The Savior

by Damon Hunter

  He was turning to go that way when he spotted something over by the corner, where the west facing wall ended and the north facing wall began. It took a second to register what it was, almost seemed like the ground over there was moving. He realized something was digging its way under the wall.

  He had never heard of rotters digging, but he was just a grunt who had never actually seen any of the brain dead and drooling up close and in the flesh. All his information was second hand at best, so for this reason he drew his sidearm as he approached the growing hole.

  He peered down to see a Pug, digging furiously. He never knew pugs were diggers, but he was more a big dog kind of guy so he didn’t know anything about pugs. While it was possible there were digger rotters he had never heard of, Stickley was sure dogs did not catch the rot. He leaned down as the pug poked its flat face through the hole.

  Stickly figured he lost his owners to the rot. The dog was probably lonely and hungry. He wasn’t sure how the TMRT felt about letting dogs out of the quarantine, they probably did not allow it, but he did not see any harm in helping the dog.

  He leaned down to see if the Pug had a collar. It was then he noticed the dog seemed to have a boil like the victims of the rot did growing by his nose. The tongue hanging out of its mouth was a weird blue color too. If he did not know better he would have said the Pug caught a case of the rot. He was thinking he ought to go tell somebody when the pug pushed through the hole and clamped its jaws on Stickley’s forearm.

  He yanked his arm away but the dog held on. Stickly stood up and the Pug stayed attached, it short legs dangling in the air as it gnawed on Stickley’s arm. The pistol was still in Stickley’s other hand, he smacked the Pug on top of its head with it. He flipped over the weapon, grabbing it by the barrel so he could hammer on the beast’s skull with the handle. It took four hard swings but the dog let him go and fell to the dirt.

  Stickly looked at his arm and knew something was wrong with this dog. The bite mark showed two distinct rows and teeth marks. Stickly looked down to see the pug rolling over and getting back on its feet in a daze. Stickly flipped the gun so his finger was back on the trigger and put a bullet in the Pugs now flat face.

  With the dog dead Stickly started to run back to the garage. He felt weird, and even though he knew it was not supposed to be possible he worried the dog had given him the rot. He saw Harris leaving, getting in the Humvee he used to haul the major with no name around the camp.

  “Hey,” he called, but Harris ignored him.

  One of the privates without a name stepped out of the garage and asked Stickley, “Did I hear a gunshot?”

  Stickley was about to tell him about the dog when he felt something growing on his face at an alarming rate.

  Chapter 10 - The TMRT Southwestern Checkpoint Medical Wing - Escondido, CA

  Dr. Sturgis watched Dr. Talbot come into the clinic and rifle through the supply cabinet without acknowledging him or the assistant on duty, Nurse Tompkins. Talbot found what he was looking for and went back to his lab on the other side of the building without a word. Sturgis looked at his watch, it was just about four in the morning. He wasn’t sure if Dr. Talbot was getting an early start or working a really long day.

  “I’m not sure if I admire his single minded dedication or if I think he is a total dick,” Nurse Tompkins said after Dr. Talbot left.

  “Dedicated or not, in my experience around him I would say he is a total dick.”

  “What if he finds a cure?”

  “Then he will be the total dick who saved mankind.”

  “I guess, but he didn’t even take a day off after getting out of the QZ.”

  “True, I would have gone for a beer and a few Carne Asada tacos first. Maybe get a hotel and sleep in a something other than a cot. Then again that may be why he is doing the research to save the world and I’m sitting here doing overnight duty, giving out bandaids and aspirin to the grunts working the perimeter.”

  “Speaking of bandaids and aspirin it looks like we have a customer,” Nurse Tomkins said as Smithers came through the door.

  “What can I do for you soldier?” Dr. Sturgis asked.

  Smithers held up his bleeding hand and said, “A dog bit me.”

  Nurse Tompkins was closer so she stepped up to look at the hand, Sturgis let her, figuring the experienced battlefield medic could handle a dog bite “A dog you say?”

  “Yeah, it was making a ruckus over by the tent city.”

  “Is he still around?”

  “Ran off.”

  Nurse Tompkins made a face, “Which side of the fence?”

  “Quarantine side.”

  “That’s not good,” she said as she grabbed some cotton balls and soaked them quickly in peroxide.

  “Why is that?”

  “If we can’t find the dog and test him we will have to give you the rabies shot,” she said as she took his hand again and said, “This may sting a bit,” before she began to clean the wound on Smithers hand.

  “Nurse Tompkins,” Dr. Sturgis said.

  “Just a second Dr.,” she said.

  “Nurse Tompkins look,” Dr, Sturgis shouted.

  She turned from the hand to see a wide eyed Dr. Sturgis pointing at the soldier with the dog bite.

  She looked where Dr. Sturgis was pointing and saw the large boil growing like it was a balloon someone was blowing up on her patient’s forehead. The sore burst open and sprayed her with green pus. Nurse Tompkins tried to move away but the infected soldier turned his wounded hand so he was holding on to her instead of the other way around.

  Smithers pulled her forward and bit down hard on her arm.

