Degeneration

by Mark Campbell

  GREEN PATH – ALL OTHERS

  A few corpses were strung out among the toppled aluminum barriers and were aerated by multiple bullet holes.

  The air was deafly still and reeked of death.

  The haunting moans of the infected echoed up from the lower level of the mall.

  Mathis took a cautious step forward and scanned the food court with his rifle, unable to see farther than a few yards.

  “The command nexus for all of the FEMA centers are somewhere along the green pathways, so follow me,” Mathis whispered.

  “How do you know?!” Richard asked, creeping behind Mathis with his pistol drawn. “What if they did things different here? What if it is on the red path or the blue path?! So much for this place being secure! I hear those things down there. What if the command center–”

  Mathis shushed him, interrupting him mid-rant.

  “All of the FEMA evacuation centers were designed the same way. There is no deviation. The red and blue paths always go to the holding pins. In this particular center, those pins look like they’re downstairs.” He paused, listening to the ghastly moans from below. “We don’t want to go downstairs now, do we?”

  Richard shook his head ‘no’ like a scolded child.

  “Exactly. Green path,” Mathis said, “Shut up. Follow me.”

  He’s leading us into a tomb! If you don’t do something, I will!

  Richard startled at the sound of Andy’s voice. It no longer sounded like the voice was confined in his head. Instead, it sounded like Andy was standing right next to him.

  Sporadic bursts of automatic gunfire echoed in the distance, making both of them flinch and crouch low to the ground.

  The moans of the infected intensified in response to the gunfire.

  Mathis led the way across the food court, following the green path.

  A man wearing a blood-matted polo shirt and tattered trousers lurched out from the shattered remnants of a video game store near the edge of the food court. The store had been ransacked and empty game cases littered the floor.

  The infected man snarled and lunged towards Mathis, knocking over one of the aluminum crowd control barriers.

  Richard froze.

  Mathis quickly raised his weapon and fired a three-round burst into the infected man’s face.

  The man’s head ruptured like a rotted watermelon and he collapsed backwards, sprawled out on the floor.

  The gunfire in the distance stopped and human voices could be distinguished, rising above the moans of the infected.

  “You heard that one?! That one definitely came from inside,” a voice exclaimed in the distance.

  Mathis stopped walking and motioned for Richard to do the same.

  Richard stood behind Mathis. His fingers twitched as he loosely gripped the pistol with his clammy hands.

  “No, idiot, that came from outside again. Probably someone from Reggie’s group who got cornered,” a voice responded.

  “We told ‘em not to go outside. That’s what they get for playing Rambo,” a third voice said. “We done told them that the helicopters were gone. No sense in getting bit going on some wild goose chase.”

  The shooting resumed and the voices quelled.

  Mathis relaxed, let out a deep breath, and slowly started walking along the green path again.

  Richard felt his trembling hands steady and felt his grip tighten around the pistol. He looked down at the gun in his grasp, confounded.

  Andy’s hands were holding the pistol.

  We can shoot him here in the dark mall.

  Richard looked up at Mathis, staring at the back of the man’s white-suit.

  He’d never see it coming.

  Just as Andy started to raise the pistol, Mathis stepped out of the food court and into the mall’s main atrium.

  “Oh my God,” Mathis muttered as he stepped towards the brass railing and peered down at the lower level.

  Richard lowered his pistol and walked towards Mathis, curious.

  Both men were enthralled by the horrors below.

  The lower level of the mall was swarming with shuffling moaning corpses, numbering in the thousands. They mindlessly trampled over each other and everything else caught in their path. Every first-floor shop was full of them, as were the kiosks lined along the center of the atrium. Their numbers were so great that the floor below their feet wasn’t even visible from above.

  The dead masses were reaching up towards the sky, moaning loudly.

  At first, Mathis thought that they were reaching up towards him, but then he noticed the gas-masked soldiers standing on the opposite side of the upper-level tier, directly across from him.

