Zombieclypse (Book 4): Dead Start

by Rosaria, A.

  Sarah sidestepped as a zombie guard lunged for her. She buried her bowie knife in its temple. She ducked under the grabbing hands of the other two, rose, stabbed her knife under the zombie’s chin. The last one grabbed her and pushed her against a wall. With one hand she pushed its head away and stabbed its eye socket.

  Geon stared at the four zombies at his feet. “You should listen.”

  “You almost got me killed.”

  “Does it matter? You are alive, aren’t you?”

  She wanted to squeeze her hands hard around his throat. Would do no good, his neck was too thick for her to do any damage. Thick as his skull.

  “You work for them?”

  Geon frowned at the venom in her tone. “I used to work for them, not anymore. No one does.”

  Sarah shook her head and pointed at the corpses. “I’ve seen them out there.”

  He grabbed her wrist. “What? I thought…”

  He let go of her and rushed to the sliding door and swiped his keycard. The doors swooshed open to a room with sprinklers. Sarah guessed it must be to disinfect people leaving. They exited this room to the next. Behind the glass wall, zombies in white coats milled around between the desks and equipment in what she guessed to be a laboratory. A wight stood with its back to them, facing a door at the end of the laboratory. In the clear light, Sarah noticed it was a female.

  Geon entered the room. The wight whirled around. Geon stopped in his tracks five feet into the laboratory and stared in horror at the wight. The zombies shuffled his way, closing the distance one foot at a time.

  “Get back!” Sarah screamed.

  Geon stared transfixed at the wight. His machete slipped from his fingers and clattered on the floor. He staggered forward and fell on his knees, his shoulders slumped, and he hung his head down. The wight stepped forward, pushing a zombie aside out of its way. Sarah rushed inside the lab, grabbed Geon by his arm, and strained her back to force him to stand, and drew all her strength to pull him back inside the disinfection room. The door started to slide shut. She wedged Geon in between the door, resetting the door sensors, and the door opened. She pushed herself through.

  The zombies were a distance away. Slow as they were, they would not reach the threshold in time to stop the door from sliding shut. The wight, though, was fast. Before the door could shut again, it jammed its body between. The wight’s face was beautiful if not for the rows of sharp teeth in its mouth. Sarah imagined her a real looker when still a human. She pushed Geon away and prepared to receive the wight charging in. It stopped out of Sarah’s reach, distracted by Geon, who sat on his knees, gawking at it with eyes almost white in shock.

  “Isabella.” The name was a whisper on his tongue.

  Sarah couldn’t believe what she saw. Recognition registered on the wight’s face and it backed down. This was the only chance she got. Sarah rushed forward, knife ready to bury in the wight’s temple. Geon exploded up and tackled Sarah down. “No, it’s my wife!”

  Whatever recognition the wight attained vanished once the violence started. It grabbed Geon by the hair and threw him to the ground. Its high-pitched scream bounced from the walls. Sarah got up in time to dodge an attack.

  Geon wobbled back up on his feet. “Sarah, don’t.”

  Sarah rolled under an attack, stood on her knees at the wight’s back, and slashed the wight’s Achilles heel. The wight staggered forward and fell. White blood oozed out her wounds, which had already started to seal. Sarah backed away from the wight.

  “Geon, snap out of it. That’s not your wife anymore.”

  “It is Isabella.”

  “Your wife is dead.”

  The wight tried to clatter back up. One tendon seemed to have healed already. It planted one foot to the ground. Before it could raise itself, Sarah kicked it back to the ground.

  “I locked them in. I had to. She is—”

  “Dead, turned, an enhanced, a wight, a monster. It’s out of your hands now.”

  Sarah kicked the wight. It whirled away and in one smooth motion grabbed her feet. The wight yanked Sarah off balance. Sarah fell with a yelp. She tried to kick it away, but the wight held on tight and pulled.

  “She’s not your wife. She will kill us if you don’t snap out of it right now.”

