Jim Beck’s Patient Zero is a different take on the zombie genre. The view point is that of the virus and not the survivors. The narration throughout the entire novel is the virus telling us what’s happening. This makes Patient Zero very unusual in a good way for a zombie/apocalyptic/horror novel. The main plot centers around Bob Forrester and his son Nate. Bob has a brain tumor that is inoperable. Bad day for Bob. Thankfully, Bettis Research Group steps up with their handy dandy XR-19, a nanotech device that has proven to remove tumors.
Bob, now happy with the news that his tumor can be treated, joyfully accepts the risks and undertakes the procedure. But, and this had to happen, the virus is waiting in the wings for just the right time to join in the party. The virus, a leftover from Bob’s overseas trip, is Japanese Encephalitis. Once the nanobots get going inside Bob, they invigorate the virus. Poor Bob dies on the table. Or does he?
The nano-powered virus reanimates Bob not as a zombie, yet, but more as a carrier to the enhanced form of itself.
Bob, for the most part, feels great. But then things begin to change. He has an outburst at his welcome back party and bites a co-worker on the leg. Then he starts to develop a taste for raw meat. That little quirk leads to increased hunger and eventually to the point where he starts hunting down the neighborhood pets. Through all this, Bob is not a mindless, brain eating automaton he is a thinking person who realizes that there is something wrong with him. Of course the virus is happy as a clam that it has created a way to spread and infect other people.
Bob’s bite victim, Gabriel, is the first zombie that the virus creates. Through blind luck and pure chance, his wife is able to put him down before he bites her. Bob on the other hand is getting worse and bites Nate’s girlfriend. Its part an experiment and maybe part sick fascination for Bob as he wants to know if what he has and is slowly becoming, can be spread by bites. Sure enough, the girl changes. Good thing Bob thought ahead and tied her down to a chair.
Events transpire as they have a way to do and Bob demands that his doctor do something about his condition. His doctor, not really paying too much attention and Bob not telling the doc that he’s got a freezer full of choice, meaty bits of the neighborhood animals, have no idea how to treat the issue.
Tina, Nate’s girlfriend now securely restrained in the basement of Bob’s house has turned into a flesh eating zombie when her father and brother pay a visit to Bob to ask if he’s seen her. Of course Bob in his normal cheery mood has no time to discus this matter with them as he’s off to see the doctor, leaves them with the feeling that he’s hiding something. Of course he is, Bob is slowly becoming a zombie.
Patient Zero is a great read. Its short, novella length, but it is well worth reading. Beck’s writing is crisp, concise and carries the dark humor that the virus is infected with. A great read and an author that I look forward to reading more of his work.
Available at Amazon.
