We snapped up our guns as more corpses leaped out of the pus. Soon we had a throng of undead coming our way. We opened fire, but there were more undead than we had bullets.
LEVEL 25:
THE LAST TIME
We fired at the frenzied corpses, each of which came at us with reckless abandon. I’d seen three versions; hulking giants, skeletal assassins, and good old-fashioned zombies. These were somewhere in the middle. Maybe level threes?
Our gunfire lit up the plane hangar as bullet casings clattered at our feet. The closest corpse skidded, dead. We’d downed several but soon we’d be out of ammo.
On cue, Arik’s gun clicked. “We need to think of something!”
My pistol ran out, so I hurled it at the nearest corpse. It didn’t even flinch; it kept coming. I drew my knife and threw it. I missed by a mile. Dyonna shot my target, and it collapsed. Outside, the giant maggot deposited more of the undead. A corpse rushed me, and I threw up my arms to block, but Dyonna killed that one too. The first wave ended, but no sooner did the second wave stand from the pus piles.
Dyonna glanced sidelong. “We need a plan!”
I looked over my shoulder and spotted a long iron pipe on the ground. I darted for the weapon, scrambled and hurled it. “Arik, think fast!”
He snatched it out of midair. A corpse ran straight past Dyonna and came at me. I furrowed my brow and stepped back, waiting for the inevitable attack.
With a loud bang, the door we’d entered through exploded off its hinges, and through it stepped a Lonely One with shredded clothing and multiple wounds.
I waved and jumped. “Holy shit, Mog, help!”
The Lonely saw me in big trouble. In the blink of an eye, he stood before the corpse, holding it in midair. He slammed the undead to the ground, splattering its fleshy, newborn head.
“Are you ever not in trouble?” He had a serenity in his voice.
I smirked. “I’ve handled myself.”
“This isn’t one of those times.”
Arik and Dyonna backed up, both wielding metal pipes.
“One of them?” Dyonna narrowed her eyes.
“A Lonely freak!” Arik swung at an oncoming corpse, cracking its skull. “Didn’t we meet him already?”
“Dunno, all them scumbags look alike!” Dyonna swung and smacked another corpse’s face.
The small army of undead came, but Mog rushed into their midst, moving so fast it was hard to follow. He swung his forearm and knocked one right off its feet; spin kicked another so hard it flew into the wall, then stomped on the head of the prone corpse. Try as they might, not a single one made it past the badass Lonely.
Arik’s jaw dropped. “He’s buying us time. Why he is on our side?”
“Yeah, why?” Dyonna turned.
I watched Mog go to work, killing the corpses with ease; arms ripped off here, a head there. “I’ll explain later, but yes, he’s with us!”
Even with Mog’s help, we needed to take out that jumbo maggot. I spun, looking for a way. The cargo plane in the center stood out. It had a huge propeller in front. The cogs in my head turned.
“The plane!” I burst into a sprint.
Dyonna called after me. “Wait for us!”
I made it to the ladder beside the plane, but a corpse came from nowhere and tackled me. It snapped its jaws and lunged for my throat. I thrust my hand up and caught its jaw. Bloody drool and saliva splattered my face. I shut my eyes and held it but inches away
With a rush of air, it vanished. Mog stood above me, glaring. “Be careful.”
I nodded as Dyonna helped me to my feet. Arik ushered me onto the ladder. “Hurry! Your friend’s outnumbered!”
I glanced back as I climbed. Over two dozen corpses emerged from the piles, and there was still several running on the floor.
With a silent curse, I pulled myself up to the top rung and grabbed the door, swinging it open. Once inside, I jumped into the pilot’s seat.
I stared at the controls with widened eyes. There were too many switches and buttons. Video games were much different. Dyonna and Arik made it into the cockpit.
Dyonna looked frazzled. “So much for video games. I understand none of this!”
Arik rushed forward and flipped switches.
I swatted at him. “What’re you doing! You’re gonna blow us to pieces!”
