by Ricky Sides
AniZombie
Ricky Sides
Copyright © 2014
Part 1
Outbreak
Prologue
The meteor left a contrail as it flew over North America, causing many observers on the ground to mistake it for an aircraft passing overhead in the late afternoon sky. It flared brightly for a couple of seconds over Alabama. Witnesses heard a booming noise in the wake of the intense burst of light, and saw a large white cloud where the contrail ended.
It had entered Earth’s atmosphere at a steep angle as a misshapen lump of stone and ice, the size of a compact car. Friction had caused the ice to begin to melt and several pieces of rock, which had been held to the main mass by the frozen water, tumbled away on their own trajectories. The smaller pieces burned up as they fell through the atmosphere. The larger section shrank in size. Bits of its surface began to disintegrate and flake away. The heat was so intense that the surface of the stone became molten; boiling away the water that had been trapped in the form of ice.
After the explosion over North Alabama, the remnants of the meteor, now the size of a softball flew a few miles further before it fell into the Tennessee River. As it approached the river, the meteor slammed through the trunk of a large tree, which changed its trajectory enough that when it struck the water it skipped across its surface twice before submerging. Its momentum carried it another couple of hundred feet beneath the surface. The meteorite came to rest in the mud along the bank of the river. The water around it simmered as the heat from the stone brought the liquid around it to the boiling point.
The rapid cooling of the stone caused it to crack open, exposing a fissure in its center. Inside the fissure in the meteorite were microbes. They had been trapped in ice and had lain dormant for eons due to the lack of heat in the vast expanses of space. They began to move as they were released from their small prison. Most of the microbes died due to their exposure to the heat during the entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but a few million survived thanks to the fissure in the core of their rock home.
Hours later, the surviving microbes had migrated out of their former home. They clustered together to form several communities, forming lumps that could fit inside the eye of a needle.
The clusters were pushed toward the shore by waves. Floating just beneath the surface, they waited for additional stimuli. That stimulation came in the form of a small school of minnows that detected them and moved in to eat them. One by one, the fish consumed the clusters. The parasitic microbes attacked their hosts from within. When larger fish and birds in turn ate the minnows, the microbes attacked their new hosts as the bodies of their old ones broke down sufficiently for them to be released.
Some of the infected fish were captured and eaten by birds, causing the infection to spread to other wildlife in the days that followed. Less than a week later, a fisherman caught some of the host fish and the microbes had successfully infiltrated the human food chain.
The cooking process killed the microbes, but the fisherman undercooked one of his contaminated catch and six days after their entry into the environment, the parasites had their first human host.
Gathering nutrients from their victim, the parasites multiplied at a rapid pace. Still, only a few of the microbes had survived the cooking process, so it took time for them to become plentiful enough to have a pronounced impact on the health of their host.
Two days after eating the contaminated fish, Roy Akins awoke with a splitting headache, brought on by the increased pressure inside his skull. A large number of the parasites had managed to migrate to his brain where they connected themselves with tendrils the thickness of a human hair. As the day progressed, the parasites gained control of all of the host’s nervous systems.
Roy’s body fought back. He developed a high fever, a runny nose, and was sneezing frequently as his inflammatory system sought to expel the invaders. His body succeeded in expelling millions of the microbes, thus contaminating several areas of his home. This development caused the parasites lodged in his brain to begin shutting down his respiratory system in an effort to control the host.
Roy was too sick to eat dinner that night. He swallowed several aspirin and then lay down on his couch, but he couldn’t breathe. He sat up and took his wireless phone out of the receiver in order to dial 911.
Mr. Akins punched in the number, but then he collapsed before he could speak to the dispatcher. That woman notified the police that someone at his address had called in an emergency, but the caller either couldn’t or wouldn’t respond over the phone.
The police arrived and entered the house. They found Roy unconscious on the floor and called for an ambulance. While they were there, millions of the microbes, which had invaded their bodies before they left the residence, contaminated both officers. The same thing happened to the ambulance crew when they arrived, because they waited too late to employ their protective equipment, such as gloves and masks.
Roy Akins died in the Emergency Room of Decatur General Hospital that night. The doctor in charge of his treatment filed a report stating the Mr. Akins’ body had inexplicably shut down. Blood samples had been drawn to test for toxicology, but the results would not be available for a couple of days.
The cadaver was taken to the hospital morgue. Inside Mr. Akins’ body, the parasitic microbes that had killed him began to starve due to the lack of nutrients, normally provided by the host. This caused the clusters located inside his skull to become more active. They generated nerve impulses that they sent throughout the body. One by one, the parasites were able to reanimate Roy’s central nervous system. Brain damage from the lack of oxygen had destroyed the victim’s cognitive ability, and his circulatory system had collapsed and had to be restarted, all of which took time to happen.
