She nodded and I pushed myself up from the rough bed. I hesitated a moment before placing a hand on her shoulder. I gave it a quick squeeze and pulled open the curtain. I looked back before stepping through and saw a woman who was almost defeated.
I let the curtain fall closed and looked around the already crowded room. The noise was almost deafening as too many people talked or cried or moaned in pain, all at the same time. Too few doctors and the only nurses were volunteers.
Another problem to add to my growing list. I filed it away in mind, ready to bring up when I met with the others later that day, but before then, I had a million things to do and an undead horde on its way.
Chapter 17
“Guess I was wrong when I said you were a clever bastard.”
Isaac practically growled as he said it, barely glancing at me as he paced the room once more. I watched him in bemused silence as I waited for him to get to a point that was worth waiting for.
“You can’t trust them, you know? Especially that old bastard. He’s the worst of the fucking lot.”
Not that I had any intention of trusting them, it was nice to know that my initial impulse was right. Though, admittedly, I rarely trusted anyone so it was hardly out of character for me to be so distrustful.
“Why would that be?”
“Because they’ll use you till they’re done with you then kill you!”
Considering that they had been torturing me for about a week, I didn’t doubt that at all. Still, despite the way Isaac had been acting over the past few days, seeming to grow ever more willing to chat with every new torture, I still wasn’t entirely sure that I could trust him.
“Never doubted that for a minute. Even so, it’s got to be more fun than being tortured.”
“No.” He shook his head and scratched at the stubble he wore. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”
Well, I thought, that was a little bit ominous.
“Tell me then. Why are you so scared of them?”
His glower almost made me smile and I crossed my arms and leant back in the chair as I waited for his response.
He scratched at his chin once more and glanced up at the camera before making sure to turn his back to it. With one hand he reached up and unbuttoned the top four buttons of his shirt and then pulled it aside.
There, above his heart was a thin, black, disc barely an inch wide, attached directly to the skin. It was seamless and appeared to my untrained eye to be almost glued in place. I cocked an eyebrow in query and looked him in the eye.
“Everyone here, in this base, has one of these fitted.”
“Am I supposed to know what it is?”
“Did you ever hear of Genpact?”
I gave him a confused frown as I nodded slowly, unsure about the sudden change in direction.
“Yeah, a tech company. They made phones and stuff, didn’t they?”
“A small subsidiary made smart-phones. They had a whole host of small enterprises beneath their corporate umbrella.”
“What’s your point?”
“Their corporation was vast and global. They had budgets larger than the GDP of small countries set aside for research alone and the majority of the money they made from the day to day stuff went to that research.” He tapped the black disc on his chest. “They have tech you couldn’t dream of.”
He paused and glanced back over his shoulder a look of what I could only assume to be apprehension on his face. He bit down on his lip as he looked back at me and hesitated, perhaps considering whether or not he should say more.
“This… device, can be activated a number of ways. Either a remote signal or at a prearranged time or date being two of them.”
Ah.
“So, I assume, when you leave the base you have a set amount of time outside. What happens if it is triggered?”
“It contains the original strain of the undeath.”
Now that was definitely interesting and explained why they were in such a hurry to get back home. They could have spent days surveying the island and wandering around with impunity while wearing the outfit of my minions, but they hadn’t.
“So, it gets activated and you find yourself with a sudden taste for human flesh. How fast is the change?”
“Instant.” He swallowed hard and licked his lips nervously. “Your disc gets triggered and you will have sudden pain so intense that you are knocked from your feet and the parasite gets injected directly into your heart.”
“We all have the parasite already though.”
“No. You have a second or third generation parasite. The originals caused almost instant zombification and the first thing they did was lace the body with untold numbers of eggs. Those things are egg laying machines, man.”
“Then the host bites someone, the eggs get transferred and the next person is infected.”
“Yeah, that’s right. But, because they needed it to spread they ensured that those eggs had a second generation of the parasite. One that would hide out in the body, making eggs and quietly making the host infectious but not a zombie. When the body died or after a certain amount of time, the parasite would kick it up a notch and begin the zombification.”
“Makes sense,” I said slowly as I thought about that. “How did everyone else get infected with them then?”
“Third generation,” Isaac said with a shrug. “Genpact had either direct or indirect access to most water companies. People had been drinking that generation of the parasite for weeks before the fall.”
“What is this third generations purpose? Activate after death, I suspect.”
“Yes.”
I had to admit that I was impressed with the ruthlessness of it all, and a little jealous. They were directly responsible for the deaths of billions of people and I could never top that number.
“Why not take it off?” I waved my hand before he answered and added, “yeah, stupid question. Tamper-proof, right?”
“Activates if the connection with the body is lost. Soon as you pull the disc away from your skin the filaments laced through the body release the parasite and you’re fucked, big time.”
