When we arrived at the junction of hallways, I looked both ways as I took another deep breath. My boots echoed as I took slow, cautious footsteps. I gagged at the smell of blood and death, a ragged stench that assaulted my nostrils. Blood was splattered on the wall, and dead corpses littered the floors. My hands began to tremble, but I knew I had to keep it together.
Asia sucked in a deep breath, and Kate cupped her mouth in horror.
I recognized one of the women, as she’d been with the posse of escapees earlier. Her white eyes fluttered open as she started to resurrect, and the other dead people around her began grotesquely twitching and grunting. I smacked some with my pipe, and the girls cold-cocked the others with their pots and pans, like a couple of pissed-off housewives on a zombie-bashing rampage.
“Dean!” Kate whispered with a gasp, pointing at the floor.
My nose and forehead wrinkled up when I glanced down and saw that I was standing in a huge puddle of fresh human blood. I shined my beam all around me and gasped when I realized I was surrounded by sticky, wet, brownish-crimson ooze. There were blood trails on the linoleum, as if bodies had been dragged across it like prey. The bloody footsteps led into one of the rooms to the left, but I figured there was no use going to investigate. From the looks of it, no one had survived the attack.
“There’s a severed hand!” Kate whispered mortified. “Oh my gosh! I don’t want to die like that.”
I looked down at the hand and saw that two fingers had been gnawed off. It took everything I had not to throw up. Without saying a word, I motioned the girls forward down the long corridor.
A bone-chilling, bloodcurdling wail, followed by animalistic screams, stopped me in my tracks, the most disturbing sound I’d ever heard. We decided to turn and go down a different hallway, but there didn’t seem to be any escape from the hell we’d inadvertently walked right into. A long moan in the distance made my heart race, and the human screams that followed it didn’t do anything to soothe me.
“It’s like we’ve been thrown into the lake of fire,” Kate said, panting.
Asia motioned her to be quiet.
Suddenly, silence filled the air—an ominous, deafening silence, so quiet that the proverbial pin drop would have sounded like an atom bomb.
My blood grew cold when I realized that the shrill, terrified screams had stopped abruptly. I swallowed hard, trying to moisten my parched throat, realizing that the survivors were now dead.
After we walked a little farther, Asia stopped. “We’re going around in circles,” she whispered. “I just saw this room. I remember the broken window.”
Swallowing my fear, I motioned them in a different direction. From the next hall, I could hear snarling and growling. My eyes flitted back and forth, searching the dim corridors for anything that might attack. The flashlight beam wavered as my hands shook. When the deathly quiet returned, I assumed the animals had wandered off in search of other prey. I should have been relieved, if only a little, but I wasn’t. At that point, nothing could calm the terror raging inside of me.
Shuffling footsteps startled me, and I glanced up ahead and saw about a dozen shadows stumbling in our direction. I could make out ten distinctive shapes in the dim light, the silhouettes of zombies, and my head began to throb. We were still carrying the dead ones, so I assumed we were safe, but then I heard one of them talk in a raspy, throaty voice. I couldn’t make out what it was saying, but the voice had a familiarity to it; it reminded me of Howard, when he’d changed. I pulled Kate behind the pillar. “They’re hybrids,” I whispered, “decaying evil with minds…and we don’t have the firepower to kill ‘em. I’m not sure a skillet and a kettle and an iron pipe are gonna do much good.”
Chapter 33
“You wanna take on that army or what?” Asia whispered.
They were so hungry, so desperate for a meal, and I knew that meal was going to be us. “No way!” I said, my breath hitching in my fear-constricted throat.
“Then we’d better hide,” Kate said, “and quick!”
My fingers curled around the cold steel of my pipe as I motioned the girls toward one of the rooms. After a courageous breath, I flicked on the light switch and scanned our surroundings. It was just an empty room full of computers, with no zombies, no hybrids, and no infected animals.
“It’s clear!” Asia said softly.
Growls and heavy footsteps rumbled through the air, and my muscles quivered. I knew they were coming.
