Level Six

by Dean, Jane

  "You're right. Fascinating." Paula moved back to the cage to get a better look.

  "Paula. You should get out of there. I don’t have a good feeling."

  "Wait I want to get a look. Maybe the Professor got the vaccine right. But why her? What makes her different from the others?"

  "Paula!" Will yelled. She turned and a small disfigured monkey landed on her suit and clawed her face covering off, scratching her badly. Will could see that its face had been torn away on one side and it looked back at Will through filmy grey eyes.

  * * *

  Ursa inched the lid open slightly and looked to the entrance where the man had been shot. He lay close, she guessed about 20 feet from where she crouched hidden. Her mouth was dry as she tried to swallow. "You stay here, I'll go see if there's help out on the street. The police must be here by now," she said to the woman in the darkness. She took a last look outside and let the lid slip from her sweaty palms and closed shut on her finger. Ursa screamed slightly and slapped her hand over her mouth. She could feel the heat of the woman close to her arm as she shifted. "You're up. Good. Do you think you can climb out? We've got to get to some help. I don't hear any shots now." She slid her hands into the crack of the lid as a moan sounded next to her ear. She opened the lid enough to see the same grey skin she'd seen on the man who had just had his brains blown out.

  The woman started to snap her teeth at her and Ursa struggled against her grip and used the strength in her legs to push the woman back but not before teeth sank deep into her knee, pulling at the top layer of skin. Ursa shook the woman free and jumped out of the dumpster. The lid crashed down on the woman's head cracking her skull and leaving her lifeless.

  * * *

  Professor Myers was pouring his coffee into a large travel mug. He spilled some of the contents onto the counter next to his cell phone and noticed that there was a message waiting for him. He picked up the phone quickly hit the redial button. "Ursa?" He could hear screaming on the end of the line. "Ursa!"

  "No Professor, it's Will at the lab." Will’s voice sounded unsteady.

  "Will." The professor set the coffee pot down on the counter and held the phone closer to his ear. "What's going on?"

  "Professor, we have a situation here."

  "What's wrong?"

  "It's the primates. They've escaped. They're attacking…!" The professor could hear screams on the other end of the line.

  "What do you mean they've escaped?" The professor grabbed up his brief case and stuffed some papers into the opening.

  "I'll be right there. Get the gun. Shoot as many as you can!"

  "Should we call the police professor? They've killed Paula. There's a lot of blood here. They could be on the street by now."

  "Paula?" The professor's voice trailed off. "No. Don't call anyone. Do as I say and kill as many as you can. Don't let them escape. Collect my notes in a box and get ready to leave. We're looking at something worse than a bunch of rampaging monkeys." The professor knocked over his coffee, grabbed his keys and rushed out of the house. "Download my files and make sure you have no contact with the diseased animals."

  The professor could hear screams and drawers being opened and closed. "The gun. Where's the gun?" Will yelled.

  "In the top drawer under the papers. Don't let them get out!"

  "I found it."

  "Stay on the line. "I'll be right there. Were any of the monkeys unaffected?"

  "I'm heading outside Professor. Yes, there was one that hadn’t gone crazy, but she doesn’t look right."

  "We should take her with us. Collect all the Thantos. I'll be right there." The professor dropped his phone as his car veered into his lane. He watched as a small grotesque creature chewed on the driver's face. He pulled up onto the curb next to the University, picked up his case and ran on foot the rest of the way to the lab. His phone was shaking in his hand as he hit a speed dial button.

  A loud voice answered the call, "Yes."

  "It’s Professor Myers. I’m at my lab. We’re ready to get to Level 6.”

  "We'll be right there. Make sure you're ready. Do you require backup?"

  "Yes. I don't know if the outbreak can be contained. You need to get out to Vancouver to collect my son and daughter." Dr. Myers ran down the sidewalk knocking students to the ground.

  “I have instruction to collect only necessary personnel Professor. The outbreak began last night. We’ll send a helicopter to take you from the roof.”

