by Gary Hickman
The infected had reached him and were banging on the glass as he slapped the vehicle in reverse and punched it. The car shot out of the ditch and sped backward. He hit the brakes, slapped it in drive, and stomped on the gas. The tires smoked as they spun on the pavement, then the car launched itself forward, hitting three infected with the front of the vehicle. He continued to keep his foot on the gas, and the vehicle fishtailed, taking two infected out on the right side.
Priest looked down at the steering wheel and saw the Demon emblem. “Holy Shit. Get some,” he yelled. He sped down the flight line while blowing the horn, which captured the infected attention, and they took off after the car.
Shaw and Doug made it to the news chopper and Doug immediately went to his storage panel on the side. He started rifling through it as Shaw looked around the nose of the chopper.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for a wrench or my socket set to remove that equipment on the right side. It’s just broadcast transmission equipment.” Doug answered.
Shaw looked at him, annoyed. “We don’t have time for that.” Shaw slung his M48 on his back, opened the right-side door and shoved his arms inside. His massive hands grabbed ahold of the first piece of equipment and with a heave, ripped it out and threw it on the ground.
Doug looked over at him in amazement. He held the wrench he just pulled out in front of his face, stared at it for a second and then tossed it back where he had gotten it from. He ran to the pilot’s seat and started the engine. Shaw had all the equipment removed in minutes. A scene of broken screws, bent brackets and mangled metal remained in place of the equipment, but he had all the equipment cleared out.
As Shaw was standing right at the pilot door, he looked at Doug, then looked at Priest running around in the car, “You think he is having too much fun out there?”
Doug glanced up, “Yep, sure looks like it,” and shakes his head. “He ain’t all there, is he?”
“Nope, he sure ain’t.”
By now, Priest had close to two or three dozen infected chasing him, trying to get to him, trying to infect him and join their ranks. Priest had the crowd of contaminated about 500 yards away from Shaw and Doug.
As Shaw patrolled around the news chopper, a pack of infected came running out of a nook in the terminal building approximately some distance away. Shaw’s M48 barked out .50 caliber rounds that shredded the pack of infected in mere seconds. The figures of humans, once running toward them, were now piles of blood, viscera, and unrecognizable fragments of bone, skin and hair. “Damn, looks like chunky soup,” Shaw remarked.
He turned around and walked back to Doug, who was shouting over the whine of the engine and beating of the rotors. ”We’re ready to go, bring your boy in.”
Shaw nodded. “Cotton to Father, do you copy?”
“Go ahead, Shaw…. WHOO hoo!”
“Time to put your toy away and get the fuck out of here.”
“Shit, copy that, on my way.” Priest spun the car around one last time and sped toward the news chopper. With that 700 hp, he reached 140mph, then dialed back before executing a power slide to a stop. He jumped out with a grin on his face five miles wide and ran to join Shaw and Doug.
Shaw just shook his head, “Get your dumb ass in here.” Priest got in the copilot seat and belted in.
They jumped in, Doug took off and flew over to where Doc and Allison were on the roof. Shaw helped Allison in and Doc right after.
“Get us the hell out of here!” Priest shouted.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Doug ascended and then directed the chopper northeast toward Dearborn.
CHAPTER 13
The Dearborn CDC facility was not in the condition the Team expected it to be. They immediately entered the stairwell and halted to gage their bearings.
Webb turned to Dr. Costa. “Do you know the building layout?” She shook her head. “Ok, we have zero intel on the layout so we’re going in blind. Do you have a guess on where we should look first?”
“Well, if it is like most labs, most of the elements we use like nitrogen and oxygen are usually in tanks on the ground floor. I would think reception and offices are on the first floor, so starting on the floor below that would be our best bet.”
“Sounds solid to me.” Webb looks to Abarra & Kennedy, “Any objections?” They both shook their heads. “Ok, we are on the fourth floor, so we have to traverse four floors. I will take point, Kennedy will follow, Dr Costa behind him and Abarra will cover our ass. Questions?”
With Webb in the lead, the team made their way down three floors, encountering no infected. As they approached the first-floor landing, Webb gave the visual for stop and he cocked his head to listen to the varied sounds.
The fires on the first floor were loud and sounds of building debris falling everywhere made it even harder to make out anything. This made listening for the infected almost impossible, but Webb shook his head and continued down the stairs toward the first underground level. There was a strange sound coming from below them, sounding like a wet thunk, thunk, thunk in the stairwell.
Webb signs stop to the Team as he slowly continues down the stairs. As he turns the corner of the landing, a graphic scene unfolds in front of him. A shirtless man with his back to Webb had a weapon in his hand, chopping into a body at lying at his feet. His weapon looked like a chair leg, which had a chunk of metal sticking out from the end that resembled of a hatchet. Long open wounds trailed down the man’s back and blood was dripping to a pool on the floor.
The body at his feet, which looked like a woman, had no head, and the man was working on removing one of her legs. On the left stairwell railing were the woman’s bowels and other entrails, spread out like on display at a posh art gallery. As the man brought the object down again and again, his head was tilting left and right like Webb had seen many times before, along with a clicking noise he made between giggles.
