by Jiny Lee
'I'll have to call up for a counsel meeting. It doesn't seem like something that I can make a decision on my own,' said Jacques. He left Bertie's office. Bertie remained there, sitting in front of the camera. After a deep thought, he opened his mouth.
'To be honest, that would be too cruel for us. I mean I'm glad that you guys can be cured. I truly am. But, to be isolated for generations? That means until we die! That's too much. That's nothing different from when we were prisoned at the bottom.'
'We can talk about that,' said Purple. 'We can work out like how many floors to allocate and all that. I know how you feel, Bertie, but this is a matter of great importance for us.'
'Okay, I understand. We were exiled here to be prisoned to begin with anyway. I understand. But I can't be sure if Jacques would feel the same,' said Bertie and he moved away from the screen. On his place, Kimmy sat in front of the camera.
'Endy? Is Diane doing alright there?' she asked. I said, 'Yes, she's doing alright. She's having a minor fever and coughing but Nergui said it's just a part of the healing process. After a few days, she'll feel perfectly well.'
'That's a relief. Can you bring her there? I wish to see her,' she said. I said I would and I went to the room and brought Diane in front of the camera and let them talk.
In the meanwhile, I asked Nergui to see me. I asked him about Rachel. He seemed to be waiting for me to say her name.
'Rachel... well she was, it was a tragedy. She helped me a lot but it's a shame that she ended up like that.' he said.
'What happened?' I asked. He said, 'She was victimized by her own curiosity. I told her not to get out of this place but she unfortunately chose to satisfy her desire to explore rather than listening to me. She became so curious about the other floors outside my facility. She came to me one day with a terrible wound on her arm and told me that she was attacked by one of them, one of which you call the night crawlers. Or maybe the term was originally coined to refer to me, but that's not the point here. I tried to fix her but it was too late. She lost too much blood and she was already infected.'
'Infected?' I asked him, 'What do you mean, infected?'
'She turned. It was an unexpected result for me as well,' he said.
'So she became one of them?' I asked.
'Yes, she did. Son, look at the scar,' he said and he showed me his left arm. There was a big bite near the wrist.
'Did she ...?' I asked.
He said, 'Yes. The unstable bacteria inside the night crawler's body infiltrated inside her and turned her into one of them. I didn't expect the unstable bacteria inside their bodies were still active and infectious.'
Hannibal came to my mind. I pitied him. Even If he had succeeded in finding her, he would only have found her dead, by this terrible accident.
But that was not what should've come to my mind first. I was caught by a weird feeling. A weird sensation and an anxiety like I just heard something that's not supposed to be heard. Why were we not infected after all the fights we had with the night crawlers?
'Wait,' I said, 'why are we still fine although we had a hell of a contact with them?' He said, 'First, since you weren't bitten by the night crawlers. And second, Rachel's DNA was much more stable like the ordinary people outside the building than the rest of the people. She was a rare case. Don't worry. You and your friends are showing no sign of infection.'
Then I realized what that weird anxiety was about. We were fine, but what about the veterans?
I rushed into the station and called Bertie. He said what was going on. I asked him in a hurry that where's the veterans. He told me they might be in their places but he didn't know for sure. I told him to reach them immediately and see if there was nothing wrong with them.
'Okay, okay. Relax, buddy. What's all this fuss is about?' he asked me.
I told him that there's a possibility that they were infected. Nergui followed me in to the station. He asked me if there were any day walkers who had contact with the night crawlers. I said there were and they even had several fights with the night crawlers. Nergui's face turned grey.
'Maybe it's not too late. Find them all and put them into an isolate place. If they start to show the expressions, then it'd be too late! Where are thy?' he shouted. Bertie said, 'They're all on the 100th floor. What do I have to do?' I said, 'Tell everyone to stay inside their houses and you go see if the veterans are all alright.'
Bertie hurriedly ran out of his office. Kimmy asked me what was going on. I told her that I'd explain later. I called everyone up in the station to tell them what happened.
