Chapter 6: UnDead Girl by Stephen Simpson
Her chin rubbed against the palm of his hand as she shook
her head. Quickly, she pulled away from him and jumped to her feet. “You are
saying… Am I…”
He stood up as well and reached for her. “You are special,
Genesis. You will save the world.”
She took a few steps away from him until she backed up into
the wall behind her. She whispered, “I am a… Zombie.”
He smiled a reassuring smile. “Not the horror kind. However,
by now you should be feeling a hunger, a deep hunger you know instinctively
will not be satisfied by the food you are used to eating.”
He was right, Genesis felt her stomach muscle spasm as it
made a loud rumbling sound.
“We
will be leaving to go to the facility, it is quite a distance so for your
safety and mine, I am going to sedate you and you will only wake up once we’re
there. There you will have the opportunity to meet the nine others who are like
you. You will all arrive at the facility today or during the night, but you
have all learned the same thing about yourselves in the last few hours. We
wanted you to live normal lives so that you will have empathy for your fellow
human beings and the world. We needed you to want to save the world against
disaster.”
Genesis looked across the room at the woman who raised her
as her own, for help. She wanted her to tell her it was not true. “Mum?”
Genesis said softly.
Josie got up from her chair quickly and started walking
toward Genesis.
Her dad, Peter Mathison, stepped between them. “No, Josie. I
am sorry, but I cannot allow any physical contact.”
Josie looked at Genesis with a look full of sadness.
Genesis started sobbing. “I would never hurt her.”
Peter turned to face Genesis. “I am sorry, Gen. Once we’re
at the facility and you are on the programme to stabilise your need for human
flesh, Josie will visit often.”
Not only did Genesis feel abandoned and alone, she felt
lost. She could not even feel like an orphan because the two people she
believed to be her mum and her dad was still alive, but they had suddenly
become Peter and Josie.
She had never noticed, but she did not even look like them.
Josie was short and petite, with green eyes and light brown hair which she kept
styled in a short bob as if she got stuck in the eighties. Peter was a head
taller than Josie with a stocky build. His eyes were dark brown, almost black
and his hair was medium brown, always cropped short. Genesis was a few
centimetres taller than both of them, with grey-blue, pale eyes and straight,
long black hair.
Peter rummaged in the medical bag on the coffee table and brought out a big syringe and a small bottle with a clear liquid. He pushed the needle into the rubber stopper at the top of the bottle and filled the syringe. He held it up to his face and pushed the plunger until a few drops emerged from the sharp needle before he turned to face Genesis. “Ready?”
