Live Like a Human Again Part Two

Lena opened her eyes. Her left lid drooped, and she could see through a squint. She searched her environment, which was both familiar and unfamiliar. It was a bedroom; it wasn’t hers, yet she knew who it belonged to. Lena tried to lift her body up but had difficulty making her right arm and right leg rise. Using her left arm and leg, she pried her right limbs off the bed. 
Footsteps approached. Lena stiffened, she thought she was alone even though she knew she was in someone else’s home. She peered at the doorway to the bedroom, and a figure appeared, covered partially in shadow. Relief swept over Lena; she knew this person. The figure approached and Lena shrunk back. This woman was her mother, yet she knew that her mother had passed away many years ago.
“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to wake up,” the woman spoke first as she inspected Lena by touching her forehead. “I had pumped you full of my concoction of epinephrine, more than the usual.”
“You can’t be my mother,” Lena said, her body shaking from the effort to get up.
“Oh, God, no. But you have my daughter’s brain,” the woman said, a strange crooked smile covering her mottled face.
Lena tried to blink, her droopy lid flappy. “What the hell are you talking about? Where am I? Who are you?”
“I’m Dr. Nora Rivers, and I’m a surgeon at Duvalny County Hospital,” Dr. Rivers raised her hand to Lena, which was missing a pinky, but Lena didn’t take it. “I placed my daughter’s brain into your head, along with the rest of her organs.”
“Why would you do that?” 
“I found you in a dumpster ten months ago. Someone scraped you clean, I can only assume they took your organs to sell them.”
A vague memory surfaced. Lena saw herself on the floor; people were surrounding her, and then she was being cut open. She instinctually touched her abdomen; there was a long surgical cut running along her belly.     “I can’t remember who did that to me,” Lena said, staring at the doctor, who was helping her sit up. Another memory surfaced of Nora combing her hair and clumps of it sticking to the hairbrush. 
“Why do I think your my mother?” Lena asked.
“You have my daughter’s memories and your own memories. When I was fitting her brain into your cavity, I noticed that the thieves didn’t take all of your brain out. They left the hippocampus behind.”
“What?” Lena said, she was having difficulty following along, she felt drowsy.
“I couldn’t take it out; it was being stubborn, so I just left it in,” Nora said, smiling again.
Lena stared at the sloppy smile and she felt something snap in her like a twig in a gust. She took hold of Nora’s neck and squeezed. “I didn’t give you permission to put your daughter’s parts inside of me,” Lena growled.
Nora gurgled. “I’m sorry! I just wanted my daughter back! She died a couple of days before I found you. I hadn’t called to have her taken, I didn’t have the nerve to do it!”
Lena let go of Nora. A memory of her daughter’s last days surfaced, and it eased her anger toward the surgeon. 
“I need to find out what happened to me.”
“Yes, honey. First, you need to get better,” Nora said and added, “Though you might not care to know once I’ve taken care of you.”
Lena watched Nora as she turned to pick up a pile of clothes from the top of a dresser. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her gnawing stomach that Nora didn’t rescue her out of empathy but to get her daughter back. 

Lena gave herself a couple of months to recover. Her droopy eyelid was stitched up, and her right limbs were mostly functional, yet her need to leave hadn’t left like Nora had thought it would. She practiced walking and lifting objects to get acquainted with her body. Lena also spent time on the computer searching for the person who ripped her insides out. 
At first, she couldn’t recall the name, but a memory of a celebratory night out with friends brought the name forward. As her gnarled hands hung over the keyboard, she realized she didn’t have a last name. She stood up from the computer, frustrated. 
Lena shuffled back and forth, straining to think. She thought back to the night it happened, and it occurred to her that she needed to go back to her home; there was a possibility that her answers might be there. Shutting her eyes, she tried to remember where she lived.
“Izzy - I’m sorry! Lena, lunch is ready!” Nora said from downstairs. 
Lena rolled her eyes; she was tired of Nora treating her like she was her daughter. Before she responded with a decline, Lena realized she could ask Nora where she had found her; from there, she could try to pinpoint where her home could be. 
“Be right there!” Lena said.