  The soldiers had their weapons pointed over the edge of the brass railing and fired randomly into the vast sea of infected. A CDC white-suit cowered behind the soldiers, armed with a pistol. The whole group was standing in front of a shuttered Apple store. They looked weak and frail; their bulky body armor did nothing to hide the air of desperation that pervaded all around them.

  One of the soldiers looked up and quickly pointed his rifle at Mathis and Richard.

  “Tangos on the upper tier!” the soldier shouted, startling the others into action.

  “Wait! Stop!” Mathis shouted, lowering his own weapon.

  The other soldiers hesitated and looked at each other.

  “Which detail were you assigned?” one of the soldiers asked.

  “I’m Colonel Mathis, 161st Bioterrorism Response Regiment!”

  The soldiers murmured amongst themselves, shaking their heads.

  “So, Colonel, you’re here to rescue us, sir?” one of them asked, sarcastically.

  “Yes,” he lied, “but I need to contact the outside and let them know we need a pick-up. I just need to use your secure DSN terminal.”

  One of soldiers scoffed and threw his arms out at his side.

  “Good luck with that! The operations center was overrun hours ago. We got out, but we…” the soldier trailed off and looked down.

  “What’s your name, soldier?” Mathis asked.

  “Ramirez, sir,” he answered. “We… had… to lock the others… inside.”

  “Ramirez, where is the operations center? I need that DSN terminal,” Mathis asked.

  “We had it sat up in the Belk department store at the other end of the mall, sir. But… like I said, we had to seal the shutters shut,” Ramirez said.

  “Yeah, trust us. You don’t want to go in there,” another soldier quickly added.

  Mathis looked over and spotted a walkway that connected the side he was standing to the side that the soldiers were on. He started to walk towards the walkway, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.

  All of the soldiers quickly aimed their weapons at him.

  Mathis stepped back, startled.

  “What… are you doing?!” Mathis asked.

  “Sorry, sir, but we can’t let you come any closer,” Ramirez said. “Not with that infected civilian lingering with you.

  Mathis looked over his soldier at Richard and shook his head.

  “No! He’s not infected! He’s immune to this. Trust me, he’s harmless,” Mathis explained. “Lower your weapons!”

  The soldiers kept their weapons aimed at Mathis.

  “Look,” Mathis said, taking a step forward, “I’m an officer and I am giving you a direct–”

  One of the soldiers fired a single shot at the ground in front of Mathis’ feet, chipping into the floor’s decorative tile work.

  Mathis leapt backwards, startled.

  “No offense, but I don’t think that all that rank shit matters anymore… sir,” the soldier who fired the shot said.

  Mathis paused a second and threw his open palms out towards the soldiers in a pantomimic begging manner.

  “Look, please, I am trying to get someone in here to save us all, so you need to just–”

  “No offense, sir, but we all know that’s a load of bull,” Ramirez said. “We know they’ve been shooting down aircr
aft and the jets aren’t letting anybody leave.”

  Mathis gave an exasperated sigh and then held up his two index fingers, wiggling them as he took a step backwards.

  “Yes, that is true – but!” Mathis turned and pointed at Richard, “They will come and rescue us since we have him! He is immune!”

  “Nobody is immune, sir,” Ramirez said, tone neutral. “Some people are just slow to show symptoms. We can see that he has been bitten on the shoulder and we see his wounded hand. We’re not dumb, sir.”

  “He just wants to get close to us and steal our ammunition,” one of the soldiers said to the group.

  “I don’t give two shits about your weapons!” Mathis shouted. “I just want you to do your job and give me some back-up so that I can get to that DSN terminal!”

  The soldiers kept their weapons aimed at Mathis for a few moments and then lowered them back down at the infected below.

  “We’ll cover your back from here, but we’re not coming with you,” Ramirez said. “We sealed that place off for a reason and we’re not looking to go back, sir.”

