Free Zombie Ever After by Carl S. Plumer Page A

one-way mirror at her and his heart ached. She just lay there on the gurney, dead.  
    “I saw you at the hospital,” Egesa said. “I simply wanted to bring you here so you would know her death was not in vain.”
    “What are you saying?”
    “She was given a saline drip during surgery. The drip, like most water-based things here in the Bay Area these days, was, alas, contaminated.” Egesa paused for effect. Donovan said nothing. “Anyway, although she died, for unknown reasons, the drip didn’t change her. It should have made her quite sick.”
    Donovan stared straight ahead. “I don’t understand” was all he could manage to say.
    *   *   *
    “Before she died she should have shown typical zombie-like symptoms. But she didn’t. We believe her unique DNA,” Egesa droned on, “along with the bite she unfortunately received from a rogue head of ours had somehow—and we don’t know just how yet—made her, well, immune. Invincible. Perhaps, immortal. She’s the key to it all.”
    That caught Donovan’s attention. “Immune? Invincible? What the hell are you talking about?”
    “The contaminated solution had no effect on her. In fact, her blood seems to have some sort of antibodies which fight off and destroy the mutant component of the water. Destroy it completely, in fact. It should have killed her, but she killed it . We also extrapolated that therefore, by default, she is immune to the bite of anyone infected with this disease.”
    “How?” Donovan asked, despite himself.
    “Exactly what we need to find out. That’s what I wanted you to know, to witness—the answer. The answer is Cathren Whitney herself. Once we are sure she is truly dead, we will dissect her—I’m sorry, I meant to say autopsy her—and try to find out what in her genetic makeup, her DNA, has given her this amazing ability, this power if you will.”
    “Hold on a minute, you what—? You plan on turning Cathren into a science experiment?”
    “She already is an experiment, of her own making, her own genetics. Once she got bit, she became one. Besides, there’s no other way. People are getting sick by the thousands. She quite possibly holds the cure to saving us all—you included. I thought you’d be pleased.” Egesa finished speaking and looked away from Donovan at the floor, then back at Cathren’s corpse through the window.
    “As you can see,” Egesa said, waving his hand like a magician. “The situation is very much under control, yes? She’s here. We’re ready to rock and roll, so to speak.”
    Donovan startled, as if waking from a dream. He shook his head and tried to focus on his surroundings. But he kept his eyes on Cathren.
    “What do you mean? What are you saying?” he said. “Isn’t she dead?”
    “That’s what we’re trying to determine,” Egesa said, smiling and inadvertently smacking his lips with a pop as he did so. “Don’t get your hopes up. She has movement. She is making noises. But she has no vital signs. None. At least not yet.”
    “I—I don’t understand.”
    “She’s dead, yes this is true. But she also may be, um, reanimating. We’ve seen this before with our frozen heads at ATELIC. Like the head that bit her—” Egesa hesitated. “But, then, well, it’s at best a 50/50 proposition. Worse odds, actually. The reanimation might not take, in other words. It could be what we call a faux réveil . A false reanimation.”
    As Donovan watched her, Cathren’s lids drooped over her eyes like twin shrouds. At first, Donovan thought she was drifting off to sleep—from the drugs, from exhaustion. But no, her eyelids had definitely moved. Then she groaned. It grew louder and, as he stared through the window, the skin on her forehead parted slightly. The wound grew wider bit by bit as he observed her, yet there was no blood. The moaning continued and another part of her face started to peel away. Then, suddenly, everything stopped. Her skin healed immediately. Pristine.
    Donovan’s