  FOUR

  Ursa put a hand over her knee to stop the trickle of blood and wondered why the woman bit her. She crawled to the alley entrance and tried not to wretch at the sight of the headless man lying in the middle of the lane. Keeping low and out of sight as much as she could, she peered out into the street. Army vehicles and soldiers stood and surveyed the area. One hoisted a gun up to his shoulder and shot a woman who hobbled toward him. Oh my god, she thought. People have gone insane. She lay flat and kept still.

  She continued to keep her head down and felt the world turn grey and distorted.

  She began to dream about the time she started running the trails around her house. Every week she would run farther. Her father had left the day before she decided to run. Her mother worried about Ursa being confronted by some deranged man in the woods. But this day was different. Her mother had stayed in her room for hours. Although she was warned to stay close to the house, Ursa took an unfamiliar path up a slippery slope and turned her ankle sharply. She lay flat in the sun and remembered throwing up the toast she'd had before leaving that morning. The sun took its time in the sky as Ursa lay for a long time, waiting for someone to come help her. Hours past, but no one came. She thought about the long walk back home and waited.

  She was snapped out of the dream as a shot fired near her. She opened her eyes and was back in the alley the headless man was still in front of her. The soldiers continued shooting people. Screams mingled with smells and explosions. She pushed her body back into the shadows. A slow cold feeling crept up her spine. It moved into her neck and began to tingle, like small shards of glass, and moved through her veins to spread into her brain. She grabbed her head from the pain. The shards were exploding and it felt like her brain was being shredded. She opened her eyes to see another lifeless man slump next to her. A bullet hit him in the neck and he was flung back to land a foot away from her. Through the fog in her mind she could see a line of army vehicles drive by. Instinctively, she reached out an arm along the sidewalk and tried to call for help.

  She dropped her hand when armed men began shooting into groups of people. A cloud moved briefly to reveal the sun and the shock of light hitting her retina caused her to shudder and retch. A large vehicle at the end of the convoy picked up people who ran to catch up with it. The truck carrying armed men and civilians slowed only slightly to grab the arms of people and haul them into the bed of the truck. One soldier kept a steady stream of bullets firing into the heads of what looked like innocent people. Ursa raised her arm slightly. The armed man looked to her and shot in her direction. The bullet hit the wall behind her and she lay her head back down. Broken bits of red brick rained down hitting her cheek and causing her to cough but she hardly felt the hard rock hitting her head as pain coursed through her body. She relaxed all her tense muscles and the world went black.

  * * *

  The Professor and Will stood on either side of the small table in the conference room outside the lab. Dr. Myers glanced at Paula's body through the blood smeared window and focused back on the small primate sitting in her cage in front of them. Will had had to move quickly after waiting for the deranged monkey to leave through the ceiling after killing Paula. The cage, when he got into the room, and stepped over pieces of his lab mate, was awkward to handle. He tried not to rush while showering back out of the room. He fought an instinct to room from the building. The monkey had remained calm through the procedure and waited patiently while Will quickly cleaned up and returned to the conference room with her.

&nb
sp; "What's wrong doctor? She's not stable. She's changed. Is it taking longer for her to mutate into one of those things?"

  "No." The doctor said abruptly and looked over at Paula again. Will glanced at her and a small movement made him pause and look back. Her head moved slightly to the side.

  "She's still alive. We should do something." Will said.

  "No Will." The doctor grabbed the top of his arm. 'It's too late for her. Focus." The Professor moved a light into the monkey's eyes. "We'll take this her with us."

  "Take her where? Where are we going?" The doctor placed vials and paperwork into a case. "What about Paula?" Will looked over and couldn't see Paula lying on the floor. He ran to the window.

  "Will. Leave her!" Paula threw her body against the glass. Her head cracked against the surface and her teeth gnashed together as she tried to reach for Will.

  "Oh my god! What's going on?"

  "Will, bring all the Thantos. Quickly." Will fumbled to open the lab fridge and withdrew vials of blue liquid that shook in his hands. "Be careful with that. We can't afford to lose any."

