Humanity's Hope: Book 1 in the Saving Humanity Series

CHAPTER 3

Samuel plopped into the seat next to him, pulling Caleb's gaze away from his computer as it booted up.

"I hear you had some excitement this morning." His voice was low, barely above a whisper, and he glanced around the office nervously.

Caleb furrowed his brow and stared. How could he have heard about it already?

Samuel rolled his eyes. "I have a scanner. Besides, I bet you ten bucks the scientists on the third floor probably already have the corpses and are studying them. You know just as well as I do any zombie or corpse comes directly to the lab."

Caleb nodded. Samuel was right about the bodies. If Zomtech was going to solve the mystery of the undead, they needed to study every corpse they could get their hands on. Plus, they functioned as the city's morgue and performed the autopsies.

Samuel leaned forward in his chair and whispered. "You didn't hear this from me, but I heard RBZs helped the regulars get out. I hear it was an assassination attempt."

Caleb frowned and shook his head. "Where did you hear that?"

"I have my sources."

Caleb refrained from scoffing. "What kind of sources?"

Samuel glanced around the room and leaned in even closer. "There's a group of people online."

Caleb rolled his eyes. Samuel and his conspiracy theorists. Caleb first heard rumors about the internet group that was supposedly uncovering the secrets of the government, bringing to light all the things they didn't want regular people to know, when he was in the hospital. It was just a bunch of unproven propaganda. Supposedly, they were the ones responsible for telling the world about Big Zombies (more often called BZs, zombies that were slightly larger than humans), Really Big Zombies (called RBZs, creatures that were supposedly up to 10 feet tall), and how zombies could be cured. Because the "think tank" had come up with these names for creatures that may or may not exist, there were some who referred to normal zombies as "regulars" to keep them separate from the other abominations. The thought of BZs and RBZs existing was outlandish. Whoever made them up really had an imagination. They were probably the ones who claimed the blood tests were discriminatory. Caleb would bet his right arm that none of them had even seen a zombie in real life.

He tried to keep his voice under control. "You do realize they're probably kids, right? No older than thirteen. How do they know anything?"

"Hey, they've been right about things before."

Caleb cocked his head to the side, his mouth drawn into a thin line. "Oh, yeah? Like what?"

Samuel leaned back in his chair. "I can't tell you. It's classified."

Irritation flowed through Caleb's veins as he turned to his computer. "That's awfully convenient." He typed in his password to log on.

"You just wait, once this little attack gets buried in the media, you'll know I was right. You'll know my contacts were right. Something weird is going on."

Caleb turned around, throwing his hands in the air. "Right about what? What could they possibly know about this attack?"

"It was planned. Someone let those zombies out. They are trying to cause fear and panic among the populace."

"To what end?"

Samuel shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe they want power, to gain control. Why do humans do half the stuff they do? But you watch, the government will downplay the situation, and more attacks will occur."