“Turn it off!” Kate whispered. “Hide!”
Inhaling sharply, I flicked the light switch off, and we took cover behind an overturned table. We didn’t say a word or even dare to breathe as we sat tensely, side by side. I could hear their shambling limps and dead moans as they came closer. Droplets of sweat rolled down my face, and I closed my eyes tightly, my shaking fingers clenched around my pipe. Panic gripped me, and terror charged through my body as their footsteps pounded ever forward, powered by bloodlust. I froze at the sound of their voices and shuffling gait, and the sound of their hissing growls and muffled voices made my hands shake. I could make out a word or two, and one of them said, simply, “Hungry.”
I was pretty sure they hadn’t seen us, but there were no guarantees. For all we knew, they were intelligent enough to realize that we’d been hiding from them in that break room. I didn’t even want to imagine a zombie hybrid savagely biting into my flesh, telling me how good I tasted, so I shook the horrible thought out of my head. I’d been tormented long enough by those vile corpses, and I wanted nothing more than to get out of the frightening laboratory. I exhaled deeply as Asia gripped my hand tightly, and I closed my eyes as she tried to rub away the icy chill on my skin. Seconds began to feel like hours. Breathe, I thought.
I couldn’t help wondering about the other survivors, if any were left at all. I hoped if they were, they’d found a suitable hiding place. Against all odds, I hoped we were not the only living humans in the place.
Suddenly, I heard a scratching sound. When I heard it again, I knew we weren’t alone. I had no idea who or what was keeping us company in there, and I hoped it was only my imagination. That theory was quickly smashed when something crashed to the floor. Again I froze, and this time, I couldn’t breathe at all. Whatever had caused the collision, it was going to draw attention to us. Fortunately, the hybrids had quickly passed by. With that thought in mind, I gripped my pipe and stood slowly.
When it grew quiet, Kate dared a look before I could warn her. “They’re gone,” she whispered from the doorway.
“Kate, watch out!” I said. “Something is in here with us.”
There was a low growl that silenced both of us.
As Kate turned on the light, I prepared to swing, and every muscle stiffened. A zombified white cat jumped past me, carrying a huge rat in its mouth. Its tail swished, and it darted out the door.
Kate jumped back. “Whew. Just a kitty,”
“Just as dangerous,” Asia said.
She nodded. “Yeah. We’re just lucky it was preoccupied with that rat.”
I held the pipe tightly and glanced around in both directions, shining my light. Swallowing hard, I forced my voice to stay steady and brave. “Let’s go!” After a million cautious steps, I glanced around and knew we were definitely lost. I’d never felt so frightened. “We should be by the elevators by now,” I whispered.
“Let’s backtrack and turn left down that one hall by the huge office,” Kate suggested.
I nodded, and we turned around.
“I don’t hear them,” Kate said. “Maybe this is a better way to go.”
“There’s no good way to go,” Asia retorted.
“Yeah, they’re here,” I said. “You can count on that. So don’t let your guard down for one minute.”
Right on cue, an inhuman shriek pierced the air. I froze in my tracks again and stared straight ahead. The noise was coming from the room directly in front of us, to the left. Holding my breath, I quickly passed by the room, not daring to look in.
My pace quickened, and I hurried down the corridor as fast as my legs would carry me.
When we rounded the corner, Asia shined the light.
In an instant, I found myself staring into half a dozen glowing, white eyes. Evil lurked behind their dead, rotting faces.
“Get them,” a shrill, dead voice commanded.
I bolted down the corridor, swinging my flashlight beam back and forth around the curvy, twisting, turning passages. With the girls right behind me, I came to a fork in the corridor. To the left, body parts lay strewn in a huge puddle of blood. I didn’t want to step through the lake of blood. We hurriedly decided to go right, but that only led us to a dead end littered with half eaten, bloody, mutilated corpses. Their heads had been chopped off and I had no idea why. Maybe the hybrids didn’t want to share their food with the regular zombies. Because those people they just massacred would reanimate and compete for the little food that was left. It was then that I realized those people had met the same fate we were about to meet.
