by Rick Chesler
“What the hell are you going to do?” Alex asked, his hands on Veronica’s shoulders, keeping her from falling, and helping himself up. He gingerly put weight on his left leg. “In case you hadn’t noticed, things have gone to hell pretty damn fast around here.”
“Your boss won’t be too happy,” Veronica added, pointing to the screen. “His investment here, I’d say, is pretty much fucked.”
Xander never lost his smile. Then he shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I think with these cameras rolling and recording, we’ve just got ourselves some major top notch marketing material, showcasing exactly the extent of our product’s capabilities. Prospective buyers couldn’t ask for a better demonstration.”
Veronica hissed, “You’re sick.”
“No,” Xander said. “That would be your boyfriend’s Dad, and all those other poor saps out there.”
Alex winced.
Glancing at the nearest screen, Veronica now saw the previous view of the exterior, and a shattered section of the fence, where a blur of something huge moved out of sight, leaving behind several grisly pieces of what had been soldiers.
“Now,” he said, “what to do with you?”
Alex shook himself off. “Well, trying to get us eaten didn’t work out so well, and now we’re in here with you, on an island overrun with these things plus a trio of prehistoric monstrosities, so can I make a suggestion?”
Xander shrugged. “No. I’m not working with you and we’re not in this together.”
Veronica rubbed her jaw, and then clenched her hands into fists. “We’re in agreement there.”
Alex shook his head. “So we’re to be zombie bait again, is that it?”
Xander was about to reply when the main screen blinked off, fizzled, and then sparked back—with an image of DeKirk’s looming face.
“Ah,” he said, glancing around the scope of the periphery, “Xander. Figured you’d be in the control room, and you’ve brought friends! How quaint.”
“’Sup, Mel?” Alex said, trying to downplay his nervousness and possibly to get Xander to drop his guard. With him distracted now with DeKirk, it was two against one, and they could take him. Just wait for the right opportunity…
“Mr. DeKirk,” Xander bowed to the screen, but kept his eye on the captives. “I’m sorry to report that your security here on the island has been rather…”
“Not up to the task?” Alex supplied.
DeKirk shot him a sharp look and Xander shook the gun toward him. “As I was saying, sir, there may be need for…additional forces.” Xander glanced to one of the other screens where the ridge of the T. rex’s head broke through a canopy of trees outside the fence to roar at the clouds. “…including air support.”
DeKirk never blinked. “Despite what I’ve seen from the feeds—and yes I have been glued to the happenings like this was the Moon Landing—none of this particularly worries me. That’s why I chose to send you to an isolated private island, after all. It’s contained. You’re contained.”
Xander tensed. “Your foresight has indeed been uncanny, as always sir, but there’s still the matter of control. Your product—this discovery of a lifetime—has some inherently chaotic flaws.”
DeKirk glanced off-screen as if reviewing some footage. “Nothing insurmountable. At least not compared with the potential.”
Veronica stepped into view. Arms at her side, heart pounding. This was it, the first time she could finally address her quarry. “And what, exactly, is that potential?”
DeKirk just smiled. “And who is this lovely vision?”
Xander was about to speak when DeKirk held up his hand. “Just a sec, running some facial recognition software. Should have our answer in a moment.”
Oh shit, Veronica thought. Cover about to be blown, she looked down and held her hand over her face.
“Sorry, too late, Miss... Winters…Veronica.” DeKirk smiled, and then directed a glare to Xander. “You let a CIA agent into your midst? I see you have a gun, Xander. What, do you want to give her a chance to take you out or call for help? You realize she’s trained seven ways from Sunday in how to kill people a lot more dangerous than you? I’m sort of surprised she hasn’t eliminated you already. Are you going to give a long monologue and then leave the room so she can escape and kill you later?”
Xander reddened, but then tapped his gun. “I think we're covered there.”
“Don't take anything for granted,” DeKirk snapped. “I never have. Which is why I've made it this far. You’ve slipped up again.”
