by Pete Bevan
The H1Z4 virus wasn’t airborne, but was a contact virus and it escaped through a microscopic split in the glove, between thumb and forefinger, and onto Ryan’s hand. Ryan’s wife, while shopping at the weekend, had forgotten to add razors to the list and so he had used an old, blunt, razor causing him to cut himself whilst shaving that morning. The cut itched and so Professor West removed his hand from the glove and scratched the scab off with his finger. The virus entered his system, and took twelve seconds to flood his entire body. The H1Z4 virus was manmade and extremely aggressive. Thirty seconds after scratching his neck, he felt ill and violently vomited the contents of his breakfast all over the cabinet. He had time to stagger and say, “Jees!” before he vomited again, this time the lining of his stomach mixed with dark arterial blood. Professor West staggered and fell to the floor twitching violently.
Protocol dictated that working alone in level four was strictly forbidden, however his three colleagues, Professors Smith, Eagle and Tenenbaum weren’t in the room at that point. Professor Smith had stepped next door to use the centrifuge, Professor Eagle was taking a leak in the level four toilet and Professor Tenenbaum was answering a call on the wall phone in the adjacent corridor. Nobody saw Professor West’s body finally lose its battle for life less than two minutes after scratching his neck. Then he rose slowly, his eyes milky white and growled a low guttural drawl just as Professor Tenenbaum entered the room. He saw the stinking foetid creature in front of him and stood there stunned as West rounded the stainless steel work surface and grabbed at his colleague before biting deep into his neck, tearing muscle and tendon as he went. Three minutes later Professor Eagle entered the room to be met by his slavering colleagues who greeted him with open arms and ripping teeth. Finally, Professor Eagle returned zipping up his fly he didn’t see his colleagues until it was too late and he too succumbed to the H1Z4 virus. Unfortunately Eagle fell backwards against the workbench where a lit Bunsen burner glowed with a tight blue flame, the burner fell and restricted by the rubber hose that provided the gas, swung against the oxygen pipe at the bottom of the bench. Running alongside the pipe was the electrical conduits that lead to the Level four main junction box, and all this time Seth wasn’t looking at the monitor showing this scene, he was watching his beloved Janice work on a report.
The four dead colleagues left the lab in search of fresh prey, ripping through the labs and offices like hunting predators. They found individual and small groups to join their party and left none of their victims enough time or opportunity to hit the large red mushroom button alarms placed around the building. Finally they came to the autoclave room where Gary was working. He was locked in by a key card door at one end of the room and a security door that could only be unlocked by Seth at the other. The room was at the end of a ‘Quadrant’ separating two divisions of the level four area, each quadrant forming the ring like and onion with level five bio security at the centre and the associated offices canteen and low security loading bays at the outer layer of the onion.
The dead professors and technicians could see Gary through the glass and started banging on it with bloody, puke covered fists. Gary jumped in shock as they howled in frustration. He could clearly hear screams as well as they fell on more victims. Gary picked up the phone and frantically misdialled the number. He realised his mistake, slammed the phone back on its cradle, picked it up and dialled again.
In the security office, the phone rang. Seth picked it up lazily and placed it against his ear while staring at Janice.
“Security,” he said, the raucous background noise now registering with him.
“Seth! For fucks sake you’ve got to get me out of here. Open the door to Quadrant two!” screamed Gary.
Jolted from his reverie, Seth tapped at the keyboard to bring Gary’s location. Looking at the screen most of the level four ring was in chaos. Weirdly no-one had set the alarm, not even Gary, and looking at Level 5 the few people in there hadn’t noticed any problem. He quickly locked down Level Five trapping the people in there but keeping them safe. Lockdown activated electromagnetic locks, separate to the rest of the system, that once engaged could only be cut through with a plasma cutter. A couple of cameras were out on level four conference room but everywhere he could see blood and vomit. There was a crowd of people outside the autoclave room where Gary was. Seth didn’t know why but he didn’t hit the Breach alarm.
“Seth! The glass is cracking come on, open the bloody door.”
“Gary, I…” Seth stammered. He had gone through this in training every month for the last few years. He wasn’t allowed to let anyone out if it came to a breach, this was why he was perfect for the job, this was why he had paid the wage he was, and this was why he had lasted longer than all the other specialists. The training consisted of understanding that no matter how much they begged and pleaded it was imperative that containment was maintained at all time. A man with no empathy wouldn’t be swayed by begging and pleading of people dying from a rapid spreading disease like H1Z4 and, every month he had to watch videos of people die in front of him and his physiological response was measured to ensure he wouldn’t let them out. It was this extreme training, and others inability to stop this playing on their minds that meant that eventually they all cracked. All except Seth.
