ended in an ominous tone.
My head was spinning. I thought I knew how the virus was transmitted, but hearing an official confirmation of how virulent and easily spread that virus was way too much to process. I’d been extremely careful every time I touched one of those things, but I could’ve unwittingly become an Undead during those chaotic weeks, just like tens of thousands of people. The pieces of that awful puzzle were starting to fit together.
“How long can the damn things last? Is there a vaccine?” My thoughts were racing.
Alicia Pons studied me for a few seconds, debating what to say next. Finally, she clasped her hands on the table and swallowed hard. “From what we know so far, those beings can last indefinitely. The natural process of putrefaction is arrested or slowed way down. They don’t breathe, so their bodies aren’t subjected to oxidation. Their metabolism is so low they don’t seem to need nourishment. Those things could be—”
“Could be what?” An icy fist squeezed my heart. Deep down I knew the answer.
“Eternal,” Pons said in a hollow voice. “Humanity may have to live with them forever, unless we exterminate them… or they exterminate us.”
Her words echoed in my head like a gunshot. If I hadn’t spent a year living on the razor’s edge, constantly fighting those monsters, I’d have thought she was making it all up. I knew she wasn’t exaggerating, yet it all sounded so unbelievable.
“This is so… crazy,” is all I managed to say.
“Of course it is.” Pons stood up and walked over to a refrigerator. “Talking about people rising from the dead and attacking the living is crazy. The fact that they don’t need to eat, breathe, or sleep is also crazy. It’s crazy that they don’t decay or suffer any wear and tear—that they’re still moving around even though they’re dead as a damned doornail. No matter how unbelievable it all sounds, you know as well as I do, everything I’ve said is true.”
Alicia’s voice was muffled as she rummaged around in the refrigerator, clinking bottles together in her search. She scooped up a can of soda from the back of the refrigerator with a triumphant cheer. She stood up, turned around, and walked back to the table holding the can and a glass.
“Drink this,” she said, as she opened the can with a snap and poured half of its contents into the glass. “It’s always a shock to face events that reason and science say can’t be possible—and yet there they are. The reaction worldwide is very similar. And right now, you don’t look so good.”
I gratefully accepted the soda Alicia held out to me. My mouth was horribly dry. After I’d gulped down half the can, I felt a little better. But my head was still spinning.
“I was splashed with the blood and guts of those beings more times than I like to think about, Alicia,” I said hoarsely, trying to calm mynerves. “If TSJ is transmitted the way you say, why haven’t I gotten infected?”
Alicia stared into the empty glass on the table, her mind far away.
“You know, you shouldn’t have drunk that soda so fast. That stuff is getting scarce, even on the black market. I hear it’s trading at astronomical rates. It may be a long time before you can afford to drink another.”
Her sorrowful eyes came to rest on the half-empty can, then rose to my face again. “If you or your friends had been splashed with blood, saliva, lacrimal fluid, or nasal mucus from an infected being, you’d’ve turned into one of those things. By now you’d have had a fair amount of lead in your brain, my friend,” she said, as she poured a little more soda. “That’s what the quarantine is for, so we can be one hundred percent sure that new people aren’t going to be a…
problem
.”
Alicia settled back into her chair. “Clearly that didn’t happen to you all.”
That explanation didn’t reassure me. If I’d had an open cut when I’d been splashed or gotten some fluid in my eyes,
My head was spinning. I thought I knew how the virus was transmitted, but hearing an official confirmation of how virulent and easily spread that virus was way too much to process. I’d been extremely careful every time I touched one of those things, but I could’ve unwittingly become an Undead during those chaotic weeks, just like tens of thousands of people. The pieces of that awful puzzle were starting to fit together.
“How long can the damn things last? Is there a vaccine?” My thoughts were racing.
Alicia Pons studied me for a few seconds, debating what to say next. Finally, she clasped her hands on the table and swallowed hard. “From what we know so far, those beings can last indefinitely. The natural process of putrefaction is arrested or slowed way down. They don’t breathe, so their bodies aren’t subjected to oxidation. Their metabolism is so low they don’t seem to need nourishment. Those things could be—”
“Could be what?” An icy fist squeezed my heart. Deep down I knew the answer.
“Eternal,” Pons said in a hollow voice. “Humanity may have to live with them forever, unless we exterminate them… or they exterminate us.”
Her words echoed in my head like a gunshot. If I hadn’t spent a year living on the razor’s edge, constantly fighting those monsters, I’d have thought she was making it all up. I knew she wasn’t exaggerating, yet it all sounded so unbelievable.
“This is so… crazy,” is all I managed to say.
“Of course it is.” Pons stood up and walked over to a refrigerator. “Talking about people rising from the dead and attacking the living is crazy. The fact that they don’t need to eat, breathe, or sleep is also crazy. It’s crazy that they don’t decay or suffer any wear and tear—that they’re still moving around even though they’re dead as a damned doornail. No matter how unbelievable it all sounds, you know as well as I do, everything I’ve said is true.”
Alicia’s voice was muffled as she rummaged around in the refrigerator, clinking bottles together in her search. She scooped up a can of soda from the back of the refrigerator with a triumphant cheer. She stood up, turned around, and walked back to the table holding the can and a glass.
“Drink this,” she said, as she opened the can with a snap and poured half of its contents into the glass. “It’s always a shock to face events that reason and science say can’t be possible—and yet there they are. The reaction worldwide is very similar. And right now, you don’t look so good.”
I gratefully accepted the soda Alicia held out to me. My mouth was horribly dry. After I’d gulped down half the can, I felt a little better. But my head was still spinning.
“I was splashed with the blood and guts of those beings more times than I like to think about, Alicia,” I said hoarsely, trying to calm mynerves. “If TSJ is transmitted the way you say, why haven’t I gotten infected?”
Alicia stared into the empty glass on the table, her mind far away.
“You know, you shouldn’t have drunk that soda so fast. That stuff is getting scarce, even on the black market. I hear it’s trading at astronomical rates. It may be a long time before you can afford to drink another.”
Her sorrowful eyes came to rest on the half-empty can, then rose to my face again. “If you or your friends had been splashed with blood, saliva, lacrimal fluid, or nasal mucus from an infected being, you’d’ve turned into one of those things. By now you’d have had a fair amount of lead in your brain, my friend,” she said, as she poured a little more soda. “That’s what the quarantine is for, so we can be one hundred percent sure that new people aren’t going to be a…
problem
.”
Alicia settled back into her chair. “Clearly that didn’t happen to you all.”
That explanation didn’t reassure me. If I’d had an open cut when I’d been splashed or gotten some fluid in my eyes,
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