Unleashed: A Science Fiction Horror Adventure (NecroVerse Book 1)

by Aaron Bunce

  “We need to move, now!” Lex growled, as a creature emerged from the darkness, long, stabbing appendages flailing wildly.

  Jacoby limped behind her, glancing up to the signs on the wall. An arrow pointed to the left and read clinic, and then behind him and to the right, hospital. He looked down when his left leg buckled. The boney stub was still lodged in his thigh, the cut end burned smooth by his saw blade. He pulled it out, the pain flaring and almost making his bladder release.

  We will heal! Now repay the favor!

  The plasma saw started to spool as the wave of bodies tumbled out of the doorway. He turned and ran, hobbling every other step on his gimpy leg. Lex spun ahead of him and dropped to a knee.

  “Run!” she snarled, the rifle cracking in a short burst.

  Don’t leave her! the voice chimed in.

  “I’m in no shape to leave anyone anywhere,” he grunted and squeezed his leg. The group ran frantically ahead of them, crashing into automatic doors when they wouldn’t open fast enough.

  They moved through a narrow passage and then into a familiar hallway, the clinic exam rooms located on either side. He spotted a crack in the wall just above his head.

  Yes, from Randall’s head! Part of him laughed, despite the fact that nothing happening at the moment was funny. He didn’t even think nearly choking an orderly to death was humorous, no matter how dangerous the man was.

  “I’m out!” Lex shouted, and he heard an empty mag clatter to the ground.

  The rifle wound up again, the crack-crack-crack hitting the walls and pounding his ears.

  They pushed through into the waiting room, and Jacoby caught sight of their group, led by Doctor Reeds, scatter. He spun and spotted something as it dropped down from overhead.

  “Get out of the way!” he screamed, waving the lab techs aside, but he couldn’t get to the woman before she was ripped back up into the air vent. A man screamed out, and Jacoby turned just as his legs disappeared into a hole torn in the wall.

  The creatures were everywhere, coming out of every air duct and wall panel around them. There was no way he could guard every approach at once.

  Lex roared, her rifle rattling into an impressive chatter of almost automatic fire. He watched as a creature jerked backwards, the flashing sonic rounds snapping off its limbs, before cracking its large, misshapen head in two. She smacked another magazine in, and turned. The rifle flared as a half-melted looking person emerged from a broken wall panel to his left. The first shot hit it in the shoulder, blowing its arm off. The second and third rounds walked up its neck, the latter hitting it in the mouth. The creature’s jaw and throat disappeared in a mist of ionized flesh and vaporized blood.

  “I’m almost out. We need to move now! I don’t care where, but we need to find somewhere safe! Three mags left and then I’m spitting on them!”

  Reeds caught Jacoby’s gaze and nodded, pulling the frantic lab techs together and shoving them towards the door.

  “They’re everywhere…everywhere! We need to get off the station. Get me to the docks safely and…and I’ll make sure you’re handsomely rewarded. Safe passage…safe passage!” Manis screamed, just as Reeds shoved him through the doors.

  Jacoby slapped Lex on the shoulder and pulled her around.

  “Go! Lead them down through the commissary. We can take the service lift there. The freighter crews use it to resupply. Save your ammo. We can’t fight them all. We go quiet and fast and maybe we can sneak by the majority!” Jacoby said, and pushed her towards the door.

  “But your leg?” she said, hesitating.

  “I’ll be fine! Please, go!”

  Lex leaned in and kissed him hard, her green eyes sparkling in the light, and then she kicked the doors open, knocking the right door against the wall and shattering the glass.

  “You stay close!” she growled, before turning.

  “I’ll be right behind you.”

  1000 Hours

  Anna watched the crowd of people tumble through the doors and into the concourse. Some wore white lab coats and other scrubs.

  “That’s the doctor!” she gasped, recognizing the short, middle-aged man as he appeared amidst the mass of people.

  “Move-move-move!” a woman yelled, pushing through the doors last, a long, black weapon immediately rising to meet them.

