Living With the Dead: This New Disease (Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the feedback we've had is good. No
one, including Evans, Gabby, and myself, likes the things we have
been doing to our captive undead. No one likes having them here at
all. But most people recognize the potential for understanding and
gaining an advantage this situation creates. The average citizen
makes the conscious decision to deal with it, and moves on. It's
really that simple.

Of course, there are always dissenters. I
place no blame on them. Some people weigh the danger against the
possible information we might gather and decide the risk isn't worth
it. Those folks have completely valid viewpoints. It really is a
dangerous game to play, and they're right to be worried for the
safety of the community.

There isn't a right or wrong, just
differing opinions. Recognizing that reality is something most people
have a hard time with. We do a pretty good job here for the most
part, and that makes me happy.

The other question was: how do
people feel about someone they know volunteering to turn into a
zombie?

As I typed that out, an intense flash of nostalgia hit
me. For a second, I was the me I was before The Fall, just a nerd for
whom the present situation was just a thought exercise. The question
itself reminds me of all the times my friends and I would get into
discussions about comics and ask what superpowers we'd have, and all
other kinds of hypothetical situations based on whatever genre struck
our fancy.

Coming back to the present, I'm reminded that this
isn't a hypothetical.

The answer is simple: Rick made a
choice. A lot of people were upset by that choice, but not in the
sense that they were angry at him about it. More because they
themselves would never want to reanimate, and couldn't understand why
he would let it happen. That's where the ability to use logic begins
to fail, the fine distinctions of a person's reason faltering against
the onslaught of emotion tied to death.

As hard as it is for
people to understand Rick's decision (and I'm one of them, I don't
think I could have done the same) they don't seem to have any problem
accepting the fact that it was his to make. I haven't heard anyone
say that it's wrong or anything. I haven't been told we're evil
because we're using the resource of his body just as we use all other
available resources. Rick was in pain and only likely to stay hurting
until he died, and he understood the facts. He knew he wasn't going
to get better by some miracle. He was going to die.

Once we
started to explain to him the trove of information we might gain by
being able to observe the change as it happened, Rick connected the
dots. He knew that such an opportunity might not come along again
before the New Breed attacked in numbers, if ever. He saw the need,
and he rose to the occasion.

So, for the most part, people
aren't freaking out about it. It's definitely weird, and I'm
extremely uncomfortable working with what used to be Rick. His face
is familiar, but the man he was is completely gone. Sort of like
seeing a person you know have a brain injury, I guess.

I think
a huge part of why I'm able to work with him despite my discomfort is
that like most of New Haven's citizens, I know Rick is gone. Whatever
vital force was at work within his body, soul or Ka or whatever you
want to call it, is gone. What's left behind is a shell manipulated
by another living thing. It isn't him in any real sense.

That
recognition probably explains why people aren't more upset. While
they don't like having zombies "alive" inside the walls and
certainly don't think the idea of volunteering to become one is
ideal, they don't see Rick's remnant as him. Or as a person at all.
I'm not performing tests on someone we knew and respected. Public
opinion seems centered around the idea that I'm basically doing an
autopsy with an unusually mobile subject.

I'm really trying to
get away from focusing on these experiments too much, but I'm glad I
did this today. It really did make me feel better (and this is