“Okay, so why’s that a problem for me?” I waved my hand again before he could answer and shook my head as I answered my own question. “Because they’ll attach one to me before they let me loose.”
“Yeah, that’s the plan. You get fitted up with one of these.” He tapped the disc with one finger. “Then you do everything they say or you’re a zombie.”
“An unappealing prospect, no doubt about it.”
That would make things a little more difficult. Each of the devices would likely have a unique identifier so that they could activate it from their central command. That would make killing everyone either very hard or very easy.
I flashed Isaac a sudden grin that had him blinking and taking a step back.
“Why are you being so chatty all of a sudden?” I asked, tilting my head as I stared at him, searching his face for some clue I could recognise. “You’ve been almost friendly.”
“Yeah, well, believe it or not, I actually respect you.”
“You do?”
“Aye. You ain’t the first poor bugger I’ve seen them interrogate and you lasted longer than all of them.”
“Something to be proud of, I’m sure.”
He stalked across the room and grabbed a handful of my stained, once-white coverall and pulled me to him so that my face was inches from his own. I could see the anger in his eyes and feel his hot breath on my face.
“Quit the smart-mouth shit! You and me, we can be mates and mates do favours for one another. You get me?”
“I’m having visions of prison romance and I have to say it’s not my thing…”
He snarled a wordless sound and threw me back against into the chair. I sucked in a breath of air as fresh pain exploded through my body. He stomped away from me and ran a hand down his face before looking directly at me, something powerful in his eyes that I couldn’t quite understand.
“I have a daughter.”
Just that. Nothing more, but I could see the way his hand trembled as he ran it across his head and I heard the catch in his voice that spoke loudly of fear to me. I could recognise that at least but I suspected it was fear for his child more than himself.
Suddenly, it seemed to make sense to me. I had an inkling of what he wanted but I couldn’t allow him to think he understood anything about me. I wanted him to explain what he wanted, to ask me to help him. Though even if he didn’t, I would anyway for I could see a great potential in partnering up with him.
“What is it you want?”
“They will take you to another room to have the disc fitted.” He licked dry lips and kept glancing back at the camera and then down at the watch he wore. “I don’t have much time. Erin is watching over us for now but soon the shift will change.”
“Then explain quickly.”
“A lot of us, the workers.” He said it with a sneer as though he were speaking of a lesser caste. “We were told to come here and bring our families with no real explanation. We figured it was a company retreat, a way to get to know each other, that sort of thing.”
I nodded understanding and refrained from rolling my eyes.
“When we got here, the doors closed and one by one, we were fitted with a disc. They started with the kids. We were trapped and the only reason we stayed as the world fell apart was because they gave us no choice.”
“How am I supposed to help?”
“Soon, they will come to get you. I’ve made sure the guards are friends.” He paused and looked down at his watch again. “Their job is to take you to the infirmary and strap you to a table. Once secured, they will notify control and a tech will come in to attach the disc.”
He chewed on his lip again and I wondered if it was a sign of nerves or whether he just liked the taste he was doing it so much.
“Only you won’t be strapped down and I’ve made sure more friends will be watching the cameras in that room.”
“Why not have Erin do it?”
“This camera is on a separate system. The bosses don’t want everyone to know what they get up to with their prisoners.”
Fair enough, I reasoned.
“The guards will help you secure the tech and you can take his access card which will get you into the main control room. Once there, you will insert this.” He held up a small flash-drive in his large hand. “into the main terminal and that will allow remote access to another friend.”
“A lot of friends it seems.”
“Once we have access we can disable the discs.”
“What then?”
He bared his teeth in a rictus grin as he rolled his shoulders in a shrug.
“Then we take our families and get the hell away from here.”
“And… what do I get for this?”
He blinked and clenched his teeth before saying, “you get to leave here alive and head back to your bloody island.”
“I thought the island had been overrun?”
“No. They’re preparing to defend themselves and there’s a shit load of undead headed their way, but they are still alive.”
“How do you know?”
“They have access to working satellites.”
Ah, another mystery solved then. If they could access the satellites then it stood to reason that they were the ones who had taken them down in the first place. Their conspiracy must have been far-reaching indeed for them to pull off such a thing.
“You can see what’s happening on the island?”
“Some of it. We have one satellite that passes overhead once a day. Gives us a general idea but nothing more.”
“Why not re-route it or whatever to give them more time?” I stopped myself and shook my head slowly as I knew I had the answer already. “They’re watching other places, aren’t they?”
“Yeah.”
He looked almost embarrassed as he said it and as tempted as I was to push him about what they were watching, that could wait for later. I had other things to consider.
“If they made this… plague, then they must have all the information about it stored here, yeah? I mean, if they kept the police files from my hometown, they must store everything.”