  The monkey lying on the table screamed out and its eyes rolled back into its head. "I was afraid this might happen." The doctor's hand shook slightly as he pulled the liquid from a vial labeled Thantos 1 into a syringe. "She's going to need a booster. One dose isn't enough." Two armed military personnel ran into the room.

  "Doctor, are you ready to go? We've got the helicopter waiting."

  "Have they found them all?" The doctor continued to add material to his case and helped Will to load the vials into a separate metal case lined with foam.

  "Yes. We've disposed of them but the situation isn't good." Paula hit against the window. One of the men raised a gun to shoot her.

  "Leave her. She can't get out." The doctor took a quick look at the woman in the window and closed the case. "Will. It's time to go. We're going to try to save as many people as we can. I'll explain what's happening on the way."

  * * *

  Marshall nosed his cab around blocked lanes to avoid hordes of running people. Some were mutilated and ran or hobbled back and forth out in front of the car. Marshall turned onto a stretch of road that wasn't covered in debris or runners and snapped on the radio. "A frozen vial of a deadly virus is missing from a bio terror lab in Atlanta. Officials report that the vial may have been destroyed during cleaning, but at this point they're not sure. We have reports that the virus is a genetically mutated strain symptoms similar to Ebola. The lab says it's highly unlikely it was stolen." Marshall snapped the radio off.

  "I think it was stolen." Marshall said under his breath and steered to avoid a staggering man with a missing arm.

  ***

  Ursa opened her eyes slowly. It was dark out. She couldn't see anything in the shadows clearly. She put her hand up to her nose to block out the smells that assailed her. She tried to hold her breath but was forced to breath after a short time. She kept very still and moved her eyes to see if anyone was close. She didn’t feel like attacking anyone and was surprised that the military hadn’t shot her. Her vision cleared and she was able to scan down the sidewalk to the street to where hundreds of bodies lay, shot or partially eaten earlier. A few people jerked and shuffled their way through the corpses. Moving her limbs slowly, she couldn't feel any broken bones or major damage.

  She continued to scan the road as she rose to a sitting position. Vertigo overtook her and she lay back down to wait for the world to stop spinning. From here she could see pools of blood and what looked like body parts and clothing. She took a deep breath feeling dizzy and confused. She could smell things she could only define as colors. It was like sensing wisps of purple, green and black.

  One particular color that reached her made her afraid. It triggered adrenaline to course through her body and she had to fight the urge to run. The smells became like a deafening noise. She pushed her body back into the shadows and checked the bite on her knee. It wasn't bleeding. The skin around the knee was burning and raised red. Through the jumble of smells she thought she could hear a scuffle like a mouse and looked up across the street. She couldn't make out any movement until a small arm moved within her sight line. She could see from a distance about two block away a small body crawling slowly down the sidewalk.

  Edging her way along the store fronts along the sidewalk, the little girl was slowly approaching Ursa's position. The girl’s small movements hadn't made enough noise to attract the attention of anyone living or dead. The street was quiet now except for a slight breeze that blew paper under the dull glow of the street lights. A slight shuffling sound came from out of a side street. A woman ran then struggled with what looked like a man about ten feet from the little girl's position. The woman was torn apart, her screams faded and as Ursa watched she seemed to come back to life and tried to stand.

  Another shuffling sound behind Ursa quickened and a man moaned and ran by her to throw himself and the now bloodied lady who was still trying to stand. Her body hit the wall next to the little girl. Her head cracked the glass of the little flower shop and the little girl crouched low into a fetal position behind a large plant pot unseen. Ursa wrinkled her nose at the new smell of blood that gradually drifted to her and then melded into the other intense smells. She didn't move and kept her eyes on the tiny outline of the child. The little girl turned her head to look in the other direction and her shoulders started to follow.

