by Jack Wallen
“Thank you, I will walk.”
Again, Burgess grabbed Godwin. “I’m sorry, sir, it’s not safe for you to walk. Get back in the vehicle and we’ll get you there safely.”
Godwin mumbled under his breath as he reluctantly re-entered the truck. Burgess followed suit and instructed the driver to take them on.
The remainder of the drive was made in silence. Randomly, Godwin would toss an accusatory glance at Burgess. Burgess returned a blank, unreadable stare.
When the vehicle came to a halt, all disembarked. Gerand jogged to the entrance and entered his pass code. Following close behind was Burgess guiding Godwin.
“Why the security? You have this entire location walled in. What are you hiding?”
When the door opened, Dr. Godwin was greeted by the shrieks and roars of the undead.
“Dear God.” Lindsay stepped backward, his hands leaping to his mouth. “What is going on here?”
Burgess gestured for Godwin to enter. “Inside, Doctor.”
“Oh I hardly think so. I shall be leaving.”
When Godwin turned, he was met with the barrel of a menacing, military-grade machine gun.
“Inside. Now.” Burgess barked.
Slowly, Doctor Godwin entered the lab. Once the technicians could see who was among them, everything came to a stop. The only sound was the roaring from the examination rooms.
“Doctor Godwin, welcome to the Zero Day Collective. Our goal is to rid the world of parasites, infections, and anyone we have deemed unfit to remain. Our goal is to spread a virus through certain parts of the world, in order to cull the heard, as it were.” Burgess gestured to Gerand. “Doctor…”
Gerand stepped forward and gestured to one of his technicians. The assistant nodded and left the room. Gerand spoke.
“We discovered a virus among the research of Doctor Josef Mengele.”
Godwin bristled. “That man was no doctor; he was a monster doing the bidding of the maddest of men, under the false pretense of science!”
“The virus was drawn from rabies and could be spread from human to human. For our purposes, the infected must have a rather short shelf-life. As it stands, however, the dead are remaining undead for too long. That is why you are here. We need you to help us understand why this is happening. I firmly believe your super-cure holds the key to controlling the life cycle of our,” Burgess smiled. “undead experiments.”
Godwin cocked his head from side to side, as his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
“Undead? As in zombies? Have you lost your minds?”
Burgess stepped in. “Quite the opposite. We are leaders who have come to realize the population of the planet is out of hand. If we do not control the amount of living beings on this planet, we’ll not live to see the life cycle of human beings through to the end.”
“You are talking about the attempted control of natural selection. That is a fight you will lose and lose badly. I am sorry. I cannot help you with this insanity.”
Burgess stepped to the bank of computer monitors and tapped out a few commands on the keyboard. A video feed opened on one of the monitors. On the display, a woman sat, tied to a chair and gagged.
“My…what are you doing to my wife?” Godwin shrieked loud enough to drown out the sound of the zombies.
“She is merely our insurance. Do as we ask and she’ll live a full, happy life. Do not do as we ask and you’ll watch your lovely wife suffer in ways you have never dreamed.” Burgess tapped the keyboard again. Another video feed appeared. “Behind that door is one of our subjects. In fact, he was the first. Apropos, don’t you think? Should you fail us, that door will be opened and your wife will be stripped of every shred of order her molecules hold dear.”
The video feed switched back to the bound woman. Her body wracked with the spasms of weeping. A flood of tears rained down from her eyes.
Godwin stumbled backwards. “She is my life. You cannot do this.”
Burgess turned to Godwin, all emotion drained from his face. “We can and we will. You have thirty seconds before I release the locking mechanism on the door that stands between your wife and death. What’s it going to be?”
Godwin remained silent, his eyes unblinking.
“Tick tock doctor. You have twenty seconds.”
The physicist fell deep into a dissociative space. Everything fell into a slow-motion rhythm.
“Fifteen seconds.” Burgess’s voice was almost cartoonish, slow in speed and pitch.
