The college student glanced at the humans and back at his fellow dead. "Wow, you ancient guys don't know what electricity is or how cars and traffic work do you? I think we need to get you more training before you can come out in public again."
Two of the human men took off their shirts and tried to beat out the fire on the charred bodies still connected to the live electrical line while others dumped their beers on the flames. Other living people threw their plastic cups at the zombies and yelled angry untranslatable words at them. Vic stepped up to the group of undead and explained, "We need to get away from this scene. The police are here and this is going to get out of control real fast. Let's get back to the warehouse as quickly as our dead legs will take us."
Prometheus saw the flames die out on the two charred bodies, as the humans covered them with blankets. More vehicles arrived with multicolored bright flashing lights. He turned to walk with his horde when a man in a dark uniform and silver badge on his chest, grabbed his arm, stopped him, and spoke in a loud voice. The human's
words
remained insensible
,
but something unexpected happened. An urge he never felt before
took charge
of the newly arrived zombie. A feeling he couldn't control just as the instinct to run from a lion would take command of your body, this drove his actions. He grabbed the officer’s hand and
gouged
a bite out of the man's forearm.
The human with the silver badge fell to the ground holding his bleeding wound. There was no need to translate the strange language, as this man screamed out in pain. Vic grabbed Prometheus and said, "Hey Socrates, we need to get you out here. This whole scene just went viral." He pointed to a human holding a small video camera pointed at them.