The stench of the air makes breathing even more laborious, combined with his painful sternum and ribs. Alexi tries to take his mind off his situation, closing his eyes; he tries to relax by trying to control his breathing. He lies there on top of the metal cell with his eyes closed, and suddenly stops breathing, an unconscious reaction to the growl from the crazy prisoner below.
Alexi opens his eyes and looks toward the prisoner who attacked the rest. He notices the crazed man is on his feet and glaring at the wounded man slumped against the cell below. He also notices the wounded man is looking up at him, reaching for him with his right arm weakly extended. The wounded man then begins to call him in a weak, breathless, hoarse voice, “Alexi.”
Alexi looks back at the infected man, and notices his view shifts between the injured man on the floor and up at him. Alexi hears more growling from the infected man, who suddenly sprints to the man lying on the floor, who is begging for help from Alexi, and tears into him with his teeth and pummels him with fists.
There’s silence now, except for the sound of Alexi’s quick and shallow breathing. The infected man stares at the now-dead man who had been clinging to life, leaning against the bars. He seems to be inspecting him.
The infected man sits, straddling the dead man’s lap and lower abdomen. Alexi uses almost all of his remaining determination and strength to keep from vomiting when he witnesses the infected prisoner lean down and lick at the blood from the dead man’s wounds.
The infected bites part of the dead prisoner’s drooping bottom lip and part of his cheek. Shaking and emitting a low, deep growl, it rends the flesh from its proper place on the mutilated dead man’s face with a few violent shakes of its head. It’s like a feeding beast, Alexi thinks and squeezes his eyes closed tightly, again focusing on preventing his fear from attracting attention.
The infected man’s already bloodied and heavily drooling mouth begins to slaver even more, as his yellowish saliva mixes with the blood of his victims. He eyes Alexi. The crazed, infected monster finishes chewing the piece of lip and cheek and swallows it in a gulp.
It seems to Alexi the attack had lasted for an eternity, but it was actually over in a mere two or three minutes. The infected looks around the room, like an animal cornered and ready to strike out at any threat. Alexi is relieved to see that the infected does not look up. Perhaps he’s forgotten him. He squeezes his eyes closed and prays he won’t be next.
With a cold sweat breaking out over him, Alexi opens his eyes again; part of it is to keep watch over the crazed beast of a man below him, feeding on his cellmate. Part of it is morbid curiosity. After two more large bites from the area of the lower neck, the infected man chews its mouthfuls a few times and then swallows them down. Crawling off of the dead prisoner’s body on its hands and knees, the infected leans against the cell, opposite its meal.
Squatting for several moments, the infected prisoner then begins to look around at ground level, and slowly rises to a crouched position and begins to look into the cells. Walking from one cell to another, the crazed thing that was a man tries to enter two of the locked cells without success.
It continues to move about the holding area, seemingly searching for something. Finally it finds its way to the shower area of the prisoner holding area. The thing that had been a man stands under a steadily dripping showerhead and opens its mouth to drink. Some drops miss and splash its chin and cheeks. The water causes the fresh and the dried blood to wash down its neck and chest.
After getting its fill of water, the infected moves away from the shower and sits in the corner, nearly the same place it had squatted earlier. Alexi watches the entire time, careful to only move his head in the slightest tiny fractions to prevent alerting the infected thing below.
He’s not sure how long he’s been lying on top of the holding cell on the hard steel bars. Alexi has to urinate so badly. Lying in the prone position with his chest, belly and his pelvis area against the hard surface is making it unbearable. Finally, he goes. He finds it difficult to begin, but once he is able to start the flow of urine it flows freely.
The feeling of his full bladder voiding strangely brings him a small amount of pleasure, even in this terrifying circumstance. It’s all Alexi can do to keep himself from moaning a sigh of relief at the action of pissing his pants.
After finishing voiding his bladder, Alexi feels a brief moment of relaxation. A large amount of his discomfort is gone, but the pain of the holding cell bars below him and pressing on his sternum and ribs still remains.
Chapter 12
Siberia, USSR 1974
Colonel Azarov stares in amazement and excitement. Doctor Kosktov feels the same, but also a little disgust at what he and his team have done.
He knows he has done this to gain an advantage against the countries that threaten the USSR, the United States being the leader of those that threaten them.
Still, though, he madly writes notes on everything he’s observing, and thinks about what he witnesses in the prisoner holding area.
He realizes the virus they’ve altered seems to be reacting faster than they had expected. Its infection rate increases with each new carrier. This was not foreseen. They went from failures to the first success taking almost a day to succumb to the new virus; now it’s down to a few hours.
Alexi closes his eyes and tries his best to sleep, or at least relax. He doesn’t realize his thin prison uniform is not absorbing his urine well. As he lies there on top of the bars of the cell, the urine begins to leak through his pants and form a droplet that begins to grow. The droplet finally surrenders to gravity and falls to the concrete floor below.
Alexi thinks nothing of the sound of the droplet splashing below; to him, in his exhausted state, it sounds like the shower that’s been dripping since he first arrived here as a prisoner. The sounds of a few more of the drops of urine do catch the attention of the infected resting on the floor.
