They sliced, diced and hammered their way through the gonerz blocking their way till they were the last ones standing in the hall. Bones were pulverized, flesh torn off the bone and body parts were severed. Panting and gasping they paused to catch their breath. Randy pulled out the energy bar Dana had given him and silently thanked her. He took a giant bite out of it, closing his eyes and chewing each molecule. Another inhumane groan grabbed their attention. Two more gonerz found their way to them. They seemed to be the slower ones as they took their own sweet time strolling towards them. Chester and Sean stepped forward to face the fiends.
Randy signalled them to stop. Up until now, they were randomly hacking & slashing through the hordes. In the frenzy to survive they had forgotten the necessity to find their weakness as it could tip the balance in their favour. Or so he thought. These two provided the best learning opportunity. Checking his ammo to be sure, he raised his trusty nail gun and pointed it towards the closer of the two. Steadying his aim, he shot the arm.
It merely slowed down the goner. It didn’t show any signs of pain, neither did it die. The next nail went to the leg.
Same result.
His placed his gaze at it’s heart. Pulling the trigger, he sent another dastardly nail right through the fiend’s heart. Half of it must have gone through because the other half was still protruding. The goner slowed down, this time a little more. It seemed to have some effect. It grunted again, as though annoyed by the minor setbacks and proceeded a few more steps. Then they saw something surprising.
It collapsed.
It tried gnawing and scratching the floor but to no avail. It was down for the count. The other goner turned a blind eye to its fellow being’s suffering continuing steadily towards them with sporadic grunts and growls. The goner on the ground fought like fish out of water and ultimately it stopped moving. It lay motionless.
Randy’s nail gun was still trained at the second goner but everyone’s eyes were the on the fella on the ground. Did it die? Is it playing possum? No they possibly couldn’t be smart enough to play possum. These thoughts hopped across everyone’s mind. The second goner was quite close. Too close for comfort, the others took a safe step back. The goner was a mere six feet away from Randy when he pulled the trigger. The nail gun silently deposited a 2 inch hardened steel nail right through the gonerz’ grey matter.
It’s head reeled back from the force of the point blank shot and make a wheezing sound. It’s head just as fast sprang back to it’s original position and pushed forward towards it’s prey. Randy was surprised but managed to react by quickly stepping back and putting another one through the brain. It’s head reeled back again and made the same sound. This time it’s head sprang back slower and seemingly more painfully. It’s movements dulled even further before it’s knees gave out and it collapsed to the floor. It’s mouth kept opening and closing, like a human gasping for air in their final moments. It too succumbed to the damage.
Everyone drew different conclusions. Some more closer to the truth and some more further from it. But there was one truth that none could deny. There was more than one way to kill the gonerz. They once again looked about to make certain that they were alone this time. And surely enough they were. There was some activity going down on the grounds below them.
“Hey there are more people running out there. We’ve got more survivors than we thought,” Joanne announced her voice betraying an optimistic edge. From the blood stained window, they saw figures scurrying across the sprawling lawns. And there were quite a few of them. The gonerz had found better prey at the moment.
“They are going towards....the auditorium?” Dana said peering through the dark.
“The auditorium? That would make sense. It can accommodate a large number of people and the doors are without a doubt sturdy enough,” Chester added emphasising on the last two words.
“Shouldn’t we head there then?” Dana asked raising her eyebrows.
“No. The gonerz are all going in that direction. We would want to avoid becoming fodder,” Sean replied with a convincing gesture.
Everyone silently agreed.
It felt wrong. Feeling relieved that there were survivors out there but also at the same time the relief stems from the fact that they had unknowingly become diversions, therefore indirectly saving Randy and the guys. The bullseye on their backs had faded for now.
“There’s a chemistry lab on the second floor. We could definitely use that,” Greg said. His voice cool as the night air.
Randy looked at everyone as if looking for confirmation and said, “Let’s go.”
