The Z Directive (Book 2): Mutation

by Thompson, Chris

  “Then lead the way back,” Cerberus stated with a nod of his head.

  Taking point, Jack led the trio back to the room housing the self-destruct unit. Emma, however, continued questioning Cerberus.

  “How does it work? Can you... feel the infected?” she posed, wondering how he was able to exert control over them.

  “It’s not so much that I feel the infected, it’s that I can sense the X strain within them. It’s like their virus is reaching out to the one within me. By allowing that mental connection to take place, the Ambrosia strain is able to control them - I can control them,” Cerberus explained.

  “Fascinating,” Emma responded. “It’s so incredible, and yet the evidence is before my very eyes.”

  He glanced at her sideways.

  “I’m sure the people at Bolvinox said that too,”

  “Hey, I don’t agree with what they’ve done. I’m dedicating my life and putting my ass on the line to make sure we stop them!” she snapped. Cerberus smiled.

  “Good. I just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page,”

  Jack listened, and although he didn’t intervene, he knew that if Cerberus tried to injure Emma - regardless of his much needed control over the infected - Cerberus would be dead before he hit the floor.

  Stepping through the open door to the self destruct room and moving unevenly over the grotesque array of pieces and parts of infected corpses, Jack looked to his team as they stood, somewhat triumphantly, near the self-destruct console.

  “Good news?” he asked.

  “Great news,” Ridgewell returned, “the bomb is armed and on your go, we can set the timer for fifteen minutes. We managed to squeeze an extra five out of it.”

  “The route to the elevator is clear. Cerberus, I’m trusting that you can lead us out of the mine?” Jack questioned without looking.

  “Your trust would be well placed.” Cerberus assured him confidently.

  There was a soft, almost wet sound behind him that caused Jack to look at the doorway. He surveyed the scene of carnage for several moments, narrowing his eyes in an effort to locate the source of the noise, and then, as he turned back to his team, saw Tyrone had been equally invested in locating cause of the sound.

  “Let’s rest up for a few and catch our breath, then we’re moving out,” Jack instructed, thinking as they would soon be making a dash to escape, it would probably be best if they weren’t on their last legs. Cerberus grunted and moved off to the side of the room to stand alone. Smith and Bridges lingered near to each other while Ridgewell tinkered at the console. Tyrone kept his hands on his weapon, while Emma shifted to be at Jack’s side.

  “I’m glad you’re not hurt,” she told him softly. Jack smiled.

  “Same to you. I’m sorry you were put in that position with—”

  “It’s okay,” she interrupted. “It was me or him, and I wasn’t going to die for a piece of shit like that.”

  Jack smirked.

  “Good.”

  There was another sound behind them; it was a touch louder and this time Jack turned with his weapon half raised.

  “What is it?” Emma wanted to know.

  “I’m not sure,” Jack informed her as he scanned the bodies with more care. The noise was close enough to leave no doubt it in his mind it was coming from the corpses rather than some further off zombies in the corridor or side rooms. His immediate thought was that one of them was still ‘alive’ and was readying itself to attack their legs. However, Jack could see no sign of movement. All he could see was corpses, parts of corpses, and the skeletonized remains of the creatures doused in the acidic substance they had created. Then it happened again, a more distinctive sound that time, like a wet ripping.

  “What the hell is that?” Jack muttered to himself.

  “We need to get moving,” Cerberus announced. “Now.”

  “Why?” Emma questioned.

  “The virus in those corpses isn’t dead. It’s doing something,” he declared, moving to stand beside Emma.

  “Doing what?” she wanted to know.

  “Expanding, and quite rapidly.”

  “Ridgewell, set the timer, everyone else get ready to move!” Jack barked.

  “How can it be expanding?” Tyrone wanted to know, raising his weapon and pointing it without an obvious target at the pile of corpses. “When we destroy the brain they stop,”

  “The corpses might stop, but the virus lives on for a while - it is a regenerative organism after all,” Cerberus corrected. “I think part of the virus is figuring something out.”

  “What?” Emma wanted to know.

