Phoenix Rising: The Covenant (Phoenix Rising Infinitology Book 1)

by Angela Timms

  To the right there was a large pair of double doors which was the public entrance. Rennon gave them a push but they were locked. He then vaulted the desk and found a small red button out of reach from the customer’s side. He pressed it and Kyla pushed the doors which opened easily. They swung open to reveal a long corridor leading down the side of the office space. Rennon vaulted back over the desk and rejoined them. Kel took point, Rennon and Kyla behind him and the marines watching the back. They proceeded with caution but everything was still and eerily quiet. Every sound they made seemed amplified until they were nervous about every step and their progress slowed to a snail’s pace.

  At the end of the corridor there was a large room furnished with comfortable sofas, a drinks machine which held bottles of coloured liquid, tables and magazines. They took a quick look around. Rennon picked up a magazine and keyed something into his keypad. “Well this place hasn’t had new magazines for over a month. I’d guess that is how long this place has been like this.”

  Kyla froze. “You’d better take a look at this.”

  The others came over and Rennon pulled out his scanner. “Dried blood, it’s been here a while but something must have happened. At last, it’s something at least. Not the something we want.” She caught Kel’s glare. “Look they are still people and we don’t know that they weren’t either controlled or working here involuntarily. Heads up guys there may be something here.”

  It was only a small patch and that was all that seemed to be wrong with the room. It was dry but Rennon managed to get a reading all the same. He then scanned the room from where he was standing and followed small droplets of dried blood which led away through a door. They followed the blood and it led outside and onto the street beyond another set of doors. These doors were not locked.

  Before they left the room they checked it over very carefully. There were doors leading off from it but all of these were locked.

  Kyla looked up. “Should we check the doors, you know, break them open?”

  Rennon shook his head. “This is an arrival and departure lounge. If it is a research establishment we are looking for that is going to be somewhere else. We can come back to this. If there is trouble around we might as well go and look for it and my money is on it being close to what we need.”

  Kel grunted. “Or they could all be dead. That would be too easy though wouldn’t it?”

  Kyla looked around. “Not for them.”

  They checked out the rest of the room and moved on and out into the City which lay beyond the double doors.

  The street was lined with parked vehicles. They were smoothly elegant, designed with fluid precision, aerodynamic and fuel saving and with clearly evident solar panels on the roofs. They were all neatly parked, their wheels pointing sideways so that they could drive out and then rotate the wheels to drive off. Rennon was fascinated and almost got left behind as he looked over one of the parked cars. Kel grabbed the back of his suit and he was shaken from his investigations to follow them. They moved on down the street, scanners in hand. It was eerie, empty and echoed with a nothingness that seemed in itself intimidating and sinister.

  Rennon held up his hand and they all stopped. “I’ve got an energy signature which might indicate where the research establishment is. Everything else is in shut down by the looks of things, except for that building over there. He pointed to an inconspicuous concrete building, single story with very few windows.

  They found a side door and tried the lock; it was securely bolted, as was the front door. Rennon tried the electronic decoder which could usually manage to open any electronically locked door but it had no effect. They were about to give up when an engine revved behind them, making them all jump. They got out of the way as Kel drove one of the cars into the door, smashing it open.

  Once inside the entrance lobby they were met with a functional room, no frills, with a security booth and what looked like bullet proof glass which was caved in where Kel had run into it. The door out of the lobby was ajar and they could just about make out that the corridor beyond it was empty. As they moved along the corridor lights came on in front of them and switched off behind them. The corridor was a long silver tunnel, rounded at the edges and lined with doors. They took the first door on the right, it wasn’t locked and inside there was a neat office, paperwork laid out, the terminal on sleep mode. A finger to a key brought what had been on screen back up and the occupant had been mid letter, writing about the need for a rescheduling of drawer was full of the usual office birthday cards.

  At the end of the corridor there was a lift. Its doors slid open invitingly as they approached. It was lined with a plastic coating which Rennon immediately scanned. “Silicone, with some particles I can’t identify. Shall we take the lift people or would you rather walk?”

  Kyla looked inside. “Shall we find some stairs and do one level and see what we find before going further down?”

  Kel grunted. “Seems like a plan. Wouldn’t want to open a lift door on a bunch of irate scientists.”

  Kyla tried to laugh but she was too nervous. The Marines looked at each other nervously, fingering their weapons and each thinking their own private thoughts which involved their good luck mantras and evoking whatever godhead they followed.

  the cleaning staff. Again the desk essentials and a couple of unused

  There was a door beside the lift and they opened it, relieved to find stairs going down. Away from the public side of the building the stairwell was functional, concrete and had a basic metal handrail. The stairs were straight to a landing then dog legged back to another and again the lights came on in front of them, turned off behind them.

