Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  He heard Reed shout, “Oh, shit! You!”

  There was a loud growl, then Reed screaming. “Nooooo!”

  He heard chains rattling against the floor for several minutes and then a loud boom as the door to the cafeteria clanked across the floor. There was the sound of chains scraping across the floor along with the thud of boots. He dared a peek through the crack between the cabinet doors and saw Anderson dragging Reed across the floor. He was still alive because he was struggling against the chains wrapped around his neck.

  Anderson had been huge before, but it seemed that he had grown several inches in height and fifty pounds in weight—a monster that was likely unstoppable short of being hit with a shoulder-launched rocket.

  Marty held his breath for a short time but realized he wouldn’t be able to continue holding it for much longer. Letting it out slowly, he tried breathing with no noise, but a spasm caused him to draw a loud breath. He put his hand over his mouth and held very still. After hearing no noise from the room, he dared a peek out of the crack again and saw nothing. He leaned back again and let his breath out slowly and took a few slow breaths before relaxing a little to breathe as normally as he could.

  Bang!

  A huge dent creased the top of the cabinet, and the doors popped open from the force. Anderson stepped out in front of the cabinet and bent to look in at Marty. He cowered as far into the corner as possible, but he could be reached easily by the behemoth.

  Anderson’s face had been damaged but healed by the enhanced axola virus. His right eye looked as though it had been poked, and a large slice of his face had been peeled and then pushed back up haphazardly to heal like a cockeyed sandwich.

  He was drooling and spitting as he breathed and was able to articulate a word that sounded more like a growl than speech. “Rrrainnnbowww.”

  Marty had never been this frightened in his life. He felt warmth in his trousers as his bladder let go, and Anderson reached in to grab his ankle and drag him out. Letting go of his ankle, he grabbed his shirt and jacket to lift him up like a little girl having a conversation with her doll.

  Drawing out the words that were obviously a struggle for him to get out, he said, “Tiinnnyyy tot.”

  Marty’s head swam, and he couldn’t focus. Then there was blackness.

  He awoke with his head underwater. Anderson had taken him to the sink and was holding him there. He struggled and clawed at the big man’s arms and was pulled out to face him again.

  “Tiinnnyyy ttooottt.”

  “I…I d…don’t know.”

  That wasn’t what Anderson wanted to hear, so he plunged Marty’s head into the water and held him there for what seemed like forever. Marty was ready to give up the struggle just when he was pulled out again.

  Anderson just growled at him with his face inches from Marty’s. “Ggrraaaghh!”

  Marty could only spit out water and gasp for breath for a few seconds. It was obviously too long for Anderson because he shook Marty violently enough that he felt his arms break and shoulders pop out of their sockets. The pain was so intense he didn’t see anything but flashes of light in front of his eyes.

  All he could think was that Michael was the double-crossing bastard who had caused all of this, and he had died quickly. Fucking asshole!

  He could hear Reed croaking through the pain of his broken bones. “I can help you find them.”

  Marty managed to speak was if he were shit-faced drunk. “Nnwwooo.”

  Anderson looked at him for two seconds and then flung him at the nearest wall. Marty saw sparks and then a white light at the end of long black tunnel and heard an increasingly irritating tone, as if his ears were ringing, coming from behind him. He naturally moved away from the sound and toward the inviting white light. He felt warm inside and was walking upright with a normal stride.

  The closer he got to the light, the warmer he felt.

  _______

  Tin dragged the struggling man into the woods far enough that he could question him without anyone hearing. He threw him down and straddled his chest as he wrapped his hands around his neck. If he chose to call out, Tin could squeeze off his windpipe in a split second. The man grabbed his wrists and instinctively pulled at the stranglehold.

  Tin squeezed tighter and moved his face closer. “Stop struggling, or I’ll pop your head off and shit down your windpipe.”

  The man stopped pulling but kept his hands wrapped around Tin’s wrists.

