But I’m A Zombie
“So what’s on the menu today?” Ravi was startled from his thoughts by Liv’s cheerful voice ringing through the morgue. He’d been focused on his computer for a while now, and was happy for the distraction as he was not making a lot of headway, even after spending most of the previous night and all of the morning so far trying to decipher the information in front of him. He knew he was close to a breakthrough in figuring out exactly what it was about Isobel’s brain that granted her immunity from the zombie virus. He knew the answer lied in this brain, but so far, which his limited equipment, and a nonstop flow of bodies in and out of the morgue, he was not making the progress he had been hoping for.
The US Government was getting more and more restless and Ravi feared that if he didn’t make some headway with his research into a cure or vaccine soon, they were going to come up with their own solution. The talk of nuking Seattle had put but on hold, for now, but they all knew their safety was temporary, even in the best case scenarios, if the US didn’t decide to blow it up, some other country was sure to.
Ravi pushed these thoughts out of his head, determined not to drag Liv down with his concerns seeing as she had enough on her plate already. And, she seemed to be in a good mood today. Isobel’s death had been hard on everyone, although they’d all been aware of her condition, and for the majority of their time spent knowing her they’d also known she was going to die sooner rather than later, it had somehow still taken them all by surprise. Somehow, it just didn’t feel real, like they should have had more time.
Liv had been especially downhearted here lately, though, something Ravi guessed had to do with guilt over not being able to keep her promise, the one she’d made before ever actually meeting Isobel, that she would save her. Not being able to keep that promise had been eating at Liv, leaving her more than a little depressed. And her diet hadn’t helped the situation at all, especially not the most recent meal which had been courtesy of a particularly loathsome man, an abusive, alcoholic husband whose wife had shot him right through the chest midway through his nightly routine of having a few (or ten) too many and then starting on a verbal tirade that usually turned physical the moment she decided to speak up for herself. No one was missing him, least of all his wife who had almost seemed proud of herself as she scribbled her confession onto Clive's notepad with her husbands blood still spattered onto her face and clothes. Liv hadn’t been excited to eat his brain, and since the wife confessed, it hadn’t really been necessary, but the other options at that time had been a junky who OD’d and a paranoid schizophrenic who had stumbled out into busy traffic in the midst of a full on breakdown, so she’d went with the alcoholic asshole despite Ravi’s warnings. It was every bit as bad as he’d imagined an then some. Just in the first day he had dodged a stapler, a paperweight, and 2 glass beakers being thrown at him, not to mention the almost constant onslaught of slurs and insults being thrown as well. Well before the end of the day he stopped trying to reason with her and remind her that she wasn’t actually this terrible, hateful, foul mouthed person she was embodying, and sent her home. It was much easier, and peaceful, to just work by himself.
The note of happiness in Liv’s voice was a pleasant surprise so Ravi quickly switched off his monitor and spun around in his chair to face her. “Someone’s in a good mood today?” He replied as he stood, walking over towards the gurney where the body of their most recent murder victim awaited “I assume you got Clive’s message?” He asked her.
She nodded as Ravi pulled back the sheet, revealing a young girl with no apparent trauma, she couldn’t have been older than 20, Liv noted with a pang of sadness, as she wondered what the cause of death was. “What makes him so sure it’s foul play?” She asked, puzzled.
“I’m glad you asked,” Ravi replied as he moved to lift the body up a bit, giving Liv a better view of the young girls back. That answered a few questions, as Liv immediately noticed the message crudely carved into the young girls back. The jagged red wounds looked rough and out of place against the smooth porcelain of the girls skin.
“Zombie Lovers Must Die” it read, hard to misinterpret that message. Liv shook her head in disgust, wondering what kind of monster could do something like this. It wasn’t scratches, but deep, carved roughly into her flesh, this was practically a kid and someone had carved her up like a melon.
“Wow, someone really wanted to get their point across, huh?” She asked, as Ravi gently lowered her body back to the cold metal table not relishing the idea of eating the brain of someone this young, but still, the promise of discovering what had happened to her, and bringing her killer to justice, was enough to push any qualms or misgivings out of her head. Besides, she was hungry.