It takes notice of the direction of the sound of the dripping, looking to where he had drunk after feeding earlier. Then it looks toward the other direction it hears the dripping, and notices the form above. The figure is not moving and doesn’t seem threatening, but his mood is agitated and so he rises quickly but quietly to investigate.
Atop the cell, Alexi is lying still and doing his best to try to relax and put the discomfort out of his mind. He isn’t aware that the other occupant of the holding area is up and stalking quietly toward him. Alexi is trying to control his breathing when he hears a low growling. He knows the sound. He’s in mid-inhalation when he hears it; the sound causes him to rapidly inhale and hold his breath as a reflex to his terror, and rapidly and widely open his eyes.
Alexi uses all his willpower to very slowly begin to move his head in the direction of the growl. Turning his head more to the right, he is suddenly met by the face of the infected, their noses nearly touching. Alexi exhales and immediately inhales to begin to scream. He feels and smells the stink of its blood-tinged breath.
He begins to utter the first note of a scream when it grasps him by the face, digging its fingernails into his cheeks and wrenching him forward to the floor. He lands on top of the infected man, and hears the sound of its back strike the cold concrete, and of the air forced from it on impact.
Alexi feels the grip loosen, and attempts to rise. He’s immediately met with more pain to his face and cheeks when it tightens its grip. He hears the infected issue another growl, and feels himself being pulled forward toward it. Alexi is unable to move his head as he looks toward the infected, and sees its bloodstained teeth and salivating mouth coming toward him.
Alexi feels the searing pain of the infected man’s teeth penetrate his face at his left eyebrow and clamp down like a vise. He’s finally able to scream as he feels the thing ripping his eyebrow and upper eyelid from his face. He feels and then tastes his own blood as it flows into his eye, down his cheek, and into his mouth.
The infected pushes him up and to his right side while it finishes r
ending his flesh from his face. Suddenly he feels his flesh release from the muscle below it, and he’s on his back. The vision is almost gone in his left eye, but he can see with his right that the thing is now standing beside him and glowering down at him as it chews on part of his face and swallows it.
The infected suddenly drops to its knees and pummels him with its fists. Alexi tries his best to fend off the blows, bringing his arms and hands up in an attempt to block his attacker. Suddenly it stops. Alexi lies still with his right eye clenched shut. His left is so filled with blood that even though he has no eyelid he can’t see anything but blurred fluorescent glare from the flickering lights.
Slowly he opens his right eye and moves his arms slightly to look for his attacker, and sees a blurry silhouette standing above him. The figure issues another growl and steps over his supine body and ambles toward the rear of the holding area. Turning his head to watch the demented thing that had been human, Alexi barely makes it out as it squats down near the wall, where it seems to then sit and watch him.
In the laboratory, Colonel Azarov’s excitement is concealed beneath his calm and cold outward appearance.
“Sir, we should secure the one who was just attacked,” Doctor Kosktov quietly remarks.
“Why? I want to see if he’s attacked again.”
“Colonel, we should see if the infection spreads faster than in the previous subjects so we can better estimate its effects on enemy forces,” Doctor Kosktov responds.
“Yes, you’re correct. Go ahead, Doctor.”
Doctor Kosktov informs the guards to prepare to go in and secure both prisoners in separate cells. After taking the last drags from their cigarettes, the guards collect snare poles, don goggles and the other protective barriers, and line up at the entrance of the holding area.
“Wait,” the Colonel orders them.
Inside, Alexi coughs and then gags on the blood that’s flowed into his mouth. Hearing the noise, the infected quickly rises and, in a few quick strides, leaps on him again. Alexi is punched multiple times, and loses a mouthful of the flesh on his right hand to a bite before the infected man stops again and moves back to the rear of the holding area.
After waiting for a few moments, Colonel Azarov signals with his hand for the guards to continue inside. Lining up again, the lead guard unlocks the door, steps to the side, and the others rush into the room. Alexi hears the commotion to his right and tries to look, but his good eye is so blurred he only sees indistinct shapes.
He hears the infected man on his left growl, and notices the indistinct figure leap over him, toward what he assumes are the guards. Unable to see, Alexi just lies on the concrete and waits for what’s to come. He hears the guards cursing and some scuffling to his right, but even after rubbing his good eye he’s unable to clear all the blood enough to restore proper vision.
Soon he hears the familiar sound of a cell door being slammed closed and the heavy key clanking as the lock is turned. Seconds later, he’s snatched upright, dragged a few feet and dropped on the floor again. Alexi hears the same sound of the cell door closing, and realizes he’s being locked inside.
He’s so relieved. He’s away from that beast. He’s not sure if his injuries will kill him, but at least he won’t be chewed and punched to death by that thing. Knowing from past experience not to move from where the guards place him, until he hears them leave and the holding room door close again, he waits on the floor.
After hearing the footfalls fade and then the door close, he begins to extend his right arm out and moves it from side to side and up and down to determine the location of the cell’s bed.
Holding his left hand over his left eye to try to stem the flow of blood, he rises to his knees as he reaches out to feel for the bed. Finally, he finds the corner of the steel-framed bed and then feels the familiar thin mattress. It will feel so good now to lie on the mattress that he’s complained about so many times; so much better than the cold concrete floor or the hard steel bars above the cells.
