“Across the hall.” he said, making a decision then bustled her towards the door. “I need to run some tests.”
Stevens drew blood, listened to her heart and played with his microscopes. Jessie pulled a stool over to the door and kept watch. The room was large, filled with lights and equipment and machines that looked like they did complicated things. There was a large, curtained cage on one wall but it was quiet, no riled up undead to disturb them.
The minutes turned to hours.
When the shift change guard came, he met a similar fate as the other and was hidden away in a broom closet.
Time dragged by. Centrifuges spun, Doc Stevens tut-tutted and made small talk, he questioned them about everything they’d done so far to fight the infection. They retold the story, interrupting each other here and there when one would remember exact dosages or particular brand names of the various remedies they had tried. Stevens zeroed in on the injections Jessie had given her so many months ago at the farmhouse and the pills from the tower. He drew Jessies blood, he analyzed the tablets she’d been given and his demeanor grew ever grimmer. They waited and watched as he worked and dark became dawn.
Another guard showed up around noon and joined the one in the closet. Sooner or later, the captain of the guard would grow suspicious. Jessie kept a close watch out of the door, waiting for someone to investigate the missing soldiers.
“They’re very short staffed.” Stevens told them. “It’s been like that for weeks. A new man has taken over as Chief of the Armies and has only left a skeleton crew here. I believe they were going to conquer Lakota, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Did they succeed?” Jessie asked wondering if more than one army was marching south. If Tombstone and Blackfoot weren’t just the beginning thrusts of the war, if they had enough men to attack all the towns simultaneously.
“I couldn’t tell you.” Stevens answered genially as he read the numbers off a ribbon coming from one of the machines. “I keep to myself over here. Did I tell you I think I have nearly perfected a way to control the reanimates with electrical impulses? It’s a fascinating study. With a modified game pad, I can make them turn left or right or march off the edge the roof. I can even control their impulse to bite and spread the disease. I really need to find an electrical engineer to program a more intuitive controller.”
He rambled on about his work, his experiments and his progress. Jessie grew weary and tried to stay alert as the doctor wondered if he could carry on his research at the Tower and questioned them about the facilities there. He spoke to hear himself speak and most of the time they couldn’t understand what he was saying when he drifted off into technical jargon. Sometimes they were sure he wasn’t even talking to them. Scarlet was saddened by what she saw, at how much he’d changed. He’d always been a little strange but he was even more detached than he’d ever been before.
Jessie and Scarlet glanced over at the cages when he talked of making the undead dance and perform for him. Just the thought of it was distasteful.
“Wouldn’t it be better to try to cure them? Maybe reverse the virus?” she asked. “Is it possible to heal the brain?”
Doctor Stevens shook his head, made a few notes on his tablet and explained it as simply as he could. He was used to dumbing things down for people so they could understand.
“It’s a virus. Same as the common cold.” he said. “We’ve been trying to cure it for centuries and it’s impossible because of the way it replicates. All you can do is mask the symptoms until it dies off and goes away on its own. Except the zombie virus doesn’t die off. It’s much too virulent because of the way it was designed, even fifty generations removed from the original host. Fascinating, really.”
“It’s definitely man made then?” Jessie asked
“Oh, yes.” Stevens enthused. “It’s brilliant.”
“Then you won’t be able to cure me?” Scarlet asked, ignoring the doctor’s perverse admiration of the disease.
Jessie ignored the door and waited with everything in him not wanting to hear the answer.
“Oh, no. Of course not.” Stevens said, completely unaware of the anguished look on both of their faces at hearing it said out loud. “But this is an incredible chance for me to study the results of the two non-compatible serums I created. Very rare opportunity because of your specific blood type and the unique properties of a serum long past expired.”
He hummed as he restarted a centrifuge machine, oblivious to the affect his words had on the two teens.
“I’m going to need a fresh sample from you, Scarlet.” he said and placed a slide in the microscope.
He’d never been good with people, never knew what to say at gatherings and was generally completely unaware how to read a person. It’s what made him an outcast before the fall but made him an asset to one of the hundreds of black budget projects run by the CIA. He wasn’t a cruel or intentionally unkind person, he simply wasn’t empathetic. At all. He would do the experiments others would balk at and didn’t understand why they would object. Science didn’t have morals.
“So, tell me doc.” Jessie asked when he regained his composure and realized the man was almost a machine himself, nearly emotionless except when it came to his work.
“Why is it going so fast now? The shot I gave her saved her life. She is supposed to be immune but got infected anyway. The penicillin had it under control, or at least slowed it down. Can’t you give her more of that? Won’t that at least stop it in its tracks?”
“She was immune.” Doctor Stevens corrected. “My serum was designed for her blood type and I had perfected the pink by then. What you injected her with started breaking the pink down. Basically, they were fighting for control with the old serum slowly winning the struggle. To put it simply, they were too busy fighting each other and doing a lot of cellular damage in the process. The reanimate virus was able to gain a foothold in the void that was left. The penicillin really didn’t do much, its effect was minimal at best. What is so interesting are these.”
He held up one of the capsules she’d gotten from the tower.
