Everything Dies | Season 3

by Malpass, T. W.

  Raine fixed her glare on Foster.

  ‘When were you planning on telling his friends how much he’d deteriorated instead of the bullshit you spoon-fed me the last time we spoke? He reminds me of a patient I’m sure you’re familiar with from your time at the facility,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sure you trust your eyes, Miller, but you’re not a doctor. The combination of treatments is working, even if his outward appearance suggests otherwise,’ Foster said.

  ‘I’m supposed to take your word for that, I guess. Do you really think letting him lock himself away in the dark, watching movies all day, is good for his mental health?’

  Foster smirked at her remark. ‘So you are his therapist after all.’

  ‘Don’t be smart, Foster.’

  ‘Maybe he should go mix with the others in the main building. That might be better for his mental health.’

  Raine clenched her jaw and didn’t respond.

  ‘No, I thought not,’ Foster said. ‘You all treat him like he’s contagious when he’s no threat to you. If you care so much about his psychological well-being, you might want to consider making him feel like he’s still a member of your group instead of some dirty secret. Try visiting more often. That would be a start.’

  ‘You’ve made your point,’ Raine said.

  ‘He’s been having a recurring dream. He wakes up screaming in the night with it, and it’s always exactly the same. He’s walking over rock covered in moss. It’s slippery underfoot, and he can hear the sea. The farther he walks, the more the wind blows against him. Then he sees the edge. He wants to stop, but something tells him to keep going, that he would be doing a great thing if he did. So he obeys the voice, and he falls over the edge. Doesn’t take a dream analyst to figure out what it represents for him, and the way everyone behaves around him just reinforces his mindset.’

  ‘He needs purpose,’ Raine said.

  ‘Don’t we all?’ Foster retorted.

  Raine gazed over Foster’s shoulder to the creature they’d tied to the wall.

  ‘I saw some footage in Grant’s office. I know he was conducting research into how they communicate with each other. Fause showed me that they had no interest in attacking a person infected with the virus,’ she said.

  Foster’s eyes widened as it dawned on her what Raine was implying.

  ‘That’s why you brought it back with you. To see if Ethan could be of any further use to you,’ Foster said.

  Salty, who had been listening intently, looked at Raine and then back to the creature, as if the true purpose of its capture was news to him too.

  ‘This is what he needs to make him feel like he’s still of value,’ Raine said.

  ‘Do you have any idea how terrified he is of them?’

  ‘He has the least to fear out of all of us.’

  ‘Only if your theory holds up,’ Foster said.

  ‘The great genius you worked for chose him for a reason, didn’t he? Besides, it’s your job to test the waters safely to ensure it does hold up.’

  ‘I won’t do it,’ Foster said. ‘I won’t be involved in this. The only reason you spared my life is because I tried to prevent Grant from carrying this through, and now you want me to finish what he started?’

  ‘I know you spend most of your time avoiding the rest of us, but I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that people are getting anxious. They’re afraid of him. They wonder if he’s really on our side anymore,’ Raine said.

  ‘I know exactly which individual you’re referring to.’

  ‘It’s not just him. If you can show them some results, give them some form of practical demonstration, it could prevent this group from tearing itself apart,’ Raine said. ‘That does, after all, take precedence over everything else.’

  ‘Even if I agreed, he won’t do it,’ Foster said.

  ‘Then convince him it’s in his own best interests and the interests of the group. I don’t know how much longer I can keep telling them nothing when they ask. They need some positive news.’

  Foster curled her nose as if she’d been confronted by a disgusting smell.

  ‘Get out of my lab, both of you,’ she snapped.

  Raine and Salty started towards the entrance, and then Raine decided to call back.

  ‘You picked the wrong time to grow a conscience, Foster. I’m trying to save what little life he has left. You’ve got twenty-four hours to give a progress report, so don’t hesitate. Talk to him tonight. Make him understand why this has to be.’

  When they exited and made their way down the passageway to the outside, Salty finally spoke up.

