Dead Hunger IV: Evolution (14 page)

“They’re both female and they’re both fairly young,” said Charlie.  “That’s all I see.”

She walked over to the one on the gurney.  “Yeah, that’s about all I see.

“There are three, so far.  They seem to rest when idle, they are both female, and they are approximately the same age,” said Hemp. 

“Anything else?” asked Charlie.

“Not sure.  The one in the red dress was sprayed with urushiol.  Can you detect where?”

Red Dress stood inside the acrylic box, staring outward.  She did not gnash, nor did she moan or growl.  Her eyes were open and pink.  Her teeth were yellowed, but not rotting from her gums, and her hands and skin, while darkened, was not chunking off or heavily blistered and covered with pustules. 

“I can’t tell, Hemp.  Are you sure?  Normally that melts them into nothing.”

“
It got her in the face and neck,” said Hemp.  “Dave was spraying it around and got careless.”

“That’s not good, babe,” said Charlie.  “This shit
has
to kill them or all we’ve got is WAT-6, and that’s not a weapon.  It’s more of a shield.”

“It does kill most of them, Charlie.  We have to figure out why it didn’t kill her.”

“It had damned sure better keep killing the rat
z
.  Guns are wasted on them.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” said Hemp.

“Let’s
mist the other one with it,
”
said Charlie.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“Should we get her inside with Red Dress
first
?”

“Yes.  I want to see if they mimic one another or exhibit similar behavior.”

Hemp looked at the one on the table and leaned close to her face.  Her
blue
eyes stared back, obscured by
red
, but intent on his.  Her lips were parted enough to see that her teeth were also in fair shape, and her skin was
also
in similar condition to
the other one
. 

Hemp once again analyzed her hair, and while some was gone, most remained.  It
was impossible to know whether
the missing hair had been pulled out by her own hands
during the
change from human to zombie,
or if another of the zombies –
perhaps
a guard or
another inmate –
ripped it out for her.
  It was possible their transformati
ons began while somewhere else in the prison, and the prison staff was able to corral
some of them back into their cells
before everything went to hell
.

“Let’s unstrap her,” said Hemp.

Charlie got on the other side and slowly unbuckled the ankle strap.  They rolled the gurney next to the acrylic door and locked the roller wheels.

Once the hip and chest straps were off, they released the head strap.  The last two wrist cuffs were released, and Hemp and Charlie lifted her into a
sitting position.  Her feet hit
the floor and she stood.

She did not fight or attack.  They led her to the acrylic room and put her inside.

Red Dress did not approach the doors.

Once she was inside, Hemp closed the door and locked it again.

“I fucking
hate
that,” said Charlie.  “I keep thinking any second they’re going to turn on me and eat my ass.”

“
That would be m
y job,” said Hemp.

“
How did you know I’m horny right now?”

“I didn’t know.  Well, beyond the fact that you’re pretty much always horny, I didn’t have specific knowledge of your particular horniness at this moment in time.”

“Cut the scientific shit.  There is a time and place for that,” she said, looking at her wristwatch.  “Well, you are on official notice that at this moment, which would be 3:25 PM on whatever the hell day it is right now, that I am horny as fuck.
”

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” said Hemp, smiling.

Charlie eyed the door of the lab.  She went to it, peeled back the curtains, and looked.  “Clear.”

“What?  Oh, Charlie.  Here?  In front of them?”

“Lights out, babe.  They won’t see a thing.”

“Where?”

She nodded at the clean gurney that had not held the zombie.  “Right there.”

“It’s not going to be completely dark,” said Hemp.

Charlie pulled her tee shirt off and dropped it onto the floor.  She smiled at Hemp
as she lifted her feet, pulled the laces and kicked off her shoes, one at a time
. 

“Very pert,” he said.

“I’m twenty-six,”
she said, pulling the nitrile gloves off and dropping them into a stainless wastebasket.
  She followed by unbuckling the drop holster and placing it with the gun on the stainless steel countertop.

“Hell yes, you are.” 
Hemp pulled off his own gloves with two quick snaps and followed suit. 
He went to her and put his arms around her,
sliding them up her back, then around to cup her breasts in his hands.  Between his fingers, her nipples grew hard and firm, and he bent forward and took them in his mouth, one by one
, closing his teeth on each gently
.

Hemp felt her legs go shaky beneath her.

“
Jesus, baby,” she breathed.  “
I could
put out yo
ur eye with these. 
They’re so hard
they hurt.”

“
If I must wear eye protection, I will”
joked
Hemp, smiling.  “But just remember, this lab is not zoned for industrial processes, so no cutting glass with those
.”

Charlie
combined a laugh with a sigh and
pulled away, undoing her jeans
as she
hopped
to the window pulling them down on the way.  She pulled down the shade, hobbled to the other window with her jeans now around one leg, and pulled that shade down, too.  She turned, standing
only
in her socks and underwear.

