by Morris, SJ
I looked over at Brigantine who was still quietly babbling to herself. I hoped she was repenting to whatever god she might have believed in for everything she had done, but I doubted it.
“You can’t let me die, Abbigail. You have to help me,” she pleaded, looking between the oncoming infected and me. “You have no idea what I have arranged. Without me, all of my plans across the planet won’t happen, and what little is left of the human race will die! You need me.”
“What do you mean…your plans? Your idea of world domination or cleansing, whatever you want to call it, is over. Those plans end with you. Why should I stop that?” I asked looking at the infected now thirty feet away and getting closer.
“The bombs! You don’t know about the bombs. After we get the antivirus to all of the survivors, I’ve arranged that everyone left take cover in bunkers all over the world because I’m having bombs of VX nerve agent dropped to kill the infected! That won’t happen without me, so the infected will continue to be a menace forever until there’s no one left!”
“You what? What about all of the people you have no communication with, the rest of the survivors out there? You mean you’re planning to gas the entire planet? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re more insane than I thought!” I said, pulling away from her as she slowly crept closer to me.
“You have no idea where the VX bombs are stored and who to call at my other locations. If you help me get out of this, I’ll tell you where they are and help you coordinate with the others. We can save everyone left, not just those I have in bunkers, I promise you! Plus, without me, who knows what the others will decide to do with those bombs? I control the groups with the missiles, and without me, I can’t even begin to fathom what they’ll do.”
There was no real time to make a decision; the infected were less than fifteen feet away. If Brigantine actually had bombs that could destroy the hordes of infected, then, unfortunately, I had to try and work with her. I grabbed a nearby pine tree. It looked like a big Christmas tree, but it was going to have to do. Reaching through the needle-strewn branches, I grabbed the trunk towards the top of the tree, pulled hard, and snapped the top off. It wasn’t going to be the best stake ever, but it was going to have to do.
I walked up to the closest infected who looked past me with its milky decaying eyes, and I slammed the pointed piece of the tree through its ear. The infected fell to the snow, no longer moving.
One fell, and another took its place. I looked at the glorified stick I held in my hand and knew it was not going to last very long. It was a terrible weapon but my options at the moment were the stick or nothing.
I walked up next to the oncoming infected and put my foot out in front of it. When it took its next step, it tripped over my foot and fell face first, five feet away from the cowering Dr. Brigantine. I used the heel of my heavy boot to stomp in its brain. My kick was met with a satisfying bone-crunching crack, and black brain fluid flew everywhere. Behind me, I heard Brigantine throwing up. She could create these monsters, but she couldn’t stand to watch the brutality that came with them without tossing her cookies. Hypocrite.
The next infected was missing half of its face. I realized it was one of Brigantine’s soldiers after I looked down at the clothes it wore. It had only been a matter of minutes since this thing was a young man just following orders, but those few minutes had not been kind. The infected soldier was covered in so much gore that he looked like he’d been dancing through a slaughterhouse. He was most certainly quicker than the others, so I knew stomping on his still thick skull was not going to be successful. I stuck my leg out again though, and the soldier tripped over my outstretched foot, face first onto the cold ground. As he quickly scrambled to get up, I reached out, grasped his shoulder, and twisted his body to face me. I took the already blackened, dripping piece of tree I held and stabbed it as hard as I could through his dark and dead eye. The infected soldier fell limp.
There were five more coming closer, and I was already exhausted. I looked around for another weapon or another approach we might use to get away from the undead and came up with nothing.
“Stuart! I can’t fight all of these infected by myself, and Brigantine has a way to eliminate them. We need her to tell us where the bombs are. Unfortunately, we actually need her alive! Stuart! Can you hear me?” I yelled towards the door hoping he was listening.
I figured he wasn’t as the next group of infected got closer. I decided the only way to deal with them without exhausting myself completely was to get them back into the cage if we could.
“Brigantine! Get over here! I need you to lure them towards the pen, so I can lock them in there. I can’t fight all of them by myself.” I said as I rushed the five infected closest to us.
I pushed the infected that was directly in front of me back into the others that were following closely behind it. They all clamored and fell like bowling pins. It was almost comical, minus the blood, gore and random rancid body fluids that had an utterly horrific, stomach-churning aroma. I turned to see Brigantine was following my orders and running towards the enclosure.
Once I was sure the group on the ground was going to take some time to get up and resume chasing Brigantine, I rounded the corner to see how many of the infected were left. I also needed some time to think of what I could do next to contain them and save the doctor whom I wasn’t even sure deserved saving.
Brigantine was clawing at the fence like a caged animal, trying to decide if she should stay behind the relative safety of the barrier or if she should continue to run and try for the doors again.
“Stay there; I’m coming!” I yelled out to her, hoping to stop her from deciding to try for the doors and ruining my plans.
