“It’s possible. I know because he is not the first. But with any luck, he will be the last.”
“The last? The last what?”
“Zombie general. A leader of the undead, able to control and manipulate their will at his own whim.”
The thought alone sent a shiver up Tommy’s spine.
The colonel’s face contorted into a mask of pain. He gritted his teeth and his body tensed in agony. “My time. It grows short. I must hurry. After the first will come the second wave. The assailants will not be the same. They will see our weakened state and attack.”
“Who? Who will attack?”
“The usual suspects. By the time the attack happens, we will know who they are. You must come up with a plan to destroy them. Nuclear strikes must be a last resort.”
“Nuclear?” The insinuation alone was enough to make Tommy’s mouth dry. “It’ll never come to that. . .”
“When our enemies are at the gate, knocking it down, and we have the option of going quietly or handing over everything we are, what would you choose?”
It was a difficult decision to make. “There’s always a way out, right? That was what you said.”
“Yes,” Colonel Maxwell said with a small smile on his face. “That was what I said. But eventually, if you go down enough dark tunnels, you will find yourself trapped in an inescapable prison. You must ensure we do not become ensnared.”
“But how? With so many enemies marching against us, how do we win?”
“Concentrate on defeating the zombies. Once they have been wiped out, we will be better able to defend ourselves against our usual antagonists. Our allies might support us, but in the current climate, who knows. They will also be using the majority of their defenses to protect their own borders from the virus’s spread.”
The colonel coughed. The wheeze wracked his entire body. The rubble surrounding him quivered, dirt dusting his head. He regained control.
“We have one chance,” he said. “The last resort.”
“What? What is it?”
“Go to my office in San Antonio. Get access to my office. Inside, you will find my safe. Isolate the folder with the codename ‘Failsafe’. Take it and follow the instructions.”
“What’s the safe’s code?”
“Six, nine, five, two, one, eight, nine.”
Tommy repeated the code back to him.
Colonel Maxwell’s breaths came rough and ragged. He wasn’t long for this world. “It begins,” the colonel said around a mouthful of bloody teeth. “You have what you need to do what is necessary.”
Tommy had a question he had to ask. “How do you know the Architect doesn’t already know about this Failsafe protocol? How do you know it isn’t already part of his plan?”
The colonel managed a pained smile. “There are some things even he doesn’t know.”
His eyes drifted over Tommy’s shoulder. The smile faded on his lips. And just like that, he was gone.
9.
SAM
Sam greeted the research room like an old friend. She’d slept extremely well. Was it any wonder? She’d done as much research on a single day as she usually did in an entire week. When she took over as a team leader, her job became about management much more than the actual research. Now she realized how much she missed it.
Her assignment was a continuation of the previous day. A single result by itself meant nothing if it couldn’t be replicated. Today, her task was to run the exact same test to see if she came up with a similar result. She went through the motions and moved even faster than the day before.
She glanced at the next terminal over. A container packed with needles caught her attention. They came in various lengths and widths to extract the necessary tissue from samples.
The door hissed open, startling her. The guard entered carrying her lunch tray.
“Where do you want your lunch, doc?” he said.
That was new. He’d never addressed her by her title before.
“Over here, please.”
The guard brought the tray to the tabletop beside the door. He eyed her for a moment before turning on his heel and heading back to the door. As he grabbed the door handle and brought it closed, Sam dropped a needle on the floor. She didn’t acknowledge its existence. If she didn’t notice it, they might think it was an accident. She picked up an apple and focused on her terminal.
She continued to conduct her research. Each minute that passed, that needle pressed into the back of her mind. She still hadn’t decided if she was going to make the most of it. Felix’s words kept coming back to haunt her:
Don’t try to escape. It’s impossible. They will hurt you.
* * *
At the end of her workday, Sam was dirty and in much need of her hot shower. She waited for the computer to process the test results. They popped on the screen. She smiled with satisfaction. Within the margin of error. Her results from the previous day were correct. The terminal immediately turned dark and the door hissed open.
The guard entered, clutching his rifle close. He didn’t need to utter the command this time. Sam pushed off the terminal and stopped several feet before the door. In her mind’s eye, that needle glinted with every filament of hope she could muster. Out of her peripheral vision, she peered at those cameras hunched in the corners like vultures.
The guard searched her. He wasn’t as aggressive as the first time he’d done it. Still, he searched her thoroughly. He grunted and nodded in the direction of the door.
Sam lowered her arms and stepped forward. Her foot was adjacent to the needle. She turned her foot to one side and pressed it against the ankle of her other foot. It needed to look deliberate, a personal tic she often performed. It was the most delicate part of the operation. She couldn’t check to see if the needle had entered the lining of her slippers. She couldn’t feel it either. And she couldn’t take a second shot. It would arouse too much suspicion.
She stepped into the corridor and turned to the soldier. She nodded in the direction of the showers with a questioning look. The guard nodded.