Xander grit his teeth. “I released her into a horde of zombies. What more do you want? She snuck aboard your damn boat before I even got there.”
“Regardless,” DeKirk said, “I've had a communications dampener on the island for years. For security purposes. Only I have direct access. I see everything, know everything.”
Veronica lifted her chin and stared at the image of the man—the monster—she had come to know only too well. “Great. Well, even gods can fall. And this... whatever the hell you have here, it's way beyond your control. There's no hope to contain it, or use it for anything profitable. These are no zoological attractions to line up in some park for the world's entertainment. They're voracious, unstoppable predators who—oh by the way—will turn anything they don't kill outright into reptilian zombie things until there's an unstoppable army—”
DeKirk started nodding vigorously about halfway through her speech, and when she finally noticed, she stopped. Alex took a step behind her. “Oh Jesus, I think that's what he freakin' wants.”
“An army?” Xander perked up. “Sir, if you'd wait a moment. I've been in here analyzing the biology of these things. The capabilities and characteristics of the virus.”
“Time well spent, I'm sure.” DeKirk feigned a yawn.
Xander continued unfazed. “We now know how fast the virus replicates, how there's no defense against it, especially after the host is already dead. I've analyzed how it effectively establishes control in the brain stem and not only reanimates the body's muscles and tissues, but also rearranges and splices some reptilian-saurian DNA strands into the host's to create a nastier, tough-skinned predator with superhuman senses, reflexes and...well, appetites.”
“Everything you're saying only makes me more certain that I'm on the right path,” DeKirk said.
Xander sighed, almost exasperated. “So, after I found myself essentially trapped in here against a growing horde outside, all of them wanting to devour me, and since I had no desire to be zombie food or to become one of them… I started working on a cure.”
DeKirk raised his left eyebrow. Alex and Veronica stiffened. The floor now his, Xander began again.
“Well, not a cure, per se, but more of what I’d expect is the reason you brought me here.” Xander licked his lips. “A failsafe.”
“Yes, I’m aware of your specialty and I’m happy to see you didn’t disappoint when placed in a scenario that might stimulate your talents.”
“Okay....” Xander eyed him carefully. “I’m not sure if that means you’re just happy the events transpired in such a way as they did, or if you actually had a hand in said events, but in either case, you’re right. I rose to the occasion. Tested various possibilities, ran a few thousand computer simulations to determine how the virus would interact with certain synthesized enzymes. I believe I’ve found one that will break down the virus, eliminate it completely.”
DeKirk pulled away, his expression darkening. “I already know all this. My techs shadowed your laptop, captured every keystroke and download.”
Xander swallowed, and then shrugged. “Then you should also know that we don’t have the required inputs here on this island.”
“Yes, I do know that. Because your research is now my research. If you’ve found the cure, or the failsafe—we’ll know soon enough. Congratulations will be in order. It’s all I hoped for from you. Let me worry about the details from here on out.”
“But there’s more,” Xander
said, thinking fast, seeing where this road was ending. “There’s more I didn’t share, lots more up here!” He tapped his forehead, realizing that to DeKirk his brain might now represent little more than potential zombie nourishment.
“Give it up,” Alex whispered behind his back, “you’ve lost your chance.”
“No, wait,” Xander pointed the gun at them again, and then leaned toward the screen. “I know how I can synthesize it from here, and your techs will be able to, also, I’m sure. With the right procedures and some trial and error, but you really need more than an antidote. You need a reliable method of transfer. What are you going to do, try to shoot hypos full of the stuff into them?” He laughed. “Just try breaking through their scales with a needle.”
“True,” Veronica said. “Ka-Bar blade barely does the trick.”
“Fill some hollow-point rounds with it,” Alex offered. Xander shot him a death glare.
DeKirk cleared his throat. “I was thinking gas grenades myself. Or drop it like pesticide from a crop duster plane.”