  Jack watched the pile of bodies begin to twitch and shift. The flesh and musculature then began to writhe, as though under some means of control he couldn’t begin to fathom. Suddenly, one of the dismembered arms rolled to the side, connecting with the lower half of a severed leg. Together, the chunks began to fuse, the flesh extending and growing as they became one grotesque parody of a limb.

  “What in the everliving fuck is it doing?” Bridges questioned loudly, obvious fear in his tone.

  The multitudes of body parts and whole carcasses began to exhibit similar movements, twitching to move and connect together to begin the fusing process.

  “The virus is evolving,” Cerberus announced with relative calm.

  “Can you stop it? Exert your control over it and stop it from doing whatever it’s doing?” Emma wanted to know urgently. Jack glanced at Cerberus and saw his eyes close. He seemed to be concentrating hard; his temples throbbed and within moment Jack could see a sheen of sweat forming on his brow. Cerberus let out a gasping sound and took a half step back as though his balance was off in the same instant that blood spilled from his left nostril. He swiped it with his forearm and shook his head.

  “No, it’s too concentrated. It’s as if there’s a horde thousands strong in that pile. We need to get moving, right the fuck now!” he declared forcefully.

  “Ridgewell!” Jack called out, while continuing to focus his attention on the moving, quivering pile of flesh before him. He had no idea what it was turning into, but at that moment it was simply taking on a grotesque, shapeless mass assembled from the myriad carcasses around it.

  “We’re armed! Go!” Ridgewell announced.

  Jack reached out, grabbed Emma’s hand and started to run. He had no idea whether it was ‘safe’ to cross over the backs of the dead bodies as they had to enter the room, but there was no choice. Moving quickly with Emma at his side, they ran over the convulsing mass of horror beneath them and made it into the corridor; though Jack was certain he’d felt the pile shifting under his weight, as though it was attempting to snare him and Emma. He released her once they were clear of the pile and turned back to face the way they had come, his weapon raised and his eyes watchful. Bridges and Smith were next and this time Jack was certain it was attempting to stop them from leaving. An arm which had been lying prone suddenly twisted up to snatch at Smith’s leg. Moving as quickly as she was, Smith avoided the swiping grab, but it almost knocked her off balance and Emma instinctively reached out a hand and snatched hold of her wrist to steady her. Cerberus came next, practically leaping the last several feet into the corridor, obviously using the enhancement from the Ambrosia virus to aid him. Tyrone and Ridgewell began their move last; the latter was in the lead and made it across the mass of quivering flesh as it attempted to snatch at him. As the flesh monster had fused together so many corpses however, it began to rise up just before Tyrone passed by. Jack, battle-hardened and level-headed as he was, stared with his mouth agape as the fusion of undead creatures found footing on whatever limbs it could. Tyrone was barely halfway across flesh creature when it snared him, a half dozen hands wrapping loosely around his legs and waist - and then the jaws of the myriad of heads began to snap in anticipation.

  “Ty!” Jack called out as he darted forward, lowering his weapon and grabbing his comrade’s outstretched hand.

  Bridges and Smith fired carefully;
driving bullets into heads, hands and unidentifiable chunks of body as the monstrous amalgamation began to close in on them - while still attempting to drag Tyrone down. The damage being inflicted seemed to have no effect; blood erupted from wounds and leaked out in the same congealed fashion as it did with the regular infected, but even though the brains of the ugly, somewhat sickening combination of creatures had already been destroyed, they were moving as though under control of a different power. Seemingly, Jack opined, they were being controlled directly by the virus rather than being under the power of their own impulses.

  Jack heaved as hard as he could, but more arms snatched at Tyrone, their undead strength beginning to outweigh Jack’s and drag him down towards the body.

  “Cease fire!” Cerberus ordered, and as soon as the barrage broke, he suddenly appeared at Jack’s left, securing a tight hold of Tyrone’s other arm while Emma squeezed in on Jack’s right side brandishing her axe. She began to roughly, awkwardly, swipe at the clawing arms, severing some, weakening others while the two men struggled to free Tyrone.

