Abby watched in horror as Eric's eyes rolled back before his head lolled limply to the side. "Eric...Eric! Eric please wake up, you have to wake up!" Abby sobbed lightly shaking his shoulder as she clutched his hand
"Baby, we are so sorry, this was never supposed to happen," Sheila said quietly to her daughter, her head hung low.
"Mom, what are we going to do?" Abby mumbled, shaking.
"I'm sorry honey, I don't know. Poor kid, he didn't deserve this." mumbled Joel mournfully. Sheila looked away, tears in her eyes as she picked up Joel's hammer-knife, grasping it tightly. Unfortunately Sheila's actions don't go unnoticed by Abby.
"Mom, what are you doing?" stuttered a horrified Abby.
"Sweetie, we have to do this. He's been bitten, there's no other way!" replied Sheila, her eyes growing misty.
"No, you're wrong! He's going to wake up and he's still going to be Eric. There's no way you're killing my boyfriend!" screamed Abby in hysterics.
"Abby, your mother's right, we can't afford to let another zombie loose...we have to end this now, before it has the chance to begin," said Joel between the tears.
"And what makes Eric different from Ron and Jean, or even Gary?" growled Abby, her feelings of betrayal laced in every word.
"Honey, you have to believe us, we don't want to do this either! There's just no other way, another Zombie, especially our neighbor would lead the Knights right to your mother, and they'd realize that I'd infiltrated them as a zombie as well, then they'd kill us all. We just can't afford that risk." pleads a desperate Joel trying to reason with Abby without breaking down himself.
"And if it had been me?" mumbled Abby, stroking Eric's hand with her thumb.
"What?" said a startled Sheila.
"I said, what if it had been me? What would you have done if I'd been the one to be bitten? Would you have 'controlled the problem before it could begin' to?" snarled Abby, venom prevalent in her voice.
"No honey, of course not!" gasps a horrified Sheila.
"Then why doesn't Eric deserve the same chance? Doesn't he deserve the chance to choose whether he wants to be like you guys or… or…" sobs Abby, unable to even finish the sentence.
"Sheila, Abby does have a point. I mean the kid has always kept a level head despite everything that he's seen, and the voice of reason for all of us in this operation, including Abby. Maybe he'll be okay as one of us, I mean Jean only slipped up once with you there, and you kept her from killing anyone else without your permission. And Ron,well he's Ron and he eventually got his act together, at least when it came to his, ya know, meals and he hasn't bitten anyone since that guy Abby killed. I'm sure our level headed Eric will be fine, I mean assuming he wants to be like us, how bad can he be compared to Ron?" pleads Joel.
"Come on mom, dad agrees. Can we keep him?" said Abby putting on a smile, as if she's asking to keep a stray puppy she just found. The irony of the cliche phrase isn't lost to any of the Hammonds and they all let out a chuckle in an attempt to break the somber mood.
"I guess, as long as your father and I are the only ones who get to feed him, you'll have to make sure there are no slip ups." said Sheila smirking, but the seriousness in her eyes and tone isn't lost to Abby.
"I promise mom. Eric has helped me so much in these past few months, I love him and we only just started dating, I'm not losing him now, and hopefully not anytime soon," said Abby, growing hopeful.
"Abby," said Sheila, looking at Abby.
"Mom, Dad, I've got this. Eric and I will get through this, all of us will," said Abby confidently as she locks her gaze with her mother, daring her to object.
"Alright, fine, but we've gotta make this quick. I'll stay behind to clean this up, and get rid of Jerry. Joel, you take the kids home and get Eric set up in the guest bedroom. Abby, you need to get Doctor Wolf on the phone since she's the only medical professional that knows about our little 'ailment', but first Joel, we need to do something about that wound. Joel, we'll need the lighter from our cleanup kit in the trunk and a piece of metal," said Sheila falling into her pre zombie all business mindset.
"I'm on it!" shouts Joel as he jumps up and races towards the Range Rover.
"Wow mom, I'm impressed," said a sniffling Abby.
"This is a situation we hoped would never happen, and looks like I need to step up and be the voice of reason this time," Sheila said, her confidence masking the deep terror for Eric that she felt deep down.
"I've got it!" shouts Joel as he sprinted back from the car towards Sheila.
"Thanks baby, now for the hard part," Sheila said, putting her head down, dreading for what was to come.
"I'm sorry but all I could find that was small enough was this pocket knife," Joel said, breathing heavily, as he handed his wife the lighter and the pocket knife, as well as some bandages from the first aid kit.
"It will have to do. Abby, honey, you should really go call Doctor Wolf. Your father and I have to stop the bleeding and I don't think you want to see what we have to do," Sheila said grabbing her daughter's bloodstained hands in hers.
"Mom, I'm not leaving him. Someone is going to have to keep him calm if wakes up, and it's what he would do for me," said Abby sternly as she locked eyes with her mother, silently daring her to argue.
"Abby, please," begged Sheila.
"Honey are you sure about this?" asked Joel quietly.
This is something you don't want to see!" plead Sheila, looking at Joel to back her up, only for Joel to shrug his shoulders.
""Mom stop, I'm staying and you can't change my mind so let's get this over with so we can save Eric!" Abby shouted angrily.
"Alright, you heard her. Joel, heat up the knife, Abby grab his shoulders," said Sheila, once again in full survival mode. Joel quickly heated up the knife and once he deemed it hot enough, he passed it to Sheila. "Perfect, alright Joel you grab his legs, Abby you got his shoulders and arms?" called out Sheila after touching the hot knife blade lightly.
"We're ready," said Abby, her voice strained.
"Okay, here goes nothing" Sheila said nervously trying not to look at her daughter's pained expression as she placed the hot blade into the wound on Eric's neck.
Before Sheila had the chance to finish cauterizing the wound, Eric's eyes shot open as he let out a piercing howl of pain before his eyes rolled back and he went limp once again.
"Eric!" cried Abby now absolutely hysterical after hearing Eric's pained scream.
"Sheila, hurry!" shouted Joel, also shaken by Eric's brief reaction.
"Alright, almost done!" shouted Sheila, placing the knife blade in the wound once again, cauterizing the wound as best she can to slow the bleeding. She quickly wrapped the wound in a few layers of bandages. "Okay, quickly get him to the car, the bleeding's slowed but I don't know how long until the wound reopens!" shouted Sheila, spurring Joel and Abby into action.
The two dragged Eric to the car, Joel carrying his torso, Abby his legs as Sheila began the clean up. However amidst their panic all of them seemed to miss one detail, when Eric had briefly awoken all three had tried to seal the wound wound as quickly as possible they had missed the faintest flash of yellow in Eric's eyes.