  “We’re okay! We’re not…them!” Anna screamed, holding her hands up. The redhead let the barrel of the large weapon dip ever so slightly towards the ground, but it didn’t move far.

  “Wait…I know you,” the security officer said, suddenly, her green eyes opening in recognition. “You were in the clinic, with…”

  “Jacoby! Yes…where is he?” Anna cried, relief flooding through her.

  “He’s coming. He’ll catch up. We need to get out of here now. Trust me. Now go!”

  Anna pulled Soraya forward and they both ran, merging into the small crowd. The offices ended, the wide concourse sweeping around the ring to their left. A wall appeared straight ahead, the glowing sign for the commissary shining just above the oval airlock door.

  “All in! All in!” Anna screamed as the group started to pile in. She couldn’t bear the thought of being crammed in another confined space with a bunch of people, but she hated the idea of waiting on the wrong side of an airlock when the monsters found them even more.

  “Jacoby?” she asked, when the security officer stepped in last, holding the rifle down against her body to make it fit.

  “He’s coming. He’ll make it!” she said.

  The airlock started to cycle, the light above them slowly changing from red to green.

  “You probably don’t remember me…from the clinic. I’m Anna.”

  “Lex,” she said, her green eyes meeting hers, before flicking back to the airlock door behind them. “He’ll make it, Anna. He has to. We all have to get out of here.” Lex nodded as she talked, swallowing hard. Anna knew the look well enough. She looked unsure, the way only guilt and indecision can make a person second-guess a decision.

  “We’re going to make our way through the second floor of the commissary, to the other end by the airlocks, make our way down the escalators to the first floor, and through the food vendor stations. There is a service entrance that will lead us down to the docks and allow us to bypass the production floor. We go fast, we go low, and–” Lex said, her voice rising above the chatter.

  “That’s halfway across the ring and then some. You expect us to run that whole way?” a woman complained from the front of the group, interrupting.

  “You know how to use those?” Lex asked Soraya as she stepped out of the airlock.

  “Hit them with the glowing end…hard!” Soraya said, lifting up one of the batons.

  Lex nodded and swallowed hard, her mouth pulling tight. “You look strong. Can you lead?” she said, burping and holding her gut.

  Anna flinched away, immediately looking for signs of sickness – a cough, the black drool…any of it.

  “I’m okay. Just go!” Lex growled, seemingly mastering herself. Soraya nodded, and stepped out into the commissary. “Hey…wait?” Lex grunted, covering her mouth and pointing at her.

  “I’m Soraya.”

  Lex nodded, swallowing hard. “Soraya…the dial…just below the handle. Don’t turn it all the way up. There’s a defect. They can arc. It could kill you if you’re too close. They say it’s one in a hundred thousand, but I’ve actually seen it happen. Trust me, you don’t want to be holding one if it does. Be careful.”

  “Arc…kill me. Right!” Soraya grunted, and then looked down at the batons in her hands. “Not all the way up…right,” she muttered again and quietly turned the nobs on either baton.

  The airlock cycled, the light flashed green, and the wide, half egg-shaped door opened. Soraya immediately set off at a jog.

  The commissary was half-lit, the overhead lighting on the ceiling sprawling like a giant, curved checkerboard. She followed Doctor Reeds and Emiko out of the airlock, snugging the interface
glove into place.

  Glowing signs reached out from the walls on either side, a waist-high handrail stretching around the middle, where the floor dropped off to reveal the level below. The shops all appeared to be open, the security gates that dropped every night pulled up and out of sight. The space looked perfectly normal, aside from displays and merchandise toppled over and scattered out into the walkways.

  A buzz filled the air, like a crowd of talking and shouting people, but she couldn’t see anyone.

  “Where is everyone?” Anna whispered.

  Soraya slowed a bit, her head sweeping from side to side. They moved in a tight group down the middle of the walkway, an essential oil and bio-mod supplement vendor to their immediate left. A digital travel agency sat on the opposite wall, a holo-projector playing a flashy and loud advertisement for a “Rings of Saturn Cruise Vacation”.

