A Zombie Story Thread

Chapter 16

Analyzing

Gary Sinclair sat outside the tent the techs were going to work on the hard drives and disks that had been pulled in. So far, under the tent, the computer programmers, and hackers had been hard at work trying to get the files decoded, and they had run into some fairly nice sized problems. The primary problem being that the code was the work of the NSA using some of the most advanced computers on the planet, and they had not nearly the necessary rescources to make the file decoding work. Sinclair was computer literate, simply as a consequence of his age and the era his education took place in. But the work going in inside the tent went past him. Nevertheless, he wished to give the guys inside moral support.

Stewart Clark had been a computer programmer with Microsoft, and then with Sun Systems, both for 5 years each. And in both companies he'd had 80 hour work weeks, 2 hour commutes, and only $60-70,000 a year to show for it. He'd hated living in California the most of all. What his father had done for a living, working in a chemical processing plant from the early sixties to the late eighties was a dying thing. In fact most of the well paying, industrial and professional jobs that had built the wealth of California had long since gone. If not overseas, atleast to friendlier enviroments in terms of tax and regulation.
The tech jobs that rose up in the '90s were part of what Clark had been involved in. He'd hoped that he could make his way in the middle class if not upper class by way of the IT field. And of course, that dried up. But, unlike many of his colleagues, Clark had kept educating himself, getting more certifications, and learning more specialties. When his colleagues jobs went to India or Eastern Europe, he kept employed. But, then, Sun decided to make him an independent contractor. He said thanks, but no thanks, and looking at his native San Diego slowly morph into Mexico City, he decided to move.
An offer from a company named Health Code Incorporated, based in Nevada decided to pick him up, and he was the best worker the company had. He only made $50,000 a year, but it went alot further in Nevada than $65,000 did in San Diego. And after a year, he found a little land in rural Arizona, and asked the company's head if he could arrange a work from home deal.
For the next 6 years, Clark had been happier than he had been at any other time before. Then, though, the zombies had come. And Stewart's life was now once again changed. Instead of writing the code for a hopital's computer program he was trying to decode an almost unbreakable encryption algorithm written in all likelihood by the NSA. And the best part of all, he was doing so next to a 15 year old kid, and a retired nuclear physicist, both of whom were also the best that were available for short notice, but were also very much out of their depth.
"So, Ron," said Stewart, motioning to the former nuclear physicist, "I was wondering if you could confirm a suspicion about what we're looking at?"
The older man came over to the monitor, and looked through his reading glasses, and said, "Yep. We should talk to someone."


The Trip Back to the Farm

Renee Lincoln was flipping through the pages that had been copied at the former Congressman's home while George drove the Dodge PowerWagon back to their place. She flipped pages, scanning through to see what she wanted to look at and what she didn't. As she looked through the pages, she would sip out of a can of Diet Dr. Pepper, er favorite pop. She savored it knowing that sooner or later, good pop would be scarce. She went back to looking through the files and came up with something marked "Lazarus Project." She saw the marking "Eyes Only" which meant that only the file existed, and there was no computer record of it.
She looked at the first page and it had on it, "A Proposal to the DOD: Project Lazarus, Make Your Enemy Kill Himself"
Her heart seemed to stop a second.
She read the precious file like it was gold. Reading every page.
"Hey, honey?" asked George, "What's got your attention?"
"I think I just figured out why the dead are now walking."
"And why's that, a secret government project gone awry?" asked George, chuckling a little.
Renee wasn't chuckling at all as she held up the papers to the Lazarus Project.

LadySmith, all that stuff that is in this online novella is stuff I love. Especially the zombies!

Chapter 17

Interrogation

Isaac Stapleton had Benjamin Braff sitting in a chair with strips of his pants now acting as binding for his arms and legs. A strip of cloth from the black Brooks Brother's pants was around his eyes. Stapleton was pointing the Beretta at Braff's head, the muzzle against his temple. Braff was sobbing, wearing only a shirt, and tie with nothing on below besides his tighty whities. His jacket was on the ground behind him. For the past hour, Stapleton had berated him with questions as the Colonel and the Admiral looked on.

Benjamin Braff had never been this terrified in his life. A man had a gun pointed at his temple, and was screaming at him for answers. Some of the questions he had answers to, but most of the questions he didn't know the first thing about. But no matter what, he had to be silent. If he opened his mouth and told the General what he did know, his wife and daughter would be killed. Maybe a random "act of violence." Maybe a car crash. Hell, thought Braff, zombies are about, even though they are in a federal bunker, they could be killed by a "breach."
But, he was worried. He thought that Stapleton was unhinged. He thought the General was crazy and was going to shoot him. He didn't know what to do.

Isaac Stapleton had been screaming at Benjamin Braff for about a half hour now, trying to get the man to talk. And in that time, Braff hadn't said a word. Stapleton decided that this was not working. He paced around like a caged lion for a few moments, trying to clear his head, and come up with a new idea. Convincing the Colonel had been a chore in and of itself. Not only did he think getting violent with his torture to be immoral, he also thought the Colonel, and maybe Antonelli would turn on him if he did. Stapleton lit a cigarette, and sat down across from Stapleton, taking in the smoke, and a thought came.

