chapter 12

I was just standing there with my shirt off showing them that I wasn't bitten and they're just staring at me like I'm crazy. Well, I might be a little bit crazy because of the situation that we're all in being trapped in our beloved city and all with the dead trying to get us. Finally one of the females came walking to the door she still looked a bit scared I can tell that she wasn't anymore. She opened up the door to check to see if I had any bite marks or scratches from the dead. After her check she looked behind her and nodded her head, I'm guessing that means I was cleared to enter. I got my things and I walked through the glass door to meet the seven individuals that were there. I introduced myself as Jackie and where I was from and where I'm going to what I was doing here. it was a bit of a long introduction of myself. I also told them about the school and how I was the leader of them and how I'm just trying to find people to save and to maybe get back to some people the smallest amount of normalcy that we can create in our new world.

They all looked at me one of them came forward. It was a short girl with a pixie cut and it had all sorts of colors in it. She introduced herself as Iris and that she study biomedicine here at the university. Then the girl who opened the door for me introduced herself as Stacy and she was an international student from Australia studying organic chemistry. Then there were two that look exactly alike and I'm guessing they were twins. They were both studying to becoming doctors and their names were Tori and Tony both girls had a Spanish accent. Then there was Mike and Eric the only two guys that were there and they studied biology and chemical engineering. Then the last one came forward introducing herself is Jamie and she was a first-year professor and she studied and taught pathology and forensic science. It was an interesting mix here. They weren't the fighting kind.

I wouldn't say classroom it was more of a lab because of the machines and equipment that was in here. I also saw test tubes and other science equipment that I didn't know the name of and I just looked at the seven people that were there and thought to myself "what the hell are these people doing and what I got myself into". One of the twins step forward and spoke in her Spanish accent "how is it like outside? I mean we've been outside but we don't know how people are surviving". I look at her and I thought of an answer I told her what I've been doing as a building at the school later and try and help people but then there are things I also didn't tell them about killing someone and seeing his eyes every time you go to sleep and rescuing two girls from getting attacked or something worse. Or how I let a child suffer and turn into a growler. One of the undead so I can understand it and what happens after you've been bitten. I thought about what it means to survive here and now and what will happen tomorrow and that what happened yesterday will always be ingrained into you because you can��t forget it. I thought about how it all went down and where I was or where Sally was and where these seven individuals were when it all went down. They could have been studying and partying for all I know. Then it all came crashing down on me and I told them that it's hell, what do you expect. It was just something you can't really comprehend until you lived it, seen it, before taking life for yourself. It just happens I really can't explain it. But I didn't want them to know exactly what it's like to be outside without going outside themselves and I told him that they should experience it for themselves.

I also wanted to know what they were doing and so I asked "What are you guys doing?". Then Jamie, the professor who was my height with light brown skin and black hair and hazel eyes spoke "We're trying to understand what's going on not in a mental sense more of a physical sense, like where did this come from, how's it going to evolve or will it dissolve? Is this nature or some type of chemical warfare I really don't know but we just need some samples to fully figure it out". That's all she said I didn't really understand what she was trying to say because I kind of flew over my head a bit but I think I understand the concept. I think they just want to understand this and try to find a cure, well at least someone does it's not like our government is helping us. I still haven't seen a plane drop any aid yet and that message was broadcast weeks ago. I asked if they heard about the Army's announcement at Times Square and they said no so I told them. The two boys Mike and Eric looked pissed and I don't blame them but the others they look like this is something that they expected and to tell you the truth I expected this as well.

