creatures. First they died, and then the body reanimated.
But that’s impossible, right ?
If that were true, then that meant something was reactivating the central nervous system, and that just wasn’t possible.
Right?
Whenever Walt started this line of reasoning, he always came to the same conclusion. It was just not possible for human beings to get up and start killing after they’d died. Yet that was exactly what was happening.
Walt walked back to his room and picked up Stevie before he sat behind his desk. Thinking about dead bodies and the early days of the outbreak inevitably led him to thinking about Steven Spalatucci.
Will to Heal Center
Spicewood, TX
Two Years Ago
Walt sat behind his desk and felt like laughing. Twenty years ago he had been living on the streets as an addict with no hope or salvation in sight. Today he was the new director of the Will to Heal Rehab Center. It hadn’t been an easy journey by any means, but he now knew that he could do anything. He also knew he owed everything, including his life, to Steven Spalatucci.
The first few weeks as director were quite an adjustment. Walt wasn’t used to people coming to him for advice and how they should deal with various patients. He had made a name for himself in both his tenacity to stay sober and in his research. Walt wasn’t a scholar by any means, but the subject of addiction medicine meant a lot to him. Addiction had taken away half his life, and even though he’d been clean for over twenty years, he still didn’t know a damn thing about it.
He’d begun his journey into self-education by reading other researcher’s accounts of addiction and their theories. Addiction was classified as a disease, but there was nothing close to either a cure or anything preventative for it. Most researchers started with a theory, and all their research usually never got beyond that starting point. Walt figured if others had their theories, why shouldn’t he have his own?
He’d studied the brain and the various bodily functions that are controlled by the different areas of the brain. This had led him to studying neurotransmitters, especially dopamine and serotonin, and what they did and why they were important. Some researchers who saw beyond their own limited scope called Walt’s research ‘brilliant ’ and conducted their own studies based on his. Others refused to acknowledge Walt’s research based solely on the fact he only had a GED and once lived on the streets.
That didn’t bother Walt. He’d been through worse.
Walt was exactly what the Will to Heal Center needed, and the owners had told him that repeatedly. Working with a medical doctor hired by the facility, Walt was able to test his theories on the addicts who could really benefit from it.
His first two years at the center were fulfilling, and made Walt feel like he was finally contributing not just to society, but to the world of knowledge. He was making a difference and changed people’s lives. By the end of his second year, the center expanded, and the sky was the limit.
Then everything seemed to come to a halt. During Walt’s third year as the director, reports started coming in about some kind of weird virus that had appeared in animals but had quickly mutated and jumped to infecting human beings. It was a fast-acting virus that left behind no survivors. Contracting it was a death sentence. Walt felt he and the others at the center were safe due to their remote location, and because of that, could wait it out until the virus ran its course.
The only problem was that it didn’t burn itself out. It got worse. Big cities were hit the hardest and fell the fastest. It seemed the more people there were in an area, the more deadly the infection.
From the cities the infection spread to the surrounding suburbs. Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown, San Marcos, and others quickly fell to the infected. Eventually, the infection spread to Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio,
But that’s impossible, right ?
If that were true, then that meant something was reactivating the central nervous system, and that just wasn’t possible.
Right?
Whenever Walt started this line of reasoning, he always came to the same conclusion. It was just not possible for human beings to get up and start killing after they’d died. Yet that was exactly what was happening.
Walt walked back to his room and picked up Stevie before he sat behind his desk. Thinking about dead bodies and the early days of the outbreak inevitably led him to thinking about Steven Spalatucci.
Will to Heal Center
Spicewood, TX
Two Years Ago
Walt sat behind his desk and felt like laughing. Twenty years ago he had been living on the streets as an addict with no hope or salvation in sight. Today he was the new director of the Will to Heal Rehab Center. It hadn’t been an easy journey by any means, but he now knew that he could do anything. He also knew he owed everything, including his life, to Steven Spalatucci.
The first few weeks as director were quite an adjustment. Walt wasn’t used to people coming to him for advice and how they should deal with various patients. He had made a name for himself in both his tenacity to stay sober and in his research. Walt wasn’t a scholar by any means, but the subject of addiction medicine meant a lot to him. Addiction had taken away half his life, and even though he’d been clean for over twenty years, he still didn’t know a damn thing about it.
He’d begun his journey into self-education by reading other researcher’s accounts of addiction and their theories. Addiction was classified as a disease, but there was nothing close to either a cure or anything preventative for it. Most researchers started with a theory, and all their research usually never got beyond that starting point. Walt figured if others had their theories, why shouldn’t he have his own?
He’d studied the brain and the various bodily functions that are controlled by the different areas of the brain. This had led him to studying neurotransmitters, especially dopamine and serotonin, and what they did and why they were important. Some researchers who saw beyond their own limited scope called Walt’s research ‘brilliant ’ and conducted their own studies based on his. Others refused to acknowledge Walt’s research based solely on the fact he only had a GED and once lived on the streets.
That didn’t bother Walt. He’d been through worse.
Walt was exactly what the Will to Heal Center needed, and the owners had told him that repeatedly. Working with a medical doctor hired by the facility, Walt was able to test his theories on the addicts who could really benefit from it.
His first two years at the center were fulfilling, and made Walt feel like he was finally contributing not just to society, but to the world of knowledge. He was making a difference and changed people’s lives. By the end of his second year, the center expanded, and the sky was the limit.
Then everything seemed to come to a halt. During Walt’s third year as the director, reports started coming in about some kind of weird virus that had appeared in animals but had quickly mutated and jumped to infecting human beings. It was a fast-acting virus that left behind no survivors. Contracting it was a death sentence. Walt felt he and the others at the center were safe due to their remote location, and because of that, could wait it out until the virus ran its course.
The only problem was that it didn’t burn itself out. It got worse. Big cities were hit the hardest and fell the fastest. It seemed the more people there were in an area, the more deadly the infection.
From the cities the infection spread to the surrounding suburbs. Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown, San Marcos, and others quickly fell to the infected. Eventually, the infection spread to Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio,
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