Resurrect

by Amy Miles

  “Run, Flynn.” I push weakly on his arm. “Find somewhere to hide and don’t come looking for me.”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  “You have to.”

  “No. We do this together, remember?”

  “Go!” I scream and shove him back into the wall. The tile cracks around the impact point and he falls to the floor. Groaning as he lifts his head, he belly crawls toward the air vent and yanks it open. Once inside, he pauses to look back at me, and I see fear blooming in his eyes, and I realize that I’m no better than the monster in the room behind me.

  The ringing in my ears grows in volume as he closes the vent cover and disappears. I curl back into a ball on the floor and clutch my knees to my chest, quaking as I fight against the hunger that fills me. Not for food but for human flesh.

  When someone slides to a halt at my side and rolls me over, I hear a loud intake of breath. “Avery? I thought you were dead!”

  The sound of Nox’s voice is the last thing I hear before the zombie voices swell to consume every sensory input and knock me into oblivion.

  TWELVE

  The sound of yelling feels like an ice pick ramming repeatedly through my brain as I open my eyes and squint against the fluorescent lighting overhead. I groan and press my hands to my forehead, willing the room surrounding me to stop spinning like a merry-go-round.

  “You lied to me!” an enraged voice shouts off to my right. “You told me that Avery put a gun to her temple and ended it before she could turn. How could you look me in the eye every day knowing that I blamed myself for her death?”

  “I understand your reservations about recent events, Nox, but nothing has changed.” This second voice sounds small, frail, and decidedly female.

  “That’s bullshit, Iris. I deserved to know the truth!”

  Clamping my eyes tightly shut, I draw up an image of the grandmotherly woman that I met only one time. Now that I can see her face, I remember that she is the one who stayed Cap’s hand from killing me. She is the one who sent me to this place, but where is here? I thought I had been transported to some offsite base, but if Nox is here that means...

  “Oh, hell,” I groan and press back against the floor. Nox is instantly at my side, easing me to a sitting position. “I’m still in that damn hotel, aren’t I?”

  “In it? No.” Iris turns to look down at me but she is no longer the smiling face that I remember. “You are under it.”

  “How is that possible? People would know if this place existed. The hotel was practically a freakin’ monument a few months ago!”

  Iris taps the sole of her flats against the floor and looks down at me in the same manner that I imagine she would view a petulant child. “Come now, don’t be such a ninny. This grand hotel spreads across nine acres and has been renovated multiple times. Do you really think that it would be impossible to hide a secret military facility beneath it?”

  “But why? The money to build such a place alone would be staggering.”

  Iris smiles. “And yet there are locations just like this one spread across our once great nation. Bunkers were a necessary evil in the world that we lived in. It was only a matter of time before someone pulled the trigger and we had to be prepared. This location served a large portion of the Midwest and was intended to be a lifeboat of sorts.”

  When Nox rubs his hands down my bare arms, sliding over the gooseflesh that has risen there, I realize that it is not a chill that has attacked me, but a sickness that deepens with each layer of conspiracy that I uncover. The hunger for human flesh that I felt earlier has dissipated, and Nox’s presence now does not cause me any ill effects, but as I stare up at Iris, I know that I’d like nothing more than to sink my teeth into her throat and tear it out if it ever came to that.

  “Are you implying that it was us that released the rabies virus to the public?” I ask.

  Nox’s hand falls still against my arm and he turns to look up at Iris.

  “Honestly, we do not know who attacked first. Some theorized that it was the Middle East while others were sure it was some part of Asia. Take your pick. There were plenty of crazies in the world with the capabilities of engineering the virus. All we know is that by the time things spread, it was too late to retaliate properly and we were too busy barricading the door to mount any real defense.”

  “What is she talking about, Avery?”

  I hold up my hand to silence Nox. “Maybe we didn’t start it, but we for damn sure aren’t trying to reverse it, either.”

  “Why should we?” Iris smooths down a few stray hairs falling from her tightly woven bun. “We have you now.”

  “Will someone please tell me what is going on?” Nox’s hands tremble as he holds on to me.

  The strength that I felt when I shoved Flynn has vanished just as quickly as the voices in my head. If I were to attempt to stand now, I fear that I would face plant. The floor has yet to stop moving away from me and the stabbing pains behind me right eye linger, but at least for the moment, nothing is trying to invade my mind.

  “What’s she’s trying to say is that I’m crucial to their plans.” I look beyond him to stare at a cracked tile on the far wall and will it to remain in one place. The grout is an off white color, but everything else is the same stark, clinical quality. After a moment of silence, I manage to get the rectangular tiles to sit still, but only briefly.

  “I don’t understand.” Nox looks to Iris for answers. “What does any of this have to do with Avery? How is she even alive right now?”

  “Wake up and smell the crazy, Nox!” I pull to away from him so that I’m no longer tucked under his arm. “The truth is right in front of you. It always has been, just like when I tried to get you to see it back in that damn kitchen. Iris is a monster and everything that’s happening down here is far from kosher. They are killing innocent people right under your nose.”