“Seth.” Gary’s tone was measured. “I’m looking through the door to quadrant two. It’s fine, I can see people, normal people, in there. Just let me out.” Seth looked at the Quadrant two corridor monitor. Gary was lying, he couldn’t see anyone but it didn’t look like any of the infected had got into quadrant two. Seth remained impassive. There was a loud crack in the phone line and Seth could see the glass had a large crack lying diagonally across it as the infected continued banging, howling and throwing themselves at the thin pane between them and Gary.
“Seth, please. For the sake of Shelley and the kids, please don’t do this.” He pleaded.
“Gary… I can’t let you out… you know that.”
Gary started to cry, “Please. Please Seth. I want to see them again. Please Seth. Please.” Seth could see Gary slumped on the floor with the phone against his ear.
Seth’s voice was cold and unemotional, “Gary, I can’t. I’m sorry.”
There was a terrible crash in the background as the glass finally gave way, and the howling rose to a crescendo as the infected spilled over each other into the room. They dived on Gary as his arms flew up to his face. Seth could hear Gary screaming as he slowly, carefully lowered the phone back onto the cradle. He tapped the keyboard to change the monitor view back to Janice. His hands were cold and clammy as he hit the alarm bathing the facility in red flashing light that screamed through the Tannoy system and hurt his eyes in the small confines of the security office He had let his best friend die at the hands of the infected, he couldn’t imagine Shelley’s grief but he could picture himself telling her how it had happened, and the thought of that, even though he couldn’t picture her reaction, was bad enough.
He was about to hit the lockdown button which would seal everyone in their respective rings when the Bunsen burner lying against the oxygen pipe in Professor West’s lab reached the optimum temperature and exploded with a muffled thump. It took out the electrical conduits next to it, and electricity surged through the junction box blowing fuses which shattered in sequence taking out the security system as it went. He could see flames filling Professor West’s lab before the camera melted and his screen exploded with error messages scrolling up the screen almost as fast as he could read them.
Error 8204584 Door 16 Quadrant 2a level 4 breach
Error 8205673 Door 20 Quadrant 2c level 4 breach
Error 8209284 Door 4 Quadrant 1b level 4 no response to breach request
Error 7645838 Junction 5 security system inoperative
The facility map on the screen to his right was littered with small red boxes showing errors and problem with the whole system, and at the bottom of the screen a large message read.
FACILITY L
OCKDOWN BREACH INITIATE? Yes/No
He ignored the message and stared at Janice on the screen. She had left her unfinished report and was at the emergency Bio suit locker wrestling with the door to get at her suit. He looked at the quadrant two door that Gary had begged to be let through to see it flashing red on the map. The infected were streaming through it taking victims as they went to increase their numbers. There had managed to break through into level three Bio security and were in the same area as Janice. They would be on her location in a couple of minutes, and he would have to watch her die in the same way as Gary. Seth went cold. If he initiated lockdown, he would never smell her hair or her skin, he would never again look into her eyes, he would never feel her warmth in the night. He would never sit and watch the sun fade to a sepia tone in their beautiful garden.
No. He couldn’t deny himself her presence. He couldn’t feel her pain as the infected bit into her flesh but he could feel his pain at her loss. No. He wouldn’t let it happen.
Seth grabbed the phone list and scanned quickly down it seeking the number of the phone in her office. He dialled the number and watched her reaction on the monitor. She paused with the suit in her hands, unsure as to whether ignore the phone and put on her suit. “Come on, come on!” thought Seth. She dropped the suit and picked up the phone, he didn’t let her answer.
“Janice, Seth. Get out of there, run clockwise towards quadrant one.”
“Seth, Just initiate the lockdown. I’ll stay in the office. It’s fine!” she said in measured tones.
“No! There was an explosion. The whole system’s fucked! They’ll be on you in less than a minute!” he screamed down the phone.
“Who’ll be…” she started, and then she heard the howls, she turned away from the phone and for a moment Seth thought she was going to go and investigate.
“JANICE!” he screamed down the line. She put the phone back to her ear.
“Get into the main corridor, go down to Quadrant one. Keep heading round until you get to the airlock. I think it’s still functioning I can let you into level one!”
“But!...”
“NOW!”
It was enough. She dropped the phone and sprinted out of the room, She hit the main corridor at a sprint and ran towards Quadrant 1. She could hear them behind her howling in rage. Seth could see them less than twenty seconds behind her, but they were closing in, fuelled by the virus and adrenaline they would catch up with her. As she approached the door she saw the red light turn to green above it as Seth activated it. She yanked it open and dived through, she tripped as she turned but was one her feet in an instant. The infected, now numbering about forty dived at the door. Its slow close mechanism held it just long enough for the lead infected to dive through pulling it open for his colleagues behind.
