Zombies! Episode 3 - Love Bites by Ivan Turner

Zombies! Episode 3 - Love Bites
    Smashwords Edition
     
    Copyright 2010 by Ivan Turner
     
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    ***
     
    What has come before.
     
    Shawn Rudd, a high school senior in a hurry
to meet up with his secret boyfriend, encounters a zombie on the
streets of Brooklyn. With no hesitation, Shawn confronts the
zombie, stabbing it and then bludgeoning it with a lead pipe. He
then turns on the zombie's hapless bite victim, killing her with a
blow to the head as well.
     
    Investigating the crime, Detectives Johan
Stemmy and Anthony Heron are confounded and chilled by the fact
that the man Shawn killed had been dead for twelve hours at the
time of the incident. Their investigation takes them to the
apartment of the Koplowitz family where they
    confront Mrs. Lucy Koplowitz, and her eight
year old daughter Zoe, already zombies. Zoe bites Stemmy in the
leg, thus infecting him. He dies hours later and Heron sees to it
that he will never turn.
     
    A week later, a customer, of Push Ups gym, Karl Rappaport, becomes ill while working out and drops a
weight on his foot. Abby Benjamin wheels him to the Sisters of
Charity ER and waits for a doctor to attend him. While waiting,
Karl dies from the infection. The doctors bring him straight back
and try to revive him but to no avail. Minutes later, he awakens on
his own. A nurse comes to help him only to be bitten by the zombie
that he has become. Her wound is severe and it only takes seconds
for her to die. Shortly thereafter, there are two zombies in the
ER. While the chief of emergency medicine tries to get everyone
out, a young doctor named Peter Ventura recognizes the threat and
locks down the ER.
     
    Coincidentally, Anthony Heron is also
at Sisters of Charity that day, visiting with the surgeon
who is scheduled to operate on him the next day. Heron has been
diagnosed with lung cancer. The situation in the emergency room
draws his attention however, and he takes charge of the situation
outside the locked down ER.
     
    Before long, there are three zombies in the
ER, as a security guard, attempting to subdue Karl, is himself
overrun and partially eaten. The ER chief, Abby, Ventura, and three
others barricade themselves inside one of the exam rooms. One of
their number is bitten and they all know what her fate will be.
When the zombies break through, the chief uses their bitten
companion as bait and winds up trapping herself inside while the
other four escape. Her success, however, effectively traps the
zombies in the room and the police are able to come in and dispatch
them.
     
    Dr. Denise Luco arrives on scene to begin
gathering samples and run tests. She has been researching the
zombie infection ever since discovering it in Johan Stemmy a week
before. The mayor authorizes Captain Lance Naughton of the NYPD to
assemble a Zombie Task Force at the head of which he puts
Detective Heron. Heron names Francis Culph as his second in
command. Naughton makes a statement to the press and chaos
ensues.
     
    ***
     
    IT took three weeks for the city to
normalize once the story behind the incidents at the Sisters of
Charity emergency room broke. The initial reaction was one of
disbelief, but then pictures were released. Someone in the ER had
used a camera phone and snapped a couple of shots of Karl. These
were posted on the internet and people began to grow frightened.
Canned goods and bottled water began disappearing off of store
shelves. The mayor issued a mandate limiting the purchase of such
goods. Looting became a problem. Store owners hired