“Dean, Claire, and I will look down here,” Val said. “You guys take the upstairs. Secure it and search it. We’ll meet down here in a few minutes.”
Our group searched every room, but we didn’t find anyone, undead or otherwise. The place was deserted, so quiet we could have heard a pin drop. Everything looked normal and in place.
We met Nick and Lucas in the lobby.
“Nothin’ out of the ordinary,” Lucas said.
“I didn’t see anything up there the last time I searched it either,” I said.
Nick motioned us to the corridor that led to the basement. We hurried down the stairs and glanced around.
I pointed to the room where I had previously thought I’d heard zombies. “That’s the place with the chickens, where I heard those growls.”
“There’s nothing in there,” Claire said.
“I say we check it out again,” Nick said.
Lucas nudged him. “Let Val and Dean check it out. The rest of us will head to the sister building. We need to get out of here as fast as possible.”
“All right,” Val said. “If none of us finds anything, I say we head over to the hospital lab.”
Nick nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Half of us will go with Nick,” the man said, “and the other half with Dean.”
Nick’s group ran down the dark corridor, their flashlights beams waving around in front of them.
Val had brought a bagful of gadgets in case we had to break in. She pulled out lock-cutters and snipped the lock right off.
I held my breath, pointed my gun, and opened the door. Chickens fluttered and clucked.
Val shined her light around until she found a lantern. The illuminated room was exactly as Claire described, nothing but plants and chicken cages everywhere.
“There’s nothing here,” one of the men said. “Let’s catch up to the others.”
“Yeah, this was a waste of time,” another answered. “Let’s go.”
The men left, and I could hear their footsteps echoing off down the corridor. As I looked around and listened, a thought hit me, and I was quite troubled by it.
“Dean,” Val said. “are you ready?”
I stopped at the door. “Little Ben told me he’s afraid to come into the basement. He said there are monsters.”
Val shrugged. “Little kids imagine things, Dean. I’m sure its worse nowadays, since they’ve all been caught in a living horror movie.”
“No, he specifically said the basement, and he seemed genuinely scared. Maybe he did see something down here. Besides, I know I heard zombie moans.”
She tapped her chin. “Well, if you’re that sure, maybe we’re overlooking something.”
“Let’s look it over one more time. Look for anything unusual.”
Val and I went back into the room and started feeling the walls. We had no idea what we were looking for, but when I moved the potted plants in the corner of the room, I found it: a hidden door with a padlock.
“Val! I need the lock-cutter.”
She hurried over and cut the lock. When the door creaked open, we were staring down at a set of stairs.
“Where do you think this leads to?” Val asked.
“Only one way to find out,” I answered, “or should we wait for the others?”
“Maybe it’s just for storage.”
“But what if it isn’t?” I retorted.
“Let’s go check it out,” she said.
Holding on to the wall, I climbed slowly down the five-foot wide, rickety stairs that creaked and groaned with every step I took. A little part of me wanted to run straight back to the others, but the curious part demanded that I keep descending into that darkness. About twenty feet down, there was a white, heavy, metal door.
“It’s locked,” Val said as she tried to open it.
I reached for the key card I borrowed from Charlie and swiped it. The door opened with a click. I noticed a narrow archway to the left, which I assumed to be a tunnel or tight corridor. There was a maze of corridors, and I had no idea which one to choose.
Chapter 29
Finally, our eyes adjusted to the dim light.
“What the heck is all this?” Val whispered, stunned.
I shined my flashlight into rooms filled with microscopes for analyzing samples, workstations, tables, shelves, and state-of-the-art equipment. “It’s a fully functioning research area,” I answered, staring down the dimly lit corridors. “They’re tapping into electricity down here.”
“While everyone upstairs is living like Little House on the Prairie, with no lighting or modern conveniences!”
I shined my light around. “Yeah, tell me about it. Clearly, they’re reserving all the power for whatever they’re doing down here. They’ve gotta have a generator down here.”
“Dean, I’ve got a feeling there’s way more to this lab than we thought possible,” she said. “Why didn’t they tell us? What do they have to hide?”
“It definitely makes me wonder,” I said. I held my flashlight up to a map encased in glass.
“There’s nobody down here,” Val said. “Let’s take a quick peek at A Block.”
“Make it fast,” I said.
“Lucas used more than a few Boy Scout knots on Charlie. He won’t be calling for backup anytime soon.”
“With our luck, somebody will come in and let him go.”
“Nobody’s coming in till morning,” she said. “I know how they operate. Besides, I’m not scared of those lab coats. If they give us any trouble, we’ve just gotta knock their bifocals off and steal their pocket protectors,” she joked. “C’mon.”
The girl had guts, and I was inspired by her curiosity and courage. Besides, I was also dying to know what was down there. “I bet they brought Jackie down here,” I said.
“And that’s why you found her ring in the hall. It makes sense. They put on a show for the women, buried another zombie, and had a fake funeral just to pacify everyone, us included. Meanwhile, they brought Jackie down here and…” Val said, respectfully ending her sentence there.