  “Jack!” Tyrone exclaimed. “You gotta go! The bomb is—”

  “Shut the fuck up and fight!” Jack interrupted roughly. Tyrone kicked powerfully down on the limbs securing him to the back of the flesh-beast. It moved forward awkwardly, and a quick glance at the floor revealed there were snatching, clawing hands underneath its writhing mass attempting to snare any who came within their grasp. Regardless, Jack continued to pull, determined to set his friend free, while Tyrone let out a roar of exertion as he attempted to rip himself clear of the clinging morass. And then, just as it seemed he might get dragged down, Emma hacked off the strongest of the limbs holding him back and Tyrone was practically catapulted free. He stumbled, nearly dragging Jack and Cerberus down, but through sheer luck all three stayed upright and began their retreat; Emma wasting no time in joining them.

  They moved backwards, slowly at first, unable to tear their eyes away from the horror of the fleshy construct before them. As they watched, it began moving quicker, though unevenly, the limbs on the underside learning to work in tandem to gain speed in an effort to catch its escaping prey. They began to retreat faster than it could move, taking aim with their weapons and unleashing a massive salvo against the monster. It took all the punishment they could throw at it and seemed to be able to withstand it easily. Worse still, the more they attacked the fiend, the more determined it became to pursue and snare them; each of the flesh-fused heads snapping at the air in apparent excitement. And while the hands and legs on the top side of the horror-forged monstrosity swiped at them, the limbs underneath carried it ever faster towards them. Jack and his team continued their retreat, even as they unloaded shot after shot at the creature... until one by one their weapons ran empty and they were forced to call out and reload.

  At a junction, they made the appropriate turn and passed by a sealed door where they had trapped a number of infected earlier. As the new creature continued its pursuit, it stopped at the door and ripped the belt lashed to a nearby pipe to secure it apart, before forcing the door open. The infected inside surged forward, falling onto the sprawling, hideous mixture of arms, legs and heads and adding to its mass. As they put more distance between it and themselves, Jack’s last sight of it revealed the flesh and bone of the joined infected seemed to be shifting. It was stretching forward in a way he couldn’t begin to understand, as though the flesh was now some kind of malleable putty. At that moment, he knew there was little the weapons they were armed with could do to stop this variant of the infected because it had no weak spot to target or bone that could be broken which would weaken it. It was practically a new life form in and of its own right: an entity born of dead human flesh under the complete, absolute control of the Genetic Material X virus.

  “Run!” Jack yelled loudly as he turned the corner, urging his team to flee as fast as they could.

  “What about that thing?” Tyrone wanted to know.

  “Let it burn when the facility goes up,” Jack responded. They ran as a unit, fleeing down the corridors as a new, hitherto unheard bellowing sound came from further away. The flesh-creature was crying out from each of the mouths fused to its body in what could only be described as an evil chorus. Jack wouldn’t be ashamed to admit he felt fear.

  Within three minutes, they reached the short corridor to the elevator. By Jack’s estimate, they had ten before the whole area was destroyed. Going up in the elevator would take another couple of minutes, then they had to reach minimum safe distance or they too would be obliterated by the explosion.

  “How do we get to the mine entrance?” Jack asked Cerberus as they started into the corridor.

  “There’s a train line that will take us parallel to the main tunnels. Take that, out the gate, then through the main entrance,” he summarized. “The train was concealed, as was the gate to access it of course, but it’s still there and operational.”

  The creature howled again; it was echoing through the corridors, but Jack was sure it was closer now than it had been before. The speed with which it was moving was unimaginable, and as Jack stepped onto the elevator - the last of his party to do so - he turned and saw something at the edge of the lights shining down the path behind them.

  “Close the doors!” Bridges cried out, and Cerberus hit the button to start them moving. The doors closed slowly, allowing them enough time to see that the creature was bulkier from the extra infected piled on top of it. It was doing something to the bodies. What exactly, Jack wasn’t sure, but it seemed to be converting the flesh into different limbs. The most prominent at the head of the fiend; a long, tensile, tentacle-like appendage covered in shards of metal and jutting bones. As the doors shut heavily and the elevator began to move upwards, the limb shot arrow-like towards them. It hit the door with a deep, reverberating noise which continued as the tentacle slammed repeatedly into the obstruction. Moments later, they could hear the sounds of a myriad of such limbs striking the door which was all that separated the monster from its prey.