'What the fuck is going on?' asked Alex. 'Weren't we planning to wait for Jacques to talk with the counsel members?'
'There's bigger problem than that now,' I told him, 'The veterans might have been infected by the night crawlers on their way to get us supplies.'
'Holy..' said Wonder. 'What should we do?' she asked.
'There's nothing we can do down here if they're already turning. All the day walkers in the building would soon be killed or turn into night crawlers and all the people would hopelessly be killed. The day walkers are too concentrated on the same floors and it wouldn't be easy for the police to take them over once they start to turn all at once,' I said.
'Shit! There's got to be something we could do!' Josh shouted. 'Relax, cadet,' said Fox. 'What do you think, Purple? I think we have to go up in the worst case scenario. If the virus already spread up, there's no point in waiting here,' she added.
'I think the same way. Everyone, gear up. We're getting ready to go up,' said Purple. 'Nergui, prepare us with the passage you used to go up to the top floor.'
'But shouldn't we wait for the counsel?' asked Steve.
'Doc, what's the possibility that they're not infected?' asked Purple to Nergui.
'Close to zero, if they had physical contact,' he said.
'We're going up. Come on, prepare that damn lift or whatever it is,' said Purple.
Nergui led us to a room with many doors. He said those doors were for the hidden elevators. He said that there were secret spaces in the buildings walls and columns to secretly move between the floors. That was the reason we couldn't find anything when we were doing the survey of the building.
When we were about to get in that elevator, we got a message from Bertie that the veterans were just staying in their places and showed no sign of infection.
I asked him, 'They don't even have a fever or something?' Then he said, 'Well, two of them said they think they got a cold.'
'Bertie, listen very carefully. Go run to the counsel or call them or do whatever you can to tell them to begin the quarantine process. Tell all the day walkers to stay away from the veterans and go up to the top floor as soon as they can. And anyone who had a physical contact with them has to be separated. Did you have any physical contact?' asked Purple.
'What? What do you mean?' said Bertie.
'Did you shake hands with them? or did they coughed in your face?' Purple shouted.
'No! I mean, I'm not sure. Am I going to be infected if I did? Oh no, I did a fucking autopsy on the freakin dead body of a night crawler!' shouted Bertie. He looked terrified.
'Kimmy, go to the police academy. Tell them what happened and make them be prepared,' said Fox. Kimmy left the office in a hurry.
'Bertie, we'll change the plan. Lock the door and let no one get in. I'm sure you're going to be alright buddy. But just in case you turn. Where did you put the night crawler's body?' asked Purple.
'It's in the chamber in my office! Am I going to turn one of them?' shouted Bertie in a horrified voice.
'You'll be alright. You were wearing gloves and a mask while you were anatomizing it, weren't you? And once they die, the bacteria inside their bodies also starts to be inactive. And if you were infected by the contact, you would already be turned,' explained Nergui.
'Okay. So you mean I'll be alright, but I have to lock the door just in case. I'll tell the counsel they have to commence the quarantine process. But h
ow can I possibly tell everyone to follow? And how about the veterans?' asked Bertie.
Purple said, 'Don't worry. We're coming up.' And we got in the elevators.
The elevators were quite small and narrow so only one person could get in. We got into each one and Nergui sent us up to the 100th floor. He let us stop at different places on the 100th floor and the doors which were disguised as normal walls opened to let us out.
'Goddess, how many secret ways have you made in this room?' I asked Nergui. Purple interrupted. He said it wasn't the right time to be impressed by that.
'Ok, everyone. We don't need to stick together on this mission. Tell everyone you meet on the way that this is an emergency situation. Tell them to keep inside and lock the doors. If you see any day walkers, make it clear that they go up to the highest floor and be separated. It's for the sake of everyone in the building. Endy, Nari, you guys follow me. We're heading straight to one of the veterans place. Bertie, show us the location.'