When I thought about it, my blood began to boil. I’d been deceived, just like the women who thought they were doing a good deed by saving Jackie’s body from experiments. I was sure the scientists would never waste a good opportunity to dissect their first hybrid. The thought made me sick. I couldn’t believe how cold, merciless, and heartless they were.
Val tried a door to one of the rooms, but it was locked. “Dean,” she said, nodding toward the keypad, “swipe that badge you took from Charlie.”
I slid the card through, and it reminded me of the hotel my parents and I had stayed in on our last vacation. The door clicked, then slid opened.
Val flashed her bright beam around. “It’s so dark in here.”
“Turn on the lights. They’ve got juice down here.”
“I can’t find the switch.”
I walked into a huge, empty room and flashed my light beam around, only to see something moving just to the right. When I turned, I saw shadows. I let out a trembling breath, whipped out my gun, and aimed.
Pointing her gun and flashlight, Val inched closer. “What is it?”
Halfway across the room, my fingers touched cold glass. There was a glass divider from ceiling to floor. I shined my flashlight in, and a face jumped at me, pounding the glass. My heart lurched. It was a hissing zombie with snapping jaws and tattered skin. More came and pounded on the glass with dead, bony fingers. There had to be at least a dozen of them.
Val’s face was suddenly etched with deep lines of shock and confusion. “They’re keeping test subjects down here! You were right, Dean! You did hear moaning!”
“They were looking for a cure before we even arrived,” I reasoned.
“Do you think they were down here when you guys stayed in this building?”
The thought terrified me. “I hope not.”
“Thank goodness I was safely across the street, even if it was in jail.”
>
“But why would they hide this? It is completely understandable to have live test subjects if they’re working on a cure.”
Val stared at their torn, ripped skin as they angrily pounded on the glass. “They’re giving me the creeps.”
“Yeah, me too. Let’s go.”
We hurried out and walked to the next room. I noticed a cart with gowns, surgical masks, and gloves. I didn’t know what kind of crazy viruses could be floating around. “If we’re going in, we should wear these.”
“Right,” Val said. “Always better safe than sorry.”
After we slipped into the gowns, Val entered the next room and flicked the lights on. I peeked in and was amazed to discover that there were cages of squealing, infected monkeys lining the walls; all of them had the same white, empty eyes, and I jumped back in shock when they reached out for me with their matted, furry little hands.
Without another word, we entered the next room, and I shuddered when I heard a growl. The gun shook in my hands. “Zombie,” I said.
Val turned the light switch on. “Nope.” She swept her beam across the cages. “Dogs.” Then she nudged me, and an angry look crossed her features. “Talk about animal cruelty!”
I stared at the canines’ white eyes, every breed from poodles to Rottweilers. Big and small, the ferocious Fidos were snarling, growling, and barking, with drool dripping from their hungry jaws. They all looked stark-raving mad, ready to devour any flesh they could sink their teeth into.
“Come on!” Val said. “I can’t be in here. It’s horrible.”
All the rooms held different species of infected animals, everything from rabbits to squirrels, rats, raccoons, and mice. Clearly, Block A was home to the contaminated animals, like some sort of psychotic Noah’s ark.
Val slammed the last door in anger. “They’re experimenting on animals.”
“So we don’t have an epidemic on our hands?” I said.
“It doesn’t mean it can’t spread to the entire population. There are infected animals running amok.”
“What if they collected the infected animals from the streets and brought them down here to study them?” I asked. “We brought them samples, but maybe that wasn’t enough, so they scoured the city for live test subjects.”
“I wouldn’t put that past them,” she said, “but there’s only one way to test that theory.”
“To keep looking?”
“Yep.”
We moved down the corridor, looking for any hints or clues that would tell us if the animals were captured or purposely infected.
“I need to see B Block,” Val said, studying the map on the huge directory once again.
We followed the corridors and pushed through a set of double-doors, only to be greeted by a long moan. My breath hitched in my throat, and I kept a study grip on my gun as I peered ahead. We continued through the research area and into Block B. “Should we go back?” I whispered.
“Don’t you wanna see what all the moaning’s about?” she asked.
“It’s pretty obvious that it’s a zombie,” I said. “I say we turn around and head back upstairs.”
Val pondered. “Let’s go get the others and show them this freak show.”
“Yeah. We’ve gone far enough alone.”
“Well, it was worth it,” she said. “I can’t wait to interrogate Charlie about this little zoo he’s got going on down here. Surely he knows something.”
“He has to,” I said, “and that really pisses me off. I’m sick of being lied to.”
As if the undead agreed with me, a faint moan echoed in the distance.
Chapter 30
I moved toward the moan and pointed to a door. “It’s coming from there.”
She aimed her gun. “Let’s check it out.”
“Why? We already know what it is,” I said.
“I want to see for myself,” she said.
I sighed and used Charlie’s keycard to open the door. I pointed my gun toward the darkness as bile rose up in my throat.