“I doubt there’s a self-destruct button!” Arik hit another switch
Dyonna stood by the doorway. “We need to figure out something! That Lonely One can’t hold them forever!”
A corpse leaped over Mog and landed on the plane’s nose. I yelped, but Mog appeared and ripped its head from its shoulders. He looked inside with annoyed eyes.
I turned back to the controls. The gauges and panels were foreign, but everything was working. Still, we didn’t move. Lights flashed, and beeps came from various contraptions, but one caught my eye. The fuel gauge read empty.
“Arik, did you fly this plane last?”
“What? No!”
“We have an oops!” I stood and stared at him.
“Are you serious? We’re out of fuel? Of all the damn luck!”
I rushed to the open door. A huge hose stuck out of the ground near the rear. Plan formed! “You two stay here. I’ll connect the fuel line and get us going.”
Arik walked for the door. “No! It’s my turn to put my life on the line.”
I dropped my shoulders. “You know how this ends.”
“I know... I won’t be coming back.”
“Don’t be a damned hero, boyo!” Dyonna grabbed his arm, holding tight.
From below, Mog cried out. Six undead grabbed him. Corpses ignored Lonely Ones, but he’d killed so many they’d noticed.
He pulled free. “I’m going. Alone!”
“Screw this!” Dyonna blasted Arik’s jaw.
He twisted and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
“Dyonna!” I put my face in my palms.
“Don’t worry. I’m the one going.”
“Wait—” I tried, but she cut me short.
“Don’t argue with me, girlo! This is the way it must be.” She grabbed the ladder, climbing out.
“Please—”
“Shut the hell up, dammit! You ain’t making this any easier, ya know!” With that she disappeared.
If Dyonna died, then we’d reduce in number again, and I’d have another death on me.
Something in my mind snapped. I saw Zach in Wesley’s coat and fedora. Jeff wore strange armor; Dave stood before a huge machine attaching cords to a severed head, and Jessie’s skin was gray, hair white.
“Tiffa.” Zach looked back, shaking his head.
“What?” I saw the pain his green eyes. They used to be blue.
“When someone dies, when something unfortunate happens. Remember, it’s not your fault. You can’t go blaming yourself for every death. Accept it and move on with life.”
I wanted to tell him no, but he put a finger to my lips. Overwhelming sadness came over me. I looked around at the rest of the Gamers’ Guild, and they too looked sad.
“Tiffa.” Zach brought my face back to his. “Let them go.”
I turned to find the Guild vanished. Zach and I were alone on the roof. Corpses pulled themselves over the edges, and in my hand, I held a sword. The building shook, and I fought to keep my balance.
“Mom?” A hand grabbed my own.
A boy ten years of age stood beside me. He wore medium-length, dirty blonde hair, Zach’s eyes, with my nose and lips.
“Mom! She’s here!” He put his finger under my chin and tilted my head. Someone stood behind him, the same height. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew her to be my daughter, the Silver Star.
A low growl escaped her lips. She didn’t look with disapproval, annoyance, or even just anger. Her look appeared as that of utter hatred. “This bitch of a mother deserves to die! Chrono, kill her now!”
Chrono shook his head hard. “No, Silver!”
Silver approa
ched and pushed the boy to the side. She lunged for Zach, and then they were both gone.
Chrono, my son, held up his hands and a shield of energy formed around us. “We’ll die, won’t we?”
Millions of corpses were coming at us from every angle. I grimaced and waited for the end.
My eyes fluttered open, and I stood back in the cockpit of the cargo plane. Arik sat, slumped against the wall and Dyonna had vanished. I remembered her suicide mission, but before I could make it to the window, Mog leaped and landed in the doorway. He bled green from a bite and claw marks.
“Why isn’t the aircraft moving yet?” Mog glared at me.
He snapped his fist into a corpse that leaped behind him. It flew away as if weightless. Mog pulled the door closed.
I tried to get past him, but he blocked me. “No! We can’t! Dyonna is still down there!”
Mog looked at me with no emotion. “We’re refueling.”
