Smiling, Charlie continued. ‘Project Poison Well was Doctor Haumann’s grand plan for the salvation of the human race. By engineering a mutated version of the Adam virus into an infection vector that would only attack re-animated cells. Effectively destroying the risen dead and in time, eradicating the virus. He believed one day this anti-viral would be available as a vaccine, so if any one inoculated by it were bitten, they would in fact infect the evol instead of the other way around.’
‘He told me he was close to saving humanity,’ I winced, shards of broken glass cutting into my hand where I'd fallen.
‘Indeed he was, and I could not allow that to happen.’
‘Oh, so you’re completely fucking nuts then?’ I said, gingerly standing up.
‘Not at all. I am however an absolute realist. Humanity has no future. The evols are the new dominant species on earth. If Haumann had been allowed to continue with his work, the future would be far less certain.’
‘Without his work we don’t have a future!’ I yelled and the evols shifted on their feet, shaking their heads in agitation.
‘Humanity’s light has gone out. Only the dying embers of that fire remain. Homo-Sapiens are facing extinction, the era of Homo-Necrosis has dawned,’ Charlie spoke with the calm certainty of the completely insane.
‘So why are you still alive?’ I clenched my fist, driving the jagged pieces of glass deeper into my hands and I watched the evols' noses twitch as blood dripped through my fingers.
‘Because this is a time of transition. There is much still to be done. When my time comes, I will take my place at the right hand of Adam.’
‘Let me guess, you’re going to wipe his dead arse?’
Charlie ignored the barb, ‘Tell me, how does it feel to have come so far and suffered so much, only to fail now? You got the Tankbread all the way to Woomera. Wainright helped you. His always was a special kind of genius. She’s a primed weapon now isn’t she? Wainright made her a walking biological bomb. One bite of her tender flesh and we’re all goners.’ Charlie shivered in ecstasy. ‘Dissecting her is going to be fascinating.’ He licked his lips, the idea of Else flayed open on a laboratory slab turned him on.
I gave a short laugh. ‘What’s your secret, Charlie? The geek I saw a month ago couldn’t throw people across the room.’
‘I have been preparing myself for the new world order. Stem cells, steroids, and some gene-therapy. You should try it,’ he flexed his arms until his shirtsleeves split, the muscles bulging in obese cords.
‘No thanks, I hear steroids make your dick shrivel,’ I lashed out with my palm open. My hand slapped Charlie right in the eye socket. The glass buried in my palm grated against my hand-bones but Charlie shrieked as I burst his gloating eyeball.
The two evols moaned and convulsed at the noise, their guns firing wildly. I ducked the spray of bullets and tackled Charlie to the floor. Launching from him, I threw myself to the bench where my shotgun lay. Snatching it up I turned, ready to fire and saw Else standing, sword drawn over the still bodies of the two evols. Charlie had fled.
CHAPTER 42
Else bound my hand with bandages salvaged from the lab’s first aid kit. ‘Is it true what he said?’ I asked while watching the door.
‘I guess, I mean I don’t know,’ she wouldn’t look me in the eye.
‘If you let yourself get bitten, will your blood destroy the evol that bites you or not?’ I asked.
‘Yes!’ she shouted and then started crying. ‘But to be really effective I would need to be eaten by as many as possible. I would need to die. Wainright, Mollbrooke and Haumann knew that. They used you. They used you to get me to Woomera so he could add the missing gene-tech to me.’
I reached out and drew her close, holding her in a tight hug while she shuddered. ‘It’s not going to happen, okay? I told you, we are going to fix this, then find a place somewhere and have babies and raise cows and grow crops.’
She pulled back, her laughter shaking the tears from her cheeks.
‘You and me, forever,’ I said and we kissed and it made everything worthwhile until Else broke away.
‘I can’t stop hearing them.’
‘Hearing who?’ I asked
‘Evols, there are so many of them here, a great booming chorus of voices. They are all whispering, but so many it sounds like shouting.’
I frowned at the pained expression on her face. ‘We should get out of here. There’s nothing left for us, no sanctuary anymore. We take the horse, and ride like hell. Head north, up into Queensland, or Northern Territory, I’ve heard it’s safe up there.’