“I – ” Godwin attempted to speak.
“Five. Four. Three. Two.”
“Fine. Whatever you want. Just leave my wife out of this.”
Burgess stepped forward and patted Godwin on the shoulder. “You’ve made the right decision. The world will one day lift you upon their shoulders and worship you like a God.”
Godwin spat in Burgess’s face. “You do not have the right to speak of God. You mock God with every breath you take. You challenge the very foundation of the science I have spent my entire life supporting. I will do what you ask; but when I am finished, I will make sure you and your organization pay for what you’ve done.”
John Burgess laughed. “You do that. You do that. Doctor Gerand, he is all yours. If you need me, you know where and how to reach me.”
Before Burgess exited the lab, he turned. “And gentlemen, we are on a deadline. Solve my little dilemma or everyone in this lab dies. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”
No one dared answer. Burgess left with the stench of corruption in his wake.
“Doctor Godwin?” Gerand placed a cautious hand on his new colleague’s shoulder.
“Do not touch me.” Godwin jerked away and then turned to Gerand, a look of pure hate drawn on his face. “If you expect me to do anything more than what I have been instructed, you will be disappointed. I have been pulled away from research that could save the population of the world from suffering.”
“We know, doctor. That is why you are here. We believe your super-cure is the missing key to the Mengele – ”
“Please refrain from using that name in my presence.” Godwin hissed.
“The virus I have created is not allowing for a rapid-enough decay process.”
Godwin tossed a puzzled glance at Gerand. “I do not understand.”
To aid in his explanation, Gerand switched on the entire bank of monitors to cycle through the cameras around the city. The scene unfolding before them told a gruesome story. The undead were everywhere. Every living human they came across quickly joined the zombie rank and file.
“You see that? By this point in the experiment, the undead population should be, at most, five percent of the original total. They aren’t dying. In order for The Great Cleansing to work, those creatures must expire, and do so fairly quickly. If those things continue to live, the entire population of the planet would be infected.”
Godwin stepped toward the bank of monitors. The inescapable pull of science drew him in. Gone was the hopelessness and rage, only to be replaced by curiosity, fascination, and a deep-seeded desire to solve the impossible.
“I understand. So what you need is an accelerant to the decaying process. The Heizer Sequence could accomplish this.”
Gerand looked puzzled. “I’m sorry, the what?”
“The Heizer Sequence. If you knew of my work, you would know that name. It is the molecular structure the super-cure was based on. My partner and I have finally developed a strain of the sequence that does not collapse. If we were to introduce the sequence into your virus, it would effectively set death back in motion and allow the internal organs to decompose properly. It would only be a matter of time before – yes, this could work. But there is only one problem.”
Gerand froze.
“I do not have the sequence with me.”
“What do you mean? How could you not…”
“I beg your pardon, but how was I to know what I was going to be up against? Besides, the Heizer Sequence is classified and cannot be
taken out of confinement.”
Gerand grabbed Godwin’s arm. “You’ll have to re-create the sequence. We have a full lab here – ”
Again, Godwin jerked away from Gerand’s grip. “You do not understand. There is only one surviving strain. That sequence took years to perfect. I could not just re-create that work on command. I am very sorry, doctor, but what you are asking is quite impossible.”
A sickening panic began to flush Gerand’s face. His eyes darted about the room and, eventually, returned to Godwin.
“You’re going to have to try. Doctor Godwin, we have to succeed with this project or the consequences will be catastrophic.”
Gerand scratched a few words on a notepad and handed it to Godwin.
“These are my notes so far on the project. Give them a quick once over and come into my office.”
Gerand stormed away, leaving Godwin to read the note on the tablet. Two simple sentences were written in nearly perfect form:
We have to stop them. I have a plan.
Chapter 29
“This way,” Sonja whispered over her shoulder. I was doing my best to keep up with her younger legs, but the added weight of the back pack did a number on my stamina.