“Those slimy jerks intentionally herded us over here!” Asia said.
“Oh my gosh! We’re trapped!” Kate gasped between breaths
The feeling of dread and inescapable doom lingered in my mind. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to go, and no guns to shoot their brains out with. Still, I refused to be eaten alive. I held up my pipe, determined to kill every single one of them. I refused to die without one heck of a fight. “Come and get it, you decaying freaks!” I yelled.
A hybrid with a lipless mouth let out a hiss. I locked eyes with the ghastly creature, then attacked it with my bludgeoning tool, crushing its skull with a loud crunch. Adrenaline flooded through me as I fought; I refused to let one of the monsters infect or kill me because I had no intention of dying in the underbelly of that fiendish lab. I intended to kill any undead thing that got in my path—or die trying.
Another zombie came at me with a loud screech. One eye was hollowed out, and its nose was missing entirely. There wasn’t an inch of undisturbed skin anywhere on its body, and it kept grinding its horse-like teeth. I slammed it to the ground, but another one came at me at the same time. I saw nothing but snapping jaws and sharp, jagged teeth. With lightning reflexes, I snapped its neck, then smashed its skull with my pipe until it was nothing but a lifeless pile of bones. By that time, the one I’d knocked down before was starting to stumble up. I rammed it into the wall, then shattered its teeth and crushed its windpipe.
“Watch out!” Kate yelled.
Gasping and dripping with sweat, I spun around just as a hybrid with a sore-infested scalp lunged at me, knocking my own pipe into my head. Pain exploded instantly, and blood began to gush from the crude laceration above my eye, but I blinked it away and fought. Its mangled fingers squeezed the pipe, trying to strangle me with it. After a moment, everything blurred, and I began to see spots.
A second later, Kate began pounding on its knees, and it finally collapsed to the floor with a moan. Still, its bony fingers wrapped around my ankle, but I finished it off with a brutal blow to the head.
When I positioned myself to take a few more of them down, Asia grabbed my arm. “We got the rest of them,” she said, sucking air through her teeth. “Let’s keep moving.”
Kate was panting, and she rested her head on her thighs and shook her head. “This is too horrifying.”
“Just don’t look,” I breathed out.
Cocking a brow, she glared up at me. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine.” I wiped my sleeve over my eye. It was really just a flesh wound, nothing compared to what was coming if we didn’t get out of there in a hurry.
Her voice wavered. “Were you scratched or bitten?”
“No,” I said. “It got me with my pipe.” I let out a long breath, and my lips trembled as I stared down at more dead, deformed bodies ripped to shreds. I fought the urge to throw up, and I knew the nightmarish carnage would be forever burned into my mind. Stephen King might have been the so-called “Master of Horror,” but nothing he’d ever written nor anything he could would have been as horrific as what I was witnessing with my very own eyes, ears, and nose. It simply couldn’t be captured in words on a page.
Kate desperately gazed into my eyes. “I’ve had enough of this gruesome little house party. I’d rather face the zombies out there than the smart ones down here. We’ve gotta get to that elevator.”
“There are too many hybrids,” I said, and the realization was one of the most unsettling in my lifetime. “How long can we really keep bashing their heads in and outwitting them? Sooner or later, they’re gonna—”
“Keep it together, Dean,” Asia scolded, stepping around the twisted bodies.
Meeting her gaze, I nodded, but the sweat rolling down her face wasn’t lost on me; she was just as terrified as I was about our descent into madness.
“Just remember,” she said, looking at me and then Kate, “we’re tough as nails.”
After a deep breath and taking a moment to calm down and console each other, we started creeping down the corridor again. My eyes widened at the haunting moans of death that were far too close for comfort. In that environment of uncertainty and fear, I broke out in a cold sweat. Kate pulled me along, though, and we soon broke into a run. Like me, the girls just wanted out of the nightmare once and for all.
