by Vic Sandel
The next door led to the serving area that serviced the cafeteria. A quick look confirmed that there was nothing to do there. That left the group of walkers that waited outside the kitchen entrance.
“Waiting for dinner guys?”, Jessie asked as the fifteen V-men waded into the group swinging their blades.
Pushing the fallen out of the way, they entered the kitchen where another six undead were pounding at the cabinet doors, as well as the doors to the freezer and walk-in refrigerator.
Thirty seconds later, all six were terminated and Jessie opened the door to the well-defrosted freezing unit. Again, their senses were overwhelmed by the odor, but at least this time it was only spoiled, and rotting food.
Three steps to the right was the door to the walk-in fridge. He quickly pulled that open as two of his team stood by, machetes at the ready.
At first it seemed that once again there was nothing but spoiled food, but a movement in the furthest corner attracted the men’s attention. They cautiously moved further in. It was dark, but the V-men needed no illumination as their senses were more than fully functional in the dark. There was someone, a woman, in the fridge. She was dirty, bloody, and dressed in tatters, but there was no blood around her mouth. One of the team moved forward, brandishing his blade. He was about to bring it down on the perceived creature when they all heard a soft plea, “no please.”
“ZOMBIES DON’T TALK”, Jessie yelled.
For the first time, a team member produces a flashlight. Needless to say it was more for the benefit of the woman than the team.
She stood,upon seeing her rescuers. A large butcher knife and cleaver dropped to the floor, and she fell to her knees and wept. It was clear that she had been there a while and that she was responsible for the stacked zombies in the cafeteria!
Tina, one of only two female members of the CAG-1 team, came over and helped the woman to her feet. After a few words with her, she turned to Jessie, who had approached, “she'll be alright. She just needs a bit of cleanup and rest.”
“Tell you what, he offered, grab a couple of guys and take her outside where we know it's safe. While you're at it, maybe you can scrounge up some clean water and towels, maybe even a lab coat or something she can put on. After all, this is, or at least was, a hospital”.
As an after-thought, Jessie addressed the woman. “May I ask what your name is?”
A soft, shaky voice answered. “Robyn, my name is Robyn Winters.”
“Nice to meet you Robyn, although I wish it were under better circumstances. Would you happen to know where we can find the research labs?”
“Yes, I do. I was an assistant there. I was a student of microbiology, being mentored by Dr. James Rider. I was helping in his search for a vaccine. He's dead now, just like the others.”
“Do you think you can tell me where it is and maybe where any research notes were kept?”
Her voice became a bit stronger as she began to relax, knowing she was among friends who would see that no harm would come to her. “I can do better than that. I can take you there.”
“No, that's not necessary, you've been through enough.”
“It's okay. You saved my life. The least I can do is help you find what you are looking for so we can get out of here quickly. I would appreciate it if someone could find me something clean to put on though.”
“Your wish is my command Milady”, came a new voice, as one of the men who had been checking closets along the hall entered, holding a crisp set of blue medical scrubs.
“They will do fine,and thank you again,” Robyn says.
“Would you all just excuse me for a moment?”
She ducked back into the fridge for a second, to change with a drop of privacy and maybe to help restore a bit of her dignity.
Moments later, she emerged in the clean scrubs. It was obvious she had used some of the room temperature, bottled water on her face and hair to try to clean up a bit.
As Robyn came out of the cooler, Jessie, Tina, and the others could see that this person, whom they almost killed, was an attractive, long-haired, Asian woman in about her mid-thirties. Jessie quickly made a mental note to get to know her better at some time in the future, forgetting for the moment that she was human and he is a vampire now.
“What's everybody staring at? Let’s go!” She said as she strode out the door.
“You heard the lady.” Jessie said as they formed up in the hall, sending three scouts ahead to take point.
He, Robyn and Tina fell back a bit so they could talk as they moved along, letting others clear the way. Robyn gave Jessie the directions, which he relayed over his headset. It was all pretty much hack and clear. They moved along swiftly.
Al at once Robyn stopped cold. “Oh my God!”
“What? What’s the matter?” Her companions asked.
“My son. He hasn’t heard from me in almost three weeks. He must think I’m dead!”
“Where is he?” Tina asked.
“He’s somewhere underground at Langley. They took a lot of children from local schools and began a program to keep them safe and educated. Parents who are alive and local can visit them weekly. I haven’t missed a week until.....well this!
“I don’t think that’s a big problem, Tina replied. They are monitoring our transmissions. When we’re finished here, the helicopters will drop us off at the base. I’m sure we can arrange for you to see your son even if it isn’t a visitor day.”
“You said you worked with Dr. Rider,” Jessie says, can you tell me how far you had come on developing a vaccine?”
“Not very. The best he was able to do was keep victims from turning for a few extra hours. Then the hospital became overrun, and I ended up living in a dead fridge. I tried to leave a few times, but always ended up fighting for my life and running back to the kitchen.”
