Runaway Brain (iZombie/Flash fanfic)

Chapter 6

Clive, Joe, and Barry sat at a table in the back of a low-key bar having a drink and discussing the case. Barry had been more than happy to leave the morgue and all the gushing and flirting between Caitlin and Ravi. Ravi had warned him that Clive did not know zombies existed and certainly did not know about Liv being among the undead. Barry promised not to tell him, after all he knew a little something about keeping a secret.

"It could just be a coincidence," Joe said. "But two deaths from Max Rager marketing in such a short time span..."

"Gets you curious, doesn't it?" Clive asked.

"Yeah it does," Joe agreed.

"But it's more than that," Clive said. "Not too long ago, a friend of Liv's died in a sky diving accident. She worked for Max Rager, too. Anyway, foul play was suspected and when questioning her ex boyfriend he claimed there were studies that Max Rager makes like one in a thousand people go psycho."

"You think it's connected?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," Clive admitted, "but what if one of your so-called meta humans went psycho from drinking this stuff?"

Barry looked down into his beer glass. Now he regretted that promise to Ravi. Solving the two cases would certainly be easier if he could tell Clive that he, Ravi, and Caitlin were convinced that a zombie had killed Morris Jordan in Central City, not a psycho meta human.

Barry's thoughts went back to when he was a little kid and he and Iris watched reruns of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Sometimes Joe would watch with them. He would laugh at the TV and say, "You know, ninety percent of Adam's problems would be solved if he'd just tell Teela he's He-Man." Ironically, it was Joe that forbid Barry from telling Iris that he was the Flash.

Now, once again, more problems were caused by keeping a secret than telling it. What's the worst that would happen if they told Clive about the zombies? After all did it really make sense to keep the possibility of a zombie apocalypse from the public at large? Ravi had explained that he'd tried to warn the CDC and was fired for it and he was certain that no one would listen to them. He was probably right. But what about Clive? Surely Clive would listen. Then again maybe he'd think they were all crazy and tell his superiors, once again putting Ravi—and this time Liv as well—out of work. Not that the reasons for not telling Clive mattered. Barry had given Ravi his word and he would not break it.

"There is definitely something not right about the whole thing," Clive said before taking a sip of his drink.

"Okay, what do we know?" Joe asked. "A man gets murdered in Central City."

"And his head is ripped from his shoulders and brain goes missing," Barry added.

"That's just crazy," Clive said.

"Yeah, but you've had similar unsolved murders in Seattle," Joe reminded him.

"But what does that have to do with a woman overdosing on heroin?" Barry asked. "Seriously, besides the fact that they worked for the same company?"

"I don't know," Joe said.

"Me either," Clive said. "I'm just riding my instincts here. Something ain't right about that company. But Barry's right, we don't have anything really connecting them."

"Unless the company had Erin killed," Joe said. "What was Liv talking about your victim had found a file? Jonathan White sure clammed up when she mentioned it, didn't he?"

Clive nodded. "Yes he did. She was going to go talk to Erica again. I assumed it related to that one-in-a-thousand Max Rager drinkers going psycho. Maybe I should give her a call." Clive reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. Just as he did it started to ring. He looked at it and saw it was Liv calling. "Well, speak of the devil." He answered the phone and put it to his ear. "I was just about to call you. Hey..." he began but suddenly stopped talking, listening to Liv talk frantically on the other end. He nodded, his eyes were wide and darting from Joe to Barry. "Queen Street, got it!" Clive stood as he hung up the phone and dropped it into his pocket.