A World Reborn (Book 2): Global Outbreak

by Thompson, Chris

  Melissa came out of the aisle firing, her weapon aiming straight at the pair of light sources hanging above her. Bullets narrowly missed her, the difficulty they were experiencing in making the shot and the speed at which she was moving seemingly all that prevented her from being hit. She heard a yelp of pain and one of the light sources suddenly dropped, only for further, more pained screams to erupt, leaving her to imagine that the Reborn had landed in a group of infected and, riled by the gunfire, they had descended on him before the collar could offer him any protection. The only remaining hanging Reborn fired at Melissa and Rochelle let out a cry of pain. Melissa felt a heavy tug on her belt, but carried on moving, planning on dragging Rochelle if she had to as they couldn’t afford to stop. She continued firing, and finally, the hanging Reborn screamed and hung there, apparently securing his line - unlike the others. Risking a glance to the left, roughly in the direction of the front of the store, Melissa saw the light beyond the windows was obscured by a myriad of silhouettes, presumably the infected horde. There was light coming up from one of the aisles further away from her, and Melissa knew the source had to be from the weapons of more Reborn.

  Ignoring them, Melissa focused on getting to the aisle where the downed Reborn’s weapon was. Rochelle was grunting and groaning behind her, moving heavily and sluggishly - Melissa only hoped that whatever injury she had wasn’t too serious. Although she continued moving, Melissa began to doubt that she was still travelling in the right direction. The twists and turns in the darkness had left her feeling a little confused. She only hoped they would come across something she would recognize... and then she felt a chill in the air. It was wafting at her from both sides, so she reached over and ran her hand over the goods to her right, finding something cool to the touch. She realized she was in the refrigerated area, and that had been on the left side of the store as per the signage she’d seen at the time of her arrival. So, feeling a touch more confident, Melissa pressed on down the gloomy aisle, her senses alert for any hint of danger. When it came the only warning of the encroaching enemy was a sudden, angry growl. Melissa recoiled backwards and fired blindly, catching a glimpse of two infected in the muzzle flashes. She aimed as best she could and continued firing; wet sounds and the muzzle flashes eventually letting her know that the two infected were dead.

  Pushing on, Melissa started towards the light. She could see that the weapon was braced upwards, wedged between the body and the coolers. As she moved hastily towards it, she nearly tripped over the bodies she’d just gunned down, but somehow managed to stay on her feet.

  “Be careful!” She hissed to Rochelle as she stumbled along behind. Melissa reached the Reborn and released her weapon so that it hung from its strap. She stooped quickly, dragging Rochelle down with her, and looted the rifle from the corpse. In the light clipped to it, Melissa could see that the weapon was silenced, but this really didn’t matter; the infected could hunt her by smell now that her collar was deactivated.

  “Let me see.” Melissa said, turning and swatting Rochelle’s hands away from her belt. She looked and saw that a bullet, or perhaps some shrapnel ricocheting up from a missed shot, had grazed the back of her leg, but it clearly wasn’t serious and shouldn’t slow her down too much. Fear had given away to shock, and Rochelle was now silent and compliant to Melissa commands.

  “You’re okay; we’ll patch this up later. Right now, we’ve got to go. We have to get out of this God forsaken place and make our way back to my friend.” Melissa told her, a comforting hand briefly placed on the woman’s shoulder before she removed it and brought it to the collar around her neck. She pulled on it, the machine making a rough mechanical sound as the two parts unclipped. The part she wasn’t holding fell from her neck and thudded to the ground, and then she tossed the other part away, discarding the useless piece of technology with indifference.

