Dead Hunger IV: Evolution (29 page)

“Shit is right,” said Hemp, gently putting the scalpel in his hand back in the tray and approaching the table.

“Did
that just happen
?” asked Charlie.

Hemp turned to look at her eyes, wide and beautiful.  “If so, then we saw the same thing. 
Auditory
senses
?”

“
If
that means
the ability to hear, I hope the hell not
.”

“Only one way to find out.  Do it again.”

“
Break something else?”

Hemp rummaged around in the drawer and found
a glass beaker.  He moved behind her, standing beside Charlie.  “We’ll be very quiet for a few moments, so she settles again.”

They stood beside one another and Charlie took Hemp’s free hand in hers.  She squeezed it and Hemp squeezed back.

Suddenly, even causing Charlie to jump, Hemp hurled the beaker to their left, where it smashed against the cabinet.

The zombie
’s head, restrained, but able to move mere millimeters, struggled to turn, her body tensing.

“This is not a good development,” whispered Hemp.

“No shit,” said Charlie.  “She can hear.”

“I don’t understand it,” said Hemp.  “They’ve never had this ability before.  I’d always assumed their eardrums rotted away.”

“But her brain, babe.  Her brain is … healthy, kind of.”

Hemp’s mind was spinning.  A million thoughts hit him at once, and he knew what he had to do.

He
snatched
his portable Dremel saw and
hurried
into the acrylic cage.  He grabbed Red Dress’s arm and
spun her body through
the
sticky,
dead fluids of her own body
until
her head was facing him.  Most of the work he needed done
had already been achieved
by Charlie’s bullets, but he still needed to make some additional cuts.

“Charlie, would you bring me some new gloves, please?”

“What are you doing?”

He stared at the zombie corpse on the floor in front of him, his mind whirling too fast to comprehend Charlie’s words.  She gave him the gloves. 
He removed the others and pulled on the new ones.  “And a scalpel, please?”

“Multi-tasking?” asked Charlie.

“In a sense, yes,” said Hemp.  “Turn away if you need to,” he said.

“Not in a million fucking years,” said Charlie.

The saw started up, and Hemp cut the part of her skull away that hadn’t been shattered by the 9mm rounds.  He put the scalpel on the floor, grabbed the crown of her skull with both hands and twisted.

It snapped in two and fell out of his hands.  Hemp removed an LED penlight from his pocket and shone it on Red Dress’s brain.

He looked up at Charlie.  “It’s pretty destroyed – good work, by the way – but it’s the same as hers, Charlie.  Parts look vibrant.  Healthy, like
Blue Eyes
over there.”

“What does it mean, babe?”

“Hold on.”

Hemp had to know
two
more thing
s
.  He picked up the scalpel and began cutting around the least destroyed ear.  He jabbed it just behind it and cut around.  When his last cut met his initial one, he pulled on the ear, and the ear canal itself became visible.

He touched it.  It felt soft, pliable.  Not dried out and dead.  Upon further investigation, he found that some of it, the outer portion mostly, was less fleshy.

But none of it should have been.  The brain should have been shrunken, wrinkled and dry like a prune, yet it wasn’t.

He looked up at Charlie, who could not seem to look away.  Her eyes held the anticipation of a coming revelation, but what Hemp had to tell her was closer to doom.

“I think,” he said, “
that they
’re
developing more offensive and defensive mechanisms, Charlie.
”  He turned back.  “Last thing I have to know.”

He put his hand on Red Dress’s stomach, pressing in, moving his
palm
up and down as he applied pressure.

“There,” he said.  “I feel it.”

Charlie stared, her eyes fixed and wide.  “What?” she whispered.  “The baby.”

Hemp nodded.  “Yes.  Exactly.”

“Are you taking it out,
babe
?”

“No,” he said.  “I see no advantage in that.  I can kill it in place, or destroy it with her body.”

“I hate the thought of burning a baby alive,” said Charlie.  “Fucking horrible.”

“It’s not a baby, Charlie.  “It’s no different than its full-grown mother.  It is a creature with the same craving for human flesh and the instinctual drive to satisfy it.”

“But it doesn’t have the ability.”

“They are mindless,” said Hemp.

“Not all of them,” said Charlie.  “Red Dress made words come out of Lisa’s mouth.”

He stood up and looked into her eyes.  “
And that should be a harsh reminder that w
e’ve more to fear that ever before, I’m afraid.”

They both turned to look at
Blue Eyes
.

She looked back.

“I wonder what she’s thinking,” said Charlie.

“Soon enough,” said Hemp, “She just might tell us.”

“I want to cut her head off
before she does
,” said Charlie.

*****

“Look,” said Gem.  “I love the girls, and you know it.  I love the dogs.  But if I have to stay here another fuckin’ hour, I’m going to go stir crazy.”

“
And that’s cool.  We’ll get you a sitter,” said Charlie.  “But what we
need
first
is like a covere
d cake plate or something. 
The kind with the glass dome.  Did you see one here?”

“Chick who lived here was a
baking freakshow
.  I think there’s a separate shelf just for ramekins.  Yeah, I think there are three different sizes.  Which one do you need?”

“
Got a ruler?”

Gem opened a drawer and withdrew a red, plastic ruler, giving it to Charlie.