Taking the stairs up on the same side they first made their escape out of the engineering block, they made their way up. The college was eerie at night, and without power even more so. It must’ve been close to sunrise because the night had just gotten a whole lot darker. Randy pulled out his flashlight and pressing a button, a divergent beam of light tore through the darkness, illuminating everything in it’s path.
The light flashed right into the eyes of a goner. It wasn’t pleased. It responded by rushing towards them. It seemed to be dressed in formal clothing, still intact. Except for the spots of red on the otherwise spotless shirt.
Randy drew his trusty nail gun but Chester signalled him to stand down. He shot him a look which said stand down and save ammo.. We could handle a few gonerz the old fashioned way. Somehow seeing Chester swinging a sledgehammer at someone’s head didn’t come as a suprise given his appearance. He charged and rammed the goner with the butt of the sledgehammer pushing it onto the floor. Before it could react, with one mighty heave, he crushed it’s head. It’s brains had been reduced to pudding and now seeped onto the untainted floor. Joanne and Josh’s stomach protested at the sight.
Few more goners loitering the hall responded to their new guests and rushed towards them. Randy thought themselves to be lucky to be facing a few of them. If there was half the number of gonerz in these halls as they were down there, they’d be gonerz themselves. Greg and Sean assisted in cleaning house.
“How come we don’t get to knock some heads off?” Joanne asked, her feelings crystal clear.
Professor cleared his throat to remind them of his presence.
“Well, if you fumble when it came down to it, you know what happens right?” Chester said raising his sledgehammer.
“Sexist,” Joanne remarked.
Chester let out a laugh. “Sue me.”
Randy carefully opened the chemistry lab’s door. It opened without as much as a creak. Scanning the room with his flashlight and nail gun, he deemed it safe to enter, motioning the rest.
“So what are we doing here again?” Chester asked rubbing his temple.
“A lot can be done in a chemistry lab my friend,” Randy said as he patted Chester’s shoulder.
Joanne floated through the stack of chemicals, her gaze finding a bottle of ethyl alcohol.
“Here, I’ve found it.”
“What?” Dana asked walking towards her.
“Alcohol.”
“Alcohol?” Dana and Chester echoed.
“Yeah. They can be used as an improvised incendiary weapon.”
“A what?” Chester asked rubbing his temple furiously as if thinking was starting to hurt him.
“A Molotov cocktail is what she means,” Randy said scanning another shelf of chemicals.
“Why didn’t you say so?” Chester said shaking his head.
Joanne rolled her eyes. “There’s got to be a bigger stash of ethyl alcohol here somewhere.”
Greg silently searched for his ingredient. His finger stopped moving when he located what he had been looking for.
Powdered chlorine.
He picked it up and walked towards Joanne. “I’ve found some chlorine,”
“Chlorine?” She stared at him as if what he said was supposed to make sense.
He sighed. “Powdered chlorine when mixed with alcohol causes an explosive mixture.”
“I-I didn’t know,” she said impressed.
“How do you know? They never taught us this.”
“Things I’ve tried,” he said managing a smile. Joanne was relieved to see him smile. A light flutter filled her chest.
“Throw in a couple of nails and we’ve got a fragmentation grenade of sorts,” Randy added hands on his hips.
“Hey I think I found the alcohol you were looking for,” Josh called from the store room behind the blackboard. Everyone followed his voice to the store room.
“That’s....a lot of alcohol. You sure we can’t drink it?” Chester asked with hope in his eyes.
“If you want to die go ahead,” Joanne retorted shooting him an annoyed look.
Professor Westwood watched the proceedings silently all the while his hands behind his back. It’s almost as if he was oblivious to the situation they were in. Chester and Josh lifted the drum of carefully preserved ethanol back into the lab and set it down.
“Phew, its pretty heavy. Could use a drink,” Chester said eyes fixed on the prize.
Joanne simply sighed and chose not to reply.
“We’ll need to clear out bottles that we don’t need,” Joanne said.
“What do you mean?” Dana asked.
“Anything that’s not ethanol and powdered chlorine goes.”