Else silenced me with another brief kiss. ‘No, I was created for a purpose. Maybe not by Sister Mary’s god, but by men. I have to fulfil that purpose. One of the books I read, it was very confusing except for one line. The writer, Douglas Adams, said ‘I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.’ Else shrugged. ‘Destiny is what happens when we make choices.’
‘If you say so,’ I flexed my wrapped hand. ‘Else, why didn’t you just shoot the bastards?’
‘I thought I might shoot you by mistake.’ She took me by the hand and we left the lab, walking down narrow corridors strewn with trash and rotting food.
‘In here,’ I said, and pulled Else into a dorm room. The place was untouched, beds neatly made, and clothes still hung on the racks. I closed the door and wedged the nearest bed against it.
‘What are you doing?’ Else said.
‘This,’ I answered and put my arms around her, she was getting good at kissing and my balls had swollen up like blue coconuts since our first make out session the day before.
She hesitated when I started removing her clothes, so I moved my hands to my own shirt. Shedding guns and ammo I pulled the shirt over my head. I felt the grime and filth of our journey and the battles we had fought slipping away. Else whimpered in a deep throaty way and grabbed at my pants. Pulling the belt loose she nearly tore my jeans down. I fell back onto the bed kicking my boots off.
Else arched her back, dropping her sword and guns, lifting her shirt over her head and exposing all of her long lean body to me for the first time. The sharp contrast between her tanned skin and the paler areas was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. With a swift downward shove she slipped out of her jeans and crawled over me.
‘How…?’ she whispered, her voice thick with need. I swallowed hard and put my hands to the back of her head, drawing her down for a kiss. She melted against me, the heat of my blood feeling cool against her fiery skin. Else moaned as our lips slid over each other. Our tongues stroking as her hands worked over my body. Reaching between us she squeezed me so hard I grunted. Rolling over, I stretched her out along the bed and kissed my way down her neck. Else gasped as I touched her breasts with my lips and tongue.
I stroked my good hand between her thighs, feeling the heat and wetness. Trying to hold back and take this slowly, I stroked her gently with one finger until she bucked and thrust up against me.
‘Ohhhh…’ Else moaned, her eyes tightly shut and her mouth gaping open in a nearly silent howl. I teased her until she spasmed under my hand and cried out. Her head thrashed from side to side against the pillows. She took a moment to recover, breathing hard and reaching down to stroke my shaft.
‘It goes inside me,’ she said and worked her butt down the bed until we lined up in the right position. I lowered my face to meet hers, kissing her as I slipped into that tight moist heat.
Else moaned into my mouth as I worked slowly, stroking in and out, pushing deeper. When my full length was buried inside her, we were both shining with perspiration. Else beamed up at me, her chest heaving.
‘Faster,’ she said. ‘It feels good when you do it faster,’ I nodded and started thrusting. We arrived together, my whole body exploding into a nova of light and everything I was flooded into the beautiful woman underneath me.
I collapsed completely spent beside Else on the bed. My eyes closed as I waited f
or the blood to return to my brain.
‘Can we do it again?’ Else said. I opened an eye, and stared at her hopeful face.
‘Sure,’ I sighed. ‘Any time you want. Except we shouldn’t stay here too long.’
Else frowned and rolled over to sit up on the side of the bed and she snatched up her t-shirt and roughly pushed her arms into the sleeves. I sat up, leaning on one elbow. ‘Hey,’ I said. ‘We have all the-’ I stopped, under Else’s right arm was a brightly coloured, round adhesive patch.
‘What is this,’ I reached out and stroked it with my fingertips, the colour wasn’t green.
‘Donna gave it to me, when I was in the hospital. She said it might change colour,’ Else lifted her arm and twisted to see the patch.
‘Did she tell you what it meant?’ A cold wind blew right through the ice cave of my gut.
‘Nope,’ Else twisted harder, nearly tying herself in knots to see the patch. I reached out and ripped the adhesive off, Else hissed at the sting of it.
