Undead Rain Trilogy Box Set

by Shaun Harbinger

  Tanya switched off the engine and sudden silence descended. That silence seemed to be laced with an anticipation of danger, as if something was going to come quietly out of the night and take us one by one, like an owl swooping noiselessly onto its prey, razor sharp claws bared.

  I had to stop thinking like that or I was going to spook myself to the point that every tiny noise was going to make me jump.

  We got out of the van and walked through the cold drizzle to the guard station.

  It was warm inside the small building, the radiators on the wall throwing out more than enough heat to combat the chill of the night. There was a single main room, a restroom, and a storeroom that held a filing cabinet and a coffee machine.

  The main room had a row of a six monitors affixed to one of the walls, each with a number 1-6 painted on the wall above it, with a row of desks and chairs beneath, each desk holding a small control panel. The monitors were switched on, displaying black and white images of the parking lot, the perimeter fence, and various corridors that I assumed were inside the main building. A row of walkie-talkies sat in a charger on one of the desks.

  “The main building looks deserted,” Jax said, watching the monitors.

  It was true that the screens seemed to show an empty building, but they only showed corridors. The only room interiors shown were two small rooms that looked like the mirrored room I had been held in at Alpha One.

  “There are only six monitors,” I said. “That’s a huge building, so these screens aren’t showing everything in there. The guards must select which cameras to monitor using the control panels.”

  I took a seat at one of the desks and looked at the controls. There were two rows of white buttons beneath labels that denoted which camera they were related to. There was a small joystick that I assumed controlled the cameras’ movements. There was also a button that said Audio with an On and Off position. It was currently turned to off, and the button for the Level 1 Main Corridor was depressed. I clicked the button next to it, labeled Level 5 Elevators, and one of the screens changed the image to show three closed elevator doors and a section of corridor. The camera was obviously set high up on the wall opposite the elevators, the image looking down from that vantage point.

  Something moved across the screen suddenly. A woman in a skirt and blouse came into view, walking along the corridor slowly, aimlessly. She wore thick-rimmed glasses that were broken, the right half of the frame hanging loosely, the lens missing. That didn’t seem to bother her. She stared vacantly ahead as if in a trance. I couldn’t see any wounds on her that would indicate that she’d been bitten but because the image was black and white, I had no idea if her flesh was mottled blue or if her eyes were the hateful yellow of the zombie. She passed from the view of the camera.

  “What’s up with her, man?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  Everyone took a seat and began hitting various buttons on the control panels, switching cameras until they found something of interest.

  After a few minutes, each monitor showed a very different scene to the one it had displayed when we’d first entered the room.

  I studied each monitor in turn. The second floor main corridor was blacked out. It looked like the power had been cut from that floor, although the cameras were still working so they must have been operating on a separate electrical circuit.

  The fourth floor elevator camera showed the closed doors of the elevators and, lying in front of them, the bodies of four security guards, all lying face down and dressed in the same uniforms and caps as the guards at Alpha One. They were covered in blood and guts. A dark pool of blood had spread across the floor from where the bodies lay. Had they been killed by something that had ripped out their insides, or had they been gutted after death? They hadn’t turned, suggesting a cause of death other than a zombie bite.

  The first floor reception area seemed deserted. When we went through the main door into the building, this would be where we’d begin our journey to the fourth-floor labs. The camera showed a wide-open space, decorated with a few large potted plants and a seating area. The reception desk itself sat behind a semi-circular wooden counter. The camera also showed the three closed elevator doors. But unlike the fourth floor, there was no sign of carnage here.

  I turned to the others. “At least our entry point into the building looks safe enough.”

  Tanya nodded. “Well, it’s not crawling with nasties, anyway.” She pointed to the monitor that showed the guards lying dead by the elevators on the fourth floor. “But what the hell happened to them?”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  Sam said, “It looks like a straight forward snatch and grab to me, man. We go into the reception area, get an elevator up to the fourth floor, step over the bodies, and go down this corridor to the lab.” He pointed to the next monitor, which showed the deserted fourth-floor corridor. The lab doors were all closed. If there were any nasties on that floor, they were hopefully sealed behind those doors. “Then we get the H1 stuff, ride the elevator back to the first floor, and get the fuck out of there. We spend the rest of tonight, and all of tomorrow, in the van. The day after that we drive to the pick-up point for one o’ clock. It’s so easy, it’s almost like a vacation.”

  “It sounds too easy,” Tanya said.

  I didn’t say anything, but I agreed with Tanya. I wanted this mission to be as easy as Sam had said, but I didn’t dare hope that it would be. My hopes had been destroyed too many times in the past.

  The other two monitors showed the facility’s cafeteria, which had at least fifty zombies wandering between the tables, and the third-floor corridor, which was deserted. Unlike the other floors, where the doors were all closed and presumably locked, with access only being granted to holders of the proper security clearance cards, the third floor seemed to be a communal area. The doors were all open.

  “What level is the cafeteria on?” I asked.

  “Third floor,” Johnny said.

  I leaned closer to the monitor showing the third-floor corridor. “Strange.”

