10: Zombies?
Tuesday 15th September 1998
"Take a look at this," said Almond, brandishing a copy of The Raccoon Times.
Marco snatched it, and began reading aloud to the rest of the Street Rats as they walked along Main Street.
"It has been suggested by members of the public that the growin' number of suspicious-lookin' people wanderin' the streets could be "zombies"," he read.
"Yeah, right," scoffed Tiffany. "Zombies. As if!"
"They must be zombies," quoted Marco, in a high-pitched girly voice that made everyone else snigger. "I saw one guy outside my house lurchin' around an' groanin', an' he had this kind of blank expression, like he didn't have a brain or somethin'. It was like somethin' out of a bad horror movie."
"Hasn't anyone told these people that zombies don't actually exist?" said Alena.
"Yeah. It's like, "hello, common sense? Where are you?"" said Tiffany sarcastically.
"The guy was probably high on crack or somethin'," said Mitch.
"Or he had a hangover," supplied Eduardo.
"Shut up, I'm readin'," said Marco shortly.
The others fell silent, and he continued:
"This is, of course, a ridiculous rumour that the Mayor an' RPD have been tryin' to quash ever since August, when the RPD's STARS squad returned from an assignment claimin' that zombies were loose in Raccoon Forest an' that they had been created by a virus in a secret mansion laboratory belongin' to the pharmaceuticals giant Umbrella Incorporated. Their claims have since been dismissed as hallucinations brought on by the trauma of the loss of several colleagues durin' the assignment."
"I reckon they'd been at the blue herbs," said Roland. "There are a lot of those things in Raccoon Forest. They've got medicinal properties, of course, but they're strictly for external use only."
"Must've been smokin' 'em or somethin'," said Ritchie, chuckling.
"Yeah, didn't those STARS guys mention giant spiders too?" said Raphael thoughtfully. "An' zombie crows?"
"Giant spiders?" said Maddy sceptically. "They must have been high. You don't get 'em that big even back in Oz. An' that's sayin' somethin'."
"Shut up!" said Marco. "Mayor Warren went on to declare that there are no such things as zombies, an' that there certainly aren't any in the city. However, this has failed to stop the rumours that are spreadin' like wildfire throughout Raccoon City, includin' the story that the so-called "zombies" are somehow linked to the mystery virus that has already killed one person an' left several others in a life-threatening condition. It is hoped that these rumours will eventually die down an' that life in our town will soon return to normal."
He handed the paper back to Almond.
"Zombies. Pfff! Load of junk," he scoffed.
"Aunt Rosa say the same thing this mornin'," Jack agreed.
"Your aunt's right, Jack," said Maddy. "Zombies – huh! Load of nonsense."
"Yeah," said Valerio, and he grinned. "Hey, guys, look, I'm a zombie!"
To the accompaniment of laughter, Valerio held both arms straight out in front of him and pretended to lurch around with a vacant look on his face.
"Uuuhhh," he groaned. "Brains… braaiinnss…."
"Oh no! Valerio's a zombie! Call the Mayor an' tell him he's an idiot!" laughed Almond. "Call the cops! Call the army! Won't someone save us from the zombies?"
Valerio grinned wickedly, and was about to say something when a shot rang out. For a moment he looked astonished, then he fell forwards, landing face down on the sidewalk.
Almond screamed – "Valerio!" – and dropped to her knees beside him. A pool of red was blossoming on the sidewalk underneath Valerio, like a malevolent red flower. She rolled him over, stifling another scream as she saw his wide eyes and the expression of shock frozen on his face.
"Valerio! Come on, man! Wake up!" she shouted, trying to shake him awake.
Batman shoved Almond aside, and grabbed Valerio's wrist, feeling for a pulse. Finding nothing, he dropped the wrist and tried the spot just beneath the jawbone, then the temples. Nothing. No pulse; no breathing, either.
Batman looked up at the other Street Rats, and shook his head. Almond burst into tears.
"Who did this?" she screamed. "Who?"
As one, the Street Rats turned to look in the direction of the shot, and saw a storekeeper standing in the doorway of his shop, shotgun in hand. He was middle-aged, short and plump, with thinning hair and a terrified expression.
Almond gave a screech of rage at the sight of him.
"Murderer! You killed him! You killed Valerio!"
"I – I – I thought he was a zombie!" said the man, looking even more terrified.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?" shouted Maddy. "There's no such bloody thing! Zombies don't exist!"
"It's all over the papers," said the man, trembling. "They're saying there's zombies in Raccoon City and they think they're spreading that disease."