They proceeded down the corridor toward the showers. Sam’s heart thumped hard in her chest. Would the guard get a call from the control center? Would they know she’d taken the needle? And what would happen to her if they found it?
They will hurt you.
She stopped outside the shower facilities and left enough space for the guard to swipe his card across the terminal. The light blinked green. She waited for him to nod before entering. She stepped inside the same stall from the day before and shut the door behind her. She turned to peer under the door and waited for him to move aside.
She turned the shower on. The water cascaded and steam billowed within seconds. She removed her slippers and felt along the sole, dismayed to discover no needle lodged there.
Then she felt it.
The needle’s blunt end. It caught the fleshy part of the tip of her finger. Her heart leaped into her throat as she pinched it between her forefinger and thumb and pulled it free.
There it was, lying in the palm of her hand. The first part of her escape plan.
She grinned like the Cheshire cat.
* * *
The door hissed shut. Sam reached for her uniform’s sleeve and slipped the needle out. She clutched it in her hand and took in the entire room. She crouched and moved around the outer edge inch by inch. She ran her fingers along it.
No good.
She searched every inch and came up with nothing. No way she could hide—
The bed.
She dropped onto her stomach and pulled herself under the bed. Right in the corner was a slight indentation. The tile sealant had come loose. Sam tugged on it, working it free. She pulled enough of it up to slip the needle underneath. She replaced the sealant and backed out. From this distance, it looked good as new.
Could she replicate what she’d done? Could she get more out of the lab without them noticing?
Tap tap tap.
�
��Are you there?”
It was Felix. He was trying to get in touch with her.
* * *
“Where have you been?” Felix said.
“They took me to do research.”
“We’re useful pets to put to work.”
“I tried to contact you yesterday but you didn’t reply.”
“I was working on my own research project.”
“What kind of research do you think they’re making us contribute towards?”
“It’s hard to tell. Maybe it’s got something to do with this new virus you mentioned.”
“But you’ve been here three years. The virus wasn’t around then.”
“It could have been. They must have developed it somewhere. I always got the feeling I was working on a small part of a much bigger project. I would do my work, and then they would hand it over to someone else. Then they’d bring it back to me later and I’d pick up from wherever they left off. Maybe they were working on many different projects at the same time.”
“Or they never wanted anyone to know what they were up to.” The thought alone gave Sam chills.
“At least we work cheap. The shower’s nice, right?”
“Yes. But why didn’t you tell me about them? I’d have worked a lot harder if I knew I was going to get a hot shower every day.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
That made Sam smile. “Thanks.”
“Any other new developments?”
Sam considered the tiny splinter of metal hidden under her bed. Should she tell Felix what she’d done? She decided against it. Knowing about it could only put him in danger. He might also try to replicate it and get himself in trouble. “No. Nothing else.”
“That’s a shame. I love a little gossip.”
“Who would you gossip with?”
“Myself. I’m the most engaging conversation partner I’ve ever had.”
Sam chuckled. “I can attest to that.”
“I sometimes worry I spend too much time on my own. Do you think it’s possible to go crazy in solitary confinement?”
“If you have no work or purpose, yes. But we have our research to keep us busy.”
“What if you never discover the true purpose of the research you do? What if you’re not informed about the implications of the research? When you’re only ever a small cog in a giant machine? What then?”
Sam had to think about that. “I guess we need to focus on our small part in this giant tragedy we’ve become embroiled in.”
“I suppose so.”
“It would still be nice to know what the ultimate goal for our research is though, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. But I don’t believe that’ll come any time soon.”
Sam was one with him on that.
10.
HAWK
“We need to flip you over. Can you help me? I’ll have to remove your restraints.”
Hawk looked at her. “Is that a trick question? Lying on a bed with a beautiful woman, restraints in hand? What’s not to like?”
Dr. Archer waved a finger under his ruined nose. “No funny business, mister. I’m warning you.”
“I’m a gentleman. Not a ragamuffin.”
“Ragamuffin. Now there’s a word I wouldn’t expect you to know.”
“You’d be surprised at what I know.”
Together they shifted him onto his front. He placed his face in a small cushioned ring.
Dr. Archer reattached the restraints to his wrists and ankles.
“Do I need those?”
“I’m going to be messing with your brain. Your arms and legs could fly out randomly. You might hurt yourself, or me. It’s not worth taking the risk.”
Looking down, Hawk made out the fuck-me pumps she wore. They had fancy straps that drew tight to her ankles. He wondered if she put them on for him to ogle. She must have known he would see them.
“Tell me again why you’re rooting around inside my skull,” he said. “I might not act like it sometimes, but there’s definitely a brain there.”
“We have to connect a receptor to your replacement parts. I’ve already attached it to your nerves, and normally, that would do the trick. But due to your condition, we’ll need a failsafe.”
“When will I get to meet this ‘we’ you keep talking about? I bet they’re all hot males.”
