A World Reborn: The First Outbreak

by Chris Thompson

  Melissa looked down at Sebastian and saw him clutching his face. The stun grenade seemed to have set fire to his mask, which he’d pulled off, and his face had been partially burnt around his lower jaw. She saw his blonde hair, his, oddly kind, blue eyes and felt an involuntary pang of pity. She shook herself mentally; he had no pity for the people who had been slain or turned. Although the blast had been absorbed somewhat by his armour, his legs had caught some shrapnel when the grenade exploded; they were bloody and he squirmed in pain. Melissa wasn’t sure what to do about him, but didn’t get a chance to do anything, as she heard hurried footsteps coming down the stage stairs across from her. She raised her weapon, waiting either for a target or a hostage who had broken free. As soon as she saw the barrel of a rifle, she quickly backed up towards the cover of the doorway, took aim and waited to fire. The Reborn soldier swung out low to the ground and Melissa fired at him, squeezing off three, quick shots that hit his body armour. The soldier grunted, winced and then went back into cover. Diagonally to the left, out of the corner of her eye, Melissa saw another soldier leaning out from what could only be another set of stairs that led down from the stage’s other side. She pulled back just as a volley of gunfire would have shredded her where she stood. Melissa repositioned around the corner of the doorway in the dressing room, crouching low before edging out and firing at the wall of the staircase on the right. This way, she hoped to keep the soldier there in cover and enable her to draw out the one on the left. She squeezed off a series of shots, and then leaned further out to scan left. This was the first time she was exposed to him from this position, and she saw him aiming straight at her. Melissa swiftly recoiled backwards to narrowly avoided being hit. As she began to edge out again, she saw the soldier across from her darting out of cover, forcing Melissa to retreat once more. He fired at her, and the bullets blasted chunks off the doorframe.

  Melissa waited for a break in the gunfire and then instantly leaned out and returned fire to the Reborn ahead of her. She knew the one on the left would most likely have advanced, taking up another position somewhere closer, and so decided to take a risk and try to eliminate one of them. She moved back slightly, making it seem as if she’d retreated back around the corner, then lined up her shot and waited for the Reborn ahead to reappear. A few seconds later, he stepped out, still crouched down, with his head right in Melissa’s sight. She fired quickly and without mercy, the wall behind him turning crimson as he dropped, slumping to the floor with a leaking, bloody hole in his skull.

  With only one Reborn remaining, Melissa knew she needed to find out where he was. She took a deep breath, and with her heart racing, leaned out and back in quickly; bullets slammed into the doorframe around her. He was behind an overturned table not far behind the bodies of the trio she’d already slain. Needing a distraction, Melissa looked around and saw the dressing room mirror lights behind her had large, heavy bulbs, providing the very tool for the diversion she needed. She quickly hurried over to it, grabbed a facecloth still stained with someone’s makeup, and unscrewed one of the bulbs. It was very hot, but she was convinced it would work; at least, it had worked in a movie she’d seen once. She reasoned she had nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying. Returning to the bullet-marred doorway, she braced herself then edged out slightly, not enough to be visible, but enough so that she could roughly see the mid-point of the room. She threw the bulb as though it were a grenade, hoping the Reborn would think she had another stun grenade or something more deadly. She dropped the cloth and pulled up her weapon again, hearing the bulb break against the wall, and then leaned out. The soldier was tucked into cover, his back barely visible behind the table he was using to hide behind, and Melissa felt certain he’d bought her ruse and was waiting for a blast that was never going to come. She raised her weapon, aiming right in his direction, and as he popped up out of cover, she executed him with a single, clean shot to the head. He dropped down behind the table and she took a soundless breath, silently waiting to see if more Reborn were coming down the stairs or were about to appear through any of the doors. However, it seemed she was in the clear, for now at least.

  Melissa lowered her weapon and went over to Sebastian, kneeling down beside him. He groaned and was seemingly close to slipping into unconsciousness. He was going into shock, most likely, and if he slept, he might not wake. Melissa was hoping for some more information from him before that happened.

  “You’re probably going to die, Sebastian.” She said softly. His eyes locked onto hers and he winced as a raspy, nonsensical sound escaped his lips. Figuring he was trying to speak, Melissa leaned in closer to him.

