ALL WE CAN DO
by Brian J. Hunt
I finish tightening the final clamp securing Sara to the rack, and step back.
The light summer sundress clings lovingly to her figure just like I remembered, but all the holes and dirt smears take away from her attractiveness rather than enhancing it. The same with the blood and other matter crusting her fingernails and mouth.
I look into her eyes, the cornflower blue eyes I could stare into for hours, now dull and clouded over but still looking into mine. Was some of Sara still in that dead body? The eggheads would say no, but I've seen evidence to the contrary, not that the eggheads would ever listen to a grunt like me.
I brush a stray lock of hair away from her forehead so it won't get matted in the fluorescent paint of the number stenciled on her. Her hair feels gritty and I suddenly have an irrational desire to wash it before she is shipped out. I don't know why I care, but I just know she would be irritated by it if she could see herself
Her head leans towards me and for a moment her cold cheek brushes over the back of my hand, just like she would do in the few private moments we could steal. I feel tears trying to leak from my eyes, but for some reason they just won't come.
I'm not surprised when she tries to bite me. Disappointed, but not surprised. The dampening field the eggheads generate to retard the infection makes her slow, almost lazy, but even at full strength it can't totally overcome her new instincts.
I'll have to find a way to thank the captain for allowing me to prep her for shipping. He found out about us of course, but didn't rat us out to the base commander. A lowly private and the daughter of a general. It never should have happened, but it did.
I hoist her rack into final shipping position with the other packages being sent back east to the labs. All tired out, I rest for a moment and stare into the shipping container full of zombies. The smell of ruptured bowels and bodily decay is heavy in the air and I imagine it will only get worse on their week-long ride.
The thought of them experimenting on Sara kills me inside. What the Einsteins need with so many guinea pigs I don't know, but standing orders are to capture and ship any intact subjects. I'd ask for an exception for Sara, but I know the captain's sympathy will only go so far. He has his duty. We all have our damnable duty. A war where your defenders fall only to join the other side is an unwinnable war, and despite all the propaganda the defense department is churning out, I don't think we're winning.
