large job that'll probably take a couple of days."
"Why do you move them?"
"Mainly for hygiene reasons, we can't leave them to rot so close to where we live. Plus, such a large collection of bodies could attract others. We've seen similar behavior before, I'd like to do some research into it if I can. I want to see if it's anything similar to ants."
Helen frowned and tilted her head, Liz took it as a sign she didn't know what she was talking about.
"When an ant dies, it gives off a hormone to alert other ants that it has died. It's thought to be a warning to other ants to stay away from that area, but in the case of zombies I want to see if it attracts them. Maybe a dead zombie indicates a living person has killed it, lots of dead zombies could mean more living people. I'd like to see if there's any correlation between the amount of dead zombies in one area and the speed or amount of zombies it attracts."
"That sounds..... Kinda like something a mad scientist would say." Helen hoped she didn't sound too harsh, Liz seemed like a nice woman, but her idea sounded dangerous.
Liz paused for a moment before she spoke, blinking rapidly, visibly taken aback by what Helen had said.
"Well, I..... I don't...." She pursed her lips, "I suppose it does."
Liz laughed, which surprised Helen, making her laugh in return. Liz wasn't sure why it was so funny but it felt good to laugh, it had been so long. Her laugh evolved into a cackle, a cackle so harsh and sharp that it made Helen laugh harder. The two sounded hysterical as they laughed at each other laughing. Any tension that lingered in the room evaporated with the laughing. Helen was laughing so hard she was no longer making a noise, Liz wiped tears from her eyes as her cackle receded into a grunt.
"I'm sorry." Helen took a deep breath as she stood up straight, "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just think that any gathering of those things is a bad idea, whether it's for an experiment or not."
"Don't worry. I understand the risk involved, it probably won't come to fruition. If it did, I'd make sure to do it somewhere far away from here and take plenty of steps to be as cautious as possible." She twisted her body towards the door behind her, "Come in to the kitchen and get something to eat, we'll see if Mark's back. I hear you're here to help us with our Internet connection, I can't tell you how thankful we'd be if you could fix it."
Helen felt a pang of guilt as she realised Liz didn't know that it was her that had booted their connection.
"I'm sure the guys have already been lecturing you on how much of a lifeline it would be for us, so thanks in advance. Anyway, what do you fancy? I've got plenty of tinned stuff for you to choose from."
Mark felt exposed without his body armour on, especially after last night. Lifting another body onto the back of the flat bed was difficult enough, he knew it would be twice as difficult in the armor. Still, it didn't make him feel any less vulnerable.
They had been shifting corpses for nearly three hours and had cleared a decent amount in that time. They had dumped the bodies at different locations, ever since Liz had shared her theory about the bodies alerting other zombies to their location they had been careful to scatter them around. Liz had pointed out it was only a theory but Mark didn't want to take any chances.
Varying their routes also gave them an opportunity to scope out the surrounding area. There were plenty of streets and estates they hadn't explored and they were always looking for possible raiding locations. Allister hated it when Mark used the term 'raiding', he said it made them sound like looters. In reality, it was just a throwback to Mark's video gaming days when he and his friends would arrange 'raid nights', all meeting up online to complete particular missions. The raids they did now weren't that different. They would pick somewhere and scope it out. Then would be the planning stage where they would decide
"Why do you move them?"
"Mainly for hygiene reasons, we can't leave them to rot so close to where we live. Plus, such a large collection of bodies could attract others. We've seen similar behavior before, I'd like to do some research into it if I can. I want to see if it's anything similar to ants."
Helen frowned and tilted her head, Liz took it as a sign she didn't know what she was talking about.
"When an ant dies, it gives off a hormone to alert other ants that it has died. It's thought to be a warning to other ants to stay away from that area, but in the case of zombies I want to see if it attracts them. Maybe a dead zombie indicates a living person has killed it, lots of dead zombies could mean more living people. I'd like to see if there's any correlation between the amount of dead zombies in one area and the speed or amount of zombies it attracts."
"That sounds..... Kinda like something a mad scientist would say." Helen hoped she didn't sound too harsh, Liz seemed like a nice woman, but her idea sounded dangerous.
Liz paused for a moment before she spoke, blinking rapidly, visibly taken aback by what Helen had said.
"Well, I..... I don't...." She pursed her lips, "I suppose it does."
Liz laughed, which surprised Helen, making her laugh in return. Liz wasn't sure why it was so funny but it felt good to laugh, it had been so long. Her laugh evolved into a cackle, a cackle so harsh and sharp that it made Helen laugh harder. The two sounded hysterical as they laughed at each other laughing. Any tension that lingered in the room evaporated with the laughing. Helen was laughing so hard she was no longer making a noise, Liz wiped tears from her eyes as her cackle receded into a grunt.
"I'm sorry." Helen took a deep breath as she stood up straight, "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just think that any gathering of those things is a bad idea, whether it's for an experiment or not."
"Don't worry. I understand the risk involved, it probably won't come to fruition. If it did, I'd make sure to do it somewhere far away from here and take plenty of steps to be as cautious as possible." She twisted her body towards the door behind her, "Come in to the kitchen and get something to eat, we'll see if Mark's back. I hear you're here to help us with our Internet connection, I can't tell you how thankful we'd be if you could fix it."
Helen felt a pang of guilt as she realised Liz didn't know that it was her that had booted their connection.
"I'm sure the guys have already been lecturing you on how much of a lifeline it would be for us, so thanks in advance. Anyway, what do you fancy? I've got plenty of tinned stuff for you to choose from."
Mark felt exposed without his body armour on, especially after last night. Lifting another body onto the back of the flat bed was difficult enough, he knew it would be twice as difficult in the armor. Still, it didn't make him feel any less vulnerable.
They had been shifting corpses for nearly three hours and had cleared a decent amount in that time. They had dumped the bodies at different locations, ever since Liz had shared her theory about the bodies alerting other zombies to their location they had been careful to scatter them around. Liz had pointed out it was only a theory but Mark didn't want to take any chances.
Varying their routes also gave them an opportunity to scope out the surrounding area. There were plenty of streets and estates they hadn't explored and they were always looking for possible raiding locations. Allister hated it when Mark used the term 'raiding', he said it made them sound like looters. In reality, it was just a throwback to Mark's video gaming days when he and his friends would arrange 'raid nights', all meeting up online to complete particular missions. The raids they did now weren't that different. They would pick somewhere and scope it out. Then would be the planning stage where they would decide
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