  ‘Just so I know I heard you right in there, you fed Grant to one of his pets because of what they were doing in those labs, and now you’re encouraging her to pick up where he left off with Twilight?’

  ‘Maybe time has made me come around a little to Grant’s perspective on things,’ Raine said.

  ‘Say what?’

  ‘We expect to die every second of every day, but we might live another thirty to forty years. I can’t stand this cold and isolation any more than you can. There has to be another way… and Ethan is the key to that.’

  ‘And you’re OK with using the boy like that?’ Salty asked.

  ‘Foster said it back there. He feels like a burden. What would you want to do if you were slowly dying? Wouldn’t you want to make yourself useful?’

  Salty paused a moment to consider, his frown deepening the lines across his craggy skin.

  ‘If I had friends like us, I’d be thinkin’ about switchin’ sides,’ he said.

  5

  ‘Y’know, it’s amazing that if you do without tinned spam long enough, it somehow becomes fine dining,’ Jason said, mouth bulging with processed meat from their food haul. ‘O.B., pass the ketchup.’ The broadest smile broke out across his face. ‘Damn, I never thought I’d hear myself say that again.’

  O.B. remained stony-faced and pushed the family-sized bottle towards him. The sauce had long passed its sell-by date, but Jason didn’t mind at all.

  He held the bottle above his plate and began to squirt the sickly red substance all over his powdered mashed potatoes, the squirting accompanied by a farting sound as air escaped from the nozzle.

  ‘Christ, we finally find something approaching passable to eat and you wanna cover it in that shit,’ Salty said.

  Anna glided silently over to the table and nudged his arm with her snout, sniffing the air around his head.

  Salty broke a piece of spam in half and reached down to feed her. The dog gobbled it down without chewing it.

  O.B. watched on with disdain.

  ‘Did you find anything useful today? Or was it just more booze and reading material for the patient?’ he asked.

  The smile Salty had given Anna soon faded as he glanced across the table.

  ‘We found a crash site—a commercial jet,’ he replied.

  ‘Shit! Anything salvageable?’ Jason asked.

  Salty looked to Raine, who’d been eating her meal in silence.

  ‘We found some medical supplies—things we need,’ she said.

  ‘That it?’

  ‘We have one of them. It was a passenger strapped into their seat. The fuselage protected it from the elements, so it’s in pretty good shape.’

  ‘It is? As in the present tense?’ Jason replied.

  ‘We brought it back with us,’ Raine said.

  O.B. stopped chewing, holding the food in his mouth.

  ‘For what reason?’ Jason asked.

  ‘Research.’

  ‘You mean for the serum?’

  ‘No, I don’t mean for the serum,’ Raine said.

  O.B. swallowed his mouthful and leaned forwards to listen in.

  ‘Then what?’ Jason said.

  ‘The weather is just about clear enough to fly long distance, and with the extra food supplies you found today, this could be our best chance to relocate. If we’re
taking a step of that magnitude, with the risk involved, I want some kind of insurance policy,’ Raine said.

  ‘Right! So the serum,’ Jason said.

  ‘I just told you I’m not talking about the serum,’ she snapped. ‘There never was a new serum. It was a lie Foster told us at the beginning because she was afraid for her life. Maybe she even convinced herself it was possible for a while.’

  ‘She told you that?’ Jason asked.

  ‘No,’ O.B. said. ‘She knew she was lying from the outset, didn’t you, Miller? And she never thought to let us in on it.’

  Jason stared at Raine, forcing her to make eye contact. ‘Is that true?’

  Raine shrugged. ‘What do you want me to tell you?’

  ‘Something real,’ he replied.

  ‘I want you to explain to us just what the hell she’s been doing with him in there for all this time,’ O.B. said.

  Salty raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Now we’re getting’ to it,’ he said.