  He looks back and forth between us, but I can see how hard he is still fighting to admit the truth that is staring him down. To do so would be to admit that not only had he been completely blind to the goings on in this facility, but that he has unwittingly aided in Iris’s monstrous acts too. “Why don’t you ask her why she’s keeping zombies in her basement, Nox?”

  “Iris?” Nox fixes his gaze on the woman. “Is that true? Are there Flesh Bags down here?”

  “Of course,” Iris says without emotion or hint of remorse. “They are a necessary risk for the sake of expanding our research and are completely under our control.”

  “Under control? How can you stand there and justify keeping those killers so close to our people? What if one of them found a way to get loose?” Nox’s grip on my arm tightens enough to interrupt the circulation running to my hand. It doesn’t take long before the tips of my fingers start tingling. “Tell me there is some damn good explanation for all of this. Tell me that Avery was mistaken about the attack we suffered two months back.”

  Clasping her hands in front of her floral print dress, Iris offers Nox a smile that sends me reeling back in time to when grandmothers were the epitome of goodness. This woman has proven to be nothing more than one fruit cake short and a whole bag of feral cats on top.

  “The things that we do in this wing are top secret, Nox. I am not at liberty to discuss matters of state.”

  “Matters of state?” He shifts to wrap his arm around me again and I let him, but only because I think that I’m the one thing keeping him grounded at the moment, and I’m going to need him to help if I have any chance of escaping this place. “There is no state. There is no government anymore.”

  “Well, that is where you are wrong.” The silvery hair pulled tight at the top of her head draws some of the wrinkles from around her eyes, but can’t help conceal any of the crazy that I know lies hidden beneath.

  “We are our own government now. We are the ones who will heal this world and find a way to
start over again. That is why Avery is so special to us and why we have kept her living status hidden from you.”

  Nox looks down at me and swallows hard when he can’t find the words to say.

  “Although I can appreciate your frustration with me at keeping her hidden all of this time, it was done for your own benefit. After losing Zoey, I did not think that seeing Avery would bring you any relief, since she was the direct reason for the poor girl’s death.”

  I place a trembling hand on Nox’s arm and feel my heart shatter. “Is it true? Is she really gone?”

  Lowering his gaze, he nods.

  My throat catches. “I’m so sorry.”

  “You did what you could for her in that tree and fought to get her help. Her death is not on your hands.”

  Even though I can tell that he wants to believe the words, the sincerity in them falls short, and my throat tightens more as grief draws his handsome features into something pinched and withdrawn. He blames me and I know that he should. I’m the reason she was dropped in the first place, but as I turn to glare up at Iris, I know that there is blame to be shared around.

  “Is she here too?”

  Nox goes rigid beside me when Iris lowers her gaze. “Is she?”

  “Of course not. She is buried with the others.” The old woman’s hands flutter in front of her dress as she shakes her head, but I know a lie when I see one. I just pray that Nox never comes across her like I did with Eva.

  “My friend was in that room where you keep your pets chained up. Her name was Eva and she was a good person before your military scum got their hands on her. I want to know what happened to her.”

  Iris’s eyes narrow when she turns to look at me. “I don’t succumb to idle demands.”

  “How about forceful threats?” Nox steps forward.

  “Come now, Nox. You are a good soldier and I would never want to see you harmed. I must advise you against this course of action, for both your sake and Avery’s.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  Iris nods. “If I must.”

  Nox glances back at me but his expression is unreadable. He should be ticked, ranting and raging over the veiled lie Iris told about Zoey, but instead he remains deadly calm.

  “I gave an oath to protect this place and its people. I would like to believe that there is still something worth fighting for.” Nox turns to look at Iris. “I did not sign up for schemes and riddles. If there is nothing to hide in regards to Avery’s friend, then why do you feel the need to sidestep?”

  A small tic appears under Iris’s eye when she slowly turns to look at me. “Your friend did not die here. As you know, she was taken into custody back in St. Louis. She gave birth to a child at the base, but it lived only a few short hours. In that short amount of time, our team discovered a cell mutation that made us begin to wonder if all children born after the outbreak would be affected by. We had to do further research so all local bases were set on alert to begin collecting newly born children.

  “Once the deceased newborn proved to no longer be of use, we planned to use the mother, but as you are well aware, the military base that she was being housed in blew up. Her body was found among the remains and we infected her to keep her alive after we lost you.”

  Nox glances at me but I keep my emotions tightly in check.

  “Many of our top minds died during your escape. I was lucky enough to have been posted here at the time. Countless valuable resources were expended in an attempt to find you once more, but you were smart. You evaded us completely and for a time, we thought you had been lost to us. But then one of our patrols spotted you not far from the border. It was a long shot that you would be able to make it so far on foot, but we had to be sure. Your red hair was a beacon and your greatest weakness, Avery.”

  Pressing my hand to my hair, I realize how foolish I was never to change its color. Of course I would stand out. If I had been blonde or brunette, I would have blended in, but my fiery curls stood out among all the rest.

