Plentiful Poison

by Lybeck, Kyle

Caroline counted to three and the two rushed out of the classroom, narrowly dodging a teacher who tried to grab them. In the stairwell, all was eerily quiet, aside from their footsteps descending down to the first floor.

  “Caroline, what’s happening to everyone?”

  “I’m not sure, Ben. Whatever it is, it’s very bad. We have to get out of here and get to mom and dad.

  Slowly opening the door at the bottom of the stairs, Caroline looked out. The mayhem had started to calm, with smaller groups of teachers and students gnawing on others’ bodies that lay on the ground in bloody piles. Across from the door was the school office.

  “Hey Ben, I want us to get across to the office, okay? I need my bag, it has my swords in case we need to fight off anyone.”

  “I’m scared, I want mom.”

  “I know buddy, we’ll get to her. Run with me to the office, okay?”

  Caroline squeezed Ben’s shaking hand and the two bolted for the office, hoping to not draw the attention of anyone.

  Luckily nobody in the hall took notice, and Caroline began to search for her bag. She couldn’t find it behind the front desk, then realized it was most likely in the vice principals office. Ben followed her in.

  “Ah, there it is,” she said, picking up the bag. As she did, Vice Principal Decker rose from behind his desk, face bright red with bits of flesh. Caroline looked at the ground by his feet and saw another pair, their high-heeled tips pointing skyward.

  Opening her bag quickly, Caroline pulled both swords from within.

  “Stay back!”

  Growling, Decker glared at both kids, with what looked like a smirk growing on his face. Lunging at them, Caroline shoved Ben to the right of the doorway. Pulling herself back to the other side of the open doorway, she raised one of the swords and swiftly drew it across the neck of their vice principal.

  Decker fell to the ground outside the office in a heap, his head only halfway hanging onto his neck.

  Grabbing Ben’s hand, Caroline rushed them out of the office and back out to the hallway, looking again to make sure the coast was moderately clear.

  “Front door, let’s go for it.”

  Reaching the double-doors, opening a side to the outside world, each taking in a gasp as they saw what was occurring. A world with a changing landscape, one filled with blood, violence, and hatred.

  Chapter 8

  Ohio Building

  “Melanie, good morning! How are ya?”

  “Great, Will! How’s the morning treating you?

  “Fair to middlin’, as my grandad used to say,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Adam, happy Monday!”

  “You as well, Will! How were the kids over the weekend?”

  “Oh peachy as always. They’re such good kids.”

  Will continued down the hallway to his office, saying hello to everyone in the small company of twenty-two employees.

  He placed his briefcase on the desk, opening it to remove materials he had been musing over on the weekend. Logging into his computer, he looked over at his phone to see the red light blinking, indicating he had messages.

  As the computer started up, Will listened to three messages that had been left over the weekend from two local clients in Casper, and also a potential new client in Gillette. Will had been trying to break into Gillette for a while, this message already making his day.

  Will sat back in his chair, staring at his computer monitor. It was updating with the latest Windows 10 update, so he stood and walked out to the kitchen area to start himself a cup of coffee on the office Keurig. As he was inserting the K-Cup into the machine, the president of the company walked in and wished Will a happy Monday. He retrieved a mug from the cupboard and began steeping himself a cup of green tea.

  “It sure is, Ken! I just listened to a message from over the weekend. A man up in Gillette who owns four car dealerships returned my phone call and would love to work with us for his next marketing campaign.”

  “That’s fantastic! We’ve been trying to get that area for a while now. Have you called him back yet?”

  “Not yet, I just got into the office a few minutes ago. My computer is doing some updates, then I’ll give him a ring back so we can schedule an appointment to meet and go over logistics.”

  “Great news, Will, and it’s not even eight yet.” Ken gave Will a pat on the shoulder.

  “You know what, you’ve been doing a great job lately. I’m going to talk to John and look at getting you a promotion to Advertising Manager. We’ve been looking to fill that position since Sebastian retired a few weeks ago.”

  “I don’t know what to say. Thank you, sir.” Will was taken aback, but managed to shake Ken’s hand with strong confidence.

  “No thanks for me, you earned it.” Ken smiled, picking up his mug and walking back out into the hallway.

  Will stood, looking at his brewed cup of French roast coffee. He couldn’t believe he was going to become the Advertising Manager.

  “Oh man, I can’t wait to tell Abby and the kids,” he said to the empty kitchen. Picking up the mug, he walked over to the fridge, opening it to retrieve the half and half. Once the coffee was the right light brown color he had grown accustomed to, Will walked back to his office. Thankfully the updates were complete and he could start his day.

  Opening the Outlook 2016 calendar, Will picked up the phone and dialed the number back.

  “Gillette Mercedes, Amy speaking, how can I help you today?”

  “Hi Amy, my name is Will. I work for Open Country Marketing down in Casper. I’m returning Vince’s phone call.”

  “Oh, hold on one second, he just walked out of the office.”

  Will could hear the phone being placed down on the desk and a door opening. In the background Amy’s voice calling to Vince. A few moments later she returned.

  “Will, you still there?”

  “Yep!”