  “It... is... an honour.” Sebastian got out. Melissa took a deep breath before speaking again.

  “I bet it is, for you. But it wasn’t for all the people you’ve killed, and it won’t be for all the people I’m sure your people are planning on killing.”

  “Irrelevant.” Sebastian mumbled, his eyes beginning to shut. She slapped his face, bringing him back.

  “Not yet.” She insisted sternly. “Tell me, where is she? Where’s the Ancillary?”

  “Preparing to... leave.”

  Melissa thought about what he said for a second, which led her to assume she was planning on leaving via the helicopter they’d arrived on earlier in the night.

  “She’s on the roof?”

  “Or near to it.” Sebastian weakly commented.

  “Why are you telling me?” Melissa asked suspiciously. “Is it a trap?”

  “No... trap.” Sebastian murmured, his eyes beginning to close again. “Just where you need... to... go. It’s what the... Teacher... wills...” Sebastian said, his words drifting off as his eyes shut.

  Melissa didn’t want anything else from him, and briefly considered what to do. He was dying, and as soon as he did, the little device on his chest would inject him with the virus and turn him into one of the infected. Melissa knew she shouldn’t let that happen, not just because being one of them was a particularly cruel fate, but also because if he died and turned while she was hurrying the hostages out towards the security room, she risked him biting one of them, then things would really go to hell fast. Standing up, and feeling an odd sense of guilt for thinking about shooting an unarmed, injured, and defenceless person, Melissa raised her weapon. Convincing herself it was a mercy shot she was giving him, like the one she’d given to Jim, Melissa raised the barrel of the gun in line with his head and squeezed the trigger. Sebastian drew breath no more.

  Melissa ejected the clip from her rifle, retrieved her last remaining one, and slammed it into the weapon. Then she set about quickly looting the bodies of the other soldiers. She retrieved a number of extra spare clips, for both the rifle and pistol, and then stepped back into the utility corridor, picking up the tablet Sebastian had been carrying. Although the screen had been cracked a little, it still worked. She didn’t have time to use it now, so she returned to Sebastian’s body and took a pouch hanging from his waist that seemed the right size to store it. She slipped the tablet inside and zipped it up; attaching the pouch to her own belt. Rearmed, reloaded and ready to advance, Melissa cautiously approached the right-hand staircase and carefully looked around and up the stairs. The path was clear, and at the top of the stairs, there seemed to be a small, very dimly lit chamber. It was, in Melissa’s inexpert opinion, an excellent place for an ambush, but there was no other way she could presently see to get up there. Cautiously, and with weapon raised, Melissa advanced up the stairs one by one, treading lightly, thereby attracting no attention to give her position away.

  Once at the top, Melissa realized she was in another part of the backstage section. A coloured curtain ahead prevented her from seeing onto the stage. On one side of the darkened room she could see a metal framed staircase that lead up to the catwalk which would allow maintenance to be carried out on the stage lights. The sound of gunfire was louder up here, and Melissa imagined it was the sound of the Reborn battling against the infected outside the
theatre. She was, however, quite certain the gunfire was more scattered now. Melissa approached the curtain and braced herself for the unexpected, then reached out with one hand to part it in the middle. She did it carefully; aware there could be more soldiers on the other side just waiting for her to step through and not wanting to give any warning of her approach. What she saw made her relax a little. She saw two or three dozen hostages corralled in the centre of the stage. They were alive: unharmed though they seemed to have their wrists bound. They hadn’t noticed her as they were looking towards the edge of the stage. Melissa could only see a pair of shadows away from the group of hostages, presumably Reborn.

  “The infected have overrun our position!” Someone called from further away, a long way away, and Melissa guessed this was someone shouting from near the entrance doors.

  “And the Witness has been engaged downstairs. The time has come, brothers, we must execute the hostages. Return outside, keep the infected at bay as long as you are able while we set about our task.” One of the Reborn on the stage answered.

