Queen's Gambit

by M. Lorrox

  In the wake behind him, bodies and body parts of normal people—who that morning had looked forward to their weekend plans—pile the hall, their blood covering every inch of the white tile floor. Dogs who fought against them lay injured and die by their sides, whimpering and baying in agony.

  Their whimpers end as the nearly endless supply of zombies rush from other halls to enjoy them as a meal.

  Normally, Charlie would be devastated with the thought of the animals suffering, but not today—not right now. His mind is focused on two things: saving June and killing Dr. Melgaard.

  Michael stands in front of an industrial, top-loading incinerator, which is set to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. He had just unstrapped June from the gurney while Eddy and Sadie jogged through the hall, and he just opened the hatch to the incinerator as they burst in.

  When he hears the doors behind him fly open, he doesn’t instantly turn to see who is there. Instead, he grabs something out of his lab coat’s pocket, then he spins, holding the device up.

  Eddy is frozen, staring at June, but Sadie’s eyes are still locked on Michael. “Drop it! Don’t move!”

  With his thumb, Michael flips up a little switch on the device and a red light starts to blink. “You don’t really want me to do that, Elder Costanza.”

  Eddy finds his voice. “Mom?”

  Sadie ignores him. “Step away from her, now!”

  Michael waves the object in his hand. “Now don’t do anything rash, I’d hate for us to all die.” Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

  Eddy is shaking. “Mom!”

  Sadie allows herself to blink and looks at June. Her heart stops. “My god.” She shivers. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

  Eddy twitches, not believing his eyes. A cloth half covers June’s head, and Eddy can see that her face is hollow. Her cheeks are sunken in, and her mouth is pulled open by the taught skin. She’s not moving.

  Her neck has tubes coming out of the sides, out of the blood vessels there. Her exposed sternum has a series of puncture holes, and so do her upper arms—but on her arms, the holes spiral down symmetrically, leading all the way to her elbows. Her wrists have tubes coming out of them. More tubes come out of her ankles, and her thighs have the same kind of spiraling puncture holes leading from her knees to her hips and up her pelvis.

  It’s what Eddy sees at her waist that makes him want to double over. Just above her underwear, a long, curved incision from one side of her belly to the other was made, and the skin is peeled back. Her abdominal muscles were cut and are clamped to the skin at her ribs. Underneath—inside her—Eddy can tell that something was removed from a pair of red cavities. There are a pair of deep holes not filled with blood. There’s no blood at all, only June’s body, lying on a gurney with dozens of holes cut into her and parts of her taken out.

  And she’s not moving, not breathing, not bleeding, nothing.

  Eddy swallows and grips his sword. In a flash, he lunges with the tip of the wakizashi pointing straight toward Michael’s throat, while he screams in both anguish and hatred.

  Michael spins on his foot, and Eddy misses him. He shoves Eddy as he passes, then dodges back in case Eddy swings his sword to the side.

  Instead, Eddy crashes into a set of cabinets beside the incinerator, and Michael takes a step behind June. “Listen to me if you want to live!”

  Sadie had taken the moment Michael was distracted to slip a steel dart out of her sash. “Wait!” She shoots her hand forward at Michael, launching the spike toward him.

  He almost doesn’t see the six-inch spike rocketing straight toward his face, but he does see a flash of light shine off it as it passes under the ceiling fixtures that puke green-tinted light everywhere into the room. Michael jumps into a turn, and the spike embeds itself into his shoulder. “Goddamn it! Stop or I’ll blow us all to hell!”

  Eddy is back on his feet, and with his sword trained on Michael, he steps around the side of June and lifts the cloth off her face. He glances down at her. Her head is shaved, and there are holes into her skull like those in her arms and legs. Her eyes are closed.

  Eddy almost falls over, but he steadies himself by leaning on the gurney’s railing. “YOU BASTARD!”

  Michael pulls the spike out of his shoulder and tosses it on the ground. “Stay back. Drop your weapons.”

