“Most people would have let it go and gotten another job,” I pointed out.
“I couldn’t leave it. Not when I knew what they had and what it could do.”
I heard Danny shift in the back seat. A sock covered foot appeared over the back of my seat and I recoiled at the smell.
“Hey!” I cried, shoving it away.
He sat up, his hair sticking up, “What? What is it?” he slurred. “Are we there yet?”
“Almost,” Dr. Kettering said.
Danny hung over the seat, “Good. Cause I really need to take a pi…pee break,” he said, catching himself.
“A few more miles,” he said.
“You seem to know the place well. How much time did you spend there?” I asked.
“About nine months. I was there for the construction and in the first few months of operation.”
“Were they working on the x01 then?”
He shook his head, “No, not then. They had a lot of secret projects that I was never consulted on.”
A short while later, I saw the first signs of civilization. Buildings in the distance. We passed a sign that said: Welcome to Trinity, pop. 1061. A real small town.
I don’t know what I expected of Trinity, but it wasn’t what I saw. It was small town America at its best. We drove through town. I saw a cheery looking diner, a small school and a church amongst other buildings. No armed guards or people in lab coats.
“I don’t get it. Where’s the lab?” I asked.
“It’s about three miles south, underground.”
“Are these the people that work there? Or their families?”
“No, this is just a normal town. They have no idea what Gene Pharm is doing. As far as they know, there is a small research facility outside town that is researching desert flora and fauna.”
“Meanwhile all those experiments are going on under their feet.”
“Weird,” Danny muttered, “it’s like Area 51.”
I shot him an annoyed look. Mostly because I was thinking the same thing.
Dr. Kettering pulled over outside the diner. “Why don’t we get something to eat, use the bathroom? We can’t go near the facility until it gets dark.”
Danny bounded from the car. We followed him inside. The diner had about five people in it. The waitress, a short girl with a pixie haircut and wide blue eyes, approached us.
“Hi, ya’ll. What can I get you?” she smiled at us.
“Where’s your bathroom?” Danny asked, hopping back and forth.
“It’s just down the back,” she pointed the direction. Danny didn’t move.
“We’re from out of town,” he said.
“Yeah, I guessed. I know everyone around here,” she beamed.
“I’m Danny.”
“Lela. Nice to meet you,” she said.
“Didn’t you have to use the bathroom,” I said.
“Oh, yeah. Be right back.” He said it to Lela as he hurried off towards the bathroom.
I rolled my eyes. Did he drool over every girl he came across?
“Could we get some coffee?” I asked Lela.
“Of course, take a seat and I’ll bring it to you.”
Dr. Kettering chose a booth and I sat opposite him.
“What about your boyfriend?” she said. She was fishing.
I shuddered, “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Oh, sorry, brother?”
“No, we’re colleagues. We’re on a field trip with our professor,” I said, pointing to Dr. Kettering. He offered a benign smile, but didn’t say anything.
“Oh, that sounds like fun. Can I get your colleague anything to drink, then?”
“Do you have a juice box for him?” I joked.
“We might have some in the back,” Lela said, not getting my sarcasm.
“Coffee will be fine for him.” She left to get them.
“Are you sure no one from Gene Pharm will come in and recognize us?”
“Highly unlikely. The lab is totally self-sufficient. Coming here means people will ask questions and they don’t like that.”
I glanced over my shoulder to find Danny had returned. He was sitting at the counter talking to Lela. The way she was grinning, I don’t think she minded the attention.
I noticed a few of the patrons looking our way. They probably didn’t get many visitors around here. I didn’t like the scrutiny. This was why I preferred New York. Anonymity. Living in a place like this would drive me nuts.
I finished my coffee and went up to the counter. “Sorry to interrupt,” I said to Lela, “but do you have WIFI here?”
Lela laughed, “No, not around here. You’d be lucky to get a phone signal.”
“Damn,” I muttered.
“Don’t mind her, she can’t go five minutes without going online,” Danny said. He tipped his stool back, trying his best to look cool in front of Lela. I accidently bumped the leg of his stool and he almost tipped right over. Red faced, he dropped back to the floor.
Lela saw our little encounter and headed across the diner to serve someone else.
“We’re trying to stay alive here, not form a love connection.”
Danny scowled, “All the more reason to live life now.”
“If you can tear yourself away for five minutes, we should go over our plan.”
Chapter Eight
Danny
I watched Lela from across the room as the doc told us about the layout of the lab. I was only half listening.
Jack kicked me hard in the shin, “Pay attention.”
“Ow, there’s no need to get violent.”
I turned my attention back to the doc.
“There were several tunnels built as emergency exits in case something went wrong. There are five on the plans, but there are actually six. Not many people know about the other one. I think we can get in through it and then it’s a straight walk to the lab.”
“I see a few potential flaws in your plan,” I said.
He straightened his glasses, “Oh, yes?”