Another shriek was followed by a moaning howl. Asia’s eyes widened, and my knees began to tremble like they were made of spaghetti. I was completely and utterly terrified, and she could tell, because she grabbed my arm and gently nudged me along. I waved the flashlight beam back in forth in front of us, trying to keep an eye out for anything that might be dangerous or try to ambush us. More human screams amplified in the hollow halls, so we picked up speed and sprinted down that corridor, our shoes echoing on the floor as we ran.
When we turned the corner, Asia stopped mid-step. “Hold on. I know where we are,” she said. “Turn left.”
Loud chattering filled the air, and I shot Kate and Asia a look. “It’s those lab monkeys!” I said.
“They ripped that woman’s neck out!” Asia said.
“You’re right,” Kate said. “We’d better hide.” She started to walk to a door, but Asia suddenly pushed her back.
“Any door but that one,” she said, pointing down.
Kate gasped, and I shuddered at the pool of crimson liquid running from under the door. I wasn’t sure what was on the other side, but I had no desire to find out. I hurried down the hall and chose a random room on the left, holding my pipe back, ready to whack anything that came at me. When I flicked the lights on, my jaw dropped.
A patient was lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. There was a sheet over his or her head, and blood was splashed on it. The torso had been gutted, and three rotting, dried-out corpses were feasting on the person. Nausea swept over me as the hybrids began pulling organs from the patient’s gut, leaving intestines and tissue and cartilage hanging from the table in gruesome strands.
One of the monsters looked at me but then returned its focus to its meal.
Another hybrid glanced up and sneered. “We’re full,” it said in a raspy voice. “This is our fourth kill. But you better run before I change my mind and decide I want dessert.”
“Isn’t she nice?” the other hybrid asked with a twisted laugh. “She’s not really letting you go. She just wants to share with our hungry friends.”
“We’ve given you another hour to live. Enjoy it.”
Another hybrid that looked more skeletal than zombie held out its putrid hands. Its revealed heart made me want to throw up.
I backed up slowly, so as not to spook or anger the decaying freaks.
“See?” it said, meeting my gaze. “I do have a heart.”
Kate grabbed my shoulder. “C’mon! We’re safe. The monkeys changed directions!” she yelled.
But I knew we were definitely not safe. There was nothing we could do to help the dead person on the table, and we didn’t want to take on the hybrids
without suitable weapons. With my own heart pounding in my chest, I charged down the hall.
When we were far enough away, we heard strange, chattering sounds. I froze and motioned for the girls to stop. Kate stared up at me, her eyes wide and terrified, and I motioned for us to try a different way.
As we walked, I heard more muffled screams in the distance. Grunts and heavy breathing alerted me to the dangers lurking ahead. Kate bit her knuckles to stifle a scream, as if she knew something dark and sinister was waiting for us. Shambling footsteps moved toward us, and I gripped my weapon tightly. My heart started to pound, drowning out the rest of the noise. I bit my lip hard, my nerves running into overdrive.
Something thumped and banged down one of the halls. A piercing shriek was followed by a bloodcurdling scream. My breathing became ragged, and I was struggling to keep it together.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my racing heart. Once I had a grip on my fear, I swiftly walked down the corridor.
The next bloodcurdling scream was followed by more banging.
Again I froze and motioned for us to try a different way, hoping to avoid running into whatever was banging on the walls.
Kate’s lips trembled, and she started to speak, but Asia hissed at her, telling her to be quiet. She knew we couldn’t risk them hearing us and tracking us down. We had to remain inconspicuous, silent, and out of sight. It was essential to keep moving, but we also had to stay hidden in the shadows. Every instinct in me told me I was a dead man, but I refused to cave in to that conclusion. I’d fight to my very last breath and somehow escape my presumed fate. I refused to be defenseless prey.
I lost count of how many times we changed directions, but we had to; taking on a horde of those things without a weapon was beyond dangerous. If we fought with the animals or the zombies, we risked being scratched or bitten. Shining my flashlight into the gloom, I focused on every single step we took.
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 6 - Revelation (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 22