Xander faced the screen again. “Too slow and unreliable once you factor in wind and mobile targets.”
“So then, what other options,” DeKirk continued, “might you have rattling around in your oh-so-brilliant brain? So far, I actually favor the hollow-point idea.” He shot the dreadlocked environmentalist an appraising stare. Xander also looked at Alex, his face paling as he realized his importance to DeKirk was rapidly waning.
“Microchips.” Xander stood back, rubbing a finger nervously against the gun. “That’s all I’m going to say, but there’s a transfer method we could use to outfit healthy individuals at the outset, before the introduction of the virus. Then, after they’ve turned, they do their thing, serve their purpose and before they go on to consume more than you want or turn the whole population into yellow eyed freaks, we click a button that triggers a micro-explosion in the brain stem, like an aneurism, and terminate their asses.”
DeKirk smiled. “Now that, Dr. Dyson, is something I might be willing to wait around for. Great minds do think alike, however, and as it turns out, I’ve had my people working on just such prototypes. But of course, I realize your product will be so much more efficient and of demonstrably higher quality, am I right?”
Xander nodded with an enthusiasm that was pathetically close to desperation.
“So I’ll make a deal with you.”
“Okay. What is it?”
DeKirk leaned in closer. “Survive the next twenty-four hours, and when my rescue-clean up team arrives this time tomorrow, they’ll pick you up and we can collaborate on your technology and build on it to continue our partnership.”
“Twenty four hours,” Xander mused, listening to the muffled sounds of cacophony outside the walls of the room. “That’s… going to be difficult. Can’t you fly any faster?”
“It’s all about the scenery, my friend, and the journey. Now, I forgot to mention. If you’re going to survive, you’ll have to do it… out there.”
“What do you mean?”
DeKirk looked away and his arm reached beyond the view, fingers tapping some buttons. “I’m opening up all the exterior doors and unlocking every door inside the facility.”
“What? Sir—”
Alex clenched his fists, hoping to buy some time, and to speak before DeKirk could turn off the connection. “What the hell do you hope to accomplish with all this? My Dad’s discovery—you’ve seen what it can do, the unexpected horrors it’s released in just under twelve hours…”
DeKirk’s eyes softened. “Yes, but it wasn’t unexpected. In fact, I’ve had a little theory for quite some time now. I never did buy into the whole asteroid-killed-the-dinosaurs explanation. Scientists looked at all the evidence of violence among the fossils and concluded that food supplies were vastly diminished after some cosmic event, leading to more aggression and intra-species violence—much as what might happen if our own crops failed.”
“Cannibalism,” Xander said.
“Yes. So much so that the more obvious interpretation would be that these dinosaurs literally ate each other to extinction. Screw the asteroid, it was this… and now I know exactly what drove them to it. A parasite. One glorious, devilish little bug that can bring down the mightiest of species. Including our own.”
He let out one more long sigh. “My whole life, in fact, has led to this moment.” He leaned back, folding his arms and closing his eyes. “I've been chosen, you see. I’ve always been an outsider, standing above the world, watching it slide into chaos and misery, wishing there was something I could do. With all my talents, with my resources and perspective. Knowing, hoping, that in time I’d be given the tools to bear out such change, and this…this now is validation of my mission.” He opened his eyes and leaned forward, his face filling the entire screen. “There’s one thing you missed, Xander, in your rush to find a cure.”
“And what is that?” Xander hefted the gun, tensing his fingers on the trigger as if he wished he could shoot DeKirk through the screen.
“You missed the following extrapolation: that this virus, if it could be modified, could offer certain…benefits.”
“Modified how?”
“To keep all the good bits like strength and sensory improvement, speed and longevity—if not downright immortality. Imagine if you could block the parasite’s ability to take over the brain stem, to overcome the host’s consciousness. If someone…if I could be transformed, and yet still be…”
“In control…” Xander whispered it. “All the benefits of being a zombie—the near indestructibility—without the drawbacks—the mindlessness and the rotting flesh.”