I was asked a lot of questions from the people that are in this room. It was amazing really it was like they were there for the first two weeks of the zombie apocalypse and then they've just been in this room on this one floor living here trying to understand it but they didn't really have any samples. I had a feeling in my gut they're going to ask me to do something crazy to get those samples and this might just get me killed. But you know I can live for today and not know what happens tomorrow. I might be alive today and I might die today because all I know is that yesterday I was alive and I did not die. I don't know what tomorrow will bring because I only got today, I can live and die for today. With this thought in mind, I was thinking to myself "yeah I'll probably do whatever crazy, super dangerous idea they have, that's about all I'll probably do in order to help synthesize a cure or maybe at least understand what the hell is going on in our city and our home and why is this only happening to us". I figured this would be the best thing to do because there's a goddamn wall built around the city I walked around the city and saw walls on all sides. Walled from the New Jersey to Brooklyn, I saw it in the distance and I was like what the hell is that it was the wall that blocked off all ways in and out of the city and the walls even went into the water blocking off I'm guessing two or so miles off the coast of the city. This was to make sure we couldn't get out by boat and I bet there are on the other side of those walls ships and anti-aircraft guns to see if we can somehow fly out of here on the plane or find an intact helicopter. If we also get too close to the walls themselves we might get shot on sight without any hesitation.

This is our world now. We live in a walled-off city trying to survive something that is undead, something that was once alive and should be gone but instead it's walking around killing. Yet we don't know why it's killing for. It may just be survival Instinct, it may just be hurting, or it could be something different. There's nothing that I don't understand about this. I guess I completely understand it but at the same time, I don't. I'm just like these individuals here that are trying to understand if this is a chemical weapon or something that nature itself created because we're killing her. We're killing our planet and this makes up for what we've done. Or this can be some type of chemical weapons test that the American government decided to use in one of its cities as a test site. And call it type-0 or something in that matter. I just can't wrap my head around this but in the end, I know I'll have to know, I won't have another night to myself to be drinking a whole bottle of Jack Daniels wasting my night trying to forget. I know that from today on until the day I die, stop breathing and come back as one of those things I'm going to try to do everything in my power to help people even if I don't like people. I mean I guess I need people to survive this and I guess they need me as well. Because in all honesty, I think if I hadn't met the boys or Sally and her son or Tabi the scared kid who is running for her life. I wouldn't have found a safe place to hide, to live to call my new home, and then help them create a safe space a place that they can call home. That I too could call home until I left because of crippling anxiety I was feeling and the pressure I was given of being a leader. However, I'm here now, trying to help these people I just met. I only know their names and what they studied and I don't know anything else about them but I'm willing to help. Help find a cure or help slow down the process and just to help understand what is going on in our city and our home and why we are trapped in hell instead of being saved from this. So whatever crazy idea they have no matter how dangerous it is I'll probably do it. No, I will do it. I will find a way to help people even if I die in the process. I guess that's why the brothers and everyone else decided to make me the leader of The School. I think it's because deep down I care even though I don't show it. Even if I don't show it at all, I still care about this weird group I helped build.

Then Iris spoke up after my internal rent with myself. "We need you to go out and get us two samples from both of the undead that you told us about and the tickers." I looked at her like she lost her damn mind. There was no way in hell that I was going to get a sample, not just one but two samples from those without getting bit or dying. What type of thing did I get myself into? I know I just gave myself a pep talk about doing this about caring about doing what is right however I need to draw the line somewhere and I think I'm going to draw it there but at the same time, she looks like she wasn't going to take no for an answer and I was not going to fight this very petite barely five-foot pale colorful hair girl. These people are crazy and I'm crazy enough to help them out. "Okay. What do I need to do and what will you give me to help me get these samples?" Then Tony said in her Spanish accent " You need to get samples of them, you cannot kill the undead when you get the samples, they need to be alive so to speak to get them.[1] [2] " I looked at her and I just thought to myself dear God I'm going to die even though I don't believe in God. This was just going to be my lucky day maybe my lucky few days because I'm going to do something completely stupid Reckless dangerous and I may just die. However, I am doing this for the greater good we're going to solve this problem together even if I need to get myself killed while helping these guys. I also need to give you guys a walkie talkie in order to communicate with them so I had to fix what I had with me. I told him that the call sign was just the name and that you put it on channel 2 and everyone who has a walkie talkie on this channel will be able to hear our conversations and talk to us. I also told them to contact the school and tell them that they're here and that if you need anything just call them, I had a feeling that they weren't going to leave the science building on the campus because of all the equipment that was here and it was still running but I just wanted them to know that they weren't alone.

