If they were lucky, whoever was there would let them in. Blaze had also mentioned that there might not be anyone else left alive who knew about it and could safely reach it. As quickly as the contagion seemed to be spreading, that was a very real possibility.
They picked up stragglers they found along the way, but many soldiers had abandoned the base already, having gone home to look for their families. The streets of the base were eerily quiet. It was past curfew, and they risked being shot, but they had to make a break for it now. The more frequent the explosions coming from the Speedway became, the more the walls of the lab cracked and buckled. There was no staying the night there. The building was a deathtrap.
As they approached the airport’s underground tunnel, they found it abandoned and eerily still. It was blocked off after a fatal accident had stopped traffic near the south entrance of the tunnel off the 215 freeway. It hadn’t even been cleared up, and the caution blockade remained. This would help, for they had to get out of their cars inside the tunnel and find the right door that led to the hidden bunker below the airport runway.
Blaze knelt in front of one of the many doors lining the side of the tunnel. He inserted his lock picks and wiggled them around. Rye wondered where he’d gotten his lock picking skills from. It was something he wasn’t privy to, but there were tons of things about his cousin he didn’t know.
“How do you know about this place and I don’t, Blaze?”
“I used to work here. When they had just finished construction on it and were sealing it up so the airport personnel wouldn’t come upon it by mistake.”
“How’d you get in on this project? Was I deployed at the time?”
He nodded, concentrating on picking the lock. “Yeah. That time when you were delayed back in Korea for a month? I was down here installing the generators.”
The lock clicked, and he shoved the metal door inward. The lights were on inside the tunnel, but they flickered on and off now and then, tossing them into pure darkness. The flashlights they held in their hands came in handy.
The violent, vampire-like creatures didn’t seem to be in the area. It was a blessing and curse all at the same time. If they came upon one, would they know how to fight it? Would they be prepared?
“In here, quick.” Blaze motioned the group in. They carried large bags and moved in slowly, sweating from all the equipment they’d managed to haul with them.
“How far until we reach this supposed lab? This stuff isn’t light,” Brian huffed as he pulled a dolly strapped with several boxes and hefted a backpack filled with delicate beakers and test equipment. They all mumbled their discontent but moved on. They’d rather be inside somewhere than out in the open where the violent screams of victims echoed all around them. The drive had been the stuff of nightmares and not something any of them wanted to talk about.
“You don’t think any of those ‘things’ are in here, do you Blaze?” Rye asked.
Blaze closed the heavy metallic door behind him and turned several bolts before he tapped his hand on the door and shook his head. “Nope. Not many people had keys to this door, and it looks like we’re the first ones here. This tunnel leads down into the bunker. There was no reason for any airport personnel to go this way, and I guess the government bet on no one asking any questions. Here we are.”
They stepped through another doorway and found themselves in the bunker. They were standing in the middle of what seemed to be the main room, looking around in awe. As they went deeper, they found supplies everywhere, neatly stacked and arranged in storerooms the length of a city block. The lab was well stocked and covered in plastic, everything brand new even though it was already a few years old. According to Blaze, the place was self-sufficient, with its own generators and water filtration systems. It was apparent no one had walked the halls since it had been locked up.
Angela smiled as she returned from exploring. “This place is amazing. They’re even separate bunk rooms and one with rows of beds just in case we get more people here.”
Rye nodded. “That’s awesome. I’m glad we found a place to relax. I was getting tense being out there with all those crazies.”
“They’re just sick. You need to be more sympathetic.”
Rye lifted an eyebrow. “There are actual monsters out there, Angela. Did you not notice?”
She ignored his comment and went to help Lianna unpack the rest of the lab equipment they’d brought.
Rye sighed. This awkwardness between them was starting to get to him. They were together, but he’d never felt this alone before. He groaned and decided to help the women. Sitting around had never been something he was good at.