‘It’s nothing. Just means you are healthy, and one day you will make a great mother,’ I smiled at her until I thought my face would shatter.
CHAPTER 43
As we stalked through the dimly lit corridors of the Opera House I thought about Doctor Donna Preston. She took a sperm sample from me, a nice fresh one, just the sort of thing to inseminate a fertile female. I knew Donna wasn’t pregnant, but maybe she had knocked Else up with my seed?
Else led us through unfamiliar corridors, up stairwells clogged with human remains and through a warren of empty passageways. The evols patrolled, but Else sensed them before they saw us and we ducked into rooms, or waited around corners and ambushed them. We stepped out of the darkness, silently cutting them down with our swords before moving on. We didn’t speak. She knew what she needed to do and I couldn’t tell her why she couldn’t lose her life to save the world. Without her and the tiny collection of cells in her womb that would one day be our child, there was no world. At least not one I wanted to live in.
‘Wait,’ Else whispered and then peeked around the corner of a wide gallery high above the ground. ‘Shit,’ she muttered and pulled her head back.
‘Problem?’ I murmured and took a careful look. The gallery was lined with evols. Soo-Yong, zombie master of the eastern-suburbs strode like a general along their ranks.
‘We’re going to need to kill a lot of them,’ Else said.
‘Best get started then,’ I flexed my arms and cracked my neck. Lifting the shotgun I took a deep breath.
Else reached up and kissed me. Her eyes shining. ‘Let’s fuck their shit up,’ she said and stepped into the gallery. Else levelled her guns and squeezed off the first rounds she’d ever fired. The SMG’s barked and jerked up, the short burst of rounds split an evol in half from groin to shoulder. The glass windows over looking the harbour exploded. I hurried after her. The shotgun boomed and a dead head exploded. The ranks of zombies lurched forward with bared teeth and blazing hunger in their eyes. Else mastered the physics of automatic weapons in seconds, correcting her aim and scything heads off the dead in a long scream of hot lead.
Soo-Yong snarled and shoved the others forward, a shield of decomposing meat. Else’s guns clicked dry, she dropped one and with her free hand reloaded. A dead woman lunged at Else’s throat, the gun came up and the evol’s head disintegrated and chunks of ceiling tiles rained down on our heads.
We fired until the guns burned hot and smoke clogged the air in a stinking cloud. Evols kept on coming, clawing their way up from where ever they were waiting to die at last at our feet.
Else abandoned her second gun and went to work with the sword. She danced and the zombies fell at her feet. I bludgeoned a teenager’s face in with the butt of the shotgun and knocked him to the ground. With no time to reload, I drew my own sword and hacked his head off. We worked the crowd until only Soo-Yong remained.
‘You not so bad dog,’ he said, his lips curling back in a snarl. ‘You came home.’
‘I came back to destroy every last arse-maggot one of you,’ I spat.
‘You came back to die,’ Soo-Yong sneered. I spun my sword up over my shoulder and buried the heavy blade deep in his necrotic skull.
Else turned and raised her hands at a heavy wooden door. ‘In there, she said simply and pushed the door. I pulled her back.
‘No, whatever is in there, it isn’t your destiny. It isn’t anything that you need to die for.’
Else struggled against my grip. ‘I have to!’ She hissed. ‘Let me go!’
‘There’s another way,’ I checked the corridor, it was still clear. Taking a knife from my belt, I twisted Else’s hand palm up. Taking the blade I gently drew its edge across her skin, blood welled up, thick and brighter than rubies. Else snarled, jerking back but unable to break my grip. I sank slowly to one knee. Else stared at me her eyes widening in horror, yeah she’d gotten real smart during our time together.
‘No!’ she cried as I pressed my mouth to her wound, sucking and drawing the thick, rich blood from her wound and gulping it down. Else’s other hand balled into a tight fist. She slammed it into the side of my head, knocking me across the corridor. I regained my feet, wiping the salt and copper taste of her from my mouth.
‘This changes nothing,’ she growled. Her teeth bared in fury.
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘It doesn’t change anything.’
