Page 6 of The Pale Rider
“How did it go from violent to what I saw at that clinic?”
“I’m getting there. The mutation had a progression. It started with the whites of the eyes. The second stage was irrational violence that no sedation could touch. No one knew it would eventually become fatal or what would happen after.
“It happened almost simultaneously. The first time anyone realized what a mess this would be was when the cops responded to a case in New Orleans, and a man in a mental institution died. A man had gone totally crazy on Bourbon street and was beating up tourists. Understand, back then, some people believed the government that these people were just high on drugs.
“This man was in such a rage, and he couldn’t be captured and brought in. The tasers did nothing to him. He beat two cops almost to death before they shot him in the chest. Almost at the exact same time, all the way across the world, a young man at a mental institution started pouring blood from his eyes, nose, and mouth. No one realized this, but they died almost at the same time, and they rose almost at the same time.”
“Excuse me, rose? You are talking about a mutation caused by a company named after the son of Satan and people rising from the dead? I might not know what day of the week it is, but that sounds ridiculous.”
Aeron sighed and rubbed his temples.
“I need you to believe this now because it only gets worse from here. I need you on our side, Speedy. I really wish you had woken up with your memories.”
I had so many questions, and I didn’t know where to start. I couldn’t exactly get all offended he was trying to tell me people rose from the dead when I just crushed the head of walking corpses with a baseball bat, but if I was just some random girl he found when he was looking for something at the facility, how did he know so much about me and why did he want me to remember so badly? The only way I would find out was to let him keep talking.
I held up my hand.
“Truce. Finish your story, and I’ll try not to interrupt unless I have to.”
“No. Stop me if you have questions. Maybe it will jog a memory loose. Ask me as many questions as you want because you need to understand this.”
“Fair enough. So, two people rose from the dead. What happened?”
“One man took five bullets to the chest, and the other was legally pronounced dead by the facility trying to save his life. Before they could even move the body, it jumped up and took a bite out of the nearest living person. No one knew this at the time, but the only way to kill them is to kill the brain, and the AB negative immunity to the water doesn’t hold if you get bitten by one of them.”
“How does that work? If certain blood types are immune, why does that change if you get bitten?”
“My team has studied this extensively. I told you, we know what’s going on. Once you are exposed, it’s a constant mutation. We caught a Rage Head alive and studied it. We tested its blood daily, and it was never the same. We think it constantly mutates to keep the corpse alive. When the body dies, another mutation happens that AB negative blood types don’t have an immunity to.”
“So, don’t let one of those things bite me. Got it.”
Aeron opened his mouth to say something, then stopped himself. There was something he would tell me and stopped himself.
“Not to mention getting a hunk of your flesh torn off with human teeth hurts like a mother fuck. Like I said, keep that bat on you at all times and don’t let them get close to you.”
“You would say something else, Aeron. Tell me.”
“Not quite yet. I need to fill you in on everything you missed. The government tried to keep this under wraps and not let people know it was happening, but a man literally rose from the dead in the middle of a street of tourists in Bourbon street. As you can imagine, not everyone was running for their lives as a dead man started eating tourists and cops. There’s always that one asshole sitting there filming everything on their cell phone.”
“And the asshole sitting there pointing their cell phone at the scene instead of running didn’t get eaten?”
“They never do, Speedy. They never do. The tourists that lived went home and were spreading stories while the government tried to do damage control. The president went on live television to debunk the story. Other countries were having the exact same issue, and they were following suit. They were all trying to deny the dead were rising to keep people from panicking.
“It would have worked, but more than one person was recording in New Orleans that day. The more the various governments tried to deny what was going on, the more upset they got. They started uploading their footage to social media. By the time anyone important realized it was up, it had already gone viral.”
“Let me guess. They kept flagging the videos and taking them down, but they kept re-uploading them, and everyone got pissed off at the government.”
“Exactly. It just got worse when people started running out of food. You were either in the process of mutating, or you were immune and trying to stay safe. No one could go to the grocery store anymore because they weren’t being staffed. There was mass looting and stealing from neighbors. Cities became ghost towns, and food became scarce. People who were mad at the government for lying about the dead were now angry at them for not fixing this and getting them food.
“That was when war broke out. Some thought their governments would come through and fix all of this and those that wanted an entire regime change. Instead of focusing on finding some sort of cure and helping each other stay safe from the Rage Heads, they were killing each other.”
“This sounds familiar, but I don’t remember any of it.”
“Let me finish, and all of it will sound familiar. After the fighting stopped, people tried to seize power. The countries you remember are gone. Mexico and Canada are now part of the United States and run by a dictator. Most of Europe is all one country and run by one man. It’s the same with the Eastern countries. All of these men have found a way to communicate in these end times, and they run things together. My intel says Isaiah Nahum, the man who is now the president of the United States is calling all the shots around the world. Is that triggering any memories?”
“Should it?”
Really, should it? Was I somehow a part of all of this? Why couldn’t he just tell me the truth?