  Another of the skylights shattered and a pair of Reborn dropped in on rappelling ropes; the flashlights on their weapons swaying wildly as they tried to locate their ‘Witness’. Melissa grabbed Rochelle with one hand, held her newly acquired suppressed assault rifle in her other, and started to run. She wanted to avoid combat if she could, but as she raised the weapon and saw a trio of infected caught in the flashlight, she knew it was inevitable. She relinquished hold of Rochelle, steadied the rifle and braced it against her shoulder, squeezing off a series of precise shots that executed them, bringing to an end their miserable existence. The advantage of the suppressor was obvious, but the lack of a working collar put them at such a serious disadvantage its absence far outweighed the benefit of the suppressor. More infected were closing in, not drawn by the gunfire but drawn instead by the smell of their flesh, perhaps enhanced by Melissa’s adrenaline and most definitely by Rochelle’s blood. She couldn’t be certain how many there were as she was only able to see those in the circle of the flashlight’s illumination. She fired carefully and precisely, not giving in to the temptation to switch the weapon to automatic to try and gun them down recklessly. Instead, Melissa remembered the discipline she’d been taught by Conrad, the man who had trained her back in Galgambwe, and tried to execute the infected cleanly. She fired and fired; the infected faces in the gloom dropping after each silenced shot with a spurt of blood and a soft, wet sound as the bullet shredded their heads. Finally, when the path was cleared, Melissa was able to advance again, moments after the lights from fresh rappelling Reborn found her, focusing their illumination on her like spotlights.

  Melissa ducked against the shelves at the side of the aisle, pulling Rochelle down with her and hoping they might offer a little more cover. Seconds later, bullets tore apart products on the opposite side of the aisle; shards of metal from the canned goods flew and their contents rained down to coat the floor in a slippery mess. Melissa and Rochelle crept forward, the latter now having found enough of her senses amidst the chaos to keep moving with Melissa. They stumbled their way over the corpses of the fallen infected, progressing with frustrating slowness as the pair were forced to hunch down to avoid being clipped by a stray bullet. Melissa knew that some of the Reborn were poorly trained; it was a fact that had certainly contributed to her survival, but the shots being fired by these Reborn seemed exceptionally poor, unless they were more to force a certain pattern of movement. Melissa considered this in a distant way as she reached the end of the aisle, but then more thought became impossible. She had tried to turn to the left, hoping to forge a path away from the massive horde at the rear of the store near the garage and thereafter find some avenue into the back area which she hoped would lead them to another way out. Her hopes were cut short; bullets audibly hit the ground ahead of them and Melissa stumbled back, bumping into Rochelle and nearly sending them both sprawling. They managed to scramble into cover, where Melissa was forced to rethink and scan her surroundings to see which way they could go. The area beyond the aisle they were taking cover in was open, except for long, rectangular refrigeration units which were roughly waist high and a few feet wide. Melissa could see six, one directly across from her, three to the right and two to the left. Beyond them lay a wall of refrigerators with no discernable doorway into the back area. Further along on the left was the bakery, with counters and shelving units, but whatever lay beyond the freezers to the right was obscured by three dozen or more infected coming towards them. There was no sign of any Reborn in her immediate vicinity; nevertheless, she was sure they were there.

  “Take this.” Melissa instructed, handing the silenced rifle to Rochelle. “Don’t shoot anything unless I tell you to, and don’t put your finger on the trigger or you might accidentally shoot yourself... or me for that matter.”

  Rochelle held the weapon awkwardly, but did as she was instructed, and Melissa drew her unsilenced weapon to a ready position. She took a couple of steadying breaths and then swung out, advancing a little into the gloom. The flashlight beams began to track her movements. She quickly took aim and fired a trio of shots at the first of the suspended Reborn, who let out a s
hort, agonized scream. Fire was then returned in Melissa’s direction, but she was already ducking back into cover, causing the rounds to harmlessly hit the tiled floor. A moment later she became aware that light seemed to be coming at them from another angle, so Melissa turned to peer over Rochelle shoulder... to see a Reborn soldier quietly advancing on their position. She pushed Rochelle down and fired quickly over her prone figure, not stopping until her target dropped to the ground and ceased moving. In the chaos, she hadn’t kept track of how much ammunition she had left, and so was now fervently hoping it was going to be enough to finish what she’d started. Spinning round, she darted out again, targeting the Reborn she’d previously been firing at; his body jolted as bullets hit him, until he hung like a ruined marionette. His partner, however, was still a very live threat. Melissa dodged back in and ejected her magazine, certain she had only a few rounds remaining. She found a replacement and rammed it home, waiting for the sounds of impacts to dissipate before she edged out to return fire. The task of listening for impacts was becoming more and more difficult, as the howls, moans and eerie noises coming from the infected grew in intensity; the gun battle riling them up into a state of frenzy as did the scent of fresh prey filling the air. Melissa flicked the rate of fire switch to allow the weapon to fire in three round bursts. She edged out, squeezed the trigger and felt the recoil of the weapon hitting her harder, but she adjusted, firing another pair of triple shots that killed the second suspended Reborn, this one dropping to the ground with an audible thump.

