Dead Strain

by Giesler, W. A.

  CHAPTER 16 – DOCTOR MUNROE

  Hobart slowly pushed the door open when a shot rang out, and the door near his head ripped apart from the impact of the bullet. Dropping to a knee, Hobart pushed the door further open as he stepped to the side, "Don't shoot; we aren't one of those things," he called out.

  "Don't come in here. If you come in, I will shoot you," a nervous male voice replied.

  "Listen, whoever you are, my name is Sheriff TimothyHobart, and I have three others with me. The military sent us here to find out what happened and see if there is a way of stopping the spread."

  A long pause came from the person hiding inside the room. Several seconds later, "Alright, one at a time come through the door so I can see that you are not infected, but no guns. I will shoot if I see a gun."

  Sara inched close to Hobart, "Send me in first. It may help if he sees a girl first."

  Hesitating for a moment, he tried to find fault in her logic, but she had made a valid point. Finally agreeing with her, he took her sidearm and moved out of the way. "Here comes the first of us; don't shoot," he called into the room.

  Standing up she took a deep breath and stepped in through the door. "My name is Sara, and I'm unarmed."

  "Stop there, and put your hands up high," the man yelled. Turning on a bright light, he shined it on Sara moving from head to toe, and once he was satisfied she was unarmed and free of the infection, "Move off to the side, and keep your hands where I can see them." Keeping a close eye on her, he called out to the other, "Alright, next one come in."

  Connor set down his pistol and started to climb to his feet until Jameson grabbed his shirt pulling him back down. "What the hell!"

  "I'm going next," he said climbing to his feet. Stepping up to the door he pushed his sidearm into the back of his pants and pulled his shirt over it. "We don't know what that guy may have wrong with him, so I might need this," patting the pistol hidden under his shirt.

  Jameson stepped inside. Looking over at Sara, seeing the relieved look on her face as he moved next to her, he said, "Hey, mister, we are all uninfected. We just want to find out what happened here."

  "Shut it, kid, I'm not taking any chances here," he yelled back while turning the light on Jameson.

  Squinting against the bright light on the far end of the room, Jameson was able to make out the shadow of the man and wondered if he would be able to get an accurate shot off if needed. "My name is Jameson, and this is Sara. What do we call you?"

  Ignoring the question the man yelled out, "Next."

  Connor stood, "He had a good idea with this," he whispered to Hobart as he slid his pistol into the back of his jeans. "Here we go."

  Just as Connor moved up to the open door the two men heard an odd sound from the far end of the hallway. A loud hissing groan broke the silence, and both men turned to see a horrifying sight. The creature before them was vastly different from the others. "What the hell is that thing!" Connor said pulling the gun from his jeans. He aimed at the zombie, shocked at what he was seeing. This one had torn the skin from its face revealing the skull beneath. The white eyes stared directly at the pair while a thick, dark red liquid dripped from its open mouth.

  "I have no idea, but I sure don't like the look of it."

  The creature stood motionless staring at the pair, and it started snapping its jaw open and closed almost as if it were preparing to tear into the two men. Rearing back the new zombie let out a low roar and then started jogging down the hall gaining speed as it ran toward the men.

  "Hey, we got a problem out here. Some new kind of zombie just made an appearance, and it's coming this way," Hobart yelled in to the others.

  Jameson turned toward the door wanting to head out and help his friends, but the man yelled for him to stay put. "You two, come inside. Those damn mutated ones are a bitch to kill. Just keep your hands where I can see them."

  The pair hopped in through the open door slamming it shut behind them and pushing the heavy lock into place. "What the hell kind of zombie is that thing?" Hobart asked the strange man.

  "Put your weapons on the table in front of you," he yelled at the pair. "I will answer your questions after you do as I say."

  Reluctantly they placed their weapons on the table and stepped over next to Jameson and Sara. Hobart was about to ask a question when a loud thud startled them.

  "Relax; that door has kept those things out for days." Reaching up he shut off the bright light and stepped up in front of his guests. "I'm Doctor Munroe, lead biologist on this project." Motioning to some chairs close by, "Take a seat, and I will answer all of your questions."

  They all took a seat and watched as Munroe pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them. With his weapon still in hand, he looked at the eyes of each of them searching for signs of infection. "Well, as best I can tell, you all seem uninfected, so go ahead and ask your questions."

  Sara stared at the man who appeared to be in his late fifties with the beginning of a beard spreading across his aged face. She watched as he reached up and slid his fingers through his thinning, dark gray hair as he leaned back in his seat, still firmly gripping the black pistol.

  Moving forward in his seat Hobart leaned in closer to the doctor. "Well, I guess I will start with the most obvious question. What the hell happened?"

  Clearing his throat Munroe smiled, "It's kind of a long story, but in essence we were working on a vaccine for the latest flu bug, and when we started our first round of human testing, things went horribly wrong."

  "When you say horribly wrong, what exactly do you mean?"

