Chapter 3

We'd just passed into Shady Cove when the trouble resumed. We'd managed to put about a state's worth of distance between the border checkpoint and us. It was entirely our fault. We'd grown complacent. We'd thought we were safe. We'd thought wrong.

As we cruised along the centre of the road, I'd decided that we were safe enough to let the window down. I'd been like that for the last half an hour, letting the wind catch my hair as we easily hit the seventy miles per hour mark. I've never let my hair get long. Never. Having long hair in the kind of work I used to do is otherwise known as a passive form of suicide. Having it cut more like you'd typically see on a boy meant I could keep it good enough that it could still bump up my camera ratings while making sure it was grab-resistant. That was why it was such a shock when it got grabbed.

The scream escaped me before I had time to think. Shaun whipped his head over to see the arm descending from the ceiling. My .40 was already in my hands and I was blind-firing upwards trying to score a meaningful hit. He slammed on the brakes and I felt the zombie on top of the van lurch forwards, my scalp feeling like it was about to tear away from my head. For a split second, I saw its face, horribly bloated and pockmarked with black blemishes. I saw more of the arm holding me too, noticing the swollen lumps under the skin that seemed to go right through it. It had a particularly bad one under the armpit that looked ready to erupt at any second. As bad as it looked, the smell was worse. There was the usual stench of death, but something else underlying. Worse, somehow. It was totally rancid, like a death beyond death!

In the split instant that its head came into view, Shaun was ready. He whipped out his revolver and fired through the windshield, hitting it right through the left eye socket like one of those pre-Rising cowboy films. The pressure on my hair lessened and I was unceremoniously dumped back down into my seat with a sickening crunch. As it rolled off the roof, its fingers managed to snag on my glasses and drag them off my face before I realised what was going on. I screamed again as the light flooded my eyes, my arm instantly coming up to shield them. As bad as it was, I wasn't about to go and get those back. I frantically screwed my eyes shut and unclipped myself from my seat, standing to get my spare pair of glasses. In that moment, I realised what the crunch had been.

"Shaun, I've got no sunglasses left!" I screamed desperately, even though he was right there.

"Okay, hold on!" I heard him getting up and ripping something up before I felt a piece of fabric being tied over my eyes. He tied it off at the back before sitting me back down and stamping on the gas.

"Don't worry, I saw everything!" Dr Abbey said over our ear cuffs. "You're not far from me. Take the next right onto the side road and then take a right. I'll stand down all traps on the approach. Try not to drive too fast. I want that zombie for study. It looks weird so I want to know more." Shaun did as she asked and slowed down to keep the zombie on the hood. It took us about fifteen more minutes of driving where I couldn't see a thing and was totally unable to cover us as he drove. Eventually, we pulled up at the lab and had Dr Abbey herself running out to greet us- with a shotgun, of course. Before I could react, the blindfold was roughly pulled off and something was hurriedly forced onto my face. A UV blocker. I instantly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a temporary solution, but it was a definite help. Now I just had to be careful. These things were fragile as hell.

"What's up, doc?" Shaun asked as a team of people rushed out behind us and started to peel the zombie off the front of the van.

"Is that the new zombie?" she asked, a look of borderline disappointment crossing her face.

"What did you expect?" I asked, confused by her tone. "And what do you mean 'new'? You think this is a new species?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, suddenly a picture of nonchalant business. "Maybe a crab claw coming out of his back or something. Maybe some wings to explain how he got up there in the first place. I really couldn't see much over the camera. Hand me the keys and I'll have one of my guys take care of the decontamination and replace that windshield." She was being unusually prompt. "And where's my damn package?"

"I'll get it." I nodded, running back to the van and using the panel to get in. I unclipped it and hefted it into my arms, walking back to see Shaun had made his way over and held out a hand to help me out again. I really didn't need it but I took it gratefully, realising just how shaken by the zombie attack he must have been. We made our way back over to see Dr Abbey's eyes light up as we approached.

