Zombie, Indiana by Scott Kenemore

Author:Scott Kenemore
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Talos
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

13

It had been a fool’s errand, the whole thing. Ellard van Zanten knew this, and that made it all the worse.

Editing down the video of Burleson’s heroic defense of the mayor had taken only a few minutes. Then it had been uploaded and emailed to every news outlet in the state, and all the national media. But the Internet did not seem to be working normally, and van Zanten was unsure if the emails were going through. Even so, van Zanten had been absolutely giddy to report the video’s successful dispersal to his superiors.

It was, however, not enough for Doug Huggins. The chief of staff had expressed skepticism that any of the news outlets would be opening emails from PR distribution lists at this moment.

“So what do we do then?” the governor had wanted to know. Though expressing a concern, he was still obviously in a fine mood. The good feeling from his incident with the mayor had not faded. Instead, it was like a time-release drug. He was going to be cheerful for hours to come.

“Van Zanten could hand-deliver the footage to TV stations around the city,” Huggins suggested. “Put it on a zip drive and physically hand it off.”

Governor Burleson raised his eyebrows to indicate that it might be a good idea.

“Are you serious?” asked van Zanten.

“WTHR is just up on Tenth Street,” Huggins said. “You could do it on foot. Take you twenty minutes, tops. Everybody’s power—and their TVs—could click back on at any second. When that happens, we want them seeing our footage.”

“You know, the more I think about it . . .” Governor Burleson interjected, his good humor making him increasingly ebullient. “The more I think about it . . . the more I think that we should have some kind of event as well. A follow-up to the tape. It could be a rally. Somewhere downtown. I could still give a speech or something.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Huggins said. “I’ll get started on crafting something right away.”

The chief of staff turned back to the assistant director of communications.

“As for you, van Zanten,” Huggins said, “make some copies and take them to the television stations personally.”

“But the zombies!” van Zanten managed.

The governor bristled uncomfortably, as if the junior staffer had used a racial slur.

“If you’re concerned about the . . . dangers of the situation, by all means take a police escort,” Huggins said in scolding tones. “Now, Mister Governor . . . let’s talk a little more about your next move.”

Van Zanten backed out of the room and sulked down the corridor to his cubicle. There, he dutifully copied the governor’s zombie encounter onto four different thumb drives. One for each local affiliate.

He next walked to the rotunda of the statehouse, because it seemed to have the most police presence. Though now perhaps the third highest-ranking member of Indiana’s functioning state government, van Zanten hesitated to interact with the officers who stood milling about or resting beneath the marble columns. He normally never talked to police.

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