  Don't move. Ursa thought. The little girl stopped and crouched down again making herself small. The two men seemed to finish chewing on the woman who lay half eaten on the street and stood together moving toward the little girl's position. Ursa assumed that they hadn't spotted her because their pace was slow. The horribly mangled woman rose on one leg from her prone position. One arm was only attached by a small piece of skin and it eventually fell to the ground with a thump next to the girl. The dead woman tilted her face up in the air and hobbled behind the others under the street light.

  Ursa kept watch on the shadow of the flower pot where the little girl hid. Her small head emerged every few seconds to look over the lip of the pot. Ursa closed her eyes and considered leaving, running into the shadows and looking for Callum. She opened her eyes to look at the girl again. An intense butterfly sensation crept through her stomach.

  She swallowed hard and decided that she'd have to get to the little girl before one of the dead people did. She waited a few moments, scanned the area and ran directly across the street bent low and moving as quickly as she could with the pain of the skin opening over her knee cap. Her racing flats made her steps almost silent as she reached the window ledge of a store. Ursa caught movement from the corner of her eye. It was a man, grey-skinned and impossibly pulling what was left of his body from beneath a car.

  She was sure he was staring right at her and sat as still as possible. She looked slowly down the length of the wall to where the little girl lay huddled and wondered how fast she could run with the child. If she struggled, Ursa feared she'd have to leave her if they were attacked. She looked back at the man who had pulled himself free from under the rolled car. He was using his hands to drag his body across the street toward the curb. Another biter walked over him and stepped on his head pushing to into the asphalt and continued walking blindly. He lifted his face showing missing teeth from his gaping mouth. Brown ooze now covered his nose to his chin. He was clawing up the curb. His eyes never wavering from Ursa's face - his mouth continued to open and close.

  A fecal smell from the man reached her nose making her eyes water. She could see the ragged flesh from where his legs had been as he pulled himself over the curb and up onto the sidewalk. Ursa's hand shook as she pulled her hair from her eyes to look in the direction of the little girl. She fought back the urge to vomit and pulled herself up slowly still watching the man.

  * * *

  After the Professor injected the small monkey sitting quietly on the conference room table, he brushed her fur back slightly. "You're okay now Sally." Her breathing
became easier. Will hesitated before putting the syringe into the waste and watched the monkey look with understanding at the Professor. He was sure she had nodded. She moved her eyes to look at Will and then climbed into the carrying cage sitting nearby.

  "Time to go Professor." The military men took the cases the Dr. Myers handed to them. With guns drawn they ran through the University hallways. Will ran panting to catch up. His gait was awkward as he balanced the primates' cage against his leg. The turned to take the stairs to the main floor.

  "What's wrong with the elevators?" he yelled out. He pressed his baseball cap onto his head and gripped the handle on the animal carrier tighter.

  "We had to take them out. The monkeys were crawling up through the shafts. Keep up,” said the last military officer who impatiently motioned Will through the open door. “Move move move!” he yelled into Will’s ear.

  Will wiped the sweat out of his eyes with the back of his hand. "You okay girl?" The small monkey clasped her hands around the bars and pressed her nose up to sniff the air. Will looked back to see the officer behind him open fire on the door way.

  "Go. Go. Don't stop. We've got to take off." Will saw the Professor jump in the waiting helicopter and shifted the weight of the cage up to his chest, before taking the hand of one of the pilots and jumping in. The officer running behind them jumped in at the same time. Will was slow to take a seat and was pushed down and lost his balance with the cage.

  The sound of bullets was deafening. He realized why the man had moved so quickly. Five monkeys some missing arms with ripped flesh were moving quickly across the grass toward them. He was horrified to see the disfigured animals. He clutched the cage closer to his chest and held his breath as the helicopter lifted off. There were still gunshots as they lifted into the air. Will climbed into a seat and fumbled with the seat belt trying to balance the cage on his knees. The monkey inside was still quiet, pressing her face against the bars to look out the open door to the helicopter. Will screamed as a monkey dropped onto the front window and clung there. Its eyes looked dead and glossy. The pilot jerked up on the control causing the helicopter to pitch to the right. The officer with the gun flew out the open door and down to the street below.