I briskly walked through the snow towards the fallen Private Flynn who had stopped seizing. I looked over my shoulder and saw about fifteen or more infected now heading in my direction. They were moaning and reaching out to the doctor. They were at least thirty feet away, and there were benches in their immediate path. I knew they’d have trouble navigating around them.
I had, at most, five minutes to move Flynn’s body out of the way, so I could, hopefully, round up the remaining infected and secure them back inside the cage. I bent down and reached for Flynn’s neck to feel for a pulse; there was none. Thankfully, he was face down, so I didn’t have to look into his eyes. Now, I had to drag his dense body away from the gate, so I could eventually close it again.
Not pleased with my current situation, I stood up, and when I did, I felt the babies move inside me, reminding me that I had them to worry about too. They made me think of the children who were at the cabin still and all of the other children around the world who were scared and fighting for their lives just as much as anyone else. Feeling them move inside me gave me renewed energy as I grabbed Flynn’s limp hand.
As I began dragging his body, a guttural hiss escaped from what was undeniably Flynn’s mouth. I looked down, and the former soldier, now infected, looked up at me and pulled its lips back in a snarl. The other hand I didn’t have a hold of swung around at me, and the fingers of the hand I held, clasped tightly around my wrist pulling me towards its mouth. I instantly pulled away, but I expected that Flynn would lose interest in me soon, and go after Brigantine, but that didn’t happen.
Flynn’s now dead body picked itself up and groaned. He reached his arms out to me and began shuffling towards me. I backed up, and he continued to follow. This couldn’t be. How was he infected and coming after me? I looked past him, at the other infected, but they were still focused on Brigantine and her frantic clamoring at the fence. I yelled out, and the other infected looked around but continued for Brigantine. Flynn, however, was still dead set on getting to me.
It was the antivirus. It had to be. There was something in it that changed the Perdition Virus, something I no longer had so I was just as susceptible to attack as anyone else was with this new type of infected.
No luck, I have absolutely no damn luck.
“Brigantine! Whatever you did to the antivirus, it doesn’t work, and now anyone infected with this strain is going to try and eat me! Flynn’s attacking me, so I hope you didn’t inject anyone else with this shitty snake oil you call an antivirus.”
I had my branch and nothing else to protect myself from a newly turned zombie who was determined to tear me to pieces. Fighting him off in my already exhausted state was not going to be easy.
As I was about to attempt my trip-and-stab routine with Flynn, the glass doors behind me shattered with a blast. Stuart had shot through them and was now taking a stance to shoot the infected. He was not a good shot, so his first bullet hit Flynn in the shoulder doing nothing more than spinning him around. Not wanting to get hit with the next shot from Stuart, I ran back around the fences and grabbed Brigantine. I made a wide arc around the group of infected now focused on Stuart and the noise from his gunshots. Dragging Brigantine with me, I jumped over the small pieces of shatter-resistant glass now covering the smooth concrete floor inside.
“Stuart! Let’s go! You can’t shoot all of them, and there’s no way to close these doors again. We have to get out of here and secure this part of the compound!” I yelled at him.
I wasn’t sure Stuart had heard me, since I saw him lining up his next shot. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a lumbering figure lurch into view just out of arms reach of Stuart. He saw it at the last moment too and turned quickly to run in my direction.
I pushed Brigantine forward towards more doors. I hoped they were ones that would take us back to my room so I could get Lance. I also hoped none of Brigantine’s men were going to try and stop me from getting my son back.
“Smith told me to tell you thanks for the note. He liked the idea of drugging Grabner and Norrington, but he thought this would be the best way for us to get out,” Stuart said breathing heavily as he stood at my side and swiped his card through the door lock.
“Okay, so this was Smith. Thank goodness. I thought you’d lost your mind and decided to go off the deep end after you pushed the soldier into the infected before.” I breathed a sigh of relief that this madness was all part of some master plan to break us out of here.
“Well, I’ve had enough of Brigantine’s crap, and so have a lot of others around here. She promised everyone a lot and hasn’t delivered on any of it. With what we see outside these walls and what she’s had us doing, we put it together that everything she told us was a lie. Our families aren’t safe somewhere like she said. We’re just pawns in her horrific power struggle with the government and the rest of the world.” Stuart hissed out, staring angrily at Brigantine as she averted her eyes down to the floor.
“I don’t know what she told you all, but I do know that I need to get my son, and we need to get the hell out of here. The infected are making their way inside. Let’s go!” I said and pushed Brigantine through the door as it slid open.
Stuart turned to see the infected were now making their way over the broken glass and into the compound with us. He then took the radio from Brigantine’s pocket and keyed it up to beep three times as he waited for the doors to close behind us. He punched in some code on the lock, and the light on the door changed from a solid green to a blinking red.
“Does that mean it’s locked now?” I asked.
“Yes. You need a special code to get it open instead of just a key card. I don’t want anyone left who’s still conscious to open these doors on accident before we secure the rest of the building.”
“What do you mean anyone still conscious?” I asked.
