The Departed

by Chase McCown

  On the other side of the door, though, all remained quiet.

  When they entered and had time to process their surroundings, they realized why.

  Mouths hung agape on twisted, distorted bodies. These didn’t look like people. They had a vague human shape—two arms, two legs, a body and a head—but little else about them was human. They looked more like phantoms than people, like feral beasts that no longer felt emotion and functioned on pure instinct. Whatever they were, the soldiers were glad they appeared to be long dead. The room was piled thick with their bodies

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Jeff said.

  “What happened to these people?” Sam asked.

  “Collect whatever information you can and let’s get to the LZ. Whatever these things are, I sure don’t want to become one. And I don’t want to stick around for a living one to show up, either,” the sergeant said.

  They collected all the data they could. They took photos of the bodies and of the facility itself until their cameras ran out of space.

  As they were wrapping up, one of the bodies caught Sam’s attention. It wore a long white lab coat, and although hunched over and twisted from whatever disease had inflicted the corpses, it was still very tall.

  Sam knelt down to read the nametag on its coat.

  “Matthews. Hmm. He must have been a scientist here,” Sam mused.

  “Come on, Sam, we’ve got to get back to DC,” Robert said.

  “I’m right behind you.”

  *

  “There he is.”

  “Are you sure?” Robert asked.

  “Positive,” said Jeff.

  “Okay, I’ll get him. Hold on.”

  Robert stepped out of the van as Howard walked by, and he called out to him.

  “Hey, can I ask you something?”

  “Who, me?” Howard asked, turning.

  “That’s right. You’re Howard McGregory, right?” Robert asked.

  “Yes sir, what can I do for you?”

  “Well, I know you have experience dealing with the infected. My team and I think we may have come across the bodies of some of them, but we need your help to ID them. Do you mind taking a look at these pictures?”

  He held out a series of pictures—guards, scientists, businessmen, all with the same soulless eyes and distorted shapes and faces. They were more hideous than anything he’d yet seen, and his face went pale at the sight of them.

  “Those are infected alright, only—” Howard said, stopping abruptly to consider his next words.

  “What?” Robert asked.

  “Well, do you see how his body’s all twisted?” Howard pointed out.

  “Yeah, what about it?” Robert asked.

  “Well, all the infected that we came across have that, but not to the same extent. I’ve never seen an infected that twisted before,” Howard said.

  “Hmm, interesting. Well, thanks for your time. That’s all we wanted to know,” Robert said.

  Howard said goodbye to the man and continued toward the apartment. Who was that man, and where did he find those pictures? he wondered. Questions swirled in his mind. He tried his best to put it out of his mind, but the pictures brought back horrific memories he’d been doing his best to forget.

  Chapter 65

  January 30th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Meanwhile, Jacob and Mike begged the guard at the gate for an audience with the President.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in there,” the guard said.

  “But there’s a—” Jacob began.

  “Now if it’s really as important as you say, go talk to the police about it. They’ll send someone to take a look. I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can do.”

  “Alright, thanks. Let’s go, Mike,” Jacob said.

  Mike waved at the soldier, who saluted back, and followed behind Jacob.

  When they arrived at the police station, Jacob threw open the door and tapped his fingers impatiently on the empty front desk.

  A man in the back looked up from his coffee, peered at Jacob, and walked over to the counter.

  “Can I help you?” he asked.

  “We wanted to report a…ahh…crime? A possible crime. Really, it’s more of a threat to national security, but since we couldn’t go to the President we figured—”

  “Whoa, hold on there. Start over. What happened?”

  “Okay, here goes. Me and Mike—” he pointed to Mike standing beside him—“we used to work for New Dawn. Only, they started acting suspiciously lately and wouldn’t let us see the guy in charge. Then the next day, they just let us go, out of the blue. So we sort of, kind of, spied on them. We wanted to see what was going on. We… saw something, though. Something we didn’t expect.”

  “Well? What was it?” the man asked.

  “Well, it was, ahh, an infected, sir. Strapped to a stretcher. A van pulled up, and two men and two scientists met and took the infected into the building. There’s a live infected in DC, sir.”

  “Shh! Do you want to start a panic? Look, you were pretty far away, right?”

  “Well, not that far, but—”

  “So you couldn’t have known it was an infected, right? It may just have been a sick person or something.”

  “Wait, it’s not—”

  “I’m sorry, but without proof, there’s really nothing I can—”

  “No. Now it’s my turn to talk. I’ve killed more than my fair share of those monsters, and I know the difference between a person and a creep. If there’s anyone on this planet qualified to be called an expert on creeps, it’s me. You? Now that’s a different story. No telling what you’d do if you saw a real infected. It changes you. They don’t move like a man does, you know? They’re...warped. Different. Twisted. You don’t mistake a creep for a man, and what I saw was not a man,” Jacob said.

  The officer paused, and set his coffee down carefully. He looked around to make sure no one else was nearby and then looked back at Jacob.