Also, I needed to contact Jimmy and his two brothers and Claire. I know they'd be pissed at me for not talking to them and not telling them how I felt but it's something I'm not good at. I was never really good at expressing my emotions or showing how I feel even if I did show interest in someone as to being a friend or more than a friend. But there was only one person who really ever got to understand me enough to know. Even though I didn't show it enough or say it enough they always knew that my feelings were true. I may not act on my feelings or show it but I would be there when they needed me and I did tell her how I felt. She knew that it came from my heart. I wondered how they're doing it's been three years since we last spoke. I just hope that she wasn't in the city when it all went down, when this all started, that's all I ask for. And if she was and if she turned I know I'd be the one to take her down and if she hadn't and she's surviving I'd help her even if she did break my heart. But it wasn't the time to be thinking about the past it was about thinking about today, about the plan that I've just been told. This was a suicide mission it was crazy and dangerous but I know out of all the people in this room I knew I was the only one capable of doing this. I survived on my own until I decided to go be with the boys. I started this alone and maybe I might end this alone but who knows. I just know that I need to get this done and get them their samples so we can understand what this thing is and where it came from and how it was made if it was a chemical weapon or not. So after Tony gave me the things I needed and explain to me the procedure of extracting plasma or any type of substance they had I would bring it down without killing the undead. I need to take them down step one, which seems simple. Take the sample which is step two. However trying not to kill them, that was the hard part. Well, that wasn't the dangerous part; the dangerous part was trying to get them simple while they're still "alive". I needed to figure out a way to take their blood without getting bit myself. This will have to wait until tomorrow, tonight I needed to study the undead some more. I don't know what goes on at night for them. They could be active during the night or not active - I don't know but I do need to plan. After deciding I was going to stay out all night and watch them and take notes I also took the materials that Tony provided for me to get the samples. It was something that needed to be done but I wasn't going to rush it because for every growler out there, there was a ticker but for every ticker, about ten to fifteen growlers is surrounding it. That's all I can say about how many tickers and growlers are out there and are in a ratio that I don't completely understand it.

As the sun begins to set I'm on my way outside of the science building on the campus of Columbia University one of the worlds that is now confined in hell with seven individuals trying to find and understand what the hell is going on in New York City. Here I was 20-year-old lesbian studying the habits and movements of the undead trying to understand them and what goes on during the night with them. To be completely honest you don't really hear them at night and I wanted to know why. I want to understand them so I can take them down better and so they can be easier to predict and their movements and what really goes on. I don't think they have a cognitive thought or conscience for that matter. They only seem to have motor functions like walking and attacking anything that makes a sound really. I want to know why they do what they do during the day and to understand what they do during the night. As the sun sets on this cold day in February I ask myself why I'm doing this and I know the reason why I should, why I am doing this because is I care. I mean yes it could be a biological weapon or a chemical weapon that any government on this planet could have deployed here and yes it could just be nature taking back what is her planet. Then again we don't really know and that's why I'm sitting on top of a trunk near Columbus University watching growlers and tickers to understand their movements and what goes on at night. As it gets darker, as the sun gets lower - honestly the sunset is the most calming and peaceful thing that really helps me right now but at the same time I know it will only last for a few moments and then darkness comes but I also find peace in the darkness I think this is why I do what I do- I see the same amount of undead and nothing seems to change in their behavior. For the peaceful moments that not only I see and feel but so others can see and feel them too. As it gets darker I don't see any more or any less activity from the growlers that are about a few feet in front of me and off to the side the ticker seems to being doing what a ticker does and make that weird ticking sound in the same even pitch. It just seems that their movement was a routine like it was rehearsed to some unheard-of song but no one can hear for them.