The man stopped chopping on the body to turn and admire the display of insides on the railing. He was moving his hand along the intestines slowly like they mesmerized him and had a look of reverence on this face. His daze cleared as he turned a little more to the left and noticed Webb standing there. The man’s face was completely covered in blood so thick; it was difficult to make out his facial features. All Webb noticed was the man’s wide eyes projecting out from the mask of red. He tilted his head to regard Webb for a few seconds, then pointed his “hatchet” toward the woman’s body and spoke with a hiss.
“She didn’t want the poison. The sweet, sweet poison. She paid the price. She has lovely pieces though,” he said as he strokes the innards hanging on the railing. He points his hand made hatchet at Webb, “You want the poison, yes?” It was more of a statement than a question as far as his tone.
Webb thought quickly and answered, “Yes, I want the poison.”
The man smiled and hissed. “Yes, yes, you do. You see, don’t you? You see, the joy it brings?”
“Yes, I do. I want to join my brothers.”
The man smiles even wider, opened his mouth and hissed as he approached Webb slowly. Webb hadn’t seen this behavior before and really never had a conversation with one of the infected.
Kennedy looked at the Dr. Costa and then Abarra. “Is he talking to that fucking thing?”
Abarra shrugged, “Sounds like it.”
Dr. Costa whispered, “They seem to keep their mind and skills for time, albeit, a very distorted mind.”
“That’s even more creepy,” Kennedy added as they continued to listen to what was going on below them.
The man approached Webb with his arms open wide, “The poison will embrace you. You can join us and truly know.” As the man got wit
hin arm’s reach, Webb moved like lightning, pulled his combat knife and shoved the blade right under the man’s chin, up through the roof of his mouth and into his skull cavity. The infected man’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body went limp, with his arms still opened wide. Webb removed the knife, wiped it on the man’s pants, then sheathed it. “All clear,” Webb said, and the rest came down the stairs.
Dr. Costa recoiled at the entrails draped over the railing and almost screamed at the sight of the mutilated body of the woman.
“Sorry Doc, but we got to keep moving.”
“That poor woman…. he-he mutilated her.” Dr Costa muttered.
Kennedy grasped her arm and helped her over the body and around the pool of blood. They all continued out of the stairwell on the lower floor.
They surveyed the dark corridor. Sparse light glowed from the emergency lights, which were spread quite a distance away from each other. There were papers and other debris littered up and down the hallway. There were four doors along each side and one at the end of the hallway which were all open.
Webb shook his head, knowing how dangerous this was, because they had to cover both doorways at the same time or risk being surprised from the rear. He was going on his own to clear the rooms, because Kennedy needed to stay with Dr. Costa and Abarra was to cover their rear. Webb was contemplating the situation when his comms activated and Shin’s voice came over the comms. This caused Webb and all the others to jump out of their skin. Kennedy accidentally fired a round into the ceiling when he jumped.
“Mother fucker,” Webb reeled on him. “What the hell is your finger doing on the fucking trigger? It stays on the guard until you are ready to fire. Didn’t they teach you that shit in the Secret Service?”
“Sorry, sorry. I am nervous. I’ve never dealt with shit like this before.”
Abarra stared at Kennedy, “You better unfuck yourself right here and now. Do you understand?”
Kennedy listened but didn’t look at Webb or Abarra.
“Ok, go ahead Gandhi.”
“Sir, Father checked in and they are on their way to provide support.”
“Did they get the two civilians out?”
“Affirmative.”
“Well, there is no sense in them coming here. Hold one. Tell them to stand by.” Webb said.
“Copy. Sir, there is another piece of news. We have multiple hordes of infected coming this way from all directions. They may have heard the chopper when we infiltrated. With the numbers we are estimating, we may require support to repel them. Have you found what you need, yet?”
“Negative, we need more time.”
“What are your orders, then Sir?” Webb paused for a few seconds. “How long until we have contact with the horde?”
“Hard to say, sir. They don’t seem to be in a hurry to get here. I do not think they know our exact location, because they seem to be still searching. If I was to guess, we’re looking at approximately 15 mics.”
“Copy that. Ok Doctor, we have 10 minutes to look for samples, evidence, whatever the hell you can find, then we need to be out of here.”
Dr. Costa nodded in agreement.
“Gandhi, tell Father to find a staging area close by in case we need an RFQ. You guys monitor their progress, let us know if things change. We’ll be out in 10 mics.”
“Copy that.”
The team cleared all the hallway doors and posted up at the last door on the end of the hallway. This was the only door they had come across that was closed. Webb took the left, Abarra the right. Kennedy escorted Dr. Costa into one of the other rooms in that hallway and waited. Webb tried the door, and it was unlocked. He nodded to Abarra and counted using his fingers, one, two, three.