  They went down one level and as they came down the stairs they could see that the door out of the stairwell was wedged slightly open. Kel pushed Kyla behind him and she glared at him but happily complied. Rennon stepped forward and had his scanner out and was running it over what they could see as they got closer was what was left of the skeleton of an arm that was wedged in the doorway the fingers curled around the door. He crouched down and pulled the door open so that the hand fell palm upwards.

  The arm was clearly gnawed and there were teeth marks in it. Rennon ran the scanner over it without touching it. “Heads up people, this bone has been chewed as you can see. The bite marks indicate that the teeth were possibly humanoid.”

  Kel pulled his blaster and the others followed suit as they stepped out into the hallway. The doors were open and there were bones littered all over the floor, some were almost complete skeletons but dismembered and all showed signs of being chewed. Long bones were split and the marrow was missing. Some still partially wore the lab coats and clothes they had worn in life. The fabric was torn as if it had been shredded by a wild animal.

  The corridor went left and right, Rennon and Kel moved down the corridor to the right followed by the others. The first open door on the left was what looked like a mess hall. There were trays on the tables, the rotted food dried to the metal. The serving area was well stocked with rotted food, the heat lamps still keeping the blackened and decayed layer of rotted food warm. A drinks machine bubbled, the water inside being kept on the boil and refilling as the liquid evaporated. Around the room there was evidence of a struggle. Tables were tipped over, benches and chairs lay on their sides and bones were strewn about, again chewed.

  Somewhere down the corridor there was a metallic sound of metal grating against metal. They all jumped and turned to face the door but there was silence and as the Marines jumped to defend them they found that the corridor was empty. They formed up in the corridor, everyone armed, ready for whatever might leap out at them. They moved along the corridor slowly, step by step, listening, watching and waiting. Step by step they came closer to the next room. Kel leapt across the doorway and stood on the other side of it, back to the wall, blaster ready. Kyla slipped along the wall to a position on the near side of the door and Rennon took a deep breath, scanner in one hand, blaster in the other and after scann
ing the room he relaxed a bit and took a step forwards.

  The movement was swift, the rotting corpse that leapt out towards him was clumsy in its movements as it launched itself towards him but it was fast. Kel fired first, blowing the body backwards and away from Rennon. It did not cry out as it flew back and hit the back wall. It slid down the wall, regained its feet and leapt forwards again, arms outstretched, mouth open, eyes wild in torn eye sockets. Rennon was firing, again and again the blasts ripped into the body but it still kept coming.

  Kel was firing, his blaster knocking it back but it still kept coming, again and again. Most of the torso had been blown away but it still kept coming. Kyla began shooting at the legs until she got a direct hit on the bone and it fell face forwards to the ground and began crawling toward them. Still they kept firing and still it kept moving towards them. Kel pulled the pin on a grenade and shouted. “Fire in the hold”. As one they backed away and dived back out of the blast radius.

  The grenade exploded in a rose of fire and splintered wood and metal, bone and sinew as the corpse leapt through the door at them but got caught in the blast. The explosion cut into the silence then it was quiet, deathly quiet.

  The body lay in pieces on the floor in the corridor some of it still burning. Bits of it still moved and as Kel stepped into the room he narrowly missed being grabbed by a hand which was crawling towards him. He shot it, the holes cut into the flesh but it kept moving.

  The room was a laboratory, there were test tubes, liquid bubbled in glass bottles and the computer terminal which was out of the blast radius and protected by a screen leapt to life as Rennon landed in the seat and began to tap on the keyboard. “At last, a break, the password has already been entered and this terminal isn’t damaged. I have entrance into the main computer people. Now hopefully we can get some answers. I’m going to download the lot, no point searching through. There’s probably no time for more investigation and this is going to take a little time. My money is on there being more of those things. It is a network so I can’t just take this terminal. My money is on a mainframe somewhere that holds the lot.” He was tapping on the keyboard when they heard it, a dull moaning which increased to a scream and a scraping sound of a door opening somewhere in the distance. The marine in the corridor stepped back into the room and began firing, the others joined him. “Hurry up Rennon, we have company, lots of it and by the looks of it the locals are very hungry.”

  Rennon had already pulled a multi ended cable out of one of his handheld devices and was searching for the right piece to plug in. He found what he wanted and pushed it into the port on the computer. He tapped a few more keys and then stood up, leaving it to do its job. “This won’t take, good, done. Come on then people, let’s get out of here. I’ve no intention of being fast food for the locals. I’ve taken a download of their information, we can read it later. Move out people.” He grabbed the cable out of the port and slipped the MU into his pocket, picked up his blaster and joined them at the door as another grenade exploded down the corridor, blowing the leading corpses to pieces and knocking the rest back.