"Who's "they"?" Maddy demanded to know. "The people writing the papers? Hah! Everyone knows it's all bloody lies in the papers!"
"That disease killed my wife!" said the man, the pitch of his voice rising. "I'm not taking any chances!"
Jack glanced up at the shop sign – Wrigley's Grocery Store, Est. 1971. He felt like he'd heard the name before. Wrigley, Wrigley…
"Don't move, mister. I'm callin' the cops," said Tiffany darkly, and she ran over to a nearby payphone.
The Street Rats stood in the middle of the street, next to the body of their fallen friend. Up until now they'd been too stunned to really take in what had just happened, but now Valerio's death was starting to sink in, with dramatic results.
Alena and Columbine both started to cry, and Eduardo was trying hard not to do the same.
"Hello, 911? Yeah, the police. That's right… thanks," said Tiffany.
Just four feet away, Roland and Batman were comforting Almond, who was still sobbing hysterically over Valerio's body. Jack swallowed hard, and remembered that the last time he'd spoken to Valerio, he'd gone away muttering "asshole" under his breath. He suddenly felt guilty. Too late to do anything about it now, though. Valerio hadn't heard him, and even if he had, he certainly wouldn't be able to accept an apology now that he was dead.
Wrigley… the name was driving him mad. Where had he heard it before?
"… Hello, RPD? I'd like to report an incident outside Wrigley's Grocery Store," said Tiffany. "The storekeeper just shot someone dead…"
Maddy was still arguing with Mr Wrigley, who was beginning to sweat nervously – not least because Marco, Mitch, Raphael and Ritchie were standing behind her and glowering at him.
"I swear I didn't know," he said wildly. "If I knew he was only pretending, I never would have shot him! I'm not a murderer! I just didn't want to die like my wife did! She couldn't even remember her own name at the end! I don't want to end up like my poor Beatrice!"
Wrigley, Wrigley – ah, yes. Beatrice Wrigley was the woman who died from the mystery illness. So this must be her husband Rodney, thought Jack, feeling vaguely pleased that he'd figured it out. And yet something was still bothering him…
Oh no, thought Jack. Dint Beatrice Wrigley babysit Lise when she be grounded? What if Lise be ill too? I gotta see if she be okay…
The sound of approaching sirens convinced Jack that it would be a good idea to leave now. After being wrongfully arrested twice, he was understandably wary of the police and didn't think it would be a good career move to be in the same street as a dead body, even though he hadn't actually done anything. He hadn't done anything the other two times, either. So Jack made a hasty exit when everyone else's attention was elsewhere, and ran back to uptown as fast as his legs could carry him.
----------
Lisa was in the middle of writing invitations when she heard the knock at the door. Wondering who it was, she got out of her seat and went to answer the front door.
She was pleasantly surprised to see Jack standing on the doorstep. For some reason he looked worried.
"Hello, Jack," said Lisa. "Is everything okay? I didn't see you in school today. Don't tell me you were ill, you'll scare me to death. You know that disease killed another guy this afternoon? I just heard it on the news – it was that guy who got attacked by crows. And they're saying that disease is being spread by zombies or something, isn't that stupid? There's no such thing as zombies!"
"Tell that to you neighbour's husband," said Jack. "He just killed one of my amigos 'cause he thought he was a zombie!"
Lisa was shocked.
"That's terrible! Who was it?" she asked.
"Valerio," said Jack. "We all be makin' fun of the newspaper stories, y'know, an' Valerio does a zombie impression – next thin' we know, BLAM! He be lyin' flat on the floor in a puddle of blood an' this guy Wrigley claimin' he think Valerio be a zombie an' he dint mean to shoot him. He say somethin' 'bout his wife an' I remember she babysit you an' she just die from this disease. So I come to see if you be okay. You ain't sick or anythin'?"
"No, Jack, I'm fine," said Lisa, shaking her head. "Just fine."
"Okay," said Jack, relieved. "Sorry I bother you. See you mañana, 'kay?"
"Okay."
"Bye, Lise."
Lisa waved goodbye, and closed the door. She was about to go back into the living room and finish writing the invitations when the phone rang.
Lisa picked up the phone.
"Hello?" she said.
"Dr Hartley, the L-Project is dangerous. You have to end it now," said a woman's voice. "I don't care what the others say. If it isn't stopped, it'll destroy everything."
"Oh, not another prank caller," Lisa sighed. "Don't you people have lives?"
She hung up, and went off to finish writing the invitations. This time, there were no further interruptions.