“Where is she?”
“I do not know.”
I fought tears. “Can you get the plane moving?”
“I can fly a plane, yes.” Mog walked to the pilot’s seat. “We should have enough fuel now. Ten minutes have passed. I’ll get things ready to go.”
Ten minutes? I’d been hallucinating for ten minutes?
As I ran for the cargo hold of the plane, the plane’s engines hummed to life.
I rushed past a huge crate, and found the ramp lever, which I pulled. The cargo door groaned and lowered. I watched out the back as the plane rolled forward. The propellers struck the maggot, I assumed as a sickening sloshing sound came from the front.
A moment later we rolled forward again, but I saw Dyonna. She still stood inside swinging around a pipe, knocking back the attacking corpses.
“Dyonna!” I reached, but it was futile.
She threw the pipe and bolted past the pile of maggot guts. On her heels, more than a dozen corpses were in pursuit. Dyonna tucked in her arms and leaned forward, running as fast as she could, but the undead were too fast, they’d be on her in seconds.
I couldn’t watch my companion die. Zach’s words came to mind. He didn’t want me to blame myself. I fought the sadness and opened my eyes. Dyonna’d vanished.
“No...”
Another engine roared, and from off in a grassy field, a truck bounced onto the runway. I stared with huge eyes and watched the vehicle give chase. “Dyonna! Holy shit, come on, hurry!”
The truck picked up speed but so did we. My eyes darted, looking for something climbable. I spotted a hose wound up on the wall. We were lifting off as I threw it over the edge.
After a few seconds, it went taut, and I waited with any hope I could muster. After several seconds ticked by it hit me hard in the chest. Dyonna hadn’t made it. I held in tears as I reached to hit the door switch.
“Yo, girlo, help me!”
I dashed to the edge and found her hanging from the edge of the ramp. “Hold on, Dyonna!”
“The hell do you think I’m doin’?”
I crawled on my belly and grabbed her hand, pulling her into the plane. She scrambled past me, falling onto her back, heaving.
“Never again!” She squirmed away from the opening. “Never again will I do crazy shit like that!”
I snorted with tears forming in my eyes. She’d made it and I didn’t understand how. I helped her into a sitting position. “Never again?”
“Hell no. That was the last time.”
I threw my arms around the ebon-skinned, badass. She hugged me back; relief was in my heart.
LEVEL 26:
DRAGOON
She reached up and smacked him again. Arik spun in his seat. “Why the hell do you keep hitting me?”
Dyonna snickered as she checked one of the M16s we’d found. “Cuz you would have got yourself killed, idiot!”
Arik sat in the copilot’s seat, rubbing the back of his head. “I didn’t know you were so serious about going.”
“You woulda argued and taken too long.” She shrugged. “What’s it matter anyway? We got away, ya?”
“I’m just glad we all made it.” After those words, I chomped on my tongue.
Arik turned and frowning. Charles died. Kiki died. I was a bitch.
Mog spoke for the first time since liftoff, “Going after this group is brash. Brother and Sister are too dangerous.”
I rolled my eyes. “What did you expect us to do?”
“Wait for Zach, and Devil Code.” His voice threaded with annoyance.
I stretched, then poked Mog in the back. “Zach’s group had to take care of the survivors!”
“You must not put yourself in danger.”
I let myself fall back into a side seat and exhaled. In my vision; the child Silver Star pushed me off a building. How to let him know the truth? And what did it matter? I’d never carry a baby, if it were even possible. But I wanted to have a daughter and name her Silver just to prove the Lonely Ones wrong.
Arik faced Mog. “So how did you get to us?”
Mog stared ahead, unblinking. “I infiltrated the base behind Devil Code. They fought the undead both human and beast. I ran behind them. When they came to the train car of survivors, I overheard one saying a teenage girl saved them. Mother of the—”
“Please just call me Tiffany.” My turn came to thread words with annoyance.
Mog sighed. “Fine, it had to be Tiffany.”