  “I’m going to say this once, and only once. I’ll send out an officer to check out your story, but if you utter a single word of this to anyone, I swear I’ll arrest you and throw you in jail. Understand? The last thing we need is to start a riot.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Be careful, boys.”

  As they left, Mike couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction. He always thought it was funny when Jacob got angry like that. Jacob only hoped he didn’t get arrested for it, but he knew this was important. New Dawn was up to no good, and someone had to put a stop to it.

  Chapter 66

  February 5th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Jacob strode casually into the police station and called for service from the front desk. It had been almost a week since he’d last talked to the officer, and both he and Mike were curious what they’d found.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming— Oh, it’s you. Well, what can I do for you two?” the officer asked.

  “We wanted to know if you’d found out anything more on the New Dawn investigation,” Jacob said.

  “Oh, right. Let me check…one second.”

  The officer dug through a pile of folders before picking up the one folder he wanted. He flipped through it, looking for one paper in particular.

  “That’s odd,” he said.

  “What’s odd?” Mike asked.

  “Well, the officer I sent still hasn’t reported in yet,” he replied.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Jacob said.

  “It’s probably nothing serious, but I’ll give him a call just in case. If I hear anything, I’ll send someone to tell you guys.”

  “Thanks. Come on, Mike,” Jacob said.

  After they left, Jacob shook his head in dismay. “We need to go back,” he said.

  “I know,” Mike replied.

  “You know, you can stay at the apartment if you want. You don’t have to come.”

  “No way. You aren’t leaving me out.”
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  As they walked toward the New Dawn headquarters, they bumped into Howard and Susan, who were just finishing up with training the troops.

  “Hey guys, what’s going on?” Howard asked as they passed by.

  “I’d love to talk, Howard, but we’re kinda busy. We’ll catch you back at the apartment a little later, though,” Jacob said.

  “Oh, okay. Take care guys!” Howard hollered back. “I wonder what’s got them in such a hurry?”

  Just outside New Dawn headquarters, Jacob and Mike began to formulate a plan.

  “So I’m thinking the officer got captured, or maybe worse. We need to check it out, though, and get proof, or nobody will believe us that anything rotten’s going on. More importantly, we have to get in there without being caught. Any ideas?”

  “What about that?” Mike asked, pointing to two men in hazmat leaving the back entrance of the building.

  “That just might work,” Jacob said.

  *

  “So I told him—”

  “Excuse me, sir, can you help me? I lost my dog, and I think he went by here,” Mike said.

  “Oh, sure. Which way’d he go?” one of the men asked.

  “This way, last I saw. Follow me, I’ll show you,” Mike said.

  After a few minutes, the man returned. “Well, I don’t know where that kid went. I guess he— Steven? Hey, Steve, it’s—”

  The man looked around for his companion but was grabbed from behind. When Mike returned, both scientists sat tied together, mouths taped shut, in the back of the white van. Jacob put on one of their uniforms, but the other was much too large for Mike.

  “Here’s the plan, Mike. I’ll go in there and take a look around. You keep watch and make sure nobody goes poking around in that van. I’ll be back out as soon as I can. If anything happens, or you get into any trouble and I’m not out yet, make your way back to the apartment or to the police station. You’ll be safe there.”

  “Will do,” Mike said. “Be careful.”

  “You too,” said Jacob.

  Chapter 67

  February 5th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Jacob swiped one of the scientist’s keycards, and the door swung open for him. He waved at Mike before closing the door behind him.

  He found himself in a basement level of the building, which looked to be a cross between a modern hospital and a medieval torture chamber. Beakers and test tubes, along with notebooks containing strange formulas and miscellaneous other papers, littered a table in the middle of the room. The infected he had seen carted in here days before was chained to the wall.

  A growl caught him off guard.

  He realized the infected on the wall had never moved, and the sound had come from behind him and to his right.

  He spun around quickly and saw another infected chained to the opposite wall. It was twitching and glaring at him. This one, though, was not as far gone as the other. It also wore a familiar uniform. Suddenly, it struck him. The uniform was the same one worn by the sheriff he’d spoken to earlier today. This was no ordinary infected. This was the policeman who had gone missing.

  “Uhngh!” Jacob groaned.

  He took out a camera from his pocket and snapped a picture of the infected officer.

  “We have the specimen right in here,” a voice said.

  “How has it reacted to the new serum?” someone asked.

  “See for yourself. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

  Time to go, Jacob thought to himself.

  He began to walk toward the back door, but as he went to open it, the first voice called out, “Oh, Steven. Good. Come, give us your report, and I’ll let you go early today.”

  Jacob held onto the door handle, his mind racing. Finally, he turned slowly and cleared his throat.

  “No— I mean, nothing new, sir. The… well, the subject seems to be progressing well, and the body hasn’t rejected the serum so far,” Jacob said, trying to recall what he’d learned in his acting classes and wishing he’d taken more of them.

