by Silas Cooper
His thoughts were interrupted by Dax, beside him, taping on the front window. Chase followed where Dax’s finger pointed down the road. Seeing a vehicle, he sat up straight.
“It’s a Humvee. That’s a good sign,” Chase said.
He didn’t turn to look at the rest of them. He just kept his eyes glued to the road. Soon he could see another car right behind the military vehicle. Unmarked, he wondered why it seemed to follow so close behind a vehicle that could practically run it over if it wanted to.
Soon enough, the Humvee pulled into the parking lot. At least three rows of parking stripes away, it did a one-eighty to face the car that screeched its tires coming to a stop. The doors on both opened and suddenly shots were fired.
“Duck,” Chase yelled to them all, even as he ducked himself but checked to see that everyone had followed his command.
Peering over the dashboard, he watched the man from the Humvee shoot the two men who’d gotten out of the car. The survivor of the shootout turned then to walk toward the van.
“Damn, I hope this is Frank,” he said as he jumped out of the van, his hand on his own gun despite the fact the guy walking his way had holstered his own.
“I’m Frank,” the guy said right away.
“Good, cause I’m Chase. Where’s Daniel? Who were the guys in the car that you blew away?”
“They were the enemy,” Frank said with a shrug. “Daniel died. Everyone at the base died except for me. I was the lucky one I guess. The base wasn’t safe once the virus spread through it. But Daniel said a lot of good things about you. I promised him that I would find you.”
Chase just nodded, then changed to shaking his head. Over his shoulder he saw all sets of eyes on them.
“You guys made it this far without protection?” Frank asked, then continued without skipping a beat, “I’m impressed.”
“I need to know how Daniel died. We toured together. We were the best of friends. I just need the closure,” Chase stated.
Frank leaned in and promised to tell him later.
“I know of a safe place we can go. It’s off the beaten path a ways, but we will be safe there for now,” Frank commanded and then turned on his heel to go back to the Humvee.
Chase felt a great sense of relief in letting this guy take the lead from him.
Chapter Eighteen
“It’s a two day journey to the military base,” Frank said to the group.
They all sat around in an old motel room, top floor, that Frank had brought them to. The place smelled and looked like something out of a good horror movie set, but it seemed to work. They were not the only ones using the place, and it seemed they’d worked out a set of guards below. Chase looked down at the sheets, obviously used by many, and wondered if the virus was the only thing they had to fear. He looked at Jayda, but she sat on a blanket that Frank had provided for her on the same bed.
“I hear there is a cure there, so if we can all just make it without getting bit, then we’ll be in good shape,” Frank added.
“I wish Richard could have held on until we found a cure,” Jayda mumbled.
“We all do,” Chase said back.
He wondered about her thinking. It had been well over a month since he’d died, almost two. Maybe she just hadn’t thought her comment out. He was sure she still missed him. She’d had nothing but time to think on it. Of course, time seemed to stand still for all of them recently.
“Wait till I tell you about the research that Chase and I have done toward finding a cure,” Lucas said to Frank.
“Lucas,” Chase exclaimed, and then caught himself.
“What’s wrong?” Frank asked. “Is there a reason you don’t want me to know?”
“No, it’s just that it’s not quiet done and we lost all the results when we had to flee the lab we were working out of.”
“I’m interested to hear more, though. I mean, what you can remember of it. I don’t know exactly what they have where we are going, but what you’ve done could help, I’m sure,” Frank went on.
Chase nodded to Lucas and let the boy go on enthusiastically about their work from the stem cell research to the special mouse to the latest zombies. He didn’t need to even chime in to help as Lucas rambled on about stopping the cell decomposition of the virus. He knew the kid had a mind like a steel trap.
After, Frank told them to all get some sleep as they’d leave early in the morning. Chase tossed and turned as he counted off each of the others falling asleep. Lucas and Sherri must have done the same, because about an hour later, they snuck out of the room. He didn’t worry about them with the guards. He knew the boy to be smart enough to find an empty room. There had been quite a few of them when they’d entered.
What did bother him, however, was Frank sneaking out shortly after them. He crept to the door once he heard it close, and then moved to the window to see where Frank had headed too. Before he moved the curtain, he heard Frank’s voice. Peeking out, he saw the guy on the phone. Chase crouched there barely breathing as Frank related, near verbatim, what Lucas had told him about their research.
Chapter Nineteen
Chase, along with Lucas and Dax, loaded their meager supplies from the van into the Humvee. Chase asked him where exactly they are going, just to make conversation, but Frank avoided the question by telling him he had a friend to pick up in the city first.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Chase said. “Daniel had told us to stay out of the cities at all costs.”
“We don’t have a choice. The guy is stranded and needs our help,” Frank said shortly.
“I don’t know,” Dax added. “Sounds really dangerous even in this ride.”
Frank got in Dax’s face in seconds. “I stuck my neck out for you!”
Frank walked Dax up against the Humvee as he added, “What makes you think that you are better than him?”
