Week 4: Developing Dilemma

Turns out there were two stages to the Southern Flu; infection and turning. The infected were those who had contracted the flu. The turned were those that had advanced enough to experience a “death-like” state.

The turned became commonly referred to as zombies. It is essentially what they were by all appearances. And based on what I now know, the turning state was not LIKE death. It was death. You were dead for about 15 to 30 minutes then you just woke up as this mindless zombie thing.

There were rumors that even those who had not been infected in life could turn once dead. All they needed to do was be introduced to the flu within a day or so of death and prior to embalming. And it seemed easier for the dead to contract the flu than the living. The newly dead could contract it from just being around an infected or turned individual. Infection for the living was a bit more difficult and seemed to require some exchange of bodily fluid (blood, saliva, etc.).

Although most of the stuff I heard was rumor, an exchange of saliva and blood did in fact transfer the flu. An exchange such as the bite my wife received from Tom Brighton. Fatigue set in almost instantly and the red hives began to appear around her wound within a day.

The hospitals were overcrowded and no longer accepted any infected. They were concentrating their efforts on keeping the uninfected alive. The infected were basically to be quarantined within their homes and await a cure.

This became quite a dilemma for my wife and me. On one hand our son was still in south Florida and we had not heard from him in a couple of days now. On the other hand my wife was in no shape to travel and I was the only one who would be able to tend to her as the infection spread.

At first she pleaded with me to leave her and find our son. She said that there would be a cure… that she could just be kept locked in the bedroom until the government figured it out. This time she was lying to me. In the end I could not go. I would not. The thought of leaving her alone to become one of those things was unbearable.