  “What is it?” Jax asked.

  “See the cafeteria door? It’s open. I think it’s this door here.” I pointed to one of the doors leading off the deserted third-floor corridor on the other screen.

  Jax nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s it.”

  I looked at her. “So, why aren’t those zombies wandering out into the corridor? We’ve seen how they usually act; they wander everywhere. But these are acting differently. It’s like they’re huddling together for protection. But there’s no danger in the corridor that I can see.”

  Jax said, “Try some of the other rooms on that floor. There must be something there.”

  I pressed a button labeled Level 3 Meeting Room 1. The screen showed a typical meeting room with a long table running down the center of the room, chairs on either side. A large screen at the front of the room was turned off.

  Pressing the next button showed us Level 3 Meeting Room 2. It was identical to the other meeting room, except for one thing: lying on the floor in one corner, among a mess of blood and entrails were a man and a woman. Both of them wore white lab coats, although the amount of blood made that difficult to distinguish. Their bodies lay at unnatural angles, as if they had been tossed into the corner like discarded, worn-out dolls.

  “Holy fuck, they’re hybrids,” Sam said.

  He was right; the parts of flesh that were visible in the gory mess showed the dark web of veins beneath the skin that was typical of hybrids.

  Blood covered the walls in patterns that I knew from watching cop shows to be arterial sprays. A smear of it led from the bodies, across the carpet, to an area off camera.

  “So now we know what the zombies are afraid of,” I said. “Hybrids eat them. So all the zombies have moved into the cafeteria to stay off the dinner menu.”

  “Ironic,” Jax said. “But what killed the hybrids?” She leaned forward and moved the joystick on the control panel, pan
ning the camera along the bloody trail on the floor. The trail ended abruptly, and then seemed to smear up the wall. Jax panned the camera up.

  The blood disappeared into a large, dark, square hole near the ceiling.

  “That’s the air vent, man,” Sam said.

  The metal grille was hanging loosely by one of its corners beneath the hole, bent out of shape as if something had smashed it open.

  I sat back in my seat and looked out of the window at the building beyond the parking lot.

  It seemed that patient zero had become a creature so strong and vicious that was capable of killing hybrids.

  It was hunting for prey.

  And it was in the air vents.

  11

  “We don’t have a choice, man, we have to go in.” Sam was pacing back and forth in front of the monitors, glancing at them every now and then. I wasn’t sure if he was actually as brave as he wanted us to believe, or if he was scared and dared not show it.

  “He’s right,” Tanya said. “It doesn’t matter what’s in that building, we have to go in there and get the chemical. If we don’t, we’re as good as dead anyway.”

  “Yeah, I know that,” I said. “I just wish we knew where that creature was so we could avoid it.”

  “It won’t matter,” Sam said. “We’ll be in and out before that…thing…even knows we’re there.”

  “We can’t just go blundering in there without knowing where it is. We’ll all be killed.” I wanted to add, “And then what will happen to Lucy?” but I didn’t.

  “I have an idea,” Jax said. “What if two people stay here and watch the cameras while the other three go inside? It might give the three people inside a better chance if they get an advance warning of what’s ahead of them.”

  “How do we communicate?” Tanya asked.

  Jax pointed at the walkie-talkies lined up in the charger.

  “So who stays and who goes?” Sam asked.

  “We’ll draw straws,” Tanya said. “There must be something we can use in here.”

  “There’s a filing cabinet in the other room,” I said. “We can cut up strips of a piece of paper.”

  Sam went into the other room and came back with a deck of cards. “I found these. The guards must get bored in here.” He placed the deck on the table. “We all take a card. The two people who draw the highest numbers get to stay here.”

  It sounded reasonable enough. I cut the deck and drew a card. The three of spades. I sighed as I showed it to the others. It looked like I was going into the building.

  Jax took a card, frowned, and put it face up on the table. Five of hearts.

  Johnny took the nine of clubs, Tanya drew the ten of hearts, and Sam ended up with the six of diamonds.

  So Tanya and Johnny were going to watch the cameras while Jax, Sam, and I went into the main building. I took a deep breath and tried to prepare myself mentally for going inside a building full of zombies, hybrids, and something that was even worse. There was nothing I could tell myself that would stop the shaking in my hands.

  I put one of those hands on the Desert Eagle at my hip. If the end came while I was in that building, I was going to make sure it came quickly.

  We each took a walkie-talkie and checked that they were working. Sam and Jax stuffed theirs into their backpacks and switched them off to save the batteries. I clicked mine on. We would only need one between us unless we got separated, and I had no intention of letting that happen. I clipped it to my backpack strap, on my chest, so that I didn’t have to hold it. I could simply reach up and press the Talk button.

  Tanya and Johnny took seats in front of the monitors, placing a walkie-talkie between them on the desk and turning it on. They switched two of the monitors to the level 1 reception area, and the level 1 elevators.