As the minutes turn to hours and hours turn into day I was still wide awake from my night of observing. Nothing was different and everything was the same between growlers and tickers at night and day it didn't matter to them and I wrote that down. As the morning sun warms me up I took out some granola and water and had a light breakfast, truth be told this was the first meal I had in about 3 days besides the drinking and eating very little in the apartment. To actually have a real meal well what consisted of a real meal felt good in my body. Now comes the hard part I need to take down some growlers and some tickers and to get some samples from them. This might be hard I have to do it very quietly or I'm going to be overrun by the undead but I know I need to do this I know I need to get the samples back to the science building to be analyzed and understood. But I also need to do it safely so I don't become one of them. I also needed to put distance between them and myself and get two samples from two different growlers and find another ticker. This was going to be a hard and long day but I needed to get these samples now.

There was one growler close to the trunk and I made my way down and got close enough to it without being detected. I needed a way to bring it down without it fighting back. Maybe I can hit it once in the head and take the sample or take its legs out. I think I will just do both. It had its back to me and I was going to take its left leg out and hit it across the head then use my body to hold it down while I take the sample. Easier said than done. I needed to be fast, so I made my way to its left side and quickly hit the leg from underneath it and a blow to the head. It went down without protest and I got on top of it. Its head was facing down and I have one arm trap beneath my leg. I was scared that I wasn't heavy enough to hold it down but I was. I mean I lost some weight because of the food I've been eating but also gain some muscle from what I've been doing. I took out a syringe and the tube and stick it in the neck of the growler. To be honest I wasn't expecting anything to come out of the growler but something did. It was the black like substance that ooze from their ears and eyes came out and into the vial. I thought this was an after product from being bitten not something that was in them. After the vial was filled I took its head and my hand and smash it on the pavement as hard as I could until it wasn't moving. It was time for the next sample and to find a growler that wasn't surrounded by others. I move a few blocks away from where I took the first sample and saw one that was alone. It looked like a kid so I thought to myself "this is easy" but at the same time, it wasn't. A kid died and was trapped there. I move in close and hit its back and it fell with some protest but no noise was made.

After I was done I killed it. Apart of me knows I have to take them down no matter how old they are or what they look like. I knew I have to take down these things so others can live but it still gets to me every time I see a kid even though let one died right in front of my eyes to see how the change starts. I shook off that feeling and went looking for some tickers instead of hiding from them. This was something so crazy that I couldn't believe any of this was real until I have all that I need and go back to the seven. I think I'm going to call them the seven from now on. It has a ring to it.

After walking around and making no noise I find a ticker. It was standing beside a burnt-out car doing its thing. Making weird noises. This was going to be hard because these things make noise. I wonder if a sound pitch to its sound will attract others to it or not. I have nothing to lose except my life and everything to gain from this experience. I made my way to it and notice that it was about a half a foot taller than me. Damn it why did this one have to be a ticker I thought to myself. I need a sample from it and I will get it, I just needed to think of another way to take this one down because of its size. After coming up with a plan I was going to take out both legs an arm and then hit the head. This was going to be a lot of work for a vial but the seven needed this. A lot of people needed this even if they didn't know that I was the one doing it. Damn the ticker didn't land on its face but on it back instead. This was going to be super dangerous if I was careful. I had one arm under me and the other was bent at an angle and I had to hold its head still with one hand while the other is sticking the needle into its neck. The same black substance fills the vial and I took out my knife and stabbed it to kill it. I needed one more ticker sample then I can get the samples back to the seven and call it a day. After an hour of looking, I finally find another ticker, and it's alone. I was happy about this and it had started to get late. It was about my height and build so it was an easy takedown since I've done this before three times now. I was finally finished and made my way back to the seven.

I radioed them and told them that I have all four samples from different growlers and tickers. Jamie answers and was happy that I got the job done even if I almost got bit in the process of doing. Making my way back to the seven I radio the school to let them know I was safe and helping some people out and that I'd be back soon. Jimmy's voice came over and he yelled at me for leaving the way I did, Sally also yelled at me and told me Tabi hasn't been eating since I left. I felt bad and told them I'd be home soon. After that small talk, I was back in the building making my way to the room. The first one to greet me was Jamie and how she was thankful for me doing this and then Iris who wanted to take the samples and start studying them as soon as possible. I told them it wasn't a problem and that they can always call on me. But what we all didn't know was that something a lot worst was about to begin in the weirdest of ways, it was something a lot bigger and harder to kill.