  Sturgis was transfixed by the scene for a few moments before he realized if he just stood there watching the infected soldier would get him next. He went for his desk knowing he had a standard issue TMRT sidearm in the bottom drawer.

  He glanced back as reached the desk, the infected man had tossed Nurse Tompkins aside and was headed for him. The amblers were supposed to be slow moving, but soldiers had told stories about them having bursts of speed when a potential victim was nearby. Dr. Sturgis saw first hand there was absolutely some truth in these stories. The soldier turned ambler was almost on top of him.

  Instead of going for the gun Dr. Sturgis grabbed his chair and swung it at the ambler’s head. The blow stunned it and he pushed it away. The infected soldier’s feet tangled and he fell on his backside. Having given himself some space Dr. Sturgis went back to the desk. He took another peek back as he pulled opened the bottom drawer and saw the soldier was already back to his feet.

  Dr. Sturgis drew the gun and chambered a round as the infected soldier grabbed him by the shoulder. He turned to see the open mouth coming in to chomp on him. Dr. Sturgis raised the gun and put a bullet into the oncoming open mouth. This was probably enough, but he put another round in the infected man’s forehead just to be sure. The grip on his shoulder loosened and the ambler slumped dead to the floor.

  Sturgis looked up to see Dr. Talbot standing there staring at him.

  “He was infected,” Dr. Sturgis said, thinking Dr. Talbot might be thinking he just murdered a man.

  “How?” Talbot asked.

  “The usual way I guess.”

  “I meant who bit him?”

  “No one.”

  “Someone had too.”

  “Not someone, something. He said a dog bit him.”

  “Unless he was lying to you he would be the first one I’ve ever heard of.”

  “He definitely said a dog.”

  “He bite anyone else?”

  “My assistant Nurse Tompkins,” Dr. Sturgis said pointing to the area where Tompkins had been after suffering a bite. She wasn’t there.

  “Did she get out?” Talbot asked.

  “I don’t know. I was busy keeping this asshole off of me.”

  “Is there somewhere in here she might be hiding?”

  “No,” Sturgis said as he looked and saw the door was still open. There w
as no question Nurse Tomkins had left the building.

  “Sound the alarm immediately and let it be know we have a level five crisis on our hands.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Secure my samples, I worked too hard and too long on them to lose them like this.”

  Sturgis was already picking up the phone on his desk and hitting the right buttons to get word to the guards in the towers and those walking the perimeter.

  Soon the camp public address system was saying , “This is a level five crisis. This is not a drill. Lockdown is effective immediately. I repeat this is not a drill. All personnel are to insitute the level five protocols post haste. Please do not panic but I repeat, this is not a drill.”

  Sturgis put down the phone and went to the door to the clinic. The first item on the level five protocol was to lock the door. The clinic door was not even closed, let alone locked.

  Dr. Sturgis went there and grabbed the handle. He started to pull the door shut but it resisted. He gave it a good hard yank and it did not budge.

  He heard something on the other side of the door say, “Sturgis, come to me my darling.”

  He knew the infected did not speak. With this in mind he almost did as the soft, but liquid like, female voice told him. Something about it creeped him out though and protocol was to lock everything down. He tried to pull the door shut again, thinking there was something about the voice which didn’t really sound human at all.

  Instead of getting the door closed something on the other side of the door pulled back and Sturgis found himself outside. It was dark, but in the low light provided mostly by the moon he saw Nurse Tompkins open her mouth to show it had doubled, or maybe tripled in size. Her previously white perfectly straight teeth had become two rows of crooked, yellow, jagged little fangs.

  “Sturgis come to me,” the vampire rotter Nurse Tompkins hoarsely whispered to him.

  He did the opposite, turning to run away but vampire rotter Nurse Tompkins was much faster than he was. She was on his back and sinking her new set of wicked teeth into him before he had made it even just two steps.

  She left him alive, rolling on the ground holding the wound on his shoulder. She moved to the door of Dr. Talbot’s lab, although Talbot had followed the protocol and locked himself in.

  Vampire rotter Nurse Tomkins said “Talbot, come to me,” before she started ramming her shoulder over and over again into the locked door.

  While she was throwing her body against Talbot’s door the brain dead and drooling Dr. Sturgis rose to his feet and walked toward the tent city looking for people more people to feast on.

  Dr. Talbot gathered the sample he had been working on, along with his laptop and any notes he had taken. He had been thinking about the tests he wanted to run almost non-stop since the Eric Vance problem was solved.

  In his head he could see a way. He felt he had learned something about the rot, using what he thought he knew the formula for a vaccine formed in his head. The ability to visualize such things was what made him the top leader in his field in the world. He was not always right, in fact his visualizations were never completely right on the mark. It did give him a head start though considering he had a place to go, which was half the battle. Once he had a direction it was matter of trial and error.

  The initial test results were better than he hoped. He felt he had isolated what made one man immune and another turn. He was still a ways from reaching the scientific standard of proof, but in his experience that was just a formality. He knew he had it. Weaponizing this information and using it to combat the rot was still a ways off, but Talbot believed he was close to taking the first steps. The things they had to do in the QZ would be justified.

