After the End

Epilogue

It's been a little over three months and there are more than ten of us now. Former zombies. We live in a little facility outside of the city. Deemed too dangerous to live within the urban limits but close enough that Dr Stadler can use us for her testing needs whenever she requires. We live a simple life because of course, we each have our uses.

Andrew has come into his own. He has talked in front of every camera and shared his story through his own written words. He has become the spokesperson for us the new humans. The one of us who came to be with no blood on his hands with the least ghosts in his closet. His story isn't as dramatic or thrilling as our horrific experiences but the more he tells it the less people fear us.

Well, the people fear the others less. I'm the girl who makes people zombies. It doesn't seem to matter the spin we put on it. The public continue to revile me. Andrew has never blamed me openly, but the story has little room for embellishment. We see each other occasionally when our schedules allow.

Rayaan and I are now part of a recovery unit. We go into infected areas to seek out survivors and administer the cure to likely candidates. Together we make a great team. His prosthetic barely slows him down and his army training has saved us more than a few times. I never thought I would ever want to go back into the cities of infected, but trial and error has shown that they have very little interest or care in us and for some reason it just feels more normal than the bustling cities full of people pretending the apocalypse didn't happen.

We have saved many humans and cured a few fellow zombies. The success rate of the vaccine is still abominably low, but we are getting better at telling which people will successfully take. Time is the biggest factor. We can rarely successfully cure a zombie who has been turned for more than two weeks. A factor which makes my circumstances all the more miraculous.

There has been wide speculation among the human populace about the possibility of deliberately getting infected and cured like Andrew was. It's possible that method has a higher success rate given the only time it has been tried was indeed successful but there is no way to be sure. Dr Stadler is currently running tests which may eventually involve human volunteers. I'm sure she'll ask for my help and whilst I detest accommodating the harpy, I will happily be involved in anything that increases my small social circle.

For the first couple of weeks at the facility, it was torture with just the three of us. Andrew and I were still treating each other with kid gloves and to make it worse Rayaan and I got along like a house on fire. His blunt soldier boy way of speaking shot right through my caginess, so regardless of how much I tried to avoid or circle round an issue he always got straight to the point.

After the first month he flat out told me that Andrew and I should just bone and get it over with. He wasn't necessarily wrong but Andrew's psychological issues with physical intimacy are partially my fault, so I can't push him. I know what it's like to be broken. We're still in a holding pattern. At least I have other people to talk to now and Andrew doesn't feel like it's just Rayaan and I on our own.

That said every time we do go out into the wilderness, we come back with another one of us to fill our dull little corner of the world with life. A matter which is so overwhelmingly important because we are not allowed to leave the facility. In time I'm sure things will change. When there is eventually more of us than them. A factor which I will gladly rub in Dr Stadler's face.

One day I will be free again.