  Sam looked at Jax and me. “Okay, guys, we can do this just like I said. A quick smash and grab. We’ll be back here in ten minutes.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was genuinely trying to psych us up, or if he was trying to reassure himself that this was going to be all right. It didn’t really matter; his pep talk had zero effect on me. I was dreading going into that building, and the greatest motivational coach on earth wouldn’t be able to talk me out of my fear.

  I picked up my baseball bat and stepped out into the night. The drizzle had become a heavy rain, hissing down on the parking lot, pounding the cars.

  “Let’s move,” Sam said, jogging toward the main entrance of the building.

  I picked up my pace but was in no hurry to go inside, despite the rain. This might be the last time I breathed fresh air, might be the last time I was ever outdoors. Once I went through that door, I might never come back.

  We reached the glass doors, and Sam swiped his card through the lock on the wall. The doors slid open with a gentle whisper. The air that drifted out between them smelled foul.

  “Ready?” Sam asked. Jax nodded. I didn’t feel like I would ever be ready, but I nodded, too.

  We slipped into the building like thieves in the night.

  12

  We crossed the reception area quickly, looking all around for any sign of movement. It was as quiet as a tomb.

  The walkie-talkie crackled through the silence. “We can see you on the camera,” Tanya said. “Everything looks okay.”

  I glanced up at the camera set high on the wall, its red light blinking. Under any other circumstances, I might have waved, but I felt too tense to do anything more than press the button on my walkie-talkie and say, “We’re heading for the elevators.”

  We reached the three closed metal doors. Jax pushed the button and it lit up green, an upward-pointing arrow indicating the direction we would be traveling.

  “Come on,” Sam muttered, pacing nervously. “Where is the fucking thing? It’s not like anyone else in here is using them.”

  We heard the elevator arrive behind the middle door, clanking noisily. The doors slid open and we stepped inside. A recorded female voice said, “Going up.”

  Sam hit the button for the fourth floor. The doors slid closed.

  “Tanya,” I said into the walkie-talkie, “we’re going up to the fourth floor. Is it clear?” I had wanted to ask her that question before we were on our way—that was the idea of having them check the camera feeds, after all—but Sam had pressed the button without thinking.

  “I think so,” she said. “Johnny, check the level four elevators.” Then she said, “Shit. No, it’s not clear. There are nasties in the corridor.”

  I looked at the illuminated numbers over the door. The third floor came and went quickly. The next floor was the fourth. I hit the button for the fifth floor, knowing the elevator was going to stop at the fourth, but hoping it would proceed faster if it had another floor to go to.

  Sam leveled the MP5 at the closed doors. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

  “Don’t shoot if you don’t have to,” I said. “We don’t want to make any noise that will attract that thing in the vents.”

  He nodded but didn’t lower the weapon. “I’ll only shoot if I have to.”

  The recorded voice said, “Fourth floor,” and the doors slid apart. The corridor, which had been empty when we’d left the guard station, was teeming with zombies. Even though they were a few yards from the elevator, the stench of their rotting flesh hit me like a putrid fist.

  They turned to face us, a collective moan rising from their hideous dead mouths as they sensed living prey. As I repeatedly hit the button to close the doors, I estimated there to be at least twenty nasties. Where had they come from so quickly, and why were they here?

  I realized then that the stench was not only coming from the zombies; the dead, eviscerated security guards lay on the floor a few feet from the elevator door. The scene had looked bad enough in black and white on a screen; it looked a thousand times worse up close and personal.

  It looked like the guards’ spines had been ripped from their bodies. Their uniforms and the flesh beneath were torn open in a ragged lin
e from the backs of their necks to their buttocks. The bodies sagged unnaturally, making me sure that the spine was gone. But with all the blood and organs everywhere, it was impossible to tell for sure.

  The zombies lurched toward us.

  “Get us out of here, man,” Sam said.

  I jabbed at the button marked “5” over and over. “The elevator’s too fucking slow,” I said.

  Sam began shooting. In the steel elevator car, the noise was deafening. Every sound in my ears became muffled except for a sudden high-pitched ringing. Sam continued to fire, the MP5 jerking in his hand as it shot bullet after bullet into the mass of advancing, rotting flesh. A mottled blue hand reached in through the door. I hit it with my baseball bat but the lack of space to swing the bat meant I had to jerk the bat at the hand as if I was playing cricket, slamming the fingers into the steel wall above the elevator’s control panel.

  Jax used her own bat to push the zombies’ face out of the elevator as the doors began to slide shut.

  We went up to the fifth floor.

  “Tanya, what’s the fifth floor like?” I asked quickly into the walkie-talkie.

  “Clear,” she said as the doors opened and the disembodied female voice, sounding muffled in my ringing ears, announced, “Fifth floor.”

  We stepped out into the corridor, weapons ready. The rooms on this level appeared to be offices. Some of the doors had metallic nameplates on them. I saw one that said, “Administration”, and another that read, “Personnel”.

  “We need to find somewhere safe where we can discuss what to do next,” I said. There was no way we were going down to the labs on the floor below until that zombie horde moved somewhere else. I wondered if they had been attracted by the smell of the dead bodies by the elevator. If so, they would feed, and then hang around the area until something stimulated them to move. That was going to be a problem.