  Unless, he became a victim of the rot himself. Which was looking like a very real possibility as the vampire rotter nurse continued to throw herself against the door. The lab was supposed to be secure, but the checkpoint had been hastily built. No one had anticipated Oceanside falling to the rot so quickly. There was no doubt that shortcuts were made. The way the door was beginnign to bow to the assault made Dr. Talbot think the security of his lab was one of those shortcuts.

  He got on the inter-checkpoint phone. He need to get himself and his work out of there but no one answered. Talbot feared the rot had spread faster than the checkpoint was prepared to deal with. It was a common mistake, one which had cost them almost all of California. Talbot hoped someone might have learned from the previous disasters but the silence on the other end of the line told him otherwise.

  He put down the phone and picked up the two way radio he had brought into the lab just in case something like this might happen.

  “I need immediate evac. I repeat this Dr. Talbot at the clinic, I need immediate evac.”

  A voice came over the line, “You are going to need to hold your position we have other priorities at the moment.”

  “There is no higher priority, I need an evac now. I believe I had discovered the cure.”

  No one answered. The line was still open and Talbot did not like the sounds he was hearing over the radio. It sounded a lot like a vampire rotters call. He was not sure if growing boils and popping sores made a sound loud enough for him to hear on the two way, but what he heard fit the bill to be just that.

  His calls over the next standard frequency went unanswered. Seeing the door begin to crack Talbot found the sidearm every room in the checkpoint area was required to have. Talbot chambered a round and waited. While he was waiting with a gun in his hand Talbot turned the two-way to a frequency that should not be in use anymore and gave it a try just for something to do.

  Chapter 11- The TMRT Southeastern Checkpoint Tent City

  Novak knew he had to sober up fast as he heard the alert. Level five was about as bad as it could get. Actually it was as bad as it could get, there was a level six, but fact was if things reached that point there would probably be no one around without a case of the rot to get on the P.A. and let everybody know about it. He was still dressed, having passed out on the bed about a third of the way through the bottle of tequila he had secured. He did not have on his full gear however and if the rot were spreading through the checkpoint having some protective gear would be super helpful.

  Although there were disadvantages being a bit sloshed in an emergency combat situation, Novak was glad he had some booze in him as he began to mentally prepare for what was about to happen in the camp. His guns, body armor, and sick slaying stick were still sitting on his floor instead of in a storage locker somewhere. Thank goodness he had fallen asleep before putting it away the night before he thought to himself.

  Novak geared up, even grabbing the two way radio set to a frequency only members of Dr. Talbot’s crew used.

  Protocol was everyone inside something was to stay put and let the guards in rotation patrolling the perimeter handle things. Novak knew his tent would not be locked down. A vampire rotter could tear through the canvas without any problems and he also knew the possibility that the current patrols had suffered infections was high. He decided to ignore protocol and at least recon the immediate area around his tent.

  He was about to step out when the Major without a Name stepped in.

  “That’s a good way to get shot,” Novak told him.

  “In my experience all the ways to get shot are bad,” the Major without a Name said.

  “What do you want?”

  “I was going to give you until dawn, maybe even an hour or so later to get started on our mission. With this alert the timetable has moved up to right now.”

  “You want to run out during a level five?”

  “I want to make sure I accomplish my mission. If that means we leave camp a few hours early, we leave camp a few hours early. I don’t need to get bogged down here fighting some horde and fail to accomplish my mission because I am turned into a brain dead rotter. You should feel the same way.”

  “Your mission is more important than a QZ checkpoint being overrun?”

 
“Without question.”

  “I’m not sure you understand the ramifications…”

  The Major without a name held up his hand and said, “I understand them better than most. Worst comes to worst there is a desert between the infected here in California and the rest of the country.”

  “There was an ocean between here and China it found a way across that.”

  “I don’t have time to argue. Like I told you my mission takes precedence over everything. Do you understand?”

  “I might if you told me what we are doing?”

  “I can give you the details when we are driving out.”

  “This seems like the kind of thing I’d prefer to be briefed on before I start the mission, rather than being left in the dark.”

  “Join the club. Though as dumb as briefing you on the way may or may not be it still beats having a meeting somewhere while the world around us is coming to an end. Frankly, Novak, we do not have anytime to debate this right now.”

  Novak nodded and motioned for the nameless major to lead the way, asking “Can you atleast tell us where we are going?” as he grabbed his rifle and sick slaying stick.

  “First we are going to take a ride in my car to the motor pool where a locomotive transport is fueled up and waiting for us,” the major said as he left the tent.

  There was a Humvee waiting for them. The engine was running and the driver’s door was open, but there was no driver.

  “How far away does a man have to go to smoke a cigarette?” The Major without a Name asked before moving to the front of the vehicle and yelling “Harris get your ass back here.”

  Novak saw the figure rise on the roof of the Humvee. It crouched in preparation to pounce on the nameless major. Novak raised his rifle and fired as it leaped, blowing off the top of its head as its feet and hands left the Humvee. The infected soldier landed at the nameless major’s feet.