Chapter 7: TS-008
Jim decides to enter the laboratory, to see what he's been assigned, to see that he has multiple assignments. "Record the duration between initial death of a person, and their resurrection as a carrier.". Jim looks over and sees an elderly man on the slab, with a life-support machine. He walks over, and is startled when he hears the man saying something. "D-Doc?" asks the man. "Yes, what do you need, sir?" asks Jim. "Can you just put me out of my misery?" asks the man.
"What's wrong?" asks Jim. "I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer just months ago, everyday, my body hurts- *coughs*" The man starts heavily coughing as his sentence was interrupted. "Don't worry sir, I have some euthanasia supplies." Jim replies. "Thank you so much, doc… God bless you." says the man. "I learned this method while I was studying in Amsterdam, this might sting a bit." Jim gets a jar of nesdonal, and fills a syringe with it. "Any last words, sir?" Jim asks. "Yes, tell my wife, Jean, that: I'll never forget the day I met her in Le Havre. I protected her from one of my buddies, he wanted to rape her..." after the man says this, he lies his head down. "Go ahead, doc, godspeed on your cure.". The man closes his eyes, and Jim then injects the nesdonal into the man's neck. About a minute later, the man seems to be unconscious. Jim then injects Pavulon into the man's neck, another minute later, the man isn't breathing, then Jim injects KCL into the man's neck. Then, shortly after, the man flatlines.
Jim then starts a stopwatch on a computer, and programs this stopwatch to pause when the man starts getting a heartbeat. This is when Jim realizes the man was never bitten. Confused, Jim consults the archives of information, where he sees the result of a previous experiment of some other scientist. The file is labeled I. Kleiner.
"Day 3:
I have made an analysis on Test Subject 7, to reveal that a bite is not the cause of reanimation.
The carriers, or as the family who arrived referred to as "Biters", informed me that their adolescent daughter had killed herself via hanging, she had apparently done this somewhere within the region of the parking lot. I, nor apparently any personnel were informed of this tragedy. It even seems as so no other survivors are aware of this. To keep the stability of this camp in check, military personnel, nor camp survivors are to be informed of this situation, which is what I informed the family of. They understood, and the young lady's corpse was transported to my laboratory. Minutes later, she had reanimated, I was unable to calculate the time it took for her to reanimate, but according to what her family suggested, and the approximate time she reanimated (8:47 AM) about 2-3 hours. After she reanimated, I euthanised her, by inserting a scalpel into the side of her head. Which as Dr Phillips had observed with TS-5, had proved effective.
In conclusion: The term carrier is not quite an effective term for these undead individuals. As this situation implies that the bite is not what turns one into an undead individual. Perhaps my claim may be proven false if a living person dies (without their brain being destroyed) and does not reanimate."
After reading this, Jim decides to exit his laboratory, to get his daily ration. Jim goes into the canteen, where he hears some soldiers talking. "Yo Joe, word got out that Caleb's queer, what's that about?". "Caleb?" asks Joe. "Yeah, what's up with that guy?" asks another soldier "I don't know man, he's a weird dude, I think he was trying to ask me out or something, he told me I look good in my tank top. I just told him I ain't gay." Jim just shakes his head from this conversation, and gets his ration. It was the same as the other days, as Jim now saw it, the dreaded Veggie Burger. As Jim sees this, he becomes frustrated. "At least those military drones didn't take anything out of it…" Jim thinks to himself. Jim looks over where he heard the conversation, and he sees the soldiers surrounding one of the soldiers at their table. Jim, again, shakes his head at the sight of this. "It's like they're in high school." among the general ambience in the canteen, suddenly he hears someone shout "Faggot!" he then hears some of the soldiers laughing. Jim, annoyed, just leaves the canteen with his MRE.