  “Okay, I’m going to transfer you over to Vince’s phone.”

  Will waited as the call was put through.

  “Will! This is Vince, thanks for returning my call.”

  “The pleasure is all mine. I can’t wait to potentially work with you on the upcoming marketing campaign.”

  “No potentially about it. Your phone call along with the samples you alluded to on your website that I checked out, have solidified my decision. I would love to work with your company for the whole campaign, all four dealerships.”

  “Well that was easy! Great news, thank you ve-”

  Outside of the building a squeal of tires could be heard, then a crash that vibrated through the floor of Will’s second floor office.

  “Will, are you okay? That sounded like a car crash.”

  “Sorry Vince, I think someone just crashed into our office building. Is it all right if I give you a call back in a few minutes?”

  “Not a problem. Go help out whoever crashed.”

  “Thanks, Vince. We’ll talk shortly,” Will said, hanging up the phone. He stood up from his desk, walking to the hallway where two sets of windows faced out towards the street. His coworkers also gathered around, looking out to see what had happened.

  In the middle of the road a man stood, naked torso covered in what looked to be blood. He was facing the car that had crashed into the corner of the building.

  As a woman emerged from the passenger door, the man sprinted directly for her. Before she could raise her hands in defense, the man had grabbed her and smashed her skull against the edge of the car door. Blood droplets spread into the air as the man pushed his hands into the crack he had made, pulling her cranium in two and opening his access to her brain.

  The woman’s body convulsed on the ground as the man tore chunks of her brain out and began to eat them with his yellowed teeth.

  “Holy shit!” multiple members of the office nearly screamed in unison. They watched as the man chewed, before two finally turned away from the window and vomited into trash cans in the kitchen.

  For those remaining at the
window, they witnessed three other individuals running down the street. Each was covered in blood, their loud growls could be faintly heard through the closed office windows.

  “What in the hell is going on out there?” Ken asked, emerging from his office.

  “A man just ripped a woman’s head open and started eating her brain!” Elliott, their teenage intern exclaimed.

  “Wait, what?” Ken gave him a stern look of confusion.

  “He’s telling the truth, Ken,” Will said, stepping back from the window. “There’s some crazy shit going on outside, I don’t really know how to explain it.”

  “That can’t be right, are you guys sure?”

  “Pretty sure, take a look for yourself.”

  Others parted to make a hole for Ken to squeeze through. Outside, the man was still eating the woman’s brain, while another was chewing on the leg of an older man in the middle of the street. The man began to convulse, releasing his leg from the chewer. The old man then rose from the ground, himself now turned as he took off down the street at a decent pace for his age.

  “Mother of Christ,” Ken almost whispered. “Okay, some of you move into the conference room, the rest of you go barricade the front doors, I’m calling the police.”

  Part of the group ran for the conference room as the others went to close off the front entrance. As they were about to reach the door an immense thump was heard from the other side. Stopping in their tracks, the group held steady as another hit sounded and the door flew open.

  Standing in the doorway was a woman, right arm missing, bloodlust showing in her face, soulless black eyes looking directly at the group. They turned and ran towards the conference room as the woman entered the office.

  Will was the last to reach the conference room and slammed the door behind himself just as the woman caught up. Flinging herself at the door as it was closing shut, Will tripped backwards into his coworkers.

  “Fucking hell,” Adam said. “What happened to her?”

  Everyone stared out the floor-to-ceiling glass panels at the woman, as she was pacing back and forth looking at her caged prey. Then she stopped, huffing and growling at the glass. Looking around her surroundings, the woman saw a metal office chair at a nearby desk.

  As the woman picked the chair up with her remaining arm, the group let out a cry of fear. Hitting the panel, ripples could be seen through the glass. The chair then falling out of her grasp and to the floor, the woman continued to growl.

  A few moments later she tried again, throwing all of her weight behind the swing. This time the chair did its intended job, shattering the middle panel of glass. A smile spread across her face as she rushed into the conference room.

  Picking up a chair as the woman approached, Will pushed her back from the group. Thrashing against the legs of the chair, she tried to reach Will’s arm. Green ooze was escaping from her tear ducts, blood and spittle dripping from her mouth. The immense smell emanating from her grotesque growling mouth could only match that of a decaying deer on the side of a hot summer highway.

  Pushing her back with all his strength, Will reared back with the chair and swung. Smashing into the right side of her face, blood flew into the air and onto numerous company members. The woman collapsed to the ground as Will continued smashing the chair down onto her skull, caving it in.

  The instant the blood touched his coworkers’ skin, it began to bubble much like hydrogen peroxide on an open wound. Will turned to face them as they fell to the ground and furiously convulsed, those not affected standing in shock at the transformation their friends were going through.

  As the newly infected rose from the ground, Will began yelling at everyone to get out of the room. Pushing others ahead of him, he again was the last out, barely getting the door closed to trap the others inside. It was then that he remembered it didn’t matter, the panel didn’t magically fix itself. The infected realized this too at almost the same time and ran to the opening.

  The survivors continued to the front door of the office, leaving their belongings behind. Will had made it to the middle of the group as they pushed through the entrance. Behind him Melanie screamed and as he turned, he saw her being drug back into the office by two former growling and blood covered coworkers.