  “They told people to come down here. They said they were evacuating the habitat rings and sending them all down here. Where is…?” Soraya started to ask just as a crash sounded from a shop ahead and across from them.

  “There’s someone in the vents! Oh my god, they’re coming out!” a woman screamed, and then a crowd of people burst from a shop.

  People tripped and fell over displays, tumbling into the open, their panicked screams echoing loudly. A man ambled out after them, his body bloody and disfigured. A long, flexing shape pushed slowly out through his shirt, dark fluid spattering down his pants and onto the floor.

  “Hey you!” Lex screamed, shoving through the group and bringing the rifle up to her shoulder.

  Anna’s head snapped around. People appeared in all of the shops around them, their faces poking out through displays or pressed up against glass. They materialized from hiding, heads and eyes swiveling to track the source of the noise.

  The rifle cracked, the blue muzzle flash reflecting off the glossy floor and handrail. The sick man pitched backwards, the shot catching him just above the sternum. Bits of gore spattered the display behind him, but he didn’t go down.

  “Damn it!” Lex cursed, tracking him with the weapon as he took off at a run after the group of fleeing people. “Stay away from him! Run! Don’t let him grab you!”

  Anna ran as the commissary fell into chaos. People burst out of every shop, some crawling out from under kiosks, tripping others and tumbling awkwardly. A woman appeared to their left, screaming and throwing herself over a crowd and knocking them all to the ground.

  “Move! Move!” Soraya screamed, wading into their midst. She pulled people out of the way and shoved them down the path. Anna ran in and found the bloody woman, wrestling an older man to the ground, pinning his arms to his body and wrapping her legs around him.

  “Get off him!” she screamed and kicked her squarely in the face. Soraya lunged in as she fell away, driving a baton into her midsection.

  The rifle cracked loudly behind them, the sound mixing with the screams and the searing pop of the stun baton. Anna glanced into the shop, and spotted another person squirming through a jagged hole in a ventilation duct just above the desk. The metal tore and bent outward, snagging his clothing and tearing into his skin, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “Push her inside!” Anna screamed.

  Soraya hit the woman again and again, electricity flaring and sending her toppling over a short display of bio-mod nutritional supplements. Anna slapped the glove onto the security panel on the wall and immediately felt it tingle against her fingers. She’d seen countless techs use them, but hadn’t had the chance to get one on her hand before. It was simple tech, a touch-activated voice to code maintenance interface. Simple but powerful.

  “Axos,” she said, after reading the designated system name off the screen, “close security gate!” Small colorful holograms appeared above the glove as the device interpreted her voice quickly into code. The panel on the wall beeped and the security gate appeared from the top of the doorway, shaking and rattling in the track as it descended.

  The infected woman screamed and jumped off the ground as the other tumbled free from the ruined vent. They ran forward as the gate hit the ground, clawing and pounding like animals to break through.

  “Unless you can close all of them from here, we need to move!” Lex yelled.

  Anna swung around and caught the older man by the arms, turning and pointing him in the right direction. “Run. You have to run. Go to the lower level. There is an access passage to the docks. We have to get off the station,” she yelled, fighting to get the panicked people to move in the right direction.

  She stopped at the next shop and the next, closing the gates, but watched as infected people streamed out of the shops ahead and behind them. Lex was right. Even with the ridiculously fast interface of the glove, she’d never get them all closed in time. There was likely a panel to control all of them at once, but she hardly had time to go poking around for it.

  They moved as a group, Soraya aside them and Lex at their lead. An infected man burst out of a shop to their left. Soraya hit him with a baton. He staggered but kept his feet, sprinting right at Anna, arms extended and mouth agape. She jumped back, hitting the handrail, and then ducked and spun under his arms. He tumbled over the handrail and out of sight.

  Anna kicked forward into a run and caught up with the group. She saw more people appear from the shops, spurred from hiding, but spotted more infected, too. They were everywhere, a few even dropping from overhead vents, bursting through the ducting like scurrying rats.