Charlie smiled and held the ruler up to Gem’s head.  She took one measurement with the ruler in the vertical position and another horizontally.

“Charlie, what the hell are you doing?” asked Gem.

“It needs to be at least 10” diameter and 12” tall.”

“
What’s it for?”

“Oh, my God.  You’ll see.”

“
The large should do it,”
said Gem.  She pulled it from the walk-in pantry and two-handed it to Charlie, then pulled it back.  “T
he minute I give this to you, I’m loading up the Crown  Vic and I’m going to find Flex and Dave.”

“Fuck that,” said Charlie.  “
But give me ten more minutes in case Hemp needs help. 
I’m goi
ng with you.”

“Doesn’t
Hemp
want to come?”

“He can’t,” said Charlie.  “
He’s got lots to do. 
This stuff is serious
, Gem.  So much that we don’t trust that bitch out there enough to have a body.”

Gem stared at her.  “What?”

“We’re cutting off her head.  It’s why we need the cake plate.”

Gem shuddered, imagining the girls coming across it. 
“Oh, keep that
shit covered and out in the lab. 
Why keep her?
”

Charlie looked uncharacteristically unwilling to speak for a moment.

“Charlie,” said Gem.  “Really?  Secrets?”

“No, Gem,” said Charlie.  “It’s just that … you got pretty upset at the information about their pregnancies.”

“So they were both pregnant?”

Charlie nodded.

“So?  What now?”

“Look.  It involves estrogen.  Which is why you
and I
need to stay very clear of females in the family way. 
Our
estrogen levels are freaky high right now according to Hemp, and if
we
were to become exposed to that new, red vapor,
we both
might be
come
fucking parrot
s, or puppets, or something like that
.”

Gem stared at Charlie.  “
What about Lisa?  She’s upstairs sleeping.  Is she dangerous?”

Charlie shrugged.  “I don’t think so.  She just picked up some psychic shit from Red Dress.”

Gem’s eyes narrowed.  “
You know something, Charlie?  The minute you start protecting me because I’m pregnant is the minute this bond
you and I’ve developed
starts to
unravel
.  I can take care of myself, as I’m sure you know.”

“Gem, I –”

“No, let me finish.  Being scared in this world doesn’t work.  Kicking ass
does
work.  We’ve seen it.  We push all the fear into the back of our minds and we go at the problem until there’s no reason to be afraid anymore.”

“I got that,” said Charlie.

“You know why I’m frustrated right now?  Notice I didn’t say scared, I said frustrated.  It’s not the pregnant zombies, or this new girl power bullshit that’s going on.  I’m
frustrated
because my man is out there
, possibly in danger, and I’m here babysitting.  So let’s get Kimberly over here, or Victoria, or Vikki.  I don’t give a shit which one, and we can have all three if they want, but I’m leaving the minute they walk in.”

“Fine,” said Charlie.  “You said earlier that you received a radio call from the bar.  Call them while I take this plate over to Hemp.”

“Okay.  Be ready
to go if you’re going
, Charlie.  I’m serious.
  Why are you smiling?
”

“Because you’re the shit,” said Charlie.  “
T
his
is the fucking Gem I met in the hospital that day, and
this
is
the Gem I expect every time I see you.  Shit, I’d hug you right now if I weren’t holding this cake plate.  Get your ammo and Suzi Q ready to go.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And Gem?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m all about my crossbow today.  Get it out of my room, would you?”

“Of course.
  ‘Cause that’s the Charlie
I
know.
”

*****

Hemp was tired and agreed to watch Trina and Taylor, and even to go over some of their
school
lessons with them.  The formal schooling that had been put back into place in Concord was suspended for now, and it was up to each
family
to teach their own
until things got back to normal.

If they ever did
. 

“Just be careful out there.  Don’t make me come and save you,” said Hemp.

“Yeah, like last time?”

Hemp looked confused.  “What time?”

“Exactly my point,” said Charlie.  “There wasn’t a time.  We’re good.  When we get there we’ll see if one of the ladies can’t come over
in case
you need to get out of here a while or
get some more
work
done
in the lab.”

“Head’s off,” said Hemp.  “It was kind of fascinating. I didn’t have to worry about any sort of preservation, because nothing I could’ve done would have killed her.  Still, you know me – I was very careful to cauterize everything as I went.  Old habits and all.”

“Yeah,” said Charlie.  “I’d have probably opted for an axe or a chainsaw.”

“You realize how chainsaws operate, right?” asked Hemp.  “The blood and tissue would literally
go
everywhere.
  Did you two take the WAT-6?  And have extra?
”

“Ye
s, we’re both under the influence of your protective wafers, and about the chainsaw
, yo
u’re right. 
I’ve seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  It might be a bit much.”

“Go,” said Hemp.  “Keep in touch if you can.  And be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Charlie, giving him a quick hug and kiss on the lips.  “and blah, blah, blah, etc. etc. etc.”

“They’re at the brewery right now,” said Gem.  “I understand they’ve finished another huge batch of urushiol.  They’re mixing it double strength.”

“Okay, babe.  Lock the door behind us.”

“Charlie, do me a favor,” said Hemp.  “Tell Kev I need to speak with him.  Tell him to radio me.”