Not the Average Bear

My dad is still unresponsive. I’m trying really hard to remember what he said to me. He was talking about the cure, but I can’t remember what he said. He snuck me a sample of it. I have to go back to the hotel to get it.

Trying to get to New York was a bad idea, if it really was a zombie outbreak. That’s one of the most crowded places in the country.

I entered West Philly again. The hotel is in view.

There isn’t anyone in front of the hotel. I didn’t know how fast the virus is spreading, but I want to help my dad, so I had to get this sample. Before I got out of the car, I felt something sharp clamp down on my wrist. I looked over and I see my dad’s jaw lock on my arm. Something went into my arm. It felt like liquid fire running through my veins.

I could hear my heartbeat. It felt like it was slowing down. I had to get the vial. I ran into the hotel, through the hallway, and into our hotel room. I grabbed all of our bags and left. I didn’t even bother to close the door. I ran back out to the car and drove away. I didn’t know where to go now, and we were running low on gas.

The car slowly crept to a stop when the gas was depleted My digital watch dinged with the hourly chime. I looked down. It said 12:00 am. Perfect. All alone in a possibly zombie infested area, with someone who is possibly a zombie, and it’s midnight.

My father was stirring for a third time. I rummaged through my book bag in search of the vial he had given me. Of course, it was in the bottom of the bag. The blue liquid that was in it glistened. I popped the cork off of it and opened my father’s mouth. As the liquid dribbled into his mouth he mumbled something to me, but I couldn’t hear him.

He fell back into an uneasy slumber, and he shifted and tossed and turned throughout the night. I didn’t know how safe it was to sleep in a car with a possible zombie, so I slept carefully. The next morning, he shook me awake as he started the car.

“Rosie, wake up. We need to get out of here as fast as possible.” He quickly murmured.

“Daddy? Are you okay? What happened? Was there an outbreak of the zombie virus?” He chuckled.

“So you remembered after all? I’m proud of you, Rosie girl.. I always knew you’d make me proud.”

“Daddy, where are we going?” I was still groggy; I wanted to go back to sleep. It’s not fun sleeping in a car, you know.

“Well, first we need to go to a library. We have to find a map and try to stay a step ahead of the virus.”

“What did the serum do to you? Yesterday, you were all moaning and groaning. And you bit me.”

“I bit you? I’m so sorry, dear. I wasn’t myself. We have to get you to the lab, then. That would’ve been our second stop anyway.” With this, he started to move with a hurried motive.

“Why do we need a map?” I didn’t understand any of this.

“Baby, we need a map so we can try to predict the next places where the outbreak will appear. We have to take into account all the things that people touch, smell, or do anything on that transfers DNA. This is called looking for the structures in spatial relationships. If one infected person is immune to the virus, they can still carry it around with them. I’m immune to it now, since you gave the the blue serum in the vial. We have to look at how it can travel, through highways, or over active towns. Busy places, like Philadelphia, Harrisburg, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles. These are called processes. These are the places where the outbreaks will first appear. We also have to look at how they relate to each other, in space and travel time. This virus will spread faster than the common cold. These are called relationships within spacial relationships. We need to use this to our advantage. This part of town is deserted, but if we go to a small town, say like Delair, which is a few towns over, it probably didn’t spread there yet.”

“How are we going to get there?”

“The car, of course.” He tries to crank the engine over, but it won’t turn.

“The tank is empty, dad. We need to find a gas station.” He gets out of the car and goes to the trunk. “I always keep a little extra gas in the trunk, dear.”

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

Okay, I could do with a few years of unconsciousness. I went to sleep.

My dad must have been still speaking to me, but I could only hear him hazily. He was saying something about how he gave me the serum a few days ago, and I was immune to the virus, but the serum didn’t work properly on me. Then he said that they were going to be taking some blood from me. I didn’t hear anything after that.