The Z Contingency

Chapter 52

Natalie awoke to the smell of bacon. She kept her eyes closed, listening to the sound of it sizzling in the pan, and allowing herself to forget, if only for a moment, the events of the day before. Slowly, she opened her eyes to search for the source of the wonderful smell. She spotted it a few yards away. One of their hosts was sitting cross-legged in front of a portable camp stove. An old cast iron skillet sat on one burner, and a coffee pot on the other.

She looked around, but the person manning the stove was the only member of the local zombie prepper group who was nearby. They called themselves the Zombie Survivalists, or “ZS” for short. They had welcomed Natalie and the other members of her group to stay with them overnight in their underground shelter. Natalie recalled them mentioning that it took several years to complete, as well as being very impressed by the size of the structure. It was not some dark, dank hole in the ground that had been hastily dug by someone trying to escape notice, but a carefully constructed dwelling with smooth, flat, cement floors, wood-paneled walls, and even a ceiling high enough for most of the ZS members to walk around comfortably without stooping. They had led her group to a recently-completed room away from their main living quarters, partly to afford the group some privacy, and partly because they did not want her group too close... just in case.

“Oh good. You’re awake,” the man greeted Natalie when he saw her sitting up on her sleeping bag watching him. “Just in time for breakfast,” he said, as he doled out the bacon onto several plates.

After the cook had taken the last strip of bacon out of the skillet, he dumped in a pile of chopped potatoes with onions and garlic into the pan. The mixture immediately began to sizzle as it hit the hot bacon fat. The smell reminded Natalie of breakfast the first morning at the Ramp Tramp Festival, which now seemed to have taken place a lifetime ago. The delicious aroma sent her thoughts drifting back to the festival, its sights, sounds, and smells. She was suddenly saddened thinking she may have attended the last Ramp Tramp Festival ever. She hoped that wasn’t the case.

A few minutes later, the potatoes were done, and the man added these to the waiting plates. He handed one to Natalie. “Enjoy. There’s coffee here if you’d like a cup. I have to head back to the kitchen soon. It’s my turn to help prepare breakfast for my group.”

“Thank you,” Natalie replied, as she realized that it had been over a day since she had last eaten. She tore into her breakfast, and did not look up from her plate until she had finished. She was suddenly self conscious as she realized the cook had been watching her wolf down her food with a look of amusement on his face. “I’d like that coffee, now, if you please,” she said to him, blushing. The cook obliged with a nod and a smile.

Some of the others were now up and starting to pack away their sleeping gear. Bubba and Earl were still asleep. They had stayed up late into the night discussing recent events with their ZS counterparts, and getting intelligence on what lay ahead. Her companions who had awakened came over to the stove and took the proffered plates. After handing out the plates of food he had prepared, the cook got up, excused himself to the others, and disappeared through the entrance to their quarters.

Seeing that Natalie was now alone, Mary walked over to join her. “So you and Gary work together, right?” Her tone suggested that she thought there was more to the relationship than merely as work colleagues. “How did you meet?’

Natalie explained how they had met their first summer at Cambridge, when neither of them could afford to fly home. “They have this thing called the Cambridge University Graduates Dining Society. I was about to sit down for dinner across some tall skinny guy who was saying something about studying theoretical physics, when I spotted a familiar face across the room. I was pretty sure I recognized him from Harvard, so I excused myself and went over to Gary’s table.”

“So you actually met at Harvard?”

“Sort of. He says we met at Freshman Orientation, but somehow I have no recollection of that. I kind of remember him from being a part of a large group of people I used to have dinner with. He mostly hung out at the far ends of the tables where we sat. I think he tried to keep a low profile, especially around girls.” Natalie was about to continue when Mary interrupted.

“Amanda’s waving for us to join her and the others.”

“Oh, lets go join them, then.” Natalie, having already eaten, chatted with the others as they ate, and eventually the conversation drifted to the diseases and cures. They had many questions about the virus that was threatening everyone now, but unfortunately, she had no good answers. The not knowing made her very uncomfortable and feeling helpless.

“I know you’re all concerned, as well you should be. I’m concerned too. All of us are.” She gestured to Gary and Simon, who had just gotten up, and were packing away their sleeping bags. “Obviously, we don’t know what the cure is going to look like now, but that’s because we haven’t had access to a lab. Simon is taking us to one that is fully-equipped, at a secure location in Montana. Once we get there, we will have the resources necessary to work on the cure.” Natalie wasn’t quite convinced of that herself, but she did her best not to let her doubts creep into her voice. She tried to harness her trust in Gary’s certainty to carry her through. These people needed assurance. She felt obligated to provide it.

“But how?” asked a voice.

“We’ll start with the database they have at the lab to locate the best candidates having the right antiviral characteristics. There are a lot of plants that suppress virus activity. We’ll start looking at those first. We will also look for people who appear to be naturally immune to see what traits they share that the infected do not.” She could tell that the others were still very uneasy. “Look. This is going to take time, but once we get to our destination, Simon assures us that we can all be safe until the cure is developed.”

Still not totally convinced, the others sensed that they would not be getting any additional information, so their conversations wandered off to other topics. Seeing this, Natalie quietly let out a sigh of relief, and let her thoughts wander.

☣ ☣ ☣

Natalie was brought back to the moment by the sound of Gary’s voice calling her name. During the lull, she had allowed her mind to drift back to recent events. Something had been bothering her since Ocoee, but she hadn’t given it much attention. As the thought gelled in her mind, she started to speak. “You know, most of the people we encountered in the hospital waiting room were at the ramp festival with us.” Natalie turned and called out more loudly so the entire group could hear, “Listen-up everyone! Who here attended the Ramp Tramp Festival? Were any of you we met from the hospital there for people who ate ramps at the festival? Did any of you not eat any ramps?”

After some discussion amongst the other group members, she determined that all of the survivors from the hospital had eaten ramps recently, and that the people who were taken there with symptoms of viral hemorrhagic fever, either had not gone to the ramp festival, or were like Danny, who had gone to the festival, but didn’t eat any ramps.

“I think ramps may be the key to finding a cure,” Natalie announced loudly enough for the entire group to hear. Then added excitedly, “It’s a good thing I bought two large bags-full.” She turned to Gary and added “One of these was for you, by the way.” Then she pointed to her pack, and called out to Clarence, “Would you hand that pack to me? I want to make sure they’re still okay.” Natalie then turned to Gary, and added quietly, “I hope we can isolate something useful from these ramps that don’t show up in onions, garlic, and other Alliums that have been cataloged.”