“The man who prescribed these was incompetent to a degree that boggles the mind. They accelerated the pace of the spread exponentially by introducing a new nanobot. One that would attack the healthy serum in your blood.”
“But” Jessie started and broke off, barely understanding what was just said.
“Nanobots?” he finally asked. “For real?”
“Yes.” Stevens said excitedly. “Highly technical, very innovative. Not my field of science, of course, incredibly difficult to achieve. They are fascinating, the original virus is filled with them, that’s why it’s so virulent. I’ve been analyzing these capsules all morning. They must have extremely advanced laboratories to design them.”
“So they can give her the other ones, the ones to fight against the spread.” Jessie said, almost in desperation. “They just made a mistake. We have to get back.”
“No mistake.” Stevens said and waved his hands at his equipment. “With just a basic electron microscope, I determined in a matter of moments what was happening. Whoever gave her these particular pills is either incredibly stupid or he was trying to eliminate her.”
“Let’s go.” Jessie said and moved away from the door. “We’ve got to get back.”
“There’s no time for that.” Doctor Stevens said. “Didn’t you hear anything I said? It’s accelerated. She has hours before the change is complete, not days. Look at her.”
Jessie did and saw she was covered in a sheen of sweat, one eye was nearly completely black and the other was starting to cloud. The shining emerald was changing to dull forest green.
“And you’ve known this for how long?” Jessie said, cold anger settling over him.
“We came here to do something important.” Scarlet said, placing a hand on Jessies arm to stop him.
He had murder in his eyes.
She pulled out the bottle of Trucker Speed, looked directly at him and she
was calm. “You promised we would finish this.”
She chugged the last of it down, the dredges in the bottom nearly thick as syrup as Jessies mind screamed and tried to refuse what was happening. Tried to push it away and ignore it and not think about it and make it not be true.
The door burst open as two men kicked it in and leveled guns at them, yelling for them to raise their hands. Scarlet dropped the bottle, rolled off her stool faster than the eye could follow. Jessie’s hands dipped and came up spitting lead as he dove behind a counter. Dum dum bullets plowed through their heads and fingers spasmed against the triggers. Their death was nearly instant, the door bounced off the wall and back against the falling bodies. The Gatorade bottle smashed to the floor as the two crumpled at awkward angles. Most of their faces had been blown through the backs of their skulls and decorated the wall above the still seated guard. Stevens cried out in pain and slumped to the ground, his hand pressed against a fast widening red spot on his shoulder. The door bounced off its stop again and glided to a halt against a twitching foot. Only a few seconds had passed.
“More will be coming.” Scarlet said. “Gunshots echo, they heard those all the way to the casino.”
“It’s on, then.” Jessie said and hunkered down by the doctor.
Stevens was breathing hard but the worst of it was over. The bullet had passed clean through.
“I’ll be all right.” he said between gasps. “Get me a clean towel.”
Scarlet crouched beside Jessie and stared at him, her face dark with streaks of poison and her eyes darker with anger.
“You could have done good with your skills but you chose not to.” she said
Stevens looked up at them, the two on their haunches looking like angry avenging angels come for a reckoning.
“What’s good? What’s bad?” he asked, regaining some of his composure. “Who’s to say my serums didn’t save lives? Look what it’s done for you.”
He pointed a bloody finger at Jessie. “You’ve done good and it’s because of me.”
“It was despite of you.” Jessie said. “I’ve been listening to you all morning and realize that you don’t care about what you’ve done and what you continue to do. You’ve known for seven or eight hours you couldn’t help her but you kept us here so you could play God and run your tests. You robbed us of time, doctor. Time we’ll never get back.”
Stevens looked between the two of them, tried to find sympathy for his throbbing shoulder.
“But I was helping you.” he nearly wailed. “I was trying to help you.”
“No, you weren’t.” Scarlet said. “You were helping yourself to our blood for your research. You were already plotting how you could get to the Tower.”
“People like you are what killed the world.” Jessie said.
His voice was clear, his anger cold and deep.
“People like you didn’t care who they worked for as long as they got what they wanted.” Scarlet said. “You chose the easy path. You stood by and did nothing while evil men took over. You could have done so much good, Doctor Stevens. The Movement started out as something good but it went bad because you helped it go bad.”
Stevens looked from one to the other and shook his head. Why were they turning against him? Why were they acting like he was a bad guy? He hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Get me a towel.” he ordered. “You know nothing of science. What’s a few lives lost if we can find the answers? It’s all for the greater good. You’re not so innocent, you were here in the beginning and you helped start all of this.”
“And now I’m finishing it.” she said and stood, ignoring his demands.
Jessie moved to the cage in the corner and pulled the curtains back. Inside was a petite, freshly turned woman with electrodes sticking out of her head. It was hard to tell how old she was from the heavy pancake makeup that made her look like a geisha girl or an actress from a kabuki theater. She wore only a silk kimono that had come untied and hung open. Her mouth had a sunken look that couldn’t be completely hidden with the whiteface and painted lips. All of her teeth had been removed. There were leather restraints hanging from the bars and a gynecologist chair in one corner. Jessie grimaced at the half naked body, the shrunken breasts and mottled skin and his stomach turned when he realized what he was seeing.