Staring at the radio, Stuart whispered, “Smith took your idea a little further and drugged everyone who wasn’t on our side. I’m waiting for his signal that it’s okay for us to move. I think it is since no one came running after the shots, but I’d like to be sure.”
The radio beeped three times, and Stuart was off running for the next set of doors. Not having any clue what the plan was, I grabbed Brigantine and chased after him as quickly as my tired legs would carry me.
By the time we caught up with Stuart, he was at the next set of doors and locking them the same way he did the ones before. He was also talking into the radio, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying; it was something about area five being off limits. I assumed he was letting the others know that there were now infected in the building and where to avoid. After the door lock blinked back red, we set off again, this time passing the door I remembered from earlier marked “Electric.” I was glad to know we were close to my room, but I had to make sure we were getting my son before we made our escape, and if escaping is what we were even doing now that Brigantine was subdued with her supporters unable to facilitate her.
“Can we stop? What the hell is going on? I need to know before I go any further,” I said, grabbing Stuart by his coat and stopping the three of us.
“Brigantine’s supporters are drugged, so they should be out for a few hours. Smith has your son, Lance, in your room, and we’re supposed to meet up there. We need to take control of this place, and once we do, you and your son are free to leave if you want. The cabin is still standing as far as I know but it’s about an eight-hour drive with how the roads are now on a good day and if you take one of the big trucks with the plow. With the snow from last night and the storm we’re supposed to be getting tonight, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you guys to leave just yet though.” He looked as if he’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes. He was coming down from his adrenaline high, and he looked like he was going to crash. His hands were shaking as well. Something told me Stuart was not the kind of person who expected to be staging a coup during the zombie apocalypse.
“How about you give me the gun, and you hold onto Brigantine. I’ll cover you if anything jumps out at us.”
“Sure, fine,” he said and handed me the gun.
I pushed Brigantine towards Stuart, and as he was reaching for her arm, she threw up her palm and hit him directly on the chin. Stuart fell unconscious to the floor and Brigantine was off running down the hall. I took chase, but she was quick for an older woman. She rounded a corner and disappeared from view. I made it to the corner, but remembering her sneak attack on Stuart, I stopped before the edge so I could check if she was lying in wait trying to hit me with something too.
Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen. There was a solid door to my right and a long hallway to the left. If my memory served me correctly, I think this was the hallway that led to the shower rooms. I’d never been through the door to my right, though. I didn’t have a keycard, and I mentally chastised myself for not grabbing Stuart’s before giving chase. I also felt stupid for not taking Brigantine’s from her the moment we got away from the infected outside. That would have been the smart thing to do.
I had lost Brigantine, and there was no use in me wandering the halls when I had mostly no idea where they led, so back to Stuart was my destination. I found him rolling on the floor starting to come to again.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I crouched down to help him sit up.
“Yeah, I guess. Holy crap, she hits hard. Where the hell does she get her strength from? She’s like five foot nothing and probably weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet.” He shook his head and blinked away the stars I assumed he was still seeing.
“It doesn’t take much force when you hit someone like that. Up through the chin, your body does most of the damage itself with your jaw slamming together like that and your head snapping back. I’m glad you’re awake though because I lost her. She ran that way, but I didn’t grab your card key, so I have no idea where she went.”
“Where’s my radio?” he asked as his vision focused on the little black box lying next to him on the floor. “Smith, Brigantine is on the run inside the compound. Abby and I will be back to the room in a few minutes, but we need to find Brigantine before she does something we won’t be able to stop.”
There was a bit of static, and the radio beeped back, “We’ve got Brigantine. She tried to grab Lan
ce, but we’ve got her. She’s…ugh, taking a nap right now.” I breathed a sigh of relief hearing she was no longer a threat and getting confirmation that my son was in capable hands.
I got Stuart to his feet, and it took him a few minutes to get his bearings, but we began walking back to my room together. I knew I needed information, so I wasted no time with my questions.
“What the hell happened back there with the antivirus? Did you know it doesn’t work like the one I have does? Also, the infected created with that strain now come after me, even though I have the antivirus. Did you know that was going to happen?”
“The antivirus we created never worked without your genetic markers present. I told her it did and fudged my test results to look like it was. I basically switched my test results with the ones done with your blood. The tests I showed her were completed with dyed saline, and we never went as far as releasing an infected with the test subjects, even though I told Brigantine we did. She was so focused on studying your current blood work and the information we gathered on the babies that I could’ve told her I found the cure for cancer, and she would have believed me.”
“That explains a lot. How much more of the antivirus that doesn’t work is already made?” I asked hoping it wasn’t a lot since it made me vulnerable again to the undead.
“I’m not sure. After I told her it worked, she had me with her almost every waking second working the nerve agent tests to see which one was most effective in destroying those infected with the Perdition Virus. She had some other scientists working on the production of the antivirus. So, it could be ten vials or ten thousand; I just don’t know,” he said wearily.