  Now in the hallway of the office building, the remaining survivors rushed to the back stairwell. Footsteps reverberated against the brick walls as everyone made their way down to the first floor, to the side entrance door that led outside to the employee parking lot. Ken reached the door first, peering outside to see if the coast was clear. No one looked suspicious outside on this side of the building, so he pushed the door open. The group followed out into the bright sunshine, a few running to their cars.

  Reaching into his pocket, Will pulled out his cell phone. He was never without it on his person. Pushing his finger against the fingerprint scanner, his home screen opening to a photo of the family he took a week prior on a trip to a local park. He pressed the contacts icon, watching it pull up the long list. He was about to press on Abby’s name, when Ken screamed from the middle of the parking lot.

  Chapter 9

  Nicolaysen Art Museum

  Walking away from the SUV, Abby pressed the lock button on the key fob and listened to the chime as the alarm set itself. She walked across the increasingly warming blacktop towards the employee entrance of the museum.

  Pressing her key card against the plastic box by the door, the light turned from red to green and the door unlocked. Pushing it open, she entered the back dock area where incoming deliveries were brought to be processed.

  Numerous new deliveries had been brought in overnight. Abby could barely hold back her excitement as to which one contained the new paintings. Walking past the wooden crates painted with ‘Fragile’ and ‘This End Up’, she made her way towards her office.

  “Abby, good morning!”

  “Morning, Constance! How are you?”

  “I’m feeling great. A weekend of rest will do that for a person.” Constance, the president of the museum and boss to Abby, was walking down the hallway towards her.

  “I wish I knew that feeling.”

  “You have a fun-packed weekend?”

  “Oh, just a lot of errands, chores around the house, helping the kids with studying and Caroline with the training for her presentation today. I did actually get some pages read in a book though, which was nice.”

  “At least you forced yourself to have a little downtime,” Constance smirked. She followed Abby into her office, taking a seat in front of her desk. Degrees, family pictures, and news articles were framed and meticulously hung on all walls of the office.

  “We did receive the new paintings over the weekend, right?” Abby asked, sitting behind her desk in the soft leather chair.

  “All but one it looks like. They held it back because a corner of its frame became scratched in the packing process, so they’re going to reframe it before sending it to us.”

  Part of the brightness exited from Abby’s face.

  “It wasn’t the Vermeer, was it?”

  “No, the Klimt.”

  “Phew, I was going to be really sad if it was the Vermeer. That’s fine, we’ll be okay without the Klimt for a while. I know a local art class that has been looking forward to the Vermeer for months ever since I told them we’d be receiving one.”

  “Fantastic! I was worried you would be really upset.”

  Abby logged into her computer, and detached the iPad from its charging dock. Once the iPad had connected with the internal system, she brought up the logging reports for all new materials that managed to find their way to the museum.

  “Should we go see if they’re ready to be brought in?” Constance asked.

  “Yep, I’m ready. Looks like the iPad is all set to go.”

  The two women stood from their chairs, Abby bringing along the tablet and a portable scanner. Constance led the way back down to the dock and the incoming retrieval zone.

  “Hey, Fred. How
was your weekend?” Abby asked.

  “It was great. Won five hundred at the casino!” Fred, the dock manager, did a little dance to their amusement.

  “So which one of these are the new paintings we’ve been waiting on,” Abby asked, pointing to the multiple crates on wheeled carts.

  “These three over here,” Fred pointed to three large crates, each on their own cart.

  Abby made a squeal of excitement as she scanned the bar codes on each of the crates, logging them into the system with the iPad as Constance and Fred were having prior weekend side chatter.

  “Okay Constance, all logged in. Let’s get these back to the clean rooms and check them out. Thanks, Fred!”

  “My pleasure, you two have fun with the new paintings. Don’t forget to bring me back later so I can see them.”

  Abby and Constance each grabbed the handles of a cart and rolled them back down the hallway they’d come from, and towards the clean room where all the new museum pieces were unpacked and inspected.

  After wheeling her cart in, Constance turned back to retrieve the third from the dock. A few minutes later she joined Abby in the closed room. Each finagled their way into white Tyvek coveralls, bringing the hoods up over their heads to hold back their hair. Powder-free nitrile gloves were pulled onto their hands.

  Walking over to the first crate, each holding a crowbar and hammer, they gently slipped it under opposite sides of the lid. Tapping the crowbars under the wood lid, they pushed down and brought the nails up with a squeak. Moving down the lid, each nail was brought up in the same fashion.

  Placing their tools back on the workbench, they picked up the lid and placed it against a wall on the other side of the room. Walking back, they gazed upon the rare and semi-rare paintings held within. They took turns, each gently bringing out a painting and placing them on the workbenches around the room.

  After the six paintings were removed from the first crate, eight more were removed from the second. The anticipation raised higher and higher within Abby as they still had not removed the Vermeer. Upon opening the third crate and moving the lid, Abby looked inside to find the Vermeer. An ear-to-ear smile represented her finding the painting, as she carefully brought it up from the crate and onto the workbench across the room.