Two hours after his death, Roy awoke with a ravenous hunger. He sat upright on the gurney. The sheet fell away from his naked upper body. His sense of smell had been enhanced by the parasites and he could detect a familiar odor. It was one that he now associated with food. He saw a female technician with her back to him. She was sitting at a desk filling out a form. A low pitched moan escaped his lips, startling the woman.
Renee Davenport felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as she heard the eerie moan. She spun around and saw Mr. Akins sitting up on the gurney and was shocked to see him sitting there staring at her. She got out of her chair to go to him. “Those idiots!” she said under her breath. “Of all the incompetent... What the hell were they thinking?”
Renee assumed that someone had made a colossal error in determining that the patient had died. She hurried to his side and reached out a hand to steady him. Her heart went out to the pitiful patient when he grasped her arm as if he were desperate for human contact. Then what was left of Roy Akins brought the woman’s bare forearm up to his mouth. He bit down on the technician’s arm, ripping a piece of flesh from it.
Renee screamed in pain as her assailant tossed back his head and swallowed the piece of tissue he had taken out of her arm. She tried to back away and yanked her arm savagely in an attempt to escape, but Roy refused to let go. Her struggles dragged the man from the gurney. He fell to the floor, pulling her off balance at the same time. Renee’s forehead slammed onto the tile flooring, stunning her. In an effort to regain full consciousness, she rolled over onto her back and twisted her head from side to side.
The technician felt something tugging at her clothing and opened her eyes. She saw Roy leaning over her. He had his hand wrapped in her lab coat, which he had used to pull himself over to her. “Get off of me, you freak!” she demanded as she struggled to rise.
Roy voiced that same moaning sound that had originally alerted her. He grabbed the woman’s head with one claw-like hand and pushed it to the side, exposing her n
eck. His head snapped down and he locked his teeth in her neck near her carotid artery. With one savage jerk of his head, he ripped a large piece of flesh from her neck.
Renee screamed in agony as the reanimated corpse fed on her. Outside in the hallway, a janitor heard the technician’s screams and rushed into the room. He saw the partially naked man attacking the technician and rushed over to assist the hapless woman. He was a big man who had been in more than his share of fights. He pummeled the side of Roy’s head with blows that should have rendered him unconscious, yet all he succeeded in doing was distracting the zombie and causing it to focus its attention on him.
James backed a step away from the assailant, but then he darted forward and tried to grab the man. Roy jerked his head around and snapped his jaws closed on two of James’ fingers, severing them in the process.
James screamed in agony and tried to back away, but the animated cadaver grabbed his right ankle and pulled him back toward him. James struck at Roy again. This time, he landed a punch to his nose that destroyed it, but Roy paid the wound no attention whatsoever. Instead, he grabbed the burly janitor and pulled him down to the ground. The two struggled for a moment, but then Roy was able to pin the weakening man to the floor long enough to attack his neck as he had done to Renee only moments earlier.
He fed well, and then he lurched to his feet and made his way out into the corridor. He saw a man down the hallway and headed for him, but the intern opened the exit door and left the hospital. The zombie went to the door with a slow shuffling gait, clumsy because the parasites didn’t know how to operate the body properly. By the time he exited the hospital, the man he was seeking was long gone. Roy shambled away in the darkness in search of more hosts. Aside from the need for food, the parasites were driven to procreate their species, and this was most easily accomplished by spreading into new hosts. This was why they would direct their zombies to leave one victim in favor of another.
When he reported for work the next morning, the day shift technician found the bodies of Renee and James on the bloody floor of the morgue. He was calling the hospital administrator when the two corpses began to move. Their eyes snapped open, and as one, they turned toward the hapless man’s back. A low moan escaped Renee’s lips.
Chapter 1
Breaking news
Herb Bennett first heard about the situation in the neighboring city of Decatur, Alabama during his drive to work at the culvert factory in Athens. The radio report was short on details, stating only that several people had been attacked at Decatur General Hospital, and that the authorities were seeking suspects in the brutal assaults.
As the workday progressed, there were rumors that something big was happening in Decatur. Apparently, there had been several murders, and the police were said to be canvassing the hospital, as if they thought some suspects might still be located on the premises.
Herb decided to eat lunch in his truck so that he could try to learn more about what was happening in the neighboring city. According to the news he heard, roadblocks had been set up at every street leading out of the city.
Athens is located fourteen miles south of the Tennessee state line along the Interstate 65 corridor. Decatur is situated fifteen miles further to the south. Herb knew that there were numerous roads leading to the city. According to the report he heard on the radio, city, county, and state trooper units were working together to contain and capture the violent criminals. The public was being advised to stay inside their homes and keep all doors and windows closed and locked while law enforcement officials sought the killers.