"Ah yeah, that's the baby!" She took it eagerly, handing the shotgun off to one of her lab interns with a prosthetic leg- Jill, I remembered her name was- to be able to take it from him. She led us inside, lovingly caressing the cylinder and even going so far as kissing it as we walked. Now I was officially freaking out.

"So what's in that cylinder, anyway?" I asked curiously.

"All in good time." She walked ahead of us as she pointed to the dreaded decon doorways. The Squids and Molluscs signs were still there and made things no clearer than before. "Same as before, guys. Since you've been actively exposed to the infected, I am going to need you to do it this time." That was fair enough. I felt physically dirty after getting my hair grabbed like that, so it would actually be a relief to get scrubbed with bleach this time.

"Fine." Shaun nodded, obviously coming to the same conclusion. "Where will we find you afterwards? Your office?"

"Hell no!" Dr Abbey was grinning from ear to ear. I didn't think I'd ever seen her smile that much. It was kind of weirding me out. "I'm going to get this to a lab and get started right away. You guys head to my office and wait. Oh, and George? There's a present for you in the decon chamber. Some friends of mine made a version of the UV blocker that's actually tougher than your sunglasses. They can survive decontamination and the specs on them are outstanding. Commandeer one." I nodded and stepped into the chamber, hitting the button to begin the cycle.

The decontamination was pretty straightforward, just as it had always been. I had to ditch my flimsy plastic UV blocker going in, but luckily Dr Abbey had factored in my Retinal KA. The lights turned down in the chamber to the point that they were almost off. To me it was lit up like late afternoon. I could see the new metal UV blocker on a small shelf in the corner that my sunglasses would have been placed on had I still had them. Once I was done, I picked it up and checked it over. At first it seemed vastly too small until I realised that it was adjustable. I pulled on the sides and extended it to fit my face before placing it on.

As the lights came up, I realised just how different this thing was. It was heavier for a start, with a material on the front that was tougher than motorbike helmet visor with adaptive visual fluctuation. It was as though the material was able to sense my Retinal KA and adjust itself accordingly. I had no idea how it was able to adjust in length along with the metal shell, but I was glad that it was. It left absolutely no light gaps at all.

The door opened and I noticed a pile of clothes had been left for me. This was different. Last time, Shaun and I had been given hospital-like scrubs until our own clothes were ready for us again. This time, I had proper clothes waiting for me. There were jeans, socks, a shirt and a sport bra. There were panties too, but I realised they definitely weren't from the same set as the rest of the clothes. They must have sets here for people just coming out of decon. These were way too new while the rest of it had clearly been worn before.

Without pausing, I pulled the clothes on and stepped out just as Shaun did. He stood there in front of me clad in the standard hospital scrubs that I remembered from our previous visits. He looked me up and down, jealousy plain on his face.

"How come you're getting proper clothes?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing. "I thought if anyone it would be you getting the scrubs since you're the one here for the checkup!"

"If you find out, tell me." I shrugged. "Dr Abbey didn't provide these, though. Call it a woman's intuition." He shook it off and took my hand as we walked together down the hall towards Dr Abbey's office. We didn't know what had been so important about the package we'd been carrying or the zombie we'd been jumped by, but we were determined to find out. And it was because we were so focused on that and each other, we were completely caught off guard and totally jumped a mile when the alarms started blaring.

"Joey-

Big news! Really big news! I was watching George and Shaun through their cameras as they brought me the container I'd asked for- thanks for sending that over BTW- and they got attacked by a zombie that looked different! I've got Jill and her team standing by to collect it and start running tests on it as soon as they get here. She's one of the best I've got, save for myself of course. Soon I'll know everything there is to know about this new zombie and what caused this mutation. I hope it's a change in the KA Virus. If the virus is changing, that might mean our bodies are starting to find ways to combat post-death amplification. Or that's my hypothesis anyway. I'll let you know what I dig up."

An E-Mail from Dr Shannon Abbey to Dr Joseph Shoji, EIS.

June 3 2046.