  ‘Shut up! Shut the fuck up, you smart-mouthed piece of shit.’ O.B. sprang up, sending his chair crashing against the wall. ‘You’ve gone soft up here. You spend too much time getting hammered with that other burnout at her cabin. You’re too busy concocting paranoid fantasies about being watched to see the real danger living right next door to where we sleep.’

  Anna reacted to O.B.’s projected aggression towards her companion by stooping low in an attack stance, a slow, controlled growl building in her throat.

  Salty waved his hand to call her off.

  ‘Easy,’ he said. ‘I’d seriously consider countin’ your teeth if I were you, Pyle.’

  ‘I’ll bet, but I’m not you, Jake. I was only scared of you when I thought you had your shit together.’

  ‘Explain what good it would have done to tell you what was really going on,’ Raine said, turning O.B.’s attention back to her and her betrayal.

  ‘That wasn’t your call to make,’ he said.

  ‘I’ve been keeping an eye on things. I know how close he is,’ she said.

  ‘You know as much about science as I do. And you really trust Foster to tell you anything but bullshit about his condition?’

  ‘He could hold the key to us being able to move from here. Fause walked among them before he turned. If Ethan can do the same, it’ll give us the edge we need wherever we go—at least from the dead.’

  ‘Fause knocked you out and flooded the facility with the specimens. He may have still talked like a human, but he was already lost to the virus,’ O.B. said.

  ‘A point well made,’ Jason cut in.

  Raine flexed her jaw, feeling the two sets of eyes on her at once.

  ‘Foster is going to work with him, see how the creature reacts to him. When they’re ready, there will be a practical demonstration, and we’re all going to be there to witness it,’ she said. ‘This isn’t up for debate. It’s what’s happening.’

  O.B. drew his hand over his head, pushing hard into his scalp until he reached the back of his neck. He shoved the table in the direction of Raine and Salty, then stormed out of the rec room and down the main corridor.

  Jason looked down to his plate of food and pushed it away.

  ‘I’ve changed my mind. Spam tastes like shit.’ He too got up and left the room.

  6

  Crawford set down the tumbler glass containing the last dregs of rum she had left and stared over to the empty bottle. The sight of the dry glass struck as much fear into her as any ravenous walking corpse ever could.

  Inebriated, she fumbled with the drawer to her desk table to open it. She brushed aside the roll of toilet paper and empty cigar case to get to the crumpled photograph at the bottom.

  She squinted to try and cure her double vision. Eventually her husband’s face started to come into focus, their laughing son perched on his shoulders. It was taken five years earlier on a visit to the Cool Zoo Splash Park in New Orleans.

  Their son had always liked water, and the joy he felt at that moment had been immortalised in the snap she’d taken.

  The solace it provided Crawford was fleeting, and she dropped the photo back into the drawer and closed it shut.

  Wiping the tears from her eyes, she picked up the tumbler and drank the last of the rum from it.

  The banging at the door startled her enough to cause her to fumble the glass, almost dropping it before managing to guide it to rest on the table.

  ‘Go away,’ she shouted.

  ‘Nice,’ came the voice on the other side. ‘Your co-pilot’s out here. She wants to see you, and she won’t take no for an answer.’

  Crawford heard the scratching of paws at the bottom corner of the door.

  ‘Tell her to come back tomorrow,’ she said.

  The door clicked and opened, and Salty entered the cabin with a plastic tub full of leftovers from their evening meal.

  Crawford let out a huge sigh.

  ‘If you’re gonna arrive uninvited, the least you could do is bring a nightcap.’

  ‘You look like you’ve had enough,’ Salty said as Anna scuttled by his legs into the warmth.

  ‘I ain’t had nearly enough,’ Crawford said, swaying from side to side, her feet planted. In the half light, she moved almost like one of the dead. ‘It’s late, Jake. What brings you out here that couldn’t wait until morning? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re worried about my diet.’

  ‘Just a flyin’ visit, seeing as you’ve been avoidin’ the rest of us,’ Salty said. ‘We found a dead one on our search today, brought it back with us.’