“Were you really using the prisoners as test subjects?”
“Only a couple of the more sane ones who realized what could happen to them and asked to be included in the trial. The rest, well you probably put a few down on your way in.”
“Clear!” Came a voice over the headsets and the group descended a flight of stairs into the labs below.
“Most of this floor is made up of laboratories, other than the morgue, which is the last door on the right,” Robyn advised.
Again, Jamie, Robyn and Tina stopped and waited while the team cleared the rooms ahead.
“I would advise you to stay away from the bacterial culture cabinets. Without care during the last weeks anything might have grown in the culture media, unchecked. You might want to send in someone in a Hazmat suit later.”
“Thank you, Robyn, that’s probably good advise”, Jessie offered as he instructed everyone to steer clear.
They walked into the first lab section. Needless to say the floor was slippery with a layer of dried blood, which had been added to by the clearing of the room. Benches were turned over, and valuable equipment was tossed uncaringly about the facility. Most of the computers had been destroyed, but they were collected so that the informational technologists at Langley could see what they could find on the drives.
Going to a dark, back corner Robyn called out. “The backup discs, flash drives and hard copy notes are in here.” She squatted down in front of a medium-sized safe. She began entering the combination.
Her attention was focused completely upon the safe as something grabbed her shoulder. She jumped up, screaming as she recognized who or what had her! “Oh God, Dr. Rider!” Or a caricature of who he was.
Jessie was there in a second, but this time remembering how close he and Robyn had been, he pulled the old gentleman out of the room and stabbed him in the head, rather than performing the standard decapitation.
Meanwhile, Tina and several others were loading the contents of the safe into several large pillow-cases they found in a linen closet along the hallway.
“Okay, we have what we came for, and then some,”Jessie said looking at Robyn. “Team two reports the
upper levels are clear, and Aaron's team cleared the out buildings. Time to go!”
Just a few minutes later they were clearing the front doors and heading back outside.
Amazingly, the outside of the building showed no sign of the carnage that had taken place just minutes ago. The heavy equipment had done its job. The dead were buried and the ground smoothed over. Fresh sod had been put down, and the fallen fences re-positioned. Later, a cleanup crew would sanitize the inside of the building and secure the entrances until the time was right for it to be put back into use.
Two helicopters landed on the new lawn to extract the teams. Mission accomplished,with no casualties. As they left the hospital and sprinted for the idling helicopters, Robyn barely noticed that most of the team members were pulling up the hoods on their sweatshirts, and some were now donning gloves. It was lost in the overall good feelings about the day.
As she sat in that seat, aboard their transportation and heading home, she let herself relax a bit for the first time in almost three weeks.
Chapter 8
Decisions,Decisions,Decisions
Things had come full circle. Once again, Daniel Swenson stood at the head of the conference table in the offices of what had once been his “Fortune Group”. The monitors were alight with the faces of others from all over the world.
The concentration this time brought members of law enforcement, military, clergy, and where possible, psychologists and psychiatrists.
As initially predicted, there was a worldwide problem establishing who was fit to be turned into a vampire. Attendees, and later the members of the committees they had formed, thought that they had been very thorough in seeking any contingency they might run into.
First of all, they had no idea of the sheer numbers of humans that would find the idea of that life attractive. Years of television shows and movies had made the vampires a romantic cult. Heroes of sorts. As predicted, others simply wanted the power or immortality that came with the choice.
Most of these were summarily rejected, labeled as unsuitable for conversion. The truth was that those who might have made the best candidates were experienced military heroes and were killed in the early days of the zombie risings.
As a result, a new group of applicants was coming out of the woodwork in large numbers seeking conversion. Former professional athletes.
While these applicants possessed superior physical skills to begin with, their reasons for wanting the new life were all wrong. Yes, their skills were already far above the average human and to further enhance them with the powers of a vampire would create a super soldier. If they could be controlled!
Their reasons; Professional sports no longer existed but they were sure that as soon as the zombie disease was cured, cities would be rebuilt and one day sporting events would rise again. As vampires, they would be around to help make that that happen and would still be young, no matter how long it took. Who would be able to beat a boxer with the powers of a vampire, or hit a 200 mile per hour fast ball?
To be able to look forward to that future, they were willing to enlist their new skills, if granted, to the fight. Once and for all they would end the world of this pestilence, no matter how long it took. To this end, they would pledge to obey the orders of their mentors and military leaders.
“Should we accept their help now with no concern over the unfairness in sports that may never be played again? Do we establish rules now, to govern the participation of vampires in contact sports at some time a hundred or two hundred years from now? Certainly, our vampire recruits have to know what will be expected of them both now and in the future. It is for you, my learned colleagues, to decide. Or do we reject these able candidates that might just help us to win?” With that Daniel seated himself and waited to hear what the others who had been assembled had to say.
