"You're going to finish this thing," he corrected. "Now good luck and get to it."
They said their goodbyes and Trevor gave his wife one last kiss, then they departed through the tunnel and passed through the woods for the army truck they stole which was sitting behind the cover of some bushes next to a nearby road.
Sarah got into the driver's seat and Trevor hopped into the passenger's side. She put the keys in and started up the engine. It whirred into life and she shifted gears, slowly rolling back onto the road. She moved the truck slowly at first and looked over her shoulder toward the back of it.
"Is that stuff gonna be okay in there?" she asked.
"Yes," Trevor said. "It won't be a problem."
Trevor played navigator as they drove down the dark roads. He said he'd followed her to the outpost when she was picked up, so he knew his way there. They didn't know where they would be going exactly when they got to the facility, so that would be the first order of business after actually infiltrating the place, which obviously contained its own set of challenges. Exfiltration was probably the trickiest of all once they got the glutamic acid they were looking for, and how they would go about doing that would be entirely reliant on the fluid situation of what happened when they got there and would be subject to change.
But the ride over there was relatively calm, despite the growing sense of excitement and unease in them. After a long time of silence, Sarah broke it to try to lighten up the mood.
"So I noticed you with your hand on your wife's stomach back in the lab," she said. "Are you expecting something?"
Trevor couldn't hide the smile that wanted to creep up onto his face. "Yes, Vanessa's pregnant," he admitted. "We just found out. And you're very astute; I don't think anyone else in the lab has picked up on it yet."
"You must be excited," Sarah said.
"Yes, well I suppose. Vanessa and I always wanted children, but the zombie outbreak happened right before we decided to do it, and we knew raising a child in this world wouldn't be right until we fixed it."
"You're probably going to think I'm a bitch for prying so much, but I also sensed that she seemed a little upset about it."
Trevor sighed. "You must be an empath." He laughed. "The timing is just a little hard. We've all been working so hard lately, and we've still got to finish this thing. It's hard to think about a child when that's still going on."
Sarah nodded.
"Ron told me you had a boy," he added. "You must have known more than anyone how difficult it was to raise someone like that in this world."
"It wasn't easy," Sarah said. "But somehow he was still just the sweetest child. Like nothing much in this sick world bothered him. He was always just so curious about everything and about what the old world was like. He was never old enough to know it, but he's in a better place now. I wouldn't want to wish this world on any child, and I'm glad that by the time yours is born, they'll get to experience a brand new world of our making. My son always dreamed about that, but he never got to see it. So that's why I do what I do now, so that others can."
"That was very sweet," Trevor said. "You must have had a world-class little boy. And he must have had a world-class mother."
"We made a pretty good team," she admitted. "No matter what happens, I just hope I'll get to see him again one day. Him and my husband and my parents, and everyone else who ever passed away from this horrible nightmare."
"They must be watching over you," Trevor said, smiling. "They're cheering you on right now and blessing this mission. I can feel it."
Trevor pointed out an intersection up ahead and had her make a right turn. As they got near to the chemical plant, beginning to see the top of it in the distance over the tree line, that familiar sense of malignant unease fell over them, and they quieted. They were almost at their destination, and it looked like they were in for a real fight.
16
THE FINAL ITEM
The headlights of the truck shone across the road in front of them, highlighting the tall grass and night creatures that sat in the road and stared at the truck coming for them before running off. The occasional zombie was highlighted wandering around, increasing in number as they got closer to the plant. Neither of them liked their growing presence, but their task would be on the inside of the facility and they hoped it wouldn't be a problem.
The outpost Sarah was taken captive at came up ahead, and she drove right past it, craning her neck as she did to look through the fence and see what was going on. But everything seemed relatively calm, and she guessed that they had long since given up on finding her.
She thought about Ron and the other scientists, most likely sitting there and waiting for them to return. She knew she couldn't let them down, let Trevor and Vanessa down; she wanted to give their baby the wonderful future that her son never had. As her eyes scanned the chemical plant appearing in the distance, she knew she would get the job done, no matter what it took.
"There it is," Trevor said.
They both regarded the plant as it loomed ahead of them with trepidation and awe. It was a rather large facility with double fencing and tons of barbed wire around the whole thing. Huge storage tanks stretched up into the sky standing among tall smokestacks billowing out sheets of white smoke. Catwalks and scaffolding stretched around innumerable smaller tanks and pipes that ran all throughout the complex. There was a gate up ahead and a guard checkpoint, and it would be the easiest way into the chemical plant.
Sarah turned her head to Trevor. "I'm gonna show you how I do things," she said.
"Oh God," Trevor muttered. He leaned forward off his seat and braced his arms against the dash, waiting for impact.
Sarah smirked and jammed her foot down on the gas pedal. The army truck shot forward and then really gained some speed. The gate ahead of them was only a single layer of sliding fence, but she could see as they were almost there a couple guards in the guard post just inside the facility stand up and begin to scramble as the truck hurtled at the gate.
