[Kevin Zeprick looks to be an old man. But as with many of the survivors of the Dark Years he is younger than the gray wrinkled face will let you believe. Deep scars cover one side of his face and his yellow eyes show that he has been suffering from liver damage for quite some time; probably do to his mysterious metal drinking canister. Even though this man makes more money then most people are comfortable to admit he remains with worn stained blue jeans and a chequered shirt. At 44 Kevin shows just how far life expectancy has dropped]
People call me something like the merchant of death. [Sucks on a missing tooth] Not me I'm still jus a farmer, cept I'm do in a lot less work for a lot more pay. [Spits in a bucket]. Government usda drain me dry with all those taxes it was surprising that there was so many of us little farmers left before the… well you know… Now I get all my biggest jobs from them!
Biggest jobs? You sell your… 'product'… to outside private contracts?
Nope, not technically. Un-technically yeah I sell to members of the government as private citizens, citizens who don't like being mentioned. One of these big shots bought a whole refrigerated truck full of them. A lot of government funded research is done with my work too. But no mostly I just rent out a few to the military, rarely get any back though. Actually now that I think about it those researchers haven't ever brought one of my rentals back. The K9 units haven't ever even damaged one of mine. Know a friend couple of miles north who had one returned with a couple bites taken out of it, he didn't even charge them for damages because that dog is dead, we ain't razing them for meat ya know!
How do you get new ones?
Sometimes private contractors mostly government issued war profiteers, murderers and a couple of rapists nobody who will miss their humanity. Do ya know some crazy ass people who don't know what their talking about wanna remove the G-Offense? I mean a lot of what holds us together in these desperate situations is that corporal punishment. Buying from outside contractors has some serious problems for me. I've seen some fucking shit… things that will stay with me…
Would you care to elaborate?
No I wouldn't but this thing is for people to know right? Any way there were these guys who said they were rounding up some 'merchandise' from outside the safety zone, said they'd have real low prices for it. I was like hell maybe I could squeeze out some more profits then the government lets me with the high prices they charge for convicts. So I tell em I might be interested in what they got right? Bring me a couple of trucks loaded with em and this one police car with one in the back handcuffed, you know in the cage right? So I like the look of em and I pay them the money. Well we offloaded the…
[Pauses sucking on missing tooth]
Well the zombies there called right? [Spits in bucket] I jus wanna get them into the freezer so we can hack off the ones with really busted arms and legs for a shipment to the researchers who were complaining about not having enough 'specimenze'. Well the last ghoul the one with the handcuffs? It looked fucking dead to me, smelt worse then the others too with all their rotting flesh hanging off them from the feeding the must have done. So quickly I open the door and jump back to let it through right taunting it to this little cliff we made for unloading em. In all this moaning noise you know, I swear as soon as we taunt this shitface off the edge, it gets louder! They all just zoom in like heat seeking missiles starting to tear off pieces of him; he struggled for a second not even moaning. Then when I could barely see him under all those feeding dead, I watched as he took a bite of his own hand joining in on that moaning chorus.
[Pauses for a long time making a face at the floor]
Was it a quislings?
Fuck if I know… [Pause] yeah it would have had to been. Stupid fucker he joined in eating himself it was sick.
How did you get started with your… farming?
Ha. My old farm was attacked anyway lost most of my family, when it first started I nailed my wife… to…
[Wipes a tear]
Do you need a moment?
No… Jus… My wife and kids were my old life, and it's hard when I look at what I do now [He takes a big slosh from his canteen] ah. You know when my son bit my wife I didn't think anything of it… he misbehaved a lot you know? But as soon as I saw him I knew something was wrong. For a ten year old, his skin tone, his moaning wail it was all so wrong. I jus picked him up and kept shaking him; he tried biting me through my work gloves, must have broke two of my fingers but didn't get through. I was yellin at him, 'Shut up!' 'Stop it!'. I broke his neck… [Inhales sharply and takes another slosh of his canteen it's nearly empty now] I knew what he was then because I dropped horrified at what I'd done at what he was doing. His head was still trying to bite me as I dropped him; his head was hanging awkwardly at an unnatural angle. I noticed a few people coming down the road and I told my wife to get inside hide in the attic with the girls. I grabbed my .22 from the truck and called out a warning. They seemed just to speed up even though they weren't going very fast. I shot them and shot them but they just kept getting back up and I got in my truck leading them away from my family… I stayed at the neighbours for a few days and made my way back home and… my wife had turned, the girls had turned too… [He reaches for his canteen and drinks whatever's left] My Molly was partially eaten while, Susie had kinda wedged herself into a corner, ya know right? Right against the beams so she just laid there snapping and moaning at me. I left to the neighbours again making sure to barricade the door. They asked me if my family was fine I never said nothing back that question and they didn't ask it again. I don't know how I figured they'd freeze in the winter but I checked again and they were solidly frozen I laid my wife… [He starts crying] Out on some boards and just nailed her to it. I couldn't stand to even look at my little girls they were 2 and five.
[Sobs quietly as he places his hand to his face]
You don't have to continue I see its to painful
[Sits up wiping his face]
No… people need to know right? My Molly didn't know to stay away from her mother she was only two years old. Susie probably watched her mother… and she must have desperately tried to get away… I jus, smashed both their frozen bodies so they wouldn't come back I dragged my wife to my truck and got away with her… I started my business with her [He sniffs and blows his nose with a rag]. Hey wanna see the criminal infection site; I got some fancy equipment to put the virus directly into their brains all quick and stuff.
[ I made an excuse not to stay any longer mostly not lying saying I needed to consolidate all that he'd told me]