Time of Death 01: Induction by Shana Festa

Author:Shana Festa
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Zombies
ISBN: 9781618682734
Publisher: Permuted Press
Published: 2014-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 15

This is Jeopardy

Nursing a sore shoulder, I sat on the patch of grass next to the card table and began to think about Jake again. The wandering corpses had begun to thin out and I wondered if they were migrating elsewhere or if someone else was killing them. I knew they hadn’t begun dying off from decay because the ones that wandered into our vicinity looked like they had gone through a meat grinder. The air had a constant rancid odor that I suspected would only get worse as the days passed. Through my rifle’s scope, I got an up close and personal view of the maggot riddled corpses. What I first thought to be the heat creating a rippling effect in the air turned out to be millions of maggots infesting the undead. They writhed in open wounds and fell out in clumps as the zombies moved.

They were still slow and shambling, but their movements had taken on a stiff appearance. We had learned about the rate of decay in nursing school. There were two distinct steps in the process: Autolysis and Putrefaction. In Autolysis, the body’s enzymes start to digest themselves. Extreme temperatures affected this stage. In our situation, the heat would be speeding this up.

Putrefaction was the gross part. Bacteria from the intestinal tract is released and starts liquefying the body. It was easy to distinguish newly reanimated from the original bunch if you knew what to look for. Newer zombies were bloated and their skin took on a green complexion. Their eyes bulged and tongues protruded from the buildup of gas.

Corpses more than a few days old, however, showed significantly more decomposition. Their skin became marbled and blistered. Hair began to fall out. As the putrefaction continued, a greenish-black liquid oozed from their mouth and nose and any other orifice. The pressure of the gas would cause eruptions in the skin to create another opening for the liquid to escape. The science geek in me knew that the brain would eventually liquefy. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how long that would take or if it would even solve our zombie problem.

The depths of random stuff I thought about to take my mind off Jake’s absence never ceased to amaze me. I bet I could make a killing on Jeopardy, assuming Alex Trebek wasn’t roaming the streets as a mindless shuffler. There’s got to be some irony in there. I may never be on Jeopardy, but I definitely spent a lot of time in jeopardy.

Adam brought lunch out to me and I picked at it. I had no appetite and my stomach was in knots. Gabby had taken Daphne into the store and was no doubt chasing her around and giving her a good workout. "He’ll be okay, Emma. He’s got a good team at his back."

"I know. It’s just that…I’ve been beyond the walls. It was bad out there. I know I don’t need to tell you that."

He got a far off look in his eye, no doubt remembering his own personal experience of the outbreak.

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