  Sarah slashed at the wight’s face as it dragged her totally under it. The wight’s breast felt hard against her own. Its sharp teeth banged shut near Sarah’s throat. Sarah’s body went rigid. She tried to keep a scream in, but lost that battle, and screamed in fear as she felt the wight’s breath on her neck. Then the creature soared off her body.

  The wight went down in a jumble of legs and arms together with Geon. “Isabella, stop this.” He sounded haunted. The wight didn’t stop. Sarah crawled up and limped up to them. Geon pressed the wight down, all muscles in his tight body bulged out. He applied all his strength but barely held down the creature that used to be his wife. His arms trembled. The wight roared and threw him off. Sarah rushed in and stuck her knife down the wight’s throat. She heard the knife slide in and crack bone. The wight fell limp.

  Sarah raised her boot to smash the wight’s skull.

  “Stop.” Geon crawled up. “Don’t.”

  “We have to. It will heal and kill us.”

  “I can’t do that to her.” He sat down and placed the wight’s head on his lap and stroked its head.

  Sarah groaned. Her body ached. And based on the number of zombies that still needed clearing in the other room, her body would not stop hurting for a long while. She sat down next to Geon and observed the wight. This was the first chance she got to see one in full light and for this long. Most encounters before had happened in darkness and utter chaos. They had been busy destroying them, with no time for observing them.

  Its body was that of a female, every part exactly the same, private parts and all, only she was completely white. Paper white, not living human skin white. It was odd and striking. Its eyelids shut and opened, as did its mouth. It tried to bite, but having lost all motion from the neck down, it couldn’t twist its head to do so. Whatever recognition Sarah noticed before was all gone now. What Geon held in his lap was a mindless thing.

  Sarah touched the wight’s skin. It felt hard, smooth, and cold. White, gooey stuff drooled out of its mouth. The wound inside must be closing already.

  “Look at it. It’s not your wife anymore.”

  Silent tears ran over Geon’s cheek.

  “Look at it!”

  He shut his eyes.

  “Look!”

  The wight’s body stirred. Sarah scurried away. Geon stayed sitting with the thing’s head on his lap.

  “Open your damn eyes.”

  He did, and with complete sadness viewed his once wife on his lap. “I can’t.”

  He gently lay its head down and stood up. He went over the glass wall and stared at the zombies pressing their bodies against the wall. “You do it.”

  The wight’s legs started twitching. Sarah grabbed her knife, pushed the head against the floor, and sawed at its throat. White blood spurted out. She dug in the skin until she hit bone. Sarah stood and stomped on the exposed bone, crushing it, cracking it, severing the head from the body. White, translucent blood spurted out of the body and formed a pool around it. Sarah pushed her knife deep into the wight’s temple. The eyes stopped moving and its mouth hung open, motionless. Sarah wiped her blade on the uniform of one of the downed guard zombies.

  “It’s done. Now what?”

  “That was my wife.”

  “You almost got us killed because of your wife?”

  Geon’s hands clenched into fists. He got to an inch away from her. “You insensitive bitch.”

  Seeing him hurt, angry, and beyond himself softened her for a second, then she stood straight. “You aren’t the one to point fingers. Tell me what’s going on.”

  Watching his face contort in anger, Sarah feared he would launch himself at her. She doubted having her knife ready increased her chances of beati
ng him. He was taller, larger, heavier, and possessed years more experience in fighting things than her. And his rage was genuine. That and his madness made him terrible news. She exhaled her held breath when he moved for the door and swiped his key over the card reader.

  The door slid open. A zombie pushed its way in. Geon kicked it back out, and it fell flat on its back. In passing, Geon stomped its head, cracking the skull. In a rush, he scooped up his machete and went berserk on the approaching zombies. Sarah stood nailed at the threshold, watching how Geon cleaved head after head. In short order, he dropped every zombie in the room.

  Geon stood, chest heaving, his body glistening in sweat, and covered in zombie gore. If Geon had attacked her instead, he would have turned her into minced meat.

