The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel Read Free Page A

his hand along the side of his face while he thought about his answer. "We have thirty two reports from various parts of the country. Some from morgues, some funeral homes, one vehicle accident scene, people or I should say bodies, which have been declared dead, returned to life for no apparent reason. You would think it's a simple case of misdiagnosis, but thirty-two ? Those are odds Vegas wouldn't touch."
    A young soldier walked in the room and set an electronic tablet on the table, pushing it toward Daniel. As Dr. Cronsworth glanced at the electronic documents, the General continued. "We've been doing what we can to keep a lid on these stories. Hell, nobody wants to start reporting dead bodies coming back to life. They would look like idiots. If it continues, someone will eventually run it on the evening news. At that point, I'm going to get calls asking me what the military is doing about it." Two more soldiers walked in with two large olive drab military storage crates and set them down on the floor next to Daniel. "When that call comes in, I want to be able to say we have already neutralized the situation."
    Daniel skimmed through several more pages on the tablet. "All of these cases happened within twenty minutes of each other on the same day."
    "Yeah, and they're scattered all across the map, " the General replied. "I hope this is just a hiccup in the natural order of things and year from now it will all be forgotten."
    Glancing up from the tablet, Daniel pointed to the boxes. "What's in the crates?"
    "Four of these incidents happened right here in Denver . One happened during the autopsy of a man who was hit by the light rail train. The coroner had already taken out several organs when the guy stood up and walked away. I confiscated the body parts, plus his clothes and everything that touched the deceased." Brown motioned his head toward the door, signaling the soldiers to exit. "Obviously, I'm not a scientist, but I'm guessing you're going to find this is some kind of new strain of African sleeping sickness . Maybe all these people had some bad Fugu for lunch. I never did understand the need to go into a sushi restaurant and pay thirty bucks to eat the most poisonous thing on the menu."
    Still reading the pages on the tablet, Daniel responded, "It says here, the coroner removed this man's kidney and pancreas before he walked out the door. I can't see how African sleeping sickness or eating some bad puffer fish could overcome missing organs."
    The General leaned back in his chair. "I had an uncle who donated one of his kidneys and later had his gallbladder removed. He lived to be 87."
    "But this body walked out of the room while his abdomen was still cut open. I'm sure your uncle was stitched back up before he left the hospital. "
    "Look Doc, I've seen boys on the battlefield get all kinds of holes blown through them and they still did all kinds of things. When I was a Lieutenant, I watched one of my buddies get ripped open by a mortar. He ran across a hundred yards of tarmac holding his intestines with one hand and carrying an ammo can in the other. While waiting to get medevac’d out of there, he ate a turkey sandwich and drank a beer."
    "Did he live?"
    Brown stood up and turned toward the door. "He married my ex-wife's sister and made General two years before me." As he walked out of the room, he said, "Get me some reasonable sounding answers and let's put this whole damn thing behind us."

Chapter 2
     
     
    Inside the dark abandoned warehouse, a little over seventy undead stood or sat, while they listened to the tall man speak from the center of the group. His clothes suggested the body he inhabited used to be part of a heavy metal band wearing leather and studded wrist cuffs, heavy black boots, and a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off. He spoke in a loud voice as if he had addressed large crowds many times. His long hair had colored streaks, which wove in and out, creating a tiger stripe-like pattern. The