Purple quickly delivered the orders to all of us. Bertie said ok and he sent us the location through our goggles. One of the houses were not very far from where we broke in.
We went up to the door and knocked the door frantically, but no one answered. I shouted at the door, 'Mr, if you don't open the door, I'll have no other choice but to break into your place.' But still, no one answered. I smashed the door knob with the back of my rifle and opened the door.
'Holy cow!' shouted Purple. There was a dead body on the living room. It was probably the wife of the veteran. Her body was almost splitted into two and one of her arms were missing. I was startled but we had no time to waste on being surprised. Then Nari whispered that she heard something over a door, a door that was probably leading to a bedroom.
We sneaked in front of the door. I could definitely hear a weird noise coming from the opposite side of the door. A sound similar to that of a sick person. A gulping groan of a nearly dead man. No time to waste. I kicked the door and there was the veteran, or what had been the veteran.
'Shit!'
He attacked me at the moment he saw me coming in. His whole body was already that of the night crawler but his metal arms and legs were still intact. He smashed himself on the wall as I ducked his first attempt to kill me. The wall crashed with a loud noise. If I had been hit by that punch, I would have been dead even though I was wearing the corsac armor.
I tried to shoot him with my rifle but I couldn't since he snatched my rifle away. If I didn't let go of it fast, he would also have thrown me onto the wall with the rifle. Purple fired his rifle at him on his head. But still, he looked perfectly outrageous.
'What the hell? Didn't I just blow his head off? How come he's still...' Purle exclaimed.
'The man got a metal plate in his head!' Bertie told us. The veteran had implanted a metal plate on his skull after he was injured in a battle.
'Then how the heck we're going to kill him?' I asked. Purple kept firing his rifle at the guy but it seemed not so ineffective.
'Holy!'
The veteran rushed to me. He was moving his arms in every direction to kill me. I managed to dodge the first attack, and the second one, too, but I was hit by the third attack.
I nearly felt as if I was hit by a heavy machinery. The punch hit me and literally threw me through over the wall and I flew five to six yards away. I fell to the ground and when I opened my eyes, I was lying next to the dead lady.
I tried to prop myself up immediately but I couldn't. My legs were shaking and I couldn't raise my arms. My ears were beeping like crazy and I could smell the blood from my nose and I smelled something burn from the jacket. It was overheated while absorbing the most of the impact. I had to get myself up again because if the veteran, no, the night crawler chose to come after me, I was so about to be dead in a minute.
Then I heard Nari said, 'Guns are no use. Leave it to me.' She put her rifle on her back and put her hand gently on her sword to pull it out slowly. Not until that moment, I didn't have any chance to closely watch her using her sword.
She was moving so fast and gracefully. She dodged and swayed like a flowing water while she cut the joints between the body and the metal arms. The night crawler dropped its metal arms after she cut all the tendons off from the shoulder. And eventually, she cut his head off with one clean slash.
I was so relieved. I laid myself down again and took a deep breath out. Nari asked me if I was okay. I said, 'I need some rest.'
'Not now. We are pretty much fucked up. It was just the first random pick and it was a bingo. The second, the third, don't even have to guess,' Purple told me.
I took a deep sigh again and about to put myself up. Then he suddenly fired his pistol right next to my head.
'Hey! I was getting up!' I exclaimed. Purple laughed at me and said, 'No, it's not that. The lady's head just opened her eyes.'
'Holy crap...'
...
We hurried out the room. The whole floor was already a mess with people screaming and running. I shouted on the radio. 'How's it going everyone?' Fox answered. She said, 'It's a chaos over here. The veterans all seems like they're already turned. Damn! Go take them down. We're busy taking care of people.'
It seemed like Fox and the others were taking care of the frightened people. We told them to stay inside, but the people who were out on the streets were the problems.
