by J. B. Havens
His job was to keep the rotation going, so a guard was physically in the room at least every fifteen minutes, plus the guard in the bubble observing the cameras’ live feed. They’d just returned the girl in Two from getting her burns looked at. The freak’s severe burns were almost healed before they’d even gotten her to the infirmary.
Tapping his badge against the panel on the wall, the door to the room containing the redhead opened automatically. Stepping forward, he waved at the camera, making sure they saw that he was in here. Her cell was in the far left corner, with the rest of the room being taken up as a small lab. A hospital bed equipped with heavy black straps was bolted to the floor in the middle of the room with a large light above it. He looked at the fabric-draped trays of tools, knowing what was in store for these two Alphas and not caring one fucking bit. As far as he was concerned, if it was infected and came back, then it needed put down. It didn’t matter if it could talk or not.
Walking deeper into the room, he didn’t see her at first. She was huddled on the corner of the bed, her back to the room. She was small, just a kid really, but he wasn’t letting the monster’s disguise fool him. She was an evil, soulless, walking corpse and deserved everything that was coming.
Her head slowly turned in his direction, she stared at him through the strands of her hair falling across her eyes.
“What’re you staring at, huh?” he asked. He knew that he shouldn’t interact with her, his job was to insure she was in the cell and alive, or whatever the fuck she was, no more and no less.
“Not much at all. Though I am rather hungry.”
Walking closer to the glass, he pulled the asp from his belt, flicking it to extend the length of steel. He tapped the tip of the weapon against the cell, wishing for nothing more than to get inside and show her what pain really was. Her eyes narrowed at he continued to tap tap tap on the glass. His grin faded at the look in her freaky red eyes. It reminded him too much of his late wife. He couldn’t help but think back and remember the last time he’d seen her, when her eyes had been filled with the same hunger he saw now.
He’d been at the grocery store, pushing the cart down crowded aisles. The infection had already begun to spread, though he didn’t know it. Adding a gallon of milk to the diapers and formula already in his cart, his phone vibrated from his belt, startling him. Looking at it, the alert on the screen nearly stopped his heart. He broke out in a cold sweat and ran from the store, leaving his cart of food in the middle of the aisle.
Code 11.20: All essential personnel report to the facility with your family immediately.
He jumped into his truck and raced across town to his house. He could already see signs of the crisis, a few crashed cars, and people running around and screaming in panic. He nearly put his foot through the gas pedal, pushing the old truck even faster. Sliding around a corner with a screech of tires, he flew down the street to his split level home. His didn’t slow to make the turn into his driveway, instead bumping over the curb and slamming it into park right in his front yard.
Jumping out of the cab and not bothering to shut the door behind him, he ran to the house. The cheerful, blue front door stood open, slowly swaying in the breeze. His saw his son’s tricycle was still on the stoop, laying on its side with a back wheel spinning in the wind.
Two bare footprints and drops of blood pointed the way into the house like gruesome arrows of horror. He trembled in fear, wanting to call out but was too terrified of the response he’d get. The wood of the doorjamb bit into his palm as he gripped it before he cautiously stepped inside. The tracks continued down the shiny hardwood floor of the hallway, past the stairs and into the kitchen. Near-complete silence greeted him, but as he carefully walked further into the house he began to hear something. Desperate to keep quiet, he was nearly tiptoeing, as if his silence would somehow keep anything bad from happening.
Maddox had tried to tell himself that they were fine, that his wife had locked them all in the closet or something. Those footprints were someone else’s, maybe Mrs. Nelson from next door, he lied to himself, hoping against hope it was true. He took one more careful step forward so he could see inside the kitchen and found the source of the strange noise. The somewhat wet, sucking sound came from the figure kneeling on the slate tile of the kitchen floor.
Her blonde head was bent over something, looking closer he saw the tiny feet of a child, one white sock with its lacey top hanging partially off. A scream bubbled up within his chest, the truth before his eyes was so devastating that he was sure his mind would crack under the strain. He sidestepped the big island, wanting to get around her and gain a better view. He slid a butcher knife from the block on the island, holding it so tightly his knuckles went white.
