by A. R. Wise
"Kim!" Hero screamed at me and I scowled back. What was he trying to do? I was playing my part, but he was taking his too far. It almost seemed like he cared about these people.
"Stay back, Levon. I'm going to shoot this piece of shit. That's all there is to it."
"I'm not going to let you do that."
I looked at my partner and was suddenly staring down the barrel of his gun. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
He looked scared, and I'd never seen him like that. "I'm done," he said and shook his head. "I'm not going to kill anyone anymore. Not unless I have to. Okay?"
"Hero, you're taking this too far. Snap out of it."
"I'm serious, Kim. This isn't a game. I'm telling you to put your gun down."
I stood agape, shocked at his betrayal. "What the fuck?"
"We're going to get our girl, and get out of here. That's it. No more killing."
I kept the gun on the old man's temple and tilted my head at Hero. "You need to stay off the drugs, buddy. They're seriously fucking with your head."
"No, Kim. We're the good guys, remember?"
I shook my head. "I've never been the good guy."
I was prepared to pull the trigger. I didn't even care about trying to get information out of these men anymore. This had turned into an act of vengeance, and murdering them would satisfy my bloodlust. I stared down Hero's gun, fully aware that I was never in danger of him shooting, despite his bravado. I started to pull the trigger, but a man's laughter stopped me. It was a voice I recognized. The soldier that had been in my room, that had groped me while I feigned unconsciousness, was watching us. He was on the computer monitor, and must have been speaking with the old men when we came in.
He was standing with his arms crossed and raised one hand to wave at us. "Don't let me interrupt. Go ahead and kill those pieces of shit." The smug asshole grinned at me.
I pushed the old man back down to the ground and then faced the monitor. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm the one in charge around here. Name's Jerald Scott, and I'm the one that's going to kill you, and everyone you've ever loved." He winked at me.
"What's going on here?" asked Hero. "Why do you want us to shoot these guys?"
The general was standing in an outdoor area, with a basketball court in the distance that had a helicopter on it. There were other soldiers dressed in black moving around near him. "Your friends in there staged a coup on me. They didn't like the way I took over, so they kicked me out." He seemed oddly pleased with himself for having just been ousted. "But the pathetic part is, they didn't protect the girl."
"What girl?" asked Hero.
Jerald looked to his left and waved for someone to come to him. A soldier approached, with Celeste in front of him.
"This girl," said Jerald. "These idiots started forcing us to leave without guarding her room." He shrugged and pinched Celeste's chin. Her hands were bound, and I wanted nothing more than to see her break free and murder the old man. "I guess that's what happens when a group of scientists try to act tough."
"Let her go," I said.
He chuckled and then turned serious as he leaned in. "I've got a question for you, sweetheart."
"What?" I seethed as I glared at the screen.
"Do you have a lot friends and family in your little traveling band of rebels?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to kill every last one of them." The blades on the helicopter behind him started to spin and the soldier that was holding Celeste headed towards it. "I'm leaving right now to go watch them die. We're going to release an army of zombies all around them. We've got cameras set up to watch it happen. If you want, I'll send the feed to you so you can watch too. It's going to be a blast, darling."
"Are you finished?" I asked. "Or are you going to stand there and keep talking about shit that's never going to happen?"
He laughed and nodded as he looked at me. "I like you, girl. Shame you have to die in there. It won't be long before my men figure out how to break in. I've got a whole bunch of friends here ready to come in and say hello to you and those piece of shit scientists."
Jerald reached out and turned off his monitor, ending our conversation. I turned to the three old men in the room with us. "What's going on?"
"We tried to stop him," said the one I'd pressed against the wall moments earlier. "He's been working against the wishes of the Electorate for years now, but he forced us to work with him."
"Who's the Electorate?" asked Hero.
"The people in charge. They're the ones that set up these facilities. They run everything. One of them is headed here now."
"Why?" asked Hero.
I answered before the scientist could. "She's going to kill Celeste and take over her body."
"What?" Hero was shocked and confused.
"That's true, isn't it?" I asked of the old man as I pointed the pistol at him.
He nodded and then shrugged, as if trying to disagree somewhat. "It's not as simple as that."
"Then explain, quick," I said.
"The Dawns are designed to be perfect human beings. We manipulated their genetic code to make them that way. They're the next evolution of mankind."
"Quicker," I said, spinning the barrel of the gun at him as if he were boring me.
The gun made him nervous, so I stared down the sights at his eye. He sped up his explanation. "Each of the members of the Electorate have two Dawns that were designed with their genetic code. That way, if something happens to one of them then there's a backup. Cobra, or Celeste as you call her, had a sister, named Paris, who was killed, which means she's the only surviving daughter of Beatrice Dell."
"Wait a fucking minute," said Hero. "So Kim's right? You guys were going to kill Celeste and let some old bitch take over her body? This is some straight up sci-fi bullshit."
"I told you," I said. "These guys deserve to die."