  Lex yelled, stopping periodically to rattle off a shot or two, but there were too many to stop and fight. They simply had to run. They wove around and over people as they were knocked to the ground or pulled back into side passages. Anna wanted to stop and help them, but knew that if she did, she’d have no chance of fighting her way free again.

  They reached the end of the commissary, the crowd around her red-faced and out of breath. Doctor Reeds ushered people down onto the escalators, his mismatched eyes scanning over the crowd as if counting, tallying everyone that passed. He spotted Anna and squeezed her shoulder, before pushing her onto the moving stair.

  “Keep moving…don’t stop!” Soraya screamed ahead, urging the people along. Anna leaned around the crowd behind her. She spotted Lex and Reeds jumping on last, the security officer yelling, her massive rifle flashing a deadly counterpoint.

  Anna jumped off at the bottom and stepped to the side. Soraya fought two men off, smashing a baton into a third as the crowd filed around and ran behind her.

  Lex fired point blank into a man’s head as he sprinted down the escalator after them. His head peeled open and he went down, but another took his place. Another appeared beyond that, and then another, their bodies stuck together, the horrible gangly appendages appearing through their clothing. They burst through the gates closing off the other lanes, spilling down the lanes before Lex could take them down.

  “Come on! Move! Move!” Anna screamed, pulling the people off and shoving them down the path. Reeds scrambled down. He met her gaze, his look saying, “you need to run”, but she took his arm and guided him around the corner.

  “You need to move, now!” Lex screamed, backing down the escalator, swinging the riffle around, the barrel flashing in conservative, well-aimed shots. But then it clicked.

  “Shit! I’m out!”

  “Go, I’ll slow them down,” Anna yelled and slid her hand onto the escalator display panel. Her fingers tingled, the air above the glove coming alive.

  “Axos, reverse all lanes,” she said, the small glowing shapes changing shape and color as the code reconfigured. A claxon sounded and the entire escalator assembly shuddered to a stop. A dozen running, screaming terrors staggered forward as it abruptly stopped, tumbling and rolling face first downhill.

  “Axos, increase speed,” she said, watching the stairs start to rotate away from her. The monsters clawed over one another to get to their feet. They didn’t seem to feel pain, let alone fear it. How could she slow something down that di
dn’t…fear?

  “Axos, increase speed to maximum,” she said, and once the holograms turned and changed color she pulled her hand away. The escalators whined, spinning like an out of control treadmill, knocking and carrying a handful of their pursuers up and away.

  Lex staggered against the wall, a hand snapping up to her mouth. Anna hooked her under the arm and pulled her around. They ran left around the corner, passing food vendor carts. Soraya stood just ahead, waving her arms, screaming Anna’s name. A man in a flight suit stood in a doorway just behind her. He pulled the last few stragglers through, looked up at Anna, and gestured for them to hurry.

  A monster crawled up and over a cream roll cart to Anna’s left, half of his face stark white, his mouth and nose covered in a black mess. He leapt off, jumping at them, jagged shapes squirming beneath his clothes.

  Soraya ran forward and hit him with a baton, but there was no crackle, or flash of light. He grabbed the baton in one hand and struck out with the other. Soraya’s head snapped back and she staggered.

  Anna let go of Lex and made it to Soraya just as the infected man was hooking his arms around her. She threw an arm around his neck and wrenched his head back hard, squeezing his throat with all of her strength. Lex was there, wrenching on his hands. She heard his fingers snap like dry twigs, and then Soraya fell free.

  Anna staggered back. The man flailed, wrenching around, somehow twisting his body in her hold. A sharp pain stabbed into her belly and then the man’s head cracked violently to the side. She released her hold and pushed away.

  Lex growled and drove the butt of her rifle into the man’s face, his bones popping loudly. He wailed and staggered back. Soraya was waiting, and clubbed him back in the other direction with a baton.

  “Anna!”

  She caught the baton out of the air. She didn’t even see Soraya throw it. She just knew it would be there. The glowing end hit him just under the chin, his face pulling tight and every visible muscle knotting up. Anna held it there another second for good measure, before pulling it away and letting him drop.