  Melissa didn’t have a moment to wait. She burst through the curtain as fast as she could, and shot the closest Reborn soldier in the back of the head. As he fell and his companion on Melissa’s left turned - attempting to raise his weapon to gun her down - Melissa was able to get a bead on him and fired. She missed the headshot and clipped the side of his jaw, making him roar in pain, but she fired again and again, hitting his upper chest body armour and finally putting a round through his throat. Clutching his neck, the soldier tumbled off the stage, his weapon dropping onto the boards. Aiming out into the gloom of the seats, Melissa tried to get a bead on the Reborn soldier who had been down there, but it seemed he had already run away.

  The hostages, huddled together, afraid and whimpering, slowly began to look up at Melissa. She slung the rifle to her side on its strap and pulled out her knife, approaching the hostages with one hand raised palm up.

  “I’m Melissa Jones and I’m working with the hotel Chief of Security. I’m here to free you and lead you to the elevator that will take you down to the security room. It’s safe there, both from the infected and the Reborn soldiers. You can stay down there until the police arrive.” She explained. Some of the hostages looked sceptically at her, while others looked relieved. As she used the knife to cut through the first binding on someone’s wrists, she heard a voice she vaguely recognised.

  “Melissa! Melissa!” He called anxiously, and scanning through the sea of faces, she found the man repeating her name. It was Roberto, the pool assistant she’d met earlier that day, or rather, yesterday.

  “Roberto!” Melissa replied, surprised to see he was still alive.

  “Have you seen my sister? Have you seen Maria? She’s not here and she wasn’t with the other group they escorted away earlier!”

  Melissa thought back to the broken, gnawed upon housekeeper she’d seen earlier, with the bloodied named tag that read Maria, and although it was possible there was another Maria who worked in housekeeping, she felt a cold certainty flood through her that she had been Roberto’s Maria. Added to that, the Reborn had swept through the hotel thoroughly, so if she wasn’t here, then it seemed likely that she was indeed dead. But Melissa didn’t want to admit the full extent of his sister’s demise, so she looked away from him, focusing on slicing the plastic tie on another hostage’s wrists.

  “I’m sorry, Roberto, but she didn’t make it.”

  “Oh God. My uncle and my sister.” He whispered. When she forced herself to look at his face, she saw his eyes were filled with tears and he wore a vacant, lost look on his face.

  “Have you seen my husband? They took him away earlier with the others?” One woman asked, following her question with a description.

  “My son! Have you seen my son?” Another woman quizzed. Slowly, people began to clamour at Melissa to give them news of their loved ones. Melissa couldn’t deal with it. She didn’t have the heart to tell them they were either infected or had been eaten alive, never to be seen again.

  “I don’t know, people. I honestly don’t know. All I do know is that the Chief wants you down with him, safe, so that we can look for other survivors!” She yelled over the din. Melissa rationalised that lying to them was necessary; she needed them to be obedient and mobile, not tearing off to look for loved ones with the infected on the loose. As she sliced their bonds, she heard a low, guttural growl, and the second Reborn soldier Melissa had shot reached up onto the stage. She cursed herself for not thinking of ensuring she’d put him down, and quickly handed off the knife to one of the hostages.

  “Keep cutting!” She instructed curtly before hurrying over to where the infected soldier was trying desperately to climb up. People screamed and panicked behind Melissa, but she calmly brought the assault rifle to bear and slotted a single shot into his forehead. Frightened screams erupted behind her but Melissa’s attention was drawn out into the theatre. Across the sea of seats, some soaked in blood others housing the remains of people caught by the infected, to the exit doors. Maybe it was the gunfire, maybe it was the smell of uninfected flesh, the why didn’t matter; what mattered was they were now being pushed open and through them, ten, twelve, then twenty infected were shambling in. Melissa ground her teeth, and then shot a look towards the hostages.

  “Hurry up!” She yelled in their direction, which forced a few of the hostages to look at her, and then see the threat beyond. Screams of panic tore through the air. People started scrambling to get away, as, even in the gloom, it could be seen that some of them were drenched in blood; presumably from the former Reborn guards outside as well as from random victims earlier. Their chorus of moaning was rising; an excited sound from the infected as they savoured the thought of consuming more flesh in the hope it would end their hunger. They began to hurry down the aisles, breaking into what could be best described as a hurried shamble. Some stumbled, others fell, only to be trampled by the ones behind. They were filing into the room now in an uncountable number, and Melissa felt a very real shiver of fear run down her spine. There were no more of the Reborn to distract them. There were no other unfortunate victims left for them to consume. The ravenous dead were coming for them and them alone.

