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    Zombies! Episode 7: Conflicts of Interest
    Zombies! Episode 7: Conflicts of Interest
    Zombies! Episode 7: Conflicts of Interest
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    Zombies! Episode 7: Conflicts of Interest

    By Ivan Turner

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    About this ebook

    Troubled by his recent choices, John Arrick goes in search of redemption. But even those actions which seem right turn out wrong in the end. With no one to turn to, he goes back to Push Ups and confesses to Abby, leaving her with all of the information regarding the weekend zombie fights. Abby, though, is facing her own demons. Though her involvement with Peter Ventura led to a fire and the death of a fireman, she feels she has nowhere else to turn. Her relationship with her husband has deteriorated and her early friendship with Anthony Heron has faded.

    When Smith discovers a zombie that doesn't attack people, he turns it over to Heron. Obsessed with zombie "anomalies" he's been experiencing, Heron is fascinated by this new specimen and vows to keep it from the "Butcher Shop".

    Zombies! is currently under development as a television series. Find us on facebook for the latest updates on this exciting development!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIvan Turner
    Release dateMar 28, 2011
    ISBN9781458078612
    Zombies! Episode 7: Conflicts of Interest
    Author

    Ivan Turner

    A child of the movies, I was always consumed by fantastic stories told by others and translated into adventures to be retold by me through the action figure medium. As I grew older, I put the action figures away and moved into the realm of role playing. Though I never outgrew role playing, I certainly don't have the time for it anymore. Since I was eleven years old, I've been pouring almost every ounce of creative energy I have into writing.I graduated college in 1993 with a degree in computer science. I tried my hand at programming for a couple of years and found it pretty unsatisfying. I later became a partner at a comic book store, where I spent several years. Though it wasn't a financial success, the experience I gained from running the store and the people that I met (many of whom I'm still in touch with today) was priceless. After leaving the store, I settled into a career of teaching. I still teach at a public high school in New York. Ironically, I've picked up computer programming again, which is what I mostly teach.I've been writing the whole time.I released my first book electronically in 2010. Forty Leap was a turning point for me in both style and story building. The Book of Revelations, which was written earlier but released later, was sort of a midway point between the writer I was and the writer I've become. I experimented with a very odd style and a story that employed diverse characters and controversial situations.In September 2010, I released the first installment of Zombies! Zombies! has been a tremendous success for me that came very close to being made into a television series. Since Zombies!, I have written a five part miniseries called Castes and have been working on developing tabletops games, the first of which, ApocalypZe, was published in early 2014.Now, 6 years later, a 3rd Zombies! series is due to be released in September of 2016.

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      Book preview

      Zombies! Episode 7 - Ivan Turner

      Zombies! Episode 7 - Conflicts of Interest

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2010 by Ivan Turner

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ***

      What has come before?

      Working on a secret government project, British geneticist Dr. Rudolph Ludlow created a bacterium that inadvertently turned his test subjects into zombies. Immediately cancelling the project and destroying all of the samples, he thought he had put the whole thing behind him. But, he had become an unwitting carrier of the disease and transmitted it to an American woman during an unexpected affair. She brought the disease back to New York and gave it to her family.

      As the infection spread around the city, it began to affect the lives of its people. Detective Anthony Heron was forced to watch his partner, Johan Stemmy, deteriorate as the victim of the disease. In order to prevent him from becoming a zombie himself, Heron had shot his friend in the head.

      Abby Benjamin had been trapped in the emergency room of a hospital by zombies and fought for her life. Though she had survived that day, she had watched several others die and the trauma had left her scarred in ways she didn't even realize. Also a victim of that same day, Dr. Peter Ventura learned to strike out on his own to combat the zombie plague. His first action was to take the life of an infected child, Jason Benford. Later, he and Jason's mother Melissa started a movement to combat the Zombie Rights Association, a group of people who believed that zombies were people and deserved the same rights. They recruited Abby to their cause.

      Bitten by his zombie girlfriend, John Arrick contracted and miraculously survived the zombie plague. As an unforeseen side effect, the zombies no longer considered him as food. They ignored him as they ignored each other. Hearing about zombie fights, Arrick thought to go and make money as a fighter. Marcus, the man who ran the fights, saw Arrick as a tremendous asset, someone who could find and keep their stock of zombies with no danger to himself. Arrick accepted the job and the money that went with it.

