Free Zombie Rehab by Craig Halloran

billion people and with a billion more, the powers that be won’t be able to control them. I mean what are you going to do when you run out of food, water, medicine and the like? The brilliance of the world leaders was to kill people rather than let nature take its course. Think about it. People are living longer and longer. There isn’t so much famine or disease, and even the death counts from war are down. It’s pretty much up to natural disasters to slow down the population.”
    Nate shrugged as he finished off his milk and honey, and said, “That was wonderful, Rose. Can I have some more?”
    “I’ll be right back,” she said with a wink.
    “But—?”
    “Settle down. I won’t shoot you, Idiot.”
    “Why do you keep insulting me?”
    He could tell Walker’s stone cold face wasn’t going to give him an answer to that.
    “Okay, Walker, so we have too many people, and they created zombies, and they want to create a new world with less people. Why not have a nuclear war?”
    Walker put his booted foot up on the bed, rubbed the toes with the washcloth he’d discarded earlier, and said, “Because of all the fallout. You can’t spend time at the beach in Malibu if there’s a nuclear winter … Idiot.”
    Nate was smarter than this. As the veil of fog began to lift from his mind, he began trying to put things together. Greed, power, and control. Sure, he could buy that, but someone, somewhere was pulling all of the strings. The question was, who? The whole idea had to start somewhere.
    “I’m not buying it. I just don’t think anybody could pull it off. Not like you said, anyway.”
    “You honestly think this is all an accident? Now, think about that. The zombies showed up all over the world, not in just one place.”
    “So who did it, then? I mean, you say the WHS, but who is really behind the WHS, and where in the hell am I, anyway?”
    “You are safe; that’s all that matters,” Rose said as she re-entered the room.
    “What do you mean, I’m ‘safe’? Safe from what, zombies? The WHS? Why did you do all this to me?”
    Nate could see Rose’s light brown eyes reflecting from Walker’s mirrored glasses. There was a hint of fear in them. Walker shrugged and continued rubbing spit into his black leather boot.
    “Nate, you are a hero.”
    “So I’ve been told, but now I’m a murderer, so I don’t see how that helps my situation now.”
    She patted his hand and said, “Just take a second and think about why you are here, right now.”
    He tugged as the short hairs on his beard. It was a new sensation to him, playing with an unfamiliar face. I’ve never had a beard before.
    “I’m here because you guys brought me here,” he retorted.
    “I told you he wasn’t that smart. It took him seven seconds to answer that question,” Walker said, switching to polish his other boot.
    Nate rolled his eyes and said, “Do that somewhere else, G.I. Scarecrow!”
    Walker let out a laugh.
    Rose continued saying, “Why do you think we brought you here? We could have let you die. Walker and Leo, God rest his soul, risked their lives for you.”
    Nate’s eyes narrowed.
    “So you say.”
    “Why then, Nate?”
    “Because I’m a hero?” he said, with a funny look of uncertainty.
    “Bingo, Dickwad,” Walker said as he resumed his place back in the wheel chair.
    “Nate, you stopped one of the biggest conspiracies of all time and saved millions of lives, maybe billions. People love you. I love you. Walker loves you, even though he won’t admit it.”
    “Hah,” Nate said, noticing Walker’s face was downcast toward the floor.
    “Doctor Z loves you.”
    “The guy that hit you?”
    Rose blanched.
    “You saw that?” she asked, rubbing her cheek.
    He nodded.
    “Well, don’t worry about that, Nate. I can take care of myself. He’s just different. Just does a lot of things before he realizes he did them. It’s okay.” She rubbed his ankle and said, “But it’s awful sweet of you to care.”
    Her