“If you worked for the government,” Edward said, “why did the CRS apparently not know any of this?”
“It was so secret that there was no official record of our science team,” Dr. Bloss replied. “We were stationed not far from here in Rockford. When the outbreak—or the Uprising, as people ended up calling it—began, the rest of my team was the first to be affected. I was lucky, I suppose. I chose the wrong, or maybe the right, moment to go get a late lunch from outside the facility. So I wasn’t in the main lab when it started. I still don’t know to this day who got infected first or how, but I was able to live and find shelter when things suddenly became much worse.”
“But someone in the government still had to know you were there, right?” Rae said. “You said you still have contacts everywhere.”
“You’re correct. There are still certain people who know I exist. Unfortunately, there are not as many as there used to be. If there were, I might have been able to get you sent directly to me, Mr. Schuett, and not to those brainless twits in the CRS.”
“Why not work with the CRS?” Edward asked. “If you’d been helping, you could have shared your research and knowledge with them and stopped things from getting as bad as they did.”
“Oh, there were times when I wanted to. Many times. Then I would find out from my contacts about how this person wanted to control the reanimated as a weapon, or how that person was experimenting on live human subjects. It’s something the government didn’t want the public to know, even if they did declare it in the public’s best interest. The final straw was Atlanta. My contacts were able to tell me things about what was happening in Atlanta before it was burned from the face of the planet. The Z5s and Z6s were no accident, no matter what official line the CRS may have given you, Mr. Schuett. It was people not taking the correct safety precautions, people jumping to conclusions without accurately putting them to the test first. In short, they were doing exactly what my team in Rockford had done, and I wasn’t going to be a part of that again.”
“Then here’s the question,” Edward said. “What does all this have to do with me? How did you make the first Z7? Why release me again out into the wild? Why did you pick me in the first place?”
Dr. Bloss blinked at him. “Mr. Schuett, what are you talking about?”
“What do you mean, what am I talking about? Look at me! I’m that theoretical Z7 the CRS was looking for all those years. If you were the one researching fixing the problem, why just let your answer out to wander in the world?”
Dr. Bloss looked away from them both. “I’m sorry. You seem to be operating under a false assumption. I didn’t do anything to make a Z7. You are purely an accident.”
“Wait, what? How can I be an accident?”
“You’re exactly what the CRS thought you were. Somewhere in your genetic makeup there was just something different. A tiny difference, maybe some junk DNA that wouldn’t even have affected you had you lived out your life naturally. But the virus, constantly trying to evolve, constantly trying to fix your DNA, finally got to a point where it could change. The mistake that was written into the virus in the first place was no longer a mistake when combined with the right random mix. I’m sorry, but you’re completely unplanned, and not part of some great plan to fix everything. You’re just a freak happening.”
Edward held one of the tables for balance. Completely unplanned. Everything that had happened to him had not been for a reason at all. Liddie’s death hadn’t been some sacrifice for a greater purpose, and worse yet there had never been a way to save her. There wouldn’t be a way to save anyone else, either.
“There’s no way to create a Z7 again,” Edward whispered. “I’m the only one.”
“I never said that,” Dr. Bloss said.
Edward looked back at him. “But you just said…”
“That you’re the only one, yes. That you happened purely without any intent, correct. But Z7s? That’s why I wanted you here all along. It happened once, it can happen again. I can be the one to do it.”
“You…you can bring others back? You can make people human again?”
“Only as far as you’ve come back. I don’t think I can ever reverse the change fully. But I do think that, with enough studying of you, I can make other reanimated into Z7s. Maybe not all of them. It’s all in a person’s DNA. But I can do it to some. With enough work, maybe one day I can even do it to most.”
“Zeds as humans again,” Rae whispered. “On a large scale.”
“We can do it, Mr. Schuett,” Dr. Bloss said. “You and I together.”
This was huge. It felt like something Edward should have needed to think about. If Dr. Bloss could really do this, it would change the world. Everything Edward had seen since waking up could be, if not exactly reversed, then at least repaired to some degree. But the colossal possible effects of this were not the first thing that came to mind. Instead he thought of Dana, of Julia, of Liddie. Lives that could have been saved if this moment had come sooner.
There was really nothing to think about.
“Where do we start?” Edward asked.
Dr. Bloss smiled. “We start by celebrating, I think.”
“Rae?” Edward asked. “Can we count on you to help us on this?”
“On the fixing of things or the celebrating?”
“Both, I suppose.”
“I don’t know what I can help fix, but I suppose there might be people who have a problem with helping zeds. I can be your security for that. As for celebrating, if there’s alcohol involved I’m sure me and the others can help.”
Edward smiled. “Do you think you can find something like that?”
“I’m sure we can figure something out.” She pulled out her walkie-talkie. “Hey, Cory. Guess what? I’ve got a special mission for someone.”
They all listened for an answer, but nothing came.
“Cory, you there?”
There was a pause. “Rae? We’ve got a serious problem. Some old acquaintances of both us and your friend Edward are here.”
“Who?”
“Merton and the CRS.”
Chapter Forty
Despite Dr. Bloss’s assurances that he would be fine at the library while they went to find out what was going on, Edward and Rae insisted he come with them. Edward wasn’t sure what Rae’s thoughts were on the matter, but he had a suspicion they wouldn’t be able to come back for him later. Unless this was just a small group sent here to scout the area and find if Edward or Rae was really here, the CRS and Merton wouldn’t be people they could fight off and expect to never come back. Their only option, as Edward saw it, was to run.
They all got into the car, and Rae sped down the roads without any of the care she had shown on the way here. Edward stared out the back window as the library disappeared behind them. All of Dr. Bloss’s research was in there, fifty years worth of studying zombies in a way the CRS had never even thought to try, right along with all of his equipment. If the doctor really could eventually find a way to turn all zombies into Z7s, he would have to start now from scratch. For a man as old as Bloss, there was no guarantee he could remember key details or even that he would live long enough to recreate it. But as long as they kept the old man with them and alive, they still kept hope.