Janice sprinted round the gentle curve of the building, panic gripping her mind as she did so. In the security office Seth stood up and traced her route around malfunctioning doors and with a greasy finger which stayed as a line on the screen. He watched her approach the airlock to level 2, from there she could get straight through a second airlock to level one and again to the open offices beyond. From there he would lead her round to the large loading bay which was big enough to hold several large artic trucks while they were unloaded. Then he could just open the loading bay door, let her out and initiate the lockdown. They would both be safe and all he had to do was wait for the military clean up team to clear the corridors from the loading bay to his office and let him out.
Janice panted heavily as she approached the first airlock, watching for the red light above to go green, it did so just as she did so and she slapped the pad on the wall with her hand. The door slid open slowly and she turned to look back up the corridor. She could see the shadows of the infected as they rounded the corner and then they came into view howling and screaming as they ran. Janice squeezed herself through the gap, hitting the button on the inside as she slipped through. The airlock was a five metre long stainless steel corridor with a gridded metal floor. She ran towards the other end of the corridor. The door behind her slid slowly shut as the infected reached it tried to pry it open but the force of the closing mechanism severing fingers and arms, which fell to the floor with a splat as the door finally shut. Janice’ panting lungs echoed around the chamber as she waited for the decontamination cycle to complete.
Then a second explosion rippled through the building much greater than the first, sprinkler systems activated in some sections of the building, as did halon systems in the server rooms. Seth watched the map screen as a series of new red lights cycled round Bio security level two towards Janice’ position, ending over the airlock she was now trapped in. In the chamber an alarm sounded and she watched in horror as the door between her and the infected started to opening jerkily as its access light flickered green. She slapped the panel repeatedly to open the door and let her out, relief flooding her system as the light went green and it started to open slowly.
Seth watched the scene in horror before realising he would have to direct through the next airlock. Unfortunately he couldn’t confirm if the doors would work, so he switched cameras and activated it remotely, tricking the system into thinking it was a maintenance check. The door to the admin offices opened but the door to allow Janice into the next airlock didn’t. Frantically he scoured the map looking for a way through. After agonising seconds he found it. If he could get her to turn left out of the airlock she was in to the end of that quadrant there was a maintenance access shaft in the roof where she could backtrack into the next airlock, by pure chance there was a security deck underneath it. How could he tell her his new plan. He grabbed the phone list and found the number for the security desk. Frantically he dialled the number.
In the airlock she squeezed though the gap but it wasn’t wide enough. At the other end of the airlock the door between her and the infected had started to open seconds before and they started to squeeze through. They broke through one at a time and sprinted down the metal room towards her, their shouts echoing round the chamber. In panic, she grabbed on the outside of the door and pushed with all her strength. She strained her ribs and popped though as the infected reached her grabbing her lab coat. She yanked it free and fell on her bum as they infected reached through the door to get her. She jumped to her feet and hit the panel on the wall to close the door, but the light stayed green even though the door stopped moving. She turned and hit the next airlock open panel which stayed red. The infected wrestled with each other to get through the airlock door to her, grasping, blood covered arms, snatching at her as she realised over the alarms she could hear a phone ringing. She took off at a sprint towards the sound. As she reached the phone the first infected popped though the gap in the airlock, followed by another then another. She picked the phone up.
“Look up!” screamed Seth. “Get up there and cut back towards the airlock, turn first left and drop down into it” Seth could hear her laboured breath at the other end of the line. “Please God, don’t let that be the last thing I say to her!” he thought.
She vaulted onto the table and popped the skylight to the maintenance shaft. She grabbed the corners and pulled herself up as the first infected dived at her legs, grabbing her shoe. She wiggled her foot and it came free and she climbed into the small metal corridor, just large enough for her to crawl down. She could see the left turn ahead but it was far further the crawl that it had looked in the corridor, she took off at a rapid crawl, the pop riveted joins in the floor bloodying her knees as she went. Then she heard it behind her. She turned and saw the first head rise slowly through the hole behind her. Its hair was black and covered in bits of bone and gristle, its forehead, death white, with a mottle of blue veins, rose into view. Then its eyes, bloodshot and full of malice, followed by its snarling broken teeth and gore covered chin. It looked at her for a moment and she looked at it. Then it snarled like a rabid dog and pulled itself rapidly into the shaft as she crawled off, as fast as she could towards the turning
ahead. She could hear her own frantic breath and the loud banging of the thing crawling after her. In her imagination it was on her but she pressed on. She reached the turning and glanced back to see the shaft filling with infected but the distance remained the same, her small frame advantageous in the narrow gap.
In the security office Seth had watched her disappear into the shaft quickly followed by infected, but he couldn’t see her in the shaft so he switched the view to the airlock where he punched the button to open the door into the staging area and admin offices beyond. Seconds ticked by, he imagined her ripped to shreds in the shaft, he held his breath. “Come on, come on!” he willed her. Finally he saw the roof panel buckle and drop as a shapely leg pounded at it from above, but still he didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she hung from the roof and dropped gently onto the metal grate. She was fine.