He jogged out through the entrance and past the blocked road, to the cars. Angela was lugging out a couple boxes, and he slipped his arms around one of them. “I’ll take that.”
She glared at him but said nothing. Beside her, Lianna was hefting bags over her shoulders. She was looking bad, paler than she’d been back at the lab, her eyes puffy and red from exhaustion. Suddenly she stopped, looking confused. A bead of blood slipped from her nose and dripped down her face and lips. She reached up and touched the spot with her fingers, bringing them up to stare at the fluid on her skin.
“Lianna? Are you all right?” Rye set down the box and lunged forward just in time to catch Lianna as she collapsed.
“Oh, my god, Lianna! What happened?” Angela bent down next to them and pressed a hand to Lianna’s forehead. “She’s burning up!”
“I think she’s sick,” Rye said, throwing a knowing look to his wife.
Her eyes widened as her mouth gaped open. “That means… that means we’re definitely all contaminated now. Oh, god!” She clasped a hand over her opened mouth. “We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”
“Go get the others. Bring water. She’s burning up.”
She nodded and jumped to her feet then disappeared into the bunker.
Alone, with Lianna in his arms, Rye suddenly felt the air shift around them. Growling and screams reached his ears, but what had once been faraway snarls now came more loudly, echoing on the cement walls of the tunnel.
The monsters were getting closer. He peered down at Lianna as she came to, her eyes still bleary as she blinked up at him. The blood from her nose now dripped down her cheek and into her hair.
“Don’t tell him, please. I’m okay. I’ll get up.” Lianna tried to sit up but failed. “I swear I never meant for that thing to bite me.”
Rye’s eyes widened as she pointed toward her left arm. She reached down, unbuttoned the shirt sleeve and yanked it up. Beneath was a large bandage. Black, veiny lines worked their way up her arm and disappeared beneath her shirt.
“You were bitten? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Geez. What do we do? Will we get sick too?”
She shook her head. “Not everyone gets ill. I don’t know why, but people react differently to the virus. Some die. Some live. Some… change.”
“The woman you uncovered in the ice. What was she?”
Lianna coughed. Flecks of blood dotted her lips and splashed against her arm, which she had moved to cover her mouth. “I don’t know. She was sick. She was one of those creatures. A vampire. A zombie. I don’t know what you want to call them. Wildings? Her teeth were made to bite and to drain blood. The virus transfers quickly if you’re bitten. Airborne, it does something else, kills you or turns you. I can’t stop it. I’m so sorry. Tell them all I’m so sorry.”
“What?”
“There’s… there’s something here….”
Rye jerked his head around and found two people watching them. They stood there, a low guttural growl humming in the air between them. Rye set Lianna down, who was fading fast, and slowly stood up. He pulled his gun from its holster and switched the safety off.
“Who are you?” he asked the two standing there. “What do you want?” Where the hell was Angela?
They didn’t move, but the growling intensified, making his ears vibrate. They peered at him, studyi
ng him as though he were the prey, and they the hunters.
His stomach lurched. It hadn’t been feeling good all day, and the sight of these two with blood and dirt staining their clothes made him sick. He knew they were not human anymore. Not any more than Will had been when he’d found them in the locker room. No. These two were creatures of the night, preparing to bite into him and suck his blood until there was nothing left for his body to offer. He peered down at Lianna, whose breathing had turned ragged. She’d lost consciousness and was vulnerable. He’d have to shoot these creatures before they got close enough to grab her, but he was certain she was dying.
“Again, what do you want?” he said, hoping to appeal to whatever humanity might be left inside them. He doubted there was any, but it was worth a shot. He swallowed back his fear, feeling the sweat gathering above his brow even though the night was cool.
“If you come any closer, I’ll be forced to shoot you,” he warned.
“Oh, no!” Angela’s voice sounded from behind as the creatures lunged. He shot one in the shoulder, but it kept coming.
“Run!”