  Tin gritted his teeth. “Tell me where Teeny is, or I’ll end you.”

  He just stared up at Tin in defiance, so Tin squeezed until the man’s eyes started bugging. “Tell…me…or…I’ll…end…you!”

  He tried to speak but couldn’t, so Tin loosened his grip.

  “Second floor, west wing, third door on your right.”

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Because I want to live.”

  Tin stared at him for a few seconds before grabbing his collar in both hands and dragging him to his feet. He pushed his back to a tree, pulled several zip ties from his belt, pulled his arms around the tree, and tied them together. He pulled several more, ripped a piece off of his jacket and stuffed it in his mouth, and tie wrapped it in place. Backing away, Tin watched him a couple more seconds, still ruminating on whether he should trust the information. After deciding he had no choice, he turned and ran back toward the house.

  _______

  Isaiah watched as Hector and the others dragged O’Reilly toward the chapel. It had taken several hard blows with the butt of a rifle to render him unconscious. Isaiah had to find out how he was able to run and jump the way he did.

  The man he had set to watch the other twin moved quickly toward him. “He’s coming.”

  Isaiah strode toward the house and entered the kitchen door. Climbing to the second floor, he and three others, including Hector, moved to his mother’s bedroom and closed and locked the door behind them.

  _______

  Tin moved through the woods tree to tree until he was able to see the porch. There were three men there; he recognized Jerrod as the only one who had a gun. Ducking back, he pondered what he might do to get into the house undetected. He worked his way around to get a look at the back of the house. There were many more there, and several had guns.

  Where the hell are Jax and O’Reilly?

  Moving back to the front of the house, he decided he couldn’t wait, so he pulled out his dart guns and took two deep breaths before rushing across the expanse of the courtyard to a set of hedges that lined the walkway approach to the front door and then sliding along the hedges intending to stay hidden as long as possible. He froze when he heard shouts from the back of the house and watched as Jerrod turned to tell the men to stay there and jumped from the porch to run around the side of the house. The men who were left went to the side of the porch where Jerrod had run away. They were talking and obviously resisting running to where there was action.

  Tin moved up and slid past them and into the door of the house undetected. There wasn’t anyone inside the foyer. He moved through the darkened house and up the stairs to the hallway. Looking both ways, he waited in the shadow of a large grandfather clock to see if anyone was guarding the hallway.

  No movement at all. He was beginning to get nervous about how easily this was going. He could see the door the man had told him was the correct one. When he arrived, he could see dim light coming from under the door. As he was reaching for the doorknob, he heard noise coming from both directions in the hallway. Men with guns stepped out of rooms at both ends.

  The lights came up. The door where he was standing pushed open, and he had to move for it to continue.

  The reverend stepped out with a smug smile on his face. “Hello, demon. Did you think to sneak up on God’s servant?”

  Tin looked over the reverend’s shoulder into the
room. “You don’t think I would be so foolish as to have your women here.”

  Outside the open window, there was a buzz of voices that got louder and then turned to shouts and gunfire. The reverend turned, walked to the window, and leaned out to see what the commotion was.

  The men pushed Tin into the room so they could see what was going on behind the house. He got close enough to look out one of the other windows as the reverend leaned on the sill and shouted down at his men. “Stop using ammo, you fools. Kill them with your clubs.”

  There were scores of wanderers moving through the tobacco fields toward the house. The gunfire slowed, but Tin was sure that it wasn’t because they were heeding the words of their leader. The dead were overrunning his men in the yard below.

  The reverend turned, started to walk toward the door, and pointed at Jerrod. “Throw him to the beasts.”

  Before Tin could react, two of the men grabbed his arms and started guiding him to the window. He resisted but was already off balance enough that he could get no leverage before they stuffed him, flailing for balance, out the window. He flew somersaulting in the air to fall onto a crowd of writhing dead tearing at the flesh of those who had been trapped and surrounded.

