Zombies! Episode 4 - The Sick and the Dead
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 by Ivan Turner
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What has come before.
Shawn Rudd, a high school senior in a hurry to meet up with his secret boyfriend, encounters a zombie on the streets of Brooklyn. With no hesitation, Shawn confronts the zombie, stabbing it and then bludgeoning it with a lead pipe. He then turns on the zombie's hapless bite victim, killing her with a blow to the head as well.
Investigating the crime, Detectives Johan Stemmy and Anthony Heron are confounded and chilled by the fact that the man Shawn killed had been dead for twelve hours at the time of the incident. Their investigation takes them to the apartment of the Koplowitz family where they
confront Mrs. Lucy Koplowitz, and her eight year old daughter Zoe, already zombies. Zoe bites Stemmy in the leg, thus infecting him. He dies hours later and Heron sees to it that he will never turn.
A week later, a customer, of Push Ups gym, Karl Rappaport, becomes ill while working out and drops a weight on his foot. Abby Benjamin wheels him to the Sisters of Charity ER and waits for a doctor to attend him. While waiting, Karl dies from the infection. The doctors bring him straight back and try to revive him but to no avail. Minutes later, he awakens on his own. A nurse comes to help him only to be bitten by the zombie that he has become. Her wound is severe and it only takes seconds for her to die. Shortly thereafter, there are two zombies in the ER. While the chief of emergency medicine tries to get everyone out, a young doctor named Peter Ventura recognizes the threat and locks down the ER.
The Sisters of Charity event causes a nationwide panic and people disappear from all of the major cities. But the panic is premature. The zombie infection doesn't spread like people fear. Within a couple of weeks, people begin to trickle back into their homes and their lives.
Out of the clear blue, Lance Naughton comes to see Dr. Denise Luco, finding her submerged in her work. In an effort to pull her out of her funk, Naughton takes her to dinner. Their awkward encounter blossoms into an unexpected connection.
John Arrick's date with his girlfriend, Suzanna, goes poorly. She'd sick and, when he suggests she see a doctor, she gets angry and storms out. Later she returns and stays the night. By the next night, however, she is very sick and it's clear that she's infected with the zombie plague. Arrick manages to get her to her own apartment and sits with her while the infection runs its course and steals her life.
Awakening in the dark, Arrick is confronted by the zombie that Suzanna has become. They struggle their way into the bathroom but Arrick manages to fend her off, smashing her head against the bathtub. He struggles his way out of the apartment, soaked in her blood, and finds his way home. After a bout of cleaning and a shower, Arrick discovers the bite mark and realizes that his victory over the zombie is hollow and worthless.
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AT about four o'clock Sunday afternoon, John Arrick pulled himself out of bed so that he could go and get some water. It had been more than eight hours since the symptoms of the zombie plague had first begun to show. It had started with sneezing and coughing. Quickly, body aches had set in. He was almost forced prone by the pain in his back, which he had wrenched while fighting off his zombie girlfriend and subsequently cleansing himself and his apartment of the infection. All in
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