  “So you brought Eva here to be your lab rat.”

  “Of course. She was the closest thing to you, though once she turned, her ability to help us diminished greatly and we sent her back to live among her kind.”

  Disgusted by her callousness, I spit in her direction, but Nox holds me a safe distance back.

  “Avery should have turned within hours of being bitten,” Nox says. “You have yet to explain how she is still alive.”

  “Avery is not like you or me. That is a fact that we have known that for quite some time.”

  “How?”

  “They already had my blood samples, and when they treated me for the infection, they were able to identify me,” I answer Nox before Iris can.

  He frowns. “That’s why you didn’t want me to bring you in. You already knew all of this. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Why would I? You were the stranger who gassed me so you weren’t exactly at the top of my ‘let’s be buddies’ list when we first met. How was I to know that you weren’t in on it when they kept me locked up and under your protection? For all I knew they were keeping me locked up because they were afraid that I would escape before they could brainwash me and they saw you as the best deterrent.”

  “Brainwash you?” Iris laughs. “No, my dear. That was never our intent. Brian knew that would not be possible. You are too strong willed and distrusting to see anything but the truth. The facade that we presented to you was nothing more than a delay tactic to allow you a chance to heal.”

  I stare up at the woman and realize that her eyes now hold the same deranged fervor that I saw in Dr. Wiemann. They are all in on it and all so completely blinded from the truth of the horrors that they have committed.

  “I suspected before that the breach came from within, but now I understand fully. You cleared the quadrant that I was in last because you wanted me to be bitten. That way you could see firsthand if I really am immune to the virus.”

  My pulse pounds in my ears in sync with the throbbing pain behind my eye at the thought of all of those innocent people they allowed to be slaughtered. It would have been far easier to just haul me down to their little cage and toss me inside, but then Nox would never have molded quite so nicely to their will.

  Nox jerks upright, rapidly looking between Iris and me. “No. That’s not possible. They wouldn’t...”

  “Wouldn’t we?” Iris takes a step to the side and sinks down on the edge of a hospital bed. The motor instantly kicks on to adjust for her weight.

  This room is a new location to me with four solid concrete block walls and a guard’s head easily seen through the small window on the door. Just beside his head, I can see the barrel of his gun.

  “I was once an idealist like you, Nox, and was blinded to the horrors of this world. In the beginning, I truly believed that there would be a cure for the virus and that life could go back to normal.

  “But we were losing the battle badly. It is true that the mutations were slow progressing and that came as a surprising benefit, since it gave us time to prepare for phase two. Those of us who didn’t make it back to the CDC before they went into lockdown set up camp at the Arnold base down south, but someone leaked the nature of our experiments and, well, we all know how that worked out.

  “Other bases were working on similar testing, searching not for a cure but for a hybridization that would allow us to evolve with the new world order. We assumed the best work would come out of the CDC, but word reached us that it was overrun. A few managed to make it out alive. Brian was among them.”

  “Back up a second. Hybridization? CDC?” Nox slowly releases his strong grip on my arm and I rub at my bruised flesh. “Arnold was attacked by raiders searching for ammunition. Cap told me—”

  “He told you exactly what he was ordered to say. Nothing more.”

  Nox blinks, rapidly shaking his head.
“No. None of this can be true. I have fought and bled for you, run missions, and saved people on his orders. He wouldn’t lie to me.”

  “You brought survivors to us, but their destination was never intended for the general populace. In truth, we only allowed just a handful through to make your work seem legitimate. We have over 2,000 rooms here, and you were rarely given spare time to explore. It was easy enough to conceal the truth from you and the others until your loyalty was proven.

  For a while, we worried that Zoey would tattle on us. She knew and saw far too much, but we quickly realized that despite your love for her, you never believed her fantastical tales about the voices she heard.” Iris clicks her tongue. “You really should have believed the poor girl. She was far smarter than you.

  “And you, Avery,” the woman turns to me, “you helped us to silence her for good. Leading Nox to believe that he had lost both of you ensured that he would work hard and become exactly the man that we needed him to be.”

  With each damning revelation that flows like guiltless silk from her tongue, Nox’s face drains of color and he staggers back against the wall. “I thought I was saving people but I was really just providing you with you test subjects, wasn’t I?”

  Iris nods and smooths out invisible lines on her dress. “Some of them were useless to us because their genetic makeup was not strong enough to withstand the trials and they quickly became a liability, so we tossed them over the wall and forgot about them. The trouble was that we didn’t count on the fact that their newfound hunger would spread so quickly, nor did we take into consideration that their bite would further the mutations. I’ll admit that was a mistake on our part.”

  “So you’re the reason for all of the Flesh Bag violence,” I say.

  It makes sense that it was only once I crossed into Tennessee that I hit hostile territory. The mutated virus had not had time to spread farther, but I fear that it has had plenty of time to swell beyond the borders of this one state. The implication that the CDC has been overrun implies that other places suffered the same fate. Mostly likely because they too were meddling in things best left alone.