  Munroe paused looking almost embarrassed to tell them. "The first vaccine we tested caused the human test subject to suffer some horrible side effects, which eventually led to his death. We made some minor changes to the drug and tried it on another subject with amazing results. The second vaccine eliminated the flu virus in record time, but two days later, the test subject suddenly died. When we took the body in for an autopsy was when this all happened. The second subject came back to life, killing the three scientists that were in the room, but to our shock, they did not stay dead."

  Connor sat in disbelief that a vaccine for the flu could cause the dead to come back. "That is quite a tall tale and a very hard one to believe," he blurted out.

  "I agree, but I have seen it happen right before me, and I believe that you all have seen the mess outside." Looking at the four people in front of him a worried looked appeared on his face. Lowering his head for a moment, he looked back up, "How far has this spread?" he slowly asked.

  Hobart was the first to answer, "Well, Doctor, as best we can tell, it has spread quite a ways, infecting a large portion of the population in the area. We did have contact with General Miles a day or so ago but haven't heard from him since, so the full extent of the spread isn't known."

  "We have a radio with us. Do you mind if I try to contact him?" Connor asked pulling the radio from the backpack. Not seeing or hearing an objection from Munroe, Connor turned it on and began trying to contact the Miles.

  "That isn't going to work in here. The walls are heavily shielded because of what we work on in here," Munroe told him. "You are going to need to go up to the roof or outside of the building. That's the only way the signal will get out."

  Another loud thud came from the entry door causing them to turn and look. Connor returned his gaze to the doctor, "Well, at the moment, neither of those are an option as long as that thing is out there."

  Munroe slowly nodded his head in agreement, "Yes, I agree. That thing used to be a close colleague of mine."

  "What happened to him?"

  "He was attacked by one of the zombies milling about but only sustained a minor bite. I figured I would try to treat him, so I brought him back into the lab. I stepped out for a few moments to grab some supplies, and when I returned, he had turned into one of them."

  "Well, that doesn't explain why he is so different than the others," Hobart said.

  "When I returned, he wa
s eating the rat that had been injected with the second vaccine, and that somehow produced the mutation that you saw outside." Munroe stood up and walked across the lab to where the other rats where caged. Pointing at one cage that had the door ripped off the front of it, "This is where it was before that thing devoured it."

  A puzzled look crossed Hobart's face as he listened to Munroe tell what happened, and he did not believe a word of it. "Tell me, Doctor, if your friend was already one of them, how did eating that rat mutate him?"

  "Like I said, he ate the rat," Munroe replied, but this time he turned away, almost as if he were trying to hide his lie.

  Jameson saw the same thing as the sheriff and knew at that point there was much more to the story that he was not telling them. The fact that the dead had risen and were eating the living was hard enough to believe, but this tale was just too much. Looking over at Hobart, he saw the same skeptical look on his face and knew that he did not believe it, either. Slowly he moved his hand behind him, slowly lifting his shirt, placing his hand on the weapon.

  Looking around at his four guests Munroe saw their looks and knew they did not believe him and that his experiments on his own colleagues was about to be discovered. He quickly reached for his weapon, grabbing it off the desk and bringing it up when a shot rang out, and his hand exploded in pain, sending his gun to the floor.

  Jameson sat in his seat with a huge smile on his face, "Hell of a shot–wasn't it? I thought he was up to something, and that story was a load of crap, so I made sure I was ready for whatever he had planned."

  "Good shot, kid," Hobart said moving over to Munroe. Grabbing the handcuffs from his belt, he cuffed the doctor and picked up his weapon. "You won't need this any longer. So now that you are no longer a threat to us, how about you stop the bull and tell us what you really did here."

  An evil looked crossed Munroe's face as he closely looked at each of the four in the room. "You people have no idea what you have walked into. These things are my creation, and they are going to take over the world."

  "You created those things on purpose?" Sara yelled out climbing to her feet, grabbing her weapon off the table and moving toward the injured man.

  "Yes, I did, and there isn't a thing you can do about it."

  Sara walked up to Munroe stopping inches from his face. "Listen, you sadistic bastard, those things killed my family along with thousands of innocent people." Bringing the gun up, she placed the end of the barrel against the side of Munroe's head. "You have two choices here. Tell us how to stop this or have me blow your brains all over this room–your choice!"

  Hobart started to move toward her but stopped when he saw the frightened look cross the doctor's face. "Sara, do you think killing him will help us here?" he asked.

  "I don't give a shit. This fool is to blame for all this, and he needs to pay," she angrily replied still pressing the barrel of the gun harder against Munroe's temple. "He claims he created these things so he damn well better have a way to destroy them."

  Jameson stood up and walked up next to her, "I have a better idea. Why don't we send him out into the hallway with that thing. I bet his colleague would love to catch up with him."

  The frightened look increased when Munroe heard the latest idea. He had no desire to become one of those things, let alone become a snack of theirs. "Wait, you can't send me out there." He tried to step back away from Sara, but she grabbed him by the lab coat and held on tightly, still pressing the gun to the side of his head. "Look, I don't know if I can stop all this. The military had me working on this new type of soldier, and this is the latest result of the experiment. Every time we had a mutation we were able to destroy it before it became a problem, but this one got loose before we could."

  "You ran this experiment on your own people?" Hobart asked.