  “I’ll go with them,” the CDC white-suit sheepishly said behind the soldiers. “I’ll… I’ll show them were the command center is.”

  The CDC white-suit cautiously stepped forward, trembling.

  “Then bug the fuck out, doc,” a soldier replied sharply, coughing.

  The CDC white-suit ran past the soldiers and hid behind Mathis, staring uneasily at Richard.

  Mathis turned and walked back towards Richard but then paused and turned back towards the soldiers.

  “If you know that you’ve been written off, then why are you still trying to defend this place?” Mathis asked. “What’s the point?”

  “We’re Marines, sir, not the Army,” Ramirez said. “We don’t go without a fight.”

  The Marines laughed and a few of them erupted into a spasm of coughs. They started firing down aimlessly into the infected horde on the lower level.

  “This isn’t going to end well for any of you, especially if you stay here and waste your ammunition,” Mathis said.

  “No offense, sir, but this isn’t going to end well for you, either,” Ramirez said. “The only difference between us and you is that we’ve accepted our fate. Now go, before those tangos figure out another way up here.”

  “Some free advice, sir? Save one bullet for the very end,” another soldier added.

  Mathis turned his back on the Marines and walked towards the CDC white-suit.

  The white-suit was staring at Richard, circling him, slowly, eyeing him up-and-down.

  Richard stood still, face muscles twitching, staring back at the CDC white-suit. His fingers opened and closed around the pistol’s grip and his feet fidgeted.

  “What’s your name?” Mathis asked the CDC white-suit.

  “Doctor Lewis Medford, immunologist from the Centers for Disease Control,” he proudly responded, looking over at Mathis.

  “Well, doctor, lead the way towards the operations center and take me to the DSN terminal,” Mathis said, gesturing ahead with his rifle. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  23

  Medford led the way along the second-story of Crabtree towards the flagship department store at the far end of the mall, gripping his pistol tightly. He was sweltering inside his white-suit.

  Every storefront that they passed had their steel security shutters buttoned-up tightly.

  The Belk department store was coming into view, visible by the moonlight reflecting through the skylights.

  Richard glanced down over the brass railing at the lower level. He spotted row after row of red steel cages. The cages were chained shut and full of trashing handicapped men, women, and children. All of the cages shook violently as their imprisoned feral occupants struggled to escape. The cages were adorned with the FEMA logo and had signs labeling them as ‘Medical Observational Holding Area ’.

  Even though the Marines were now far behind them, the sound of their automatic gunfire bursts echoed down the atrium through the mall, making all three men flinch with each shot.

  “They’re right, you know,” Medford finally said as they walked past a looted jewelry store, breaking a long stretch of silence. Glass shards crunched underneath his feet.

  “About what?” Richard asked, scratching his arm with his pistol as he walked, throwing paranoid glances over his shoulder.

  “You’ve been bitten, so you’re infected,” Medford casually said as he walked. “That’s not even taking into account the virus’ airborne qualities... and you without an environmental suit… Nobody is immune to this. You are just one of the rare ones that show symptoms later. Trust me. I’ve seen your type in this very center all night long until all hell broke loose.”

  Mathis raised a hand up dismissively.

  “Enough, enough,” Mathis said. “Let’s just get to the operations center, okay?”

  “I’m just saying… he’s a liability,” Medford said. “Once he turns, he will kill us both. If you get ahold of anybody on the DSN, they will never pick all three of us up… not with those bites. Please, listen to reason!”

  Mathis shook his head and gave a humorless laugh.

  “Now wait a goddamn minute here. You–”

  “Is that the only reason you volunteered to tag along, doc? Are you afraid to go down with the ship?” Mathis said, interrupting Richard mid-sentence.

  Medford threw his arms up in the air, shaking his head.

