by L. T. Ryan
Turk scanned the area, looking for signs of life, whether human or them. Nothing moved. But, for the first time, he noticed a faint trace of light from the other side of the room, in front of the cell block.
“You guys see that?” he said.
“Yeah,” Bates said. “Is that…?”
“Come with me,” Turk said. “Rest of you, cover us. Anything moves, kill it. Don’t second guess. Shoot.”
Turk remained close to the wall, rubbing his left shoulder against it. The perimeter of the room, for some reason, had remained clear. Battle was chaotic. He supposed random chance could have intervened and left the bodies in the center of the room. However, his gut told him that someone had moved the bodies that had fallen on the outer perimeter of the room, sweeping them toward the center. Just like trash, he thought.
The humming increased in intensity as they once again approached the light source. He saw a five foot wide by fifteen foot long grate in the floor. Rebar crisscrossed the opening, leaving four or five inch gaps.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Turk said.
“Is that…?” Bates said.
Turk nodded, taking in the sight of seven men dressed in ACUs, trapped in the corner of the room below, protected from a horde of those things by a few steel bars.
“Can we reach them from here?” Bates asked.
Turk leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees. “Even if we could, they’re surrounded by steel on all four sides and on the top. We’d have to figure out how to open the cage to get them out.”
“Look at all them down there,” Bates said, pointing at the masses of beings that stood shoulder to shoulder with their gazes fixed on the men in the cage. “No way we can wade through that shit.”
Turk knew this was true, but he also realized that they had the perfect vantage point to thin out the group. “We can start shooting them from here. If our guys down there can open the cell, maybe they can make a break for it.”
“There’s too many of those damn things, Turk,” Bates said. “We don’t have the ammunition.”
“Then we’ll get some,” Turk yelled. “We’ll get another damn team out here.”
Bates shook his head. “Let’s go before we all end up dead, or worse.” His eyes scanned the sea of afflicted below them.
“We’re not leaving them here,” Turk said. “Not like this. Not surrounded by those creatures.”
Bates said nothing. He didn’t even bother to look at Turk while the team leader yelled at him. And with good reason, Turk saw as he followed the man’s stare. Not only had Bates heard him loud and clear, so had most of the beings below them. They stood with their heads back, arms lifted up, mouths agape, staring up at the two men.
“You want some of this,” Turk yelled at them. “Come get it.”
He stuck the barrel of his gun through one of the openings between the rebar and began shooting. Every shot penetrated a forehead, and the beings either dropped, or fell against the others, sandwiched and unable to fall.
Turk learned something new at that moment. The bastards couldn’t only run fast, they could also jump high.
A pale hand wrapped around the rebar, another around the barrel of his gun. He felt the gun pulled through the opening until it reached a spot where the hilt was too wide. Before he could back up, the thing grabbed a hold of Turk’s wrist and pulled his right forearm through a gap. He saw its mouth open, yellow teeth glistening with saliva. The beast was hungry, hell, starving after staring at the men in the cell below for so long. No matter how hard Turk pulled back, the thing wouldn’t let go.
When he glanced at Bates, he saw the man was lying on his side, his neck wide open and squirting blood. The thing had moved so fast that Turk didn’t see it strike the man. Now, it had a hold of him.
He began to think about his wife and two sons. Turk pushed the thoughts from his mind as they would only hinder him in this situation. He wouldn’t let the decrepit thing on the other side of the grate take his life.
He reached across his body for his side arm. The cool handle met the sweaty flesh of his palm, giving him hope, for a moment, that he’d escape the situation with both his hand and his life. He twisted and took aim. The beast sunk its teeth into Turk’s arm before he could get the shot off. Turk screamed in pain and unloaded his magazine into the disfigured face below him.
Thirteen
“Jesus, Ryder!” Karl yelled. “What’re you doing?”
Sean watched Knapp’s body slide along the wall to the right, leaving a crimson trail in its wake. He walked up to the corpse and nudged the dead man’s shoulder with the tip of his boot, looking for any reaction or sign of life. The old man had created these things that wandered the halls and outside the facility. Perhaps he had found a way to turn him into one without the side effects. Still, Sean figured it’d be damn hard for anyone to survive with half of their brain plastered to a wall.
“Ryder,” Karl said.
Sean didn’t respond. He turned his head toward Jules’s body, then back toward Knapp.
“Ryder,” Karl said again.
“What?” Sean said.
“We needed him alive, man.”
“Sorry,” Sean said flatly.
“He probably had more info. Turk would have wanted to talk to him.”
Sean turned to face Karl. He cleared his throat, then said, “You think Turk’s still alive? When’s the last time we heard from him, huh?” He paused and lifted an eyebrow. “We haven’t. They walked down into the depths of this place. Straight into the pits of hell. They’re gone, Karl. And they left us up here with patient zero.” He gestured with his head to the woman who stood outside the room with her forehead pressed against the glass. Then he glanced toward Knapp. “And this old coot.”
Karl coughed into his hand, then said, “Look, Sean, I know you’re distraught after what happened with Jules. But, —”
“You’re sick,” Sean said. “You’ve got it.”