  Behind her, some of the hostages who already had their hands free were scurrying towards the exits off the stage, while others were frozen in fear. Melissa hurried over to the Reborn body on the stage, yanked the knife free from his ballistic vest and scrambled towards the group of bound hostages, slicing through their bonds as quickly as she could.

  “Once you’re free, get backstage and go down the stairs, we’ll assemble there and make a run for the security elevator as a group! Don’t go alone, we’re safer together!” Melissa instructed, blindly hoping that frightened people would listen to her; a woman without any authority but a gun. One man who was free moved behind her and picked up the gun the Reborn had dropped. He fired it but the recoil made his subsequent shots spray wildly into the approaching horde. None of the shots were fatal to the approaching infected, and served only to incense them further. The closest began to move as fast as their stiff limbs would carry them. It would be only moments until they reached the stage.

  “Hey!” Melissa yelled at the man over her shoulder. “Headshots are the only thing that will stop them! If you can’t manage it then just go!” She barked. The man looked at her, fear written all over his face. He dropped the gun, seemingly unconvinced about his own shooting skill, and fled backstage.

  “Figures.” Melissa said to herself, focusing on cutting through the last few bonds as the first of the infected slammed into the edge of the stage, their baying so loud it almost concealed the fire alarm. They clamoured, some seemingly confused as to how they could possibly overcome the barrier and others trying to find a handhold to pull themselves up. Melissa sliced through the last plastic tie and quickly sheathed the knife in her vest. She brought the rifle back into her hands and brought it up to aim. She killed a few who were having more succes
s in climbing than others were, but that only seemed to invigorate the others to learn how to climb in their infected state. The aisle was now packed with the infected, and for each one Melissa killed another two were climbing up over the bodies of the fallen, gaining more purchase that way to climb onto the stage. Melissa continued firing, hoping to kill enough to buy some time for her to get the former hostages moving, and when she emptied the clip, she ejected it and threw it at the horde; pulling another one out and slamming it into the weapon.

  Melissa turned and ran, going through the curtain and hurrying down the stairs. She saw the amalgamated group of people milling about, afraid and unsure where to go.

  “Come on, through this door, and then we’ll follow the corridor down all the way to the elevator leading to the security room. Stay calm, keep moving, and don’t go off track.” Melissa instructed her voice steady and collected, all the while listening to the ravenous sounds coming from the stage. When no one moved, Melissa looked for Roberto.

  “Roberto! Get people moving; you know the way I’m sure.”

  Roberto nodded at her. “Come on, this way!” He instructed, pushing to the fore and opening the doors into the utility corridor.

  Melissa stayed at the rear, ready to cover the group in case the infected followed them. It took a couple of minutes for the column of people to file out of the room, and in that time, the infected had managed to get onto the stage stairs and were, as she both expected and feared, tracking their scent. Melissa heard one coming down the stairs, and stepped into his path. Raising her weapon, she shot him in the head, sending him tumbling down to the floor. Behind him, now soaked in his blood, a female infected howled and tried to get moving faster, but she lost her footing, stumbled and fell down the stairs. Melissa moved back and took a headshot before she could rise then she looked back up the stairs to see two, three, then four more of the infected moving awkwardly down the stairs. She fired on them, killing them individually and letting their bodies pile on top of the other infected below. She began to retreat, stepping away, but when she reached the door to the corridor, she saw that some of the infected had gone down the other stairs on the opposite side of the stage, and were surging towards her, growling and moaning at the sight of Melissa. She passed through the door, slamming it shut behind her and hoping it would buy them some time, but knew it was extremely unlikely. Roy had told her earlier that they couldn’t use door handles, but with enough of them they could pressure the door and break it off its hinges, and there were certainly enough of them coming from the theatre. Melissa risked a look down at the collar and saw that the light had gone out. She didn’t understand, it hadn’t been damaged and it had worked perfectly earlier, but it was plainly not working now. She grabbed it and yanked it off her neck, throwing the useless hunk of metal at the floor and grabbing the radio from her waist.