  “Hold the light ahead and move!” Melissa barked at Rochelle, and then she started to run, heading in the direction of the bakery section. Rochelle raised the weapon, and Melissa hoped she had followed her directive and hadn’t shifted her finger to the trigger. Despite that concern, she was doing an adequate job of shining the light ahead of them so that they could see where they were running. Unfortunately, it also highlighted the infected emerging from the aisles. There weren’t as many as she’d seen at the front or rear of the store, but there were still a dozen or so lurching hungrily towards them; their stiffened limbs moving as quickly as they could in their desperate desire to kill and consume. Melissa and Rochelle were outrunning them however, and would be able to for as long as there was enough space and the route remained clear... unfortunately for them, the route didn’t remain clear for long. Some of the infected were being drawn from the front of the store and were starting to appear in the darkness ahead of them. Knowing that the rest of the horde wouldn’t be far behind was concerning, so when the light swept across the bakery counter on the right and Melissa caught sight of a door behind it she reached back, grabbed Rochelle’s arm and yanked her, dragging the woman behind her as she darted behind the counter.

  They surged past the display cases for cakes and other pastries on the left, metal countertops and what might have been refrigerators on the right, aiming straight for the door in the wall ahead of them. Melissa twisted her shoulder to it and slammed right through, the door swinging open easily and revealing a kitchen area with ovens, metal tables and, to Melissa’s distress, a number of infected. She released Rochelle, raised her weapon and executed the trio she could see with ruthless efficiency, passing by blood stained flooring and skeletal remains as she headed towards a set of double doors opposite. She hoped, even prayed, that this would lead to the warehouse area, and an avenue of escape that wasn’t currently blocked by infected, Reborn, or some combination of the two. Rochelle kept the light steady, and Melissa came to a stop before it, not slamming through this one as she wanted to take a moment to catch her breath.

  “We need to stay together, keep moving and find another way out of here.” Melissa told Rochelle. “Are you okay to keep running on that leg?”

  “Yeah... yeah. It hurts but I can manage.” Rochelle replied, breathing heavily.

  “Okay, let’s move.” Melissa responded.

  Melissa turned and pushed open one of the doors; she couldn’t hear any sounds of the infected ahead of her, but Melissa wasn’t foolish enough to believe that meant it was clear. She stepped through the door, her weapon up and at the ready, and then gestured for Rochelle to follow. Once Rochelle was through, Melissa allowed the door to swing shut, and examined their surroundings in the illumination of the flashlight. It had been hard to make it this far, and although Melissa knew there was still a long way to go before they reached safety, she hoped she and Rochelle would be able to leave the warehouse with ease.

  Chapter Six

  Roy grunted heavily as he slid the last desk into place. He’d done his best to block off all of the main corridors, stacking furniture and creating firing lines between the stacked objects, and had also flipped desks over so that nothing could crawl underneath. It was exhausting work and his injured knee didn’t make the process any easier, but he had succeeded in his task nonetheless. First they could hold off an assault from the front windows, and then, he calculated, they would need to make a choice between going back into the cells or down the corridor towards the elevator. It was, of course, a choice he hoped they wouldn’t have to make, but considering snipers were attacking Kevin and Melissa was off rescuing someone, it paid to be prepared. The outer front doors had been locked with a chain around the handles, and the glass doors either side of the reception desk had also been barricaded, though as they were centered in glass walls it wasn’t a good place to defend, so Roy had shut the doors behind the desk and wedged a desk with some chairs underneath to make it more secure. When Melissa returned, he figured he would guide her in via the side door, as that would be more easily accessed than the entrance he had secured.