Val flicked the lights on. The shelf wall contained specimen jars with what looked to be human parts and vials of human tissue. There were also tanks in the room, some holding zombie heads and others filled with freaks of nature, like two-headed sharks. Some held eyeballs, snakes, and other creatures and parts of creatures that I couldn’t identify. There were glass containers, beakers, microscopes, syringes, forceps, and other chemistry hardware on the various lab tables.
Val gagged. “Is that a human foot?”
I glanced over at the tank holding a well-preserved human leg and gasped. “What is this?”
“Some crazy crap!”
“It’s like we’ve stepped into Dr. Frankenstein’s lab. Tell me I’m dreaming.”
“Not unless we’re sharing this nightmare, little brother. Let’s check out one more room,” Val said.
I followed her out of the room with my hands shaking. We knew A Block was for infected animals and B Block was the experimentation unit, but I was terrified to see what lay beyond that. My hands were shaking as Val flicked on the light in the next room.
There, we saw a body strapped on a table with a sheet over it, like something we’d see in a morgue. It wasn’t moving, so I could only assume it was a cadaver or possibly a dead zombie. For a moment, I feared it might be Jackie, and my heart began to thump wildly. “What is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
I inched closer and pulled the sheet off, scared to death of what I might find under that thin layer of fabric. A trickle of sweat ran down my back, and when I stared into the eyes of a familiar face, I gasped deeply. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Larry, the man who had helped run us off the bridge and tried to break into the lab with explosives, was lying there, with heavy leather straps buckled across his neck, wrists, and ankles. He was naked, and a long, stapled incision ran down the length of his abdomen. He flexed his arms and strained against the iron hold, but his bindings wouldn’t budge. Pearls of sweat shimmered on his pale face, and I couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under his eyes and sunken cheeks.
Val pulled the gag out of his mouth.
“Help me,” he whispered. “They’re crazy.”
“Who did this to you?” Val asked.
“Scientists. Lunatics! I-I don’t know they’re names. They just…I…it’s all a blur.”
Val touched his forehead to see if he had a fever. “What happened?”
“They captured us, that day we tried to break in. All I remember is a smoke bomb, gas. I passed out, then woke up down here. Then the experiments started. You’ve gotta help the others,” he whispered.
“Who?” I asked, cautiously unbuckling his restraints. He was so weak that I didn’t know if he could even walk, so I didn’t think he was much of a threat.
“Sam and some of the gang members we met up with. They captured us all. Threw in something to make us all pass out. We woke up in this nightmare.”
“Z’s gang wasn’t lying,” I said. “The men didn’t return because they’re being held here, like lab rats!”
“This is horrible,” Val said. “It doesn’t even seem possible…or real.”
I was horrified at how the world was falling apart without governments in place, without society and civilization and all the checks and balances that come with it. Kingsville was using zombie battles for entertainment, now humans were being treated like guinea pigs against their will. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t snatched me in the middle of the night. I was pretty sure Jonathon had spared us that fate only because I’d saved Steven’s life in the sewers. Our cooperation was the only thing standing between where we were and where Larry and the others were. The worst part was the absolute disregard for the value of human life. When one of the research subjects died, the uncaring, unremorseful scientists just moved their chop-shop operations to the next unfortunate man or woman. Survivors of the zombie apocalypse had far more to worry about than infected animals a
nd undead creatures. Now, they had to worry about the heartless monsters whose hearts were supposedly still beating.
“I lived here,” I said. “Why didn’t they do this to me?”
Larry fluttered his eyes open. “I once asked the lab idiots why they took me, and they said they’ll take anyone who crosses them, like they get to be judge and jury. I guess that helps ‘em sleep at night.”
“Let’s get you out of here,” Val said.
“Wait…you’re gonna help me? Even after what I did to you?”
“Can you walk?” she asked, ignoring his question.
“I think, but my legs are pretty numb from all the injections.”
For a minute, I actually felt bad for the guy. I couldn’t even imagine the unspeakable experiments they’d done on him.
Larry wiped the sweat away that was rolling down his forehead; clearly, he was burning up and likely running a fever. “I hate them!” he shouted, with anger and hate dripping from his voice. “They have no right to put people through hell like this!”
“You’re right, Larry,” Val said. “No one should be treated this way.”
I grabbed a hospital gown off the shelf and handed it to Val. I had no idea where Larry’s clothes were, so the backless gown was better than nothing.
She helped him slip into the thin cotton garment.
“I need to find Sam,” Larry said.
“We need to get out of here and find Nick first,” Val muttered. “I didn’t expect to find a house of horrors down here.”
“Sam’s in D Block,” Larry said. “That’s where they cage people up. I’m only over here because this wing contains all the medical rooms. This is the recovery room.”
“We’ll come back for him and the others,” I said.
“No! We can’t leave them!”
“Those people tried to kill me,” I said. “I think they can wait till I bring backup.”
“I promise you they won’t hurt you,” Larry said. “They just want out. You can be our knights in shining armor.”
Val’s eyes darted nervously around. “I don’t know where D Block is.”
“I can show you,” he said. “It’s not far. They can’t handle another evil experiment.”
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 6 - Revelation (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 19