“Wait, you ran?” Arik was incredulous. “That was a helluva long tunnel.”
“You’ve seen how fast he is!” I tilted my head back and yawned.
“Nope”
“Didn’t a Lonely One carry you through caves?”
“He fainted.” Mog threw him under the bus.
Arik set his jaw. “I didn’t faint, I was just tired and fell asleep with relief.”
“Ha! Sounds like you!” I slapped my knee, in stitches.
He turned to look out the window. “Meh.”
I stood and walked behind Mog’s chair, putting a hand on either side. “How long until we get there?”
Mog glanced at me. “Los Angeles. It’ll be a few more hours... I still don’t think it’s wise to follow them.”
“If we don’t, this won’t end.”
“I do not wish to contend with variables of what may or may not happen. Regardless, their plane is giving off a signal. I’m able to track it. It’s best you get your rest. All of you. Who knows what manner of undead we shall face upon arrival.”
“The way I see it.” Dyonna looked through her gun’s scope. “We chase them wherever they go. Then we shoot, ya?”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’d prefer something more violent, but if they die, it’s good enough for me. And a few Zs sounds good.”
I walked into a small supply room. On the bottom shelf were med kits, blankets, and pillows. I grabbed a few, bringing Dyonna and Arik one each.
I found myself a corner and rested on top of the blanket. Outside, the sun was setting. Even though I tried to rest, knowing a corpse couldn’t get me so high up, I had trouble falling asleep. I tossed and turned. Plus, the blankets smelled stale. Later, I sat straight and found Mog was in the dark cockpit, alone. The others were asleep nearby.
“You can’t sleep?” he broke the silence.
I walked across the freezing floor and sat next to him. “No...”
“Why is that?”
I pulled my knees to my chest, curling my toes. “There’s too much on my mind. Too much that’s happened. Still, months after the ZPoc, I still have a hard time believing it.”
“Why is that?”
“They said it could never take place.”
“Why is that?” He sounded akin to a machine.
I looked out into the clouds. Everything looked so peaceful from above the land of undead. “I don’t know. Because the Pentagon planned for the ZPoc.”
“Their plan didn’t work well, did it? Now we’ve all paid for their error.”
“To think I always said I’d be so excited
to hunt zombies.”
“You aren’t having as much fun as you hoped?” Mog didn’t even crack a grin.
“Not in the slightest.” I looked at my feet. My toenails were long. Clippers were a luxury I didn’t have. “Every day is hell now! Corpses eat people, zombeasts eat people, people eat people! How many died because of those assholes?”
“Seven billion, give or take a million, depending on the survivor camps.”
“If it spread worldwide...”
“It did.” Mog nodded. “The world fell in days.”
My blood froze over, hearing his estimate and that the virus had reached every corner of the earth. I needed to change the topic.
“How many Lonely Ones are there?”
“Thousands... After failing at a cure, they made us into weapons. They couldn’t control something so intelligent, so they abandoned us around Texas.
“This all stems back to Texas...”
He ignored me and continued. “They tried their hardest to make sure the virus was permanent. Those given the cure become Lonely Ones. No matter what. Although there was a rumor once of an Alpha Virus, an effective anti-virus. I believe it’s just a fantasy for those who need hope.”
I exhaled. “Our world will never be the same.”
“The Silver Star will fix the world.” Mog smiled. “You will mate with Zach.”
I craved to mention Zach was only mating with Jessie. No Silver Star for them! I even wanted to tell him his Star might be a murderous little devil.
“Mog, what if she doesn’t restore the world?”
“We’ve read the Guide.” He sounded so sure.
“What is this Guide you keep mentioning?”
Mog turned and stared into my soul as if reading me. “The Guide is the Omega Virus. The nanites that comprise the virus can project information across time.”
I furrowed my brow. “How is that possible?”
“The one behind the virus is a pure genius. Even the Guide will not tell us who created it.”
Behind us Arik mumbled Charles’ name, causing my heart to crack.
Omega Virus (Book 2): Gamma Hour Page 17