“One, you haven’t been down there in like forever. Two, they could have changed the layout and C, it’s full of heavily armed guards. If we’re caught, we’ll just disappear off the face of the planet and no one will miss us.”
“Speak for yourself,” Jack said.
“My point is, once we go in, how do you know we’re going to get back out.”
“I don’t. But what choice do we have?” the doc said. We had choices, just no good ones.
“Find somewhere to hole up until it blows over?”
“Danny, they found you in a matter of hours. They have eyes everywhere.”
I sighed. I just didn’t want to end up as a lab rat. I was too good looking to be experimented on.
Since we couldn’t stay in the diner all day, as much as I wanted to, we went looking for a room. There was a guesthouse down the road that had a room free. The woman who owned it didn’t question why we were there and seemed happy to have customers.
The room was small, but homely. There were only two single beds in it though.
“So I guess we’re sharing,” I said to Jack.
“In your dreams, besides we’re not sleeping here, we’re waiting for nightfall.”
I switched on the TV and let them work some more on the plan. The TV only had two channels and one of them was full of static. I switched it off.
I couldn’t sit still so I walked around the room.
“Will you sit down,” Jack said.
“I can’t. I’m bored.”
I agreed to go on a coffee run so I had an excuse to go back to the diner. Lela was still on her shift.
“Hi Lela. Remember me?” I grinned at her.
“Sort of. Donny was it? Or Manny?” she giggled to let me know she was kidding. “What can I get you, Danny?”
“Three cups of coffee to go, please.”
“So what is it you guys are working on?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“Your friend, the
redhead, said you guys were on a field trip with your professor?”
“Oh yeah, we’re out here studying rocks.”
“Rocks?” she scrunched up her nose in a cute little way, “That doesn’t sound very exciting.”
“It isn’t. But we get a free trip so I can’t argue. Especially with sights like these,” I said waggling my eyebrows at her.
She laughed, “You’re such a cutie.”
Finally someone who spoke the truth, “Look, we’re doing some, uh, research tonight, but are you busy tomorrow?”
“No, it’s my day off.”
“Great, maybe we could hang out. You could show me around,” I said, expecting her to say no.
“I’d like that.”
By the time I got back to the room, night had fallen and I was on cloud nine.
“Where the hell were you?” Jack snapped.
“Geez, sorry Mom. I got distracted.”
I held the coffee out to her.
“It’s cold,” she said.
“Kind of like you.”
“Let me guess, you were talking to Lela. God, what is she like, fourteen?”
“She’s eighteen actually. And so what if I was talking to her? Are you jealous?”
“Yeah that’s it! Please, you are such a narcissist.”
I opened my mouth with a comeback, but couldn’t think of one. She stormed into the bathroom.
I turned to the doc who was busy looking at blueprints and trying his best to ignore us.
“Can you believe that? What’s a narcissist?”
He rolled up the blueprints, “I think it’s time we made a move.”
“Great, to certain death we go,” I joked. Well, half joked.
The doc packed up his blueprints and a few other things into a backpack. As we left the guesthouse I noticed a woman talking to the owner. Two guests in one day. She was popular.
*
Candace
“I need a room,” I said, hoping the old lady didn’t recognize me. Patrick had picked up the stuff he needed to fix the bus and had headed back out. He said it could take a while and that he would sleep on the bus overnight.
I would have liked a four star hotel to stay in, but I would have to make do with this crumbling relic. Kind of like the woman who owned this place.
The old woman gave me a key after I paid cash. I had been trying my cell phone all day, hoping for a signal but there wasn’t one. How did these people live out here with no cell service? I needed to speak to Marcus.
The room was tiny. Like broom closet tiny. A single bed was wedged into the corner and a small nightstand sat beside it. I spied the phone on top and breathed a sigh of relief. At least now I could call Marcus.
I dialed the number and waited while it rang and rang. Where was he?
Finally, he answered, “Marcus it’s me. Look, things have gone to hell out here. The bus broke down and we probably won’t be back on the road until…”
“Forget that. We’ve had to pull the tour.”
“What!”
“I just got the latest figures in. Your last single entered the charts at No 38. It bombed.”
I gripped the phone, “Okay, well we’ll just work harder. The next song will…”
“Candi…”
“Candace!” I snapped.
He sighed, “Candace, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to step down as your agent. Your last few singles have all been flops. You refuse to sing any of your original music and that’s what people want to hear. It’s nostalgia. If you would perform them then you would get a bigger turn out.”
“I’m not singing those inane songs anymore. They’re trash. And don’t bother stepping down because you are fired.”
I slammed the phone down. That lousy, rotten, lowlife. He didn’t have any problems taking my money. Well, I didn’t need him.
The place didn’t have a mini-bar, but I always kept an emergency bottle of vodka in my bag. I opened it and drank it neat. Picking up my phone, I switched on the video camera.
“Well I have officially reached rock bottom. I’m stuck in hell and they don’t even have a liquor store. My career is over. You hear that Mom? You said I’d never amount to anything without you as my manager and you were right.”