  “Very good. Is everything alright, Steve? Your voice sounds a bit scratchy.”

  “Laryngitis, sir,” Jacob said.

  “Ah. Well, do try to keep it to yourself,” the man joked.

  “Yes, sir. May I go now?”

  “Of course. Have a good day.”

  He opened the door and closed it quickly behind him before turning to Mike. “Let’s go,” he said. “That was too close for comfort.”

  Mike nodded, and after Jacob had stripped out of the cumbersome suit, the two were off.

  They soon caught up with Howard and Susan at the apartment.

  “Sorry we had to run out like that on you, Howard. Something big went down at New Dawn,” Jacob said.

  “Oh, really? What happened?” Howard asked.

  “Okay, here goes. The people at New Dawn captured a cop, and they turned him into a creep. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it isn’t about curing the infection. It’s about perpetuating it.”

  He showed the others the photo, and a tense silence hung thick in the air.

  “We have to do something about this,” Howard said.

  Chapter 68

  February 5th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Jacob, Mike, Howard, and Susan arrived at the White House later that day. Once inside, they were stopped by Secret Service agent Jones.

  “Do you guys need something?” he asked.

  “We have to talk to the President. This is urgent,” Jacob said.

  “Sorry, he’s in a conference right now. Anything I can help you with?” Jones asked.

  “New Dawn’s up to something bad, and we can prove it,” Howard said.

  “Really?” Jones asked. “How so?”

  “I took this picture in a basement room of New Dawn’s headquarters,” Jacob said, handing the camera to Jones.

  Jones’s eyes grew wide as he inspected the picture. “Right this way,” he said.

  “So I was thinking we move the speech to next week,” the President said. “I just don’t see how we’ll have the time to do that as well as the—”

  “Sorry, sir,” Jones interrupted. “We’re going to have to put this meeting on hold.”

  “What’s this all about, Jones?” the President said.

  “Something big just came up, sir. Something that needs your full attention,” Jones said, pointing to Jacob, Mike, Howard, and Susan.

  “For your sake, I hope you’re right. We’ll continue this tomorrow,” the President said.

  After the room had cleared, Jones spoke up.

  “Sorry sir, but this couldn’t—”

  “Sorry? Ha! You have no idea. I hate these meetings with a passion. I was just contemplating jumping out the window or something. What’s going on? You said it was important?”

  “Of course. Jacob?” Jones said.

  Jacob cleared his throat and told the President everything that had happened since he started working with New Dawn. Then he pulled out the photo.

  The President’s face grew pale. “Is that—”

  “Yes, sir. I don’t know how the infection advanced so quickly, but that’s an infected.”

  “I’ll assemble a strike force immediately. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said.

  *

  “Open up, or we’ll break down the door!” the lieutenant called over the intercom on his squad car. Hearing no response, he signaled the SWAT officers at the door to breach it.

  “Police! Hands up!” shouted the first SWAT member into the building. To his great surprise, however, he saw no one.

  “Hey, guys? This is the right place, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “Check upstairs,” someone said.

  Jacob, Mike, Susan, and Howard sat outside with the sheriff, waiting for the all clear to enter the building.

  “Uhm, squad one to base, we’ve got nothing. The place is empty.”

  The sheriff grabbed the receiver. “Empty? What d
o you mean, empty?”

  “See for yourself. The area’s secure,” the voice said.

  “Okay, stick with me guys,” the sheriff said, drawing his gun.

  The five crept carefully into the building, the light casting treacherous shadows on the floors below. Jacob led them to the basement room where he’d seen the infected days before. One infected—the officer—did indeed still hang on the wall. The other was missing.

  “That’s him alright. Why would they want to infect people anyway?” Jacob asked.

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense,” Howard said.

  “Sir?” an officer said, sticking his head in the door.

  “Yes?” the sheriff responded.

  “The men found something upstairs. I think you may want to take a look. We’re sending it to the President as we speak.”

  They made it upstairs, where one officer stood by a television centered in the middle of a circular room.

  The officers inserted a disk into a DVD player connected to the television and pressed play.

  The person who greeted them as the video began was average in height, had short, unkempt brownish hair and blue eyes, and wore khaki pants, a flannel shirt, and a tie. His eyes were bloodshot, and bags hung underneath them.

  “Greetings,” the man said, his voice a bit scratchy but still deep and booming.

  “By now you surely must have discovered New Dawn’s true purpose, but if it still eludes you, allow me to enlighten you. New Dawn never sought to cure the disease that now ravages the nation. I assembled the group to find a way to control it. And now, at long last, I’ve done it. Even now, a horde of infected gathers to snuff out this so-called ‘New Union,’ and plans are already in place to spread the disease across the globe. Be warned, worms. The end is nigh.”

  With that, the video ended.

  Chapter 69

  February 5th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  A deafening silence hung in the air. No one was willing to accept what they’d just heard.

  Howard shook his head and gave a ragged sigh. After a few moments, he started out of the room.