  Sadie raises her sword and points it at his throat. “Why would we do that? Because if we don’t, you’ll blow us all up? And then we’d all be dead, including you. Is that why we should drop our weapons?”

  Michael knows that the incinerator room only has one entrance and exit—the doors behind the two angry vampires with swords. They need to let me go... He swallows. “No, because if you want to save her, you’ll do what I say.”

  Riley gave Charlie directions, and when Charlie starts to find bodies already lining the halls, he knows he’s on the right track. Only Rusty is left from the herd of dogs, and they fight beside each other to the elevator.

  Charlie and Rusty tear through more zombies and reach the second elevator to the sub-basement. When they ultimately reach the corridor lined with dark glass, they’re tired and weak, but they’re not slowing.

  Past the tall, dark glass, Charlie sees the chair jamming the doors open to the elevator shaft. He knows it leads to the bunker and lab, and he allows himself a relaxed breath. Then, he takes off his blood-soaked, Army Combat Uniform’s top and rips it in half.

  Rusty stops near the massive zombie corpses near the elevator, sniffs the pool of blood they sit in, then bites into one of the bodies to feed.

  Charlie wraps the cloth from the shirt around his hands and is about to jump into the shaft to grab the cable, but then he looks down. I wonder how far down it goes… He pulls a flare from his pack, ignites it, and drops it down the shaft.

  It falls for a lot longer than he thought it would, and it finally hits the bottom.

  -thud-

  Wow, that’s deep.

  Then Charlie hears screaming coming from the bottom of the elevator shaft.

  “Damn it!” Enrique, still groggy but awoken by the pain of his own burning flesh, flails the only arm he can move at the flare and knocks it away from his leg.

  Charlie hollers down. “You okay down there? Who’s there?”

  Enrique pushes himself up and rolls himself to face away from the flare that blasted a hole in his left thigh. “It’s Enrique! Don’t drop anything on me!”

  Charlie closes his eyes and imagines the flare having burned a hole in the kids face. Cazzo! “I’m coming down!”

  “The cable isn’t smooth! Go slow!”

  Charlie can’t go slow, but he does go carefully. His strength allows him to climb down the cables, hand over hand, while his feet push against the bundle of cables and act like brakes. After what seems to him to be an eternity, he reaches the bottom. He drops himself off the cables beside Enrique and looks at him.

  Enrique’s shirt is now wrapped around the wound on his leg.

  “How bad is it?”

  Enrique tries to stand, but he is dizzy and weak.

  Charlie grabs him. “Easy there.”

  “It woke me up fast, but it’s not too bad. Maybe a half-inch deep, inch-wide circle. Cut my hand and hit my head, too. Also, I think my arm is broken.”

  “You’re one tough squire, aren’t you?”

  Enrique tries to laugh, but it turns into a groan with the pounding in his head.

  Charlie leans him onto the bundle of cables. “Hold this, I have to find the hatch.”

  Enrique points. “The latch is behind you. I found it while you were climbing.”

  Within fifteen seconds, Charlie rips the hatch open, drops down, catches Enrique, and helps him limp out of the elevator and into the massive facility. Charlie glances around to the many hallways on both sides.

  Enrique points to the ground. “Trail
of blood.”

  Charlie scans the hall. There are trails leading down hallways, then back, and the trails eventually grow thin and disappear. He frowns. “They must have looked for a while, but at least we won’t need to check the halls with double blood trails.” But that’s only a few out of...who knows how ma—

  -BANG!-

  Charlie jolts and twists to see what made the noise behind him, and he does without a thought of how the motion would torque Enrique’s body.

  Enrique was also stunned by the sound, but the pain from Charlie’s twist is too much, and he yelps.

  Behind them in the elevator, dust settles around Rusty, who stands up and shakes himself off. He coughs up a little blood and wheezes.

  When Enrique opens his eyes again, Rusty is trotting past and sniffing the ground. “How did—”

  Charlie lifts Enrique and turns to follow Rusty. “Come on, he’ll lead us straight to them. Trust me.”