“Aye, they do. Something about creating a vast library of knowledge for future generations. They have this thing about losing data. One of the data-techs wiped the wrong hard drive once and, well, he’s down on level twelve with the other undead.”
“They have zombies here?”
“Yeah.” He gave me a curious look and something crossed his face that I didn’t quite recognise. “The ones in charge, the bastards behind all this are scientists first and foremost. This base is equipped with state-of-the-art gear and their work is still going on.”
It was definitely interesting and I could already see several ways that the base and all it contained would be useful to Lily back on the island. The only problem was the several hundred people already living in it.
I looked at the flash drive that he still held and pursed my lips as I narrowed my eyes in thought. There could be a way for me to get what I wanted but it would mean a change to the mercenaries’ plan. A change that he might not go for.
“Tell you what. A few amendments and we have a deal.”
“What amendments?” He asked, suspicion filling his voice.
“I’ll get that to the control room and plugged into their system but you need to make sure when your friends have access, they disable the tamper settings.”
“Why?”
“Because as soon as that’s done, I want you and all your other ‘friends’ to remove the discs from yourselves and your families and run for the exits, then I’m going to set off everyone elses.”
Chapter 18
“Hey, baby,” I said as I ruffled the thick hair along Jinx’s neck. “I’m sorry you have to stay here but it’s not a good place out there for you right now.”
That was an understatement. I held back the tears I knew wanted to come and sank down onto the bed I had shared all too briefly with the man I loved. I was beyond exhausted, my back and feet ached and all I wanted to do was sleep. That just wasn’t to be though.
It seemed that not a single person on the whole damned island could do anything without running it by me first. I pressed a hand against my stomach, imagining for a moment the life growing there and hugged Jinx close with my other arm.
I needed that comfort, right then, as I wondered what Ryan was doing. If he was even still alive and if he would be returning to me. The fact that Gregg hadn’t radioed in was telling and my hope of his return was fading.
There came a knock at the door and Lisa poked her head in. Seeing that I was awake and decent, she let the door open fully to allow the admiral and Samuel into the room. I didn’t bother to hide my groan.
“Apologies, My Lady,” Samuel said with a deep bow.
“Ma’am.”
“What is it and can’t it wait till morning?”
“I’m afraid not, ma’am.”
“Oh please! Just call me Lily when we’re alone. I can’t be bothered with all that formal stuff just now.”
“As you wish, Lily,” the admiral said with a slight smile on his weathered face.
“What is it then?”
“We might have picked up a trace of the sub.”
That was enough to pique my curiosity and chase away my tiredness, for a moment or two at least.
“Might have? Where?”
“South of here, just past the southernmost point of the island.”
“And?”
“Just that. The destroyer is actively searching the area.”
“What else? You wouldn’t have come here with just that so spit it out.”
That he’d led with that news told me enough to know that whatever was coming next, I wouldn’t like.
“There have been more protests,” Samuel said in his usual soft tones. “They have been a number of arrests.”
“I thought I told you not to arrest anyone if you could avoid it. We need people on our side and they won’t be if they think we’re a police state.”
“They had weapons and attacked some of the CDF. It was only the intervention of the acolytes that brought it to a quick close.”
“How many?”
“Seven arrested and more of them disappeared into the crowds. Those we did arrest were… questioned.”
I gave Samuel my best glare and he didn’t so much as bat an eye. I knew the methods that Ryan’s people used and they weren’t any that I wanted to keep in practice. But just then, with an impending invasion by the undead, I figured it wasn’t worth pressing.
“Okay, we will discuss that at a later time…”
“Apologies, My Lady. One of those questioned spoke of a plot against you.”
“A coup?”
“No, an assassination. It would seem that there is a small group of people who believe that the former minister should be back in power and that it can only happen with your death.”
“What with me being the evil tyrant, yeah?”
“Something like that.”
“You’re safe in here, but even so I would recommend that no one approaches your quarters with their hoods on,” the admiral added. “That would solve the problem of strangers sneaking in.”
“That is an issue that will be addressed,” Samuel said a little irritably. “We were discussing it before My Lord Death was abducted.”
“Great, so more guards when I go out I take it?”
Both of the men nodded at the same time and I pressed my fingers against my temples at the growing headache I could feel was already building into a migraine.
“Anything else?”
“The broadcast has not changed and there is, so far, no reports of the undead coming ashore. The drones will be of little use now that it’s dark, however, so we will be relying on people.”
“How many people have we evacuated out to the boats?”
“Nearly twelve thousand.”
“So many?”
“The cruise ship has taken the majority and we’ve stuffed as many people on there as we can.”
Killing the Dead (Book 14): Enemies Unknown Page 12