"Mr. Braff. We are gonna stick you outside."
"What?" he asked.
"We're gonna let you outside. Without your keycard of course."
"But, there are zombies outside this room."
"Yes, there are Mr. Braff," said Stapleton taking another puff of his cigarette. "There are some zombies still left, I'm sure."
"But, without my keycard I can't get into any other room here, or get outside, or get to an armoury. You can't do that, you have to atleast defend myself."
"We'll give you a piece of wood, from one of the chairs. I hope you're good at hand-to-hand combat."
"General" said Braff, "You stripped my pants off me. You yelled at me while pointing a gun, asking for details to a conspiracy that... if it exists, I don't know anything about it, and now you want me to go out there to be zombie food?"
"That sounds about right," said Stapleton with a wicked grin across his face as he stubbed out the cigarette, and stood up. "Well, here we go."
Stapleton grabbed the chair, and pushed Braff to the door, as the Colonel stood up. Stapleton looked at him, and raised a hand. The Colonel sat down when he saw the smile on Stapleton's face. Stapleton put Braff outside the door, and closed it. Then he walked back to where the Colonel and the Admiral wer sitting.
"He'll call to get back in."
"He might be a zombie first." said the Colonel. "Granted for that #$shole, it'd be an improvement."
Stapleton could see his fear of mutiny wasn't well placed.

Outside the room, Benjamin Braff could hear the sounds of zombies. The zombies made moaning sounds every so often, and Braff heard the unmistakable sounds of the undead calling out for human flesh. In the chair strapped down, he began to cry. It wouldn't be long until a zombie stumbled across him, and decided to feast on his brains. He thought about his wife and child, and wondered if there was a way to tell the General what he wanted to know without endangering his family. He also wondered if Stapleton would even care. If he would even believe it.
He decided he didn't have much of a choice. "General Stapleton!" he screamed out to be heard through the door.

Isaac Stapleton heard the voice of Benjamin Braff, his voice cracking because of the man's fear. He smiled at the two officers in front of him, and asked, "What?"
"I'll talk. I'll talk. Just get me out of this hall."
"How do I know you'll tell me the truth?"
"I will, General. I will. But you have to let me back in, before the zombies hear me!"
"I want an assurance."
"I can't give you an assurance past the ability of you to check my claims!"
"I'm in a government bunker in West Virginia. How am I gonna know?"
"You may, or may not. But you wanted to know what I know. This is the best way!"
"I'll think about it," said Stapleton, trying to stifle a good hearty laugh.
"What?" asked Braff from outside the room. "Please?" he began to beg through his sobs. "I don't want to be eaten alive."

Just then, a zombie, appeared from around the corner. It had black spiky hair, with blood encrusted on the left side of it's face. From the looks of this zombie, before, he had been an elisted man here in the base. Crying out, he screamed, "Oh my G-d! There's a zombie. Get out here please?"
The zombie ran at Braff, seeing the tied down live meal. Braff was crying buckets, and just then, Stapleton stepped out of the room with a shotgun, and blew the zombie's head clean off. He pumped the weapon, sending a red coloured shell out of the weapon to sit at the sobbing Federal Reserve Chairman's feet.
"That was a close one." said Stapleton.
"Please, please let me in. I'll tell you whatever you want."
Stapleton looked at the man, and nodded. Then, he put him back in the room.

Benjamin Braff told them everything he knew. Everything. Braff was a major player in a conspiracy all right. But not to zombify everyone. Instead it was a conspiracy to avoid a collapse of the US economy by reneging on America's loans owned by Chinese bankers, while staying solvent to American and European banks. And the real kicker to the conspiracy was that the Chinese had infiltrated not only the State Department, and the CIA, but they also had their hands in several major US corporations. Especially several US banks. Hehad no idea why the zombies were running around, and offered only speculation. He also offered that his plan might not work, although now he was hoping it really wouldn't matter. If enough people were infected, everything would go back to square one.
But, unfortunately, for Isaac Stapleton, his quest for the truth was also at square one.

"General Stapleton," said the banker, as he was finishing. "What about what I told you? About the threats I've gotten. That if this plan were ever told to anyone, my family would be killed?"
"Look, Mr. Braff. You are gonna be with us, and we are going to try to retrieve your family. I can't guarantee their safety anymore than I can my own. But, G-d willing they'll make it through this. And they won't get killed because I'm not telling anyone about your plan. As you hope, it is a possibility the Chinese will be so wrecked by this, we won't have to worry about repaying our war debt."

Uhhh, actually yes, and no. I was debating in my head whether to tell y'all this or not, but my fiancee has apendicitis, and I have been taking her to Atchison, KS (about an hour and change away from me) to see her Doctor for a surgery coming up for her to take care of it, and possibly a gallbladder removal. (Preliminary tests) Thank G-d we have insurance. That, and I've been looking for another job.

Nevertheless, when I began writing this story it was for the sake of seeing if people will read it. And apparently people are. If enough people read it, look at it, whatever, then I'll know I can write a "serious" story for publication.

So, despite the troubles that I'm having, I have nevertheless decided to keep on writing. Because this sort of thing could easily happen in the future. But I have to focus in order to let the story flow. So, that is why I have been having problems. Oh well. There it is folks.

But, I will write another chapter today.