From behind, I saw Sonja pull out her smart phone and attempt a call.
“Still no service. Come on.” She picked up her pace.
We were headed for a group of houses at the end of a cul-de-sac. If I had no idea what was happening, I would have thought the scene picturesque, quaint. The houses were modest, but well kept; yards perfectly groomed, tree houses, swings – all the trappings of modern-day suburban life.
But we knew this wasn’t Americana Perfecta. We were caught in the machinations of a madman. The dream shifted into nightmare – beauty into grotesque.
“Wait.” Sonja stopped ahead and held out her arm to keep me from traveling further. She pointed a lone finger toward the nearest house.
In the driveway stood a collection of the dead, screaming and kneeling in a circle. One of the monsters was forced away by his fellow revenant revelers to reveal the reason for the gathering.
A body.
The bastards were ripping a now-dead human to pieces, chewing on the flesh, and sucking on the bone. The carnage was dizzying, the sound of the mauling even worse. Two of the beasts turned to one another and fought over what had to be a section of leg from the knee down. The zombies at war could have been a mother/daughter team. The mother won and tore into the leg like it was an ear of corn.
I wanted to get sick – let loose whatever sustenance sloshed within my gut. That was the last thing we needed – the sound and smell of vomiting. Surely the undead would be drawn to the tang of bile.
I had no desire to find out.
Sonja pointed off to the side. I assumed she meant for us to skirt the area and avoid the Dahmeresque dinner party.
Another, distant call of the zombie circus tickled my ear drums. When the sound reached the undead al fresco party, they screeched in return and stood to look.
“Oh my God. Malcolm, run. Run now!”
Sonja’s younger body reacted immediately, her pace at break-neck right away. Fear wasted no time and kicked in. The second the adrenaline rush hit my system, I was catching up to my girl. I knew we had to remain close if we were to survive this trek to freedom.
“This way!” Sonja took a hard right into a copse of trees.
“Why are we stopping? Shouldn’t we be hauling ass to the wall?”
“Yeah, sure – if zombification is your ultimate goal. You saw how fast some of those bastards can run. There’s no way we’d best them on foot.”
My neck grew two sizes as it stretched out toward Sonja. “So what in the hell do you suggest we do? Sit here and wait it all out?”
When she looked at me, I could see the fear etched in her face. I had forgotten the poor girl was just as lost and just as frightened as me. It was time I started acting like the adult in the situation.
“How far do you think our destination is from here?” I cautiously whispered.
Sonja gave a look around and pulled out her tablet from her pack. After a few taps, pinches, and zooms, she looked up at me – the slightest hint of relief etched across her face.
“Six hundred yards…tops.”
Less than a half-mile. “That’s do-able. Even if we’re slower, we just have to map out the best route that will offer us up the most likely chance of survival. What’s between us and the wall?”
Sonja pulled up her tablet again and opened an app that contained an interactive map of the layout of the land.
“Golf course.”
Good news and bad news there. The good news…there’s little place for zombies to hide. The bad news…there’s little place for us to hide.
For the briefest of moments, the hell storm fell silent. A much-needed calm blanketed the area. Even the zombie chorus took a quick five. The only sound was my heartbeat and a symphony of crickets. For a second I was transported back to my childhood – my sister and I sneaking out of the house to catch fireflies or night crawlers. What I wouldn’t give to be back at that simple, elegant time.
“Look, Sonja, if I don’t make it, you have to promise me you’ll continue on and get these hard drives into the right hands.”
Sonja looked at me as if I were crazy.
“I’m serious.”
“Malcolm, that’s crazy talk. First and foremost, you will make it. Second, you are crazy.”
Her smile not only warmed my heart, it gave me courage enough to handle nearly anything.
“On the count of three – take off as fast as you can to that area,” Sonja pointed toward the wall. Our exit should be near there.”