  When he hit, he knocked four or five down and squashed two with a direct hit. He could see Jerrod leaning out the window with a surprised look that turned angry as he turned and shouted something he couldn’t make out.

  The bloody monsters barely noticed him. He didn’t have the axola virus, so they ignored him. He made it to his feet and started running before one of the men gathered his wits and fired at him. One of the shots hit him directly in the middle of the back, knocking him off his feet. But only his breath was knocked out from the hit. His black armor had stopped the bullet from causing any real damage. He jumped up and continued running around the east side of the house. When he rounded the corner, he spotted the reverend hurrying toward a building with a cross above the door. As Tin ran toward the building, he heard a roar that sounded very familiar to him.

  He got a sinking feeling as he realized there was a reason that it sounded familiar.

  It was Anderson.

  Tin continued toward the door without stopping to confirm that it really was the monstrosity. With wanderers closing in on both sides, he reached the door as it was opened and shouldered it into the reverend’s back, sending him sprawling onto the dirt floor of the chapel. Tin stepped through the door and slammed it. Holding it closed, he heard and felt the hands and arms of the creatures pounding to get to him. He turned his back to the door so he could use his legs for leverage to hold it shut.

  He saw the reverend pointing his twin pistols at him, but he had a panicked look on his face. “What was that thing out there?”

  Tin looked at him and started to reply, but there was movement behind the black-clad man. Refocusing, he saw Teeny and Rocky tied to an altar that was centered between two rows of pews running down both sides of the makeshift chapel. Then he saw Jax and O’Reilly lying on the floor with their hands and feet bound. He could see they were breathing, though.

  Turning his attention back to the reverend, he asked, “OK. What do we do now?”

  The reverend started to answer but was interrupted by a loud boom. Tin flew to the floor as the door flew open, and the huge man who had made the sound he was inquiring about stepped in, snorting like a bull and staring straight at him.

  Bringing up his pistols, he fired at the huge target, scoring one hit in the shoulder and two direct hits in the chest.

  Tin started moving because he knew he had very little time. He pulled a knife from his boot, ran to the altar, and cut the bindings holding Teeny and Rocky.

  “About time, Camel Toe. I thought you might be in a corner somewhere crying.”

  He smiled at her. “Good to see you too, Teeny.”

  He handed her his knife and pointed at Jax, who had looked up and was making muffled protests about hurrying up.

  When he turned, some of the dead were closing in on the reverend, who was flailing at them rather than using up precious ammo to kill the slow-moving wanderers. That was a mistake. They grabbed and pulled him down within seconds.

  Tin grabbed a candle holder and pounded on the head of a chomper that had wandered away from the crowd and was headed for Teeny. There were dozens crowding into the chapel now. The reverend was screaming as he was pulled down and torn to pieces. The slowly moving dead had their attention on the reverend as his blood frenzied them into feeding on their downed victim.

  Teeny and Rocky had cut the bindings on Jax and O’Reilly, and they were moving toward the back of the chapel now. Tin backed up with his candle holder still in hand. Then he saw the two silver pistols, one still held in the hand of the reverend’s dismembered arm. He ran forward and grabbed the silver .45s. When he stood up to leave, he saw Anderson stand up holding his chest.

  Anderson’s head was down for a couple of seconds as Tin backed toward the door where the others had escaped. He aimed the guns at Anderson’s head and pulled the triggers. Both just clicked—no wonder the reverend hadn’t used them to save himself; there was no ammo left. He tucked the pistols and began to reach for the dart guns in their holsters on his thighs but decided it was more prudent to run. Anderson smiled an evil smile at him and started moving toward him, throwing aside and bowling over the frenzied wanderers.

  Tin turned, ran through the door, and slammed it behind him. As he rounded the corner of the building and saw the rest running toward where the truck was hidden, some of the dead that hadn’t made it into the building were starting to trail after them. He ran past them. A loud crash came from the back of the chapel as he made his way across the front yard of the plantation house.

