They all knew Phillips wasn’t the kind of man to sit in front of a radio all day. Phillips was a hands-on leader who would’ve been out among everyone.
“So Phillips,” concluded Melvin, “risked his life to get to the communication room.”
“He was warning us,” Hall responded, looking at the ground. “Phillips died because he knew the base was completely overrun, and he didn’t want us to return after we completed our mission.”
Silence gripped the group.
“I’m sorry, everyone,” Wilder finally said. “We all had friends, comrades, and even lovers at the base. But we can’t look back. We need to keep moving forward. We aren’t just out here sightseeing. We have a plan that could turn things in our favor.”
“Fort Hood has fallen,” Butsko added. “There’s nothing we can do about that. But let’s not allow Phillips’ death be in vain. We still have an important mission to carry out.”
“There is something bothering me,” Wilder said. All eyes turned to him as he swept his arms around. “Where the hell are all the infected?”
“I assumed they killed every living thing around the golf club and moved on,” speculated Mears.
“Okay,” Wilder continued. “Then where are the reanimated dead bodies the first wave left behind?”
“Good question,” answered Megan. “Where the hell are they?”
Before anyone could guess, Melvin interrupted them.
“I believe,” Melvin said, “we’re being watched.”
4
Will to Heal Center
Spicewood Springs
The day had proven to be a busy one. After breakfast, everyone went over every square inch of the house and looked for any weaknesses. More boards were added to the already-fortified windows, and more nails were hammered into the doors. Everyone worked together, and there was a feeling in the air that made everyone uneasy.
As Joe walked in from outside, he looked around the doorframe, making sure there were no weak spots.
“Hey, Walt,” Joe said as he walked over to where Walt was reinforcing some boards. “I just checked on last night’s visitor in the pit. I doused the body with a little more gas and relit it.”
“It wasn’t still moving, was it?” Walt asked.
“No, no,” responded Joe. “I was just making sure it was ash.”
Hector, another counselor at the center, walked into the room.
“You guys have been busy in here,” Hector said as he looked around.
Walt walked forward and pulled him aside.
“Is everything okay, Walt?” Hector asked. “Everyone seems to be anxious today.”
“I think last night’s attack shook everyone up,” Walt responded.
“On the bright side,” Hector continued, “we haven’t had an attack in a long time.”
“I think that’s the problem,” Walt said. “Why attack now? And why was there only one of those things?”
“I’m just glad there weren’t more of them,” Hector said.
“Well, I’m starting to think we’ve outworn our time here,” Walt said as he looked at Hector.
“You’re not suggesting we leave, are you?” asked Hector, concerned. “There won’t be too many other places that have access to a well of fresh spring water.”
“I know, Hector,” Walt whispered. “I just think it is time to have a meeting and come up with a plan. This place isn’t gonna hold up forever,” he said as he looked around.
Walt squeezed Hector’s shoulder and headed back into the other room. He knew it was time for a meeting.
“Hey everyone,” Walt said. “Gather around.”
Just as Walt was about to announce his intentions, a loud crashing noise was heard in the other room.
“What the hell was that?” Joe asked as he ran into the room.
Everyone looked around at the reinforced windows and doors, but didn’t see any splintered wood. They had begun to gather in the common room, but most had run back to their rooms to gather their makeshift weapons.
Dennis had a few kitchen knives, Cheryl grabbed a thick broomstick and unscrewed the broom part, Jonas took apart a pair of hedge clippers to make two blades, and Joe had a piece of pipe the plumbers had left behind. Joe had one end of it covered in a layer of duct tape so it wouldn’t slip from his hands. The others grabbed whatever they could.
A few individuals broke away to check out the rooms. They came back with nothing to report.
“Where the hell did that noise come from?” Barry asked. Barry was a big burly man who used to work in the Center’s kitchen. He was the only one at the Center who had never dealt with addiction. He was just a cook.
A loud pounding sound shook the heavy front door and everyone jumped.
“Are they fucking knocking on the door?” Harley asked nervously.
Harley was a middle-aged woman who was being treated for her meth addiction. She had been off and on (mostly on) the drug for the last twenty years. Walt had started to make progress in her treatment as he’d applied his theories and methods, and though she’d finally started to kick her addiction, she was always jittery, and this kind of situation was not an ideal one for her to be in.
Everyone looked at Walt as though he knew what was going on.
“Everyone stay the hell away from the door,” Walt said as he slowly started forward. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something isn’t right.”
Walt held Stevie in striking position as he walked closer to the door. He knew that door would hold off the infected. It was a solid iron door sitting on iron-reinforced hinges. While it was rusty and squeaked like a son of a bitch, it also gave everyone a peace of mind.
Walt reached the door. Both Joe and Cheryl were a few steps behind him. They gave him room in case he needed to swing Stevie.
Walt placed his hand flat against the cool door. He looked at the others as he slowly pressed his ear against the iron.
“Do you hear anything?” Harley asked.
“Of course not,” Walt responded. “It’s a solid fucking iron door.”
A few of the others nervously laughed as they watched Walt, Joe, and Cheryl step back and rejoin the group.