Sarny Sum seemed to be the perfect place for the frightened people to find relief. We yelled at everyone we saw on the street to head straight to their houses or to the church. The sisters put all of them in a huge hall where they did the mass. And we told every day walker we met to stay inside the house cause we didn't know who made contact with the veterans. And we let the day walkers above the 100th floor to go up to the top floor as fast as they could. It was lucky that none of the veterans lived above the 100th floor.
The counsel had no other option left but to follow what we were saying. They gathered all the day walkers on the top floor except the people who were already on the 100th floor.
We thought we had avoided the worst case scenario, but there was another problem. A big one. Not all the veterans were on the 100th floor. Bertie told us through the radio that one of the veterans were living on the 96th floor. I asked why the hell did he choose to live on that floor but who'd know? Maybe he liked the lifestyle of the people from the lower floors than the higher-ups or his friends from outside the building.
'Alex, run to his place as fast as you can since you're the fastest. Go there alone or take one of your kids.' ordered Purple.
Alex answered 'Okay Purple. Bertie, send the location to me and Josh, too. Josh, don't wait for me but go straight to the location. If you arrive faster than me, check out the situation first and wait for me there.'
'Ay ay, sir,' answered Josh and they ran down to the 96th floor.
And we had three more veterans left on the 100th floor. Two were near us and the last one was on the other side of the building. Purple ran to the last one with Steve since he concluded that he'd need someone who was skillful in hand combat. I headed to another veteran's house with Nari.
...
The door wasn't locked. We carefully went inside. There was no one in the living room. I asked Bertie if he was living alone. Bertie answered he was. We slowly progressed and I put my ear on a door to the bedroom. I couldn't hear anything. I opened the door. The man was lying on his bed with a pistol in his right hand and a hole on his head.
'He killed himself,' I said. His body was still warm. He definitely had chosen to die a human once he realized something wrong was going on.
We headed to our final destination. The door was again locked, but this time, I could hear a crazy sounds inside the house. A sound that indicated all the people were fighting inside.
I opened the door and I could immediately see what was going on. There were six day walkers in the place and one of them was turning, or I'd say, already turned. Two were trying to stop the night crawler, saying, 'Come on buddy! Stop it
!' and 'Please don't make me do this to you my man.' Two others were just watching with their worrying eyes.
'Step back. He's already too late and you'd also be dangerous if you keep in contact with him,' I said as gently as I possibly could. They let go of the night crawler, who then dropped to the floor and kept having a seizure. I told the day walkers to stand back but not leave the place. They nodded. I slowly pulled out my rifle to keep my aim. Nari put her hand on the handle of her sword. She was ready to pull it out in any minute.
The seizure stopped. The man dropped down like a dead man. Is it a part of the turning process? Or did he just die? I thought to myself. I slowly went to stand next to the body and poked with my right foot. There wasn't any response. I poked it one more time and still, no response. So I turned the body around with my rifle so that I could see the face.
'Is it possible that the infected day walker can just die without turning into one of them?' I asked to Nergui. He was still on the line.
'I've never heard of that phenomenon. Is it sure that he was infected?' He asked.
'Yes, why would I, I saw him trembling crazy and he was like...'
I couldn't finish what I was saying cause the next minute, I saw myself falling to the ground. And my rifle was again snatched by the night crawler. Nari cut the day walkers head off with no single error and looked down at me. What a shame. She smiled as if she was trying to tell me 'how could you be still alive with that skill?'
'It's already twice a day you nearly died,' said Nari.. That was kinder than my expectation.
'Thank you,' I said, holding her hand to get myself up. 'You saved me twice already today. Thank you.'
'Don't mention it. So, what should we do with these guys?' Nari asked me.
'They had too much contact with the infected guy.' I answered, and I asked one of them.
'Sir, how long have you been in this place with him?'
'All day. Why?' he answered. He looked terrified.
'I'm afraid but you'd have to be isolated inside the room for a while until it is clear that you aren't infected by the virus.' I said.