Cardinal McGinty, who had attended the first conference was the first to speak. “I don't think you can paint all athletes with the same brush. Some were team leaders and good examples for others while they played. Others were rowdy troublemakers and basically criminals in uniforms. I agree, these people should have a place in our efforts, but still have to be considered on an individual basis. We need to confer this great power only where we can be sure it won't be abused. As we have tried with the general population, such as it is, we must be as discerning with the athletes.”
Mr. Mbunty, of Africa, speaks up from the TV monitor. “You are right of course, but I have a few Javelin throwers that would be great. Can you imagine a two-hundred yard toss right through a zombie's eye? But boy are they full of themselves.”
“The weirdest question I ran into so far,” came a voice from Japan, “was a Sumo Wrestler wanting to know how many calories blood contained. He needed to know how he was going to keep his competition weight up if he became a vampire.”
That got laughs from all around.
“I say,” A representative from England says. “You chaps have no idea how many applicants we get who just want to live long and healthy enough to become a member of Parliament, or Prime Minister, or for that matter are waiting for the Royal Family to die off and become King or Queen.”
“What of the royals?” Someone else asked. “Are any of them considering conversion to preserve the family heritage?”
“My Lord,” said Cardinal McGinty. “How are we ever to answer all of these questions? And we must. But, who can we in good conscience declare suitable. Once we let it happen, there's no turning back.”
“Amen to that, Father.” Came a round of voices in praise.
“Honestly, If the future King of England wanted conversion, could we refuse? On one hand, he'd be a good candidate. On the other hand, he's a new father. Under our current rules, he cannot be considered. Someone else in the line like Prince Harry, his brother, would be the obvious choice.”
“All well and good, but what about leaders of we don't approve of in areas where they have their own decision making? How would we stop Taliban, Isis, or Hamas leaders from getting the power?”
“Monarchs, dictators, all might be able to grab power forever under the guise of helping to save humanity!”
“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Daniel interrupted the flood of questions, “these are all valid and important points, but we are getting way ahead of ourselves. First we have to save the planet. Then we'll worry about who rules. There is something else. If you think that our forces, no matter how many we raise, will be able to terminate every single zombie on the planet, guess again. They are a stopgap, gentlemen. They are out there buying us enough time to find a scientific way to eradicate them all in one swift motion, without harming either humans or our vampire friends.”
“To that end, I will be sending a team who has been working at Langley, to join a large group of scientists already assembled in Ohio, at Wright Patterson. They will be joined by a couple of the world's most renowned physicists, Mr. James Marco and Mr. Stephan Baldwin, who as it happens to be, are vampires. Together, they have more experience than the rest of the teams combined.”
After they had talked for a while longer, they agree to issue the following statement. “While there can be no guarantee that organized sports may ever again resume before an audience, certain caveats must be recognized. Whether, in a professional or advanced-amateur capacity, as in Olympic competition, humans and vampires must never compete against one another. This is especially true in sports possessing a high degree of physical contact. At such time that organized sports begin again, commissions will be established to govern them, allowing equal but separate treatment of all athletes. This is done in good faith to prevent potential life-threatening injuries.”
Chapter 9
Home and Gone
As Robyn stepped off the helicopter that had just set down at Langley, she immediately heard her name being called, and saw a small boy running towards her.
“Mama”, he called, “I thought you were dead!”
They clutched each other in a tight hug. Neither wanting
to release.
“I was living in a refrigerator for a few weeks, surrounded by people who wanted to eat me. These gentlemen came to my rescue and freed me” She said as she pointed to the rest of the team exiting the aircraft.
“Oh sweet! Vampires, how cool is that?” Dylan said immediately, recognizing the group that had saved his mother.
She heard that her people had been working together with vampires, or V-men, as they called each other, but never thought she might actually meet one. Now she had been saved by fifteen of them. The biggest surprise was not just how professional and efficient they were, but how caring, generous, and considerate they had been to her. She especially enjoyed her time with Jessie. Hard to believe. She meant to seek him out after she cleaned, up to thank him again.
With her arm around her son, she followed their escort to the quarters that had been prepared for them.
For the team that ran the mission, it would be a long night of debriefing and a preliminary review of the lab material they managed to liberate from the hospital. The hope was that Rider had discovered something they could build on. Having found Robyn, his assistant was the cherry on top of the sundae. They would let her rest tonight, but tomorrow would begin some heavy and important questioning.
****
Morning seemed to come all too soon. After a hot shower, the smell of clean hair and a fresh nightshirt, it felt like she had just crawled into the welcoming bed when a gentle knock sounded at the door. Wrapping herself in a thick, terry robe, she opened the door a crack. There at the threshold stood a couple of crisp uniforms that just happened to be stuffed with overly-clean young men.