  The hatred in Eddy’s eyes has never been more focused than it is right now, and it is completely directed at Michael. “SAVE HER? AFTER WHAT YOU DID HER?”

  Michael’s eyes dart between Eddy and Sadie.

  Sadie watches him while she assesses the situation. She sheaths her sword and folds her arms across her chest. She clears her throat. “Put your sword away, Leo.”

  What? Eddy squints at her, then he nods and puts his sword away. Why is she using my squire name—the one Dad gave me. Dad! That’s right, he’s coming! Eddy turns to Michael and puts his sword away. He tries to appear calm. “What did you do to...this girl?”

  Michael inches to the side—to where he set his backpack down while he removed June’s restraints—while keeping both his eyes peeled on Eddy and Sadie. “This is a very special girl; she’s going to change the world.”

  Sadie imagines the position of the swinging doors behind her, and she takes a step to allow a clear line of attack from them—when Charlie arrives—to Michael. “So you violated her? Mutilated her? What kind of sick—”

  “You don’t understand how important she is to us!” Michael motions to June’s body. “This may look ugly, but she didn’t feel a thing.”

  Eddy grinds his teeth and forces himself to not look at June. He watches Michael’s feet and studies his weight and how he shifts it.

  Sadie snorts. “I suppose that the ends justify the means then?” She tilts her head. “By the way, who’s us?”

  Michael squints.

  “You said, she’s important ‘to us,’ so, who is us? I assume Dr. Melgaard. I mean, this is his lab.”

  Michael inches toward his bag without answering.

  Eddy sees a ratchet strap’s buckle by Michael’s feet. It has blood on it. “Looks like there was a bit of a struggle.” He points to the ratchet strap. “She felt nothing?”

  Michael flushes but doesn’t respond.

  Eddy stares into his eyes and points at the unclosed surgery performed on June. “What did you cut out of her? Tell me!”

  Sadie swallows the lump from her throat; she knows what they took.

  Michael shoulders his backpack. He waves Eddy and Sadie to the side of the room while snarling at them in a shaky voice. “Do you want to live? Do you want to save her? Then move it!”

  Sadie studies his face, and she can tell that he’s afraid. Good. You should be. “No. I think you’re shitting yourself right now, and I’m done playing along until we get some answers…you coward! You fucking piece of shit!”

  He visibly quakes, either out of anger or fear, and he grips the detonator even tighter.

  Korina and Jambavan, on their mission to escort the vampire kids that are on the field trip to safety, navigate past the Pentagon Force Protection Agency blockades and the recently arrived military vehicles and personnel. When Korina gets to open road, she floors it.

  Jambavan looks at live traffic maps on his phone. “They’re going to have trouble getting out—it looks like downtown is gridlocked.”

  “They get out or we get to them. Either will be acceptable.”

  He scrolls the map to their path. “We’ve got traffic too—”

  She pulls around a corner and slams on the brakes. There’s no room to merge, and other cars are stopped in front of her.

  Jambavan puts his phone away. “What do we do?”

  She flips down the sun visor to block the cloudless day’s sunshine from her eyes. She looks out her windshield at car after car inching forward and then flashing brake lights. She rolls down her window and sticks her arm out, waving to another car to let her merge.

  They honk.

  She honks back and squeaks in.

  They hold down their horn.

  Jambavan turns to glance at the driver, who responds with an extended middle finger. Jambavan frowns and looks at Korina. She’s sweating—she’s nervous. “We’ll get to them; they’ll be okay.” He remembers something she used to say to him when he first started as her squire, and he grins.

  He places his hand on her shoulder. “Open eyes, open mind, breathe. Let the challenge of the moment become a triumph of the past.”

  She looks at him and exhales. “Very wise, well done.”

  When Rusty stops outside a set of doors and sits down, Charlie whispers to Enrique, “Quiet now.”

  He whispers back, “Leave me out here, I’m no use to you injured.”