“We’ll have to dump everything into the basin and wash the bottles with distilled water,” Greg added in support.
“Roger that,” Sean said. Everyone began emptying bottles into the basin and began to rinse the bottles with distilled water.
“Now we fill ‘em with alcohol,” Randy said concentrating on filling his bottle. “These will form our little molotovs.”
Chester laughed. A laugh that meant bring it! They filled quite a few bottles when Joanne said, “We’ll need a cloth to soak into the alcohol.”
“We’ve got plenty of rags in the lab,” Josh said as he ran back into the storeroom and brought back a handful of rags. Everyone took a few rags and tore it up in such a way that a part of the cloth was immersed in the ethanol and the other was dangling freely in air. After the preparations were complete, they packed their new inventory carefully. The bottles clinked against each other. They split the bottles each would carry so as to reduce the risk of the bottles breaking.
Professor Westwood seemed nervous at the sight of the makeshift explosives. He hesitated for a moment before carrying his share. He packed it carefully into a bag as far away from each other as possible. The torn rags were also stuffed into the bag.
A lot of alcohol still remained in the drum. It seemed a waste to leave it as it is. Greg picked up a nearby funnel and packed it. There was still half a drum of alcohol left. But they’d have to leave it. They wouldn’t be able to run carrying an alcohol laden drum around. Chester’s heart sank at the sight of leaving the alcohol, so much of it. They exited the lab cautiously, Randy leading with his nail gun while Chester and Sean bought up the rearguard.
The hallways were empty. Randy peered down through the windows. It seemed most of the goner traffic was diverted towards the auditorium. The grounds were still spotted with gonerz. It would be possible to dash through them towards the Biological Sciences block. Daybreak wasn’t far away. They weren’t sure whether sunlight was an enemy to the gonerz or not but it would certainly make them feel a whole lot better. This particular night seemed endless with so much occurring in a span of a few hours. It was taxing on the mind and the body. But the night is always darkest just before dawn.
Greg sensed a familiar eerie feeling. His senses went on high alert. Everybody sensed it too. The night was at it’s darkest and the grey that surrounded them began to move in silence, ready to kill.
Everyone’s eyes scanned every inch of the place for any sort of movement. The darkness making it incredulously hard to do so. Everyone clutched their weapons tightly.
“I need a weapon,” Professor Westwood said. His voice a tad bit shaky.
Randy looked at him for a second and tossed the baton at the professor. Impressively, the professor managed to catch it even in the darkness. Sean wondered if he was old at all. With their backs to each other, they didn’t want anyone jumping them from behind and it would also increase their field of view. Breaths became heavier with each passing moment as the shadows slowly melted into the darkness.
Josh felt the right side of his shoulder becoming a bit colder. He peered in the darkness at his shoulder. It was wet. He touched it with two fingers and proceeded to take a sniff. It smelled pungent and had a familiar iron-like odour. The blot on his shoulder grew bigger. His heart began to beat at a staccato. His neck muscles furiously protested against looking up but he overcame the resistance. A clacking sound above him forced him to look up.
There it sat, on the ceiling, all four limbs glued, the cold stuff oozing from it’s clacking mouth.
Chapter 5
A woman walked down a spotless hall lit by bright white lights along it’s length. The collision of her heels and the virgin floor produced a soft echo while her pure white coat swayed lazily with each step. Her auburn tresses were tied into a neat bun with hurried hands. A few loose strands dangled by her temples. She wore a lavender shirt with two buttons open to reveal a modest cleavage and a jet black pencil skirt which hugged her rounded hips complemented by black stilettos. Her hazel eyes wore a stern look as she pressed her wine lips into a taut line. As she reached the end of the hallway, a metallic door greeted her. The door had a stylized ‘H’ engraved on it. At the side a small panel lay with blinking lights. The woman with a swift motion swiped her ID card through a slot on the small panel. The lights on the panel turned green and an artificial voice said, “Welcome Dr. Draxler.”