He recognized the pink top his wife wore, it was the same top she’d worn to bed last night. As he rounded the corner of the island, the remains of his daughter’s body come into view. His wife had her hands inside their baby’s stomach, her precious face was untouched and perfect. Her chubby cheeks shiny with tears, a single drop of blood under her left cheek near the corner of her mouth. Choking on a sob, he stepped forward and his wife finally heard him. She looked up, snarling and biting the air in his direction. Her face was covered in the blood of their children, it had run down her chin and was all over her shirt. The legs of her pants stuck to her with even more blood. A gaping bite wound on her arm was the damning evidence that showed how she’d turned.
“Baby, no…” he cried, sobbing outright at the sight before him. His son, Jeremy, who’d just turned three last week was lying motionless in front of the French doors. His lifeless body pale from blood loss. His chest was cracked open like an egg, he could see his son’s spine glistening in the sun surrounded by shredded flesh.
Ripping his eyes from his son’s body, he clenched his fist on the handle of the knife and advanced on his wife. Only, this thing in front of him was no longer his wife, it was a creature from the bowels of Hell itself. She stood, still snarling as blood and drool dripped from her jaws like a rabid animal.
Screaming a howl of ultimate pain and rage, he ran at her and grabbed her by the arm. She snapped her teeth, trying to bite him, but he shoved the blade straight back and into her mouth. It cut her cheeks apart and got stuck in the back of her throat, but she kept chewing, trying to eat the blade. Kicking her away and ripping the blade free at the same time, she tripped over their baby girl’s body and fell on her ass. Reacting instantly, he knelt on her chest and shoved the blade deep into her face, needing to push hard with both hands to get the blade past the tough cartilage of her nose and sinuses. It sank in, crunching through and grinding against the back of her skull. Her legs twitched against him a few times before she finally died.
Leaving her where she was, he gathered his children, bundled them into their favorite blankets, tucked their stuffies in with them, and carefully laid them out on his bed. Tears fell from his eyes in a constant stream while sobs stuck in his throat as he kissed them gently on their foreheads. The weight of the pain in his heart too much to bear and Maddox thought briefly about killing himself, but rage had begun to fill him up. It warmed him from the inside out and gave him a purpose. He would report in and he would have his revenge. These things were a scourge on the Earth and he was going to enjoy killing as many of them as he could.
He grabbed the gas can from the garage, popping off the top and soaking his children in the liquid. Then, he led a trail out the door before throwing the can down the hallway towards his wife’s lifeless corpse. Flicking a match, he tossed it in and watched the flames consume his home and his life. He was a shell of a man, with one purpose remaining. To kill as many of those fucking zombies as he could before he died. He would avenge his children, his precious babies—before joining them in the afterlife.
“Jeremy and Charlotte, don’t worry, Daddy will see you again soon.”
He came back to himself holding the cold asp. “I hope you starve. If I have anything to say about it you’re never go
ing to feed again. You’re a sick and twisted monster that I’m going to enjoy killing as soon as they’re through cutting you to pieces.”
“Oh if we’re going to talk about likes and dislikes, know what I enjoy most?” She smirked, getting up and walking up to the glass where he stood. “I enjoy the kiddies the best. They taste the sweetest, all tender and warm. They get so scared they don’t even fight back, just cling to my shirt while I feast on their flesh.”
It was if she somehow knew that he’d been a father and that his children had died in the most horrible way imaginable. Jerking his badge off his jacket, he swiped it on the door lock. This bitch was going to get what was coming to her and he didn’t give a fuck about security protocol.
The door clicked open and he ignored the alarm that began to sound. He was only authorized to open this door in an emergency. The lieutenant would be here in moments, but he wouldn’t need that long to take care of her.