  The scientists and guards were climbing over each other and fighting each other to get down the corridor. Thankfully they were slowed down as they climbed over the dead and when Kyla blasted one of them, what looked like a lab technician and they saw the open wound there was a feeding frenzy. They leapt on the wounded lab technician and began ripping him to bits. There was a look of honour on his face and they realized he had been pretending to be one of them. His blood was red and as it splattered onto others they started biting anyone who had blood on them. That was their cue, they ran without looking back, retracing their steps until they were back in the shuttle and airborne. As they took off a whole hoard of nearly a hundred of them poured out of the open doors.

  From space the planet looked tranquil and peaceful. The forests were unspoilt and green, the water was blue, and there were no life signs. Nothing had changed, nothing other than the group of clawing and fighting individuals who had gathered on the concrete, looking up and reaching up towards them. All was not well in paradise.

  Back on the Argo Rennon had downloaded the information into a stand- alone laptop and was looking through it. Eloise was helping him and they were deep in discussion. Dr Samson was scanning everyone, rescanning and checking everyone for the slightest cut or graze.

  It took Rennon a few hours to go through the data and information. He sat in silence for the most part, shaking his head and jotting down notes. “Eloise, could you get me a drink please?”

  Eloise scampered off to the galley as Rennon pulled up the lab notes on the test subjects. The photographs that came up on the screen were what he had sent her away to avoid her seeing. They were truly horrific as they recorded the degradation of two test subjects, forced to share a room and infected with the prototype virus that made them hunger for each other’s flesh. He watched as they ripped each other to pieces. He read the reports, the lab notes, the chemical reports and finally he backed everything up onto a memory disc and put it in the fireproof box he kept under the desk, logged out and sat in his chair, leaning back and staring at the blank wall.

  Eloise came in with his coffee. He looked up and smiled at her. “Thank you. Could you get everyone together, I need to speak with them.”

  They gathered in the galley, everyone sitting around the table in the seats they usually sat in for their meal. Shannon had made drinks and they waited, in silence until Rennon looked up and spoke as the Argo hung in space above the tranquil planet. “I can’t convey what I saw on the recordings but believe me when I say it was truly horrific. What we have down there is a Follower Research Establishment and what they were researching is truly terrifying. What we have here is a virus which will turn all it touches into the ravening beasts you saw down there. Its carrier is physical, any scratch and the virus will move from one to the next. If the subject dies they are reanimated. Those are slower and have no consciousness left. If they do not they become a ravening beast like those we saw. They are as you saw, fast, intelligent and lethal as any scratch will get infected. Either way you saw the results. I have read the reports and the virus was initially created for what they call their “Super Soldiers”. Kel I think you saw first-hand what some of their research was intending to do. They are creating an army of mindless drones who will do their bidding and will literally turn anyone they meet into the same as them, thus increasing their numbers. The others are the “Super Soldiers” intelligent and able to lead the others. It looks like the virus got out of hand and developed into what you saw down there. The planet has been abandoned and everyone was left to die.

  There was some speculation in the reports that the virus was also being developed for the worlds that the Followers are unable to convert. If they cannot convert they intend to destroy. The plan was to drop one or two of these infected people onto a planet and the planet would then be wiped out of all human life. reinforcements for their army. Unfortunately species, hence there being no life at all on the planet. Any contact with an infected entity spreads the virus and from the notes it seems that mosquitoes were the main culprit. There was an accident in the laboratory which caused patient zero, the head scientist I’m guessing. Then the virus began to spread, wiping out the scientists and everyone and everything else on the planet.

  We will be safe as the virus can only spread through wounds and contact with an infected entity. Thankfully none of us were injured and the Doc there has managed to scan everyone, we’re clear. Simply blowing up the Research Establishment isn’t going to destroy the virus. We do not have the firepower but I would suggest that we report to the Commander and he may be able to bring in one of the larger ships with a star drive cannon. It may be possible to knock the moon out of orbit and to use that to knock the planet into the sun. The heat from that should destroy the planet and burn up any virus that remains on there. It is anaerobic so unleashing it in space could be devastating.” There was a stunned silence in the roo
m. Kel leant back. “Well at least we don’t have to go back down there. That place gives me the creeps. What is more worrying is what the Followers are prepared to do.”

  Kyla looked down into her cup and thought for a moment. “Yes, They can then pick up it also spreads to other but we have the recordings of what they are prepared to do. If we could somehow broadcast this to the planets we can show those who believe in the Followers what they are really like. Is that possible?”

  Rennon thought a while. “Not from our ship but if we can get copies of this to the transmission arrays and break into news networks it may just be possible. The power of the media can’t be underestimated, even under Follower control. The Followers used it to good effect; perhaps we can use it to our advantage too. It would take breaking into the satellite stations and literally hijacking the system and then holding it long enough to broadcast. I would suggest we get to a RV point and transmit this information to the Commander. This is one precious cargo.”

  Mac leapt out of his chair. “I’ll get us on course. Could this be a bit of a breakthrough?”

  Kyla smiled. “If they believe it.”