The door parted to reveal a posh conference hall with a large oval table and several plush chairs with a mammoth screen at the end of the hall. Men and women wearing similar coats stood up at her entry to greet her. She paused to look at everyone’s faces and nodded. Everyone resumed their seats. She walked over to the chair at the front, at the opposite end of the screen. Her chair was significantly bigger thus implying her authority. A man stood beside her seat. He held a tablet in his hand and was the only one not wearing a coat. His bald head shone in the brightness of the room.
“What’s the situation?” she finally asked her voice uncompromising yet laced with feminity.
“HU (Hale University) has gone dark. We are keeping an eye through various CCTV cameras present throughout the premises,” the man beside her said.
“We are in deep trouble if anyone finds out this happened because of us,” a frail man said with a worried look.
“Dr. Harper, this was in no way intentional. It was an accident. In fact, we are the ones at loss,” she said looking straight through him.
“What about the explosion?” A woman asked seated on her right.
“It’s being taken care of. Nothing to worry about.”
“B-but lots of people have died because of our negligence. This c-could go on to become a global pandemic if we don’t stop,” the frail main said looking at the others.
The bald man shot Dr. Draxler a quick look. Dr. Draxler slowly leaned forward and let her elbows rest on the table.
“Dr. Harper, you are free to hand in your resignation if you wish to quit,” she said, her voice slow and intimidating. “Of course, you have signed a non-disclosure agreement. Now if any of this were to get out there, you would be held equally responsible as any of us. However if you choose to be loyal, you will be suitably compensated for your silence. I...trust that you will make the right decision.”
Dr. Harper gulped as beads of sweat raced down his face.
“What does the ground report say?” asked the woman on the right.
“We have lost contact with our....assets. It’s unfortunate but the cameras are the only eyes we have,” the bald man said. His voice betraying his concern. He then proceeded to press something on the tablet and the mammoth screen began to display CCTV footage of the happenings at HU. Some of the white coats cringed at the pandemonium
, some remained unmoved.
In one particular footage which showed the outside of the cafeteria, the woman on the right asked the bald man to freeze the footage. “Isn’t that...?” she started squinting at the pixelated image.
“Yes. We have lost communication but we have reason to believe they are in the engineering block again,” The bald man responded glancing down at his tablet.
“The Chairman is going to find out eventually. What do we tell him?” Asked a man seated to Dr. Draxler’s immediate left.
“We stall. Tell him it’s nothing to worry about. Everything’s under control,” Dr. Draxler said.
The bald man placed his right index fear on his ear and after a few seconds he turned towards Dr. Draxler and said, “Ma’am, I just received word from security that Col. Mathers has entered the building.”
Dr. Draxler closed her eyes and sighed, “Let us greet him. We are done here. Remember, maintain protocol,” she said her voice almost threatening. The others nodded and gathering their belongings rose to leave.
Rising from her seat, she walked swiftly into the white halls with the bald man hot on her heels.
“This has become quite the predicament ma’am. What do we do?”
“We need to sweep everything under the rug. And I mean EVERYTHING,” her voice firm with conviction. “The Chairman will have my head if he learns of what happened here.” Subtle creases met her delicate pale skin.
They walked unceasingly towards a large cabin. The name plaque on the delicate wooden door read Dr. Sharyn Draxler. She walked inside into her spacious cabin and collapsed into her plush chair. Looking at baldy she said “Stefan, Tell Lou to be on standby. I want him and his men ready,” she said after a moment of contemplation. Stefan nodded and went on to contact Lou via his magical tablet. She swivelled around in her chair to catch a glimpse of the city at night. No skyscraper teased the sky, no over the board lightings. It was serene. Almost as if the pandemonium they witnessed on the mammoth screen never happened.
Suddenly the door to her cabin flew open. A large, muscular black man with a mean moustache walked in. On his heels were three men of nearly equal size. They all wore military uniforms. The black man in particular had an air of intimidation around him. His face had been washed with sands and rain over time. His brown eyes were direct and unrelenting. His men stood fast, armed with assault rifles and in full combat gear.
The Outbreak Page 7