  Charlie reluctantly nods, then helps him to the ground without making a sound. He starts creeping toward the doors, then remembers his battle-pack and sets it down too. Beside the doors, Charlie listens and grips the handle of Ketsueki Seishin.

  “You have to give us something if you want to walk out of here in one piece.”

  Sadie.

  “This is so much bigger than any of you, your lives are insignificant. Step aside.”

  Not Melgaard.

  “No! You said we could save her. Tell us how!”

  Eddy… Save her?

  Charlie throws the doors open and nearly off their hinges as he charges into the room. Eddy and Sadie twist their bodies out of Charlie’s way—clearing a path for him straight to Michael.

  Michael jumps back behind the gurney and shoves it toward Charlie, who glances at June long enough to see that she’s been ravaged. He looks back up and screams, “I WILL EAT YOUR HEART WHILE IT BEATS!”

  Michael shakes as he waves the detonator. “Stop! Or I swear I’ll blow us all to hell!”

  “Do it.” Charlie grabs the gurney and shoves it into Michael’s side. Behind Michael is the open hatch to the industrial incinerator.

  Michael buckles but holds his ground. “If I do, Dr. Melgaard gets away. Did you consider that?”

  Charlie snorts and looks at Sadie, then he notices Rusty prance in through the still-swinging doors. OH FUCK… He takes a step back and puts his arms up to the side—his right hand still holding the sword. “Now everybody, just take it easy.” He looks at Eddy.

  Eddy sees the fear on his face. “Dad?”

  Rusty jumps onto the gurney and sniffs at June. Blood clings to his muzzle; both from his last meal and from his internal injuries. With every breath, he wheezes blood into his nose, and it oozes from wounds in his mouth. He tilts his head when he sees June’s surgically opened abdomen.

  Sadie grabs onto Eddy’s shoulder and tugs him backward, toward the doors.

  Rusty licks at June’s dehydrated muscle, whimpers, shakes his head, then buries his snout into each of the cavities cut in her, fervently licking past his sharp teeth and bleeding into her wounds.

  Charlie motions to Michael and gets his attention. “Don’t. Move.”

  Michael laughs, switches which hand is holding the detonator, and then slaps Rusty off June. Instead of hearing the dog bang against the far wall, he feels amazing pain in his hand...and surprising weight. He looks out at his hand; Rusty has it in his mouth and is suspended from
it.

  Rusty crunches down and slices clean through the bones of his hand—severing off Michael’s thumb, the first two fingers, and a section of his palm.

  “AHH!”

  Rusty doesn’t drop to the ground after biting off Michael’s fingers. He snaps open his wings and flaps them, growling and bearing his bloody teeth. He doesn’t eat the fingers either; they drop like crumbs to the ground.

  Michael watches in shock—and then horror—as the bat-winged dog’s teeth grow longer and longer. The mouth grows larger, and the air rushing past him from the wings grows stronger and stronger.

  He looks at Charlie. “Help m—”

  Before he can finish his pathetic plea, Rusty lunges forward and bites off half of Michael’s neck, slicing through his wind-pipe, esophagus, and a quarter of his neck’s muscles and blood vessels.

  Michael jolts back and grabs at his neck with his half-hand and looks at Charlie. If he still had his vocal box, he would have screamed, but he doesn’t, so he can’t.

  Charlie stretches his free hand out to Michael. “Please!”

  Michael sees a shadow in the corner of his eye as Rusty shoots forward to attack again, and he pushes the button on the detonator.

  While news crews videotape the ongoing battle site topside, a series of explosions are felt, shaking the ground beneath them. Through his binoculars in the command tent, General Riley scans the building for any new breaches.

  Wren Riggs runs over to him. “General Riley, sir? What was that?”

  “Felt like a large, underground explosion to me.” He sets down his binoculars and picks up his radio. “All command units, report in. I want to know if we have any breaches. Over.”

  One by one, the reports come in that no additional openings in the Pentagon’s wall have developed.

  “Very good, continue operations. Riley out.”

  “Uh, sir?” Wren walks up to the general’s side.