“I think whatever it was left,” Walt whispered to the group.
“But why the fuck was it knocking in the first place?” David asked.
David was an older man who had been a few days away from leaving the center during the initial outbreak. He stood six feet tall and didn’t look anywhere near the sixty-one years he had under his belt. Part of David’s success in treating his addiction was exercise. He was always in the gym and lifted weights, ran around the grounds, and rode the stationary bike. David believed his unhealthy mind was a result of an unhealthy body.
David’s preferred weapon was an axe that was in the groundkeeper’s shed. When he wasn’t splitting zombie’s skulls, he liked to chop wood, and as a result had broad shoulders and thick biceps.
Just as David posed his question, the loud banging began once again, but this time it seemed to be all around the room. It was deafening.
A few of the group placed their hands over their ears.
The noise got louder and seemed to go on forever, but Walt was concerned about something else. The noise wasn’t just coming from outside. Walt could’ve sworn it was coming from above them as well.
Walt looked up and saw dust falling from the rafters, but before he could warn the others, a small section of the roof caved in and six zombies jumped down.
Everyone scattered. Louis, a carpenter being treated for a pill addiction, was armed with a claw hammer and a cross-peen hammer and wasted no time as he swung the tools around. He caught one of the zombies on the side of the head with the cross-peen hammer and watched in glee as the creature’s head came apart.
Louis’ other swing wasn’t so lucky. The claw part of the hammer jammed into the neck of one of the attackers, and Louis couldn’t dislodge it.
As he let go of the claw hammer, Louis swung the c
ross-peen hammer toward the zombie and caught it on the shoulder. The zombie staggered back a bit, but reached out and caught Louis’ arm before he had a chance to pull the hammer back. The zombie bit into Louis’ shoulder and ripped out a piece of meat the size of a racquetball.
Louis howled in agony as the creature leaned in and bit out the rest of his deltoid muscle. Louis grabbed the handle of the claw hammer sticking out of the zombie’s neck and pulled with all his strength. As the zombie turned to rip his throat out, Louis drove the hammer’s claw into the top of the monster’s head. The creature’s eyes looked up as if it were trying to see what was invading its skull.
The zombie let Louis go, and with his undamaged arm, Louis grabbed the hammer and pulled the zombie down with his quickly fading strength. It fell to its knees, and Louis drove his knee up under the creature’s chin. The thing’s mouth slammed shut and the sudden force made the hammer jam even further into its skull.
The zombie collapsed and Louis dropped on top of it. With the bio-nanotechnology coursing through his system, Louis was only seconds away from death. He closed his eyes as the infection began to shut down all his biological functions.
Janis watched what happened to Louis and knew there was no time to mourn his loss. She looked down, saw a poker laying inside the fireplace, and reached for it.
Walt, Dennis, Cheryl, Jonas, Joe, Harley, David, and Samantha ran to different parts of the center. Three zombies chased after them. This left Hector, Barry, and Janis to handle the infected that remained.
Hector was the only one who didn’t have a weapon in hand and tried to reach Louis’ discarded cross-peen hammer. One of the zombie’s noticed and ran toward him. Hector panicked. He tried to jump over the sofa, but got caught on the front of it with his sneaker and toppled over the furniture.
Hector screamed, but grabbed a thick pillow from the sofa and placed it across his torso. When the pursuing zombie landed on him, Hector pushed as the pillow between them to try and keep the zombie’s gnashing mouth away from his neck and face. The zombie was strong and pushed down harder.
Hector looked to his left and saw the cross-peen hammer. He reached for it, but the hammer was out of reach. The zombie pressed down harder, and his right arm was weakening as he tried to hold the creature back.
The fingers of his left hand touched the wooden handle of the hammer, but he couldn’t get his hand around it.
Hector shifted his body weight to the left side and felt the hammer in his hand.
The creature was determined to make a meal of Hector’s insides. With a final lunge, the zombie pushed all its weight on Hector, but the sudden shift allowed Hector to grasp the hammer.
Hector lifted the hammer and swung it in a high arc towards the zombie’s head.
With his attention on the swinging hammer, Hector’s right arm weakened its hold on the pillow, and the zombie managed to tear the cushion away. Just as the hammer slammed into the zombie’s neck, the creature sunk its teeth into Hector’s chest. The hammer’s blow forced its teeth deeper into Hector’s pectoral muscle.
A searing pain shot through Hector’s body as the zombie tore away both flesh and muscle. Hector’s screams caught the attention of Janis and Barry who put down the other zombie in the room.
“No!” screamed Janis as she watched the zombie tear another piece of meat off Hector.
Janis found renewed strength, thrust the fire poker through the zombie’s throat, and pinned it to the wooden floorboards. Without hesitating, Barry grabbed a log beside the fireplace and brought it down as hard as he could onto the creature’s face. A wet crunching noise filled the room, and the zombie’s legs stopped kicking.
Janis and Barry ran to Hector. With his heavy boot, Barry kicked the zombie square in the ribs, then forced it off of Hector’s body and onto the ground next to him.