“If only. Not one of them looks like George Clooney.”
“Thank God for that. I thought I might have to fight them.”
“After we insert the remote device, we can check it’s working with the computer terminal.”
A warning bell rang in Hawk’s mind. “You mean, control me from a computer terminal?”
“It won’t be like that. There will be issues and bugs in the system. There always are with things as complex as this. Especially at the start. We’ll need to issue updates.”
The idea didn’t sit well with Hawk. He sat up. “I’m not sure about this. Why not just use the machinery connected to my nerves?”
“You can. This is merely a backup system. That’s all. Imagine you’re out there somewhere and suddenly the nerve stops firing. Yours are badly damaged. The odds are good it’ll happen eventually. Then you’re stuck there, unable to move a muscle. It would be good to have a secondary system in place, don’t you think?”
He understood the logic. Still, there was something about being controlled from a distant computer that he didn’t like.
“I’ll be in charge of the system at all times.” She wrung her hands. “You trust me, don’t you?”
Hawk smiled. “Of course, I trust you. But what if someone else uses the terminal?”
“They won’t.”
“What if?”
She raised her hands, placing one on an invisible Bible. “I swear, I will never give anyone access to your file, ever.”
“Okay.” Hawk lowered himself back down. “While you’re rooting around in my brain, make sure to avoid the darker recesses.”
“If I did that, I couldn’t touch any of it.”
Hawk chuckled. “That’s true enough.”
Dr. Archer picked up a tool shaped like a pen from the tray. “Don’t move.” She set to cutting a section of his skull off.
“I, uh, guess your boyfriend has a dirty mind too. With a girlfriend like you, how could he not?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Yes! But wait. . .
“What about your husband. . . ?”
“Nope.”
Double yes!
But wait. . .
“Or your girlfriend or wife?”
“Nope and nope.”
“Maybe after you fix me we could go for a drink sometime?”
“I guess I can do that.”
Hawk beamed. I still got it.
He cleared his throat. “Then maybe we ought to fix my other little problem while we’re busy fixing everything else.”
“What little problem?” Her eyes widened the moment the question was out of her mouth. “All in good time, chum. I can’t believe you asked me to fix your junk while I’m fixing your other junk.”
“I’m a man. We need these things to work in case we get lucky.”
“And to think with too, apparently.”
The doctor gripped the back of the skull by Hawk’s hair and lifted it away. She deposited it in a bin.
“Okay, I’ve opened your braincase. Now I’m going to attach the device.”
“Feel free to keep the running commentary to yourself.”
Dr. Archer chuckled. “All right. I want you to relax. If you feel your limbs moving of their own free will, I want you to make a noise. I want to make sure I attach the sensor to the right place.”
Hawk shut his eyes and replayed some of the happiest memories he had. His holiday with Tracy on a deserted Thai island. That was a keeper. Every day was perfect. The food was delicious, the water clean and clear. Tracy turned heads when she wanted to.
Clink!
His arm
jerked, catching against their restraints.
“Don’t worry,” Dr. Archer said. “I see it.”
Hawk drifted into another memory. The day he became a Special Forces soldier. One of the happiest days of his life. He looked over at the crowd. His parents sat in the front row; coats done up tight against the freezing cold. They wore matching smiles of pride.
Then their faces morphed into gruesome zombies.
Dr. Archer leaned forward. “Can you feel that?”
“No. But it’s messing with my memories.”
“Sorry.”
She picked up another tool from her tray and poked at his brain again. It caused Hawk to groan. Joe responded with his own moan.
“That’s the most he’s ever said to me,” Hawk said. “I’ve been talking to him about politics, sports, and history. Meanwhile, he just wants to have a good moan.”
Dr. Archer laughed. “Almost done.”
“That’s good news. I was running out of happy memories to replay.”
The doctor dropped her tools on the tray. She picked up the piece of skull she removed earlier and reattached it to his head. She took her time stitching it back on. She wrapped a bandage around his head. “Let’s turn you over and put you back upright again.”
He caught the scent of her perfume. She must have ladled it on thick if he could smell it. It reminded him of long summer days.
“I’ll go dispose of the equipment,” Dr. Archer said. “Then I’ll be back.”
“Take your time. I’ll be asleep by then.”
She wheeled the equipment out. The light blinked red behind her.
Joe clutched the bars of his cage, staring at Hawk with rare intensity.
“Looking for a snack?” Hawk said. “Sorry, pal. I need all the brains I got. Especially with my sexy new doctor girlfriend.”
Girlfriend. Boy, did that sound good. Try not to get ahead of yourself, boyo. You know how you get. His was a runaway heart. It tended to get excited when someone showed him the love and affection he’d craved since his childhood.
His smile turned fuzzy.
He reached for the back of his head. His fingertips couldn’t reach.
Something at the back of his mind. A tickling sensation.
Death Squad (Book 3): Zombie Nation Page 6