It collided and smashed through, mangling the gate and knocking it out of their way. There were shouts from the soldiers as the truck barreled through, followed by a view of one of the soldiers getting on a communicator in the rearview mirror.
"Get ready," Sarah told him.
Trevor reached over and put his hand on the door handle, ready to open it.
A handful of soldiers patrolled around the huge facility, and some workers zipping by in tow motors had to swerve out of the way, not expecting a hurtling army truck to come through.
The tall storage tank grew into the sky ahead of them like a ladder to the stars. Sarah was pushing the truck pretty hard, then when they were in the final stretch, she looked at Trevor. "Now!"
Sarah bent and wedged the brick onto the accelerator, then she and Trevor opened their respective doors. Trevor grabbed a long plastic drink cooler and hurled it out the side, then the two of them jumped out themselves. They hit the ground hard and quick, immediately spinning like a barrel. They had gotten thick, padded winter coats and put them on in preparation along with thick snow pants. The ground shredded their clothing in no time at all, and the impact was extremely rough and painful, but they survived and eventually came to a stop, feeling like they were going to puke.
There were yells and screams from the soldiers around as the truck hurtled toward the tall storage tank, going even faster than before. When it collided, the makeshift explosives the scientists had rigged in the back of the truck for them went off from the heavy impact and the truck was launched up into the sky in a huge pillar of flame. Whatever had been inside of the tank was explosive, because it went up immediately, creating a super explosion and fireball that rocked the entire facility. Smaller pillars of flame stretched up into the sky and arced out to the sides before raining down.
The soldiers nearby ran away, taking cover under catwalks and behind smaller tanks and piping. Workers in hard hats had been going about their shifts when the collision happened, not at all
expecting that kind of carnage in their day-to-day activities. They were completely unarmed and unprepared, and most of them ran away without looking back.
Sarah and Trevor found some cover and crouched down, taking off their shredded coats and pants. Their limbs were sore and banged up, but they were okay, and thankfully neither of their heads got knocked around. They looked around and found the cooler that Trevor had jettisoned from the truck before they jumped. It had skidded along the ground and slammed into a nearby cluster of pipes.
They went over and got it, opening up the lid and finding all of the weapons and ammo that they packed for the excursion. They took out their pistols and knives, Sarah took out her M16, and Trevor pulled out his bow and quiver of arrows. When they were loaded up, they moved out to find where the glutamic acid was. The first thing they would need to do was find a map of the facility to know where they were going. The inventory sheet that Sarah swiped from the outpost only mentioned that it was here and in what quantities, but it said nothing of where any of these materials were stored. She figured the best bet was in a warehouse somewhere, but the chemical plant was very expansive, and it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack on their own.
Suddenly, there was a loud screeching of metal. Everyone looked up and saw the huge tank that was on fire start to rip apart under its own uneven weight. The tank tipped to the side as the bottom of it shredded apart. It fell over toward a jumble of catwalks and piping, and it plowed through them with a mighty crash. Smaller explosions went off and sparks sprayed in every direction like a brilliant Fourth of July show. The fire fanned out from the tank like a flamethrower before it was expended up into the air. A huge cloud of black smoke climbed from the wreckage, and then more pipes and tanks nearby in the facility suddenly ruptured on their own, creating more small explosions and fireworks. This happened in rapid-fire succession, and it was like watching a bowl of popcorn kernels in the microwave.
The chain reaction was systemic but short-lived, and soon enough everything stabilized, leaving the small fires it created to peacefully burn and lick up toward the night sky.
An alarm went off in the facility like an air raid siren, and the chemical plant resembled an anthill that someone had just kicked. Soldiers and workers ran around in a frenzy, and Sarah and Trevor watched from the shadows, surveying each building they could see and trying to determine the best place to go.
Screams suddenly rang out in the night over the loud din of rushing smoke from the tank, and Sarah looked over to see a few soldiers getting eaten by the guard post at the gate. Her driving the truck through opened up the facility to the undead loitering around outside, and she saw a crowd of zombies already inside the complex and running down anyone they could get their hands on in a gruesome game of tag. The soldiers did the best job of withstanding them with their weapons and armor, but the common workers screamed in terror as their throats and faces were removed from their bodies. One worker who had tried to flee out the open gate was now running back in the other direction, a zombie affixed to its neck by its teeth as the worker repeatedly smacked the zombie on the head with his hard hat in vain. Then his legs gave out and the zombie piled on top of him, ripping mouthfuls of flesh from his body and lapping up his blood.
"Let's head over there!" Sarah said to Trevor, pointing.
It was the one of the shorter buildings in the facility, and it looked like it would contain any offices or administration facilities that the plant had.
"Good idea," Trevor said. "Keep your eyes open and try and stay away from any of the tanks if you can help it."
Sarah nodded and they set off. As they moved through the chaos, using any cover they could find as sagaciously as possible and utilizing timing to their advantage to slip through undetected by the distracted soldiers, they saw some of the workers and soldiers trying to flee from the zombies run up staircases onto the catwalks. When the employees found themselves cornered, they hurdled themselves over the railings to their own deaths. The zombies were smaller in numbers at first, but they were the new smart kind, and they used their intelligence and tactics to effectively round up the fleeing men, growing their army quickly in size.