We simultaneously closed our eyes and sucked in a deep, resonant breath.
“I love you Malcolm. You’ve always been the father I never had. Thank you.”
When I opened my eyes, Sonja was smiling at me. She kissed my cheek.
“Oh God – Sonja you have no idea what you’ve meant to me. You are the daughter, wife, and best friend I never had.” I gave her a wink. “And just why are we speaking as if we’ve already given up? Come on, little Girl Scout, we have truth to deliver.”
“One,” Sonja began.
“Two.” I could feel sweat pouring in never-ending rivulets down my back.
“Three!”
A cloud of dust was kicked up as we sprinted off toward the wall. The sound of our feet striking the ground caught wind and drifted over to the nearest collection of cadavers.
Sonja gave a quick glance over her shoulder. “Mal, they’re coming.”
The sound of the beasts spread and, within seconds, was all around us. Every undead monster in the town knew fresh meat was on the loose.
And then it happened. Like so many clichéd horror films, something caught my right foot and I went down…hard. The snapping sound echoed in my ears.
“Oh fuck!”
“Malcolm! Oh my God. Get up.” Sonja rushed back to help me. She pulled me up by the arm. The second I placed pressure on my right foot I collapsed.
“I’m okay…just a shooting pain, maybe a pulled muscle. I don’t think anything is broken. Shit, Sonja…run. Get out of here.”
“To Hell with that. I’m saving your ass.”
I heard the sound of the gun’s hammer cocking. When I looked up, Sonja was standing over me, in her best Charlie’s Angel’s pose.
“What are you doing? You’ll never…”
Before I could finish the thought, Sonja pulled the trigger.
“One down.”
Another shot.
“Fuck!”
“Sonja, take this backpack and get out. The world needs to know the truth.”
“The world needs you alive, Malcolm.”
She was being nice. I knew the world was neither better nor worse off with me in it. What had I truly accomplished? So I’ve made a few films. It wasn’t like any of them changed or saved lives. At best I was an overpaid entertainer.
What was more important than my life was the information in the backpack.
I tried to complain again, but was drowned out by three shots in a row.
“Now who’s moaning? Mother fuckers!”
Somehow, the whole scene seemed familiar – like I’d filmed something hauntingly similar. My brain jumped back in time and quickly scanned through my entire body of work.
It was better than my life flashing before my eyes.
Then it dawned on me. I had filmed a scene just like this. In that scene, the sexy starlet ran out of bullets and the old man died. The movie was panned, but not for that scene. Honestly, the whole film sucked.
I didn’t want to go out like that. I forced myself up and stood only on my left leg. I put the smallest bit of pressure on my right leg. It hurt, but it didn’t collapse.
“Come on Sonja. We’re getting out of here.”
Sonja gave a quick glance my way. “What are you going to do, hop away?”
“If I have to, yes. Come on!”
Sonja stepped to my right side and swung her left arm around me and under my left arm.
“Lean on me.”
“Can you do this, Sonja?”
“Do I have a choice?”
She did. I knew it and she knew it. The logical choice was for her to forget about me and get through the gate in the wall. It was pointless to try and argue.
“Thank you, Sonja.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Wait until we’re both on the other side of that wall. Hold on.”
The first step, as they say, was a doozy. It took me a moment to get the hang of not putting my right foot on the ground. Eventually, I got the hang of it and we were moving along. Unfortunately, our moving along pace was far too slow.
“Sonja,” I spoke through clenched teeth, but was ignored. “Sonja!” Again, I was ignored. “Sonja, we’re not too – ”
“Car!”
Before I could finish my declaration, Sonja shouted and tilted her head toward a driveway. In the center of the driveway was not just any old car, but a Hummer. I couldn’t believe our luck. If there were a zombie-proof car, it would be a Hummer. Even though it was the watered-down version of the real military-grade vehicle, it was still higher than most cars and certainly made of stouter stuff.