Her eyes flared bright with anger. I threw myself against the door, forcing it open. I heard Else scream. Slamming the door, I shot the bolt, locking myself in. I turned and saw a vision of hell laid out before me.
I had dreamed of a cave made of flesh. A living cathedral that pulsed and writhed. Except this wasn’t my nightmare from Harris’ train. This was real. The vast auditorium of the Sydney Opera House was overgrown with moving flesh in all shades of putrescence from angry red to gangrenous black. Fumaroles of yellow pus swelled and burst, draining down over glistening green flanks that shuddered and pulsated. The dead filled the massive chamber, like the faithful attending church, they swayed and moaned, arms raised in supplication.
The door I had come through opened onto the highest gallery above the hall. Above my head steadily growing tendrils of meat pushed across the ceiling and the air was thick with the cloying stink of rot and slow digestion.
I staggered forward, slipping on the foul plasma that seeped from the carpet of flesh underfoot. At the edge of the gallery I stared out into the wide space of the auditorium. The low moans of the living drifted upwards on the perfect acoustics of the hall. The survivors of Sydney and those who called the Opera House sanctuary lay embedded in hanging folds of quivering flesh around the walls. I watched horrified, as a segmented tentacle, like a barbed and prehensile cock, slid out from the wall, the end of it splitting open revealing a bone spike glistening with dewy slime. The spike thrust forward and penetrated a writhing human figure. The tentacle pulsed and swallowed, sucking the shrieking body dry in seconds.
I looked away from the feeding and saw the stage for the first time. It wasn’t a heart that hung there suspended by long ropes of animated meat. Instead it was a shape like a man. On the ground he would have stood close to eight feet tall. His body rippled with muscle and every contour was perfect. The figure hung as if crucified, arms held wide, a massive fan of membranous webbing behind him. From this halo of skin ran tubes and lines like veins, all connected to the greater expanse that covered the floor and walls. The nutrients being sucked out of the living flowed back into him.
The door behind me shuddered under repeated blows and then exploded inwards. I lifted my shotgun, expecting a legion of evols. But Else came through alone. She staggered at the sight, looking past me at the figure suspending over the stage.
‘Adam…’ she croaked in horror, sagging into my arms.
‘Yeah. The Alpha Motherfucker. Haumann brought him here, kept him close so the evols would make peace. Half prisoner, half insurance policy. But I’d say he’s grown beyond what they e
xpected.’
‘He controls them, he sees what they see. Knows what they know. All the evols, they are his vessels,’ Else groaned in sudden pain. ‘I’m grateful you can’t feel it. His will is like an axe in my skull.’
I opened my mouth to reply, and then the tumult of voices crashed over me in a roaring wave. The whisper of the locust swarm, swollen by untold numbers until it became a cacophony. The endless legions of zombies, the hive mind of the viral network driven by this one giant organism. Adam the spider at the heart of the dead web.
Else pulled herself up, her expression set hard. ‘I have to go down there, his hunger is so great he will take me and my flesh will destroy him,’ she said.
‘I hear them,’ I said. ‘I hear them!’
She searched my face. ‘You shouldn’t have done that, we don’t know what effect ingesting my blood will have on human physiology.’
‘It doesn’t matter. I can hear them. Haumann’s anti-viral agent, the one that Wainright finished? That zombie-fucking bug that streams through your veins, it is in me. I am infected with the cure!’
Else grabbed me by my shirtfront and nearly jerked me off my feet. ‘No!’ she snarled. ‘You promised me you would be with me forever! You do not die! You just don’t!’ The last came out in an angry shout thick with tears.
‘It must be destiny because I have no choices left,’ I said in the wake of a sudden calm that washed over me. ‘Else, you are pregnant. You are carrying our baby. If you live, our child will be the part of me that will be with you forever.’
I kissed her, tasting her salty tears and feeling the refusal to let me go. I moved back and with Else holding my hands I stepped up on the balcony rail and looked into her eyes.
‘I love you Else,’ I said and let go.
I floated, or flew as you do in dreams, over a writhing landscape of half-formed or half-digested corpses that wallowed within the dark gunk and slime.
Tankbread Page 27