Chase moved in as he saw Frank’s hands ball into fists.
“Hold up,” Chase said. “He was just voicing a concern out loud. We are all grateful that you came for us.”
“Sorry,” Frank spat and moved away.
After exchanging a few looks and shrugs, the gang all followed Frank’s cue and climbed into the vehicle. Chase helped Jayda in, who seemed too tired today to even complain about his help. He couldn’t help but to watch her out of the corner of his eye as they drove in silence. He just hoped that he hadn’t put them all in harm’s way. Of course, military guys were known to have short fuses at times. And a zombie apocalypse was a trying time for anyone.
He tried to remember all they’d seen, and he was sure this guy had seemed worse. He thought about Daniel again. He wished he knew what had happened to him. Frank never had said. But if he were a praying man, he’d have asked that he wasn’t allowed to turn. He knew his friend wouldn’t have wanted that.
By the time they got to the city, it seemed a virtual ghost town. Most places did these days, as any survivors stayed holed up. From time to time they’d see a zombie wake at the sound of their vehicle, but none of them had been fast enough to keep up with them. Frank obviously knew exactly where he was headed. He took several turns a bit fast for his comfort. He grimaced when he saw how green around the gills his driving was making poor Jayda.
Just as he was about to say something, Frank pulled up and stopped in front of an old mom and pop type store. He wondered what had happened to the mom and pop owners as he looked at the place. It seemed to have caught fire. Melted glass hung from the top of the big front window, and smoke stains went up the front to the apartments above.
“He’s up there. He said the smoke has kept the zombies away. At the time of the fire, firemen had still answered the call. They saved his apartment, and he’s been living there ever since just waiting for me to be able to get to him. It’s been one thing after another though for months now,” Frank went on as he got out of the van.
“Chase,” Frank continued, “you come up with me. The rest of you stay here and guard the vehicle.”<
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Chase gave them a brief look and obeyed. He hoped the rest of them would do the same thing. Frank lowered a fire escape on the side of the building, and they climbed up the stairs.
“He said the stairs took a good hit from the fire,” Frank shared as they climbed.
At the window, they were greeted by the barrel of a gun. After a shouted exchange, the man let Chase and Frank in.
“You thought zombies could make it up the fire escape?” Frank asked as he climbed in.
“I don’t trust the dead or the living these days,” the guy said.
“Got ya,” Frank agreed. “Chase, check on the group, will ya?”
“Sure,” he said, then moved back to the window.
He could hear Frank and the guy talking as they moved into another room. He took his time getting back to the window as he eavesdropped. He got increasingly uncomfortable as he heard Frank tell this guy that him and his people were perfect for the compound. The word sparked images of a serial killer and poisoned Kool-Aid.
By the time he got to the window, he saw his people under attack by a small band of zombies.
Chapter Twenty
Chase moved as fast as he could to aid them as they shot the zombies getting too close for comfort. From his vantage point, it seemed that one after the other kept coming at them. Looking down the street, he could see a horde forming as they trickled from between the buildings. His stomach dropped as he ran toward them. He knew they wouldn’t have enough ammo to take them all.
He saw Dax run the opposite way and open a car door. He yelled his way, but Dax didn’t turn before he climbed in. Suddenly, the car roared to life. Chase could only watch as Dax drove forward, going just past the zombies but away from the group. When he stopped in an alley, he started to honk the horn.
The zombies turned toward the sound as Dax continued to lay on the horn. As the few left before them walked away, Frank and his guy came out. They all regrouped at the Humvee. Once inside, he couldn’t even see Dax’s car anymore, though he could still hear it. There was a thick wall of zombies between them and him.
Frank drove toward the herd, but soon couldn’t go any further. He smashed several bodies against the brick building on the side of the alley, but they just kept coming, doing their best to try and climb the vehicle.
Frank backed up. Zombies fell only to get back up again. The horde seemed to walk in circles between the sound of the Humvee and Dax’s horn.
“We can’t save him,” Frank said, looking at Chase.
“Bullshit,” he yelled as he opened his door.
Gun out, he fired off a few rounds. Frank grabbed him. The two struggled a second before he felt a zombie swipe at his back. Instinct had him jumping back in the vehicle. Luckily, instinct had Frank fire at the closest zombie and then slam the door.
Chase leaned against it even as several more zombies banged their bodies against it. In a daze, he watched their hands hit the window. Flesh seemed to slide off their bones with each hit. Catching his breath, he swallowed over the nausea threatening to empty his already empty stomach.
Frank tried again to slam more of them into the building. When a small window opened between them and Dax, he saw the man smile and then salute him. Next thing he knew, Dax blew his own head off. Before this could register, Frank turned around the Humvee and fled.
Chapter Twenty-One
Although he’d planned to find out more about the guy they’d picked up on the ride to the military base that Frank had called a compound, after losing Dax, he’d said nothing. The image of losing him played over and over in his mind. It could only be silenced by memories of all Dax had done for the group or by Jayda moving the hand that she’d placed over his.