Nora placed a bloody lump of liver before Lena had fully sat down at the table. She watched as Nora hummed and busied herself going back and forth between the dining area and kitchen; placing silverware and glasses. A lit candle stood in the middle of the table, dripping down onto an ornate saucer. 
“What is all this for?” Lena asked.
“We’re celebrating your recovery! You’ve managed to live for two months without rejecting any of the organs I put in you,” Nora said, beaming. “You’re a real fighter.”
 Nora sat across from Lena and was pouring blood from a carafe into her glass. Lena poked at the liver with a fork, wishing it was Rick’s face.
“Nora, can you show me where you found me?”
“You want me to show you the dumpster?”
“Not the dumpster, but just the location. I want to find my home. I thought I could start from where you pulled me out.”     Nora dropped her smile. “You want to go back home?”
“Did you think I would stay here with you? I’m not your daughter, Nora,” Lena said, watching Nora as she squeezed her hands together.
“But you have her organs!”
“I didn’t ask for you to do that!”
“Yes, but you find this all convenient because now you can find the son of bitch who did this to you, am I right?” Nora said, standing and slapping her napkin onto the table.
Lena felt this argument was somewhat familiar to Nora, not in context but in heat. One of Izzy’s memories surfaced of wanting to leave the house, yet Nora didn’t let her. Nora watched Lena with her arms folded in front of her; she needed Nora to relax so she would tell her where she came from.
“Nora, I’m sorry. All I can think of is finding Rick and making— “
“You remembered his name?” Nora asked, interrupting Lena. She seemed to forget the argument. She came over and sat next to Lena.
“I can’t remember his last name. I thought if I went back home, I can somehow find it.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so? I’ll show you where I found you after our lunch here,” Nora said, patting Lena’s arm, which flaked, with bits scattering on the table.

Lena scanned the alleyway and then the dumpster as Nora stood by humming to herself. She wasn’t getting any vibes or sensations of recognition. Having come back from shuffling back and forth in the alleyway, she ended at the dumpster, hoping that something would trigger a flashback to that night. 
The late afternoon sun was hitting her face, and she dropped her gaze. She noticed a stain on the asphalt near the corner of the dumpster. Standing above it, she studied the stain. It was blotchy and had a dark reddish tinge to it as if someone had spilled chunky salsa there. The wind picked up, and she smelled something familiar, it was subtle, yet she picked up the scent. 
Lena bent down and placed a finger on the stain. Rubbing, she tried to pick up as much of it as she could.     She placed her ragged finger into her mouth and sucked. 
“That’s my blood,” Lena said as she stood up.
Nora had stopped humming and was watching Lena. 
“I might have dropped some while I was pulling you out,” Nora said, her gaze tight.
Lena considered it, yet she wondered if there was more. She scanned the ground. Coming across Nora’s worn shoes, she saw a similar stain underneath Nora’s feet. 
“You’re standing on a stain,” Lena said, pointing at it.
“I am?” Nora said, and Lena had trouble believing her innocence, especially since Nora placed a hand over her chest as if she were a thespian.
“Were you standing there on purpose?”
“Or course not!”
Lena brushed past her and found another stain. It was in front of a wooden gated door, a few feet from the dumpster. She placed her hand on the door, and she recalled opening it and placing a small trash bin in the alleyway.
“My house is on the other side!” Lena said, her heart thumping erratically with excitement. 
Nora only nodded.