The moment the door opened fully and he stepped inside he realized he’d made a terrible mistake. The Alpha’s grin would have made the Cheshire Cat proud. It was all he had a chance to notice before she was on him with a blur of red hair. His back slammed against the glass, thankfully with the door open the electricity was off, though he would rather have been electrocuted than have this bitch in his face. She held him effortlessly against the wall with one hand. He struggled, throwing his body to the side, but she was too strong. Using a fistful of his shirt as a handle, she lifted him higher until his feet dangled a few inches above the floor while she trailed the back of her other hand down his cheek seductively.
“I would say this is going to be as good for you as it will be for me, but…” She shrugged, and continued, “It’s not going to be.” She grabbed his hair and forced his head to the left and before he had a chance to scream she bit deeply into his neck. Searing pain enveloped him and then he did scream. He screamed until his throat filled with blood and he choked and gagged.
He was aware of a voice in the distance shouting at the monster in front of him with eyes full of hell fire. She ripped her mouth away from his throat, taking a chunk of meat with her. She let him slide down the glass and gently cradled his cheeks in both her hands. He gasped in shock and terror, trying to turn away fruitlessly as she leaned forward again, teeth bared before taking a chunk of his cheek between her sharp teeth, biting deeply into his face. Tearing away his cheek, his body trembled uncontrollably as he gagged on his screams. She smiled, chewing with her mouth open, and dropped him to the floor.
He landed hard on his side, his body too weak to catch himself. Lifting a nearly limp hand, he pressed it to the gushing wound on his throat. Blood spurted hotly between his fingers and pooled onto the floor in front of his destroyed face. He stared passively as the puddle grew, surrounding his head and touching his cooling cheek. His vision slowly went dark and his pain disappeared. The sounds of fighting around him were muffled and far away, even though he could see the boots of the other guards in front of him.
Tiny feet appeared beside the heavy black boots, rolling his eyes upward, he saw his son. His precious boy, leading his newly walking baby sister by the hand. They were perfect, their skin pink and healthy. His daughter’s hair was in tiny pigtails and her lacy white socks that matched her small dress were showing over the tops of her shiny, black dress shoes. His son wore his favorite spider man shirt, black shorts and he was barefoot.
Still refusing to wear shoes, huh Buddy?
They walked closer to him before stopping. They smiled and waved cheerfully as they waited for him to join them. His own lips responded in kind and joy burst in his fluttering heart as his eyes finally closed and didn’t reopen.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dr. Reeves kept his hands tucked into his lab coat’s pockets while he stood by supervising the clean-up from Kelle’s cell. What a mess, he thought to himself as the guard’s bloody, mutilated body was pulled from the room before being placed in a body bag. The bullet wound in his forehead was neat compared to his other injuries.
“Lieutenant Parker, how did this happen?” Reeves asked in disgust. “I thought you had better control of your men than this.” Irritation sharpened his tone and he kept his eyes steadily trained on the unconscious form of the Alpha, Kelle. She was laid out on her bunk with a guard standing over her, ready to taze her again if she so much as twitched.
“That soldier was a powder keg,” Parker replied. “His wife slaughtered their kids at the start, he had something of a death wish and even more hatred than average for zombies. I kept him on guard rotations and away from the zombie pens for that reason. I thought he’d be able to handle this since he knew as well as anyone what the plan was for them.” The battle-scarred soldier lifted his chin in the direction of the gurney and tables of instruments.
“Obviously, you were wrong. I hope that there will be no further lapses in judgment.” The doctor knew he was being overly condescending, but he didn’t much care at the moment. He nearly lost the Alpha. Such a devastating loss would set his research back almost indefinitely. He had no way of knowing when another Alpha would mutate like these two had; he couldn’t afford to lose either of them without the proper experimentation first.
“There won’t be,” Lieutenant Parker replied before turning on his heel and walking away.
Putting the man from his mind, Dr. Reeves walked closer to the cell. The cleaning crew was leaving and the guard backed out, keeping the Taser trained on the motionless figure on the bed. When she wasn’t moving, she looked remarkably like a child, though he supposed she still was in a sense.
