Zombies! (Episode 4): The Sick and the Dead by Ivan Turner

force, he'd promised him a pay bump. Apparently, they also needed someone of command rank to be in charge of the task force. No one thought zombies were going away anytime soon, or even ever. So they'd finally promoted him to Detective Lieutenant. The paperwork must have cleared over the weekend.
     
    That thought came and went quickly though as the previous took over. Heron thought about a world where zombies were the norm. He thought about a world where people went about their daily business and kept an ear open for alerts about zombies the way they did upon hearing that a bear or a cougar had come down from the mountains. Police cornered the panicked zombie in a backyard in Weehauken at seven this morning and were able to subdue it using tasers and nets.
     
    Why would anyone try to subdue a zombie?
     
    Culph cursed under his breath and pounded a bit too hard on the keyboard. Heron had already learned that it was better not to ask what was wrong. There was only one reason Culph was ever on the computer. He was tapping out solutions to zombie scenarios. Some hotshot programmer in the department had worked up a simulation using a software engine with which he'd been experimenting in his spare time. Cross referencing with city data, he'd been able to shunt in schematics of just about every dark corner he could find. The user could place zombies, cops, and civilians anywhere on the map and request random appearances of any of the three. Using the software, Culph was constantly creating entrance and sweep strategies. It was more like a computer game than anything else. And if Culph was cursing, it meant he was losing.
     
    "Are you riding with me today?" Heron asked him.
     
    Culph finally looked up. "Are you going anywhere fun?"
     
    Heron shook his head. " Push Ups. Maybe Chow's for lunch."
     
    Culph's bored expression never changed. "Then, no," he said. "I'll run through some more sims and hope for a call. Maybe I'll run a drill."
     
    Leaving Culph to his own misery, Heron went and poured himself a cup of coffee, fended off the accolades of having become a lieutenant, and made a call to Eileen Stemmy. He wanted to go by during the day and see how they were doing. He also wanted to go over some paperwork with her regarding Stemmy's will. As Stemmy had died, he'd made Heron promise to look after his family. It was a promise that Heron did not take lightly. But when Eileen answered the phone, he could tell that something was wrong.
     
    "I don't think you should come," shw whispered through the line.
     
    "Is today bad?" he asked cautiously. "I could come tomorrow."
     
    She sighed and but didn't say anything else. "It's Lucia, isn't it?" he asked. Lucia was Stemmy's oldest daughter. She was seventeen. Ever since the death of her father, she'd been unable to look at Heron with anything but scorn and resentment. She desperately wanted to know why he had survived while her father had been chosen to die. Especially with his cancer. She didn't say it but he knew it was there. If the cancer was going to get him anyway, why couldn't he have traded places with Stemmy?
     
    "It is," Eileen admitted. "But it's not just Lucia."
     
    "Oh?"
     
    "Anthony, I appreciate all you've been doing for us but I've hired a lawyer to handle the rest of our affairs."
     
    "I see," he said, although he didn't. There wasn't anything too terribly complicated about Stemmy's legacy. It wasn't anything he couldn't handle. But he knew better than to push. "Can I help you with the expense?"
     
    "No. I think…no, Anthony."
     
    "Eileen, what is it?"
     
    "I think maybe you shouldn't come around anymore."
     
    This was a blow Anthony Heron was not expecting and didn't need. A month later, he was still grieving over Stemmy. His partner's family were the only people with which he felt that he could commiserate. As much as he loved Alicia, she was not a terribly sensitive woman. The extent of their recent problems had pushed her boundaries forcing her into a