Without a key in hand, Lena had to smash one of her windows to get inside. They entered through Lena’s bedroom. She found her bed unmade and a few pieces of clothes on the floor. The light to her bathroom was still on. She searched on her nightstand and dresser for her cell phone or anything else that might clue her in. Nora, who timidly shuffled a couple of feet behind Lena, stumbled on a pair of jeans.
“Well, I can see you’re no different from my daughter when it comes to tidiness,” Nora said.
Lena exited the bedroom and went down the hall leading to the front entrance. She paused. Nora stood beside her. On the wooden floor, there was a pool of coagulated blood, and along the edges were tread marks caused by shoes. 
“I guess this is where they cut you open,” Nora said.
Lena remembered laying on the floor and staring up at the ceiling, a smile creeping along her thin, split lips. She recalled the rush of getting each surgery, each one getting her closer to becoming a human being. Touching her abdomen, Lena realized that all that time and money spent was ripped out of her, never to be recovered. 
She wondered if there was a chance to get her organs back if she found Rick, yet so much time had passed. The organs are probably in someone else’s body by now. Lena knew the buyers wouldn’t waste time purchasing the organs and having them implanted; human organs are so frail.
“I think I see your cell phone!” Nora said and she bent down to shove her arm underneath the entry table. She pulled out the phone, its screen shattered.
Lena took it from her, she tapped on it and it remained dark. She searched for a charging cord nearby and found one on the entry table. While it was plugged, Lena, tried her code. Since no one has fingerprints anymore, the touch ID option was not used. She was glad she remembered the code. With the phone unlocked she found the contact icon and opened it. Lena had to scroll back and forth to find Rick. 
Her thumb was suspended over the name Rick Mulholland. Lena thought to call him, yet once the phone started ringing, she knew that he would see her name on his phone. She wondered what he would do; she imagined him answering the phone and staying silent on the other end. Leaving the contacts, she pulled up her social media and viewed her account. 
It took time to locate some pictures that tagged Rick’s name since Lena had stopped posting for quite some time. Nora had left her side to explore the house. A group picture was tagged with her and everyone else’s names. She recognized the faces, and she remembered seeing them hovering over her body.  Lena followed the trail to his profile and found that he lived not too far from where she was and that he worked in a phone repair shop further away. She needed to find her car keys next.

After dropping Nora at her home, Lena headed to Rick’s home. With no success in finding him, Lena drove to the phone repair shop. She parked near the entrance, watching from her car. Through the glass front, she could see a clerk at the desk. It wasn’t Rick; she remembered his crooked face. Lena got out of the car, deciding to ask the clerk about Rick. 
Lena shuffled in and locked her eyes on the clerk’s bloated face. His eyes wavered and shifted away. She knew the trick to get people to reveal was to make them uncomfortable; it was something she had picked up as a former manager of a grocery store.
“Hi, I was hoping to see Rick. Do you know if he’s working today?” Lena asked.
“Rick, uh, he doesn’t have a shift until, uh, tomorrow,” The clerk said, bouncing on his heels.
“Well, that’s strange. He wasn’t at his place and he had told me to drop by.”
“Uh, he, uh works somewhere else too,” The clerk said and he rubbed at his face which crinkled garishly.
Lena continued to stare at the clerk, he bounced on his heels again. Lena glanced down at the business cards on the counter. She read the names. According to one of the business cards, Rick was the manager. 
“Look, I doubt you want to get in trouble with Rick. He specifically told me to meet with him, if he finds out that you kept me from doing so,” Lena peered at the clerk, whose eyes widen. “Well, we both know how Rick is.” She hoped that the last part would have a big effect. 
“Uh, no, no, of course not! He goes to a warehouse in the Barb district to sell… things,” the clerk said, appearing to be choosing his words. 
“The commercial port?” 
“Yeah, yeah.”
“You’re not planning on calling him, right? I don’t think you want to get involved any more than you have already since what Rick is doing there is not legit,” Lena said as she backstepped toward the glass door. 
“No, no! It’s none of my business!” The clerk said, raising his sagging arms.