That night, Herb ate his dinner in the living room so that he could watch the news about the violence in Decatur. The story had captured the attention of the national news media. Thinking that they had an opportunity to spark another round of draconian firearms legislation, they pounced on the story. They were disappointed to learn that not a single victim of the violence had been shot. Then they discovered that the spokesmen for the authorities who were handling the situation were hiding something and the networks present in Decatur raced to be the first to uncover the truth about what was happening in the city.
Herb was shocked to learn that Decatur General Hospital was still under lockdown and that no visitors were being permitted inside. In fact, no one was being allowed within blocks of the facility, and everyone near it had been evacuated. One reporter, speaking to the camera before the press conference began, said that there had been claims that several patients had been moved to an undisclosed location. During a press conference with city officials and representatives of law enforcement, she asked why the city was covering up the fact that some patients had been relocated, while others were still trapped inside the compromised medical facility.
Herb sat up straighter and leaned toward his television screen with interest. “I don’t know where you got your information, but I can assure you that it isn’t true. Not one living soul has been removed from that hospital,” the Chief of Police stated.
“That’s not true,” Angela Hutton, the young female reporter countered. Then she held up an 8 x 10 color photograph that showed a woman on a gurney being rolled toward a waiting ambulance. “Note that this patient is restrained, and her gurney is being moved by members of a police team dressed in tactical gear,” she added in a tone that conveyed righteous anger. “There were others, but I only had time to prepare one photo before this press conference.”
“Where did you get that?” asked the Police Chief.
“A concerned citizen videoed the incidents and passed that on to me. My network is going to air it after this press conference is over, so unless you want this story to break without an explanation from you, then I suggest you tell us the truth. What is going on at that medical facility and why are some of the patients being restrained and removed against their will by law enforcement?”
“Those people had become violent. They were a threat to the safety of the other patients and the staff of the hospital. It was necessary to move them for the safety of the rest of the patients as well as the staff. Now, this is an ongoing investigation, and things are still happening in the field that requires my attention. I’ll take a couple more questions from someone else, but then I have to go. Next question?” responded the Police Chief.
“But I still have other questions,” Miss. Hutton complained.
“I’m sure you do. I’m equally certain that that would probably be the case if we devoted the entire press conference to you exclusively, but that would hardly be fair to the rest of the reporters present,” the Police Chief responded. His comments drew support from many of the other reporters waiting to ask their questions.
Minutes later, the press conference ended. Herb learned nothing significant during the rest of that event. He was about to change the channel when one of the news anchors said, “And now for the footage Angela obtained during her investigation of the Decatur violence.”
Herb watched the footage that depicted several patients being loaded into waiting ambulances. Just as the photograph Angela produced at the press conference suggested, the patients were strapped to their gurneys, and they were loaded into the ambulances by what appeared to be SWAT team members.
The scene then shifted back to the male anchor, who said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just received some additional footage from one of our affiliates who was in position to record an incident that just happened. I must caution you that this is raw footage, and we haven’t had time to edit it for content. I warn you that this contains graphic violence and is disturbing. This video isn’t suitable for children, so if you have children in the room, you will need to remove them from the room immediately.”
The video began innocently enough. Three military style helicopters, flying low over the city, flew past the camera, which was set up atop a nearby parking garage. As the video ran, the news anchor provided background information. He said, “Over the past several hours, our cameraman on the location has reported multiple instances in which he he
ard what sounded like gunfire coming from the hospital. The last incident occurred approximately two hours before this video was filmed.”
The camera followed the helicopters as they flew to a position near the parking garage where they landed, one by one, on a helipad, and disgorged their passengers.
Herb watched with interest as a large military tactical unit gathered on the ground and began to make their way toward the hospital. He thought that they were members of the 20th Special Forces Airborne Group, which he knew was headquartered in Alabama.
From his vantage point atop the parking garage, the cameraman had a view of the front entrance, as well as a smaller entry on the northern side, which was facing his position. Because of this, he had a bird’s-eye view of what happened next.
The large Special Forces unit split into two smaller groups. One headed for the side entrance, and the other moved toward the front. The side entry team reached their objective first, but waited with their backs to the red brick wall near the entry while the other team moved into position. A minute passed with no change to the situation on the ground, but then the entry teams went to work.
The cameraman focused on the side entry team because they were closest. He tightened the frame until Herb could make out the details of what was transpiring with ease. The entry team had found the door locked. They set small demolitions charges that would blow the lock, and then they detonated it.
The team located at the north end of the hospital rushed into the side entrance. The camera then swept back to the front of the hospital. The video focused on the front entry team that had also been forced to blow the lock. Unfortunately, the glass doors had been shattered by the explosion. It was safety glass, so it was still in place, but, due to its spider-webbed condition, the team couldn’t make out any details inside the darkened building.