Originally published on March 2nd, 2014

Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.

All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t. 

The Nudist War – Day 44

He rounded the corner only to see Jess on the ground, covered in blood … As Eddy moved toward Jess, a crazed naked woman came running around the corner and lunged at him. Eddy didn’t wait for introductions. He unloaded two shotgun rounds into her, but she kept coming. A third shot to the face dropped her at his feet.

• • •

“Urrrrargghh glurrrppp … urrrrargghh wrrraccch.” The sound of vomiting came from the behind the restroom door.

“You okay in there?” Eddy asked. It was 4:00 AM. Dr. Edmund Hillary had been up since midnight after getting a much needed six hour nap. He had just come out of the lab to get some coffee and empty his bladder (not necessarily in that order).

“Urrrrargghh … yeah … urrrrargghh.” A few minutes later Jessica emerged wiping her face with a wet towel. “Need more Ondansetron.” she muttered and staggered over to the medicine cabinet. “May as well take more Ibuprofen while I’m here.” She opened both bottles taking a pill from each and washing them down with a swig from a freshly opened water bottle. “I’m going back to bed,” she muttered and headed back to her cot. Eddy was used to this by now. The main side effect of the Interferon was nausea and vomiting, hence the Ondansetron.

“External power is back up,” he said. … No reply … “I’ll tell her later,” he thought.

• • •

Eddy’s relationship to Jess was like that of a kitten to it’s mommy. He was full of energy. She was mellow. He was always pouncing on her with bad puns and good natured verbal jabs. She was long suffering and tolerant. Early on they had developed a special bond. Now that it was just the two of them rattling around in the empty lab complex. He doted on her constantly.

Earlier that morning, just after 2:00 AM, the external power had come back on. The complex had been running on its standby generators for about a day and a half since they lost power. “Good to know that someone is still working at CenterPower,” Eddy thought, not sarcastically – more of a “thank God someone is still alive at CenterPower.” These days one never knew. With the power back on again, the generators shut down automatically to save fuel. Jess had been fretting about running out of fuel, so this would be very good news.

Eddy pulled up the CenterPower website on one of the laptops and discovered: one that the website was actually up, and two that their section of the power grid was back on line. “Thanks for thinking of us,” he thought. As an afterthought, he clicked over to the “Contact Us” page and sent them an email. “Thanks for getting the power back up to the CDC Special Circumstances Complex on Galveston Island. We were getting worried. How are things with you? (signed) Dr. Edmund Hillary, 555-438-9355.”

Interested? Read the >> entire post <<