  ‘Jackpot.’

  ‘Miller handed it over to Foster. She wants the good doctor to arrange a demonstration.’

  ‘What kind of demonstration?’ Crawford asked.

  ‘She wants to see if Twilight can walk among them like the scientist Grant had locked away.’

  ‘You’ve got to be shittin’ me!’

  ‘I wish I was. It’s like you said before. Not everybody’s on board with this, and they’ll want to shut it down. This is a heads-up to let you know we’ll either be movin’ out soon, using the kid as our shield against the dead, or somethin’ else is gonna happen—somethin’ worse. If it’s the latter, ’bout time you thought seriously in regards to which side you’re gonna be on when the shit hits the fan.’

  As Crawford contemplated his words in her alcohol-induced daze, she was startled by Anna, who wandered beneath her and licked the tips of her fingers.

  ‘Food for thought,’ Salty said, placing the plastic tub on the arm of Crawford’s chair. ‘Might soak up some of the liquor.’ He whistled to his dog, and she turned around and scampered to the open door. ‘Goodnight,’ he said.

  Even though the harsh winter was supposedly over, it didn’t stop the night winds from biting on the short walk between the cabin and the main compound.

  Salty thought he could make the journey back without donning his hood. He was mistaken and pulled it up again, pushing on towards the entrance to D Block.

  As he mulled over the potential connotations of the days ahead, he glanced down and noticed Anna no longer followed by his side.

  He turned back and saw her staring off to the southwest. Salty immediately understood the pose she had adopted. She was leaning forwards with her whole body, her head up and ears perked, her back legs wide apart, and her tail pointing directly behind her.

  Salty slipped his rifle from his shoulder and crept to where she had set her alert stance.

  He followed her line of sight and peered into the darkness surrounding the camp, intently listening for any unusual sounds beyond the howling winds.

  ‘Just point me in the right direction, girl,’ he whispered.

  His fingers traced along the side of the rifle to grip the bolt handle.

  Anna’s lips parted slightly, as if she were about to release a deep growl. Instead, her stance relaxed, and she twisted around and started to bound across the snow to the
D Block entrance.

  Whatever she’d sensed, if it was anything at all, it had either gone or was no longer considered to be a threat.

  Salty held his position for a while longer, gazing into the blackness of the arctic night, the wind whistling in his ears.

  Episode Three

  If I Cannot Inspire Love, I Will Cause Fear

  1

  Still tied to the metal frame in the lab, the creature craned its emaciated neck to snap at Foster. The doctor stood behind the white line of tape she’d fixed to the floor, looking the specimen up and down. She noticed its left sneaker had been scorched and partially melted by the intense heat from the crash. The shoe had almost become part of the flesh of its foot in the process.

  Its struggling had caused the hard plastic of the cable ties to embed themselves into its wrists.

  She moved behind it and took hold of the bracket with one hand to give it a firm rattle, ensuring it was secure enough. She then made her way to Ethan’s quarters and entered his bedroom.

  He sat on the bed with his back pressed against the wall and his head on his knees.

  Foster ventured no farther than the doorway.

  ‘I can go back to her. Tell her we’re not willing to cooperate,’ she said.

  Ethan raised his head to look at her.

  ‘And put you in the firing line? No, I won’t let you cover for me anymore. If they want a show, we’ll give them a show.’ He took a deep breath and climbed off the bed to face her. ‘Let’s go.’

  Ethan led the way back into the lab with purpose, and Foster hurried after him. His strident attitude soon evaporated when he caught sight of the reanimated woman, and he stopped in his tracks.

  Foster removed the pistol from the pocket of her lab coat and approached from behind, careful not to spook him any further.

  ‘I’ll be right here. If it so much as twitches the wrong way, I’ll put it down, and Miller will just have to deal with it,’ she whispered.

  He stared at the creature as if he were about to come face to face with his own mortality. He gripped the legs of his jeans, digging his nails into the denim to still his shaking hands.