  “Those imbecilic jarheads were on borrowed time and they knew it! They were all getting sick! Their gasmask filters were useless by the time you showed up. They might as well have worn N95 masks,” Medford said. “I’m not just some soldier; I’m an immunologist with ten years field experience. Ten years! Do you have any idea how important someone like me will be outside, especially during an event like this?

  “Look, I don’t want to die here, and I know that you want to get out of here. I can be your bargaining chip! They will send an evacuation helicopter for someone like me. They need me! Just get rid of him so they’ll take us! Surely, you can’t honestly believe that he is immune! You can’t be that naive!”

  Mathis grabbed Medford and pinned him against the brass handrail, leaning the man halfway over the top of it.

  The infected on the lower level below went into frenzy at the sight of the prey above. They clustered tightly around the floor below, reaching up towards Medford, moaning.

  Medford panicked and struggled, trying to free himself from Mathis’ grasp.

  “Please! Just listen,” Medford begged, “I was simply stating–”

  “Enough! I get it! You don’t like him around,” Mathis shouted inside his soiled white-suit. “Just shut up and quit pestering me with your opinions! Otherwise, when the rescue does come, you’ll find yourself left behind, understand me?”

  Medford’s eyes drifted past Mathis and grew stark with terror.

  “Stop eyeballing him and look at me!” Mathis shouted. “I asked if you understand me, doctor!”

  Medford’s gaze remained transfixed beyond Mathis. He tried to speak, but all that came out were incoherent stammers.

  Richard, puzzled, turned to see what the doctor was staring at.

  Next to them stood a sporting goods store that still had its glass display windows intact and didn’t have a security grille protecting it. Inside, nearly one-hundred infected men, women, and children were lining up against the display windows, slapping the glass, staring at the three men outside.

  “Mathis! Look!” Richard cried, backing away from the windows.

  Mathis let go of the doctor and turned towards the store. He was immediately taken aback. He fumbled with his riffle and aimed it at the infected behind the glass.

  “I thought they said that the second floor was secure!” Mathis said, rifle shaking.

  Medford stepped away from the railing and wearily pointed his 9mm at the infected inside the store.

  “The second floor was secured! Sure, there were a f
ew scattered here and there, but… all of those?! There- there must have been a maintenance stairwell in the back of that store that we missed!” Medford stammered.

  Mathis looked over at the Belk department store in the distance. Heavy security grilles protected the store’s entrance, but he couldn’t see inside the dark storefront.

  In order to get there, though, they would have to walk past the sporting goods store that was festering with the infected.

  Mathis debated it over in his head, because he knew that walking near the infected would send them into frenzy and he knew that the glass offered limited protection.

  Finally, he shook his head, defeated.

  “We don’t have any choice,” Mathis said, “We can’t go back the way we came and use that crossover… Those men will shoot us the second we step over on their side. Let’s just move fast past the store, okay?”

  Medford was hesitant, but knew that he was right.

  Richard stood staring at his reflection in the glass, lost in a whimsical moment of confusion. Inside the store, he thought he saw Andy walking among the ranks of the dead.

  Mathis was the first to walk past the store, trying not to look at the ghouls inside as he hurried past them.

  As he had expected, the infected erupted into an uproar as he walked past them. They tumbled over each other as they followed him and slapped their open palms and closed fists against the thick safety glass, making it vibrate.

  Mathis reached the other side and turned around. He was annoyed but not especially surprised to see Richard and the doctor still standing frozen on the other side.

  “Hurry up! Those things can’t get out of there – you’re fine!” Mathis shouted, gesturing for them to walk towards him.

  Medford went first, jogging inside his bulky suit.

  The infected inside followed him, bashing against the glass.

  Medford glanced over into the store, briefly, and caught a glimpse of a teenage girl with half of her right arm mauled off.

  The girl gnashed against the glass, trying to bite Medford, and left a thick coat of saliva on the glass. She leaned back and threw up on the glass, coating it. She leaned against the glass again, smearing her face through her own bile in her futile attempts to bite her prey.