by A. Giacomi
I stop Mort from laying another hand on him. “He’s not,” I say flatly and start packing up my things. “I’m going.”
Frankie attempts to play mediator, “Cameron, don’t listen to Mort, you’ll be safer here. It’s just…the whole incident is still fresh, you know? It’s safer if we all stick together.”
I shake my head. “It’s not safer anywhere, Frankie. Not in town, not out here, and definitely not where I just came from. I think it’s pretty clear we’re all fucked, but if you want me to go, I’ll go,” I say looking at Mort.
Before I can move another muscle a small hand grasps mine. When I glance down I find Carol smiling up at me. She must have been about six or seven. “Don’t go,” she says sweetly. “You can be our family now.”
My lip quivers when she counts me as family. I had never fully known that word growing up. I wanted a family. I had often dreamt of Eve and me settling down and having a few kids. When I look down at Carol I see a bit of Eve’s spark there. Perhaps we would have had a daughter just like her.
I crouch down to her level. “Okay I’ll stay, but you have to promise me you’ll let me know when I start getting annoying.”
She nods with a giggle.
We spend the rest of the evening eating in silence. It was easier to swallow when you didn’t have a full plate of grief to go alongside it.
***
The next morning I wake to screams.
Alice is running around frantically with her hands clawing at her hair.
“Oh god, it’s happening again!” she shrieks.
I race to her side. “Alice where’s Carol?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know, I don’t know. I can’t find her. Frankie and the others went looking for her.” She’s trembling from the shock of it all. I find her a place to sit and assure her that I would find the others as well as Carol.
I race off into the trees with a hunting knife, listening for any movement as I went along. There was a rustling to my left and I go to follow it. A zombie bursts out of the nearby bushes and takes me down. His eyes gleam that fiery red and his skin seemed to be sticky because every time he touched me I swore some of his flesh would peel away. I roll him onto his back and then continue to roll away from him until I had room to rise to my feet. He races toward me and I ready my knife. Before he can grab me again, I plunge the large knife through his eye and into his skull. He flops to the ground like a ragdoll.
While I try to catch my breath, I hear a man screaming up ahead. Rest would have to wait. I rush through the maze of trees, they all blur together forming green walls.
When I reach the clearing I find that I am too late. Mort lays there screaming and trying to stop the zombie from pulling out his intestines. I am frozen in disgust as I watch the zombie dig into this man as if he were a bowl of delicious ice cream. When I see the long ropes of Mort’s innards enter the zombie’s mouth, I lose my lunch and expel everything I had into the grass beside me.
Before I can wipe my mouth, there is a hand on my shoulder. I grab it and twist it, ready to break it off, but it is only Frankie and I loosen my grip.
“I’m sorry,” I say panting. “I got here too late. It got Mort.”
When Frankie views the carnage he loses his mind and begins firing his gun at the zombie numerous times. The first two shots had been enough to kill it, but Frankie was trying to get his anger out. He had lost a dear friend and I wasn’t about to stand in the way of his revenge.
Once Frankie was done firing I decide to approach him. The zombie now resembled a colander.
“Frankie man, we need to keep moving, your daughter is still out here,” I say calmly.
“You’re right,” he says, “but I just have one last thing to do.”
He shoots Mort in the head, assuring us that he would not rise.
As the shot echoed through the woods, a grumbling or growl begins to spread through the trees.
“We need to be quick, Frankie. It looks as though the gunshots attracted more of those things. Let’s go!” I say pointing in the opposite direction of the moaning trees.
The hunt resumes, but not for long. A woman’s voice is screaming now.
“Alice!” Frankie yells as he commences to run back to camp.
I follow him, watching the trees as we race to find Alice.
When we reach the camp, I am nauseated to find a man in a black suit holding a gun to not only Alice’s head, but Carol’s as well.
Frankie drops to his knees. “Please let them go, you can have me. Just let them run off. They won’t cause you any trouble.”
I watch as Frankie and Alice exchange worried glances.
A few more men emerge from the bushes, pushing Jack to the centre of the camp.
“This asshole bit me.” One of the Agents sneeringly says. “He thinks he’s a fucking zombie. What do we do with zombies, boys?”
The three agents from the woods point their guns at Jack’s head.
I see Alice whimpering, asking them to “stop this,” but even Jack knew there was no stopping anyone from doing what they were going to do.
The shots fire and echo through the trees once more.
Jack’s brains decorate the earth below him and his body drops with a violent thud.
Alice and Carol’s screams fill my eyes to the point where I feel dizzy. I nearly collapse when none other than Agent Williams materializes next. He grins at me as though I was a long lost family member he had graciously been reunited with. I was however pleased to see him looking a little worse for wear. The lack of nose, the greenish-gray skin, he was rotting, I thought. That must have meant his demise was near, or at least I hoped so.
“Ah! Cameron! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” he says smugly. “I’m so glad I’ve found you. In fact, I’m so elated that I’ve decided to let your remaining friends live if you decide to come with me quietly right this moment.”