CHAPTER 9
Tugging the trigger, Rye aimed toward the head of the creature. Lianna had said something about killing the brain. The wilding dropped with a thud, but another one got close enough that he didn’t have enough time to aim and shoot before it was almost upon him. Right as he focused, the creature dropped to the ground, sliding across the asphalt until it came to a halt, no longer moving. He turned to find Blaze holding out his gun, its barrel smoking from the shot. He nodded and waved him toward Lianna, who was still on the ground.
Another creature snarled from behind the wrecked cars. He pointed toward it and let off a shot, but it moved, and his aim was too far off. The bullet hit near a puddle of gas that had spilled from the car, igniting the fumes and causing an explosion that sent him flying onto his back.
The world spun and his ears rung as he rolled onto his side, his lungs burning from the force of the explosion. He breathed in short, sharp breaths as his stunned chest attempted to resume breathing. His back ached, and there was a high probability he’d broken some ribs.
“Fuck!” He’d never do that again. Looking around, he found Blaze hunched over Lianna. He must have fallen over from the blast too. His cousin threw him a tight grimace before turning to check on his wife. Rye found the gun he’d dropped and scooped it up just in time to get shoved across the street by another creature. As he came to a stop, the thing jumped on him, snapping its jaws and trying as it might to bite off a bit of his face. He punched it as hard as he could, but the thing didn’t seem to feel any pain.
Rye managed to get his legs under it, hoist it up into the air, and fling it against the burning car. His hearing returned in a rush, the world filling with loud yelling, snarls, and screams.
“We need to get back inside!” Blaze yelled. Lianna hung limply in his arms.
Rye grabbed his gun off the ground once more and shot the creature that had attacked him right between the eyes. It dropped lifelessly to the ground.
He ran to catch up, but before he could, a band of wildings appeared at the end of the road, snarling and attempting to find the source of the noise he was making. Seeing him and his comrades scrambling back to the bunker only gave them more incentive to hurry toward them.
“Come on!” Angela screamed, tears streaking her face. Rye raced to join them, jumping inside the bunker and slamming the door as the horde of vampire creatures banged against it. He pushed back, trying to keep it closed as Angela fumbled to slam the bolts into place.
“Hurry!” Rye begged, his body weakening against the weight of the growing number of vampires. The metal shook, and the door lurched inward, causing her to lose her grip on the bolt.
“I’m trying!” Her fingers missed the bolt insert again, and she groaned in frustration. Narrowing her eyes one more time, she slammed a bolt into place, catching it into its setting. It held, allowing her to close the thicker ones forming a line from the top of the door to the bottom. She turned the last one, which was a double lock with bolts on both sides of the door, and the door stopped vibrating.
Leaning over and bracing himself on his knees, Rye almost threw up. The concussion from the explosion was still making his head swim and his stomach knot up.
“Come on, we have to get behind the secondary door,” he managed to gruffly mutter as he hooked his arm around Angela to steady himself. She helped him limp farther into the hallway.
They locked the second heavy metal door and at last couldn’t hear the vampires screeching outside. Inside, there was only silence. Inside were only the hushed whispers of the others who were sitting at the cafeteria tables, eating dinner and looking spooked as Blaze walked past with a bleeding and unconscious Lianna, followed by a banged-up Rye, hanging on to Angela. They were quite a sight, but Rye didn’t care. They followed Blaze into the infirmary where one of the scientists who was also trained as a doctor began to work on them both.
Rye waved him off, motioning toward Lianna. “Help her first.”
The doctor frowned. “There’s nothing more I can do for her. She’s dying.” He began to rub antiseptic on Rye’s scrapes. He sucked in a sharp breath as it stung his flesh, but it aroused him from the stupor he’d been in.
“What do you mean? She can’t be dying.” Blaze’s eyes widened, horror slipping into his face.
“She’s dying,” the doctor answered. “The virus—it’s decimated her organs. She’s bleeding to death. We have no blood here, no way to keep her blood pressure stable. We could try to call an ambulance, but I doubt there’ll be anyone to answer, if we could get through at all. I’m afraid we’re on our own here.”