Lena’s car crawled to a stop about twenty feet from a massive warehouse that appeared to be abandoned. It was the last one she came upon that wasn’t occupied by a shipping company. She was about to get out of her dented car when the garage-style metal doors rose up with a clatter. People emerged with barrels placed on push carts, steam seeping out from the sealed tops. A cooler truck edged into view from the side of the warehouse. Forklifts followed the tail end of the procession, in all there were about fifteen workers. 
Hesitating, Lena watched as each barrel was placed into the truck. A knock on the window startled her. A gruff-looking woman with a half-sewn scar running the length of her face stared at Lena, gesticulating at the door handle. Lena shook her head. The woman raised a rifle that was out of sight and was about to smack it against the glass when Lena hit her car into reverse and peeled out, gravel kicking up. 
She spun the wheels and was heading out of the Barb district. Lena peered at the rearview mirror, between the plumes of dust and gravel, she saw a man beside the gruff woman. She stared, not paying attention to the road; she was sure it was Rick.

After leaving the Bard district, she decided to go to Rick’s house to wait for him. It was dark by the time Lena noticed Rick return to his home. She watched as he lumbered to his door and opened it. Lena didn’t have a plan; she didn’t even know what to say; all she had was rage guiding her. Leaving her car parked across the street, she headed to his house and knocked.
After a few minutes, the door opened, and Rick stood in the doorway with his button-down shirt half open and a wide-eyed stare on his crooked face. Lena seized him by the neck and pushed him back inside; she kicked the door closed behind her. Rick gurgled, and she could feel his neck moving underneath her grip. 
He struggled to wrench Lena’s hand free. “Lena!” he managed.
“Why?” That was all Lena thought to say as she shoved him onto a lumpy couch in his living room.
“I’m sorry! Please let me explain!”
Lena waited.
“I needed the money. I’m trying to save so I can move the hell out of here.”
Lena scanned the living room and the hallway where the entrance was and noticed the moving boxes on the floor.
“Trying to escape after what you did to me?”
“No, no! I’m just sick of watching other people turn back into humans,” Rick said.
“But you can change too, if you saved money like I did! You didn’t have to take it away from me!”
“I don’t want to be like you or any of these new humans. I want to stay a zombie.”
Lena stared at Rick. She had trouble understanding him. “Why? That’s what everybody wants.” She asked.
“I didn’t like my old life. Jumping from job to job and being alone. This was the best thing that had ever happened. Everybody was changed and we all became the same - ugly, impish zombies.”
Lena didn’t know whether to empathize or laugh. She had never met anyone who didn’t want to go back to how things were. Going back to being human was the only thing she ever thought about. It made her think of how hard she had worked to save her money to change and her rage returned.
“You had no right to take that away from me.”
“I’m sorry! I was jealous that you had what you wanted.”
“I was close to finishing my surgeries, I was on my last one.”
“I know, I remember.”
Lena’s arm began to twitch and she knew her rage was causing it. She jumped onto Rick’s lap and plunged her arm into his stomach, a startled yelp escaping his mouth. She grabbed hold of the first organ and yanked.
“You don’t get to leave so easily! I’m taking back what you took from me!” 
Using both hands, she ripped every organ out of Rick’s body. He didn’t put up a fight but laid his head back as if he were resting. Lena was breathing hard, she pulled out her hands from inside his cavity. 
She felt like Rick looked—empty inside. She had wanted to confront him for so long, yet she had lost control the moment she let her anger take over. Lena realized she could change her appearance, but she couldn’t change what she truly was—a monster. She had stopped being Lena a long time ago.
Lena stumbled out of Rick’s home, leaving the door open so that someone would call for repossession. Getting into her car, she headed towards Nora’s house. If she couldn’t be Lena anymore, she could be Izzy and learn to love Nora like a mother; as long as Nora didn’t upset her too much, everything would be fine. She could push all her memories of Lena out and let Izzy’s memories take over. Lena smiled at that.