Karl’s grip on his MP7 tightened as he took a step back, placing himself out of Sean’s immediate reach.
“Your skin’s changing already,” Sean said.
“Jules was sick, I’m sick, and you’re probably sick, Sean.” Karl paused, perhaps waiting for a reaction. When Sean said nothing, he continued. “But I need you to get it together, man. We need to find Turk and get out of this damn place.”
Sean relaxed his grip on his pistol as he considered Karl’s words. They only had to get through two sections of hallway to reach the tunnel that led out of the building. It had only taken them so long to reach the command room because they had no idea what lie beyond their position. But now, they’d be hauling ass to get out, after they found Turk of course.
If they tried to find him.
“Turk and the others walked down to their death,” Sean said.
“We’re all brothers,” Karl said.
Sean contemplated this, but did not offer a reply.
“I’m going down there, Ryder. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t come along.”
Sean turned away from Karl and crossed the room. He stopped in front of Jules and lowered his head. That wasn’t his friend in front of him. Not the man that he’d spent the better part of the last eight years with, bunking together before Sean and Kathy were married. Jules followed suit shortly after when he found Marie. He knew that their daughters would still play together, and their wives would sit on the porch and chat about whatever it is two married women talk about. But never again would he and Jules share a couple cold beers on a hot August day, talking about nothing at all, while waiting for their next mission. He wished they could have one more conversation, but he knew there was no point in wishing. He had to save himself, and he had to save Turk, because maybe the man had a best friend and a wife and a kid or two at home who needed him. Sean reached out and grabbed Jules’s dog tags, snatching them off of his neck. He wiped them on his pants leg, removing the sticky blood, and then placed them in his pocket. There were two tags. One for a w
ife, and one for a daughter. Both of whom would never see Jules again.
“You with me, Ryder?” Karl asked, now positioned a few feet behind Sean.
Sean had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the man approach. “Yeah. Let’s go get them, and then get moving.”
“Okay. But first, let me scan through the computer one more time. If there’s anything on here that can help us, I want to bring it.”
Sean nodded. He took one last look at Jules, then turned toward the front of the room. The woman still stood outside, centered between the door and the other end of the room. She leaned forward with her forehead planted against the glass, leaving her body at an angle. Her arms dangled straight down with her fingers spread wide. Blood covered her right hand. Dirt caked her left.
Sean stopped in front of her, about six inches away from the window. The woman’s eyes, which had been fixed on nothing, rose to meet his. Her facial expression showed no discernible change as she took in his face. Her eyes didn’t narrow, or become duller or brighter. She simply stared at him, into his eyes. But did she really see him? Sean leaned in and placed his forehead against the glass. Their eyes were no more than two inches apart. He noticed tears starting to well up along the bottom of her eyelids. When the thin flap of skin could contain them no longer, they pushed past the corners of her eyes and cut a trail through her dirt smeared cheeks. He wondered what thoughts went through her mind. Hell, did she still have thoughts of the sort that he would be able to comprehend? Was her soul trapped behind that pale, ghastly exterior? Were her tears an effort at communicating with him in a way she could no longer vocalize?
Did an angel lurk behind a demon’s exterior?
“Hey, Karl,” Sean said.
“Yeah,” Karl said.
“You think these are zombies?”
Karl chuckled for a second, then said, “Maybe.” He coughed, then cleared his throat before adding, “Hell, who’s gonna tell us we’re wrong to call them that?”
Sean smiled at Karl’s statement. Who could tell him he’s wrong? No one, because he was the only one living this nightmare.
“Zombies it is,” Sean said.
“I’m not finding much on this computer,” Karl said.
Sean wondered if the man had changed the subject on purpose. He looked over his shoulder, then said, “Give up looking for info and see if you can get those monitors working. I’d like to see what we’re about to walk into.”
Karl said nothing in reply, but a flurry of fingers striking against a keyboard told Sean that the man had been receptive to the idea.
When Sean turned his back toward the window again, he saw that the woman had raised her hands to her shoulders and placed them against the glass. Her palms and the pads of her fingers were lined with cuts and crusted blood. Dirt was packed into a wide gash in her left palm. He thought back to the cemetery and wondered if the dirt on her hand had come from one of the mounds he saw outside the facility. Had she buried a loved one there? Or had she been searching for someone already buried there? Maybe a loved one who now only existed in the recesses of her damaged brain? He had a feeling that the dirt covering her hand perhaps correlated to the sadness that caused the tears that streamed down her face a few minutes earlier.
“Got one,” Karl said.
The words bounced around inside Sean’s head for a moment before he realized what the man was talking about. He backed away from the window and turned and began scanning the monitors on the wall. The one that hung above Knapp’s dead body flickered on and began to show a scene that made Sean’s heart skip a beat and his stomach sink.
“I don’t know what these codes mean,” Karl said.
“Forget them,” Sean said. “Look.”
The screen zoomed in and out of focus and the lighting went from dark to bright and back to dark again. The picture settled in somewhere in the middle. The monitor displayed a scene out of a horror film. A room full of zombies packed shoulder to shoulder. They swayed, perhaps in rhythm, and they all seemed to be focused on something just off the screen.