  "Most were volunteers but after the last failure, the military decided it was too costly to continue, so they shut down the program. I was sure that my most recent work would be successful, so I decided to test it."

  "But why on one of your own?"

  "All the test subjects had been removed from the facility as part of the shut down, so I decided to try it on my colleague. It seemed to work at first, but just like before, he started to react badly to it and died a day later. We were sending him down to be disposed of when he came back to life."

  "If this happened to the others, why weren't you ready for him to come back?"

  Hanging his head low he slowly shook his head as he thought about how it happened. "The others usually took a day or two to return, but he only took an hour; it caught us completely unprepared."

  "I despise you for what you have done," Sara hissed as she cocked the gun she still had against his head. "You killed my family with your little experiment, and now I am going to kill you."

  Jameson saw the look on Sara's face and instantly knew that she meant what she said. Quickly he reached over her, grasping the weapon, moving away from Munroe's head just as she pulled the trigger.

  "Why the HELL did you do that?" she screamed at him. "This piece of shit did all this. He is to blame and should pay the price for it!"

  Calmly Jameson pulled the gun from her hand and moved in front of her. "Sara, he may have a way of stopping this, so killing him would only doom us all," he whispered to her, pulling her in close. He hugged her tightly as her tears began to flow, releasing her pent up emotions from the last few days of this nightmare.

  CHAPTER 17 – THE HORDE

  As they sat and listened to Munroe, they all began to wonder just how extensive the outbreak was and if there was any way they were going to get out of this alive. They had already encountered several towns full of the walking dead, and none of them knew how many more there were or how many people remained alive. With their attention still on the doctor, while continuing to explain his reasoning for what he did, they started to hear the growing sound from outside the building.

  "What the hell is that noise?" Connor asked climbing to his feet and walking toward the thick glass windows. The courtyard of the building came into view as he approached, and the sight below filled him with terror. "There are thousands of them out there, and they are all looking up here almost as if they know we are here."

  "That's impossible! The damn things don't communicate with each other. They just moan," Munroe told him.

  Turning back to the doctor, "Well, something is up. Come over and take a look," motioning to the window. "That creepy looking thing outside the door… Does it have any abilities that the others do not?"

  "Not that I am aware of, but honestly, I have no idea. We never had a chance to examine him after his change." Climbing to his feet he looked over at Hobart waiting for the okay to approach the window and quickly crossed the room once he got it. The crowded courtyard came into view, and he instantly knew that this was something he had not seen since the outbreak.

  Not taking his eyes off the throng of dead below, "So what do you have to say about this?" Connor asked Munroe.

  "We need to get out of here. This isn't something I've seen before, and the way they are staring up at us, it almost seems like they are plotting their way in here." Turning away from the window, Munroe looked over at Hobart, "Sheriff, we need to get in touch with that general as soon as possible. Those things are preparing to come up after us."

  "How is that even possible, Doctor? You said they don't talk; they just moan."

  Connor turned away from the horde below, "Sheriff, he is right; they sure look like they are getting ready to rush us."

  Hearing it from Munroe amused him, but hearing from Connor had him worried. The teenager was not one to cry wolf, so if he said they were coming, they were definitely doing just that. "Doctor, is there another way up to the roof from here? I would rather not go back into the hallway and face that thing."

  Munroe slowly shook his head, "No, there is not another way. This room is airtight for the most part, so the only way in and out is that door."

  He sat back in his seat a
nd looked around the room thinking about how they would get out of the room in one piece and make it to the roof. The thought of fighting that thing in the hall, along with however many zombies had joined it, had him hesitant to even try, but staying in this room with no food or water was not an option to him.

  Jameson saw the troubled look on Hobart's face and could tell that he was trying to figure a way out of this predicament. The dead were massing outside preparing to come up and get them from the look of it, and their chances of survival were starting to look bleak at best. Climbing to his feet, he strolled over to the window, but instead of looking down at the courtyard, he started to study the frame searching for a weak spot. He remembered when they approached the building. He had seen exaggerated ledges encircling each floor along with a metal ladder leading up to the roof.

  "Jameson, do you have an idea?" Connor asked seeing the look on his brother's face that he had seen many times before. He was on to something, and he could tell that Jameson was busy working out the details in his head before he let the others know.

  Looking over his shoulder, "I think I have a way to the roof that will keep us away from the hallway."

  "Well, what is it, kid?" Hobart asked.

  "Doctor Munroe, do you have a hammer and a large screwdriver or chisel?"

  "A hammer–yes, but the others stuff, I don't know." Pointing with his cuffed hands, "That cabinet over there… You might find what you need."

  Walking across the room he opened the door on the metal cabinet and grabbed a large plastic toolbox from inside. He set the box on a counter and began rummaging through it searching for what he needed.

  "Kid, what do you have in mind, and how can we help?" Hobart asked him again.

  "Sheriff, if I am right, we may be able to remove one of the windows."

  "What good is that going to do us?"

  "When we walked up to the building, I noticed a ledge that ran under the windows on each floor." Pointing out the window, "And if you come closer you will be able to see the ladder that runs up the side of the building, which will take us up to the roof."