"So ridiculous, I can't believe how childish the guards here are…" Jim thinks to himself. Jim returns to the laboratory, to see that the man still has not reanimated. So Jim goes to the break room to eat his MRE. Here, he sees some fellow scientists playing a card game, and conversing. "Between you and me, I don't trust the national guard." one of the scientists say to the other. "Yeah, I think soon enough, they'll end up fighting each other." says Jim. "What makes you think that?" asks the scientist. "When I was in the canteen, there were soldiers making fun of a soldier who's apparently homosexual." replies Jim. "Was he homosexual?" asks the scientist. "I don't know, apparently he said one of the other soldiers looked good in a tank top." replies Jim. Some of the scientists chuckle, and the scientist replies with "He might be, I don't know. Want to join us?" asks the scientist. "Sure." says Jim.
Jim and the scientists all talk around the table. "So what's your name?" asks the scientist. "James, what about you?" replies Jim. "My name is Irwin." replies the scientist. The other scientists introduce themselves. "I'm Gertrude." "I'm Elijah." "I'm Daniel". After they introduce themselves, Jim simply says "It's nice to meet you all." After a while of playing cards, Jim leaves to goto the restroom, he then remembers his experiment at that point. While Jim is in the restroom, he sees blood on the floor inside one of the stalls.
"Oh shit." Jim says to himself. Jim exits the bathroom and runs to the nearest security guard. "There's something in one of the stalls in the Men's restroom!" Jim says to the guard. The guard enters the bathroom, and sees the pool of blood. "We got a 10-54 in the Men's Bathroom, Laboratory Sector, requesting back up." Shortly, other security guards accompany him, and they break open the stall. They see a man on the ground with his wrists slashed, and a bloody scalpel next to him. Jim sees a group of national guard soldiers surrounding the bathroom. "Nothing to see here, sir, move along." one of the soldiers say.
Jim enters his laboratory, to see the man has reanimated. Jim looks at his computer screen to see that the man had resurrected 2 hours, 26 minutes, and 30 seconds after dying. Jim then writes down his analysis.
"Day 4:
I have made an analysis on Test Subject 8, to discover the length of time between initial death and reanimation of an U.I (Undead Individual).
I was introduced to this man as he was still alive, he was an elderly man in his 80s. As evidenced with a story he had told me on his service in World War 2. The Man informed me that he had been afflicted with Stage 4 Lung Cancer, and he asked me to euthanize him, to which I decided to do, using the common procedure for lethal injections. Afterwards, he had reanimated approximately 2 hours, 26 minutes, and 30 seconds after initial death.
I believe it is safe to say that anywhere from 2-3 hours after death is a common time for a corpse (which has not had its brain destroyed, presumably) to reanimate."
After completing this, he files a copy, goes to a different bathroom, and turns it in to Dr Candace Jenner. "Here you go, Dr Jenner, I completed TS-8's experiment." says Jim. Candace reads the document. "Did you already exterminate him in his undead state?" asks Candace. "No, he's still there, I was unsure if you need anything else of him." replies Jim. Candace has an idea. "We'll store him in a certain place…" Candace contacts the Clean-Up crew. Candace speaks into the intercom: "Clean-Up Crew, transfer Test Subject 8 to Biological Containment Shelter".
As Jim is about the leave the office, Candace stops him. "Dr Phillips.". "Yes, Dr Jenner?" asks Jim. "What has been going on with Walter?" asks Candace to Jim. "He and a bunch of the science personnel decided to leave, they thought the cure wouldn't be made in time." replies Jim. "What about the National Guard?" "It seems they have been acting much more unusual as of late." says Candace. "The National Guard are a bunch of children. We can't trust them fully. I trust the security guards here more." says Jim. "That doesn't answer my question, Phillips." replies Candace in an impatient tone. "The National Guard are spending a lot of their time getting alcoholic drinks in the canteen." replies Jim. "Hmm. I suppose that could explain your absence yesterday." says Candace. "What?" asks Jim. Jim is slightly nervous after he hears her say that. "One of the management's offices were filled with bottles. The same ones from the christmas party 2 years ago. Louis came earlier to apologize to me about his absence yesterday, he told me everything. I have direct ties to the Camp Commander, if you or Louis decide enjoying yourselves is more important than finding the cure, your and Louis' families can follow the path of Walter. Understood?" "Understood." replies Jim.