"No, no," said the old scientist. "It's not like that. We're not killing her. It's more like a," he struggled to find a word to better describe what he meant. "Like a merger." He interlaced his fingers as he brought his hands together. "We take all of one person's memories and experiences and slowly, over several years, interlace them. Then, when the two people are ready for it, we complete the transfer. That's what we call the Dawning." He seemed embarrassed as he added, "The Dawn of a new age. The Dawn of the Age of Reason."
"Well, guess what, dickhead," I said. "We're going to get Celeste back, and she's going to live the rest of her life without ever being a part of your new Age of bullshit. Understood?"
"It doesn't matter," said the old man. "We're all going to die in here. And Jerald's going to kill your friends too. There's nothing you can do about it."
Hero laughed. "Buddy, you've never met this girl." He motioned at me. "Trust me, she'll find a way."
"No." The old man shook his head vigorously. "You don't understand. There're only two entrances to this compound. He killed all of our guards, and now he's got his soldiers at the front entrance. We had to try and make sure Jerald didn't take over everything. He's too unstable. We've got a virus here that could endanger all of us, and he wants to use it. So, we did what we had to. We released a group of zombies and locked ourselves in here. He didn't have access cards, and he knew better than to try and fight the zombies. He retreated and then we sealed the door. That's how we forced them out, and why we're stuck in here now."
Hero snickered and scratched at the side of his head as he looked at me. "I'm pretty sure we can handle a few zombies."
"Not these ones. These are different," said the old man.
"This guy's full of good news," said Hero as he shook his head. "What's the deal with these guys? Why are they so different?"
"Jerald and a group of the Electorate were planning a new genocide. They think we need to wipe out the rest of you, and some of us thought we'd done enough already. Jerald, and his people had all the notes from a brilliant scientist that created a new disease. It's what caused the spre
ad of what we call the Undying, but we were able to make it even worse."
"And we're supposed to believe you, why?" asked Hero.
"You're talking about the Greys," I said before the scientist could answer Hero. "The ones that don't pop after a week or so."
"Right," said the old man. "We call them the Undying because their appendixes start harboring a massive amount of a specific strain of bacteria. That's part of how they're able to stop the cellular degradation." He spoke fast, and seemed excited by the science of the horror they'd created.
"The Greys are all over the place already," said Hero. "We kill them everyday. What makes the ones in here worse?"
"They have a new disease. It's similar to the one that the Undying have, but it's worse. Their bodies pump out massive levels of adrenaline, which makes them far stronger and more vicious than the others, but that's not the worst part."
"Great," said Hero. "The wonders of science. What's the worst part?"
"The strain has crossed the species barrier."
"What does that mean?" asked Hero.
"It means animals can get it now," I said. "You mother fuckers finally did it. You doomed the whole damn planet. It wasn't enough to just kill the humans, now you're wiping out everything?"
"Not everything," said the scientist. "Just mammals. Not fish and not the birds." He shrugged as if that somehow made it all better. "And not the people that get injected with the new antibodies."
"So you have a cure?" I asked.
"Well, not exactly."
I groaned in exasperation.
"But we're getting close. We think the cure is in one of your group. That's why we never wiped out everyone in this area. We think there's someone traveling with you that was part of the experiment that spawned the Undying. If we can find that person, we might be able to synthesize the antibodies that they're making."
"Wait a minute," I said as I gesticulated with my gun, which made the old man visibly nervous. "You guys just poisoned two whole towns and then tried to slaughter a third. If you thought one of us might be the cure, then why were you doing that?"
"I wasn't part of that, but I think they were hoping to round up everyone who was immune to the viruses. At the time, Jerald had told The Electorate that your group was missing, but that the person with the cure might still be in one of the towns. He was just buying time as he tried to trap your group, but The Electorate forced him to put together a plan to find out if anyone living in the area was immune."
"How were they planning to do that?" I asked. I noticed that Hero had backed off and was staring pensively at the floor.
The old scientist tried to explain. "They poisoned the food supply, and then waited to see who got sick. Anyone that didn't was taken to Facility 23 to be experimented on. Anyone that's resistant to the new virus would be immune to the original one, so they poisoned the towns to try and find anyone that might have the antibodies in them that we needed."
"So that's why they all turned into Poppers," I said as I started to piece everything together. "But they attacked Vineyard with helicopters. Why were they doing that if they wanted to find survivors?"
The old man shook his head and shrugged. "Jerald doesn't like being told no. Maybe the town tried to resist, or fight back. I don't know, but he must've decided it was better to murder them. I can't fathom what was going on in that man's head. That's why we had to get him out of this building before he had a chance to get a sample of the new virus."
"What if you had the cure?" asked Hero. "What if you were able to tell the Electorate, or whoever, that you could deliver them the person who had the antibodies you were looking for? Would they put an end to this?"
"I don't know," said the old man. "The only thing that's stopped Jerald and his group from getting permission to release the disease is that there isn't a cure. If they had one, I don't know what would happen."
"But Jerald is working against you now, isn't he?" asked Hero. "Don't you think the Electorate would be willing to exile him? What if we agreed to work with you? To deliver the cure that you've been looking for. Could we put an end to this war?"
