by Daniel White
Glancing at the zombies he saw that most of them had generally decent clothing considering what they were. That fact was more proof that something had happened to drastically and dramatically change these people. These zombies didn’t claw their way out of the grave. They were only focused on getting people into the grave it seemed. At last he found a combination of not too bloody and not too messy clothing from the bodies and put it on. Though he found it extremely difficult to wear the corpses’ clothing, he also was glad that he would have something on. Wheels were another problem. He had left his car miles away near his parents’ house, and planned to never set foot near that place again. If he couldn’t find a ride to use he would simply walk. It would be more dangerous, but danger really had a different meaning today. Before walking outside to begin his journey, Eric made sure to collect all of his weapons then slowly limped outside.
The instant he opened the smaller warehouse door that the workers would have walked through during shift time, he heard a familiar scream. Eric could tell that the scream was a woman being attacked somewhere off to the far right. He thought back to what he had done at the government office building. Getting into Captain Sage’s face was just the type of thing he would always do. Eric Bayne always did what he could to help others.
A piece of Eric died in the past twenty-four hours. He was more calloused and emotionless than he ever thought anyone could be. The death of his family had done that to him and he hadn’t known to what extent it had changed him until now. It was too late to save the girl that was being attacked. He could race over and take down the zombies or die trying. He could be that nameless hero that the smaller, weaker people rallied around. Not this time, though. This time things were different. The situation was so much larger than that one girl that he never even considered making the death-defying choice of trying to save her. What really was different about him was the way he felt about that decision. It should have been heart wrenching, like it was watching that poor girl get mauled by the zombies just the day before. With all that had transpired, Eric just turned with Bart following and walked quietly the other way.
Before long he ran across an older truck that looked just rugged enough to be cool. It was just a few blocks away from the warehouse. The tires on the old Chevy looked to have several thousand miles left and the white raised letters were still readable, if a bit brownish. The coat was matte black and it had a good body other than several spots that were evidence of some kind of struggle, dried blood. It could have been several struggles but it really didn’t matter because the best quality was that the older trucks like this were easy to hotwire. The second best quality was that the gas tank had three fourths of a tank in it. Eric hopped into the driver’s seat and went to work hotwiring. It took only moments before it was started and ready to run. The engine was louder than he would have liked, considering the situation. But then again if he had to die in the next few days, or even today, he might as well do it while driving a cool truck.
He wasn’t a hero. No one would hang medals on his chest anymore, and he certainly wouldn’t be helping old ladies cross the street. The old hag would probably wind up being a zombie anyway. The world changed and now there was no need for nice guys that would open doors for people and save kittens from trees. Now the world needed a fighter willing to throw anything at a group of zombies to destroy them; and willing to kill anyone to find out who did this. It was clear to Eric now more than it had been even hours before. He would be that guy. His pooch agreed as well with a heavy bark. Bart obviously had been owned by someone with a truck, because the large dog jumped up from the ground to the bumper and into the bed, which was missing a tailgate. They were ready to go and Eric took off, itching to get to that government building and get some answers.
CHAPTER 6
Eric killed the engine about a block away from his target building. When he walked into this building the day before, everything had been fine. The only problem he had in the world was that he hadn’t wanted to answer the weird summons that he had received to come here. His dad had joked that it sounded like jury duty, only three times as boring and a ton less meaningful. Now there was no telling what the actual purpose was behind having so many people in the building that day. The few things he knew, he didn’t like. It was something the government was doing and was secretive. Nothing good ever came from secret government crap. This would be the exaggeration of that truth obviously, but was the government actually behind it? It sure seemed like they cared very little for the woman that was killed here, but then again hours later in a similar situation, Eric himself hadn’t cared very much either. Maybe they weren’t involved but had just seen more of the horrors than he had. That could lead a group of men to callousness very quickly, Eric knew that now.
No answers would be forthcoming if he sat his butt in the truck and didn’t move, so he opened the door and started forward. What were the chances that nothing bad had happened here? It seemed possible at least, since Eric had led the mass vacating of the building. Slowly he walked forward. It wouldn’t be easy to forget that his leg was hurting. He did wish he could camouflage it, but trusted that the zombies wouldn’t pay close enough attention to see the weakness and exploit it. So he kept slowly stalking forward with occasional looks behind to ensure he didn’t get ambushed by a group.
There was nothing. Not only was there no attack forthcoming, but there were no screams to be heard. The wind was the only sound as it howled through the trees and buildings, and even it was hushed. Normally that might be nice, peaceful even. Nothing was normal anymore. That made something that seemed normal, very suspicious. He had to control his thoughts. This was the path to insanity.
He had made his way to the front of the building and still, no attack, no screams, nothing. Not the slightest sign of life could be detected. He was fully aware that it could be his mind trying to break him again, but honestly he kind of wanted to get jumped from behind now, just to break the terrifying silence. Many things were possible now that weren’t possible before the zombie arrival. Nothing could be gained by worrying about it so Eric readied himself to enter the grey towering building. The door was humorously locked, but the windows were demolished so heavily that whatever had busted through had rocked the door from its hinges. Eric wasn’t the smallest guy at 6’2”, 190lb but even he had little trouble finding a way through.