  “Holy shit!” Bridges exclaimed. “If this virus thing can do that to people we’re screwed! We’re so fucking screwed!”

  “Not necessarily,” Cerberus stated with relative calm.

  “What do you mean?” Jack wanted to know, reloading his weapon and realizing he had only a single spare magazine left.

  “In each of the facilities they were experimenting with Genetic Material X’s ability to evolve. Perhaps here, after my tenure came to an end, they were able to propagate the self-preservation element of the virus to a point where it is able to exert a certain amount of direct control. It may not happen anywhere else,” he summarized.

  “And if it does? If there’re city-sized monsters like that?” Bridges questioned urgently.

  “Well, as you said, we’re screwed.”

  Before Bridges - or anyone else - could say anything further, there was a terrible wrenching sound of metal beneath them. The doors to the shaft had given way, and although it felt like the elevator was moving with some speed, Jack felt concern knot his guts.

  “Get ready,” he declared.

  “For what?’ Bridges asked.

  “In case it follows us up the shaft,”

  “How can it—” Bridges was in the middle of asking when something struck the bottom of the elevator, jostling all the occupants heavily.

  Jack was barely able to keep his footing, and nearly lost it again when the creature struck the underside of the car again. Looking down at the central area of the floor, which they’d all instinctively moved away from, he could see a large bulge in the metal where it had been struck twice in succession. Raising his weapon in anticipation, Jack was ready when the creature struck them a third time and the tip of the tentacle burst through the metal flooring. Jack fired on it, as did Tyrone and Smith, though Bridges, Ridgewell and Cerberus held back. Their bullets tore through the twisted mass of unrecognizable flesh, spilling the blood that was still contained within it in coagulated glob
ules that spattered around the space. The fiend howled and retracted its limb. Suddenly, it felt as though a great weight was applied to the elevator; the mechanism pulling them up began to groan uncertainly and their ascent slowed. The same tentacle struck them again, widening the gap and allowing more of the wildly flailing limb to swipe around the interior of the car. His people leaned back out of the way, but a second slam against the back-right side of the elevator indicated its intention to puncture through the floor in the same place Emma and Ridgewell were standing with a second limb.

  Without fear, Emma gripped her axe tightly and swung it in a powerful chop that cut halfway into the tentacle; the creature howled and the car shook as the fiend appeared to experience pain. Emma tried to rip her weapon free, but between the sudden movements of the tentacle and the depth it had reached from her attack, she failed. Jack moved beside her and grabbed the length of the handle, and together they were able to dislodge it.

  “Open fire!” Jack barked, moving Emma and himself as far back as he could. Smith and Tyrone unloaded their weapons, firing precise shots that tore into the limb while minimizing the risk of a stray or ricochet hitting a member of the team. Coupled with the damage Emma had already inflicted, the gunfire finished the job and severed the end of the tentacle, the part protruding into the car flopped forward, still wriggling and writhing as it attempted to reach out, and no doubt fuse itself to their living flesh. The remainder of the limb fell back through the hole to the underside of the car and Smith and Tyrone immediately advanced and fired down into the body of the creature. Jack joined them after kicking the writhing length of tentacle flesh in the car with them down through the hole. He opened fire, depleting his magazine quickly as they fired shot after shot into the grotesque mass, their stomachs churning at the sight of multitude of what looked somewhat like melted heads from plastic dolls with snapping jaws amongst the putty-like flesh that surrounded them, and the flailing tentacles that were being reformed from the sloughing skin.The terrible howl issued again and its weight seemed to shift to the right side of the car - just as the tentacle there attempted to break through. Smith and Tyone continued to unload on the monster below. Looking down, Jack could see that, while their weapons were having minimal effect, it seemed the sheer force of the bullet impacts were driving it back, forcing it to lose its grip on the underside of the elevator.