Z1N1: The Zombie Pandemic: 2012 Was Just the Beginning
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“I’m not following you. I don’t understand.”
Jake shook his head and explained to Todd as he would to a five year old. “When you let the zombies out, they will need a victim. They will tear into Winston’s body covering up the knife wounds. I will shoot the zombies dead. The gunfire will wake up everyone and they’ll find that their secured “zombie jail” isn’t so safe.”
Jake picked up the body as he led the way to the westward facing outer wall of the Annex. No one patrolled the south gates at this time of the morning – Jake was intimately familiar with the schedules and routines of his fellow soldiers. No one was in the Box either. The shadowy courtyard hid their movements as if ashamed of what currently transpired within its enclosure. Jake propped Winston’s dead body against the cold brick wall next to the fence. There was light coming from inside the Annex.
“I thought you said it would be empty,” Todd’s voice cracked as his nerves got the better of him.
“It is empty. Stop being such a bitch. I saw Obadiah and the last two scientists leave just before you and Winston climbed up to the rooftop.”
Jake told the truth. He had done his due diligence in preparation for this moment. Over the past two weeks he watched the scientists leave the Annex between midnight and 2:00 AM on Sunday mornings. The building was empty. The two men had free reign of the facility to put their plan into motion. By the time the morning sunshine arrived, the deed would be done and the residents would fully recognize the danger of allowing the zombie filth to enter the safe zone.
The two men entered the Annex and worked their way back to the containment area. A large, thick window of Plexiglas that started waist high and continued upwards till almost touching the ceiling was nestled snuggly on the farthest wall. The men could not see anything past the plastic window – the lights were off. Todd found the light switch on the far left side of the window next to the cranking mechanism used to lift the outer garage-like door. The young man hesitated to flip the switch. Jake shoved the man sideways and flipped the switch upwards.
Three zombies lurched forward from the once dark room and pounded their heads and fists against the thick plastic. Jake stumbled backwards but caught himself before falling. The beasts screamed and babbled incoherently as they groped the slick window trying to reach the humans on the opposite side. Todd backed away beginning to hyperventilate; he was petrified – he had never really seen the monsters up close and personal like this. Their gray skin clung strangely to their faces and bodies, their eyes red and inflamed – Todd watched as the creatures broke off remaining rotten teeth as they chomped down fiercely on the window.
“Let’s do this,” Jake said as he began to crank open the garage door. Slowly the heavy door raised up inch by inch.
The undead continued to squeal and pound on the window. Todd stood frozen in fear. He watched as the door lifted; he could see a few more grotesque legs of zombies from the outside. Some without legs began to crawl under the half raised door. Jake struggled with the less-than-stellar mechanism but continued to raise the door – now three-fourths of the way fully raised.
“What the hell are you guys doing?”
Todd and Jake both turned towards the direction of the unanticipated voice. It was Obadiah standing just a few feet from them. The old scientist stood confused trying to piece together the scene playing out in front of him. Jake stopped cranking the door lever and pulled his pistol from his side holster pointing it at the old man.
“Woah!” Todd yelled as he stepped away from the soldier.
“What are you doing back here, old man?” Jake questioned.
“I forgot my laptop,” the old man replied as he held up the slim black computer. “I think the appropriate question is what are you two doing in here?”
“Don’t point that at Obadiah,” Todd pleaded but was quickly rewarded with a pistol whipping blow to his mouth; he dropped to one knee as blood gushed from his split lip.
“Get over here, old man,” Jake yelled as he motioned with his gun for Obadiah to line up next to the window.
Obadiah did as instructed. Jake pressed the cold steel barrel against the patriarch’s wrinkled forehead; the old man closed his eyes as thoughts of how his name and contributions would look in his “Citizens of Mount Hope” document.
Todd had seen enough; the plan had veered way off course. He leapt from his crouched position grabbing Jake’s pistol arm. The two men struggled fiercely. Todd punched and clawed the face of his partner in crime with his free hand; his other hand firmly clenching Jake’s wrist keeping the pistol pointed away from him and Obadiah. Jake squeezed the trigger multiple times – the rounds fractured the Plexiglas – the zombies pounded against the aperture. Jake spun Todd around slamming him into the archaic garage door mechanism; the crank snapped off – the gaping mouth to the outside world slid open to its fullest extent.
Todd fell to his knees as blood poured from the gash in his side caused by the sharp metal handle. Obadiah moved forward to help Todd but Jake violently backhanded the septuagenarian to the cold hard floor. The soldier turned his attention to Todd and pointed his pistol at the man.