I look from Frankie to Alice, to Carol. I couldn’t let them die for me. It was time to accept my fate. No one can run forever.
“Honestly Agent Williams I don’t trust you for a fucking second.” I swiftly grab my hunting knife and firmly place it over my heart, holding it steady, ready to plunge it through my chest. “I know what you want, but if you think you’re going to get your hands on it, you better let these three go. Let them get in that van over there and drive away and I’m all yours. That simple, that’s all I want.”
Agent Williams didn’t look pleased, but he agrees to my terms. He didn’t like being outsmarted and surely I would pay for it before I met my end. I had no doubt that he would torture me before killing me; he was the type that found pleasure in it.
I watch as a tearful Carol and Alice jump inside the black van. I try to remain brave and smile for Carol. I was truly happy in that moment because I knew she would live, I didn’t have her blood on my hands, and I was grateful for that much.
Frankie quietly mouths the words, “Thank you,” before retreating.
The engine roars and the tires kick up dirt and before long I can’t hear the van at all. I close my eyes; I didn’t want to see what lay ahead of me.
Men grab me and drag me into a vehicle. I keep my eyes sealed shut, what could I possibly look at that would bring me comfort? All I had now were memories to comfort me, but even then almost all my greatest memories had Eve in them, so not even that brought me much comfort. Instead, I just prayed that it would all be over quickly. I had lived more dreadful lives in one lifetime than anyone should have to endure.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
DR. AUGUST
Before I can search the room further the facility begins to rumble and explosion can be heard above. Someone was trying to break in, but whom?
I look back at the glass sarcophagus. “I will be back,” I promise as I exit and lock the doors behind me.
I q
uietly walk through the white hallways. The silence terrorized more than any sound could. Who knew what was lurking out there, more zombies and perhaps Agent Williams had returned.
As I round a corner I come face to face with the barrel of a gun. The man behind it wears a suit, typically signifying he is an Agent with CSIS. I raise my hands in the air to show that I am unarmed and therefore not a threat. He lowers it at the command of a female voice.
“Are you Dr. Walther Hugo August?” she says in a pleasant yet stern tone.
Her voice matched her appearance. Her dark hair was chopped into a pixie cut to show off her sharp cheekbones and give the impression of ferocity, but she was almost too lovely to fear, and that perhaps would be someone’s greatest mistake. If she was a Special Agent, she was surely more dangerous than anyone in this hallway.
“Yes, who’s asking?” I say cautiously.
“I am Special Agent Murray. The Prime Minster sent me himself. I have come to collect you and take you to Ottawa.”
“I can’t go,” I say bluntly.
She furrows her brows. “Those were my orders, Doctor. If we are to adjust any orders you best have a damn good reason for it.”
“Oh, I do! If you will come right this way I can show you why exactly we must stay here.”
She eyes me curiously and follows me back down the hallway I had just exited not moments ago. I ask that her men stay back as I take Special Agent Murray into the locked room. They are hesitant to leave her side, but she shoos them away and enters without them.
Special Agent Murray takes one look at the glass sarcophagus and realizes immediately what it is.
“Doctor, was this your doing?” she asks in shock.
“No, I’m afraid I can’t take any sort of responsibility for this. Nor would I want the praise. I am simply in awe of it myself.”
“I didn’t think this even possible!” she says picking up her cell phone.
The phone rings once and someone on the other side picks up. To my surprise Special Agent Murray had a direct line to the Prime Minister, she quickly tells him of her findings and he grants her permission to stay back with me and continue my research.
“Dr. August, please do me a favour once we leave this room. Don’t tell any of the other men about what’s in here. This will be between you and me for the time being. We used to trust each other, but as you can see with the likes of Vallincourt and Williams, loyalty and honour are hard to come by these days.”
I nod. “I completely understand and agree fully.”
“Great, I am glad we are on the same page. Now let’s get to work.”
***
Our first stop is my lab where Special Agent Murray looks through my research findings. She wanted to know all about the testing that went on in the facility. How many vaccines had been created, how many had been administered and how many had actually shown any progress in the right direction.
“I’m going to take copies of all this information and send it off to Ottawa. Perhaps there is something in here that will help us cure our people. I’m not sure if you’ve been outside of this place at all Dr. August, but it’s looking like the end of days out there. The zombies are running rampant, and yes, some of them run. I’m just as shocked as you are, truly, I thought they would be like movie zombies, slow and mindless, but they’re much more dangerous than that, and if what you say is true, some of them can even be as powerful as Eve.”
“Yes, the variation is quite odd. The Azrael Virus seems to manifest differently in each individual case, making it very unlikely that one vaccine or remedy would suffice. We would most likely need to create a few different kinds.”
Agent Murray nods, agreeing with my logic. As she continues to scan the files on the computer, she changes the subject quite abruptly from medical research to mythology.
“Dr. August, tell me about the Eye of Ra and the Narmer Palette. I saw notes referencing these items, but I’m not sure I fully understand their purpose to the research. Please enlighten me.”