      ***

      JOHN Arrick was in mid sentence when the bell rang and the students started getting out of their seats and heading toward the door. He had been talking, just talking, his mind drifting elsewhere. That was the good thing about teaching the same thing he had been teaching for years. When he needed it, it came automatically. He could fill time with words and never even notice the tick of the clock. The kids could text each other, fall asleep, pack up their things, or whatever and it didn't faze him. But the bell always brought him out of the daze. Frantically, he tried to remember if there was anything important that he needed to tell his class. But half of them were gone before he could file through all of the information so he just left it. What was one more day for the announcement of a quiz? They wouldn't crack a book until the night before anyway.

      When the room was empty, Arrick sank into the wooden desk chair and tilted his head back with his eyes closed. He hadn't gotten much sleep during the week because he'd spent every night up at Marcus' arena in the Bronx. During his nights, he was elbow deep into the zombies, shuffling them around and preparing them for the fights during the coming weekend. Four days with Marcus and he already felt as if he'd been doing it forever. He was growing accustomed to their funny odor, an odor that he was sure smelled different to others. It was one of the side effects of having recovered from the zombie plague. The other was the fact that the zombies didn't seem to have any interest in him as food.

      Arrick had discovered that during a chance encounter with zombies at a deli the week before. Buoyed by the fact that he had survived the plague, he had chosen to confront a zombie that was threatening the people inside. It had paid him no attention until he had gotten in between it and its prospective meal. Even then, though it had fought with him, it had shown no interest in biting him. The only explanation for it was that the bacterium that caused the infection was either still present in his body or had altered him in such a way that the zombies regarded him as one of their own. Fortunately, the effect went unnoticed by the living. But his ability to walk among the undead had earned him the position of zombie keeper for the weekend fights. It wasn't a particularly glamorous job, but the money was good.

      For four days, he'd held that job, and found himself completely lost in thought ever since. The subject of zombies was the only thing on which he could concentrate. The movies made them look so simple. They were dead. They were dangerous. Destroy them or be eaten. But the world was more complicated than the movies. They were dead, yes. They were dangerous, for sure. But he wasn't going to be eaten and destroying them was beginning to seem…disrespectful.

      Saturday night, Arrick had gone to the fights with the intention of beating some zombies to death and making some money. Before him, a man who'd called himself Jeremiah had gone into the ring and allowed himself to be eaten by the zombies. Four days later, Arrick still wasn't sure of the point. Jeremiah had spoken of the zombies as if they were people, clearly a member or supporter of the Zombie Rights Association. After the display, Arrick had been unable to fight. He just couldn't see himself smashing the heads of the defenseless creatures. They may have been dead humans, but they were still something! Still, when Marcus had offered him the position of keeper, he'd taken it for two reasons. The first was that he was bored, bored with his life and bored with who he was. The second was that he was afraid not to.

      The boredom was gone. But it had been replaced by something far worse. As if the dilemma he faced regarding the zombies hadn't been bad enough, he had yesterday discovered one of his students, Shawn Rudd, locked in a room with a bloody bandage around his middle. Shawn had been weak, unable to say much. But what he had said was enough. If only Arrick could figure out what to do.

      After a few moments he pulled his phone from his pocket and, with shaky hands, thumbed down his list of contacts. Engaging the phone, he breathed in and waited through the rings.

      Hello?

      It was dinnertime in London. Hello, Malcolm.

      Johnny! his brother cried exuberantly. This is a surprise. Aren't you supposed to be at work?

      I am, Arrick confirmed. But I need your help.

      Johnny, what's wrong?

      Arrick breathed, knowing he would have to tell Malcolm everything he had done. He found himself ashamed. Do you remember Suzanna, the girl I told you about over the summer?

      Sure thing. Quite a lass if the pictures don't lie.

      She's dead, Malcolm. She got the plague.

      Malcolm was silent for a moment, just breathing. Arrick's brother was not a man of many words. His insensitivity was legendary among his friends and ran in strict contradiction to the size of his heart.

      Are you okay, Johnny? he asked finally.

      I was with her when she turned, Malcolm. She tried to…she bit me.

      Johnny…no… Over the phone and the miles, Arrick heard his brother sob.

      Malcolm, wait, there's more. That was weeks ago.

      Malcolm calmed his breathing, tried to steady his voice. I don't understand, Johnny. What are you trying to tell me?

      I got the plague, too, but I somehow managed to…get better. My body beat it.

      Malcolm was silent again but this time for only a moment.

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