  Geon stopped at the door his wife had been guarding. Sarah joined him. She read the placard on the door. Chief Researcher Isabella James. This lab must have been her private lab. Deep dents covered the numerical-key lock, but despite the damage it still seemed functional. Geon stood rigid staring at the door, his eyes trembling, losing focus, and gaining it again. On and on.

  “Do you know the combination?”

  Geon nodded. His fingers hovered over the keypad. His hand trembled. Sarah touched his hand, stopping it from trembling. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about what happened to your wife and what I needed to do. I understand if you want to leave.”

  She herself didn’t want to stay. She couldn’t imagine what could be inside his dead wife’s office for him to go through this torture.

  Geon punched in the code. The door slid open but got stuck. The scent of decay was worse than inside the lab. Sarah bent over, retching. Geon cried out and frantically pushed the door open and stormed inside the room. He fell on his knees in front of a bloated corpse of a short woman with long black hair.

  Sarah’s hand snapped over her mouth and nose as she entered the office room. She felt the filth as much as she inhaled it. Heavy, earthy, and pungent. Its rotten taste crept over her tongue. She fought against gagging, forcing the bile back down. Sarah tried to focus on the room itself, and not on the open cans spread over the floor, the pile of shit in one corner, and the decaying body. The room was Spartan. Drawers lined one side of the wall, there was a desk in the middle of the room, and a sofa on the other side of the wall. Three open backpacks lined the wall behind the desk, their contents spread over the floor.

  Sarah’s eyes fell on a family picture hanging on the wall. A well-groomed Geon embraced a pretty short-haired brunette in her forties, and a teenager with long black hair and a goofy smile. Sarah turned to Geon cradling the corpse. Skin scraped off where his fingers touched. Sarah staggered to the sofa and fell down on it. She felt like an ass. This was his daughter.

  Geon broke out crying. Sarah didn’t feel the strength to go over to him, or able to offer the words to console him. She didn’t know if she cared enough. Whatever horror happened to Geon, his being part of this all voided any feelings he might have. She could only guess at the horrors others suffered at hands of the company he and his wife worked for. Horrors some might still be doing. Sarah felt whatever energy left inside her escape her body. She shut her eyes and leaned back and felt exhaustion ferry her away. Soon she wasn’t thinking or feeling anymore.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Sarah felt like something inside her skull was using her brains for drums. Groaning, she sat up, holding her head and wondering where she was. The smell jolted her back to reality. She squinted into the light. Geon sat on the floor, still cradling his daughter’s decomposing body. The skin was dripping from it and there were gashes exposing bone where Geon caressed it. Sarah’s chest heaved, her belly contorted, and she bent over and spewed out hot liquid. Wiping her mouth, she stood on unsteady legs.

  “Geon, we can’t stay here.”

  His eyes went straight through her.

  “I left them behind. The virus spread so fast.” He kissed his daughter’s forehead. Seeing that, Sarah felt herself edge to the brink of another puke session.

  “We thought we had time to leave the lab. I told them to wait for my shift to end so we could escape together.”

  Geon wiped his eyes, leaving grease marks on his face. “Stupid, so stupid, of course everything went to shit. The infection reached the compound, people turned, others got attacked, we went into lockdown. I… I pushed the button. The place stayed in lockdown for twenty-four hours. No one could leave their rooms. All passes, except the ones with the highest security clearance, became inactive. My job? Escort the CEO to a waiting helicopter and evacuate the bastard to safety, while leaving my wife and daughter trapped inside.”

  “Why didn’t you return for them?”

  Geon’s bloodshot eyes fixed on hers. “I did. While I was away, they sent the kill order and gassed the place. They told me my family was dead. They killed them. And I trusted them. My wife and daughter died for that.”

  Geon rocked his daughter in his arms. “I could have saved them if I had gone inside to investigate, instead of going berserk on the messengers and running away believing my family died. My daughter wouldn’t have… she was alive, Sarah. Alive. I left, and she died because of it. I should have known better.”

  “What happened after?”

  Geon laughed. There was no mirth in his laughter; it even tinged toward the hysterical.

  “I roamed around, not able to deal with the guilt of working for the company that got my wife, daughter, and everyone else killed.”