I was sure she was laughing her ass off wherever she was, living off the settlement money.
She was the one who had pushed me to the stage at the young age of four. Beauty pageants to begin with, my talent had of course been singing.
When I won three years in a row, Mom realized what a cash cow she had in me. She got me modeling jobs and eventually a spot on a cable network show singing a Mariah hit. Within a year, I was signed with a label and Mom was my manager. She had someone write my songs for me, even though I insisted I could write my own stuff.
“Now baby, if you want to be successful, you need to let the pros write the music. You just keep smiling and do exactly what I tell you,” she had said.
And I did. I was stupid and naïve and didn’t even know how much money I could make, since Mom was taking most of it for herself. I got an allowance.
Not content with using me to get fame, she even got us our own reality TV show for a season- Candi-d Camera. Imagine being fifteen years old and having cameramen following you everywhere. And I mean everywhere; they didn’t know what privacy was.
I lost it one day and trashed one of their cameras. The show was pulled.
Mom was shameless and claimed she had stopped the show to protect her ‘fragile’ daughter from the spotlight.
It was only after seeing a bank statement she had left lying around, that I finally realized the truth. I took her to court and became an emancipated minor. I hadn’t looked back since.
Sure, Mom sold her story to practically every tabloid in the country about how awful I was and how I had turned my back on her after fame went to my head. The truth was, it went to her head. I never knew anything else.
*
Lance
I joined Breton in the observation room at the lab, to witness the start of the tests on the infected. One of them was released into the room on the other side of the glass.
It was male, around thirty-five with a shaven head. Dark circles ringed his eyes and his cheeks were sunken in. His clothes were torn and I could see a bite mark on the muscle on his upper arm.
Once he was locked in the room, a robotic sounding voice spoke from above my head, “Test one. Begin.”
I glanced up to see a speaker fixed to the wall.
One of our soldiers came into the room at the other end. He raised his gun and fired at the infected. The bullets struck its torso in rapid succession, but it didn’t even flinch. Some fluid leaked from the wounds, but no blood.
The soldier retreated from the room as the infected ran at him.
“Interesting,” Breton mused.
“Sir?” I said.
“It doesn’t seem to feel pain, but reacts with anger when attacked,” he made a note of this in a small jotter.
“Test two,” said the robot.
This time two soldiers entered the room. They formed a tag team and began attacking the zombie with chains. One of them whipped the chain across its face and I saw teeth fly from its mouth. It roared and swiped at them. They were fast and managed to stay out of its grasp.
When they were done, beating the crap out of it, the soldiers left.
The infected didn’t seem to understand why they had suddenly disappeared. It moved around the room searching for them. A chunk of flesh dropped off its cheek and fell with a wet plop to the floor.
My stomach heaved, I closed my eyes briefly. When I opened them, I noticed that Breton looked amused, but then he hadn’t just eaten a tenderloin for lunch. One that was going to come back up soon if this went on any longer. I wouldn’t leave the room though; I would never show that kind of weakness to Breton. Throughout my time working for him, he constantly tested me. Not from an observation room like this, but always watching, gaugi
ng my reactions.
So I forced myself to watch the rest of the tests.
“Test three.”
A net was dropped from above onto the infected. It flailed around trying to get free.
The soldiers came in brandishing cattle prods. They shot thousands of volts through it again and again. After a while, I could smell burnt flesh in the air. When they were done, the infected lay face down on the ground. They removed the net.
Breton stood up and moved to the glass for a better look. Was that how you killed them? Electricity?
Breton leapt back as it got to its feet and began beating the glass. The blows came hard and fast and when the glass cracked I was on my feet and moving towards the door. Breton beat me there.
The glass shattered behind us, as soldiers bombarded the room. They opened fire on it as we escaped into the hall. Apparently electricity didn’t kill them. It just made them really mad.
Breton was jotting notes down as he walked back to his office. He seemed completely absorbed in it and didn’t acknowledge me. I took that as a sign that he didn’t need me.
I slipped down the hall to the bathroom. Once I was locked inside, I bent over the toilet and retched.
Chapter Nine
Jack
“Nobody said there would be this much walking,” Danny moaned.
I resisted the urge to punch him. He had done nothing but complain since we had left. We had left the car at the edge of town and now we were walking across the desert towards the secret entrance. Secret entrance, like we’re in a James Bond movie.
I was freezing cold and my feet hurt too, but I wasn’t bitching about it. It reminded me of one time in Denver, me and my mom had been living there for a while when the cops showed up at the door. She had us out the door in seconds and we had to walk two miles in the snow to the nearest bus station. It wasn’t quite as cold out here, but it was close.
We finally stopped by some rocks. Dr. Kettering knelt down and brushed the sand aside.
“Here it is,” he said. He turned a handle and pulled open a hatch. I could hear the low hum of a generator coming from inside.
After Zombie Series (Book 2): Before Page 6