“I don’t even really know where to begin,” I say as I pace the room. “The Eye of Ra is something Vallincourt and Williams had been retrieving. It was once this big stone, but legend has it that it was split into pieces to settle an ancient feud, these stones were found around the globe and once they were reunited they would form this large stone with many powers. It has the ability to raise the dead, the ability to control the dead and perhaps even more magic I dare not even imagine. As for the Narmer Palette, I found a sketch of it along with some translations in a tomb in Egypt. The Palette mentioned that some sort of sacrifice would need to occur in order to stop this apocalypse. Agent William’s decided that that sacrifice would be Cameron Jackson’s heart.”
“Oh dear god. I’m not believing what I’m hearing. A real sacrifice? William’s is officially nuts,” Agent Murray says slamming her fist against the wall.
“He’s not nuts actually; I suppose you’re not aware that he had been infected, much like Eve? The Azrael Virus flows within his veins and it has made him more dangerous.”
Agent Murray’s eyes grow wide. “A zombie agent you say? This is new ground. I suppose we should retrieve Mr. Jackson as soon as possible, if they don’t have him then they have no upper hand it seems…and…”
She halts the conversation suddenly and looks as though she is listening for something. Her brows furrow together as she holds up her finger asking for momentary silence. Very slowly she takes her gun out from under her blazer and readies it for an attack. Soon I start to hear the sound that troubles her. Moans and growls begin to fill the hallways outside of the lab.
Agent Murray presses on her earpiece and speaks to her team, “Boys we have company, ready yourselves.” And then she turns to me. “Dr. August, how many test subjects did Williams have down here?”
I shake my head, I couldn’t know that. I didn’t have much clearance down here, there were plenty of rooms I had never seen, let alone ventured into.
“I saw a handful wandering the halls just before you arrived, but I can’t be sure how many in total.”
“And what sort of zombies were they? Like Eve or like the zombies we’re used to? Please say the second one.” She looks back at the door nervously.
“Yes, they were indeed slower, which is why I’m still alive. If they were anything like Eve, they would have hunted me down by now.”
Agent Murray looks relieved. “Good!”
We wait as the sounds grow louder and closer with every moment that passes. Sweat begins to bead on my forehead. I was getting much too old for suspense like this. I feel a bit faint and am about to sit down when gunfire sounds and startles me. Agent Murray holds her gun tighter asking for an update, but no one replies, gunfire and growls fill her ear and she is forced to remove her earpiece before losing her hearing.
“Dr. August I want you to stay back, I’m going to stand at the doors and if anyone tries to come in, trust that I will put a bullet through their head. I never miss.” She smiles and quickly darts toward the lab doors.
More screams fill the halls, but as long as the gunfire continued I knew that we at least stood a chance. When the guns stopped firing, all would be lost. Amidst the screams, there was gurgling and the sound of bodies being thrown against walls. People were dying out there, those weren’t screams of fear, they came from pain. I close my eyes and pray that most of the men would return safely, we needed them for this war that was upon us. If it were to be just Agent Murray and I, we would not be able to stop Agent Williams.
Bloody fists slam on the doors to the lab. The resilient frosted glass gave the blood smears an eerie look. Like death beckoning to us. Agent Murray’s bravery does not falter; she still stands at the ready and breathes out, “Come get me,” and that they do.
Bloodied rotted fingers appear between sliding doors opening. Sliding through easily with the red lubrication of hum
an’s insides. One hand makes it through, and then another, and then four others. The doors begin to part and one zombie begins to squeeze its way through the small opening, cracking its ribs in the process and scraping its face against one of the doors, leaving some dangling flesh behind. The zombie does not resemble Eve, except that it also has red eyes. It is fully rotted, barely leaving even an inkling of its human past. It’s white teeth show, and while gums remain, there are no lips or cheeks to speak of. Its mouth opens and closes as it stares at Agent Murray, she must look delicious after being cooped up in these labs, it clearly hadn’t fed it awhile because you could hear the desperation in its moans.
Agent Murray shoots the grotesque creature right between the eyes and it crumples backward onto the floor. She takes aim again ready to shoot the next intruder, but gunshots from the other side are heard and the arms that were attempting to pry their way in, soon become limp and powerless.
Some of her men burst in, marching over the bodies strewn in the hallways. There were zombies and a few of Agent Murray’s men lying on the floor.
“How many casualties?” Murray asks her blood-splattered men.
One of the men replies, “It seems as though we only lost four.”
“Only” seemed a bit harsh, every life mattered didn’t it? But in the grand scheme of things our current situation didn’t afford us the luxury of appreciating human life, if we weren’t moving, we were no longer useful. Dead meant gone, removed, forgotten.
“Thank god we didn’t lose many,” Murray says relieved. “I want you all to sweep the area if you see any of these things shoot them in the head no questions asked. Some of them might look human still, so be aware of that and shoot first and ask questions later.”
Her tone frightens me and I grab Agent Murray’s wrist “wait! They can’t go killing everyone they see! Eve is still down here somewhere, and so is…my friend.”