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“Shaun! Inside door!”

“Got it,” Shaun called The connecting door slaht beneath it was cut off a second later as he slid the dalasses, forcing my eyes to open all the way I’d been out in the sun for too long; even the UV la for a few seconds before my eyes adjusted and the rooet in direct light

“Retinal Kellis-Amberlee,” as it’s popularly called, is more properly referred to as “Acquired Kellis-Amberlee Optic Neuropathic Reservoir Condition” I’ve never heard anyone call it that outside a hospital, and even there, it’s usually just “retinal KA” Those good old reservoir conditions: Onefor everybody My pupils are perht, retinal scans are i ister a live infection, and best of all, h that my eyes don’t even water The virus produces a protective fil out My tear ducts are atrophied The only upside? Absolutely stellar low-light vision

I tossed lasses into the biohazard disposal canister and started across the roo space shares a lot of features with the van, including the part where Buffy maintains about ninety percent of the equipment and I understand less than half of it Flat-screen roup servers into my wardrobe last year when Shaun decided he needed more space for his weapons Whatever It’s not like I was using it; I don’t wear anything that actually needs to be hung up I belong to the Hunter S Thompson School of Journalistic Fashion: If I have to think about it, I have no business wearing it

When you get right down to it, about the only similarity betweenwoth mirror next to the bed There’s a wall dispenser mounted next to the mirror I ripped loose a sheet of tear-away plastic and spread it on the floor, stepping onto it as I turned to face ia Nice to see you’re not dead yet

Slickingmy clothes for the telltale fluorescence that under the black lights would indicate traces of blood

Shaun and I operate under Class A-15 blogging licenses: We’re cleared to report on events both inside and outside city lih we’re still not per at or above Level 3 The zones start at Level 10, the code for any area with resident o Kellis-Amberlee amplification and reanimation Humans count Level 9 means those hborhood is considered a Level 10 hazard zone, which means it’s safe to let your children play outside, except for the part where it would instantly convert the zone to a Level 9 Our house is classified as a Level 7 hazard, possessing free-range mammals of sufficient body mass for full viral a blood or other bodily wastes onto the property, insufficiently secured borders, and s islation currently under review that would make it a federal offense to raise any child in a hazard zone above Level 8 I don’t expect it to pass It frightenslicense to enter a Level 3 hazard zone with any prayer of being allowed to exit it We can’t get those licenses or anything above until we turn twenty-five and pass a series of government-mandated tests, most of which center on the ability to make accurate headshots with a variety of firearms That means no Yosemite for at least another two years I’m fine with that There’s plenty of news to be found in more populated areas

Shaun feels different, but he’s an Irwin, and they thrive on wandering blindly into danger All I’ve ever wanted to be is what I aer is a side effect of what I do, not the reason behind it That doesn’t ia, I won’twith zombies, especially when you have the recently infected involved The older infected are usually too concerned with keeping the you with their precious bodily fluids, but new ones are fresh enough to have fluid to spare They’ll splatter you if they cantheir bloodstrea strategy, but as a way of spreading the infection it works better than any uninfected person wants it to

Not that anyone left in the world is actually uninfected—that’s part of the problem We call people who have succues the fact that the virus is inside every one of us, patiently waiting for the day it gets invited to take over The Kellis-Amberlee virus can remain in its dormant state for decades, if not forever; unlike the people it infects, it can wait One day you’re fine The next day, your personal stockpile of virus wakes up, and you’re on the road to a, feeling hu zo of security, like we can souess what? We can’t

Viral amplification primarily occurs under one of two conditions: the initial death of the host causing a disruption of the body’s nervous syste the virus already there, or contact with virus that has already switched over fro the zo to result in a minimum casualty rate of sixty percent Maybe thirty percent of those casualties are going to occur in the actual co about people who knohat they’re doing I’ve seen videos of ainst the zo the first to admit that they’re da contrast between the grace and speed of a healthy person and the sha poetry co, and it’s sad, and it’s beautiful as hell