Barry grabbed a piece of the broken cross tier that had fallen when the roof caved in, brought it down on the zombie’s throat, and severed the head from the body. Janis and Barry looked down at Hector and saw that he was already dead.
As they paused to mourn their dead friend, they knew they were far from safe. Three more zombies ran around somewhere in the house. Just as they both turned around to find and help the others, they heard what sounded like a metallic clank.
Turning around, Barry and Janis froze at the sight before them. Louis had already reanimated and was opening the heavy iron front door.
Janis and Barry were about to find out what was banging on the door very soon.
“Louis! No!” shouted Barry.
Janis raced toward the door, the fire poker raised above her head. She brought the poker down as hard as she could into the area between Louis’ left shoulder and neck. The poker dug into the muscle until it hit bone.
Louis turned his head to look at Janis. Her hands were still on the poker as she tried to free it.
Barry grabbed the cross-peen hammer he saw next to Hector’s body and ran toward the front door. He swung his arm back and struck the zombie with all his strength.
Only it wasn’t Louis he hit.
In trying to dislodge the poker from Louis’ shoulder, Janis repositioned herself to get better leverage on the weapon. Janis stepped into Barry’s line of attack and took the full brunt of Barry’s hammer to the head.
Janis’ hands immediately released the poker as she fell to the floor, dead before she hit the ground. Barry saw her brains oozing out from the fractured skull.
Horrified at what he’d just done, tears formed in his eyes. Only the creaking of the rusty iron hinges kept Barry focused on the situation. Barry saw Louis at the front door, but was too late to do anything about it.
Louis opened the front door, and sixteen of the infected flooded into the house.
Barry stood there, mouth open, as the zombies stormed him. Two of the creatures stopped to take bites out of Barry and tear off his arm.
No scream escaped Barry’s mouth as he was taken down to the ground, and the zombies began their feast.
Will to Heal Center
Dining room
David, Jonas, and Samantha ran to the dining room. David led the way and kept his axe ready to swing at a second’s notice.
The three jumped over the counter and hid behind the island that divided the dining room from the kitchen.
Jonas and Samantha looked around for any kind of weapon they might be able to use.
Samantha was a petite younger woman who had checked herself in to the Will to Heal center a few months before the center had closed its doors. She had icy blue eyes that told the story of a woman who had fought all her life. If it wasn’t an abusive ex-boyfriend, then it was a cocaine addiction that had cost her her child.
Samantha reached behind her and pulled one of the kitchen drawers to the floor. There were lots of thermometers and honing steels, but nothing that would make a good weapon. She rifled through the drawer until her hand landed on something heavy—a meat mallet. It was a solid steel, one-piece mallet with a two-sided head. One was flat and used for pounding out thick pieces of meat, the other side armed with tiny metal teeth for tenderizing.
The mallet felt good in her hand.
They all sat with their backs against the counter and caught their breaths.
“We really shouldn’t be in here,” David whispered. “The others probably need our help.”
Jonas’ eyes widened at the thought of hunting down a zombie—or a group of them. But he also knew no one in the Center would ever leave him to die.
“We need a plan, don’t we?” Samantha asked. “I don’t think we should just run out of the dining room, weapons raised, and into the heat of battle without a plan.”
“What do you propose, Samantha?” Jonas whispered back. “We have no idea what’s going on out there or who’s in the greatest danger.”
“I think I saw Walt and Joe running towards the meditation/meeting room,” David whispered. “I think the others are in the gym.”
“I don’t think the
three of us should split up,” Jonas whispered.
“I’m with Jonas,” David said. “You know, safety in numbers and all that junk.”
“You're both crazy if you think I'm going to stay here alone,” Samantha added.
“Ready?” David asked.
“No,” responded Samantha and Jonas at the same time.
The three stood and began to move through the kitchen and back toward the dining room. Right when they reached the threshold, they heard the unmistakable creaking of the front door opening.
The three stood frozen as they looked at each other.
Before any of them could say a word, they heard what sounded like a stampede coming down the hallway and right toward them.
The three quickly ducked back down behind the counter and listened as the infected raced down the hall.
Jonas’ eyes were wide with fear.
What the fuck are we going to do? he mouthed to David and Samantha, trying not to make a sound.
“We need to help the others,” replied David. “Now!”
The three looked at each other for courage, and on the count of three stood…
… to find three zombies in the dining room looking right at them.
Will to Heal Center
Meditation room
“This is not good,” Joe said nervously as he and Walt ran into the meditation room. Walt slammed the door shut.
“Let’s not lose it now,” Walt said as he tried to calm Joe down. “There’s always a way out.”
Walt and Joe looked around the room. Walt knew every room in the house like the back of his hand, but searched anyway in case he’d missed any details.
“Did you see that, Walt?” Joe asked. “They came out of the fucking ceiling. How the hell did they come through the ceiling?”
“I don’t know, Joe,” said Walt. “I’m still worried about all the noise we heard outside the building before the roof caved in.”
“Holy shit,” Joe almost shouted. “I forgot all about the racket outside the building.”
Joe looked at Walt and asked, “Do you think those things had the building surrounded?”
Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation Page 9