"It's certainly a possibility," said the scientist. The other two men agreed and the three of them stood across from us as I continued to point my gun at their leader. "There're a lot of us that want to put an end to all this killing. It's gone too far."
"What are you talking about, Hero?" I asked. "Do you know something I don't?"
He closed his eyes and took a long breath, then looked at me and nodded. "Yeah, I do."
"Well, spill the beans, buddy. Do we know who has the antibodies they're looking for?"
"It's you, Kim."
"What?" I practically shouted at him.
"You're the one they've been looking for. When we saved you from that island, the scientist there had already injected you with the virus. You're immune to the disease they're talking about."
"You're the one," said the old man as he took a step forward. It was as if he'd just seen God, and was trying to reach out to touch him.
"Step back, old man," I said and glared at him. "Are you sure about this, Hero?"
He nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure. That's probably why David is immune too."
"Who's David?" asked one of the scientists.
"My son."
"That's great news," said the lead scientist. "The antibodies pass on to the next generation. If you're immune, then your son is too. Oh my God, you have no idea how great this is."
I was furious as a terrible realization sunk in. "Is that why you kept trying to attack us with zombies?" I rushed at the old man and took him by the throat as I pressed the pistol into his mouth. My sudden outburst of anger surprised even me, but this had been building for years. My rage boiled over.
He wasn't prepared for my violent reaction and cried out as I pushed him against the wall. He tried to clench his teeth to prevent the barrel of the gun from going down his throat, but I pushed it in anyhow. His teeth scraped against the metal before he started to choke.
"Kim, stop!" said Hero.
"My son was mauled by one of your fucking experiments!"
"Kim, he wasn't the one that did it," said Hero, but I ignored him.
"I watched as they ripped his hand and foot off. I watched them eat him, and it was all so you could try to find me? Is that why you did that?"
Every bit of welled up hatred exploded forth. All of the repressed rage and depression that I'd suffered since the day my son was nearly killed now poured out of me. I screamed at the old man as I prepared to murder him. "Is that why I was forced to watch them eat my son alive? Is that what you're saying?"
The trigger guard was pressed against his bottom lip as the gun filled his esophagus. If I could've shoved my arm down his throat and pulled his heart out, I would've gladly done it before crushing it beneath my feet. I'd never experienced hatred like this. This was what it felt like to lose your sanity. My world spun, and it felt like killing this man could still it once more. I pushed harder, and his jaw popped as he pushed at my chest. He clawed at me and fell to his knees as I pushed down harder, causing him to wretch and writhe beneath me.
Hero wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back. I broke into sobs as I let go of the gun. My entire world shattered as Hero pulled me back. I collapsed into his arms and we fell to the floor as my gun clattered on the tile. He pulled me into his lap as I wailed in agony.
Every pain I'd endured resurfaced as the events of the worst day of my life sprang back with vivid detail. David was four years old at the time, and was a gorgeous little boy. My husband, Arthur, and I were happily married, and had spent the day together after returning from our separate missions. Arthur and Dustin were part of one team, while Hero and I were on another, and we'd been scouting a supposed military installation up near the ruins of Nederland the day before. Hero had dropped a few bombs into the airshafts, which was how Billy had instructed us to hamper their underground bases. Afterward, we returned to the High Roller ca
mp to spend time with our families before heading out on another mission.
No one was certain why we were attacked, but many of us assumed it was as retaliation for the attack in Nederland. Empty trucks were discovered near our camp after the zombies appeared, and many of us concluded that the Greys hadn't simply happened upon us, but were planted there.
Arthur was cooking while I watched David play. I remember closing my eyes as the afternoon sun shone done on me. The sound of David playing calmed me. I fell asleep, and wasn't watching my son when the Greys snuck in. When I woke up, a creature was crawling into our camp from under one of the trailers. It grabbed my leg and tried to pull me under as I screamed out for help.
I've never been able to forget what happened next. In every nightmare I've had in the years since, this plays out with horrific detail. Most nights I wake up crying, the vision of what happened to my son still haunting me.
David was holding a plastic action figure that I'd brought back for him from a recent scavenging mission. It was a muscular man in armor, with a hard plastic body and soft plastic head. David thought it looked like his father.
My little boy cried out as he watched me being pulled under the truck, and I yelled at him to run.
That's when the hands appeared from under the truck beside him. The zombies had invaded our camp, and were crawling beneath the trucks. The Roller that was supposed to be on watch had been shot by a sniper from far off, and none of us realized he was dead.
I kicked at the creature that held me, but couldn't break free. I clawed at the earth, my nails bending as I tried to pull myself forward, but there were too many hands dragging me backward.
One of the monsters took David's hand, the one that was holding the toy, and bit into it. My little angel cried out to me for help, and I did everything I could to get to him, but the demons were too vicious. They ripped and clawed at my boy, tearing the skin from his bones as I watched.
A Grey put David's little finger into its mouth and I heard his bone crunch. The rotting corpse ripped his finger off.