“You look so much better than weird old Mr.
Timpson
, who used to mow his lawn in a similar getup,” said Hemp.

“If you haven’t noticed, my lawn is mown, trimmed and edged.  I don’t need a fucking gardener right now.  I need a biological expert.”  She hopped to the gurney, pulling off one sock at a time.  She lay on her back, fluffing the tiny pillow and putting it beneath her head.

“I see that.”  Hemp
took off his shoes and
went to her.  It wasn’t very dark, but the zombies were behind them and completely forgotten at that point.

Hemp unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off his shoulders, and then followed with his pants
and underwear
.

“Baby, you didn’t need to take off everything,” said Charlie, her eyes glazed as she looked up at him.  “What if someone knocks.”

“They won’t,” said Hemp.  He lowered his face to hers and kissed her mouth, long, swirling and slow.  He moved down to her neck, kissed her below her ears, down to her collarbone, and then found her nipples again.

Beneath his tender touch, Charlie arched her back, raising her stomach up, and Hemp ran his open palms over her belly, kissing the place where his baby grew inside her
.  He placed
his
cheek against
the smooth skin
to feel her warmth.

He kissed his way down until he felt her stiffen beneath him, and did not stop until she was shuddering at the slightest touch.  Her cries filled the RV, and
when she had climaxed, she spread her arms wide and looked like a rag doll.

“Oh, my God, Hemp!  The
y
did
not
teach you that shit in
England
!”  She sat up, still shaky.  “Lay back.”

She got up and Hemp lay on his back.  She crawled over him, straddling, and lowered herself onto him.

He whispered in her ear, “I learned that at American university.”

“Shut up,” she said, sitting upright, facing him, her hands sliding up and down his chest.  She moved her hips forward and back, and Hemp’s hips rose to meet her every move and thrust.  It did not take long for Hemp to explode beneath her, and pull her
down
tight to him.

They would have probably fallen asleep like that had the zombies not gone crazy.

The first
dead woman’s outcry
was tremendous.  It came as if from a horror movie where a young co-ed was surprised by Jason himself
.  Both Hemp and Charlie were
so shocked and startled, they fell from the gurney to the
linoleum
floor.

The two females slammed into the acrylic wall, clawing and biting at the clear plastic, pressing so hard against it, it was as though they believed they could come through it.

Fortunately
, Charlie
had
landed on top of Hemp, so her fall was cushioned.

“What the hell is wrong with them?” asked Charlie.

“Are you okay?” asked Hemp.

“I think so, but what’s going on?”

Hemp pulled on his pants,
forgoing
the underwear for now, and Charlie did the same thing.  They both went to a window and pulled up the shade.  Charlie
pulled
her shirt back on
backwards and inside out with shaking hands
.

The two female zombies
were still fighting to get to them, teeth g
nashing, full vapor emitting from their eyes
, and screaming
.

“Charlie,
the vapor!  G
rab
the
mask
s
!”

Charlie ran to the opposite wall and
slipped
the masks from the pegs, throwing Hemp one.  They both pulled them on.

In a muffled voice, Hemp said, “Six hours passed, Charlie.”

“Crap!
” she said.
 
“
I
even
said the time, but it didn’t register!”

Hemp and Charlie approached the cage, watching them.  They stood together, side-by-side, staring at their captives.

And without any indication of communication, the zombies moved to opposite sides of the cage, still facing them,
still trying to get at them,
but now
from opposite sides
.  Red Dress was on Charlie’s left side, and
Blue Eyes
was on Hemp’s right.

“Are they . . . attempting to surround us?” asked Hemp.

“Is this what you noticed?” asked Charlie.

“The flanking in the church.  I noticed that, but . . . I always felt it could have been just a lucky division of the group of zombies.  You know, when they came down the two side aisles and the center.”

“They’re making a mess of the cage,” said Charlie.  “Let’s
leave them,
go have a shower and take some more WAT-6.”

Hemp knew she was right.  Nothing could be done with them in a state of hunger, so they had to take more.

“You’re right.  W
e can’t open the cage and spray her with the urushiol unless we’re on it anyway,” said Hemp.  “But we can try this.”

He
pulled her gun from the holster on the table and held it out toward the cage.

They both backed away.  Clear to the back of the room.

“The gnashing and the vapor is involuntary,” said Hemp.  “So is the desire for our flesh, and the urge to come and get us.  But their awareness of danger and self-preservation instincts
indicate an awareness of some kind
, so advancing on us is apparently something they can suppress when in their best interest.”

Charlie turned her head toward him.  “Hemp, are you kidding?  Aren’t you giving them too much credit?”

“I
need
to test them,” said Hemp. 

“For what?”

“
It’s just a hunch, but I want to test them for p
regnancy.”

Charlie just stared.

*****

Chapter Five

Flex and Dave barely made it to the state house.  The roads were filled with zombies and ratz, and the city that lay before them held little resemblance to the one into which they had arrived a few months earlier.