“Now, Todd – you are my second volunteer casualty…”
The window exploded behind Jake as filthy, rotten arms shot through the fissured plastic. He tried to break free but the beasts pulled him through to their side. Loud, almost cheering screams reverberated off the thick brick walls. More and more zombies poured in through the opening from the outside. They converged upon the human feast in front of them ripping his face off and gnawing on his fingers and legs. A deluge of undead poured through the window devouring the two other men in the tiny space as they crammed themselves like sardines into the small confines of the Annex. The mass of hungry creatures bullied their way through the doors and windows of the Annex and into the safe zone.
March 9, 2014: Sunday, 3:18 AM – the dormitory of the Main Complex - Mount Hope Research Facility, Bangor, Maine …
“Wake up, Nikki,” Corbin said forcefully as he gently shook his wife.
She barely opened her eyes. Corbin stood above her with a panicked look on his face; he was holding her winter clothes and shoes. Theo, Craig and Mandy stood behind him close to the door. All of them were fully dressed but their disheveled appearances told of their hasty preparations. Screams from the hallway coupled with gunfire from outside told Nikki all she needed to know before she even asked her first question.
“What’s going on?” she asked groggily.
“We have to go now,” Theo said as he looked out into the hallway.
Nikki sat up in bed as she tried to hold onto the last vestiges of the first peaceful dream that she had dreamt in almost a year. She felt around for her gun forgetting that she had tucked the weapon safely into the desk drawer across the room. Nikki dressed quickly with the aid of her husband. She walked to the lonely desk in the corner and grabbed her gun from the bottom drawer; the weapon slid perfectly into her waistband.
The group rushed through the hallway out of the main complex and into the frigid, uncaring morning air. Gunfire echoed from the rooftop behind them. The Annex engulfed completely in hot orange flames highlighted the horrifying scene. At least forty bodies of community members that Nikki would never get to meet lay in distorted, broken throws of death. The living dead roamed about the safe zone feasting on residents that were trying to escape. Dozens of stinking undead corpses that had been gunned down by snipers paved the way towards the south gates. The trampled vegetable garden faded into the bleak horizon…
Epilogue
March 15, 2014: Saturday, 8:32 AM – Room #2307, Langston Research Facility – St. Louis, Missouri …
“There’s still no response, sir.”
“Keep trying, Andrea.”
Andrea MacArthur and Dr. Clancy Ferguson sat staring at the empty inbox. No new messages from their “sister” facility in the northeast had them worried. There had been a few times before, over the past year, that communications had
broken down between the two facilities - never more than two, maybe three days tops. It had now been just shy of a full week since their last interaction with Obadiah and his scientists.
“We don’t even know if they’re still alive...”
“Don’t say that!” Dr. Ferguson snapped.
Andrea recoiled slightly, but that was the first thought that had come to her mind; she absently blurted it out. The rest of the small team had come to the same dire conclusion. Even Dr. Ferguson assumed the worst…whether or not he would ever admit it.
“I’m sorry, Andrea. I didn’t mean to yell.”
“It’s OK.”
“It’s probably nothing. Maybe their computers are down? Maybe the satellite is out of synch? It could be anything.” Dr. Ferguson’s hollow words failed to convince Andrea (or even himself) that “technical difficulties” were to blame for the communication blackout. He didn’t want to consider the very real possibility that his peers in Maine had suffered at the insatiable hands of the undead.
BING!!
The computer dinged loudly indicating a new message had arrived. Without his reading glasses, Dr. Ferguson had to lean forward to read the screen. To their surprise, the email message was not from Mount Hope. A high-priority message from the United Kingdom blinked in the inbox; the timestamp of the message indicated that it had been sent two days ago.
Andrea double clicked the message.
*** URGENT ***
March 13, 2014
11:45 PM
From: United Kingdom - Center for Disease Control
To: Langston Research Facility
RE: Z1N1 transmission
We now know that the first cases of the Z1N1 mutation resulted from a specific combination of the H1N1 vaccine, the actual H1N1 antibodies and the increased gamma radiation during the period from December 2012 thru February 2013.
This mutation took as long as two months to manifest itself, while in some cases, as little as two weeks. Patients suffered with severe flu-like symptoms until death occurred. Then the transformation to the “post-trauma” or “zombie” state happened within hours.
After the initial onset period, the Z1N1 pandemic spread by subcutaneous injuries. Most new cases resulting from bites or ingestion or exposure to copious amounts of infected fluids. The newly infected adults would die within an eight-to-ten hour window, depending on body mass and health. Children and teenagers took even less time.
Another shocking development, reported but not fully verified, is that the mutation can and has spread to non-human life. Additional research was in progress until our experts in the field confirmed a most heinous turn of events…
According to our research and calculations, the Z1N1 transmission has mutated once again, no longer requiring direct contact. Our working theory is that someone with tuberculosis or other respiratory disease must have been turned. Our worst fears have now been realized.
Z1N1 is now airborne…