“Yes.” DeKirk leaned back. “I intend to become—as you said yourself Miss Winters...a God.”
She shook her head and glared at him. “Yeah, well God or not, a bullet to your head will still put you down. Come out here for a little stay on your Zombie Island Retreat, we’ll see how immortal you are.” She was stalling, hoping to buy them a way out. “And oh, I got a message off on the ship. They’re coming for you.”
DeKirk laughed. “I’m sorry, but I know you didn’t, and even had you managed it, help wouldn’t come in time. Now, goodbye Xander. Goodbye Alex and Veronica. I expect to see you again, but not…quite in your same senses.”
DeKirk’s dark laughter filled the room until he killed the connection.
32.
Alex moved closer to Xander. “Your boss is a lunatic, you realize.”
“I’m aware of that fact,” Xander said. “Had my suspicions before, but really, what geniuses aren’t a little insane?”
“Um… Einstein?”
“Shut up,” Veronica hissed. “What are you doing?” The screens had returned to their surveillance mode—revealing swarms of zombies running headlong toward the facility, lured by the open doors. The hallways were filling with undead, moving with deliberate speed, as if sniffing them out, eager to explore new territory.
“We don’t have much time,” she said, “either shoot us or figure something out.”
“I’d actually prefer getting shot,” Alex said, watching the horde converge from various entrance points, seeing them running up stairs, drooling, snapping at each other, yet moving with a singular purpose, like a colony of ants.
Xander’s screen was different—showing scrolling lines of code on one side, offset against facility schematics on the other. “It may still come to that but for now, I need you. We need each other.”
“Afraid you’d say that,” Veronica said. “I won’t—”
“Whatever you’re doing,” Alex interrupted, “please do it fast, or like I said, shoot us, ‘cuz the other option is we open that door and run for it.”
“Never make it, kid. Not without… Here, got it!” He pointed at the screen, traced a line from one central-looking rounded room, down one section, a right then a left to a door. He hefted the gun. “Okay, munitions room one floor down, a right and a left.”
“Munitions…”
“Yeah,” Xander said, “and I know, I’m going to have to trust you won’t blow a hole in my back.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Veronica said, and then added: “I’d shoot you in the leg and let the zombies eat you piece by piece.”
“Lovely,” Xander said, running to the door. He opened it and peeked outside. Alex could hear the trampling of feet coming from the hall to the left.
Xander pushed out into the hall and aimed toward the noise. “I’ll slow them down. You run for the exit sign, then into the stairwell and down. It should be clear. I’ll be right behind you.”
Alex didn’t need to be told twice. He ran, with Veronica at his side. Gunshots roared at their backs, and they flinched, fully expecting a double-cross.
Every step closer and still no bullets in their spines, Alex skidded to a stop at the door. More snarling and rapidly thumping feet came from this direction. “Oh shit, Xander?”
Veronica pushed past him and opened the exit door. “Come on!”
A lab-coat wearing zombie hurtled around the far corner, bounced off a wall and came tearing at Alex, waving its arms frantically and snapping its jaws—then its head exploded in a microburst of gunfire.
Xander ran past him into the stairwell, shouting back. “Thought the plan was clear, no stopping!”
Alex followed, hauled the door closed, and ran after Xander and Veronica. “Um, this part of the plan was Phase One, what’s Phase Two?”
They rounded the bend, and then got to the lower level’s door. Veronica backed away after placing her ear on the surface. “Your move,” she said to Xander, nodding to the gun. “We may have guests on the other—”
Xander moved into position. He nodded for Veronica to get ready to pull the door open. From up one level they heard sounds of clawing and banging at the door. The zombies would figure it out in a moment and rush down upon them, attacking from both directions.
“Here we go,” Xander said, checking his clip.
“Want me to take that?” Veronica asked.
“You’ll get some hardware soon enough. Stay focused.”