Scarlet gasped. It was one her handmaidens. One who used to braid her hair and rub her down with exotic oils before the feasts.
“What have you done?” she asked Stevens in a whisper. “What have you become?”
The cage was held shut with a simple hasp and Jessie clicked it open then stepped inside, wary but unconcerned. Dead, black eyes stared back at him but didn’t see. He took the cold, clammy girl-thing’s hand and led her out. She was as compliant as a child and stood meekly, gently swaying back and forth.
Scarlet pulled the electrodes from her skull and they came loose with a slurping sound. The thing came out of its trance and immediately locked onto the fresh blood pouring out of Stevens shoulder. She stepped aside as it rushed towards him.
130
Jessie + Scarlet
Jessie pulled the door shut behind them, locking the zombie in and locking out the protests and crashing of equipment. They were both calm. They weren’t afraid anymore. There wasn’t any hope for her and Jessie would see it through then join her when it was time to go. It made everything easier, clearer, when worries about escape or living to see tomorrow were gone. When you were only focused on the mission, knew you would succeed and didn’t even want to survive it. They just had to live long enough to know they had destroyed what they set out to destroy and without the Doctor’s constant supply of the mind inhibiting drugs, they had already won. Even if they both went down in a hail of bullets when they rounded the next corner, the Cult would fall when the people woke up. It might limp along and continue to destroy for a while but they knew it was over. Even if they failed, they had still won. It made everything easier. Everything more black and white. It was their last fight and they were both ready. Scarlet was content, she would fix a part of the world she had helped break. She would even the score.
Jessie couldn’t go back to the hollowness he’d felt for all those months. The bleakness in his soul, the haunted eyes in the mirror or the taste of gun metal in his mouth. He wouldn’t go on without her. It felt good to be free from fear and he remembered an old poem he’d read years ago.
Someday they’ll go down together.
They’ll bury them side by side.
To few it’ll be grief, to the law a relief
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.
He knew how Bonnie Parker must have felt when she penned those lines. The inevitable was coming like a freight train. No avoiding it, no getting away from it. No escape. Face it with a laugh and spit in its eye.
“You think most of the normal people will run?” Jessie asked. “Not the enhanced guards, the everyday people. Will we have to kill everybody?”
“Probably.” Scarlet said.
Far down the corridor, through the tunnels, they heard the sound of running footsteps. The guard were coming for them.
“This way.” Scarlet said as Jessie grabbed the dead guard’s rifle and they took off in a sprint towards the sound of stomping boots.
They ran towards the battle, not away from it and were slightly disappointed when they met only a half dozen unenhanced men running towards them. There was only one ribbon festooned black suit behind them, urging them onward. Jessie fired the rifle from the hip, spraying the tunnel and sending men diving for the floor. He lowered his aim to the scrambling men and kept running, ignored their panicked and chaotic return fire.
“It’s her!” their commander shouted into his radio. “The Heretic is back!”
Bullets from Jessie’s AR found their marks and bodies jerked as they were punctured and started spewing out their lives on the cement. The noise was deafening in the confined area, gun smoke hung in the air and overhead lights shattered, sending
sparks of electricity crackling. Bulbs popped along the hallway as a stray bullet shorted out a thick cable. The man who had been urging the dead or dying squad to attack the interlopers dove behind an outcropping of concrete block the instant the bullets started flying. He crouched low and came out shooting, sending lead straight and true. Jessie stumbled with the impact of bullets slamming into his chest and Scarlets right hand was a blur of motion. The man barely had time to hear the whirring sound before the steel baton smashed into his face, breaking his nose and instantly causing his eyes to water. He brought his arm up barely in time to catch the brunt of the other baton, fully extended and being swung by a fury. He didn’t cry out when the arm shattered, he had the other moving at lightning speed to slice her wide open with six inches of a sharpened steel blade.
Scarlet saw it and deflected, slammed her forehead into the mans already smashed nose and heard him cry out. A thrust of her arm, a flick of her wrist and the baton broke his neck before he could counter. Jessie ran up as the soldier grunted and fell, stripped a few magazines from fallen men’s guns and started transferring rounds.
“Now they really know we’re coming.” he said as his fingers flew, topped off a mag and swapped a fresh thirty rounder into his rifle. Scarlet glanced at the fresh new holes in his leather and the smoking chunks of lead as he plucked them out of the Kevlar mesh then tossed them aside.
“Stop getting shot.” she said and shook her head. “What do I do with you? Worse than child.”
“Right. I’ll keep that in mind.” he said and topped off another mag then stuck it in his back pocket.
Men were moaning and bleeding out on the concrete floor and one of the cables still danced and sparked, still live with electricity. The tunnel was much dimmer now as they took off again for the basement of the casino. The headquarters of the Lord of the Underworld.
The utility tunnels branched off into storm drain and sewer tunnels but the only route to the Casino was straight ahead down a long killing zone and their ears caught the sounds of more movement, more shouted orders and running feet.
Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet Page 89