Blaze slumped in his chair, paling and shaking his head. Rye moved from the bed, ignoring Angela’s pleas for him to lie down, and looked over at Blaze and Lianna. He was holding her hand and silently sitting, a grim, tight frown on his face.
“Lianna?” Blaze’s voice sounded small in the large infirmary. He looked down at her, and she opened her eyes. Her irises had turned a muddy red-brown. She smiled and held out her hand as pink-tinged tears spilled down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve said something before. This virus… from my research and the reports I’ve been hearing, it seems you either die from it, change into a crazed, wild vampiric creature or… or something else entirely. Not human, not completely vampire. I’m sorry. I was the one who was bitten, not Brian. I didn’t know how to tell you. Promise me you’ll find a way to save the others from this virus. Promise me.” She squeezed her eyes shut again. “It’s all my fault. I wish I could make it right.”
Blaze nodded and wiped at his eyes. “But you can’t be dying,” his voice cracked. “This isn’t supposed to happen. You’re going to find the antidote. It’s your research. How do we even know where to start?”
“Don’t worry. Brian is a hematologist. He’ll do the work. I told you, we’re on the brink of a breakthrough. Your blood is good, even though you’ve been exposed for a full day.”
“What?”
“You guys were the only ones I had any contact with last night, and yet you aren’t sick. In fact, I think you look healthier now.” She ran a hand through Blaze’s hair. “Show your cousin your eyes. They’re beautiful.”
“What do you mean?” Blaze eyed her, baffled.
“And your teeth.”
Rye snapped his eyes to his cousin to see what she meant. Blaze shook his head, but at Lianna’s coaxing, he sighed, closed his eyes and inhaled before reopening them and turning toward his cousin. Then he opened his mouth and showed Rye two gleaming canines.
“What the fuck?” Rye nearly stumbled backward. “You’re one of them?”
Blaze stood and shook his head, holding his arm out in front of him to stop Rye as he reached for his gun. “No. I’m not one of them. Look at me, Cousin. I’m me. I’m still me.”
“Your eyes, man. Your eyes look… weird.”
Blaze reac
hed up to touch an eyelid. “What’s wrong with my eyes?” he asked.
“There’s a gold halo around your irises. What is that?”
Blaze stared at Rye and dropped his arm. “But your eyes look like that too,” he pointed out.
Rye’s eyes widened. “What?”
“There’s a golden ring around your irises. We’ve both changed.”
Rye reached up to touch his eyelids. He ran his tongue over his teeth to find two canines sticking out. “What’s happening?” He swung his eyes around, searching the room for his wife.
Angela reached out for him and looked into his new eyes. “It’s true.” She reached up to touch the sharpened tips of her own canines. “Me too! What is this? Oh, god… we’re turning!”
Rye shook his head, his breath quickening as the room spun. “No. We’re not monsters. We’re not like those creatures. They don’t speak. They don’t care for one another. They were just bloodthirsty and wild.”
Angela collapsed into his arms, sobbing as he tried to keep himself together, if not for himself then for her. He gently rubbed her back, whispering promises. Promises he wouldn’t be able to keep. Not with the state of the world as it was. Nothing made sense.
“But why do we have fangs now? Why would we need them if we’re going to die?”
“Because—” Lianna coughed, holding her arm to her chest. “Because you’re not going to die. You’re not part of the demographic who’s going to die. Not everyone dies. There are three mutations. One dies, one turns into those creatures, and one remains with some part of their humanity intact. I’m not so fortunate.”
“But this isn’t living. It means we’ll be craving blood too. It means we’re the monsters now!” Angela shook her head, her haloed eyes turning dark with hatred, madness growing within them. This was something Rye had not foreseen, and none of his reassurances appeared to be working. She deflected his words as though he weren’t even there, ignoring every word he said.
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