Two zombies suddenly popped up in Sarah's and Trevor's path. One of them literally pointed the two of them out to the other zombie who turned his head to them. But they were in for a rude awakening, not knowing who Sarah or Trevor were. When their bodies hit the ground and expelled every bit of blood they had, Sarah and Trevor were long gone, already halfway toward the first building.
They weaved their way through the carnage around them, keeping their cool as all the other humans around panicked and inadvertently led themselves to their own demise.
Sarah and Trevor reached the building and went in through a blue door. After passing a locker area, it seemed like the building they were in was for receiving shipments. And if that was the case, Sarah hoped that they had lucked out and found the exact building where the glutamic acid would be. But when they got to the main room of the building, it was smaller than she anticipated, and it looked like it was only for the incoming reception of raw materials to be sent through tubes to the rest of the facility for processing. A catwalk stretched around the second floor of the large room and the two of them ran up a set of stairs. They could see soldiers milling about inside who hadn't spotted them, and they didn't appear to be fleeing. Despite the chaos, they must have received orders to remain at their posts and protect the facility.
Trevor stayed ahead of Sarah and moved gingerly on the catwalk, keeping his footsteps quiet. Sarah observed him and did the same, and they occasionally paused when a guard got close to them below or when the grating below them squeaked under their weight.
They were heading for a series of brightly-lit rooms at the back of the catwalk. They appeared to be offices, and if they wanted to figure out the layout of the chemical plant, that was as good a bet as any.
There was a guard up ahead on the catwalk with them, but his back was turned as he walked to the corner up ahead. As soon as he turned it, he might have seen them in his peripheral vision, so Trevor and Sarah picked up the pace and closed the distance. The soldiers were on alert and well-armored, so it was very difficult to take them down with the relatively meager weaponry they had. But there was always a way, and that was beginning to become Sarah's motto. Trevor let her do the honors and she skillfully slipped her knife between the bottom of the soldier's helmet and the top of his collar without him even knowing she was there, separating his spine from his brainstem. They worked as a team and Trevor caught the soldier's falling body and gently laid it to rest on the catwalk before Sarah retrieved her knife and they moved on.
Down below, one of the doors leading outside burst open and a small pack of zombies stormed in. They huddled together in a tight ball, looking around and trying to judge the layout of the place and how best to round up anyone inside. And speaking nothing bad about their skill, but simply due to dumb luck, one of the zombies happened to look up and spot Sarah and Trevor as they neared the end of the catwalk. As three of the zombies broke off and worked their way through the ground floor, the other two hurried up a flight of stairs to the catwalk to intercept Sarah and Trevor.
The two of them made it to the office area, going through a door and shutting it behind them. They found themselves in a brightly-lit conference room with a hallway at the back of it around a corner. They moved through and searched the length of the hallway, trying to find any instance of a map or information that could tell them where the glutamic acid was. The offices seemed to be clear of personnel, and they didn't have any trouble as they began to search the rooms.
But the two intelligent zombies were on their trail, waiting around corners and peeking to tell when the coast was clear just like they would do. Neither Sarah nor Trevor had spotted them down below when they first came into the receiving area, and they were completely unaware that they were being followed.
Sarah stood in one office that overlooked the p
arking lot. She rifled through files on top of the desk, throwing them onto the floor when she realized they weren't what she was looking for. She pulled open drawers and swatted away knickknacks, but she couldn't find any information on where to go.
"You got anything?" Trevor asked from another room.
"No, you?"
"Nothing."
Sarah left the office, and as soon as she stepped into the hallway the two zombies blindsided her and tackled her to the ground. She struggled under them, trying to worm her body out from their combined weight. One of them turned to the side and used its bodyweight to pin her outstretched arm down to the floor while the other zombie started in on her as she was completely defenseless. It bent over and bit her neck, pulling off a layer of skin and immediately drawing blood to the surface.
Sarah gritted her teeth as she became angry. She moved her head to the side and swung it back, clocking the zombie in the head and knocking it off balance. She put her foot flat on the ground and pushed off of it, hopping around to the other zombie's back that pinned her arm and she pulled it onto her body and wrapped her freed arm around its neck. She shimmied her body high up on the zombie until she could hook her legs around its neck, and she pulled the knife out of her sheath and drilled it through the top of its skull, giving the stab some extra juice just because she was pissed.
As the other zombie came at her again, its head was blown apart and turned into a smoking crater after Trevor pulled the trigger of the Magnum he brought. Its brains splashed on the stark white walls next to them and its body toppled over like a tree and started spilling the rest of its gray matter on the carpet.
"Are you all right?" Trevor asked her as he extended his arm.
She pulled herself up. "Yeah, I think I'm okay," she said. "How does it look?"
Trevor leaned into her and squinted. "Not so bad, actually. I think you're going to make it." He gave her a shot in the arm and continued looking through the other offices down the hallway.
Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 6): The Eden Project Page 16