Inside, the carnage made it even clear that the current silence had come at a price. The large open lobby area was around a hundred feet wide by fifty feet deep. The floor had once been a pristine white and gray marble complete with cute little designs cut throughout it. Now that floor was tarnished with a layer of blood, organs and rotting bodies. It was hard to decide which group was better represented here. Zombies and troops like those that were hanging around with Captain Sage were scattered throughout the entire lobby area. There were hundreds of chairs, and it seemed every fourth or fifth one had a body or mangled parts plastered on it. He realized he was growing accustom to the smell of rotting human bodies. For long moments he just stood there and wondered who had won or, if anyone had for that matter. When Eric led the mass exodus yesterday there had been some tension, but nothing like this seemed even remotely possible.
His ability to get everyone out of the building now seemed super heroic in nature. To say the least, there would be hundreds of civilians scattered dead around the lobby area as well. It should have made him feel good, but all he felt was disgust. What had he done but delay the inevitable? Was it possible that if they all had stayed here long enough, they could have quelled the uprising before it got out of hand and out of the building? But then again, it would have had to come from somewhere besides this building alone because Tony hadn’t been here yesterday. It would be great to call up his big brother and ask him the last time he had, but that was a dead end.
“Agh!” Suddenly someone dropped from the ceiling above him and fell right across his shoulders. It scared Eric almost to death, but as usual he was reactive under
pressure. With instincts born from years of Mixed Martial Arts fighting, Eric never thought twice about slinging the attacker over his shoulders slamming him onto the floor. No sooner was the unknown person on their back, when Eric plunged his fist as hard as he could into its face. “What the…” His fist buried wrist deep into the destroyed facial tissue of a former government worker. Eric could tell by the work badge what and who he was. He could tell by the condition of the body that the man had been killed some time ago, but his guess wouldn’t be more than a few hours. It certainly had happened recent enough to confirm for Eric that something was still going on here. It just either hadn’t found him yet or was waiting for him to find it. Either way, Eric wasn’t all that eager to confront them just yet. Right now he wanted to walk through the door he had just spotted, the door that Captain Sage had used to go back, presumably to his superiors. If this place held any answers at all, Eric had a feeling they would be through that door.
As he rose from the floor he shook his hand to shake off some of the blood. He doubted he would be able to break through the door without drastic measures, so it was fantastic that it was completely destroyed. Whatever had annihilated the face of the poor fellow who dropped through the ceiling on him; there must have been dozens of them to do this damage. The door was bent into the lobby in an odd way that suggested the zombies just poured right through it, ripping it off its hinges in the process. The carnage in the lobby was bad, but what he saw when he walked through that door was twice that. There were dead bodies, but more than that, there were areas where the blood had formed sopping pools. He surveyed the room with emotionless eyes.
Eric was not an investigator but his guess was that whatever group of zombies caused the issues in the lobby broke free from this area first. It was difficult to even find a piece of furniture that made it through this area unscathed. There was an area of bookshelves off to the right just inside the door that had zero books left on the upper shelves. They were all toppled over, trapping the lifeless bodies of victim and attacker alike underneath. To the left was a cubicle area where six people used to work. Now the cubicles were destroyed and there was so much blood and gore splashed across them that the original color would be nearly impossible to guess. It was almost laughable. He walked on forward and found more of the same. Wherever there was once cubicles now held evidence of death and destruction.
Then at last there was a room that looked strangely different than the rest of the inner office area. There was still blood splashed on the walls outside but the door to the room was still perfectly hinged and from where he stood it appeared the inside was largely intact. He walked more quickly now towards that room; ignoring the signs of similar destruction in the rest of the area. Upon closer inspection, the door was reinforced but he still would have expected it to take some damage. The pathway into it was almost completely bloodless, almost. Perhaps the door was open, but that didn’t explain the lack of death. The only thing he could do was walk into the room and find out what was special, if anything, about the room.
Immediately upon entering he noticed a few things that made this room very interesting. It wasn’t a large room at all, probably only fifteen to twenty feet wide and only about eight feet from the door to the back wall. The front was almost totally covered with a large window that seven desktop computers sat in front of. A rack of servers were stacked along the far right wall with a whiteboard standing like an easel in the back corner. The entire back wall was filing cabinets. When all things were placed there was very little walking room. But that wasn’t what was interesting. The first thing that caught his attention was the whiteboard in the back corner. Someone had written in large letters at the top with several notes jotted down below:
ZMB zxt1.2b
Virus
Dangerous strain
Side effects
Under that were a couple of words that had clearly been erased but Eric could still make out what it had said. Missing Sample were words that meant more right now than they would have at any other time, possibly in history. His heart skipped a beat and he began feverishly looking around the room. Several papers were scattered along the computer counter, but none of them said anything about a virus. He scrambled around the room looking for anything that might give more information about a missing virus sample. Finally he walked along the filing cabinets slower, reading each label carefully. The first three were words he didn’t care about but the next one was labeled: ZMB. He pulled the drawer but it was locked so he pulled harder. After minutes of pulling it hard the drawer popped open.