Once she awoke, he would need to assess her strength. He was curious to see how much she’d been weakened by the amount of healing she’d been forced to do. He didn’t expect her to regain consciousness for a while, so in the meantime, he had his other patient to check on.
****
I paced the room, counting the steps to each wall and then back to my bunk. Fifteen, turn, fifteen more. Rinse and repeat. I’d been at it for maybe an hour when the alarm started blaring and flashing red and white lights across the walls. Over the sound of the screeching whistle, I could hear feet running down the hallway, along with voices shouting orders. The alarm shut off a minute or so later and silence once again surrounded me.
I wanted to punch my hand through the fucking glass walls, but the doctor’s warning was still fresh in my mind. I needed to think my way out of this, fighting wasn’t going to help me much in this place. Even if I got out of this room, that didn’t get me out of the lab or past the regiment of guards that I’d seen.
Just as I began to pace out another fifteen steps, the door to the hallway opened and Dr. Reeves stepped in.
“I feel I must apologize for the disturbance, but I would like to reassure you that all is well in hand,” he said.
I thought he looked like an idiot, with his hands in his lab coat pockets, trying to look every bit like a benevolent doctor. I knew better.
“I wasn’t exactly worried, dude,” I retorted.
“If you would agree to cooperate with me, I can make things much easier for you. I’m going to ask you to please come over here and lay down on the bed. If you do so without argument, I will feed you. If you don’t, you’ll be tazed, strapped to the table, and eventually, you’ll starve.”
The façade of the calm and studious doctor fell, showing the truth behind the mask. He was more of a monster than I was. I killed only when forced to, not to see what another person’s insides look like.
“And what if your guard comes in here to take me out and I kill him, and then you? What then, O-wise-one?” Crossing my arms over my chest, I cocked a hip out the side adopting the classic ‘I’ve got attitude’ pose.
“Then, you will be in an underground bunker full of soldiers that want mothing more than to kill every last single zombie on this Earth, you included. You’re powerful, but you’re not that powerful. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be coming to Kelle’s aid?”
“B
ring it. I’m not going gently into the night, my good man. I’ll go down fighting, thank you very fucking much.”
He nodded in response before walking back to the door. Opening it, he stuck his head out and spoke to someone. I could just make out his words. “Lieutenant Parker, bring a few men. She’s not going to come quietly as I had hoped.”
The tall guard, who I took to be Parker, led two men into the room. All three were equipped with Tasers and pistols on their hips. One man carried the thick ropes they’d used to tie me up in the woods. Dr. Reeves stepped forward, opening the door to my cell before retreating back along the wall near the door. I sneered at the fucking coward.
I braced my legs, a plan forming in my mind. They had a good grasp of most of my abilities, but I wasn’t sure they were aware of my enhanced speed. I was taking a chance here, if I failed, they’d slowly cut me apart. I didn’t wait for them to come to me, instead as soon as the door opened the whole way, I sprinted through it. The first guard I took by surprise, tucking my shoulder into his chest like a linebacker. I knocked him back on his ass and booted him in the face, blood spewed out of his mouth along with a couple teeth and he didn’t move. The second raised his Taser to fire, but I was too quick for him. My hand was too fast to follow with his eyes, as I smacked it out of his grip I grabbed his hand and twisted it down and around, then up and behind his back. A little more pressure and his arm broke with a satisfying snap. I let go and he fell to the floor, screaming and cradling his arm. I kicked him in the head and the screaming stopped.
I was a blur of movement as I sped to Parker. I punched him in the sternum, forcing his breath to escape in a whoosh. He doubled over, gasping with his mouth open, trying to get his lungs to inflate. Hauling his head up by his hair, I kneed him in the face and broke his nose. I shoved him onto the floor and brought my foot down on his hand with the Taser, splintering both. Getting two good fistfuls of his jacket, I pulled him across the floor to my cell. I slid him in across the slick concrete and shut the door, the locks engaged with a click and the hum of the electrified glass started up.