  ”Mr. Snipes!” He heard. The Ancillary had been calling his name for a short time now, but he didn’t want to talk to her. She had a way of talking that slowly worked its way inside his head. He wouldn’t exactly call her persuasive, as she didn’t speak that strongly; it was more of a passive, almost reassuring way of getting you to see things from her perspective. It reminded Roy of some techniques he’d learned to get suspects to confess to their crimes.

  “Please, Mr. Snipes, as an officer of the law aren’t you the least bit curious as to what I have to say?”

  Roy sighed. He was exhausted, hurting, and needed a break. With reluctance, he started back towards the cells, and after using the keycard to open the door separating him from the Ancillary, found himself in front of her cell.

  “What do you want now?” Roy asked shortly.

  “What time is it, Mr. Snipes?” The Ancillary asked cheerfully.

  Roy checked his watch.

  “It’s a little before nine. Why?”

  “I’ll tell you in a little while. So, have you finished your fortifications?”

  “Maybe.” Roy answered dismissively.

  “Well, if you have, I think you’ve earned an answer to another question. So, Roy, ask me anything.”

  Roy looked at her silently for a few seconds, studying her features and her expression. She was smiling, as she had been for most of her time in his presence, and seemed genuine, so Roy decided to make some more enquiries.

  “My question has two parts.” Roy started, and the Ancillary chuckled.

  “That’s cheeky, Mr. Snipes, but I’ll allow it.”

  “How did you meet the Teacher?”

  For a second, the Ancillary’s smile faded, but returned just as quickly as it disappeared.

  “I was in my late teen years and I’d managed to escape certain negative influences in my life. It wasn’t the first time I’d done so, but it was the first time I’d had a few weeks to myself - not that I was in luxury. I was living rough on the streets of a large town in Essex, barely able to beg enough change to eat something every few days. But I’ll tell you for free, Mr. Snipes, those were the best days of my early life; there was no pain, there was no fear, there was just... peace, which came from a sense that I was finally in control of my life.” The Ancillary recounted. She paused to take a breath and Roy stood silently, leaning against the bars o
f her cell.

  “One day, a man approached me and offered me a future. Those were his exact words. I thought at first he was just another man who preyed on unfortunate women, expecting certain... favors in exchange for money. But all he wanted was to talk to me and learn how I’d ended up where I was. He explained he’d seen me on the streets a few times and was curious about how I’d gotten my scars - glimpsed briefly as my shirt had ridden up while I was bending over. It was a topic that’d I’d never discussed with anyone, but something about his kind face convinced me to open up. We went to get a coffee in a fast food place - and a large meal for me, more than I’d eaten in a long time. I told him my tale and at the end, he offered me a choice. Either he could give me a large sum of money - a sum so large that I could buy a home for myself outright anywhere I wanted and live comfortably for the rest of my days - or I could use the strength I possessed to become a part of his plan. There was something about the way he talked, the way he made me feel... then he took me back with a few of his guards to the place where my negative influences lived and gave me a gun. He said to return when I’d proven I had the will to do whatever it took to survive.”

  Roy swallowed hard, but continued to listen.

  “There were five negative influences in my life: the one responsible, two who helped hold me down, one who did nothing but watch, and one who was too afraid and weak to do anything. Five bullets ended the five negative influences, and then I was Reborn.” The Ancillary concluded. During the explanation, her face had turned dark; the memories she was reliving were obviously painful for her, but as the last word left her mouth, her smile returned.

  Roy wasn’t sure how to react, more so when the Ancillary stood, turned and, with some difficulty thanks to the handcuffs binding her wrists, lifted her robe. She was wearing a pair of white trousers beneath it, but as the robe bundled up to her chest, she revealed her back. There were burns, cuts, and scars of a type that Roy couldn’t identify. He’d seen terrible things, a large number of which were caused by the very woman before him, but the cruelty she’d endured... Roy turned away, unable to look any longer. When he returned his gaze to the Ancillary, she was sitting on the bed, her robe back in place. She was cruel, indifferent, and almost certainly evil, but Roy couldn’t deny the... what did he feel? Sympathy? Understanding? Roy hoped it wasn’t understanding, because he didn’t want to think he could understand why someone would do the things she’d done.