It was empty.
He pulled all of the cabinet drawers open but they were all as empty as the first one. When the last one was empty as well, he slammed the drawer and kicked the cabinet. He cursed and yelled until the drawer popped open again from another series of kicks. Something caught his eye and he leaned to take a closer look. A lone file was poking around at the bottom of the bottom drawer. Eric’s eyes lit when he saw it was labeled “zxt 1.2b strain”.
He opened it and looked for anything that might be of worth. It didn’t take long. The more he read the more excited, he grew. Adrenaline started pumping with each bit of the secretive revelation that was revealed. Apparently the government had been working in secret on a dangerous bio-weapon called the ZMB Virus, codename: The Zombie Virus. “Really, the zombie virus?” he thought to himself in disbelief.
That was all from a cover page at the front of the folder. It appeared to be something that might have been at the front of most all of the folders as a general information sheet. The desired effect was to attack the neurons in the brain and render the victim essentially unable to accomplish the tasks any soldier might be expected to execute. Eric wasn’t shocked at the idea that the government could work on something like this in secret, but rather was surprised at the viciousness and animalistic nature of the weapon.
The folder itself was thin and only held a few papers. One that he came across was a copy of a letter written to the Secretary of Defense. The bottom half of it was ripped away and part of the top, so he couldn’t tell whose office it was from. What mattered was what it said for now, though. Eric sat in a computer chair and read:
Mr. Secretary,
This correspondence is regarding the ZMB zxt 1.2b strain of the Zombie Virus. We have isolated the problem with the strain but have developed a new issue. With the lead on the project involved we are confident that we could have had the problem fixed before the release of the final weapon.
There is one problem, however, and it is a large one. There is a missing sample of the 1.2b strain in its most dangerous incarnation. If this were to fall into the wrong hands it could be tweaked slightly and turned into a very difficult weapon to counteract…
course of action would be to remain silent on the issue unt…
person responsible can be brought to justice. It is the…
Sincerel…
A..
Eric hated that the last part was ripped off. It ruined his chance to figure out what exactly had gone wrong and what they planned to do about it. One thing he did notice was that the letter was dated almost ten months ago. Clearly, they had known that the weapon had dangers and continued working on it anyway. More than that, the response was to keep quiet until what? God what he would do to get his hands on the rest of that letter?
Just as he was about to begin digging under and behind the drawers he heard loud barking from the lobby area. Christ! He had forgotten all about Bart being in the back of the truck. He must have followed behind as Eric walked into the office building. If he was barking like that it could only mean that there was some action out there.
He was instantly drawn in two separate directions. Part of him wanted to run out and save the newfound friend in fighting, while part wanted to stay and search out more information on the zombie virus. In the end he looked at Bart like he planned to look at every acquaintance he would have from here on out. He liked the dog, but in the end the problem with the v
irus was bigger than anyone. So no matter how grateful he was to Bart for saving him back at the warehouse, for now the old dog would have to fend for himself.
Eric didn’t get three drawers open before he heard more commotion behind him. When he turned around there was a group of zombies pouring over one another through the door. Eric now found himself wishing that Bart had not only survived, but would show more loyalty than Eric had shown towards him. They were speeding towards him, hungry for flesh and angry at whatever made these things angry. Eric had three wooden spikes and two steel poles plus years of martial arts experience, and he was terrified.
As they came closer he backpedalled slightly and looked for some way around them. He could find none. There were just too many. All he knew to do was not stand where he was currently standing. If he did, it would take no time at all for the group to overrun him. He would last less time than the clothes he was wearing.
Taking three quick steps Eric flipped over the heads of the first couple of rows, pulling his steel poles out in the process. He was lucky and landed in a solid place on the floor instead of on top of one of them. As soon as his feet touched the floor he set into a quick spin and took out several of the nearby attackers before they even turned around. Eric was a blur of motion and fury. For moments on end, he felt nearly invincible as multiple zombies fell within each second he spun. Finally he stopped, planted his foot and switched grips to throw one wooden spike and then another. That took two zombies out but cost him. One tried to plow through him from behind. Eric dodged that, but was unable to dodge a hard clawing swipe to his jaw. That turned him to one side where another zombie successfully plowed into him and drove him backwards into the window of the room he was just in. The glass held like it was made of bullet proof material. Panic began to set in as he saw several charging for where he was, but he wasn’t done just yet. The last wooden spike fell into his grasp as he remained pinned to the window. As the group came closer he drove that spike through the back of the one nearest to him, and shoved him backwards into three others. That stopped the momentum of the group and carved a narrow path through them. A quick glance forward showed a thin line that he knew he should be able to leap over. He did just that, twisting as he did. One of his steel poles was ripped from his grasp in the process, but when he landed he started dispensing violence with the other one.