They breeched the room and Webb quickly surveyed. It was a destroyed lab environment with equipment scattered all over the floor. Microscopes, specimen slides, analyzing equipment, papers, etc. were underfoot as they entered. A good amount of blood was indiscriminate around the lab as pools, smears, and splatters.
“Ok, Doc. Abarra and myself will pull security while you and Kennedy look for whatever you can find. You got 10 minutes and then we have to bail.”
Dr. Costa began frantically looking through documents and test equipment while Kennedy searched the room for a computer. They both were anxiously searching as quickly as they could.
Kennedy eventually found one laying on its side under one desk, deeper into the lab. “Found a computer doctor,” he said.
“They should back the data up on the CDC database, but I want to find as much physical evidence as possible. I am not confident that we will continue to have access the more out of control the situation becomes.” Dr. Costa sounded concerned.
Kennedy pulled the computer out and removed the side. He found the hard drive, ripped it out and stored it in the backpack that Webb had given him. It used to be Myles’s, but the mission overrode emotion.
Webb posted at the door and shouted over his shoulder, “Finding anything, Doc? Time is getting tight.” She didn’t answer, because she was much too focused on the documents she was reviewing. Abarra had a string bag he used to scavenge items while on missions and tossed it to her, “Put them in there and let’s go.” She just started shoving the documents in the bag, not sure if they were all relevant, but she would take as much as she could.
Webb heard in his earpiece, “Spider, this is Overlord, you copy?”
“Copy Overlord.”
“The horde is getting close. We are almost at a critical distance to exfil safely and not get overrun. I believe you guys say the pucker factor is quickly approaching 10.”
“Copy that.” Webb turned to Dr. Costa, “Doctor, we have to go now!”
“I don’t know if I have found what I need yet.”
“We have run out of time, so what you have will have to be good enough. You won’t be alive to review it anyway, unless we boogie right now.”
“Damn,” she swore. “Ok, let’s go then.”
“Moving out,” Webb yelled. “Overlord, we are leaving.”
“Copy, Spider. We have you covered.”
CHAPTER 14
Neville and Shin stayed low, but continued to monitor the horde’s movement. Shin radioed the Blackhawk for exfil right after talking to Webb. He keyed Webb, “Exfil in 3 mikes.”
“Copy,” Webb responded.
Shin turned to Neville, “You think the rest of the world is like this?”
“Don’t know, but I sure as hell hope not. Thing is, we don’t know where this has hit and how fast it is spreading.”
“Yes, you are right.” “We need to make it out of here alive, first.”
With Webb leading, the team made its way up to the first-floor landing, not stopping for anything. As Dr. Costa reached the second-floor stairs, the door burst open into the stairwell and a bloody woman jumped on top of her. She screamed and fell back on the stairs. Kennedy reached out to help Dr. Costa up while Abarra grabbed the woman and pulled her off.
Abarra slammed the infected woman into the wall and held her there, “Go get to the roof. I’ll catch up.”
Webb was coming back down the stairs to where they were when Abarra stopped him, “Go, I got this. I’ll be right behind you.” Webb paused for a second, looked into Abarra’s eyes, then nodded, leading the Dr. Costa and Kennedy up the stairs.
The woman struggled against Abarra as he struggled to hold her against the wall. “Damn she is strong for a skinny girl”, he thought as he held her against the wall with both hands. He kept wanting to remove one hand, to grab his Glock and put a round in her head. Every time he attempted to, she would struggle in his gri
p and he had to bring his other hand back up.
Starting to get desperate, Abarra began pounding the back of her head against the wall, hoping to crush her skull. She was a skinny paltry thing with dark hair and wearing a sundress with a red sweater, but her innocence was marred by the screaming and biting. He searched for any ounce of humanity in her, but was saw nothing but a feral growl, gnashing teeth and rage filled eyes. Those eyes told him she wanted to not just infect him, but kill him.
His heart sank knowing that this was what things were coming to and that the result may even worse. He didn’t know how things would turn around, but what he knew was that he needed to end this and get the hell out of there. He increased his effort and really started going to town on busting her head against the wall.
“Die already, you fucking bitch! Damn head is like a bowling ball.” With a few more slams with her head, the first-floor door opened again as another infected was wedging its way in. Abarra had his foot against the door, but it was difficult dealing with the crazy octopus in his hands and keep the door closed at the same time. “Shit!” he yelled.
The rest of the team was on the third-floor landing when they heard Abarra yelling. Webb stopped, “Kennedy, you take the doctor up to the roof and we will join you there. I need to check on Abarra.”
“Got it Cap.” Kennedy led Dr. Costa on up to the fourth floor while Webb raced down the stairs trying to get to Abarra as quick as he could.
Abarra could feel the woman go limp as he swung her head against the wall one more time. He dropped her to the floor and turned his concentration to the infected trying to make its way through the door. By this time, the man had his arm through trying to use it as leverage to open the door.
Abarra could see the man’s face through the little 12X12 window in the top middle of the door. The infected was an older man with a filthy security guard uniform and big jowls that were shaking around while he kept pushing to get in the door.