“Can you pan around?” Sean asked.
“Let me see,” Karl said.
A moment later the picture on the screen started moving, sending the current crop of zombies to the bottom corner of the monitor. When the camera reached the other end of the room, Sean said, “Stop.” The scene was the same, but different. The zombies were still packed tight to one another, however a group of them stared upward. He saw one that appeared to be hanging from the ceiling, half of the right side of its head missing, its body limp.
“What is that?” Sean said, inching closer to the monitor. He reached out and pointed to the upper left corner. “Can you zoom in on that area?”
As the camera started to zoom, Sean noticed one of the zombie’s head erupt into a cloud of blood.
“Holy shit! Stop!” Sean said.
The picture froze and Sean noticed two things. One, zombies were being picked off one at a time. He saw one flinch and fall, then another. Sometimes their heads erupted. Other times their bodies collapsed. As Sean scanned the monitor, he noticed that behind the cells in the corner were seven faces of men he didn’t know, but instantly recognized.
“Good news and bad news,” Sean said.
“Good news first,” Karl said.
“Turk,” Sean paused to wipe his brow, “or someone on your team, is alive and above that floor. They’re picking off zombies from up there.”
“Bad news?”
“I found the guys from Delta.”
“Where?”
“In the back corner of that room.”
Karl said nothing.
“Locked in a cage.”
“Let’s get going,” Karl said.
“We need to figure out what to do about her,” Sean said.
He turned around, but the woman was gone. He rushed forward and pressed against the glass, trying to look down the hallway to the left and the right. She was nowhere to be seen. They were at a disadvantage since the room was recessed from the hall. After five feet, there was a good portion of the corridor they were blind to. For all Sean knew, the woman waited outside with an army of zombies waiting to tear them apart limb by limb.
“Where’d that bitch go?” Karl said.
“I don’t know,” Sean said. “Hopefully back outside.”
“All right, here’s what we’re going to do.” Karl paused for a moment too long.
“What?” Sean said.
“You’re not going to like this.”
“What?”
“We need to use Jules as bait.”
“What do you mean?”
“Toss him into the hall.”
“Hell with that,” Sean said. “Use the doctor. They probably hate him and will attack him on sight.”
Karl seemed to consider this. His lips worked side to side. His eyebrows rose, and his eyes looked up, as if he was performing some complex calculation in his head.
“Okay,” Karl said. “We’ll use Knapp. Give me a hand.”
Sean grabbed the old man by his legs while Karl scooped him off the floor by placing his arms around Knapp’s chest from behind. He wasn’t a heavy guy, and it didn’t require much effort to carry him to the door. They stopped. Sean dropped Knapp’s legs. He reached for the door handle, stopping to take a deep breath before turning the knob.
“Nice and easy,” Karl said.
Sean pulled the door open, exercising caution. He had one hand on the knob, the other around the handle of his M9. He’d have preferred his submachine gun at that moment, but felt he had better control with his pistol in this situation. He stopped when the door was open wide enough to push Knapp’s body through.
“All right,” Karl said. “I’m going to shove him. Get ready to close the door when I’m clear, but leave it open a crack. If she pounces, I’m taking her out. But, you better be ready to back me up in case I don’t have time to get her.”
Sean nodded. He felt a pang of concern travel
through his body, then cast it aside. One way or another they were dead. He was sure of it. He figured they ought to send as many of those damned creatures to hell before he and Karl finally bit it.
Knapp’s body hit the floor with a thud and slid about four feet, coming to a stop in the middle of the hall. Sean felt his stomach knot. His heart beat faster than he cared to calculate, knowing it would only serve to send him deeper into panic.
Ten seconds passed, nothing happened. Were these zombies smarter than he anticipated? He was sure she’d pounce the moment the body hit the ground, yet here they were, precious seconds ticking by and nothing happening.
“Okay,” Karl said. “Another fifteen seconds and we move.”
Sean nodded and began counting down from fifteen. He never reached one.
“Screw it,” Karl said. “Let’s go.”
Karl squeezed through the doorway before Sean could say anything. He found himself rushing to get out of the room. On some level, the decisive action taken by Karl helped Sean. He forgot about his pulse and breathing and the panic that coursed through his veins with every beat of his heart. He couldn’t forget the situation they were in, though. Not that he’d want to. At least, not now. To do so would spell death. They had to get out of there alive, and for that to happen, he had to remain alert.
Karl spun to the right. Sean turned his back to the man and scanned the left side of the hallway.
“Empty,” Karl said.
“Same here,” Sean said.
“Where’d she go?”
“Hopefully she left.” Sean meant it, too. He didn’t want to have to pull the trigger and watch whatever faint trace of a soul remained in the woman fade from her sorrowful eyes.
“Let’s go, Sean,” Karl said.
Sean turned and caught up to the SEAL. Tactics were thrown out the window now. They were up against an enemy for which they had no protocol. Some of the zombies moved so damn fast that they’d be on top of them by the time one alerted the other. To get out of this alive, Sean knew that they’d have to shoot first, and forget about asking questions altogether. Still, every ten feet or so, he’d glance over his shoulder, finding it impossible to escape the feeling that they were being watched.