  Sounds like the Hulkster doesn’t know how to use a door handle.

  He yelled ahead, “We have a rogue ape right on our tails! Run faster!”

  As he yelled, he was passing the front of the house, and Jerrod ran out pointing his rifle at Tin. He slowed for a few seconds before Jerrod noticed the giant come around the corner of the chapel. He re-aimed and fired several shots that hit their target. Anderson absorbed the shots with hardly a flinch. Jerrod watched in horror as the inhumanly large man pointed his attention on him. Without bothering to waste more bullets, he followed where Tin had just disappeared into the trees.

  Tin ran as fast as he ever had, dodging between trees and moving through the heavily forested outskirts of the plantation. He dared to look back at one point and saw Jerrod close behind with his rifle and a horrific look of fear on his face. Not far behind and catching up fast was the bloodied Anderson at full stride. Tin turned and continued to sprint and dodge as fast as he could. He was sure that the trees were slowing the monster because of his bulk. Once he hit the open field, the enhanced behemoth would have no more obstructions and would catch them quickly enough. He just had to hope that he had enough of a separation that he could make it to the truck and they could get up to speed before he got there.

  When he cleared the edge of the trees, he saw the others piling into the truck, with Jax at the wheel. Teeny looked back at him, and he waved his hand at her to get started. She turned and relayed the request to Jax, and the truck started to roll along the road.

  Tin’s lungs were ready to explode. He felt Jerrod only a few strides behind him; fear was on his heels.

  Anderson had cleared the trees now, and Tin heard him grunting and laughing at the same time. He reached the truck and dove into the back. O’Reilly grabbed him and helped him up. The truck sped up, leaving Jerrod in a dust cloud screaming, “Nnnoooooo!”

  Tin banged on the cab and told Jax to slow for the man. Jax gave him a disgusted look, but did as he was told. Jerrod saw them slowing and continued his run, with Anderson just a few yards behind and catching fast.

  O’Reilly grabbed the side of the truck and leaned out, offering his hand to Jerrod, whos
e strength was fading fast. When he grabbed the hand, Anderson was close enough to grab an ankle. There was a tug-of-war between O’Reilly and Anderson. Jerrod screamed in pain and fright.

  Tin pulled one of his dart guns and aimed it at the huge man. Thwip, thwip.

  One hit his cheek, tearing it and his left ear from his head to dangle. The other hit him in the forehead, knocking his head back and making him release his grip on Jerrod.

  Anderson stumbled and fell face first in the gravel, sliding to a stop in the middle of the road. O’Reilly reeled in Jerrod and hefted him onto the bed of the truck as Jax sped up, spraying dust and gravel behind them.

  Tin watched the body of the monster lying in the road and thought he saw him rise to his hands and knees before the dust made it impossible to see anything behind them. They rounded a long bend, so he stopped trying to see and hoped that it was just his imagination.

  When they turned onto the first paved road, Jax slowed to look at a man everyone recognized hanging from a tree. It was Reed, strung up by the chain that they had used to secure him at the hospital. He was alive and using his arms to help his legs stay out of the reach of dozens of chompers that had gathered below.

  At a height that would put his legs within reach if he let them go, his face was red and strained from holding up his legs. As he breathed in gasping breaths, he whined audibly a couple times because the strain kept him from speaking.

  Jax kept the truck slowly rolling as they all looked on with grim faces. Reed realized that he wouldn’t be saved, so he whined two last times before he finally gave up and let go of his legs. He screamed as the chompers tore at them. They watched without cringing as one of his legs was detached below the knee and eaten like a turkey leg at a Renaissance fair.

  The truck sped up when the screaming stopped and Reed’s head lolled to the side. Teeny knew it wouldn’t take long for him to reanimate and wondered how long he would hang there in a semiconscious state. She shook her head and a tear rolled down her cheek. She wasn’t crying for him, but for humanity. What had they become? They had just let a man die whom they could have saved.