Disclaimer: I am not Max Brooks. This is not actually a passage that he wrote. Just something from my imagination that could go along with the book.
New New York City, New York
[Jackson St. Germain is sitting upright in his hospital bed, and has a weary smile on his face, happy for a visitor of any kind. Though in his late twenties, Jackson’s body shows signs of old age, with wrinkles on his face, bags under his eyes, and saggy skin on his frail frame.]
This is the life! After years of giving my body up to science, this is my reward. Confined to a hospital bed with a life long flu and a shitty prosthetic leg.
I had been a human lab rat way before this outbreak shit. Easy paycheck to get poked with a couple needles? Count me in. It was the only way I could afford college. Yeah, I knew the risks, the potential side effects of a drug or vaccine that has just been developed, but money is money. Besides, I wasn’t the only one doing it. The “waiting room” [air quotes] of the rented apartment was filled to the brim with others like me. Single parents trying to feed their kids, immigrants who make nothing at their other jobs, the homeless folk…
We were all trying to scrape by any way we can, and if putting mystery chemicals into our body would make our wallets fatter, so be it. It is what it is.
People would do crazy things to be part of these trials you know. I saw one lady eat half a carton of eggshells so she could be tested for some salmonella cure. Not the yolk or the white, just the shells. Didn’t work. Lady just puked everything up and was dismissed.
As a veteran of the scene, I had my fair share of ailments myself. For every drug they come out with, there are hundreds that don’t make the cut. We were just the unlucky souls to bear the problems so you good, hard working folk don’t have to. I’ve had it all. Localized numbness, a million colds, diarrhea, even lost my sense of smell for a week once-
[Jackson suddenly starts convulsing uncontrollably, body rigid, arms up high above his head. It only lasts for a few seconds, which is how long it takes me to realize it is a seizure.]
Are the seizures a side effect from all of these tests?
Oh heavens no. I’ve had epilepsy since I was born. Got me disqualified from a few trials though, including the one for Phalanx.
This was before the Great Panic. I was waiting on a couch in an empty loft, sandwiched between this fat Croatian dude who had never heard of deodorant and some tiny Asian lady with a baby in her lap-the usual suspects. We had no idea what we would be testing. Didn’t matter in the end anyways, since the damn vaccine didn’t even do shit. I never found out though, because the flickering light bulb triggered a seizure, and I was dismissed before I even came to. I was so pissed!
So you weren’t part of the Z vaccine testing?
I never said that. I just missed out on that cushy Phalanx paycheck. Later on there were other trials. More serious ones from scientists actually looking for ways of preventing and curing the Z virus. None of them worked, of course.
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. First they failed because none of us rats had been infected. We wouldn’t be the same “willing” patients if we were Zs. The coats were quick to realize that, and came up with two solutions. Two incredibly dumb solutions.
The one that I got was pretty bad, but not as bad as the other option. Which would you like to hear first: the bad news or the worse? [Jackson’s lips curl up in a smile.]
Why don’t you start with what happened to you.
Me? Well, to my group they tried to infect us with a “controlled” version of the virus. Ha! Isn’t that fucking incredible?! They actually tried to manufacture a synthetic version of this disease, injected it into us, just to see if their vaccines and cures would work.
[Pats his prosthetic leg for emphasis.]
Didn’t end so well for any of us. Their version was an entire new nightmare. Basically it started what they called a spreading necrosis rot, or some other fancy doctor medical bullshit. Had to amputate everyone who they injected with it. [Shudders]. We all got fake legs. Here we thought we were being sneaky. You can hide needle marks and other things easier on the leg than the arm. Now we all have this cheap plastic like a scarlet letter.
And the other subjects?
[Jackson closes his eyes, inhales deeply, and lets out a long sigh].
The others wish they were so lucky. The coats had a zombie pen. Real, live, fucking Zs. Are they called live? Dead? Don’t matter. They let the Zs bite the other rats to spread the infection. Said they needed an authentic test. Positive it would work. Shit like this would never be approved by a legit facility. Plus they said it was an emergency.
You know what happens next. The rats turned to Zs, attack the coats. They become Zs. Eventually all them make their way out onto the street and ruin the safe zone.
Took the gov a long time to figure out what happened. But by the time they put it together, anyone responsible was dead, undead, or hiding. There was nothing they could do. Made a lot of people angry.
The media had a field day with this. Good thing for me. Instead of rotting – ha. Punny – in jail as a patsy, I am a ward of the state. Just another victim to big business and pharmaceutical companies.
Looking back of course I wish I hadn’t done it. But you know…hindsight-
[Jackson breaks into another seizure, this one lasting longer than the first. I call a nurse in to help, and when the fit is over, Jackson is so disoriented he doesn’t know who I am or what he is doing, and falls asleep exhausted.]
This would be a great addition! I was always intrigued by Phalanx and it's use amongst people in WWZ. This chapter gives a great insight it's medical credibility (or lack thereof).
Awesome. You did a great job matching the book in both tone (hard to do) and content; this chapter would've been totally in place in the reading (it would've fit especially well with the organ trading chapter). I like the idea of other, more secret drug trials, "more serious ones from scientists actually looking for ways of preventing and curing the Z virus," done under more shady (and more dire, and more chaotic) circumstances. I also like how, unlike a lot of the people interviewed in WWZ, your character is much more of an everyman.