  At that, Sarah perked up. “What did you say?”

  “They experimented on extending human life, so to make travel to the stars viable. It went wrong and they made this virus.”

  Sarah controlled the tremble in her voice. “How? Why?”

  Geon peered into the lab. “Isabella could answer those questions. She started research on a cure the moment news reached her that the virus got out.”

  “She made this virus? You worked for them?” Sarah slid her knife out from its scabbard and walked over to Geon. She yanked his head back and placed the blade to his throat.

  Geon didn’t resist. He talked as if she wasn’t there pressing a sharp blade to his throat. “My wife’s research department was one of many working on a way to prolong human life. Something went wrong while putting the pieces together at the head office. I was the head security of this facility. I… just do it….”

  Geon placed his hand on hers and pressed the blade against his throat. Sarah cried out in surprise and pulled back before he could make her cut his throat.

  “What the hell has gotten into you?”

  Geon gently lay his daughter down and stood up. “You need to finish what you start, Sarah.”

  Sarah reeled away from him as he approached. The dead people goo that covered his body was too much for her to bear. Her mouth snapped open to breathe as the stench clogged her nose.

  “What’s wrong, Sarah? I can see it in your eyes. You blame me for all this. Come on, do it, use your knife and cut my throat. End it.”

  Sarah studied her knife and wondered what was holding her back. He was right. She blamed him and his wife, and for all she knew, his dead daughter was also part of it.

  “Did I cause this all?” He pointed out the door. “Yes, I did. I ordered the lockdown. I got my wife and kid killed. All because of a corporation. Did I cause the clusterfuck our world turned into? No. Am I to blame for it? I don’t know. I know I don’t want to keep asking myself those questions or for you to ask them to me.”

  He lunged forward, grabbed Sarah’s wrist, and pressed the knife against his throat. She tried to yank back, but his grip was tight. “Do it now.”

  “Stop, you are hurting me.” He didn’t loosen his grip on her. She let the knife slide from her fingers. He pushed her away from himself. “Why? Why don’t you do it?”

  The same question went through her head. Was it because it wasn’t so easy to kill someone in cold blood? She gritted her teeth. She was deceiving herself. She did it before. It wa
sn’t easy, but she proved herself capable of it. So why not? Why not him? Sarah picked her knife up and sheathed it.

  “I’m sorry, Geon. Sorry about your wife and daughter. I… I… don’t know what to… Can I have a rain check on the whole killing you thing?”

  Geon chuckled. “You’re one messed-up little kid.”

  “I’m not a little kid. So what about it? Rain check?”

  “Guess so, whatever.”

  Sarah nodded. “Okay, you owe me your life.”

  Sarah went over to the strewn-out backpacks and rummaged through them. She found two bedsheets. One she threw at Geon, the other she kept. “Wrap your daughter in it.”

  She left him standing with the sheet in his hands and crossed the lab to the room where she had re-killed Isabella. She wrapped the corpse together with its head in the sheet. She returned to find Geon kneeling at his daughter’s side, the bedsheet clutched in his hands, his knuckles white, his eyes fixed on the corpse. Sarah grabbed it from him. With a herculean effort, she kept the bile in while she wrapped the daughter the same way she had done for the mother. Finished with the job, she staggered to a corner and threw up the last remaining bile left in her belly.

  After two trips, they gathered both corpses at the top of the staircase. She wanted to ask Priss and Vance to help but chose not to. There was too much to explain, and she wasn’t sure Geon wanted to involve them. Sarah leaned her back against the door.

  “You must tell them.”

  Geon sat near the bodies. “Does it matter?”

  “When they see us carrying two bodies, they’ll ask questions, and I will not lie to Priss.”

  “She looks so much like Lisa, and not only in appearance.”

  “Is that why you helped us out?”

  Geon nodded. “Something like that.”

  “Not because of two damsels in distress?” she said with a chuckle to lighten the mood.

  Geon smirked. “You’re not a lady. You are a shallow bitch who uses her friend as a crutch to get on with her own life.”