Alexi eventually pulls himself onto the bed and, although his pain is immense, he’s no longer in imminent fear for his life, and can hopefully now drift into sleep without fear of being eaten.
Alexi removes the pillowcase and wraps it around the left side of his head. He lies back on the bed, and is soon actually able to drift into sleep.
Chapter 13
Present
Jim, Arzu, Chris, and Jeremy use two broom handles, a hard plastic piece of a vacuum cleaner extension, and a dowel rod for their makeshift training for long guns. They tie some quarter-inch line to the items to use as slings.
They use a cap gun, two green squirt guns, and two small pieces of wood nailed together at a 90-degree angle for their fourth practice pistol. “Let’s eat some lunch, everybody, and we’ll start going over hand signals,” Jim says as he returns from looking out the windows.
Jim starts off with the obvious hand signals, like you and me, stop and freeze. Then begins to get into the less obvious ones, signals he hasn’t used himself in years.
“If you all want, we can change some of these. Nothing says we can’t make up our own, as long as we all go over them and don’t keep changing them all the time,” Jim suggests. As they continue to eat, Jim gives some instruction on entry tactics, the technique of pie-ing off corners and doorways.
They go over techniques where three or four people cover sections of a room as they enter, and while searching. Although Jim plans on utilizing Arzu as little as possible for searching any building, he would like to keep her in the MRAP whenever they’re out doing any scavenging. She will be the last line of defense for Berk and Kayra.
They finish eating and begin their training, using the simulated weapons. They practice as well as they can in the confines of their home. While they practice, each has in the back of their mind that they’ll be facing some of the crazed infected and need the skills they’re learning now to save their lives.
Berk and Kayra absolutely love the game that the adults are playing, and make a game of hide and seek out of it. They go over scenarios over and over again. Jim knows they need much longer than a few hours, and will practice more when time permits, but at least he hopes they won’t accidentally shoot each other.
“I think you guys are doing pretty well. We all need way more practice than what we have time for. It takes units weeks and months of training to get proficient at what we’re going to be doing.”
“You’re right, Dad, but we’ll get better as we go along,” Chris says.
“I know you guys will; you all are doing great. I need a hell of a lot more practice too. It’s almost six-thirty; let’s have some dinner and we’ll talk about what we’ve gone over so far today.”
As the family sits together and eats, they discuss what they’ve gone over. They also begin to discuss their immediate plans for supplies and then the trip to Florida.
“What about Mom?” Chris asks, and brings an uncomfortable silence to the group.
“Guys, I’m going to do my best to try to find your mom as soon as we can get your grandmother and the rest of the family in Florida.”
“I know it’s too far to go all the way out to California and then turn back around to Florida, Dad. It makes sense to Jeremy and me. We were just wondering.”
“I’m sorry; I should have talked to you guys before now about it to let you know I haven’t forgotten about your mom.”
“Let’s do some more training tonight. It’ll be mostly discussion, and then get some rest. We need to make a run to a couple of stores tomorrow and get what supplies we can,” Jim finishes as he drinks the last of the water in his cup. They go over what they’ve learned today and more they haven’t yet. Arzu, Chris, and Jeremy ask several questions. Jim also brings up the likelihood of coming across other survivors.
Jim stresses the need to be cautious since those they may come in contact with may want to try to take what they have. “We aren’t thieves; we’re not going to be stealing from others. We wi
ll scavenge for what we need, but not by victimizing others. We also will do our best to defend what we have. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get away from anyone trying to take what’s ours, but if we have to, we’ll defend ourselves first and what supplies we have second.”
Jim takes first watch tonight, so he can not only observe the behavior of the infected but also do more mental preparation. He hates that his family has had to go through what they’ve recently had to, and hates even more knowing his family will have to go through much worse to come.
His instincts are to keep them from harm, and he will as best he can, but he knows they will be exposed to dangers that are unavoidable. Jim’s looking out at the street in front of the home at the darkened homes around them, and at the infected stalking throughout the neighborhood.
He hears Arzu whisper his name, and turns to see her standing at the doorway. “Can’t sleep, baby?” he asks. “No. Like everyone else, I haven’t slept well in a while,” she says as she walks to Jim and embraces him. Jim moves his AR-15 around to hang off his back by its sling, and returns her hug with both arms.
Jim kisses her on her forehead and then her lips, which she returns. They kiss more deeply, exploring each other’s mouths with their tongues. He begins to lower his hands toward her back and pulls her tighter toward him. Jim lowers his hands further and grips her buttocks firmly and pulls her to him.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Arzu says, pulling away from his embrace. “What? What’s wrong?” Jim asks innocently, with a mischievous grin.
“You can’t possibly think NOW is anywhere close to being a good time for that.”
“What do you mean, baby?”
“You horny old man, you know damn well what I mean. I come in here to give and get a comforting hug and you get all nasty,” Arzu says, putting her hands on her hips and trying to repress a smile of her own.
Omega Pathogen: Mayhem Page 6