When they reached the compound, he couldn’t tell if the mood that ran through the van was relief or excitement. Probably a mixture of both drowned out by their losses. Each woman had cried at some point on the trip there. He was sure that Dax’s tragic death had only dredged up their own losses along the way.
As they pulled up to the gate, an armed guard came up to the window. Frank flashed him a badge of some sort.
“We’ll take the weapons,” the guard said, his own gun poised at the ready.
“What does he mean, take the weapons?” Chase asked Frank.
“It’s just protocol,” Frank answered as he handed over his own weapon.
“I don’t want to do that,” Chase said back.
“You have no choice. It’s fine. This isn’t the outside world. We’ll be safe inside these walls. You have no choice. Either walk away armed or go in without,” Frank shrugged as he finished.
The doors all opened and guards stood awaiting their decision. At the moment, it seemed they may just be shot on the spot if they refused. So, after that step was completed, the vehicle was then searched as were each of them. They got to get back into the Humvee and drove in.
After exiting, they were handed over by Frank and his friend to a military man. Chase and the group followed him. The tension built in his already tight shoulders as they moved further and further into the building. He would have been far worse off had he known that the man leading them through the building had been the same one that had killed Lucas’ brother, Dr. Benton.
Chase finally broke the tension by asking the guy where they were going.
“To the living quarters to get you checked in,” he answered frankly.
They continued to follow him until they reached a large metal door. Using his thumb as verification, the military guy made the door open. It closed after them, making Chase jump.
“Food or testing?” the woman who sat at a desk just inside the door asked.
“You decide,” the guard gave a tense, brief chuckle. “I could care less.”
“Wait, what does that mean?” Chase asked the man even as he walked away from them as if he hadn’t heard him.
He looked to the woman who seemed to take some kind of pity on him.
“I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you were brought here to be either used as food or testing. Please remove all of your clothes,” she demanded in a flat tone.
Chase tried to refuse. He even started to scream at the woman. Soon though, he found himself struggling with a guard who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. He threw a punch, but before he even felt it land, an arm snaked around his neck. The next thing he knew, everything fell to black.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chase opened his eyes to surgery lighting and cool white walls. A man in a uniform had shaken him awake and was propping him up into a line of people. Each looked as dazed and confused as he did. He stepped out of line to find out what was ahead of them all.
Several people ahead of him, a guard grabbed the man in front and led him to a chair a ways up in the room. After he was sat down, the guy Frank had gone to pick up injected the poor guy in the neck. He tried to fight, but the uniformed men held him down.
The sight seemed too unreal to believe. He had to wonder if he was still asleep as the naked guy practically hulked out on them. They did their best to hold him down, careless of his nakedness. The more they seemed to restrain the guy, the more he fought them. Mindless of time passing as he attempted to figure out just what was going on around him, he looked down the line at the mindless people.
He wondered if they were drugged as they seemed to patiently await the same fate. He wondered if he was drugged as well, as he didn’t fight against it all. He just stood trying to pull two thoughts together. Unaware of time passing, he turned back to the events at the front of the room. As if he’d just woken up from a long nap, hung over but still stoned, he watched the guy become really aggressive.
He slipped from the guards and ran at them. One guard kicked him back, and the other blew his brains out. A tiny shock went through Chase as the gun had rung out in the room. Yet, he just stood there.
Soon, someone had him by the shoulders, moving him forward.
“You like to watch, huh? Guess your ne
xt then before you become too aware,” the guy said.
The fact that his voice has been mean and nasty registered in his mind. The cold chair they shoved his naked ass into gave his brain a jolt. He struggled with the hands and arms restraining him as he watched Frank’s friend, now in a lab coat, fill a syringe. As the large needled moved toward him, he mumbled, “Wait.”
“Ah, I know you,” the scientist guy said as he pulled the needle back a bit. “Frank got you just before he picked me up. You seemed like a strong guy. Smart too. Frank was right. It will be interesting to see the effect this experimental drug has on your cells.”
The word cells ricocheted through his thoughts.
“Cell regeneration,” he stumbled. “We stopped the decomposition of the cells in a zombie.”
The words sounded almost foreign to him, but tumbled out of his mouth as if he’d memorized them at some point.
“Really?” the scientist laughed. “Good thing you already related that information to Frank so his team of scientists could use it. That is just in case you are the next to die here.”
He leaned in toward Chase again, and he fought them with all he could muster. Just as the needle pricked his skin, a door opened, and a voice shouted for them to stop.
“Seems I’m just in time, and that this is your lucky day there Chase,” Frank smiled at him as he walked his way. “Seems someone important was more impressed that I thought by your research and wants to speak with you.”
Chase tried to focus in on all the words.
“You didn’t give him anything, did you?” Frank asked the guy in the white coat.
“No. I’d just pricked his skin with the needle when you barged in. A second later and he could have been toast,” the guy shook his head as he spoke.
“Release him,” Frank said to the uniformed men restraining Chase.